Vernal galaxy

[Christopher]

Specifically discussed was Pike's claim that the Enterprise was from place that was "on the other end of this Galaxy." If that were literal, the Enterprise would be much farther from home and much more of the Galaxy explored than what later canon claims.

Oh, early Trek assumed that the Federation was spread out far more widely across the galaxy than later Trek did. Here's a magazine reproduction of the TNG art staff's map from about 1989. In that version, most of the Federation and the entire Klingon Empire are in the Perseus Arm, and the UFP is maybe 100 times bigger than it's now assumed to be. And even that's conservative compared to TOS's assumptions.

The reason for the change is that DS9 started out saying the station was on the edge of the Federation, but then started doing stories where it took only days to travel to Earth, or for neighboring powers like the Klingons and Cardassians to travel to each other's territories. So that forced the mapmakers to assume the UFP was much smaller than it had once been assumed to be.

 

[Timo]

The "small UFP" model was also heavily influenced by the many mentions of "famous" real stars early on. "Famous" basically means the star is fairly close to Sol and thus bright on the night sky of Earth, so the UFP action better lie closer to Sol than the less than thousand ly that separate us from Rigel or Regulus or Canopus or the like. That is, Rigel in TOS was typically a place far out ("Mudd's Women" but also "The Cage"), and it just wouldn't do to have the urban UFP sprawl past this star.

Moreover, the later mapmakers knew the relative positions of the assorted empires (as depicted above), and stars accessible to Kirk couldn't easily lie beyond Klingon or Romulan space, not without complex extra assumptions. Hemming the action in were thus also references to real "enemy" stars like Gamma Hydra.

Basically, the TNG map that shows the whole spiral galaxy is explicit canon - art based on that is seen in many episodes. But it could be treated as a computer display that is partially zoomed in, with the empires of the usual players blown up tenfold to hundredfold, depending.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Falconer]

I’m pretty fond of Star Trek Maps (1980) and its take on Federation Space. It gives us a 90-parsec diameter inhabited core (centered on Sol) and a 480-parsec diameter exploration zone (centered on a point equidistant between Deneb, Antares, and Rigel). The best of both worlds!

This graphic is from Trader Captains and Merchant Princes (1983), and further marked up by me, but it gives a good overview of the STM:

STM itself is chock-full of incredible detail. The more time I spend with it, the more I am blown away by it as a work of science fiction. Here are just some very minor excerpts:

(Coincidence, or did they have access to the text of that memo from The Menagerie?)

 

[Christopher]

(Coincidence, or did they have access to the text of that memo from The Menagerie?)

The text is fairly legible even in the standard-definition version: https://tos.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/1x11/themanagerie1_204.jpg

 

[Maurice]

Maybe Gene meant venereal galaxy. Just sayin”.

 

[Neopeius]

In my experience, TV and movie writers have a very poor understanding of what the word "galaxy" actually means and what the difference is between a galaxy and a solar system. There was that episode of the original Battlestar Galactica where they supposedly left their home galaxy for another one, and they were literally directly adjacent, like crossing a state line. And by the end of the season, they said they'd been through multiple galaxies, even though the speed of light was stated to be their maximum speed.

Exactly this. Whether Dr. Who or Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits, galaxy, universe, and solar system tend to get used interchangeably by the scientifically illiterate writers. You just kinda have to squint your ears to make sense of the scripts sometimes.

 

[The Old Mixer]

AHEM!Coughcoughcough!

 

[ThrorII]

The only problem with the Star Trek Maps (and the FASA rpg maps that were influenced by STM) is that the Romulan Empire is WAY to far away from Earth to have fought a war 100 years prior.

 

[Maurice]

That looks like the Death Star II.

(Coincidence, or did they have access to the text of that memo from The Menagerie?)

Which memo? The "vernal" thing is right on screen and fans often gleaned texts from film frames sold by Lincoln AvoidPayingEileenRoddenberryAShare Enterprises.

 

[Mytran]

I’m pretty fond of Star Trek Maps (1980) and its take on Federation Space. It gives us a 90-parsec diameter inhabited core (centered on Sol) and a 480-parsec diameter exploration zone (centered on a point equidistant between Deneb, Antares, and Rigel). The best of both worlds!

This graphic is from Trader Captains and Merchant Princes (1983), and further marked up by me, but it gives a good overview of the STM:

Great map!
I'm assuming that the designers didn't subscribe the wap-cubed formula?

 

[Timo]

STM added the "Cochrane factor" that basically just gave a thousandfold boost to the cubed speeds.

(Also, STM confused the galactic coordinates with Earth-centric ones, so their galaxy was tilted by the amount Earth's axis is tilted against the Milky Way's. Rotate the things "back", and the positions of the star empires also begin to look more like those of current Trek maps.)

Timo Saloniemi

 

[JonnyQuest037]

Get a load of "Half Vulcan Science Officer Spock", Starfleet being shamelessly racist.

I like how Spock's rank isn't even listed but half-Vulcan is. Like he is the official 'Half-Vulcan' of the Enterprise.

They should've gone all the way with it and described every single crew member that way. "Cute Redhead Yeoman Colt." "We Say He's Latin But DAMN He Looks Aryan Navigator Tyler." "Almost Ready For Retirement Chief Medical Officer Boyce."

 

[Kor]

Here is TrekCore's screenshot of the standard-resolution DVD: https://tos.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/1x11/themanagerie1_204.jpg

I wonder how legible the text would have been on a typical home television set of the time.

Kor

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

Vernal. Pinal. It's Roddenberry's "tech-the-tech" to sound scientific.

 

[Christopher]

Vernal. Pinal. It's Roddenberry's "tech-the-tech" to sound scientific.

Nobody was ever supposed to hear these words spoken aloud or see them clearly onscreen anyway, so they were just filler.

 

[M'Sharak]

Here is TrekCore's screenshot of the standard-resolution DVD: https://tos.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/1x11/themanagerie1_204.jpg

I wonder how legible the text would have been on a typical home television set of the time.

On broadcast television (typical screen size ranging 13-19 inches), without the ability to pause frames for close examination? Not legible at all.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Nobody was ever supposed to hear these words spoken aloud or see them clearly onscreen anyway, so they were just filler.

On broadcast television (typical screen size ranging 13-19 inches), without the ability to pause frames for close examination? Not legible at all.

Which is a great point. So, we could well have been going to town analyzing a document that basically kinda just says "peas and carrots" over and over again [https://mst3kriffaday.wordpress.com/2013/05/09/129-peas-and-carrots-peas-and-carrots/].

 

[Falconer]

The 1976 ed. of the Concordance has no info from the TV prop. Here is how it defines Quadrant: An area of space (a misnomer, as it should be called an octant.)

The 1980 U.S.S. Enterprise Officer’s Handbook includes a (fuller) “Talos IV Report” which includes no info from the TV prop.

 

[Maurice]

Nobody was ever supposed to hear these words spoken aloud or see them clearly onscreen anyway, so they were just filler.

If that were the case they'd have typed nonsense or not shown the text at all, as per the script, which calls for no closeups of the report. The fact they went to this trouble indicates they expected it to be at least somewhat readable.

As to "vernal" and "pineal" et al, it is just what Ryan suggests, tech the tech-ing in 1966.

 

[GNDN18]

I spent too much time on the Memory Alpha talk page arguing that the editors placed way too much stock in the prop prepared from a scripted exchange between Kirk and Mendez. “Comsol” became “Robert L. Comsol, Commanding Officer” to add some verisimilitude and, yes, flavor to the play.

But taking advantage of the transitory nature of the medium (check out the mottos on the dedication plaques), is not limited to this show. Even the ordinarily strait-laced Leave it to Beaver had a bit of fun with briefly seen correspondence.

So if the completists need to fit phagrin mass computers and vernal galaxies in the overall scheme of the franchise, good for them. For me, I put my trust in Robert L. Comsol, as played by Chester W. Cincpac.