Where are the best places to mount your Flash Lights?

Discussion in 'Trek Tech' started by KamenRiderBlade, Jun 9, 2022.

  1. KamenRiderBlade

    KamenRiderBlade Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Maybe they should hire a professional Counselor to help with writing a counseling character.

    They do the same with Medical Doctors on shows that feature Doctors.

    Same with Baywatch, they had a expert actual LifeGuard as part of the character roster and directorial staff on Life Guarding.

    So they'll portray StarFleet Officers as Tactical Cosplaying LARPers who doesn't know what they're doing, for the sake of "Drama".

    -_-
     
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  2. fireproof78

    fireproof78 Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    And if it comes down to drama or accuracy? Guess what wins out?
    Yup.
     
  3. KamenRiderBlade

    KamenRiderBlade Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I want accuracy to win out; but in your case, you're going to say drama wins out.
     
  4. fireproof78

    fireproof78 Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    What I want is irrelevant. What I've seen historically is drama wins out.

    Just look at a psychiatrist yelling her points in Where No Man Has Gone Before.
     
  5. David cgc

    David cgc Admiral Premium Member

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    After Pike talked about the "kitchen" on the last episode of SNW, at this point, I'll pay for one of the staff writers to take a two-week sailing immersion course just to learn the most basic stuff about how ships and crews work, beyond half-remembered stuff from TV. It really feels like the current incarnation of Star Trek just has no interest in verisimilitude, which used to be one of its defining traits.
     
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  6. KamenRiderBlade

    KamenRiderBlade Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I get the same feeling.
     
  7. fireproof78

    fireproof78 Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    The feeling I get is that they are not looking at it as a crew or as a ship, but as an office space in, um, space. They want to create colleagues rather than a military style ship's crew. As I said, there's no consistent mission philosophy behind Starfleet, given the myriad of interpretations over the years, which makes it even more difficult for current writers to say "This is Starfleet!" with any great certainty, when someone else can say, "Yeah, but Starfleet isn't a military and here's why."

    That's not to say that a military style Starfleet isn't the only interpretation but I see where the current writing team struggles is that there are so many interpretations and they have to write to a 21st century who expects a much different feel from a cast than the 90s or 80s or 60s.

    I think it would be a better use of time to create an design organization of what Starfleet is and stick to that, rather than toss them on a sailing ship and say "Write that, but in space!"
     
  8. David cgc

    David cgc Admiral Premium Member

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    I don't agree. The actual details of Starfleet and the Federation can be flexible within a broad framework, folks will pick up the pieces in the end and assemble into something that hangs together for Memory Alpha or the SNW Technical Manual or whatever, and the rest of us will have more fun arguing over if Starfleet is in a military than we'll ever have if the shows gave a straight, legalistic answer. That sort of stuff isn't what I mean by "verisimilitude," which is how true something feels rather than how true it is. It's the good twin of "truthiness."

    That comes down to the day-to-day, nuts-and-bolts flavoring of the characters' interactions.
    Call-and-response orders, understanding what people's jobs are and who's in charge when (another thing that twigged me this week, Pike taking Una down to the transporter room, not giving anyone the conn (or "comm," in the series premiere :rolleyes:), and it just being so they could have a quick aside before she beams them over(?) that could've just as easily been staged on the bridge before he got on the turbolift), nobody voicing how insane it is to hop into an escape pod when the ship still works, is occupied by pirates, and the pirates' own ship is right next door, and, yes, not using specialized terms and jargon like "galley" (I'll give them a pass on the captain doing the cooking, since he wasn't really the captain, though the pirates putting the cook in command is also weird).

    That kind of stuff, just getting a sense of what the difference is between "a bunch of people," "coworkers," and "a crew," how hierarchies work, how social dynamics change when you're in a constrained space that requires constant care and attention or else you will die, the specialized terminology and how knowing it quickly communicates that you know what you're talking about, and how everyone is either a subject-matter expert, is trying to learn everything they can from the experts, or both, is what streaming Trek is missing (which also applied, to a lesser degree, to the Kelvin movies, and the last couple '90s shows, which were mostly coasting on inertia and received wisdom from people who actually had a sense for these things). Sail training's good, because Star Trek leans on paramilitary ship analogies as a matter of course, so it's probably useful to specifically be in a place where you can actually see what a captain does and what goes on the little clipboard they have to sign (and I've done it, so I can vouch for the likely-unintended consequence that I "got" Star Trek a lot more afterward), but at this point, a ropes course would probably help them understand that the Enterprise should feel like it has a more defined sense of orderliness than a character's coffee-shop job on a hangout sitcom. Possibly adult Space Camp would work too, I've never had the pleasure, but I'm assuming at some point they cover teamwork, danger, and the importance of knowing who can tell you to do stuff.

    (Forgive the out-of-sequence quoting.)

    That's exactly it. And Star Trek has been described, in the past, as a workplace show. The problem is, these new shows are Office Space, where before, Trek was The Office. The gag of Office Space is that what the company actually does is irrelevant, it's work for the sake of work, so the details are superficial and generic. The Office had a ton of specificity. They sell paper. They have clients. Each character has a specific, understandable work-function and position in an overall social and professional pecking order. They use the term "ream" correctly! It makes it feel more real to the audience.
     
  9. fireproof78

    fireproof78 Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I mean, I agree to a certain point. I just don't expect the writers to do anything about it. So, I can either contort myself over it or recognize that their efforts are creating a workplace, not a spaceship, and that if I were writing I would not do it that way. And that's why I don't write Trek characters or fan fiction any more. It doesn't work for me since reading a lot of different books, vs. other more military or hierarchical scifi.
    With respect to streaming Trek, I haven't seen it since VOY and ENT. So, I won't hold it against current shows.

    One either accepts it how it is and works within it, or because frustrated by it. I prefer acceptance.
     
  10. trekshark

    trekshark Captain Captain

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    Yeah except his was a visual mess to most people, at least that time they sent his feed the main screen
     
  11. KamenRiderBlade

    KamenRiderBlade Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    There's some interesting mounting points for lights on that space suit.

    On the outter edges of the knee pads.
    On the front and sides of the shoes.
    On the Shoulder pads facing sideways.

    Has anybody thought of mounting a strip of light across the bottom seam of the pants near the crotch so that when they walk around or kneel down to inspect something, they get better lighting?
     
  12. The Wormhole

    The Wormhole Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I'm sure comedies involving spacesuits would have a field day with such a concept...
     
  13. fireproof78

    fireproof78 Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    The biggest struggle with that location is the lack of flexibility. Knees, forearms and head make sense because I can move it independently of a lot of my body.
     
  14. KamenRiderBlade

    KamenRiderBlade Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    These are "Bonus" environmental lights, they are complementary to the main lights that are attached in the primary areas. They also make it easier for allies to see where you're positioned and how you're positioned.
     
  15. fireproof78

    fireproof78 Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    So, more weight? Especially in an area common for equipment storage. Also, don't want to make a target on the vital part.
     
  16. KamenRiderBlade

    KamenRiderBlade Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Fair enough, but you see it in Sci-Fi enough that there would be extra lighting mounted all over the body to make Actors visible in dark scenes, it doesn't hurt. Especially when they're supposed to be part time "Explorers".
     
  17. fireproof78

    fireproof78 Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    If I want extra lights I'll bring them.
     
  18. KamenRiderBlade

    KamenRiderBlade Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    What about when you're out in your EV suit?

    Are they going to be seperate from your body, or be attached?
     
  19. fireproof78

    fireproof78 Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I believe the phrase is utility belt.
     
  20. KamenRiderBlade

    KamenRiderBlade Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    So the Batman approach is what you prefer.