Specifically I seem to recall they wanted the Defiant to have a "submarine feel".
What are your controversial Star Trek opinions?
- Thread starter Amasov
- Start date
Specifically I seem to recall they wanted the Defiant to have a "submarine feel".
I’ve never cared about ship registry numbers. I’ve always assumed that, being bureaucratically assigned, the number ranges are decided by essentially whatever Starfleet feels like that procurement season, and over time I wouldn’t be surprised if numbers get reused anyway. So I’ve never really gotten arguments about which numbers are appropriate to which eras, etc; I’ve assumed it’s much like uniform designs — at the end of the day, essentially random.
A little off topic {ok, pretty much off topic) is this YouTube video about old Atari 2600 game registry numbers.
I share this because it provides evidence the numbers started out with a certain logic in mind but, over a few short years, the logic was abandoned. At the beginning the registry numbers were grouped sort of by category. All the combat style games in a certain sequence, sports in another sequence, etc... Then you can see how the sequences devolve into random order.
So, the ship registery numbers in Starfleet could have a similar history.
I share this because it provides evidence the numbers started out with a certain logic in mind but, over a few short years, the logic was abandoned. At the beginning the registry numbers were grouped sort of by category. All the combat style games in a certain sequence, sports in another sequence, etc... Then you can see how the sequences devolve into random order.
So, the ship registery numbers in Starfleet could have a similar history.
Also look at the way the US military abandoned the sequential numbering of aircraft types for no particular reason. Since they started the joint service renumbering system in the 60s, we were doing fine up to the F-22 and YF-23, but then (for reasons beyond comprehension) the Joint Strike Fighter program contestants were assigned X-numbers, and when the X-35 was chosen to be the next fighter, they decided to call it the F-35 instead of (I guess F-24 would have been next). They restarted numbering bombers with the B-1, and so the B-2 followed naturally, and the B-2's successor will be the... B-21, because they thought it would be cool to point out it's the 21st century. 
If anyone has ever taken a college organic chemistry class, you'll have to suffer through a section on nomenclature, and there are places where the nomenclature scheme falls apart.
For official uses, there are agreed upon IUPAC rules for naming chemical compounds and molecules.
However... there's also common names that sometimes get grandfathered in, compounds where the IUPAC naming system becomes too laborious (e.g., the protein Titin has an IUPAC name which "starts methionyl... and ends ...isoleucine, containing 189,819 letters"), or there are cases where different cultures disagree on spelling and pronunciation.
For example, is it transparent aluminum (a-loom-i-num) or transparent aluminium (al-i-min-yum)?
Under the IUPAC rules, it's the latter not the former, and all of us speaking American English say and spell it wrong.
For official uses, there are agreed upon IUPAC rules for naming chemical compounds and molecules.
However... there's also common names that sometimes get grandfathered in, compounds where the IUPAC naming system becomes too laborious (e.g., the protein Titin has an IUPAC name which "starts methionyl... and ends ...isoleucine, containing 189,819 letters"), or there are cases where different cultures disagree on spelling and pronunciation.
For example, is it transparent aluminum (a-loom-i-num) or transparent aluminium (al-i-min-yum)?
Under the IUPAC rules, it's the latter not the former, and all of us speaking American English say and spell it wrong.
Last edited:
Here's the full version if anyone's interested! Back when I was studying biochemistry I once tried to read it out loud just so I could say I had, but the first page alone took about five minutes and then I gave up.
Oh, most of those guys pronounce it al-yu-min-ee-um.
"Aluminium" is a UK thing. Americans don't prnounce it like that. Over here it's always "Aluminum."
Kind of like the word "billion" meaning different things. In the UK it's a million million, in the US it's a thousand million. Which still confuses the hell out of me.
Robert Ellenstein would like a word.
srsly, Hiram Roth is MY favorite prez. Only thing that would change my mind is if Rayner from DSC wins an election.
Seriously. Rayner. What a guy.
Kind of like the word "billion" meaning different things. In the UK it's a million million, in the US it's a thousand million. Which still confuses the hell out of me.
Robert Ellenstein would like a word.
srsly, Hiram Roth is MY favorite prez. Only thing that would change my mind is if Rayner from DSC wins an election.
Seriously. Rayner. What a guy.
The American Chemical Society didn't officially adopt aluminum over aluminium until 1925, and Merriam-Webster still listed aluminium in use in the US in the 1930s. And it's not just a British thing, it's a "anyone who speaks English outside of North America" thing.
Kind of like the word "billion" meaning different things. In the UK it's a million million, in the US it's a thousand million. Which still confuses the hell out of me.
Long scale numbers were officially abandoned in the UK in 1974.
Ellenstein's Prez demoted Kirk and gave him a POS starship even the Miracle Worker had trouble fixing.Robert Ellenstein would like a word.
Smith's Prez led the negotiating efforts to forge a peace treaty with the Klingons while looking cool and alien as he did it.
I feel like a hipster for saying this, but... I now think TMP is my favorite Star Trek movie. As in actually my favorite Star Trek movie.
TWOK is the very close runner-up. After that is still TVH and FC.
TWOK is the very close runner-up. After that is still TVH and FC.
My controversial opinion:
Picard, Season 3 was absolutely terrible.
Picard, Season 3 was absolutely terrible.
I love TMP. It's the closest to pure science fiction any Trek film's ever gotten and the only one that feels genuinely mysterious, tense and eerie and challenges the audience to contemplate the wider nature of the universe. Other Trek movies are more fun and engaging on an emotional level but TMP remains peak cinematic Star Trek in the terms of bold science fiction storytelling.
That's not controversial on TrekBBS.
When I say it's my favorite season of New Trek, that's the controversial opinion here.
I rank the live-action serialized seasons this way:
PIC Season 3
PIC Season 1
DSC Season 1
DSC Season 4
DSC Season 2
DSC Season 3
PIC Season 2
I'm not including DSC Season 5 until it's done. Normally I have some sort of feel for where I'll place a season by this point, but DSC S5 is keeping me on my toes. I mean that in a good way, but I can't even hazard a guess (in this case) until I have a complete picture. I'm not going to do spoilers.
EDIT: After thinking about it, while it's still very close, I'm breaking the tie. I'm putting DSC Season 1 over DSC Season 4.
Last edited:
I agree.
I’m quite happy to have lived to see the day when this stopped being such an incredibly rare viewpoint. For a good twenty years at least, it was virtually de rigeur for TMP to be universally dumped on — but I remember someone at a Creation con (I want to say Allan Asherman?) saying to a crowd (which laughed in response) that the day would come when Star Trek: The Motion Picture would be revered, and happily he was right.
I still think Neelix could have been one of the best Voyager characters. He had great ingredients such as a 'traumatized' character traits and a tragic past. If only we would have gotten more episodes such as Jetrel or Fair Trade. Instead, they choose to use him mostly for 'comedic relief'.
As for Neelix - Kes, I view that as the relationship of a 30-50 year old with a 20 year old. Somewhat creepy and ill-advised perhaps, but she was still a consenting adult (even if only barely). The fact they had also thought up her species lived only around 10 years and she was only 2 which makes it feel more wrong is just an unfortunate coincidence in that regard as far as I'm concerned.
Similar threads
- Locked
