Star Trek The Motion Picture 45th Anniversary Book Club

[Tallguy]

I always found it intesting here that Roddenberry has the impulse drive powered by the M/AM reactor in the novelization, instead of the completely separate fusion drive of TOS/TMP+.

I'm unfamiliar with where this was spelled out in TOS. As for TMP, Probert and Kimble depicted the intermix chamber leading to that big blue dome as part of the impulse assembly called an "impulse deflection crystal".

The use of those scientific consultants is also something I had in the back of my mind for my TMP Transporter Theory™ above, because I’m sure they would have said, “this kind of technology really needs a machine on both ends.”

This was a criticism leveled at the Star Trek transporter since day one. If it no longer operates the way it did in the show, then what is it really for?

 

[Christopher]

Chapter Ten: I always found it intesting here that Roddenberry has the impulse drive powered by the M/AM reactor in the novelization, instead of the completely separate fusion drive of TOS/TMP+.

TOS never specified that the impulse engines were fusion-powered; that originated with TNG. TOS did say the impulse engines had a separate power source, but The Making of Star Trek and the series bible just call it "impulse power" with no specifics. Franz Joseph's Technical Manual called the power source the "subatomic unified energy impulse postulate," which is pure technobabble.

And as Scrooge/Bill said, the TMP blueprints and cutaway poster clearly show that the impulse engines are indeed powered by the warp intermix shaft. Although that makes it unclear what would power the impulse engines in the event of saucer separation.

This was a criticism leveled at the Star Trek transporter since day one. If it no longer operates the way it did in the show, then what is it really for?

I doubt that had anything to do with it. It just suited the needs of their story to have Kirk beam up to Centroplex and take a travel pod to the ship.

 

[David cgc]

TOS never specified that the impulse engines were fusion-powered; that originated with TNG. TOS did say the impulse engines had a separate power source, but The Making of Star Trek and the series bible just call it "impulse power" with no specifics. Franz Joseph's Technical Manual called the power source the "subatomic unified energy impulse postulate," which is pure technobabble.

I suppose it’s a touch ambiguous, but in “The Doomsday Machine” it’s said that overloading an impulse engine causes a fusion explosion of ninety-eight megatons. I can’t think of a reason to describe it as a “fusion explosion” except that it’s caused by a fusion reactor.

And as Scrooge/Bill said, the TMP blueprints and cutaway poster clearly show that the impulse engines are indeed powered by the warp intermix shaft. Although that makes it unclear what would power the impulse engines in the event of saucer separation.

I don’t know if it dates back to TMP or was Lora Johnson’s invention, but Mr. Scott’s Guide described backup fusion reactors under a series of rectangular panels on the impulse engine module.

 

[drt]

I suppose it’s a touch ambiguous, but in “The Doomsday Machine” it’s said that overloading an impulse engine causes a fusion explosion of ninety-eight megatons. I can’t think of a reason to describe it as a “fusion explosion” except that it’s caused by a fusion reactor.

That's as close as it got, and of what i was thinking. TMOST describes "the impulse engines can drive the ship only at sub-light speeds, and can be continuously operated for about a month before exhausting impulse power fuel", but doesn't specify anything further than that.

 

[Christopher]

I suppose it’s a touch ambiguous, but in “The Doomsday Machine” it’s said that overloading an impulse engine causes a fusion explosion of ninety-eight megatons. I can’t think of a reason to describe it as a “fusion explosion” except that it’s caused by a fusion reactor.

That's a fair point, although the reference in "Where No Man Has Gone Before" to the starboard impulse packs whose "points have about decayed to lead" implies that Samuel L. Peeples was assuming they were powered by uranium fission.

Then again, The Wrath of Khan's script seems to assume that the warp drive is powered by a nuclear fission reactor, since Spock has to insert control rods to stop its runaway radiation. So a lot of this was pretty vague and inconsistent, subject to individual scriptwriters' assumptions and whims, until Sternbach & Okuda codified things in TNG.

I don’t know if it dates back to TMP or was Lora Johnson’s invention, but Mr. Scott’s Guide described backup fusion reactors under a series of rectangular panels on the impulse engine module.

Must've been Johnson's idea. There's nothing about fusion reactors in the Kimble blueprints or cutaway poster, and the blueprints crib Franz Joseph's "subatomic unified energy" nonsense as the impulse power source.

 

[Tallguy]

Chapter Eleven - Sickbay and The Grand Tour of the Solar System

This is a scene I wish had been in the movie. I mean, I'm glad it wasn't. The movie meanders enough as it is. (Not that that's bad, of course.)

Christine Chapel, M.D., had been a Ph.D in biomedical research when she had volunteered seven years ago to serve on the Enterprise as its head nurse.

OK, this has never registered with me before. Wow. I get that I didn't notice it the first time I read it. I watched Star Trek. I didn't know Star Trek. But I've read it since knowing that Chapel is really the only character on Star Trek with an "origin story". I guess I'll have to go find that thread that asks about seeing TOS differently since SNW.

McCoy’s other dictum was that the human body and mind contained physical protection and repair mechanisms that the primary and most proper function of the physician was to assist patients in healing themselves.

Am I wrong, or is this pretty much what DeForest Kelley says on Inside Star Trek? (NO I am not going to listen to that again to check.)

And of the medical hardware here, most of it was the result of McCoy’s own studies and recommendations.

I do like this detail.

Chapel could see he was also secretly pleased that Starfleet had provided Daystrom equipment which used some of the Fabrini medical symbols which McCoy had found and Spock had translated from the writings of a ten-thousand-year-dead civilization.

Whoa. Double shot. Daystom and Fabrini.

It could not be otherwise in a service where exploration was reaching so far into the galaxy now that a starship captain might go for a year or longer without any contact with the Admiralty.

Ah, Gene always wanted to make that show. And it almost never worked out. TOS was arguably as close as he got. This movie (being tied so closely to Earth and Starfleet) probably ensured that he never would. It was always fun to see even the TNG Enterprise in known space.

@Christopher, the most memorable part of Ex Machina was, for me, the exploration of McCoy's abilities as a space doctor and where Chapel (and her subordinates) fit in with that.

She had been helped by the fact that the medical perscan device had become routine in starships—it was a tiny scanner-transceiver which was now worn by all crew members, permitting the body’s vital signs to be monitored from sickbay at all times. (In the new full dress and duty uniforms, it was part of the belt ornament, this center-abdomen position being the ideal location for a medical scanner.)

This would be another detail that I just knew (because I read this) about the "belly warmer". If you read interviews with the cast they knew it was a medical thingy but they made it sound like the electronic fortune teller computer you'd see at the state fair.

“These anagram conversions on the captain mean what?” Um. Anagram? Like mixed up letters?

Back on the bridge:

The so-called mutant-farm civilizations of pre-history had known this, of course, but their information had been a gift and not the result of human labor and growth.

What the hell? Does anyone know what he is talking about? Is this a reference to 2001 as well?

"The so-called mutant-farm civilizations of pre-history..." Does this refer to something that my brain isn't connecting to? It stopped me cold for a moment and took me out of the story.

What she said.

“Jupiter comcon has been advised of our intended warp speed plot,” reported Decker.

I love Air Traffic Control In Space. But... Why are they so close to Jupiter? Planets are actually very hard to intercept because on a Solar system scale they aren't very big.

(In the movie it's cinematic as F---!)

although not nearly as shattering as the earlier discovery that Earth’s own moon had once served as a base for space voyagers (their identity still a mystery) who had conducted genetic experiments with Earth’s early life forms a million or more years before human history had begun.

This is 2001: A Space Odyssey. Just a few sentences after mentioning Clarke. Now that's chutzpah.
Another point that I probably just kind of "got" from the novel that is editorially compressed in the film. We see the Enterprise fly past Jupiter as part of the launch montage and it is all in the same musical cue. There is no real indication that any time has passed that we did not see on screen.
But then Kirk has a captain's log in the film that says that they are over an hour from launch. Here it's almost three.

We have delayed engaging warp drive until now so that fuel balance simulation tests could be completed.

This is not because they are still in the solar system as it is in the film.

Almost a century ago, the first successful quantum leap of a starship into warp drive made hash of all those theories based on too narrow or unimaginative an interpretation of Einstein’s work.

Whoa whoa whoa whoa! Let's go crazy and put this film in the early 23rd century rather than late 23rd. 2201 if you want. He's pegging warp drive at at most 2102! If you put this even in the 2260's like the Federation Reference Series did that still makes the discovery of Warp Drive sometime post 2160! Take that First Contact!

(Goes and does some homework...)

But Metamorphosis says that Zeke died 150 years before TOS. But it also says that he discovered the space warp not that he invented warp drive. Given how specific GR is about lots of TOS minutia so far, I'm not willing to chalk this up to "he just didn't think it through". The Cage suggests that some significant speed increase is recent. "And you won't believe how fast you can get back. Well the time barrier's been broken."

Anyway...

"...hyperspace"! DING. One time. "...hyperspace vortex." DING. Two times.

Cliffhanger. Bum bum BAAAAAAA! (I'd say you could hear the Steiner music, but this scene is unscored.)

 

[drt]

Chapter Eleven: regarding McCoy's "incredible abilities in holistic medicine" seems like a bit of retcon arising from Roddenberry's mid-70s hippy-guru thinking, as I feel in the original series McCoy was always pretty quick with the hypo and was always touting modern medical technology, even though he liked to hide behind his "aw, shucks, I'm just a simple country doctor" facade.

“These anagram conversions on the captain mean what?” Um. Anagram? Like mixed up letters?

My assumption is he meant engrams, but either Roddenberry misspelled it, or the editor didn't know that word and mistakenly thought Roddenberry meant anagram.

What the hell? Does anyone know what he is talking about? Is this a reference to 2001 as well?

Internet searches for "mutant-farm civilizations" only point to the TMP noveliation. The following line says "their information was a gift, and not the result of human labor and growth", which sounds like it's referring to some 1970s ancient aliens thing.

But Metamorphosis says that Zeke died 150 years before TOS. But it also says that he discovered the space warp not that he invented warp drive. Given how specific GR is about lots of TOS minutia so far, I'm not willing to chalk this up to "he just didn't think it through". The Cage suggests that some significant speed increase is recent. "And you won't believe how fast you can get back. Well the time barrier's been broken."

Often the original series made it seem that human deep space travel and the formation of the Federation was relatively new, then there are odd outliers like Valiant's trip to the edge of the galaxy taking place 200 years in the past. My personal TOS-only head canon (i.e. only based on TOS/TAS), is that the full on superfast warp drive is a more recent development, but there was a more primitive, but now largely discontinued, superluminal drive that was in use previously. It doesn't fully explain all of the the discrepancies, but papers over some of them.

 

[Christopher]

Internet searches for "mutant-farm civilizations" only point to the TMP noveliation. The following line says "their information was a gift, and not the result of human labor and growth", which sounds like it's referring to some 1970s ancient aliens thing.

I'm not convinced it's a 2001 reference, given the odd specificity of that "mutant-farm" phrasing. I suspect it could be a reference to a Phase II episode premise or some unmade pilot idea of Roddenberry's. The idea of ancient astronauts influencing human evolution was all over the pop-culture landscape in the '70s, so it wouldn't be at all surprising if GR had pursued an idea along those lines.

then there are odd outliers like Valiant's trip to the edge of the galaxy taking place 200 years in the past.

The episode did say it was swept there by a storm, but that would've had to be more like a wormhole or space fold or something to get a pre-warp ship out to the edge.

My personal TOS-only head canon (i.e. only based on TOS/TAS), is that the full on superfast warp drive is a more recent development, but there was a more primitive, but now largely discontinued, superluminal drive that was in use previously. It doesn't fully explain all of the the discrepancies, but papers over some of them.

Except that pretty much any FTL drive would have to use a space warp of some sort, unless it uses a wormhole or portal (still technically a space warp but a distinct class thereof), transforms the ship into tachyons, does some kind of instantaneous quantum leap, or employs imaginary physics like spore drive or Andromeda's slipstream drive. But any of those would probably be faster than warp drive, and thus would not be viable candidates for an early "pre-warp" FTL drive.

 

[Tallguy]

Often the original series made it seem that human deep space travel and the formation of the Federation was relatively new, then there are odd outliers like Valiant's trip to the edge of the galaxy taking place 200 years in the past. My personal TOS-only head canon (i.e. only based on TOS/TAS), is that the full on superfast warp drive is a more recent development, but there was a more primitive, but now largely discontinued, superluminal drive that was in use previously. It doesn't fully explain all of the the discrepancies, but papers over some of them.

I absolutely agree that things were newer in TOS. TOS was almost literally ENT but later creatives and fans seam to miss / ignore that.

OTOH everyone is pretty shocked to find the Valiant. "The impossible has happened." It was like finding the Mayflower on Mars.

 

[Christopher]

I absolutely agree that things were newer in TOS. TOS was almost literally ENT but later creatives and fans seam to miss / ignore that.

Space travel is hardly new in TOS; it's a century after a space war between Earth and the Romulans, and there are plenty of far-flung Earth colonies on the frontier as well as more fully established human populations on worlds like Deneva. If it feels new, it's because the specific mission of the Enterprise is to explore the frontier beyond settled space, something that later shows often seem to forget (particularly SNW: "The Serene Squall" and its nonsensical assertion that the Enterprise, a ship whose entire purpose is exploration, rarely goes beyond the Federation's borders). Also because it presumes a human-centric interstellar society, with the Enterprise initially presumed to be an Earth ship and the idea of the Federation only evolving gradually. If anything was presumed to be relatively new, it was humanity's alliance with other species like Vulcans. "Whom Gods Destroy" implies that the era of peace that allowed humans and Vulcans to be "brothers" only began recently following a long period of conflict, which if you fold in "The Conscience of the King" might have involved Vulcan's conquest by somebody (either by Earth, or by some other power that Earth liberated it from). It was only later in "The Infinite Vulcan" and TWOK that it was asserted that the Federation had kept the peace for a century or more (which Discovery then blew out of the water).

 

[Tallguy]

Sorry I was less precise about "new". I'm not suggesting that humanity hadn't been traveling in space, obviously they had. But the exploration / expansion / having a ship like the Enterprise was new. And yes, like you said, human alliances were new. It was much more "wild west". Wagon Train to the stars if you will.

It was certainly not Humans getting to where Everyone Else Had Already Gone Before.

I don't remember what was said in the Infinite Vulcan, but in TWOK the "peace" that they were talking about was Starfleet making "pawns" of scientists. Not a prevention of warfare.

 

[Christopher]

Sorry I was less precise about "new". I'm not suggesting that humanity hadn't been traveling in space, obviously they had. But the exploration / expansion / having a ship like the Enterprise was new.

If they were a hundred years past the Earth-Romulan War, then clearly expansion was not new. After all, "Balance of Terror" claimed the Romulans had no warp drive then, so it must have been Earth ships that came to them. Indeed, I suspect from "Balance"'s dialogue that Paul Schneider intended that Earth was the aggressor, an imperialist power that came to the Romulus-Remus system as aspiring occupiers/conquerors and was fought off by its natives until they eventually came to a truce and erected a neutral zone around that single system. (That's what the dialogue implies, in contrast to what the map graphic shows. And it's the only way to make any sense of the idea of a space war where only one side has FTL drive.)

And yes, like you said, human alliances were new. It was much more "wild west". Wagon Train to the stars if you will.

The "Wild West" era is generally considered to be the late 19th century, more than 250 years after the first English colonies in North America were settled. The frontier was new, but the civilization expanding into it was not. Because there isn't just one frontier, by its very nature. You settle one frontier, it becomes old and well-established, and then you expand beyond it into the next frontier, and it becomes established and then there's a new frontier beyond it. Just because the Enterprise was exploring a frontier that was new to Earth didn't mean it was the first interstellar frontier Earth had explored. It just means the final frontier never runs out.

I don't remember what was said in the Infinite Vulcan, but in TWOK the "peace" that they were talking about was Starfleet making "pawns" of scientists. Not a prevention of warfare.

On the contrary -- David claimed that "scientists have always been pawns of the military," and Carol countered him by saying "Starfleet has kept the peace for a hundred years." They weren't saying the same thing, they were arguing against each other. Carol absolutely was saying that Starfleet had prevented war for a century and that David was wrong to think they only wanted Genesis as a weapon.

Kirk's line in "The Infinite Vulcan" was almost exactly the same: "There's been peace in the Federation for over one hundred years." Although that scene presumes that Keniclius knows about the Romulans and Klingons even though he's been out of touch with the galaxy for 200 years.

 

[Tallguy]

On the contrary -- David claimed that "scientists have always been pawns of the military," and Carol countered him by saying "Starfleet has kept the peace for a hundred years." They weren't saying the same thing, they were arguing against each other. Carol absolutely was saying that Starfleet had prevented war for a century and that David was wrong to think they only wanted Genesis as a weapon.

No, they're not saying the same thing. But they are arguing about the same thing. David: "The military always takes research and weaponizes it without scientists consent." Carol: "Starfleet doesn't do that and hasn't for a hundred years."

In the context that the Reliant is coming to take Genesis David's statement is that "This is what the military does." Carol's response is not "But Starfleet is really good at keeping the peace overall." If anything that would be arguing in David's favor. Of course they would want better weapons as a deterrent.

 

[Christopher]

In the context that the Reliant is coming to take Genesis David's statement is that "This is what the military does." Carol's response is not "But Starfleet is really good at keeping the peace overall."

Yes, it absolutely is. Her verbatim statement was "Starfleet has kept the peace for a hundred years." The phrase "keep the peace" literally means "prevent violence and strife." It does not mean "engage in violence but avoid specifically using science to do so."

Granted, "peacekeeping" is often a justification for the application of armed force, and what seems like peacekeeping by a dominant power maintaining its control could easily seem like a war of aggression to the folks on the other side. But Carol's statement was clearly meant to defend Starfleet against David's accusation that it was aggressive in intent.

 

[Tallguy]

(Not where I was expecting this thread to go, but life is a journey.)

I would think it means "Starfleet has kept the peace" with us "for a hundred years." They have not broken our trust for a hundred years. And because of that "I cannot and will not subscribe to your interpretation of this event."

But if she is literally saying that Starfleet has prevented a war for the last hundred years, what does that have to do with what David is talking about? "Scientists have always been pawns of the military." "But there hasn't been a war in a hundred years because of Starfleet so I reject your interpretation that they are coming to take our stuff and that this is not just a mistake."

 

[Commander Troi]

"But there hasn't been a war in a hundred years because of Starfleet so I reject your interpretation that they are coming to take our stuff and that this is not just a mistake."

This one.

Chapter 12:

After the photon torpedo breaks up the asteroid, parts are destroyed by the deflector shields and then other pieces that got through, "destroyed by friction against the vessel's forcefield screens." Does Enterprise have a forcefield in addition to the deflector? I thought everything was deflected by the deflector.

I love McCoy: "Wrong, Mister Chekov, there are casualties. My wits![...] As in 'frightened-out-of'!"

Then Bones calls Kirk on his shit. It's a beautiful thing.

Then a nice scene where we learn Decker and Scotty already were working on bypassing the stupid phaser cutoff and he runs into Ilia and we get a little more background on them, including that Decker was familiar with the new humans movement. I wonder if the new human thing was an idea for Phase II and this was the introduction from Gene.

Ahem. "Actually, most proper and accurate of all would have been to term the Enterprise an exploration and research vessel, which best described its principal use and functions."

This is interesting, and I'm not sure what Gene had in mind: "He had almost the look of... Nogura!" Is he saying there's a cold calculation there? Or something manipulative? Or what? I'm curious what folks think.

Then... SPOCK!

 

[David cgc]

After the photon torpedo breaks up the asteroid, parts are destroyed by the deflector shields and then other pieces that got through, "destroyed by friction against the vessel's forcefield screens." Does Enterprise have a forcefield in addition to the deflector? I thought everything was deflected by the deflector.

In TMP, they refer to "screens and shields" as two different things. Also "forcefields and deflectors," which are probably the same two things under different names, but there may four different types of energy barrier protecting the ship.

It's elaborated on in Mr. Scott's Guide but, again, I have no way of knowing how much Johnson was sourcing from behind-the-scenes materials created during production of the movies, and how much was her own extrapolation.

Wait! Maybe I do. There's the Enterprise Flight Manual, which had diagrams of the control consoles on the bridge and descriptions of their in-universe functions and real-world interactive features for the actors. But it doesn't seem to mention anything about the shields, so I guess it's still a mystery.

 

[Christopher]

But if she is literally saying that Starfleet has prevented a war for the last hundred years, what does that have to do with what David is talking about?

Isn't it obvious? She's saying Starfleet is not the warmongering body David fears it is. That's why she's okay with sharing her Genesis research with Starfleet, and why she doesn't share David's mistrust of them.

Although naturally, because it's a work of dramatic fiction, the whole debate is really about the personal subtext. Carol defends Starfleet to David because David, unbeknownst to him and the audience at this point, is the son of a Starfleet captain.

After the photon torpedo breaks up the asteroid, parts are destroyed by the deflector shields and then other pieces that got through, "destroyed by friction against the vessel's forcefield screens." Does Enterprise have a forcefield in addition to the deflector? I thought everything was deflected by the deflector.

TMP introduced a new system where there were two layers of shielding. According to a production memo reprinted in The Making of ST:TMP, deflector shields were called that because they were analogous to physical shields, an array of separate directional defense grids on various parts of the hull that could be turned on and off individually, e.g. you could have only the forward shields raised to save power, or drop one of the shields to beam someone aboard while keeping up the others. The forcefield, by contrast, was a single bubble that surrounded the entire ship and could only be on or off. This is referenced in dialogue when they approach the intruder and Decker says, "Recommend defensive posture, screens and shields," with Kirk then ordering Chekov to raise forcefields and deflectors. It was only later that TNG started using the term "deflector shield" to refer to a single wall-like force bubble around the ship. I think in the same scene in the novel, there's a bit where Sulu says "The new forcefields held!" after V'Ger/Vejur's first attack, confirming that they're a new addition to the existing deflector system.

Really, from looking at the memos from GR's science consultants in The Making of Star Trek, I believe the original intent in TOS was that the "deflectors" were meant more as point-defense beams or EM fields that would deflect projectiles or debris away from the ship -- deflecting in the literal sense of changing something's direction, shoving it aside by exerting a lateral force so it misses the hull, which is more scientifically plausible than the "invisible wall" interpretation we've gotten used to from TNG onward (although it has earlier precedents such as the Martian War Machines' "electronic blisters" in The War of the Worlds).

I wonder if the new human thing was an idea for Phase II and this was the introduction from Gene.

Not that I'm aware of. I think it was just GR indulging in '70s New Age futurism, more of the same idea that the 20th century-style rugged-individualist action heroes of TOS were atavisms in a humanity evolving toward greater enlightenment and unity.

 

[Tallguy]

Chapter Twelve - Belay that phaser order! And a shuttle arrives.

Wow that was fast. Wormhole! Phasers! No, torpedoes! What? Boom!

“Wrong, Mr. Chekov; there are casualties. My wits!” This was from McCoy. “As in ‘frightened out of’!”

It's a joke. I'm always amazed at how unfunny Roddenberry was given that light humor is (to me) one of the hallmarks of good Star Trek and in TOS was usually a sign that Gene Coon was around. But this line was actually funny.

Scotty’s voice showed some annoyed strain: “Aye, we understand that too, sir. We’re doing our best.”

I like GR's writing of Scotty in this book. In fact I like Doohan's performance in this film. But GR writes him as just so competent. And of course Doohan in the 1970's was like the manliest man ever to manly man. The movies never let him be this steely again.

Kirk is surprised at Decker's answer for why he countermanded the phaser order. Yet his first thought when it happened was "Decker would not have countermanded Kirk’s order without some good reason."

This scene with Kirk and McCoy is not a bad scene in the movie. But it's got more teeth here. "And if you die in the attempt—incidentally taking all of us with you—so what the hell? You’d rather be dead than give this up again, wouldn’t you, Jim?” Ouch.

Kirk threatening to physically throw McCoy out of the cabin is a bit much. And not really knowing he had done it is alarming. Like, more than "We should be worried about Kirk" alarming and more like "Give the ship back to Decker" alarming.

Chekov says the shuttle has its "Non-belligerency confirmed." That's a neat trick.

There is more detail here about Kirk's struggles with Decker and vice versa. Both of them can't believe how the other one acted about the phaser design and yet they are absolutely on the same page. Time was at a premium in the film but I wish that this had been included.

We learn a bit more about Will Decker. Matt Decker's son but raised by his more free spirited mother.

GR introduces the new humans (always italicized) in Kirk's intro as just how people are these days with Starfleet personnel being kind of throwbacks. Yet as they have come up in the course of the narrative they don't seem to be the mainstream majority either.

I wonder if the new human thing was an idea for Phase II and this was the introduction from Gene.

Not that I had ever heard.

Big ol' info dump about Decker and Ilia. Of course I'm still wondering: What is she doing here? Who is at the navigator station? Isn't that important right now?

It was, indeed, as foolish as calling the U.S.S. Enterprise a heavy cruiser, which it was most definitely not. It was the most powerful Federation vessel in existence, deserving at least the old naval description of battleship, although some admiral or statesman in the distant past had apparently seen the term cruiser as more civilized and less militaristic. Actually, most proper and accurate of all would have been to term the Enterprise an exploration and research vessel, which best described its principal use and functions.

Ahem. "Actually, most proper and accurate of all would have been to term the Enterprise an exploration and research vessel, which best described its principal use and functions."

There it is. It's a funny switchback (I think) first calling the Enterprise a battleship and claiming that this is a more accurate but less diplomatic phrase. But then saying that its principle use and function is exploration and research. While the Enterprise's scientific capabilities have always been a key function and certainly always hailed as formidable, even just in this book (especially when discussing the Klingons) Kirk's concerns have always been with defense. GR seems a bit at odds with himself for some reason.

From the Making of Star Trek:

IN ADDITION TO THE TWELVE STARSHIPS,
THERE ARE LESSER CLASSES OF VESSELS, CA-
PABLE OF OPERATING OVER MUCH MORE
LIMITED DISTANCES. THEY ARE INVOLVED IN
COMMERCIAL VENTURES, SURVEY WORK, AR-
CHAEOLOGICAL EXPEDITIONS, MEDICAL RE-
SEARCH, AND SO ON. THE STARSHIPS ARE THE
HEAVY CRUISERS, THE ONES WHICH CAN BEST
DEFEND THEMSELVES AS THEY PROBE FAR-
THER AND FARTHER OUT, OPENING NEW
AREAS . . . AND THEN THE OTHERS FOLLOW.

Franz Joseph adopted this term for the Technical Manual and the Star Trek Blueprints. So fandom had come to be very familiar with "Constitution Class Heavy Cruiser" by this time. "Starship Class" never stood a chance.

Anyway. The shuttle drops off whoever it drops off. We do not see Chekov meeting the passenger.

Decker came onto the bridge, crossing to where Kirk was standing near the science console. As Kirk turned toward him, Decker was startled at what he saw in Kirk’s face; there seemed to be a stranger looking out of Kirk’s eyes. He had almost the look of . . . Nogura!

This is interesting, and I'm not sure what Gene had in mind: "He had almost the look of... Nogura!" Is he saying there's a cold calculation there? Or something manipulative? Or what? I'm curious what folks think.

Yeah, this is weird. I mean, that doesn't seem to be a positive development. But everything afterwards (I think) has Kirk behaving in a more Kirk like fashion. We saw him face his Enterprise shaped demons a few paragraphs ago and I think it sticks? Kirk takes it on the chin and then recovers appropriately. He stops being at odds with his crew. (He also stops having these kind of challenges thrown at him, I think.)

I love the exchange between Decker and Kirk over the commendation for Decker's actions. No time for it in the film, of course.

Spock!

After the photon torpedo breaks up the asteroid, parts are destroyed by the deflector shields and then other pieces that got through, "destroyed by friction against the vessel's forcefield screens." Does Enterprise have a forcefield in addition to the deflector? I thought everything was deflected by the deflector.

In the film it's a plot point that the wormhole has overloaded the navigational deflector. Even in TOS you had the deflector (the big dish at the front of the engineering section) that swept ahead for any particles that might give you a bad day and then the shields that would keep the bad guys from blowing you up.

I didn't remember if TOS had "screens and shields". I know it was used here as others have mentioned.

In TWOK (irrelevant here) they activated defense fields when they went to yellow alert.

 

[Christopher]

I didn't remember if TOS had "screens and shields". I know it was used here as others have mentioned.

No, as I said, it was meant to be a new upgrade in TMP, adding the englobing forcefield bubble on top of the pre-existing TOS system of multiple separate, hull-hugging deflector screens/shields. The problem is that everything since TNG has portrayed deflector shields as englobing bubbles like the TMP forcefield, which confuses the issue.