'Early Instalment Weirdness' in The Next Generation...?

[T'Girl]

With all the crazy stuff the human race has seen and experienced by that time, you should not be THIS amazed by holographic technology."

Troi does say to Picard at one point that the holodeck has been upgraded, or improved, in some fashion. So earlier in the pilot, Riker's seeming amazement could be seen as not so much "I've never experience anything like this," and instead more "They've really jazzed this up compared to my last ship." While there was a holodeck of sorts in TAS, the impression I received was that the holodeck was supposed to represent relatively new technology for the federation.

It's the same way with the replicator, until a discussion between Picard and his brother (there was a similar one with Miles and Keiko) about there being replicators in their childhood, I thought the devices were to have been "new."

I think the concern was she looked too much like a cheerleader in the pilot (with her short skirt and curly hair), and needed to look more "serious and professional" sitting on the bridge.

After the pilot, Troi seemed to have change her accent and her diction to make her perhaps come off as more "alien," than she was in the pilot. More Betazed. What they were doing with her facial make up certainly changed.

 

[UnknownSample]

... the holodeck was supposed to represent relatively new technology for the federation.

It's the same way with the replicator, until a discussion between Picard and his brother (there was a similar one with Miles and Keiko) about there being replicators in their childhood, I thought the devices were to have been "new."

In original Trek, they had instantaneous food dispensers that could not possibly have operated except as a variation on the transporter (or magic), and that's how I saw them as a kid watching TOS on its first run. They just didn't call them replicators, and actually, neither did Next Gen at first. They referred to them as "food slots".


Yes, I know, in Undiscovered Country, they showed harried chefs preparing meals and shoving them up futuristic dumb-waiters to waiting food dispensers, but that's just silly.


They did revise the past regarding holodecks. It almost seemed as if the moment the holodeck was invented, the first use they put it to was to install one on a starship, which presumably had all sorts of exciting places to go to in reality. Later, everyone knew them from childhood.


They kept increasing use of transporters in society, to the point where Sisko as a student kept beaming across Earth every day in a sort of ridiculously long commute. I can't point to any time they said it, but weren't transporters a rarer thing than that?


Data was ill-defined at first. It was at least implied that he was at least less emotional, but he emoted. The first Lore episode drew a distinction between Data's greater detachment and Lore's emotionalism, though they may not have referred to emotion. I was glad when the issue was settled later on, but it did mean a Data devoid of any emotion, when the character was supposed to be trying to move the other way.

 

[Search4]

The dolphins. We should have seen the dolphins. And DID they survive the crash in Generations?

 

[BillJ]

The dolphins. We should have seen the dolphins. And DID they survive the crash in Generations?

The crew survived on dolphin sandwiches until Starfleet showed up...

 

[Holdfast]

The dolphins. We should have seen the dolphins. And DID they survive the crash in Generations?

The crew survived on dolphin sandwiches until Starfleet showed up...

why no deleted scene on dvd?

 

[davejames]

Troi does say to Picard at one point that the holodeck has been upgraded, or improved, in some fashion. So earlier in the pilot, Riker's seeming amazement could be seen as not so much "I've never experience anything like this," and instead more "They've really jazzed this up compared to my last ship." While there was a holodeck of sorts in TAS, the impression I received was that the holodeck was supposed to represent relatively new technology for the federation.

Yeah, I know that's what we're meant to think. And no matter what century you're in, I guess it would always be a bit mindblowing to touch a holographic character and have it feel like real, soft human skin.

But still, compared to advances like transporter technology or warp drive, or the strange new alien species they encounter on a weekly basis, the Holodeck doesn't seem like it should be THAT big of a deal.

 

[BillJ]

The dolphins. We should have seen the dolphins. And DID they survive the crash in Generations?

The crew survived on dolphin sandwiches until Starfleet showed up...

why no deleted scene on dvd?

 

[Greg Cox]

The dolphins. We should have seen the dolphins. And DID they survive the crash in Generations?

The crew survived on dolphin sandwiches until Starfleet showed up...

why no deleted scene on dvd?

There was no porpoise to it . . . .

 

[T'Girl]

I guess it would always be a bit mindblowing to touch a holographic character and have it feel like real, soft human skin.

According to one of the TNG technical advisors, the holodeck characters you would interact with, were not simply projections of light, and textured force fields. But were replicated "meat puppets" which the computer would move through tractor beams and force fields. So when you would reach out and touch soft skin, you actually would be. Body heat, the sound of a heart beat, smell of the hair. When Beverly ordered up a dance partner for Data, what Data danced with wasn't a empty force field bubble, but instead warm dead "flesh."

I don't know if this would make sex on the holodeck more gross, or less.

In original Trek, they had instantaneous food dispensers that could not possibly have operated except as a variation on the transporter (or magic) ...

Problem with that idea is that the transporter seems to be a fairly bulky piece of equipment, even allowing for the food transporters being smaller, you're still talking about having several dozen, maybe over a hundred full up transporters, scattered around the ship. And the transporters are notoriously cranky, how many transporter technicians are going to be require just to move food around?.

Plus, when UnknownSample was the TOS era transporter shown to be particularly fast? The dematerialization and rematerialization process was actual fairly slow.

The turbo-dumbwaiter network for the food would likely be faster, consume less power and less room aboard the TOS Enterprise than the alternative.

They just didn't call them replicators, and actually, neither did Next Gen at first. They referred to them as "food slots".

TNG called them "replicators" in the second episode following the pilot. Scotty made reference to "food processors" in 'Tribbles.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

Huh? Since when was it believed that Data had real emotions on the show? He always struck me as being extra stiff and robotic in those early years, if anything. He might register a look of awe or surprise or concern now and then, but I never thought it was supposed to be genuine emotion.

The "I don't feel anything" shtick didn't start until The Ensigns of Command in season three. While he doesn't out and out say he has emotion, look at how he reacts to Armus in Skin of Evil after Yar's death.

Not to mention Data's "Crap, did mean to do that" look in the season 1 episode with the energy being running around the ship.

 

[SchwEnt]

Rather than the more obvious changes (beards, uniforms) I was always mindful of the more subtle early weirdness of season one.

The crew reactions and unfamiliarity with some things, I suppose an attempt to show how advanced and futuristic these people are, how far removed from our current-day.

Quick examples, like Worf's unfamiliarity with "Rome" (yet much later he knew all about Minsk). Having a cold, which is some strange ancient malady unknown to 24th century folk. Things like television and newspapers and automobiles and baseball, which the crew had to look up because they didn't know what they were.

By later seasons, and then all the later ST series, we'd see everyone having a much more "contemporary" sense, making more common-day references and such, without remarking about "such strange 20th century notions".

 

[UnknownSample]

Problem with that idea is that the transporter seems to be a fairly bulky piece of equipment, even allowing for the food transporters being smaller, you're still talking about having several dozen, maybe over a hundred full up transporters, scattered around the ship. And the transporters are notoriously cranky, how many transporter technicians are going to be require just to move food around?.

Plus, UnknownSample, when was the TOS era transporter shown to be particularly fast? The dematerialization and rematerialization process was actual fairly slow.

The turbo-dumbwaiter network for the food would likely be faster, consume less power and less room aboard the TOS Enterprise than the alternative.

TNG called them "replicators" in the second episode following the pilot. Scotty made reference to "food processors" in 'Tribbles.

Oh. Well, for what it's worth, there was at least one s1 ep where the phrase "food slot" was used by Picard.

Bulk: Well, transporters actually seem bulky in Next Gen too, though somewhat less so, and they have (definitely)transporter-based replicators everywhere. Soup takes less power than an away team. Maybe there are only a few places where the main electronic "work" of transporting is done, with circuits leading out to many TOS replicators from each one. Look above and below each transporter pad-- there might not be a lot of circuitry etc. there. It might not take bulky equpiment on the materialization end of things.

Consider the bulk involved in food storage, and a kitchen with chefs and lackeys running around, dumb waiter shafts everywhere (space not bulk)...

Speed: A TOS transporter may be fairly slow, but not as slow as a chef preparing a meal and putting it in a dumb waiter. That would take at least several minutes, I'd think. They were out to impress us with their startlingly advanced tech in TOS, and dumb waiters were ancient history. Less to transport (create) might result in added speed. Transporters are as instantaneous as it gets, and the only technological way to do it.

Cranky tech: Well, I imagine things went wrong on a regular basis as in Next Gen, and Engineering people were sent.

Something else that might reduce bulk and time is the fact that beaming a person involves forming a pattern of that person on the pad, before the dematerialization. This step (maybe half the process?) can be skipped for soup, since the pattern is already stored.

I'm not sure if I covered everything. Sun coming up, better go to bed.

 

[ToddKent]

The crew reactions and unfamiliarity with some things, I suppose an attempt to show how advanced and futuristic these people are, how far removed from our current-day.

Having a cold, which is some strange ancient malady unknown to 24th century folk. Things like television and newspapers and automobiles and baseball, which the crew had to look up because they didn't know what they were.

That's a good example. Wasn't there also an early episode where Picard had a headache and they all freaked out because no one gets them any more? Fast forward to the constantly beleaguered Sisko and Janeway who were quite familiar with having headaches for various reasons.