Do wastebaskets exist in Star Trek?
- Thread starter Melakon
- Start date
If it smells bad and tastes awful, the replicator gave you liver and onions by misteak.
I just re-watched The Conscience of the King (TOS), and I noticed that kirk disposed of the overloading phaser in a chute marked "PRESSURE VENT DISPOSAL" outside of his quarters.
I'd like to think that they don't just blast their garbage into space, but I suppose that it's a possibility. It's the closest thing to a true garbage chute I've ever noticed in the series, although it could be an unrelated system meant for emergencies.
I'd like to think that they don't just blast their garbage into space, but I suppose that it's a possibility. It's the closest thing to a true garbage chute I've ever noticed in the series, although it could be an unrelated system meant for emergencies.
Why wouldn't they? It's space. I can't think of anywhere that open disposal of waste would be MORE appropriate. You can't exactly "pollute" outer space.
Unless they need to retain their garbage and other waste. It's been my assumption that what gets flushed down the toilet get processed, stripped apart and eventually piped into the food machines. Yummy.
The phaser that Khan bent into a curve would be disassembled and the metals and savageable reused abord ship.
Some materials likely would be simply dumped over-board, toxic substances launched to one day enter a sun, or into interstelar space. Dumping while in orbit of a habital world might be considered bad form.
The phaser that Khan bent into a curve would be disassembled and the metals and savageable reused abord ship.
Some materials likely would be simply dumped over-board, toxic substances launched to one day enter a sun, or into interstelar space. Dumping while in orbit of a habital world might be considered bad form.
Using this to dispose of the phaser could have been a spur of the moment idea on Kirk's part, and the "disposal" could of had nothing to do with regular disposal of items. It was just conveniently nearby.
Except for those Voyager episodes where you can.
Aside from putting garbage into the path of other ships, it's also a waste of material. You cannot simply continue to dump waste into space as you will be removing raw materials without replacing them. You would run into the same problem we have today with raw material scarcity due to throwing things away rather than recycling them.
This hardly seems fitting for a utopian society.
Perhaps because the idea of a Utopian society is incorrect.
In this case the evidence would seem to suggest that is so. The phaser dropped in the vent disposal didn't get shredded or transported into particles before existing the ship, it exploded in space close enough to the ship to shake the corridor.
In another episode, Joe "Joey" Tormolen even admits the following:
The implication is that things are dumped out similar vents all the time, but I do not see it as pollution. Deflectors can deal with worse or a ship shouldn't be at warp in the first place. The Universe is the ultimate recycle-er, it'll make use of the flotsam somehow.
In this case the evidence would seem to suggest that is so. The phaser dropped in the vent disposal didn't get shredded or transported into particles before existing the ship, it exploded in space close enough to the ship to shake the corridor.
In another episode, Joe "Joey" Tormolen even admits the following:
The implication is that things are dumped out similar vents all the time, but I do not see it as pollution. Deflectors can deal with worse or a ship shouldn't be at warp in the first place. The Universe is the ultimate recycle-er, it'll make use of the flotsam somehow.
Janeway: That watch represents a meal, a hypospray, or a ...
I was going to bring up the possibility of recycling a chair, hell they could go down to the lower decks and dismantle the wall panels if the need for power was unusual.
That's if the replicator could generate power by consuming matter.
Not power, but recycling the watch and other materials recycles.. well.. matter.
Change one form of matter into another form of matter.
Sure you could do it with other things as well, but only when desperate. In the Year of Hell, Voyager was desperate and nearly falling apart after continual attacks. They had probably recycled anything they didn't need, or things they could replicate again later if they survived. Touches of home are signs of hope, so you don't recycle those. And chairs are usually considered to be needed. A pocket watch that is a replica as a birthday present might have symbolic value, but the Captain would rather have practical value with what materials they have left. The matter of the watch might not me much, but if might be used for other needed things. If they survived, they could replicate the watch again.
With the timeline changed, I wonder if Janeway still has this watch when they get back to Earth.
Sure you could do it with other things as well, but only when desperate. In the Year of Hell, Voyager was desperate and nearly falling apart after continual attacks. They had probably recycled anything they didn't need, or things they could replicate again later if they survived. Touches of home are signs of hope, so you don't recycle those. And chairs are usually considered to be needed. A pocket watch that is a replica as a birthday present might have symbolic value, but the Captain would rather have practical value with what materials they have left. The matter of the watch might not me much, but if might be used for other needed things. If they survived, they could replicate the watch again.
With the timeline changed, I wonder if Janeway still has this watch when they get back to Earth.
Putting garbage in the path of other ships? Do you have any concept of how vast space actually is?
The Federation is far from a utopian society. They may like to claim they are...but it certainly is not.
Or if she ever got it in the first place after the reset.
This is why you have to police your trash in space: to avoid being haled before the Galactic Tribunal. Major West then testifies next where he is accused of leaving a contaminated wrench floating in space. One day, ...one night, ...Kobayashi Maru.
We don't know exactly what happened to the phaser. Visuals don't show, dialogue doesn't tell. It was supposed to "take out an entire deck", but apparently not several decks. Perhaps dropping it into a thick-walled waste incinerator would have been enough to contain the explosion?
Whether that chute was a waste disposal mechanism at all is also debatable: there is no recognizable label on the hatch in the original episode IIRC, only something added to the similar set piece for "Trials and Tribble-ations". Could be "PRESSURE VENT DISPOSAL", whatever that means. Could be "HIGH VOLTAGE ACCESS", a means of exposing the phaser to energies that destroy the weapon with a smaller bang than would result from the self-destruct. Could even be "WEAPONS LOCKER", a small safe that is safe enough to not just resist attempts at burglary, but self-destruct kabooms as well.
Timo Saloniemi
Seems pretty clear to me!
Moral: don't rely on Trekcore for all your answers!
In fairness though, it's a very brief shot (just after Kirk slams the door shut)
IrishNero
Commodore
Not to mention that any starship that is able to move through space at such incredible speeds would undoubtedly need to counter the constant bombardment of various particles (at all speeds), so there would already be a shipboard system that could deal with the threat of various items hitting the ship at speed.
The only problem my brain trips over is the disposal chute set decoration or prop itself. I know it's the same set, but it seems to be in the same location on the deck of some dilithium crystals for "The Alternative Factor". It can't be a simple gravity drop chute like for garbage seen in apartments today, because those crystals would be in the way. Fifty years of thinking about the show rots your brain.
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