First Contract in Montana?

[PhoenixIreland]

I've always thought Star Trek was too much with the America, and it just occured to me readng another thread, two things

1. Why America? what major inventions have come out of there? Why not Germany or Japan?

2. Was it not unrealistic to have a private scientist like ZC develope Warp Drive with scarce resources after a nuclear war? why not someone like NASA, the ESA or some global UN eqivilant?

 

[cultcross]

I've always thought Star Trek was too much with the America, and it just occured to me readng another thread, two things

1. Why America? what major inventions have come out of there? Why not Germany or Japan?

America is a world leader in military and space technology research, two things it is quite conceivable were very important to the technologies in the Phoenix.

2. Was it not unrealistic to have a private scientist like ZC develope Warp Drive with scarce resources after a nuclear war? why not someone like NASA, the ESA or some global UN eqivilant?

Generally, the really big inventions through the years have come from private enthusiasts. Big corporations have taken them and turned them into massive scale successes (as presumably a company would take the patent on Warp Drive) but its very often been one man or a small team working in a small workshop that developed the inventions and made the discoveries that shaped today's world. Bell, Edison, Baird, Ford, Goddard, Curie, Einstein, and many others all began their careers by making major discoveries from very humble sources. It was only later that people like Edison, Ford and Einstein became as world famous as Cochrane becomes in Star Trek. To me, its entirely realistic that, in the wake of the collapse of organised government, it is a small team led by a brilliant eccentric who make the incredible discovery of warp drive. If we ever do invent it, I wouldn't be surprised if that's pretty much where it comes from.

 

[PhoenixIreland]

I've always thought Star Trek was too much with the America, and it just occured to me readng another thread, two things

1. Why America? what major inventions have come out of there? Why not Germany or Japan?

America is a world leader in military and space technology research, two things it is quite conceivable were very important to the technologies in the Phoenix.

2. Was it not unrealistic to have a private scientist like ZC develope Warp Drive with scarce resources after a nuclear war? why not someone like NASA, the ESA or some global UN eqivilant?

Generally, the really big inventions through the years have come from private enthusiasts. Big corporations have taken them and turned them into massive scale successes (as presumably a company would take the patent on Warp Drive) but its very often been one man or a small team working in a small workshop that developed the inventions and made the discoveries that shaped today's world. Bell, Edison, Baird, Ford, Goddard, Curie, Einstein, and many others all began their careers by making major discoveries from very humble sources. It was only later that people like Edison, Ford and Einstein became as world famous as Cochrane becomes in Star Trek. To me, its entirely realistic that, in the wake of the collapse of organised government, it is a small team led by a brilliant eccentric who make the incredible discovery of warp drive. If we ever do invent it, I wouldn't be surprised if that's pretty much where it comes from.

I take the second point
As to the first, US stole much of it's space tech from Nazi rocket scientists

 

[Harvey]

Well, the US didn't so much steal the tech as they stole the scientists from Germany in the waning days of World War II. The Soviet Union did the same.

 

[JNG]

I've always thought Star Trek was too much with the America, and it just occured to me readng another thread, two things

1. Why America? what major inventions have come out of there? Why not Germany or Japan?

2. Was it not unrealistic to have a private scientist like ZC develope Warp Drive with scarce resources after a nuclear war? why not someone like NASA, the ESA or some global UN eqivilant?

1. This may have had a lot more to do with what was available in those parts of the world after WWIII. But the writers wanted the symbolism of using the converted ballistic nuclear missile for the ship, as technologically questionable as this may be, and I don't think there are quite as many of those in Germany and Japan, especially after WWIII.

2. We didn't hear too much about exactly what support he may have had, what he discovered, etc. He may have mastered the tech on some level before the war and just had to scrape up some basics to get to the phase of Phoenix on that.

There's a lot of unanswered questions and room for speculation in the fiction surrounding this event, including aliens already on Earth working toward it, and people like the immortal guy from "Requiem for Methuselah," and hey maybe the Khan-style genetically-engineered genius genes floating around by that time helped it happen...take your pick. Bottom line: they left it pretty wide open, so no big deal that Braga wanted it to happen near his hometown.

 

[USS Excelsior]

Re: First Contact in Montana?

Another factor is obviously it's because it's an American show.

 

[darkshadow0001]

Either that or it's because the Vulcans signed a contract with the humans to meet them in America (hint the mispelling in the subject title )

 

[Jack Bauer]

Didn't Braga pick Montana because he used to live there?

 

[Harvey]

Didn't Braga pick Montana because he used to live there?

Memory Alpha does list Bozeman, Montana as the hometown of Brannon Braga.

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Bozeman

 

[Triskelion]

Obviously U.S. TV shows are biased, in including Americans in their own culture, to the exclusion of other superior cultures.

After all, the average American should know more about countries like, say, France. Because an average French person would respectfully know a lot about, say, the history & culture of Texas, which is after all, a slightly larger region.

But to the US's credit, they did invent the beer helmet.

 

[Timo]

We might also consider that the inventor of (Earth's) warp drive was firmly established as one Zephram Cochrane, a person of known Caucasian characteristics. The blatantly Scottish surname could already dictate the culture from which the inventor arose, arguments about internationalism or globalization or whatnot aside.

As for developing the warp drive after WWIII, we could just as well say it was developed before the war, in vast and well-funded laboratories toiling for the good of the United States government. It just happened that the development was cut short before actual prototyping, and most of the infrastructure was destroyed in the war (as obviously it would be among prime targets). Cochrane then pried the surviving research from the charred and glowing hands of the real inventors, moved over to Montana, and slowly built the thing over the next ten years.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[NiteTrek]

I've always thought Star Trek was too much with the America, and it just occured to me readng another thread, two things

1. Why America? what major inventions have come out of there? Why not Germany or Japan?

Maybe Germany & Japan were vaporized.

2. Was it not unrealistic to have a private scientist like ZC develope Warp Drive with scarce resources after a nuclear war? why not someone like NASA, the ESA or some global UN eqivilant?

Maybe NASA, the ESA and all global UN equivalents were vaporized.

Simple answer: It's an American movie.

 

[Cyke101]

With the focus on America, I have to admit I like the fact that Paris is the Federation capital.

 

[EmoVulcan]

The US is diverse. Starfleet is diverse.

Japan and Germany are barely diverse compared to the US.

Idunno. :P

 

[Ronald Held]

besides being an american movie, that would a place undevistated by a nuclear war, unlike the major capitals and improtant global cities.

 

[Roshi]

So the first commercial agreement between the Ferengi and the Feds took place in Montana as well! Who knew!

 

[Peach Wookiee]

besides being an american movie, that would a place undevistated by a nuclear war, unlike the major capitals and improtant global cities.

Good point. Nukes are unlikely to be used on Montana. There's not much there.

 

[blueziggy]

Either that or it's because the Vulcans signed a contract with the humans to meet them in America (hint the mispelling in the subject title )

how bout the misspelling of misspelling?

 

[Geoff]

Obviously U.S. TV shows are biased, in including Americans in their own culture, to the exclusion of other superior cultures.

You know, your point about bias is valid, but you could have made it without resorting to nationalistic insults.

 

[Triskelion]

Obviously U.S. TV shows are biased, in including Americans in their own culture, to the exclusion of other superior cultures.

You know, your point about bias is valid, but you could have made it without resorting to nationalistic insults.

I apologize. In fact I quite agree that there isn't a place in civil society for nationalistic biases to go unchecked.