Klingon Blood
- Thread starter Tiberius
- Start date
Even an energy beam, when burning its way through, say, a major artery, is going to leave a hole through which blood will flow. The wound itself has crispy edges, but that doesn't prevent any fluids inside from leaking out, and any that are under pressure, like blood, will spray.
Also, phasers do not seem to generate heat when they make things disappear. Even when "burning" a big hole in a wall of rock, they leave a tunnel that is cool to the touch and immediately traversable.
Generally, the make-disappear effect travels along a medium until it either reaches a phase boundary (say, flesh/air) or runs out of oomph. The latter is evident in those holes-in-walls, and could obviously be exploited by just tuning down the make-disappear beam so that it removes a chunk of your arm but then stops. Hence Brigadier Kerla in two distinct pieces, both spewing blood from wounds that were never subjected to any sort of a cauterizing effect...
Whether this type of rare and exotic phaser effect also could turn Klingon red blood purple is an interesting question. All the purple blood we see could in eyewitness opinion be the result of phaser hits, so if the eyewitnesses are aware and/or convinced that Starfleet phasers do this sort of thing, they would expect it also from the corpse created by Scotty's sidearm. (Although actually all the red blood from Colonel West's skull seems to be from it getting crushed in the fall.)
It has also been postulated that Klingon blood turns purple in freefall, including the zero-gee fight on the battle cruiser and the assassin's fall from on high. Difficult to believe the blood even noticing that it's being subjected to one gee less than usual, though...
Timo Saloniemi
Generally, the make-disappear effect travels along a medium until it either reaches a phase boundary (say, flesh/air) or runs out of oomph. The latter is evident in those holes-in-walls, and could obviously be exploited by just tuning down the make-disappear beam so that it removes a chunk of your arm but then stops. Hence Brigadier Kerla in two distinct pieces, both spewing blood from wounds that were never subjected to any sort of a cauterizing effect...
Whether this type of rare and exotic phaser effect also could turn Klingon red blood purple is an interesting question. All the purple blood we see could in eyewitness opinion be the result of phaser hits, so if the eyewitnesses are aware and/or convinced that Starfleet phasers do this sort of thing, they would expect it also from the corpse created by Scotty's sidearm. (Although actually all the red blood from Colonel West's skull seems to be from it getting crushed in the fall.)
It has also been postulated that Klingon blood turns purple in freefall, including the zero-gee fight on the battle cruiser and the assassin's fall from on high. Difficult to believe the blood even noticing that it's being subjected to one gee less than usual, though...
Timo Saloniemi
I still say it was radiation from Praxis that made it all lavender. We never saw the blood of any Klingon that wasn't on Q'onoS when Praxis exploded in TUC, so it's a valid supposition.
This is not without precedent - Vulcans also seem to have at least two colors of blood. Where most Vulcans have green copper-based blood, this scene from Journey to Babel appears to have Sarek's "rare T-negative" blood looking extremely dark dark green, almost black.
That looks like it's just an effect of the tubing. The blood itself doesn't appear to be all that dark.
--Sran
I was referring to the two "reservoir bulbs" in the overhanging wall-mounted thingy (now being referred to as the "Jefferies Separator" in this thread, which is showing different colors). There definitely seems to be a light green and dark green there. The tubes corresponding to the light green blood are going to Spock and the tubes under the dark green/black blood are going to Sarek, below, off-screen on the operating table.
Thank you. I see what you're talking about now. Without having prescise knowlege of Vulcan or Romulan hematology (for lack of a better term), I don't know that a different surface antigen or cell marker would change the color of the blood. There must be another reason we're not aware of.
--Sran
^Following up on this post, one major plot-point that's never addressed is whether Spock's parents tried to conceive any other children after he was born.
Incompatibility between maternal and fetal blood can result in the hemolysis (destruction) of red blood cells, a condition called erythroblastosis fetalis (or hydrops fetalis if fatal) in subsequent pregnancies because the mother's immune system makes antibodies that respond to the different surface antigens present on the red blood cells of the fetus.
--Sran
Incompatibility between maternal and fetal blood can result in the hemolysis (destruction) of red blood cells, a condition called erythroblastosis fetalis (or hydrops fetalis if fatal) in subsequent pregnancies because the mother's immune system makes antibodies that respond to the different surface antigens present on the red blood cells of the fetus.
--Sran
It's possible he might have been transplanted in the womb to a more "compatible" Vulcan host. Then again, I would take much of what we saw in that scene with a grain of salt. I got the impression that it was supposed to be Spock's own personal assumption of how the birth happened based on his own baggage, and I highly doubt a race as advanced as the Vulcans would be delivering babies in a cave without the presence of any medical instrumentation whatsoever - particularly with the established rarity of a half-Human/Vulcan fusion.
Speaking of ST5:TFF, there is the rather muddy provenance of Sybok's birth to a Vulcan Priestess by Sarek. Couldn't ever tell if this was before or after he married Amanda, though. Sybok certainly looks younger than Spock, but then that would make Sarek look like a bit of a philanderer and I'm not sure how that jives with the whole Vulcan philosophy thing.
Personally, I find it best to ignore most of TFF. Makes things easier to swallow...
Speaking of ST5:TFF, there is the rather muddy provenance of Sybok's birth to a Vulcan Priestess by Sarek. Couldn't ever tell if this was before or after he married Amanda, though. Sybok certainly looks younger than Spock, but then that would make Sarek look like a bit of a philanderer and I'm not sure how that jives with the whole Vulcan philosophy thing.
Personally, I find it best to ignore most of TFF. Makes things easier to swallow...
IIRC, Sybok was older than Spock (despite Nimoy being older than Luckinbill), so Sarek would have been married to the Vulcan priestess before he married Amanda.
--Sran
Ah, cool.
I still like to generally ignore TFF, though.
I still like to generally ignore TFF, though.
The CGI of the spraying blood never looked very spray-y or liquid-y to me. It was several blobs coming out of the Klingons.
Turns out it was sort of realistic.:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jn5KuSHguUE
Turns out it was sort of realistic.:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jn5KuSHguUE
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In the novelization, Sybok is a good ten years older than Spock. Luckinbill being younger than Nimoy was probably supposed to be explained away as "Full Vulcans don't age as fast".
And in this other video the astronaut squeezes water from a bag at 1min30s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFPvdNbftOY
Too bad this video wasnt around at ILM in 1990
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFPvdNbftOY
Too bad this video wasnt around at ILM in 1990
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