Mythbusters To Test Star Trek’s Gorn Cannon

[Redfern]

Got some potentially "frustrating" news, gang.

As we know, Grant Imahara stated in his "Twitter" account that the Gorn cannon segment will air during the Monday, Dec. 28th episode. Well, checking out both the Discovery Channel's Mysthbuster site and cross referencing that with the DirecTV schedule for that evening, the "blurb" for the 9 PM episode states, "The team works on six fan-requested fables." And...it's a normal 60 minute episode since a new series, Motor City Motors, airs at 10 PM.

Since at least 15 minutes (probably closer to 20) are allotted for commercials, that means if equal time is given to each myth, the show will devote less than 7 minutes on the "bamboo cannon".

Sincerely,

Bill

 

[UssGlenn]

sneak peek
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OclaRDU0fNg

 

[Redfern]

Well, even if it turns out to be a short segment, it looks like they'll have all the trappings. They even got themselves a Gorn mask! Too funny, especially the "Drums Along the Mohawk" Wilhelm scream supposedly uttered by the Gorn upon being shot!

Sincerely,

Bill

 

[Captain Robert April]

This settles the question of getting to use footage from "Arena".

They're probably pushing it using the uniforms.

 

[Redfern]

What? No post airing discussion about this segment, yet?

I am pleasantly surprised by the amount of time MythBusters devoted to this segment. When I learned they'd cover 6 myths within a single hour, I suspected the cannon would get the short straw, so to speak. But it certainly seemed longer than the six and a half minutes that I predicted.

*Snicker!* The Gorn wore tennis shoes! Hmm, wasn't that a Disney/Paramount co-production?

Sincerely,

Bill

 

[Forbin]

Loved it. I expected a catastrophic explosion, but I sure didn't expect the measly peef they got from the "best guess" mixed elements.

But hey, even though the cannon exploded and shooter got nailed with shrapnel, they DID hit the Gorn! WOOHOO!

 

[Hambone]

Well, I believe this segment constitutes a cannon violation.

 

[GhostFaceSaint]

Great episode, too bad the bamboo couldn't hold up to the processed gunpowder.

 

[The Squire of Gothos]

I started thinking of ways to get around that on the way home from work. U settled on the Metrons providing Kirk with something he'd recognise as potentially dangerous to him to, but was actually secretly strengthened by them, to act as a bit of a test.

Cunning, no? No? Okay then...

 

[Ronald Held]

The planet was artifical, so I expectedhe Metron would place material there for Kirk to be able to useif he were smart enough.

 

[Ziz]

I started thinking of ways to get around that on the way home from work. U settled on the Metrons providing Kirk with something he'd recognise as potentially dangerous to him to, but was actually secretly strengthened by them, to act as a bit of a test.

Cunning, no? No? Okay then...

No, because then the Metrons would be stacking the deck in Kirk's favor, which goes against the whole reason they pitted him against the Gorn in the first place.

 

[Christopher]

The Metrons weren't stacking the deck in Kirk's favor, since the raw materials for the cannon were available to both captains. Kirk just thought of it first.

It's easy enough to assume that alien bamboo is tougher and naturally free of inner membranes, so that leaves the powder. It could be that the substances were souped up somehow. It could be that at least some aspects of the environment were simulations via holographic technology or something more advanced. The whole scenario was a "game" of sorts, putting the players in an environment where the goal was to accumulate various objects/resources and solve the puzzle of putting them together the right way, much like a number of computer games. So maybe the situation was set up to allow whoever thought of a gunpowder cannon first to be able to succeed -- at least enough to injure the opposing captain and set up the final test of whether the victor would finish off the loser.

 

[Captain Robert April]

^ I just posited the same question over in Trek Tech...

 

[Red Ranger]

If the cannon is tested and found wanting, is it still canon?

 

[seigezunt]

For those like me who don't get cable, there's this video from it.

 

[T'Girl]

I seem to remember from James Blish's adaptation of the episode the stand of bamboo that Kirk selected his bamboo segment from had (somehow) sucked up minerals from the ground, making them somewhat metallic. Kirk tapped the bamboo with either a rock or with his recorder/translator and heard a metal "bonk" sound. I'm not a big fan of Blish, but he would sometimes work from early scripts, maybe the metal aspect of the bamboo was dropped during the script development process.

When making the black powder Kirk's should have finely ground each of the compounds before mixing them together, not shown on screen would have been the actual urinating on the mix by Kirk -- standards and practices you understand.

http://www.dangerouslaboratories.org/foxfire5.html

 

[Christopher]

Re: Mythbusters To Test Star Trek’s Gorn Cannon

I seem to remember from James Blish's adaptation of the episode the stand of bamboo that Kirk selected his bamboo segment from had (somehow) sucked up minerals from the ground, making them somewhat metallic. Kirk tapped the bamboo with either a rock or with his recorder/translator and heard a metal "bonk" sound. I'm not a big fan of Blish, but he would sometimes work from early scripts, maybe the metal aspect of the bamboo was dropped during the script development process.

No, I think this is a case of a different tendency Blish had, namely to insert ideas of his own to enhance the credibility of the stories he was telling. Remember, James Blish was a prominent and well-educated science fiction author. He was more than capable of coming up with ideas on his own. (His explanation of the water virus in "The Naked Time" was far better than the onscreen version.) And his early TOS adaptations feature a lot more of Blish's innovations than the later adaptations do, since later on the show was available in reruns and fans insisted on more faithful versions (also Blish grew ill in later years and relied on his wife's uncredited help). "Arena" was adapted in the second Blish volume, so that would've been at the point where he was still injecting his own creativity into the stories.

 

[Captain Robert April]

A little something that was pointed out on the Mythbusters message board, that just might get this one a revisit; specifically, they made the cannon backwards.

Here's their version...

Here's a few pics of Kirk's bazooka...

The explosive force being clear up at the forward end of the cannon, instead of the rear, changes things significantly, or at least has the potential to.

 

[Forbin]

He wasn't even pointing at the Gorn! Ah, TV ballistics.

 

[Ronald Held]

He had to do low speed ballistic calculations in his head?