Odd Things about Starfleet

[Tribbles and Bits]

The cultural norms of Military Forces of the world in the 17th/18th centuries likely looked a but different than those of today. I just hand wave this and assume that many of the difference are due to a few hundred years of development. Like a self actualizing culture may allow or encourage someone to be an ensign for a decade.

More inexplicable are the starships without wifi or an intranet. Some poor yeomen or ensign has the job to take a pad down to Lt Cmdr LaForge.

 

[FormerLurker]

That could well be a chain of custody requirement. The information on that PADD is only on that PADD, and Cmdr LaForge has to see it on that PADD before entering it into his log and acting on it.

You never know. Stranger things have happened.

 

[Nyotarules]

Nothing "semi" about it, Starfleet is the military.

Male soldiers/warriors have been wearing skirts (often short) far longer than they've been wearing trousers, give the option to wear shorts today male soldiers will . And female soldiers still wear skirts (sometimes short) as a part of their official uniforms in militaries around the world.

-

Oh I agree with you, Starfleet is the army/navy/airforce part time NASA rolled into one, no matter what Picard and reboot Scotty believe. I see where TOS got the idea from for the uniforms lol

 

[Nyotarules]

That could well be a chain of custody requirement. The information on that PADD is only on that PADD, and Cmdr LaForge has to see it on that PADD before entering it into his log and acting on it.

You never know. Stranger things have happened.

Or World War III sends Earth back to a semi stone age, so by Archer's Starfleet we are 100 years behind in tech where we should be lol

 

[Horizons96]

. More inexplicable are the starships without wifi or an intranet. Some poor yeomen or ensign has the job to take a pad down to Lt Cmdr LaForge.

Considering Starfleet ships can tap into an alien world's central computer system from orbit, it would make no sense that computer/storage devices can't be wirelessly linked within the ship they are operating in.
I agree with the notion of a chain of custody requirement.

It has in the past made me wonder when an individual, like Jake Sisko or Wesley Crusher has a whole stack of PADDs, each one being exclusively about one particular subject, when quite easily one PADD would be able to store more than probably a million tablets in the 21st century... probably done just for dramatic effect...

 

[Nerys Myk]

Yep. visual short hand for work overload. Harder to pull off in the digital age.

 

[Hutchy01]

It just struck me earlier, Salutes were seen in TWOK when Kirk first visited the enterprise, It was never explained whether that is a trait of cadets or a honour extended to admirals by all officers.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

It just struck me earlier, Salutes were seen in TWOK when Kirk first visited the enterprise, It was never explained whether that is a trait of cadets or a honour extended to admirals by all officers.

It was probably done in TWOK because Kirk was conducting an official inspection of the ship. Not all admiral's visits have this kind of ceremony (Kirk and Scotty's visit in TMP didn't have one).

 

[Kor]

TWOK was also more naval/militaristic than previous incarnations of Trek.

Kor

 

[MacLeod]

Well, not really. The common Trek title of "first officer," for instance, is found in shipping companies and airlines, not the navy. In the USN a navigator is a senior officer department head and helmsmen are enlisted. The "side honors," seen when Sarek and Abraham Lincoln come aboard, are completely different. The watchstanding arrangements, also very different (captains and XOs don't stand watch and rarely take the conn except in unusual circumstances). The legal proceedings, completely different, nothing like the UCMJ or WW2 Rocks and Shoals.

And didn't the US model it's Navy some what on the RN?

Now as for Data status in "Measure of a Man" we are told their might be some law to support Maddox's position. So a hearing was held to see if that was true. Besides the law which could support Maddox's case might have been a hundred years old, remember some laws (or parts of) today are centuries old. They can remain on the books until replealed or ammended. Laws need to be somewhat fluid so they can change and adapt if needed to the current climate what might have been seen as a good idea say 240 years ago might not be such a good idea today.

And that's before we get to the discussion between common law (mostly countires which at one time or another where part of the British Empire) and civil law such as the Napoloniac code.

 

[T'Girl]

More inexplicable are the starships without wifi or an intranet.

Supposedly you could "run the whole ship with a padd." And early on Data would say "accessing" which I interpreted as him accessing the ship's main computer.

So the ship does seem to have a form of wifi, with the ship having a central computer system that would mean no internet.
=

 

[Avro Arrow]

It just struck me earlier, Salutes were seen in TWOK when Kirk first visited the enterprise, It was never explained whether that is a trait of cadets or a honour extended to admirals by all officers.

Just out of curiosity, do you have a screen capture of this? I freely admit my memory is far from infallible, but I don't recall them saluting in TWOK.

 

[Timo]

If a phaser beam is traveling so slowly that you can track it with your eyes like a water balloon lobbed into the air from afar, then it wouldn't be too difficult to dodge. Real bullets aren't that slow.

Paintballs are, and you can't dodge those at the distances shown... Paintball-speed projectiles are also used as practical nonlethal weapons today, in taser-type systems.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[T'Girl]

If a hand phaser contains what is basically a small "particle accelerator" then the speeds we see could be the best it can do with the length it has to work with. Perhaps that's the advantage with a phaser rifle, it's longer so more muzzle velocity.


=

 

[MacLeod]

Well Starfleet Phasers are particle weapons to a degree as they fire nadion particles.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Just out of curiosity, do you have a screen capture of this? I freely admit my memory is far from infallible, but I don't recall them saluting in TWOK.

When Kirk comes aboard for the inspection, there's an official welcoming ceremony (complete with bosun's whistle), and everyone does come to attention. But I don't think anyone actually salutes.

 

[Captain Rob]

Talking about dodging phaser fire. "Mythbusters" just tackled this with "Star Wars" blaster energy bolts. They rigged up a compressed air gun that fired soft darts at a speed that matched the on screen speed of the bolts. And nobody could really dodge them. Including the light saber expert they found that worked on the movies. I guess he didn't have the 'Force' after all.
We did have the unusual single instance of a phaser firing at very high speed in "Mantrap". When Kirk and Spock are searching for Dr Crater. And Kirk shoots him with his phaser set to stun. What we see is a very quick shot hitting Crater and knocking him on his butt. With a loud "Pew" sound. Like a bullet ricochet.

 

[J.T.B.]

When Kirk comes aboard for the inspection, there's an official welcoming ceremony (complete with bosun's whistle), and everyone does come to attention. But I don't think anyone actually salutes.

Agreed, no hand salutes.

 

[Griffeytrek]

When Kirk comes aboard for the inspection, there's an official welcoming ceremony (complete with bosun's whistle), and everyone does come to attention. But I don't think anyone actually salutes.

Was I imagining it or was there a very brief scene towards the end of DS9 where Nog is using a bosun's whistle, and he remarks that he had spent all morning learning how for the ceremony. Implying that while it was occasionally used, it was not that common and was likely just for certain ceremonial purposes.

Edit; Found it. Nog used it to announce the Bride for Sisco's wedding, remarking that he only had a few minutes to practice.

 

[Timo]

As for the Starfleet practice of "coming to attention", we see that one rarely enough. And it might be rare in-universe as well: when used in the ceremony on "Tholian Web", the command sends half the crew to more extreme versions of the sad stoop they previously held! Admittedly, they are all suffering from the effects of the interspace rift there, so their confusion might have other causes...

"The Cage" has interesting contradictions on the subject. Nobody comes to attention when Pike enters a room - but several people stand in very rigid attention on the bridge, with apparently nothing else to do than exhibit this parade stance. (In-universe, these blueshirts could be medics waiting for Pike to keel over from the stresses of the Rigel VII disaster, pretending not to be there by holding the pose...)

Timo Saloniemi