On-Screen Documents

[Metryq]

Another thing is, I'm pretty sure TNG's PADD inspired the modern tablet computer in general, and the iPad in particular.

Samsung tried to use the flat news pads from 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY in their "prior art" arguments against Apple. So I'm afraid TNG has been scooped on the idea by a couple decades.

TNG showed touch panel consoles all over the ship, but was that feature ever shown on the PADDs?

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Samsung tried to use the flat news pads from 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY in their "prior art" arguments against Apple. So I'm afraid TNG has been scooped on the idea by a couple decades.

I forgot about these flat pads in 2001:

http://community.digitalmediaacadem...tal-ball-how-a-1968-film-predicted-the-future

This idea was so far out in the early '70s (when I was looking at a similar photo in the paperback novel of 2001) that I thought they must be built into the desk and just able to swivel slightly. And I thought that was the sci-fi intention, not just the film-set reality.

 

[Lance]

TOS had the "electronic clipboard" prop. Not exactly as small scale as the PADD, but possibly a prediction of a Tablet computer in some form. Judging by what we see of it, it seemed to be a touch screen affair too, operated with a stylus.

 

[Maurice]

Well, they do make such bloody good cameras . . .

Thank you, Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake!

How dare he be imperfect! That Colt thing he was writing in, like '63, right? And we have people making gay jokes here about Takei in 2014, people who might be quite "enlightened" in other arenas (though it still ticks me off).

1963 doesn't explain why Dr. Crusher is described has having a "strip queen" figure in the 1st season TNG writer's guide.

Yeah, and the casualness with which some people make gay jokes of the worst stereotypical stripe here rather ticks me off, too.

 

[plynch]

Well, they do make such bloody good cameras . . .

Thank you, Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake!

How dare he be imperfect! That Colt thing he was writing in, like '63, right? And we have people making gay jokes here about Takei in 2014, people who might be quite "enlightened" in other arenas (though it still ticks me off).

1963 doesn't explain why Dr. Crusher is described has having a "strip queen" figure in the 1st season TNG writer's guide.

Yeah, and the casualness with which some people make gay jokes of the worst stereotypical stripe here rather ticks me off, too.

I thought the strip queen thing was about Colt. That phrase sounds like scotch on the rocks in naugahyde booths smoking Parliaments. I'll have to reread.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

I thought the strip queen thing was about Colt. That phrase sounds like scotch on the rocks in naugahyde booths smoking Parliaments. I'll have to reread.

Well, that paints a picture.

Did GR really repeat his seamy, tawdry "strip queen" bit in the TNG guide? It could pass for a rough-around-the-edges, insensitive compliment in 1966, but by 1987 I'm thinking no.

 

[scotpens]

1963 doesn't explain why Dr. Crusher is described has having a "strip queen" figure in the 1st season TNG writer's guide.

AFAIK, the "strip-queen figure" reference appears only in the description of the Captain's Yeoman in the original series outline from 1964.

Anyway, maybe GR liked strip queens.

 

[Robert Comsol]

Of course, this is exactly what TNG-R has done in places: replacing the incorrect Enterprise on the LCARS screen in The Naked Now for example. The original episode had the movie era Enterprise identified visually on the screen as being the one that originally encountered the virus, but TNG-R replaced it with the correct, TOS era starship instead.

I always thought it was a bit inconclusive and that the computer merely showed a file cover with the last Enterprise under the command of Captain Kirk, correctly listed as "Constitution Class" (and confirmed by ST VI-TUC).

Bob

 

[Lance]

Of course, this is exactly what TNG-R has done in places: replacing the incorrect Enterprise on the LCARS screen in The Naked Now for example. The original episode had the movie era Enterprise identified visually on the screen as being the one that originally encountered the virus, but TNG-R replaced it with the correct, TOS era starship instead.

I always thought it was a bit inconclusive and that the computer merely showed a file cover with the last Enterprise under the command of Captain Kirk, correctly listed as "Constitution Class" (and confirmed by ST VI-TUC).

Bob

Very plausible. But whatever the case, it's immaterial now, as like I said TNG-R has replaced it with with original TOS version anyway.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

TOS had the "electronic clipboard" prop. Not exactly as small scale as the PADD, but possibly a prediction of a Tablet computer in some form. Judging by what we see of it, it seemed to be a touch screen affair too, operated with a stylus.

The way it was used it really struck me as an electronic clipboard, basically a pen and paper replacement and not much else. The way Kirk usually jotted something on it and handed it back it seemed to predict the electronic signature more than anything else like when you sign for a package or use a credit card at the store.

 

[Lance]

TOS had the "electronic clipboard" prop. Not exactly as small scale as the PADD, but possibly a prediction of a Tablet computer in some form. Judging by what we see of it, it seemed to be a touch screen affair too, operated with a stylus.

The way it was used it really struck me as an electronic clipboard, basically a pen and paper replacement and not much else. The way Kirk usually jotted something on it and handed it back it seemed to predict the electronic signature more than anything else like when you sign for a package or use a credit card at the store.

Regrettably this is one area where even TNG failed to predict the future. The PADDs are clearly more sophisticated than the old electronic clipboards from TOS, but we would still for example frequently see a member of Worf's team come up to the bridge, hand him the PADD to "sign off" on, and then leave again. When one would imagine there would be more efficient, technological ways of achieving that, rather than having the trudge all the way across the ship just to get an electronic thumbprint or whatever.

 

[Push The Button]

^ Oh, my beef isn't with Roddenberry for not being perfect. It's with fans who claim he was.

GR was a member of The Greatest Generation, he was a man of his time. His time was very different from ours, however, so just like I used to do with my father and the rest of the senior men in my family, I cut him some slack.

 

[Jonas Grumby]

^ Oh, my beef isn't with Roddenberry for not being perfect. It's with fans who claim he was.

GR was a member of The Greatest Generation, he was a man of his time. His time was very different from ours, however, so just like I used to do with my father and the rest of the senior men in my family, I cut him some slack.

Well, I've known quite a few members of "The Greatest Generation," including my father and several of his friends, co-workers and business associates (and even a couple of his old army buddies). Comparing the way these men lived their lives with what I've read of Roddenberry, I'd say even by the standards of those older, "different" times, Roddenberry's behavior left a lot to be desired.

 

[Stevil2001]

1963 doesn't explain why Dr. Crusher is described has having a "strip queen" figure in the 1st season TNG writer's guide.

AFAIK, the "strip-queen figure" reference appears only in the description of the Captain's Yeoman in the original series outline from 1964.

Anyway, maybe GR liked strip queens.

Picard "cannot help noticing that Beverly Crusher's natural walk resembles that of a striptease queen."

 

[Melakon]

It's probably safe to say that Gene went to a lot of strip clubs.

 

[scotpens]

1963 doesn't explain why Dr. Crusher is described has having a "strip queen" figure in the 1st season TNG writer's guide.

AFAIK, the "strip-queen figure" reference appears only in the description of the Captain's Yeoman in the original series outline from 1964.

Anyway, maybe GR liked strip queens.

Picard "cannot help noticing that Beverly Crusher's natural walk resembles that of a striptease queen."

I stand corrected.

GR must have really liked striptease queens.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

AFAIK, the "strip-queen figure" reference appears only in the description of the Captain's Yeoman in the original series outline from 1964.

Anyway, maybe GR liked strip queens.

Picard "cannot help noticing that Beverly Crusher's natural walk resembles that of a striptease queen."

I stand corrected.

GR must have really liked striptease queens.

I read somewhere that the reason Gates McFadden (Dr. Crusher) left TNG for two years, 1988-89, was that she was being sexually harassed by an unnamed executive, and it got so bad she had to quit the show.

Her return seems to coincide with GR's period of severely declining health and total lack of involvement with TNG (which was kept quiet, but known to insiders). That, plus GR's tragic history with Grace Lee Whitney and his general rep as a "sex fiend" (Alexander Courage's phrase), makes me wonder if he was McFadden's tormentor.

 

[Maurice]

I think you're conflating several stories there, Zap.

 

[Push The Button]

It's probably safe to say that Gene went to a lot of strip clubs.

This is turning into a Mad Men episode.

Which reminds me that TOS was part of a storyline in a Mad Men episode from a few seasons back.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

I think you're conflating several stories there, Zap.

Yep. Further research implicates early-TNG producer Maurice Hurley as McFadden's nemesis. My perfectly sensible suspicion of GR didn't pan out in this case.