Previously unwritten rules for depicting shipboard life/procedure

[GodThingFormerly]

TOS could be excused for retroing it, as their handheld communicators clearly are more capable than today's mobile phones. The big problem is, why don't the TOS folks have mobile phones in addition to their handheld interplanetary radio stations? Such coin-sized devices in the TNG realm ring far truer to today's audiences than the wall intercoms of TOS.

It was actually ST:TMP that introduced the seamless integration of personal communications devices (wristcomms, tricorders, etc.) with shipboard and planetary wireless networks. Coincidentally, the film's wrist communicators were directly inspired by the 1976 orbital infrastructure study conducted for NASA by The Aerospace Corporation's Ivan Bekey.

I mean absolutely no disrespect when I say this, but . This has got to be the first time I've ever heard the concept of "realism" used in conjunction with the TOS uniforms.

What is so unrealistic about the TOS Starfleet uniforms beyond (possibly) the color scheme?

TGT

 

[WalkinMan]

I liked this one...

#. Cheesy humor causes entire bridge to break out laughing, sometimes uncontrollably.

 

[Elder Knight]

I do so too, just because the fixed phones are more reliable. However, I work for a Department of Defense client, and cell phones are banned in many areas.

It may be inconvenient upon occasion, but I find it an oasis to work where nobody has a phone plastered to her/his ear all the time.

 

[A beaker full of death]

What is so unrealistic about the TOS Starfleet uniforms beyond (possibly) the color scheme?

See also: http://www.mediacen.navy.mil/pubs/allhands/mar99/pg24.htm

 

[Hofner]

Hope this goes to Beaker's point. There were line officers and staff officers. Specifically, in "The Menagerie" when Spock turned himself in to the senior officer, McCoy but turned command of the ship over to Lt. Hanson.

I'm not talking about the debate of whether Starfleet is a military or not or rather naval as opposed to military. As someone who liked naval stories both fiction and non-fiction I knew the distinction between line and staff officers. The way they did that scene in "The Menagerie" made it 'feel' like a real professional naval or naval-like structure to me.

Robert

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

^^^Unless of course there's equipment on this ship that generates interference with "wireless" comm devices, hence the standard of using hard wired com panels.

Sure, but that's making up a reason to justify something because one wants the environment to be a certain way. There's no reason to assume it, otherwise.

Personal communication is increasingly ubiquitous. Any "future" that represents it as otherwise now comes across as backward or at least terribly unobservant in that respect.

William Gibson touched on this in his twentieth anniversary introduction to "Neuromancer." He's rather embarrassed that he blew the whole cellphone thing.

I rarely use any phone at the office other than my cellphone - I'm certainly not in one place often enough to get much use out of the landline. And I don't have a landline at home because I've no need for one.

 

[Nerys Myk]

It's all about verisimilitude, friends, and TOS had it in spades.
So, in no particular order...

1. No use of communicators during normal shipboard situations. Use the intercom.

There's aninteresting scene in "The Cage". Pike is in his quarters and gets a message on his communicator from Boyce. Later he gets a message from Spock on the bridge via a video connection.