RETURN TO TOMORROW...definition of "Class M"?

[gastrof]

Hmmm...

They describe Sargon's planet as "Class M", but then say its atmosphere had been ripped away long ago.

Ummm....I thought Class M worlds were close to Earth/Vulcan conditions. Isn't that what it means?

So how can a world suitable for human habitation have no atmosphere?

They didn't say it USED TO BE Class M...they said it WAS.

So what does Class M really mean, if it takes in planet's that don't have an atmosphere?

Sort of hard for a human to survive without air.

 

[Plum]

... you really broke my brain on this one...

 

[DrTaylor]

what it means, gastrof, is that they hadn't figured out what exactly it meant yet.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Spock said:
Class "M" planet, Captain. Close to Earth conditions. With two very important exceptions. It's much older than Earth,and about a half million years ago, its atmosphere was ripped away by a cataclysm. The planet has evidently been dead since then

Emphasis mine. The planet meets all the Class M requirements, except it has no atmosphere.

 

[Ronald Held]

Then what is its class now? It should be colder at the surface and has no life on it or free standing water.

 

[Tino]

DrTaylor said:
what it means, gastrof, is that they hadn't figured out what exactly it meant yet.

*lol* Great answer! Sometimes it's just a TV-show. Guys, it's not real!

 

[paudemge]

Tino said:

DrTaylor said:
what it means, gastrof, is that they hadn't figured out what exactly it meant yet.

*lol* Great answer! Sometimes it's just a TV-show. Guys, it's not real!

Maybe we just don't know what it really means.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Ronald Held said:
Then what is its class now? It should be colder at the surface and has no life on it or free standing water.

I believe Spock explains further in this cut scene:

This planet is no more! It has ceased to be! It's expired and gone to meet it's maker!

It's a stiff! Bereft of life, It rests in peace! It's atmosphere is now history! It's off the twig!
It's kicked the bucket, It's shuffled off its mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleeding choir invisibile!!

THIS IS AN EX-CLASS-M PLANET!!

 

[Kryton]

Ah yes...the Parrot Planet. I know it well.

 

[Ronald Held]

How did Monty Python writers get to script parts of a TOS episode, before they wrote the Dead Parrot sketch?

 

[Shaw]

Ronald Held said:
Then what is its class now? It should be colder at the surface and has no life on it or free standing water.

The classification of a planet wouldn't change if it's inhabitants wreck it. The classification is based on the normal (natural) environment of the planet.

 

[Kryton]

Was there evidence the inhabitants caused it? If so, I missed that part!

 

[Ronald Held]

Not if the biosphere is part of the classification.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Ronald Held said:
How did Monty Python writers get to script parts of a TOS episode, before they wrote the Dead Parrot sketch?

They were briefly on staff at Star Trek. They were sacked for suggesting an episode where Kirk, Spock and McCoy dress up as women, but took the "Dead Parrot" idea with them.

Not if the biosphere is part of the classification.

Seems pretty clear from what Spock said that planet was a Class-M planet whose atmosphere had been ripped away. making it a variant of the Class-M designation. Atmopshere being only one component of the classification. So call it Class M-12-E or something.

 

[Ronald Held]

Entertaining explanation on those covert writers.
Perhaps there are subclasses that we never have heard of.

 

[Nebusj]

gastrof said:
So how can a world suitable for human habitation have no atmosphere?

Does Spock say there isn't currently an atmosphere? If the atmosphere were ripped away half a million years ago that would lead to catastrophic results, but an appreciable portion of the atmosphere could easily have fallen back and not yet have returned to a life-sustaining balance. Half a million years is pretty near instantaneous, geologically speaking. Remember that Talos IV was also class M and it was quite marginal for human life.

 

[Ronald Held]

AFAIK, the Talosian atmosphere was never blown off by their war.