Revising the old computer props (???)

[Albertese]

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Heck, even mooks fresh from the 20th Century can manage easily enough; witness Kahn and Captain Christopher.

I'm a bit curious... What did the latter ever do?

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Timo Saloniemi

All right, I just re-watched "Tomorrow is Yesterday" and all he does is work an intercom on the transporter console. I had thought he used the transporter on his own, but he actually tried to get a crewman to do it at gunpoint. It is of interest that Kirk ordered security to the transporter room, perhaps afraid he'd be able to operate the controls? Or maybe he just anticipated the attempt at trying to threaten his off the ship...

But that doesn't change the fact that Kahn worked a bunch of stuff in engineering, managing to rig up a sabotage that Kirk had to undo after beating on him with that conveniently placed stick. But we can be reasonably sure he lacked cybernetic implants or had 23rd Century pseudo-telepathy training.

--Alex

 

[Timo]

He might simply have worked out how to use the backups our heroes need when their hands are within spacesuit gloves or cut off by shrapnel.

One of the more intriguing aspects of the "breadbox" and "toaster" computers is their lack of an obvious display system. Granted that our heroes are proficient at reading random blinking lights in other contexts - but could we perhaps assume that visual imagery (arguably the most efficient way of informing us apes) is being piped directly into the eye of the operator(s)? Shouldn't be too hard to do: just track the eye position of the operator, and fire a narrow beam into his or her eye. Convenient and confidential. If more people need to share, fire more beams, perhaps from that hemispherical thing on top that looks like a trackball. And if you need to show-and-tell to a crowd, the beam can be widened and made to impact on a suitable surface - say, a wall, a canvas, or a free-floating surface created by the unit itself.

You wouldn't need to modify the props at all to include this functionality. You'd just have to do a bit of extra VFX if you wanted to show the crowd display mode.

Timo Saloniemi