Ships have blue phasers???

[JD]

That's Tellerites.
I also wanted to say that I agree completely with DN and Snakes here. I've really never understood this gruge you guys seem to hold against Christopher. Sure he might take this whole thing a little to seriously but, and I hate to break it to you guys, but you've been guilty of the exact same thing. Maybe I'm remembering wrong, but I don't remember ever actually seeing Christopher staring off a discussion being rude, in fact the only times I ever recall him being rude is when he's responding to something you guys have said about his earlier posts.
And no I'm not trying to suck up to an author, this has just been bothering me for a while and I finally had to get it off my chest.

 

[Nardpuncher]

Well, you can see what Captain Calhoun said last page, that he never understood the hostility towards Christopher , but now he does.

The people he irks don't care about the books he's written. It's not about that. it's just too long to go into, but we didn't pick his name out of a hat.
I personally have never been corrected by him.

 

[Defcon]

Isn't it the Bolians who make an art form out of insults? I could have my races confused. You have to have some zingers ready when negotiating with them, right? Or am I thinking of a different species?

I think you mean the Tellarites.

ETA: Hadn't realized there was another page with replies already.

 

[snakespeare]

Isn't it the Bolians who make an art form out of insults? I could have my races confused. You have to have some zingers ready when negotiating with them, right? Or am I thinking of a different species?

I think you mean the Tellarites.

Doh! Now that I think on it, if I had typed out that someone was a bit of a Tellarite sometimes, I would probably have backspaced and thought of another way to put it.

Anyhow, I still think the content is worth the price.

My apologies to all Bolians...

 

[Thestral]

Can you cite an example where a character in the story, as opposed to the television viewer, has been unambiguously shown as seeing a beam in the vacuum of space through a window rather than on a viewscreen? If not, then there's certainly room for interpretation and it's just plain rude, as well as bizarre, to tell someone that they're being "ridiculous" for favoring a plausible, revisionist interpretation over a slavishly literal but physically ludicrous one.

Actually we have seen this. TNG's "Timescape," the sixth season episode where Picard, Data, LaForge, and Troi come upon a time-frozen Romulan Warbird and Enterprise, with the D'Derix firing a disruptor at Enterprise and some form of (non-phaser) energy transfer being sent from Enterprise to the D'Derix. They all see this out the window of a Runabout, not a viewscreen and specifically react to the disruptor fire.

I know almost nothing about particle physics though, so I won't pretend to have a scientific explanation for why energy beams glow (or why it would be desirable).

 

[JarodRussell]

Can you cite an example where a character in the story, as opposed to the television viewer, has been unambiguously shown as seeing a beam in the vacuum of space through a window rather than on a viewscreen? If not, then there's certainly room for interpretation and it's just plain rude, as well as bizarre, to tell someone that they're being "ridiculous" for favoring a plausible, revisionist interpretation over a slavishly literal but physically ludicrous one.

Actually we have seen this. TNG's "Timescape," the sixth season episode where Picard, Data, LaForge, and Troi come upon a time-frozen Romulan Warbird and Enterprise, with the D'Derix firing a disruptor at Enterprise and some form of (non-phaser) energy transfer being sent from Enterprise to the D'Derix. They all see this out the window of a Runabout, not a viewscreen and specifically react to the disruptor fire.

I know almost nothing about particle physics though, so I won't pretend to have a scientific explanation for why energy beams glow (or why it would be desirable).

They also saw Crusher being shot with a Disruptor, though that was not in a vacuum.

 

[snakespeare]

I remember my reaction to that frozen-in-space combat scene and I didn't get why they were showing frozen-in-space disruptor fire, but then I realized that it was just done for me, the TV watcher, and let it go.

But the whole particle beam idea is a misunderstanding. Particles jump, they don't flow. In fact, they aren't even technically particals, they are waves and we make them into particles in our heads so we can talk about them. Some scientists call them wavicles. So we're already off the deep end, IMHO, into fantasy when we argue about particles. And when I say they jump, I guess that's really just the effect of looking at the wave at this instant.

Anyway, you focus the waves and direct them toward the target. It shouldn't produce a visual effect. A radio tower emits waves, but when you want to show someone what a radio tower does, you animate these expanding circles. The tower doesn't really pump out circles. That's a graphic for explanatory purposes. Same for explosions in space, and the sound.

Maybe the away team was seeing a representation on the viewscreen. Maybe those aren't portholes made of transparent aluminum. Maybe they are fancy monitors?

 

[Myasishchev]

Is it my imagination, or am I being ignored? It's patently obvious that Christopher is required BY US READERS to concoct explanations that seem plausible. It is also obvious IF YOU READ HIS BOOKS that he has a great sense of humor. He also invents really, really cool aliens. If his messageboard persona comes off a touch Bolian, then too freakin' bad! It takes all kinds, and what Christopher brings to Trek is wonderful.

So what if you can't convince him that it doesn't matter to you how things work. The fact is, it matters to the rest of us, not HOW things work, but how the writers SAY they work. I mean, what level of ego have we attained when we put ourselves up against the author, basically beg the question on a pointless topic, and then prop ourselves up with self-righteousness because of his manner of messageboard "speech"?

I've done it, too, I know, like in the discussion of T'Ryssa Chen, where I keep coming back asking the same dumb questions. We oughta be grateful that the writers are so willing to talk about things, not use this board as a place to give ourselves props at their expense.

So, he's a bit of a Bolian... here. So what? What does it cost us to grant him a degree of authority? Nothing. What do we gain? A LOT!

So before you judge him, ask yourself why you want to judge him. What's in it for you? I can't think of a good reason for it, myself. I'd rather work on my own personality, personally, which isn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination!

I don't know what Bolian means in this context (Christopher has not displayed the personality of a hairdresser, that I've seen), but he's a pretty cool guy, and ordinarily nice, yeah.

I'm finally reading Over a Torrent Sea. So far, very good, but chapter one ends on the most painful pun ever.

 

[Neumann]

Not to insult anyone here but in space... cloaking or making an enemy ship be invisible is just ludicrous therefore phasers which would be invisible could also be "pink" and it would not matter for the ship which is being attacked. But yes they would be invisible and photon torpedos would look like missiles and they wouldn't have that SEXY and WONDERFUL spike animation I love.

 

[JarodRussell]

But the whole particle beam idea is a misunderstanding. Particles jump, they don't flow. In fact, they aren't even technically particals, they are waves and we make them into particles in our heads so we can talk about them.

Nononono, wave-particle dualism is not just some imagination thing so people can talk about it, it's the real deal.