The TOS desktop monitors were really advanced tech!
- Thread starter Philip Guyott
- Start date
Another TOS prop that was more advanced than it looked was the communicator. People say today's cell phone is better because it's thinner and has a screen. But that's not the whole story.
- The communicator had perfect "voice dialing" long before real life computer scientists had even dreamed of it. Voice dialing is well-dramatized in "This Side of Paradise":
"Kirk to Enterprise." (Talk to the ship.)
"Kirk out. Kirk to Spock." (Spock's communicator beeps.)
This was preposterously advanced for 1967. Or even 1997. There was no way, unless that little box was a very powerful computer.
- The communicator did not depend on a network of nearby routers or cell towers. It was a standalone device more akin to today's satellite phone, which is a bulkier device.
- It could generally maintain contact with an orbiting ship all the time, with no supporting network of ground stations or satellites, meaning it was sending and receiving flawless signal straight through a planet's core at times.
- It was not a mere radio, but a subspace radio, as stated in "Mudd's Women" dialogue. And thus it sent a faster-than-light signal that nearly eliminated the time lag (and compensated for the Doppler effect) well before the Enterprise arrived at Rigel XII.
The producers of Star Trek: Enterprise spoke ill of the TOS communicator, saying that despite their show being a prequel, they would have to update the prop and make it wafer-thin. I knew at the time they were being stupid, and if you look now at STD, nothing has changed.
- The communicator had perfect "voice dialing" long before real life computer scientists had even dreamed of it. Voice dialing is well-dramatized in "This Side of Paradise":
"Kirk to Enterprise." (Talk to the ship.)
"Kirk out. Kirk to Spock." (Spock's communicator beeps.)
This was preposterously advanced for 1967. Or even 1997. There was no way, unless that little box was a very powerful computer.
- The communicator did not depend on a network of nearby routers or cell towers. It was a standalone device more akin to today's satellite phone, which is a bulkier device.
- It could generally maintain contact with an orbiting ship all the time, with no supporting network of ground stations or satellites, meaning it was sending and receiving flawless signal straight through a planet's core at times.
- It was not a mere radio, but a subspace radio, as stated in "Mudd's Women" dialogue. And thus it sent a faster-than-light signal that nearly eliminated the time lag (and compensated for the Doppler effect) well before the Enterprise arrived at Rigel XII.
The producers of Star Trek: Enterprise spoke ill of the TOS communicator, saying that despite their show being a prequel, they would have to update the prop and make it wafer-thin. I knew at the time they were being stupid, and if you look now at STD, nothing has changed.
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Great post. Yeah, STD's handling of the phasers and communicators is actually one of their successes, believe it or not - and they still didn’t get it right.
Pretty much exactly the way I've thought for many years. Also, remembering that a military (or para-military ship for those uncomfortable with that idea) would use solid - reliable - technology rather than the latest "gadgets" if that simpler system makes more sense.
A military communications device does NOT need lots of bells and whistles (just a simple chime for attention) and does NOT need to be able to play pointless games and surf whatever equates to the internet in the 23rd century.
A 3-D screen should be fairly mundane tech by their time as well. Far more effective than the short-lived 3-D TVs that have already basically disappeared from store shelves during the last few years...
Part of the issue with modern TV SciFi is that too many producers and directors are incredibly obsessed with either making the show look more "contemporary" (meaning loosing the SciFi feel) or try to make it ridiculously shiny and flashy to the point of being obnoxious.
Or then there was a lady at a switchboard, doing nothing but answering hails, gossiping, and receiving dismal pay...
Then again, the communicator supposedly didn't achieve much if not connected to the big starship, which in turn is way bulkier than today's commsats...
...All thanks to the giant orbiting platform. Although it probably never went to the other side of the planet anyway: in "orbiting" shots, we see it making tight turns in space for no discernible reason, supposedly because the orbit was a figure-eight, performed exactly because communicators (or at least transporters!) were strictly line-of-sight devices, incapable of penetrating much rock.
Or then just locally connected to the giant shipboard machine that did that (once authority had been suitably although not necessarily legitimately established). Still advanced networking for an era utterly devoid of such features.
Well, Trek is all about being iconic. If it lost the identifiable features, the props, the transporters, the technobabble, it would cease to exist as a franchise. Although it could reinvent itself as another franchise, which is what the reboot we call TNG partially achieved.
Timo Saloniemi
I agree witth EC Henry. I had never a problem to see the TOS technology as more advanced than contemporary technology. The design might seem retro but that says nothing about the capability. A 3D function of the TOS viewscreens is something I thought about when I saw that function in TNG. It is just the straight, unchanging angle we see the viewscreen in TOS witch implies a 2D image but it does not exclude the possibility of a 3D holo display.
Damn that spaceship that crashed in 1947 and gave us over decades superior technology! If it hadn't been for that UFO we'd still be watching our shows on VHS and enjoying them despite the dancing light and ripples!
JB
JB
Wasn't that Quark, Nog and Odo?
I like his assessment of the monitors, though I disagree with his line of reasoning. Just because they have this blue border.
But I do like the idea that they are really holographic displays. Must be different than the free standing holograms we see on the holodeck, the rec deck and in that one episode where Riker is watching a hologram in his cabin. Maybe these are simply different devices like ipod, tablet, cellphone, computer monitor display.
His reasoning about the medical displays is off. The displays are doing their job. They don't need to be holographic. Maybe they could be switched to holographic display for surgery. The medical monitor in TMP was advanced.
Perhaps we can find some episodes where the communicators worked in the absence of the Enterprise or access to a planetary computer network.
But I do like the idea that they are really holographic displays. Must be different than the free standing holograms we see on the holodeck, the rec deck and in that one episode where Riker is watching a hologram in his cabin. Maybe these are simply different devices like ipod, tablet, cellphone, computer monitor display.
His reasoning about the medical displays is off. The displays are doing their job. They don't need to be holographic. Maybe they could be switched to holographic display for surgery. The medical monitor in TMP was advanced.
Perhaps we can find some episodes where the communicators worked in the absence of the Enterprise or access to a planetary computer network.
Nope! I'm talking about the real one that crashed in Roswell, New Mexico, not the Trek version!
JB
and Velcro ... don't forget the Velcro
The whole Novelverse (and particularly anything by Diane Duane) is fairly littered with this basic assumption.
Personally, I still like the tiny gooseneck screens from the pilots.
Personally, I still like the tiny gooseneck screens from the pilots.
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