I am still trying to figure out why they have gravity in the turbolift shaft.
TNG Rewatch: 5x05 - "Disaster"
- Thread starter Trekker4747
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Probably for just the situation we see here where the turbocar is down and the occupants may need to climb out in emergency situations where transporters aren't available.
It'd be easier to float...no?
Perhaps, but maybe you'd have less control over your movement and what about when you get to a horizontal shaft? It'd be easier to move forward by walking as opposed to "swimming" through the air or pushing yourself against the walls.
Which raises the question on why there were no horizontal turboshafts for Picard and the kids to use. You'd think they'd go straight for one of those and then start trying doors, the horizontal shaft meaning they wouldn't need the safety tether or worry about anyone falling.
Once the hatch was open it was probably easier for him to climb out with one good leg. I wonder why the hatch/turbolift roof is so high. I mean the hatch must be there either for escape or maintenance reasons so it seems sort of counter productive for it to be so high that one can barely reach it by standing on their tip-toes and with no railing or anything inside the lift to stand on for a vertical advantage. (As is the case in an elevator.)
Picard would have needed to climb out, and there was nothing to climb on, especially as he only had one good leg. The kids got out because they climbed on him, but are we expected to believe the kids reached down and lifted him out? Hmmmm.
The only instance I can recall, on TNG, of a person floating in zero-G, is when Geordi shoulder checks a phased Romulan through the bulkhead in The Next Phase
Because the writers have no knowlege of physics, and artificial gravity is just as magical as transporters. I'd believe in warp engines before the kind of "artifical gravity" they have.
I even wanted to start a whole thread in the general section because it's so poorly handled.
The implication that someone can fall to their death in artificial gravity is so assinine, but that's exactly what they did in 2 movies in a row.
Yeah, I thought about those, & also Q floating in Deja Q, but that's probably the continuum doing that, or Riker in Schisms, which was also probably alien controlled, like a tractor beam or something
Yeah, in fact, in the episode I mentioned above, The Next Phase, it almost ruined watching the episode. If somehow you can accept that the artificial gravity works on phased people, then how does it stop them from passing through floors like they do walls? Frankly, if you were phased in such a way, I'd expect that as soon as the ship moved, it would deposit your ass into space, or that you'd suffocate because you couldn't breath the oxygen there
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Seems consistent to me. We know gravity aboard starships is very localized: it pulls people on Deck 3 towards the floor of Deck 3, but doesn't pull people on Deck 4 up towards the floor of Deck 3, say. And it can be turned off here when it remains active two meters to the left. So it's clearly not a 1/rr affair at all, but more like 1/rrrrr or something.
So while the floor of Deck 3 pulls down till a certain point, it will actually stop pulling eventually, and will even start pushing so that the effects on various decks properly cancel out. And thus LaForge and Ro sink to the floor an unnoticeable two centimeters, hit the reversion point in the gravity field, and bob back up, as they are not invisible to gravity (for whatever reason). Walls have no artificial gravity fields and thus no field gradients, and thus do not present an obstacle to our heroes or the one villain, who are transparent to electromagnetism (for whatever reason) which is the only appreciable force preventing us from walking through walls.
The inertia control system of the ship apparently also works on gravity manipulation principles, so it nicely grabs and holds phased people just like it does non-phased ones (again because phasing doesn't make you invisible to gravity, for whatever reason).
The breathing air issue is the one that poses the bigger problem. But in "Time's Arrow" we get a description of what this "phasing" might be: existence a few fractions of a second "ahead of" or "behind" the surroundings. If we accept this gobbledigook as Star Trek fact, it's rather easy going, actually. Our "lagging behind" heroes might well breathe air that was there a few moments ago, and see light that used to be there - but the others, "walking ahead", would always have left the scene when light from our duo arrived; the light from Ro's headband would always fall a fraction of a second short of hitting Riker's eye.
As for the vertical turboshafts, they might well have a bit of "leakage" from the decks that truncate in the shafts - enough to create the sensation of down, but not enough to make an old man and a bunch of young kids fall off the endlessly long ladder, as would otherwise surely happen sooner rather than later.
Timo Saloniemi
So while the floor of Deck 3 pulls down till a certain point, it will actually stop pulling eventually, and will even start pushing so that the effects on various decks properly cancel out. And thus LaForge and Ro sink to the floor an unnoticeable two centimeters, hit the reversion point in the gravity field, and bob back up, as they are not invisible to gravity (for whatever reason). Walls have no artificial gravity fields and thus no field gradients, and thus do not present an obstacle to our heroes or the one villain, who are transparent to electromagnetism (for whatever reason) which is the only appreciable force preventing us from walking through walls.
The inertia control system of the ship apparently also works on gravity manipulation principles, so it nicely grabs and holds phased people just like it does non-phased ones (again because phasing doesn't make you invisible to gravity, for whatever reason).
The breathing air issue is the one that poses the bigger problem. But in "Time's Arrow" we get a description of what this "phasing" might be: existence a few fractions of a second "ahead of" or "behind" the surroundings. If we accept this gobbledigook as Star Trek fact, it's rather easy going, actually. Our "lagging behind" heroes might well breathe air that was there a few moments ago, and see light that used to be there - but the others, "walking ahead", would always have left the scene when light from our duo arrived; the light from Ro's headband would always fall a fraction of a second short of hitting Riker's eye.
As for the vertical turboshafts, they might well have a bit of "leakage" from the decks that truncate in the shafts - enough to create the sensation of down, but not enough to make an old man and a bunch of young kids fall off the endlessly long ladder, as would otherwise surely happen sooner rather than later.
Timo Saloniemi
This is something that has always bothered me about this episode. Everything about Starfleet from TOS on says that its ranks, regulations, traditions, etc. are derived from the United States Navy. In the United States Navy, commissioned officers fall into two broad categories: Unrestricted Line Officers (URLs) and Restricted Line Officers (RLs). Unrestricted Line Officers are qualified to command at see the Navy's combatant vessels and other units. Restricted Line Officers, people like medical officers, JAG officers (lawyers), chaplains, etc., are generally NOT qualified to command. This is not to say that an RL can't decide to qualify as a URL, but Troi's position as a psychologist for the ship, and everything about her behavior throughout the series up to this point (such as her lack of uniform, etc) including her struggles in this episode would indicate she is a Restricted Line Officer. That would mean that even though Troi outranks Ro, Ro would be the highest ranking Unrestricted Line Officer on the bridge, and therefore by regulation Ro would take command, not Troi. There are very obvious, practical reasons the USN has this distinction between URLs and RLs, and I don't think Starfleet would discard that. This was one time the writers really glaringly sacrificed authenticity for dramatic license, and I don't think it worked.
Where were Spock's flying boots from STAR TREK V, when they would've been most useful? Every turbo shaft should be so equipped with at least one pair, in case of just such an eventuality.
Otherwise, it was nice that they addressed Picard's discomfort around children and, presumably, got him past it. I honestly don't know if that ever came up again, or not. But it's nice, sometimes, when you, as a fan, get to see characters actually change, over time, as opposed to just aging, because the actors did. It was nicely handled, if in a rather predictable way. I did feel like it kind of dragged on, though. I liked the ending, with Riker and the kid responding to Picard, the way they did. It was cute ...
Otherwise, it was nice that they addressed Picard's discomfort around children and, presumably, got him past it. I honestly don't know if that ever came up again, or not. But it's nice, sometimes, when you, as a fan, get to see characters actually change, over time, as opposed to just aging, because the actors did. It was nicely handled, if in a rather predictable way. I did feel like it kind of dragged on, though. I liked the ending, with Riker and the kid responding to Picard, the way they did. It was cute ...
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