Which Star Trek planet would you rather visit?

[Myasishchev]

What bothered me the most was this one time when Dax was criticizing Earth from orbit and talking utter garbage about preferring purple oceans. This bothers me, since the only process I know of which makes water purple is infestation by an ungodly, maybe actually impossible amount of sulfur bacteria, whose waste products would probably kill you dead within a few dozen miles of any beach.

But maybe they're pretty from space, sure.

What about some kind of plant life, something more like coral, or plankton, just with a different "pigment" than chlorophyll?

If the oceans are matted with them, that's kind of problematic too.

Why pay to make things like the Empire State Building or the Chrysler Building so beautiful?

(I use those examples because I think Cardassian architecture is a sort of dark/industrial Deco.)

Well, with the Empire State or Chrysler, they used, principally, the vertical space to beautify the buildings (both buildings taper slightly toward the top, but is that more of a reflection of construction necessities than pure aesthetic choice?). In the iconic Cardassian buildings, they use the horizontal space for that curved tail, which is likely to be far more expensive than putting on a cool art deco hat.

It's not really an objection to its plausibility, I'm just saying it's an odd decision. On the other hand, maybe land was cheap. There's no reason why the capital has to be an old city that developed organically. Given the unity of architecture, the Union might've built it out in a field somewhere, like Brasilia.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

What bothered me the most was this one time when Dax was criticizing Earth from orbit and talking utter garbage about preferring purple oceans. This bothers me, since the only process I know of which makes water purple is infestation by an ungodly, maybe actually impossible amount of sulfur bacteria, whose waste products would probably kill you dead within a few dozen miles of any beach.

But maybe they're pretty from space, sure.

What about some kind of plant life, something more like coral, or plankton, just with a different "pigment" than chlorophyll?

If the oceans are matted with them, that's kind of problematic too.

But how much would it actually take to bring a purple hue to the ocean in at least some areas? Even if it's just the shallower continental-shelf areas...

 

[AstroSmurf]

^ It might not be a lifeform at all. It might be something in the atmosphere or how the atmosphere is structured making the oceans appear purple. It could be a certain type of mineral found on the planet. There are several different things besides plankton that could cause the oceans to appear a different color.

 

[Subcommander R.]

Probably Earth. I am not much for vacations and on the Shore Leave planet I'd probably get killed by my own thoughts.

One thing that always bugged me about Trek was its over-the-top presentation of how bad every other major races planets were compared to Earth. Earth was a sunny paradise where everyone lived in bliss. Ferenginar is a swamp whee it constantly rains. Romulus is an overcrowded ghetto where everybody lives in fear. Qo'noS for some reason has fog everywhere you go. Even indoors. And you ever notice whenever they did exterior shots on the planets it was always at night? Guess the sun never shines on non-Federation worlds.

Sorry for replying so late, but I suggest you watch TNG: The Defector. They have a holodeck simulation of Romulus that is definitely not a ghetto.

Then we've seen large shots of the imagery used for Romulus, which is absolutely gorgeous architecture.

 

[Cake]

I voted for Earth.
Vulcan is too hot, Andoria too cold, Romulus, Qo'noS and Cardassia too dangerous and Bajor is less interesting than the future Earth.

 

[estar9821]

Vulcan. Definitely.

 

[The Boy Who Cried Worf]

Probably Earth. I am not much for vacations and on the Shore Leave planet I'd probably get killed by my own thoughts.

One thing that always bugged me about Trek was its over-the-top presentation of how bad every other major races planets were compared to Earth. Earth was a sunny paradise where everyone lived in bliss. Ferenginar is a swamp whee it constantly rains. Romulus is an overcrowded ghetto where everybody lives in fear. Qo'noS for some reason has fog everywhere you go. Even indoors. And you ever notice whenever they did exterior shots on the planets it was always at night? Guess the sun never shines on non-Federation worlds.

Sorry for replying so late, but I suggest you watch TNG: The Defector. They have a holodeck simulation of Romulus that is definitely not a ghetto.

Then we've seen large shots of the imagery used for Romulus, which is absolutely gorgeous architecture.

Wasn't the holodeck simulation in the defector a natural scene like a lake or something? I was thinking about the scenes in the city in Unification where they presented Romulus as kind of a depressing police state.

 

[Myasishchev]

An oppressive police state can still be pretty. Albert Speer's Berlin was gonna be great.

But how much would it actually take to bring a purple hue to the ocean in at least some areas? Even if it's just the shallower continental-shelf areas...

There's plenty of green in terrestrial oceans--enough to support the vast marine ecology--but not enough to turn the oceans green from space.

^ It might not be a lifeform at all. It might be something in the atmosphere or how the atmosphere is structured making the oceans appear purple. It could be a certain type of mineral found on the planet. There are several different things besides plankton that could cause the oceans to appear a different color.

That doesn't sound likely to be harmless to my lungs.

 

[AstroSmurf]

^ Earth has purple skies and oceans all the time, particularly at sunset. That occurrence has nothing to do with a harmful gas but light refraction and scattering. This could also be the case on Trill but on a planetary scale. A purple ocean could also be generated by the type of wave-lengths being emitted by the star Trill orbits. It could also be an inert gas or particle found in Trill's upper atmosphere causing the colors. The purple color could be caused by any number of things that would not be harmful to a human being.

We just need to remember that not every inhabitable planet is going to be a carbon-copy of Earth. Planetary evolution could be, and probably will be, just as varied and strange as the evolution of life on Earth. The planet may need to fall within certain parameters to make it habitable but the combination of variables contained within that whole are almost endless.

 

[Myasishchev]

Earth has purple skies and oceans all the time, particularly at sunset. That occurrence has nothing to do with a harmful gas but light refraction and scattering. This could also be the case on Trill but on a planetary scale.

Nah, Earth has purple skies some of the time.

Yes, optical conditions in any atmosphere are going to be affected by Rayleigh scattering, giving various casts to the sky from the position of an observer on the ground. That doesn't have much to do with the appearance of an ocean from the position of an observer over Earth, since the apparent color of the air due to Rayleigh scattering depends on the depth the radiation from a white-light source like the sun has penetrated through it. Hence red sunsets, but never red noons due solely to Rayleigh scattering. If the atmosphere on Trill is thick enough that Rayleigh scattering gives strong optical effects when looking straight down at it, it is likely to be a terrible place to visit, with an atmosphere many times deeper than Earth's. Maybe Trills go through decompression before visiting normal planets.

Oceans are bluish for a different but related reason: they actually absorb more longer-wavelength light than shorter-wavelength light. That's consistent with a violet ocean (if not an actual purple one). However, if Trill's sun is pumping out enough violet light (and hence, because it is a blackbody radiation source, ultraviolet light) that its oceans are violet, it is likely to be a terrible place to visit, and makes you wonder why the Trill are such honkies. Maybe Trills have excellent repair genes and as soon as they started wearing clothes outside, they started living into the hundreds.

Now as for little critters, the greenish aspects of Earth's ocean, especially in coastal locations, is indeed due to algae. So Nerys is right about that.

We just need to remember that not every inhabitable planet is going to be a carbon-copy of Earth.

All I'm saying is that a planet that is not at least a reasonable facsimile of Earth would suck. We evolved to survive under relatively specific conditions, and find conditions outside those to be uncomfortable. Hell, the Democratic Republic of Congo is on the same planet I am, and I would already be severely maladapted just visiting that, because my ancestors spent 50,000 years shedding melanin until a flashlight could give me skin cancer.

 

[Anji]

Vulcan. I'd like to spend some time in deep meditation with the monks.

 

[Subcommander R.]

Probably Earth. I am not much for vacations and on the Shore Leave planet I'd probably get killed by my own thoughts.

One thing that always bugged me about Trek was its over-the-top presentation of how bad every other major races planets were compared to Earth. Earth was a sunny paradise where everyone lived in bliss. Ferenginar is a swamp whee it constantly rains. Romulus is an overcrowded ghetto where everybody lives in fear. Qo'noS for some reason has fog everywhere you go. Even indoors. And you ever notice whenever they did exterior shots on the planets it was always at night? Guess the sun never shines on non-Federation worlds.

Sorry for replying so late, but I suggest you watch TNG: The Defector. They have a holodeck simulation of Romulus that is definitely not a ghetto.

Then we've seen large shots of the imagery used for Romulus, which is absolutely gorgeous architecture.

Wasn't the holodeck simulation in the defector a natural scene like a lake or something? I was thinking about the scenes in the city in Unification where they presented Romulus as kind of a depressing police state.

Yes. But you said 'Romulus.' And you can't judge a whole planet from one neighborhood. We've seen many other views as well.

 

[scotpens]

An oppressive police state can still be pretty. Albert Speer's Berlin was gonna be great.

A bit sterile for my taste, I should think.

 

[Anika Hanson]

Romulus. Although I'd probably not return alive.

 

[Butters]

I voted for Romulus, interRail train pass and a back pack, and maybe a phaser on stun, and I'd be sorted. The cuisine on Romulus seems bland though. Wonder if I could open a chain of hair salons there?

 

[The Boy Who Cried Worf]

Sorry for replying so late, but I suggest you watch TNG: The Defector. They have a holodeck simulation of Romulus that is definitely not a ghetto.

Then we've seen large shots of the imagery used for Romulus, which is absolutely gorgeous architecture.

Wasn't the holodeck simulation in the defector a natural scene like a lake or something? I was thinking about the scenes in the city in Unification where they presented Romulus as kind of a depressing police state.

Yes. But you said 'Romulus.' And you can't judge a whole planet from one neighborhood. We've seen many other views as well.

Yes you can. Half the episodes of TOS were built on that premise.