Why is the Airponics set up so very very small?

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

It's like 6 SMALL flower beds (albeit with a few layers). I know people growing more veg in their tiny courtyards than the airponics bay. It looks ridiculous! They obviously have plenty of seeds, access to real soil from planets and super science to make more. Why isn't the whole cargo bay full of crops?

Also I hope they are eating all those freaking flowers or they are flowers blooming for squash. Not that there's any room for squash on those little trays..

 

[valkyrie013]

Real world? it was a stage, and just used it to get the point across.
Trek world? Oh yes utterly small for a population of 150 unless your just growing herbs.
Would need to clear out and use a whole bay or 2 of they wanted to get some useable food out of it. even with 24th century tech. Makes me wonder.. where did they get the seeds? I doubt a ship carries seeds for food stuffs for emergency's??

Anotjer reason why Voyager as a concept was excellent, but the follow thru with it just being a Tng lite and having the grand end of episode reset, destroyed the premise. Should have showed them growing a lot of food, stopping by and traiding for food and supplies at various planets and stations, Nelix could have been a lot better character for that instead of the buffoon he was as a mascot/cook.

 

[DonIago]

Was airponics shown or even mentioned after Kes left?

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

The food grows faster than normal in that environment, and is harvested and quickly replanted/regrown. So you don't need a large set-up. Plus, replicated food and stuff that's traded for (sight unseen) makes up the difference.

 

[Lynx]

It's like 6 SMALL flower beds (albeit with a few layers). I know people growing more veg in their tiny courtyards than the airponics bay. It looks ridiculous! They obviously have plenty of seeds, access to real soil from planets and super science to make more. Why isn't the whole cargo bay full of crops?

Also I hope they are eating all those freaking flowers or they are flowers blooming for squash. Not that there's any room for squash on those little trays..

That's what I always have been thinking.

It was ridiculous to try to pretend that a few boxes with dirt and some flowers could contribute to the food situation ofr 150 people.

The scenes in the Airponics Bay should have been filmed in a greenhouse.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

That's what I always have been thinking.

It was ridiculous to try to pretend that a few boxes with dirt and some flowers could contribute to the food situation ofr 150 people.

The scenes in the Airponics Bay should have been filmed in a greenhouse.

Yep. I find a lot easy to ignore but I'm into survival stuff in my fiction. While we see Neelix cooking creatively with foods the crew obviously isn't used to we never see they actually growing bulk food. All you'd need is a plant filled doorway and the impression of a cargo bay full of foliage. But instead we got these weird 6 trays. I also hate when the crew gets up and leaves food on a plate and we don't see what becomes of it, especially when needing supplies has been a recent topic on the show. I know that is a classic TV occurrence but all it takes is a line from Neelix about what he's doing with the leftover food.

I never got over them not eating that polar bear in Lost

Also I think it's interesting that they only gather plant life on planets and don't hunt animals. Surely a few big, elephant sized animals could be dried into jerky and provide good protein for a while. Is it because they aren't used to eating real meat? Or does it feel like too much interference to kill things? Though gathering enough fruit for 150 people would be a decent amount of interference and would, at the least, require some animals/birds that eat the fruit to travel further afield.

 

[Lynx]

Yep. I find a lot easy to ignore but I'm into survival stuff in my fiction. While we see Neelix cooking creatively with foods the crew obviously isn't used to we never see they actually growing bulk food. All you'd need is a plant filled doorway and the impression of a cargo bay full of foliage. But instead we got these weird 6 trays. I also hate when the crew gets up and leaves food on a plate and we don't see what becomes of it, especially when needing supplies has been a recent topic on the show. I know that is a classic TV occurrence but all it takes is a line from Neelix about what he's doing with the leftover food.

I never got over them not eating that polar bear in Lost

Also I think it's interesting that they only gather plant life on planets and don't hunt animals. Surely a few big, elephant sized animals could be dried into jerky and provide good protein for a while. Is it because they aren't used to eating real meat? Or does it feel like too much interference to kill things? Though gathering enough fruit for 150 people would be a decent amount of interference and would, at the least, require some animals/birds that eat the fruit to travel further afield.

Exactly!

Unfortunately, it's another evidence that Voyager was badly written and badly produced. it wouoldn't have been all too difficult to film the Hydroponics Bay (or Airponics Bay) scenes in some nearby hothouse or make Neelix come up with some remarks about meat, vegetable and fruit whic would be accurate to the situation they were in.

Even more remarcable is it that the food problem actually vanished when Kes "left". Not a single comment about the Hydroponic Bay or who was taking care of it when kes was gone or about the food problem itself. Was that problem also solved with "Seven's Borg knowledge"?

Fortunately the Voyager books from season 1-3 are a bit better when it comes to this. In the book The Garden written by Melissa Scott when not so useful vegetables from a planet is causing scurvy among the crew, some storage rooms for food are clearly described some converted shuttlebays where food is stored, some in stasis fields.

In the book Bless The Beasts by Karen Haber, there is a hilarious scene in which Janeway find out that Neelix had smuggled some creatures named Gaba, apparently cat-sized or puppy sized slugs into his quarters with the intention of breeding them and using them for food. Janeway was obviously not happy about it.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Though gathering enough fruit for 150 people would be a decent amount of interference and would, at the least, require some animals/birds that eat the fruit to travel further afield.

You just need to gather enough to start the plants. Then you can take cuttings and rootlets from it.

Actually, the small setting of airponics might have made more sense if the goal was not to grow a garden full of food from scratch, but simply to teach the replicator about the various growth stages and chemical makeups of plants from other worlds, so that it can reproduce "fresh" versions when needed.

 

[TommyR01D]

The whole story arc about food and energy shortages generally petered out by the end of season 2, and certainly wasn't mentioned much by series 4, so the garden as a practical necessity became redundant.

 

[Lynx]

The whole story arc about food and energy shortages generally petered out by the end of season 2, and certainly wasn't mentioned much by series 4, so the garden as a practical necessity became redundant.

Which is very werid because the food problem did seem to be a huge problem in seasons 1-3, both in the series and in the books.

In the book The Garden by Melissa Scott, the crew starts suffering from scurvy due to bad food taken on board on another planet.

They find the enigmatic Kirse and their planet which is like a big garden, but the Kirse are a strange people and also involved in a conflict with the Andirrim who are friends of the Kazon-Ogla.

Very good book with a little twist in the tale at the end.

Anyway, after season 3, the food problem is no problem anymore. Did Sevens Borg knowledge solve that problem as well?

 

[at Quark's]

Perhaps those 6 small flower beds were enough. I suppose those 24th century evolved humans can live on much smaller portions of food than we can?

Going by the apparent lack of toilets on starships I guess they convert food with 100% efficiency to energy?

 

[Lynx]

Perhaps those 6 small flower beds were enough. I suppose those 24th century evolved humans can live on much smaller portions of food than we can?

Going by the apparent lack of toilets on starships I guess they convert food with 100% efficiency to energy?

Interesting theory but it doesn't really make sense.

Not considering the efforts the crew took to secure food sources on each and every planet they visited.

 

[at Quark's]

Interesting theory but it doesn't really make sense.

Wasn't meant to be taken seriously. I'd say the real reason probably is the one mentioned in post #2.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Kes is a walking HR disaster.

A 1 year old sexpot, every dumbo falls in love with, followed around by her knife wielding barbarian stabby thug boyfriend.

If you ran out of replicator rations, you had to eat something.

 

[Lynx]

Wasn't meant to be taken seriously. I'd say the real reason probably is the one mentioned in post #2.

Still worth to comment.

Kes is a walking HR disaster.

A 1 year old sexpot, every dumbo falls in love with, followed around by her knife wielding barbarian stabby thug boyfriend.

If you ran out of replicator rations, you had to eat something.

Kes is no disaster, she isn't one years old, rather about 20 and neelix can hardly be pointed out as a "her knife wielding barbarian stabby thug boyfriend."

And I'm no dumbo for liking the character.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Still worth to comment.



Kes is no disaster, she isn't one years old, rather about 20 and neelix can hardly be pointed out as a "her knife wielding barbarian stabby thug boyfriend."

And I'm no dumbo for liking the character.

A food fight!

Neelix tried to stab Tom to death with spaghetti.

Total Psycho, but not very bright.

 

[JoseNoodles]

What is weird to me is that Kes needed soil for the Airponics Bay. If Airponics is anything like aeroponics, you don't need soil. In fact, that's the whole point.

 

[Takeru]

In the book The Garden by Melissa Scott, the crew starts suffering from scurvy due to bad food taken on board on another planet.

Awful premise for a book. Scurvy is just a lack of vitamin c, it is an incredibly easy problem to solve even by today's standards.

Still worth to comment.

Yet you commented.

 

[Lynx]

Awful premise for a book. Scurvy is just a lack of vitamin c, it is an incredibly easy problem to solve even by today's standards.

It was clearly explained in the book that they got scurvy because of something in the food from that planet which didn't only lack Vitamin C but also prevented intake of vitamin C as long as this food stayed in their bodies.

The Doctor explained that he had to give two patients Vitamin C extract to almost toxic level before the patients started to respond to this.

There was also a problem with replicating all those dosages of Vitamin C due to the usual problems with replicators consuming a lot of power.

So I don't think the premise was that awful and the book is very exciting.

 

[Takeru]

It was clearly explained in the book that they got scurvy because of something in the food from that planet which didn't only lack Vitamin C but also prevented intake of vitamin C as long as this food stayed in their bodies.

The food should be out after a few days, it takes months to get scurvy due to vitamin c deficiency.

The Doctor explained that he had to give two patients Vitamin C extract to almost toxic level before the patients started to respond to this.

The worst that can happen due to a high intake of vitamin c is is some diarrhea and of course if he gave them almost toxic levels that means non-toxic so it's not an issue.

There was also a problem with replicating all those dosages of Vitamin C due to the usual problems with replicators consuming a lot of power.

Replicating medication would obviously take priority over other things, especially if it affects the entire crew. There's no believable scenario where they wouldn't just do it.

So I don't think the premise was that awful and the book is very exciting.

No, it's awful. The writer should have come up with a made up illness or at least have picked one that isn't super easy to treat.