Why no carol marcus(Bibi Besch) in STIII

[Ziz]

Or if they had gone in a different direction, she could have been the one to explain to Starfleet or the crew they had fudged the design by using protomatter and that it was her fault. She could have died in some way redeeming herself for it.

I always wondered if she new about the protomatter or if Dave just snuck that in.

Not to go off on a tangent, but that was something I never understood about TSFS - the whole "protomatter" explanation. If you take that out, there's a perfectly valid explanation already for why the Genesis planet fell apart.

Genesis was designed to re-arrange the surface matter of an existing body. BUT, Genesis wasn't detonated on a planetary body, it was detonated in a gaseous cloud...something that doesn't have any solid surface area.

There's your explanation right there. The Genesis matrix broke down because it didn't have substantial matter to bond to in the first place, hence, the planet deteriorated from the inside and collapsed in on itself.

 

[Timo]

That is, unless Genesis was detonated on a planetary body.

After all, it was programmed to. And Khan probably couldn't have altered that fact, as even David couldn't "cram another byte" into the fine-tuned system. And the space around the detonation point had suitable planets; Regula might not have been exactly Ceti Alpha VI, but it was a spherical planetoid largely devoid of life all right.

We know the Genesis effect propagates easily across interplanetary space, as it almost caught up with Kirk's ship. The question would rather be whether the effect would be "diluted" because the Genesis device didn't hit the target planet smack on, as in the simulation, but was detonated at a distance. Not a great distance, mind you, when the two crippled starships could reach it at low sublight in a matter of minutes...

Odds are, if Genesis Planet wasn't Regula, it was some other preexisting rock from that star system, which appears to lie either within or then at a point-blank range of the Mutara Nebula.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[SmoothieX]

As for Saavik in TVH, there wouldn't have been much for her to do except maybe work on the photon collector stuff with Uhura and Chekov or man the ship while the others are away. And Spock already filled in the goofy alien on 1980s Earth role.

 

[SmoothieX]

Odds are, if Genesis Planet wasn't Regula, it was some other preexisting rock from that star system, which appears to lie either within or then at a point-blank range of the Mutara Nebula.

But during the sequence of Kirk running to engineering intercut with the Genesis effect, you can see the nebula coalescing into the planet.

I never liked the protomatter business either. Feels like it came out of left field.

 

[David cgc]

Not to go off on a tangent, but that was something I never understood about TSFS - the whole "protomatter" explanation. If you take that out, there's a perfectly valid explanation already for why the Genesis planet fell apart.

The trouble is, then there's no explanation for why Starfleet won't just Genesis themselves a new planet whenever they want in the future. They needed to make the whole process untenable for there to be any drama at all in Star Trek in the future. It's like the joke in the TNG Tech Manual; If you can replicate a starship out of thin air, you don't really need to.

 

[Timo]

But during the sequence of Kirk running to engineering intercut with the Genesis effect, you can see the nebula coalescing into the planet.

Well, all you can really see is a spherical body shrouded in orangish clouds. Could be a preexisting planet, could be something created out of the nebula, could be something else altogether.

It does seem the nebula isn't there any longer after the planet has been transformed. But that could be due to the starship explosion dispersing the gases, rather than the Genesis effect transforming them.

It certainly is a good thing that the device didn't work quite as planned, and it would be best if it never worked as planned even on planets like Ceti Alpha VI. But even that leaves a bit too much power in Federation hands, as at the end of ST3, the "Genesis torpedo" still remains a potent and compact weapon for killing an entire planet with one shot.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Peach Wookiee]

One wonders if the matter/anti-matter/proto-matter mix led to destabilization.