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Nate the Great 02-05-2019 12:32 PM

In yesterday's video Nintendo Collecting asked something akin to the following...


PNQ: What is your Holy Grail when it comes to console gaming? (You can substitute whatever hobby you follow)


For PC games the answer is easy: The ID Anthology. And the weird thing is that I only care about one of the four discs: the Vintage disc. These days it's the easiest way to own Commander Keen 6 due to the complicated rights issues behind that game. Good luck finding a copy these days for a reasonable price!


But console games? Of course there are the obvious things like Nintendo World Championship, but that would just be a trophy, I'd never actually play it. It's a hard question, but maybe you guys have better answers.

Nate the Great 02-11-2019 12:43 PM

Going through my archive of the old Troper Tales...


PNQ: A troper mentions studying Paleontology, Hydrogeology, and International Relations. What job would be at the intersection of this particular Venn Diagram?


The only one I can think of is studying fossils on the ocean floor in international waters. But how many people do that?

Nate the Great 03-02-2019 10:46 PM

Every once in awhile SF Debris converts one of his video reviews into a shorter, slideshow format to get around YouTube's content ID claim system. Today's video was "The Visitor." One of the comments on the video is:


This episode is just one of many episodes that are one and done and don't actually matter in grand scheme of things that Star Trek likes to do. This is why I prefer Babylon 5 over any Star Trek series and why I don't hate Star Trek Discovery like some others. My personal taste is more towards one big story with beginning, middle and end rather than episodic were single episodes don't matter and everything is reset after episode so that later on no one even mentions what happened.


PNQ1: What does serialization vs. episodic have to do with the quality of a show as a single, standalone factor?



Is this guy claiming that any given serialized show is better than any given episodic show, a single factor deciding everything regardless of acting or directing? Because I have a real problem with this philosophy. He can prefer serialized shows, but that's not an objective judgement even though he's claiming that it is. This is one reason why I didn't like Stargate Universe and gave up on it relatively quickly. Supposedly it was more serialized and everything mattered, but they did it very poorly. Often they had scenes that reminded us that a given plotline existed but really didn't add to it.



PNQ2: There's a difference between "events are never called back on" and "events don't matter", right?


Let's take "The Visitor", for example. Sisko remembers what happened, he has to explain what happened to Jake. This episode will affect his decisions as a father even if he never explicitly says "oh, it's because of that time with the wormhole inversion."



Picard's experiences in "The Inner Light" definitely affected his attitudes going further, even if we only saw direct ramifications in "Lessons." Look at him in "Generations", wanting a wife and family. He doesn't have to look at the camera and say "this is because of my experiences on Kataan", but as the audience we get more meaning from the action if we remember. And that's another thing: if we as the viewer remember previous events and the actions on screen can be enhanced by the memory even if technically the prior episode wasn't referred to, it still means that the previous episode matters!


And think about Pulaski's relationship with Data. The episodes are standalone, but you do see her relationship with Data evolve. Sure, she still throws jibes at him, but it's only because she knows he can take it, like Spock and McCoy.



PNQ3: Isn't "episodic=bad" a similar inane opinion to the ones I mentioned earlier in this thread....


PNQ: Why do some people apply modern technological standards to older products that didn't have said technology available?

You know what I mean. Silent movies gave way to sound, some people thought that all silent movies were worthless and boring. Black and white gave way to color, some people thought all black and white movies were worthless and boring. SD gives way to HD, some people thought all SD movies were worthless and boring. It'll happen again when glasses-free 3D is perfected, count on it.



So, what? Now that serialization is popular that automatically means all episodic shows are worthless?

Nate the Great 03-03-2019 11:16 AM

Fanart of the Zelda trinity via reddit.


PNQ: Supposedly this is "Ghibi"-style. Doesn't it look more like generic '80s anime?

Nate the Great 03-04-2019 12:40 AM

Sheet Music Bros presents "Wipe Out."


PNQ: Is it just me, or does this rendition seem a little...flat? Like there needs to be a third hand playing a third melody line?

Nate the Great 03-16-2019 11:00 PM

A video discusses the most reckless time travelers in Trek. The question is raised: why did Admiral Janeway just go back to Season Seven instead of preventing the Delta Quadrant excursion entirely?


I'm not going to attempt to explain all possible futures, but let's look at a few answers to the question:


PNQ: How would the Delta Quadrant have gone on if Voyager had never gone there?


Just a few highlights:
1. The Equinox would've poisoned Delta Quadrant opinion of Starfleet so much that when the Federation expanded that far legitimately it would've been an uphill struggle to gain a foothold there.
2. Seven would've died along with the rest of the Borg Continuum at the hands of Species 8472. Furthermore, when Species 8472 invaded the Alpha Quadrant it would've taken longer to mount a defense without the unique medical knowledge of Doc.
3. The Kazon would've been slowly assimilated by the Vidiians. No Seska means continual squabbling and no alliances.
4. The Ocampa would've died out the hands of the Kazon.

5. A huge chunk of the Delta Quadrant would've been made warp-impossible because of Omega.
6. The Unimatrix Zero crew never would've had any sort of life outside of the Collective.
7. No Q Civil War, no Q Jr., imprisoned Quinn. And as a matter of fact Q never would've become rebellious again, who knows what would've happened there.

Nate the Great 03-18-2019 01:08 AM

Watching "Trials and Tribbleations" again...


PNQ: Why do both Spock and Dax assume "one tribble, multiplying with an average litter of ten, producing a new generation every twelve hours over a period of three days."?


Cyrano Jones must've arrived with at least a few dozen tribbles, right? Let's assume that he knew about the need for minimal feeding for minimal reproduction and the population exploded only upon arriving at K-7. Therefore the 1,771,561 estimate has to be multiplied by at least a factor of ten, right? And given his dialogue with the bartender, he must've had at least a few dozen for sale immediately, right?


I'm also reminded of Childcraft's proof that vampires don't exist because if a vampire has to turn someone else into a vampire every so often, there wouldn't be anyone other than vampires within a short passage of time.



Incidentally, someone did the math about how much volume the tribbles would occupy and concluded that there would be almost two hundred feet of tribbles above Kirk's head, which would kill him when they landed. Of course this is ridiculous, there was hardly only one compartment and Sisko and Dax showed that there wasn't much grain left and the tribbles were only a foot or so deep.

Nate the Great 03-19-2019 04:46 PM

Watching "Blaze of Glory" again...


PNQ: The writers really fumbled the ball with Eddington, didn't they?


The guy's a raving loon. He rewrites the situation in his head to make himself look like an oppressed man fighting back at the heartless bureaucracy. He's the hero, the Federation is the villain, full stop. He always annoyed me. I thought that Trek was supposed to be about well-rounded characters, but he isn't. When oneshot Klingons in TOS seem more sane and grounded than Eddington, someone really screwed up.



I'm reminded of Kurn in "The Sons of Mogh":


Is that how you rationalise this? By calling your people cowards so you can be a hero?



Nate the Great 04-11-2019 08:08 PM

Ignore.

NAHTMMM 04-12-2019 01:43 AM

WD-40?

Sorry, I'm no mechanic.

Nate the Great 04-26-2019 03:23 PM

PNQ: Should companies be allowed to call offers "free" if they ask for your credit card information even if "seriously, we won't charge you anything (yet, mwahaha!)"

Nate the Great 05-12-2019 02:59 PM

Watching SF Debris' review of The Voyage Home again, and I was reminded that when Spock nerve-pinched the bus punk, he did it overhand instead of underhand.


PNQ: Theories?


1. It's a legitimate nerve pinch and doing it overhand was just more comfortable (and logical) given the respective positions and postures of Spock and Punk.

2. Spock is still a bit muddled from the fal-tor-pan ritual and accidentally did a Tal-Shaya instead.

3. The telepathic abilities of a Vulcan can instantly detect the most efficient nerve pinch location for a given victim. The punk's substance abuse altered his physiology enough to move the points apart so Spock's overhand maneuver was required.

Nate the Great 06-03-2019 11:22 AM

Regarding "Things Past"...


PNQ: Does Garak deserve a nametag with "Former Cardassian Oppressor" on it?


Unlike many other Cardassians I don't recall him being biased against Bajorans. Not that he would've fought against the Occupation, but it was just "something that exists" to him. Furthermore, do we have any evidence of Garak even being near Bajor until just before his exile?

Nate the Great 06-24-2019 01:26 AM

The season is almost over for recaps, but I would like to start another, more informal, review series for the rest of the summer. Babylon 5 isn't in the cards right now, I'd have to actually watch the episodes instead of working off transcripts. We'd have to stick to Trek.


PNQ: Opinions on the following scenarios? Preferences?


1. Add a subplot to every episode of TOS to add focus to the non Kirk/Spock characters.

2. Find a way for Tasha to contribute to each episode of TNG as though she never died. Assume that "Yesterday's Enterprise" never happened and all Sela episodes are instead Tomalak episodes, making the appropriate changes. Worf remains a general bridge officer, assisting Tasha, Data, or Riker as appropriate.

3. Rewrite Voyager episodes with the intent to remove the Janeway/Seven/Doctor focus (making Janeway actually sane and competent, of course) and dealing with the Maquis conflict where appropriate.
4. A more basic form of 3. Toss out all Borg episodes of Voyager and replace Seven with Kes. What would've happened had she stayed? Would she still have chosen to have a child with Neelix? What other telepathic abilities would she be able to unlock and use for the crisis of the week? Would there have been a love triangle with Tom and Torres?

Nate the Great 07-09-2019 01:22 AM

Watching "Second Chances" again...


PNQ: How strong is the telepathic bond between Riker and Troi, anyway?


Tom Riker is sitting in his quarters when Troi arrives to talk to him. She rings the doorbell and he lets her in, but he gives no indication that he knows who's there before he sees her.


What? If Troi can sense Will's general emotional state when he's down on a planet, and this bond is supposed to be strong enough to allow for telepathy, shouldn't Tom be able to at least sense her through the door? It stands to reason that by now Will can block her presence from his mind unless he chooses to "look" for her, but Tom's been fixated on her for years.



Furthermore, wouldn't it serve the plot better if he gets a distracted look, the chime rings, he says in shock "It can't be...", THEN lets her in?

Flying Gremlin 08-26-2019 06:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nate the Great (Post 81597)
PNQ: Should companies be allowed to call offers "free" if they ask for your credit card information even if "seriously, we won't charge you anything (yet, mwahaha!)"

As someone that has to do this for a living, yes.

It's actually a very good age validation tool. An authorization charge of $1 that refunds back on the card verifies that the person is above 18 and can legally accept terms of contracts, is OK to see certain content that may not be acceptable for minors (read: porn), or in the case of what I do accept packages from UPS or FedEx.





(Granted this entire argument goes out the window when I mention that my company accepts Paypal, but whatever.)

Nate the Great 11-08-2019 10:21 PM

So I just read an article about the ongoing war between calling them "Christmas Trees" and calling them "Holiday Trees"...


PNQ: Am I the only one who thinks this is silly?


Decorated pine trees are not associated with any other religion! If we tried to rename menorahs to "holiday candelabra" the Jews would go crazy, right? And they would have every right to! I don't know much about Kwanzaa, but I did some research and just one example is the Unity Cup. If we started using "holiday cup" they would have every right to go crazy as well!


If anything a handful of holiday symbols should be clustered into a joint display. Anyone who visits the "holiday grove" or whatever could see what they want and know that the symbolism of their beliefs wasn't being diluted by political correctness. It might even be a chance to have informational displays to explain the symbolism to people who don't know about it!

Nate the Great 11-26-2019 01:36 AM

I wandered across this clip and one of the viewers wondered...


PNQ: As leader of the Bajoran militia on the station, why doesn't Kira have a ship at her disposal?


One commenter suggests the the Bajoran ships available are slower and less equipped than runabouts, which I call nonsense. It just seems weird. Maybe the Federation can't overhaul the Bajoran fleet until they join the Federation, but giving the station's detachment of the Bajoran militia one runabout to do whatever they want with doesn't seem unreasonable.

Nate the Great 11-26-2019 09:11 PM

So I'm watching CGP Grey's History of Santa again, and some of the comments discuss the different things people leave for Santa. I knew of the mince pies in England thing, but I'm wondering...


PNQ: Do any of you do variations on Christmas customs like this, whether as a result of national heritage or whatever?


For example, while my family makes Christmas cookies like many people, my mother would also tap into our Scandinavian heritage and make lefse, rosettes, and krumkake. I was never a fan of lefse but I like the others.

Nate the Great 11-29-2019 05:08 PM

It's a long story how I stumbled upon this one...


PNQ: Do you think that the bridge dome of the TOS Enterprise was clear or opaque?


"The Cage" implied a transparent dome, but the critics say that the transition was artistic license only. The E-D does have a "skylight", so who's to say?

NAHTMMM 01-05-2020 04:13 AM

A transparent dome is just begging for trouble. Even if the material filters out harmful radiation outside human vision, bright lights from close stars or explosions or weapon bolts will cause distracting shadows at best and blind bridge crew at worst.

Nate the Great 02-17-2020 12:05 AM

I just watched the start of "One Little Ship" again...


PNQ: Did the runabout follow the Defiant out here? The shuttlebay is only big enough for two shuttlepods, right? Did the Defiant tow the runabout?

Nate the Great 03-13-2020 02:32 PM

I'm watching Trek tribute videos again...


PNQ: In "Relics" Scotty says "show me the bridge of the Enterprise." Aren't there dozens of ships that fit the description of "a ship called Enterprise that has a bridge"?



A quick look at Wikipedia shows that there have been dozens of Enterprises with bridges. Aircraft carriers, schooners, civilian craft, etc.



I found myself wondering if "starship Enterprise" would've been adequate description to make the computer limit itself to the NCC 1701 series. What about the XCV-330 (the "ring ship")?


That led me to the definition of "starship" as opposed to "spaceship". In TOS we see many usages of "spaceship" to indicate a something smaller (except for cargo vessels, of course) and slower than a "starship." What's the boundary line? Could it be that there's a threshold of warp power between the two? That is, lower speed ships have simpler warp drives and engineering systems that need a much smaller crew than the behemoth of a starship?



Of course, Scotty should've been more specific to begin with, but you can forgive a bit of this due to his current state of inebriation.

Nate the Great 03-19-2020 05:34 PM

A YouTube video asks men of various ages how many times they've been in love...


PNQ: How often do you think REAL romantic love can happen to someone in a lifetime?


I'm not a fogey who believes in once-in-a-lifetime soulmates, but people who give numbers in the dozens make me incredulous. It annoys me when people equate "sexual partner" or "long-term casual relationship" to "love", it leads me to believe that they haven't put much thought into the questions of what love is or what they want from a loving relationship.


(Meaningless aside, the autocorrect on this forum doesn't accept "fogey" as a word. A quick Googling lists several online dictionaries who have entries for it. Weird.)

Nate the Great 03-28-2020 09:14 PM

Watching SF Debris' review of "Skin of Evil" again, and I get annoyed by this bit...


In describing how he didn't have enough material to make a Tasha Yar tribute: "If it's not her being violent, making a report, or trying to get laid, it's just nothin'."


PNQ: Is that really all she had to do?


They gave Tasha plenty to do and talk about...


1. She is ready to indulge Wesley's questions because she didn't have a childhood of her own and wants Wesley to have every advantage.
2. She was envious of Troi's beauty because she never had a chance to channel her feminine side.
3. She was rescued by the Federation and so was its most vocal supporter to anyone who would mock it.


You see what I'm getting at, right?

Flying Gremlin 04-19-2020 08:49 PM

Finally sitting down and rewatching Deep Space Nine from episode one.

PNQ: Why didn't anyone point out the major plot hole of having a family on the very small, Miranda class Saratoga?



Which probably leads to...

PNQ: Am I turning into Nate, and becoming too nitpicky?

Nate the Great 04-20-2020 12:40 AM

What a terrifying thought.

Nate the Great 04-24-2020 02:23 AM

Watching SF Debris' review of "Firstborn" again...


PNQ: How come the Universal Translator never translates Klingon?


All I can think is that a condition of the Federation/Klingon alliance is that Federation translators don't translate Klingon by default, at least for commbadges and other unofficial communications. It would stand to reason that Klingons would learn the major languages of their enemies (Romulans seem to learn Klingon in this era, so there's precedent) and have demanded that the translators operate like this so they can keep certain secrets to themselves.



And it would stand to reason that not all Starfleet officers learn Klingon, relying on their translators when interacting with them. Picard, Riker, and Data seem to be the only ones on the E-D who have learned Klingon besides Worf himself.



Note that in TOS the Klingons seem to be speaking English and specifically point out that the Starfleet officers don't know "Klingonese".

Nate the Great 04-24-2020 10:22 PM

Re: SF Debris review of "Timescape"...


PNQ: In universe, why did Troi collapse a bit when the subspace forcefield was turned on?


I figured it out years ago: Troi is used to having the emotions of the people around her as a sort of white noise, a backdrop that always there. The subspace force field cut her off from all those emotions and it caught her by surprise.


(I know, I know, in "Night Terrors" they said blocking telepathy is impossible. But in that episode they were talking traditional blocking, not using a time differential as in here. These armbands aren't putting a shield over the target, they're pulling the target out of the arrow's line of sight altogether)



Without that explanation Troi just looks weak. Furthermore it looks like a Chekhov's gun that is never fired later.

Nate the Great 04-30-2020 02:04 PM

On the Straight Dope forum they are debating whether Kirk should be court-martialed for all of the redshirt deaths under his command.



PNQ: How many of the redshirt deaths can be attributed to him?


I'll go by the Ex Astris Scientia list of crewmen deaths in TOS.


Ground rules:


1. Only deaths caused by a deliberate act against the crewman count. The Galactic Barrier, generic deaths during battle, etc. don't count.
2. I'll be covering all deaths on the page, not just redshirts. If Kirk can be court-martialed for the needless deaths of redshirts, he can be tried for deaths of blueshirts and yellowshirts as well.


Season One:

Where No Man Has Gone Before: None. All due to galactic barrier.

The Man Trap: Four salt vampire deaths. Not Kirk's fault. In general, deaths by shapeshifter can't be directly attributed to Kirk.

The Naked Time: Tormolen, complications from polywater intoxication on a hostile planet. Not Kirk's fault, there was nothing he could've done.
Balance of Terror: Tomlinson, this is an indirect result of battle.
What Are Little Girls Made of: Matthews and Rayburn, killed by Ruk. Not Kirk's fault, just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The Galileo Seven: Three crewmen killed by natives after a shuttle crash. Not Kirk's fault.
Arena: None. All are in battle.
The Devil in the Dark: Crewman killed by Horta. Not Kirk's fault, unpreventable given current information.


Season Two:
Catspaw: Jackson, killed by Sylia. Not Kirk's fault, he couldn't have prevented it given his knowledge at the time.
Friday's Child: Grant, killed by Capellans. Not Kirk's fault, the guy was just a hothead. Kirk also tried to get him to stand down.
Wolf in the Fold: Tracy, killed by Redjac. Not Kirk's fault, he had no way of anticipating or preventing it.
The Changeling: Three killed by Nomad. This one is debatable, given that Kirk knows that Nomad has onboard weapons and is immune to hand phasers. However, circumstances forced Kirk to let Nomad on board knowing his destructive capability. I'll chalk these down as unpreventable.
The Apple: Two killed by natural hazards. Not Kirk's fault. One struck by Vaal's lightning, not Kirk's fault (what could Kirk have done?).

The Deadly Years: Galway, died of hyperaging. Not Kirk's fault, in general uncurable diseases don't count unless they were easy to avoid and he didn't.
Obsession: Five killed by dikironium cloud. The first three are from the initial attack, unpreventable by Kirk. The other two are as a direct result of his continued attack when he could've left. It could be argued that these aren't Kirk's fault because had he not hunted and killed this thing it would've killed countless others, especially were it to spawn.

By Any Other Name: Thompson, killed by Rojan. Unpreventable, not Kirk's fault.
The Ultimate Computer: Harper, killed by M-5. Technically preventable, there was no reason to get that close to M-5 to cut power to that panel.
The Omega Glory: Galloway, killed by Tracey. Not Kirk's fault, it's not like phasers can be dodged.


Season Three:
Elaan of Troyius: Watson, killed by Kryton. Kirk didn't know until after the fact.
And the Children Shall Lead: Two killed by being mistakenly beamed into space. Kirk had no way of stopping Gorgan at this point, not his fault.
Wink of an Eye: Compton, killed by cellular decay while hyperaccelerated. Not Kirk's fault.
That Which Survives: Three killed by Losira. Not Kirk's fault.
Requiem for Methuselah: Three died of Rigellian fever during crisis. I'm calling this extenuating circumstances.


So being especially cruel, of the 56 confirmed "redshirt deaths" on the page, maybe half a dozen could've been prevented by Kirk depending on your definition. The only two episodes that I feel Kirk could be brought to charges on are "Obsession" and "The Changeling".

Nate the Great 05-06-2020 05:00 AM

So I'm on an Ex Astris Scientia binge at the moment, and I stumble upon the page discussing the multiple chief engineers in TNG Season One...


PNQ: Opinions?


I'm still sort of surprised that a Chief Engineer wasn't part of the main cast from the beginning. Scotty proved that such a position was required for any Trek series.



Ex Astris Scientia posits that there could be multiple Chief Engineers for the first year because of the newness of the tech. I dispute this, since as I've discussed elsewhere the bugs would've been worked out in the U.S.S. Galaxy, and this second-model warp engine would've needed less supervision.



An option that occurs to me is that a Chief Engineer is something that a starship would need on-staff 24/7. While the "night crew" up on the Bridge could be less experienced, you need experienced engineers watching the warp core 24/7. Perhaps some of these characters weren't really THE Chief Engineer, but instead just the "Chief Engineer on Duty", in charge for the current shift.



Of the four S1 Chief Engineers, MacDougal, Argyle, and Lynch were Lieutenant Commanders and Logan was a Lieutenant. I'd put MacDougal as the "main" Chief Engineer with the others as shift assistants. Logan was lower on the totem pole, but perhaps he had more command experience than the other three, putting him into conflict with Geordi in "The Arsenal of Freedom."



In "Where No One Has Gone Before" Argyle is specifically called "one of our Chief Engineers."



Mention must also be made of Shimoda and Singh, the "Assistant Chief Engineers." What's interesting is that Shimoda wasn't wearing a Starfleet uniform, his outfit looked more like a a noncommissioned crewman. Of course in a situation like this it's time for Nate to bring up his all-purpose plot hole fixer: UESPA! What if Shimoda wasn't Starfleet, but UESPA? Given the "new age" of exploration that the E-D had just started, it stands to reason that UESPA would want to send along one of their own officers for the mission. Maybe he's still heading up the night shift or something for all we know.

Flying Gremlin 05-12-2020 11:34 PM

The simplest explanation: the chief engineers got fired every time Wesley showed them up. If you can't outsmart a sixteen year old, then get off my ship.

Nate the Great 05-20-2020 11:56 PM

The Cinemassacre crew travels to Oregon to visit the last Blockbuster Video.


PNQ: What bankrupted/defunct franchise stores do you miss the most?


If you need a starting point, there is this Wikipedia page.



One that comes immediately to mind is B. Dalton's bookstores. Barnes and Noble bought them out in 2009.



I also miss Hollywood Video, Circuit City, Builder's Square, Knox Lumber, FuncoLand, on and on...

Flying Gremlin 05-21-2020 05:17 AM

Canadian, so a slightly different list.

Arby's went belly up locally here, so that counts - you have to cross an international border for some sweet, sweet beef and cheddar action.

Future Shop was definitely one that is sorely missed. I could spend several hours in there as a kid; Best Buy just isn't the same, too flashy and a little pushier even though their sales rep don't get commissions.

NAHTMMM 05-23-2020 10:40 PM

B. Dalton and Waldenbooks in the same mall? Mm-mm good.

Still mad at Toys 'R' Us for driving out Children's Castle,which was a bigger building than "the biggest toy store there is" and was shaped like a castle in front.

Oh, and where's my Quizno's?! Or Blimpie's? :mad:

Oh, and JCPenney has declared bankruptcy, I believe.

Flying Gremlin 05-23-2020 11:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NAHTMMM (Post 81916)
Oh, and JCPenney has declared bankruptcy, I believe.

See, I was more surprised that they still existed.

Nate the Great 05-27-2020 07:07 PM

In his review of the Good Times version of Snow White, Bobsheaux refers to Snow White as "the most passive of princesses."



PNQ: Opinions?



In terms of "existing as a plot point and not a real character", I would put Sleeping Beauty and Rapunzel above Snow White.



I am of course referring to the original fairy tales, not any particular adaptation.

Nate the Great 05-30-2020 04:08 AM

PNQ: So how does the Defiant dock?


After all, the entire "nose" of the ship is covered by the deflector array, right?


A reddit thread speculates that the station's docking ports are adaptable.



I dispute that. The station was designed to accommodate Cardassian ships (hence the pylons can arc inward because the front of Galor-class ships are narrow and three could branch out like a fidget spinner).


Some think that the orange panels can slide back to reveal a docking port.


I don't like this idea. The Defiant is only four decks (for some bizarre reason). A docking apparatus this big would be a waste of space.


There is a little circle below the deflector dish, but it's usually a torpedo launcher. Besides, it's too small to be a docking ring for a four-deck ship (why was the ship so small again?).


The LCARS puts the airlock on the upper side of the nose, above the torpedo launcher.


This would correlate with the orange panel theory, but the problem is that the station's docking port links with the deflector dish, not the orange panels.



LCARS floorplan


One corridor splits into two for the airlocks to correlate with the orange panels, but it still doesn't make sense. Even if the panels slide aside and docking corridors extend forward towards DS9, where would they dock to on the station?



A closeup of the Defiant docked at DS9 clearly shows that the docking ring touches the front edge of the ship, between the orange panels and the deflector dish. The docking port can't touch anything except the front edge of the ship.



A theory that the torpedo launcher below the deflector dish is actually a turbolift pass-through. After all, a turbolift car has its own gravity plating and could go horizontal if needed and nobody would notice. They also point out that ships having turbolift hookups is nothing new (and of course they're right, just look at the Enterprise D)

Nate the Great 05-30-2020 01:30 PM

A followup to yesterday's post...


PNQ: How do Klingon Birds of Prey dock at DS9?


Here's a ship at the docking ring.


Here's the front of a Bird of Prey.


The circle in front has always been depicted as a torpedo launcher.



In fact, I'm not seeing anything remotely like a docking hatch on the "head" of a Bird of Prey, not even the emergency hatch that was used in The Voyage Home.


On this view there might be something like a turbolift connection on the top of the "head", but once again, DS9 doesn't have anything to connect to it!


And for that matter, how would Federation or Klingon turbolifts be compatible with Cardassian ones?

Nate the Great 05-30-2020 03:32 PM

In "A Time to Stand" our heroes use integer warp factors despite being on a Jem'Hadar ship...


PNQ: They say over and over again that Dominion ship and engine design is wildly different from that of the Alpha Quadrant. Would they use the same warp scale on the other side of the galaxy?


The tech manuals make it clear that the integer warp factors exist where they are because they represent natural lulls in the speed/energy requirement curve. That is, going at Warp 2 takes much less energy than Warp 1.9. But that's based on the engineering of conventional matter/antimatter reactors and the physics of warp plasma based on such.



It stands to reason that Federation and Klingon warp engine design is based on similar principles. Of course the Romulans use a completely different principle (meaningless aside, how does an artificial singularity generate warp plasma?), but I expect that their system doesn't have the natural lulls, so they convert to our warp scale as a matter of efficiency.



So did our heroes hardwire the warp controls to conform to Starfleet standards? That would look weird to other Dominion ships that they encounter, right? "Why is that ship going at Technobabble Speed 5.78?"


I know, I know, Nate's being pedantic again. But I really do think about this stuff, and at least I'm putting some thought into my discussion and not going "rawr rawr, the writers don't care about continuity, they stink" like most of my Kelvinverse and Enterprise ranting.


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