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Old 10-31-2022, 02:02 AM
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Nate the Great Nate the Great is offline
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October 12th, 1992, "Relics"

I'd like to recommend the novelization on this one. Some Trek novelizations are quite literal, others add subplots that really add to the story. The book adds a lot more for the crew to do while stuck in the Dyson Sphere as well as an expanded subplot for Ensign Kane, the guy who escorted Scotty to his quarters. It was actually Kane's idea to give the shuttle to Scotty.

Fiver by IJD GAF

The Episode

DATA: Captain, I have identified the signal. It is from the USS Jenolen, a Federation transport ship reported missing in this sector seventy five years ago.

The Jenolan was Sydney-class in-universe, but of course it was a STVI-era shuttle with other starship parts kitbashed on it. And the Amazing Thing That I Learned Today is that the circular crystal thing at the rear of TOS film-era ship saucer sections is the "impulse deflection crystal." Of course it's also at the top of the warp core, which was impossibly tall on the Constitution class refit (still call it the Enterprise class, FYI). Forum thread that discusses it, including the revelation that the dome is only blue in the post-STTMP movies, it was red in STTMP. The STTMP novelization reveals that the crystal converted warp plasma into something suitable for the impulse engine. If you want to accept the STTMP novelization as canon, that is.

And that was your Meaningless Nate Rant for the day.

(the ship shakes)
PICARD: Report.
WORF: We have entered a massive gravitational field, Captain.
DATA: There are no stars or other stellar bodies listed on our navigational charts. However, sensors indicate the presence of an extremely strong gravitational source in this vicinity.

Okay, even if you postulate a scan-proof alloy for the Dyson Sphere hull (a dubious claim given the neutronium in the Planet Killers), the gravity source should still be detected. The diameter of the Dyson Sphere is a little smaller than the Earth's, we can presume it's at the optimal M-class radius for this particular star. Furthermore, astronomers TODAY have to keep track of how the gravitational effects of everything affects the path of everything else. Even if there aren't any planets in this system there would be asteroids and gravel orbiting around to indicate the existence of a star.

PICARD: Mister Data, could this be a Dyson Sphere?
DATA: The object does fit the general parameters of Dyson's theory.

Dyson proposed this in 1960, but Olaf Stapelton thought up a similar idea in a novel in 1937. Dyson never really proposed a solid shell, he was thinking of a swarm of energy-collecting satellites and space stations.

Of course the most well-known variant in fiction is David Niven's Ringworld. Have I mentioned yet that my father was a fan of hard scifi fiction, but I am not? I actually tried to read Ringworld once, but gave up quickly. Much like Asimov, Niven seems to like pontificating about how realistic the science in his fictional worlds are more than actually making us care about characters.

PICARD: It's a very old theory, Number One. I'm not surprised that you haven't heard of it.

And why has Picard heard of it? He's into archeology, and I don't think twentieth-century speculative science counts as that.

RIKER: Are you saying you think there are people living in there?
DATA: Possibly a great number of people, Commander. The interior surface area of a sphere this size is the equivalent of more than two hundred and fifty million class M planets.

Class M planets should have a wide range of possible surface areas, based on the geologic materials, distance to the sun, and luminous output of the sun, etc. Assuming the surface area of the Earth, 250,000,000 Earths is 5(10^16) mi^2, or a sphere with a radius of 63 million miles. So are they assuming a star much more radiant and massive than Sol?

(after a short while)
DATA: I have located the Jenolen, sir. It is impacted on the surface of the sphere.

And yet it rumpled the surface of the Sphere. As SF Debris would say, this is like a spork making a dent in concrete.

RIKER: This air's pretty stale.
LAFORGE: Life support is barely operating.

Once again, treating "life support" as "breathable air." Grrr. Furthermore, why is the air stale if nobody's been breathing it?

LAFORGE: That's not all. The phase inducers are connected to the emitter array. The override is completely gone and the pattern buffer's been locked into a continuous diagnostic cycle.

Okay, even if you tell the computer to keep scanning and maintaining the matter stream, I can't believe that a proverbial fuse wouldn't blow at some point. Scotty's still brilliant, of course.

LAFORGE: There's a pattern in the buffer still.
RIKER: It's completely intact. There's less than point zero zero three percent signal degradation.

Some say that this degradation accounts for Scotty missing a few memories. For example, knowing that Kirk died on the E-B. Or that the E-A was destroyed over Chal just before the E-B was commissioned (Shatnerverse).

SCOTT: You've changed the resonator array.

This is weird, because the E-D transporter room (and Sickbay, and Engineering...) were used for the latter TOS films. And as Geordi will say later, transporter tech hasn't changed that much.

Only mention of resonator arrays.

SCOTT: What have you done with the duotronic enhancers?
LAFORGE: Those were replaced with isolinear chips about forty years ago.

Duotronics is of course a reference to "The Ultimate Computer." It's mentioned here and there in the expanded universe. It's amazing that the expanded universe never elaborated on the introduction of isolinear technology.

LAFORGE: You were saying its big as life. You mean the Dyson Sphere?
SCOTT: Aye, an actual Dyson Sphere. Can you imagine the engineering skills needed to even design such a structure?

I'm an engineer, and I can't. At all. Forget designing the thing, how would you even build it? Did they start with a Dyson Swarm and then start connecting them with "tiles" that would form the skin of the Sphere?

LAFORGE: I think you're going to enjoy the twenty fourth century, Mister Scott. We've made some pretty incredible advances these last eighty years.

Really? Yeah, everything is more efficient, but like they'll explain later they just built on earlier principles. The biggest technological leaps of the Galaxy-class seem to be based on the holodeck and overall operational range. Not exactly a huge leap.

CRUSHER: Other than a couple of bumps and bruises, I'd say you feel fine for a man of a hundred and forty seven.
SCOTT: I don't feel a day over a hundred and twenty.

Scotty was born in 2222, the only other event in this year is the activation of Pralor Automated Unit 3947 ("Prototype").

PICARD: I must say, I was little surprised when Commander Riker told me that you were aboard the Jenolen. Our records didn't show you listed as a member of the crew.

There wasn't a record of passengers? Are you telling me that the computer has better records of civilian ships that left Earth post-WWIII than Federation ships seventy-five years ago?

SCOTT: Bigger? In my day, even an Admiral wouldn't have had such quarters on a starship.

Mr. Scott's Guide to the Enterprise lists floorplans for several sizes of quarters, sorted by rank. Ensigns barely get hotel rooms and Admirals get whole suites with separate offices and bedrooms. Scotty must mean the TOS days.

KANE: The holodecks, Ten Forward, and the gymnasium are all at your disposal. The computer can tell you how to find them. Until we issue you a combadge, just use one of these panels if you need anything.

And does Scotty know what "Ten Forward" is, Ensign? And wouldn't the Enterprise have several gyms?

SCOTT: You know, these quarters remind me of a hotel room on Argelius. Oh, now there is a planet. Everything a man wants right at his fingertips. Of course, on the first visit, I got into a wee bit of trouble.

"Wolf in the Fold" reference, of course. The planet has made several Okudagram references in recent series.

LAFORGE: I want you to shut down the warp engines and recalibrate the aft sensors while I work on the lateral array.

The lateral arrays are along the equator of the saucer section. They look like random circuitry.

SCOTT: I was a Starfleet engineer for fifty two years, Mister La Forge.

Assuming one continual block (a dubious claim), this is 2241-2293. This episode also establishes that he was born in 2222. To start at 19 indicates that he started out as an enlisted crewmember like O'Brien, then joined Starfleet later. He was in Starfleet for twenty years before TOS, and we know very little about any of it.

DATA: Sensor readings indicate the presence of a G-type star at the centre of the sphere.

Otherwise known as yellow dwarfs, Sol is another G-type.

PICARD: Mister Data, send out a series of class-four probes to survey the far side of the sphere.

Class 4 probes have many functions in Trek, almost as if the writers don't care to keep up to date. The TNG Tech Manual states that the Class 4 is basically an upgrade of the Class 3, faster and with a longer range and six ejectable subprobes.
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