Persistent, Niggling Questions

[Nate the Great]

So STIII made the mistake of calling the Enterprise "twenty years old" when it's really forty. Whatever, the point is that Admiral Morrow called it too old to bother repairing.



PNQ1: Why did Starfleet send years to do a complete overhaul on the ship if it's going to be called out of date and useless in ten years or so?
PNQ2: Don't we see oodles of OLD Excelsior classes in TNG? Like, a LOT of them. I can't buy that the majority of them were built in the 24th century, the Ambassador-class should've overtaken them if so.

PNQ3: Building starships takes years, even in the 24th century (you have to assume that "Best of Both Worlds" made the shipyards start production full-time and never stopped due to the increased threats). If Scotty can get the ship back to spec in a few weeks, why not let him? It's gotta be cheaper to fix a ship than build a new one.

PNQ4: What's the most damage we've seen a starship suffer and still be able to be repaired to full capability? The E-D was pretty battered after Best of Both Worlds, Voyager after the Borg/8472 War, etc. Did Khan really do that much damage all things considered?

PNQ5: If you really think about it, the worst of Khan's attack would be those initial phaser hits when the Enterprise didn't have its shields up. Of course ablative armor didn't exist yet, but the damage seemed to be concentrated on the warp distribution system in order to cripple the Enterprise. Plasma conduits can be replaced, hull segments can be replaced. And Scotty was ready to do it.

[Nate the Great]

So in "The Ultimate Computer" M-5 didn't recommend McCoy for the landing party because any injured crewman could be beamed up.


PNQ: How often has a doctor been essential on a landing party because contact is lost with the ship?


The answer is: A LOT! While I could certainly argue that you don't need the CMO on every away mission, someone trained in medicine should whenever they're going into an unknown environment. And in the episode this is the first time anyone from Starfleet will be visiting this planet, who knows how many exploding rocks or salt vampires or dikronium clouds or mugatos or whatever else could be down there? Unless they really do treat the redshirts like mineshaft canaries on purpose, a doctor will always be necessary.

[Nate the Great]

I found myself wondering the following...


PNQ: Which Star Trek captain actor was most well-known before joining Trek?


To the general TV-watching audience, I mean. I don't want to get into the intricacies of who might've seen Shatner or Stewart on stage.



It seems that it would be Bakula, but am I missing something?



As for which actor I knew best before they appeared on Trek it would be Bakula of course (my parents were HUGE Quantum Leap fans). However, I did see Chris Pine in Princess Diaries 2.



As for ALL Trek actors, in terms of sheer popularity across the spectrum, could it be LeVar Burton? Between Roots and Reading Rainbow I think he had his place in pop culture solidified.



Mention must also be made of the 1988 movie Roots: The Gift. It features LeVar Burton, Kate Mulgrew, Avery Brooks, AND Tim Russ.

[Nate the Great]

In "Rascals" Guinan refers to a planet as "the most beautiful in the quadrant"...


PNQ: Given the range of species in the Federation (assume we're just talking about the Federation), could they really agree on one planet as "the most beautiful?"


Yeah, Guinan was using hyperbole, but it makes you think. Most of the humans irrationally consider Earth the most beautiful, but what about other races? It's noted that Trill can handle the cold easier than most races, Ferengi don't like bright light, Klingons seem to prefer forests, Cardassians love the heat, etc. There are even humans who don't like nature at all and love to stay inside.



This of course opens other questions relating to internal clocks and other nuances of biology. I wonder how long it takes for a 26-hr/day Bajoran to get used to a 24-hr/day, it probably took Sisko and crew weeks to get used to it. Frankly it made sense for DS9 to match a Bajoran day when the station was in orbit, but now that it's in deep space and the planet is a three hour trip away, a different "time zone" seemed to be indicated.


Then again, did everyone in Bajoran space agree to follow a 26-hour day system to facilitate trade? Is the entire DMZ operating on a 26-hour day? It makes you wonder.

[Nate the Great]

So I'm watching "Descent" again, and I note that when the holodeck shuts down it removes the characters before removing the room itself.



PNQ: While it stands to reason that the "puppets" require a lot more processing power than a simple "set". But could it be that each category of projection has its own category of projectors?



Think of sprite comics. The artists put down a "backdrop", then put sprites on top of it on a different "layer". What if holodecks also have different "layers"? You could imagine the illusionary food being its own layer. Perhaps when musical instruments are present they have to be on a layer that's more "real" than ordinary props, an almost-but-not-quite replicated layer.

[Nate the Great]

Following on from a YouTube video...


PNQ: .gif-is it "jiff (jiffy without the y)" or "giff (gift without the t)"?


I use the former, it's just easier to say.

[Nate the Great]

How commas have affected government/legal matters.


PNQ: Do you use the Oxford comma?


That is, the comma before the "and" at the end of a list.


X, Y, and Z or X, Y and Z?