Star Trek: *hits blunt* The higher, the fewerrrrrr

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > TV IV > Star Trek: *hits blunt* The higher, the fewerrrrrr

Knormal: Nov 11, 2001

MikeJF posted:

Yeah. With transporters or very fast on-call aircars I'd imagine that cities would end up mostly dissolving as residential areas and living would be spread across the land in endless villages more than anything else, with people fast-travelling to the cities for social and occupational reasons.

This actually came up when Rodenberry was making TMP: the San Francisco matte painting has much of the city replaced by greenery.

Not to mention you wouldn't need to devote huge tracts of land to farming, ranching, and the like with replicators. You could fill the Midwest and similar areas with tract housing or skyscrapers, alongside whatever areas they set aside for nature preserves. Or if they need all the space for people, just shove all the buffalo and sage grouse in a holodeck and call it a preserve.

# ¿ Jul 6, 2016 05:23

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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 17:12

Knormal: Nov 11, 2001

Nessus posted:

As for the money talk in the others in TOS: the obvious reason is that they hadn't decided the Federation was explicitly a moneyless economy at that point (even had cash after all). But I imagine the hew-mons still knew what money was in the broad sense, sort of like a lot of farming metaphors are still broadly understood or used even if most people don't farm any more.

Yeah it seems like the Federation still had some kind of money in the TOS era. Wasn't Cyrano Jones selling the tribbles for credits, to the Enterprise crew and in bulk to the bartender? Space Station K-7 didn't seem like a Starfleet station, but it was a Federation one. I figure at that point you probably didn't need money for much on the big planets, but still needed it out on the frontier since there were still limited goods. By the time replicators became common you wouldn't really need it even for that. By the TNG era credits seemed to be exclusively for when Federation citizens needed to deal with other societies.

# ¿ Jul 10, 2016 01:39

Knormal: Nov 11, 2001

I think he's talking about more like when they decide Khan's a white guy or Zephram Cochrane's completely different personality between TOS and First Contact, rather than when they have to swap actors for real life reasons. If they had cast Saavik-A as, say, some Asian woman instead of another brunette Caucasian, it would be pretty distracting. And I agree with everything he said about canon, I like it when there's a rich in-universe environment to get immersed it. Otherwise it's like why bother even watching if anything that happens can be retconned later when some writer gets a different idea. I'm not talking about little things like messing up stardates or character's extended family trees or something like that, but when they can't keep straight the number of decks their starship has it just seems lazy.

# ¿ Jul 10, 2016 09:40

Knormal: Nov 11, 2001

Paradoxish posted:

Yeah, the only thing that's really given me any pause about this new series is Bryan Fuller saying he wants to capture the "fun" of TOS. Like, okay, I get what he probably means, but the hokiness in the original series was mostly unintentional and the silly humor was just a result of what TV was like during that period. I don't have faith in anyone's ability to reproduce that kind of tone without it coming off as self aware and lovely. A modern Star Trek series should actually be a modern Star Trek series.

It should have the dark tone of DS9, then end with everyone standing on the bridge sharing a laugh as it fades to black like TOS.

# ¿ Jul 11, 2016 06:43

Knormal: Nov 11, 2001

I don't really mind the Discovery, while it would be awesome if it was some kind of Federation/Klingon joint project, I think they just refined the old Phase II design and it's just a coincidence. My first thought was the design (and registry) looks a generation ahead of TOS, aside from the deflector dish, which is pure movie era. But now the more I think about it I think somewhere around movie era probably does make more sense, both because of the design source and details like the dish and that little streak of blue along the nacelles. Looks like a transitory state between the solid nacelles of the TOS era and the blue-line nacelles of the Excelsior on.

Otisburg posted:

I'm bummed that in the new film The Enterprise A didnt take more design cues from its prime universe counterpart.

Same, I couldn't even really tell any differences in the quick 15-second look you get at it. It looked to me like they just scaled up the nacelle struts a lot. Which considering they'd already changed the nacelle struts between the last movie and this one, wasn't all that impressive. I was hoping they were going to take the opportunity of the Enterprise going boom to do something more drastic, especially after that teaser line early in the movie about the next generation of ships still being under construction or whatever.

SuperDucky posted:

Jesus you loving nerds, I'm frankly shocked at all the love Beyond is getting. Especially because they tried to go to warp explicitly and immediately after the goddamn deflector had been destroyed.

I gave up on caring about that long ago, since no writer seems to be able to keep that straight. Then you have ships like the Miranda and Oberth that don't have deflector dishes in the first place. Now I just assume you can run with forward shields up all the time as an alternative. Plus it's not like they were going to be able to warp out through that asteroid belt/nebula anyway, I justified it that they were just going to jump to the other side of the system to buy a few seconds to recoup, and not worry about dinging up the hulls with micrometeors since everything was pretty hosed by then anyway.

Subyng posted:

I think those fighters only make sense as an act of desperation. The Feds need every ship they can get, so they mobilize anything that can fly and carry a weapon.

I took it as a specific counter to the Dominion's tiny bugships, which were a lot smaller and more maneuverable than any Federation ship.

# ¿ Jul 24, 2016 20:08

Knormal: Nov 11, 2001

Apollodorus posted:

No, NCC-1031 isn't necessarily pre-TOS. The Constellation in "The Doomsday Machine" was NCC-1017, remember, and it was the same class as the Enterprise.

Yeah, but that's an exception to the rule (but definitely not the only one), and was only because it's an anagram of the 1701 stickers that came with the model kit. I'm not sure why they'd intentionally choose a lower registry number unless they wanted to imply an older ship, but who knows, if they threw that model together in three weeks maybe it's not even the final registry number. Maybe one of the modelers is just a big fan of Halloween.

Kazy posted:

Transparent aluminum!

This has been my review of Beyond. (It was good)

Hey, it just so happens that when you change the molecular structure to make aluminum transparent it becomes brittle like glass. And just as weak as glass.

Also to be fair I don't think transparent aluminum was mentioned until the movie era, it's possible it wasn't around or widespread until then. Maybe it took that company a really really long time to work it out from Scotty's formula on that Mac Classic.

# ¿ Jul 25, 2016 06:56

Knormal: Nov 11, 2001

Regarding the Discovery's registry number:

http://nerdist.com/7-things-we-learned-about-bryan-fullers-star-trek-discovery-at-comic-con/

quote:

Bryan Fuller REALLY Likes Halloween

Seriously. Like, enough to commission an entire starship in its honor. Just take a look at the Discovery�s registry number: NCC-1031. �Yes,� admits the director with a laugh, �I love Halloween.�

It�s a sure sign that, while this Star Trek will take itself seriously, like the original series it won�t be afraid to have a little fun sometimes.

Kind of hard to tell how seriously he was answering out of context, but there you go.

# ¿ Jul 29, 2016 04:51

Knormal: Nov 11, 2001

Gaz-L posted:

(I don't think Admiral Robocop was after revenge, either? I thought it was a whole false-flag/pre-emptive strike thing?)

Khan's role is the revenge quota for that film.

# ¿ Jul 30, 2016 03:14

Knormal: Nov 11, 2001

WampaLord posted:

The Rock wore it in the newest Fast and Furious movies, therefore people buy it because they want to be as cool as The Rock.

That's why I wear this outfits on all my dates.

Everyone notice the penis bump.

# ¿ Aug 5, 2016 08:01

Knormal: Nov 11, 2001

So this is from a couple months ago apparently, but I just found it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yr_1K5YOAq0

# ¿ Aug 7, 2016 23:49

Knormal: Nov 11, 2001

Timby posted:

It has very, very few redeeming qualities. The cinematography is decent (probably the best of the TNG films after Generations, really), Digital Domain really did a phenomenal job with the visual effects ... and ... uh, yeah, I got nothin'. loving Spiner.

It gave us a new Romulan ship. Not a great ship, but at least a new ship. That's about it.

FlamingLiberal posted:

One thing I don't understand is why they have like 100 Mirandas and 100 Excelsiors in that battle but there's maybe one Akira, one Steamrunner, and one Sabre class in all of those shots combined. Considering I think that's mostly, if not all, CGI I'm surprised it's so heavy on those two classes.

It might have something to do with the fact that the new ships were all created for a movie. Maybe they're much higher poly count and adding too many would bog the rendering down, maybe there were weird licensing issue between effects companies, something like that.

# ¿ Aug 8, 2016 01:15

Knormal: Nov 11, 2001

Farmer Crack-rear end posted:

I'm pretty sure it was unique based on the way the ship moved. It wasn't just a standard "ship moving away" pass.

It seems like it'd have to be a unique shot because the nacelle lights are off. I think the nacelle lights and window lights are normally part of the same lighting pass.

Fake edit: They're not, but the impulse engine is: http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/File:Galaxy_class_six_foot_model_lighting_passes.jpg That's for the six-foot but I assume it'd be the same.

# ¿ Aug 10, 2016 09:08

Knormal: Nov 11, 2001

Ten years before TOS means there's basically no way they can do sets that don't either look completely dated or invalidate TOS. And that glowing blue deflector dish is completely anachronistic. But oh well, I'll take some new Trek however I can get it. I'd also much rather see something post-DS9/VOY or movie-era/pre-TNG, but not enough to not watch the new show.

Conveniently 10 years before TNG puts it one year after The Cage according to Memory Alpha, meaning they can just barely get away with having phasers and redshirts.

Eiba posted:

Was there a rumor or did they say that they'd do a different story entirely every season, possibly in different eras? That's the only way 10 years before TOS isn't a huge disappointment.

They said that was just a rumor, and not happening.

# ¿ Aug 11, 2016 03:57

Knormal: Nov 11, 2001

Trent posted:

lol at the windows with a view of nothing but the back of a nacelle

I think it looks more like an overgrown shuttle, somehow.

It's because the nacelle struts and that top circle thing are like straight-up runabout. Probably leftovers from when they were considering making Voyager a lot smaller than it ended up being, but even at that scale it kind of subconsciously makes the whole ship look smaller if you're familiar with the runabout.

# ¿ Aug 13, 2016 21:43

Knormal: Nov 11, 2001

MikeJF posted:

I always assumed the nacelles were out with the weapons. That said, according to Google, it looks like it's meant to be the two lumps on its back.

Yep, I'm pretty sure it's a retcon from after some producer or director chose the final design without knowing the rules of Star Trek ships, but those grid things on the back are supposed to be the nacelles. Really though when it was designed nacelles weren't all that glowy anyway, the Ent-refit and Miranda's nacelles don't light up, if you took out the struts and just stuck them on the hull they wouldn't look all that different than the BoP's.

# ¿ Aug 24, 2016 03:38

Knormal: Nov 11, 2001

Railing Kill posted:

"Computer: create a baseball team with Sandy Koufax and Herman Goering as a battery. Randomize the rest of the players." *smiles smugly* "Yeah, this'll go real well."

"Computer: Create a baseball team made up of history's greatest players."
*Team composed entirely of Joe Piscopoes materializes*

# ¿ Aug 25, 2016 05:38

Knormal: Nov 11, 2001

Rhyno posted:

Man, Future's End is horrifying. They panned across the LA boardwalk and it took a few seconds for me to realize that yes, this is what 1996 actually looked like.

I remember watching that episode back in '96 and thinking even at the time that everything was especially ugly. I chalk it up to their costume department not being used to working with real styles. It makes sense for the Voyager crew to be dressed kind of strangely, but it seemed like even the time-natives were dressed like they were out of an after-school special or something.

# ¿ Aug 26, 2016 02:57

Knormal: Nov 11, 2001

PenguinKnight posted:

Finished up season 3 of TNG. Locutus of Borg shouldn't have been over in a two parter. it's such a neat concept to just be done with it immediately. Worf's parents are really great, too

Doing things for more than a two-parter was pretty much unheard of back then, especially for a syndicated show.

# ¿ Aug 30, 2016 04:09

Knormal: Nov 11, 2001

Apollodorus posted:

If that were the result of the Caretaker's fuckery then it would be a tragic story, but instead it just makes no sense--how does that species even exist still if each generation has only half as many people as the next one? Or do Ocampan men just bang every woman (i.e. One year or older) in sight? Even then I'm not sure it would work.

It could work if there were a lot more women than men, and you assume men can mate more than once and were polygamous. Still nothing we saw of Ocampan society suggested that was the case, just another thing Voyager writers never thought all the way through.

Big Mean Jerk posted:

How would this even work? They'd have to have some kind of weird reverse spinal structure. Aren't they also born fully grown or something equally stupid?

I'm just picturing the chestburster scene, but instead of a facehugger, the mom just explodes and some schlubby Ocampan goon is standing there.

Based on the episode thumbnail on Memory Alpha. apparently they give birth to gross giant wads of gum.

Cojawfee posted:

I think we've taken it too far nowadays though. If TNG were on today, Locutus would be a season long villain which is far too long.

On that note, Bryan Fuller dropped some new Beyond info today:
http://trekcore.com/blog/2016/08/bryan-fuller-delivers-new-star-trek-discovery-data/

# ¿ Aug 30, 2016 05:55

Knormal: Nov 11, 2001

Met posted:

https://twitter.com/BryanFuller/status/771872524619489280

Ok.

I'm pretty sure he's kidding, and Gucci just happened to release a series of Trek-colored shirts. From searching "turtleneck" on their site:

Personally I hope they go with that kitty sweater for the Captain.

# ¿ Sep 3, 2016 07:11

Knormal: Nov 11, 2001

Trent posted:

People are actually closer than they appear, and you are seeing projections of them looking further away. The ball is holographic, so the computer can compensate. Also, when you run, the floor is temporarily a treadmill.

It works. Barely.

"There's a hater, what do I do?"
FIND HIM AND KILL HIM

Now that he mentions it, regardless of hologram trickery, there's around 20 people standing in a room this big and swinging their arms around...

Maybe the forcefields started stacking people vertically.

Or Quark has a bigger deluxe holosuite and we just never saw it when it was turned off. There, episode saved again.

armoredgorilla posted:

I'll forgive even Let He Who Is Without Sin because it gave us this scene with Michael Dorn's perfect delivery and Terry Farrell's complete failure to keep a straight face at it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_t1Nx1pG-4

To nitpick another aspect of this clip, I always thought it was a little ridiculous they let two crewmembers take one of the station's three runabouts on a vacation for a week. On TNG at least the Enterprise had an unknown capacity of shuttles to pull from, DS9 is established as only having three runabouts.

# ¿ Sep 6, 2016 08:45

Knormal: Nov 11, 2001

Rhyno posted:

Just got to Borg children, there is no salvaging this series now.

Yeah don't worry about them too much...

# ¿ Sep 15, 2016 05:03

Knormal: Nov 11, 2001

Powered Descent posted:

Happy Birthday, Enterprise! Rollout was forty years ago today:

I'm so happy to see McCoy's disco medallion crosses over into the real world too, albeit not as majestic.

Also, Walter Koeing is not impressed.

# ¿ Sep 17, 2016 21:38

Knormal: Nov 11, 2001

Tighclops posted:

I'm actually really glad they stuck to the original VFX where possible in TNG because as much as I would sometimes like to see the stock footage punched up a bit, I wouldn't want to lose the memorable VFX shots (like the escape from the dyson sphere, for example) to a CG Enterprise D doing barrel rolls or whatever the gently caress they'd make her do now if they could

MrJacobs posted:

Why would the Enterprise have done barrel rolls?

I had to go back and find this series of posts because I finally got around to seeing Beyond again today, and in the final scene as the Enterprise is warping off into space, it does a barrel roll.

# ¿ Sep 18, 2016 05:35

Knormal: Nov 11, 2001

Cojawfee posted:

I refuse to accept the Kelvinprise is that large. Did they ever say how large it is in any of the movies? Until they say something in a movie, I'm saying it's the same size as the original 1701/A

In Beyond when Chekov is rattling off hull breaches he goes up to "level 31", the original Enterprise had 21 decks. So it's presumably at least 10 decks taller, even though it doesn't look it.

# ¿ Sep 21, 2016 03:23

Knormal: Nov 11, 2001

MikeJF posted:

It'd be easier for everyone if they changed the rank name to something else and made it a positional title.

I vote Captanant.

I say commander, then rename the current commander sub-commander. Then make ensigns centurions and give them giant helmets and everything gets awesome.

# ¿ Sep 28, 2016 03:20

Knormal: Nov 11, 2001

"Thank you for the water Jolan Tru."

"Jolan Tru."

# ¿ Sep 28, 2016 07:02

Knormal: Nov 11, 2001

Baka-nin posted:

Though Stargate did actually depict a currently worshiped deity as an alien menace.

This is Amaterasu the goddess of the sun, still a very important God in the Shinto religion. Take that Theologians!

What does God need with a corset?

# ¿ Oct 1, 2016 07:00

Knormal: Nov 11, 2001

Farmer Crack-rear end posted:

I always wondered why, if Starfleet was so helpless against changeling infiltrators, there weren't more of them running around the Federation wreaking havoc. I mean yeah paranoia and inefficiency are problems, but why weren't there any starbases just loving exploding out of nowhere and "welp, turns out a changeling got in and set a photon torpedo to arm and then detonate inside the starbase" or something like that.

I always figured the Changelings' end goal was always for the Federation to surrender and be subsumed into the Dominion as another subject power. They probably didn't want to go full-on massacre against the people they hoped to absorb. Not to mention they probably didn't want to destroy the resources they hoped to use.

I figure it's the same reason the Dominion never deployed any truly horrific weapons against the Federation, we know they had biological weapons and they should have had the tech to totally wipe out a planet's surface but they never did that against any Federation worlds. Presumably they wanted to keep it "fair" so the survivors would be more willing to work with them after the war.

# ¿ Oct 3, 2016 09:12

Knormal: Nov 11, 2001

Zurui posted:

Are there any novels that explore what Federation politics are like? I know it's boring and all but there has to be some turbonerd that wrote two hundred pages on the proceedings of the Federation Council.

Oh, of course.
http://memory-beta.wikia.com/wiki/Articles_of_the_Federation

quote:

Following the surprise resignation of Federation President Min Zife after the disastrous Tezwa affair, Nan Bacco of Cestus III has won a hotly contested election to become the new chief executive of over one hundred fifty planetary civilizations and their colonies. But no sooner does she take office than the Romulan Star Empire falls into chaos. With tensions already high, a Reman refugee ship is sighted approaching a Federation outpost, its intentions unknown.

As the first year of the Bacco Administration unfolds, the Federation Council is slow to work with its new president, and not always supportive of her policies or her appointments to key council positions; a successful first contact suddenly becomes a diplomatic disaster; and the sins of President Zife prove difficult to lay to rest...as one celebrated Starfleet officer's career reaches a turning point.

I've never read it, for obvious reasons.

# ¿ Oct 4, 2016 03:01

Knormal: Nov 11, 2001

Pwnstar posted:

Some more episode thoughts for you guys. So far I'm not really getting strong feel for the show overall, everything feels very flat and sterile. It doesn't have the "heart" that TOS had, at least not yet.

That's just first-season issues, it gets better in the second season, and way better in the third. Nobody really had a feel for the characters in the early episodes, and a lot of them just flat out don't really have anything to do in their original roles (Geordi as the extraneous pilot, Worf just kind of hanging out in the background)

quote:

I'm disappointed with Troi's character. She's not really doing psi-ops stuff anymore, just saying incredibly obvious things about how the guy jumping up and down and yelling is feeling anger.

But uh, don't hold your breath on this one.

# ¿ Oct 5, 2016 02:47

Knormal: Nov 11, 2001

Cojawfee posted:

Geordi, what's that glowing thing?

"Oh that? That's a marker I set to highlight the grace that is woman"

# ¿ Oct 6, 2016 05:31

Knormal: Nov 11, 2001

The_Doctor posted:

There was even a toy! I just saw this about a minute ago.

Your goatee distinctiveness will adapt to service us.

# ¿ Oct 21, 2016 05:13

Knormal: Nov 11, 2001

I think it's more proof that the Perfect Strangers theme is the best opening for any show.

# ¿ Oct 22, 2016 07:58

Knormal: Nov 11, 2001

Blade_of_tyshalle posted:

But as it is, it's just too clearly a lame attempt to attract the kind of grognards who think a pre-Federation Starfleet ship should look like the Constitution.

No, us grognards know it should have looked like a Daedalus.

My main problem with the NX-01 is that it seems too spindly for a small early ship. I'm fine with narrow nacelle struts because that's par for the course, but the two bits of ship leading back to the nacelles are what, like one deck high? In a time without shields and presumably weaker materials you'd think you'd want to minimize weak points. If the nacelle struts came right from the saucer or it was just overall chunkier I think it would look better for the time period.

But really it should just be a Daedalus.

# ¿ Oct 26, 2016 03:39

Knormal: Nov 11, 2001

Rhyno posted:

But, Vulcans can't be Jewish?

They can if their mother was.

# ¿ Oct 28, 2016 02:12

Knormal: Nov 11, 2001

Phimosissy posted:

What are those banana monoliths supposed to be exactly?

Internal shields? Holoprojectors for the ECH? Surround Sound?

I think they connect to the ceiling , so they're not monoliths but rather awkwardly placed support columns.

I also just realized Picard's chair is like six inches from that step, he must stumble on that thing every time he stands up.

# ¿ Oct 29, 2016 20:43

Knormal: Nov 11, 2001

Duckbag posted:

Ops is weird in general because when we see the exterior shots of the station, there clearly should be a pretty big "top" to it above the promenade, but Ops itself is just this camped little room and the only door leads to Sisko's office. What else is on "top" of the station? How do you get there? Shouldn't the operations center for a huge space station have work spaces for more than like six people?

Ops has a windowless basement where all the boring jobs like docking coordination sit.

And there's no doors, that's what the Ops transporter is for.

# ¿ Oct 30, 2016 22:21

Knormal: Nov 11, 2001

Farmer Crack-rear end posted:

That said I seem to recall that Berman also occasionally held the studio at arm's length, so it's possible that without Berman some studio dweeb would have demanded changes.

That's why the Klingons abruptly broke the Khitomer Accords, then everything was back to normal half a season later. Some exec said "The public expects the Klingons to be the bad guys! Make them the bad guys again!" Luckily that exec lost interest or got fired or something so it didn't have a lasting effect.

# ¿ Nov 5, 2016 21:44

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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 17:12

Knormal: Nov 11, 2001

speakhard posted:

That's not really true.
The studio-mandated thing was bringing Worf over to DS9.

Huh, guess I need to get around to buying that book.

Tunicate posted:

Anexit

Andoor

# ¿ Nov 6, 2016 06:51

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > TV IV > Star Trek: *hits blunt* The higher, the fewerrrrrr

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