Phaser Bank Aim Tech

Reality is copying sci-fi again as a flat immobile emitter becomes a device with wide field of fire thanks to metamaterials:

http://nextbigfuture.com/2013/08/metamaterials-are-set-to-migrate-out-of.html

Blah blah cheaper blah blah smaller blah blah better for all mankind.  Whatever.  What is *really* important here is that we finally have a plausible example of how the Cardassian square beam emitter thingy and even the Federation phaser strip could functionally aim.

Now if the guys could just put multiple devices together and have the energy combine at one point like phasers supposedly do, we could have an awesome phasery deathray.

Old TNG Advert

To the tune of "We Didn't Start the Fire" by Billy Joel... this, I may add, is from memory.  (See also:  "brain sludge" by Dave Barry)

Jean-Luc
Geordi's specs
Mysteries on the holodeck
Asteroids
Triple droids
Telepathic Betazoids
Transporter
Deadly claw
Visitor from LA Law
Photons
No Kirk
Captain has gone berserk
Shuttlecraft
Counselor Troi
Doctor Crusher's little boy
Klingon rites
Parasites
New heights
Phaser fights
Data's head
Tasha's dead
Riker's hangin' by a thread
Celebration
Transformation
Everyone to battlestations!
We didn't start the series
It's The Next Generation on your favorite station
We didn't start the series
And when we are gone it will still be on and on and on and on and on ...

I had this post to this point and was going to put more info on all the clips used (not counting the customization each "favorite station" could insert), since the last time I searched for this a few years ago the internetstubes didn't know of it.  I presumed I was the final repository of this all-important knowledge.

However, just the other day a poster on Flare linked to a YouTube video of one station's version.   Happily, then, I am no longer the sole keeper of the ancient knowledge.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UumYV2jAAAw

Nog and Starfleet Academy

Once, some new neighbors, a young couple from Nebraska, saw me engaged in auto repair after some goofball from Ohio tried to park his car within mine.

So, a day or two later, they came knocking in the hopes that I would help them with something automotive ... the complex action of changing a license plate.  They were so appreciative that the girl came by later with homemade cookies, and a thank you note I still have to this day.

All I did was demonstrate a screwdriver, but suddenly I was Montgomery Scott with a Trip Tucker launcher in my pocket and I could poop astromechs and Exocomps.

The reason I tell this story is not to make fun of those people.  After all, if screwing was such an elusive mystery, we need not worry about them breeding.  Although, perhaps their issue was that they'd just kept poking the plate screws assuming something would eventually pop out ... I don't know.

But consider that in the modern era, we have extraordinary technology, much of it virtually unthinkable a century ago, and daily users of that technology who haven't the slightest idea how any of it works, nor do they care to know.  As people so often point out, we have virtually the sum of human knowledge available online and thus, for many, literally in a pocket or on a hip, and yet we spend time on funny cat pictures, Daily Kos, porn, and other mindless, hollow pursuits.

This is bound to get worse as technology continues to get weirder, which brings me to Starfleet Academy.

Nog is a particularly interesting fellow in this light.  In "The Jem'Hadar"[DSN2], Jake is O'Brien's temporary helper and obviously vastly outshines Nog in tech skill.

But by the Dominion War, not only is Nog far superior in tech skill, but he is even briefly the chief engineer of a starship full of senior cadets, and not implausibly so.  This speaks very well for his training.

To be sure, some of this is probably in the genes, as his father was an idiot savant when it came to technology.  And some was willpower, as it was clear that Nog applied himself and gave his all, even to worrisome, cliche levels.

Still, though, you don't go from Nebraskan iPhone user with screwdriver problems to high-level nuclear sub reactor technician in three years without some incredible training and educational programs.  Being a good engineer requires more than just memorization, it requires understanding.  Nog clearly achieved that in record time.

And considering how far the Academy likely has to carry cadets given the proverbial iPhone users of the 24th Century, so separated from the means of production and work that food and baubles both really do come out of thin air, that sort of thing speaks very well for the Academy academics.

Brin and Ep3

@DavidBrin1 posted a link to his Twitter for May 4th linking to his well-known Salon article which is commonly held to diss Star Wars.  I even retweeted someone else's May 4th posting of it with the preface "poo-pooher".

But then I gave it a re-read and whatever you may think about the rest, the man was spot-on here:

" But then, in “Return of the Jedi,” Lucas takes this basic wisdom and perverts it, saying — “If you get angry — even at injustice and murder — it will automatically and immediately transform you into an unalloyedly evil person! All of your opinions and political beliefs will suddenly and magically reverse. Every loyalty will be forsaken and your friends won’t be able to draw you back. You will instantly join your sworn enemy as his close pal or apprentice. All because you let yourself get angry at his crimes.”"

This rather reminds one of Episode III and its perplexingly sudden transformation of Anakin, doesn't it?  He gets angry with the Council over their justified fears of Palpatine and goes off the reservation, becoming a confused wreck ripe for the final equally-insidious plot point where he turns evil because of love.

And this, may I say, is the primary reason the end of The Clone Wars series is so disappointing.  Sure, it was getting a little bit too Star Trekkish with its gadgets, but the hope was that it it would find a way to better explain Anakin's transformation.  There were hints in that direction but unfortunately we were left worse off in that regard, with Anakin the reasonably-wise teacher whose primary sin is caring too much.  That only muddies the water further.

And, with apologies, I don't have any hope that JJ understands the human soul any better, based on his Trek to date.

Field of Oddities

While I like "Field of Fire"(DSN7), it is an odd episode.   This is the one where Ezri wields a TR-116 that fires tritanium bullets that are beamed into a room and shoots a loony Vulcan murderer.

The main issues I have relate to the logic and continuity of the episode.

For instance, when a tool went missing in "In the Hands of the Prophets"(DSN1), O'Brien scanned for independent tritanium sources on the station, which worked quite well.  Yet here, when they are dealing with chemically propelled tritanium bullets, nobody looks for them.  It is possible that in wartime there were lots of such sources or some dampening field in place, but still.  Certainly there was nothing to suggest any sort of dampening field being used by the murderous Vulcan ... the extent of his security seemed to be a blanket wrapped over the gun.

Speaking of chemical propulsion, we never hear of anyone scanning the bullet to try to get residue traces and then scan for either the combustion products or the actual 'gunpowder'.  In "Hollow Pursuits"(TNG3), a Federation starship can be easily scanned for any of a number of materials.  Yet here, the extent of the science seems to be Odo's discussion of powder burns.

Sure, the transporter that beamed the bullet may have exclusively beamed the tritanium, but still.

Everyone accepts Odo's 20th-Century-crime-novel-based theory of powder burns, as well, yet there is no reason to believe that the gunpowder employed would've suffered from such inefficient combustion as we have now.  When making a new projectile weapon in the 24th Century with a simple chemical propulsion for use in low-tech-only environments, a wide variety of different concepts could have been employed.  Even today nanotechnology is being employed to greatly enhance explosive yields by driving up the combustion fraction, making more use of what was there.  And yet, in a time where (as seen, for instance, in the long list from "Night Terrors"(TNG4)) myriad possibilities exist for making things go boom, we are to believe that there would've been powder burns all over the body?  It makes little sense.

And, of course, it seems as if Ezri is the only one investigating, but that's neither here nor there.

In short, it was a good romp in Dax's mind, but beyond that it was quite perplexing.  Maybe things would've gone better if they'd still had a science officer active among the senior staff.

Why Wee Screens?

This is from a 2009 draft post that was never quite completed.  With a recent Star Wars: The Clone Wars episode, I was pleased to see my idea in action, to wit:

I've been bothered for a long while by the use of tiny screens on handheld devices, most notably in Trek. The amount of data and control options that a tricorder must offer is absurd, especially if communicated via the tiny inch-wide screen. Yet we see the characters providing tons of data and controlling all manner of devices by way of the wee screens and a handful of hardware buttons.

To be sure, this all makes sense from a production standpoint. But in early TNG we see ubiquitous high resolution holography.   We even learn in "The Chase" that the tricorder has a remarkably good holo-emitter capable of projecting a perfectly good representation of a person.   So why not abandon the screen altogether in favor of a holographic screen projection in mid-air?   It isn't like the tricorder doesn't already have a dozen flashing and blinking lights all over it.   And if you're concerned about the person in front of you knowing what you're reading, just have it project a solid block or a black screen on the other side.   If you want to get really fancy, just have it go to the next level and have it only visible for the user, not unlike today's polarization screens that prevent passersby from reading what's on your monitor.

Ironically, it was Star Wars that finally showed the basic technology in action, and seemingly just to show off.   In "The Lawless"[TCW5] from 2013, we see a small comm device which can project the number of signal bars it has above the unit, much like a cell phone would do today with a tiny icon.   This isn't even really a necessary act for the technology, and yet there it was.

I also imagine this technology being useful for phaser targeting.   The smaller phasers don't seem to have any obvious targeting method available, though it is clear they do somehow.   The phaser rifles do have tiny screen things or something going on.   And of course there was the headset for the TR-116 rifle.   Wouldn't it be better to have a little holoprojection screen pop up above the weapon, allowing zoom and better target discrimination?    Then every weapon could be a veritable sniper rifle, which given Data poking fun at the limited range of muskets in an early TNG episode, would make the point make more sense.

Vapid Sleight-of-Hand

"I enjoy the really loud people who hate Star Trek ’09 for not being the same, and hate Enterprise for not being different."

I saw that quoted on Twitter and it was too annoying not to share.  It isn't a case of hitting close to home ... I am hardly loud, nor do I hate either.  But the fact is that, like so many ill-considered cutesy posts online, it is stupid.

First, JJ-Trek is not the same as Star Trek.  And again, I say this as a person who thinks the first few minutes of that movie are some of the best of Trek, bar none.  The rest is mere sci-fi with trappings of Trek, as the Star Wars comparison video demonstrates.

As for Enterprise, it had its moments, to be sure, but being set 100 years prior made some things look silly.

On a technical level, the only way you knew you were in the past was because of NASA-esque uniforms and buttons instead of Okudagrams and a warp five speed limit ... or at least a limit that they couldn't exceed.  Beyond that, they had everything right, right from the get-go.  They didn't even need a navigator, and the transporter was so unimpressive they just had it sitting in a hallway.

I have previously said that ENT should've been more like the Starfleet Museum at Ex Astris Scientia, but I can live with it mostly as-is.

However:

1.  The transporter really shouldn't have been around, and if it was it should've been very limited in function (e.g. cargo only) or capacity ("alright, we can only take one at a time!") or requiring almost a minute of beaming or a long prep time or all of the above.  And even then, it should've been huge and primitive, taking up the space of a whole cargo bay or something similar, and had a dedicated team of operators and maintainers, rather than being operated by anyone who walked by.

2.  The ship should've needed X minutes to go to warp, be it for field generation, scan-ahead, navigation, or all of those.  Popping into warp at a moment's notice is too easy.
(Note that I had this thought when ENT premiered, and was amused to see BSG take it and run with it and even have a whole early episode revolve around it.)

3.  Travis should've been in charge of a whole slew of dedicated navigation personnel, maybe making use of the back of the bridge.  Yeah, we sometimes saw people there, but there was no indication that anything was going on other than Travis.

The funny thing is, all of these would have contributed to dramatic needs, perhaps excluding the last one (at least until the ep where the team's all killed and Travis really has to do things alone, which adds to the time to go to warp a la #2).  But still, #3 certainly could've contributed to the Mayweather character, which was otherwise lacking.

And bingo, you have a more plausible show, just like that.