Star Trek: Questions you always wanted answers to

[Captain Dunsel]

I was watching Star Trek VI not too long ago and noticed that McCoy, inebriated on Romulan Ale, took out his TOS hypo and jammed it into Chancellor Gorkon’s wound—vial side down…

Perhaps he really was incompetent, just as General Chang proclaimed?

“My God, man…”

 

[Gregatron]

I was watching Star Trek VI not too long ago and noticed that McCoy, inebriated on Romulan Ale, took out his TOS hypo and jammed it into Chancellor Gorkon’s wound, vial side down…

Perhaps he really was incompetent, just as General Chang proclaimed?

“My God, man…”

View attachment 1625224

He also holds the medical scanner upside-down in TWOK when examining Chekov.

Pobody's Nerfect.

 

[Gregatron]

In TOS, Christopher Pike in The Menagerie, is in a futuristic wheelchair. In the day where there are medical beds that can automatically monitor the vital signs of a patient, and Spock can modify a universal translator to speak with a non-corporeal being....why can't they find a way for having Pike "say" more than yes or no through a flashing light? You would think that they would at least have a "change me" light.

TazMan2000

There's a certain irony in that BREAKING BAD'S Hector Salamanca--whose famous yes/no bell-ringing was directly inspired by the crippled Captain Pike--was more able to communicate than Pike was.

 

[Gregatron]

...oh, and since I only just now found this thread, I'll ask a question:

Setting aside the various other plot contrivances of the film (such as the regenerated Spock's beard/hair/nails not growing, etc.), why, in THE SEARCH FOR SPOCK, didn't Kruge just home in on Saavik and David's life-signs using the bird of prey's sensors (Torg specifically detected them on the planet, remember), and beam directly to their location? Why 20 minutes of screentime with the Klingon landing party walking around trying to find them with tricorders?

 

[Treadwell]

The Enterprise landing party did the same thing, so at least they were consistent

 

[Strikerkc]

could be protocol. the first time you do something like that, it works, the second time you do something like that, it's an ambush

 

[Lightning]

That planet was absolutely teeming with hyperaccelerated life. Its possible that overwhelmed the sensors to a certain extent, causing the resolution to be lower than it usually would be. So best they could do was a several square mile approximate location.

 

[Inquisitor Peregrinus]

In TOS, Christopher Pike in The Menagerie, is in a futuristic wheelchair. In the day where there are medical beds that can automatically monitor the vital signs of a patient, and Spock can modify a universal translator to speak with a non-corporeal being....why can't they find a way for having Pike "say" more than yes or no through a flashing light? You would think that they would at least have a "change me" light.

From the dialogue, the accident had just happened recently. It's likely he was in the chair while he was stabilized, but his long-term prognosis for the damage from the delta radiation wasn't good, and he wasn't looking at much improvement or quality of life.

why, in THE SEARCH FOR SPOCK, didn't Kruge just home in on Saavik and David's life-signs using the bird of prey's sensors (Torg specifically detected them on the planet, remember), and beam directly to their location? Why 20 minutes of screentime with the Klingon landing party walking around trying to find them with tricorders?

Torg intercepted their communications (we overheard Saavik trying to raise Grissom on the Klingon bridge). They seem to have beamed down to the same place for the same reason -- the photorp tube was the one distinctive thing besides the scattered animal lifesigns in the region. Good starting point.

could be protocol. the first time you do something like that, it works, the second time you do something like that, it's an ambush

We see that so much from Starfleet landing parties and away teams over the years, I absolutely believe it is protocol to beam down to a known safe point near the objective, assess on-site, and then proceed.

 

[Gregatron]

Torg intercepted their communications (we overheard Saavik trying to raise Grissom on the Klingon bridge). They seem to have beamed down to the same place for the same reason -- the photorp tube was the one distinctive thing besides the scattered animal lifesigns in the region. Good starting point.

Except that he specifically says there are life signs on the planet, in addition to monitoring Saavik's transmission. Either of which should have been enough to home in on their location.

As far back as "Mudd's Women", Kirk asserted that the ship's sensors could track down a match on a planet's surface, if necessary. While that may have been hyperbole, it doesn't seem too far afield.


This is clearly just a plot contrivance, but it's always fun to try and earn a No-Prize.

 

[Riceball]

Except that he specifically says there are life signs on the planet, in addition to monitoring Saavik's transmission. Either of which should have been enough to home in on their location.

As far back as "Mudd's Women", Kirk asserted that the ship's sensors could track down a match on a planet's surface, if necessary. While that may have been hyperbole, it doesn't seem too far afield.


This is clearly just a plot contrivance, but it's always fun to try and earn a No-Prize.

Maybe Klingon life sign detecting sensors aren't as sensitive/precise as those on Federation starships.

 

[Captain Dunsel]

Maybe Klingon life sign detecting sensors aren't as sensitive/precise as those on Federation starships.

Klingons enjoy “the hunt”, plain and simple.

Plus, Kruge had yet to recover from falling and hitting his head….while he may have come up with the theory of the Flux Capacitor, as a result of the fall, it clearly had damaged his brain which resulted in him forgetting that he could simply beam Saavik, David, and Genesis Mutant Spock from the surface.

 

[Treadwell]

the Targ had to go walkies anyway

 

[The Terminator]

Not sure where else to post about this....
CG Spock

Haven't figured out what it's for. But it looks, fascinating

 

[Captain Dunsel]

Not sure where else to post about this....
CG Spock

Haven't figured out what it's for. But it looks, fascinating

That’s a pretty good deep fake Spock. If they can get the voice right…

Still, while they can ape Nimoy, that “spark” will still be missing.

Interesting stuff.

Here’s a little more info on the work the Roddenberry Archive is doing.

 

[Lightning]

That’s a pretty good deep fake Spock.

Most of that is makeup and prosthetics. The eyes, specifically, get replaced digitally.

 

[Captain Dunsel]

Most of that is makeup and prosthetics. The eyes, specifically, get replaced digitally.

I stand corrected, in that case. That is a pretty good makeup and prosthetic Spock with digital eyes. If they can get the voice right…

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

I rewatched The Wrath of Kahn the other night and that scene where they pulled the floor grills up that cover the torpedo launcher always bugs me. That seems like an incredibly inefficient system that would be slow if you needed to rapidly load torpedoes. It looks cool, but it doesn't make sense. I always assumed it would have an autoloader that pulled torpedoes out of some kind of magazine.

 

[Gregatron]

I rewatched The Wrath of Kahn the other night and that scene where they pulled the floor grills up that cover the torpedo launcher always bugs me. That seems like an incredibly inefficient system that would be slow if you needed to rapidly load torpedoes. It looks cool, but it doesn't make sense. I always assumed it would have an autoloader that pulled torpedoes out of some kind of magazine.

Nick Meyer was told this, but insisted on his “running out the guns” scene.

The fanmade SHIPS OF THE STAR FLEET book tried to explain it by saying that this was an experimental torpedo loading system (as opposed to a standard storage-to-fire-type), which helped contribute to the Enterprise’s destruction in the next film.

 

[pengbuzz]

Nick Meyer was told this, but insisted on his “running out the guns” scene.

The fanmade SHIPS OF THE STAR FLEET book tried to explain it by saying that this was an experimental torpedo loading system (as opposed to a standard storage-to-fire-type), which helped contribute to the Enterprise’s destruction in the next film.

At least on the next ship, it was automated.

 

[Inquisitor Peregrinus]

Pre and post, automated with crews in control rooms nearby. The Enterprise we saw in TWOK was a training vessel -- figure analogous to the US Coast Guard's Eagle. It's rigged with obsolescent tech to teach those on board how to work together as a team and learn basic seamanship skills that everything else is built on top of. Those torpedo systems are probably a good thirty or so years out of date. If you look at Dave Kimble's TMP cutaway (before we saw the torpedo room in TWOK), his version looks a lot more automated. Kinda like a differently-colored version of what we saw in TUC.