Star Trek General Discussion

[Cybersnark]

I remember reading a novel set on earth after voyager made it home, and the story line was in fact hologram rights and technological sapience. It was actually pretty good, and I wish I could remember the name.

Could be Christie Golden's first Voyager duology, Homecoming and Farther Shore, or KRAD's Articles of the Federation, or maybe The Needs of the Many, which is an STO tie-in.

There's also The Long Mirage by David R. George III, but that's a DS9 book about Vic Fontaine (and the Federation's reaction to him); the Doctor never makes an appearance.

 

[Ungnome]

Replicators have limitations. Certain things simply can't be replicated, mostly because of 'plot reasons'. Things such as actual living tissue, latinum and certain other materials that have extra-dimensional properties like dilithium or the omega particle(granted Starfleet wouldn't allow the latter to be replicated under any circumstances, but the former...).

 

[Kalidor]

Lower Decks is certainly not my least favorite offering.

Currently my list is ranked as follows:

Prodigy
Strange New Worlds
Lower Decks
Picard
Thoughts of Suicide
Discovery

 

[Cybersnark]

Also, remember that replicators are basically an "output device," like a monitor or speaker or printer. Think of what happens when a monitor or speaker cable starts to go, or you run out of one type of ink so your printouts start fading, or your monitor settings are off just a tiny shade.

One of the details that we-the-audience can't see (but which gets frequently remarked upon by characters) is the taste/texture of replicated food. However fancy the dishes might look to us, replicators are basically fast-food --intended to keep a crew member fed, comfortable, and healthy, but not intended for state or family dinners. It's a quarter-pounder, not a well-done hamburger steak. Logically, the same kind of thing happens with other replicated objects; "good enough" is usually good enough.

Even if a scanned sample is absolutely perfect (like a bottle of Chateau Picard 2358, or a hand-made 600-year-old Japanese sword, or a 400-year-old tansforming robot toy), it's possible the replicator just doesn't have the "resolution" to do it justice (the wine tastes like grape juice, the sword is riddled with microfractures, and the Transformer's plastic colour is just a little darker than it should be).

 

[wonko the sane?]

But it's also a post need society, and replicated food (despite being the taste/texture equivalent of fast food.) is also designed to fulfill all your nutritional needs, and is literally free.

Now, to be fair: there are restaurants making wholly fresh, completely unreplicated food: and technically these places are ALSO free. Harder to get into and longer wait times, but free.

So... apparently federation citizens (at least, humans, anyway.) are just so happy that they don't have to stress over the acquisition and safe consumption of food that they're willing to have "big macs" for every meal. And I kinda agree, plus you literally have almost every known food, meal and recipe available at any time. Plus, there's some indications in the novels that if you specify ingredients during the ordering process at the replicator: you can mix and match stuff. Like gumbo using andorian andouille sausage, or vulcan collard greens.

 

[Kalidor]

People often lump Earth economics in with Federation economics but when captains talk about money and resources they mean Earth, not necessarily what they do on Boobicon 7

 

[Kup]

Lower Decks is certainly not my least favorite offering.

Currently my list is ranked as follows:

Prodigy
Strange New Worlds
Lower Decks
Picard
Thoughts of Suicide
Discovery

On the last one, would you at least rank Season 2 as its own thing? Anson Mount carried the show as far as I’m concerned. Seasons 1, 3, 4, I totally agree but 2 I enjoyed.

 

[Kalidor]

To be honest I think season 4 was probably the most "Star Trek" feeling of them. Everything plot and writing wise was still convoluted nonsense but it had some neat stuff comparatively speaking

 

[Axaday]

Do starfleet uniforms get washed or do they just replicate them?

 

[wonko the sane?]

I think the original series mentioned a ships laundry... but the appeal of fresh drawers not just everyday, but on demand... oh that's tempting.

 

[Donocropolis]

Do starfleet uniforms get washed or do they just replicate them?

Pretty sure I remember an episode where Worf was angry at Alexander for failing to put his dirty clothes into a gizmo, the name of which escapes me but definitely insinuated that it disintegrated the clothes. From that I would assume that the clothes, dishes, trash, etc. are all broken down into atoms for reconstitution later by the replicators.

 

[Donocropolis]

I think the original series mentioned a ships laundry... but the appeal of fresh drawers not just everyday, but on demand... oh that's tempting.

Especially if they can be replicated warm as if from a dryer.

 

[wonko the sane?]

Hey, if they can make hot FOOD: then warm socks and undies isn't even a trick.

 

[Donocropolis]

Hey, if they can make hot FOOD: then warm socks and undies isn't even a trick.

Truly a golden age.

 

[Cybersnark]

Though note that, despite what Discovery thinks, they didn't have replicators in Kirk's time. Food was prepared in the galley and distributed through the food dispensers in the mess hall.

Even the Enterprise-A still had a practical galley.

 

[Lobjob]

Discovery being in a different universe sure would solve lots of problems.

 

[Glitch]

It's a sequel to Enterprise and the temporal cold war stuff so maybe. That series had Romulan's cloaking a century before they should and even the season 4 showrunner agreed that was a mistake because despite their intentions for it to be a 'stealth device' it looked and was described as cloaking. Both Enterprise and Discovery could take place in a quantum reality removed from the first four series, a timeline that branches off from the Borg incursion of Star trek First Contact and the tempora cold war seeing the revival of previously extinct species like the Xindi's and Suliban.

 

[Donocropolis]

It's a sequel to Enterprise and the temporal cold war stuff so maybe. That series had Romulan's cloaking a century before they should and even the season 4 showrunner agreed that was a mistake because despite their intentions for it to be a 'stealth device' it looked and was described as cloaking. Both Enterprise and Discovery could take place in a quantum reality removed from the first four series, a timeline that branches off from the Borg incursion of Star trek First Contact and the tempora cold war seeing the revival of previously extinct species like the Xindi's and Suliban.

Or maybe it's still all just part of Riker's holodeck program.

 

[Lobjob]

As far as retconning retcons go, I think that would make me even more frustrated.

Considering how much Enterprise/Archer love Discovery shows, I'd love for them to somehow incorporate that. Temporal Cold War sure feels like the best chance.

 

[Cybersnark]

That series had Romulan's cloaking a century before they should

That's a non-issue though, because cloaking (like any stealth technology) only matters until someone finds a way to penetrate it, at which point it becomes completely useless.

And yeah, I take the Secret Hideout Era as its own separate universe, alongside the Abramsverse, STO, and the Relaunch Timeline (minus Coda).

(Note that one of the "rules" Star Trek seems to have is that parallel timelines are actually parallel [as confirmed in Discovery S3, when they mention that the Mirror Universe has diverged so much that it's no longer "accessible" --not parallel, just another random unrelated universe], meaning that an event in one timeline will have "echoes" in another. Discovery as-seen-on-screen may be incompatible with the universe we know, but similar events might well play out, just with a different look.)