Star Trek General Discussion

[TM2-Megatron]

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.

In TOS, the Enterprise had some kind of rudimentary food synthesizers, but they made these:

At least I hope to God those abominations weren't made by someone in a kitchen somewhere in the underbelly of the ship. Our astronauts eat better than that, even today.

By the time we see the galley on the Enterprise-A in The Undiscovered Country, it was probably mostly there for special occasions or diplomatic functions. Even in the TNG era, when replicators are very nearly perfect and can create any kind of food you might imagine, traditionally prepared food still seems to be seen by many as a cut above, or premium option.

The NX-01 definitely had a proper kitchen and their setup was much more like a cafeteria, with things constantly being prepared and then transferred to those storage slots in the mess hall for people to take. I also thought it was kind of a neat, if antiquated, touch that Archer had his meals specially prepared by the head Chef.

 

[Ungnome]

Edible play-doh cubes were a short lived fad in Starfleet between 2265 and 2270. Those were made in the galley. It fell out of fashion sometime between 2268 and 2271 when Andorian slug gruel took its place..

 

[wonko the sane?]

TOS was incredibly... diverse in it's food. Sometimes it was the playdoh, some times it was ACTUAL food, cause kirk ordered a chicken sandwich and a coffee and got a plate of underdone tribble. Hell, there was even an episode where kirk commented to make the proteins look like turkey for thanksgiving.

I'd still rather have a meal at quarks than a 23rd century starfleet ship.

 

[Donocropolis]

TOS was incredibly... diverse in it's food. Sometimes it was the playdoh, some times it was ACTUAL food, cause kirk ordered a chicken sandwich and a coffee and got a plate of underdone tribble. Hell, there was even an episode where kirk commented to make the proteins look like turkey for thanksgiving.

I'd still rather have a meal at quarks than a 23rd century starfleet ship.

Just don't sit next to Morn. He'll talk your leg off.

 

[DefaultOption]

 

[wonko the sane?]

Okay, that wormhole effect was ******* spectacular.

Edit: who currently holds the star trek license for building toys anyway?

 

[DefaultOption]

Mega Bloks/Construx is the most recent license holder I'm aware of, having put out a bunch of TOS sets for the 50th anniversary, but they haven't released anything Trek related since 2017 AFAIK.

 

[TheSupernova]

BlueBrixx

www.bluebrixx.com

These folks seem to have had the licence for a couple of years, though I have no idea what they're like...

 

[Ryougabot]

 

[Ryougabot]

more

 

[Ungnome]

Why do they keep making Shaggy a science/medical officer? Figured he'd be operations or engineering.

 

[G.B.Blackrock]

I'm guessing it's just because blue is closer (in theory) to green. At least most of the later ones didn't make him the captain like the first picture did (in order, again, to maintain his traditional color scheme).

 

[Axaday]

Even in the TNG era, when replicators are very nearly perfect and can create any kind of food you might imagine, traditionally prepared food still seems to be seen by many as a cut above, or premium option.

I remember watching some episode where Riker was cooking and acting like it was so much better than a replicator. And thinking, "That tech is good enough for my brain, but not my breakfast."

 

[wonko the sane?]

Home cooked (even when the recipe and ingredients are identical.) always tastes better because you (or someone.) put in the effort to actually cook it. They were either flattering him, or just happen to like eating something that wasn't recycled from the septic system.

It's entirely possible that the entire thing of "cooked food tastes better" is simply a psychological artefact of a society that's never known what it's like to starve.

 

[Dekafox]

The home-cooked thing could be because of imperfections - the replicateor replicates things exactly. You can have it produce the same chef's feast exactly the same way every time(and likely comes with a whole database of pre-made) but because of that it's -exactly- the same every time. When you hand-cook something it never comes out exactly the same way twice, which introduces more variety, so it avoids getting tired of the exact same thing every time. It's basically avoidance of boredom or the perception of something being bland because it's always the same every time. To be fair though, you could hand-cook a bunch of meals, throw them all in the database and have it pick randomly to introduce that variety, and with a multiplanetary Federation presumably enough cooks contributing enough recipe variations could mitigate this immensely.

But yeah. alternatively, it could just be the 24th century version of "gold-plated HDMI cables give better video!"

 

[Cybersnark]

As I've said, replicators are basically fast food; every Big Mac is exactly the same, and tastes "good enough" to satisfy most people. Replicators are basically output devices like monitors, speakers, or printers --it's a matter of resolution.

I'd imagine that if you-reading-this tried to replicate your absolute favourite meal, you might notice the taste, texture, or temperature being a bit "off," but maybe not enough to bother you unless you're a connoisseur (like Jean-Luc is with wine). Kinda like the difference between using frozen/canned ingredients instead of farm-fresh produce.

To be fair though, you could hand-cook a bunch of meals, throw them all in the database and have it pick randomly to introduce that variety, and with a multiplanetary Federation presumably enough cooks contributing enough recipe variations could mitigate this immensely.

Though that begs the question of how much memory space do replicator templates take up?

Also remember that most of the replicators we see in Star Trek are "public" military-issue (made by the Cardassian military, in DS9's case, which is great if you want to drink fish-juice). Individual civilian-model replicators might have a different range of different templates, options, and safeties.

(There's a scene in one of the DS9 novels where a civilian woman on Bajor cooks a dish for her boyfriend, scans it in her replicator, then brings it to him on an isolinear rod that he can load in his own replicator.)

 

[Kup]

I remember a scene in one of the Destiny novels where Erica Hernandez (NX-02) tastes a quesadilla from a replicator after centuries of not eating Earth food and saying it had a rubbery texture. That stood out to me, and I haven’t seen replicators in the same way since.

 

[Ungnome]

So they replicate microwaved quesadillas?

 

[LiamA]

Home cooked (even when the recipe and ingredients are identical.) always tastes better because you (or someone.) put in the effort to actually cook it. They were either flattering him, or just happen to like eating something that wasn't recycled from the septic system.

I thought the food from the replicators were recycled from their boots.

 

[wonko the sane?]

Actually, it's fob watches, but you do make a valid point.