Star Trek Ruminations

 The Visual Evidence When Geordi is transformed into one of the creatures from Tarchannen III he discards his VISOR in favor of his new, alien eyes. But what happened to the neural implants embedded in his temples? We don't see the characteristic red LED lights in any shot of him after his transformation. But as recovers in sickbay the neural implants are present again... Were the neural implants just enveloped by his alien physiology and then re-emerged as his human DNA reasserted itself? Did Doctor Crusher need to repair the neural implants to interface with his VISOR once again? The episode doesn't make that clear. The omission is strange, because the script gives special attention to the matter of Geordi's VISOR. It specifies that Geordi is "wearing a slightly different, earlier version of his VISOR" in the recordings from five years earlier. And eagle-eyed viewers can note distinct differences between the old and new VISOR. But nothing in the dialogue or visu...

Never-before-seen features of the Enterprise pop up in the TOS and TNG movies like the proverbial Vulcan third eyelid. Usually plot-driven, rarely seen or spoken of again, here are my ratings of surprising “new” features of the move-era ships called Enterprise . Manual Steering Column ( Star Trek: Insurrection ) "Computer, access manual steering column!" And with that, Riker summons...a joystick. Out of the floor. Somewhere between ops and the conn. That you have to use from a heroic standing position. Did I mention the Sovereign Class starship has a joystick? I get it, it fits the movie's theme of youth and playfulness, but it's one of the silliest plot-driven features of any ship called Enterprise .  Plausibility: 1/10 Story Telling Value: 4/10 Overall Rating: 2/10 Service Corridors ( Star Trek V: The Final Frontier ) The service corridors on the Enterprise-A, with their colorful pipes and trip hazards, primarily serve as a set up for Scotty to say “I know this shi...

I finally saw the new Star Trek movie tonight. While I take time to collect my thoughts on the new film as a whole let me comment on one little aspect of it - matters of translation. Interestingly the credits mention a Romulan and Vulcan Language Supervisor (or Consultant or some such title). However after my first viewing of the film I have to say I didn't notice any Vulcan being spoken, and I only noticed what was presumably a little Romulan shouting when Kirk and Spock beam over to Nero's ship. Perhaps there were more such moments than I realized. That being said, the basic issues of translation among alien races is acknowledged from the very beginning. From the moment Uhura is introduced to Kirk, it is clear that she is more than just a subspace-ham-radio operator. She is a linguistic expert - move over Hoshi Sato! Unlike her counterpart in the original timeline, who couldn't seem to speak Klingon if her life depended on it, this Uhura is eavesdropping on and translat...

In the past I've commented at length on the plausibility of the Drayan , a species the ages in reverse in the episode "Innocence" ( VOY ). Recently Earthweek featured an article on an 'immortal' jellyfish called turritopsis nutricula . As explained below this little animal is not just biologically immortal, but is actually capable of reverse aging. Turritopsis nutricula - That is the scientific name for a jellyfish-like creature. After it matures and reproduces, this creature completely reverts to a younger state and starts its life over again. (Read more here and here .) So speculation and extrapolation aside, we do have here on earth proof that there is such a thing as reverse aging. If only we could get poor turritopsis nutricula a new name. Perhaps Drayan would be most appropriate. You can read these same comments in context here: 100 Years Young - Can an Organism 'Grow' Smaller and Younger?

To update an older discussion - I came across one more glimpse of Utopia Planitia that predates the Voyager episode "Relativity." In the seventh season TNG episode, "Parallels" there is an image of Utopia Planitia taken by the Argus Array (see the image in the lower right of the display). Admittedly this is the Utopia Planitia from a parallel universe, but "our" Worf didn't identify any major discrepancy between this Utopia Planitia and the "real" one. While the visual evidence is not entirely clear, it looks to me like this is not an orbital facility, but rather something on the surface of Mars. The display seems to make a distinction between orbital stations on the left and planetary locations on the right. It also appears that all of the structures are built between the craters. An orbital station would visually overlap at least some of the craters on the ground. On the other hand, even if it is an orbital facility it still looks marked...

I'm definitely not the first to say it, but watching Deep Space Nine now, it's amazing to see how stories about toppled regimes, provisional governments, terrorists and freedom fighters, political and religious corruption have become even more meaningful now than when they were first written. I thought something similar about the socio-economic issues dealt with in "Past Tense." Re-watching this story also raised some questions in my mind about the time travel involved. "Past Tense" - Future Imperfect Here we have an interesting glimpse into the near future. Of course, it was the near future back when the show first aired in 1995, but it's even closer now. One thing the show failed to predict is the prevalence of cell phones and other wireless devices. We see one wireless phone in the episode, but we don't see a single mobile phone. There's also not a flat screen to be seen - just a lot of bulky terminals. I'm sure it made sense at the tim...