StarDestroyer.Net BBS

The Dark wrote:

Eternal_Freedom wrote:On a related note to Skylon, I watched "Yesterday's Enterprise" last night, and according to the text commentary "cetacean ops" was apparently the idea they might have cetacean crewmembers like evolved dolphins on a water-filled deck. Seemed kinda silly though.

The "cetacean ops" was on the alternate universe vessel. However, according to the (non-canon) TNGTM, there were dolphins aboard as navigational specialists. Presumably either uplifted (as you said) or an analogous sapient species nicknamed dolphins by humanity. According to dialog in "The Perfect Mate," Geordi showed some dolphins aboard the Ent-D to a visitor to the ship.

Uraniun235 wrote:The Enterprise-D has dolphins. In TNG The Perfect Mate, Geordi offers to show someone the dolphin tanks. The only way the dolphin tanks aren't there is if Geordi is blitzed out of his mind on drugs.

Uraniun235 wrote:The Enterprise-D has dolphins. In TNG The Perfect Mate, Geordi offers to show someone the dolphin tanks.

Baffalo wrote:I'd pay to see Geordi on screen on a drug trip.

"Engineering, status report."

Uraniun235 wrote:I remember reading that, although it got toned down in the editing, Tony Shalhoub's character was intended to be a pothead.

Eternal_Freedom wrote:No it doesn't, because the E-D of that timeline was destroyed, holding off the Klingons long enough to let the E-C escape back to the past

EDIT; So even if Picard evac'ed the civvies to the E-D, they die anyway, BEFORE the timeline reverts to what it was

TheHammer wrote:

Eternal_Freedom wrote:No it doesn't, because the E-D of that timeline was destroyed, holding off the Klingons long enough to let the E-C escape back to the past

EDIT; So even if Picard evac'ed the civvies to the E-D, they die anyway, BEFORE the timeline reverts to what it was

The TNG episode "Parallels" showed pretty conclusively that paradoxes do not exist in Star Trek, rather there are multiple parallel timelines in existence at any given moment. Timelines don't revert, rather they shift to other alternate realities.

As for the "Yesterday's Enterpriseverse" I don't know that you can conclusively say the E-D in that timeline was destroyed. For all we know, Picard pulled "The Picard Maneuver II" and saved the day, albeit down a few crew members.

Uraniun235 wrote:The ship was a burning wreck (the bridge was literally on fire in the last few seconds we see alternate-Picard), the main phasers were down, pretty sure the shields were down, there were still two Klingon battlecruisers hammering it, the reactor's coolant system was failing, I think Geordi mentioned something about antimatter containment wavering, and if the bridge was any indication, most of the crew were dead as well. (Unfilmed were Data and Wesley being killed as well.) Picard wasn't wizarding his way out of anything, he was going down with the ship.

If I had a nickel for everytime the warp core was about to breach on TNG and they still somehow survived I'd have enough for a large cup of coffee.

Uraniun235 wrote:I was about to put effort into another post, but then I realized I could just shove yours right down your throat:

If I had a nickel for everytime the warp core was about to breach on TNG and they still somehow survived I'd have enough for a large cup of coffee.

Go on, then. List the number of times the Enterprise-D averted an imminent warp core breach. I'll even include a link to the Memory Alpha episode list for your convenience:

http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Star_Trek: ... isode_list

Let's find out how much a large cup of coffee costs where you live.

Kythnos wrote: In my opinion the Galaxy Class ships are not Battleships, have have a few weapons yes but are in no way made for warfare. I think a better analogy would be a Coast Guard ship. They are armed and armored but only to a point, much more useful in policing actions. When you consider the other jobs the Enterprise did this becomes more visible, and yet they still can fight in a war if they have to. Although this might be more a product of the tech limitations than design.

Batman wrote:I think the Galaxy being the closest thing they had to a battleship at the time has been well established. He does have a point about it not being a proper warship, which I think has also been well established
But for it being a Coast Guard ship-no? As I said, at the time, it was the closest Starfleet had to a warship, but if this is Coast Guard level of armament (both offensive and defensive), great Valen what do you expect from a real fighting ship?

Batman wrote:I honestly don't know if it's come up in this thread before. It's just that around here and by now, I (apparently mistakenly, for which I apologize) assume that a)the Big E being the closest they had to a battleship at the time and b) it not being a proper battleship (or any sort of proper warship, while we're at it) is taken for granted.

seanrobertson wrote:

Batman wrote:I honestly don't know if it's come up in this thread before. It's just that around here and by now, I (apparently mistakenly, for which I apologize) assume that a)the Big E being the closest they had to a battleship at the time and b) it not being a proper battleship (or any sort of proper warship, while we're at it) is taken for granted.

Bats,

Nah, that's probably all true. We're certainly on the same page.

I was partly thinking of, and really preemptively addressing, the old crowd which held that Nebulas and Akiras were tactically superior. You know, because those two apparently have something like 20+ torpedo launchers between them.

That's getting tangential; more than one ship class could serve as battleships, of course. I just wanted to underscore that the GCS was THE very best they had at the time, in spite of what the Nebkira wankers might claim. (I know there's some controversy over whether or not starship registries are strictly chronological, but I'm pretty sure the three or four known Akiras are in the 62000-63000 range. Meanwhile, the Galaxy herself is somewhere in the 70000s. As such, I think it's safe to say Galaxies are the newer class. Moreover, that would mean the Borg regard the E-D -- and by extension, GCSs in general -- as stronger than Akiras.)

Star Trek has been around so long, and we take it so much for granted, that we don't really stop and think about how weird the Starship Enterprise is.


Oh, hey, it's happy hour.

They seem to use it for everything: In one episode it's a warship, like the equivalent of a modern aircraft carrier. In another, it's acting more like a diplomatic vessel serving as an ambassador to alien races. But overall, they always talk about it first and foremost as an exploration vessel, more the equivalent of the old sailing ships that sat out to find the New World, knowing mortal danger may lurk over the horizon.

But the day-to-day atmosphere inside is more like that of a cruise ship. For instance, there are children on board.

You see them in the background of numerous episodes, and various plots involve them in one capacity or another. So ... why are they allowed on the ship? Anyone? Let's look at the ship's mission, which any even casual viewer knows by heart:

"Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. It's continuing mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before!"


Bah! Nah Nah NAH! Nah Nah NAAAH!

Boldly going where no one has gone before -- meaning places full of unknown beings, diseases and environmental dangers we may not know how to deal with. And we brought our kids along.

Can you remember any time in history when human beings thought that was ever a good idea? Especially considering that this ship we are talking about is the freaking flagship of the Federation, an institution that already has way more enemies than you could shake a bat'leth at. The Enterprise gets attacked every other week.


Not to mention the space pedophiles.

And the danger to the kids isn't hypothetical; in one episode, a bunch of kids get kidnapped by aliens. In another, a tour group of kids almost gets killed when the ship malfunctions.


"Ah ... that, little Johnny, is a Romulan Bird-of-Prey. The green glow is the disruptor powering on."

There are other episodes where children get singled out and tormented by alien races, such as one where a little girl's imaginary friend turns out to be a homicidal being, or when a young boy's dead mother comes back to life as an alien, presumably studying how much you can traumatize a human child.


Give Mommy a kiss!

And it's not even like the Enterprise is just the victim of bad luck here, like it's an innocent fishing boat continually getting surprise-attacked by pirates. No, they used this ship to attack the Borg, a race of half-robots with no emotion hell-bent on taking over the entire human race. With the children on board.


Hey, it worked out pretty well for Seven of Nine.

What makes it even stranger: We can't think of an occasion where the crew has considered the safety of the children in any way when making decisions.

In the last TNG film, the new Enterprise is carrying a wedding party with it (cruise ship mode) when it is ordered to fly into enemy territory on a mission (battle ship mode). Long story short, this doesn't end well, and Captain Picard is left with a ship half blown open and finds himself face-to-face with the enemy's giant doomsday ship. His only choice is to ram the front of the Enterprise into the bad guy without any warning ... to anyone.

Now anybody (OK, maybe just nerds) can tell you what's at the front of the Enterprise -- it's a place called Ten Forward, a lounge where people go to socialize. But more importantly, according to previous episodes of the show it is also one of many emergency shelter locations in case of a deck evacuation within the ship ... something that had happened earlier in the battle. All of the men, women and children would have been huddled there.

And they use it as a goddamned battering ram.


Mazel tov!