Star Wars battle droid look-alike in Star Trek

BountyHunterSAx · Post by **BountyHunterSAx** » 2008-03-02 04:38pm

So I was watching third season Star Trek TNG, and I noticed this:

Picture

Inspired by the Star Wars combat droid, methinks. Just figured I'd share it.

-AHMAD

SilverWingedSeraph · Post by **SilverWingedSeraph** » 2008-03-02 04:48pm

I'm assuming you're talking about the "Battle Droids" used by the Trade Federation, although I may be wrong. If that is the case, however, then it's incredibly unlikely that it was inspired by them, for the following reason.

Season 3 of TNG aired in 1990. Nine years before the Phantom Menace was released.

SilverWingedSeraph · Post by **SilverWingedSeraph** » 2008-03-02 04:50pm

Ghetto Edit: Make that 1989. A full ten years before the release of TPM.

BountyHunterSAx · Post by **BountyHunterSAx** » 2008-03-02 06:15pm

Fair point. Still, funny that there's a look-alike at all, particularly since it's referred to as primitive (or 'not sophisticated') in the episode.

-AHMAD

Darth Ruinus · Post by **Darth Ruinus** » 2008-03-02 06:19pm

BountyHunterSAx wrote:Fair point. Still, funny that there's a look-alike at all, particularly since it's referred to as primitive (or 'not sophisticated') in the episode.

-AHMAD

Funny, I wasnt even aware that droids existed in ST besides Data and the Borg.

Batman · Post by **Batman** » 2008-03-02 06:39pm

Ahem. 'I, Mudd', 'What are Little Girls made of', 'Requiem to Methuselah' and 'Return to Tommorow' come to mind.
And the similarity between that one and the TF Battle Droids is pretty superficial to begin with. Yes, they have a vaguely similar head and torso shape (assuming the head isn't simply a matter of perspective to begin with-the head of the droid in that picture might look NOTHING like a TF droid head from another angle, and I very much suspect it doesn't) but that's it.

wjs7744 · Post by **wjs7744** » 2008-03-02 06:39pm

Darth Ruinus wrote:Funny, I wasnt even aware that droids existed in ST besides Data and the Borg.

Oh, certainly they do. Data is the only Federation android, but Starfleet have been running into alien robots since TOS.

Darth Ruinus · Post by **Darth Ruinus** » 2008-03-02 06:47pm

wjs7744 wrote:
Darth Ruinus wrote:Funny, I wasnt even aware that droids existed in ST besides Data and the Borg.
Oh, certainly they do. Data is the only Federation android, but Starfleet have been running into alien robots since TOS.

Ah.

Can the Feds build droids then?
(Like I said, I dont watch ST that much)

TithonusSyndrome · Post by **TithonusSyndrome** » 2008-03-02 06:56pm

Is there any canonical reason why droids aren't used for a wider variety of tasks as of the 24th century, other than simple Feddie incompetence? Or hell, even simply the material Data is made from? If Data's chassis can survive traipsing through giant electrical arcs, falls over 10 meters, getting shot up with high powered rifles and Borg nano-stickers, then why the fuck aren't they making simple battle droids or remotes from that tech? Christ, why not just body armor? It's his positronic brain that's baffled Starfleet, they've never suggested that his chassis presented any problem to replicate. Presumably he built a similar one for Lal.

Darth Ruinus · Post by **Darth Ruinus** » 2008-03-02 07:04pm

TithonusSyndrome wrote:Is there any canonical reason why droids aren't used for a wider variety of tasks as of the 24th century, other than simple Feddie incompetence? Or hell, even simply the material Data is made from? If Data's chassis can survive traipsing through giant electrical arcs, falls over 10 meters, getting shot up with high powered rifles and Borg nano-stickers, then why the fuck aren't they making simple battle droids or remotes from that tech? Christ, why not just body armor? It's his positronic brain that's baffled Starfleet, they've never suggested that his chassis presented any problem to replicate. Presumably he built a similar one for Lal.

I wonder that too.

Without turning this in to a vs thread, I have meet people who say that since the Feds have Data, they are more advanced than the Empire or Republic (I dont want to get into that right now) in the field of robotics.

But, then, where the fuck are all the robots?

Or WAIT, the Redshirts! Clearly those are robots, at the rate they die, they MUST be mass produced.

Batman · Post by **Batman** » 2008-03-02 07:09pm

Humans are mass-produced as of right now. And that's when we're limited to a single planet.
And sorry, redshirt fatalities as depicted in Trek could be effortlessly absorbed by just about any real first world military.
AND they are time and again shown to be baseline humans.

BountyHunterSAx · Post by **BountyHunterSAx** » 2008-03-02 07:55pm

Batman wrote: Yes, they have a vaguely similar head and torso shape (assuming the head isn't simply a matter of perspective to begin with-the head of the droid in that picture might look NOTHING like a TF droid head from another angle, and I very much suspect it doesn't) but that's it.

Well, while there's certainly no 'right' answer to what it "looks like to you" and while shape and form certainly say nothing about function and utility (particularly in the case of a robot, where we can't see the inner-workings) I still would maintain that the head and torso look similar to a TF droid - though the rest is distinctly different.

Here's an alternate-perspective shot, with the rest of the scene cut-out, from shortly before that incident.

-AHMAD

Batman · Post by **Batman** » 2008-03-02 08:00pm

And I agree that it DOES look like a TF Battle droid droid head and admit I was mistaken about it NOT looking like that from a different perspective.
Doesn't change the fact that you couldn't tell from the original picture.

Darth Servo · Post by **Darth Servo** » 2008-03-02 08:22pm

The head reminds me of a duck if anything.

wjs7744 · Post by **wjs7744** » 2008-03-02 10:58pm

Yeah, with what looks like a lower bill, and everything. I thought that.

Darth Ruinus wrote:Without turning this in to a vs thread

Huh? This is the vs forum.

Darth Ruinus · Post by **Darth Ruinus** » 2008-03-02 11:15pm

wjs7744 wrote:Huh? This is the vs forum.

Holy shit. I completely missed that.

BountyHunterSAx · Post by **BountyHunterSAx** » 2008-03-03 12:20am

wjs7744 wrote:Yeah, with what looks like a lower bill, and everything. I thought that.

Oh wow - I totally didn't notice the lower-bill...it looks kinda cute.

-AHMAD

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2008-03-03 03:33am

It wouldn't be the first droid lookalike to show up.

It might be interesting to see if there's any info on the props in the DVD commentaries.

Ted C · Post by **Ted C** » 2008-03-03 08:50am

TithonusSyndrome wrote:Is there any canonical reason why droids aren't used for a wider variety of tasks as of the 24th century, other than simple Feddie incompetence?

Because, apart from Data, the Federation doesn't have the technology to get an AI into a small body. The next closest thing is the exocomps, which they didn't even realize were AIs for a long time.

Also, based on precedents involving Data and the exocomps, any AI built by the Federation would be granted citizenship rights as a sentient being. That would kind of defeat the purpose of building droids to do your scut work.

ANGELUS · Post by **ANGELUS** » 2008-03-03 10:50am

Ted C wrote:Also, based on precedents involving Data and the exocomps, any AI built by the Federation would be granted citizenship rights as a sentient being. That would kind of defeat the purpose of building droids to do your scut work.

So what about the mining holograms from Voyager?

wjs7744 · Post by **wjs7744** » 2008-03-03 01:26pm

Ted C wrote:Because, apart from Data, the Federation doesn't have the technology to get an AI into a small body. The next closest thing is the exocomps, which they didn't even realize were AIs for a long time.

Also, based on precedents involving Data and the exocomps, any AI built by the Federation would be granted citizenship rights as a sentient being. That would kind of defeat the purpose of building droids to do your scut work.

True, but the legal thing would only apply to sentient androids.

The Exocomps, IIRC, were originally intended to be non-sentient droids, and were considered a breakthrough in robotics, or something. That might have been their AIs, though. Anyway, it is well established that the Federation has severe problems with software engineering/computer science, so perhaps it is writing the AI that is the problem, rather than producing a small enough computer to run it.

I think I'm rambling here, did anyone understand any of that?

Aratech · Post by **Aratech** » 2008-03-03 01:57pm

Am I the only one who notices that that droid's body seems to be made out of a gas can?

Darth Ruinus · Post by **Darth Ruinus** » 2008-03-03 02:47pm

Aratech wrote:Am I the only one who notices that that droid's body seems to be made out of a gas can?

No.

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2008-03-03 03:16pm

Aratech wrote:Am I the only one who notices that that droid's body seems to be made out of a gas can?

If this isn't a rented prop, it's probably been cobbled together from whatever junk was found around the lot, like many one-off props.

wjs7744 · Post by **wjs7744** » 2008-03-03 03:21pm

I remember thinking when I first watched that episode that it didn't look functional, and I wondered whether the woman who owned it had a few screws loose, you know?