TNG era Tech advancement

Sir Sirius · Post by **Sir Sirius** » 2004-12-09 05:18pm

IIRC E-nil didn't have any backup Dilithium crystal when the saboteur struck in "Elaan of Troyius", which why they had to resort to the ones in Elaan's neclace.

Patrick Degan · Post by **Patrick Degan** » 2004-12-09 05:50pm

Destructionator XIII wrote:Is there any evidence that they could not recrystalize them at starbases or other specialized facilities in the TOS era? I know they are always looking for more to mine, but I figure the new crystals would be used for expanding the fleet size more than replacing used crystals in the ships. And the fact that they are so rare would seem to me to make Starfleet want to get the most life out of each crystal, so regulations to expand their life were surely in place and they would have surely looked into recycling old crystals.

The only evidence we have is that burned-out or cracked crystals had to be replaced. There were certainly no shipboard facilities to do this. And the first time recrystalising dilithium was even mentioned was ST4. The rest is sheer speculation.

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2004-12-09 06:14pm

Destructionator XIII wrote:
Sir Sirius wrote:IIRC E-nil didn't have any backup Dilithium crystal when the saboteur struck in "Elaan of Troyius", which why they had to resort to the ones in Elaan's neclace.
Yeah, I do think thats right. Dilithium is very rare, so I suppose they probably would not have extra crystals to use as spares. But still, they seem to have pretty long lifespans anyways.

Is there any evidence that they could not recrystalize them at starbases or other specialized facilities in the TOS era? I know they are always looking for more to mine, but I figure the new crystals would be used for expanding the fleet size more than replacing used crystals in the ships. And the fact that they are so rare would seem to me to make Starfleet want to get the most life out of each crystal, so regulations to expand their life were surely in place and they would have surely looked into recycling old crystals.

ahem. burden of proof here. if anything it needs to be shown that they -can- recrystalize dilithium crystals during the ToS era. which it never is. given that spock and even scotty (both experts in the subject) said it wasn't possible using their present technology, in ST:IV, it stands to reason that they didn't know how to in ToS.