Mistakes » Treknicalities

The Enterprise Has A Three-D View Screen

Jan 242012

It never has been mentioned, to my knowledge, anywhere in Star Trek, but after re-watching the TNG episode “Data’s Day”, I am convinced that the Enterprise-D has a three-dimensional viewscreen on the bridge.

In the last few minutes of the episode, Captain Picard is talking to the Commander of a Romulan ship. When the camera is positioned directly in front of the viewscreen, we see the Romulan Commander straight on, as expected.

A few seconds later, however, the camera cuts to a shot where we see the main viewer at an angle. What we should see on the screen is like what you would see if you displayed the above picture on your monitor, then viewed your monitor from a 45-degree angle; no extra detail and some distortion of the details that are there. Instead, we see this image:

Instead of the flat, distorted picture we should see at that angle, we see detail that doesn’t show up in the straight-on view: the curve of the back of the Commander’s head, the doorway that’s to his right, the way the necktie-looking thingumy on the front of his uniform is above the uniform, not just a flat pattern on his shirt …

Personally, I can’t wait for television to develop this technology. Three-D without having to wear goofy glasses or cross your eyes would be too awesome!

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Data hates Spot

Mistakes, Star Trek TNG No Responses »

Dec 052010

Well, okay. The title is a little bit inaccurate. It would be more accurate to say that Brent Spiner, the actor who played Data on Star Trek The Next Generation, dislikes cats in general. So much so, that at the end of Star Trek: Generations, when Data and Counselor Troi discover Spot in the ship’s wreckage, Spiner’s comment was, “Does he have to find the cat? Can’t he find, like, Geordi or something?”

Speaking of Spot, it should be noted that when the cat was first introduced on the show, it was a male Somali. By the animal’s second or third appearance, he was an American Tabby and, in a later appearance, Spot was suddenly female. in fact, Spot gave birth to a litter of kittens in the episode “Genesis”, but (s)he had de-evolved into something closely resembling an iguana at the time.

Given the polymorphic abilities this animal seemed to possess, it is understandable why someone would beware of it.

Technorati Tags: science+fiction, star+trek, tng, the+next+generation, data, brent+spiner, spot, cat, kittens, trivia, mistakes

Data’s Mother

Mistakes, Star Trek TNG No Responses »

Nov 282010

In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Inheritance” Data meets a woman whom he discovers is the former wife of Dr. Soong and, therefore, his “mother”.

When Mrs. Soong is injured, it is discovered that she is actually an android which Dr. Soong transferred her memories and personality into its neural net. Inside her head is a chip containing a holographic program. When the chip is loaded into the holodeck, Dr. Soong appears and explains all this to Data. During the conversation with Data, he explains that his android wife eventually left him.

This poses an interesting question: Did Dr. Soong know in advance that his wife was going to leave him in several years or did he track her down and update the information on her chip after she left. Clearly, at the time she was built she hadn’t left him and after she did leave him he couldn’t possibly have updated his program.

She smelled gas?

Mistakes, Star Trek TNG No Responses »

Nov 282010

In the seventh-season episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation titled “Attached”, Picard and Dr. Crusher are being held captive on a planet. During an escape attempt, they are in a series of caverns when Beverly says, “I smell gas” and there is an eruption of flame from the ground a few feet from where they’re standing.

Problem: natural gas has no smell. That rotten-egg smell usually associated with natural gas is added by your local gas company so you will notice a leak. There is no logical reason for her to say “I smell gas”, because she couldn’t have. There might be a possible exception if the gas in question is propane, but that smell might be added as well.

How NOT to move heavy containers

Mistakes, Star Trek TNG No Responses »

Nov 172010

In an episode of Star Trek The Next Generation titled “Disaster”, Dr. Crusher and Geordi are trapped in a cargo bay after the ship collides with a quantum filament. They soon run into a problem: a radiation leak caused by a plasma fire is going to cause a whole bunch of stainless steel drums to explode. Crusher and Geordi have to move these containers away from the plasma fire before evacuating the cargo bay’s oxygen to extinguish the fire.

If you watch the way they’re moving the containers, it’s clear that the reason they’re having trouble is because they’re pressing DOWN on them as they’re trying to slide them.