Link Thread

[Nate the Great]

Ginger Rogers performs Alice in Wonderland.


For some reason, the White Rabbit sounds like Elmer Fudd. That's weird...

[Nate the Great]

Explaining Errors in DS9, Part Five


In the page for "Shakaar" there's a bit of conversation about why the Cardassians left Bajor. One person thinks that Bajor's resources were used up, so it wasn't worthwhile to stay there anymore. In the show they hint that the Detapa Council made the decision in the name of the treaty, which angered the military. The existence of a "Demiltarized Zone" implies that the Cardassian War ended in a stalemate and both sides didn't feel it was worthwhile to continue fighting.



There's confusion about why DS9 isn't orbiting Bajor in the Mirror Universe episodes. Remember that the station was only moved to stake a claim on the wormhole. I hadn't noticed because as I've mentioned elsewhere I don't rewatch DS9 Mirror Universe episodes, they're just depressing.


It's brought up that Mirror Sisko shouldn't exist because the Prophets orchestrated his conception in our universe and wouldn't in the Mirror Universe. A good point.



In "The Ship" there's a Benzite that doesn't use a portable gas emitter. Of course there would be advances in medical technology. Remember that in TNG Benzites only recently started joining Starfleet. It stands to reason that Benzar only joined the Federation recently. Once they joined the full power of Starfleet Medical could be dedicated to eliminating the gas emitter. Perhaps later Benzites have a gas infuser under their uniform that can pump the gas directly into their bloodstream.



Also from "The Ship" the Changeling is able to stay hidden (i.e. shapeshifted into a bulkhead) for well past Odo's established 16 hours, and that's in a wounded state! I would argue that our heroes wouldn't be scanning for something when they have no reason to suspect a Changeling is there. My big question is why it would pretend to be part of the ceiling instead of hiding in some remote part of the ship.


A commenter wonders why it's okay for Bashir to kill Sloan. My response is that Bashir never intended to kill Sloan, he didn't know about the suicide pill. You could also argue that since Section 31 members go through a lot of trouble to avoid the responsibilities of Federation citizens, that they forfeit their rights as well. "I killed Sloan? Who's Sloan? Federation records show that nobody of that name exists, so obviously I killed nobody!" Furthermore, Sloan killed himself, had he cooperated no harm would've come to him (besides imprisonment and a lengthy trial, of course).


In "Empok Nor" someone asks why they didn't scan and detect the Cardassians that were in stasis. Two simple explanations: they didn't expect anyone on board so they didn't check, and the stasis pods were well shielded to block conventional scans.


In "The Seige of AR-558" it's asked why the Defiant was carrying freight. I ask why the Defiant is able to carry freight at all! It's only four decks, where would you find room for a cargo bay? And again I have to ask, WHY is the Defiant so small?


In "Shadows and Symbols" the only explanation offered for Ezri forgetting Verad in her list of the previous hosts is "he was unsanctioned, so it doesn't count." My explanation is "hosts don't count until the buffer period is over and the joining is complete."


In "The Search" Jake mentions that last week they were on Earth taking things out of storage, and now they're on the station. Since when does a few days count as "deep space"? I always had a problem with the entire Federation being traverseable in a few days at high warp. The DS9 Tech Manual states that Bajor is 50.3 light years from the Federation's inner perimeter. Let's define "inner perimeter" as the established core of the Federation, not counting the fringe regions. In the Star Trek Encyclopedia the core of the Federation is 8000 light years across, with fringe regions being 10,000 light years across. At Warp 9 it would therefore take 5 years to go across the inner perimeter.



Cestus III is mentioned to be at the other end of the Federation. It takes eight weeks to travel there, and subspace communications take three months (chalk this up to intervening nebulae that ships can go through but scatter subspace, so you have to relay long-distance comms way out of the way).



Then again, "Valiant" states that it would take three months to travel around the Federation's perimeter. So once again we have a situation where the writers refuse to Do The Math or consult the reference materials. If the 8000 light-year "core" is meant, that's 25150 light-years. Three months at Warp 9.5 is 475 light-years. To do 25150 light-years you'd need over 13 years. Okay, so let's pretend that the perimeter mentioned is an even smaller "inner inner" core which is just the founding members (i.e. the TOS-era Federation). 475 light-year circumference is 150 light-years across. Vulcan is a little over 16 light-years from Earth, FYI.

[Nate the Great]

Michael Johnson performs "Almost Like Being in Love".


I'm sure the style was indicative of its era, but the classic musicals rarely go together with this style for a reason. I'm having trouble pinning a genre onto this version. Seventies jazz?



Gene Kelly, show us how it's done.



Today I discovered the 1966 TV version of Brigadoon featuring Robert Goulet, Peter Falk, and Sally Anne Howes. I've never seen Robert Goulet this young or imagined that Peter Falk would reprise a role made famous by Van Johnson (when he's this young he actually looks more like Gene Kelley, doesn't he?). And Sally Anne Howes' Scottish accent is awful, but then again I don't recall any English actors who can pull it off. Remember that Sean Connery is Welsh, not English.


And of course the Nat King Cole version was used in Groundhog Day.

[Nate the Great]

A Not Always Right story featuring a Star Trek joke.


Read the comments while you're there, the Trekkies have fun with their own jokes.

[Nate the Great]

A Star Trek coronavirus joke.


Enjoy.

[Nate the Great]

A roundup of Frasier/Cheers actors who have cameoed in various Star Trek shows.


The surprise for me is that the episode "Eye of the Beholder" features an Okudagram that mentions the U.S.S. Malone, Clayton, and Peterson.


As a little game, what kind of ships do you think these are?


For example, the Clayton would have to be a cargo ship, right? Cliff is a mailman, after all. Peterson would be some sort of workhorse, as Norm does odd jobs. Possibly it would have a larger than normal computer core, as Norm is an accountant.


Malone is the problem. That name would fit better for a starbase devoted to R&R, wouldn't it? A huge bar/casino, sports fields, holosuites, etc.

[Nate the Great]

Explaining Errors in DS9, Part Six


The question is asked what would happen if the Founders found the adrift Sword of Kahless and sent one of their own to the Klingon Empire posing as Kahless. I reply with 1. Space is really REALLY big, what are the odds that they'll find it? 2. Even if they stumble upon it, it'll just register as as a bit of metal, what are the odds that their sensors are calibrated to identify this unique bat'leth design. 3. Since the Kahless clone is still around, what are the odds that a second one could show up and not be examined down to their cellular level and not be identified as a Changeling?


Odo's regeneration cycle was shortened from 18 hours to 16 hours at some point. Someone proposes that the increase in traffic due to the discovery of the wormhole has created additional pressure on him. Sorry, but no dice. Additional pressure? One imagines that the Occupation was just as stressful as this. Personally I always hated this set time between regenerations. In reality the time would vary with how much Odo changes shape during a given cycle. So it's 18 hours (or whatever) if he stays in default form the entire time and shortens with each shapeshift.



In "Starship Down" it's brought up that food and drink on the bridge of the Defiant is relatively common, given that Geordi told Sonya Gomez that it's a bad idea to have such things on duty. The explanation is that Sisko allowed it to maintain morale. I reply that Geordi was a stick in the mud given that all of the consoles are sealed, the ship is self-cleaning, and you can't expect people to just plain not eat and drink during extended shifts, especially on a warship where people need to be kept at their posts as much as possible.



Also in "Starship Down" systems are down and yet Kira and Sisko can talk to each other. Someone brought up the Universal Translators in their combadges or they could be talking the same language. Of course they could. Sisko learning Bajoran and Kira learning English (oh, my Federation Standard rants are coming back to me) are both plausible. But odds are it's just their combadges. They both have one and both languages are known by the translation circuitry.



IMDB brings up that in "The Sound of Her Voice" Quark pronounces "human" normally instead of "hew-mon." Well, duh. "Hew-mon" was always a mild insult, not a real case of Ferengi not being able to pronounce the word. It would be good for business to have the best Universal Translators in known space.



The Nit Central users brought up inconsistencies with Captain Cusak's uniform. The Olympia left known space a year before TNG started, and yet is wearing a third season TNG uniform. Oops. It's also brought up that Cusak is surprised at hostilities with the Cardassians when Starfleet was still at war with them when she left.


Someone also questions why the barrier timeshifted subspace signals, but not the shuttlepod. Well, duh, it can only timeshift transmissions, not a huge leap.



There's much discussion about imposing human regulations on Klingon traditions in "Sons of Mogh." The question is brought up as to whether or not the rituals could be considered religious in nature, and therefore protected. Yeah, that wouldn't fly. As Sisko said, it's premeditated murder.


A Nitcentral user brings up the question as to whether or not a Klingon house has a set name (Worf still says House of Mogh, not House of Worf), or changes with the name of the present head (we hear of the House of Duras, not the house of his father Ja'rod or his son Toral). This is a whole kettle of fish that could be its own post. The simplest solution is that the members of a given house can choose to change the name with a new generation or not.



For "Sons and Daughters" the question of Alexander's birth date and age was brought up on Nit Central. He was born Stardate 43205 ("The Emissary" is 42901.3 and "Reunion" is 44246.3, so Klingon pregnancies are three months and Alexander was a little over a year old when Worf met him. So either there's some time dilation going on here (which I thought the stardate system was created to avoid) or a lot of people Just Didn't Care.


Also in "Sons and Daughters" Alexander says that it's been five years since he saw Worf, but "Firstborn" was three years ago and it stands to reason that Alexander was on the E-D until it was destroyed, then went back to the Roshenkos. Put this all together, and you have to assume that Klingons mature faster than humans (reasonable) and mix and match Klingon and Federation timekeeping when talking (not reasonable).


The question of what happened to the "puppy" from "The Forsaken" when they blew up the computers prior to the Dominion Occupation comes up. My reply is that O'Brien would've localized the program ages ago for easy transfer, but more likely is that they only blew up the Ops interfaces to spite the Dominion. You can't just turn off all computers on DS9 and expect people to survive more than a day or so on backup systems.


How can Joran see the photo when Ezri is looking away? It's not like Joran is really there and seeing things; he only sees what Ezri sees. The explanation is reasonable, Ezri knows about the photo on a subconscious level and Joran knows what she knows and can point it out.



A Nitcentral user also points out that a transporter cycle takes time, longer than it takes to fire a bullet and have it hit its target at short range. Good point. Chalk this one up to artistic license, but could you imagine "smearing" the transporter beam (as I've discussed elsewhere regarding ship-to-ship transport) with these kinds of distances and time intervals?


It's pointed out on Nitcentral that Grilka should've been tossed out of her house when Quark lost his license. Good point, but given her personal wealth she probably bribed some officials to look the other way.


A Nitcentral user had many comments about the inconsistencies in "Far Beyond the Stars." I'll have to link you to it, it's too long to even summarize here.



Supposedly Guinan wrote some stuff back in the "Time's Arrow" days, so someone wondered why she wasn't mentioned as a notable African American writer in "Far Beyond the Stars". Simple solution: Sisko didn't know about it, and this "world" isn't the real thing, it's based on his knowledge.


Someone else wondered why Bashir's skin color wasn't a problem for a photo of the staff, given that he's (Asian) Indian. I'm not sure being that's on the same level as Africans or women in that time period. But then again, this is a Sisko illusion and not the real thing, he probably doesn't think of Indian prejudice at all. Then of course we have the question as to whether or not Bashir's race would be noticed in a black-and-white photo?