Persistent, Niggling Questions

[NAHTMMM]

B and C are special guest stars, you don't want to diminish the impact of rewatching the story by having seen ships just like them all over the franchise.

How long a ship's useful lifespan is is going to depend on how fast technology outpaces it and how necessary that new technology is to keep up with demands. You can keep e.g. Warp 7 tech around as long as nobody else can go faster (oversimplifying obviously). But if you come out with a Warp 9 engine and then the Romulans have a Warp 9.5 engine a week later, back to the drawing board. Ideally a ship just won't break down period, but then you get into the efficiency of devoting X more resources into an expected Y increase in lifespan.

Personally I like reliability in cars. I'd rather have a time-tested design with the latest improvements over "the totally redesigned 2024 Whatever" that might take a few years to work all the bugs out of.

[Nate the Great]

I think you're oversimplifying. The Excelsior wasn't the big dog for very long, but it persisted for decades as a reliable workhorse. And let's be real here, most missions don't need a big dog, they need a reliable workhorse.



I fail to see why the Ambassador couldn't also be a workhorse. We saw other Constitution classes in TOS, they didn't make the Enterprise less special. We saw other Galaxy classes, they didn't make the E-D less special.



Furthermore, you can't throw out entire fleets and replace them with ships with more firepower or warp capability. Technology advances too fast to be able to do that.

[Nate the Great]

I like watching videos where people watch a classic movie for the first time and react on camera. Anyway, on one such video for The Princess Bride, a commenter said that it should never be remade unless it was done as a spoof by the cast of another franchise, like the Muppets.


PNQ: Do you think a Muppet Princess Bride would work?


Miss Piggy would certainly put her own spin on the role of Buttercup. Gonzo would be Inigo, of course, with Rizzo pretending to be a giant. Statler and Waldorf would be Miracle Max and his brother, etc.



The framing device with Kermit and Robin would have to be tweaked a bit to fit the uncle/nephew relationship, but it could be done.

[Nate the Great]

So I saw another article bashing George Lazenby as James Bond...


PNQ: Was he really that bad?


It's been awhile since I watched On Her Majesty's Secret Service, but I remember it being okay. Not one of the best, but certainly not one of the worst either (Moore certainly put out clunkers worse than OHMSS).


In fact, I think most of the trouble comes back to a perennial problem: the creators wanted to cover their butts by telling Lazenby to perform like Connery performing Bond, not how HE would perform bond. And Lazenby was never going to be a good Sean Connery.



(And yes, Lazenby saying "This never happened to the other fellow" was profoundly stupid, but that's the writer's mistake, not his)

[Nate the Great]

Someone on Facebook thinks that "Gul" is Dukat's actual first name...


PNQ: How come the writers never gave Dukat a first name in the show?


The closest we ever got was when he identified himself to the computer in "A Time to Stand" as "Dukat, S.G." Who knows if "S.G." are initials for his name or some kind of military rank or award?


I use "Skrain" as his first name since that's the one given in "A Stitch in Time" (FYI, his father, the one that Garak killed, is Procal).



You'd think that it would've come up during a conversation between Dukat and Damar (whose first name is Corat, FYI).



It's really quite annoying when lazy writers only give side characters one name.

[Nate the Great]

So I just read an article saying that it was Mulgrew who torpedoed the Janeway/Chakotay romance...


PNQ: Would this have really worked?


Upon reflecting on it for a bit, I don't think it had any chance of working. Chakotay did a good job of playing a role that would attract her, but it wasn't feasible in the long term. For Janeway to be able to truly connect with him she would have to willingly remove her armor, and I don't think she's capable of that while commanding a ship.

[Nate the Great]

So Kirk said that there were only twelve ships like the Enterprise in the fleet. Most people (including me) think that this means only twelve Constitution-class, but today on Facebook someone suggested an alternative interpretation. What if the Enterprise and the others of the twelve have special equipment that generic Constitution-classes don't?


Of course if you're going to stretch that much the skies the limit...
* There are only twelve joint Starfleet/UESPA ships.
* Only the twelve are the third-model Constitution-class (first model being what April used, second being that Discovery/SNW nonsense).
* There are twelve that are called Enterprise of different classes.
* The twelve are the ships that Kirk has served on.
* Only twelve have Scotty modifications.


Etc. Etc.