(Also available from Starland mirror site)
First, some comments from previous columns . . .
Ari Rosner: In regard to the 'Beam me up, Scotty' question, Kirk says it in an episode of the animated series (not canon, I know, but the question says in all Star Trek). I think the episode was "The Infinite Vulcan".
Eddie Marshall of Hampshire, UK: With reference to "Beam Me Up Scotty" you are missing one event. Now this really depends on whether or not you include the animated series in your discussions. If you dont, then Star Trek IV is about the closest you get. BUT! if you include the animated show then "The Infinite Vulcan" contains the words "Kirk to enterprise, Beam us up Scotty" shortly after Spock is taken prisoner by Conikulus 5, (the giant human).
Paul Steele of Springfield, VA: In regards to Mike Leinoff's question about DS9 folks going back to the old uniforms... I didn't notice any change back to the old uniforms. In fact, the last episode (a first run) had the crew in First Contact uniforms. Could Mike have been confused by the couple of reruns that DS9 aired a couple of weeks ago?
Phil: Okay, I wasn't confused! Last week, when I posted Mike's question, I thought I had just missed something. I've been keeping up with DS9 but not diligently given my work with the X-phile Guild. I figured I have missed an episode or something because I didn't see the change back either. However, here in Springfield, the new episodes of DS9 are playing on Monday nights at 11:00 PM and then the strip syndication episode play in that slot the rest of the week so it's very easy to get confused what's new and what isn't! (Thanks as well to Charles Graeber and Todd Felton for responding.)
Paul Steele of Springfield, VA: As for Ronan Mitchell's question about "Hoo-rah!" It's not just a USMC thing. U.S. Army soldiers cry out with this call often. In fact, it received world wide attention from the movie "Scent of a Women" when Al Pacino's character (a U.S. Army Colonel) used it. At the risk of sounding sexist, it's a rather manly thing. If you've ever heard a women try it you know what I mean. Done properly it is very loud & deep. It must come from the diaphragm.
Phil: Sounds like fun! I'm gonna have to learn how to do this!
Shane Tourtellotte: "Chig" is derived from 'chigger', a mite larva native to the southern United States and the tropical Americas. It is an awful nuisance for its size, as its bite causes severe itching. This loathsomeness led to the truncation of its name to use as a slur against the insect-like enemy.
I agree with you. Good show, even if the science-fiction science was fuzzy when it wasn't outright wrong. Although I couldn't get used to having a tough-as-nails female Marine named Shane. :-)
Phil: Yeah, the science portion of it was a bit goofy when it came to the distances between star system and the fact that space is three dimensional but I just enjoyed it as a war drama.
David D. Porter: 'Oo-rah' is indeed the all-purpose US Marine battle cry, although you have to hear a *real* Marine yell it to get the full effect. Those kids on 'Space: Above and Beyond' didn't qualify. Among them, I think they had more hair than all the Marines now in the Corps! Chig, incidentally, has no current analog so far as I can tell. I think it was just a slang term for those aliens.
Rob Levandowski of Rochester, NY: As far as a reason why bad guys can't track communicators, a mid-20th century trick would suffice to explain the issue. In fact, the technology was co-invented, and patented, by actress Hedy Lamarr. It's called frequency hopping.
Simply put, the communicator and the ship's computer would both have some sort of algorithm for generating a sequence of pseudorandom numbers. You would synchronize them, and then wander about. Each would change frequencies based on the output of the algorithm, so that the signal stayed at a given frequency only for a fraction of a second. This would make it very difficult to track the signal if you were a bad guy, because you would have to constantly scan for the signal, and you'd never know if the signal was from your desired target or another communicator. However, since the ship's computer would have a synchronized algorithm, it would have no difficulty predicting the frequency hops.
This technology was first proposed by Ms. Lamarr as a way to defeat Axis jamming of radio-controlled torpedoes during World War II. Her proposal used a clockwork device to generate the "algorithm." Because it would be impossible to select just one frequency to jam with such a setup, it made it far more difficult to jam the torpedo control signal. It's now being used in technologies such as cordless phones and military communications, because it's not only hard to jam, but hard to eavesdrop upon.
Another possibility is that the communicator might not emit a continuous location signal. Instead, it might have something similar to a GPS receiver, so that the *communicator* would know where it is at all times. When someone wants to find the communicator wearer, the computer could transmit a request to the communicator ("Commbadge 54, Where are you?") and the communicator would send back its location ("I'm at these coordinates relative to the ship."). The computer could then map those coordinates into a "human-friendly" location such as "Transporter room 3." Since the location would only be sent in response to a request, there would be no opportunity for tracking by a bad guy. Obviously, the protocol used would be encrypted, so that bad guys couldn't initiate requests or overhear responses.
Stephen Walker: Could it be possible that the Communicators are sophisticated enough to not broadcast a signal until "keyed" by the Starship's computer?
When a communicator detects a coded transmission matching its ID and frequency, it responds with a packet of specific coded information in response. That way a communicator can only be detected by someone having that communicator's ID.
Phil: Sound like good ideas to me!
On to the questions . . . .
Adam Farlinger: Does the Dominion have any kind of flag or some sort of symbol (i.e. the Borg claw or the Klingon "V")?
Phil: Not that I've seen on the show. Although, the first time I saw the Borg claw, it was on a Playmates action figure. (I sorry, but every time I type that word I wonder who thought that would be a good name for a toy company given it's "other" connotations!) I haven't gotten the Jem'Hadar action figure yet (at least I don't think I have, sometimes I lose track of what I've bought). Anybody know if it has a symbol for the Dominion? Of course, given the leaders of the Dominion, the symbol might be a bucket . . . or a blob . . . or it might keep changing!
Ray Andrade: I was wondering about a potential nit which seems to me an incredible blunder. In fact its so incredible i had to watch the episode four times to make sure i was right. Remember when they bring Manheim to the sickbay and Jean-luc and crew enter the sickbay. The first time they enter a conference room is directly opposite of the entrance. After the commercial break a a few more crew members(I haven't seen it for awhile) come in the same entrance and the conference room is no longer there. Now either sickbay rotates or they came in a different entrance. However, I don't think so. If I remember carefully the door was open before and after the break and there were two security guards standing next to it. I went over this several times and I can't say for sure from my perspective. Has anyone else noticed this nit?
Phil: I checked the tape but I can't find this. Perhaps, I'm looking in the wrong place? Sickbay does have two doors. Could that be the problem?
Eric Brasure: Do you know anything about why the actor who played Professor Arturo on "Sliders" left the show? He was my favorite character! If you don't, could you please pass my question along to the Nitpicker's Guild? I'm sure someone knows the answer.
Phil: Have no idea! He was a favorite of mine as well. Maybe the producers of Sliders wanted to punch up interest in the series?!
Dan Reed of New York, NY: I'm writing to ask about for information regarding episode #12 of the animated Star Trek series. I have been informed that while 22 episodes were actually released, there may have actually been 23 episodes made, the unaccounted for episode may be # 12. I'm wondering if you can supply any information on this "missing" episode.
Phil: I am not that familiar with the animated series but I'm sure someone out there is! (I do have a guy here in Springfield who has the complete set (I think). I'll see if I can get in touch with him this week!
Have a great weekend!
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Copyright 1997 by Phil Farrand. All rights reserved.