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First, some comments from previous columns . . .
Phil: Arrgh! I was going to talk with Mitzi about this this week and I forgot!
Corey Hines, Hamilton, ON: You mention Janeway's holo-novel disappearing. I also noticed Paris's bar was replaced by the resort program.
Phil: Of course, the resort program has nicer . . . ahem . . . accessories. Also, This week's TV Guide mentions a new holodeck program that will feature Leonardo Da Vinci.
Corey Hines, Hamilton, ON: Regarding "DS9 Technology" I forgot in the episode "For The Uniform" O'Brien had just installed a holo-communications device in the Defiant. This is right. It's a Starfleet ship. Why then did they install one in Sisko's office seen in "Doctor Bashir, I Presume". It's a Cardassian station.
Phil: Maybe that's not considered sensitive technology?
Scott Wasilewski: Robert H Wolfe said in the alt.tv.star-trek.ds9 group (where he posts quite often) that "Q has "Property of Voyager" stamped on his butt." So I guess he's over there now.
Robert Cook of Anacortes, WA: I don't know if we actually see Kirk eat any meat on the show, but in the episode "The Trouble with Tribbles" he orders a chicken sandwich for lunch. He never gets to eat it, of course...
Lisa Shock: I can't say anything about Mr. Shatner's current dietary choices, but when he spoke in Albuquerque while working on ST VI, he mentioned that he and Nimoy would visit the NM wilderness to bowhunt in the 1960's. In the "Official Star Trek Cooking Manual" (Bantam, 1978) Shatner submitted a recipe for "Green Noodle Casserole." The recipe uses cheese so he wasn't vegan then. By the way, if you like to cook this is a fun book!
Phil: Okay, I have a question. Is "vegan" the same as "vegetarian"? And does that mean "no animal products" or "no meat"?
Ronan Mitchell: What about the scene in ST6 where they eat with the Klingons? I don't recall any vegetarian Klingons. And how about ST4 where he eats in an Italian restaurant - a lot of Italian food is made with dairy produce which a Vegan, as I understand the term, would not eat.
Dustin Westfall: If you look at the ep where Worf is on trial, O'brien was asked, if Worf were disabled somehow, and O'Brien was in command, would he fire, and O'Brien said no. I think that makes it clear that he COULD take command(Or at least he thinks so). Also, just to note, during that ep, Kira is on board too, so, if Worf was injured, wouldn't she take command?
Phil: I touched on this issue in the DS9 Guide. I have never understood why an officer in the Bajoran militia would ever be allowed to take command of a Starfleet vessel. But . . . apparently Starfleet sees things different than I do!
Clay Johnson: I always thought that the "blinds" that Ferengi males were used to denote social status and maybe in Ferengi society wealth? Since Quark runs a bar he might not be of high enough social status to warrant wearing one.
Phil: Well, we can guess! But, as I said last week, I've never seen anything canonical on it.
Dustin Westfall: [Thank you to Rob for the explanation!]. I thought that the camera was just a little more detailed this time(the easiest way to see the difference btw. the old and new footage is to look for the details, then it becomes obvious.)
Stephen Mendenhall: Frank Diaz wondered about the opening credits where Voyager forms a wake going through swirling dust and gas. Well, if it's dense enough, there would be matter for the dust to collide with. And wouldn't the speed of the ship be enough to be significant? And how would a warp drive affect the nebula? I know, it's unlikely, stretching plausibility, but we can also invoke artistic license, since the opening credits aren't part of any episode. You wouldn't nitpick 3rd Rock from the Sun or its opening credits would you? Have you watched 3rd Rock? What did you think?
Phil: I do tape 3rd Rock and watch it after I get home from church on Sunday. Often, it's hillarious. Unfortunately, it can also be smutty. As to nitpicking opening credits, I have always considered them fair game! As to the eddies, I think this is only going to be resolved by talking to a fluid dynamicist!
Urac 'Ratbat' Sigma: There is closed captioning like this in Australia. I don't know about other sources, but it's called SuperText, available on a channel of OzText (which used to be called Teletext - kind of a low-grade TV InterNet, I guess). Similarly, it's for the hearing-impaired, but it can be interesting. It's evidently nothing like its US counterpart, though, as the captions on screen are usually just a summary of what the character actually said.
Phil: I think I mentioned this last week but here in the States it's the actual dialogue . . . most of the time!
Jacqulyn Joe: This doesn't really have anything to do with Trek, but in regards to closed-captioning; in the school where I teach, we use it in reading. The teacher shows a movie based on a novel they may have read in class. . .the students watch 1/3 to 1/2 like regular television, then the teacher turns down the sound, turns on the closed-captioning and have to read the rest of it. And I know many parents who keep the captioning on at home to encourage their little ones to read and many Spanish speaking households who use it to brush up on language skills.
On to the questions . . . .
[thomasm]: how many enterprise-like ships are there. there is the Yamato, and the one that went throught the wormhole to fight the gem-hadar(?) and the one who got destroyed by the probe (blue lightning thing from the planet where date was reprogramed.
Phil: As far as I can recall, we've only seen the three listed: The Enterprise, The Yamato ("Where Silence Has Lease" and "Contagion"--ala blue lightning) and the Odyssey ("The Jem'Hadar"). I don't know of any canonical source that indicates how many Galaxy class star ships there are. We can assume the existance of the prototype as well: The USS Galaxy.
Jimmy Shipman: Once you become a member of the Nitpicker's Guild, How long are you a member?
Phil: Given that there are no dues and no responsbilities, members are members until they asked to be removed from members or I kick them out! (Which hasn't happened yet but one or two have been close to excommunication after they sent me a flame. All of them did apologize, however, after I replied!)
Tim Blake of Wadsworth, OH: What exactly is the significance of the date "Nov 5" that is on the "This Week at Nitcentral" icon?
Phil: It's my birthday. I needed a date when I created the icon so I threw is on there.
Urac 'Ratbat' Sigma: I know you said that there shan't be NEXTGEN III GUIDE (for the simple reason that it would be yet another retread, and thereby probably pushing it a mite), but where will you be doing the official pick for FIRST CONTACT? In a DS9 II GUIDE because it has Worf in it?
Phil: The next project for a Nitpicker's Guide is in the very prelimenary stages of discussion. If it is what we are talking about now, it will include First Contact and it won't be a DS9 II Guide. I'll let you know more in a couple of months!
John Myers: I know that 80 years have passed but I seem to recall that they called the crew to battle stations in TOS. Of course they seem to have stopped having the ten second sequence of the crew responding to the order, which I always liked as it showed that the rest of the crew actually did something rather than just the bridge staff.
The statement that as Voyagers weapons are computerised that they wouldn't have battle stations is a strange one. If you are just travelling along than 2/3rds of the crew are off-duty(if a 3 shift rotation), 1/3rd probably asleep, and you have people in Stellar Cartography or the Science labs or doing routine maintainence. When the ship is in battle these people & the off duty crew would be a lot more useful being stationed so they can fight plasma leaks, repair fried circuitry, help the wounded to sickbay, or even just hold Torres's tools for her so the trained engineers can be doing something more useful. Since these duty stations would be where they are stationed during battles then logically they'd be called battle-stations.
Phil: Makes sense to me! From what I understand of the Navy, when a ship goes to "general quarters" (which I think is the equivalent?!) the bridge crew doubles to handle the increased communication needs. Maybe our Navy guys can give us a few more details?
Eva Schultz of Joliet IL: On May 2, I went to Chicago and met Peter Tork and James Lee Stanley, who play guitars and sing together and are on tour right now. I found out that James is sometimes on DS9. I'm not a DS9 watcher, but I would like to see an episode with him in it. Does anyone know what he has appeared in? He refers to himself as "Odo's thug" and says he plays a Bajoran working for Odo. He's a rather tall Caucasian in his mid to late 50s. And by the way, he's an incredibly fantastic guitarist, too!
Phil: Couldn't help you on this one! Anybody?
Marian Perera: I watched Star Trek VI a long time ago, but I'm sure Spock said something about Klingons having no tear glands. But the DS9 episode 'Soldiers of the empire' made a distinct reference to a Klingon weeping. Could the writers have been that sloppy? or is it like the purple blood/red blood and the forehead thing? These Klingons...they're evolving all the time, and they don't discuss it with outsiders, uh uh.
Phil: I get the impression that the creators feel little responsibility to maintain continuity with the Classic universe! That's why "Trials and Tribble-ations" was so much fun to watch. All of a sudden there was some real continuity in Trek!
David K Dudley: I was wondering if you could maybe answer a question that I have been pondering for a while. In Star Trek:Generations, Picard comes out of the Nexus with our beloved Captain Kirk to a point in time to stop Soren. My question is this: Wouldn't there be two Picards at this point in time? See Kirk re-appears AFTER his time in the Nexus, but Picard appears before. Therefore, wouldn't Picard bump into himself? To quote Miles O'Brian, "I hate temperal mechanics!"
Phil: Personally? I vote for two Picards but . . . the creators get to do what they what to do and hide behind the irrationality of temporal mechanics so I can't really comment on their model of time travel except to say that it appears to be very convenient for their plots! (Wink, wink)
Corey Hines: Please explain to me why there are Vulcan ships. Vulcan is a founding member of the Federation. We have never seen Earth ships. We always see Federation ships. Are the Vulcans so smug that they feel that Federation technology is bad and need to use their own designs?
Phil: We really don't know that much about the politcal structure of the Federation. From bits and pieces of dialogue, I have gotten the impression that planets have a fair degree of autonomy. It doesn't seem unreasonable to me that Vulcans--being Vulcans--would have their own ships. They seem convinced of their superiority!
Corey Hines, Hamilton, ON: You always say you watch fuzzy TV. What makes it fuzzy? Is the TV its self, bad cable, bad wiring, your location, certain stations don't come in clearly. Also is the UPN affiate the only way you can watch Voyager?
Phil: Voyager is broadcast on a low power UHF station that services Springfield proper. Since I live eight miles north of town, I have to use a video amplifier just to get a grainy picture. The only other way I could get it would be to install a DSS system and then petition to have UPN turned on because of the poor reception. I could do that but I have a philosophical objection to paying for 5000 channels of virtually nothing when I get everything that I want to watch on the six broadcast channels that I can receive for free. (And when there isn't "anything on", I turn it off instead of sitting on the couch hoping the next push of the remote "channel up" button will entertain me!)
Elio L. Arteaga: Why do you think Alexander Siddig chose to use his original name, Siddig El Fadil, as the director of the recent DS9 episode, "Ties of Blood and Water?"
Phil: I have no idea!
Michael Apple of Warrensburg, NY: I watched the Deep Space Nine episode, "Soldiers of the Empire", the other day and I was confused by the end. Martok makes Worf a member of his family. Does that mean that Worf has his honor back, or is he still discommendated? It doesn't make sense that Martok would make Worf a member of his family if Worf were dishonored. Wouldn't that bring dishonor to the rest of Martok's family? Also, why was Worf so quick to remove his family symbol from his sash? Does his family mean that little to him now? What about Alexander?
Phil: It was an odd moment! Maybe Worf figures there's no chance of surviving discommendation a second time. As far as the rest is concerned, only the Klingons know for sure.
Edgar Fong: Does it not seem odd to you that ever since Gul Dukat allied with the Dominion, that there are more Dominion ships in the Alpha Quadrant. The only way right now is for the Jemm Hadar ships to come through the wormhole. (Unless you count the long way). No one on the stastion seems to notice the wormhole opening more often, unless the Jemm Hadar ships wait until a ship goes through the wormhole then follw it cloaked, but that would still leave the wormhole open longer. It does seem odd.
Phil: I guess I assumed that the Jem'Hadar brought along facilities to build ships and make more Jem'Hadar. That was a pretty big fleet that came through!
Jon Walker: Where, (in what episode and how) does Capitan Janeway break the prime directive?
Phil: First, we have to figure out what the Prime Directive is! Classic Trek had a concrete definition that Kirk spouted in "Bread and Circuses": "No identification of self or mission. No interference with the social development of said planet. No references to space or the fact that there are other worlds or civilizations." Unfortunately, the NextGen episode, "Pen Pals" seems to expand this definition to "No interference. Period!" Given that criteria--and the fact that I've run out of time this morning--one would imagine the members of the Nitpickers Guild could offer some possible violations by Captain Janeway!
Tommy Lin: In one of the original series episode "A Private Little War", it is said that a Vulcan's heart is where a human's liver is. Since the Romulans are descendants of the Vulcan race, I found it amusing that in the TNG episode "The Enemy", the Romulan Centurion rescued by the Enterprise-D actually saluted to the Romulan Commander Tomalak by placing his fist ON WHERE THE HUMAN HEART SHOULD BE. I understand that several thousand years passed between the Romulan-Vulcan separation, perhaps the Romulans have developed some new ideology suggesting that whatever organ in that position have gained more importance that the heart, such that their salutes vaguely resemble that of humans.
Phil: Could be!
Jim Coyle of Oakwood, Ontario: Not a nit, Phil, but a question: when did the producers of DS9 and Vger switch to computer animations for the ship shots? Look closely at Vger on the slow flybys and on the manouevering shots. That doesn't look or move like a model. And the last episode of DS9 (when Worf joins the crew of the lowly Klingon Bird of Prey) -- the Bird of Prey exteriors moved so fluidly and -- frankly -- beautifully. Looked animated to me. Their animation must be very good because the ships look more three-dimensional and more realistic than, say, the computer graphics of Babylon 5. Just curious (I imagine, in the long run, computer imaging would be cheaper than models and matte photography).
Phil: I am definitely no expert on this but from what little I do know, the creators of Voyager mix computer animations with models for the show. I'm told the telltale sign is the little light at the very backend of Voyager. In the model there wasn't room for it because of the motors that lift the warp nacelles. Unfortunately, the light is supposed to be there and it is on the computer model. Also, in the opening footage, the Voyager that flies through the solar flare is digital. The rest of the shots are done with the model.
Craig Cicero: Have any episodes of DS9 stated exactly when Bajor would be admitted into the Federation, or how long the process normally takes?
Phil: Actually, Bajor was supposed to be admitted during an episode early this season but Sisko had an experience that some would describe as "mystical ecstacy" and told the Bajorans not to do it! I think the episode was "Rapture". In that episode, Sisko saw a vision of a locust swarm approaching Bajor. At the time, I took that to mean that the Jem'Hadar were coming. If Bajor had been part of the Federation, the Jam'Hadar might have seized control of the planet.
Have a great weekend, everybody!
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Copyright 1997 by Phil Farrand. All rights reserved.