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ASK THE CHIEF
5/16/97

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I am racing a deadline this morning so I'm going to be doing this fast! First, some comments from previous columns . . .

Eric Brasure: To answer your query, a vegitarian eats no meat, but can eat cheese, eggs, etc. A vegan eats no animal products at all. As a personal comment, I'm neither, but I know a lot of really useless stuff like this.

Phil: Thanks for the info! Thanks as well to Jason Liu, Ronan Mitchell and Deirdre Shaw.

Elena Taussig of Lenox, Mass.: I noticed there was some controversy over Kirk frying eggs since Bill Shatner is Vegan. Are there any other Canadians out there who remember when he was the spokesman for the Dominion (no, not the bunch of shapeshifters) chain, whose sales line was "it's mainly because of the meat"?

Matt Nelson: If Shatner's autobiography is to be believed, he is most likely NOT a vegan . He recalls a scene in Star Trek VI, where they are dining with the Klingons, and the blue "stuff" on their plates is minced-up squid dyed with food coloring. He also mentions the producer offering twenty bucks to anyone who actually ATE some and Shatner says that he made about 200 bucks shoveling it in take after take. I think we can safely say that Mr. Bill has no moral compunctions about munching marine life, or pry any other form.

Lisa Shock of Phoenix, AZ: I'm a vegetarian, so I'll give you a quick rundown. This month's Vegetarian Times has a long article about all sorts of food movements, check it out if you want to know about finer points like raw-foodists and fructarians.

Vegetarian is a term for those who don't eat meat or meat by products, like geletain. (If it has a face, we don't eat it.) Some vegearians eat eggs or dairy products, some don't. Vegans don't eat or use anything of animal origin. They don't eat honey, dairy or eggs, and they don't wear leather, silk,down, or wool.

People choose these diets for a variety of reasons: life-extension, improved health, love of animals, and just not liking meat. The recipe Shatner submitted for the cookbook was vegetarian, but definitely not vegan. Of course, that was 1978, and he may have changed his diet. He is certainly much more sensitive about animal rights issues.

Chris George: You made the comment "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!"

I might be able to explain that thinking. Kira, as first officer of Deep Space Nine, may hold a field commission in Starfleet, since it is a Starfleet station at this point. This would allow her to hold a "first officer" position in a Starfleet hierarchy.

This then brings up two questions:

1) Why the rank of "major" then? Two explanations for this exist: either "major" is a rank in Starfleet for ground forces, as shown in a non-canon novel "Imzadi," or perhaps since she continues to also report to Bajoran Militia she was allowed to retain her Militia rank.

2) Why the Bajoran uniform? The second answer to the last question applies here too.

Phil: I can understand the legislative component of giving Kira command. Yes, Sisko could give her a field commission (I suppose). But what about the training? Did she take the Starfeet Academy Home Study Course? At times, in battle, Sisko calls out for certain manuevers. Does Kira know the names of all these manuevers? Or is it so easy to command a battleship in the 24th century that anybody with a strong chin can waltz in and do it just fine?! I just don't get it.

David Henderson sent along these comments from the DS9 newsgroup by Robert Hewitt Wolfe concerning Ferengi head gear: "They keep the rain from running down the back of their necks." Do they designate anything? Why don't all ferengi wear them? "They're considered a little old-fashioned. Hip young turks like Quark, Brunt, and Gaila tend not to wear them, in immitation of the Grand Nagus, who disdains them (probably because they're manufactured by a rival businessman)."

Roger Sorensen of St. Cloud, MN: I happened to be browsing "Ask the Chief" on just the right day, I guess. Rob Reed of Novi, MI writes, in part, "...The Enterprise model used in the show closely matches the original Enterprise model in the NASM AS IT APPEARS TODAY, which is significantly different from how it appeared during the filming of the original series. The original, 11 1/2', Enterprise model had a smooth saucer section (no concentric circle panel lines)..."

First, unfortunately, the NASM no longer has the Enterprise on display. That gallery will house the Star Wars exhibit this fall.

Second, it's slowly becoming evident that the original, unrestored Enterprise DID have a grid-like pattern on the saucer and nacelles. The gridding put on the Enterprise by the Smithsonian (SI) restorers is far more prominent than that which was on the model when the series was in production, but the pattern of gridding is correct. The ship is smooth-hulled, but there are radial and concentric lines and color variances visible in a number of resources, some of which can be seen on the web. These features don't appear on the Trek pilot episodes' version of the Enterprise, only in the actual series production version, though I have yet to actually see them in any video stills - they are very subtle. The Trek modeling community (see Steve Iverson's SF Modeling Page at http://members.aol.com/CultTVman/model.html) has been doing a great service here by dispelling the "no-grid" mythology that's built up over the years (Hey! The emperor's naked!).

Jack Smith published the first photo (taken by SI before restoration) that made me a "grid convert" at http://funnelweb.utcc.utk.edu/~achine/grid.html. I've scrutinized & scanned several photos from magazines (especially Cinefantastique, March 1987) and have posted some at my "Model Citizen" site in the Trek Modeler's Guide's Constitution class page: http://www.users.csbsju.edu/~rsorense/modelcitizen. These features ARE there - it's just a matter of realizing that and seeing them for what they are. Then they jump out and smack you in the head.

Michael Thomas: Every thing has a gravitational pull. Voyager may pull the particals back creating eddies.

Phil: I'm not sure a gravitation pull would cause those type of eddies but the gravitational pull of Voyager is an interesting point. I did look up the graviton generators in the Tech Manual for the Enterprise-D to see if they might affect anything outside the ship. Apparently not! The gravitons supposedly decay rapidly.

Michael Apple: I think the "eddies" Voyager makes in the dust particles are caused by the particles bouncing off the navigational deflectors as the ship passes through the dust cloud. It's been established that the nav deflectors are what protects the ship from damage by interstellar matter. Without them, even an asteroid the size of a pebble could make a giant hole in the hull. It is plausable that the eddies are simply the dust particles being pushed away by the deflectors.

Phil: Um . . . yes, but the particles don't just bounce off the shields, they swirl! Think about how stuff reacts on the space shuttle. If an astronaut throws a ball to another astronaut, it goes straight to the second astronaut. If the second guy swats the ball, the ball takes off in another direction but it travels on a straight path. That's because there's no gravity to contrain it to a parabolic arc. Without some medium to contrain the motion of the particles, they should just bounce and travel outward in a straight line, shouldn't they?

Corey Hines, Hamilton, ON: Regarding Galaxy Class Starships. You forgot the USS Venture seen at the end of "Way of the Warrior"(DS9).

Jason Liu: Someone asked about how many Galaxy class starships there are. Now, if I remember correctly, in the TNG Tech Manual, it states that 12 of them were built. 6 of them were actually built and commissioned, while the other 6 were built only to the point of their main superstructure. These 6 incomplete ships were then disassembled into modules and moved to different locations in the Federation. In the event of a major catastrophe, those 6 Galaxy class starships could then be finished in less than a year. As for the 6 commissioned vessels, we know at least 3 were destroyed - the Enterprise, Yamato, and Odyssey. The manual states that there is the USS Galaxy, which, of course, is the class ship. So, that leaves 2 that are unnamed/unmentioned. (Interestingly enough, I don't remember seeing any other Galaxy class ships at Wolf 359, in First Contact, or in the Dominion invasion. You'd think the Federation would want its best ships-of-the-line at those battles.)

Phil: Makes sense to me! Thanks to Murray Leeder, Joshua Truax, Michael Ash, Scott Hayden, Chris Chapman, J. Seth Farrow for sending this information along as well.)

David D. Porter: The Navy's General Quarters (GQ, also Condition I) is battle stations. Everyone in the crew has a specific post. Those with normal duties that don't pertain to combat or operating the ship (supply, admin, cooks) usually occupy damage control, ammunition handling or communications stations. While the bridge does have more people at GQ, the stations which are only manned during battle are mostly repair lockers and medical facilities.

Phil: Thanks for the info, David!

Joel Corbin: Perhaps, since the Nexus is like a wishing-well of sorts, when Picard and Kirk "wished" themselves back to real life to defeat Soran, Picard just "wished" himself to take the other Picard's place exactly. So to a viewer of the two captains appearing, it would seem like only Kirk appeared, since Picard took the exact position of himself.

Ronan Mitchell: About the Vulcan ships: There was a shuttle in ST:TMP,the scout ship in ST:FC, the T'Pau in "Reunification" (TNG.) In terms of Vulcan starships, there was the U.S.S Intrepid in the original series episode "The Immunity Syndrome" that was manned entirely by Vulcans.

Joe Vrablik: The only time I've ever seen a Vulcan ship is when its a science vessel. I would assume that the science vessels are simply independent of Starfleet, just as commercial traffic is. Also,as science vessels, they aren't really designed for planetary and strategic defense. I think that would fall into Starfleet's lap as well.

Joshua Truax: Second, regarding Michael Apple's question of why Martok would accept Worf into his family despite his discommendation by Gowron in "The Way of the Warrior" [DS9], the answer is simple: Worf was never discommended in that episode in the first place.

If you don't believe me, watch the scene in that episode where Worf rejects Gowron's invitation to join the Klingons' invasion of Cardassia. Gowron threatens him with the loss of his house and Kurn's seat on the High Council. "You will have nothing!" he says, to which Worf replies, "Except my honor." At this Gowron simply says, "So be it..." and walks away. Notice that Gowron does not dispute Worf's assertion that his own personal honor remains intact. To me at least, this says that Worf lost his good standing in the Empire merely because he had crossed the wrong man (namely Chancellor Gowron), not because he was dishonored.

Discommendation, from what we have seen on ST:TNG, is a completely different animal. This is reserved for those Klingons whose actions are deemed to be truly dishonorable, such as secretly conspiring with an enemy to betray one's own people. The penalty for this is the loss of not only one's own honor and good standing in the Empire, but those of his/her children and descendants for seven generations. Correct me if I'm wrong, but Gowron never threatened Worf with anything like that, so he must consider their conflict to be nothing more than an honorable disagreement, based solely on the fact that their respective governments have had a falling-out. Indeed, when the Federation and Klingons get back together in "By Inferno's Light", Gowron doesn't object to Worf's recommendation of Martok as the commander of the Klingon garrison on DS9 - further evidence, at least in my book, that in spite of their differences, Gowron still considers Worf to be very much a man of honor, so therefore Martok can safely welcome Worf into his house.

Phil: Could be! But didn't Kurn lose his honor because of the whole deal as well? Didn't he come to the station and say that the only way he'd get to Klingon heaven was for Worf to kill him? Granted, I don't pretend to be an expert on Klingon culture but the consequences of Worf's second "booting" seemed much more severe than the first. In the second one, the entire House of Mog was disintegrated. I realize that Kurn hid his identity throughout Worf's discommendation but it sure sounded like the houses and lands remained intact for Worf to reassume when Gowron gave him back his "honor."

Murray Leeder: There's a lot of evidence to support the fact that the Dominion have some other way of getting into the Alpha Quadrant (transwarp conduits, wormholes, whatever):

1: The negotiations between Cardassia and the Dominion were conducted in secret. How is this possible? There are Changelings on this side, of course, but they'd have to get back to the Gamma Quadrant to inform the Dominion about it (I can see them being able to smuggle themselves in, but to smuggle themselves back???). And in "By Inferno's Light" it seemed that the Dominion knew right away about Cardassia's having joined them.

2: Martok, Bashir and so on were smuggled across the galaxy. Now this is just ludicrous... at least Changelings can render themselves invisible to sensors, but these aren't Changelings! How do you get them through the wormhole without anyone knowing on DS9?

3: "Soldiers of the Empire" features one of the smaller Dominion warships, none of which came through in "By Inferno's Light". Now, as you said, it is possible that they're building them, but since it took years just to build the Enterprise...

Ronan Mitchell: Ok, if we take the PD as "No interference" (Pen pals, TNG) then Captain Janeway broke it when she:

1: Helped the Ocampa in "Caretaker" and destroyed the array in the same episode. Gave water to the Kazon. How about taking Kes and Neelix along?

2: Revealed her identity in "Time and again" and used a phaser in front of the locals,(can you break the PD if it'll save your life, not to mention an entire planet?)

3: Told Ptera where she was and what happened in "Emanations" (we'll let her away with that one),

4: She made up for it in "Prime Factors" where she obeyed another planets prime directive,

5: "Jetrel" is debatable cause the Talaxians are allies,

6: The "37'S" - thawed out the Humans and landed a starship for the natives!(Understandable enough given the circumstances)

7: Asking to be sent home in "Cold Fire" (Who would blame them?)

8: How about "Prototype"? It's been a while since I saw some of these.

9: And "Alliances?"

10: "Dreadnaught" was forgivable but -

11: She sent down the shuttle against the aliens will in "Innonence".

But it's all understandable as the PD should only apply to the Alpha quadrant and known Federation space. Voyager could be in a martial-law, adaptable type directive because of it's dilemma, so a lot of the breaches are understandable.

Murray Leeder: Who says the Romulans salute the same way humans so? Maybe Bochra was saying "I pledge you my dying breath" or "May my liver be plucked out before I betray you"!

On to the questions . . . .

Rob van Hulst: I've got two questions this week: I was browsing in a bookstore in Rotterdam the other day, and i saw two different copies of the DS9 guide. One was pocketbook format, and had the DS9 station on its frontcover, the other was larger and had the Defiant on the frontcover.(this is the one i bought at the American Book Center in Amsterdam about 2 months ago). Why are there 2 different versions? Also, I just saw the episode of DS9 in which Odo becomes a Changeling again ( can't remember the name of the show right now ), and i wondered: why did they do it? Could it be that is was meant to be from the start, or did the ratings fell when Odo wasn't a Changeling anymore :).Any suggestions?

Phil: As to the DS9 Cover being different in the British version . . . that's a long story. As to Odo getting his powers back, I would imagine that once a character has been set up to play a certain part, it's pretty difficult to rearrange the formula. As soon as Odo became a "solid," I thought, "Well, this isn't going to last very long!" And . . . it didn't!

Chris George: Are the runabouts and Defiant property of Deep Space Nine, or are they property of Starfleet and just stationed at Deep Space Nine?

Phil: As far as I can tell, they're Starfleet!

Corey Hines, Hamilton, ON: When you finish the X-Files guide, do you plan on reviewing any summer movies?

Phil: Planning on it! Looks like we've got some interesting ones. A buddy told me he really enjoyed "The Fifth Dimension."

Charles Sylvia: Anyway....a nit in your Brash Reflections this week from "Displaced" inspired me to right a paragraph or two about the names of alien races and alien worlds in Star Trek. A guild member noted that the homeworld of the Nyrians is convinentally labeled Nyria III. In fact all alien worlds in Trek are named after the name of the race and then a number designating it's position to the sun. One of your nits in one of the NextGen guides for "First Contact" (the episode not the movie) was that a Malcorian refered to his planet as Malcor III. Also, the Vulcan homeworld is simply "Vulcan." The only planet that seems to have an original name is well....Earth! Now...I would think, that most planets would have weird alien names most likely unpronouncable with human vocal chords. So, maybe the Universal Translator simply takes the actual name of the alien homeworld and translates it into something we can understand. So, Nyria III is really Haa##%~ll...!!!^^***iicaaadfg. But...what I want to know, is, well...first, how does the Universal Translator KNOW that this word represents the alien homeworld? Since this is a totally new language to it, from a species in the Delta Quadrant, how could it possibly have a basis to know that Haa##%~ll...!!!^^***iicaaadfg means the Nyrian homeworld. And also...how the hellman's mayonnaise do these alien names get designated anyway. Back in the Alpha Quadrant, when the Federation runs into some new race, say....the Malcorians, well, probably the actual name of the species is some weird alien slur totally unpronouncable for us, so...the federation linguists sit in their offices and decide that they're going to call this species Malcorian. And then, all the Universal Translators everywhere in the federation know that this species is called Malcorian.

Okay...but....in the Delta Quadrant, or anytime the crew in Star Trek meets a new species, how could the crew possibly have a basis on which to call these species. Talaxians, Kazon, Nyrian....how could the crew KNOW that they are called this. The word "Talaxian" uses human concenant and vowel sounds, and ends with the suffix "an" signifying it is "of Talaxia." When they first brought Neelix aboard and he said "I'm Talaxian" how would the Universal Translator know what "Talaxian" meant? And...even if it did know that whatever Neelix said in his native language was the word for his homeworld, how did it instantly come up with a nice sounding, human vocal chord friendly race name for Neelix's race? And the same with all the other races Voyager encounters. How would the computer come up with the word Kazon?

Phil: There's really no way to resolve this without saying that the Universal Translator is omniscient. As I've said before, I'm not thrilled with the UT but the alternatives are even worse so I think we should all just wink at it!

Lisa Shock, Phoenix, AZ: I've noticed that almost every episode of Voyager this season had a passing mention of the Bolians in it. They mention the Breen every other episode. The Bolians also get a lot of passing commentary on DS9. Is this some sort of new 47?

Phil: Got me but there was another mention in the latest Voyager episode, "Worst Case Scenario"!

Deirdre Shaw of Framingham, MA: And now a question of my own: I admit shamelessly that I watch and enjoy "Hercules" and "Xena." On last week's Xena, there was a character named Seacrops (okay, I can't spell), who was played by Tony Todd. My husband and I both thought that he would have made a great Klingon, as he was tall, dark, striking, and a great voice. Do you know if he ever did play a Klingon?

Phil: In fact, Todd plays none other than Kurn, Worf's brother. He also played the elder Jake in the wonderful DS9 episode "The Visitor."

Rebecca S. Bare: I heard at a convention that Majel Roddenberry has a daughter that has been in one of the Star Trek shows. Do you know who this might be and in which show and episode she was in?

Phil: No idea! Anybody?

Scott Vogt: Speaking to all those who wonder why no one since STIV ever uses "The Slingshot Effect" to travel thru time. Don't you think this is the biggest threat to the Federation ever? With this knowledge all of history can be altered! Do you think this procedure is sitting in the files of every SF ship out there? This is the most closely guarded secret in SF. Proof: Riker and Picard call it a THEORY in "Time Squared". Why would SF make this available to captains who routinely violate the PD? (And they all do when they believe it's necessary) Don't you think Ben Maxwell ("The Wounded") would have happily went back to save his family from the Cardassians? Even 29th Century's Captain Braxton went nuts and time travelled to save his Earth. And this is just from our own people. Imagine the Cardassians, Ferengi, or the Romulans with this information!

Phil: Makes sense to me!

Have a great weekend, everybody!

If you would like to submit a question or comment, send it to: chief@nitcentral.com with "Question" in the Subject line. (Remember the legalese: Everything you submit becomes mine and you grant me the right to use your name in any future publication by me.)

Copyright 1997 by Phil Farrand. All rights reserved.