Okay! I might actually be starting my first consulting job on Tuesday and I'm brushing up on some of my programming stuff so I don't have much time to spare this morning. (Unfortuantely, this has become a ritual and I don't expect it to get much better in the days ahead!) First, some comments from previous columns . . .
Bullies on the Playground and the End of the Nitpicker's Guides
Beginning with Phil Farrand's comments at the end of the
5/15/98 column
Niclas Jönsson Eslöv: After having read all your wonderfully written books I was saddened buythe fact that you weren't going to do any more of them. I read somewere(likely in a newsletter) that because your publisher decided to end itnoone else in the US will publish your guides. I have no idea how thebuissness works but couldn't there be someone outside the US interested,that then could export them back? Considering how easy the guides is tofind at a specialized bookstore in Sweden, the whole idea sounds possible.I for one would realy like to see more ST-guides or a whole new SW-guide.
Phil: Thanks for the kind words! Anything is possible but, unfortunately, the economics of the situation make it difficult!
The Death Of Jadzia
Beginning with Matt Greer's comments in the 6/12/98 column
Mathew Bredfeldt: On the comments of Rene Charbonneau in the 7/17/98 ask the chief about Tasha Yar dying because of her own stupidity is just plain off-base. Yar died tring to save a member of her crew that she has been trained to protect. I really do not remember much of the episode because it was a long time ago since I last saw it. Dax's death just seemed so contrived to me because of the way the episode was going. She had finally got pregnant after wanting to have a baby, and then was killed. It was that and the fact that I knew she was going to die. As for the last part with Sisko and Dax's body in the torpedo was just not as stirring as Yar's ceremony on the holodeck. This moved me to tears, while the memorial for Dax did absolutely nothing for me.
Phil: As I'm fond of saying, everybody's got a right to their own opinion around here!
The Music For The Movie Trailers
Beginning with Paul Steele's comments in the 7/10/98 Column
Corey Hines: The song in the movie trailer for "Mafia" is "Misirlou" by Dick Dale & His Del-Tones. It is most noteably featured in the movie "Pulp Fiction". It's used here since "Mafia" is a spoof of gangster movies.
The Aesthetics of the Enterprise E
Beginning with Josh K’s comments in the 7/31/98 Column
Mathew Bredfeldt: As for the asthetics on the Enterprise-E. For me I like it, especially from the back and front. It's like a combination of all the past classes. I have the Playmates Enterprise-E and I just like looking at it because it seems just so asthetically pleasing and is easy on the eyes. It almost looks like the Enterprise from the original television series from the front.
Commodore Josh K: I'm beginning to suspect that there are very, very few of the Sovereign-class starships in SF service at this point--as few as five or less. There are only two that we know exist for certain: the Ent-E, and the U.S.S. Sovereign, presumably the prototype first ship of this class. During the DS9 season finale, the Gintaka battle scenes did not include any Sovereign-class starships, presumably because none were available to join the attack force. During the DS9 episode "Valiant", whose rerun I just watched, Nog tells Jake the Dominion warship is twice the size of a Galaxy class starship. This suggests that SF officers still use the Galaxy class as the standard with which they compare the enemy's best vessels. I think this is because the Sovereign-class starships are still so rare that some SF officers barely know they exist. The Sov. class, although being the most heavily armed starship ever built, is probablynot commonly known as Starfleet's deadliest warship; that would be the Defiant class, which it is probably very quick and easy to be built because unlike Sovereign, the Defiants are very small in size and crew complement. Finally, in STAR TREK time, the Galaxy-class starships were around for about ten years (assuming their use began with the mission of the Ent-D) before the Sovereigns made them obsolete; in that time, only seven have been shown on TV--the Enterprise; the Yamato; the Odyssey; the Venture; two unnamed ships from the fleet which retook DS9, and at least one from the Gintaka attack fleet. If ten years' time produced only seven Galaxy ships, how many of these larger and more heavily armed Sovereign-class starships could SF have managed to build in about two years (about the age of the Sovereign class), at a time when their shipyards have been destroyed, their resources drained? A possibility is that the producers simply do not plan to make use of the Sovereign class in future DS9 episodes; that they're thinking the Enterprise-E model was made strictly for display in First Contact.
Tom Servo on the Promenade
Beginning with the comments of Matt Nelson in the 8/7/98 Column
Chris_Whitehead: With regards to: "Tom Servo on the Promenade"
I can tell you that "Diva Droid Corporation" and "Jupiter Mining Corporation" both come from the British sci-fi/comedy series "Red Dwarf". Diva Droid is the company that made the android character Kryten, and the JMC is the company that owns the Red Dwarf. "Spacely Sprockets" is a Jetsons reference.
Scott Neugroschl: Re: Robert Cook (8/15) and the promenade directory:
Banzai Institue - "Buckaroo Banzai across the 8th dimension"
Berman's Dilithium Supply - Rick Berman
Del Floria's Taylor Shop - Jeri Taylor
Diva Droid Corporation - no clue
Forbin Project - no clue
Jupiter Mining Corporation - no clue
Pancho's Happy Bottom Riding Club - I'm not even going to go near this! (Note from Phil: Well said.)
Sirius Cybernetics Corporation - Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy Spacely
Sprockets - Jetsons Yoyodyne propulsion systems - generic Internet name for a company
Chez Zimmerman - Doc Zimmerman
Going to Warp in a Planetary System
Beginning with the comments of Christopher Querry in the 8/7/98
Column
Commodore Josh K: On Joe Griffin's question about engaging warp inside a planetary system: This was done by the Enterprise no-suffix in the Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens novel Prime Directive (actually, the Enterprise engages warp while orbiting a planet, which may not be the same, but may nevertheless be of interest.) At one point in the novel, the Enterprise falls into the planet's atmosphere after taking damage to her impulse engines. Kirk is forced to engage warp drive to escape, even though this is extremely dangerous because the ship is too deep inside the planet's gravity well. When the warp engines engage, the warp field forms a gravitational wormhole, which causes time to slow down inside the ship. To avoid being pulled into it, the crew has to jettison the warp nacelles and the entire supply of matter/antimatter fuel into the wormhole.
An NCC Prefix For The Defiant
Beginning with the comments of Aaron Dotter in the 8/15/98
Column
Chris Whitehead: The Defiant's registry number was a topic of discussion on the DS9 newsgroup a while back. According to one of the VFX guys (who posts there semi-regularly), the Defiant does indeed have an NCC registry.
Nick Angeloni: In response to Aaron Dotter's question: This could have been footage reused from "Valiant" but I don't know why. By the way, "Valiant" used stock shots of the Defiant in which the NX prefix can be seen.
On to the questions . . .
Matthew Patterson: I don't know if this will be able to make it into the 8-14 Ask the Chief (probably not) but maybe you could put it in next weeks'. On the news yesterday, I heard of a new, shocking development that makes the most commonly occurring nit in the Star Trek universe (even though it hasn't appeared since May, 1994) retroactively correct. The people in charge of the rewrite of the Oxford dictionary of the English language (or whatever its official name is) have decided that we can all now split infinitives without fear of punishment from our English teachers. This now means that every time Kirk or Picard says "To boldly go" instead of "To go boldly" (which is technically correct since To go is the infinitive and we were formerly required to keep both words together) they are now correct. But, I guess they were right anyway because they're 300-400 years in the future, so all this would have been ancient history to them. Still, that's one less thing us nitpickers can complain about.
(Another minor note: when Dan Rather announced this, he actually used the phrase "Boldly go where no dictionary has gone before"!)
Phil: Score another one for the creators! Of course, by the time we actually get to the 23rd century, Trekkers will wonder why Picard and Kirk are using such arcane language when the proper rendering of the phrase would be: "Ti baldly gawl wier nun uman as gun b'fare."
Bob Woolley: So now that the Nitpicker's Guides are (apparently) at an end, can you finally reveal to the world the meaning of IRIOT (without having to kill us all)? I'm still betting that the last three letters are for "It's only television," but I don't have a plausible guess for the beginning.
Phil: heh, heh, heh . . . .
Michael Gurwitz: In case you haven't heard, Persis Khambatta, the pretty Indian actress who played Ilia in "Star Trek, TMP," died of a heart attack August 19th at the age of 49. Let's all wish her soul a peaceful journey.
Phil: Thanks for the info.
Tom Clarke: DeForest Kelley appears as a medic in the movie _Man in the Grey Flannel Suit_ Gregory Peck staggers up carrying his best friend who Peck has accidentally killed with a grenade. Kelley says "This man is dead." He sounded exactly like Bones; my ear expected "Jim" to follow the pronouncement. Was there an episode where Bones said "This man is dead, Jim"?
Phil: Eeyup, yup, yup. I am almost certain there is: I can hear Bones saying it in my head . . . but where? Seems like the scene had something to do with Bone being stunned that the guy was actually dead. Anybody?
James Gardner: Will there be a Voyager Nitpicker's Guide?
Phil: Couldn't say! (It probably depends on Paramount.)
Chris Ashley: Is there such a thing as a Starfleet chaplain? I'm not sure I've ever heard one mentioned, though most military organizations today have chaplains in the ranks. If yes, where's it established? If not, any particular reason why?
Phil: Well, the original Enterprise seemed to have a chapel (as seen in "Balance of Terror") but we've never seen a chaplain. As to the particular reason, I would imagine that it is because Roddenberry was certain that humanity would outgrow its need for religion in the future. (I supposed I could observe here that those who live excessive lifestyles often comfort themselves with the notion that humanity will abandon religion as some point but I believe I will postpone! ;-)
Commodore Josh K: I just watched the rerun of DS9's two-part episode "Past Tense," and I have a question about something in Part II: Just what is wrong with the strange character who takes away, and later returns, Dax's combadge? You may not remember him at first, but who could forget him--that funny little man who, upon being visited by Dax and Bashir (he believes the former to be a "good" alien), waves his hand over himself and crows, "Whoosh! I'm invisible!" Is he an escaped patient of the Sanctuary District Funny Farm, or is he merely extremely stupid?
Phil: I believe that the creators wanted us to believe that he was mentally impair. So, no, he wasn't "extremely stupid." That takes intelligence!
Have a great weekend, everybody!
If you would like to submit a question or comment, send it to: chief@nitcentral.com with "Ask the Chief" or "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 1998 by Phil Farrand. All rights reserved.