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> Meh: Anything focusing on Worf.

Best Worf episode: Redemption Part II is also a good Data story, when he gets command of the Sutherland and has to smack-down his first officer.

> Worst: Anything focusing on Troi, Wesley, Riker, or the Holodeck. So most of the rest of the entire show.

Best Troi episode: Thine Own Self
Best Wesley episode: The First Duty
Best Riker episode: First Contact
Best holodeck episode: Ship in a Bottle

> Meh: Anything focusing on Worf.

Best Worf episode: Redemption Part II is also a good Data story, when he gets command of the Sutherland and has to smack-down his first officer.

> Worst: Anything focusing on Troi, Wesley, Riker, or the Holodeck. So most of the rest of the entire show.

Best Troi episode: Thine Own Self
Best Wesley episode: The First Duty
Best Riker episode: First Contact
Best holodeck episode: Ship in a Bottle

> Meh: Anything focusing on Worf.

Best Worf episode: Redemption Part II is also a good Data story, when he gets command of the Sutherland and has to smack-down his first officer.

> Worst: Anything focusing on Troi, Wesley, Riker, or the Holodeck. So most of the rest of the entire show.

Best Troi episode: Thine Own Self
Best Wesley episode: The First Duty
Best Riker episode: First Contact
Best holodeck episode: Ship in a Bottle

> They don't even bring up the Luwaxana episodes.

IMHO, one of the finest episodes of the series was Half a Life, which centered around Lwaxana. She had to drop her facade of strength when she faced a very personal moral dilemma, and showed her true vulnerability.

One giant leap for Synthehol.

Transparent skulls look bad on humans, since they have such small brains. It looks better on a gallamite.

Thank you... I can't believe how many posts it took before someone mentioned this. "Only" 70-80% of the country has some form of internet or broadband, depending on who you ask... I bet the remaining 20+% account for more than their fair share of DVD users (I can't be sure, but still). Alienating that group is potentially bad for business.

And whose fault is that?! You went to the sticks and decided to live there. You knew the internet was crappy. I say let your streaming suck :P

The rest of us will live in the big city where where the internet flows like profits into the wallets of the DSL, fiber and cable providers! Profit my friend, profit that's the true motivation. Let the Rules of Acquisition guide you http://en.memory-alpha.org/wik...

Well, they did go through the Bell Riots first.

2024? Good guess...

at some point we're going to end up with a civilization like in Star Trek TNG

First --- I wish, that would be an incredible and ideal future.

But society is based on power and control, both in government and private industry.

Well, they did go through the Bell Riots first.

I'm thinking that we're going to have to go through something similar, but with the current thinking among conservatives, it's going to be a lot worse. The Fuck-You-I-Got-Mine Capitalism is going to come to a bloody end.

It seems reasonable to infer from the intoxicating effects of Bloodwine which is guzzled not sipped from dainty thimbles, that Warnog should be far from lacking in potency and certainly well in excess of 10%. It also dispels your assertion of Klingons being lightweights. I'd argue the flavor choice probably doesn't make much sense either, but I really don't have any canonical references to support that one way or the other.

--Thanks for that. I remembered something along that line when I saw this article but couldn't recall it exactly.

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wik...

" Never build a prison that you wouldn't like to live in yourself "
/ Havelock (Lord) Vetinari, Ankh-Morpork

Come on, man. For Star Trek stuff, there's a better wiki with higher geek cred. ;)

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wik...

"In the future, women will have breasts all over." - David Byrne

True, but we know from ST:DS9 that they'll switch over to holographic interfaces sometime in the late 2300s or early 2400s (or, at least they did in a future timeline in one episode).

The others invaded Bajor.

They lawfully occupied it. You Federation shills are so transparent in your efforts it's not even funny. You preach about peace, transparency, and freedom from oppression, while secretly engaging in the same tactics you publicly abhor.

(and suddenly this comment got way more serious and allusory than I intended)

If only they had Kathryn and an EMH...

My kingdom for mod points. This is sad but true. If we do ever leave it will be to mine unobtanium like in the movie Avatar, not to further mankind in general.

Picard tries to explain to Ralph Offenhouse from the 20th century that there would be no need for his law firm any longer: "A lot has changed in three hundred years. People are no longer obsessed with the accumulation of 'things'. We have eliminated hunger, want, the need for possessions." (TNG: "The Neutral Zone") - http://en.memory-alpha.org/wik...

FILTHY HUMAN SHELL:

You mean, "Ugly giant bags of mostly water."

Parenthetically, (geek alert) the controls on TOS Enterprise, with their distinctive shapes, seemed a LOT more practical to me for an environment with lots of tipping and juddering in combat, as opposed to the all-touch-screen controls in later generations, which required that you keep your hands in contact with the control surface in a potentially hostile environment and watch your hands manipulate virtual buttons and switches, when you should probably be looking at something else.

The "Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual", on page 33, when describing the touch-panels, says: "Also incorporated into this layer is a transducer matrix that provides tactile and auditory feedback to the operator..." They don't elaborate on what this 'tactile feedback' might be like. At a minimum it would presumably indicate (e.g. via a vibration) that a button was pressed. Some fans have hypothesized that the panels perhaps incorporate miniature versions of the force-field technology used throughout the ship: so that even though the panel looks flat, you can actually 'feel' the buttons/layouts as you move your hands around; and of course this tactile response updates as the layout does. (This is supported by the fact that in Voyager, when Tuvok is blinded he is able to activate a "Tactile mode" on his workstation, implying that all panels have the ability to generate tactile feedback.) Thus, the TNG-era touchscreens could have had substantial amount of tactile control.

The reason I point this out is that the creators of a sci-fi show in 1991 could easily imagine that a flat-panel interface would benefit substantially from tactile feedback. The fact that modern vehicle UI designers can't understand this is thus rather ridiculous.

So maybe only 32 bits are needed? :-) http://en.memory-alpha.org/wik...
http://en.memory-alpha.org/wik...

Also great Star Trek on a Holodeck simulation confused with "reality":
http://en.memory-alpha.org/wik...

So maybe only 32 bits are needed? :-) http://en.memory-alpha.org/wik...
http://en.memory-alpha.org/wik...

Also great Star Trek on a Holodeck simulation confused with "reality":
http://en.memory-alpha.org/wik...

So maybe only 32 bits are needed? :-) http://en.memory-alpha.org/wik...
http://en.memory-alpha.org/wik...

Also great Star Trek on a Holodeck simulation confused with "reality":
http://en.memory-alpha.org/wik...

Very insightful! The Culture series is great for exploring these ides and clashes.

And on your water example, there was an episode in Star Trek: Voyager where Neelix is first introduced and he considers water a rare luxury. There is a a funny scene onboard Voyager where he surrounds himself with glasses of water the way we today might surround ourselves with gold and diamonds and i7 cores. But as you said, Neelix did not then drink himself to death, and he went on to find other useful and interesting things to do with his time.
http://en.memory-alpha.org/wik...

See also James P. Hogan's "Voyage From Yesteryear" (VFY) sci-fi novel which has a gift economy in it where people acquire status by being good at something and using it for the public benefit. There is a clash of cultures there (one from old Earth similar to ours today) which includes a scene where some aristrocratic person in the old culture is going on about how fine some new silverware or something is (the old status system in play) when the two people she is trying to impress know such things could be had just for the asking in the new culture (which is powered by fusion energy and automated production lines). I think VFY really addresses the culture shock of the transition, something so brilliant I did not recognize how insightful it was when I first read the novel, thinking instead how silly that the old Earthlings could not get that things have changed and abundance is there for the asking. Sadly, I know see how prescient James P. Hogan was.
http://p2pfoundation.net/Voyag...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V...
http://www.baenebooks.com/chap...

Sadly, the late James P. Hogan's site seems to be down recently:
https://web.archive.org/web/20...

So I'll quote this here at length:
https://web.archive.org/web/20...
-----
An Earth set well into the next century is going through one of its periodical crises politically, and it looks as if this time they might really press the button for the Big One. If it happens, the only chance for our species to survive would be by preserving a sliver of itself elsewhere, which in practical terms means another star, since nothing closer is readily habitable. There isn't time to organize a manned expedition of such scope from scratch. However, a robot exploratory vessel is under construction to make the first crossing to the Centauri system, and it with a crash program it would be possible to modify the designs to carry sets of human genetic data coded electronically. Additionally, a complement of incubator/nanny/tutor robots can be included, able to convert the electronic data back into chemistry and raise/educate the ensuing offspring while others prepare surface habitats and supporting infrastructure, when a habitable world is discovered. By the time we meet the "Chironians," their culture is into its fifth generation.

In the meantime, Earth went through a dodgy period, but managed in the end to muddle through. The fun begins when a generation ship housing a population of thousands arrives to "reclaim" the colony on behalf of the repressive, authoritarian regime that emerged following the crisis period. The Mayflower II brings with it all the tried and tested apparatus for bringing a recalcitrant population to heel: authority, with its power structure and symbolism, to impress; commercial institutions with the promise of wealth and possessions, to tempt and ensnare; a religious presence, to awe and instill duty and obedience; and if all else fails, armed military force to compe

First, Star Trek meets circa 2000 Earthlings (YouTube): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

On your question, I guess there is a big difference between "wants" and "needs". It's true they shade into each other though, so it is not black and white. It also depends on context and culture.
http://frugalliving.about.com/...

Also, they could easily give that guy his own star ship on a Holodeck (or via some direct brain stimulation that would be even cheaper), and he may never have noticed unless they told him (as with Moriarity in "Ship in a Bottle"). Of course, if the universe is a simulation, we all may be in that situation already:
http://en.memory-alpha.org/wik...
http://www.simulation-argument...

Live performances of plays take place in the Star Trek Universe (proof) although holograms, by providing dress rehearsal opportunities, may help actors to prepare for their roles.

-Gareth

Live performances of plays take place in the Star Trek Universe (proof) although holograms, by providing dress rehearsal opportunities, may help actors to prepare for their roles.

-Gareth

Dude, Quantum Torpedoes are where it's at...

Photon Torpedoes are so like the original NCC-1701

It's even something of a Star Trek thing. Star Trek had that fake alcohol

I'm taking three points off your geek card for making a reference to synthohol, instead of the Benzites.

Benzites were vaporizing before, err, after, it was cool.

Oh, and, fuck Beta.

Have you never heard of Tachyons?

But Star Trek shows for the most part only one small slice of life in the Federation: life aboard a military vessel or starbase.

That just makes it worse. Being in Star Fleet or the Federation government puts you in the upper class of society. The lower classes would have it even worse.

Take these guys for example.

No, I don't remember any such episode, and apparently neither do you. A check of Memory Alpha reveals no such episode.

A big spinning wheel shaped vehicle should suffice

Naw, just install gravity plates.

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Gravity_plate

Doesn't help with the radiation, though.

I don't understand where your "negative mass" is coming from.

Another one that never watched ST:TAS... from Memory Alpha's description of Beyond the Farthest Star:

En route to investigate, the Enterprise suddenly experiences severe hypergravitational effects from Questar M-17's negative star mass.

But the lefties keep telling us that Star Trek is a post-scarcity society. So I'll just have my own Starship Enterprise, won't I? Who needs Star Fleet?

Missing the trees for the forest friend. What the lefties mean is that Star Trek supports socialism. And they're right. The Federation is a one-party large central government, with Star Fleet being its military arm (but of course they say all those phasers and torpedoes are only for defense and peaceful purposes)

All members of the The Party... er I mean The Federation could get their own Starship Enterprise. They just have to have appropriate standing within The Party (that is, Star Fleet or the Federation government proper)

So again, at minimum you should be a Star Fleet officer (again, not red shirts). What with all the inherent corruption in socialism, it's no surprise that Star Fleet captains often disregard the rules they set for themselves, and go down on away missions, which opens up opportunity for officers to take control of the ship, even if when under your command, you grant special favors to your girlfriend/future wife, telling her to take the helm and she crashes the ship onto a planet

I take it you haven't watched the shows then? Because I seem to recall the Eugenics Wars, which led to the outlawing of genetic manipulation; the Bell Riots, which led to the US government beginning to address the serious social problems facing the country; and World War III and the post-atomic horror, followed shortly thereafter by first contact, which acted as a catalyst for the unification of humanity which took about another 100 years to achieve after first contact.

There was nothing magical about it. From the mid-1900s (i.e. when the franchise first hit the airwaves) to when the United Federation of Planets is formed, you have nearly 200 years of history riddled with serious conflicts that led to societal changes after societal change. And even after things are allegedly "magically solved", you have internal conflicts going on, such as the Maquis Insurrection. Nothing was solved quickly or easily. Enterprise is all about this sort of stuff, in fact, since it pre-dates the formation of the Federation and deals with how fragile the United Earth government is and how the Vulcans mistrust the humans, since the humans were still pulling themselves out of the aftermath of the third world war.

And before you keep suggesting that there wasn't much in the way of explanation, those links tie back to information that was presented in each and every one of the series (I specifically recall the Eugenics Wars being mentioned in TOS, TNG, DS9, and ENT; Bell Riots were in DS9; WW3 was in the very first and last episodes of TNG; post-atomic horror was mentioned in TNG and VOY; United Earth was all over the place in ENT; and I'm still making my way through TAS, but I know some of those are brought up in episodes I haven't seen yet), so no matter which one(s) you watched, you should have gotten some idea of the history of their fictional universe.

I take it you haven't watched the shows then? Because I seem to recall the Eugenics Wars, which led to the outlawing of genetic manipulation; the Bell Riots, which led to the US government beginning to address the serious social problems facing the country; and World War III and the post-atomic horror, followed shortly thereafter by first contact, which acted as a catalyst for the unification of humanity which took about another 100 years to achieve after first contact.

There was nothing magical about it. From the mid-1900s (i.e. when the franchise first hit the airwaves) to when the United Federation of Planets is formed, you have nearly 200 years of history riddled with serious conflicts that led to societal changes after societal change. And even after things are allegedly "magically solved", you have internal conflicts going on, such as the Maquis Insurrection. Nothing was solved quickly or easily. Enterprise is all about this sort of stuff, in fact, since it pre-dates the formation of the Federation and deals with how fragile the United Earth government is and how the Vulcans mistrust the humans, since the humans were still pulling themselves out of the aftermath of the third world war.

And before you keep suggesting that there wasn't much in the way of explanation, those links tie back to information that was presented in each and every one of the series (I specifically recall the Eugenics Wars being mentioned in TOS, TNG, DS9, and ENT; Bell Riots were in DS9; WW3 was in the very first and last episodes of TNG; post-atomic horror was mentioned in TNG and VOY; United Earth was all over the place in ENT; and I'm still making my way through TAS, but I know some of those are brought up in episodes I haven't seen yet), so no matter which one(s) you watched, you should have gotten some idea of the history of their fictional universe.

I take it you haven't watched the shows then? Because I seem to recall the Eugenics Wars, which led to the outlawing of genetic manipulation; the Bell Riots, which led to the US government beginning to address the serious social problems facing the country; and World War III and the post-atomic horror, followed shortly thereafter by first contact, which acted as a catalyst for the unification of humanity which took about another 100 years to achieve after first contact.

There was nothing magical about it. From the mid-1900s (i.e. when the franchise first hit the airwaves) to when the United Federation of Planets is formed, you have nearly 200 years of history riddled with serious conflicts that led to societal changes after societal change. And even after things are allegedly "magically solved", you have internal conflicts going on, such as the Maquis Insurrection. Nothing was solved quickly or easily. Enterprise is all about this sort of stuff, in fact, since it pre-dates the formation of the Federation and deals with how fragile the United Earth government is and how the Vulcans mistrust the humans, since the humans were still pulling themselves out of the aftermath of the third world war.

And before you keep suggesting that there wasn't much in the way of explanation, those links tie back to information that was presented in each and every one of the series (I specifically recall the Eugenics Wars being mentioned in TOS, TNG, DS9, and ENT; Bell Riots were in DS9; WW3 was in the very first and last episodes of TNG; post-atomic horror was mentioned in TNG and VOY; United Earth was all over the place in ENT; and I'm still making my way through TAS, but I know some of those are brought up in episodes I haven't seen yet), so no matter which one(s) you watched, you should have gotten some idea of the history of their fictional universe.

I take it you haven't watched the shows then? Because I seem to recall the Eugenics Wars, which led to the outlawing of genetic manipulation; the Bell Riots, which led to the US government beginning to address the serious social problems facing the country; and World War III and the post-atomic horror, followed shortly thereafter by first contact, which acted as a catalyst for the unification of humanity which took about another 100 years to achieve after first contact.

There was nothing magical about it. From the mid-1900s (i.e. when the franchise first hit the airwaves) to when the United Federation of Planets is formed, you have nearly 200 years of history riddled with serious conflicts that led to societal changes after societal change. And even after things are allegedly "magically solved", you have internal conflicts going on, such as the Maquis Insurrection. Nothing was solved quickly or easily. Enterprise is all about this sort of stuff, in fact, since it pre-dates the formation of the Federation and deals with how fragile the United Earth government is and how the Vulcans mistrust the humans, since the humans were still pulling themselves out of the aftermath of the third world war.

And before you keep suggesting that there wasn't much in the way of explanation, those links tie back to information that was presented in each and every one of the series (I specifically recall the Eugenics Wars being mentioned in TOS, TNG, DS9, and ENT; Bell Riots were in DS9; WW3 was in the very first and last episodes of TNG; post-atomic horror was mentioned in TNG and VOY; United Earth was all over the place in ENT; and I'm still making my way through TAS, but I know some of those are brought up in episodes I haven't seen yet), so no matter which one(s) you watched, you should have gotten some idea of the history of their fictional universe.

I take it you haven't watched the shows then? Because I seem to recall the Eugenics Wars, which led to the outlawing of genetic manipulation; the Bell Riots, which led to the US government beginning to address the serious social problems facing the country; and World War III and the post-atomic horror, followed shortly thereafter by first contact, which acted as a catalyst for the unification of humanity which took about another 100 years to achieve after first contact.

There was nothing magical about it. From the mid-1900s (i.e. when the franchise first hit the airwaves) to when the United Federation of Planets is formed, you have nearly 200 years of history riddled with serious conflicts that led to societal changes after societal change. And even after things are allegedly "magically solved", you have internal conflicts going on, such as the Maquis Insurrection. Nothing was solved quickly or easily. Enterprise is all about this sort of stuff, in fact, since it pre-dates the formation of the Federation and deals with how fragile the United Earth government is and how the Vulcans mistrust the humans, since the humans were still pulling themselves out of the aftermath of the third world war.

And before you keep suggesting that there wasn't much in the way of explanation, those links tie back to information that was presented in each and every one of the series (I specifically recall the Eugenics Wars being mentioned in TOS, TNG, DS9, and ENT; Bell Riots were in DS9; WW3 was in the very first and last episodes of TNG; post-atomic horror was mentioned in TNG and VOY; United Earth was all over the place in ENT; and I'm still making my way through TAS, but I know some of those are brought up in episodes I haven't seen yet), so no matter which one(s) you watched, you should have gotten some idea of the history of their fictional universe.

I take it you haven't watched the shows then? Because I seem to recall the Eugenics Wars, which led to the outlawing of genetic manipulation; the Bell Riots, which led to the US government beginning to address the serious social problems facing the country; and World War III and the post-atomic horror, followed shortly thereafter by first contact, which acted as a catalyst for the unification of humanity which took about another 100 years to achieve after first contact.

There was nothing magical about it. From the mid-1900s (i.e. when the franchise first hit the airwaves) to when the United Federation of Planets is formed, you have nearly 200 years of history riddled with serious conflicts that led to societal changes after societal change. And even after things are allegedly "magically solved", you have internal conflicts going on, such as the Maquis Insurrection. Nothing was solved quickly or easily. Enterprise is all about this sort of stuff, in fact, since it pre-dates the formation of the Federation and deals with how fragile the United Earth government is and how the Vulcans mistrust the humans, since the humans were still pulling themselves out of the aftermath of the third world war.

And before you keep suggesting that there wasn't much in the way of explanation, those links tie back to information that was presented in each and every one of the series (I specifically recall the Eugenics Wars being mentioned in TOS, TNG, DS9, and ENT; Bell Riots were in DS9; WW3 was in the very first and last episodes of TNG; post-atomic horror was mentioned in TNG and VOY; United Earth was all over the place in ENT; and I'm still making my way through TAS, but I know some of those are brought up in episodes I haven't seen yet), so no matter which one(s) you watched, you should have gotten some idea of the history of their fictional universe.

I take it you haven't watched the shows then? Because I seem to recall the Eugenics Wars, which led to the outlawing of genetic manipulation; the Bell Riots, which led to the US government beginning to address the serious social problems facing the country; and World War III and the post-atomic horror, followed shortly thereafter by first contact, which acted as a catalyst for the unification of humanity which took about another 100 years to achieve after first contact.

There was nothing magical about it. From the mid-1900s (i.e. when the franchise first hit the airwaves) to when the United Federation of Planets is formed, you have nearly 200 years of history riddled with serious conflicts that led to societal changes after societal change. And even after things are allegedly "magically solved", you have internal conflicts going on, such as the Maquis Insurrection. Nothing was solved quickly or easily. Enterprise is all about this sort of stuff, in fact, since it pre-dates the formation of the Federation and deals with how fragile the United Earth government is and how the Vulcans mistrust the humans, since the humans were still pulling themselves out of the aftermath of the third world war.

And before you keep suggesting that there wasn't much in the way of explanation, those links tie back to information that was presented in each and every one of the series (I specifically recall the Eugenics Wars being mentioned in TOS, TNG, DS9, and ENT; Bell Riots were in DS9; WW3 was in the very first and last episodes of TNG; post-atomic horror was mentioned in TNG and VOY; United Earth was all over the place in ENT; and I'm still making my way through TAS, but I know some of those are brought up in episodes I haven't seen yet), so no matter which one(s) you watched, you should have gotten some idea of the history of their fictional universe.

I take it you haven't watched the shows then? Because I seem to recall the Eugenics Wars, which led to the outlawing of genetic manipulation; the Bell Riots, which led to the US government beginning to address the serious social problems facing the country; and World War III and the post-atomic horror, followed shortly thereafter by first contact, which acted as a catalyst for the unification of humanity which took about another 100 years to achieve after first contact.

There was nothing magical about it. From the mid-1900s (i.e. when the franchise first hit the airwaves) to when the United Federation of Planets is formed, you have nearly 200 years of history riddled with serious conflicts that led to societal changes after societal change. And even after things are allegedly "magically solved", you have internal conflicts going on, such as the Maquis Insurrection. Nothing was solved quickly or easily. Enterprise is all about this sort of stuff, in fact, since it pre-dates the formation of the Federation and deals with how fragile the United Earth government is and how the Vulcans mistrust the humans, since the humans were still pulling themselves out of the aftermath of the third world war.

And before you keep suggesting that there wasn't much in the way of explanation, those links tie back to information that was presented in each and every one of the series (I specifically recall the Eugenics Wars being mentioned in TOS, TNG, DS9, and ENT; Bell Riots were in DS9; WW3 was in the very first and last episodes of TNG; post-atomic horror was mentioned in TNG and VOY; United Earth was all over the place in ENT; and I'm still making my way through TAS, but I know some of those are brought up in episodes I haven't seen yet), so no matter which one(s) you watched, you should have gotten some idea of the history of their fictional universe.

It's a Horta of course. Doesn't anyone at the JPL watch Star Trek?

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Horta

and what happens when an unlucky meteor happens our way? Or a big CME that sterilizes the planet, or about about a dozen other things that could potentially render the planet uninhabitable?

Meteor? Well obviously that's when you fire up your handy-dandy obelisk asteroid deflector. All you need for a big CME is a big CME deflector - but that would have to be cube-shaped for obvious reasons. The dozen other scary things would simply require their own deflectors/neutralizers in their requisite shapes and sizes.

What's that you say? These things are science-fiction fantasies? So is human interstellar space travel, dumbass.

It gets below absolute zero on Star Trek TNG on occasion. Lots of vortexes too. Vortexi?

The real problem is if the person that will provide the working parameters to these algorithms defines that some of us, as humans, are mistakes that must be "resolved" and that the weapons working on these algorithms are the tools to perform that improvement.

It's already happened to Captain Kirk. Remember that old episode about Nomad?

We will just call them Isolinear chips by then.

Cf. http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Trill vs. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trill_consonant. Does Klingon have trills? Or is that not a sufficiently testosterone-fueled guttural sound?

Klingons do not resign. What he should have done was the ritual of Hegh'bat which would have been more true to Klingon culture.

Exactly, the Tamarians aren't so alien after all.