I really enjoyed this episode. Director Roxann Dawson as the computer voice was a nice twist. I really liked how the station was repairing itself at the end. (theres somewhat of a Borg feeling about the whole thing, but i'm sure its all my imagination).
Overall, I think this was a great episode. Roxann Dawson is obviously a great director.
Next weeks looks like it may be utter crap, but thats happened before and I was wrong.
Posted by Akira (Member # 850) on :
That Episode does seem kinda borg like
Posted by Free ThoughtCrime America (Member # 480) on :
Wait a minute: The computer on the Enterprise is three decks high? Eh? When computers are consistantly getting smaller and smaller here in reality...why would it be the size of a house in the future?
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
Waaaaaay more computing power is needed when you do things like replicate food, transport people, run dozens of computers and maintain all shipboard systems and life support AT THE SAME TIME! NX-01 may seen too advanced for it's point in Trek history, but it IS really low tech compared with TNG...or even TMP. ....I won't even get into the capacity needed to run the holodecks.... Posted by O Captain Mike Captain (Member # 709) on :
hopefully NX-01 doesnt have holodecks.. um.. yet.
yeah, Trek computing power, isnt that the thing that Okuda and Sternbach assured us we just didnt want to know, and came up with fake measurements for? how much RAM do you need to turn six people into a data stream? how much disk space to store the pattern fo tea, Earl Grey, hot or iced?.. how fast a compensator to compute a course at several hundred times the speed of light withot hitting anything?
Posted by E. Cartman (Member # 256) on :
Infinite, infinite, and very. As it stands now, anyway.
Unless you can find a way to store and transfer 6*10^28 kilobytes of data that doesn't require 12,000 times the present age of the universe.
Oh, and a way to produce the fairly hefty amount of energy needed.
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
"When computers are consistantly getting smaller and smaller here in reality...why would it be the size of a house in the future?"
Possibly for the same reason that the E-D had multiple computer cores that were each far larger than three decks?
Posted by Dukhat (Member # 341) on :
Did anyone notice, not once, but twice, that the term "saucer section" was used? Silly TNG writers. What other "section" does the ship have, other than a saucer? It certainly doesn't have a secondary hull, unless you count the little pod. And I don't think we'll be hearing anything about the "nacelle section" anytime soon.
Note: I'm intentionally being facetious here, because the term "saucer section" was used to imply that the station's berth wasn't wide enough for the ship to enter. However, since Enterprise's saucer is the wider than the nacelles sticking out, it's a bit silly on the writer's part to refer to the saucer section. They should have just said "the ship."
Posted by Topher (Member # 71) on :
I think the whole point about the people being used for processing was mentioned earlier in the episode when Tucker said that there was no space big enough (in his understanding of computer cores, anyway) for a computer core required to run the station as it is. Also, the point is made that 200 L of warp plasma doesn't seem like enough payment. Well, as we find out, the station takes a crewmember from each ship that comes for repairs in payment for services rendered. One would assume that the oldest people in the processing core are dying and need to be replaced.
This raises the question as to how the station managed to repair itself at the end of the episode. Perhaps the processing core was protected enough to be able to withstand the blast?
Posted by Omega (Member # 91) on :
Or maybe certain functions were decentralized and/or redundant. It's what I'd do. After all, what better reason for not being able to find one giant computer than that there are really a lot of little ones?
Posted by Cadet Sorak (Member # 874) on :
quote: theres somewhat of a Borg feeling about the whole thing, but i'm sure its all my imagination
No, it's not your imagination. When I saw the ending sequence, I was thinking, "Oh my gosh! It's an early version of the Borg!" It made the blood freeze in my veins. It made my heart turn to ice. It made my eyeballs.....never mind.
But, good grief! First the Romulans, now the Borg...next thing you know they'll be making First Contact with Q!
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
quote:Originally posted by Topher: [QB]One would assume that the oldest people in the processing core are dying and need to be replaced. QB]
Or it just goes for whatever character has the least lines and very little chance of being missed. Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
Decentralization of some functions is probably part of the station's solution -- but it's probably also possible that the basic mechanics of assembly aren't the most resource-intensive features. To explain the station starting to repair itself at the end, I figure that there are conventional computers in the manipulator arms, and those are programmed with the station's specs, so that if anything happens to it (say, disgruntled customers -- wink, wink) then it can put itself back together.
As for the NX-01's computer being three decks tall -- well, ENT's computer might already be of the subspace-augmented type that's described in the TNG Tech Manual -- i.e., FTL computing. Yeah, it's a bit advanced for the 22nd century, but still a possible explanation.
Posted by Free ThoughtCrime America (Member # 480) on :
I don't know about FTL computing, but I can tell you that the tower here on my desk could handle all the calculations at NASA's misson control circa 1969 easily, and it's not even close to a top of the line 'puter these days. Vastly superior calculating power with at least a reduction in size on the order of a magnitude, in less than thirty-five years.
Once the point one micron barrier is reached, the only way to increase processor speed would again led to an increase in size, but seeing as how quantum computing is already getting off the ground, it doesn't seem likely that they'd ever grow to the size of a room again.
Just thinking out loud, is all.
Posted by EdipisReks (Member # 510) on :
quote:Originally posted by Free ThoughtCrime America: Once the point one micron barrier is reached, the only way to increase processor speed would again led to an increase in size,
this is already happening on the current .13 micron transistor size, to some extent.
Posted by newark (Member # 888) on :
In the shot, which follows after the Enterprise leaves the station, we see at best 50% of the station has been destroyed. This 50% constitutes the area where the Enterprise was docked. The computer core and the second docking structure are untouched. Or, at slightly damaged at worst. The station would appear to have blast doors capable of protecting the more critical sections of the facility from destruction.
My question is this, what happened to this station later? This station would come to lie in what is Federation space. Did the Federation study the facility for information as to its origins, or did they place quarantine beacons around the station warning vessels of its dangers, or did they destroy the facility?
Posted by Dukhat (Member # 341) on :
Well obviously they didn't study it, because if they did, the Federation would have had TNG style technology 200 years before TNG.
Posted by Proteus (Member # 212) on :
Probably the Klingons went looking for some lost crewmen, and ended up blowing the fuck out of the station for fun. I know I would.
Hell, i'd let it rebuild itself a few times just so I could blow it to hell again.
Posted by Vogon Poet (Member # 393) on :
Think about it. If this station collects lifeforms, it'd have some tribbles. And the Klingons wiped them all out. Probably destroying the station in the process.
Posted by Topher (Member # 71) on :
Since when are tribbles capable of FTL travel?
Posted by Free ThoughtCrime America (Member # 480) on :
Since careless merchants started spreading them.
Posted by E. Cartman (Member # 256) on :
But why would this station be interested in lifeforms with brains the size of a pea?
Posted by Free ThoughtCrime America (Member # 480) on :
Why is the Republican party stronger than ever?
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
The latest issue of the official magazine contains a cutaway of a tribble. It is neat. Mostly intestines/stomach and uterus.
Great episode. Though I really wonder how'll they'll handle someone actually dying, since they sort of spent that "first death" currency here. Phlox is the best.
And while we're making random and mostly nonsensical claims (It was the Borg! Soylent Green is people!), did anyone else wonder if maybe the last users of the station happened to be Breen?
Posted by The_Tom (Member # 38) on :
Whoah! Extra-cool "I didn't think of that" points for you!
Posted by Harry (Member # 265) on :
Eh?
I was thinking more along the lines of the Amusement Park Planet technology. It's vaguely similar to this station, perhaps. Or not. I don't know.
Posted by EdipisReks (Member # 510) on :
that would be cool, if the Breen lived in a liquid helium environment. could anything live in that? maybe liquid helium is the "storage" mode of the station. mothballed, perhaps...
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
That was what I had assumed from the beginning, which is why the Breen thing never would have occured to me.
Posted by Proteus (Member # 212) on :
Breen can survive extremely cold tempatures, and perfer them. But didnt Weyoun say that thier planet being cold was just a rumor, and its quite tropical?
As for the Breen using that station last, did enterprise just keep heading out into the Beta quadrent after returning the Klingon to Qo'noS? It looks like they did. Klingons, Romulans, Breen?
Im almost sure the ship in Silent Enemy was Breen.
Posted by Timo (Member # 245) on :
That ship was symmetric in shape,and its owners had heads too big to fit inside the DS9-era Breen helmets, and spindly limbs. Apart from that, it could be a Breen appearance.
Whether they'd be in the Beta direction... Well, they have butted heads with both the Cardassians and the Romulans. The former are an Alpha race exclusively. The latter have also been called an Alpha race, even if they share a border with the (partially) Beta Klingons. I'd thus place the Breen somewhere on the Alpha side.
Timo Saloniemi
Posted by EdipisReks (Member # 510) on :
i think Weyoun was being sarcastic when he said that.
Posted by O Captain Mike Captain (Member # 709) on :
please tell me this conversation isn't happening again... Posted by EdipisReks (Member # 510) on :
sorry, bub.
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
"But didnt Weyoun say that thier planet being cold was just a rumor, and its quite tropical?"
Yes. But do you trust Weyoun? And, even if you do, do you trust the Breen who told him that?
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