In the TOS episode 'Court Martial' Kirk is charged with causing the death of an officer whilst the Enterprise was passing through an ion storm. The officer was working within the ion pod and Kirk was accused of jettisoning the pod with the officer still inside.
I was wondering what the precise purpose of the ion pod would be. From the context, it appears to have something to do with collecting data on ion storms. The Enterprise accelerated to warp 1 whilst passing through the storm and the deployment of the ion pod seemed to cause some risk of danger to the ship, which might require Kirk to jettison the pod to prevent the ship being damaged.
So, from this we can infer that the ion pod cannot be operated remotely and has it's own control room of some kind; that when deployed it somehow affects the flying characteristics of the ship, although there is not information as to whether the pod physically deploys outside the ships hull or not; that the function of the pod cannot be halted quickly enough in an emergency to prevent damage and that the quickest way of stopping it is to jettison it.
FAO Mars Needs Women, I understand the ion pod is a plot device, honest Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
Great. For ages we need more Brits onboard, and when one finally comes along he starts trying to rationalise MacGuffins. Coming up next, what was in Marsellus Wallace's briefcase?
Posted by Dukhat (Member # 341) on :
Although there's nothing inherently wrong with him trying to rationalize one-off lines in Star Trek, the ST novel writers take this to such an extreme that it quickly became annoying. Case in point: The "Lost Era" novel "The Art of The Impossible" was written based entirely on one throw-away line in DS9. That's just too anal for me.
Posted by Timo (Member # 245) on :
Then again, this sub-forum does have a motto...
Whatever the pod's nature and mission, it seems that an officer is needed there "for reading on ion slates". And a fairly senior officer at that: if the duty roster for the pod included every Ensign, it would have been extremely difficult for Finney to have arranged for the "accident"/"murder" within his period of service aboard Kirk's ship.
One entertaining idea is that the reason why the pod can't be automated is that it takes readings on the officer, not the storm itself. "Ion slates" are things that slate the poor subject with ions... Perhaps Starfleet wants to tell apart those ion storms that kill people, and those that turn them into silver-eyed demigods?
Timo Saloniemi
Posted by Lurker Emeritus (Member # 1888) on :
Timo, an amusing notion, and one that is not without historical precedent. The atom bomb tests of the 50's, for instance, in which thousands of service personnel were intentionally exposed to phenomena that were known to be harmful.
Either that, or the kind of information Starfleet is gleaning from ion storms is, for some reason, best gathered using the Mark 1 eyeball.
What is this sub-forums motto?
Posted by Timo (Member # 245) on :
"You know those dorky kids in Galaxy Quest?"
Clearly, Starfleet is desperate to learn more about ion storms, enough to have some sort of standing orders to steer starships deliberately into them despite the known risks. I mean, clearly Kirk wasn't trying to avoid the storm or anything.
Timo Saloniemi
Posted by Lurker Emeritus (Member # 1888) on :
quote:"You know those dorky kids in Galaxy Quest?"
Oh God. I never realised! What have I become?
Posted by Mars Needs Women (Member # 1505) on :
Hey!Check out the brain on Brad...
Posted by Johnny (Member # 878) on :
quote:Originally posted by Lurker Emeritus:
quote:"You know those dorky kids in Galaxy Quest?"
Oh God. I never realised! What have I become?
Justin Long, apparently.
Posted by Ritten (Member # 417) on :
Is steering in to ion storms much different than steering in to hurricanes?
Posted by Captain Boh (Member # 1282) on :
Perhaps its not the ion pod, but the ionPod and is recharged by ion storms.
It may be risky, but the crew needs their Mp3s.
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
The Ion Pod could have just been a tethered workbee?
Posted by Lurker Emeritus (Member # 1888) on :
quote:Originally posted by Johnny:
quote:Originally posted by Lurker Emeritus:
quote:"You know those dorky kids in Galaxy Quest?"
Oh God. I never realised! What have I become?
Justin Long, apparently.
Well, I had to google that name, so perhaps there's hope for me yet!
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
Posted by Shik (Member # 343) on :
I want mine to have Matt Decker, please.
"There WAS.....BUT NOT ANYMORE!!!"
Posted by WizArtist II (Member # 1425) on :
Launching the Ion Pod. Posted by Johnny (Member # 878) on :
Ah, so someone from the showroom down on Earth tried that little "fly a car an incredibly stupid distance into a small opening" routine. Picard's middle age crisis must be catching.
Posted by Captain Boh (Member # 1282) on :
Well that settles that, then. In a bizarre coincidence, the thread about the Enterprise's nipple is discussing the exact same thing as this one.
Posted by Captain Boh (Member # 1282) on :
The discussion about the same detail elsewhere led me to the page, so its not much of a coincidence really.
I don't acctually know where the image of the pod assembly originaly comes from though.
Posted by B.J. (Member # 858) on :
The name of the image suggests Mr. Scott's Guide. Can anyone confirm this?
Posted by Timo (Member # 245) on :
I can confirm that the ion pod pic is not from Mr Scott's, or from the FJ blueprints. Could be anything, really - but probably not "official" in any way.
Timo Saloniemi
Posted by Timo (Member # 245) on :
Seems the picture is from Geoff Mandel's "Enterprise Officers' Manual".
So, not very "official", and not part of a complete set of blueprints, but still somewhat "established"...
Timo Saloniemi
Posted by Treknophile (Member # 1869) on :
Just a theory (wild-assed guess). Postulate that an ion storm's radiations are hazardous to the normally-used sensors aboard a starship (similar to EMP).
A starship which had to traverse a storm might deploy a sensor pod specially designed to survive said radiations - and easily replaced when burned-out.
Possibly an science-trained officer would have to 'babysit' said sensors because of this interference.
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