posted
From another topic discussing "The Arsenal of Freedom":
quote:It also brings up the notion of weither slavaging alien tech constutes a Prime Directive offense. If not, Sarfleet really should have seized that world before anyone else got their hands on all the goodies left behind and started making gigantic L'Eggs robots.
I can think of many opportunities Starfleet has encountered or (possibly) came into posession of advanced alien technology that should have given them a large step forward.
For example: The Fesarius. In TOS "Corbomite Manuver" the Enterprise is face to face with a huge, Huge, HUGE spaceship that, it turns out, is ran by remote control from a much smaller ship piloted by an even smaller man.
My question is, whatever happened to that technology? Surely some agreement could be made with Balok and The First Federation (if it even existed) wherein an exchange of tech could result.
Did Starfleet miss this opportunity? Did they use some of this tech in consctruction of the NCC-1701D?
What other missed or forgotten opportunities have you noticed in Star Trek?
Registered: Feb 2004
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Biig obvious stuff is the Planetkiller from TOS, all the debris from the two Borg ships (that would have had to have been cleared from Earth's orbit anyway), the dozens of battlefields of the Dominion War (and we already speculated that the Scimitar may have been such a salvage op) and the Dyson Sphere (though for all we know, there could have still been billions of sentients living there when the Enterprise stumbled in- some species like hard radiation).
Lots of reverse-engineering to be had.
You'd think that Starfleet would have feelers out for anything Iconian (as their tech seems to hold up niely for thousands of years)...heck the Promellian "boobytrap" tech would have been a huge asset during the Dominion War.
Any other examples spring to mind?
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
Well, for TNG and later, there is no reason to assume that Starfleet didn't aquire additional technology, but salvaging and implementing advanced technology from a completely unknown culture could be a time-conuming process.
posted
Minor nit: the Promellian one was the battlecruiser, the booby trap was made by their enemies IIRC (can't remember their name, though).
I agree, the Dyson sphere was one hell of a wasted opportunity.
What else? Well, all those times they've used the transporter to cure some disease and then completely forgot about it thereafter (judging by later episodes) - not necessarily alien tech, but...
Registered: Feb 2004
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yeah, I forgot the Promellian's enemy too. Small loss.
Another wasted tech was the shielding Dr. Crusher used in (the awful) Descent pt. 2
Those "hoodini" mines would be a great asset if they could be developed for in-system defense.
What about that B.E.M. kid that was screwing around with Riker's head? Any holodeck that can read a person's mind would be very useful in information extraction (if used well, obviously).
Hur'Q technology seemes pretty advanced as well.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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It seems to me that there's a slight difficulty in studying V'Ger after the events of the film, but I can't quite put my finger on it.
Registered: Mar 1999
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You mean that whole "popping out of reality in a puff of irrationality" thing?
I would have liked some post-TOS on the Melkotians and Fabrini, as well. And the Preserver obelisk on Paradise.
From the contemporary era, the last Portal of the T'Kon Empire is still around, as is the Edo "God", the Aldeasns seemed pretty danged advanced, Jameson's illicit de-aging drug from Cerebus II seemed to work fine if one doesn't overdose. You'd think people like Admiral Haftel and Commander Maddox would have been all over the subterranean hideout on Omicron Theta. There are a wole bunch of Husnok worlds out there that presumably have no one left to care if anyone comes in and cleans them out. It would have been nice if we'd secured relations with Hugh and his Borg buddies. I'm sure they had at least some remnamts of Borg technical knowledge.
There's a bunch of stuff from DS9 and Voyager, but what stands out most in my head is those little forearm thingies the Hunters of Tosk wore that "grabed" phaser beams and pulled them out of line. Not to mention their hellacious weapons, and scanning systems that could detect a shrouded entity. Which reminds me also of the impromptu personal shield generator Worf whipped up out of a commbadge. That last isn't an example of passed-up tech, per se, but more a "so where is it?" problem. Seems to be an easy enough ting to make, so where are the personal shield generators for away teams or combat forces?
--Jonah
-------------------- "That's what I like about these high school girls, I keep getting older, they stay the same age."
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Registered: Feb 2001
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Some of the things listed (or even most) don't seem to lend themselves to TV episodes, though. Like, take all the various Borg stuff left lying around. Who says it doesn't constitute the most popular research project around? And so what if it did? Does that mean next week they should be out flying around in cubes?
(Actually, as regards the Borg and their ubicomp design methods, plus the body-vaporization thing, I'd expect even their trash would have enough processing cycles available to make reverse engineering exciting.)
((Also, I just watched that Tosk episode, and the hunters' bracers didn't do any phaser-bending. They just happened to put them in the path of the occasional beam, Wonder Woman style. And their weapons weren't all that special, though they did, OK, blow up Odo's door.))
The real problem, I guess, is that beyond the specifics needed for the setting, lots of science fiction tends to be very conservative. Get what you need for your story and then nothing ever changes again. Which is unrealistic and often dull, but on the other hand human beings with Star Trek technology would probably rapidly cease to lead lives recognizable to us in the audience.
But anyway, for a lot of this stuff, I don't see why you wouldn't assume it was being studied somewhere.
Registered: Mar 1999
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Didn't the Cytherians tell the Enterprise all sorts of nifty crap? Like, how to jump your starship half way across the galaxy in thirty seconds or your money back?
Registered: Mar 1999
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quote:Originally posted by Sol System: Uh, the shield Crusher implemented in that episode was a reuse of a technology introduced in a previous episode.
And I do believe that "metaphasic shields" became a not uncommon buzzword after that.
I know it was a re-use then, but I dont recall ever hearing it after.
Though, I suppose it may have become the starfleet standard, and was referred to only as "shields" after that.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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quote:Originally posted by WizArtist II: The Kelvans...you'd think that Starfleet would have those little boxes that turns you into geometry.
Yes, I can just see Starfleet officers running around, shooting people and turning them into cubes, possibly while also shouting "yee-haw".
Besides, they already have guns that can knock people out, burn things, and kill with or without leaving a body. Turning them into cubes just doesn't seem an overly necessary addition.
-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
Registered: Mar 1999
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Mabye they already do that- it would explain those large octagon cargo containers that show up in every series...each could be a mini-graveyard.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
I think that a lot of the tech discovered is simply not able to have a lasting effect. Take most of the weapons, shields, draining whatsits, etc. found over they years. More often than not, it's our heroes who find a way to defeat the technology and escape its wrath, usually within the confines of the episode itself! We have to believe that any potential enemies we run into would have some heroes of their own to work around lots of the "new" stuff anyone would throw at them, and implement the solution across their forces. Take the always-implied cold war of cloaking technology and the continuing efforts to overcome the latest one, and build a better one.
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