posted
TrekWeb is reporting on the latest Star Trek Communicator, which features lots of interviews. Some of Braga's comments are interesting...
"Yeah, I've taken a lashing from the fans. But just for the record, here's how that started. I think there was a period about eight years ago when I made some stupid comments, in one or two interviews, about never having seen an episode of the original series -- which was true. And in face, when I first started here, when Gene Roddenberry was still alive, he said to me, 'Don't watch the original series/ If you haven't seen it, don't watch.' And I said why? And he said, 'Because you will bring something fresh to the table' -- because he was very adamant that TNG not be the original series, and not re-do anything. So I was, like, 'Fine.'
"And then it became a novelty: I was a Star Trek writer not familar with the original series - which I thought was a novelty, but the fans too offense at that. Well, of course, now -- eight years later -- I have seen most of them, and I've always had a great affection for it, and I know it very, very well. And I know what people like about it. So when it came to certain details of this show... there were lots of original series details [the flip communicators and Hoshi's earpiece] that came from me."
And the moment we've all been waiting for:
"Well, we very much want to do Romulans, but the problem with Romulans is in the original series it's established that no humans or even Vulcans had seen Romulans. So for Archer to see Romulans would be... a breach of continuity so we're gonna have to figure that one out."
posted
And you had the foresight to put in spoiler warnings, too...
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posted
I read the article over at TrekWeb. I'm going to have to find this issue of Star Trek: Communicator. As far as the interview with Brannon Braga goes, I'm inclined to think that he and Rick Berman are making a concerted effort to do Enterprise the way it should be done. Regardless of this, though, they're still going to get raked over the coals for anything and everything. While it's nice to see that the producers have watched The Original Series and, more importantly, retained information from them so as to keep continuity snafus to a minimum, I think there is still going to be a nucleus of fans who'll stick with them being the convenient scapegoat.
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posted
I have this picture in my head of a bunch of Romulans holding up sock puppets to the view screen while they themselves hide just outside of its camera coverage.
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posted
I had forgotten--no subspace video communications.
I suppose all communications we've seen so far have been RF.
-------------------- "Existence is random. Has no pattern save what we imagine after staring at it too long. No meaning save what we choose to impose. This rudderless world is not shaped by vague metaphysical forces. It is not God who kills the children. Not fate that butchers them or destiny that feeds them to the dogs. It?s us. Only us." Rorschach
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No subspace video communications with ROMULANS.
Since the relevant parts of TOS were written in the mid-1960s, when every scifi writer would automatically (and correctly) have assumed that videoconferencing was possible in the near as well as far future, we have no real reason to assume that the writer of "Balance of Terror" intended Spock to claim that subspace video communications did not exist a hundred years before TOS. No matter how the monologue may come out, the intention behind it cannot have been one of denying vidiphone technology from the ships of the 2150s.
Other popular misconceptions about TOS include the claims
1) that the Romulans in the Romulan war did not have warp drive (no such statement was ever made in dialogue, so we cannot know if such a thing was intended by the writers),
2) that there were no female starship captains prior to or during TOS (this time, the intention probably was there, but the monologue of the crazy chick who says something to this effect is too ambiguous to convince), and
3) that Spock was the first Vulcan in Starfleet (no such reference has been found in actual dialogue, despite exhaustive videomaraton searches, although the unaired reference material does support this claim).
quote:Originally posted by Obi Juan: I suppose all communications we've seen so far have been RF.
At the end of "Broken Bow," Archer mentions having received a reply from Starfleet, so that couldn't have been a lightspeed radio message. Preproduction material suggests that they can only use FTL communication while at warp, perhaps "borrowing" the ship's warp field like photon torpedoes do. Hoshi did mention that EM frequencies were jammed, limiting their communications in the Suliban gas giant. So it looks like they use regular radio for most communications, and warp-radio for contact with home... but that contact is not real time.
posted
I actually meant all video communications have been RF.
Timo: What's wrong with there not being subspace video communications? Subspace communications may have been very difficult in the early days limiting them to audio transmissions anyway.
I don't precisely remember the line from BoT, but you are probably right. I think it was only said that the treaty was negotiated over subspace radio (leaving many to assume that this was because subspace video transmissions weren't possible), but Spock may have actually said that it wasn't possible. I'll have to check out that episode the next time it's aired.
-------------------- "Existence is random. Has no pattern save what we imagine after staring at it too long. No meaning save what we choose to impose. This rudderless world is not shaped by vague metaphysical forces. It is not God who kills the children. Not fate that butchers them or destiny that feeds them to the dogs. It?s us. Only us." Rorschach
posted
I think the subspace comm problem goes a bit further than that. Namely, "Balance of Terror" says that both Earth and the Romulans had it. On the other hand, the plot of more than a few other TOS episodes hinged on subspace communications, visual or otherwise, being a new invention within the past, oh, fifty years or so, prior to the series.
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posted
In BoT, Spock's line was "Nor was there even ship-to-ship visual communication." A few moments later he said that the treaty was established over subspace radio.
This leaves us with several possibilities:
1) Subspace voice traffic is possible, but visual traffic is not. 2) Subspace visual traffic is possible, but, for whatever reason, individual ships are incapable of it. 3) Subspace visual traffic is possible, but not between human and Romulan vessels.
Of the three, I think I prefer the first. Perhaps subspace communication is a relatively new technology, and they haven't got all the kinks worked out yet. Besides, with ships limited to a relative crawl (until the big E, that is), you might not have enough of an incentive to develop it. After all, we've had the telephone since 1876, and how long did it take us to make video communication practical?
Choice number two might also be a factor in this; an individual ship might lack the power to send an image long range on its own at this point. It might need a large base station to be able to make the connection.
-------------------- The difference between genius and idiocy? Genius has its limits.
posted
It's also possible that the Romulans themselves abstained from vsiaul communication deliberatly. Spock saying 'Nor was there even ship-to-ship visual communication' doesn't neccesarily mean it was not technically possible, simply that it did not happen. We know the Romulans are isolationists, and maintain a high level of privacy, indeed, in 'The Neutral Zone' the Romulans reappear for the first time in decades, Riker I think had not even seen a Romulan ship before.
Also in Balance of Terror weren't the on screen images of the BoP bridge due to Spock hacking internal sensors on the Romulan ship? So in this instance they again did not volunteer visual communication. Anyway, at least all this is a possibility in regards to the 22nd century Romulan wars. I have to say that my estimation of Braga has gone up considerably, and my overall optimism for the show.
I still want to see Romulans on this show, of course without breaking continuity. Perhaps we could have a show that portrays the action candidly from the Romulan's point of view and the Enterprise's. There needn't be visual communication, Archer and co will not know who the hell these aliens are, but of course we will.
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