posted
Cargile used to be One of Us, and I submit that his (and Baloo's) project there is very interesting, if self-evidently a work of fan fiction.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
No Simon. It is interesting if it is, well, interesting. It is not interesting because we know the people. If that were true, then we would all read everyone's fanfiction. And I don't think any of us wants that.
UM: Sorry, I was thinking abut current buns. Mmm.
-------------------- 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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posted
I didn't mean to tie those two concepts together like that, Liam. I meant to point out both that Cargile used to post here, and as a result some of us are familiar with his stuff, and that I thought it interesting on its own.
Registered: Mar 1999
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-------------------- 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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quote:Originally posted by MinutiaeMan: Welll.... yeah, kinda. But I think that the inspiration behind this site was, "what kind of weapons could the Federation field if they put their minds to it, rather than relying on the tired old phasers and torpedoes?" Yeah, it's a bit fanboyish, but at least it's pretty well thought-out. And some of the gadgets are pretty interesting, IMO.
A thought occurs:
One of the hallmarks of fan-boyish (if such a word exists) design at least in the ST universe, would be the overuse of throw-away ideas used to advance a story in Star Trek.
Such throw-away ideas, say the Genesis device, multiphasic torpedos, the Doomsday device, trilitium explosives, etc. are randomly thrown around by the stereotypical fanboy to arm their "super-haxxor warp 9.9^99 extreme Borg killing dreadnoughts"
An interesting thing that this phenomena reveals is the fact that the Star Trek universe, in a way more than any other is far from internally consistent. You have "Wagon Train to the Stars" metaphors mixing with naval AND air force metaphors, mixed with the occasional bit of science fiction.
The result is you have contrived situations like sensors that can see through walls, but no privacy concerns, transporters that can recreate a person perfectly molecule by molecule but still...a fair number of characters that still cook because they can tastes the difference, technology that seems to eliminate all manual labour and service jobs, yet a populace that still manages to find stuff to do.
You have an education system not remarkably different from ours, yet people mysteriously become experts on quantum mechanics at 18.
People now get addicted to Everquest, yet the existence of holodecks that can practically supplement reality seem to create next to no problems (in terms of addicting people...not blowing up the ship in weird ways) Well...aside from Barclay and Nog...but note that they are comic relief.
Nanotechnology, yet people still get common colds.
Even though its three centuries from now, warfare on the ground or in away teams is still handled by hand weapons that seem in some ways inferior to simple guns.
Its all remarkably contrived especially when you consider the fact that "real" science fiction writers can create entire books on one simple change in society. An example would be "The Light of Other Days" by Clarke which postulates a world where stable wormholes can be created. The resulting changes from, the complete loss of privacy, the legal system, crime, the usage of instanteous comunications cover an entire book.
Yet, Star Trek gives us a world where the average Joe still reads, cooks, plays baseball, and shops. Despite the prescence of almost unlimited energy, time travel of all things, and three centuries of technology, society has no major changes beyond the fact that people have a perfect economic system without greed. (barring the Ferengi) I don't buy it....and if this had something to do with fan-boys I've long forgot it
posted
Don't ever read The Light of Other Days. You'll never again be able to safely feel that you aren't being watched...
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
I think what Mucus is highlighting is the realism vs drama argument, and also the fact that, IN Star Treks case, we want the society to be recongisable. It's a nice society where lots of good stuff happens, but things aren't so perfect as to make it sterile. Hence we have unlimited food, but purists can still claim that the "real thing" is better. You get the best of both worlds. People are often afraid of change, of new technology. Star Trek balances this by having just enough contrived imperfection to still make things "human".
Regarding the weapons, some can be explained. Presumably all data on Genesis was classified and/or destroyed, for instance. And perhaps there were unforseen problems with the other weapons to, or maybe the advancements got channeled into weapons we do see (such as Quantumn torpedoes, or the Defiants fuck-off phaser cannons). The rest, well, Kirk's crew forgot that they got a working cloaking device, that they found chemicals that gave you telekentic powers, and that they could speed up a person so that he appeared in the blink of an eye. It's Starfleet tradition.
Would a TV show version of The Light of other days be successful? Would it be successful enough to last, in various forms, for over 30 years?
-------------------- 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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quote:Originally posted by Red BWC: I think you are confusing phaser bank for phaser blister, because it said that they were developed to counter the borg...
It seems you know alot about a site you can't remember...
-------------------- "Explore New Worlds"
Registered: Mar 2002
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Prismatic EdipisReks
Ex-Member
posted
quote:Originally posted by koy'peled Oy'tio:
quote:Originally posted by Red BWC: I think you are confusing phaser bank for phaser blister, because it said that they were developed to counter the borg...
It seems you know alot about a site you can't remember...
one can remember a detail about a site without remembering the name or URL of that site.
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