posted
I'm not sure why it should have to be. Surely the Federation contains whole armies of industrial designers. They probably burn through art movements like we do the ozone layer. So, I mean, not that cool and mysterious is not, well, cool and mysterious, but what about personable and user-friendly? Design a Medusan conveyance that not only gets the job done, but that's on the top of every kid's winter holiday wishlist on 200 planets. Surely that would be important to a species who apparently want to be friendly and open and part of the interstellar community, but suffer from, to put it politely, a bit of an image problem. A Medusan enviro-garment worthy of marching down the absolute trendiest runways in the galaxy would be my goal.
Registered: Mar 1999
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What design do you propose that is "personable and user-friendly", "on the top of every kid's winter holiday wishlist on 200 planets", and "worthy of marching down the absolute trendiest runways in the galaxy"? What would you consider to be user friendly? I am not trying to put you on the spot here, my goal is to get more design ideas and create a character that people think is cool, not lame.
Registered: Jun 2003
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posted
I don't think trendy and user friendly are particularly good directions to go here. The reason I suggested that the expressions be simple (other than the cool mysterious factor) is that I assume that it'd be very difficult to translate the exacting emotional state of a non-corporeal being into a humanoid face. Also the very concept of a face would be as alien to a Medusian as a cloud of brain searing intelligent vapour is to up, so if it was designed by the Medusans then it would have to be very simple. Like Odo's face in a way, not necessarily the look of Odo just the face that it's more of an approximation of a face to aid communication and case of the Medusians, it'd give the humanoids they're interacting with a point of focus, something very important to corporeals.
Also given that this suit would presumably be for Starfleet service then functionality has to be a priority over child friendliness.
posted
Hey, I'm no designer. I'm just saying that I, for one, am most interested in these kinds of considerations, which seem too easily overlooked. How well can this thing interact with its organic coworkers? Does it put them at ease? Can they relate to it? These are the questions I would ask, were I a creepy noncorporeal entity wanting to fit in.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Oh, and the Federation is pretty clearly way beyond the primitive technological necessity for form to follow function. Hopefully we will not still be burdened with modernism 300 years from now.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Hmmm... you bring up some good points Sol System. I can imagine that all humanoid lifeforms are scared out of their wits in the presence of a Medusan. So perhaps the Medusans would go out of their way to make a machine that would put other lifeforms at ease. They, perhaps, would want to advertise "I'm nice. Don't be afraid of me. We are not as dangerous as you may have heard."
My first impulse was to be very matter of fact and utilitarian in the design of the character. I was thinking that the Medusans would be a very form follows function type of race when it came to design. We need to move our container around, so let's build a frame with arms and legs so we can use humanoid tools and let's have a very rudimentarly face so that we can communicate.
I was also thinking that the character wouldn't understand emotions very well. There was a death, I must now look sad. But there would also be times when he would display inappropriate emotions because he misread the situation. Although I wouldn't want to make the character too much like Data in this regard.
My original idea was to make him very mysterious as Reverend suggested and thought that it was a good idea to have a design that continued to make him an enigma.
Thanks for the posts Reverend and Sol System , I'll need to think about this character some more. I would also appreciate it if any other forum readers would share their ideas if they would like to contribute.
Registered: Jun 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Triton: Droids, mechanoids, or silver metal men are absent from the Star Trek universe. (With the exception, of course, of the Captain Proton holodeck sequences in Voyager.)
Yes there was - see the Voyager episode from Season 2 with the Praylor and the Kravitt - forgotten the name of the episode - but it was a good one (for Voyager season 2).
Oh and about Krang - I RECOGNISED it from some DEEP dark memory - but couldn't remember it being from TMNT - maybe I've erased those memories!
All I could keep thinking is "Captain Planet". LOL
Captain Planet, he's our hero - gonna take pollution down - to - ze - ro.
LeVar Burton and Whoopi Goldberg used to do voices in that cartoon.
-------------------- "Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica." - Jim Halpert. (The Office)
Geez!! I laughed so damn hard at that! Truly what a Medusan should look like.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
It would probably be a good idea to rewatch, um..."Is There In Truth No Beauty?" I think it was, for Medusan reference purposes. I know it's been ages since I've seen it, anyway.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
It was just a metal box on the floor with a bright light inside it. The Medusan probably showed Spock what Diane Muldar would look like on TNG as Dr. Pulaski and he went blind from the sheer horror....
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
I would have certainly watched it again if I had access to it Sol System. I don't have the episode in my collection and it is not available in a video store close to me. Hopefully Paramount will re-issue the original series on DVD in box sets soon. Should we start a letter campaign for 2005 after "Voyager" is released in 2004? Perhaps I can find the James Blish novelization in a used book store.
Jason, I can imagine that Spock could be driven insane by the thought that one of Miranda Jones' ancestors would look exaclty like her and act exactly like Dr. Leonard H. McCoy. Pulaski was such a rip off of, I mean inspired by or a homage to, Dr. McCoy. I never liked Diana Muldar, though she seemed to appear in Gene Roddenberry's productions quite often. Wasn't she in Planet Earth with John Saxon as Dylan Hunt.
I wonder if she was one of his former romantic conquests? He seemed like such a philanderer if we are to believe some of the stories in Star Trek: The Inside Story. He certainly was not Saint Gene, but a flawed human being.
I kept on expecting Pulaski to say "Dammit" once in a while and complain that she was a doctor not an X.
Registered: Jun 2003
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posted
I'm suggesting a rewatch not to see what the container looked like, but to see how the Medusan acted around people. That is, if it spoke. I seem to remember that it did.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Of course, I have several pictures of the box already that I have collected on the Internet. If I remember correctly he did not say anything until the second mind meld with Spock when Spock held Kollos' essence if you will. I seem to remember Leonard Nimoy with a grin on his face and he said something like you poor isolated corporeal beings, how can you live in something so small and limiting. Not a direct quote, but the gist of what he was saying. Yeah I need to go back and see the original episode some how or see if I can find the James Blish novelization somewhere. I was thinking of adding them to my collection anyway, so now is a good time to get them if I see them at the used book shops.
Registered: Jun 2003
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posted
I liked when it jumped out of the box abd statred singing "Hello my baby...."
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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