Flare Sci-Fi Forums: Court Martial Impulse Engines

my profile | directory login | search | faq | forum home

»	Flare Sci-Fi Forums » Star Trek » Starships & Technology » Court Martial Impulse Engines

Author

Topic: Court Martial Impulse Engines

AndrewR
Resident Nut-cache
Member # 44

posted

OK, with all the talk about going backwards at Impulse, in Court Martial Spock orders "Forward Impulse Engines" to slow their decaying orbit, while Kirk is trying to fix the problems that Finney Had done to the ship.

------------------
Homer: I'm gonna miss Springfield. This town's been awfully good to us.
Bart: No, it hasn't, Dad. That's why we're leaving.
Homer: Oh, yeah. [pokes his head out the window] So long, Stinktown!

Registered: Mar 1999 | IP: Logged

Masao
doesn't like you either
Member # 232

posted

Were they implying here that firing forward-mounted impulse engines to slow down the ship would prevent decay of their orbit? Anything to slow them down would take them into a lower orbit, wouldn't it? You'd think that firing the usual engines in the back (pushing the ship forward) would be more beneficial.

------------------
When you're in the Sol system, come visit the Starfleet Museum

Registered: Oct 1999 | IP: Logged

Daniel
Active Member
Member # 453

posted

Yes. Anything that would slow the ship down would increase the orbital decay, not decrease it.

Registered: Nov 2000 | IP: Logged

Peregrinus
Curmudgeon-at-Large
Member # 504

posted

As with many things nautical, "forward impulse engines" is a command to set the impulse engines to push the ship forward.

One of the little problems I have with Star Trek VI is the "aft thrusters" order when we see the ship start to move forward...

--Jonah

------------------
"It's obvious I'm dealing with a moron..."

--Col. Edwards, ROBOTECH

Registered: Feb 2001 | IP: Logged

AndrewR
Resident Nut-cache
Member # 44

posted

Are there transcripts to these episodes, to get Spock's actual dialogue?

The picture on the viewscreen was of them falling directly towards the planet... Hmmmmm.

Registered: Mar 1999 | IP: Logged

Masao
doesn't like you either
Member # 232

posted

This sounds like one of the early Star Trek submarine analogies, like those in Balance of Terror. In that ep, the "phasers" acted like torpedoes and the crew tiptoed around the ship to avoid being heard by the Romulans. This orbital decay sounds like a sub losing buoyancy and sinking.

Re: Transcripts. Yes! That's exactly what I mentioned earlier! It would make searching for dialogue a whole lot easier. By the way, Margaret Clark at the Simon and Schuster website mentioned in an answer to a question about Star Trek script books that all (?) TNG and DS9 episodes were out on disc by their sister company SST. Does anyone know anything more about this?

------------------
When you're in the Sol system, come visit the Starfleet Museum

Registered: Oct 1999 | IP: Logged

Sol System
two dollar pistol
Member # 30

posted

Orbital decay is most assuredly not an attempt to get some submarine action on. See: Mir.

All the scripts from TNG and DS9 are available on CD here and here, respectively. I believe they're the shooting scripts in both cases.

------------------
"Excuse me, Mr. Rampaging Killer? Why don't you put down the gun and take a look at this hand-held monkey? Does it not have clever little forepaws? It eats gum and sap!"
--
L. Fitzgerald Sj�berg
****
Read three (three!) chapters of "Dirk Tungsten in...The Disappearing Planet" and something pleasent will happen to you. Possibly involving syrup.

Registered: Mar 1999 | IP: Logged

Masao
doesn't like you either
Member # 232

posted

Cool! Does anyone actually have these discs? From the customer reviews, the search function doesn't seem to work so well.

Anyways, my reference to submarines was about how the producers of Trek seemed to view orbital decay, not how it really is. I was implying that they believed orbital decay was similar to a submarine sinking to the bottom of the ocean, ie, that if you could stop your forward motion, you'd stop sinking.

------------------
When you're in the Sol system, come visit the Starfleet Museum

Registered: Oct 1999 | IP: Logged

Sol System
two dollar pistol
Member # 30

posted

Ah. I'll have to watch the episode in question again.

As far as the disks go, I've been meaning to get them. Perhaps sometime soon I will.

I think Boris has one or both.

Registered: Mar 1999 | IP: Logged

TSN
I'm... from Earth.
Member # 31

posted

Since the subject of transcripts has come back up, I'm using my new DVD drive to work on it. I'm int he process of doing "The Galileo Seven" right now. Here's what I have so far.

------------------
"Although, from what I understand, having travelled around the Mid-west quite a bit, apparently Jesus is coming, so I guess the choice now is we should decide whether we should spit or swallow."
-Maynard James Keenan

Registered: Mar 1999 | IP: Logged

Printer-friendly view of this topic