BBC Focus Magazine

[Liam Sheppard]

watching DS9 tuther day, (i know i know), doctor Bashir wanted a sample of odo (the shapechanger) in order to try and develop a method of creating a way to inject a person and have the fluid evolve into whatever is nedded, like base genes...

basically stem cell research.. which we already have..

however star trek is based in the year 2370..

so how long before other star trek imaginings occur earlier than anticipated?

[M Paul Lloyd]

Well I am inclined to think of it in terms of things that might possibly have been forgotten or even ethically forbidden?
For example we don't really know how Stonehenge was built, we can make some educated guesses and even simulate a few possible methods but we don't actually know for certain. So maybe stem cell research turned up a nasty side effect? you know like in the cell degeneration that afflicts clones (which I think was the excuse used in a Star Trek script to get around not having any clones around?) has in recent times and so the technology falls out of use and is lost.
Also, if I recall my Star Trek 'history' the Earth is all but laid waste by a global nuclear conflict towards the end of the 20th century and the human race is only saved by the timely invention of warp drive by one Zephram Chocrane (not too sure about the spelling there;)) which in turn lead to our exploration of deep space and first contact. That war hasn't happened and I don't see anyone making many strides in the warp-drive/inertial damper department.

But then, it was just a TV show.

[Healerman]

so how long before other star trek imaginings occur earlier than anticipated?

I seem to recall seeing a Trek 1 communicator cell-phone best part of ten years ago. Does that count?

[Jamie]

BTTF2 was set in 2015, and they had giant holograms and anti-gravity skateboards by then. Perhaps reality is out of date!

[Thinker]

OI!!!

We still have five years! Lay off BTTF2, Jamie.

[Jamie]

Don't get me wrong, I'd like floating skateboards as much as the next man. Anyways, it matters not - it's obvious all that time travelling created alternate realities, so someone, somewhere with have one

[Thinker]

I eagerly await that hydrating Pizza machine they have in BTTF2 as well. Goes in the size of a CD and comes out full size, how cool is that?

[Mindthegap]

If you see Patrick Stewart standing outside your house with a big stick, RUN!

[Shadowwolf]

If all he had was a stick it would kind of prove the 'out of date' point

[M Paul Lloyd]

Thinking of sticks, or at least clubs and such like blunt instruments, I recall seeing at least one redshirt (I think?) brandishing a length of clear acrylic rod and thinking how absurd it looked, and yet, at work, we have a quantity of just such a material sitting on a rack in stores.....

One thing worth noting, the 'flatscreen' technology shown in Star Trek viewscreens was only adopted because the budget would not run to actual vaccum tube television screens which ironically would have dated far more quickly.

[The Beige Avenger]

and even then the GUI on the star trek computer was either extremely advanced and responded to their touch in a way that we don't appreciate (and they somehow understood an unchanging interface like an advanced command-based system)... or... it is already out of date when compared with e.g. MS Table... And their padds (the things they held); of which they usually had several, shows that current cloud computing concepts (i.e. one device being able to access information wherever not requiring additional computing hardware) and tablet pcs (e.g. iPad) are already past star trek.

One of my annoyances with star trek was their inconsistency with their technological prowess... once you start picking at holes it just falls apart.

I'd love to see a new, high budget... realistic scifi series. The star trek universe is too heavily populated by hammy, two-dimensional alien characters.

[Jamie]

Yes, the touchscreens looked like they were hard coded images for the same function only. I'm sure Voyager was slightly different though. The voice recognition AI type computer system seemed pretty good advanced though.

I'd love to see a new, high budget... realistic scifi series.

One with silent space explosions, slower than light, non-instant communications and planets with different gravity that don't appear to consisit of one giant planet encompassing ecoystem (like all frozen, or all jungle) ?

[Liam Sheppard]

saw the 1st episode of the next generation the other day! all filmed in a studio, even the planet.. looked awful!

all aliens have an 'extra' bit on their face!

i noticed in voyager that many aliens copied star wars (the breen) and predator (the hirogen or something)

[M Paul Lloyd]

One with silent space explosions, slower than light, non-instant communications and planets with different gravity that don't appear to consisit of one giant planet encompassing ecoystem (like all frozen, or all jungle) ?

A C Clarkes 2001 ? Ah but that was a film.

i noticed in voyager that many aliens copied star wars (the breen) and predator (the hirogen or something)

Star Trek 'borrowed' mecrilessly from many sources. The Borg are Cybermen for starters!

[Jamie]

I'd like to see some alien aliens too. Not your standard humanoid looking types. I know special effects were limited back in the day, so sticking a bloke in a rubber suit, painting his face blue sufficed.

Perhaps it's another topic - What might aliens look like ?

[M Paul Lloyd]

Perhaps its one for the science versus sci-fi section Jamie?

Indeed, hence it has moved there and this is but a ghost, so please any replies should be in the version in the Sci V Sci-fi section.

Personally I liked the aliens in Starship Troopers and some of the more obscure ones in Babylon 5 especially the Vorlons and how a whole minute of twittery noises would translate as just 'possibly' brilliantly enigmatic, just how aliens should be. After all can we speak Dolphin yet?.

[Liam Sheppard]

this was explained in the next generation when a clever race explored the galaxy to see that they were alone! so they spread dna round the galxy like seeds, from which humanoids grew, different but the same

[The Beige Avenger]

this was explained in the next generation when a clever race explored the galaxy to see that they were alone! so they spread dna round the galxy like seeds, from which humanoids grew, different but the same

Another of my big annoyances with Star Trek is their inconsistency...

Q also took Picard back to the beginning of life on Earth where he described the point when amino acids linked to form the first proteins which led to life on Earth (from a primordial slimey soup ).

Although I loved the tongue in cheek way they incorporated the klingon head thingie into the DS9 plotline.

I'm sure HBO could do a cracking new scifi... those guys are good at making TV. I'm really looking forward (like a giddy child) to their adaptation of George R. R. Martin's "A Game of Thrones"... finally a fantasy without plastic rocks and hammy acting (the cast looks great). Any fans out there?

[Shadowwolf]

this was explained in the next generation when a clever race explored the galaxy to see that they were alone! so they spread dna round the galxy like seeds, from which humanoids grew, different but the same

Oooohh that awful episode, entertaining bar the "we're all really the same" ending but an absurd excuse for a budget issue.

Although I loved the tongue in cheek way they incorporated the klingon head thingie into the DS9 plotline.

Enterprise actually explained it, related to the same genetic mods that created KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!

Any fans out there?

Never heard of it to be honest, promising is it?

i noticed in voyager...

I think the less said about that the better, it so often vexes me, most vexing.

[M Paul Lloyd]

Can't say as it has crossed my radar Mr.A, sorry.

Not a 7of9 'watcher' then Mr.S?