[Big D]

Originally Posted by Roysten

The science of the shows is always going to get outdated, not much they can do about it other than going completely the other way were we say instead that it's "scientifically impossible!"

It got a bit better when they stopped using real-world measurements for details like computer power and photon torpedo yields.

[Kukalaka]

Horrible premise and one of the first of many ridiculous "The Enterprise is so badly designed one or two people take complete control of it from the bridge" episodes.

That said the spacedock FX were excellent, as stated.

[kevin]

Originally Posted by Kukalaka

Horrible premise and one of the first of many ridiculous "The Enterprise is so badly designed one or two people take complete control of it from the bridge" episodes.

That said the spacedock FX were excellent, as stated.

One or two people took control of the old Enterprise in The Search for Spock. I wouldn't have thought such a fully automated ship was so far fetched - planes today pretty much fly themselves except for take-off and landings.

[horatio]

The idea of the 24th century was that you could operate a starship with one PADD. Of course not forever, sooner or later repairs and maintance need to be done, and neither as efficiently as several people working on the respective special stations.

[FanWriter45]

I rather liked the episode... for one thing, it had a group of aliens that actually thought in an alien way... absolute yes/no. Secondly, the Enterprise getting taken over by computer experts is something that happened even back on TOS... that's how Spock set the E off to Talos IV, you may remember.

The Bynars were interesting. I'm just sorry they weren't developed more as the series progressed. (Wouldn't it have made sense to have a pair onboard, to do tech support?) As it was, I think they were only mentioned in one other episode.

Still, you have to wonder... what would the Bynars reaction have been to the Borg? Would they have seen assimilation as an upgrade? Or would they have used their superior computer skills to take out the invaders with some kind of virus?

Again... great ideas... but then they completely miss the opportunities that are presented by them.

[horatio]

The first season of TNG was very similar to TOS, hence mysterious aliens like the Bynars who just appear once. If we had seen them or the Gorn or the Tholians or the Horta or whoever else more often, they might have become less mysterious and less fascinating.

That's one of the reasons why I like the first two seasons of TNG, the universe seemed to be much bigger before reoccuring aliens like Klingons and Romulans made Trek epic. Not that I don't like that, on the contrary, but the 'all alone out there' atmosphere also has its merits.

[sir num nums]

Originally Posted by Saquist

It had something.

Stank?

[kevin]

Originally Posted by horatio

That's one of the reasons why I like the first two seasons of TNG, the universe seemed to be much bigger before reoccuring aliens like Klingons and Romulans made Trek epic. Not that I don't like that, on the contrary, but the 'all alone out there' atmosphere also has its merits.

That's a fair point - the TNG universe did shrink a little after season 3 as they seemed to stay more within established Federation space.

[jerhanner]

Originally Posted by kevin

One or two people took control of the old Enterprise in The Search for Spock. I wouldn't have thought such a fully automated ship was so far fetched - planes today pretty much fly themselves except for take-off and landings.

You would think there would be some kind of emergency system where the ship can point itself at the nearest star base and fly there with no human assistance, right? Then you can just hack into that program and off you go to Binar!

[kevin]

Originally Posted by jerhanner

You would think there would be some kind of emergency system where the ship can point itself at the nearest star base and fly there with no human assistance, right? Then you can just hack into that program and off you go to Binar!

Well, that season 1 episode where the crew were all ill, Yar said something about the Enterprise being able to travel 'on autopilot', if necessary.

It never really got elaborated on further.