Re: [Phys-l] Star Trek

[Marty Weiss <martweiss@comcast.net>]

On May 19, 2009, at 2:01 PM, John Clement wrote:

> The original post did question what happened to the momentum during
> transport.  The characters did fall to the floor, implying that some
> momentum was still there.  But I interpreted it as being the fall  
> due to the
> materialization over the floor.  It is wonderful how they can always
> materialize the people contacting the floor.  One would think they  
> might
> miss by an fraction of a cm or more.  So why were the characters
> materialized in the middle of the air in this case?
They actually did that in this movie.  Scott materialized inside a  
water cooling tank (instead of the floor) and Kirk had to follow the  
length of the tube to save his companion.  He eventually had to  
evacuate the whole tankload of liquid to retrieve his soaked partner.   
In the original series I remember once when someone failed to  
rematerialize and was lost and a time when an alternate Kirk appeared  
instead of the original.

Interesting factoid:   nowhere in the original series does anyone  
say,"Beam me up Scotty."
> And it always seemed ludicrous that the captain's chair did not have  
> seat
> belts.  He is always getting thrown out.  But I guess the Enterprise  
> never
> went at "ludicrous" speed, so they didn't need seat belts.
>
> It is entertainment after all.  It is sometimes difficult to watch  
> certain
> old movies and take them seriously, but people did.  In Flash Gordon  
> why did
> the exhaust always go out and then angle upward?  Apparently most  
> people did
> not notice it.  I wonder what people 50 years from now will think of  
> Star
> Wars and Startrek.  Old SF tend to seems to become dated faster  
> compared to
> old dramas.

The original StarTrek (and Next Generation) is still revered to this  
day for its innovative effects.  One can always watch the series for  
Shatner's overacting and laugh, but we did that back then also, so in  
that sense nothing changed over the past thirty years or so.    It was  
fun back then for those of us who followed it and it's still fun  
today.  The political statements were poignant back then and still are  
today.  How many of you remember the episode when Kirk beamed to a  
planet to capture a renegade captain who was leading an incessant war  
between the *Koms* and the *Yangs* and Kirk knew how to speak the  
sacred "Me Publista" which enabled him to escape from certain death?   
It turned out to be a parallel world populated by  primitive  
Communists and Yankees and the the religious saying was actually the  
Preamble to the Constitution.  The people of that planet had forgotten  
why they were fighting and what the document stood for.   There were  
so many memorable episodes that several decades later it remains one  
of the most important series ever run on tv, in spite of not being  
particularly well received (ratings-wise) at the time.  (Who can  
forget *The Trouble with Tribbles*, one of the funniest episodes ever?)

Another interesting factoid... the first interracial kiss on tv was  
between Ohura and Kirk.

I'm sure someone else can enlighten this group with further anecdotes  
of how StarTrek enriched their lives in a more innocent era.

And this doesn't even get into Next Generation, which likewise was a  
very well done series.
>

Marty  (A Trekker from way back!)