The hallmark of higher intelligence is problem solving using techniques that one works out within ones own mind. Internal testing of the idea, is rarely done cuz it just aint fun and it takes too much time. We are having a clever idea and someone else might get to it first so we have to publish ASAP!!! Rarely ends well.
Star trek: the main thing about FTL & transporters – they are ‘plot devices’ to enhance the series, other wise it would get very boring, and many things would be basically impossible… Name a space scifi series without these that is repeated as much!!
The only reason that the transporter accident is in Star Trek: The Motionless Picture is because they had a NASA guy as “Scientific Advisor”, who said that the transporter was impossible and they shouldn’t use it. (He also publicly said that he wished he could find some way to write out faster-than-light travel.)
As i recall – they even basically said that the transporters couldn’t operate single-ended, as they do in every other epsode and/ot film…
I wish they had spent some of the money on a better story and less on special effects (although they were spectacular). I’m just glad that it didn’t put the last nail into the coffin of the franchise. Heck, as a kid I would’ve preferred continuing the animated series. Even today if they did it like “The Clone Wars” I’d watch it.
hm, to quote a ‘wright brothers’ critic…
“man was not built for flying!! this impossible contraption will never be safe!!
or even about the first ‘automobile’ ….
“man was never meant to go at these speeds!!” – they forced a guy with a flag to walk in front, ‘to ensure no horses are frightened’.. :-{
I’d have to say that, in the long run, unless the needs of each one and of the many can be reconciled–you’re in trouble. One way leads to individualism, and life gets “nasty, bruitish, and short”; the other to communism, and life gets…nasty, bruitish, and short. You cannot justify doing harm to either the one or the many with a good end.
That said, you can defer a good when a greater good requires it, which is likely the point.
True, but that also means it may be insane and there is no reasoning with it. I know being locked up in a tree for thousands of years would play havoc with my mental stability.
A partial list of Nicoll Events can be found here.
Perusal of either it or the WikiQutes page linked in the previous post may tend to suggest that James must be related to one or more of the denizens of Wapsi Square…
One night on <a href="http://www.coasttocoastam.com/"/a< there was a gentleman talking about going down south to try <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayahuasca
"/a<. He was asked by the host if he ate the big tarantulas with the locals. He replied that he had, and they taste 'a lot like crab'.
I'd still rather have crab.
This is why I keep a file of templates. Just copy and paste, then fill in the blanks (half of which is also a copy and paste thing). Less chance of transcription errors.
Ya just got tae watch oot fer de bog beasties, aye. And de bean sídhe, an ye be inna graveyards. Heed well the warnings in DARBY O’GILL AND THE LITTLE PEOPLE, and nae mess aboot with Sean Connery in any age!
Captain Nathan Brittles: Never apologize. It’s a sign of weakness.—-She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949) Political correctness must cease. Any reasonable person knows you weren’t trying to offend anyone; there is no pleasing the unreasonable.
I suspect that that line in She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (which i have been trying to get around to watching for the first time for the last week as Moving has been occurring) was quoting George Bryan (Beau) Brummell, who is quoted in several sources i’ve encountered as having said it.
I always found the V’ger premise totally asinine. I mean, this simple probe gets near a massively intelligent machine civilization. They build an unbelievely huge and powerful vessel for it to travel in and “complete it’s mission.” Yet, not one of them can figure out how to wipe off the faceplate to see the whole name? In a real situation, Voyager would have become scrap metal and turned into a few bolts for some insignificant little device shortly after they saw how primitive and useless it was. Then, using the data on it, they would turn their sights on us. Announcing your location in the universe is like cutting yourself in shark infested waters. Bad idea.
I’m not quite sure what it has to do with this either, but I love Brandi’s expression in the last panel.
I think Brandi was thinking of the Celtic cross turning into something unexpected over time perhaps thanks to being combined with Yggdrasil. It would be like Voyager being turned into V’ger. Of course, like a lot of geekasms, it’s hard to know exactly what they were thinking. 😀
AFAIK, this is the first time we’ve seen this Brandi being geeky. The previous loop’s Brandi might have been, but this Brandi always seemed to want to go shopping and at the library, she was all exited to be able to find “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants”. That’s not a geeky book, is it?
I could swear that they retconned that in some book or other, making the V’Ger thing into a Borg problem (as though we weren’t sick to death of those guys anyway).
ST did a lot of retconning – i seem to recall that the first time the Ferenghi appeared on New Trek (as opposed to Trek Classic or Star Trek: The Three-Hour Cruise) was the first time the Federation had ever encountered them … but that subsequently they were writtne as having been there for much longer.
However, one good “retcon” – which was a retcon by virtue of not being a retcon – was when some of the others asked Worf why the Klingons in theoriginalfootage from”The Trouble with Tribbles” had smooth foreheads, and Worf glared and said in his most convincing manner “We do not speak of this!”
But Shelly is the Captain Kirk type … Physically oriented. Go yourself every time, jump in with both feet and act now, maybe think it over later. It was pretty stupid that the 4 most essential people on board would go on nearly every away mission, occasionally all at the same time. Unlike Picard; think it over first, then send someone else.
Since Star Trek has come up (and in all it’s forms, no less), may I plug the Star Trek Fan Survey being done by Virginia Postrel. She’s a Los Angeles writer and blogger (Dynamist) on glamour and culture.
Plenty of interesting questions and room to add your own opinions. Have fun!
But how else would Kirk have gotten his shirt ripped so often? They couldn’t have had him running around the Enterprise carrying scissors or other sharp objects every episode.
As I said above, forgetting the transporters and having a much smaller ship–12-20 crew or so, or even just 7-8–and a ship designed to land on planet would make more sense, and even explain why the top officers keep heading out to explore. Not completely explain about the officers’ away missions, but it sure would help.
Everything but the “land on planets” part sounds awfully much like Dark Star, the best feature-length SF film ever made for $58,000 by the men who gave us “Halloween” and “Alien”…
Got your “exterminate” right here pal. You! You in the red shirt! Get out there and phaser as many of ’em as you can, while I get to be heroic! Oh, and set your phaser to “I’m gonna die in 3 seconds.”
In regards to ST:TMP, I saw Shatner @ California U in ’76. He told a story of visiting the “old set” and while there heard a tapping sound coming from G.Roddenberrys’ old office. Gene was working, typeing out the story for the movie and Shatner walked in and said, “GENE!. what the hell are ya doin’ here? They canceled us years ago.”
and yeah, I wasn’t a ‘Fan’ of the forst movie. Too much like 2001, and that one put me to sleep.
I love Bud. Her expression in the second panel in response to Brandi’s comment is wonderful. She knows Brandi just undid what little comfort she just gave to Shelly.
Maybe they should send Katherine along, too. SOMEbody with some archeological knowledge should go. And if there are spiders, while Shelly’s running for the hills Katherine could bag them for her collection…
And we finally get confirmation that Shelly was wearing the one-piece, not the tankini. Lower edge of the top panel, in the extended section of the panel.
I don’t wanna go!
What? Didja think it was all beach fun?
But …
Nobody wants to go!
But …
This is what you signed up for, soldier! Now man-up … you’re half man already … get your gear together and prepare for poiting transport! And don’t forget your shovel and lipgloss!
Looking at the recent strips, I’ve noticed how freaking good Paul is with expressions. Even with the week of swimsuits, what I remember from them are the great facial expressions. I’m kind of hooked on the gravitar thing, and I grabbed five, FIVE, out of this strip alone.
I can’t open enough email accounts to show them all.
Keep up the fantastic work, Mr. Taylor, I am a fan for life.
Love Brandi!
Correct me if I’m wrong, but hasn’t Bud said that Brandi has the brains to mop the floor with the rest of them? Is Brandi having an off day here?
Book brains and Social Brains are not always intertwined… ;3
What Akamarsaid is painfully correct.
The hallmark of higher intelligence is problem solving using techniques that one works out within ones own mind. Internal testing of the idea, is rarely done cuz it just aint fun and it takes too much time. We are having a clever idea and someone else might get to it first so we have to publish ASAP!!! Rarely ends well.
Having brains does not mean that you must be exceptionally brilliant all the time. 😛 Besides…she’s being nerdy. It’s a close second.
Ever heard of Howard Gardner and his MI theory? Read about it. =)
The transporter accident still gives me the willies.
Hell, here’s something to scare you even more:
Two people died in a horrific transport accident (“Enterprise, what we got back didn’t live long… fortunately”), and the movie STILL got a G rating.
Star trek: the main thing about FTL & transporters – they are ‘plot devices’ to enhance the series, other wise it would get very boring, and many things would be basically impossible… Name a space scifi series without these that is repeated as much!!
Can you get worse than ‘undiscovered country’??
Yes–without the transporter, they’d have to use shuttles to get from ship to planet and back every time, or have a smaller ship that could land.
OTOH, they only use about 7-12 crew on any given show, so a smaller ship would explain why the top officers keep on going on away missions…
And the FTL is just to keep their “five year mission” from only making it to, maybe, one planet…
The only reason that the transporter accident is in Star Trek: The Motionless Picture is because they had a NASA guy as “Scientific Advisor”, who said that the transporter was impossible and they shouldn’t use it. (He also publicly said that he wished he could find some way to write out faster-than-light travel.)
As i recall – they even basically said that the transporters couldn’t operate single-ended, as they do in every other epsode and/ot film…
Ayuh. I’m just glad the uniforms were redesigned for the next film.
I wish they had spent some of the money on a better story and less on special effects (although they were spectacular). I’m just glad that it didn’t put the last nail into the coffin of the franchise. Heck, as a kid I would’ve preferred continuing the animated series. Even today if they did it like “The Clone Wars” I’d watch it.
Heck, if they did it like Genndy Tartakovsky’s Clone Wars, I’d step over my own mother to get to it.
hm, to quote a ‘wright brothers’ critic…
“man was not built for flying!! this impossible contraption will never be safe!!
or even about the first ‘automobile’ ….
“man was never meant to go at these speeds!!” – they forced a guy with a flag to walk in front, ‘to ensure no horses are frightened’.. :-{
“If Man were meant to fly, God would never have given us the railways!”
Why all the trek talk??? Did a chat point get deleted? Talk about digressing and nerd, geeks and other lovely diversions…
I am a gamer, but I digress…
Oh I get it… her tank suit must be red LOL.
Hey, Brandi started it. Take it up with her.
Well… If that ain’t foreshadowing, I don’t know what is!
Yeah! That’s right Brandi! Talk nerdy to me, baby! :p
Testify!
The needs of the one are outweighed by the needs of the many.
or the few… 😉
…Or the one.
Er, wait–that was in IV… I misread your original post. Sorry.
So, it takes a village?
If you want to get a good mob with pitchforks going, yes.
Only if the torches and left-handed Cornish hop-reaper’s hooks are also available to wave menacingly.
I’d have to say that, in the long run, unless the needs of each one and of the many can be reconciled–you’re in trouble. One way leads to individualism, and life gets “nasty, bruitish, and short”; the other to communism, and life gets…nasty, bruitish, and short. You cannot justify doing harm to either the one or the many with a good end.
That said, you can defer a good when a greater good requires it, which is likely the point.
if it’s sentient they may be able to reason with it…
True, but that also means it may be insane and there is no reasoning with it. I know being locked up in a tree for thousands of years would play havoc with my mental stability.
Wouldn’t that make Jin the perfect person to talk to it?
Exterminate! Exterminate! Oops. Sorry. Wrong program.
damn daleks turn up everywhere
Not if you’re Merlin… (and that’s who it may well be!)
Mayhuel may be a better fit, having gone through something comparable…
If it is Merlin then none of them may be the best choice since is was a girl with extraordinary powers that locked him up…
*ZAP* oh shoot that’s not Nimue!
On the other hand, it may be completely sane, and therefore totally unwilling to have anything to do with them.
Maybe it’s Jin’s dad. /shivver
[shiver]
[nervous eye twitch]
Cap’n! She canna take any more!
Mr Scott, we got this hooker for two hours and we’re damn well going to use her. Now get the hell out of my way!
DON’T tell her there might be spiders…
….or tribbles
oh wait….don’t they taste good?
No, i think you’re talking about shmoos.
…..s’mores?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shmoo
With the right marinade, anything tastes good…
Someone once defined carob as a “…brown powder which, with enough sugar and fat added, tastes vaguely like chocolate.
“So does dirt.”
The wonderful Sandra Boynton, if I’m not mistaken.
I HATE Carob…
Perhaps Boynton, but i first encountered it on a newsgroup devoted to SF Fandom (and chocolate) (and James Nicoll Events…)
A partial list of Nicoll Events can be found here.
Perusal of either it or the WikiQutes page linked in the previous post may tend to suggest that James must be related to one or more of the denizens of Wapsi Square…
James has interesting things to say on other matters, too, such as cats. He’s quite active on LiveJournal.
One night on <a href="http://www.coasttocoastam.com/"/a< there was a gentleman talking about going down south to try <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayahuasca
"/a<. He was asked by the host if he ate the big tarantulas with the locals. He replied that he had, and they taste 'a lot like crab'.
I'd still rather have crab.
Gah! Code fail.
I feel your pain.
Especially with no edit function–and it’s hard to remember exactly what format works on a given page sometimes….
This is why I keep a file of templates. Just copy and paste, then fill in the blanks (half of which is also a copy and paste thing). Less chance of transcription errors.
Sir, you give me too much credit. I can ALWAYS find room for error…
And who’d want to eat anything that’s born pregnant, anyway?
That’s true. No snakes to eat them either. Probably big mothers. Course it is winter, so probably none at the moment.
Ya just got tae watch oot fer de bog beasties, aye. And de bean sídhe, an ye be inna graveyards. Heed well the warnings in DARBY O’GILL AND THE LITTLE PEOPLE, and nae mess aboot with Sean Connery in any age!
My sincere apologies to any actual Gaels who might have been offended by my funny-ethnic-voice joke. But it WAS just a joke…
Captain Nathan Brittles: Never apologize. It’s a sign of weakness.—-She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949) Political correctness must cease. Any reasonable person knows you weren’t trying to offend anyone; there is no pleasing the unreasonable.
I suspect that that line in She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (which i have been trying to get around to watching for the first time for the last week as Moving has been occurring) was quoting George Bryan (Beau) Brummell, who is quoted in several sources i’ve encountered as having said it.
Ooops. Just as i hit “ENTER” key, i noticed that i’d pasted the wrong URL – the proper link is here.
“Therrrrrre’s boogie doin’s on the moorrrrrrs.”
– The Man from Planet X (1951)
And the Pictsies.
JIn actually looks consoling….
I always found the V’ger premise totally asinine. I mean, this simple probe gets near a massively intelligent machine civilization. They build an unbelievely huge and powerful vessel for it to travel in and “complete it’s mission.” Yet, not one of them can figure out how to wipe off the faceplate to see the whole name? In a real situation, Voyager would have become scrap metal and turned into a few bolts for some insignificant little device shortly after they saw how primitive and useless it was. Then, using the data on it, they would turn their sights on us. Announcing your location in the universe is like cutting yourself in shark infested waters. Bad idea.
I’m not quite sure what it has to do with this either, but I love Brandi’s expression in the last panel.
I think it’s the transporter accident scene that Jim refers to…
(Although the GG’s themselves could be compared to V’ger…)
I think Brandi was thinking of the Celtic cross turning into something unexpected over time perhaps thanks to being combined with Yggdrasil. It would be like Voyager being turned into V’ger. Of course, like a lot of geekasms, it’s hard to know exactly what they were thinking. 😀
AFAIK, this is the first time we’ve seen this Brandi being geeky. The previous loop’s Brandi might have been, but this Brandi always seemed to want to go shopping and at the library, she was all exited to be able to find “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants”. That’s not a geeky book, is it?
Brandi looks like someone just hit the air horn. Bud’s voice probably is shrill enough to etch bone china.
I could swear that they retconned that in some book or other, making the V’Ger thing into a Borg problem (as though we weren’t sick to death of those guys anyway).
ST did a lot of retconning – i seem to recall that the first time the Ferenghi appeared on New Trek (as opposed to Trek Classic or Star Trek: The Three-Hour Cruise) was the first time the Federation had ever encountered them … but that subsequently they were writtne as having been there for much longer.
However, one good “retcon” – which was a retcon by virtue of not being a retcon – was when some of the others asked Worf why the Klingons in theoriginalfootage from”The Trouble with Tribbles” had smooth foreheads, and Worf glared and said in his most convincing manner “We do not speak of this!”
“More Tribbles, More Troubles”, arguably, the best episode of DS9.
OTOH, maybe the were a truly alien intelligence–with rather alien rationales and reasons for doing what they do.
In other words a civilization made up entirely of Benders. Perpetually drunk ones.
But Shelly is the Captain Kirk type … Physically oriented. Go yourself every time, jump in with both feet and act now, maybe think it over later. It was pretty stupid that the 4 most essential people on board would go on nearly every away mission, occasionally all at the same time. Unlike Picard; think it over first, then send someone else.
Since Star Trek has come up (and in all it’s forms, no less), may I plug the Star Trek Fan Survey being done by Virginia Postrel. She’s a Los Angeles writer and blogger (Dynamist) on glamour and culture.
Plenty of interesting questions and room to add your own opinions. Have fun!
But how else would Kirk have gotten his shirt ripped so often? They couldn’t have had him running around the Enterprise carrying scissors or other sharp objects every episode.
As I said above, forgetting the transporters and having a much smaller ship–12-20 crew or so, or even just 7-8–and a ship designed to land on planet would make more sense, and even explain why the top officers keep heading out to explore. Not completely explain about the officers’ away missions, but it sure would help.
Everything but the “land on planets” part sounds awfully much like Dark Star, the best feature-length SF film ever made for $58,000 by the men who gave us “Halloween” and “Alien”…
My acting career hit a serious roadblock when I was cast as “Yeoman 5, away team” in several episodes…
From the Star Trek/Southpark crossover prologue: “The part of Kenny will be played by The Guy In The Red Shirt.”
But you looked soooo good in red. Briefly.
I get the odd feeling that Jin had a line in the last panel – she looks like she’s speaking to Shelly.
And THAT’s odd – my post did not appear at the bottom of the list, but a few up from that.
Ah, yes. V’Ger.
a.k.a. “Where Nomad Has Gone Before”
Could have been worse — ST vs Daleks! Ewwwwww…..
Yes, a thousand times yes!
EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!
Got your “exterminate” right here pal. You! You in the red shirt! Get out there and phaser as many of ’em as you can, while I get to be heroic! Oh, and set your phaser to “I’m gonna die in 3 seconds.”
Okay. Now I can’t but help see Brandi in a TOS uniform, with a com device in her ear.
“Um, guys? I’m being hailed…”
Jin: “By who?”
“Everyone!”
Just so she isn’t wearing a red shirt.
On the other hand, she would be the first red shirt to survive a really dangerous away mission.
Besides Scotty?
They should send Tina.
The carbon units will not provide the information!
Why are these comments all out of order? Maybe my brain is out of order…
Were you watching the Star Trek movie marathon on the SyFy channel yesterday too?
In regards to ST:TMP, I saw Shatner @ California U in ’76. He told a story of visiting the “old set” and while there heard a tapping sound coming from G.Roddenberrys’ old office. Gene was working, typeing out the story for the movie and Shatner walked in and said, “GENE!. what the hell are ya doin’ here? They canceled us years ago.”
and yeah, I wasn’t a ‘Fan’ of the forst movie. Too much like 2001, and that one put me to sleep.
I love Bud. Her expression in the second panel in response to Brandi’s comment is wonderful. She knows Brandi just undid what little comfort she just gave to Shelly.
Shelly’s response somehow reminds me of that old song from Frank Zappa…
‘I don’t wanna get drafted! I don’t wanna go!”
♪♪♪ Please Mr. Custer … I don’t wanna go … ♪♪♫♪
Maybe they should send Katherine along, too. SOMEbody with some archeological knowledge should go. And if there are spiders, while Shelly’s running for the hills Katherine could bag them for her collection…
Oh Yes She should go, no more living thru M’s life. But who is going to feed her fish….if you do send her?
PBH
Ahhh…but that’s one of the benefits of poiting. 🙂 You don’t need to worry about making it home in time to feed the fish.
Take Oscar to Monica’s house and Dietzel can feed him…
or the Pizza Girl…
Geek Brandi for the win!
And we finally get confirmation that Shelly was wearing the one-piece, not the tankini. Lower edge of the top panel, in the extended section of the panel.
And that’s why I love these ladies!
I don’t wanna go!
What? Didja think it was all beach fun?
But …
Nobody wants to go!
But …
This is what you signed up for, soldier! Now man-up … you’re half man already … get your gear together and prepare for poiting transport! And don’t forget your shovel and lipgloss!
Looking at the recent strips, I’ve noticed how freaking good Paul is with expressions. Even with the week of swimsuits, what I remember from them are the great facial expressions. I’m kind of hooked on the gravitar thing, and I grabbed five, FIVE, out of this strip alone.
I can’t open enough email accounts to show them all.
Keep up the fantastic work, Mr. Taylor, I am a fan for life.
So if I leave the druggies and Jocks and Biebers of the world alone they will someday become sentient?
Well, maybe.
But i don’t hold out much hope for the Bieber fans…
the good thing is, the fans will actually grow up, and go on to more mature things….
V’ger hell! How long before the internet itself becomes sentient/self-aware… if it’s not already so! (I’m lookin’ at you, Alexa)