Comments on: The Collective: First Look at 2009 Calendars

By: Saul

Saul — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 19:27:08 +0000

Does any one know if there will be a 2009 Star Trek Desk Calendar Day to Day?

The last one I had was the 2007 Star Trek Desk Calendar

By: karanadon

karanadon — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 08:03:36 +0000

Is that Kirk and Spock observing the warp field test through a window in the top left corner?!

By: Commodore Lurker

Commodore Lurker — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 03:10:27 +0000

DOUG !!!!!
Great to hear from you man. I’m the ex-Army grunt in the crowd. Do good work over there my brother and stay in touch.

By: Garovorkin

Garovorkin — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 17:23:42 +0000

Sorry i just can’t get all excited by the latest Star Trek Calendars especially with the fact that we have to wait till May of 09 for the new film, chalking days of on a trek themed calendar would only be putting salt in the wounds.

By: Doug

Doug — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 16:02:07 +0000

Greetings from Kuwait; tomorrow we leave for Afghanistan!

I love the ST calendars. I have every single one of them since they started publishing them (plus I make my own exclusive live for friends) back in 1976.

Live long and prosper!

By: diabolk

diabolk — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 22:39:38 +0000

#49.. my heart goes out to you.

By: Ralph F

Ralph F — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 21:11:33 +0000

I had all the STAR TREK poster books from the 70s; man, I loved those. Synopses and info, plus every “issue” folded out into a giant poster. Had a couple of the THOLIAN WEB ones, of which I got one framed.

Lost ‘em all to Katrina, alas.

By: Jorg Sacul

Jorg Sacul — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 19:37:04 +0000

starships aren’t jet fighters. the best battle scenes were in TWoK, just because of the sheer size of the ships and environment of the battle. Mass is still mass, and those ships don’t do barrel rolls etc in combat.

As dismal as it was shown in the Ultimate Computer, that’s probably more like what it would appear in clear space. No sane commander would use weapons with a 10,000 mile range (phasers) at point-blank. Khan did it as an element of surprise.

Remember the adage, phasers for sublight, photorps for warp.

By: neal

neal — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 17:56:06 +0000

I wondered what “ships of the line” means, and apparently the specific reference is to the type of naval engagement in which maximum firepower is achieved by firing broadside, i.e., straight sideways. Like, if you have a row of cannon on both sides of a ship, you can’t shoot straight forward or backward. Accordingly, a fleet engagement would involve ships strung out in single file (the “line”), and maneuvering as a group so as to all fire sideways simultaneously at an opposing fleet.

I remember a WW2 TV documentary which used computer animation to depict the “Crossing the T” maneuver, which is the classic and optimal way to defeat an opposing fleet: if your fleet is the top part of the “T”, you can fire all your broadside guns at the opposing fleet, which can’t do a thing because it is pointing straight at you.

Fascinating, but obviously starships would not assemble in a line and fire sideways.

It’s a great term, but it still begs one of the most intriguing questions that has NEVER been depicted satisfyingly onscreen: what would a deep-space starship fleet battle look like, if it followed the laws of physics? Everything on Trek or Star Wars seems much too slow — I mean, video of modern jet dogfights look faster! Also, with those kinds of speeds and with long-range weapons, you’d never really see opposing ships at the same time — they’d never need to come within visual range. Even if they did, at those speeds they’d be in view only for a nanosecond.

So, how would *you* depict a space battle with proper physics?

By: Jorg Sacul

Jorg Sacul — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 16:31:32 +0000

Diabolik–
If you have the calendar still, consider it an archive from your childhood, reminding you of the great times you had watching Trek. That, in my opinion, is worth a hundredfold what you’d get selling it on eBay. You can always find a “new condition” one, but it’s just a meaningless (and expensive) out of date calendar. Yours is a time capsule.

Love the Ships of the Line stuff. Awesome work!