Star Trek Producers Talk Trek Gadgets September 2, 2008
by TrekMovie.com Staff , Filed under: Abrams, Orci/Kurtzman, Star Trek (2009 film) , trackback
In another promotional interview for Fringe, members of Star Trek’s ‘Supreme Court’ talked to MTV about that other little project they have going on. They wouldn’t talk plot details, unless you count JJ joking the film takes place "in the fu-ture." But the did talk about gadgets in the new Star Trek feature film.
All the TOS gadgets – and no replicators
Star Trek exec producer Bryan Burk talks gadgets
…there’s all the gadgets you could want. No replicators,” since they originated in “Next Generation,” “but there’s warp speed and transporter beams and tricorders and communicators and everything you could want. All the gadgets.
Star Trek producer/director Abrams went on to say that there were “endless discussions” on gadgets including their “style” and “aesthetics,” He also noted:
If you do the bridge of the Enterprise, what does it look like? Does Uhura has the piece in her, or does she not? And if she does, what does it look like? If they have tricorders, what do they look like? Phasers, how do you go from stun to kill, and does anything happen? What does the whole fleet look like? I’m telling you, every day, we were figuring this out, how do we take what we know and love and ‘Star Trek’ and apply it to a modern audience.
Star Trek writer/exec producer Roberto Orci added that they went out of their way towards getting the details right, including some ‘easter eggs’ is for the hard core fans, noting "we have family members who would disown us if we got any of those wrong," probably referring to his uncle who introduced him to Star Trek decades ago. But Orci also made it clear the film will also work for new fans, saying "It’s finally, truly Star Trek Zero in a way. You don’t have to know anything."
From more from Abrams, Orci, and Burk, goto MTV Movies blog.
Loading ...
Comments»
It’ll be interesting to see how they pull off the style. Looking forward to what they came up with.
Will there be Marshmellons?
No replicators? I guess that’s true. The food coming out of the dispensers was unrecognizable in most cases. I always considered them pre-replicators. However I seem to recall that on occasion something recognizable would come out.
Wait.
No replicators?
So…there was a really fast cook that used to put food behind those little sliding doors in TOS?
I seem to recall a security officer in 1968 getting a nice bowl of soup (chicken noodle) way back when?
That magic Dwarf cook was amazing!
Now I’m really curious….
First!!!!
Replicators!?
Why in my day we had ‘The Lunch Ladies’ and weeee liked it!
Hope they have hand-held, flip-open communicators like in TOS and not the TNG, etc. Star Fleet insignia ones, or the TWOK “Dick Tracy” wristmounts.
@ 4.
I think those were considered the ultimate vending machines. Pre-set meals were available for selection. I remember Kirk (or McCoy or Scott) sorting through those data cards until they found the dish they wanted. Then he placed it in the slot and the meal appeared.
Am I not remembering it correctly?
I remember when ST: TMP came out, and in the scene where they first attempt to go to warp speed and Sulu is manually increasing the speed, thinking, “Wow, the Enterprise is a stick and not an automatic.” While it serves a dramatic purpose, it isn’t realistic.
On the other hand, if McCoy’s scanners aren’t salt & pepper shakers, there will be blood!
Love the classic Trek Tek. WIll be hard to improve on the sheer coolness of TOS tek and I don’t expect to see huge changes espcially considering all reports of the “movie” phaser at the toy show resembling the classic Matt Jefferies design. And as far as replicators go…I think TOS had them they never went overboard with them…just used them here and there to whip up some chicken soup or a Nazi Uniform.
And should Uhura have the earpiece? Are you kidding? That says Star Trek as much as Spock’s face being washed in blue light as he gazes into his “viewer” and Kirk leaning on one armrest in the captain’s chair. I hope the earpieces made the cut.
Deploy the CANON CANNON!!!!
LOL
#10 – And in “Catspaw” Kirk turns down Koreb’s temptation of gems and other baubles, saying that they could easily be manufactured on the Enterprise.
#10 – Oh, and not to mention flintlocks and other Eden serpents from “A Private Little War.”
I’ll bet ya two bottles o’ scotch that one of the ‘Easter eggs’ is a tribble or ten.
Looking foward to seeing the new Trek Tech….and hopefuly it does have some resemblance to the Orginal…
#4
Well we know there were food slots in TOS. However in “Charlie X” the galley calls Kirk and tells him the food in the ovens has been replaced with real turkeys. And of course there’s the galley in Star Trek VI with a full fledged cooking staff and waiters, who promptly scatter when Valeris phasers a big kettle (don’t get me started on that scene.)
I always thought of the food slots as a primitive, limited form of the TNG replicators. If the new movie doesn’t have ‘em, that’s fine with me. Those replicators made things a little too easy.
# 11 Blowback – “Deploy the CANON CANNON!!!!”
that’s great… every time someone spells it CANNON (and almost always in caps, i might add) i have to resist the urge to ask if it’s a Quinn Martin production.
RIP William Conrad.
Seriously though, if it was a replicator rather than a food dispenser, what were the tribbles doing in there with Kirk’s coffee and chicken sandwich?
Kirk had a replicator in his quarters in Trek VI.
I’m shocked that no new photos have leaked.
I want phasers, NOW.
“Does Uhura has [sic] the piece in her, or does she not?”
They really did think of all kinds of details. I believe that matter is Uhura’s private business as long as it doesn’t interfere with her (official) performance on the bridge. :-)
im still waiting for some one confirm that we will see a ‘landing party’ and not an ‘away team’. Please!!!
It must be a landing party.
Greg
UK
I just enjoy the fact that we’ll be seeing a “fleet” of ships in this movie which is rare for a Trek movie.
That’s it; I’m chucking my 9-5 job and signing on as a Space Cook aboaurd the USS Hashslinger.
I guess the food in the TOS foodslots could be like the ultimate vending machine or something – the food is already in there in some form, and pressing the button just heats and dispenses it. And then a pretty grl in gogo boots and a wiglet puts it in Dayglo Tupperware and brings it to you.
I want pics! Can’t we at least see a communicator? We’ve seen little else… the film’s almost in the can and I’d love it if they’d reward our patience a bit more along the way… I did appreciate the cast posters, but I’m ready for a steady trickle of new images leading up to a trailer :)
Please?
Do you think they might have a transmogrifier?
Virtual cookie for the first to identify the source of that.
Re: “Does Uhura has the piece in her?”
I’m sure that meant “the peace”, as in retro 60’s venacular. She’s got the peace in her, baby. Hand me that joint.
#10
I didn’t know the movie toys were at the toy show. As far as I know, they haven’t been unveiled or even leaked yet.
#24 Calvin and Hobbes.
#4,
In TOS, food was either prepared by non-coms in a galley, or for simplistic dishes, they would be whipped up in an automated process, and then sent along a distribution network to the intended location.
Are they going to have the colorful cube dinners we saw on TOS?
“This is my chicken sandwich and coffee!” – Captain James T. Kirk in “The Trouble With Tribbles” as he pulls a tribble-covered tray out of something that I think we’re supposed to consider a replicator!
All I have to say is
“Good luck, phasers on stun, Kirk out.”
#25
Scientific progress goes ‘Boink’?
(Of course the virtual cookie goes to AdamTrek, who correctly identified the source, but not the source.)
There was never any direct suggestion that food on Kirk’s ship was created by a “replicator.”
There were food slots from which one could order and receive food, often by plugging one of those colored “data chips” into it.
However, the mechanism by which food was created and moved into the food slot was never explained, and the only *hints* we ever got as to that were references to ship’s cooks.
In “The Making Of Star Trek,” Roddenberry tells the author that the details of how food is stored and prepared aboard the Enterprise are kept deliberately vauge.
So no, replicators were not established either in TOS or in the TOS-based movies. They are an invention of TNG.
they could keep the whole design… just add that the moiré on the communicator is a screensaver and the 3D buttons on the bridge have to be 3D because you can not only push the top of them, but also the sides… how would that be ;)
^ uh, “vague” – not “vauge.”
#31
If that was a replicator, those were some FAST Tribbles, glkomming onto that tray between replication and opening.
In fact, that scene is probably the best indicator we have that those were NOT replicators, but some sort of delivery system.
“Aye, they’re into the food processors.”
There were endless discussions about what things looked like? Watch the freaking show, you’ll see what it looked like.
What he should have said is “What are we going to make this look like to make profit off of the people who think Star Trek is lame… so we called Apple and said “Design the iBridge for us”.”
22nd century
http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Protein_resequencer
23rd century
http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Food_synthesizer
24th century
http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Replicator
I hope they use the TOS Phaser II unchanged (or nearly unchanged). It is a truly timeless SF design.
Well, if I remember right, in “The Trouble With Tribbles,” Scotty says something like “Aye, and they’re probably in all the food processors too.” Since this was pre-quizanart (sp?), I can only assume this was something along the lines of, as others have suggested, a 23rd-century vending machine of sorts, a definite precursor to replicators but not quite there yet. As to the “Cat’spaw” comment, maybe they could manufacture hundreds of gems on the Enterprise, but maybe it wasn’t as simple as just calling them into existence like one would do in TNG using a replicator. Of course, this is all rationalization on my part. :-)
As a fan of the TOS designs this worries me. The design blueprint for all the gadgets is right there on film. Wah Chang’s designs were fantastic.
What does a tricorder look like? There it is, now be respectful and update it for today’s sensibilities. What does a communicator look like? There it is, now be respectful and update it for today’s sensibilities. What does the fleet look like? Here are all of the major ship designs from the series along with Matt Jeffries design drawings. Get working.
These should not have been tough decisions.
Ok. in tos they called it the food synthesiers. they could synthesise all the food and have them made into anything. But they do have a galley. We even heard Gene Roddenberrys voice in Charly X He was the cook who said that there were real turkeys in the ovens. So with Gene Himself saying that then thats true cannon.
I hope theres no smoke monsters…
44. Ok i give up. Whats a smoke monster.
Ok. What about the Phaser rifle we seen in Where no mans gone before. What would that look like.It could you a update. I do like Phaser 1 and 2 though. So i hope they did not change those.
In Areana, McCoy is looking forward to a “non-reconstituted” meal. So I agree with the the previous post that these meals were made out of some kind og bulk protein mass into something the crew woudl recognize.
This is more proof that some of you humans will attack anything this new team says. Imagine if he listed replicators in with the other TOS gadgets, there would be calls for his head on a pitchfork, but even after correctly noting that replicators are TNG, he is still attacked.
45 – I assume the smoke monster is a Lost reference.
We won’t see any smoke monsters in this film. Besides, Trek already did that in “obsession”!.
No replicators? Fine with me…
One of the things that turned me off about the 24th Century spinoffs was too much reliance upon technology. The holodecks alone were enough to drive me nuts.
I like their descriptions of Starfleet technology thus far.
Preserving the general look, yet making everything more “functional” seems just what the doctor ordered…
Yes agree with most of the above, there are food sythesizers AND a galley on Kirks E. The essentials of Wah Chang’s and MJ’s classic designs should still be recognisable. Uhura’s wireless earpiece was another gadget way ahead of its time and I would want to see that too!
I always took the food slots to be transporters that held certain food choices, pre-prepared, in statis until called for. Like a buffer pattern. Not creating it, just storing it until needed. Probably overthinking it though.
Huh. I always thought those were food replicators.
Few people know that Uhura’s earpieces were first seen in Forbidden Planet. Like so many other Trek staples.
But she looked SOOO much better wearing one than the chief in FP!
45 49
S.X. maybe referring to the “puff of steam” you sometimes saw when the food slots were used: Wasn’t steam but cigarette smoke…
24
Might as well call the transporter a transmorgifier since it works as a duplicator as well (”I’m duplicate number five…Duplicate number two will be here next week and you can ask him to do the problem then.”)
54 Yes but that could be considered a homage to one of the best SF movies of the 50s. Irwin Allen OTH basically lifted the whole design of the ship for “Lost in Space.”
Clearly in the TOS movies, and with references in TOS to the galley… and even VOY had a galley…. it’s clear that even with protein resequencing, synthetic food synthesizers, and replicators… having a good ol’ fashioned galley for the captain’s table was a tradition that continued.
After all, when time-travelling, Daniels needed somewhere to go!
#18 – Ande in Trek Vi we saw cooks preparing food in the galley. Remember Valeris firing a phaser on board there and melting a cooking pot to set off the alarm for a phaser fired on board. Apparently meals are cooked by people before being doled out by machines.
Umm… that should be “And,” not “Ande.”
I think real food was used when alien delegations were aboard the ship like Gorkon’s party, but other times the food was replicated.
#60 – You’re a better host than I am. I would have had the aliens eat the replicated stuff.
According to the old Mr. Scott’s guide to the Enterprise, the so called “replicators” of the time were actually food processor units. They were officially also called Food synthesizers.I’m not going to go into the details much, but it said that all basic nutrients were stored and then combined and transported up to the receptacle where you got your meal. The tapes were essentially the meal card for that particular person which had menu preferences and the like. The galley I’m assuming was used when there were big formal gatherings or other big events where fresh food meals were necessary such as a traditional Thanksgiving dinner or such, but not day to day meals unless directly requested. They did have primitive versions of the units in Star Trek Enterprise called Protien resquencers. So, they are correct in saying that the new film will not have repilcators which essentially take matter and forms it into the food or beverage. You can check my info on Memory Alpha just to make sure I got it right.
#62—I’m sure I don’t need to remind you of the fact that “Mr. Scott’s Guide To The Enterprise”, just like every other Star Trek reference book, is not canon. And Memory Alpha is just an “interpretation” of canon.
The STXI “Supreme Court” will have to make decisions on “interpretations”. TOS was obviously unclear on alot of things not meant to be scrutinized 40+ years later. This is obviously one of them. Whatever they decide WILL BE canon, if it is depicted on screen in STXI.
It is no different from Harve Bennett and Nick Meyer deciding that the TOS-era and the original films took place in the 23rd Century (some TOS episodes would certainly contradict that, especially in the first half of season one). The STXI guys should be held to no higher standard than Bennett and Meyer on those “interpretations”.
The mere fact that Burke and the “Supreme Court” are even worrying about this stuff makes me think that they are very concerned with the canon issue.
That’s enough for me to put it out of my mind.
But I know the canon police will still be out pa-”trolling”.
#4 is referring to the episode Tomorrow is Yesterday where they get thrown back to the 20th century. They beam up one of the security from the military base. He is hungry and Scott tells him to order what he wants. So he orders Chicken Noodle soup and a little door opens and it appears in a bowl.
Re: 24. Spock with a Crowbar
“I want pics! Can’t we at least see a communicator? We’ve seen little else… the film’s almost in the can and I’d love it if they’d reward our patience a bit more …”
Dear sir,
I’ve been reading post here at Trekmovie for a long time and PATIENCE is not something I’ve seen here. There is no patience to be rewarded…
Can we just see some pictures???
Geez!
#62 you are correct sir. They were food processors, not replicators. And your interpretation of the galley was the same as mine. It was also stated in the VOY episode “Flashbacks” that they did not have replicators in the 23rd century.
The “replicator” seen in Kirk’s quarters was actually a shelf that looked like a replicator simply because his quaters were a redress of a junior officer’s quarters used for TNG. The same reason why the President’s office looked very much like ten forward… well it was ten forward.
As for the props, I think they will stay essentially the same but given more functionality. The old props were really just meant to look cool, but no one had a clue how they would work. They all had a spinning moire that did nothing. The screens on the tricorders were almost always blank unless there was a close up.
re #12 & #41 I know that they have a geology department on the enterprise because we see the Lead Geologist in some episodes, so I’m guessing that in “Cats Paw” they are refferring to mineral synthesis. As an experimental geologist, that is right down my alley. We can do stuff like that today (diamond synthesis can be very useful) but in the future it will probably be more cost effective even than mining in some cases.
Re: 54. diabolik
” Few people know that Uhura’s earpieces were first seen in Forbidden Planet. Like so many other Trek staples.”
I have posted a few times before that I think of FP as canon. There are a number of ideas GR took right out of the film including the “United Planets”
(just add “federation of”), The ship is in search of a lost colony on a far off planet (Altair IV), The planet has a long extinct civilization still run by machine, The Captain falls for the girl, saves girl and destroys machine…
I like to think of FP as taking place in the Pre-Federation days of Earth exploration and colonization. Maybe just before (or just after) the events of STE.
I’m glad there are some other folks who know and recognize this landmark film that GR himself noted as a major influence.
This movie so going to rock!
…the adventure continues…
Kirk Here: “Do you think they might have a transmogrifier?
Virtual cookie for the first to identify the source of that.”
Would it be from the Star Trek 25th Anniversary game, second level (”Hijacked”) where you need a transmogrifier aboard the USS Masada, in control of the Elasi Pirates, in order to get the transporter working?
the anwser to the poll is comunism!
I always assumed there were catering staff on the Enterprise and additional food vending machines (prototype replicators), much the way we have now!
For chicken noodle soup get dried powder ad add hot water! It’ll still work 200 years from now and taste the same! ;)
I bet the new phaser is gonna look like a nerf gun:( Well if they are catering to todays kids it will be…
50. Closettrekker – September 2, 2008
No replicators? Fine with me…
One of the things that turned me off about the 24th Century spinoffs was too much reliance upon technology. The holodecks alone were enough to drive me nuts.
Closettrekker,
There was a TAS episode that began with Kirk in the holodeck on the Enterprise. I know Gene Roddenberry later declared TAS non-canon but I think that declaration had more to due with Larry Niven’s Kzinti species appearing in a TAS episode. So we might see a holodeck in Star Trek 11 or one of its sequels.
Navigator NCC-2120 USS Entente
/\
Closettrekker (#63),
a point of clarification:
Harve Bennett and Nick Meyer didn’t decide that TOS Trek was set in the 23rd century. That was established definitively in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, or at least the movie poster and trailers for the film, which described it as “A 23rd Century Odyssey Now.” While it’s true that earlier episodes of the series varied when the show might be set, by TMP it was firmly set in the 23rd century.
I want them to have that huge 386 of a Tricorder that they had in TOS, complete with blue screen of death
LOL
I hope everything will look like a decent evolution from Enterprise-era stuff, but I know JJ doesn’t want the shiny-squeaky-clean tech look of the other Trek series, which we can see in some of the few leaked pics but he sure as hell better not take the Battlestar approach and make everything look older then what we have today!
Was there an episode of TOS in which the term “food synthesizer” was actually used, or is it a latter coinage?
“Star Trek VI” is not TOS, BTW. It’s a TOS-based movie. ;-)
Oh jesus christ.
77
I have to admit I’ve always thought that TOS was in the 22nd century despite what is accepted now. When Kirk gets captured on an airforce base in the 1960’s and the commanding officer says he’s going to lock up Kirk for 200 yrs to which Kirk replies “That ought to be just about right” – that’s always been set in my mind. And then when they encounter Khan and Kirk tells him he’s been asleep for 2 centuries. That’s at least how I still think of it in my mind. I never understood how those two things have been skipped over and redone.
70. Commodore Redshirt -
“I have posted a few times before that I think of Forbidden Planet as canon.”
And here I thought I was the only one who privately liked the idea of shoehorning FP into Trek lore! Yeah, it’s definately a precursor. And coulda taken place sometime between ENT and TOS…
77. Buckaroohawk –
“Harve Bennett and Nick Meyer didn’t decide that TOS Trek was set in the 23rd century. That was established definitively in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, or at least the movie poster and trailers for the film, which described it as “A 23rd Century Odyssey Now.” ”
Is promotional material for Star Trek (like movie posters) canon? I don’t really think so. ST:TMP also had a souvenir booklet (I still have mine) that had pictures of background aliens complete with text that named the races and gave further info on each written in part by Roddenberry himself but no one considers any of that canon. The trading cards for many of the movies also had further information not included in the actual films (like the name of the unnamed Klingon Ambassador from STIV, the name “Warigul” for Kruge’s pet in STIII, etc) but again, whether or not its canon is debatable. I think I’d have to agree that STII established once and for all TOS’s 23rd century setting.
Also in Trek IV, Kirk says to Gillian, “You can’t! Our next stop is the 23rd Century!”
83. Izbot,
Is the souvenir booklet you’re taking about the large magazine-sized one? I managed to get one at a yard about a year-and-a-half to two years ago. I’ve got it stashed somewhere with my TMP novelization.
85. Thomas –
“83. Izbot,
Is the souvenir booklet you’re taking about the large magazine-sized one?”
Yeah that’s the one. The movie poster is the cover image.
Izbot (#83),
You have a valid argument about promotional materials not being canon, but my main point was that the idea of TOS Trek being set in the 23rd Century was not the brainchild of Bennett and Meyer for TWOK.
As further evidence I offer that in TMP, Decker states that Voyager 6 was launched from Earth “more than 300 years ago.” Since the Voyager series of craft were all 20th century inventions, adding 300 years places TMP smack dab in the 23rd century.
Of course, the fact that only two Voyagers were actually launched by NASA renders the whole thing academic anyway, thus proving that all of Trek, regardless of what we’ve seen in all of the TV series and movies this far, must be a different, alternate timeline from our own.
Ow. I think I hurt my brain a little bit with that one.
and while we’re talking about replicators, I can’t forget to mention the ‘drink synthesiser’ (well, it was supposed to be capable of making icecream too) on ENTERPRISE.
and didn’t trip once say that they made that stuff out of recycled shyte?
Enough with this crap. I’ll check back in a few months when there’s hopefully some official pics released or a new trailer. I’m tired reading descriptions from producers, actors, and writers etc.
54. diabolik – September 2, 2008
Few people know that Uhura’s earpieces were first seen in Forbidden Planet. Like so many other Trek staples.
—————————————————————–
Yeah. Forbidden Planet is one of the best Star Trek episodes ever.
What????? No Tackyon Pulses, no hyper dimentional time rift implosions? No Inverse Tackyon reverse time travel pulses?
Oh good grief.
You know I would rather hear bugger all from anyone on this movie until they are ready to start distibuting promotional material. This waiting around and some of the ridiculous speculation around here is driving me frelling nuts.
As for transmogrifier, isn’t that something from The Sims?
Actually, as for the virtual cookie, I think #72 has nailed it…..
Well done.
In Trek VI they have a kitchen, a cook, pots and some sort of mashed potatoes visibile when Valeris vaporize its container.
In my opinion, food synthesis and real life cooking do coexist in 23rd century.
#91 “What????? No Tackyon Pulses, no hyper dimentional time rift implosions? No Inverse Tackyon reverse time travel pulses?”
I really hope so. LaForge’s technobabble time *must* be over :)
Speaking of transmogrifiers… don’t forget the sheer terror of the Mutton Vindaloo Beast! Lager, anyone?
@ 93
He is wrong, it WAS Calvin And Hobbes Scientific Progress goes BOINK! And that comic was BEFORE the 25th Anniversarry Board Game.
Score! I won something! First. Time. Ever! Star Trek 25th Anniversary Special pre-dates the Sims by a good 12 years at least. It was the first PC game I owned… sort of. I only got it because my copy of Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis wouldn’t run on my 286 of the day. My god. I’m only 24.
For nostalgia’s sake, I bought 25th Anniversary and Judgement Rites on CD-ROM around twelve years ago (when I was 12 – too young to be nostalgic). I managed to get it working on a DOS shell on my Mac about two years ago and enjoyed them all the way through again. With VOICES! They sure don’t make them like they used to. Getting the “bit” to work for that transmogrifier was still a bitch though.
And about “Tomorrow Is Yesterday”?
When the Air Police sergeant was transported to the Enterprise, the crew asked him: Do you want a soup?
So, a chicken soup appeared in a device.
If it´s not a replicator, what is it?
It’s a transmogrifier
#99
Maybe in 23rd century food can be synthesized, but *real* food has still a better taste. Or maybe food synthesizers work only for simple, not complex recipes.
@99 – Probably the same chicken soup you can get in today’s vending machines. It just heats it up before serving whereas today we need to stick it in a microwave for 1 minute after it’s dispensed…
I am still amazed that almost nothing other than those closeup pictures of the cast have gotten out(ok the shuttlecraft location shots were great) but little else. I have been a Star Trek fan since I could walk( I was two when the original premiered), I am loving not knowing what things are going to look like or the main plot. I have high hopes for this movie. Ok I am dieing to see the new Enterprise!
99.
I think that a previous poster’s idea of it being a mix is correct. I can have “chicken noodle soup” in 3 minutes RIGHT NOW in the good old 2 Thousand Aught 8. 3 hundred years from now, i dare say the technology will have improved. heck 100 years after that we have Ration packs that cook instantly once you open them.
Thought the replicators originated on Stargate SG-1. Oh well.
There’ll be turkeys in the ovens. REAL turkeys. As long as there isn’t on on the big screen, I’ll be happy.
RE: 82. Izbot
“And here I thought I was the only one who privately liked the idea of shoehorning FP into Trek lore! Yeah, it’s definately a precursor. And coulda taken place sometime between ENT and TOS…”
You are not alone. I’ve talked with a small number of other “Old School Trek” fans who agree. The more I think about it, it must have been before ENT because it took them about a year to travel 16 light years…
Ya know, I need to watch it (FP) again…and as we have 346 more days until JJ’s Trek comes out…
Ah, this conversation reminds me of one of my favorite exchanges from TNG:
“How long has this bird been dead? It appears to have been lying in the sun for quite some time.”
“Well it’s not dead, it’s been replicated and you do understand that we cook most of our foods…”
“Ah yes, I was told to prepare for that. I shall try some of your burned replicated bird meat.”
#82 Izbot- Forbidden Planet is without any doubt a major influence on Trek’s formation. I’ve always thought that too.
As canon? Why not? It adds to the richness of the whole universe.
#87—”my main point was that the idea of TOS Trek being set in the 23rd Century was not the brainchild of Bennett and Meyer for TWOK.”
Bennett and Meyer’s use of “In the 23rd Century”, was the first direct reference to the the placement of the original films in that time period. While one could simply do the math with Decker’s comments in TMP, there are at least a dozen similar dialogue references in TOS which would have contradicted that, particularly in the first season.
TWOK set the timeframe once and for all, and TVH narrowed it down to the “late 23rd Century”.
I have to agree with Izbot. It was Bennett and Meyer who closed the door to any potential further debate on it.
“These should not have been tough decisions.”
HEY RUGER
Get real. I mean, come on. They have a massive monster of a franchise they are dealing with. You think for one minute the main players involved should not consider multiple options and weigh over them carefully? What an unrealistic concept.
I’d rather have someone give two $hits about the film than just churn out what was done before. Without innovation there is no forward progress. This is science fiction.
Well, Replicators have been around for Millennia, destined to destroy the Wraith…but since the Warith have already been destroyed by the Atlantis mission in the near future, so that the remaining Replicators had nothing to do.
So some clever Starfleet engineers enslaved them and turned them into food synthesizers in the late 23rd century. A possibility previously overlooked!
Ha, and then there is much potential for this Batman-like robot! I really want to see it doing fight training with Sulu…oh, just freakin’ bring it on!
Anyone up for a “synthetic meatloaf” sandwich? ;)
@97
Yeah, transmogrifiers originated outside of Star Trek. Funny that the one who asked for the reference doesn’t seem to have known that ;).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_and_Hobbesr#Cardboard_boxes
Food slots, food synthesizers, replicators, protein resequencers – its all a lot of double talk. What we know about these things is what we’ve seen them do onscreen. And since Mr. Abrams and his lot have taken it on themselves to keep what they like, throw out what they don’t like, and recast anything else as they see fit, it doesn’t really matter – much like Misters Berman and Braga and their tenure on “Enterprise”: “Sure, it looks like a phaser and does what a phaser does, but its not a phaser – its a phase cannon. See? Totally different. And sure it does everything a photon torpedo does, but its not a photon torpedo. Its a Photonic Torpedo. Totally different.” Like when Vanilla Ice explained the difference between the basslines in “Ice Ice Baby” and Queen’s “Under Pressure”.
Go batbot!
I sure hope the supreme court of Star Trek is NOT using wikipedia as their source material, the MOST unreliable piece of garbage this side if Rigel 7.
WHY NOT MICROWAVE FOOD?!!! Its still an efficiant & safe way to heat food they will still be used in 2308!!!!!!!!
88. Bobfred –
“and while we’re talking about replicators, I can’t forget to mention the ‘drink synthesiser’ (well, it was supposed to be capable of making icecream too) on ENTERPRISE.”
That was a protein resequencer. God, I need to get a life! :)
117. DirectorVFX – September 3, 2008
WHY NOT MICROWAVE FOOD?!!! Its still an efficiant & safe way to heat food they will still be used in 2308!!!!!!!!
—
uh…2364, isn’t it? ;-)
So do they still have Spam in the 23rd Century?
And if they found a can packaged in our time, would it still be edible?
I lie awake at night wondering about those burning questions.
A can of Spam packed in our time isn’t edible NOW. Not for anyone with any self-damned-respect anyway.
Replicators were always a dumb idea anyway. A lot of TNG tech was just too much. It seems to me that TOS tried to speculate on future tech based on what was contemporarily known, and then projected that into the future.
TOS used reality as the springboard from which to jump into speculation.
TNG, on the other hand, used the speculative ideas of TOS as the starting-point. TNG was an extra-degree further away from reality, which made for some really unbelievable ideas, like the magic vending machines, or the very WORST tech idea of them all….the fu#*ing holodeck.
Since we’re on the subject, replicators originated on The Twilight Zone episode The Valley of the Shadow (which interestingly enough James Doohan was in). A device that could convert energy to matter and arrange them in different forms such as food. The templates for to create objects were stored on punch cards.
…and I’ve already stated, the episode of Voyager Flashback, already states that there were no replicators in the 23rd century.
Sheesh. As far as I’m concerned these guys have actually done their homework. Which more than I can say for some of the posts I’ve read here.
…and number 119- that’s 2264. The first century started with zero, so this year being 2008 takes place in the 21st century.
122- the holodeck comes from TAS… you know with the original crew?
Now when you speak of out there TNG technology do you refer to the sleek touch screen panels… wait we’ve got those now. Maybe it was the less than an inch thick monitor viewscreens… wait I’m looking at one of those right now. Perhaps it was those thin PADDs that don’t look like the o-so-realistic electronic clipboards of TOS… you know the ones that look just PDAs and Iphones?
I just like the idea that there’s a lot of stuff in the original series that was intentionally left vague, from food slots (my theory on that later) to not knowing what century it really was set, to Gene Roddenberry’s declaring that they would never return to Earth, because back then he believed they would have to explain things like which form of government ultimately came out on top. One facet of this intentional vagueness is in Roddenberry’s advice to potential Trek writers: “Joe Friday doesn’t stop to explain how his .38 works before he uses it.”
It’s fun and compelling to try to make the underpinnings of the Star Trek universe work to us, but the more we do, the less futuristic Star Trek is. For instance, Franz Joseph’s 1975 schematics for the communicator and tricorder show what are obviously out-of-date electronics to us today.
Because the original series deliberately left so much vague, 42 years later we can continue to speculate about the workings of that fictional universe in a way that still keeps Star Trek fresh and current as a predictor of the future. The later series suffered in a sense for having to adhere to the “23rd century” backstory, including trips to Earth, as established in the movies.
The intentional vagueness of the original series holds true for the food slots on the Enterprise. However they “really” work, I think their design was inspired by the old Automats/Horn & Hardart’s that were still around in the ’60s.
1) http://www.theautomat.com/inside/welcome/welcom.html
2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automat
Much as I also love Forbidden Planet and see connections, I seem to remember Gene Roddenberry denying that he drew inspiration from that movie.
RE: 125 DesiluTrek
“Much as I also love Forbidden Planet and see connections, I seem to remember Gene Roddenberry denying that he drew inspiration from that movie.”
In David Alexander’s “Star Trek Creator: The Authorized Biography of Gene Roddenberry”, GR says it was one of his inspirations for Star Trek.
He also said as much at a ST convention I attended as a teenager in Oakland back in the mid 1970’s. At that time I had never heard of FP, so his comment made me want to seek it out.
Leslie Nielsen is even in FP
125, 126: It also depends on how the question was put to Gene Roddenberry. If he was asked in a way which was suggesting he was copying Forbidden Planet, he surely would have denied that.
” Does Uhura has the piece in her, or does she not? ”
i beg pardon?
there were a sort of transporter-tech based replicator on the 1701
they were not common machines, like they are in the 24th century
the food dispensers were assumably reconstituted automat style machines, using conveyor belts… and they were everywhere!
how about some pictures, already?
129. JWW – September 4, 2008
“there were a sort of transporter-tech based replicator on the 1701
they were not common machines, like they are in the 24th century”
If you’d read the 128 posts above yours you’d see the whole “it’s a replicator! it’s a food slot! it’s a protien resequencer” argument has been done to death on this thread.
I direct you to Anthony’s link in #39 to clear up any confusion.
89. dayxday –
“Enough with this crap. I’ll check back in a few months when there’s hopefully some official pics released or a new trailer. I’m tired reading descriptions from producers, actors, and writers etc.”
Don’t let the virtual door hit you on the virtual ass on the way out. ;)
130. Izbot – September 4, 2008
“Don’t let the virtual door hit you on the virtual ass on the way out. ;)”
Okay, that does it. I’m banning myself from the site for a week. I’ve had enough of my bad attitude.
#7:
“Hope they have hand-held, flip-open communicators like in TOS and not the TNG, etc. Star Fleet insignia ones, or the TWOK “Dick Tracy” wristmounts.”
___
The wrist communicators (which I thought were cool) were actually used in TMP, NOT TWOK. The communicators from TWOK were of the flip-open variety (and rather crummy looking ones, too). I think you can see them in the Regula 1 space station.
The wrist communicators that you remember from TWOK were worn by Terrell and Chekov and are not Starfleet issue, but were used by Khan to not only communicate with his two slaves, but also eavesdrop. The Starfleet one is the one used by McCoy (or was it Kirk?) on Regula 1.
124 – No I’m not talking about touchpanels, flatscreen monitors, or PDA’s.
Here’s what I am talking about:
Replicators that can conjure anything. I know, I know…”the computer stores the pattern for a mechanism not dissimilar conceptually to the transporter, which converts matter to energy and…” Blah blah blah. It’s a magic vending machine. I don’t buy it. It’s ridiculous.
The magic sensors – pay attention to what kind of information the sensors can produce. They’re clearly magical.
The magical healing ray – you know, the beam that seals up cuts…with a BEAM? It’s functionally identical to the magic healing potions out of D&D.
The Holodeck – This one is lame for a few reasons. Like the magic vending machines, it’s simply unbelievable. I know the rationale on this one, too. Holograms + magic force fields = magic 3d TV. Still not buyin’ it. Too unbelievable.
The other problem with the Holodeck is that it’s only purpose is to serve as a crutch for lazy writers. Can’t think of a good story? Do ANOTHER fish-out-of-water story and throw the crew in Robin Hood outfits! It’s the same B.S. as the TOS “parallel-Earth” or time-travel stories.
Finally, the basic premise for the Holodeck is lame anyway. One would think that “Boldly going where no man has gone before” would be interesting enough. If I was in a giant spaceship exploring the unknown reaches of space, the last thing I’d want to do is watch TV, even if it is a magic space-TV.
There’s just too much magic in TNG cheaply masquerading as well-conceived speculative technology.
From another site I found:
James Tiberius Kirk Date of birth: March 22, 2233
This surely sets some limits on when Kirk could have captained the Enterprise. Latter half of 23rd century.
And Spock was supposedly about 70 then. So could T’Pol be Sarek’s mother?