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?

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.

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.

Okay, that does it. I’m banning myself from the site for a week. I’ve had enough of my bad attitude.

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. ;)

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?

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.

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.