There is more news on progress for the 2012 Star Trek sequel script, which is targeted for delivery next month. Now co-writers Robert Orci and Damon Lindelof have indicated they have relocated to a hotel to sit down and focus on finishing their first draft. More details below, Bob Orci asks fans to weigh in on a navigational array.
Orci and Lindelof ‘holed up’ in a hotel writing Star Trek sequel
A bit over a week ago Star Trek sequel producer/co-writer Roberto Orci announced that he and the team were shooting to deliver the sequel in "six weeks or so" (now five weeks or so). Late Monday afternoon co-writer Damon Lindelof sent out a tweet showing that they are really coming down to the wire and focusing on the script, saying he and Orci have relocated to a hotel to focus. Tweeting the following:
Roberto Orci quickly followed up Lindelof’s tweet with the following quip:
So any Trekkie who spots Damon Lindelof and Roberto Orci in a Los Angeles area hotel bar tonight, it is your lucky night!
The practice of ‘holing up’ in a hotel is actually something of a ritual for Roberto Orci. He and his regular partner Alex Kurtzman have often seconded themselves to hotels to finish up scripts. The writers have said it helps them remove all other distractions to focus on the work. The reason that Kurtzman isn’t joining Lindelof and Orci for this particular session is that he is currently focused on directing the family drama Welcome to People, which just happens to star Chris Pine. However, Kurtzman, who is also credited as a producer/co-write on the Star Trek sequel, has worked closely with Orci and Lindelof on the Star Trek script since things really kicked off last summer.
The Star Trek sequel is expected to start shooting in late summer, targeting a release June 29, 2012.
An array? A dish? – Orci asks fans a deflector question
TrekMovie contacted Orci and asked if there is any feedback the team would like fan feedback on right now. Bob sent in the following query:
What would the general consensus be on the proper name for the main deflector dish?
That is an interesting question. The dish seen on all Starfleet ships through Star Trek history has been referred to by many names, including "navigational deflector", "deflector dish", "deflector array", and "nav deflector". What do you think it should be called? Post your comments below.
The dish on the new USS Enterprise, which opens up when the ship goes to warp
A dishy plot point?
Could Bob’s question also be related to an important plot point. It could be that the dish, usually used to ensure safe space travel by deflecting space debris, gets a casual reference in the film. But there are many cases in past Star Trek on TV and film, when the deflector dish played a key role. Captain Kirk tried to use the original Enterprise’s deflector to move an asteroid in the original Star Trek episode "The Paradise Syndrome". Riker’s famous line "Mr. Worf, Fire!" ending The Next Generation cliffhanger "The Best of Both Worlds, Part I" was ordering the firing of an energy beam from the USS Enterprise D’s deflector to destroy a Borg cube (and killing Capt. Picard as Locutus of Borg). There are many more examples, especially on the USS Voyager, of using the deflector in non-traditional fashions. The deflector probably played the biggest role in an extended sequence in Star Trek: First Contact when the Picard, Worf and Hawk actually
walked on the hull of the Enterprise-E to take on some Borg who were trying to turn the deflector into a beacon to call for reinforcements.
Picard battles Borg on the USS Enterprise E deflector
Main deflector dish and navigational sensor. What else could it be?
What sorta name are they looking for?
whats wrong with it just being called a Deflector Array…
dont be soo worried about techno babble.
well i choose Danny the Deflector Dish….
Navigational Deflector Dish, or just Deflector Dish. It Deflects small particles that could damage the ship, so… yeah..
thats my two cents.. Shout out to Bob Orci! Best of luck on the script, I know if anybody can do it you can!
Very nice article Anothony!
I’m going to vote for “deflector dish”. I think the “array” might encompass the whole system and refer to a lot more than simply the dish. “navigational deflector” is too limiting a term, considering how many complex and interesting ways it can be used — while still remaining true to it’s function.
So for me, it’s a “deflector dish”.
I dont know, how about the Pascale Array? Or maybe the Tony Dish? I mean there are JefferiesTubes right?
Perhaps in this alternative universe I or one of my ancestors invented it! You never know
the big blue thingee on the front end…
The Dish Doo-hickey (or thing-a-ma-bob would also be appropriate).
5. Already got your name in here, buddy!
but seriously, if pushed I prefer “deflector dish” because I like alliteration, and “array” is just another bit of technobabble.
I’d break it down thus:
Navigational Deflector – What it is, what it does. The Correct Term per blueprints etc.
Deflector Array – This implies multiple deflectors, and to me seems like a defensive mechanism, aka the Deflector Shields or simply Shields.
Deflector Dish – More casual term for it, based on what it does but also what it resembles (a dish).
Navigational Deflector Assembly/Navigational Dish Assembly – The structure that contains the Navigational Deflector and supporting equipment and skeleton.
At least, that’s my thinking. It really comes down to clarity in context, and how colloquial vs. official it should sound in the scene.
Perhaps utilizing
8 Dude…seriously?
cool. I hope I am some kind of infectious disease.
Bones: Oh my god, he has got Pascale Syndrome
Spock: Fascinating, that usually only affects small rodents and certain female Orions
Kirk: Is it serious?
Bones: Only if you like all your organs on the inside
#5 I’ll second that :-)
I’ve been waiting for an article like this, god it is good to be back.
Deflector Dish has always sounded fine to me.
But we could just name it “Bob”, couldn’t we? ;-)
Or kajigger, wossname, thingy, dealie, whozits, widget, navigational whatever… okay, seriously, any of the ones Anthony listed are fine. I’m not really sure what the intent of the question is. Then again, maybe you can’t tell us.
How about the MacGuffin Array? Deus Antenna?
Who cares? They should concentrate on a good story and not get hung up naming doohickeys and thingamajigs. Plug ’em in later. God help us if the plot actually relies on any of these things.
The proper name is “navigational deflector.”
Uh, I thought it was just the navigational deflector, or deflector array (for short?).
The Justman Array. The Coons Dish.
Give those guys some love.
Sorry, one Coon.
Or the Freiberger Array. That’s got a ring to it.
‘Sub-space deflector’.
OMG.
The Pascale Array actually sounds good.
Bob, PLEASE throw in some Canadian reference !
That thing on the back of the nacelle that glows blue? Or y’know. A deflector dish. What else would you call it?
Call it the Peterman reflector. ;_;
I thought that some of the production team and writers were fans of Trek. This reminds me of the post-Enterprise interview that Braga did where he couldn’t remember what a tricorder did. What the heck? Imagine a future script for a Star Wars film where those writers can’t figure out what the hyper engine thingy that makes them ships go all hyper fast like is called. Hmmm.
I just want my name submitted too ;)
*Peterman deflector, I mean. Autocorrect makes everything wrong.
Transwarp Particulate Deflector Field Emitter.
Stands for “This part does f**king everything”.
roddenberry deflector array,deflector dish,or just array
I’d second OneBuckFilms’ comment (#10), in that the proper term is “navigational deflector”, but there’s nothing wrong with calling it something shorter in conversation, especially a rushed conversation.
Actually, in the spirit of the first movie’s set design, I think it should be called the Beer Bowl. :D
You could use the Argus Array from the TNG 193 – Nth Degree?
Just saying.
And the sub-space deflector generates an anti-graviton, or ‘Morbius*’ field in front of the ship’s warp bubble, forcing matter to be re-routed obliquely around the engines’ Cochrane shell.
*Tip o’ the horns to ‘Forbidden Planet’.
Well, it’s shaped like a donut so why not call it a Toroidal Deflector Array, or in colloquial terms, the Big Blue Daisy.
@23: There’s a large difference in degree between forgetting what a tricorder (or deflector) even DOES, and being unsure which of the multitude of known canon descriptions should be used for it.
Array, to me, suggests a collection of small devices combined to make a big, single purpose device. Such as a RAID (redundant array of independent disks) in modern computing parlance. While the deflector dish appears to perform a few tasks, it would still suggest to me to be one (albeit large) object. The Argus Array in the Next Generation also looked like it was modular. So I would go with deflector dish.
Though if the writers are so keen to take aboard the feelings of the fans, maybe a warp nacelle refit and a new engineering section is on the cards too. The majority of us have been asking for those things for a long time, right? ;)
“Main deflector.”
I think is should be “deflector dish” too, I think it sounds the best, out loud.
Hey Bob. How about Mike’s Array. Ok. I say keep it with Deflecter Array. That is always a good bet. But please change the Engerneering to be more real and not a Brewery.
#11
LOL how bout naming it the Pascale Array/Dish since Anthony has been so kind to devout his time in relaying news about sci fi, star trek etc?
Hey Bob. I closed my eye and Imagined that I spoted you in the bar. Please use Michael Dillard in there. That is my full name.
Anthony, actually “array” is not technobabble. We have Phased Array Radars instead of traditional radar dishes on many Navy ships today.
Calling it the “Navigational Deflector” accomplishes what’s needed: it describes the device’s function concisely and clearly and does not invite any griping because “well, it’s not really a dish, because it’s several different deflectors working together” or “how can it be an array if it’s a single deflector apparatus”?
Really, call it whatever you want so long as you don’t turn it into something ridiculous, like that magic transporter we saw last time out.
N.O.A.A is also getting ready the new Weather Phased Radars to replace the Doppler Radars. I think it is still another 10 years away. Oh. I’m also an Amature Storm Vhaser. Yes. I chase Tornadoes as a hobby.
As an Easter Egg, it would be fun to hear Spock utter the first words ever spoken in Star Trek….”Check the Circuit!”
I vote: Meteorite Beam ;)
Deflector dish it the best one I think.
1) it describes what it does.
2) the “dish” explains its shape to the non-trekkies (whom you are presumably trying to entice in theaters)
“oh they must mean that dish shaped thingy on the front, Beulah”
“yer so smart Cletus”
:)
Well. Could use something really crazy.
Kirk. Activate the Forcefield repelling deflector array.
Spock. eye Sir.
Argus Array? Or GPS Array?
Also, the word dish will make people think of food and avail themselves of the many various ludicrously expensive treats and sundries in the theater!
It’s all good. :)
Thorny
Are you implying that the US military does abound in its own techno-babble?
This is the fun stuff I missed on Trekmovie.com.
Hey Anthony. As a former Sailor in the Navy. Yes. On Subs and in Engine Rooms and anything Electronic they use there own Techno babble.