ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

______________________________________________

As far as I know, this is the first episode of Voyager (or any Star Trek series, for that matter) which showed us a Federation ship which actually landed on a planet!

The design of Voyager's landing gear is downright cool!

The opening scene of the episode has a bit of bad writing, I'm afraid.

The crew finds a 1936 Ford pickup truck floating in a space and they bring it aboard. Tom Paris, a fan of ancient Earth vehicles, states that there's gasoline in the tank, water in the radiator, and a charge in the battery.

Does anybody see a few problems with that idea? Like . . . these?
______________________________________________

~ The water in the battery and the radiator would have frozen in space and ruptured both of them.

~ The gas in the tank would be inert after just 6 months to 1 year.

~ When the truck was beamed aboard the ship, the metal would be a few hundred degrees below zero. As soon as it was aboard the ship, it would be covered in ice!
______________________________________________

Despite all this, Tom Paris hopped into the truck, turned the key, and cranked it right up!

White smoke poured out of the exhaust pipe . . . but nobody shouted, "Turn that damn thing off!" However, Tuvok calmly suggested that they increase the cargo hold's ventilation! (I thought Vulcans were supposed to be smart).

Soon thereafter, the crew lands on the planet from which the truck came from (ummm . . . somehow), and they discover a group of humans from the middle 1900s, inside cryogenic chambers — including Amelia Earhart.

At this point, much of the dialog and the plot resemble the infamous season 2 episode of TNG, in which the Enterprise encounters a drifting spacecraft from the 21st century with a group of humans who had been sent out into space for . . . reasons I can't remember. Except that they were stupid.

As much as I love Star Trek Voyager, this is one of the episode that only a mother could love.

I'm hoping that Pow will ring in on the subject and share his views.
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Pow]

All valid points, Bruce, regarding the absence of real science regarding the 1936 pickup truck. Was this a case of the show's scientific advisors being ignored with their notes about the script?

Gene Roddenberry was one of the very first science fiction producers with his original Star Trek series to seek scientific accuracy by consulting with scientific organizations. That's not to say that the 1966 show was always spot-on with their science background for each episodes.

Sometimes accuracy is sacrificed for the drama of a script. Other times it can be a matter of a limited budget.

And while I'm dwelling on this topic, we have to discuss the landing of the Voyager on the surface of a planet. I loved the idea but the execution was horrendous. The landing gear was impressive looking; it was also entirely implausible that those legs could easily support a starship with the mass and size of Voyager.

They should have done something like use the ship's tractor beams in tandem with its shields to descend upon another world.

Another critique is when the inhabitants of this planet tell the Voyager crew about their fantastic cities. But they never give us a scene (matte painting) to see these cities. Could have been a budget issue, could have been not enough time to include such a visual. Either way, it was a disappointment.

[Bud Brewster]

______________________________________________

Good comments, MP!

Concerning the truck, it wouldn't take a "science advisor" to know that a 1936 truck that had been floating space for 300 years wouldn't have gas, water, oil, and a charged batter!

As for the landing gear . . . I was shocked when I saw this image of a model which shown just how small those damn things are!

The close-up shots make the gear look terrific, but these wimpy things are pathetic! Mike, I just never knew how small they were in relation to the ship.

This looks ridiculous!



Perhaps they would have worked if the bottom side of the ship was designed to bear most of the weight, and the landing gears extended out to the sides to improve the balance.

I made the feet biggger, too, so the poor things wouldn't sink down into the ground!

Each nacelle could have two gears at the front and back ends to support their weigh.



What do you thinkl, Mike! Cool, eh?
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)