# Dogma 2001 and Star Trek **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 24, 2001, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dogma-2001-and-star-trek/69946 "2001-06-24T05:31:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2001, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dogma-2001-and-star-trek/69946/41 "2001-06-25T21:49:36Z")
_Dubyans_… _ **DUBYANS!!!** _ I can see it now, their nefarious efforts to take over the galaxy by reversing the polarity of the tachyon emitters in the polling booths… Heeheheehee! I love you, **SPOOFE**. ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2001, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dogma-2001-and-star-trek/69946/42 "2001-06-25T22:15:38Z")
They had an episode about the Dubyans once! Remember the race that kidnapped Geordi because he was so smart and he could make their ships go really fast? [sub]oh wait…that’s the Pakleds[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![Cap\_n\_Crude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Cap\_n\_Crude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cap_n_Crude)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2001, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dogma-2001-and-star-trek/69946/43 "2001-06-26T00:44:28Z")
Originally posted by Max the Immortal > [@](#): > > Virtually every Sci-fi setting can be made more interesting with the existence of 867 lb. rail-shotguns. Ten points for the first > person to name the fictional model of gun I’m referring to. That sounds suspiciously like the main weapon that was on GlitterBoy armor in the Palladium: Rifts roleplay setting. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2001, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dogma-2001-and-star-trek/69946/44 "2001-06-26T02:40:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Enderw24 \* > \*\*They had an episode about the Dubyans once! > Remember the race that kidnapped Geordi because he was so smart and he could make their ships go really fast? > > [sub]oh wait…that’s the Pakleds[/sub] \*\* We look for things. ---
**Author:** ![PlanMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/2bfe46/32.png) [@PlanMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlanMan)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2001, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dogma-2001-and-star-trek/69946/45 "2001-06-26T03:06:16Z")
If it (the railgun) had a name, I don’t recall, and I’m too lazy to go look thru my gazillion books for … _The Moon is a Harsh Mistress_ by Rob’t Heinlein. and TANSTAAFL to you all. ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2001, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dogma-2001-and-star-trek/69946/46 "2001-06-26T06:48:57Z")
Fenris… _Where No Man Has Gone Before_!! Yeah, I DID see that! I just forgot that the whole plot got started 'cuz they tried to cross the “galactic barrier”… in my mind, it just translated as “some random energy field that does funky stuff”. Speaking of which… is there any scientific theory that currently states that there would be a “galactic barrier” (some form of dark matter or something?) encircling the galaxy? 'Cuz this was a concept used in the Star Wars series _The New Jedi Order_ (which, so far, has completely sucked major ass… the first book killed off Chewbacca!). Ethilrist… > [@](#): > > Transporting across the galaxy would be a little impractical–transporters only have a range of a couple hundred miles. Well, just place a transporter beacon every 100 miles (you’d only need 5,865,696,000,000 of 'em to span the galaxy… and with the vaunted, almighty replicators, that shouldn’t be too hard, right? :D) Only 100 miles, huh? Is there any canon or official source for that? (It would be a great counter to the “Enterprise can just beam a bomb aboard the ISD bridge” argument… :D) ---
**Author:** ![Max\_the\_Immortal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Max\_the\_Immortal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_the_Immortal)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2001, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dogma-2001-and-star-trek/69946/47 "2001-06-26T07:04:23Z")
Okay, I’ll give the points. Ten points to Cap’n Crude! Make a note of it. The Glitter Boy power armor suit, one of the lamest named power armor suits of all time, is armed with an 867 lb. rail-shotgun. Simply referred to as the “Boom Gun”, its sheer firepower and coolness (c’mon: a giant rail-shotgun!) easily make up for the fact that it, too, has a somewhat lame name. _Sigh_ If only they’d given the gun and the PA suit a better name… ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2001, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dogma-2001-and-star-trek/69946/48 "2001-06-26T07:49:49Z")
> [@](#): > > Well, just place a transporter beacon every 100 miles (you’d only need 5,865,696,000,000 of 'em to span the galaxy… More like 5,865,696,000,000,_000_ (or actually 5,878,000,000,000,000). ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2001, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dogma-2001-and-star-trek/69946/49 "2001-06-26T07:52:26Z")
Whoops… thanks, MEB… I miscounted the number of zeros (and I rounded off C). ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2001, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dogma-2001-and-star-trek/69946/50 "2001-06-26T11:49:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by MEBuckner \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > Well, just place a transporter beacon every 100 miles (you’d only need 5,865,696,000,000 of 'em to span the galaxy… > > More like 5,865,696,000,000,_000_ (or actually 5,878,000,000,000,000). \*\* Yeah, but that’s no big deal. Transporters can create stuff from nothing at a distance (they can zap a turkey dinner into existance on a planet, for instance). Therefore: You make your first transporter. You feed it the plans to create more transporters. You beam a new transporter into existance at (limit of transporter - fudge factor for safety). Program the new transporter to do the same. Repeat ad infinitum. Fenris ---
**Author:** ![Fiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e274bd/32.png) [@Fiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiver)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2001, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dogma-2001-and-star-trek/69946/51 "2001-06-26T14:19:00Z")
**SPOOFE** : > [@](#): > > Speaking of which… is there any scientific theory that currently states that there would be a “galactic barrier” (some form of dark matter or something?) encircling the galaxy? Well, just off the top of my head (and at the risk of straying from the OP), it seems reasonable to think of a galaxy as a stellar accretion disk on a gigantic honkin’ scale. And if you think of it that way, it further seems reasonable that there would be a scaled-up analog to the Oort Cloud enveloping the galaxy. But there’s no reason to think it would have any special converting-humans-into-gods properties. (And for that matter, even the existence of the Oort Cloud around our solar system has yet to be proved.) ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2001, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dogma-2001-and-star-trek/69946/52 "2001-06-26T17:25:16Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by MEBuckner \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > Well, just place a transporter beacon every 100 miles (you’d only need 5,865,696,000,000 of 'em to span the galaxy… > > More like 5,865,696,000,000,_000_ (or actually 5,878,000,000,000,000). \*\* Is that the number to create a line of beacons across the galaxy? If so, in order to travel anywhere in the galaxy, rather than anywhere along a single line of travel, you’d need just a few more than that… ---
**Author:** ![Death\_Mage\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ba8739/32.png) [@Death\_Mage\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Death_Mage_1)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2001, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dogma-2001-and-star-trek/69946/53 "2001-06-26T22:54:38Z")
Actually, the range on the transporters is about 30,000 km, but they are speed of light, not intstantaneous. That makes them impratical for interstellar travel. ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2001, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dogma-2001-and-star-trek/69946/54 "2001-06-26T22:59:43Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Death\_Mage \* > **Actually, the range on the transporters is about 30,000 km, but they are speed of light, not intstantaneous.** Are you _sure_? Were they limited to the speed of light in Trek Classic? I really, really, thought they were instantaneous. Fenris ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2001, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dogma-2001-and-star-trek/69946/55 "2001-06-26T23:23:25Z")
Fen, thanks for the info (I love picking up random tidbits of info like this). RE: Transporter speed… From [Startrek.com](http://Startrek.com)’s definition of “transporters”… > [@](#): > > Transportation device that converts objects or persons to energy, sends that energy to the destination, and reconstitutes the objects/persons back into matter. Transporters cannot beam objects through deflector shields. No mention about “speed”, but doesn’t energy travel at the speed of light? Anyway… yes, that definition DOES come from the original series. Perhaps transporters haven’t changed much since then, aside from a (slight) amount of reliability. ---
**Author:** ![Weird\_AL\_Einstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c67d28/32.png) [@Weird\_AL\_Einstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weird_AL_Einstein)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2001, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dogma-2001-and-star-trek/69946/56 "2001-06-27T02:20:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by foolsguinea \* > \*\* > > –WHY THE FLYING F%$^@ WAS A 60-YEAR-OLD HIKARU SULU STILL CHAUFFERING JIM KIRK AROUND! HE SHOULDA HAD HIS OWN COMMAND 15 YEARS EARLIER!!! ::foams at the mouth:: \*\* Ummm…remember the Excelsior? In STVI? According to the novelizations, he was supposed to get that command shortly after doing that training mission in STII, but it got iced because of his participation in Spock’s rescue. > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Chocobo \* > \*\* > > Time travel is generally bad, but entertaining if done correctly (i.e. Star Trek IV, All Good Things…) Rip-offs of former time travel episodes/movies (i.e. Voyagers’ version of Star Trek IV) are very bad. > \*\* Actually, ripping off an old time travel method is _good_…that way they don’t have to keep inventing _yet another_ way to do it, thus stretching credibility more and more. How many different ways **are** there now? Guardian of Forever, slingshot effect, Orb of Time, at least a half dozen more…it gets ridiculous. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2001, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dogma-2001-and-star-trek/69946/57 "2001-06-27T03:38:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SPOOFE \ ***RE: Transporter speed…No mention about “speed”, but doesn’t energy travel at the speed of light?** In one of the STTNG episodes, a vengeful Ferengi used a warp-boosted transporter to move far beyond the transporter’s normal range. So ordinarily the transporter is speed-of-light. They made clear that the warp boosted version was like playing Russian roulette, so hideously dangerous that you’d have to be suicidal to attempt it. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2001, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dogma-2001-and-star-trek/69946/58 "2001-06-27T20:12:57Z")
Oh, and another thing ST ought (should) have done: Unless it’s part of the plot that a planet has life on it, don’t automatically have the planet have a breathable atmosphere. Non-life supporting planets are a hell of a lot more common than ones with Earth-normal atmospheres. It isn’t going to break the special effects budget to have the characters wear respirators, for crying out loud! Possibly the worst example was a DS9 episode where Dax and I think Kira were inside an **asteroid** that just happened to have oxygen-filled caverns(!!!) ---
**Author:** ![Palandine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/958977/32.png) [@Palandine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palandine)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2001, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dogma-2001-and-star-trek/69946/59 "2001-06-27T20:35:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Death\_Mage \* > \*\*Actually, the range on the transporters is about 30,000 km, but they are speed of light, not intstantaneous. That makes them impratical for interstellar travel. \*\* Well, in DS9 the Dominion had transporter technology with a range of 3 light years (a Vedek who’d turned to the dark side used one to send Major Kira from DS9 to Empok Nor at Dukat’s behest). I would assume (although the time period was not covered in DS9) that any imaginary Trek timeline would have the Feds pretty quickly figuring out how to improve their transporters similarly. ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2001, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dogma-2001-and-star-trek/69946/60 "2001-06-27T22:10:22Z")
By the by, I shoulda given my thanks to Fiver, not Fenris… sorry. I just saw the “F” in the poster name and came to the conclusion… Anyway, just wanted to give credit where credit’s due. Carry on. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dogma-2001-and-star-trek/69946.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dogma-2001-and-star-trek/69946.md?page=4)