# Fire all phasers and photon torpedoes! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 17, 2002, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-all-phasers-and-photon-torpedoes/119379 "2002-07-17T09:35:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![sturmhauke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@sturmhauke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sturmhauke)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2002, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-all-phasers-and-photon-torpedoes/119379/1 "2002-07-17T09:35:19Z")
…at the dumbass who designed the boxes for the ST:TNG boxed sets. First I have to jiggle the DVD sleeve out of the box, then I have to unfold this huge thing to get the one I want, then I have to fight with the stupid holding mechanism for several minutes to get the disc out without breaking anything. I’m almost tempted to put everything in my own jewel cases, but that would probably take up more space. What species are you, Mr. Sludgebrain? Why did you make it so difficult for me to enjoy my show, especially when I paid a lot of latinum for it? I know, you must be a Packled, scavenging other beings’ technology but not really understanding it. Ya know, you don’t deserve to die with Federation weapons, they’re too painless. How about a Romulan disruptor? Or the disruptor that Kivas Fajo had, the banned one? A squad of Klingons with bat’leths, perhaps? No, with pain sticks. Yes, I think that will do nicely. You will experience acute encephalic pressure. ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2002, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-all-phasers-and-photon-torpedoes/119379/2 "2002-07-17T10:36:01Z")
Be grateful. They originally wanted to put LCD screens and strips of blue lights all over them, and instead of “DVD’s”, they were gonna call 'em “Quantum Digital Information Containment Etchings” to be played in your “Optical Transceivance Retrieval Drive”. ---
**Author:** ![sturmhauke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@sturmhauke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sturmhauke)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2002, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-all-phasers-and-photon-torpedoes/119379/3 "2002-07-17T11:09:55Z")
Heh. I wouldn’t care if the package was purple and pink polka dots, if it meant I could take out the DVDs in a few seconds instead of minutes. You know, like normal DVDs. ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2002, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-all-phasers-and-photon-torpedoes/119379/4 "2002-07-17T11:36:33Z")
You might as well spend time wrestling with the DVD packaging; it isn’t as if you had a date on the way or anything. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2002, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-all-phasers-and-photon-torpedoes/119379/5 "2002-07-17T11:36:40Z")
I’ve been buying the UK version. See it [here](http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/tg/stores/detail/-/dvd/B000067NQS/pictures/ref=sr_aps_dvd_1_1/026-3334418-7626802) at [Amazon.UK](http://Amazon.UK). It has a cool hard shell case. Inside is a smaller version of the US package. You pull the small multi-folded holder out of a sleeve. Paramount opted not to use this packaging in the US because they said it would increase the costs. Even with shipping and a fluctuating exchange rate, I get the sets for about $85-90. They will survive a lot longer than their US cardboard counterparts. Oh, BTW, I play them on my DVD-ROM drive set to Region 2. ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2002, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-all-phasers-and-photon-torpedoes/119379/6 "2002-07-17T12:54:56Z")
**gobear** , with snazzy plastic shiny cases full of Star Trek episodes, who needs a date!?!? I’m going back to my basement to play with my Star Wars action figures now. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2002, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-all-phasers-and-photon-torpedoes/119379/7 "2002-07-17T14:02:11Z")
Don’t curse the darkness. [Turn on a light.](http://www.inetdvd.com/store/shopexd.asp?id=6109) ---
**Author:** ![sturmhauke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@sturmhauke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sturmhauke)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2002, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-all-phasers-and-photon-torpedoes/119379/8 "2002-07-17T18:16:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by gobear \* > \*\*You might as well spend time wrestling with the DVD packaging; it isn’t as if you had a date on the way or anything. \*\* Actually, I was having a date with my wife to watch some Star Trek. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2002, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-all-phasers-and-photon-torpedoes/119379/9 "2002-07-17T23:12:59Z")
See also: Files, X-; boxed set of. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2002, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-all-phasers-and-photon-torpedoes/119379/10 "2002-07-18T01:17:45Z")
But don’t forget! The colors in the package are going through the spectrum! Check it out…it’s true! ---
**Author:** ![Esprix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/esprix/32/7899_2.png) [@Esprix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esprix)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2002, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-all-phasers-and-photon-torpedoes/119379/11 "2002-07-18T01:49:57Z")
Hey, **gobear** , some of us can be sci-fi fans _and_ have a life. Don’t get all ippity-pippity with me or I’ll stick a Regalian sludge worm down your shorts. Esprix ---
**Author:** ![Hamish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a5b964/32.png) [@Hamish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamish)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2002, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-all-phasers-and-photon-torpedoes/119379/12 "2002-07-18T02:12:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Esprix \* > \*\*Hey, **gobear** , some of us can be sci-fi fans _and_ have a life. Don’t get all ippity-pippity with me or I’ll stick a Regalian sludge worm down your shorts. > > Esprix \*\* My boyf is turning me into a Star Trek geek. I always liked the series, but I’m learning things I don’t think even the producers and writers know 😛 Actually we’re a mixed geek couple. I’m an otaku and he’s a trekkie. He’s now heard more about the career of Hideakki Anno that he’ll ever want to know ---
**Author:** ![Homebrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2002, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-all-phasers-and-photon-torpedoes/119379/13 "2002-07-18T16:45:45Z")
Gay geeks are just the _cutest_ things ever. ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2002, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-all-phasers-and-photon-torpedoes/119379/14 "2002-07-18T17:22:25Z")
> [@](#): > > Hey, gobear, some of us can be sci-fi fans and have a life. Don’t get all ippity-pippity with me or I’ll stick a Regalian sludge worm down your shorts. 'scuse me, Counsellor Troi? I am the geekiest SF geek there is, as you should know from my contributions to Cafe Society threads and my Gaylaxicon attendance. I can’t help messing with Trek fans, 'cos their devotion to such a badly written, self-consciously important, pretentious show as Next Gen deserves to be teased, at least a little. You want good TV SF for the thinking man, B5, baby. Brilliant writing and acting, plus the show has a story arc so that each episode has lasting effects far down the season, and even into later seasons. There are so many foreshadowings in Season One that only make sense by the conclusion of Season Four. Characters suffer and die, relationshsips are forged that evolve wildly, as G’Kar and Londo do. You just don’t get that with Next Gen. Now DS9 is a FAR superior show to Next Gen, and I’ll be buying those box sets, especially the latter seasons with the war between the Federation and the Dominion. I’m an SF fan, but I hope that I’m a discriminating one. ---
**Author:** ![Esprix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/esprix/32/7899_2.png) [@Esprix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esprix)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2002, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-all-phasers-and-photon-torpedoes/119379/15 "2002-07-18T17:52:14Z")
And some of us like _both_ B5 and ST. Fancy that. Esprix ---
**Author:** ![Esprix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/esprix/32/7899_2.png) [@Esprix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esprix)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2002, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-all-phasers-and-photon-torpedoes/119379/16 "2002-07-18T17:56:52Z")
(Oh, and _Farscape_, and _Earth: Final Conflict_, and books, and movies, and… well, heck, some of us even run sci-fi cons.) Esprix ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2002, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-all-phasers-and-photon-torpedoes/119379/17 "2002-07-18T18:02:42Z")
Well, it’s a free country and you’re free to like whatever gets you off. IMO, Star Trek and Star Wars have inadvertently driven a stake into the heart of intelligent science fiction. ---
**Author:** ![Trion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@Trion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trion)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2002, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-all-phasers-and-photon-torpedoes/119379/18 "2002-07-18T18:32:28Z")
ippity-pippity ippity-pippity ippity-pippity ippity-pippity ippity-pippity ippity-pippity ippitypippityippitypippityippitypippityippitypippity Sorry. I just like saying that. ippity-pippity ---
**Author:** ![Homebrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2002, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-all-phasers-and-photon-torpedoes/119379/19 "2002-07-18T18:49:35Z")
Okay **Esprix** and **gobear** , it seems this geek war has escalated to the point where the two of you must strip, coat your bodies with oil (or perhaps lube) and wrestle until I’m satisfied… I mean until you settle your differences. On Pay-per-View. On Viacom’s new Gay TV Premium Channel. mmmm…Nude Gay Wrestling… ---
**Author:** ![Esprix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/esprix/32/7899_2.png) [@Esprix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esprix)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2002, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-all-phasers-and-photon-torpedoes/119379/20 "2002-07-18T19:03:51Z")
Perhaps you feel the general (non sci-fi fan) public’s _perception_ of what “real sci-fi” is (and isn’t that a Great Debate if ever I heard one) is somehow skewed because of these particular SF francises’ popularity, but I assure you “intelligent” SF is alive and well, in literature, television and movies. Esprix [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fire-all-phasers-and-photon-torpedoes/119379.md?page=2)