Star Trek Picard SPOILERS thread

[Beleriphon]

Star Trek is not a hard science show. It is basically action-adventure morality play. What they meant is to have high stakes. Technical accuracy is... not a priority for them.

Even when being technically "accurate", is the best kind of accurate?

 

[Umbran]

Even when being technically "accurate", is the best kind of accurate?

Especially when technical accuracy is the best kind of accuracy. Trek isn't about being correct or incorrect. It is about being right or wrong.

 

[Janx]

Well, to be fair, actually, there are nova events that are galaxy threatening. Gamma Ray bursters can basically kill all multicellular life in the entire galaxy - true, it would take a while for the shock wave to travel through the galaxy - centuries even - but, there are real world events that can be that threatening.

Side question: Since a GRB is basically an explosion of gamma rays, can Trek shielding block that? We've seen Trek ships snuggle close to stars, I assume any given star is kicking out a ton of all flavors of radiation, gamma included.

So a GRB maybe trivial to a ship with working shields (assuming you're not in the source star system where it's strongest and graphically scary thanks to CGI). The threat then is to planets, particularly ones not advanced enough to have shields (if any do).

 

[MarkB]

Side question: Since a GRB is basically an explosion of gamma rays, can Trek shielding block that? We've seen Trek ships snuggle close to stars, I assume any given star is kicking out a ton of all flavors of radiation, gamma included.

So a GRB maybe trivial to a ship with working shields (assuming you're not in the source star system where it's strongest and graphically scary thanks to CGI). The threat then is to planets, particularly ones not advanced enough to have shields (if any do).

There's a question of intensity and duration. Ships in Star Trek need special shielding when getting too close to stars, and can't remain there for very long. We're also talking about dedicated military vessels here - most commercial craft won't have that level of shielding.

I don't think we've ever really seen an example of planetary shields on any major developed world in Star Trek, though they've occasionally shown up as strange alien tech on previously-unexplored worlds. Cardassia Prime, at the climax of the Dominion War, was defended mostly by space mines and starships.

 

[Umbran]

Side question: Since a GRB is basically an explosion of gamma rays, can Trek shielding block that? We've seen Trek ships snuggle close to stars, I assume any given star is kicking out a ton of all flavors of radiation, gamma included.

So, having done some more reading...

You don't get "kill all life on a planet" out of a gamma ray burst unless it is right next door - a few light years at most. In this situation, the gamma rays are strong enough to basically strip a planet of its atmosphere and sterilize it. There are no stars near enough to Earth to have this effect.

More often, you expect to see extensive damage to a planet's ozone layer, meaning significantly increased UV exposure until that layer is rebuilt. This can be felt several thousand lightyears away from the source.

I think that, within the Trek universe, we'd expect an exploding star to have unspecified subspace effects, of which our normal science knows diddly. Figure anyone within a few light years of a supernova is gonna have a bad day, GRB or not.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Star Trek is not a hard science show. It is basically action-adventure morality play. What they meant is to have high stakes. Technical accuracy is... not a priority for them.

Of course! But they usually do a better job of faking it than ST09 did. I blame JJ "I don't know anything about space" Abrams for that. I'd have been happy with the barest minimum of Trek-style explanation over what we got. Like bloodtide says above, a "Subspace Cosmic String Cascading Phased Wavefront" would have done better.

Now that it's done, though, I'd be very happy with something like Romulan "star-frakking" causing the Supernova to ALSO emit a "subspace phasic destructive wavefront" in addition to its splodey-ness.

I'm also fine with the story as ST Picard appears to be presenting - that the Evacuation Efforts were colossal, but not as much as Picard would have liked to have done, and while Romulans were saved, more could have been done, and a LOT of them died.

 

[Umbran]

Of course! But they usually do a better job of faking it than ST09 did. I blame JJ "I don't know anything about space" Abrams for that.

Ugh. The dude gave us transporters operating over interstellar distances. I am totally with you on that point.

I'm also fine with the story as ST Picard appears to be presenting - that the Evacuation Efforts were colossal, but not as much as Picard would have liked to have done, and while Romulans were saved, more could have been done, and a LOT of them died.

Agreed. That's an entirely plausible approach, and pretty consistent with what little we have seen..

Speaking of which... I am off to finish watching the 3rd episode. Back in a bit...

Edit: Well, I had about 90 seconds of the episode left. That was quick...

 

[Ryujin]

Ugh. The dude gave us transporters operating over interstellar distances. I am totally with you on that point.

There are about a thousand very good reasons why "The Orville" dropped the concept of transporters in their Federation equivalent, let alone universe breaking interstellar transporters.

 

[Umbran]

There are about a thousand very good reasons why "The Orville" dropped the concept of transporters in their Federation equivalent, let alone universe breaking interstellar transporters.

But then they go ahead and have them appear in the second episode anyway...

 

[bloodtide]

Episode 4

Well...more building with not much happening.

Hum Romulan Mad Max world had a space shield...just like in Star Wars. Hummm.

Lots of fun spin writing. Like how Picard is all shocked the Romulans are living all poor like. Guess he thought they would be living like Federation people on Earth, right? And then...loony old guy that he us, he blames the Federation! And, gosh, none of the Romulans seem happy that Picard HELPED SAVE THEIR LIVES, nope they are just all evil space thugs.

Oh and a Romulan elf guy joins the crew....yae?

Oh, and, sigh, guess Freecloud is just a lame space casino...yet another cool copy from Star Wars, right?