Most Misused Word in Science Fiction

[Viking Bastard]

I loved it as well. Garak's commentary throughout was an added bonus. The episode's name was "Our Man Bashir," FYI.

It's among my favourite Trek episodes.

 

[Heretic Apostate]

I rather like how Brin's Uplift universe handles teleportation.

It's quick, it's efficient--and it's very dangerous.

One race, the Tandu (xenophobic mantis-creatures who want to make the universe quiet--by killing off all other species), created a race of powerful reality-altering psychic beings, the Episiarch. Then they turned these Episiarch into megalomaniac solipsimists, believing the universe is their clay, to be molded at will. Then they put them in amplification devices, to seriously boost their power.

The Episiarch roars, "GRRRRR!!! I don't want to be here! I want to be THERE!" The universe gets out of the way, and the ship moves halfway across a galaxy, sometimes appearing even in the midst of an enemy formation...

Of course, sometimes the Episiarch has a lapse in concentration. Sometimes the Episiarch accidentally wishes the ship out of existence, so that it never existed. But that's the price you pay for instantaneous teleportation.

And don't get me started on the dangers of quantum tunneling in the Uplift universe.

 

[Vocenoctum]

IIRC there was a DS9 episode where a shuttle exploded with half of the main cast in it. They beamed out in time, but only barely - they were "stuck" in the ship's memory, only to appear on the holodeck. For some reason, they couldn't stop the running program (James Bond rip-off), or else these people (Sisko, O'Brian, Kira and Dex - again, IIRC) would've died.

Gosh, that was an awful episode. Didn't make any sense whatsoever.

So, the Holodeck Malfunction can be used for Good, as well as Evil?

I mean really, they should hang one of those " X Days since Accident" on the Holodeck door. You take your life in your hands!

 

[mojo1701]

I mean really, they should hang one of those " X Days since Accident" on the Holodeck door. You take your life in your hands!

Along with the "No Smoking on the Bridge" sign on the Kobayashi Maru simulator room. Oh, wait...

 

[Someone]

Most tortured word in sci-fi is polarity, without a word. Everything can be mended, rigged, solved, or is because of a reversal of polarity.

 

[mojo1701]

Most tortured word in sci-fi is polarity, without a word. Everything can be mended, rigged, solved, or is because of a reversal of polarity.

Don't forget frequency.

 

[Hypersmurf]

You know, that topic actually came up in one of the old Star Trek novels. (One of the few that was actaully decent, IIRC, though I can't for the life of me remember which one.) Someone--probably Dr. McCoy, though I couldn't swear to that--was discussing the transporter, and wondering if it didn't kill you. After all, if it killed the original person but created a perfect duplicate that believed it was the original person, or if it created a thing that was alive but had no "soul," how would anyone ever really know?

Spock Must Die!, from memory.

One word that's arguably misused a lot is 'solar'. "What's the nearest solar system to our current position?" should be answered with "Well... there's only one, and it's where we started..."

None of the other stellar systems have a Sol, after all...

-Hyp.

 

[mojo1701]

One word that's arguably misused a lot is 'solar'. "What's the nearest solar system to our current position?" should be answered with "Well... there's only one, and it's where we started..."

None of the other stellar systems have a Sol, after all...

-Hyp.

Well, that depends. Solar System means a Star and the planets, etc. that revolve around it.

 

[Pbartender]

Don't forget frequency.

...or phase, for that matter.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Well, that depends. Solar System means a Star and the planets, etc. that revolve around it.

That's why I said 'arguably'.

Solar system means the sun, and the planets etc that revolve around it. Any other star is 'stella' but not 'Solus', so any extra-Solar star and its planets comprise a stellar system.

There's only one Sol.

-Hyp.