Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="aramis erak" data-source="post: 8262114" data-attributes="member: 6779310">Tolkien's Middle Earth is probably the single most read and read about setting, and definitely one of the most watched, worldwide, settings. Even some amusing Soviet Films. I think Narnia and Winnie the Poo are pretty close, and Peter Pan not far behind. All of which are 20th C fantasies. (I highly recommend the soviet films Винни Пух and Хобит. They are very different interpretations of the source than the US adaptations, and while crudely shot, are effective none the less.)D&D is a cadet off of Tolkien. It's closeness to Tolkien in setting tropes helps with its dominance. It ignoring the severe limitations Tolkien embedded into the various "races" is part of its appeal as well... add that it's the first, and is backed by one of the biggest toy companies in the world, and it's current domination is easily understood. The thing many don't grok, however, is that it's a Genre engine. It's an engine tuned for one subgenre, with a variety of settings available, but all sharing most of the core D&D tropes.  One author mentioned an SFWA guideline from the 1950's... no more than three breaks from known physics.GIven TOS, not counting TAS, we get Apollo, Trelane (albeit immature), the gang in Plato's Stepchildren, the Exca;bians...TAS adds Kulkulkan.Of those, only Apollo and Kulkulkan are confirmed to have been gods to Earthmen; Plato's stepchildren seem to have been transplanted from Greece and culturally fossilized. Trelane (and his parents) are clearly god-level power, but Trelane is not aware of lightspeed time lag, and his information is by observation from distance.And that's not counting the 3 computers masquerading as gods.Star Trek V is well summarized as "Kirk meets God. Kirk Wins."TNG adds the Q. They are god-level beings. And the Dowd. Also god-level beings.It has literally over a dozen episodes across 6+ series where beings who match the abilities of the gods of the classical era. TOS has two who explicitly are previously-worshipped as gods beings of great power. (see above.)I think there are at least 6 episodes with Q in TNG alone. One dowd. The Traveller (in two episodes).DS-9 has the Prophets (wormhole aliens). It also has a Q episode.Voyager has a couple Q episodes. And Kes ascending to incorporeal being. The Voyagers have a net signal less than the average cellphone.The S-IV-B put out a signal many thousands of times more powerful, but in a less clear band... and one that radio telescopes cannot pick up well. There's little doubt that if an S-IV-B happened to ignite the engines in Mauna Kea's infrared field of  view at an AU, it'd be visible... as a bright point source. The question isn't if the scope would capture it; the question is if it would be noticed. Given that someone found a couple asteroids this year by examining old telescope images... it's the making sense of the raw data that is the hard part.QFT!Stealth is simply making your signals (generated and returned) look like something to be ignored.</blockquote>

Verification