I have a Star Trek question.

[edbermac]

I watch TOS, TNG, DS9, Voyager and Enterprise and all the movies.

I assume that an artificial gravity is created by the ship's or space station's power source.

But why is it whenever they lose power, crewmembers and everything else not nailed down aren't floating all over the place?

:shrug:

And more importantly, where the hell are all the goddamn bathrooms??

:hurts:

[DS1]

1. Answers

1) They are held down by their own pretentiousness
2) There's a portapottie in the Holodeck

[commander bunnypants]

2. magnetic boots

1n the 24 century medical science as advanced to the point that going to the bathroom is no longer needed.One hypo spray nullfies all the impurties in your system


CB

[billyskank]

5. I always wondered if they used the transporter

That's what I'd do. Beam all my piss straight from my bladder into space.

For that matter, I'd beam myself from bed into my clothes in the morning. Preferably straight to the mess hall.

[petronius]

22. That's what I'd do, too - except I wouldn't be beaming it into space, exactly...

:evilgrin:

[billyskank]

3. I have a few...

Why is it, when two space ships encounter one another in Star Trek, they are always oriented the same?

Furthermore, why is it never the middle of the night when the Klingons/Borg/whoever show up ready to rumble? Why is Kirk/Picard never in bed? Taking a dump? On the job?

[EstimatedProphet]

8. They are all made at the same factory, so they all come out with the same orientation

[jobycom]

4. Bathrooms? They're astronauts, they wear diapers.

As for the anti-gravity and motion/inertia stabilizing stuff, one would assume it is part of the basic life support systems that all the power is always diverted to to maintain. Maybe the times the power goes completely out, they have residual gravity control just as they have residual oxygen to gasp with their last breaths. :shrug:

Who knows? It's way far in the future, so they're just way smarter than us!

[billyskank]

6. And (warming to the subject) why is it...

when the ship is so beat up that they don't even have life support, do they always have some pathetically short length of time left before they all die? Like there isn't enough oxygen in the ship to sustain them for weeks anyway. Even the heat would stay in there a little while.

[jobycom]

13. The damage is usually caused by Episodic Blasts

meaning the damage from the blasts must run its course within one episode. These devices calculate just the right dimensions for the holes in the hull to allow heat and air to seep out by the end of the show, adjusting for commercials and possible "To Be Continued" episodes.

Science is great!

[ContraBass Black]

18. Because they have so many unnecessary windows.

[Hugin]

7. I have a copy of the "Federation Manual" based on the show...

They explain the gravity is generated by the engines in some sort of a
'passive manner' meaning I suppose it's a by-product of the component elements
used and it is not a result of the actual operation of the engines.

Either that... or it was way too expensive to simulate weightlessness on their
limited special effects budget.

one or the other...

Anyway, IT.IS.A.TEEVEE.SHOW.

[commander bunnypants]

10. No its real life sheesh.

Well according to a schizophrenic patient of mine


CB

[Hugin]

15. I also have the official Enterprise blueprints and they show a 'head' (technical term)...

right off the Bridge and located throughout the ship for crew use...

The 'Manual' goes on in great detail to say the bulk materials are processed by the
transporter mechanism back into raw materials and reused...

So, they're in big trouble if the adage, "You are what you eat" has any merit.


I guess I better check in...

[EstimatedProphet]

9. Things don't float away unless there is a force acting on them

So they can stay on the floor if the power is cut, so long as nothing pushes them off.

:sarcasm: in case someone thinks I am actually trying to claim that this would work in reality.

[Deep13]

11. The reason for "artificial gravity" was so the studio...

...did not need to suspend the crew on wires and film them like that. It was too expensive that way. Even with CGI you never see everyone floating around on ST shows.

In the 1960s it was a faus pas even to allude to human waste functions. The only bathroom I remember seeing back then was the shared children's bathroom on the Brady Bunch and even then the viewer never saw the toilet. I suppose in the 1980s they just continued that tradition. The first Sci.Fi. program I ever remember seeing with toilet facilities is the new Battlestar Galactica.

[Parche]

12. Bathrooms

SPACE.....THE FECAL FRONTIER

It all comes out of their Uranus and into deep space...............

[Deep13]

27. Damn Klingons! nt

[ContraBass Black]

14. Because that would blow the production budget every time there's

A battle scene. So instead the AG is an extremely robust system.


It does fail once every several seasons, but there are usually some conveniently located magnetic EV suits, and everyone manages to get into one before the viewer comes along.

[Frank Cannon]

16. Didn't the artificial gravity fail in one of the Star Trek movies?

Maybe not on a Starfleet ship, but on a Klingon ship. I seem to remember a bunch of Klingons floating around weightless while being attacked.

[edbermac]

24. You're right; ST6: The Undiscovered Country.

I guess they're not as technologically advanced as the Federation.

[meegbear]

17. They had bathroom breaks during the commercials ...

DUH!

[Evoman]

19. The bathroom question:

They do have bathrooms of a sort in their quarters (I think I remember an episode where they "de-evolve" where monkey Troi is sitting in a bathtub. The also sometimes show crewmember coming out of the "bathroom" before they go to bed (though, interestingly, they never SHOW the inside of it).

I'm guessing they have some sort of toilet that turn the feces into atoms for use in replication. With a replicator, they can make and unmake anything, and store it as energy. When they finish with their meals, they put the dishes back in the replicator.

Also, they have sonic showers.

[zonmoy]

30. she wasn't a monkey at least unless monkeys need gills to breath.

[krispos42]

20. And where are the friggin' seatbelts?

I mean, they go flying all over the bridge, clinging desperately to consoles and furniture.

BUCKLE UP! It's call a 5-point harness!




Regarding the gravity thing... according to the ST:TNG technical manual the devices that make the artificial gravity are able to run on momemtum or whatever for a couple of hours after the power goes out.

The bathrooms, well, they don't have them anymore. A tiny transporter is located in their bladder and in their large intestine, beaming all the waste away before there is any fullness or urge to 'go'.

[Deep13]

29. No shit. An what's with those bar stools they have around the bridge?

No acceleration couches or anything.

[Orsino]

21. Star Trek VI showed it.

The Trek trope of people getting thrown around the bridge, though, doesn't bear close examination. Impacts of any sort at warp speed should turn the crew and ship into plasma. Either there's a force field to stop that, or there isn't--a mere bloody nose is ludicrous.

The Federation seems to have made latrines as invisible as they have homosexuality.

[Akoto]

25. Well, in all fairness ...

Star Trek DID have some examples of differing sexuality. Not many, but some. :)

The Indendent from DS9 (Kira's mirror universe self) comes to mind. It was never explicitly stated, but it's pretty strongly suggested that she's at least bisexual. Her interactions with mirror universe Ezri make it rather obvious.

Dr. Phlox from Enterprise was a polygamist. He had three wives, each of whom had two other husbands!

Man, I am such a nerd.

[petronius]

23. With those mini-skirts in TOS, I think zero gravity could have been pretty great!

:P

[LostInAnomie]

26. I've never seen the ship power down below "minimal life support".

Perhaps artificial gravity is considered "minimal life support" since without it your bone structure starts weakening.

[Aristus]

28. "Enterprise" had a scene where the artificial gravity fails.

And it was while Captain Archer was in the shower, no less.

It would have been funnier if he'd been on the toilet at the time. B-)