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   JordiGH (jordigh@mathstodon.xyz)'s status on Monday, 11-Mar-2024 07:19:48 JST JordiGH

   Okay, so, three seasons in, and I guess this is the year I finally become a Star Trek fan.

   However, I have such a hard time with some of the fantasy in the show.

   Relativity just doesn't exist. There exists an absolute temporal frame of reference in the universe, and everyone is on it.

   You can totally violate causality via the magic of subspace communications.

   Warp 9 (9 times the speed of light?) should still be stupidly slow to get anywhere, but somehow they manage to get from one star to another in at most a week.

   Everyone uses Earth-based units of time (hours, days, years).

   Everyone speaks English. Nobody even mentions the magical translation device. Even in situations where the magical translation device couldn't be around, everyone still speaks English.

   Everything, every planet and every spaceship, has Earth-like conditions of atmosphere, temperature, and gravity, which just so happen to work for every species.

   How does a tiny shuttle pod have Earth gravity anyway?

   Almost everything looks like humans. A few concessions are made now and then, and I understand considerations of budget for the show, but at least allude more frequently to non-human extraterrestrials!

   • Embed this notice
     tech? no! man, see... (technomancy@icosahedron.website)'s status on Monday, 11-Mar-2024 07:19:46 JST tech? no! man, see...

     in reply to

     @JordiGH overall I agree HOWEVER I feel I must offer a few pedantic notes

     * warp scale is non-linear, so warp 9 is much, much greater than 9x the speed of light, and warp 10 is theoretically infinite speed (but we don't talk about VOY: Threshold) Voyager's whole premise does take seriously the whole "yes the galaxy is too big to cross in a single lifetime" at least

     * they do sometimes talk about the universal translator failing, and those episodes end up being the better ones (wait till you get to Darmok in season 5!)

     * the universal translator supposedly translates units of time as well, but it doesn't actually make sense that everyone is on the same time zone (Babylon 5 did this much better where characters being called by someone far away complain about being woken up in the middle of the night)

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     tech? no! man, see... (technomancy@icosahedron.website)'s status on Monday, 11-Mar-2024 09:17:04 JST tech? no! man, see...

     in reply to

     @JordiGH eeeeeh there's a lot to like about the details of B5; the characters are great, and the worldbuilding, but I felt the overall story arc was a bit disappointing

     I think when describing the relationship between the different warp factors the Trek writers are smart enough to leave it as vague as "non-linear" without saying exactly how? the only specifics are that integer factors are somehow more fuel-efficient

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     JordiGH (jordigh@mathstodon.xyz)'s status on Monday, 11-Mar-2024 09:17:05 JST JordiGH

     in reply to

     • tech? no! man, see...

     @technomancy I think I should give Babylon 5 more of a chance. A friend has been telling me for over a decade to check it out.

     So warp 1 is speed of light and warp 10 is instantaneous travel, and it's an exponential curve between then two?