Senin, 09 Februari 2009

Star Trek MEASUREMENT and STAR DATE

MEASUREMENTS

We use the metric system for most close and small measurements, such as distance of another vessel lying alongside, its size, etc. For long measurements, such as distance between stars, we use light-year measuremen. For example, the closest star to Earth is Proxima Centauri, which is 4.2 light years away. Other stars in our galaxy are hundreds or thousands of light years away. NOTE: The writer need not trouble himself with computing or studying such terms—we have excellent technical advisers who review all scripts.


For those who are interested, the term PARSEC is also used In measuring vast distance$—PARSEC is 3.26 light years, or 19.2 trillion mllcs—206,265 times the radius of the Earth’s orbit. (Parallax of one second.) However, the writer should keep in mind that the audience often needs more understandable measurements, and we often vary the above statements, such as: “That alien ship is more than a mile in diameter!” Or, “That ship is a million miles away, and we’re still being probed by its sensors!” Generally, we use the more precise scientific measuring terms in giving and answering bridge commands, go to the less scientific but more understandable “audience terminology” in exclamations and in private conversations. Present-day example—the weaponry ontrol officers of a modem-day naval vessel ‘win always be very precise in giving aiming orders, but might remark conversationally to the man next to them, “Theyre still a mile out of range.”
Excerpt from Star Trek Guide

In order to avoid problems in communicating over these vast distances, Roddenberry decided on the term “subspace radio.” It is explained as follows:

SUBSPACE RADIO

Lieutenant Uhura, Communications Officer, sits at this control station. We use the term “subapace” since it is fiecessary that communications from the Enterprise to its bases are a “space warp” effect which travels at speeds far exceeding even that of the Enterprise. If we did not have such “subpace” or “space warp” communications, obviously the Enterprise could warp oft to a base and return laster than a message could be sent there.
Excerpt from STAR TREK Guide


Another problem involved in deep space travel is time. How do you express tithe when there is no point of reference to make it mead anything, such as we have here on Earth? Our own time on Earth is based on months and years, which are strictly terrestrial cycles tied to the sun and moon. At the other end of the galaxy the cycle doesn’t mean a thing. As a matter of fact, the cycle changes from planet to planet let alone from solar system to solar system!

It seems logical, therefore, that some sort of time-keeping system would be established in order to solve the problem. Such a system would undoubtedly have to be based on a highly scientific and mathematically complex formula.
Not so, with STAR TREK’s “Star Date.”

Gene says:
IN THE BEGINNING, INVENTED THE TERM “STAR DATE” SIMPLY TO KEEP FROM TYPING OURSELVES DOWN TO 2265 A.D., OR SHOULD IT BE 2312 A.D.? I WANTED US WELL IN THE FUTURE BUT WITHOUT ARGUING APPROXIMATELY WHICH CENTURy THIS OR THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN INVENTED OR SUPERSEDED. WHEN WE BEGAN MAKING EPISODES, WE WOULD USE A STAR DATE SUCH As 2317 ONE WEEK, AND THEN A WEEK LATER WHEN WE MADE THE NEXT EPISODE WE WOULD MOVE THE STAR DATE UP TO 2942, AN)) SO ON. UNFORTUNATELY, HOWEVER, THE EPISODES ARE NOT AIRED IN THE SAME ORDER IN WHICH WE FILM THEM. SO WE BEGAN TO GET COMPLAINTS FROM THE VIEWERS, ASKING, “HOW COME ONE WEEK THE STAR DATE IS 2891, THE NEXT WEEK IT’S 2337, AND THEN THE WEEK AFTER IT’S 3414?” IN ANSWERING THESE QUESTIONS, I CAME UP WITH THE STATEMENT THAT ‘11115 TIME SYSTEM ADJUSTS FOR SnIFFS IN RELATIVE TIME WHICH OCCUR DUE TO THE VESSEL’S SPEED AND SPACE WARP CAPABILITY. IT HAS LITTLE RELATIONSHIP TO EARTH’S TIME AS WE KNOW IT. ONE HOUR ABOARD THE U.S.S. ENTERPRISE AT DIFFERENT TIMES MAY EQUAL AS LITTLE AS THREE EARTH HOURS. THE STAR DATE SPECIFIED iN THE LOG ENTRY MUST BE COMPUTED AGAINST THE SPEED OF THE VESSEL, THE SPACE WARP, AND ITS POSiTION WITHIN OUR GALAXY, IN ORDER TO GIVE A MEANINGFUL READING.” THEREFORE STAR DATE WOULD BE ONE THING AT ONE POINT. IN THE GALAXY AND SOMETHING ELSE AGAIN AT ANOTHER POINT IN THE GALAXY. I’M NOT QUITE SURE WHAT I MEANT BY THAT EXPLANATION, BUT A LOT OF PEOPLE HAVE INDICATED IT MAKES SENSE. IF SO, I’VE BEEN LUCKY AGAIN, AND I’D JUST AS SOON FORGET THE WHOLE THING BEFORE I’M ASKED ANY FURTHER QUESTIONS ABOUT IT

The history of the making of STAR TREK is full of examples of things being invented for the show and later cropping up again in real life in some form or another.

One example involves the “alert” sound made by the communicators. The sound, which was picked because it cut through most other sounds and immediately caught everyone’s attention, is used as a dramatic device to alert people. Not long ago the studio received a call from a research group at a hospital, inquiring about STAR TREK’s “marvelous beeping sound.” It seems they were designing a new cardiac-arrest ward and needed a sound that would cut through all other noises and alert a doctor when a patient is in trouble. The sound “invented” as a dramatic device for Snit TREK was exactly what they were looking for! The hospital was sent a tape recording of the sound with STAR TREK’S compliments.

A slightly different example involves the universal translator device used to translate alien languages into English. The concept was analyzed, and when investigation proved that it is, in fact, theoretically possible to make such an instrument, one was created for use on the ship. About seven months later the STAR TREK staff read that the United States Government is working on such a device.

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