Comment on Why aren't they using drones and more automation?
armus@startrek.website 11 months ago
You probably hit it on the head about the limits of people’s imagination in the 80s/90s, but also I wonder if it had anything to do with Roddenberry and his opinions of what was / wasn’t going to show up in Star Trek? He famously forbid interpersonal conflict between federation people, making it annoying AF for the writers on TNG. Plus drone ships exploring everything might not make for captivating TV
BigBlackCockroach@lemmy.world 11 months ago
You are right, it would remove all the stakes, but then I feel that is just bad/lazy writing, If you really went into such a future with your imagination, I am pretty sure it might even raise the stakes as there might be probes hiding/sleeping in places you do not expect or in general all of that while making exploring a planet more secure, it could then make for a great twist if all of the sudden a swarm of drones dropped out of hyperspace right on top of them.
armus@startrek.website 11 months ago
I seem to remember at least one episode about a rogue drone missile (nuke?) of some type that they had to board / disarm, but yeah that aspect of things was really ignored. Same thing with space infrastructure / communication relays and all that, never hear about it unless its a hook for a specific episode…
BigBlackCockroach@lemmy.world 11 months ago
I also don’t understand why they use elevators instead of just asking to be beamed to whatever part of the ship they need to go. At least the captain could probably be beamed around.
StillPaisleyCat@startrek.website 11 months ago
Transporter technology constantly evolves across all the series and eras.
So in the 32nd century, yes they do just use the transporters built in their com badges to zip around the internal volume of the ship, but there are protected areas. The Transporter room is more like a formal entry.
In TOS, internal site to site transport was dangerous, so only used in emergencies. You’ll note that they almost always transport to outdoor locations.
In TNG, less dangerous but not generally enabled. Used under emergency or ideal conditions only. There are a lot of situations on planets where portable pattern enhancers are used to improve functionality and safety - kind of a take it with you transporter pad set up.
Countess425@lemmy.world 11 months ago
This drives my husband insane. He can’t figure out why anyone bothers to walk anywhere. Why do they still use bathrooms when you can just transport the pee from your bladder into the replicator recombinator or whatever?! I assume the transporters must use an amount of energy that makes it inefficient to use for every little thing.