Re: Probably already seen it, but...

From: mitch perkins (mitchsperkins_at_yahoo.com)
Date: 09/05/04 

Date: 5 Sep 2004 07:27:31 -0700

The Ghost In The Machine <ewill@aurigae.athghost7038suus.net> wrote in message news:<al5o02-3j9.ln1@lexi2.athghost7038suus.net>...
> In sci.physics, mitch perkins
> <mitchsperkins@yahoo.com>
> wrote
> on 3 Sep 2004 15:00:11 -0700
> <64dddc3d.0409031400.7ead691@posting.google.com>:
> > if you haven't, this site is kinda fun.
> >
> > <http://www.intuitor.com/moviephysics/>
> >
> > Mitch
>
  <snip>

  Nice reply, Ghost dude!
>
> One might swallow, to some extent, the notion that Star
> Trek missiles can go faster than light (although there are
> a huge number of problems, from the thermodynamics of the
> particles hitting the missiles to the ridiculous amount of
> momentum required). But when Star Trek: Generations had
> the ribbon -- some sort of space warp with Whoopi Goldberg
> therewithin -- running around (which for some reason the
> heavy wanted to enter, to enter a state of ecstasy --
> why couldn't he simply have used a spacesuit like normal
> people?), he fires a missile into the Sun (or the local
> equivalent thereof). This of course is no ordinary missile
> (which might at most make a small undetectable spot), but
> shrinks the Sun, changing its gravity to warp the ribbon
> -- and all in the blink of an eye! (In more realistic
> environs, even if one could somehow make a visible effect
> from the Earth on the Sun, it would take about 16 minutes
> before anyone here could see it -- never mind shrinking the
> Sun or changing the gravity.)

  <snip>

  Hey! Is that the movie where Kirk dies, *for no reason*? I.E., the
villain wants to enter the Nexus, so he explodes a planet to change
it's (Nexus') course to engulph the planet he's on? Get this; he
succeeds the first time around - Enterprise crashes, everyone dies
(all enter the Nexus), Picard enjoys illusory Christmas with suitably
blonde wife and kids, then seeks out Kirk with whom he time travels
back to the moment *before* the bad guy blows up the planet. Well, it
doesn't go too good for Kirk; he dies in Picard's arms - at which
point all Picard has to do is *wait around* for the bad guy to finish
his work; they'll all go back into the Nexus, and K&P can just *give
it another whirl*! They have an *infinite number* of chances to get it
done right, but no! Picard goes on to thwart the villain, thereby
sealing Kirk's fate! Any plot employing time travel always dissolves
into lunacy; what happened is what happened - a 25 yr old traveling 26
yrs into the past will deconstruct into the bits of quantum stuff of
which s/he was formed. Can't kill no grandpa because *I wasn't alive
when he was*. Sorry for the rant.

> [7] Brain drain.
>
> I think it's safe to say that souls are very problematic;
> in a number of Star Trek episodes Spock employs his
> famous "mind meld" (OK, so how do his fingers produce an
> electromagnetic field strong enough to affect the brain of
> the face he's fondling again?) and other episodes suggest
> that one can switch souls and/or identities by some sort
> of contrivance, or blast a beam into a brain and thereby
> alter behavior, training, or both. At least "Catspaw" is
> a bit believable, although it would take considerably more
> equipment than a shatterable ball and a rod -- and it might
> take major surgery as well, or a whiff of "crazy gas".
> (I'm not familiar with volatized LSD, and I'm not sure
> I'd want to be.)
>
  Spocking of speak, I have an hypothesis that he was the most
illogical member of the whole crew. He consistently allowed himself to
become involved in petty quibbles with no less important a person than
the ship's doctor, thus adding stress to the proceedings and putting
everyone at risk! All he had to do was fake a bit of emotion to calm
Bones down, at no great cost to himself. He could even have approached
it as a scientific exploration of the human psyche. But no! He engaged
in childish insult matches instead - logic indeed!
>
> Reality can be so boring at times. :-)

  Plots that rely on "cheats" such as time travel are always
dissatisfying on some level.
  It's the mark of a really great piece of fiction to focus on the
*other* times, when it isn't boring, or to show us that a situation
which appears boring on the surface is rife with intrigue one layer
down, would you agree?

  Cheers,
  Mitch

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