root@xenixsp (03/06/86)
> > > In *The Making of Star Trek* photon torps are described as ball of >matter and antimatter held in and separated by a force field until impact >with the target. In the movies the force field was replaced by a metallic >shell like the one used for Spocks body. As to why the phasers looked like ^^^^^ That sounds a little fishy..... Metallic insulation of a matter/antimatter interface? seems like that might go boom, or is there a metal that is netural to antimatter? >photon torps in Balance of Terror, this was the first appearance of any of >the Enterprise's weapons.(The Menagerie doesn't count because that was in >flashback) The writers and producers probably had not decided what the >visual effect of phasers would be. Then when photon torps were added to >the armament the phasers took on a different look. > ihnp4!sys1-----\ trsvax!techsup!-|--xenixsp!doug hub!-----------/ soma!---------/ rscus1!------/
friesen@psivax.UUCP (Stanley Friesen) (03/14/86)
In article <-1273950@xenixsp> root@xenixsp writes: >> >> In *The Making of Star Trek* photon torps are described as ball of >>matter and antimatter held in and separated by a force field until impact >>with the target. In the movies the force field was replaced by a metallic >>shell like the one used for Spocks body. As to why the phasers looked like >^^^^^ That sounds a little fishy..... Metallic insulation of a matter/antimatter >interface? seems like that might go boom, or is there a metal that is netural >to antimatter? > Or perhaps the shell was merely a "platform" for mounting the force field generator on and providing a method for handling the thing in the ship. Then the anti-matter would still be force-contained, but yhe visible external shell would be metal. -- Sarima (Stanley Friesen) UUCP: {ttidca|ihnp4|sdcrdcf|quad1|nrcvax|bellcore|logico}!psivax!friesen ARPA: ttidca!psivax!friesen@rand-unix.arpa
ph@wucec2.UUCP (03/15/86)
In article <-1273950@xenixsp> root@xenixsp writes: >> In *The Making of Star Trek* photon torps are described as ball of >>matter and antimatter held in and separated by a force field until impact >>with the target. In the movies the force field was replaced by a metallic >>shell like the one used for Spocks body. >^^^^^ That sounds a little fishy..... Metallic insulation of a matter/antimatter >interface? seems like that might go boom, or is there a metal that is netural >to antimatter? What I assumed was that the force field containing the antimatter was in turn contained in the metal shell. Was that so hard? --pH /* * "No! Let me finish!" */
adolph@ssc-vax.UUCP (Mark Adolph) (03/17/86)
*** YOUR MESSAGE *** >> In *The Making of Star Trek* photon torps are described as ball of >>matter and antimatter held in and separated by a force field until impact >>with the target. In the movies the force field was replaced by a metallic >>shell like the one used for Spocks body. As to why the phasers looked like >^^^^^ That sounds a little fishy..... Metallic insulation of a matter/antimatter >interface? seems like that might go boom, or is there a metal that is netural >to antimatter? On the other hand, they never actually showed a stationary photon torp during the series. Who knows what they looked like? -- -- Mark A. ...{uw-beaver|fluke}!ssc-vax!adolph "1 + 1 = 1, for sufficiently small values of 1..."
spock@hope.UUCP (Chris Ambler) (03/21/86)
*** REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR REPETITION ***
Stardates: A measurement of spacial positioning vs. time. Example:
stardate xxxx.xx means that ship XX is in Quad. Y at Galactic time Z.
The stardate is a function of all these facts. From the date you can tell
when and where.
Phasers vs. Torps: The way we (trekkers @ my club site) explained the anomality
is that the phasers appear to impact like torpedoes because of the distance
involved. When the phaser berrage hit, the reflected light energy *APPEARED*
to be blasts.
Torps: They are a shell of metal, with a magnetic bottle mechanism inside. The
magnetic bottle contains the antimatter. When the targetting mech. triggers,
the mag bottle is (simply) turned off. BOOM. (explained at TIMECON '84)
Thanks, Replies welcome (I can smell the flames...)
-Spock! (Christopher J. Ambler, University of California, Riverside)
-"Captain, I see no reason to bother Starfleet..." merlin@hope.UUCP (Mike Sullivan) (03/21/86)
> *** REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR REPETITION *** > > Stardates: A measurement of spacial positioning vs. time. Example: > stardate xxxx.xx means that ship XX is in Quad. Y at Galactic time Z. > The stardate is a function of all these facts. From the date you can tell > when and where. > > Phasers vs. Torps: The way we (trekkers @ my club site) explained the anomality > is that the phasers appear to impact like torpedoes because of the distance > involved. When the phaser berrage hit, the reflected light energy *APPEARED* > to be blasts. > > Torps: They are a shell of metal, with a magnetic bottle mechanism inside. The > magnetic bottle contains the antimatter. When the targetting mech. triggers, > the mag bottle is (simply) turned off. BOOM. (explained at TIMECON '84) > > Thanks, Replies welcome (I can smell the flames...) > > -Spock! (Christopher J. Ambler, University of California, Riverside) > -"Captain, I see no reason to bother Starfleet..." *** REPLACE LAST LINE WITH NEXT MESSAGE *** All this is fine and dandy, but how can you try to explain the inconsistency of one episode with the others? Of course, you may decide that the actual episodes, since they do not last for the actual length of the adventure, are just star fleet tapes of missions, with unimportant sections edited out. Perhaps a mishap (undetected) with the transporter caused a malfunction in one tape, causing the inconsistency. Merlin "I have to admit that it may be worse than even I had at first been imagining."