kdh@houca.UUCP (06/29/83)
Mentioning the Skalosian Water episode brings to mind a flaw in that episode which I picked up the first time I saw it. When first confronted with the woman on the bridge, Kirk attempts to stun her with his phaser. Naturally, the beam proceeds rather slowly, and she side-steps. What I wondered about was the fact that the beam stopped (did not pass her) and then the trailing end caught up to it when (presumably) Kirk released the trigger. The beam should have proceeded and hit the wall. Also, why did the crew on the bridge not see the phaser flash? (Or was it too short? Hmm... at ~1 ft/nanosec (pardon me, 1/3 meter) that would have been only a coupel of nanosec's. Ah well.....) Also, if Kirk and the others are so speeded up (sped up?) that this could occur, how long would Kirk have lived? Making a rough guess wrt the beam speed, Kirk would have been sped up between a million and a billion times. That would have reduced his life expectancy to something substantially less than an hour, assuming the usual life expectancy was about 100. (Course the episode only lasted 45-50 min...... :-) ) Isn't it fun picking shows apart? Kevin Hunter
cardosi@wivax.UUCP (Leonard Cardosi) (06/30/83)
Also in the medusa show there is a flaw.
At the end when Spock goes to beam the medusa down
to the planet kirk is standing in the transporter room.
Spock is wearing those special glasses but kirk isn't.
--
Lenny Cardosi
{decvax,linus}!wivax!cardosisher@rochester.UUCP (07/01/83)
About phasers, Someone talked about a phaser beam proceeding at one foot per nanosecond. Who ever said that phasers were fast? What if a beam proceeded at one foot per millisecond. Would you notice the difference? Phasers were always rather strange anyway. They seemed to do what ever you wanted them to do. I am not sure but I believe that they even made differently shaped holes in the wall to the convinience of the user. This has led me to believe that phasers are at least partially psychic devices. Federation officers were so much better at shooting than Klingons and so much harder to hit because of this. -David Sher (ofttimes AI project)
bernie@watarts.UUCP (07/14/83)
The phaser beam travelling at "one foot per nanosecond" makes sense; that's approximately the speed of light in a vacuum. If it were one foot per *millisecond* as the original poster suggested, then it would take one million times as long for the beam to reach the Klingon ship (for example). Over even interplanetary distances this can be signifi- cant; in particular, it would make it possible for them to detect the beam using their sensors and easily dodge it. --Bernie Roehl ...decvax!watmath!watarts!bernie