dssg (06/22/82)
In answer to allegra!stu questions:
Does Khan blow up the ship or set Genesis off?
He set Genesis off (which blew up the ship, and would have blown up the
Enterprise if it had been caught in the matrix reformulation effect) demon-
strated by the fact that the new planet formed (from the nebula in my opinion,
the effect of Genesis in the proposal to Star Fleet seemed to be planet boune
(read: bound) when used on a planet).
He blew it up to spite Kirk for revenge, he had the mechanism, he beamed it
up from within the planet, when getting the coordinates off of Kirks trans-
mission (the tall cylinder that dissappears, and is shown in the destruction
sequence).
Twiddling the mechanism would seem to be the (remote) controls for Genesis.
It went off right because he twiddled the mechanism right, Khan may have
been going a bit senile in his hatred for Kirk, but remained an extremely
intelligent man.
Other comments: Spocks observation of two dimensional thinking is very
valid in my opinion. Ever tried to handle three dimensional combat in a
wargame. Personally I find it more difficult than is worthwile to attempt to
master, for the sake of a wargame. It is very hard to work with indeed.
Plane fighting is three dimensional (though not quite as free as it would be
in space of course) but there is no reason to assume Khan was an experienced
fighter pilot either.
Did anybody else notice the dissappearing phaser? A friend of mine alerted me
to it in those terms. When Capt. Terell shoots himself, the phaser dissappears
along with him. With some imagination, you can probably account for this
somehow (as with a lot of things, you may have noticed).
Does anybody remember the content of the Vulcan exchange between Spock and
Saavik near the beginning of the inspection tour about Kirk? It was
something about Kirk and being human.
Also does anybody know the full reading of the regulation Saavik was quoting
to Kirk about what to do when approaching Federation vessels that aren't
responding to transmissions? (Spock cut her off at an inopportune moment,
Kirk might have known the regulation, but I didn't. Left me wondering).
Sorry this went on for so long,
Trek-hack,
Ralph.donald (06/27/82)
I agree that the genesis effect could perhaps form a planet using the mass of the nebula, but then there are serious defects in the plot arising from this: How the heck did the newly-formed planet get a sun??? The genesis effect must be awesome indeed. One wonders why it is being used for *trivial* things like creating life! A nebula is a rather extended and tenuous mass. The genesis effect would have to "reach out" and draw in all of this mass to collect it to form the planet (and sun?). Obviously the Enterprise would have been caught in all this, as it did not have warp power. Don
sjb (06/28/82)
************************************************** ************************************************** SSSSPPPPOOOOIIIILLLLEEEERRRR!!!!****************** ************************************************** ************************************************** (sorry about not putting it in the title, but followup ha no feature to do that!) The Enterprise DID have warp power then. What do you think Spock died for?