Hope and Fear

[remagynona]

Yeah, I've tried my hardest over the years to come up with a decent theory for how the thing actually works, but I always reach a point where I realize each person on the holodeck would need to be encased in a self-contained tread-milled sub-unit, with its own gravity that is networked to every other one, but is also capable of being combined with other units so the occupants can interact. The computer then needs to constantly shuffle those units around the room like a giant sliding block puzzle to maintain a seamless experience. Considering what they've shown is possible in there, the sub-units would probably need vertical movement as well, and maybe even the transporters to move someone over to the other side of the grid if they suddenly change direction while too close to a wall.

[CharlesPhipps]

Yeah, at some point you just need to go, "It's a show."

[Swiftbow]

Yeah, I've tried my hardest over the years to come up with a decent theory for how the thing actually works, but I always reach a point where I realize each person on the holodeck would need to be encased in a self-contained tread-milled sub-unit, with its own gravity that is networked to every other one, but is also capable of being combined with other units so the occupants can interact. The computer then needs to constantly shuffle those units around the room like a giant sliding block puzzle to maintain a seamless experience. Considering what they've shown is possible in there, the sub-units would probably need vertical movement as well, and maybe even the transporters to move someone over to the other side of the grid if they suddenly change direction while too close to a wall.

You're right that that's the only way it could really work as shown... but it also DOESN'T work because Trek technology just isn't THAT advanced. If it was, I don't see how anyone could ever take over the ship. I mean... I guess the holodeck technology is only IN the holodeck. But... if they HAVE that kind of technology... why the hell isn't it used for EVERYTHING?

[Madner Kami]

Because writers are notoriously shit at drawing conclusions out of the concepts they introduce for their specific story. I mean, just think about what the Transporter can be used for, beyond what we see on screen. Or Replicators, which should be functionally capable of printing entire ships ad hoc. Why do people bother with Dreadnought-type missiles, when you can just replicate and beam a warp engine onto an asteroid and warp said asteroid straight into the planet that offends you. Or even just an impulse engine, which can reach near light-speed...

[Swiftbow]

Because writers are notoriously shit at drawing conclusions out of the concepts they introduce for their specific story. I mean, just think about what the Transporter can be used for, beyond what we see on screen. Or Replicators, which should be functionally capable of printing entire ships ad hoc. Why do people bother with Dreadnought-type missiles, when you can just replicate and beam a warp engine onto an asteroid and warp said asteroid straight into the planet that offends you. Or even just an impulse engine, which can reach near light-speed...

The impulse engine would logically deal more damage, actually. A warp field is an artificial hole in gravity. If you fling that at a planet, you're either going to roll around it in a slingshot or have your field cancelled out by the planet's own gravitational field.

Granted, not ALL the writers understood that that's how warp works, but that IS how it would work in real life (the Alcubierre Drive). At least theoretically... you can never be 100% sure until you build the thing and test it.

[Madner Kami]

Heck, Star Trek tech implies they're capable of manipulating an object's mass. Pick an asteroid of choice, shield it, put an engine on it, a sufficiently large reactor and reactant-reserves and maybe a cloaking device and park the asteroid in a place where it subtley veers a planet off it's course via it's gravitational pull... I mean, we can technically do that today already, minus altering it's effective mass... Or ever so slightly manipulate the gravitational field of a moon surrounding a planet and reenact the collision between the original Earth and Theia for the lolz...

[clearspira]

I also don't think the Star Trek writers realise exactly how powerful an antimatter warhead is. 1 gram of the stuff is equal to 43 kilotons of TNT aka the Hiroshima atom bomb - and we often hear numbers way in excess of that given on the show.

The only time I can remember them kind of getting it right was in Q Who where four photon torpedoes took chunks out of a Borg Cube.

My favourite is how often they forget that phasers have a wide beam and a "drill a hole through a cliff" setting. Every fire fight should last five secs. Again, I only remember them getting this right once, and it was in the otherwise superbly shit "The Omega Glory" where Cpt Tracey is stated to have killed thousands of Yangs with only his hand phaser.

[McAvoy]

Because writers are notoriously shit at drawing conclusions out of the concepts they introduce for their specific story. I mean, just think about what the Transporter can be used for, beyond what we see on screen. Or Replicators, which should be functionally capable of printing entire ships ad hoc. Why do people bother with Dreadnought-type missiles, when you can just replicate and beam a warp engine onto an asteroid and warp said asteroid straight into the planet that offends you. Or even just an impulse engine, which can reach near light-speed...

Replicator are easy to explain away why they are just not magical starship making machines.

For one, they require energy which may or may not be a one for one thing. It might be simple to create a sandwich but let's say to create warp nacelles. Something far larger than your average meal I would suspect.

Also it does seem to be implied that the replicator may be flawed in making something 100% compared to the real thing. If that is true I think the last thing you want to do is make a flawed component of your warp drive.

Replicators may not be able to make certain things. Take for example gold pressed latinum. Wouldn't be that valuable if it could be replicated.

Also warp drive seems to manipulate the mass of the vessel too. Also perhaps warp drives are affected by planetary mass dropping them out of warp. It wouldnt surprise me that Starfleet or other powers would be able to detect the warp signature from long distances. Maybe to put a warp drive on an asteroid would make them slow as hell making them easy to intercept.

[Fianna]

I don't remember who said it or where I heard it, but I think someone involved with the show once said that, if you're capable of building a replicator large/powerful/advanced enough to replicate a starship, then you've reached the same tier as all those godlike aliens, and no longer need a starship to travel the galaxy.

[clearspira]

I don't remember who said it or where I heard it, but I think someone involved with the show once said that, if you're capable of building a replicator large/powerful/advanced enough to replicate a starship, then you've reached the same tier as all those godlike aliens, and no longer need a starship to travel the galaxy.

That is a fair enough point... however, that then invalidates the many hand waves that fans have come up with over the years to explain Starfleet going from thirty-seven ships at Wolf 359 to literally thousands of them by the Dominion War only a couple of years later. I also want to note that A) Starfleet had been preparing for this invasion because they knew it was coming and B) Wolf 359 is eight light years from Earth, which in Star Trek terms is just down the road.

Incidentally, it also actually invalidates the handwave for Voyager's infinite supply of shuttlecraft and photon torpedoes.