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Commercially available chairs in Star Trek

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201–210 of 218 posts

Re: Commercially available chairs in Star Trek

#201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recall B&W TVs still being available as a budget option in the early 80s, though by then most middle class homes had a color TV.

Where I came from, although most families had a colo[u]r primary tv, if there were any secondary tvs (kitchen, bedroom,...) those were b&w up until around 1985.

Even later! My grandparents still had a black and white "portable" in the kitchen in the early 90s. My friend (who was wealthy) still had a black a white portable that my friend's sister would watch soap operas on in the mid-90s.

Re: Commercially available chairs in Star Trek

#202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am the only Star Trek fan I know who was not a big fan of the dominion war arc. I really liked some of the later season episodes, but the arc itself was a bit of a letdown. OTOH, DS9 is the only Star Trek that my wife will willingly watch with me; she finds the others too campy. As another data-point she likes the dominion war arc as much or more than B5, which was her favorite sci-fi series previously.

By Inferno's Light is among my favorites, if only for Andrew Robinson acting through his own actual claustrophobia in the episode. I might also be slightly biased in favor of cardassian plots and actors, if only for Stewart's acting in Chain of Command. The dominion and bjoran plots didn't really resonate with me at all, unfortunately.

Garak is one of the best ST characters, ever. And the acting is great. What I like about Garak is, the character is consistent and yet develops.

Re: Commercially available chairs in Star Trek

#206
post #67

This is one of my favourite distractions when watching Sci-Fi films set in the future - spotting objects from now. For example: - In Luke's home in Star Wars IV there's a lot of Tupperware - https://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2014/02/in-praise-of-t... - In Alien, Ripley drinks from a Tupperware mug - https://twitter.com/EverRotating/status/1156650673972363264

One of my favorites was seeing my toy chest from when I was a kid in Wrath of Khan

"Little Tikes kid’s Apollo Space Capsule Toy Chest." - https://third-wave-design.com/2018/11/30/houston-we-dont-hav...

It also pops up in a ton of other places.

Re: Commercially available chairs in Star Trek

#207
post #164

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> From what I recall, their overall assessment was that the set designers used strong color design and bold shapes to compensate for their lack of budget. I thought it was specifically because of (1) the color film process used at the time required it for faithful (-ish) reproduction, and (2) the need to make something that looked good on both black and white and color TVs, as lots of people were still using black an…

It's also just an artistic design choice. They tried very hard to make things look "alien" and "otherwordly" as much as possible, ranging from the set design to the costumes to the music to Starfleet sideburns. For example sky can be any colour except blue, and doors can open every which way (except downwards, because that would require digging a hole in the set) and they make all sorts of sounds – as long as they're…

Another thing I read somewhere (not sure if it's true) is that TOS used a lot of wacky colors because color TVs were new then, and so they were trying to get more people to watch the show by making it a bit of a showcase, much like "Planet Earth" was popular when FHD TVs were new because it showed the real potential of the technology.

Re: Commercially available chairs in Star Trek

#208
post #75

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That and in the future we'll apparently forget everything we ever learned about electrical codes and the proper way to build things so they don't spark and catch fire at the slightest provocation.

I actually saw a reasonable explanation for this once: battleshort[1]. That is, sometimes equipment has its fuses bypassed because under battle conditions it is better to have the equipment working in a dangerous state, than not working at all. So when the ship goes to red alert all the major systems are automatically put in battleshort mode. So a couple of ensigns die rather then the weapons stop working because a f…

That is a very old-school approach so. But it could be an in-uniberse explanation. Overall so, Federation, and Star Trek equipment in general, just seems so incredibly unsafe. Very easy to jury-rigg repairs and modify it so, especially the shield generators!

Re: Commercially available chairs in Star Trek

#209

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If quacks like a duck, it is a duck. Starfleet is a navy, one that has a way to high share of officers, nowhere near enough NCOs and enlisted men and a worrying tendency of carrying dependents and civilians into combat, but a navy still. Regarding diplomacy: - Kithomer Accords, re-established between Cpt. Sisko and Chancellor Gowron, the first accords were Picard's job (could be wrong about that) - everything Bajor r…

The "not a military" lines in early TNG are, while intended to reflect Gene's somewhat out there vision of an evolved Federation, so obviously wrong in the context of later material that the only coherent way to handle them is to either chuck them from canon, or to treat them as a bit of in-universe exaggeration and semantics wrangling that gets proven completely wrong by the time of Wolf 359.

Ah, the battle of Wolf 359! Were somehow Starfleet failed to evacuate civilians from the exploration ships they sent into battle! Completely reasonable, if you ask me.

Re: Commercially available chairs in Star Trek

#210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Galactica miniseries had a scene near the beginning with a futuristic looking alarm clock on a nightstand. I had that exact same alarm clock, as it was given as a cheapo christmas present to all the student employees in my department at the university.

Were you guys habitually late to work?

Not especially, I worked in an IT support lab and most of the guys set their own schedules.
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