Star Trek

[Fitz1980]

What about galvanic isolation, or at least limiting the power going into terminals to some sensible levels. A power surge would not cause a present-day PC to explode with enough force to kill its operator, would it?

That's a common nit* regarding Star Trek.  The panels that always seems to have 10,000 volts running through them & explode of the ship gets hit. 

* Nit - Error by the makers of a TV show/movie.  First coined by Phil Farrand in his book "The Nitpickers Guide to Star Trek" The Next Generation."

[Stuart]

[martytherose]

You know, I'm half-tempted to start writing a Star Trek novel where the senior crew aren't the only people on the ship competent enough to go off the ship, and the ships themselves aren't shiny deathtraps :P

That would be great.  One of my favorite TNG episodes was the one about all the lower ranked people playing poker at the same time that the bridge crew played.  I think it was called Lower Decks, maybe?  Really good look at what happens elsewhere in the ship.  I've always wanted to see Trek novels that take place in the same fictional universe but that are not about any of the characters from the show.

[Delta]

http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Lower_Decks
You are right about that. It was aired in the seventh season, so some years had passed since Roddenberry's death, and the deconstruction of all that is Trek (that is DS9) had already picked up, so it is understandable that we had episodes that strayed from the standard Trek formula.

[mrj001]

...I've always wanted to see Trek novels that take place in the same fictional universe but that are not about any of the characters from the show.

In that case I would Recommended reading Articles of the Federation It is sort of The West Wing in the Star Trek Universe following the adventures of the UFP president and her wise cracking staff of the Palis de Concord in Paris, after the events of Star Trek Nemesis.

Then there are the Titan books about Captain Riker and Commander Deana Troi-Riker and crew on the USS Titan.

And the DS9 Re launch books about Captain Kira and an almost entirely new crew

Coming soon in the Typhoon Pact novels is a book about Captain Ezri Dax and crew of the USS Aventine

I haven't read any of them but, the Star Fleet Corps of Engineers series is about the crew of the USS da Vinci.

There are more but I don’t feel like typing them all out. 

[martytherose]

Thanks Mrj864, some of those sound interesting, and I didn't know about them.  Probably the books about the president and staff are closest to the idea I have in mind.  I'm thinking about books that aren't even directly about Starfleet.  I'd like to see a political thriller or spy novel set in the Federation, something like that.

[Fitz1980]

I seem to remember there was a TNG episode that clearly established they had gravity generators in the turbolift shafts 

That one never bothered me as much as it bothered other fans.  I always assumed that artificial gravity wasn't just something on each deck plate but an overall field that engulfed the ship from generators all over the place.  Hence you can't just turn it off in one little part of the ship.

So why not antigravity generators with independent power supplies designed to cut in the moment main power to the lift shaft is lost, to keep all lifts in the same position instead of letting them drop and crash?

I used to install elevators and can tell you that you don't want your fail-safes to be a power driven system; epically if the failure that they are supposed to kick on during would be a main power failure.  Today the best type of fail-safe for such things is a simple mechanical mechanism built into the elevator (or lift) that simply activates when a certian set of mechanical things happen.  It's like when you suddenly lurch forward while wearing a seat belt; the belt spool immediately locks, which can be frustrating if you were just trying to grab the coke can that you kid knocked out of the cup holder.  But it's designed that way so that if it were a crash you'd be safely in the seat belt.  Similarly such simple mechanical systems can malfunction, but all that they do is cause the elevator to get stuck when there wasn't an emergency.  That's why it's called a fail safe.  When it fails it's a safe failure.  The elevator gets stuck because the system was too sensitive, which is safe; vs the elevator plummets down the shaft because the system was not sensitive enough.

My point being that you're better off with a locking physical break than some fancy anti-grav generator to counteract the ship's gravity field in the event of an emergency.

[Dan]

My point being that you're better off with a locking physical break than some fancy anti-grav generator to counteract the ship's gravity field in the event of an emergency.

While that's sensible, it's terribly un-startrek. Star Trek is more about the gratuitous abuse of technology. I'm pretty sure Starfleet officers give their kids portable forcefields at the beach rather than buckets.

[mrj001]

Thanks Mrj864, some of those sound interesting, and I didn't know about them.  Probably the books about the president and staff are closest to the idea I have in mind.  I'm thinking about books that aren't even directly about Starfleet.  I'd like to see a political thriller or spy novel set in the Federation, something like that.

I that case then, you might like the Section 31 books.  I haven't read them but they are a 4 novel series about the super secret borderline illegal intelligence/ domestic security Federation agency.  Seen in DS9 and the finale season of Enterprise.

If you like DS9 then there is the novel A Stitch in Time about Garak, written by Andrew Robinson, the guy who played him on the show.  About him trying to help rebuild Cardasia after the Dominion War while flashing back to his childhood and career as an agent in the Obsidian Order, the whole time writing the book like it is a letter to Dr Bashir.  It is widely considered to be the best Star Trek novel ever.  Hell, even if you aren’t a fan of DS9 I would suggest reading this book.

Your best bet for good political and espionage stories will be the DS9 re launch novels.  Books like The Left Hand of Destiny, about Chancellor Martok, Ambassador Worf and the Klingon Empire, written by J.G Hertzler (the guy who played him), I haven‘t read it but I heard it is good. 

Then there is the epic three part Terok Nor, that begins with first contact between Cardasia and Bajor and spans the 50 years of occupation and ends a couple of days before the first episode of DS9.  It fits together with A stitch in Time really good.  It parallels a lot of major events of the 20th century especially the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980‘s.

The last one I will recommend is The Never Ending Sacrifice about a Cardasian teenage boy raised by Bajorans who was sent back to Cardasia, against his will, to live with his people, who he hates, in the second season of DS9.  And then tries to make a life for him self while trying to survive the events of the series.  This also ties into A Stitch in Time.

I think that A Stitch in Time and Articles of The Federation are probably the best ones for you.

[Stuart]

[bunnyema]

Hello to all my dear friends here! I am home!