From Newsgroup: alt.tv.star-trek.tos
From Address: epwise{at}yahoo.com
Subject: Re: Just A  Few Odd Things?

Graeme  wrote in
news:e37c8744-4cdf-4a22-bff2-5aa322142152{at}googlegroups.com: 

> On Wednesday, September 25, 2013 3:34:51 PM UTC-5, Ron wrote:
>> For one, on a planet with absolutely no technology, why didn't Kirk &
>> Spo 
> ck think it strange that the doors would open and close for them
>>
> 
> Who said the door closing mechanism was electronic?  Believe it or
> not, even in medieval times, they had the ability to do something like
> this mechanically. 
> 
> 
>>> And speaking of no  technology, isn't the Prime Directive supposed
>>> to ke 
> ep Federation people from making contact with backwards cultures that
> doesn't have space travel. 
>>>
> 
> Nope.  The Prime Directive means whatever they want it to mean at any
> given time.  This point has been made over and over again, but to show
> how nonsensical it all is, take Bread and Circuses, where they state
> very clearly that no identification of self or mission is permitted,
> or any reference to the fact that there's life on other worlds.  A few
> weeks later, in Omega Glory, Kirk cheerfully volunteers this
> information to Cloud William.  Even Tracey, the guy who was supposed
> to be the PD violator, didn't go that far.  Kirk is in no trouble for
> this because the PD didn't forbid it that week. 
> 
> If you want to try to fanwank it a little better than that, you can
> presuppose that the Organians are supposed to have learned about other
> worlds (maybe from those Vulcan traders we heard about) before the PD
> was enacted, and so the secret was already out.  But I also suspect
> that when the military defense of the Federation is involved, it's not
> too hard to bend the Prime Directive.  You saw the same thing in
> Friday's Child.  They wanted Topaline, so in they go, offering things
> that they wouldn't offer to other planets. 
> 
> 
>>> I was also thinking about Wrath of Khan. I wont mention that big
>>> plot ho 
> le about not recogniing the Ceti Alpha system
>>>
> 
> Good, because no such plot hole exists.  They correctly identified the
> system, just not the planet.  The story they gave was that the shock
> of Ceti Alpha 6 exploding shifted Ceti Alpha 5 into the same orbit
> that 6 once had, and so the Reliant mistook 5 for 6.  Best not to
> think about that too much.  The novelization explains it a little
> better, by saying that 5 and 6 were twin planets circling each other,
> and that the Reliant assumed it was 5 that blew up, or something like
> that.  It still doesn't quite work. 
> 
> No suggestion is given that Khan's presence was a secret.  Probably
> Ceti Alpha V was off limits, and never considered for a landing. 
> 
> 
>>> And what's the deal with Spock setting his tricorder for silicon in
>>> Devi 
> l In the Dark; isn't most of the planet he was on made of silicon?
>>>
> 
> It's not well explained, but presumably he fine-tuned it to pick up
> more on silicon to the exclusion of other things.  Like doing a word
> search on a computer, I assume you can focus on things you really want
> to find and not bother scanning other stuff. 
> 
>>>
> Oh, and while I am on the subject of tricorders, City On the Edge of
> Forever: I don't know why no one eve brings this up but there is a
> view screen on the tricorders, presumably to look at the data
> collected or the recordings made by the cute yeomans who are always
> taking log tapes. So if there is a view screen, why does Spock have to
> make some gizmo to see what he had recorded? Isn't there a playback
> function on the TRI-corder? 
>> 
> 
> Not very well explained at all.  You'll have to fanwank it.  Spock did
> say something about needing to hook the tricorder into the main
> computer.  There is a playback screen, as you say (and that's what he
> used even after building his contraption), so I assume that the
> external apparatus was needed to be able to go through the mass of
> information he had to look for certain things.  That doesn't really
> explain why he should see a movie of a newspaper page, of course... 
> 
> 

No need to fanwank.  It was stated that the tricorder recorded the 
images as the Guardian played them.  In other words too fast.  Spock 
needed an apparatus to slow the images down.  The newspaper page was 
there because as also mentioned in the episode, Edith Keeler was the 
focal point of the time change.   
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