First Contact and WWIII

[Theunicornhunter 2]

I watched First Contact again today and I noted they said first contact took place about ten years after WWIII. Supposedly the death toll was immense, most major cities were destroyed and political alliances as we know them seemed not to exist.

 

Does it seem logical under those circumstances that anyone would be able to develop warp drive?

 

It seems to me if we had a war of that magnitude we would slip backward not forward with technology and social development.

[Rivendells_king 0]

Well conchrene (or whoever I know I killed his name) Stated in FC that he made the warp thing he rode in to get money and move to a island some place. Also it dose look like that they down graded a little bit ( like cloths, building grammer) but not in weapons. If I remeber correctly that one black girl screamed something like a attack from another country when the borg decided to try to blow up the missle thing the Phenoix or w/e

[Red Shirt Volunteer 0]

I would agree. When there is a clear winner in a war, a new world order will often emerge and advancements (in technology, etc.) during the war are preserved in some way - his isn't to say war is a good thing. With the breakdown of communication that must have resulted after the war described, or at least implied, by what we know of Trek history, it seems unlikely people would've been able to cooperate for a long time. With this in mind, the idea that a few people could put together a warp ship seems little better than absurd. The Wright Brothers pulled off a plane on their own, but it seems rather unlikely that NASA (or any other space agency) could pull off a trip to the moon without a few million people backing it up (through taxes, etc.), let alone an individual or two. As smart as Z. Cochrane is portrayed to be, it's ridiculous to think that one person could do it all on their own: conceive, design, build and pilot the ship.

[ARMS 0]

Well if that one smart man survived, he could keep the progess going.

[Red Shirt Volunteer 0]

Well if that one smart man survived, he could keep the progess going.

Are you going to explain how?

 

This is the problem with Trek. They put forward an impossible idea that people want to believe so nobody ever bothers to think twice about the likelihood of it.

[Goose 0]

Stardate:214221.7

 

 

Yeh but whose to say Cochrane wasnt working on it with alot of people during or before WWIII then he just finished it with a small group of people after it was over.It was built out of a nuclear missle so it could of been something he was originaly makeing for the war maybe.

[WEAREBORG4102 0]

who knows... maybe it was just a coincidence...

[Captain Jean-Luc Picard 1]

Keep in mind that they had a secret missle siloue (spelling?). All they did was take a nuclear missle and "convert" it into a warp ship. Granted this is not easy, but I don't think they would have needed all the resources people say they needed. For all we know, it could have taken 20 years and was never found out by America's enemies.

[hangon 3]

Hmm yes how did they build a warp drive after word war 3,if all the citys

where destroyed???thats got me stumped as well.

[Captain Jean-Luc Picard 1]

My guess was that Cocrane and friends took a nuclear warhead, as said in the movie, and converted it into a warp ship durring the war. However, the ship wasn't finished once the war ended, so it took a lot longer to complete. Remember, Lilly said it took 6 months to scrounge enough titanium for a four-meter cockpit. :)

[stoned_vulcan 0]

Yea, okay i just wanted to point out *silo and Cochrane.. but anyways yea i think that they just hid away there in montana after the war i think he started developing the ship after the war, maybe why titanium was so hard to come by?

[Captain Jean-Luc Picard 1]

I don't think the titanium was hard to find. The cockpit was large and resources were scarce. It was probably difficult, becuase she needed to obtain it without giving away the Pheonix and it's location.

[Nemesis 0]

Remember you also build up a lot of technology in which you once planned to use against your enemy.

[Maltray 0]

I watched First Contact again today and I noted they said first contact took place about ten years after WWIII.  Supposedly the death toll was immense, most major cities were destroyed and political alliances as we know them seemed not to exist.

 

Does it seem logical under those circumstances that anyone would be able to develop warp drive? 

 

It seems to me if we had a war of that magnitude we would slip backward not forward with technology and social development.

The reported death toll according to Commander Riker was 300 Million.

[Red Shirt Volunteer 0]

Yeah, maybe they just melted down their futuristic spoons and cups for parts. Sure, titanium isn't hard to find - it's all over the place. In fact, I'm thinking of getting my bike coated in it, just in case I get hit by a submarine or something.

[mj 7]

I don't think the titanium was hard to find.  The cockpit was large and resources were scarce.  It was probably difficult, becuase she needed to obtain it without giving away the Pheonix and it's location.

That is possible, I suppose.

 

I do not find it any harder to believe Cochrane did this after the devastation of WWIII than anything else I choose to accept in the Star Trek world.

 

It seemes to me that the people surrounding that missile silo were probably former technical support for maintaining and launching the nuclear missiles originally housed there. I think that there would have to be some resources nearby for maintaining those missiles that would last for some time even after they were not being replenished.

 

I think after the breakdown of order following the war that Cochrane managed to convince many of the former missile launchers to try his project. What did they have to loose? Remember that every one of the active project support people but Lily was killed by the Borg, and that Enterprise crew members had to man all stations for the launch. There were a lot of people involved in the only place such a project COULD develop after the war.

 

And Cochrane clearly had respect and deference from the people there. They let him meet the Vulcans first...they did not wait for Cochrane to go forward because Riker said the Vulcans wanted to meet the pilot of the warp ship. No shouted "Wait for Cochrane!" No, they just let him go forward.

 

Cochrane was respected.

 

The fact that he pulled all this off "in such a time as this" makes him great.

 

We also know his flaws.

[Beam me up 0]

I do not find it hard to believe. Maybe, I am just a sheep. :unsure:

 

Anyhow, I think Geordi had read about Cochrane's ship in a very early chapter of a textbook, thus implying that it was a very simple design. Simple designs tend to be easier to produce. If Cochrane had built a complete starship, that would not be nearly as feasible. However, all that he built was a simple test bed for the warp technology. He wanted to get rich, and Lily shouted about ECON. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that Cochrane wanted to sell the warp ship to them for a large sum of money. I believe that all Cochrane wanted to do was to prove warp travel was feasible and so, he would build the simplest design that he could get away with.

 

Also, if it was the most simple design possible, then parts to build one would probably be relatively easy to acquire or to simply make. He is not trying to mass produce a fleet of warp ships, thus there is no need to build infrastructure to support large scale production.

 

They probably could have scrounged most of the parts even at a time when there really was no American government to speak of.

 

The fact that it took ten months to scroung that titanium is probably because Cochrane wanted to keep is surefire plan to get rich quick hidden. Remember how surprised the people looked when he launched the missile?

[stoned_vulcan 0]

yea but in Riker's century wats the population of earth something like 5billion i agree 300 million is a huge death toll but how many do you think were left after the war?

[TSonofvulcan 0]

It is logical to since he said he wanted the money. Also, it is logical to assume many people wanted to leave Earth.

[Jeanway 0]

I watched First Contact again today and I noted they said first contact took place about ten years after WWIII.  Supposedly the death toll was immense, most major cities were destroyed and political alliances as we know them seemed not to exist.

 

Does it seem logical under those circumstances that anyone would be able to develop warp drive? 

 

It seems to me if we had a war of that magnitude we would slip backward not forward with technology and social development.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Perhaps it was already in existence. But that could mean we have it right now, which I doubt.