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prometheus

The Wooden Bajoran Space ship

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This was a silly idea I think for several reasons.

1 How did the wooden ship get out of Bajor's gravity?

2 When it went into warp how come the inhabitants werent reduced to chunky salsa without inertial dampers

3 It was just sooooo stupid. Argh. A flippin compass, wood! Wood for heavens sake!

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It was a good episode...even tho is was VERY farfetched...possibly a last-minute-i'm-running-out-of-ideas kind of thing? Perhaps :laugh:

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Stardate:213471.9

 

 

I always thought maybe it was a mistake that Berman and the writers didnt see.I mean seriously how could a wooden ship survive warp speed.

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With some episodes you just have to watch for the entertainment value. It was a good episode despite the seeming impossibility of a wooden ship to travel in space, then again the Lunar Module from the Apollo project had walls that weren't any thicker then a sheet of aluminum foil yet it was able to travel at 20,000+ miles per hour and was able to sustain life on the moon for days at a time.

 

Besides, that was one of the points of the episode. To prove or disprove that it was possible for the ship to fly.

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I really enjoyed the episode and just kind of let the ship being made of wook go. It was great to see Ben and Jake bonding.

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Hmmmmmm...When was this ship constructed? Mayhap it could have helped the Federation in the war aganst the Dominion...  :(  :)

The ship had no weapons and was only supposed to be able to travel at sub light speed. It was a replica of the ships used by the early Bajorian explorers.

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It was made of WOOD?I missed that!How did I miss that?Oh,man,that's just dumb.Was this a Rick Berman idea?And we wonder why Ent's falling on its face! :look:

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After watching it again I see that there was mention of a shipment of lumbar expected but you will also note during construction that Sisko is welding something. So while wood may have been used in the ship, it's not a "wooden ship".

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I think some trekkies nowadays are missing the WHOLE point of this show!?!?!

 

Its not about a wooden ship, its about Jake and Sisko bonding like most fathers do to their son...

 

And I think Kevin is right. Its not wooden on the outside, its probably just the inside is wood. On the outside is some kind of a material that can survive in warp speed?

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I think that the point of the episode was about faith, and I think the Wormhole aliens helped him and the early Bajorions (SP) out

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I think the wood is used mainly for the sail support structures, and, from the look of it, some of the major external hull supports.

 

post-1583-1213922323.jpg

Edited by WishfireOmega

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Five years on and I still think it's a stupid idea. You NEED inertial dampers. The TNG technical manual even says that inside the Enterprise D you would not survive warp without them. And how would that ship have escaped Bajor's gravity without some sort of rocket propulsion?

 

I am not one of "those Trekkies" who miss the whole point of shows. Father and son bonding, yeah yeah yeah - I get it! But they really could've worked on the tech a bot more to make me BELIVE that it could've been possible. If the show has a ridiculous premise to carry the main plot, that distracts the viewer from that plot. I am willing to suspend my disbelief just like anyone - but when I think something is ridiculous, then it's ridiculous.

 

Sorry - but this show was a stinker!

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Five years on and I still think it's a stupid idea. You NEED inertial dampers. The TNG technical manual even says that inside the Enterprise D you would not survive warp without them. And how would that ship have escaped Bajor's gravity without some sort of rocket propulsion?

 

I am not one of "those Trekkies" who miss the whole point of shows. Father and son bonding, yeah yeah yeah - I get it! But they really could've worked on the tech a bot more to make me BELIVE that it could've been possible. If the show has a ridiculous premise to carry the main plot, that distracts the viewer from that plot. I am willing to suspend my disbelief just like anyone - but when I think something is ridiculous, then it's ridiculous.

 

Sorry - but this show was a stinker!

 

 

Inertial dampers are only needed for rapid changes in velocity, such as quickly accelerating, braking, turning, etc.

 

Since the entire premise of warp technology relies on the idea of shortening the distance between two points, rather than attempting physically impossible speeds, there never really is a large change in velocity. Space is simply bent, or folded, to the point that the ship can fly at a 'normal' speed while appearing to move much faster due to the folding/stretching effect. This is why it's frowned upon to attempt warp near a planetary system, as it distorts the planets' natural effects on space and gravity (objects of extreme mass produce observeable effects on gravity and time that can be physically quantified).

 

Now, as for the Bajoran ship, I believe the wood was simply decorative. The Bajorans' minds are deeply rooted in their culture and religion, and would thus probably apply their own aesthetics to everything they produce. It ALSO would not have been a problem to get the ship into space, as it took Earth scientists (real ones) a very long time to discover the prospect of a solar sail, and we've yet to produce one. Since we, obviously, are able to reach space and we haven't even MADE a solar sail yet, it would be minimal effort for us (and by the same ticket, the Bajorans) to put a craft such as the one we're talking about into space.

 

As far as what actually got the craft to reach warp 'speed' to begin with...I'll leave that to the prophets to answer.

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Taking your points:

 

1. We are saying then that "the Prophets" allowed the wooden ship (it IS wooden, not decorated in wood) to travel at warp without killing the inhabitants? If that is true then it is a lame way out. Why would they even bother to do that?

 

2. Solar sails can break; why not back the whole thing up with rockets then, if that is what was used to propel the craft into space?

 

3. Where was the computer controling the craft? I mean, the whole thing used brass levers and a flippin compass! A compass in space!

 

sigh. why are people trying to defend the ridiculous?

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I remember helping to build an airplane at school (I never found out whether the school finished it or not) and we used metal and wood in that, I can't see why this couldn't be the same.

 

As for the inertial dampeners, maybe it's because they were naturally attaining warp speeds rather than artificially inducing them that something happened to allow them to not die a squishy death. Warp speed is technically impossible anyway so why not? I know I'm seriously reaching here.

 

I still have a problem with the take off and landing aspects, however, I still enjoyed the episode.

Edited by Dukat

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They did have artificial gravity. Sisko said that was one luxury he allowed himself outside of the original design.

 

Perhaps that included dampeners.

 

In any case the reason I remember the episode is that I believe it was the first episode where Sisko had the beard.

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wow i remeber watching that one and never really thought anything of it, now seeing it mentioned it does seem way out there and pretty much impossible to believe but heck i dont watch tv cause its real lol life is real enough

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