123
votes
How do Star Trek viewscreens show perceivable depth?
There's no on-screen canon explanation given.
However, the Star Trek: The Next Generation - Technical Manual states
The main viewer display matrix includes omni-holographic display elements and is ...
- 3,293
112
votes
In Star Trek why is warp speed the ultimate litmus test on "galactic acceptance" of a civilisation?
I think you’re misinterpreting the Prime Directive. (It’s not actually written down in any official Star Trek work, so any discussion of it is necessarily going to be a bit vague.)
The Prime Directive ...
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85
votes
Accepted
In Star Trek why is warp speed the ultimate litmus test on "galactic acceptance" of a civilisation?
I think the answer is a lot simpler than the philosophical answers I've seen so far. So I am going to take a shot at a logical answer. For a moment, as you read this, imagine Spock is giving you this ...
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85
votes
How do Star Trek viewscreens show perceivable depth?
In the Star Trek: Voyager episode “Year of Hell,” there is a scene where the viewscreen is offline due to heavy damage to the ship.
What's interesting in this is that it is not simply black, like a ...
- 911
61
votes
First work where a traveler from afar arrives to a backward society and he tries to help its scientific progress
How about Prometheus, a Celestial being who came to Earth and transformed humanity by introducing fire? Stories of Prometheus in written form are known from 2800 years ago, and there must be older ...
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47
votes
In Star Trek why is warp speed the ultimate litmus test on "galactic acceptance" of a civilisation?
Kirk: Er, well, sir, volatile is all relative. Maybe our data was off..
Pike: Or maybe it didn't erupt because Mister Spock detonated a cold fusion device inside it right after a civilisation that's ...
- 117k
47
votes
Accepted
Do computer games still exist in Star Trek?
Gaming does still exist in Star Trek. In Star Trek 4, the voyage home, Spock has a chess game on his computer in a memory test that he needs to solve.
Most of the other games we see are holoversions. ...
- 2,503
46
votes
Accepted
Are self-sealing stem bolts a Star Trek in-joke?
From Memory Alpha which is sourced from DS9 companion book.
Story-wise, stem bolts were quintessential MacGuffins, with a name that was pure technobabble. Peter Allan Fields, who "invented" ...
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44
votes
How did Cochrane obtain dilithium for the first warp flight?
Cochrane didn't need dilithium to use as the power source for his warp experiment. He used a 'nuclear power core' to create the energy required.
The nuclear core in the missile: it was the same fuel ...
- 718k
40
votes
Do Iron Man suits sport waste management systems?
The suit, or at least the Mark IV suit, does have waste management systems which is then filtered and can be used to drink. In the Iron Man 2 party scene we see Tony pee in the suit and later comment ...
- 144k
39
votes
Accepted
Why do the Rebels probe the section of the shield within the gate?
The section inside the ring is a particularly weak point in an otherwise nearly-impenetrable shield.
“Do it!” Krennic roared, and Ramda and his men scurried to act. When
the orders had been given, ...
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39
votes
Accepted
First work where a traveler from afar arrives to a backward society and he tries to help its scientific progress
I think a good first upper bound would be 1889: Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.
It doesn't work in the end, but as noted in the Wikipedia entry
Hank, who had an image of ...
- 143k
38
votes
Sci-fi story whose moral is to use the tools/weapons you have at your disposal
This is "Superiority" by Arthur C. Clarke.
Quoting from the Wikipedia page:
The first of these is repeatedly delayed, and the allies pause their attacks while they wait for their ships to ...
- 143k
36
votes
Short story about scientists playing grooves on old pottery like an old vinyl record
I think this was "Time Shards" (link to story online) by Gregory Benford. (It was originally published in Universe 9 (1979), edited by Terry Carr.)
Researchers figure out how to play the ...
- 143k
35
votes
Accepted
Why internal lights on space helmets?
This isn't explained in the TV show, and I don't know of any explanations from other movies/series that apply here (although they might exist), so I'll attempt an answer based on the book series that ...
- 16.5k
33
votes
How could Mr. Fantastic’s computer see distant planets in real-time in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer?
Is the scene in the video clip below the one you're thinking of?
REED RICHARDS: I've been cross-referencing the Surfer's radiation through every astronomical database. Altair Seven... Rigel Three... ...
- 134k
29
votes
Accepted
Earliest use of a prosthetic-integrated gun in speculative fiction?
Assuming newspaper comics fit your "speculative fiction" moniker, and assuming a flamethrower is close enough to a gun, Dick Tracy had Dr. Plain as a villain with a prosthetic arm containing ...
- 4,151
28
votes
Accepted
How is Iron Man's nanotech suit supposed to work given what we observe in "Endgame"?
The suit IS a solid object. The nanites are sort of liquid-y when stored in the chest piece, but once out, they do solidify!
How else his suit supposed to function as armour, unless it is solid?
The ...
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27
votes
Accepted
Author of 60s/70s sci-fi novel called Sphere, about a clear personal transport device made from Martian technology
It's Shield, not Sphere. The author is Poul Anderson.
The cover image you describe brought it back immediately.
Just in case there is more than one book with a "Cover illustration [that] showed ...
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27
votes
Do computer games still exist in Star Trek?
In TNG's Rascals (Picard, Roe, and Guinan are turned back into kids.) there is a scene where little Picard complains to Riker that none of the games are working.
PICARD: We don't have anything to do. ...
- 1,550
26
votes
What is the communications range of a standard Starfleet combadge?
Approximately 40,000 km (ground-to-ship)
Communications functions are carried out by tricorder through the subspace transceiver assembly (STA). Voice and data are uplink/downlinked along standard ...
- 718k
26
votes
Accepted
Where did the idea of the ornithopter originate?
As Valorum pointed out, experimental ornithopters date back at least to Leonardo da Vinci and probably earlier. Working ornithopters have been built in the real world; I used to have a toy that flew ...
- 18.3k
26
votes
What is hyperspace in Star Wars?
It is a 'dimension of space-time', 'coterminous with realspace'.
For those who are unfamiliar with hyperspace, it is
a dimension of space-time that can be entered only at
faster-than-light speeds. ...
- 718k
26
votes
Accepted
Embedded black hole in a manned spaceship counteracts the propulsive force
This sounds like the "McAndrew drive" from a couple of Charles Sheffield's stories, starting with "Moment of Inertia" (1980). "Moment of Inertia" was originally ...
- 143k
25
votes
Accepted
Which button activates Skywalker's lightsaber, and why is it inconsistent?
Straightforward answer: Yes, as Pablo Hidalgo of the Lucasfilm Story Group recently said here and here, it's a mistake and that the lightsaber is still supposed to activate with the plate in the ...
- 5,538
25
votes
Accepted
What was the earliest fiction to use cloning as a magical ability/superpower?
The Chinese story The Journey to the West was written in the 16th century, and features Sun Wukong, one of the most well-known figures of Chinese fiction.
Quoting from the 2011 translation by Anthony ...
- 143k
24
votes
Accepted
Are R-series astromech units obsolete?
There are multiple R-series units in the foreground of this shot from The Force Awakens. It would appear that they're not obsolete, at least within the structure of the Resistance (which appears to be ...
- 718k
24
votes
How do Star Trek viewscreens show perceivable depth?
Great theory, but I suggest another reason they depicted the viewscreens as they did: A 2D image of someone looking straight into the camera appears to be looking straight at the viewer regardless of ...
- 259
24
votes
Earliest use of a prosthetic-integrated gun in speculative fiction?
The earliest I can find is Limbo by Bernard Wolfe (1952). A review by The Nihilist Void explains the nature of the "arms" race:
Little do the citizens of either country realize, however, ...
- 24.1k
23
votes
Accepted
How could the First Order see the Resistance ships at the end of The Last Jedi?
DJ, “a” code breaker, sold out the Resistance.
The ships were originally cloaked as you’d thought, and the resistance was happily escaping to the mineral planet of Crait, the First Order would’ve ...
- 77.8k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible