Random Headcanon: That Federation vessels in Star Trek seem to experience bizarre malfunctions with such overwhelming frequency isn’t just an artefact of the television serial format. Rather, it’s because the Federation as a culture are a bunch of deranged hyper-neophiles,
tooling around in ships packed full of beyond-cutting-edge tech they
don’t really understand. Endlessly frustrating if you have to fight
them, because they can pull an effectively unlimited number of bullshit
space-magic countermeasures out of their arses - but they’re as likely
as not to give themselves a lethal five-dimensional wedgie in the
process. All those rampant holograms and warp core malfunctions and
accidentally-traveling-back-in-time incidents? That doesn’t actually
happen to anyone else; it’s literally just Federation vessels that go off the rails like that. And they do so on a fairly regular basis.
So to everyone else in the galaxy, all humans are basically Doc Brown.
Aliens who have seen the Back to the Future movies literally don’t realise that Doc Brown is meant to be funny. They’re just like “yes, that is exactly what all human scientists are like in my experience”.
THE ONLY REASON SCOTTY IS CHIEF ENGINEER INSTEAD OF SOMEONE FROM A SPECIES WITH A HIGHER TECHNOLOGICAL APTITUDE IS BECAUSE EVERYONE FROM THOSE SPECIES TOOK ONE LOOK AT THE ENTERPRISE’S ENGINE ROOM AND RAN AWAY SCREAMING
vulcan science academy: why do you need another warp core
humans: we’re going to plug two of them together and see if we go twice as fast
vsa: last time we gave you a warp core you threw it into a sun to see if the sun would go twice as fast
humans: hahaha yeah
humans: it did tho
vsa: IT EXPLODED
humans: it exploded twice as fast
I love this. Especially because of how well it plays with my headcanon that the Federation does so much better against the Borg than anyone else because beating the Borg with military tactics is nigh-impossible, but beating them with wacky superscience shenanigans works as long as they’re unique wacky superscience shenanigans.
I love how they respond to him, as if he is actually a captain, even more.
Nasa confirmed for huge fucking nerds
This is awesome and priceless and people that work on space stuff are the best people of all time.
Honestly this just about brings me to tears.
Roddenberry, Shatner, Nimoy, Nichols and all the rest of the original Star Trek cast and crew had no small role in making the moon landing as important as it was. A few years before they set that lunar module down, this little TV show came along and fanned the dream into wildfire with an image of what humanity in space could actually look like—not only peaceful on our own world, endlessly curious, and prosperous enough to pursue it, but an active force for good in the greater universe. Carrying not what’s most toxic about us, but what’s best about us out to the stars.
Everybody who has worked at NASA or any other space agency for the past 50 years is waiting for the day when that unmanned probe doing a flyby on a comet can be controlled from the bridge of a space-faring vessel. When we’re not just looking at that comet through a color-coded sonar map, but we can look out a porthole and see it tumbling by with our own eyes. When as a species we can finally outgrow hate and fear and violence, and turn our faces with joy toward all the beauties and wonders that lie waiting to be discovered.
And every time he does this, Shatner is reminding them of what that hope feels like.
“A Fragment out of Time”, published in 1974. Kirk / Spock. page 1 page 2
I had to share it with you because I can’t stop laughing, and every time I reread it it just gets funnier and fUNNIER
This fan fiction is older than the push-through tabs on soda cans.
Your grandma wrote this on her Commodore 64.
I miss my Commodore 64
Oh my dear, sweet children. The Commodore 64 came out in 1982. This was produced on a typewriter and probably mimeographed. And while it may seem funny now, it took more courage to write and distribute this than you will ever know.
Reblogged for that last comment.
respect your elders
Children, in the olden days fanfiction was written on a typewriter, copied and sent by snail mail. Getting one one of those letters from across the world was every bit as exciting as getting a notification that your favorite writer posted a new fic.
NASA scientists have reported that they’ve successfully tested an engine called the electromagnetic propulsion drive, or the EM Drive, in a vacuum that replicates space. The EM Drive experimental system could take humans to Mars in just 70 days without the need for rocket fuel, and it’s no exaggeration to say that this could change everything.
But before we get too excited (who are we kidding, we’re already freaking out), it’s important to note that these results haven’t been replicated or verified by peer review, so there’s a chance there’s been some kind of error. But so far, despite a thorough attempt to poke holes in the results, the engine seems to hold up.
Everyone should know, in the 70s Nichelle Nichols went to NASA and asked why there weren’t black astronauts in the pipeline, and they said, “Come recruit for us.” And she did.
“From the late 1970’s until the late 1980’s, NASA employed Nichelle
Nichols to recruit new astronaut candidates. Many of her new recruits
were women or members of racial and ethnic minorities, including Guion
Bluford (the first African-American astronaut), Sally Ride (the first
female American astronaut), Judith Resnik (one of the original set of
female astronauts, who perished during the launch of the Challenger on
January 28, 1986), and Ronald McNair (the second African-American
astronaut, and another victim of the Challenger accident).“ (x)
Leia has, for various reasons, a very dubious outlook on classic Jedi training methods. This is not just because of various circumstances surrounding her son, she’s had this opinion for many years before his birth. But Luke was insistent when Ben proved Force sensitive and there was nothing Leia could say otherwise that had any documentation, any records, any proof.
(she’s concerned that her use of the Force might be considered Other, or Grey, or Dark)
It’s like this: the Jedi are unsubtle.
It’s like this: Moving a blaster’s nose a half centimeter causes the shot to miss by a feet. It’s much easier to make 5 blasters miss than to throw 5 Stormtroopers backwards.
It’s like this: when Leia speaks, she is Forceful. When she speaks to a room, she starts with nudges to make everyone listen, she slides in quiet elation at her words, she ends with encouraging a feeling of being able to do absolutely anything in the Universe.
And she lets her speech carry out the rest of the details, rather than her Force, she lets her people decide how to act, she lets choice finish their decisions and these decisions and choices lasts longer when she leaves the room than if she simply Forced someone to say, “I will do as you command.”
(she takes after her mother, she hears)
Leia wonders if that was how Palpatine caused her father to go Dark, and remains quiet when Luke trains her son.
And when Ben turns, she feels the reverberations, and can’t find it in her to blame Luke for it entirely.
(she wonders if she should have Spoken, or if it would have made things worse)
"Can we all just agree that the greatest tech advancement in Star Trek is a universal video format? Klingon ships, Romulan ships, Vulcan ships, Human ships … not once does a captain say “On screen,” followed by a plugin error message.
- (some guy on Facebook, anonymously quoted on reddit)"
—
“Stand by, Captain — it says we need to update the Java plugin so we can run GoToMeeting.”
“Why didn’t they just use WebEx?”
“The Romulans must not have a license for it.”
“But it’s free. Isn’t it?”
“If they’d Skyped in, we could’ve just used the ship’s webcam.”
“Captain, the warbird doesn’t show up on my list of Facetime contacts.”
fights in the s’chn t’gai household must be wild. like “father, i find your behavior illogical” “my son spock, it is your behavior that is illogical” two weeks pass without them speaking to each other at all after those intense accusations were flung
