From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!eagle!karn
Newsgroups: net.startrek
Title: Re: Physics gaffes
Article-I.D.: eagle.746
Posted: Wed Jan 26 19:25:40 1983
Received: Sat Jan 29 09:07:24 1983
References: eagle.745 alice.1422

Ah, but in addition to Sulu's voice, we also hear the motors opening and
closing the hangar deck doors!

Seems to me that somebody once argued their way out of a similar problem
in Star Wars by saying that they had perfected an "ears up" (as opposed
to "heads up") display which generated sounds inside a ship which
appeared to come from the windows beyond which the fighters were
attacking.  Sounds like a pretty strained explanation to me.

Another thing I've always wondered about is communications and
transporting - does it have to be line-of-sight?  We know from several
episodes that there is a distance limitation on both, but I wonder if
the Enterprise has to be line-of-sight to someone on the planet surface
even if it is in a near orbit.  Since the planets always appear to be turning
on the viewscreen, we can assume that the orbits are not usually geostationary,
although I did hear Sulu remark once that they had achieved one.
However, they more often refer to "standard orbit"; what is this
supposed to be?

Phil