Starships, Their Designs, SpaceX, Future Tech & Our Upcoming SFI Chapter

Hello and welcome to Future Imperfect. I'm your

host Admiral Phillips and joining me again from

this side of the galaxy this time is Captain

Dodd. Hey welcome back Steve. Gotta say it's

always good to be back here on the deck of the

Future Imperfect and we got a lot to actually

talk about this week. Yes we do. So the topic

of this week's Future Imperfect as we discussed

last week was Star Trek discovery kind of Roundtable

thoughts comparing it to other sci -fi like balsar

glots good mass effect. We kind of hinted at

this last week. We wanted to talk about starships

This past week me and we have the contemporary

starships of today like like the SpaceX the space

shuttles and all that sort of thing which is

kind of neat and kind of talking about space

exploration in general but obviously focusing

on star trek ships like the constitution class

the defiant my favorite ship the intrepid and

the akira and um all sorts of ships in between.

If it's been seen on screen, hopefully we'll

get a chance to talk about it. I definitely want

to send a shout out to the YouTube channel, Lore

Reloaded. There's also Trek Yards is another

great Star Trek YouTube channel you can check

out. Yeah, so those are guys you should be checking

out once again. That's Trek yards and lore Reloaded

for fantastic resources that I was able to access

while researching some of the things that I want

to talk about during this episode, but I guess

we typically start things off seeing if we've

been watching any Trek this past week I unfortunately

did not get a chance to watch anything except

a bunch of YouTube videos, but I'm thinking about

doing If someone could give me the essential

episodes to watch out of Star Trek the original

series I think it's something I wouldn't mind

doing because supposedly out of the like how

many episodes is received like 50 something there's

79 79 episodes if he could give me the top 25

I definitely watched them over the course of

like a month I think I can do that for you. That's

I'm a counter sewer of the original series, so

Alright, so yeah, that might be something that

that like we could definitely take on because

that's always been an empty spot in my Star Trek

knowledge is the original series I've always

been a TNG Voyager guy and now I guess discovery

having seen the complete first season of that

So as always send us feedback, which I'm pretty

sure is What is the feedback address for this

show? Well, I've been using feedback at alteredgeek

.com. However, it might be actually beneficial

to use the feedback at USSfutureimperfect .com.

Which is sort of we're trying to get our own

Starfleet chapter off the grounds. I've been

putting off doing my Starfleet technical officers

courses. So hopefully this weekend I'll get a

chance to do that. I'll be the fastest promoted

ensign in the history of Starfleet. Me too. Right

now I know I'm crewman something or other. Crewman

recruit, that's what I am too. But you blow my

ass away when it comes to doing all the courses.

I just haven't had a lot of time. I did eight

of them today. Holy shit, Steve, you've got a

life. It doesn't take that long, actually. But

the funny thing, I think I'm like 50 plus classes

deep now. I think I got five more left to do

that are in my queue and then I'm going to leave

it alone for a while. But. No, I've been having

fun doing that and then I've finally gotten pretty

much all the ducks in a row for the chapter other

than I'm waiting on Optimus Solo to sign up to

hit that number five and then waiting for the

mentor ship that's supposed to kind of help us.

through this maiden voyage of the USS Future

Imperfect, and then, yeah, so that's about it,

aside from your classes that you've got, the

two or whatever, and then we get to file it and

launch. Yeah, so that's some exciting stuff coming

up for the show and just Starfleet in general

which as We've kind of hinted at and it's no

secret. The fandom is in a weird state of flux

right now So I'm really hoping Starfleet sees

a new influx of fresh blood gets new ships launched

because I know there's been a bunch of ships

decommissioned in the last little while and I'm

still a big fan of Doing the whole Starfleet

thing as being a member of region 13. I'm a The

ship I'm on right now is the USS Hadfield, which

is southern Ontario and I think parts of Michigan.

Yeah, it's Michigan, southern Ontario, and there's

like another area that kind of falls into that

region. But yeah, I'm no longer a part of a ship.

I resigned my commission on the Michigan chapter.

Well, you also decided to start your own. So

I guess you're just waiting for your ship to

be to come out of space dock, so to speak. Yes.

Only this Constitution class ship has a holodeck

and other advanced technology because it's 24th

century grade. You know what? You're basically

the Star Trek equivalent. If you've ever seen

the movie Periscope Down, they basically gave

you the diesel sub. But instead you have a diesel

Constitution class ship, which just happens to

be refitted. Yes. So, hey, in the 23rd century,

we need all the help we can get from the Borg,

the Dominion. Everybody's at our door saying,

man, we want our peace, too. It'll be exciting,

but I do like the fact you chose a classic ship

as opposed to I'm going to be the Saber class,

the Prometheus. You didn't just you didn't just

choose the coolest ship you could. You chose

something classic and iconic. And that's and

that's kind of part of it is it's iconic. Plus,

it's it's got that nice nostalgia feel to it

without being too updated. Mm -hmm. I could have

gone with the original Constitution class But

I was like, you know, it would be more fun to

go with the Enterprise a style the the Enterprise

to class heavy cruiser and so Just makes it more

fun. Plus it's smaller than the the larger ships,

which means that We're a little bit harder to

hit See, I would have went with the ambassador

class because that thing does not get nearly

enough love see that I've been thinking about

that too. That would have been my second choice,

only for the fact that I think that the Ambassador

class has that nice evolution that unfortunately

we only got one episode to see. Unless you play

Star Trek online, then you actually get to fly

the ship. And it's the actual Enterprise C. It's

another one of those Tholian scenarios like what

happened in The Defiant. Yeah, it's a nice evolution.

I honestly like it a lot better than the Enterprise

D design. Just because it kind of fits in with

that. If you were to mix the original Constitution

class in the galaxy, that's what you would get.

Yeah, and that's kind of what I liked about the

Ambassador class too. It has a retro futuristic

look. It's a nice hybrid between the original

series and TNG. Plus those warp nacelles just

look kind of fucking cool The the funny thing

about it is that's not actually the original

design of the ship really yeah, there's like

Like I think it's like a probert or something

like design that that that kind of came out Before

they they used it in the episode and it's got

a lot more Kind of funky like almost enterprise

D functions to it that that definitely got passed

off to the enterprise D But it's a totally different

design to some degree. Of course, they also had

planned on coming up with a new design for the

Enterprise A in the original Star Trek films,

which was almost basically what we got for the

Enterprise E. Oh, okay, so when the Sovereign

class, it was more elongated, more arrow -shaped,

so to speak. It was supposed to be more of a

natural progression between the 1701 refit and

the Enterprise B, which the Sovereign kind of

is. So it was kind of interesting when I was

going through the technical schematics website

that you actually get to find very easily when

you're taking schematics on all of the ships.

I mean, they even have stuff on the Intrepid,

the Defiant, the Enterprise 01A, B, C, D, E on

Starfleet Academy. So that may be something you

may want to jump into when you get time is like

the Intrepid class and the Defiant and whatnot

on there. You can do all the like the schematics

and they'll actually take you through like, you

know, you get to identify the sections of the

ship, you get to... I kind of learned a little

bit more about the class itself. It's actually

quite informative because there were things I

didn't even know about the Enterprise A that

I discovered while doing that. There are parts

of the Intrepid just by watching Voyager. I think

I could pretty much walk the hallways of that

ship and pretty much know where I'm going. Which

is a little sad and depressing but you see I

was actually talking with my wife Blair about

this tonight while I was watching all those lower

reloaded videos tonight and She was saying it

all sounds like kind of gobbly gook and I was

about to say the one of the interesting things

about Trek Specifically is it's a very tech based

fandom which basically, if you can describe the

Intrepid class from its length to how many decks

it has, to phaser emitters, to photon torpedo

launchers, et cetera, et cetera, it's no different

than talking about a car. Not really, not really.

And I just kind of realized there's an interesting

parallel us dorks can draw between Star Trek

nuts and car nuts. You may know the inside of

a Ford Mustang GT whatever I can tell you what

the Defiant can and can do What the Sao Paulo

differences are between it and the actual Defiant

stuff like that was the ship designed for killing

Borg or whatever and I found that very interesting

because I'm actually reading through another

series, another sci -fi property, which is very,

very tech heavy. And that's the MechWarrior slash

BattleTech franchise, which is nothing but stats.

Where you where you look at different clan mechs?

You might look at different inner sphere mechs

different eras and stuff like that And I once

again started thinking about Star Trek When you

start to look at some of these ships when they

were designed were they designed in the 23rd

century or the 24th century? for example one

of the videos I was watching tonight was talking

about the sovereign class and When it was designed

and it seems like it came from design from conception

to design to completion in a relatively short

order amount of time. And then you look at another

series of ships, which was it designed during

the border wars with the Kardashians, which is

what I think the 2340s to the 2360s, more or

less in their 2370s or whatever. And you can

kind of track when the Federation kind of moved

away from science and exploration. Obviously,

after the disastrous battle of Wolf 359, their

first real attempt was the Defiant. It failed,

actually. Yeah. They're like, this thing sucks.

But then Cisco pulled it out of mothballs when

he started fighting the Dominion. Plus, you know,

the writers wanted a reason to get... We have

to go somewhere guys. We're Star Trek. We have

to go somewhere. So they wanted to give them

a ship and as people refer to it as Ben Cisco's

pimp hand, which it is. Yes. Even though the

first one got destroyed, they pulled a Kirk and

gave them this like an upgraded version of the

same ship and slapped an A at the end of it.

Yeah, and it even had things like a cloaking

device, which was on loan from the Romulans,

stuff like that. It had a blade of hull armor.

So this thing could do amazing things. And the

ships, like I said, original design was to kill

Borg. But you look at how it was designed, this

thing was not designed as one ship to take on

a Borg cube. This because we saw it got its ass

kicked despite what you all might think in first

contact It was designed to work alongside other

ships of That had more firepower. It was supposed

to be a support class. Yeah, exactly It was meant

to be like a fighter that just happened to be

the size of a full -size Starship because I think

the Defiant it's less than a hundred and fifty

meters long and Definitely less than that wide

So it's not exactly the biggest starship in the

fleet. It's probably one of the smallest stuff

like that. It only has like five or six decks,

I think. See, the thing I like is it inspired

something in Star Trek Online. And this is I'm

kind of showing my hand here of my Star Trek

Online knowledge as well. The funny thing is,

is the sovereign class could go toe to toe with

the Borg. Rather easily and then you you look

at the the define and it can't well in Star Trek

online. There's this ship called the Aquarius

and It's it's another that of that similar size,

but it looks like the USS Ginola almost mm -hmm

with the ship that Scotty was on in relics and

It has the capability to cloak to however. It's

a Small starship that actually plugs into the

back of the Enterprise F Interesting. It's the

Enterprise F is an Odyssey class ship which is

even bigger than the Sovereign class. But it's

got more, it's basically if you mixed the Galaxy

class and the Sovereign class, you get the Odyssey

class, but the Odyssey class looks so much more

sleek and smooth designed. It clearly could be

for combat or it could clearly like just be for

our exploration. Like it's got the look for both,

but it's got this battleship that can launch

out of the back of the ship in this. There's

like this plating between the. saucer section

and the the main hull kind of like the Enterprise

D has where it can do a saucer separation as

well but the ship can kind of fit in there. One

of the things I actually found kind of interesting

rather is looking at certain designs of Starfleet

is you look at the change in the philosophy of

how their Starships were designed, because I

know you mentioned specifically the Sovereign

Class and how it could go toe -to -toe with the

Borg. Some of the videos I've watched have suggested

that the Sovereign Class was not actually designed

with the Borg in mind, more like the Dominion

War. Because after a refit, it was noticed that

ships, because the Sovereign Class is so big,

if you got in behind that thing, you could pound

the crap out of it. and essentially do significant

damage. After a refit, it was a lot harder to

take down. They put a lot more phaser banks and

torpedo launchers into it. So I think it's interesting

how Starfleet's mandate changed because in the

23rd century, it was very much science and exploration

because you'd have classes like the Oberth and

the Miranda class, I think. More like the oberth

that were science only vessels and you'd have

even in the 24th century like the Nova the nebula

class which basically oh They were science vessels

in the Voyager and the interrupt class Yeah,

like the Voyager is meant to be a deep space

exploration vehicle, although When you look at

the intrepid you kind of wonder how it survived

so long without being resupplied But that's another

thing to actually even talk about these ships.

You look at the logistics of how Starfleet's

Navy works Stuff like that. And I like I said,

I do find it interesting just how Starfleet after

it got its ass kicked after 359 And then the

Dominion War, they started building ships for

war. We had the Defiant, the Prometheus class.

At the time when it was launched, the Intrepid

was one of its most advanced ships. And it could

stand up fairly decent in a fight, though it

still had a science mission profile in mind.

One ship we haven't even talked about is the

Galaxy class, which was the Enterprise D. which

had the distinction of having families on board,

which is interesting because you look at the

Enterprise D was the Federation's flagship. So

it's meant to go to make first contact. It was

modular in its design, the fact that it could

have several decks and laboratories equipped

for different mission profiles. So say exobiology.

astro cartography, etc, etc. And there were families

living on board like the fact that you could

have Captain Picard walking down the same deck

as the guy who works in the cafeteria or a guy

who might work in a public library. Or the haircut

guy. Yeah, or even yeah, ma, the barber, I think

his name was stuff like that. That's fascinating.

And also a major blunder on Starfleet's behalf,

in my opinion. Yes, it's great to have Federation

be this mission of peace, mission of exploration

and diplomacy, but to put families in the way

of that, I mean, to have Starfleet Officer Schurz

with their families, that's nice and all, but

I don't want my wife and kids next to me while

I'm fighting the Borg. We saw how well that worked

out for Benjamin Sisko. Well, and I think that

the fact that the Galaxy class I mean, you even

had the Excelsior class fighting in that battle

and it got mopped. And you look at the fact that

the Galaxy class, I think that it would have

got mopped too if it weren't for the fact that

they had capable commanders helming the ships.

And the fact that too, after Viridian III, with

the Nexus, you pretty much didn't see families

on starships anymore. Which is definitely good

because Starfleet in that time, because the Dominion

War was starting to heat up or starting to happen

really, Starfleet realized we have to be more

of a military organization and you saw that design

with their ships. You look at something like

the Akira class, which was rumored to be in development

as early as the 2340s, I think, do not quote

me on that, but we didn't see it until the 2370s.

you start to see a more interesting mission profile

pop up with these different ships. Like I said,

you had the Akira class, the Sabre class, the

Prometheans, which is a ship built specifically

for war with its multi -vector attack mode. The

fact that it could take down those big ass Romulan

ships in like two or three hits and not break

a sweat. Which was insane. Yeah, which is nuts.

I mean, even a galaxy class starship which is

one of the largest in the Federation fleet next

to the sovereign class. Yeah, good luck. I mean,

we saw several episodes of TNG where they're

fighting these Romulan warbirds and the Enterprise

is like, hey man, we're in some trouble here.

And you look at the episode where they featured

the Prometheus, for example, they sent two defiant

class. and an Akira class. The Akira class was

meant to kick the crap out of three Romulan warbirds.

So that should tell you the Starfleet's military

designs. They were getting ready. They were ramping

up to protect their own assets and obviously

protect the galaxy against the Borg, the Dominion,

whatever threats happened to come knocking on

the front door. I find that interesting how Starfleet

was never meant to be a military, yet all it

takes is a couple of big instances for them to

completely shift away from it. Because you would

know this better than I. I don't know how many

science -only vessels started coming out after

the canon stuff that you'd see on TV and in movies.

Yeah, there really weren't that many science

class vessels that came out there. I mean they

were pretty much all like multi use pretty much

space exploration, but war assault vehicles yeah,

and Obviously the galaxy is a very dangerous

place because we don't know Obviously the Dominion

war has been dealt with the Borg are a diminished

threat at best We don't know what their state

is. I don't consider the books to be canon I

do consider Star Trek online to be canon though

Yeah, cuz a lot of because it it's written by

people at Star Trek and they say it's canon Then

who are we to argue plus it interconnects between

all of the different generations between? Archer,

you know Kirk everything and then beyond in the

20th century. So you get a lot of lot of time

travel in that game which adds to the storyline

and it kind of fills in a lot of gaps that are

kind of hanging out there but the Borg really

I mean they play a pretty decent role but there's

a lot that happens after the destruction of Romulus

that kind of plays into ship designs with you

know the species 8472 with the fact that the

the Breen attack after the Dominion War Then

there's the Klingon Federation Alliance kind

of breaks down and then they're kind of battling

each other again like they were in the 23rd century.

So I mean, it's kind of a kind of a touchy situation

timeline until they start fighting the Iconians,

which is just insane. There's definitely a lot

of influx of certain types of ships depending

on the situation, but there's definitely a lot

more war -style vehicles of Starships. Now, one

of the things I did mention talking at the beginning

of this episode is I wanted to mention about

our space flight that we have. Now, you kind

of look at how Star Trek has kind of influenced

it. One of the neat things, and it's not something

a lot of people really think about, is people

wonder why don't we have Star Trek ships now?

Obviously warp drive being a big thing. Why don't

we have that? Because can we reach the speed

of light? Maybe people have theorized warp engines

are possible, stuff like that. But one big thing

people don't talk about necessarily is space

is full of deadly ass radiation. And that's one

thing Star Trek has solved because right now

our best protection against radiation, it's water.

Oddly enough, it's a really good insulator and

so is lead Stuff like that's why space suits

are lined with it There's when you go to get

an x -ray at the doctor's office you have a lead

line vest on your chest Yep to protect you from

deadly x -rays what I find funny with with SpaceX

specifically is the fact that their new shuttles

have the Which have replaced the standard NASA

shuttles because they're kind of using these

now in place of NASA is the fact that they kind

of go off like a, almost like a cross between

a Star Wars ship, one of the old 70s space shuttles,

and like pre, you know, pre the ones that looked

like airplanes, but it's also got kind of that

almost USS Phoenix, Zephyrum Cochrane look to

them, and the extra rockets actually propel themselves

and land back on Earth. Yeah, I mean one. I mean

it's really neat how Automation has become a

huge part of space exploration now and in Star

Trek Specifically we see it with the isolinear

chips the computer cores the bio neural gel packs

I mean Voyager is a ship that can get sick and

That's really future predicting because they're

talking about bio Bio computers, they're talking

about quantum computing now There's so much advancing

in automation, artificial intelligence. There's

smart ships, stuff like that. I mean, we have

self -driving cars now, which are very much being

tested out, I think, in California right now.

Uber has... I think it was Uber anyway. General

Motors actually is going to have their own Uber

service which is all automated cars. So where

you just basically you call for like a General

Motors Uber and it will come give you transportation

and then it'll go park itself back where it goes

or go to the next customer. Which I think is

really really cool the fact that we do have that

I mean they're talking about automating big truck

drivers. So instead these truck drivers driving

18 hour days or whatever long it is, they're

just going to have automated big rigs. I mean,

the future is now the future is realistically

happening. and Star Trek paved a really good

way for that. I mean, you look at how advanced

some of these space probes are that are being

launched now, and you look at the stuff from

the 60s and 70s that's still out there. Hell,

Voyager's still transmitting to a limited degree.

I think we can send telemetry once every 18 days

or something. I don't know. But I know it's like

the farthest man -made object, because it's in

the heliosphere now, I think. Once again, don't

quote me on that, my space exploration stuff

I'm really, really rusty on. But when I think

about all the advances that will come in the

future of space exploration, when we can have

a vehicle that can take us to Mars, that could

potentially land there, or we can send supplies

in advance. So that's one thing Star Trek has

talked about, but it's very much in a fantasy

element, is What are we gonna do for food and

water? Oh, that's the replicator or the food

dispenser It just makes stuff out of thin air

or it uses component Or components to make make

a cup of coffee or to make a hamburger or whatever

Yet you can always tell it's replicated food.

There's an off taste to it. You just know because

they do mention that with a couple lines of dialogue

in a few episodes of I think Voyager and even

TNG, they kind of mention it. Well even Scotty's

like, this isn't Scotch, you know, and they're

like, well no, the, you know, it's Synthahall

or whatever, and he's like, you know, I was drinking

Scotch, blah, blah, blah, you know, because it

was all synthetic, and then Picard's got his

own stash of actual, like, whiskey. under there

and then offers it to Scotty and he's like, man,

this is the good stuff. I mean, it's kind of

neat to think about, we're actually thinking

about doing that because now we can literally

grow synthetic beef, which is weird when you

think about it, or we can grow food out of sewage.

Well, they can actually turn vegetables into,

because our household is primarily vegetarian

for the most part. I mean, I still eat meat,

but it's not usually in the house. But they actually

make this meat that's made out of vegetables

that tastes and looks just like meat, even though

it's not meat. See I tried going vegetarian for

a month my god, I don't know how you people do

it There's there's good vegetarian and there's

bad vegetarian. You're gonna know what you're

getting into. Oh my god This was like eating

friggin shoe leather. It was disgusting. Yeah,

there's some that's like that. There's some that's

not though But yeah, but Star Trek really kind

of talked about the logistics of space travel.

They thought about what supplies are gonna need

to bring with us. They even talked about holograms

and holosuites, and that's not just a plot device

where Professor Moriarty can take over the ship.

No, because the chances of someone going nuts

in space. are very, very realistic. Well, that's

why they have so many recreation rooms in Holodecks,

especially on the Enterprise -D, because that

far in the future, everybody's like that deep

in exploration. I mean, look at Kirk's time.

Look how many times everybody kind of just lost

it and kind of got on each other's nerves, because

when they wanted Shirley, they had to physically

go to a planet to get away from everything. Whereas

in TNG, Yeah, they have short leave chances where

they can go to a planet, you know, off and on.

But if they really need to get away or they really

want to do something, you know, whether with

their their friends on the ship or just in general,

just to kind of unwind. They've got the holodeck

and they've got the recreation rooms. Yeah, I

mean, like space like. It's always been talked

about in movies, but space madness stuff like

that. I know people on the International Space

Station They got to be very selective in what

they bring up. I mean, it's not like you're bringing

your whole library with you I mean obviously

with the advent of things like the iPad You can

bring up a lot more data, which means you can

literally bring a library with you Well think

about a few years ago. These guys are cramped

in this this space, you know space station quote

-unquote because I would much rather get stranded

on like space station k7 or something like that

over what or DS 9 then then what we've got floating

in orbit, but They a few years back and I'm not

sure how many years ago this was but it happened

they had the Astronauts on this ship kind of

revolt against NASA. They shut off their communications

for 24 hours as kind of a boycott because they

were working them around the clock and giving

them no break or no chance to unwind. So they

were just getting like really high strung. So

they shut it off and just had like a free day,

which helped them unwind and brought back their

ability to work. And that's something important

to think about in space travel too, is mental

health. I mean, it's one of the things that doesn't

get talked about. And you think about once again,

the talk about Starship design, you look at sick

bay and you look at the let's talk about the

intrepid class, how it had a mark one EMH, which

was meant to serve as a short term replacement

should the medical staff become incapacitated.

That's once again, far thinking, because if you

get hurt on the space shuttle, you're kind of

screwed. Like unless there's a doctor on board

and you've have a fully staffed medical bay you

are dog gone gone We'll even look at Voyager.

They had a moment when Granted it was kind of

a dream sequence, but where the doctor had created

this emergency command hologram protocol To take

command when the captain was incapacitated and

the senior crew was incapacitated. So it was

just him and seven of nine Fighting yeah the

Borg I mean granted it was a dream sequence,

but still like the fact that They eventually

turned that into a reality of giving him that

ability to extend his programming Yeah, once

again that comes around to artificial intelligence

synthetic intelligence because I think The moment

is called the singularity where the computer

can literally think for itself and become self

aware. I think that moment's coming sooner as

opposed to later. And I'm not talking the matrix

or Skynet or the Terminator is going to happen.

But eventually it's there's going to become a

moment in technology where we're going to give

birth to a new sort of life. And you look at

the Internet, you look at the quantum computing

stuff that's happening now, the experiments and

all these labs around the world, it's gonna happen.

And when that gets applied to space travel, it's

gonna be a fascinating moment just being able

to take in the wonders of the universe with another

life beside us that isn't like our own. It'll

literally be that companion to us. And that's

something Star Trek has shown us with episodes

like Measure of a Man, multiple Voyager episodes

exploring the Doctor's humanity, stuff like that.

It's gonna be really, really, really, really

cool just to see what's gonna happen. And Star

Trek does give me very much a hope for the future

of space exploration. I hope, I sincerely hope

we never see space warfare. I've read enough

battle tech to know the future of space warfare

does not look pretty. I've also played Call of

Duty Infinite Warfare. Think of that what you

will. Well, I've played Unreal Tournament. Yeah,

I don't want that. I really don't want weapons

that can pierce the hull of a starship and I

get sucked out through space or God knows what

else. I don't want to think about space warfare.

Sadly, I know someone in the news. Not too recently

said it's gonna happen in a few years. We're

gonna have to think about space warfare Which

I sincerely hope not Because I think obviously

we're still a long way off from phasers and photon

torpedoes But we do have laser weapons. They're

just highly experimental. We have rail guns Honestly,

I think the future of warfare and space is gonna

look a lot more like battle tech as opposed to

Star Trek. Or like Star Wars. Or like Star Wars,

yeah, it'll be high -focused laser weapons and

certain ballistic weapons. But I don't think

we're gonna have tricobalt devices. It'll be

probably more like Battlestar Galactica. It'll

be traditional ballistic weapons and nukes. And

see, and I think that's why it's interesting

to think of this entire creation that Gene Roddenberry

came up with in the 60s, because again, it was

when society was in turmoil. that he came up

with this and created this sense of hope of what

our future could be. Yeah, I mean, it's it's

interesting right now because you look at all

the upheaval happening around the world right

now. Politically, it's a very interesting time

to be alive with no matter what side of the political

spectrum you happen to fall on. One thing can

be said for certain. Change is coming. And you

better be ready for it, whichever way you wanna

fall, whether it be good, bad, or something else

entirely. I think where we take the technology

will definitely determine where we go from here,

like our destiny. Obviously people like Elon

Musk. are exploring privatizing space, but he

also wants to open it up to everybody. At least

that's how how I feel. And even your president,

Donald Trump, think of him what you will, wants

to invest in space, too, in some capacity. Well,

it's kind of the genius thing to do at this point

because not only are we destroying our own world,

but there's there's also the fact that there's

so much unknown. Well, yeah, I mean. I mean,

there's asteroids, there's planets. And they've

been speculating out of things for close to 100

years of what they think's out there and how

far things are. Wouldn't it be nice to actually

go out and test that theory? Exactly. I mean,

there's so many cool things we could discover,

so many wonders. There could be life in our own

solar system on places like Io and stuff like

that, the moons of Jupiter, moons of Saturn.

Stuff like that. There's natural resources out

there. We haven't even begun to use that could

be used back here on earth I mean the ideas of

space colonies in the next hundred two hundred

years is not unrealistic In fact, it's fairly

plausible Just can we get our heads out of our

ass long enough to actually make? Make it happen

and there's another thing About Star Trek you

talk about star bases you talk about deep space

nine stuff like that long -term space habitations

that have artificial gravity. If there's something

else, Star Trek has kind of predicted artificial

gravity, no big thing, stuff like that. Easy

transport to and from a planet's surface. Can

we do the transporters? Well, I think they've

transported a molecule across a room, so I think...

something's happening with that if it's to be

believed. I personally can't say anything about

it. I've read that and I honestly believe that

they've done that. However, the fact remains

that it also disintegrated when it came back.

Yeah, I'm not eager to try this. No, but look

at Captain Archer's timeline. He's almost 100,

you know, 170 years, 160 years from this point

and maybe 150 years at this point. But anyways,

it's still, the transporter was still highly

new and used for freight shipping and not for

people per se, although they had made it work

on occasion and they just tried not to use it.

But it still it wasn't a very trustworthy technology

and even you know in the 23rd century it was

not foolproof because I mean there was the episode

the enemy within where they split Kirk into you

know good and evil half and then you had a lot

of various transporter malfunctions you get the

motion picture where the original first officer

was going to be transported and he was disintegrated

in the pattern buffer and Then you look at you

know every other series, you know, you get space

ghosts and TNG and the transporter buffer and

You know, so it just kind of there's a lot of

Problems with the technology as opposed to taking

a warp speed space car Yeah, exactly I'd much

rather do that take a shuttlecraft as opposed

to a transporter it's just It just seems safer.

I'm kind of with with lieutenant Barclay on this

The transporters murder and I don't trust it.

Well in McCoy was the same way Yeah, I don't

trust it. No way know how scouring my atoms all

across the galaxy in I Mean it's it's once again.

One of those things you don't necessarily think

about but I I guess what more can we really say

about the ships of Star Trek? There's some tremendously

cool ideas. They've thought about logistics,

they've thought about mental health, they've

thought about your physical health, weaponry

in terms of the battlefields of the future. They

even have literally apartment buildings in space.

We look at the Enterprise D with the families

on board, barbers, guys that work at the cafeteria,

garbage men to probably an extent, hell. Think

about that. There's literally You know what?

I kind of wonder if Roombas have been Replaced

in the future by literal by literal janitors

still Because hey, someone's got to take up the

garbage. Yeah, they never talk about that So

if you know the answer, is there a Star Trek

garbage man and not just a baryon sweep? I'm

very curious to hear that because someone's got

to clean the carpets on the enterprise Somebody

must have the oxyclean of the future, but what

is your favorite starship? What's your least

favorite? What do you think is the coolest design

element of a ship? My favorite ship, like you

didn't see this one coming, is the Intrepid,

but honestly, the old berth is a close second

because it is a science vessel. I like that.

why it was fighting the Borg at several different

occasions is beyond me, but it looks cool. I

like it. See, for me, I obviously am very partial

to the Constitution refit Enterprise 2 heavy

cruiser class, which is the Enterprise A. One,

because I saw it as a child on the undiscovered

country like a million times. To I just love

the the sleekness of the ship I mean you have

the design aesthetics of the original ship along

with The new like kind of blue on the the deflector

dish area the kind of more detailed Saucer section

and I love the nacelles Mm -hmm the designs on

them by far one of my favorite nacelle designs

that they ever used in Star Trek and So when

when I I got to Kind of pick ships and I actually

have the micro machine version From the the the

little tiny ships that they they had that were

like two inch long From way back in the 90s Of

the the Enterprise refit plus I have the the

Hot Wheels one that came out. I don't know about

like eight years ago sitting on my desk and So

like I love that ship and then if if I had to

kind of choose another one I love the parts of

the ambassador class and like the Excelsior class,

but I like a lot of design aesthetics of multiple

ships but a Close second for me would be the

Star Trek online exclusive like Enterprise F

the Odyssey class Just because it's like a bigger

behemoth it kind of it takes cues from a lot

of various enterprise ships and Pieces them together

Very sleek design. I just I just like it. It's

I mean It's it's like if you took the the galaxy

class and the sovereign class and like it almost

doubled it in size it's it's freaking huge, but

I really like those designs, but Yeah, it's kind

of interesting to figure out which ones are our

favorites and which ones are not. I can't honestly

pin one that I hate because I really don't hate

any design. They each serve a purpose. It's just

figuring out which one kind of looks cool for

what it does. Was always partial to the nebula

class to because it was basically just the galaxy

class saucer section But I always just thought

it looked cool. It almost kind of reminds me

of the Miranda class Yeah, it's like a bigger

buffer or it's like if it had like a bigger brother,

so to speak Yeah, like the 24th century version

But anyway, I guess that's pretty much gonna

do it for this edition of future imperfect Hopefully

you guys have enjoyed joining us as we kind of

ramble on I know we probably got a few things

wrong That's what Star Trek dorks do. We debate.

We talk. We get things right. We get things wrong.

But we always want to hear from you. You can

comment on this website post. You can email us

at feedback at ussfutureimperfect .com. We also

encourage you to consider joining our ship once

we get things off the ground. I'm sure Steve

will be talking about that more in the weeks

and months to come. We should be launching, hopefully

fairly shortly, as soon as we get Optimus Solo

on the show. Yes. So what do we want to talk

about next week there, Steve? Hopefully we get

some comments and suggestions. That would be

really nice. I don't really know. Maybe some

of our favorite moments of The Doctor? I like

that. That's definitely something I think we

could talk about. So next week we'll talk about

Robert Picardo as his portrayal as the EMH from

Star Trek Voyager. A fantastic guy. I actually

had a chance to interview a couple of years ago.

So be sure to be checking in with us next week.

So until next time, we have been Steve Megatron

Phillips. I've been Mike the Birdman Dodson.

Live long and prosper.