STREK-L
Frequently Asked Questions

PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE POSTING

This list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) is intended to answer some
of the questions that come up over and over again on the list, as well as
give you some information about being on a LISTSERV list. Many people
have helped with the compilation of this FAQ, and hopefully everyone has
been acknowledged at the end.

First, if you are not going to read this now, DO NOT DELETE THIS FILE!!
Believe me, at some point you're going to want to know something that's
in here. Even after you read it, keep it. You may want to reference it at
some point.

Besides the answers to frequently asked questions about Star Trek, there
is a short guide to posting on the list, and some of the abbreviations and
acronyms used on the list.

If you have any suggestions for the FAQ, please let me know. My email
address is cstokley@gmu.edu.

CONTENTS
^^^^^^^^
Q: What is "netiquette"?
Q: What does "TNG" stand for?
Q: What is a 'spoiler?'
Q: "They're showing season 7 episodes right now. Does that mean that
info about season 2 is okay to spoil?"
Q: I put the word 'SPOILER' in my subject line. Is that good enough?
Q: Ok, what is spoiler protection?
Q: What's the name of the person who plays...?
Q: What do the uniform colors mean?
Q: How about the ranks?
Q: Is Starfleet a military organization?
Q: What is O'Brien's rank?
Q: Why don't Federation ships have cloaking devices?
Q: Do you or do you not have to tap your communicator?
Q: How are Stardates calculated?
Q: What does canon mean?
Q: What happened to the other Enterprises?
Q: Who has commanded the Enterprise?
Q: Why are warp speeds in the shows different?
Q: Why do Klingons have all those head ridges now?
Q: I heard that they've cancelled Star Trek! Can this be true?
Q: How can I write to my favorite actor/actress?
Q: Is McCoy a doctor?
Q: Where was Dr. Crusher during the second season?
Q: But didn't she leave to have a baby?
Q: Is it true that Nurse Chapel and Lwaxana Troi are played by the same
actress?
Q: What has Odo turned into, and what happens to his mass?
Q: What is a Trill?
Q: What are the names of the shuttlecrafts?
Q: Did they make a mistake when...?
Q: Where can I find more Star Trek stuff on the net?


Q: What is "netiquette"?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
A: Developing good netiquette habits may help you to avoid some
embarrassment when you post.

First of all, STREK-L generates a lot of traffic; be prepared to
check your mail everyday. Please feel free to contribute - but here
are a few things to keep in mind.

There are a lot of subscribers; your posts will be read by people all
over the world. Read before you post - take your time getting to know
the list.

Format your message - limit your lines to 60-75 characters rather than
allowing words to wrap around the screen. Choose a descriptive subject
line ("Warp Drive Theory" is better than "A Question") - the list gets a
great deal of mail every day and some people look at only the subjects
that interest them.

Use mixed case. UPPERCASE CAN BE USED FOR EMPHASIS, but when used
excessively comes across as SHOUTING! Don't use exotic features of your
terminal like bold or italics - they can send strings of control
characters to other terminals, causing undesired results.

Put your e-mail address in your message - some people don't receive the
headers that show your address. Long and exotic signatures are a lot of
fun, but get tiring with repetition. Keep your signature file to a
reasonable length.

Be polite. Disagreements are fine, but attacking someone personally for
their posting (flaming) is not.

Include enough of the message to which you are replying to provide
context, but trim unnecessary information and long signatures. It's
especially annoying to read through 60 lines of quoted information and
find the addition "I agree"!

Be patient. Your posting probably won't appear immediately, and
sometimes you will see mail out of order. This is normal; it reflects
distribution times from machines all over the world.

Read your message at least once before you send it. Think about whether
you'll regret it in the morning. Remember that hundreds of people will be
seeing it, and that it could be distributed widely beyond the list. This
list includes people of all ages, races, sexual orientation, economic
classes, abilities ... you get the idea. We all like Star Trek (in its many
forms) and gratuitous insults have no place. Remember, too, that e-mail
is *NOT* anonymous. Any message can be traced back to its origin.

Remember that tone of voice is impossible to determine via e-mail. There
are a number of devices used to convey tone, including smileys :-) (turn
your head sideways, you'll get it), frownies :-( and out and out
exposition .

Read through all your mail before replying. It's possible (probable) that
several people have already replied to the question you were planning to
answer.


Q: What does "TNG" stand for?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
A: The net community is acronym happy. You name it, someone's
abbreviated it. Common acronyms and terms on this list include:

IMHO In My Humble Opinion
BTW By The Way
FYI For Your Information
DYN Did You Notice
ROTFL Rolling On The Floor, Laughing
RTF Read The FAQ!

TOS The Original Series (or The Old Series)
TAS The Animated Series
TNG The Next Generation
DS9,DSN Deep Space Nine
VGR,VOY Voyager (jumping the gun somewhat)
TMP The Motion Picture (STI)
TWOK The Wrath of Khan (STII)
TSFS The Search for Spock (STIII)
TVH The Voyage Home (STIV)
TFF The Final Frontier (STV)
TUC The Undiscovered Country (STVI)

Episode titles are frequently abbreviated, as in:
EaF "Encounter at Farpoint"
BOBW1 "Best of Both Worlds part 1"

TPTB The Powers That Be
TGB The Great Bird of the Galaxy, Gene Roddenberry
The Big E The Enterprise NCC 1701
E-A NCC 1701-A
E-B NCC 1701-B
E-C NCC 1701-C
E-D NCC 1701-D
YATI Yet Another Trek (Technical) Inconsistency
NCC Naval Construction Contract
IDIC Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations (Vulcan Credo)
FX, SFX (special) Effects
UFP The United Federation of Planets
SF Science Fiction
Ep Episode
teaser The short scene that comes before the opening credits.
trailer Previews (commercials) for the next EXCITING episode.
ObTrek Obligatory Trek, used in a post that is otherwise not about
Star Trek (not recommended)

At this writing (summer 1994) there are a lot of acronyms for tongue-in-
cheek fan clubs for various actors; you can recognise these because they
usually end in -EB (for Estrogen Brigade), -TB (Testosterone Brigade),
or -AS (Appreciation Society).

Q: What is a 'spoiler?'
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
A: A spoiler is information about an episode or movie which gives away
some part of the plot. For instance, the statement:

"Yeah, I really liked the part where Lwaxana Troi was eaten by
Worf after she called him 'Mr. Woof.'"

is a spoiler, whereas

"I really liked the music in this episode."

is not. (Note: All "spoilers" in this posting are fictitious.) It is
considered very bad manners to spoil an episode or movie for anyone
else. It's an important thing to think about because ST:TNG is
syndicated. Other people on the net might not see the episode until
perhaps two weeks after you do (or even several months, if they missed
it the first time around), so it's unfortunately very easy to spoil
episodes for them.

Q: "They're showing season 7 episodes right now. Does that mean that
info about season 2 is okay to spoil?"
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
A: Opinion is divided on this. Outside the United States, Star Trek may
be several seasons behind the US, and so many people have not seen those
episodes yet. Even fans in the USA and Canada may have missed an episode,
and haven't caught it in re-runs yet. Protecting the last two seasons and
current books seems reasonable. Protecting spoilers for previous
seasons is optional, but courteous.


Q: I put the word 'SPOILER' in my subject line. Is that good enough?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
A: No. Some mail software not only displays the subject line but also the
first 15 or so lines of text in the message. Certain words in your text may
be very visible to readers, no matter how fast they move to the next
message, words such as "killed," "married," etc. By all means, please
*DO* put "SPOILER" in the subject line, but also add other spoiler
protection.

Q: Ok, what is spoiler protection?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
A: Spoiler protection consists of three things:

First, choose an APPROPRIATE SUBJECT LINE. Include the episode/movie
name, the word "*SPOILER*", and the main subject (if necessary), (in no
particular order) like so:

Subj: "Redemption" (*SPOILER*) My review of the episode.

Avoid subject lines like the one that follows:

Subj: Hey guys, do you think that Major Kira is really dead?

On the third hand (as Mr. Arex might say -- sorry, Alan Dean Foster), if
you can't remember the title of the episode, don't just put "new episode"
or "this week's episode" in the subject line. "New episode" is not
descriptive at all, what with two Star Trek series being shown and where
the episodes are aired over a two-week period. Please, either look up the
episode title, or give a brief description which doesn't spoil anything;
e.g "the latest Geordi episode."

Second, insert a SPOILER WARNING as the first line of your message, like
so:

SPOILERS for "Redemption" follow.

Third, add 20-30 carriage returns, to create a full screenful of BLANK
SPACE. Some people like to embellish this "spoiler space" with ascii
artwork, poetry or parodies, and that's fine, but keep in mind that some
list subscribers are reading at slow baud rates and may be irritated by
large quantities of irrelevant information.

If you are replying to a message with the word "SPOILERS" in the
subject line, but remove the spoilers from the quoted message, then add
a "*SPOILERS REMOVED*" or something similar so that no one will be
scared away... after all, we want to read what you have to say!
PLEASE: CONSIDER IT YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO CHANGE THE SUBJECT LINE
WHEN REPLYING TO A POSTING WHERE YOU WILL BE DISCUSSING
SOMETHING OTHER THAN WHAT THE SUBJECT LINE WOULD INDICATE! This
includes adding/removing spoiler protection as appropriate.

Star Trek questions (thought we'd never get here, didn't you?)

Q: What's the name of the person who plays...?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
A: TOS
William Shatner Captain James T. Kirk
Leonard Nimoy Mr. Spock
DeForest Kelley Dr. Leonard H. McCoy
Nichelle Nichols Lt. Uhura
George Takai Lt. Hikaru Sulu
Walter Koenig Ensign Pavel A. Chekov
James Doohan Cmdr. Montgomery Scott
Majel Barrett Nurse Christine Chapel
Grace Lee Whitney Yeoman Janice Rand

TNG
Patrick Stewart Captain Jean-Luc Picard
Jonathan Frakes Cmdr. William T. Riker
Brent Spiner Lt. Cmdr Data
LeVar Burton Lt. Cmdr Geordi LaForge
Michael Dorn Lt. Worf
Marina Sirtis Counselor Deanna Troi
Gates McFadden Dr. Beverly Crusher
Colm Meaney Miles E. O'Brian
John DeLancie Q
Diana Muldaur Dr. Katherine Pulaski
Dwight Schultz Lt. Reginald Barcley
Patti Yasutake Nurse Alyssa Ogawa
Wil Wheaton Ensign Wesley Crusher
Denise Crosby Lt. Natasha Yar
Majel Barrett Roddenberry Amb. Lwaxana Troi
Michelle Forbes Ensign Ro Laren
Whoopie Goldberg Guinan

DS9
Avery Brooks Cmdr. Benjamin Sisko
Nana Visitor Major Kira Nerys
Colm Meaney Chief Miles E. O'Brian
Rene Auberjonois Odo
Terry Farrell Lt. Jadzia Dax
Siddig El Fadil Dr. Julian Bashir
Armin Shimmerman Quark
Cirroc Lofton Jake Sisko
Max Grodenchik Rom
Aron Eisenberg Nog
Rosalind Chao Keiko Ishikawa O'Brien
Hanna Hatae Molly O'Brien
Camille Saviola Kai Opaka
Louise Fletcher Vedek Winn
Philip Anglim Vedek Bareil

Q: What do the uniform colors mean?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
A: In the original series:
Yellow/Gold Command
Blue Medical/Science
Red Engineering/Fodder :-)

In The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine:
Red Command/Helm
Yellow/Gold Support (Security/Technical/Engineering)
Blue Medical/Science
Grey Star Fleet Marine

Because they wore red in the original series, the term "Red Shirt"
means a security officer, usually one who's about to be dead. Note that on
Deep Space Nine, the colors on the uniform are reversed, with the color
on the shoulders and the body black.

Q: How about the ranks?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
A: In the original series, rank insignia were stripes on the sleeves.

Ensign: [nothing]
Lt. Junior Grade: :
Lieutenant: |
Lt. Commander: |:
Commander: ||
Captain: |:|
Commodore: |||
Admiral: ||||

In TNG, ranks are indicated by pips on the collar as follows:
Ensign: 1 filled
Lt. Junior Grade: 1 filled, 1 hollow
Lieutenant: 2 filled
Lt. Commander: 2 filled, 1 hollow
Commander: 3 filled
Captain: 4 filled
Admiral: 2-4 filled, on black field with braid

Q: Is Starfleet a military organization?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
A: Gene Roddenberry was adamant that Starfleet was not a military
organization. Instead, it is an exploratory, scientific, diplomatic and
defensive force. Roddenberry also insisted that there are no enlisted
ranks, which brings us to...

Q: What is O'Brien's rank?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
A: Who knows? First of all, Colm Meaney was in several episodes before
his character was given a name, so we can't be sure that he was playing
Miles O'Brien. Pre-O'Brien roles: Conn Ensign in "Encounter at
Farpoint", Security Guard in "Lonely Among Us", Transporter Chief in
"Where Silence Has Lease" and "Unnatural Selection". From "Loud as a
Whisper" on, O'Brien has a name and two solid pips, and is clearly
credited as a Lieutenant. In "Family", Sergey Rozhenko greets O'Brien as
"another Chief Petty Officer", although this may be a mistake on
Rozhenko's part. In "Realm of Fear" O'Brien suddenly has a single hollow
pip, presumably so that Barcley could outrank him. Most confusingly, in
the first Deep Space Nine episode, Miles tells his wife Keiko that the move
to the space station will mean a promotion to Ensign! Miles has also said
that he did not attend Starfleet Academy.

Q: Why don't Federation ships have cloaking devices?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
A: Presumably, the Federation has had access to cloaking technology
since "The Enterprise Incident", in which Kirk steals one from the
Romulans. It was revealed in "Pegasus" that the Federation has a
treaty with the Romulans (the Treaty of Algeron) that stipulates
that the Federation will not develop or use cloaking devices.

Q: Do you or do you not have to tap your communicator?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
A: On shipboard, no. Some crewmembers do, but it is a habit, not
a requirement. On away missions the communicator powers down to
standby mode when not in use, and you have to tap it to power it
up again before trying to communicate.

Q: How are Stardates calculated?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
A: In TOS the stardates ranged from 1513 ("Man Trap") to 5928 ("Turnabout
Intruder"). At this time Gene had intended for stardates to be based on
Julian dates modulo 10000, with one stardate being 24 hours in length.
There are numerous examples where this is false. Some of the most
blatant are "The Immunity Syndrome" (where a quick calculation shows
that one stardate is less than 2.5 hours) and "Requiem for Methuselah"
(where one stardate figures out to be about 960 hours). There are a few
episodes where the stardates actually decrease during the show. Gene
Roddenberry explained these discrepancies in terms of "shifts in
relative time which occur due to the vessel's speed." In TNG and DS9, the
stardate is also supposed to be 24 hours, and is in the form 4xyyy.y
where "x" is the season number and yyy.y is a random number that
increases (usually) from 000.0 to 999.9 throughout the season. There are
still numerous inconsistancies in the dating in TNG and DS9 - the most
commonly mentioned are the fact that Molly and Alexander seem to be
growing up suspiciously fast, given the stardates.

Q: What does canon mean?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
A: Canon is whatever Gene Roddenberry and/or Paramount decide is
"real" Trek. Gene has already declared every novel (including the one(s)
he wrote) to be non-canon. All the TOS eps, TNG eps, and all the movies
(except for STV; Gene said it was "apocryphal") are considered canon. A
rule of thumb is that if it was shown on screen, it's canon, except
for the animated series, which isn't. What this means is that if
something shown on the screen contradicts something from a non-canon
source, the screen version is right. An example: in his novel "Imzadi",
Peter David said that Riker's middle name was Thelonious. Several
years later, in the episode "Second Chances", Riker's middle name is
Thomas. Thomas is correct.

Q: What happened to the other Enterprises?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
A: There have been five ships (in the Star Trek universe) named
Enterprise. The original Enterprise (NCC 1701, no bloody A, B, C or D)
was a Constitution class vessel which was destroyed by Captain Kirk
in the effort to recover Spock from the Genesis planet (STIII).
The Enterprise A, also Constitution class, was last seen in STVI, and was
presumably retired after this. Nothing is known about the Enterprise B
except that it was an Excelsior class vessel. The Enterprise C,
an Ambassador class vessel commanded by Captain Rachel Garrett, was
destroyed defending the Klingon outpost at Narendra III ("Yesterday's
Enterprise").

Q: Who has commanded the Enterprise?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
A: Enterprise NCC 1701: Robert April (apocryphal, but favored by TGB),
Christopher Pike, James T. Kirk, Willard Decker,
Spock
Enterprise NCC 1701-A: James T. Kirk
Enterprise NCC 1701-B: unknown
Enterprise NCC 1701-C: Rachel Garrett, Lt. Richard Castillo (alternate
timeline)
Enterprise NCC 1701-D: Jean-Luc Picard, William T. Riker, Edward Jellico

Q: Why are warp speeds in the shows different?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
A: Warp speeds were re-calibrated when TNG came on the air. In TOS
the cube of the warp factor represented the velocity in terms of the
speed of light. In TNG, it's a little more complicated. For various
reasons Gene Roddenberry wanted to recalibrate warp speeds. Hence, we
have "Eugene's Limit," making warp 10 the top of the scale. On the TNG
scale, the exponent of the warp factor increases uniformly, then
drastically as speed approaches warp 10. Warp 10 represents infinite speed.

A comparison of the two scales:
Warp Factor: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
TOS speed in c: 1 8 27 64 125 216 343 512 729 1000
TNG speed in c: 1 10 39 102 214 393 656 1024 1517 FAST

TNG warp uses a formula which is approximately (Warp Speed)^(10/3) +
(10-Warp Speed)^(-11/3).

Additionally, here are some incremental speeds past 9 on the TNG scale:
factor: 9.2 9.6 9.8 9.9
speed in c: 1634 1909 2629 3053

Thus the speed of warp 14.1 in TOS "Is There In Truth No Beauty" works
out to be about the same as TNG warp 9.7 in "Encounter At Farpoint."

According to Rick Sternbach & Michael Okuda, in "Where No One Has Gone
Before," the Traveler had the Enterprise moving at warp 9.9999999996 -
about 28,783,572,184,723,987,700,000,000,000,000,000 times the speed of
light.

Q: Why do Klingons have all those head ridges now?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
A: When TOS was made, the budget for makeup was quite low, and makeup
techniques were not as advanced. In making the first movie, Gene
decided that the "new" Klingon look was how Klingons would have always
looked, if he had had the money to do it. So the official explanation is
that Klingons have always had ridges. Fans have come up with a number
of creative solutions to this inconsistency. One is that the Klingons were
using Human-Klingon hybrids for initial contacts with the Federation.
Another is that there are Northern Klingons and Southern Klingons, and
that one or the other group has no ridges. The DS9 episode "Blood Oath"
shows three TOS Klingons with ridges.

Q: I heard that they've cancelled Star Trek! Can this be true?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
A: Yes, Toto, we're not in Kansas any more. The seventh season is
the last for TNG. The TNG cast (most of them) will go on to make movies.
The first is titled "Generations" and will be released in the United
States around Thanksgiving 1994. Deep Space Nine will continue, and
Paramount plans to bring out another Star Trek series "Star Trek:
Voyager" in 1995. Voyager will center on a smaller Federation ship
(the Voyager - surprise!) which is unexpectedly hurled across the
galaxy while chasing a rebel ship. Rebels and Starfleet
personnel must cooperate to find a way back to Federation space.

Q: How can I write to my favorite actor/actress?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
A: You can write to any of the actors
c/o Paramount Studios
Star Trek Offices
5555 Melrose Ave.
Hollywood, CA 90038-3197

or
c/o Star Trek The Official Fan Club
PO Box 111000
Aurora, CO 80042

Q: Is McCoy a doctor?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
A: QUOTE EPISODE
I'm a doctor, not a bricklayer Devil in the Dark
I'm a doctor, not a escalator Friday's Child
I'm a doctor, not a engineer Mirror, Mirror
I'm a doctor, not a mechanic The Doomsday Machine
I'm a surgeon, not a psychiatrist The City on the Edge of Forever
I'm a doctor, not a coal miner The Empath

Variations on the theme:
In "The Deadly Years" McCoy says "I'm not a magician, I'm just an old
country doctor."
In "The Corbomite Maneuver" McCoy asks "What am I, a doctor or a Moon
shuttle conductor?"
In "Amok Time", Kirk asks "Well, are you a doctor or aren't you?"
In "Shore Leave" Kirk says "You're the doctor, doctor, can you explain
this?"
In STV Kirk says something like "Dammit Bones, you're a doctor".
In "Tribunal" Dr. Bashir says "I'm a doctor, not a botanist."

Q: Where was Dr. Crusher during the second season?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
A: The producers didn't like the way the character was developing, so
she was written out of the show by saying that Dr. Crusher had left to
head Starfleet Medical. Diana Muldaur was brought in to play Dr. Pulaski.
For the next season it was decided to bring Dr. Crusher back. During the
year away, Gates McFadden filmed "The Hunt for Red October" and
"Taking Care of Business" and starred in the off-Broadway play "To
Gillian on Her 37th Birthday".

Q: But didn't she leave to have a baby?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
A: No. Gates McFadden's baby was born in the summer of 1991 between
the fourth and fifth seasons. She learned she was pregnant shortly after
doing all of her own stunts for "Remember Me". Dr. Crusher's big love
story "The Host" was filmed when McFadden was seven months pregnant.

Q: Is it true that Nurse Chapel and Lwaxana Troi are played by the same
actress?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
A: Yes. Majel Barrett Roddenberry (Gene Roddenberry's widow) also
played Number One in the first Star Trek pilot "The Cage" and supplied
the voice for TOS and TNG computers and the DS9 runabouts. There are a
number of other actors who have had multiple roles, including William
Campbell as Trelaine and Koloth; Diana Muldaur as Dr. Miranda Jones
("Is There in Truth No Beauty?"), Dr. Anne Mulhall ("Return to Tomorrow")
and Dr. Katherine Pulaski (TNG); Mark Lenard as a Romulan Commander,
Sarek and a Klingon captain, and Suzie Plakson as Dr. Selar and
K'ehleyr. Michelle Forbes (Ensign Ro) also played Timicin's daughter
in "Half a Life".

Q: What has Odo turned into, and what happens to his mass?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
A: The easy one first. We've seen Odo shapeshift into a bag ("Emissary"),
a rat ("Past Prologue"), a chair ("A Man Alone"), a food cart ("Babel"), a
painting ("Captive Pursuit"), a wine bottle ("Q-Less"), a glass
("Vortex"), a plate, a package, another rat ("The Circle"), a tripwire
("The Siege") and a top ("Shadowplay"). We've also seen things pass
through him ("Emissary" and "Dramatis Personae"), seen him squeeze
through tight spaces ("The Nagus" and "The Siege") and seen him
return to his liquid form ("The Forsaken" and "Invasive Procedures"). It
costs over $10,000 to do a 10-second morph.

Odo's loss of mass has not been explained. On the one hand he can morph
into a glass that can be picked up without suspicion, but on the other
hand when he is lifted in humanoid form he is "heavier than he looks".
Some fans have speculated that Odo has a fourth dimensional component.

Q: What is a Trill?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
A: The Trill, first introduced in the TNG episode "The Host", are a
symbiotic species consisting of a humanoid host and a slug-like
symbiont. The symbiont is much longer lived than the host, and goes
from host to host. In "The Host", the host's personality was completely
dormant, the host species had a nose/forehead prosthesis, it was
stated that Trill can not be transported and that the Federation had not
encountered the Trill before. On DS9, the Trill makeup has been changed
to spots on the forehead and down the neck (presumable so as not to
cover up Terry Farrell's pretty face), we have seen Jadzia Dax
transport, and each host/symbiont entity has been established as a
unique individual. We are also told that Dax's previous host, Curzon,
was a Starfleet diplomat. The transporting inconsistency can be
explained by saying that Odan's symbiont was very old and frail, and
wouldn't survive transporting.

Q: What are the names of the shuttlecrafts?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
A: TOS
Columbus, Galileo (destroyed), Galileo II, Copernicus. In the first season
episode "The Enemy Within" there was not enough money to construct a
shuttlecraft, which is why they couldn't rescue Sulu and Co. on the
planet. Rumor has it that "Galileo 7" was written to force the building
of a shuttlecraft.

TNG
Sakharov, Goddard (loaned to Capt. Scott), El-Baz, Onizuka, Feynman,
Pike (destroyed), Fermi (destroyed), Cousteau (from the Aries), Hawking,
Voltaire, Justman.

DSN: Runabouts
Rio Grande, Yangtze Kiang (destroyed), Ganges, Orinoco, and Mekong.
These are all Earth rivers.

Q: Did they make a mistake when...?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
A: Star Trek in all its incarnations has enough continuity errors,
SNAFUs, YATIs and just plain goofs to fill volumes. Some of the more
egregious ones include:

TOS
"The Enemy Within" - Kirk's shirt keeps changing, the scratch on his
face keeps switching sides.

"The Squire Of Gothos" - Trelane talks about Earth history in the 19th
century, saying that he is seeing it 900 years later. This places the
episode in the 28th century.

"Space Seed" - As Kirk is bashing in Khan's glass coffin, his phaser falls
off his belt. McCoy keeps looking down at it, like he's wondering when
they're going to yell 'cut' so they can re-shoot the scene. They never
did re-shoot because they didn't want to invest in more glass.

"The City On The Edge Of Forever" - Clark Gable's first film was made in
1930, at which time he was hardly a major star. Orion should not be
visible in the night sky at that time of year (according to a calendar
shown on a wall). Also, in the panning shot of the city where a bunch of
brick buildings are shown, there is a radiation trident on a sign on a
wall, which normally signifies a fallout shelter. Fallout shelters shouldn't
exist for *years*.

"The Lights Of Zetar" - When Mira Romaine is put into the pressure
chamber in sick bay, the pressure is increased by one atmosphere per
second. At that rate, she would have been crushed in a minute.

STI:TMP

Kirk leaves the Enterprise in one space suit, but retrieves the
unconscious Spock in another one.

STII:TWK

One of the best known SNAFUs: Khan says to Chekov, "I never forget a
face". "Space Seed" aired during the first season of Star Trek, and
Chekov joined the crew during the second season. Walter Koenig has said
that he realized this was an error, but didn't want to do himself out of
his part in the film. It has been hypothesized that Chekov was on the
Enterprise at the time, but was not on the bridge crew.

The blood stain on Kirk's jacket is constantly changing.

STIII:TSFS

The apparent size of the Bird of Prey changes several times during the
movie. At the beginning, it looks huge, but, at the end, it's smaller.

STIV:TVH

In the dinner scene between Kirk and Gillian, the candle in the middle of
the table is constantly changing position.

When Scotty is holding the mouse, his middle finger is missing. (This
isn't actually an error, as James Doohan is missing the middle finger on
his right hand. During TOS, a double's hands were always used for
close-ups.)

STV:TFF

In the opening sequence, when Kirk falls off the cliff, Spock catches him
before he crashes into the ground. Look closely and you can see the
wires coming out from his shirt.

Starfleet Headquarters is in the same time zone as Yosemite. When Kirk,
Spock and McCoy leave Yosemite, it's dark; yet, when they are aboard
the Enterprise talking to "Bob" from Starfleet, it's daytime in the
background.

STVI:TUC

When Kirk is recording the log entry that will be used against him in
court, he says (re Klingons): "I could never forgive them for the death of
my boy." Later, at the trial when it is played back it says "I have never
been able to forgive them..."

Klingons on the bird of prey have purple blood, but the Klingon at the
end has red blood. It is revealed in the video version that the assassin
was Colonel West (played by Rene Auberjonois) in disguise.

TNG

"Encounter at Farpoint" - The computer tells Riker that the holodeck is
the next door on the right. Riker turns left and walks into the holodeck.

"The Naked Now" - When Troi grabs a scarf from Tasha, the scarves
keeps switching hands.

"Conspiracy" - Riker tells LaForge to increase speed to Warp 6. Laforge
replies, "Aye Sir, full impulse."

"Loud As A Whisper" - Data's oral interpretation is ahead of Riva's
signing.

"The Dauphin" - The mirror images of the shape-changing allasomorphs
don't match their forms.

"The Royale" - The surface temperature of the planet is less than
absolute zero by six degrees Celsius. *After* the Away Team beams down,
they scan the atmosphere to see if it's safe to breathe.

"The Enemy" - Picard says to Tomaluk that he will be escorting the
Romulan ship to the Neutral Zone, but the two ships zoom off in different
directions.

"Yesterday's Enterprise" - At the end of the episode, LaForge is wearing
the alternate timeline uniform.

"Sarek" - The music recital in this episode contained several errors.
The Allegro is by Brahms, not Mozart, and is a sextet, not a quartet.

"Suddenly Human" - Jono and his banana split keeps switching sides.

"Ensign Ro" - Ensign Ro's communicator jumps from her jacket to her
shirt by itself.

"Unification II" - After Spock, Picard, and Data have knocked out the
Romulan guards, Picard's weapon keeps changing. The reflection of a
cameraman is visible in the glass pyramid after Picard, Data and Spock
leave.

"New Ground" - Alexander states that he was born on stardate 42305.
This makes him 2 and a half.

"The Masterpiece Society" - Geordi states that his VISOR covered the
range from 1 Hertz to 1 Terahertz. While this covers radio, microwave,
and far infrared frequencies, it does not cover near infrared, visible,
ultraviolet, x-rays, or gamma rays.

"I, Borg" - During the first time in the lab, Three of Five asks "Do I
have a name?" "I" should not have been used, it should have been "we".

"The Next Phase" - LaForge and Ro don't sink through the floors, and
are able to breathe.

"Time's Arrow" - The paper that Data picks up is dated "Sunday, August
11, 1893". Unfortunately, August 11, 1893 was a Friday.

"Ship In A Bottle" - When the book is tossed out of the holodeck, it got
zapped immediately. This conflicts with "The Big Goodbye", in which the
gangsters, when they walked out of the holodeck, they de-rezzed slowly.
Also, in "Elementary, Dear Data", there was a sheet of paper which did
not de-rez when Data took it out of the holodeck.

"Rightful Heir" - It is stated that there has not been a Klingon Emperor
for over 300 years. However, in "Sins of the Father", Worf's nanny states
that Worf's father was loyal to the Emperor.

"Force of Nature" - In "Phantasms" and several episodes previous,
Data's cat, Spot, is referred to as "he". In this episode, Spot is referred
to as "she", and, in "Genesis", is shown having kittens before turning
(temporarily), into a Iguana.

"Inheritance" - Juliana is seen stepping onto the transporter pads
wearing heels, and arrives on the planet wearing flats.

DSN

"The Forsaken" - Odo and Lwaxana are stuck in Turbolift 7. Later in
the episode Sisko's station log says that they are stuck in Turbolift 4.
Odo's cycle is 16 hours, though it was given earlier (in "A Man Alone") as
18 hours.

"Dramatis Personae" - Sisko and O'Brien discard their comm badges, but
they miraculously re-appear. When Odo opened the cargo bay airlock the
air blows *into* everybody's face.

"The Homecoming"/"The Circle" - In "The Homecoming", O'Brien says
that he can only beam up two people at a time. Yet, in "The Circle", we see
a whole group beaming down and up again.

Q: Where can I find more Star Trek stuff on the net?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
A:
BITNET lists:
STREK-D@PCCVM Digest version of STREK-L, includes long
reviews and fan fiction
STRFLEET@PCCVM Community service fan club

[The above will need to be fixed. Does anybody know if strfleet@pccvm
is dead, or has it been moved as well?]

TREK-REVIEW-L@cornell.edu Reviews of episodes, books and comics
tlhIngan-Hol@klingon.east.sun.com
Klingon language list (subscription requests
to tlhIngan-Hol-request@klingon.east.sun.com)

To subscribe a BITNET list, send mail to LISTSERV@,
leave the subject line blank, and for the body of the message type:
SUBSCRIBE

Technical information, parodies, fan fiction and archives of STREK-L
discussions and many other things are available from LISTSERV@PCCVM; to
get a list of files, send LISTSERV the command INDEX STREK-L.
To get more information about LISTSERV in general, send the command
GET LISTSERV REFCARD. Remember, *all LISTSERV commands* must be
sent to LISTSERV, *NOT* to STREK-L.

[Again, the above will have to be changed once listserv@leicester
is up to snuff]

USENET newsgroups:
The newsgroups for discussing Star Trek include
rec.arts.startrek.info, r.a.s.misc, r.a.s.current, r.a.s.tech,
r.a.s.fandom and alt.startrek.creative. A great deal of Star Trek
material is available via anonymous FTP; start with rtfm.mit.edu in
/pub/usenet/rec.arts.startrek.misc and look especially for a file
containing more FTP sites for Star Trek fiction, pictures, parodies,
scripts, sound files and games. The USENET groups have lots of FAQs
which can also be found here. Tim Lynch's excellent reviews can be
found at ftp.cco.caltech.edu in /pub/tlynch. If you are unfamiliar with
USENET and FTP, I highly recommend the book =The Whole Internet User's
Guide & Catalog=, by Ed Krol, published by O'Reilly & Associates.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The original FAQ was created by Jordan "The Good Doctor" Gottleib
(jsgottli@beach.utmb.edu).
It was updated by Katja Stokley (cstokley@gmu.edu) most recently
in August 1994.

Special thanks to the following people who provided suggestions,
source material, explanations and proofreading (in alphabetical order):

Steven E. Chappell [sasl007@larry.huc.uab.edu]
Lisa "The Vampire Slayer" Cleary [cleary@acm.Org]
Adam -Turambar- Cooper [acooper@macalstr.edu]
Jenny Crane [jcrane@grits.valdosta.peachnet.edu]
Susan "Plaid Adder" Harris [scharris@gibbs.oit.unc.edu]
Russell N. Hathhorn [sysmaint@pccvm.bitnet]
Mark "Keeper of the List of Lists" Holtz [mholtz@netcom.com]
Otto "Hackman" Heuer [ottoh3@cfsmo.honeywell.com]
Niall "Kserokhs Vaene" Hosking [884744ho@udcf.gla.ac.uk]
Ben Jeapes [ben_jeapes@learned.co.uk]
Ed Krol [krol@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu]
D. Joan Leib [SDL3966@OCVAXA.CC.OBERLIN.EDU]
Rob Lent [antiwolf@vax1.bemidji.msus.edu]
Tom Mannion [MANNION@hsdwl.utc.com]
Jason "THE PICARD" Pegg [JPEGG@ewu.edu]
Sergey Polak [WP931085@PACEVM.DAC.PACE.EDU]
Mike Rickard [mca@bolero.rahul.net]
Cindy Saunders [cs@ZEPPO.GEOSURV.GOV.NF.CA]
Phyllis R. "ch'Phyl t'Rhiann" Shelton-Ball [phyllis.r.shelton-ball.1@nd.edu]
Barbara Slater [SLATERB@citadel.edu]
Andrew Stockli [astockli@mason1.gmu.edu]
Amy Sutcliffe [ASUT0566@URIACC.URI.EDU]
Jeff Svare [JSVARE%ISD034%XFER%UTLVAX%YVAX%WPGATE@yvax.byu.edu]
T.J. Swint [GMMARKHAM@LIFE.UAMS.EDU]
Lillian "Capt. Cherrystem" Wan [libllw@acvax.ac.edu]
Darrell Yetman [dyetman@calvin.stemnet.nf.ca]
"not sharon" [MABUHAY%UNIVSCVM.BITNET]