In the Star Trek universe, when one space faring race encounters another they always have at least one thing in common. Both their ships are oriented the same way vis a vis up/down. But space has no objective up/down axis. Nonetheless, every time the Enterprise runs into some Romulans it always looks like this:
But it’s just as likely the two ships would encounter each other as such:
This could cause some confusion.
The only way to explain why different star ships always meet each other right side up is to postulate some sort of galactic standard. But this wouldn’t explain all the alien civilizations the Enterprise discovers that also fly at the same angle. This could have made for great story lines where alien races are offended by the upside down approach of the enterprise.
However, it bears mentioning that at least one species is an exception to this phenomenon.
no one can upside down the Borg
Because of their simple ship design the Borg cannot be flanked, dropped onto or attacked from behind. The Borg have assimilated all three spatial dimensions into their ship design and they always appear right side up.
8 Comments
That was hilarious.
Thanks.
so funny! i never thought of this idea before
This all makes me wonder what direction the enemy’s gate is in.
A very amusing piece. However, I must point out a slight, but significant, error on your part. The Enterprise shown in the last picture is clearly of the Kirk era, specifically of the motion pictures made with the original cast several years after the original television show had been canceled. As any self-respecting Trek fan knows, this ship never encountered a Borg ship; such encounters came only later with the Next Generation. Perhaps you can correct this issue in subsequent publications of this otherwise thought-provoking and humorous piece.
You try and find a stylized line drawing of the Enterprise-D
Well, what WHITNEY has failed to realize is that the whole goddamned series has been rebooted with that latest movie, so NCC 1701-A could very well come into contact with a Borg cube. As I’m sure we’re all aware, the Borg pre-date human warp capability.
ALSO the Borg cube could be viewed as “akilter” if you came on it while it was standing on the Z axis on a point, like some monstrous dreidel. BUT the Borg ALSO have the Borg sphere, so problem solved right there.
I remember realizing this shit back when I was playing with toys. The toys were Star Trek ships, and they would often meet at “akilter” angles.
You see what happens when you joke with a Trekkkky? They answer you, upside, frackin, down!
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