What can a scientist in Star Trek be left to do?

[Maximum7]

I also love Trek!!!

Anyways, I might write a Star Trek story. I like science so I’m going to stick with it this time. Star Trek has time travel, matter replication, super-advanced holograms, teleportation, FTL travel, sub-atomic material manipulation, cures to most “old” diseases and known existence of parallel universes. What could a scientist have left to do? It’s for my story.

[Batman]

A fuckton of things? Increase transporter range, work on the things that currently can't be transported/replicated, make Transwarp work 'without' Borg technology, reliable Quantum Slipstream drive, Endgame Batmobile armour, recreate the mobile emitter, reintroduce ergonomically sensible hand phasers, nonlethal holodecks, ship designs that actually limit damage to the parts of the ship actually damaged as opposed to making a completely unrelated system conk out...

[Jub]

I also love Trek!!!

Anyways, I might write a Star Trek story. I like science so I’m going to stick with it this time. Star Trek has time travel, matter replication, super-advanced holograms, teleportation, FTL travel, sub-atomic material manipulation, cures to most “old” diseases and known existence of parallel universes. What could a scientist have left to do? It’s for my story.

How'd your Star Wars story turn out?

[Maximum7]

I also love Trek!!!

Anyways, I might write a Star Trek story. I like science so I’m going to stick with it this time. Star Trek has time travel, matter replication, super-advanced holograms, teleportation, FTL travel, sub-atomic material manipulation, cures to most “old” diseases and known existence of parallel universes. What could a scientist have left to do? It’s for my story.

How'd your Star Wars story turn out?

It fell apart like a graham cracker in water.

[bilateralrope]

I also love Trek!!!

Anyways, I might write a Star Trek story. I like science so I’m going to stick with it this time. Star Trek has time travel, matter replication, super-advanced holograms, teleportation, FTL travel, sub-atomic material manipulation, cures to most “old” diseases and known existence of parallel universes. What could a scientist have left to do? It’s for my story.

How'd your Star Wars story turn out?

It fell apart like a graham cracker in water.

So what are you going to do differently this time ?

[Broomstick]

Writing is one of those things where you have to make a lot of mistakes in order to learn how to do it well. Persistence! Practice may not make perfect, but it usually makes better.

[mr friendly guy]

In my idea of future Trek fan fiction they technobabble some more powerful energy source and the possibilities open up. When I say new energy source, I mean something much more powerful than what a warp core can produce. So think about how coal revolutionise industry, and you have possibilities. Now imagine a conflict where industrialising power fights one still hasn't done so, lets say the Crimean war. In this conflict, the British in the Crimean war helped with logistics using railways whereas Russia struggled.

You could do this in Trek with one side having a superior energy source even if weapons aren't that much different. You can have lots of possibilities in use of this new technology, for example logistics. We know warp drive can go faster if you crank it up, but it can only last a short time (hence why Voyager calculated 75 years to return to the AQ based on average rather than fastest warp speed). We also know the Dominion did quite well due to logistics, their scanner tech managed to monitor fleet movements so they can get numbers to the battle. So if all ships are equipped with this new source, even if the weapons can't handle the output, you can still have faster average speeds and win at logistics.

Another way this energy source could be utilised is in replicators. More energy, you can convert to more matter. It could revolutionise the economy of Trek powers. I mean the AQ aren't exactly post scarcity Culture level, but you might get close depending on how much power your energy source can generate. If you remember Happy Target's Terran empire fics back in the day, the Trek powers in that universe have shipyards which are essentially giant replicators churning out ships. Well with a more powerful energy source, that possibility opens up.


For example some ideas that pass through my head about energy sources include

1. Dumping omega particles into a singularity and then the energy radiates out. Actually I used that in my Time Lords vs UFP fic.

2. Using Wesley's pocket universe in a static warp field idea. The idea of using collapsing universes isn't new, but you could have this pocket universe (uninhabited) collapse and powering up a generator of some sort from all that matter converted to energy. Sure its stretches credulity but it does involve a bit of "trek science" in there, to keep the Trek feel.

[bilateralrope]

If in doubt, have the scientist working on creating an element with a higher atomic number than anyone else has done previously. That's an area of research I don't see ending.

You just need to keep building even bigger and more powerful particle accelerators.

[Solauren]

Messing with left over Borg tech.

It assimilates some Iconian tech, and things go insane from there

[bilateralrope]

The important question is: How do you want your scientists to interact with the story ?

That will give some clues as to suitable areas they could be working in.

[Maximum7]

The important question is: How do you want your scientists to interact with the story ?

That will give some clues as to suitable areas they could be working in.

It interacts with the very plot

[bilateralrope]

The important question is: How do you want your scientists to interact with the story ?

That will give some clues as to suitable areas they could be working in.

It interacts with the very plot

What are the things your plot requires the scientist to do ?

[Enigma]

Reverse engineering Echo Papa 607.

[Maximum7]

The important question is: How do you want your scientists to interact with the story ?

That will give some clues as to suitable areas they could be working in.

It interacts with the very plot

What are the things your plot requires the scientist to do ?

I'm thinking he needs to get grant money for something or he loses his job at the university he works at.

[FaxModem1]

How to safeguard Starfleet ships against whale probes?

[Formless]

How about xenopsychology? Or biology? Or astronomy?

Not all of the sciences are physical sciences, you know. They clearly do a lot of anthropological research because they want to know these things, and you can't know how an alien mind works simply by knowing its brain chemistry. If it even has a brain. No matter how close scientists in Star Trek come to "solving" physics (and there is clearly a lot they have to learn on that front based on what we see), there are still other fields of study that aren't so easy. "The Measure of a Man" for instance showed that they don't have a solution to the problem of Consciousness, for instance. And they say in one episode that there is no known way to protect people from "psionic energy", in other words, they don't know how to block telepaths from reading your mind. Which seems like a pretty serious security concern, IMO, considering how many species have outright possessed members of the Enterprise crew over the years. Really, there are lots of things a scientist could be studying once you realize the breadth of fictional scientific problems Trek introduces for itself.

[bilateralrope]

It interacts with the very plot

What are the things your plot requires the scientist to do ?

I'm thinking he needs to get grant money for something or he loses his job at the university he works at.

Which university ?

[Jub]

I'm thinking he needs to get grant money for something or he loses his job at the university he works at.

Money in the UFP?

I'd also be inclined to offer more suggestions but given your lack of ability to elaborate on your stories and seeming need for others to create your ideas for you I'm inclined to think you might either be a good bot or a lame troll rather than any sort of actual writer.

[Maximum7]

I'm thinking he needs to get grant money for something or he loses his job at the university he works at.

Money in the UFP?

I'd also be inclined to offer more suggestions but given your lack of ability to elaborate on your stories and seeming need for others to create your ideas for you I'm inclined to think you might either be a good bot or a lame troll rather than any sort of actual writer.

A bot doesn’t engage others and a troll wouldn’t waste this much time. I’m merely looking for story ideas. Every idea that I’ve come up with has been done already.

[bilateralrope]

I'm thinking he needs to get grant money for something or he loses his job at the university he works at.

Money in the UFP?

I'd also be inclined to offer more suggestions but given your lack of ability to elaborate on your stories and seeming need for others to create your ideas for you I'm inclined to think you might either be a good bot or a lame troll rather than any sort of actual writer.

A bot doesn’t engage others and a troll wouldn’t waste this much time. I’m merely looking for story ideas. Every idea that I’ve come up with has been done already.

That's not much of a surprise. Deciding that you want a scientist character, with very little detail of what you want your scientist to do, is going to be quite limiting.