Spocks anti-gravity rocket shoes

[Rossum]

At the beginning of Star Trek five: The Final Frontier, Kirk and Spock had gone on a camping trip of some sort and Spock had apparently acquired a pair of jet powered shoes that gave him the power of flight (which he used to pester Kirk while he was trying to climb a sheer cliff).

Assuming that whole sequence wasn't taking place in a prototype holodeck of some sort, what does that say about Federation technology?

The flying shoes apparently allowed Spock to fly and even hover several hundred feet above the ground and were quiet enough to let him hold a conversation with Kirk. When Kirk subsequently fell, Spock was able to fly downwards, grab Kirks ankle, and prevent him from either crashing into the ground or having his leg ripped off from sudden deceleration... and I think Spock ended up upside down when the came to a stop (or maybe Kirk was upside down and Spock was hovering while right-side-up... its been years since I saw that movie.) which would imply that they used some sort of anti-gravity technology as opposed to incredibly powerful jets.


I'm surprised those things aren't standard issue for Starfleet personnel on away mission. Unless they include some sort of unobtanium material in them then the replicators should be able to make them, and even if the replicators can't make them then they are too awesome to not want to mass-produce. Starfleet could equip their redshirts with rocket shoes and beam them several hundred feet above the planets surface and let them fly down to safety... thus eliminating the risks that they will get eaten by sand monsters when they show up on alien planets. Members of the away team could have them and carry heavy phasers in case the team needs air support. Or they could just keep them handy in case they accidentally fall down a hole and have to get out... the possibilities are endless!

So, what do these rocket shoes tell us about federation technology and why don't they use them in the field to provide air support for their desperately under equipped away teams?

(Oh, and apparently they are called Levitation Boots at Memory Alpha)

[FaxModem1]

Starfleet redshirts should be lucky they get equipped with tricorders for all Starfleet seems to care about them. We've seen numerous devices like the boots, simple meal rations, armor, and the site to site transporters. How many times are away teams carrying any of these items?

The answer is either they're underfunded when it comes to equipping people or they don't want to.

[Uraniun235]

I'm surprised those things aren't standard issue for Starfleet personnel on away mission.

The producers who had to manage the budget for the TV shows certainly weren't.

[Crossroads Inc.]

Like everything else in ST-V, I liek to pretend it never happend

Seriously there is so much wrong with those boots and sooo many questions left open by them.

[Captain Seafort]

Like everything else in ST-V, I liek to pretend it never happend

Problem is that the boots showed up before the most likely starting point for Kirk's dream/nightmare (Uhura turning up in the shuttle).

[Themightytom]

Like everything else in ST-V, I liek to pretend it never happend

Problem is that the boots showed up before the most likely starting point for Kirk's dream/nightmare (Uhura turning up in the shuttle).

Unless it was ALL a dream and can be ignored via the Enterprise Solution.



because otherwise the OP's "suggestion" that it was a prototype holodeck would necessitate a truly enormous holo deck large enough not only to fly a shuttle into, but large enough to fly THIS into.

[Captain Seafort]

Unless it was ALL a dream and can be ignored via the Enterprise Solution.

'Fraid not - the only bit that counts as a badly-researched holonovel is TATV. Just as well, because I quite liked most of Enterprise's fourth series

because otherwise the OP's "suggestion" that it was a prototype holodeck would necessitate a truly enormous holo deck large enough not only to fly a shuttle into, but large enough to fly THIS into.

No it doesn't, any more than Moriarty's hijinks in Ship in a Bottle needed to fit the E-D into the holodeck.

[Themightytom]

No it doesn't, any more than Moriarty's hijinks in Ship in a Bottle needed to fit the E-D into the holodeck.

All of that took place indoors. If there's a real shuttle flying down from the ground and then flying up again, it can't be an illusion unless the entire thing is an illusion.

[Captain Seafort]

All of that took place indoors. If there's a real shuttle flying down from the ground and then flying up again, it can't be an illusion unless the entire thing is an illusion.

There was Moriarty and Countess Whatsherface flying off into the sunset, in the holodeck.

However, I'm not talking about a holodeck, but Kirk dreaming, with the sequence something like this:

1) Kirk climbs mountain, falls off, and gets caught by Spock
2) Evening, chit-chat, row row your boat, marshmellons
3) All go to bed
4) Kirk has a really weird dream involving a kaputt starship, Klingons, Spock's brother and God
5) (unseen) Next day
4) 2nd evening, more singing.

[Uraniun235]

Seriously there is so much wrong with those boots and sooo many questions left open by them.

Oh yeah the rocket boots sure do undermine an otherwise robustly consistent continuity. Granted we all expect the Totalitarian Communist Space Camp For Retards to rewrite history and omit the levitation footwear (along with the forcefield belt, the football helmet, and the anti-insanity goggles) from recorded events so that future conscripts could not question the judgment of denying them such equipment, but I for one could not believe that the producers could so egregiously fail to resolve the Rocket Reeboks Ruh-Roh in Star Trek 6.

[paladin]

Redshirts with flying boots would just open up new ways for them to die!!!

[Rossum]

Redshirts with flying boots would just open up new ways for them to die!!!

Officer #1: I'm sorry, Ma'am. Your husband is dead.

Grieving widow #1: Oh no! Tell me... how did he die?

Officer #1: He was telekinetically choked to death on the ships bridge in front of the captain as part of an experiment by a big scary face that lives in an extra-dimensional pocket universe. Said Big Scary Face is described in the report as being several thousand miles tall but the ships sensors apparently weren't able to detect or record it even though the report says it appeared on the viewscreen for everyone to see. Your husband died silently and alone for no good reason while the whole bridge crew just stood there like idiots and watched him gasp out his final breaths for the brief amusement of something that we have no record exists... at least thats what the report says. We're pretty sure he wasn't choked to death by a fellow crewmate and the whole absurd and improbably adventure wasn't just some kind of lame coverup attempt.

Grieving Widow #1: Oh my God! *stops and covers her mouth after saying the G word* I mean... when is the funeral?

Officer #1: He was already given a starfleet burial... they loaded his corpse into a torpedo tube and launched it into a nearby star. Therefore there is no way for us to verify what may have caused his death aside from the medical reports that say "Its a total mystery how he died... but he's dead." or for you to achieve closure for your loss. Good day, Ma'am.

Grieving Widow #1: Oh no... Nooo... twelve years he spent at Starfleet Acadamy and this is what happens?! WHY??!! *screams at the uncaring heavens*



Officer #2: I'm sorry, Ma'am. Your husband is dead.

Grieving widow #2: Oh no! Tell me... how did he die?

Officer #2: He was transported in 500 feet above the surface of an alien planet and flew on a pair of rocket shoes through an Ion storm in order to conduct emergency repairs on the anti-gravity engine of a falling shuttlecraft plummeting towards the acidic ocean below. Equipped only with a tricorder, a standard issue phaser, and a pocket-sized replicator module he was able to reroute the plasma flow and replace the gravity emitter mere seconds before the shuttle would have plummeted into the burning depths and resulted in an antimatter explosion that could have ignited the atmosphere of the entire planet! Unfortunatly, the radiation from the repair gave his body a negative charge and he was struck by lightning soon afterwards... the shuttle crew tried to recover his body with a tractor beam but it fell 300 feet out of the sky while on fire where it crashed into and killed a giant tyrannosaurus like creature that was about to eat the ships medical officer. Chief Medical Officer Smith was able to briefly revive him in time for Captain Fightmaster to give him a medal for supreme bravery. His last words were that he loved you.

Grieving widow #2: Oh my goodness... is this real? Can I see his body?

Officer #2: I'm afraid the crew tried to give him a Starfleet Burial in which they would launch his body out the torpedo tubes in a casket to drift through space. However, a borg cube arrived and fired an anti-neutron pulse that took out the ships weapons systems. The only tube not damaged was the one bearing your husbands casket and... truth be told, they launched his casket into the cubes main power core. Apparenlty Borg Shields haven't adapted to Redshirt Coffins launched at relativistic speeds and your husbands corpse triggered a chain reaction that destroyed the entire cube. Our scientists are still sifting the wreakage but all they are finding is a wealth of borg technology ripe for analysis. I'm afraid your husbands body was vaporized in the explosion... or sent to another dimension... they aren't quite sure how borg trans-warp engines react when they explode.

Grieving widow #2: Well, at least he died the way he lived.

Officer #2: That he did Ms. Rogers, that he did.

[Stofsk]

I don't know what flying boots has to do with the first one though.

[Ryushikaze]

Nothing, which I think, is the point. The second scenario was at least a way for a redshirt to die with honor, some consolation to his widow. All because Rocket Boots.

[Stofsk]

D'oh! Of course.