Skip to main content

star trek - Management of fruit bowls on the Enterprise D


I have noticed that guest quarters on the Enterprise D have fruit bowls on their tables. A prominent instance is the fruit bowl in Berlinghoff Rasmussen's quarters in "A Matter of Time". The first thing that Rasmussen does when Data takes him to his guest quarters is take a piece of fruit and shove it in his pocket.



Who replicates fruit for these fruit bowls before guests arrive? More generally, who removes unused fruit and tidies quarters after guests leave? Is there a ship hospitality staff, perhaps including Guinan's wait staff in Ten Forward?



Answer



I'm going to go out on a limb here and say "no-one". My guess is that rooms are automatically configured and maintained by the ship itself:




  • The Enterprise has replicators in every set of quarters and access to high-precision transporters.




  • The Enterprise has a powerful semi-intelligent AI.





  • We know from the TNG Technical Manual that guest quarters are configured "at short notice" but can only be reconfigured once someone is staying for a longer term.




  • We know from TNG : Up the Long Ladder that the ship intelligently cleans itself (Riker is confident that it will detect and clean the Bringloidi's dirty sheets and hay, despite these not being part of the ship's usual ephemera):





Worf and Picard EXIT the shot, and Riker walks back to Brenna. She is fastidiously picking up the sodden blankets.


RIKER : That wasn't necessary. The ship will clean itself.



BRENNA : Well, good for the bloody ship!



If I had to theorise about the fruit, I'd imagine that when you configure a guest room for a human visitor, you simply select a few items from a menu (fruit bowl, flowers, etc) and they're transported and then regularly replenished by the computer whenever the room is left empty.


Additionally, in STD we see cleaning droids floating around the place picking up mess, dusting and wiping. They just pop out of the walls and then disappear discreetly when not needed.







Moving down the canon scale, in the TNG novel Q and A (written by respected and prolific Trek author Keith R.A. DeCandido), we learn that Picard's quarters and bed are all maintained by something he refers to as "automated janitorial systems". No major explanation is given for their workings but apparently they not only clean the floors but also make the beds.




Jean-Luc set down his teacup on the end table next to the bed, then reached over to cup Beverly’s cheek with his right hand. “I must say, Beverly, I prefer this method of eating breakfast.”


Reaching over to the tray that sat between them on the bed, Beverly grabbed another croissant and stuck it in his mouth. “You’re just saying that because you don’t have to clean the bed.”



and



They stopped only when the clang of flatware falling to the floor startled both of them. Peering over the side of the bed, Beverly saw that the croissant tray and the jam had upended onto the carpet.


She looked at Jean-Luc and grinned. “Oops.”


“Oops, indeed. Suddenly, I’m rather grateful I don’t have to clean the room myself. Thank heaven for automated janitorial systems.



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

harry potter - Do the Kwikspell courses work?

In Harry Potter we are introduced to Kwikspell course in The Chamber of Secrets (and never hear about it again). We see Filch taking courses, presumably by mail. The descriptions of Kwikspell make me think it is for people who are weak in magic (kind of like how Neville was supposed to be when he was younger), but had magic in them nonetheless. However, Ron's comments later in the chapter make it sound like it is mainly for Squibs to learn magic. However, it is strongly implied through out all the books that Squibs are essentially Muggles, and will never be able to do magic. How then is a Kwikspell course supposed to work? Do we have any information to know if it works at all? Is it a scam? An answer from any level of canon is welcome. Answer Kwikspell courses are (probably) useful to some wizards, but not to squibs. The Kwikspell course literature comes with two testimonials. Madam Z. Nettles of Topsham writes: ‘I had no memory for incantations and my potions were a family joke...

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.

star wars - What "exactly" happens when someone turns to the Dark Side?

When I saw the original Star Wars saga as a kid, the concept of the Dark Side imprinted in me was quite simple. You did a bad thing, so you're a bad person so you go to the Dark Side and keep doing bad things. Now, obviously this doesn't hold true in reality. In my mind it is perfectly reasonable for Luke to kill the Emperor and Vader and then just flee the Death Star and rejoin the Alliance. After all they are at war, those are enemy officers that have captured him and are taunting him by threatening with death of all loved ones and the whole operation was intended to kill the Emperor anyway. The same would hold true for Anakin. He could have killed Mace Windu to save the Chancellor and Padme but that doesn't mean he's going to then go mad and kill all Jedis including children. It doesn't add up from a merely psychological point of view. He had a set of objectives and that made him want to keep the Chancellor alive (quite valid by the way, Mace Windu is quite clums...

Was the "pure soul" of Harry's what had really hurt Voldemort?

In the Order of the Phoenix, Voldemort possesses Harry, and it hurts. Greatly. I think that Dumbledore explained that it was because Voldemort's rotten soul was incapable of assimilating Harry's pure soul, that Voldemort didn't understand the love and friendship etc that Harry has in his heart. But, I think it was a lie. Remember that in Deathly Hallows, while looking for information regarding Horcruxes, it is discovered that it is in fact possible to merge a soul fragment back, but that the process was extremely painful. Now then, if Voldemort tried to possess Harry, and Harry had a fragment of Voldemort's soul, I think that it could have been the true cause of Voldemort's pain: the fact of having his soul so close of another fragment. I think that Dumbledore knew that fact, but had to lie to Harry because it was inappropriate to let him know that he had one of Voldemort's soul fragments at the moment. Is that right? Or was it truly the pure soul of Harry's...