I always wondered why they didn't have the same company that built the artificial gravity generators make the engines on Star Trek. Seems like evrey ten minutes the engines are acting up, but nobody is even paid to check up on the gravity generators. They never malfunction, run out of energy, get sabotaged, anything.

As far as I know, they last forever and command a high price on the used market. Do you supose the other side of the Enterprise's gravity generator repulses, or attracts? Could you mount on on a structure on earth and have a zero-G play area? What happens when one crashes on earth? Since they never fail and can't be turned off (as far as anyone knows) would you experience 2 G's? Or does it just block any other gravity field in the vicinity?

 

Remember the Gravitron ride? 4G.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitron

 

I actually had to forward this quote to some people I know who like Star Trek. I feel like a nerd finding the quote so amusing, lol. Its true though.

 

The gravity generators fail only when there's anough sfx budget to show free fall, like in the movies.

 

A perfectly reasonable observation of the TV shows and movies. They of course don't have loss of gravity happen often because if they did every time someone shot a photon torpedo at the other, fighting space battles would be pretty one-sided and easy. It also makes for bad drama if your crew can't throw themselves across the bridge every time they get hit with phasers. It'd be Starfleet bumper pool if everyone took to the air. Not fun to watch.

Bad drama is also the reason they don't replicate entire ships, even though they can command a cup of tea into existence from a wall terminal. Separate issue, but somewhat related when speaking on the mechanics of acting and storytelling.

 

No, no. The geek answer to ship replication is it takes too much energy!

As long as we're on this topic, why is it that transporter malfunctions don't cause big explosions?