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Well, admitteldy that was Scotty.

Mikey wrote:Mark - in TNG: "Relics," Scotty was able to succesfully merge SOA TNG tech with that of 80 years prior... with a sum total of about 5 minutes familiarization. I don't see how that translates into more than a quick refresher for the crew of a ship who would go on to crew - (wait for it) - their own old ship. Anything else - politics, new protocols of the UFP, etc. - can be learned while underway.

Yeah, but they did make the point that impulse engine design hasn't changed much in a hundred years... whilst showing that Scotty didn't have a clue what was going on when he tried to have a look around Engineering on the E-D. Remember the whole "Your dilithium is going to fracture!" "Um, no it isn't". Scotty is perhaps the most brilliant engineer of his time, and he was lost on the E-D.

I've no doubt somebody could catch up, and probably faster than having to completely resit the Academy four year course. But it wouldn't be a matter of just reading a book or two. I'd guess at least one to two years would be required to bring a person up to a competent level.

GrahamKennedy wrote:

Mikey wrote:Mark - in TNG: "Relics," Scotty was able to succesfully merge SOA TNG tech with that of 80 years prior... with a sum total of about 5 minutes familiarization. I don't see how that translates into more than a quick refresher for the crew of a ship who would go on to crew - (wait for it) - their own old ship. Anything else - politics, new protocols of the UFP, etc. - can be learned while underway.

Yeah, but they did make the point that impulse engine design hasn't changed much in a hundred years... whilst showing that Scotty didn't have a clue what was going on when he tried to have a look around Engineering on the E-D. Remember the whole "Your dilithium is going to fracture!" "Um, no it isn't". Scotty is perhaps the most brilliant engineer of his time, and he was lost on the E-D.

Actually all he says is they can repair that sort of thing while keeping the dilithium in the articulation frame, IMO this demonstrates merely a refinement of technology, not completely new principles.

SCOTT'S VOICE
(o.c.)
Do you know that your dilithium
crystals are about to fracture?

Geordi looks up at this and then hurries over to the
warp core. Scott has opened the dilithium chamber at
the center of the core and is examining the dilithium
crystals with a critical eye.

STAR TREK: "Relics" - REV. 8/5/92 - ACT TWO 25.

18 CONTINUED: (2)

Geordi's patience is starting to wear thin at this
point.

GEORDI
(shutting the drawer)
We recomposite the crystals while
they're still inside the
articulation frame. I'd like
to explain everything, but the
Captain wants this
spectrographic-analysis done by
thirteen hundred hours.

Source

Recompositing dilithium crystals was something Scotty had never heard of, and it seemed clear that he didn't really know what Geordi meant. There was also the earlier exchange :

SCOTT : Laddie, ye need to phase-lock the
warp fields within three percent
or they'll become unstable.

GEORDI : What?

SCOTT : (works console) Here. The warp field is --

But as soon as Scott touches the controls, the pool
table suddenly sounds an ALARM in response to his
action. Geordi quickly moves to correct the situation.

GEORDI : We use a multi-phase
auto-containment field now...
it's meant to operate above three
percent.

Scott seems rattled for only a moment and he quickly
recovers.

SCOTT : Ah. Well... that would make all
the difference.

Like I say, Scotty was perhaps the most brilliant engineer of his day... yet he walked into the E-D engine room and made two elementary mistakes in as many minutes. It's pretty clear that he didn't know what was going on, and the thought of having to learn it over made him cringe. It's not for nothing that the episode is called Relics, you know!

A lot of trek technology might be based off the same general ideas of a 100+ years ago, but that's not the same as there being no advancements, as Scotty's trouble showed. That'd be like assuming that the internal combustion engine has changed so little that a mechanic from the early 1900s could fix a modern one. The basic principle that makes the engine work is the same, but there has been tons of advancements and modifications.

GrahamKennedy wrote:Recompositing dilithium crystals was something Scotty had never heard of, and it seemed clear that he didn't really know what Geordi meant. There was also the earlier exchange :

Good point, but I just realized: Isn't recompositing dilithium crystals something Scotty had done before? Isn't that essentially what he had to do in TVH?

It's not for nothing that the episode is called Relics, you know!

Fair point

GrahamKennedy wrote:Recompositing dilithium crystals was something Scotty had never heard of, and it seemed clear that he didn't really know what Geordi meant.

On the contrary, as SG says Scotty didn't just know what recomposition was, he invented the procedure. Scotty's concern was that Geordi was leaving the crystals in the core too long, not knowing that the E-D could recomposit them without removing them from the core. A minor procedural change.

Like I say, Scotty was perhaps the most brilliant engineer of his day... yet he walked into the E-D engine room and made two elementary mistakes in as many minutes.

Hardly elementary mistakes, merely a lack of knowledge of the minutiae of late 24th century technology. The basic principles of all the technology has remained the same. Nobody's saying that the Bozeman crew could jump straight into a 24th century ship and shoot off exploring/fighting/whatever, merely that all they need are a few refresher courses, rather than starting from scratch (or even anywhere close to scratch).

Yeah, notice he got the general stuff right. It was a few particulars that he got hung up on.

Actually that was recrystallising not recompositing, and Spock came up with it, not Scotty.