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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!ihnp4!ihnss!knudsen
From: knudsen@ihnss.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.startrek
Subject: Re: Enterprise destruct, antimatter
Message-ID: <2177@ihnss.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 6-Aug-84 13:35:15 EDT
Article-I.D.: ihnss.2177
Posted: Mon Aug  6 13:35:15 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 8-Aug-84 08:05:44 EDT
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL
Lines: 19

Yes, trwba!mnw is right -- the movie destruct sequence blew up only the
saucer command hull, leaving the engine hull & pods for the atmosphere.
In the novelization, the antimatter and matter do mix as part of the plan,
making a mini-nova that outshines the Genesis sun for a few seconds.
(Amazingly, there is still stuff left to re-enter as a spectacular meteor shower
in the novel also).
	But the explosion should have been bigger -- in some TV episode
Scotty said you'd get a pretty good super-nova bang if you mixed all the fuel
at once, and the comic book of ST:TMP had the Eprise crew fixing to blow
up Vger that way (what a tummy ache!).
So, yes, ST-III has an inconsistency here.  Let's just say that the fuel
tanks must have been pretty low -- after all, the Big E would hardly have
been refueld at Space Doclk, being slated for scrapping.
	One "consistent" error -- why did the Eprise re-enter Genesis

atmosphere after destruct?  Why, for the same reason that Star Trek vessels
ALWAYS spiral into decaying orbits when their engines break down/blow up!
"Are ye tryin' ta say that in the 20th century, they kept satellites in
orbit without usin' any power?"  Yes Scotty we do it all the time.  mike k