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Star trek: Numbers instead of Words

I've noticed that everyone on Star Trek (TNG to ST:Enterprise) are reading numbers instead of words; their on every panel, every screen and people can seem to translated as words...Why is that? What is it?

Comments

  • salazarrazesalazarraze Member Posts: 3,794 Arc User
    edited December 2016
    2 possibilities here.

    1: Written Language is done with numbers by the TNG era

    2: You are reading too much into a low budget production that has static screens on set and doesn't waste money and time changing them
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  • saurializardsaurializard Member Posts: 4,409 Arc User
    Plus, it happens IRL, sort of. If you're a novice, you won't even understand what does what:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyUN40weqIk
    And yep, even if this shot is played for comedic value, that's a REAL control panel.
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  • anazondaanazonda Member Posts: 8,399 Arc User
    Think to the TNG episode "Hero worthship".

    The kid beleives that he was responsible for destroying his parents ship, because his hands touched a console during an impact.

    Picard and Troy tell him, that it's an impossibility, because all commands are coded.

    So chances are, that those numbers basically represent segments of entry-codes required to run the ship's functions.
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  • starkaosstarkaos Member Posts: 11,557 Arc User
    Plus, it happens IRL, sort of. If you're a novice, you won't even understand what does what:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyUN40weqIk
    And yep, even if this shot is played for comedic value, that's a REAL control panel.

    Each of them are labelled, but I would imagine that most pilots would be able to know what most dials do even if they are not labelled.

    What is displayed on the screen is meaningless since the actors will say whatever the script requires since okudagrams usually contain in-jokes for the Production Staff and Easter Eggs. 47 is a popular reference in Star Trek due to writer Joe Menosky which referenced the 47 Society from Pomona College in California according to Memory Alpha.
  • staq16staq16 Member Posts: 1,181 Arc User
    Dramatic exposition, is why. Dialogue can be used to explain to the audience what is happening, even though a numbers-based answer would "realistically" make far more sense.
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