Joxer

I don't know if it's the same in the other ST series, but as I watch TNG I notice that every single planet they go to has a number after it. I didn't think much of it, I mean there's alot of planets. But then I saw an episode a few days ago where they visited the planet that was about to develope warp drive (the one where Riker is in the hospital on the planet). This planet has no idea that there are other life forms beyond their own planet, they believe that they are the sole living things in the universe........yet their planet was Bulia III. Why would they give their planet a number if they are the only ones in the universe (and yes, the name with the number was used by the people living on the planet)? I mean, that's like us calling our planet Earth IV. This may have been explained somewhere that I havn't seen. If so, please enlighten me.

Birrman54

if they orbit a star called Bulia, it's possible they name every planet in their system Bulia#. If all the other planets are uninhabited, they could still believe they're the sole lifeforms in the universe.

rw2516

Ditto. Federation uses that system. Ex: Ceti Alpha 5 and 6 in Wrath of Khan. Earth would be Sol III.

Filmmaker

Earth's scientific name is Sol III, so even we humans do it, just not in the popular vernacular.

milo bloom

If you really want to get pedantic, you could also say that the universal translator was just translating their native name into the one in the Federation language bank, which would be taking that name from the stellar survey catalog. If they had joined the Federation, you could speculate that the Federation would tweak the UT to say, for example, "Golgafrinch" instead of "Bulia III".

NORML54601

There were some planets not named & numbered. Rysa, Romulus, Remus & Kronos are a few that come to mind.

calhoun07

Perhaps scientifically they are. I'd have to dig for it, but I recall a Star Trek Next Gen hand book to planets and alien life forms from the series, and I do believe that even those planets officially have numbered names in the Star Trek universe. But like Earth, they call it by the more common name rather than Sol III. I guess if it's a world they associate with more often, they use the native name for it.

Joe Molotov

It's just one of those little things you have to overlook. Like why does everyone wear a standard uniform except for Troi who has to wear a form-fitting bodysuit? And why does Picard make Ensign Roe take off her earrings saying that officers aren't allowed to wear jewelry, even though Worf gets to wear some big metal thing slung over his shoulder? And why is the holodeck allowed to stay open even though every time they use it, they're nearly killed? Or why does the away team to hostile planets always consist of the captain and most of the senior officers?

Jimmy James

Captain Jellico nipped that right in the bud. It was therefore apparently all Picard's fault.

The uniform question I have involves that rainbow colored thing Wesley wore. Where did that come from? It was uniform-looking, but he shouldn't have any sort of uniform. I dunno...

Again, my question is slightly different. What was the reason he moved from fabric sash to metal one when he switched uniform colors? Surely the "within the show" answer can't be because it didn't look as good with the yellow color as it did with red.

lordwow

It wasn't a uniform as far as I know. He just wore civilian clothes with a communicator.

I thought he earned a new sash for some reason, although it's been years since I've watched the show in order.

lordwow

This rule was changed between ST:TOS and ST:TNG. It's one of the Federation Rules "now." While Kirk nearly always went on the away team (with Bones and Spock nonetheless), it stated several times in TNG and Voyager that the Captain could not go on an away team mission if there was a certain level of risk, which is why Picard nearly always assigned the Away Team missions to Riker during the show.

milo bloom

Well, the three stripes are the same colors as the three branches, so I always thought it a type of field commission officer's thing. Like before they were assigned a particular branch/color, they wore a "probationary" one.

Of course, that doesn't change the fact that it's not very good looking.

Numanoid

This man is a genius.

Count Dooku

I thought that was just Wesley's regular clothes, and then once he became an acting Ensign, he started wearing a regular uniform.

<--Acting Dorky | Acting Ensign-->