Does Star Wars G canon always beat C canon?

Leland Chee (Keeper of the Holocron, and thus pretty much the main authority on canon) confirmed that this did indeed happen.

(explaining how canon database works) ... Source A contradicts Source B. More likely than not, if Source A is from the films and Source B is from the EU, we'll use Source A. Of course, there can always be exceptions which is why the case-by-case determination is always in effect no matter what the Sources." (src)

When pressed for details on the same thread, he indicated this (Tasty Taste is his ID on that starwars.com forum):

> I'd be interested to know what circumstances would allow the EU to overthrow the films...


Well, you've got the Boba Fett thing. Then there's stormtroopers where there's a bunch of sources released prior to Ep2 that said that they were human recruits. Hence we established that while most stormtroopers are clones, there are some that are recruits.

Why are there humans in the Star Wars Universe?

There's one hypothesis that IMHO makes the most sense (it's one of several that have already been mentioned). On the other hand, making sense is not necessarily a prerequisite for accuracy in the Star Wars universe.

That hypothesis is that some unknown alien species, for some unknown reasons, brought humans from Earth to Coruscant in the distant past, where they built a civilization and spread out to the rest of the Star Wars galaxy.

In our reality, there is ample evidence that humans evolved independently here on Earth. There's been plenty of fiction that has humans being introduced on Earth from elsewhere, but that doesn't fit in with the known fossil record and our genetic similarity to all the other species on Earth.

In the Star Wars universe, the origin of humans is unknown. The most widely accepted theory is that they evolved on Coruscant and spread out from there, but that's difficult to verify; Coruscant is so over-built that archaeology is impractical.

According to this timeline, Coruscant was completely covered by its principal city 100,000 years before the events of Episode IV. Anatomically modern humans appeared about 200,000 years ago. That leaves 100,000 years to be split between (a) time for the human colonists on Coruscant to build their planet-covering city, and (b) time to account for the "a long time ago" in the opening credits.

Humans on Coruscant developed an interstellar civilization much more quickly than Earth humans have, but that could be explained by the influence of whoever brought them to Coruscant.

This assumes that "a long time ago" is relative to our current time. If instead it's relative to the time of the story's hidden narrator, we have a lot more flexibility. Future Earth humans could develop interstellar, and then intergalactic travel, and establish a colony on Coruscant without outside help. Some disaster could then cause them to lose their historical records; as they recover, they build a new interstellar civilization, the one that we see in the movies.

Pulling some numbers out of the air, we could have:

• 1977: Humans on Earth watching science fiction movies.


• 2200: Humans have developed interstellar and intergalactic travel.


• 2500: Humans colonize a planet that will later be called Coruscant.


• 3000: Human civilization on Coruscant goes through a crisis that results in a loss of historical knowledge.


• 10,000: Human civilization on Coruscant has recovered and built a single dense city covering the entire planet.


• 110,000: Battle of Yavin


• 200,000: The civilization that (re)started on Coruscant has now spread to other galaxies. Someone produces an epic historical drama about the events that happened 90,000 years previously, "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away".


• 200,100: The script for this drama falls first into a black hole, then into the hands of George Lucas on 20th century Earth.


• 201,977: Contact with Earth is re-established. Descendants of Coruscant humans see the original Star Wars. The temporal paradox causes the Universe to vanish in a puff of logic.

Note that some of this is just a little bit speculative.

star trek - Are the Borg aware of the Q?

Is the Borg Collective aware of the Q continuum?

There is no canon that answers this question directly.

Certainly, it's possible; however, this was never explored in any of the series' that I am aware of.

The Borg would certainly have to real use for the information as they are not able to assimilate a member of the Q Continuum.

star trek - Why don't Starfleet Officers wear protective gear when going abroad?

Personal shields we see

Personal shields are not outside the realm of technological knowhow in-universe. La Forge creates a subspace isolation field (TNG:Timescape), however, this also reveals the flaw in that technology, they appear to be fairly weak fields (La Forges is easily disrupted by the alien).

The other place we see personal shielding is in TNG:Lessons where Lt. Commander Daren used Thermal Deflector Units to protect the away team from the firestorms on Bersallis III. Again, even though the deflector units were reenforced with energy from hand phasers two team members were still killed when their unit failed.

(Noted below is also Alt-Spock's use of thermal protection armor in the volcano)

It's about the power

These examples point to a plausible reason we don't see personal energy shields: power consumption. Generating a field may be easy but generating a field sufficient enough to defend against highly focused energy weapons or other harms is difficult.

What about the Borg? It's quite plausible that the Borg's advanced technology and cybernetic components allow them to generate the necessary energy to support such technology (it's worth noting that the Borg also don't employ energy weapons in close combat situations so there may be a tradeoff).

In all honesty, though, it seems quite likely that the weight and complexity of such personal armor or shielding would be worthwhile when combat was expected. However, we never get to see such "infantry" style combat in Star Trek.

Did we mention "We come in peace?"

Our Trek heroes are explorers, not soldiers, so to dress in heavily armed attire would be uncharacteristic. It's hard to believe "we come in peace" when you're wearing heavy armor. Klingons, however, are soldiers that prefer hand-to-hand combat so their armor is entirely appropriate.

This would likely be reflected in the type of technology researched and implemented so it would have less of a presence in the universe. It seems likely that Starfleet would have learned the lesson our current Earth has not yet learned. Highly militarized personnel tend to result in more violence and escalation of volatile situations.

The Starfleet Pajamas may be a lot of things but they certainly wouldn't feel intimidating.

Pattern Enhancers and their variable use

The questioner also mentioned the humble pattern enhancer, often use for variable purposes within the Trek universe. It does not seem to have been used for shielding purposes (although it, or a substantially similar device, was used in Time's Arrow to allow phase shifting in the alien cavern).

Portable Energy Weapons > Portable Energy Shields or Physical Armor

In short, your supposition seems accurate: Energy weapons commonly employed within the Trek Universe make it difficult to provide effective individual shielding (physical armor or energy shielding).

This actually might make a little "sci-fi science" sense, if you consider that even the Borg had to adapt to the energy weapons being used to effectively block them. It seems likely that in order to block all of the possible variations of energy weapons would have proven too difficult or energy intensive.

I'd like to add a small caveat: it does seem likely that special militarized units within Starfleet would find it worthwhile to find specialized implementations of energy shielding (a "burst shield" or a "assault shield" like the literal police/military shields). However, these would seem to be specialized requirements and outside the realm of normal training within the peaceful exploration mission of Starfleet.

game of thrones - DragonBone usage in the GoT/aSoIaF universe

People do use bone for armour / decorative armour; see Rattleshirt, albeit he uses regular (human and animal) bones.

It would be a matter of workability and accessibility.

Dragonbone is highly sought after (especially by the Dothraki):

Dragonbone bows are greatly prized by the Dothraki, and small wonder. An archer so armed can outrange any wooden bow.
^{-A Song of Ice and Fire: A Game of Thrones, Chapter Thirteen (Tyrion II).}

And apparently Magister Illyrio is a dealer in Dragonbone:

Dany said nothing. Magister Illyrio was a dealer in spices, gemstones, dragonbone, and other, less savory things.
^{-A Song of Ice and Fire: A Game of Thrones, Chapter Three (Daenerys I).}

Bear in mind though, that the last Dragons (before Dany's) died in 153AC (over 100 years ago) and as such is a rare commodity, which is why you wouldn't see them around.

Targaryens were renown for their ownership of Dragons, but I couldn't see them turning their dead Dragons into armour / weapons. We see that most of the known Targaryen Dragon skulls were kept in the Throne Room (and most recently in the Cellars). So in a way they were honoured as prized possessions - not likely to be made into tools.

star trek - How did Data so easily access and control the Borg ship?

Several points:

• A wise command structure does not apply commands globally by default, but locally. (And this, alone, is likely the answer.)




• Sometimes commands can have default settings. For instance, in Unix, the command "rm *" applies to the current directory, not to every directory on the drive. It also doesn't descend into subdirectories unless you tell it to.




• There would be propagation delays. There was one cube in the Alpha Quadrant (or one that we know of -- maybe there were a couple back-up ones that got blown up without our knowledge). The others were far away, so the command would have taken time to reach them.




• With any networking system, it's prudent to not always trust something just because it came from another node without verifying it. Think of it in today's terms: Something might come into your LAN from another LAN that you trust, but it's still possible it was from malware, so it's still wise to scan it for issues. Other cubes, or the collective as a whole, probably scans incoming communications from members to be sure they're valid and free of malware.

Think of how vulnerable the Borg would be if a command like "sleep" were to work on the entire collective at once. Such a command, like many others, would work only on a local level by default. (Or, as a safety, it could be that such commands would never work globally and would have to be activated on each individual ship separately.)

The question is, more likely, why it didn't effect Locutus' subgroup (or unimatrix, or whatever the proper term is) only. But since Data was gaining access to the command structure, it is very likely that along with finding the commands, he was also able to find out how to pass parameters with it, such as, "sleep --range=cube."

star trek - Did The Doctor on the Starship Voyager ever explicitly reference memories or knowledge from the EMH Diagnostic utility grafted into his programming?

My interpretation of that episode is that they dumped the diagnostic program to make space for further expansion of the Doctor's program. So the diagnostic program was entirely wiped, making it impossible for the Doctor to access any part of it. They "grafted" the space used by the memory onto the Doctor's program. Think of it as a Linux file system. It is possible to limit the size of a file at any value you wish, as opposed to the traditional view of Windows file systems where you can keep on adding files or expanding existing files until the disc runs out of space. So let's say that the Doctor's file was 20% of Voyager's total storage and that the diagnostic program was another 20%. The remaining 60% is for other systems such as propulsion, astrometric data, replicator patterns, holodeck programs, music, literature, personal files, crew logs, etc. Each system has a maximum allocation so they can't simply wipe out most of the computer's memory to make way for the Doctor. A lot of the Doctor's computer memory (as opposed to his own memories) is allocated to behavioural and medical diagnostic subroutines. Only a part is used for his own memories and experiences which is why adding more memory significantly extended his running time. If he was left running for long enough the problem would eventually recur.

lord of the rings - Who were the greatest archers in Middle-earth?

Human

According to Tolkien, the greatest human bowman was Duilin, son of Duinhir; the leader of the Men from the uplands of Morthond who fought in the battle of Minas Tirath.

In his "Unfinished Tales", Tolkien specifically refers to him as being a soldier of impeccable physical prowess and has this to say about his abilities with a bow;

Now the folk of the Swallow bore a fan of feathers on their helms, and
they were arrayed in white and dark blue and in purple and black and
showed an arrowhead on their shields. Their lord was Duilin, swiftest
of all men to run and leap and surest of archers at a mark.

---

Orc

The orcs are invariably described as a bit crap with a bow, relying on mere force of numbers and volume of (poisoned) arrows to do damage:

Behind them orc-archers crowded, sending a hail of darts against the
bowmen on the walls. - _{^{LotR: TTT}}

and

Dismayed the rammers let fall the trees and turned to fight; but the
wall of their shields was broken as by a lightning-stroke, and they
were swept away, hewn down, or cast over the Rock into the stony
stream below. The orc-archers shot wildly and then fled. _{^{LotR: TTT}}

and

But orc-arrows are plenty, and the sight of one would not be taken as
a sign of Doom by Boromir of Gondor. _{^{LotR: TTT}}

and

The orcs hindered by the mires that lay before the hills halted and
poured their arrows into the defending ranks. - _{^{LotR: RotK}}

Elves

Arguable. Certainly Beleg (A.K.A. "Beleg the Archer", A.K.A. "Beleg Longbow") is repeatedly called out as being an exceptional archer and possessing the ability to fire arrows great distances:

Moreover Beleg the Archer was great among the people of Doriath; he
was strong, and enduring, and far-sighted in mind as well as eye, and
at need he was valiant in battle, relying not only upon the swift
arrows of his long bow, but also upon his great sword Anglachel. And
ever the more did hatred grow in the heart of Mîm, who hated all
Elves, as has been told, and who looked with a jealous eye on the love
that Túrin bore to Beleg. _{^{The Children of Huron}}

and

Beleg: Elf of Doriath, a great archer; friend and companion of Túrin.
Called Cúthalion ‘Strongbow’.

That said, there's no specific reason to assume he was the single greatest elf archer.

story identification - Trying to find a book about a kid who ends up being summoned as a demon

I´m trying to find a book about a kid who tries a drug, ends up in an out of body experience, and his soul then gets summoned against his will to serve as a demon by a wizard.
At first they think he is a low leveled demon but he tries to escape and fighting back, and they then think he is a high ranking demon instead.... Thus he ends up looking like a huge demon.
I remember the book cover looked like a giant minotaur stepping through a portal (Made in poor CG) but I can´t remember the name of the book or who it was made by.

any help would be appreciated. Many thanks in advance.

When did Star Wars take place?

The issue is one that the Star Wars Galaxy must have 3rd generation (Population I) stars to exist, meaning it's at least many billion years post-Big-Bang.

Given the current estimates of 13.75 billion years of age, it's likely it's not more than 8 billion years ago (BYA), in order to allow for the relatively modern shape portrayed in the films. Moreover, the Milky Way has lots of Population II stars, but those can't give rise to life as we know it in their worlds, as the needed high-metal mixtures won't be present to coalesce into terrestrial worlds until the nova of Population II stars forms sufficient metals to generate the population I stars which gave birth to us all. Note that the oldest Population I stars have less than 2% of the metal content, and that we are, as a life form, carbon, calcium and iron with significant smaller amounts of other stuff, but the lower metalicity of the older stars implies a lack of iron.

So, we can rule out the oldest. Getting to the 5 BYA point, we start looking at stars that might have life as we know it. Not so much heavy metals, but still, enough to have stuff we would recognize.

So, I'd say the "Galaxy Far Far Away" had its "long time ago" no more than 5 BYA and probably no more than 1 BYA, because it looks like galaxies of that age.

star trek - Do we ever find out what happened to Dr. Giger or The Cellular Regeneration and Entertainment Chamber after the DS9 episode "In the Cards?"

DS9 "In the Cards":

GIGER: Doctor Bathkin of Andros Three was the first to come up with
the answer to solving the puzzle of death. Keep the cells energised.
Keep them in the game by teaching them new mitochondrial tricks.
Unfortunately, before he could finish his work, Doctor Bathkin died in
a shuttle accident. Or so they say. And while the soulless minions of
orthodoxy refuse to follow up on his important research, I could hear
the clarion call of destiny ringing in my ears. And now, after fifteen
years of tireless effort, after being laughed at and hounded out of
the halls of the scientific establishment, after begging and
scrounging for materials across half the galaxy, I have nearly
completed work on this. The Cellular Regeneration and Entertainment
Chamber.

At the end of the episode:

WEYOUN: Really? I have a background in, shall we say, creative
genetics. I'd be most interested in hearing your theories.

GIGER: Well, it may take some time to explain. Let me ask you a simple
question. Do you want to die?

Dr. Giger was on DS9 developing technology to make himself immortal. He enlisted the help of Jake and Nog to gain supplies for his project. Ultimately Weyoun and a couple of Jem'hadar transport Giger on their vessel. The episode ends with the conversation above and subsequently Weyoun trying out the chamber.

I am curious to know if Giger ever go the chamber to fully work, did the doctor stay with the Dominion, did Weyon help Giger in any way, etc.

Do we ever learn anything after this episode in-canon, writers notes, EU, or otherwise about Dr. Giger or The Cellular Regeneration and Entertainment
Chamber?

lord of the rings - Why did the Nazgul start on horseback?

This is all described in the essay entitled The Hunt for the Ring published in Unfinished Tales. All supplied quotes are from that source.

At first the intention was indeed to be stealthy, because Sauron did not want the Wise (i.e the Elves and Istari) to know what he was up to:

Yet this weakness they had for Sauron's present purpose: so great was the terror that went with them (even invisible and unclad) that their coming forth might soon be perceived and their mission be guessed by the Wise.

From there they went invisible through Rohan, passed the Sarn Gebir and the Nazgul of Minas Morgul met up with the Nazgul of Dol Guldur.

This was (it is thought) about the seventeenth of July. Then they passed northward seeking for the Shire, the land of the Halflings.

The last point is important here: at this stage the Nazgul did not yet know where the Shire was.

From here they passed north up the Anduin and began searching, finding the old Stoor villages (presumably those formerly inhabited by Gollum's people) and their best guess at the time was that the Shire was somewhere near or even within Lórien:

They were told also by Khamûl that no dwelling of Halflings could be discovered in the Vales of Anduin, and that the villages of the Stoors by the Gladden had long been deserted.
But the Lord of Morgul, seeing no better counsel, determined still to seek northward, hoping maybe to come upon Gollum as well as to discover the Shire. That this would prove to be not far from the hated land of Lórien seemed to him not unlikely, if it was not indeed within the fences of Galadriel. But the power of the White Ring he would not defy, nor enter yet into Lórien.

From here they continue searching north and finding nothing, until they meet messengers from Mordor; here we learn that Sauron had found out about the dream-prophecy in Gondor, Boromir's leaving, Saruman's deeds and capture of Gandalf. Now Sauron panics and orders the Nazgul to Isengard:

From these things he concluded indeed that neither Saruman nor any other of the Wise had possession yet of the Ring, but that Saruman at least knew where it might be hidden. Speed alone would now serve, and secrecy must be abandoned.

Yet again, they still don't know where the Shire is, but on the advice of Saruman (who did know but didn't tell them) they search Rohan for Gandalf, come across Wormtongue, and from him they finally learn the general direction it lies in:

Spare me! I speak as swiftly as I may. West through the Gap of Rohan yonder, and then north and a little west, until the next great river bars the way; the Greyflood it is called. Thence from the crossing at Tharbad the old road will lead you to the borders. 'The Shire,' they call it.

Finally some time past Tharbad they come across some fugitives and learn from one of them (who also turned out to be a servant of Saruman's) where it is:

One of them had been used much in the traffic between Isengard and the Shire, and though he had not himself been beyond the Southfarthing he had charts prepared by Saruman which clearly depicted and described the Shire.

This is the first point at which they actually know where the Shire is; they did not know before then and had to search the various lands they travelled through for it, and - of course - travelling back to Mordor to pick up some Fell-beasts at this late stage would just incur further delays.

So to summarise:

• At first they wanted to be stealthy.


• When Sauron learns what's going on he panics and they abandon stealth.


• And all this time they do not actually know where the Shire is until they are almost right at it's borders.

And:

• Flying directly to the Shire is impossible because they don't know where it is.


• They needed to conduct a careful search on the ground, as well as waylay travellers and obtain information from them, both of which would have been difficult if not impossible if flying.


• The initial need for stealth was not abandoned until the Nazgul were far out of Mordor.

star trek - Did the creators of Into Darkness research Khan?

It would seem that the writers, Robert Orci, Alex Kurtzman, and Damon Lindelof, were aware of Ricardo Montalban's original portrayal of Khan in The Original Series and The Wrath of Khan, but explicitly chose to depart from it.

First of all, they recognized that Khan was a character of immense importance in the Star Trek canon:

Lindelof said that Khan was considered a character they needed to use at some point, given that "he has such an intense gravity in the Trek universe, we likely would have expended more energy NOT putting him in this movie than the other way around."

The statement about having to expend energy to keep Khan out of the film is fairly contrived, but it does imply that they were at least aware of the character's importance.

References to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan were eventually added to the script, but Lindelof, Orci, and Kurtzman "were ever wary of the line between 'reimagined homage' and 'direct ripoff'." Orci and Kurtzman said they wanted a film which would work on its own and as a sequel, not using ideas from previous Star Trek works simply "because you think people are going to love it".

So it seems that they made a conscious decision to depart from the previous notion of the character.

(Source for Excerpts)

To shed more light on the process by which Khan — or at least a version of the character — came to be in Into Darkness and why he was portrayed as he is, I include the following snippets from an interview with Orci from the official Star Trek web site:

INTERVIEWER: Let's talk about Khan (Benedict Cumberbatch). Take us through why you went with Khan as the villain and, also, can you clarify why he does what he does?

ORCI: OK, I’ll do a deep dive with you. In a way, [fellow co-writer and co-producer] Damon [Lindelof] and I were the biggest debaters about this. He argued for Khan from the beginning and I argued against it. The compromise that we came to was, let us devise a story that is not reliant on any history of Star Trek. So, what's the story? Well, we have a story where our crew is who they are and they're coming together as a family. Then, suddenly, this villain arrives and his motivations are based on what happens in the movie. They're not based on history. They're not based on Star Trek. They’re not based on anything that came before. They're based on his [being] used by a corrupted system of power that held the things he held dear against him and tried to manipulate him. That story stands alone with or without Star Trek history. That's how we approached it, and God bless Damon for going down that road.

So, once we had that, that's when Damon came back and reared his ugly head and said, "OK, now that we have that, is there any reason why we cannot bring Star Trek history into this?" And he was right. So we ended up sort of reverse engineering it. We started with, "What's a good movie? What’s a good villain? What’s a good motivation? We cannot rely on what's happened before. Now that we have that, can we tailor this villain into something that relates to Star Trek history?" And that’s what we did. So, step one was "Don’t rely on Star Trek." Then, step two was "Rely on Star Trek."

(Source)

Within this, we find that Khan's behaviour differs from his counterpart in the Prime Timeline (i.e. the timeline that would have developed if it weren't for Nero's interference in the 2009 film) because of

• the manipulation and abuse that Khan received at the hands of Admiral Marcus (this is the in-universe answer);


• they conceived of their villain and his qualities before they decided he would be Khan Noonien Singh (this is the out-of-universe answer).

As for the issue of Khan crying, it seems to be compatible with this explanation. That being said, it was probably included as a means of adding an extra dimension or layer to the character — although I agree with the OP that it is ill-fitting at best.

star trek - Did Starfleet ever have an Enterprise-class of starship?

In canon, there has never been an Enterprise-class starship in Starfleet.

But a lesser-known fact is that the decision for the Enterprises NCC-1701 and NCC-1701-A to be "Constitution class" was not made until 1987. Before that time, no class designation was given in dialogue in TOS or the films before that year. Prior to 1987, both "Starship class" and "Enterprise class" were used informally amongst Star Trek creative personnel to describe the original Enterprise, and "Starship class" appears on the bridge dedication plaque on the NCC-1701. ("Enterprise class" was specifically floated by Andrew Probert for the refit Enterprise in The Motion Picture, but this idea was dropped.)

Also, in the original script for The Wrath of Khan, the Reliant was described as "Enterprise class", and indeed the ship was intended to be a copy of the Enterprise. However, it was decided at the design stage to fundamentally change the shape of the Reliant in order to better distinguish the two ships in battle. Later, the Reliant was retconned as "Miranda class".

For a history of the complicated evolution of "Constitution class" from "Enterprise class", with reliable citations and direct quotes by Enterprise designer Andrew Probert, see here.

story identification - We landed a man on Mars, and then all wars ceased

I've been trying to remember a short story.

The trick ending was that when we landed a man on Mars, all wars immediately stopped on Earth... but then we were about to land a man on Venus which would (presumably) have the effect of ending love.

Most likely a "Golden Age" sci-fi story. Told with a Venus landing newscast going on in the background.

lord of the rings - How could Gandalf find a Silmaril falling from Orthanc so easily?

He didn't find a Silmaril in Orthanc, he found a palantír:

Will you, Aragorn, take the Orthanc-stone and guard it? It is a dangerous charge.'

'Dangerous indeed, but not to all,' said Aragorn. 'There is one who may claim it by right. For this assuredly is the palantír of Orthanc from the treasury of Elendil, set here by the Kings of Gondor. Now my hour draws near. I will take it.'

^{The Two Towers Book IV Chapter 11: "The Palantír"}

By the Third Age (when Lord of the Rings takes place), the three Silmarils are lost, considered beyond the reach of Elves, Men, and Orcs:

• One is flying through the sky, borne by Eärendil


• One is at the bottom of the sea, thrown there by Fëanor's son Maglor


• The last is somewhere underground; Fëanor's son Maedhros flung it (and himself) into a crack in the Earth's crust

It's also worth noting that Gandalf himself didn't find it; strictly speaking Pippin did, and he only did that because Wormtongue flung it at Saruman and nearly decapitated Gandalf:

'Saruman, your staff is broken.' There was a crack, and the staff split asunder in Saruman's hand, and the head of it fell down at Gandalf's feet. 'Go!' said Gandalf. With a cry Saruman fell back and crawled away. At that moment a heavy shining thing came hurtling down from above. It glanced off the iron rail, even as Saruman left it, and passing close to Gandalf's head, it smote the stair on which he stood. The rail rang and snapped. The stair cracked and splintered in glittering sparks. But the ball was unharmed: it rolled on down the steps, a globe of crystal, dark, but glowing with a heart of fire. As it bounded away towards a pool Pippin ran after it and picked it up.

^{The Two Towers Book IV Chapter 10: "The Voice of Saruman"}

The palantíri are significantly larger than the Silmarils were; we're told in Unfinished Tales that, at minimum, they were about a foot in diameter:

At smallest they were about a foot in diameter, but some, certainly the Stones of Osgiliath and Amon Sûl, were much larger and could not be lifted by one man.

^{Unfinished Tales Part 4 Chapter III: "The Palantíri"}

If Wormtongue managed to huck it out of the tower with as much accuracy as he did, the Orthanc stone is probably sitting at the low end of that scale; so it's not quite so implausible that Pippin found it as easily as he did.

How big is the known Star Trek universe?

Star Trek takes place in our galaxy, in the late 24th century. (with the most-distant movie set in 2379.) The Milky Way Galaxy is absurdly big -- some 120,000 light-years in diameter, with a center some 27,000 light years away from Earth. The nearest galaxy is the Small Magellanic Cloud, some 200,000 light-years away.

Since Voyager found themselves 70,000 light-years from home, and projected their time to get home at 75 years, we can infer an effective cruising speed of 933 ly/y, or 2-3 ly/day. Considering that they weren't stocked for it, and had to scavenge along the way, one can presume that a well-stocked round-trip vessel with custom-designed engines would, at best, match their speed.

Taken together, that means that a Federation Expedition to reach the closest galaxy and return home would take over 400 years. Which means that, if they left today with 24th-century technology, such an expedition wouldn't return until some thirty years after the star trek canon ends.

So, Star Trek's "universe" is really just a portion of our current galaxy.

---

It's worth noting that, although not closely followed in the show itself, the official star trek separation of "quadrants" uses a meridian pretty close to Sol, the star around which Earth orbits. So, the federation encompasses some territory in both the "alpha" and "beta" quadrants, as do the major and minor powers with which it can negotiate, plus some special-case exploration to the "delta" and "gamma" quadrants, from Voyager's journey plus the DS9 wormhole.

Of course, this only explores the Federation's domain of exploration and influence. Several other powers, such as the Borg, the Fluidic-space aliens, and cosmic-level powers such as Q have unmeasured spheres of dominion, and have probable access to whole galaxies that the Federation does not.

star trek - Would it really matter, if Odo had never contacted The Great Link?

Close to the end of Homefront episode, we hear, that captain Sisko says, that it would be much better, if Odo would never found The Great Link and other changelings. Odo agrees.

How could that be true? What would that change? The Dominion / changelings / The Great Link was a super power in Gamma Quadrant, responsible for destroying or acquiring hundreds of other civilisations and always hunger for a new expansions. For me, it would change next to nothing, if Odo would ever contact The Great Link, because I assume, that Dominion invasion to the Alpha Quadrant was always just a matter of time.

Not mentioning, that it wasn't Odo's decision to seek for The Great Link, as -- if I remember correct -- that desire was "implanted" in him by The Great Link and was actually initiated / required by The Great Link to force Odo (and other changelings sent "away") to return home. Not mentioning, that if Odo wouldn't find their relatives, he wouldn't be able to provide Federation with all the information he has possessed by each join with The Great Link or any other changeling.

So, to me, words spoken by Sisko are completely wrong and the fact, that Odo agrees on them is screenplay hole.

Am I wrong in above assumption?

I need help identifying a short science fiction story about cancer as human evolution

Edna Mayne Hull (aka Mrs. A. E. van Vogt), "The Patient".

The short story was part of an anthology.

The ISFDB bibliography page for that story has a list of anthologies and collections in which it appeared.

A cancer clinic near a war zone

London, Aug. 23, 1943--Reports reaching this capital state that a universal cancer cure has been perfected at the Midland-West Coast Hospital for Cancer Patients. Since the war, this hospital has been largely converted to military purposes, but one wing is still under the charge of the brilliant cancer research scientist, Dr. Lyall Brett, who is to make a public statement shortly.

receives a famous cancer patient who they attempt to cure.

"Remember my telling you of a patient who came to Carl Hamber's New York Cancer Institute last year--the fellow who'd been to every cancer institute as well as to every quack in the world? He's the perpetual cancer patient. He has an operation practically every year. They've cut cancer out of his throat, his chest, his head--and he's still alive. He's the cancer patient, known all over the world. If you can cure him--"

At the end they find a cure, but the cancer patient reveals he doesn't want to be cured. He instead wants to destroy any cures as he is nothing but a human-shaped tumor. According to him, cancer is the next phase in human evolution.

Brett sighed and said: "Why do you want to kill me? On the entire earth, I am probably the only man who can make you well."

The stranger shook his head. In the half-light, his eyes gleamed. "I am not a madman, Dr. Brett; and unfortunately for you, the very extent of your success makes it necessary for me to kill you. Let me ask you a question: Can you imagine a perfect physical being?"

It struck Brett sharply that if only he could keep the fellow talking . . . He said cautiously: "Universal adaptation would be a required ability for such a being. That means . . . amorphism . . . changing shape at will . . . which would require radical cell and tissue growth like--"

He stopped, his eyes wide. Before he could speak, the man Grainger said softly: "Yes, Dr. Brett, like cancer; and you would destroy the free-growth potentiality of the cell, man's hope for biological perfection, for adaptive power so complete that he can swim and fly and live in airless space, live anywhere under any conditions."

He transforms into a bomb

His mind wrenched from its hopeless thought. For the man was changing. Changing. His face was transforming, shining. Abruptly, there was a glistening steel-like bomb standing upended on the floor.

and blows up the clinic (the better to hide the evidence in the war zone),

The world ended in a shattering violence of explosion.

reforms to his original shape and walks off.

It took an hour for the dynamic cells of the man, in their blind will to cohesion, to come together. Slowly, in the darkness, Peter Grainger took form. He stood for a while, staring at the wreckage of the hospital wing; then he turned off into the night.

SciFi Short Story about an immortal man digging through an asteroid to meet a woman

Short story from the 80's or 90's, I saw someone asking about this on another forum but never got an answer. I've been curious ever since.

The story is set in a decadent future where everyone lives forever and mostly they go to parties. Guy meets a girl at a party, suggest he start at one side of an asteroid and digs a tunnel by hand to her, while she waits in a hollowed out space and creates a beautiful garden while waiting (robots take care of all mundane life support stuff).

So he digs 100 years, makes it through to her chamber, they have a long romance, and when they've had enough they go back to civilization. The robots bury everything and return the asteroid to the way it was. Then they run into each other at a party and she overhears him proposing it to a different girl. That's when she says, "You've done this before."

This is the original post, for those curious (though I've reposted all relevant info): https://www.reddit.com/r/tipofmytongue/comments/21004u/tomtscifi_short_storyeveryone_lives_forever_man/