• Right and wrong: When the Enterprise first arrives in 2063, Data initially estimates the data as the mid-21st century from astrometric measurements, then as ten years after the nuclear war of 2053 based on the levels of radioactive isotopes in the atmosphere.

  Comparison of trace amounts of radioactive isotopes in the atmosphere would indicate roughly how long ago the nuclear war had occurred. However, the Enterprise sensors should have been able to just as quickly determine the exact date from the positions of the Earth, Moon, Sun, and planets in the sky.

• Wrong: The Phoenix is launched from a converted Titan ICBM from a missile silo in Montana.

  It is unlikely that an ICBM of 2053 would be a derivative of the Titan family of missiles. The last Titan ICBM, the Titan II, was retired in 1987 in part because its storable liquid fuel was unsafe.

© 2002 by Wm. Robert Johnston.
Last modified 23 June 2002.
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