Talk:Directional control

Having just viewed the episode, I noticed the use of the term directional control instead of helm or navigation; the phrase actually is used at least five times. Except for giving Spock and Montgomery Scott something to do, the "directional controls" appear to be nothing more than an extension of the helm functions. Bele was able to commandeer the ship by tampering with these controls as well as the auto-destruct program banks. In any event, I am reasonably confident that a redirect is all that is necessary. If I'm wrong, I'll eat a bug or hold my piece if somebody wants to flesh this out. GNDN 02:53, 22 January 2008 (UTC)


 * "The episode," Eh? :)


 * Good thing that you were clear as to which one... . -- Sulfur 02:59, 22 January 2008 (UTC)

Tough room. Listen, pal, my wife was giving me an earful about my time spent on these hollow pursuits, and it is only by the grace of Freud that I wrote anything at all. ;> --GNDN 05:05, 22 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Yeah, I noticed it too yesterday when I added the link to the reference to the article page. However, they stated that it was a specific "memory bank", which is guess is some sort of "chip" or storage device dedicated to controlling the navigation systems, versus the actual helm (like the redirect points to), or rather, the system behind the system.
 * Upon further investigation, the term was also used in, when they were in the wormhole and were trying to use the helm's manual override but could get no response, then there was an overload in the main power system, which also made directional control inoperative. --Alan del Beccio 21:27, 22 January 2008 (UTC)

Nice work. If that's the case, then perhaps a simple redirect is insufficient. Since the LCARS or some other computer is involved in addition to the helm, perhaps a full article would be better. I'm reluctant to speculate overmuch, though.

Maybe something along the lines of "Directional controls are the computer memory banks that work in concert with a starship's helm functions. With regard to  vessels, these controls can be accessed through either the library computer or the chief engineer's stations on the bridge.  .  The directional controls also act as a redundant safety feature in the event that manual override of the helm's automatic functions/settings is ineffective/impossible. ." --GNDN 22:42, 22 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Suits me. :) --Alan del Beccio 23:24, 22 January 2008 (UTC)