"it was irrelevant"

[Listener]

I was reading the latest chapter in some ST:Voyager fanfic* today, and I came across this gem, during a conversation between Janeway and Seven. Seven just returned to San Francisco after a multi-hour visit to Finland:

“So am I.” Seven glanced at the chronometer. “It is nearly lunch time. It was night when I left. The difference in time zones can be disconcerting.”

“They used to call it ‘jet lag’,” Janeway told her. “Now it’s transporter lag and is much worse.”

“I do not perceive it on away missions.”

“Because we always try to synchronize the ship’s orbit with the planetary time zone we’re visiting,” Janeway pointed out. “You’ve never noticed?”

Seven blinked. “It was irrelevant.”

I can't believe I, as an avowed ST fan, NEVER noticed that.  Go figure.

* DON'T JUDGE ME!!! 

[wintermute]

Bah. The ship's orbit is itself irrelevant, except in that it would more difficult to beam someone through the bulk of the planet. Ship's time cannot possibly be tied to any local planet. Ship's time is ship's time, regardless of whether you're over London or Auckland, or Chronos, or twenty light years from the nearest star, and the crew can't suddenly rearrange their duty watches just because they're going to be in orbit around a planet with a 20-hour day for a week. And if they're suddenly needed on the opposite hemisphere, the crew members just coming off watch aren't going to find themselves suddenly rested and ready for breakfast.

[Listener]

Bah. The ship's orbit is itself irrelevant, except in that it would more difficult to beam someone through the bulk of the planet. Ship's time cannot possibly be tied to any local planet. Ship's time is ship's time, regardless of whether you're over London or Auckland, or Chronos, or twenty light years from the nearest star, and the crew can't suddenly rearrange their duty watches just because they're going to be in orbit around a planet with a 20-hour day for a week. And if they're suddenly needed on the opposite hemisphere, the crew members just coming off watch aren't going to find themselves suddenly rested and ready for breakfast.

Oh, I agree... it was mostly funny to me that no one else brought it up before now.

[eytanz]

Even ignoring the issue of there having to be a fixed ship time, why would the ship's orbit matter? The day/night cycle in the ship is artificial. Even if a specific away mission could be planned to such a degree that you could sync the timezone in advance by gradually altering the ship time, the physical location of the ship would never matter.

Also, I strongly question the assertion that jet lag would be worse with transporters. Yes, if you just suddenly appear in a different time zone your daily cycle will be out of sync, but it won't be any more out of sync than if you just spent several hours getting there - your body is still expecting it to be noon at 9pm. Jumping from daytime into nighttime shouldn't be more disconcerting than being indoors and having the lights go off suddenly.

Indeed, one of the contributing factors to jet lag is the fact that flying is itself uncomfortable and somewhat stressful for most people, so your rest is disrupted by more than just the time zone difference. Transporting should at least partially eliminate those factors (though, of course, being on a dangerous away mission won't help).

I suspect that the main reason Starfleet personnel don't suffer from jetlag when transporting is because they are medicated to counter it. There have been multiple instances on the shows - especially TNG - when Starfleet doctors have demonstrated the ability to directly manipulate neurological patterns, far exceeding anything we can do now. I'm guessing an "you're on a 27-hour cycle and it's now 15:00" pill is a triviality for them.

[wintermute]

Well, if they can inoculate people against radiation sickness (which, presumably, involves injecting them with small amounts of radiation), then who knows what other medical marvels they might have?

[Heradel]

Well, if they can inoculate people against radiation sickness (which, presumably, involves injecting them with small amounts of radiation), then who knows what other medical marvels they might have?

Uh, radiation doesn't work like that. Any protection that they provide would have to harden the individual against radiation and it's effects on their DNA.

[wintermute]

Uh, yes, I know that's true in the 21st Century. But when Beverly Crusher, Doctor of the Future!, specifically uses the word "inoculate" when talking about preparing the away team to work in a high-radiation area, am I to assume that she doesn't know what this very basic medical term means? Clearly not; therefore Star Trek science has clearly advanced to the point where radiation sickness is something you can inoculate against.

[Heradel]

Uh, yes, I know that's true in the 21st Century. But when Beverly Crusher, Doctor of the Future!, specifically uses the word "inoculate" when talking about preparing the away team to work in a high-radiation area, am I to assume that she doesn't know what this very basic medical term means? Clearly not; therefore Star Trek science has clearly advanced to the point where radiation sickness is something you can inoculate against.

Or the meaning of terms has evolved and they use inoculate to describe a process very different from what we think of with vaccines. I mean, it's handwavium anyway, so going too deep on it is a bit silly.