Last night, I found myself watching Enterprise before going to bed and as a result, I’ve had a bit of a random conundrum going through my head today. In case the title of this post is a bit too esoteric for you, it’s related to dogs in space. Captain Sam-from-Quantum-Leap has a rather cute beagle called Porthos:
Awww. So far, so cute. What I’ve been wondering though, is where the dog goes when he needs to, ahem, expel waste product from his furry little body. From what I’ve observed, the Enterprise seems to be mostly carpeted; the mess and the smell would get pretty unbearable after a while. Even if, as a friend has suggested to me, the Captain simply sets his phaser to disintegrate and vaporises the dog’s deposits, it’s still going to leave holes all over the carpets and an overwhelming smell of burnt faeces. I’ve certainly never heard of anyone in Star Trek uttering the phrase “set phasers to Febreze”.
It’s this sort of thing that makes me think that some sci-fi is just totally unrealistic.
