If you were out of phase, wouldn't you die?

[Duskofdead]

Question:

Beyond the simple gaffes often discussed (like how you'd fall through the floor), if you were "phased", wouldn't you be totally devoid of oxygen and such? Unless your whole ship or planet was shifted out of phase, wouldn't you die pretty fast?

Just something I wondered about. Whenever characters in Sci Fi wind up phased out of normal reality, they never have problems breathing.

[JudgeKing]

I also noticed that. WHy aren't they ever dead by the time the episode ends. Oh wait, they're main characters and can therefore never die unless it's of natural causes like old age.

[Tsukiyumi]

Question:

Beyond the simple gaffes often discussed (like how you'd fall through the floor), if you were "phased", wouldn't you be totally devoid of oxygen and such? Unless your whole ship or planet was shifted out of phase, wouldn't you die pretty fast?

Just something I wondered about. Whenever characters in Sci Fi wind up phased out of normal reality, they never have problems breathing.

I think Graham brings that up a few times on the main site; it really is a stretch in general. More along the lines of fantasy than sci-fi, really.

[Blackstar the Chakat]

It depends on how out of phase you are

[KuvahMagh]

It depends on how out of phase you are

If your out enough to walk through walls and be invisible and inaudible to those around you then you are a pretty hurting unit. The inaudible bit really is interesting, since sound works by traveling through air in waves then you could have canon evidence then for there to be no air around you (in your phase at least), thus no oxygen.

To carry this even further, not only would this helpless soul be gasping for breath as he tumbled through the hull into space but he would also be blind. Since we see things based on light being reflected off of them and anyone out of phase is invisible it is entirely possible that the effect would be reversed onto them as well and that light which would normally bounce off of something would be invisible to them.

The idea that a whole ship being phased is somewhat reasonable, especially compared to the usefulness of phasing a small section/group of people who would be in a race, either they die from lack of oxygen or from their blood vessels exploding in the vacuum of space once they have tumbled through the ships hull.

[Blackstar the Chakat]

It depends on how out of phase you are

If your out enough to walk through walls and be invisible and inaudible to those around you then you are a pretty hurting unit. The inaudible bit really is interesting, since sound works by traveling through air in waves then you could have canon evidence then for there to be no air around you (in your phase at least), thus no oxygen.

Dangit! Don't you know every time you bring real world physics into Star Trek a Tribble dies?

[KuvahMagh]

Dangit! Don't you know every time you bring real world physics into Star Trek a Tribble dies?

Theres enough of them around...

Edit:

I can suspend disbelief enough to accept Warp theory (for the most part) but the idea that being out of phase somehow mutates (evolves according to Voyager writers) to allow you to breath in a vacuum and see without light reflecting off of other objects while also keeping you from falling through the floor is a bit of a stretch...

[Tsukiyumi]

Dangit! Don't you know every time you bring real world physics into Star Trek a Tribble dies?

[Teaos]

Because the oxygen can pass right through your body maybe that is enough to sustain it with out really breathing.

[sunnyside]

When out of phase maybe your biological processes mostly stop and people are just seeing and moving via their psionic fields (the fields at least are cannon via Voyager).

Sort of like an out of body experience.

[Bryan Moore]

Dangit! Don't you know every time you bring real world physics into Star Trek a Tribble dies?

I award this quote fo the week!

[Sionnach Glic]

Short answer: Yes, you would.
Longer answer: The writers are complete morons with no idea what they're doing.

Dangit! Don't you know every time you bring real world physics into Star Trek a Tribble dies?

Sigged!

[Mikey]

The blindness wouldn't be from any "reversal;" rather, your retinas would be out of phase with visible light just as much as you are to others. Same with all your other senses.

[KuvahMagh]

The blindness wouldn't be from any "reversal;" rather, your retinas would be out of phase with visible light just as much as you are to others. Same with all your other senses.

What I meant was that the effect of you being invisible to others would be reversed, in other words they would also be invisible to you along with every other object.

[Mikey]

That's about the size of it; of course, it wouldn't be a problem for long - what with the inability to inspire or bond any oxygen to your hemoglobin...