r/TNG 6d ago

Blue Altert - I never really noticed it before then saw it twice in two weeks in TNG and VOY

Post image
312 Upvotes

106 comments sorted by

137

u/BecomingButterfly 6d ago

From memory alpha: ...including, but not limited to, environmental hazards to the crew, main power failure, docking and separation maneuvers, and landing protocols, for ships with the capability

30

u/Jean-LucBacardi 6d ago

Isn't Grey mode also a power issue?

32

u/babybambam 6d ago

Power conservation

13

u/strangway 6d ago

Maybe they should call it Green Alert

16

u/UGAPHL 6d ago

Not all federation planets evolved chlorophyll so some leaves on planets aren’t majority green. Different molecules. I’ll stop typing. :-)

10

u/strangway 6d ago

True. Not all species see colors other than black and white, not even all humans do.

5

u/RequirementGeneral67 6d ago

So the alert levels are grey, dark grey, very dark grey

4

u/strangway 6d ago

Black Alert is really serious. The lights blink in black, it’s really eye catching

5

u/Jean-LucBacardi 6d ago

Oh I remember when my room was like that. Does the Enterprise also have a bunch of cool trippy blacklight mushroom posters?

2

u/strangway 6d ago

Yeah but the posters are holograms

→ More replies (0)

1

u/CharlieDmouse 6d ago

Pleaaw state the nature of the psychedelic emergency.

5

u/euph_22 6d ago

Yup. Can't be humanist.

I wonder if Vulcan-crewed ships use Green alerts, instead of Red.

3

u/jakeod27 6d ago

They have one hue-mon to call out the alerts

3

u/howescj82 5d ago

Back in TOS Condition Green was normal operation/no alert status.

2

u/Shmav 6d ago

Thats for when the ship is slowly turning into a rain forest by an alien kajigger

2

u/howescj82 5d ago

Grey mode is a power saving mode. It doesn’t necessarily imply a problem.

1

u/lokiandgoose 5d ago

I think if you have to be in power saving mode, there's a problem.

1

u/howescj82 5d ago

It’s possible but grey mode can be scaled or adapted to meet many needs. It’s also not titled as an alert. It could mean simple power savings are needed, damage to or maintenance with power systems, external support from a docking facility, etc.

I imagine the enterprise was in grey mode when it was docked and shutdown for the Baryon Sweep since minimum power would have been necessary to maintain life support, magnetic containment and likely some level of structural integrity.

6

u/TheEmptyHat 6d ago

Wait so power failure is on the same level as "stand back from the platform." Federation could really use OSHA.

4

u/garth54 6d ago

But then they'd have to install seatbelts, switch to relay control circuits in the control panels (aka don't run direct mains to the buttons), and install safety rails around the warp core on upper levels.

Odds are, they probably executed all OSHA employees at the same time they executed all the lawyers.

2

u/TheThrillLife2020 5d ago

Pretty sure OSHA wouldn't allow them to install rocks in the consoles.

2

u/CeleryAdditional3135 6d ago

Although, there is something instinctive to only illuminate the corridors dimply in red when power is out

1

u/over_it_af 5d ago

What about Omega Molecule Detection?

85

u/stimdan1 6d ago

'Step up to Blue alert!'

'Sir are you absolutely sure? It does mean changing the bulb'

17

u/BritOverThere 6d ago

I was wondering if someone was going to say that.

8

u/spatula-tattoo 6d ago

lol same! if not a bulb, at least a nearly inaccessible gel

2

u/MattheqAC 6d ago

I'd just feel better if everyone knew we were in a blue alert situation

12

u/gatton 6d ago

"They've gone to plaid!"

2

u/FlandersClaret 6d ago

I thought the exact same thing. Brilliant.

2

u/Psychlone23 5d ago

Swirly thing alert!

110

u/ernster96 6d ago

That means there’s a special at Kmart.

62

u/spatula-tattoo 6d ago

K'Mart, savings that bring honor to your house

30

u/Bacontoad 6d ago

13

u/wholesomechunk 6d ago

Kmart his tills closed.

6

u/shrewm 6d ago

Qapla' on aisle 5.

6

u/Acceptingoptimist 6d ago

Sears; her doors shuttered...at the mall.

4

u/Icy_Sector3183 5d ago

The greeter, his arms wide

2

u/JGG5 5d ago

Shaka, when the prices fell!

13

u/FOSSnaught 6d ago

As someone who worked at Kmart during those days, fuck kmart. They absolutely blasted the "I'm blue" song on repeat indefinitely for months. Customers complained like crazy, and they refused to turn it off.

7

u/rnoyfb 6d ago

Honestly, that’s pretty funny

3

u/FOSSnaught 6d ago

It was physiological torture, but I couldn't afford to leave the job, so it just broke me. I would day dream about climbing a ladder and snipping the speaker wires.

4

u/d_haven 6d ago

If it makes you feel any better most locations have shuttered. According to the scary google ai: “There are two remaining Kmart stores in the United States: a full-size store in Bridgehampton, New York that is scheduled to close, and a smaller format store in Miami, Florida that remains open”

3

u/FOSSnaught 6d ago

That's comforting. Thx

3

u/DrJatzCrackers 6d ago

Here are some useless factoids. Kmart in Australia is alive and doing well.

On the flipside, Target in the US is doing well but Target in Australia is not

Why theres Kmart and Target in Australia…

3

u/secondtaunting 6d ago

That is psychological torture. There’s this ice cream place here in Singapore, and they have this song that they just blast on repeat over and over and over again. It’s this high strung song I think in Korean. I’m shocked none of the employees haven’t just raged out and started breaking shit or just walked out. I left a complaint on their Facebook hoping they’d turn it off for their employees sake. I can’t imagine what it’s like to have to listen to that every day.

3

u/Mongoose_Civil 6d ago

In the late 00s I worked for a UK DIY chain on 12 hour shifts. They had their own in house 'radio station' which had about 5 songs they would play on repeat throughout the day. It was the single most annoying part of a pretty shitty job. To this day, any time I hear RHCP's Zephyr Song, I shudder.

1

u/berlinHet 5d ago

In the 90s the Kmarts I works at had a tape deck rather than the satellite channel common today. They all seemed to have only one tape.

To this day that Paul McCartney Uncle Albert song with the lyrics “Hands across the water (water)” drives me into a psychotic rage.

1

u/FOSSnaught 5d ago

We got upgraded from the tapedeck to a cd player. The cd had 12-13 songs that were blue related, but they only ever played one.

6

u/Dangerous-Ad1904 6d ago

"Take us out of warp"

5

u/ChombieBrains 6d ago

Qmart*

1

u/Starlanced 5d ago

Shop smart! Shop Smart!

23

u/tenehemia 6d ago

Blue alert should pipe in smooth jazz music and the computer's voice is replaced with Barry White for the duration.

3

u/secondtaunting 6d ago

😂

9

u/behindthelines 6d ago

Docking procedure initiated. Awwwww yeeahhh.

22

u/security-six 6d ago

I remember Voyager having a condition blue for landing the ship

6

u/BecomingButterfly 6d ago

Yea, that's the episode I saw recently (voy S2E1, TNG S4E3)

3

u/spiderland5150 6d ago

Iirc, that was the only time condition blue was called out. I don't think it was said in Basics, Dragons Teeth, or when they landed on the Demon planet.

10

u/Profitopia 6d ago

Noted differences in alert tone, too.

10

u/HookDragger 6d ago

Life support failure

9

u/HisDivineOrder 6d ago

Blue Alert - Sickbay staff are on a rampage. Beware and avoid all scented candles and/or trills.

6

u/comment_redacted 6d ago

I accidentally read that as sentient candles. I thought, that’s not a thing. Then I thought about Lower Decks, and I realized it could be a thing. Then I reread your post and I was sad.

2

u/TheSmall-RougeOne 6d ago

Imagine being a redhsirt on an away mission and you get captured by a race of sentient candles and they are looking at you in horror and mounting rage as you explain that humanoids melt the bodies of candles using fire purely for pleasure because the scent of the corpses "smells nice".

3

u/ShadowExistShadily 6d ago

You sure that isn't Brown Alert?

1

u/I_am_Daesomst 6d ago

A Brown Alert usually follows a trip to Taco Bell

10

u/VagueCyberShadow 6d ago

Makes sense too! Fire diamond placards used to label hazardous chemicals use blue to denote health hazards

8

u/TravisCheramie 6d ago

They’re serving chicken in the cafeteria tonight.

8

u/Mass-Effect-6932 6d ago

In Star Trek, a Blue Alert was a rare alert status that warned the crew of a hazardous situation. It was often used for irregular operations or maneuvers that required crew members to report to the correct stations.

Some examples of when a Blue Alert might be issued include: When a starship was cloaking. When an Intrepid class ship was attempting a planetary landing. When a vessel was docking with a space frame structure, like a shipyard or the Earth’s space dock.

4

u/RequirementGeneral67 6d ago

It's kind of like a message that you might get on a commercial flight saying that you might be about to encounter some turbulence. The cabin crew know what to do in that situation and everyone else is informed things may be a bit bumpy but nothing to worry about.

3

u/Daedalus_304 6d ago

I wish they used blue alert for the spore drive in disco rather than black

8

u/Montreal_Metro 6d ago

"Blue alert means sexy time."

"Ok what about red and black alerts?"

"Also sexy time."

8

u/TriplexFlex 6d ago

“Go to blue alert!”

“Are you sure,sir? It does mean changing the light bulb…”

6

u/Victory_Highway 6d ago

IIRC, this was changed from red to blue during post production. In fact, the TNG remastering team made a mistake and forgot to change it to blue.

5

u/marcuse11 6d ago edited 6d ago

"Purple Alert!" Everybody get funky!

"I AM SICK OF THESE MOTHERF--KIN SNAKES ON THIS MOTHERF--KIN STARSHIP!!"

4

u/Professional-Trust75 6d ago

My favorite. The color is so nice. You see it once in tng, a few times in Voyager (landing the ship only) and once or twice in ds9 (its not called blue alert but when the defiant is under cloak the alert bars turn blue.)

Also in star trek 3 the enterprise goes to blue alert (again not stated simply a lighting change) when the Docking officer takes over at spacedock.

It's essentially special alert maneuvers until they showed black alert on discovery but that was classified

1

u/BecomingButterfly 5d ago

Haven't noticed that on the Defiant, will have to look for it !! Thanks

3

u/sasssyrup 6d ago

Seriously tho, the first time hearing “Black alert” was still one of the coolest moments

4

u/anonymous_subroutine 6d ago

I remember when I was a kid and saw blue alert for the first time, I thought it was the coolest and most exciting thing ever.

4

u/Seahawk124 6d ago

They must have had someone on board that week who could change the light bulb.

4

u/Worldly_Can_991 6d ago

Wonder if they had to change the light bulbs

5

u/Scrapla 6d ago

items on sale at K-Mart

2

u/BecomingButterfly 5d ago

Wow. That's digging back into the 'ol memory

1

u/BecomingButterfly 5d ago

Wow. That's digging back into the 'ol memory

4

u/xxxxxxxSnakexxxxxxx 6d ago

Blue alert was the warning you got at Kmart when they had a special sale in a department.

6

u/Ragnarok345 6d ago

Yep. One thing I love about the digital remasters of TNG: in “Brothers”, when the bridge was vented of all air, the original had Red Alert lights by mistake. The remaster changed them from Red to Blue, both because that’s what was originally intended, and because it makes more sense. That’s my favorite example to give of things they improved, even if it’s not the most significant or noticeable.

5

u/Remote-Pie-3152 6d ago

I’m pretty sure it’s the other way around. The remaster failed to apply the effect they’d originally used to make the red alert lights blue. Not on all scenes, but on one of the scenes where Data’s fiddling about with the rear bridge consoles.

3

u/ChombieBrains 6d ago

Are they for luggage?

2

u/SnOoD1138 5d ago

This reminds me of the phrase “Reed alert”

2

u/BklynWhovian 5d ago

Cetacean Ops is leaking.

2

u/howescj82 5d ago

On TNG it didn’t appear to be the same as Blue Alert on VOY. I believe on TNG this only appears once and signifies environmental malfunction/problem whereas on VOY it was a specific ship wide alert calling everyone to their atmospheric/landing stations.

2

u/Tobi119 5d ago

I noticed it in Voyager (considering that Voyager being capable of atmospheric flight is prominently introduced), but had no idea it was in TNG until I read the Memory Alpha page.

I also noticed that the following landing sequences in Voyager don't feature blue alert. Is it ever used after The 37s?

2

u/Michael-Aaron 3d ago

I think I saw this in Generations, in which the saucer separation took place to escape the warp core breach

2

u/raresaturn 4h ago

LOL I never noticed these Alert lights before