Things that make Star Trek episodes unbelievable

[willpittenger]

<li>We hear English all the time. It is remotely understandable when we can be "listening" to Picard's universal translator. But this is true even when there are no crew members present or listening and the speakers believe they are alone in the world (and hence, could not have learned English).<li>Most text on alien worlds tends to be English. Strange huh?<li>Since the introduction of the NCC-1701D in 1986, all civilizations appear to use flat surface touchscreen displays. Furthermore, the computers all use user interfaces that anyone can master in seconds.</li></li></li> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Will Pittenger<hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Add this user box to your Wikipedia User Page to show your support for the SDC forums: <div style="margin-left:1em">{{User:Will Pittenger/User Boxes/Space.com Account}}</div> </div>

 

[datalor]

Male pattern baldness. They can use every medical device to fix anything that ails ya, but they cant grow hair? <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[starsinmyeyes44]

Crewmembers beam down to various planets and breathe in the alien mold spores, fungi, bacteria, viruses, etc. and don't get sick. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#ff00ff">In the book of life, the answers aren't in the back.<br /></font><strong>Charlie Brown</strong></p> </div>

 

[willpittenger]

Now that you got me thinking about it ... It seems life here on Earth had to choose between left-handed molecules and right-handed ones. It seems that the only difference is that part of the molecule is reversed. The problem is that you can't digest the wrong one. I don't remember more. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Will Pittenger<hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Add this user box to your Wikipedia User Page to show your support for the SDC forums: <div style="margin-left:1em">{{User:Will Pittenger/User Boxes/Space.com Account}}</div> </div>

 

[docm]

<font color="yellow">We hear English all the time. It is remotely understandable when we can be "listening" to Picard's universal translator. But this is true even when there are no crew members present or listening and the speakers believe they are alone in the world (and hence, could not have learned English).</font><br /><br />Production budget limitations prevent creating a new language, or several, for every narrative. That said Klingonee is a well developed and often used language in film and TV. Some colleges even have a course in it. In fact my wife can speak it.<br /><br /><font color="yellow">Most text on alien worlds tends to be English. Strange huh?</font><br /><br />Not generally true. Numerous episodes have them trying to figure out alien controls by layout because the labels are indecipherable. Many alien texts are shown, one example is Klingonee. Likewise Romulan, Cardassian and Vulcan texts are often shown. <br /><br /><font color="yellow">Since the introduction of the NCC-1701D in 1986, all civilizations appear to use flat surface touchscreen displays. Furthermore, the computers all use user interfaces that anyone can master in seconds. </font><br /><br />Klingon interfaces are heavy on push buttons & Klingon text. Other civilizations likewise have major differences such as thought control (Tin Man) or the like. Still; wouldn't advanced civilizations gravitate to panel displays anyhow? Low maintenance, reconfigurable, ease of replacement etc.<br /><br />That's why you're going to see them in car dash's sooner than you think.<br /><br />As for figuring out the interfaces; in numerous episodes they have had to figure things out by configuration, and sometimes failing miserably.<br /><br /><font color="yellow">Male pattern baldness. They can use every medical device to fix anything that ails ya, but they cant grow hair?</font><br /><br />Or maybe they're not as vain as some current humans are?<br /><br /><font color="</safety_wrapper"></font> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[baktothemoon]

How about the fact that you can vaporize someone with a toy pistol without any recoil whatsoever? And dont even mention the foreheads.

 

[docm]

I could vaporize your midsection with a dolly-mounted CO2 laser and not have it recoil. Radiation has no mass, therefore no recoil.<br /><br />I like the foreheads & ears. They're cute <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[a_lost_packet_]

<font color="yellow">docm - BTW: the vast majority of DNA (B-DNA) is right handed but there is a variant called Z-DNA that is left handed, so you don't have to go to alien worlds to get involved with 'reverse' molecules. </font><br /><br />I remember reading an interview with Richard Feynman where he went on and on about the various craziness of chemistry, specifically, weird handedness amongst molecules. Feynman could do some of the most difficult things in physics and make 'em seem simple, yet when confronted with chemistry would slowly back away from the table, shake his head and walk off in bemused amazement. <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /> (Or something like that.) Damn, I would have loved to have gone to his lectures. What a funny guy.<br /><br />(Can't find a decently priced lecture recording series either.. :/ /grrr)<br /><br />The biggest "unbelievable" thing for me is the ship stopping dead in space because the impulse engines cut out. Not warp drive, which I could have maybe dealt with, but impulse. To me, that was always "bad." Later, they sort of got away from that by saying "adrift" instead of "dead in space/stopped." But, not often enough. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font size="1">I put on my robe and wizard hat...</font> </div>

 

[vogon13]

Star Trek (in all it's manifestations) has never encountered a 'motie-like' species.<br /><br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#ff0000"><strong>TPTB went to Dallas and all I got was Plucked !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#339966"><strong>So many people, so few recipes !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#0000ff"><strong>Let's clean up this stinkhole !!</strong></font> </p> </div>

 

[yevaud]

Fyun'ch Click, Buddy. Fyun'ch click. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Differential Diagnosis:  </em>"<strong><em>I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are</em></strong>."<br /> </p> </div>

 

[willpittenger]

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>And don't even mention the foreheads.<p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br />You talking about Klingons? They were retconned in a ENT episode from the final season. Until then through, it was mighty strange. I always assumed that they would explain it as simply the TOS episodes would have featured the later forehead if the producers had been able to get it into the budget. (That was Roddenberry's explanation.) But the DS9 episode <i>Trials & Tribulations</i> made that impossible. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Will Pittenger<hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Add this user box to your Wikipedia User Page to show your support for the SDC forums: <div style="margin-left:1em">{{User:Will Pittenger/User Boxes/Space.com Account}}</div> </div>

 

[a_lost_packet_]

Hmm..<br /><br />Maybe bits and pieces of "motie-like" things in several different episodes. But, not all rolled up into one.<br /><br />I have yet to see them adequately come against a purely mechanical species. That's a slight bug for me. I'd love to see what The Federation would do against something like Gregory Benford's "Mechanicals" machine civilization. FYI, they're on their way to climbing into a Type 3 Civilization driver's seat.... And don't particularly have a fondness for us meatbags. A classic "Men in the Walls" type story. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font size="1">I put on my robe and wizard hat...</font> </div>

 

[willpittenger]

<p>In reply toroduction budget limitations prevent creating a new language, or several, for every narrative. That said Klingonee is a well developed and often used language in film and TV. Some colleges even have a course in it. In fact my wife can speak it.<br />I know. But it does help. Use of Klingonee actually makes the problem worse.<br /><br />In reply to:In reply to:Most text on alien worlds tends to be English. Strange huh?Not generally true. Numerous episodes have them trying to figure out alien controls by layout because the labels are indecipherable. Many alien texts are shown, one example is Klingonee. Likewise Romulan, Cardassian and Vulcan texts are often shown.<br />But none of those are pre-First-contact either.<br /><br />In reply to:Klingon interfaces are heavy on push buttons & Klingon text. Other civilizations likewise have major differences such as thought control (Tin Man) or the like. Still; wouldn't advanced civilizations gravitate to panel displays anyhow? Low maintenance, reconfigurable, ease of replacement etc.<br /><br />That's why you're going to see them in car dash's sooner than you think.<br /><br />As for figuring out the interfaces; in numerous episodes they have had to figure things out by configuration, and sometimes failing miserably.<br />Sometimes. Not always. As for pre-first contact situations, that does not jibe with the use of old fashioned controls in TOS. Also, in Voyager, Janeway and others readily operate and read Borg control panels. In one episode, Tuvok can tell at a glance were to put explosives even though the Borg would presumably attempt to defeat such attempts by changing their appearance often. (Drones would adapt.)<br /><br /></p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Will Pittenger<hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Add this user box to your Wikipedia User Page to show your support for the SDC forums: <div style="margin-left:1em">{{User:Will Pittenger/User Boxes/Space.com Account}}</div> </div>

 

[docm]

<font color="orange">BTW: the vast majority of DNA (B-DNA) is right handed but there is a variant called Z-DNA that is left handed, so you don't have to go to alien worlds to get involved with 'reverse' molecules.</font><br /><br /><font color="yellow">Maybe. However, you still should not go to Vulcan and expect to eat anything they put in front of you with the expectation that you could get plenty of nutrition from it.</font><br /><br />Remember the episode where Picard and several other humanoids track an artifact's DNA sequences across the galaxy then find that placed in a tricoder they play back a recording by a female the first humanoid species? She told them they were all decedents of her species that had been seeded on new worlds.<br /><br />If that were the case then those species should share a lot, including the ability to break down many of the same foods. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[docm]

<font color="yellow">Also, in Voyager, Janeway and others readily operate and read Borg control panels. In one episode, Tuvok can tell at a glance were to put explosives even though the Borg would presumably attempt to defeat such attempts by changing their appearance often. (Drones would adapt.)</font><br /><br />Picard was for a time a Borg and presumably learned much about their systems. If so do you really think that info wouldn't be distributed and inserviced for tactical purposes? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[a_lost_packet_]

<font color="yellow">docm - If that were the case then those species should share a lot, including the ability to break down many of the same foods. </font><br /><br />Good point. Then again, she could have been full of it. <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /><br /><br />"Oh yeah, and, uh.. yeah, you guys are all from the same genetic stock. Errm.. yeah, that was us. We are your creators.." (giggle in the background) "Yeah, and " <psst tell them they're all supposed to explode in 3829 /> (Guffaw) "Bwaha.. hermph, ahem.. And, I have some bad news for you" (choke)(s&%$#@!) "you're all gonna explode in the year 3829!" (rofl in the background) <lol, tell them (s&%$#@!) "We have already a got a one you silly English pigdogs!" (LOL)> (Collapses in rolling hysteria)<br /><br /><img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /><br /><br />Of course, if they're all from similar genetic stock, there's a simple way to confirm that. Ask Kirk. He's seen more anatomy than the Vulcan Science Academy. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font size="1">I put on my robe and wizard hat...</font> </div>

 

[baktothemoon]

I meant how every single alien race looks human except for a different forehead and some spots or other marks, there are only a few "actual" alien races.

 

[docm]

Knowing Kirk he was probably hitting on half the Vulcan Science Academy <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[pyoko]

(not to compare Star Trek to opera) Opera stories have people all singing in Italian and communicate by whailling at the top of their voices. I think it's comparable, in a vague way.<br /><br />- general look of aliens. Human with a mask and a feather sticking out of the bum = alien.<br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p> </p><p><span style="color:#ff9900" class="Apple-style-span">-pyoko</span> <span style="color:#333333" class="Apple-style-span">the</span> <span style="color:#339966" class="Apple-style-span">duck </span></p><p><span style="color:#339966" class="Apple-style-span"><span style="color:#808080;font-style:italic" class="Apple-style-span">It is by will alone I set my mind in motion.</span></span></p> </div>

 

[pmn1]

There is a book called 'Spock Must Die' that brings up the left and right versions.<br /><br />Thre Klingons put an energy shield up around Organia which stops them from 'interfering in Klingon matters' - ie destruction of the Federation - it also has the effect of creating a second Spock when he is teleported there.<br /><br />They work out who is the good one in the end by realising the good Spock has been eating in front of everyone for the several weeks it takes to get to Organia while avoiding the Klingons.<br /><br />Eventually Kirk, McCoy, good Spock etc defeat the shield and let the Organians out after which they interdict all Klingon space travel for 1,000 years - it would have made an interesting film if it had been made but you'd have to say bye bye Klingons.<br /><br />http://www.amazon.co.uk/Spock-Must-Die-Star-Trek/dp/0553246348/ref=pd_ecc_rvi_1/202-7483975-5213400?ie=UTF8&qid=1191331746&sr=1-3<br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[willpittenger]

I have troubles believing the Organians would be stopped by any technology. It would be like trying to keep Q out of your hair. If such a technology was developed, I would expect the Organians (or Q) to make it malfunction, probably to the detriment of the Klingon scientests. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Will Pittenger<hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Add this user box to your Wikipedia User Page to show your support for the SDC forums: <div style="margin-left:1em">{{User:Will Pittenger/User Boxes/Space.com Account}}</div> </div>

 

[willpittenger]

I thought I said that the Borg would change things constantly. The drones will adapt. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Will Pittenger<hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Add this user box to your Wikipedia User Page to show your support for the SDC forums: <div style="margin-left:1em">{{User:Will Pittenger/User Boxes/Space.com Account}}</div> </div>

 

[willpittenger]

As I recall, the Andorians were left out of that episode. While I have not heard much about Andorian food, it might apply more than Vulcan food. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Will Pittenger<hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Add this user box to your Wikipedia User Page to show your support for the SDC forums: <div style="margin-left:1em">{{User:Will Pittenger/User Boxes/Space.com Account}}</div> </div>

 

[willpittenger]

You would rather have something more like Star Trek and the Gungans? Are you a Jar Jar fan? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Will Pittenger<hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Add this user box to your Wikipedia User Page to show your support for the SDC forums: <div style="margin-left:1em">{{User:Will Pittenger/User Boxes/Space.com Account}}</div> </div>

 

[lsbd]

things that make ST unbelievable??<br /><br />how about the whole freakin concept of the show??<br /><br />1. FTL travel<br />2. reliable artificial gravity<br />3. energy/matter converter aka transporter<br />4. you never saw anyone enter a lavatory<br />5. there was never any mention of said lavatory<br />6. food replicators<br />7. the corridors of the Federation's most advanced Starship looked like the hallway of a 1965 Holiday Inn<br />(very unPC and most definitely joking here) <br />8. An African American communications officer? I didn't know the official language of the Federation was EBONICs.<br />9. An asian helmsman??? EVERYONE knows asians can't drive a freaking car, let alone navigate a starship.<br />10. Kirk getting all the women??? heck, he wasn't even that good looking<br /> shall I go on?<br /><br />CLUE: Star Trek was/is a freaking science FICTION TV show. It doesn't have to be believable.