What is THE Worst continuity error in Trek history..?!

[Curios_Gelatin]

I'm fairly certain a lot of these continuity errors were made under the presumption no one would bother to check their facts. That being said the first thing that comes to mind is the difference between Trills in TNG and Trills in DS9. Which, for my own personal peace of mind, I just pretend that that TNG episode never happened... :/

 

[BillJ]

I believe that ENT-TNG-DS9 and VOY existing in the same universe. However, Where No Man Has Gone Before, TOS-TAS may in fact takes place in its own universe. Not sure how many would agree with me. Makes the most sense when you are talking about Klingon appearances. Phase pistols. Vulcan having moons in TMP. Cloaking devices used in ENT. And so on and so fourth. BUT I fully know and recongnize that all Trek TV Series and Movies ARE cannon just in this way in these parallel universes.

There is a heck of a lot of inconsistency between the modern series as well. Easier to just go with the flow.

Heck, between "Where No One Has Gone Before" and "Q, Who", there are inconsistencies in warp speeds. Then you have the ability of the NX-01 to make it to Kronos in four days at a maximum of warp five.

 

[Kemaiku]

My pick has to be the time/speed/distance thing. Going by TOS "That Which Survives" and the movie STV: TFF, the old Enterprise could have made Voyager's journey or crossed the distance of the wormhole in a month or less. That renders the ENTIRE PREMISE of both spin-offs moot! They can't possibly coexist in the same continuity.

Don't forget that the Enterprise was suppose to be able to cover 2.7 million light-years in roughly three hundred years in "Where No One Has Gone Before".

[/QUOTE]

At 350 years, the Enterprise-D could therefore manage 7715 lightyears per year, if she sustained warp 9 the entire time.

Voyager, at 9.975, is 8548 LY/Y give or take. Just over 8 years, or if they could only manage that speed a quarter of the time, 36 years to get home.

Yeah, either Data is hilariously wrong or Voyager is one very slow ass hunk of junk.

 

[Tracy Trek]

My pick has to be the time/speed/distance thing. Going by TOS "That Which Survives" and the movie STV: TFF, the old Enterprise could have made Voyager's journey or crossed the distance of the wormhole in a month or less. That renders the ENTIRE PREMISE of both spin-offs moot! They can't possibly coexist in the same continuity.

In the map it has Voyager- 70 years at 9.9 I believe. But wasn't it the case that you could not safely maintain over a certain speed for extended periods. And that speed was lower than warp 9. There was also that thing on TNG where the higher warp speeds were damaging subspace. Although I think Voyager's adjustable nacelles were supposed to correct for that.

Another thing I wondered about Voyagers 70 year journey. Were they able to go straight through the center of the galaxy or did they have to go around it. And would that put years on the journey? I think they did, because in 2 instances they encountered voids. Could these voids have been the places between the spiral arms of the galaxy? I may be completely off base with that theory, but speculation about it is part of the fun.

 

[The Wormhole]

The 23rd century is closer to 200 years from the late 1960s than to 300 years. I'm sorry, but if you're counting in hundreds of years, 200 years is really just about right to get into the 23rd century from the late 1960s; it doesn't get any closer than that.

1960+200 = 2160. Saying 2 centuries is still a little problematic.

The 23rd century is closer to 200 years than to 300 years from that point.

No, Khan was in stasis 271 years. That's closer to 300 than it is 200.

 

[M.A.C.O.]

The entire episode of VOY "Relativity". It gets time travel wrong (and yes I know Star Trek makes up rules for time travel), and disregards continuity of previous episodes and movies, in order to tell their story.

 

[Magellan]

I can forgive things like the warp speed issues and the 22nd/23rd/28th century TOS issues because they just hadn't nailed those things down yet.

The single most irritating issue for me might be that Ktinga in Enterprise. It's so much worse because they knew it was stupid and did it anyway.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

1960+200 = 2160. Saying 2 centuries is still a little problematic.

The 23rd century is closer to 200 years than to 300 years from that point.

No, Khan was in stasis 271 years. That's closer to 300 than it is 200.

If you'd been following the conversation, we were discussing the dialog as it appeared in "Space Seed."

 

[F. King Daniel]

The single most irritating issue for me might be that Ktinga in Enterprise. It's so much worse because they knew it was stupid and did it anyway.

This never bothered me in the slightest, I was happy to see the old Klingon battcruiser again.

Enterprise went on to use a virtually-identical Bird of Prey to what we saw in the TOS movies and TNG - so if they've been using that for 300+ years, why not the K'tinga too?

 

[MacLeod]

My pick has to be the time/speed/distance thing. Going by TOS "That Which Survives" and the movie STV: TFF, the old Enterprise could have made Voyager's journey or crossed the distance of the wormhole in a month or less. That renders the ENTIRE PREMISE of both spin-offs moot! They can't possibly coexist in the same continuity.

In the map it has Voyager- 70 years at 9.9 I believe. But wasn't it the case that you could not safely maintain over a certain speed for extended periods. And that speed was lower than warp 9. There was also that thing on TNG where the higher warp speeds were damaging subspace. Although I think Voyager's adjustable nacelles were supposed to correct for that.

Another thing I wondered about Voyagers 70 year journey. Were they able to go straight through the center of the galaxy or did they have to go around it. And would that put years on the journey? I think they did, because in 2 instances they encountered voids. Could these voids have been the places between the spiral arms of the galaxy? I may be completely off base with that theory, but speculation about it is part of the fun.

Except in the case of VOY there is that small matter we are told it the pilot episode that she has a sustainable cruise velocity of Warp 9.975.

 

[Trekkin]

Probably not the worst, but it was definitely the most obvious: Kirk getting in the turbo lift with his gold shirt and getting off in his green one. Although I suppose he could have stripped off and changed in front of Charlie...

There's also Data very plot-importantly not being able to use contractions in Datalore, except for the fact that he had used them before, and continued on to use them from the next scene all the way through to the characters death.

I'm more lenient on the long-term stuff, or if the detail being changed wasn't plot important. I guess if we're talking changes to the 'lore', the seperating of the Eugenics Wars from World War III would be one. Does it count as an 'error' if it was changed on purpose?

 

[CorporalCaptain]

I think retcons are allowed and not all breaks in continuity are errors. Sometimes it's hard to know which is which.

 

[Tim Thomason]

1960+200 = 2160. Saying 2 centuries is still a little problematic.

The 23rd century is closer to 200 years than to 300 years from that point.

No, Khan was in stasis 271 years. That's closer to 300 than it is 200.

Using the current timeline, supported by Star Trek: Voyager and the Chronology (2267 - 1996), then yes, the estimate is 71 years off.

The 1979 Spaceflight Chronology, using information from the TMP production team and the vague timeline of the original series, comes up with a date of 2207 for "Space Seed", 211 years later and much closer to 200 than 300. Still 23rd century, yet also 200 years.

 

[Jedman67]

The entire episode of VOY "Relativity". It gets time travel wrong (and yes I know Star Trek makes up rules for time travel), and disregards continuity of previous episodes and movies, in order to tell their story.

That was a (mostly) enjoyable episode for me. I don't know how it gets it "wrong", star trek has never been consistent in how time travel works.

 

[stardream]

The entire episode of VOY "Relativity". It gets time travel wrong (and yes I know Star Trek makes up rules for time travel), and disregards continuity of previous episodes and movies, in order to tell their story.

That was a (mostly) enjoyable episode for me. I don't know how it gets it "wrong", star trek has never been consistent in how time travel works.

Well Time travel...who does get it right? But what were the continuity problems in that episode?

 

[Jedman67]

I believe that ENT-TNG-DS9 and VOY existing in the same universe. However, Where No Man Has Gone Before, TOS-TAS may in fact takes place in its own universe. Not sure how many would agree with me. Makes the most sense when you are talking about Klingon appearances. Phase pistols. Vulcan having moons in TMP. Cloaking devices used in ENT. And so on and so fourth. BUT I fully know and recongnize that all Trek TV Series and Movies ARE cannon just in this way in these parallel universes.

I believe all these stories actually happened in our own universe, in an era known as "the 20th Century" in a geographical region popularly called "Los Angeles". The existence of ridged and unridged klingons can easily be explained by the fluctuating income levels in "Ventura", "Beverly Hills" and "Hollywood".

 

[The Wormhole]

The entire episode of VOY "Relativity". It gets time travel wrong (and yes I know Star Trek makes up rules for time travel), and disregards continuity of previous episodes and movies, in order to tell their story.

How so?

The single most irritating issue for me might be that Ktinga in Enterprise. It's so much worse because they knew it was stupid and did it anyway.

Actually, they intended to use a new ship, and even had one designed. But there was no time/budget to do up the CG mesh for it, and their only options were to use the K't'inga the BoP or a 24th century design.

 

[Lance]

The cloaking thing I reckon can easily be explained by someone or retconned, but yeah, those kind of slip-ups are annoying

The one that has always bugged me as I find it lazy and annoying, is the young-old Picard fubar from TNG/Nemesis. I think most people here know what I mean

As in 20 year old Picard having a full head of hair in Tapestry, but a photo of 20 year old Picard being bald in Nemesis?

Some would say it was a lame attempt to convince us that Tom Hardy was a clone of Picard, but I think the answer is clear: future guy giving suliban cloaking technology a 100 years before Balance of Terror obviously alterend the time line, as well as Picard's hair line!

The longer edit of the scene, as featured on the DVD deleted scenes package, doesn't even feature a close-up of the photo at all, and is all the better for it. Beverly and Jean-Luc discuss the photo, but 'we' don't get to see it close up, leaving us much more satisfied that the man in the photo might match the Tapestry-Picard, and not simply Tom Hardy in a 23rd century uniform.

TBH, I'm less bothered by the bald head, than I am that Cadet Picard is not wearing an officer's uniform, but rather that of a non-com. Even as a Cadet he should be dressed in the equivalent officers clothes, unless Starfleet's policy on Cadet's uniforms changed at around the same time as they removed the undershirts from the Monster Maroons.....

 

[RandyS]

Speaking of eating habits...Was Chakotay a vegetarian or wasn't he?

Only when the script asked for it.

 

[Anwar]

Probably not the worst, but it was definitely the most obvious: Kirk getting in the turbo lift with his gold shirt and getting off in his green one. Although I suppose he could have stripped off and changed in front of Charlie...

Obviously they have the same tech that lets Bruce Wayne change into his Batman suit while sliding down a pole.