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

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Anyone remember recording TV shows on audio tape? A unique way to experience a show, which younger people will never know.

Pretty sure as a kid in the 80s, I had the Voyage Home on audio tape for long car trips. Self recorded, of course...
 
Kang, Koloth, and Kor looked like they may have already been the equivalent of middle aged men when they first appeared in TOS.

Those three Klingons showed up again in DS9. This time all of them had ridges. Also, each one of them must have been well over 100 years old by then. However fast or slow Klingons age, the fact was that 100 or so years had passed since their days in TOS.

They may have been retired, but they were still very agile and combat capable. They didn't act like decrepit old men, like McCoy was when he appeared in TNG.

McCoy drank too many mint juleps and bourbon, it caught up with him in the end. One of the novels had him die peacefully at age 140. (Crucible series)
:biggrin:
 
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I think Scotty preferred Scotch, or that green stuff.
I thought it was funny when Scotty was on the Enterprise D. When he requests real liquor, Data finds a bottle of something green. And is momentarily at a loss for words. In the end he can only tell him, "It is green". A nice nod to the similar line in the TOS episode By Any Other Name. Picard later identifies it as Aldeberen whisky.
 
I don't really see a problem with Klingons aging faster than humans. Compared to other species from our own planet, we age very slowly.

Yes, but if you compare Humans to the other species on Earth that extraterrestrial observers might consider to be - like Humans - semi intelligent or even fully intelligent - you will see that all those high intelligence species tend to grow and age slowly and live longer.
 
I wouldn't say this is THE WORST, but it always strikes me whenever I watch WoK. Everyone knows it. It's when Khan sees Chekov and recognizes him and says "I never forget a face" even though Chekov wasn't in "Space Seed." I've heard retcon arguments to explain this, basically saying just because we didn't see Chekov in Space Seed doesn't mean he wasn't on the ship somewhere and encountered Chekov. But honestly I don't really buy that, lol. It's not a big deal but it sticks out.
 
Dmitri Valtane dying in VOY Flashback, but being shown alive and well at the end of TUC.

1) If you accept the theory that almost every episode of an episodic TV series happens in an alternate universe of its own, different from the universes of other episodes in that series, then "Flashback" happens in an alternate universe where the events of Star Trek VI: the Undiscovered Country happened differently, including Valtane being killed.

2) Dr. Isaac Asimov was a Doctor of Biochemistry (1948) and an assistant Professor of Biochemistry at Boston University School of Medicine until he became a full time writer in 1958. In Robert Heinlein's Between Planets (1951) the hero feels no grudge about his friend dying from reported "heart failure" until he remembers being taught that any cause of death can be described as "heart failure". In those days the medical definition of death was the heart stopping.

Asimov wrote that while being briefed about his heart surgery his doctor said something like: "First we're going to stop your heart, and then___". To someone with Asimov's medical education that was like being told that they were going to kill him and bring him back to life, like suddenly finding himself in a science fiction story.

If Star Trek VI: the Undiscovered Country and "Flashback" happen in the same timeline, perhaps Valtane was killed in the battle with Kang's ship and then the doctors brought him back to life before the last scene.

IN "The Neutral Zone" Dr. Crusher brought three persons back to life after their corpses had been frozen for over three hundred years. So possibly the Excelsior's doctors could have brought Valtane back to life.
 
If you accept the theory that almost every episode of an episodic TV series happens in an alternate universe of its own, different from the universes of other episodes in that series, then "Flashback" happens in an alternate universe where the events of Star Trek VI: the Undiscovered Country happened differently, including Valtane being killed.

It would have to, if for no other reason that ST VI:TUC takes over a month between the destruction of Praxis and Enterprise even getting underway to go escort Gorkon to Earth, a minimum of two more days before Kirk and McCoy get arrested for Gorkon's assassination, at least four more before they get rescued from Rura Penthe, etc. The Flashback memories take about three days total. I'm of a mind that the entire set of memories that Tuvok experienced were manufactured by the alien bacteria, and had little to nothing to do with what actually happened to him during that time.
 
I wouldn't say this is THE WORST, but it always strikes me whenever I watch WoK. Everyone knows it. It's when Khan sees Chekov and recognizes him and says "I never forget a face" even though Chekov wasn't in "Space Seed." I've heard retcon arguments to explain this, basically saying just because we didn't see Chekov in Space Seed doesn't mean he wasn't on the ship somewhere and encountered Chekov. But honestly I don't really buy that, lol. It's not a big deal but it sticks out.

This is easy to explain if you accept the theory that almost every episode of an episodic TV series happens in an alternate universe of its own, different from the universes of other episodes in that series.

In "I, Mudd" Chekov didn't know about Harvey Mudd from "Mudd's Women". So in the alternate universe of "Mudd's Women" and "I, Mudd" Chekov first came aboard the Enterprise long enough after "Mudd's Women" that he never heard about the incident.

In "The Deadly Years" Checkov and Sulu smile when Kirk mentions corbomite. So "The Corbomite Maneuver" and "The Deadly Years" could happen in an alternate universe where Chekov boarded the Enterprise soon enough to hear about or even experience "The Corbomite Maneuver".

So there seem to be alternate universes where Chekov boards the Enterprise at different times anyway even without worrying about Khan recognizing Chekov.

So perhaps "Space Seed" and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan happen in an alternate universe where Chekov boarded boarded the Enterprise soon enough to experience "Space Seed" and be introduced to Khan off screen. Maybe Chekov was in the group that beamed down to Ceti Alpha V and talked to Khan about something. Maybe Chekov accused Khan of launching a missile attack that vaporized some of Chekov's Russian ancestors and Khan said he ordered the attack in retaliation for a Russian attack that destroyed many Indian cities. ("..whole populations were being bombed out of existence..")

Or maybe "Space Seed" and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan happen in different alternate universes. Maybe in the alternate universe of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan Chekov was in the dinner scene and said something. Maybe Chekov was one of the officers Khan tried to persuade to serve him.
 
It would have to, if for no other reason that ST VI:TUC takes over a month between the destruction of Praxis and Enterprise even getting underway to go escort Gorkon to Earth, a minimum of two more days before Kirk and McCoy get arrested for Gorkon's assassination, at least four more before they get rescued from Rura Penthe, etc. The Flashback memories take about three days total. I'm of a mind that the entire set of memories that Tuvok experienced were manufactured by the alien bacteria, and had little to nothing to do with what actually happened to him during that time.

Perhaps those events were not Earth months and days after the Praxis explosion:

SPOCK: Good morning. Two months ago a Federation starship monitored an explosion on the Klingon moon Praxis

http://www.chakoteya.net/movies/movie6.html

TUVOK: This battle was precipitated by an incident that took place three days earlier.

http://www.chakoteya.net/Voyager/225.htm

Note that Spock, a Vulcan, says at the meeting that Praxis exploded 2 months ago, and Tuvok, another Vulcan, says that an event after the meeting happened three days after Praxis exploded. Maybe Spock and Tuvok were talking about the same Vulcan time unit, a Vulcan month/day or day/month, that was translated as "month" in Star Trek VI: the Undiscovered Country and translated as "day" in "Flashback". If Vulcan is tidally locked to another world it's day would be the same length as it's month.

Though Spock says Vulcan has no moon in "The Man Trap", "Yesteryear" shows another celestial body in Vulcan's sky, and Star Trek: The Motion Picture shows two, one much larger than the other.

Maybe a Vulcan month/day is both a Vulcan month and a Vulcan day if they are the same length.

Perhaps a Vulcan month/day is the time for all four bodies to become aligned again, so that the sun and the two other bodies are at the same apparent angles in the sky as seen from Vulcan. Nobody knows how long that would be. Thus the battle in "Flashback" could be one Vulcan month/day after the meeting and three .Vulcan month/days after the Praxis explosion.

It is even conceivable that a Vulcan day is somehow longer than a Vulcan month, as a Marian sol or day is 24 Earth hours and 40 Earth minutes long, while the month of Phobos as seen from the Martian surface is just 0.311 days. Thus events between the meeting and the battle might happen over more than one third of the time since Praxis exploded. But since the Vulcan day does't seem terribly long in Enterprise episodes there probably wouldn't be enough time for everything to happen.
 
  • No cloaks in the mirror universe according to "The Emperor's New Cloak" but they'd been seen in "Through the Looking Glass".
  • Dominion being around for 2000 years in "To the Death" and 10000 years in "The Dogs of War" and back to 2000 years in "What You Leave Behind".
  • Section 31 being around for over 300 years as of "Tacking into the Wind", which would put it being founded before 2075 and even Earth Starfleet was only founded in 2130s (according to MA).
  • No one knowing what a Breen looks like even though multiple times in the series people were mugging Breen and stealing their outfits.
At the time these annoyed me more than some Voyager shuttle bullshit because I expected Voyager to not give a shit while DS9 was normally pretty great with continuity.

Perhaps it is "two thousand" (1,000-3,000) years of type A equaling "Ten thousand" (9,000-11,000) years of type B. Thus years of type A could be 3.0 to 11.0 times as long as years of type B.
 
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It's not a huge thing but it seems to happen every 3rd episode, beaming through shields. The only series that isn't continually guilty of it was ENT and that was because they didn't have them.
 
Not a continuity error but what is a supposedly advanced and enlightened 23rd century Earth having a 17 year old in combat! In RL UK you have to be 18. (I am assuming other Federation species have their own rules as well).

I recently looked at a UK Army site and it said the minimum age to enlist in the regular army is 16, though no doubt the UK has signed treaties forbidding combat assignment until the age of 18.

Maybe the 23rd century earth is more enlightened than the present in most ways but less enlightened in some other ways. Like many people would agree that 2016 society is more enlightened than 1966 society in most ways but less enlightened than 1966 in some other ways while disagreeing about which differences fall into which category. DO NOT DEBATE ABOUT THIS BECAUSE IT IS OFF TOPIC!!!

Unenlightened aspects of 23rd century include General Order 24 and the Organian's belief that the Federation sometimes committed genocidal acts:

KIRK: All that it means is that I won't be around for the destruction. You heard me give General Order Twenty Four. That means in two hours the Enterprise will destroy Eminiar Seven.

http://www.chakoteya.net/StarTrek/23.htm

AYELBORNE: To wage war, Captain? To kill millions of innocent people? To destroy life on a planetary scale? Is that what you're defending?

http://www.chakoteya.net/StarTrek/27.htm

If children who stay on their home planets face the possibililty of being killed by weapons of mass destruction in times of war, perhaps it is not considered too dangerous for some children to choose to join Starfleet and face danger in space battles.

He stops before a BRIGHT-FACED FOURTEEN-YEAR OLD, stand-
ing so stiff he looks like he'll break -- in an
engineer's uniform.

KIRK
(continuing)
And who is this?

PRESTON
(breathless)
Midshipman First Class Peter Preston,
engineers mate, SIR.

A big salute. Kirk is amused, returns the salute.

http://www.st-minutiae.com/resources/scripts/twok.txt
 
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I've heard retcon arguments to explain this, basically saying just because we didn't see Chekov in Space Seed doesn't mean he wasn't on the ship somewhere and encountered Chekov. But honestly I don't really buy that
Why not? The only thing we really know about when Chekov started serving on the Enterprise is that it had to be some point after Mudd's Women, as he didn't know Harry Mudd in I, Mudd. He could easily have transferred on anytime between Mudd's Women and Space Seed.
 
Perhaps those events were not Earth months and days after the Praxis explosion:



http://www.chakoteya.net/movies/movie6.html



http://www.chakoteya.net/Voyager/225.htm

Note that Spock, a Vulcan, says at the meeting that Praxis exploded 2 months ago, and Tuvok, another Vulcan, says that an event after the meeting happened three days after Praxis exploded. Maybe Spock and Tuvok were talking about the same Vulcan time unit, a Vulcan month/day or day/month, that was translated as "month" in Star Trek VI: the Undiscovered Country and translated as "day" in "Flashback". If Vulcan is tidally locked to another world it's day would be the same length as it's month.

Though Spock says Vulcan has no moon in "The Man Trap", "Yesteryear" shows another celestial body in Vulcan's sky, and Star Trek: The Motion Picture shows two, one much larger than the other.

Maybe a Vulcan month/day is both a Vulcan month and a Vulcan day if they are the same length.

Perhaps a Vulcan month/day is the time for all four bodies to become aligned again, so that the sun and the two other bodies are at the same apparent angles in the sky as seen from Vulcan. Nobody knows how long that would be. Thus the battle in "Flashback" could be one Vulcan month/day after the meeting and three .Vulcan month/days after the Praxis explosion.

It is even conceivable that a Vulcan day is somehow longer than a Vulcan month, as a Marian sol or day is 24 Earth hours and 40 Earth minutes long, while the month of Phobos as seen from the Martian surface is just 0.311 days. Thus events between the meeting and the battle might happen over more than one third of the time since Praxis exploded. But since the Vulcan day does't seem terribly long in Enterprise episodes there probably wouldn't be enough time for everything to happen.

Honestly, I think it's more logical (there's a word) to assume that the memory virus messed up Tuvok's memory, probably temporarily, to the point that he needed to go back and reassemble it from the fragments the virus created and figure out how long it actually took for those events to occur. The writer of Flashback is more likely to have not done due diligence in his research than to have been messing about with how long Vulcan days and months are compared to those of Earth.
 
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