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Things You Won't See in Star Trek-For Dramatic Reasons (and sometimes costs)

Odo never seems to need a court order to poke through someones quarters. Similarly, Starfleet officers can casually access anyone's personal records.

Personal privacy doesn't exist?

This is done to move the story along of course, but I would have loved to have seen Picard request someone's person data and have the computer at least challenge him for legal cause.

And not just have him then spout a over-ride code.
 
Crises are always averted at the last minute, usually the last second. The problem is never solved a nice, comfortable 20 or so minutes before a system failure/core breach/supernova.
 
Here is one. We will never see security officers, carry handcuffs on a regular basis or read someone the future version of their Miranda rights.

Jason
 
Here is one. We will never see security officers, carry handcuffs on a regular basis or read someone the future version of their Miranda rights.

Jason

The entire reading Miranda
Odo never seems to need a court order to poke through someones quarters. Similarly, Starfleet officers can casually access anyone's personal records.

Personal privacy doesn't exist?

This is done to move the story along of course, but I would have loved to have seen Picard request someone's person data and have the computer at least challenge him for legal cause.

And not just have him then spout a over-ride code.

I don't think military personnel enjoy the same privacy protections as civilians.
 
I don't think military personnel enjoy the same privacy protections as civilians.
True, a CO can look into the files of anyone aboard his/her ship without consent. It is generally frowned upon, but if there are legitimate reasons the CO an use to justify it, than it is allowed.
We will never see security officers, carry handcuffs on a regular basis
They do on Orville.
 
About Torpedoes (and transporting torpedoes just outside shields): STO tells us that shields can dissipate 90% of the force away and only take 10% of the damage.

So, basically, shields are a lot more effective than we think, they are just vulnerable to disruption by disruptor/phasers/other beams.


STO is not canon, but it gives us a good explanation.
 
1) Faster shuttlecraft
Fuel stores, power plant and design of shuttles would make this difficult. To make them faster they'd need more matter/antimatter stores and a better warp core that would reduce internal space, which would make shuttles larger which would cause problems for storing them on small ships.

2) A transporter room right next to the bridge
They have site-to-site transporters so can be beamed from anywhere on the ship, it's just not used all that often.

3) Combat Information Center instead of the bridge
With the level of automation in Starfleet tech and voice commands that can be issued, then you wouldn't need a large centre to carry out the duties and roles needed during intense combat. Granted some bridges could be doing with more consoles to make them look a little busier (the GEN version of the E-D was really how the bridge should have been from day one). As for removing characters from the action, look at how "The Last Ship" deals with a Bridge and CIC with characters split up where they need to be to press the drama/action of combat sequences, it's not an insurmountable mountain to get over (Captain and the Tactical and Ops officers in the CIC whilst the XO and Conn officer remain on the Bridge, sorted).

4) Remote probes used as effectively as they should be
Agree to some extent with this. Probes could be used to gather more data before sending people out, or replace them entirely (such as the scene in STD Ep 1, a probe would've been a far more logical choice than a single person in a suit who couldn't last long in the radiation, but moving along). But then again why would Starfleet need to send out manned ships at all, why not massive automated drones that could travel from planet to planet and collect samples, catalogue anomalies, and broadcast messages of peace.

5) Ships scanners being used realistically
Sensors will only be as clever as those that designed them. If an alien species and/or ship are unlike anything that's been seen before then the sensors may not register a threat from something that is identical to its surroundings, likewise alien technology that Starfleet has never encountered before can't be compensated for if they don't know what it is.

6) Transporters being used to the full extent of their shown capabilities
Why have viewports when every room fitted out with holo-emitters to project whatever vista people want to see. Why have turbolifts or doors when people could be beamed from room to room. Why have mess halls when food could be beamed into someone's stomachs. Why have bathrooms when waste could be beamed out of them. Where do you draw the line?

7) Speaking of photon torpedoes
Storage space would be an issue. Also there is the fact that you'd be filling the ship with hundreds of extra matter/antimatter explosions that could cause damage if targeted. Also sometimes you need the precision of a scalpel and not the force of a sledge hammer.

8) Powered exo skeletons or spacesuits
Spacesuits really should be more of a thing in Trek, it's something ENT got right (making sure they had a budget to design and build them from the beginning). As for exo-skeletons with the use of antigrav lifters and variable gravity in the ship then don't see much need for them (other than Aliens homages, "get away from her you Borg!"). Workbees also fill some of the exo-skeleton role, being small, highly-manoeuvrable craft with grapplers and able to carry substantial loads.
 
About Torpedoes (and transporting torpedoes just outside shields): STO tells us that shields can dissipate 90% of the force away and only take 10% of the damage.

So, basically, shields are a lot more effective than we think, they are just vulnerable to disruption by disruptor/phasers/other beams.


STO is not canon, but it gives us a good explanation.

STO has, or at least has had from time to time, a magical button that instantly reflects all incoming fire back at the enemy. I mean, it was good for getting a Trek fix during the long hungry years between NEM and JJTrek, but it's not indicative of anything at all. Mostly because it's impossible to reconcile Trek on the TV to what is in many, many ways WoW in Space.
 
Here is something we will never see and that is a death scene that shows how Spock,McCoy and Scotty died. First you can't use the actors anymore of course plus it would be seen as either being in bad taste or it would be seen as to depressing. Despite the fact that comic books did do a story that handled the death of McCoy were Spock comes to be with him at the end and was a favorite comic story even though it was just one out of 3 stories for that issue if I recall. If it's ever established when they died it will always be done offscreen like in "Beyond" with Spock.

Jason
 
To be honest the best "comic book death" in Star Trek in my opinion involved a character never seen or even mentioned in any incarnation of Star Trek.

The death of Scotty's wife Glynnis Campbell (shuttle accident). The entire special issue is Scotty in mourning and remembering his wife. Told in reverse flashback style beginning when Scotty is at Peter Prestons funeral (post Wrath of Khan) and ending when a 9 year old Scotty first meets 6 year Glynnis.
 
A transporter room right next to the bridge
I would think that the transporter room should be right next to sick bay, across the corridor or through a single door. And fairly close to the security "squad room."

Why do you think it should be adjacent to the bridge?
 
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I would think that the transporter room should be right next to sick bay, across the corridor or through a single door. And fairly close to the security "squad room."

Why do you think it should be adjacent to the bridge?

Allow command personnel to quickly reach destination.
 
Often enough to be dramatic.

Would you allow your house to be completely electric? As in, if the power goes out you cannot get in or out.
Break a window and climb in.

Of course that would be slightly inconvenient, given that for the purpose of breathing, space is a vacuum and there's no way to support a ladder. Not to mention you'd kill anyone on the other side of the window.

The building I live in has an electronic door system on the exterior doors, and physical keys for the suites. I asked what happens when the power goes out, and was told, "Don't worry, we have a generator."

Well, they didn't bother with it during the last wind storm that knocked out the electricity in the building. Emergency lighting in the hallways, but everything else was pitch dark. I wouldn't dare leave during a time like this, as I have zero confidence I'd be able to get back in.
 
Crises are always averted at the last minute, usually the last second. The problem is never solved a nice, comfortable 20 or so minutes before a system failure/core breach/supernova.

True. Though, of course, nearly all series use this just-in-time trope, not just Star Trek.
 
True. Though, of course, nearly all series use this just-in-time trope, not just Star Trek.
I really got tired of VOY doing this in every episode, as I always hoped for a few more minutes of character stuff instead of the crisis being averted at the last minute and the episode suddenly ending without any depth provided on how the characters would be affected by said crisis.

Kor
 
7) Speaking of photon torpedoes, I doubt you will ever see there tactical capabilities fully explored. But in the modern Trek era they are apparently the most powerful weapon starships have and apparently are both extremely long range (they can reach ships traveling at warp speed) and warp capable. Forget phasers lancing out in ship to ship battles. Each Federation ship should be simply packed with massive loads of torpedoes and fired en masse.

Well, technically, we know thanks to "The Best of both Worlds" the most powerful weapon can be the defector dish, though you get one shot and it's not technically a weapon.

Technically speaking, has there ever been a torpedo fired on something in warp? 'cause if inside warp it's technically possible since the space is being warped the torpedo doesn't have to move at warp speeds. I recall Wrof saying in an episode it would take like fifteen second to lock on to something being fired at or from a planet, so I can't imagine a torpedo being fired and hitting something in warp.



6) Transporters being used to the full extent of their shown capabilities. There are all sorts of things that the transporters can do which would eliminate things seen onscreen. For example why have a shuttlebay with big doors (a vulnerability)? As mentioned in the third season Q episode, the shuttles can simply be beamed back in to the shuttle bay. And presumably out as well. Likewise there is probably no reason to have something like photon torpedo tubes (another vulnerability). The transporter should be able to transport the torpedoes into space (inside the shield bubble) and let them go from there.

Sure there is a reason to have torpedo tubes and fire them instead of beaming them. As we know, transporters get knocked offline all the time in Trek series, so having an alternative method of firing is good; imagine how helpful you'd be if the transporters went off line (damaged or sabotage) and you couldn't only defend yourself with phasers (equally useless if it's sabotage and they are taken offline, too).

Plus we know substances and fields can disrupt or prevent transporting, so all an enemy ship has to do is be made of a disruptive substance or generate a field that prevents locking on, and again you are left with phasers.

And people talk about how lazy the writers are on this or that (including me!), so imagine the complaint of the writers were just using the transporters for everything.
 
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