Why Didn't They...

[Six of Twelve]

There are some episodes where I wondered why they didn't do things in a way that should have obviously occurred to them.

Here's my example:

In Juggernaut, why didn't they wear hazmat suits or other type of protective clothing when on the Malon freighter? For that matter, why didn't the Malon wear any protective headgear that their suits suggested they must have had. They could have avoided all that "freighter blight" that way.

 

[Tenacity]

They don't need haz mat suits, just get a injection when they returned to the ship.

 

[Six of Twelve]

Of course they needed hazmat protection in addition to the shots they got. B'Elanna developed freighter blight despite having had a shot before beaming over and needed that injection from Vesek.

I'm also interested in hearing other examples from other episodes of "Why didn't they..."

 

[marlboro]

Latent Image - Why go to all the trouble of creating an insanely complicated ruse to cover up the crewman's death when all you really need to do is change the Doctor's memory of the last moment of his fateful decision?

Nothing Human - why bother creating an exact duplicate of the evil scientist that is bound to enrage your crewmates, when all you really need is his research? And even if you HAVE to give him some sort of physical form, why no make him a Bolian, or a Tribble or something?

Things like this bother me. Not just on Voyager but in a lot of tv shows, movies, and books. Once you notice an obvious solution to the problem the characters face it cuts the legs out form under the whole story. Sometimes I'm tempted to ask people if there is something that I am missing about a story, but I'm hesitant because I don't like ruining something that they may enjoy.

 

[Tosk]

There's always the the old Voyager chestnut of why they didn't used a timed explosive to destroy the Caretaker array after going home?

 

[marlboro]

One of my favorite examples of this type of plot fail is from the old Battlestar Galactica. Amazing special effects for its time, but there was no money left for original scripts, apparently, so they ended up doing episodes like "The Gun On Ice Planet Zero." This episode is a complete ripoff of the classic war movie The Guns of Navarone. "Guns" is about Allied soldiers having to destroy two huge German guns protecting each side of a narrow channel of the sea. The Battle Star writers adapt this so that the Fleet has two navigate between two planets where each planet has a massive gun on it.

They never catch on that sailing on the ocean and sailing through space are a little different and that their starships could just go around the planets instead of insisting on going directly between them. Hell, planets rotate for that matter, so I'm not even sure how the guns were supposed to work to begin with.

 

[Triskelion]

Why didn't they conjure up another hologram exobiologist in Nothing Human, instead of a war crime doctor? What, second best exobiologist in the quadrant is not good enough to solve any problems? It's the best or nothing in the future? BTW weren't the Bajorans exploring space when humans were like in the stone age or something?? Geez, the galaxy's most useless species! No, I'm wrong - that's the Ba'ku.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

They never catch on that sailing on the ocean and sailing through space are a little different and that their starships could just go around the planets instead of insisting on going directly between them.

It's been awhile, but IIRC, the fleet had to head between the planets because the Cylons were maneuvering them into it (i.e. if they'd tried to go around, they would be attacked).

 

[JasonJ]

Why didn't they conjure up another hologram exobiologist in Nothing Human, instead of a war crime doctor? What, second best exobiologist in the quadrant is not good enough to solve any problems? It's the best or nothing in the future? BTW weren't the Bajorans exploring space when humans were like in the stone age or something?? Geez, the galaxy's most useless species! No, I'm wrong - that's the Ba'ku.

It was the early 1500s Earth CE when the Bajorans were flying their solar space ships around, and one of them eventually making it to Cardassia. So yeah, we were walking around in open sewer streets and barely knew what continents were on our planet while the Bajorans were out there in their own star system and beyond. Kinda sad, but also impressive that we caught up so damn fast (Nog mentions this in Little Green Men).

 

[F. King Daniel]

The entire series, in light of Star Trek: Discovery...

 

[The Wormhole]

Nothing Human - why bother creating an exact duplicate of the evil scientist that is bound to enrage your crewmates, when all you really need is his research? And even if you HAVE to give him some sort of physical form, why no make him a Bolian, or a Tribble or something?

Why didn't they conjure up another hologram exobiologist in Nothing Human, instead of a war crime doctor? What, second best exobiologist in the quadrant is not good enough to solve any problems? It's the best or nothing in the future?

It's especially stupid they make a whole song and dance about it being unethical to use the knowledge because of what the real Moset did despite the fact that they aren't using the real Moset's research, they're the Federation's medical database with an interactive avatar modeled to resemble Moset. So at the end, the Doctor chooses to delete legitimate medical knowledge that was likely obtained through humane methods just because the avatar he chose to be his friend was modeled after someone of a species some on the crew find objectionable. The episode really is all kinds of stupid.

And yet if it were made today it would be a perfect reflection of modern society.

 

[Discofan]

Why aren't people immortal in the trek universe? In Rascals, they seemed to have a complete understanding of how they got younger and then how to get them older.

Why not just "adjust" someone on a regular basis and keep them at their favorite age, knowing that they'll keep all their knowledge intact?

 

[marlboro]

Why aren't people immortal in the trek universe? In Rascals, they seemed to have a complete understanding of how they got younger and then how to get them older.

This is another type of gripe I have. Sometimes the writers resolved plots in ways that punish the audience for paying attention. You don't have to be some continuity obsessed weirdo to think "If Seven can revive a dead Neelix in Mortal Coil, why can't she do it every time some red shirt bites the dust?" Or "If you can just transport someone a fresh new body to solve major medical issues like in Unnatural Selection, why can't you use it to solve every medical problem?"

Mortal Coil: Instead of having Seven come to the rescue with her fabulous new superpower, why not just have Neelix die on the operating table for a few minutes and have the Doctor revive him? The episode is really about his faith, so why involve Seven in such a major way?

Unnatural Selection: If they knew Pulaski was going to be a one season only character it would have been a great way to kill off her character. You couldn't have it as the seventh episode of the season though obviously. Barring that, you could have done a Data/Pulaski team up episode that grew both of their characters which results in some B.S. technobabble miracle cure at the end. One that doesn't make you think "Well, why can't Picard just go through the transporter if he wants a new heart?"

 

[JirinPanthosa]

In False Profits why didn't they put a competent guard outside the brig?

And why didn't the shuttlecraft have any ignition codes?

 

[Discofan]

In Children of time using a tricorder, Jadzia was able to determine that people were distant relatives which implies some very precise and sophisticated analysis and comparisons of their respective DNAs and all of which was done instantaneously. So why did it take days to Solbor to determine that Dukat wasn't a Bajoran and not at most a couple of hours, long before Winn gets entangled in his web of deceit?

It seems a bit too convenient.

In Children of time, on the planet, they knew two hundred years ahead of time what could happen once they met their own ancestors (Siko and al), a paradox in and of itself. So why not hide from them (ex: in some caves at a great distance from the place they would have landed and leave that place as unchanged as possible) and wait there the "completion of the circle".

That may seem like a lot of work but they had two hundred years to do it and given a choice between a lot of work and total annihilation, I'd choose a lot of work every time!

 

[Discofan]

I am sorry, I failed to notice that this was a Voyager specific thread so I gave general Trek examples. I'll be more attentive next time.

 

[Farscape One]

"THRESHOLD"... the Doctor came up with the treatment for Paris and Janeway. Why not use it to get home?

Hell, a whole new level of exploration could occur for the Federation due to this.

It is definitely one of the most egregious, and possibly the most mentioned, 'why didn't they' for this series.

 

[Farscape One]

I am sorry, I failed to notice that this was a Voyager specific thread so I gave general Trek examples. I'll be more attentive next time.

You can always create a thread in the DS9 section and get the ball rolling there...

Or one for each series, for that matter.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

"THRESHOLD"... the Doctor came up with the treatment for Paris and Janeway. Why not use it to get home?

Hell, a whole new level of exploration could occur for the Federation due to this.

It is definitely one of the most egregious, and possibly the most mentioned, 'why didn't they' for this series.

For that matter, why not go slightly below warp 10? A few minutes at warp 9.9999 would get them home pretty fast.

 

[Discofan]

In Tuvix, there is no urgency to split Tuvix back into Neelix and Tuvok. Neither the Doctor nor Kim ever says that there is a time limit to the "operation". Janeway could have asked the doctor to see if there was a way get them all, (by making a duplicate of the transporter pattern like when they got the two Rikers). I thought Janeway was quick to kill someone who had committed no crime without even thinking of an alternative when there was no deadline and Tuvix already had existed for weeks, very un-startrek like.