What The Heck?....That Makes No Sense.

In the process of watching any TOS episode, did you ever question why a character said or did something that was borderline ridiculous?

I'll start off.......in Miri, Kirk picks up a tricycle and then hands it to Spock, who looks like he's thinking, "What the heck?......"

 

Its a bit tricky not to include mistakes.
Here's one we've been discussing on another thread from "That Which Survives". Scotty says to Spock to flush him out of the ship (to his death presumably) or something when hes trying to fix a problem if he upsets the polarity or something. Problem with that is the ship is going to blow up in 10 seconds anyway unless he fixes the problem.
Maybe this scenario is a little too complicated for what you're thinking?

 

Here is my answer from that thread:

"First they said that nothing in the universe could prevent the antimatter reactor from exploding. Then they said it could be prevented if you stop up the fuel line. And then it seems you can prevent the explosion by jettisoning the service crawlway compartment out to space, which would take a section of the fuel line with it and shut down the reactor. So why did Scotty ever have to get into the crawlway in the first place? They could have jettisoned it right away, with no one inside.

My explanation is that Scotty was trying to prevent the explosion without crippling the ship. If you jettison that compartment to break the fuel line, the ship will coast to a stop and be stranded in interstellar space. There would be no way to restore the warp drive. A predicament like this actually happened in "The Paradise Syndrome", and we just have to assume the Enterprise puttered around Miramanee's solar system after the story ended, waiting for a space tug to arrive. They still have subspace radio, but it's a big deal for a capital ship to become helpless and need its nanny. Very embarrassing and very expensive."

 

The Naked Time: Accessing the door controls by carefully cutting thru a bulkhead near sensitive parts, slowly, gingerly, using a carefully drawn template, so as not to cause a small explosion, even though the ship is about to crash in mere minutes - when they could have just cut thru the damn DOOR!!

 

Pretty much all of Star Trek. But, I love it anyway.

 

In "Elaan of Troyus" Spock just by chance having a Dilithium crystal detector on him when he needed one. He didn't have one on in "Mudds Women. Just saying.

 

In "Patterns of Force," Kirk and Spock are fitted with subcutaneous transponders so the Enterprise can keep track of them even if they lose their communicators.

Seems like a good idea, which kinda makes you wonder why this wasn't standard procedure?

 

In the TMP novelization, Kirk has a Starfleet greeblie implanted in his head that lets the fleet send him scary pictures without warning - presumably they could also use this to keep tabs on the guy. Don't recall if this was just something they did to flag-rank officers, of if everyone had this done to them, though.

 

I think some things got lost as the story was scripted and finalized.

Here's how the Revised Story Outline for "Survival" (August 8, 1968) describes the situation:
The matter-antimatter control is inoperative; it has been inexplicably and totally destroyed. Scott can fix it, if he begins now... but he might not have enough time. The area where he must work is tight and cramped -- room for just one man. Scott scrambles in and gets to work. The uncontrolled matter-antimatter mixture that provides warp power is almost out of control and will explode in ten minutes -- more or less. At this point, it's impossible to tell -- and just one man can do the job: Scott. Kirk clears the entire "disposable" warp nacelle area, moving all personnel into the saucer section. If they must jettison the nacelles, it is understood by both Scott and Kirk that Scott might not have the time to get out before the thing blows.

And here's how the relevant part appears in the First Draft of "That Which Survives" (September 9, 1968):
INT. CRAWLWAY - CLOSE - SCOTT

SCOTT
All right, Mr. Spock, I'm now opening the access panel to the magnetic flow valve itself. Keep your eye on the dial. If there's a jump in magnetic flow you must jettison me and the entire matter-antimatter nacelle immediately. It will blow in two seconds after the rupture of the magnetic field.

And you know how the above scene wound up in the finished episode.

 

Those subcutaneous transponders are also handy for burning through jail doors.

 

Shoulda used it in Naked Time to get through the door.

 

See that wasn't so hard but it was S3. Probably too many extras to pay for. So maybe S3 faults were a combo of finance and a producer who didn't care/know.

Or tried intraship beaming.

Trouble with that is that many episodes wouldn't have had the drama if our heroes could just be retrieved at will, A good idea for one story ruins it for the rest of them.

OK I'm going to mention the elephant in the room. Why not just beam down blankets to the guys on the planet in "Enemy Within"?

 

Because the transporter would have split them in two, effectively unweaving them and sending the landing party a ball of string.

 

So I wonder....if they beam down 1/2 of Kirk, would that split him again into 1/4 Kirk.

 

Too bad they weren't on a starship from 10 years before.

Cutting into the wall instead of the door might be because they wanted to take Reilly by surprise. Cutting through the door would have been noisy (The Way to Eden), and Reilly would have heard them cutting, and he could have done something unpredictable.

Also the doors into engineering could have been tougher than average.

 

It's dangerous but not unheard of.

 

If you think about it, there is no reason for intraship beaming to be dangerous, if beaming over to a space station or down to a planet is routine. All beaming requires pinpoint accuracy, or else your feet might be melded into the ground when you arrive.

 

At the end of "Wolf in the Fold" why did Kirk think Scotty and McCoy were in no condition to go looking for prostitutes but OK to man a Starship?

 

Probably because the computers did all the work anyway, Sleer?
JB

 

They were as high as kites. I would be afraid of them deciding to stun everyone on the planet or land on the planet.