Spoilers A list of bad scientific errors in Discovery

[Qonundrum]

It seems like very few people here care about Star Trek being scientifically accurate.

For Trek, I think a lot of people care more about sufficiently leveled/rounded, engaging stories - with likable characters that might end up making mistakes (after characters being properly established), and the occasional questionable one (side character, villain, main character if done right, etc).

It's an element or compound that hasn't been discovered or invented yet. In my thinking, those are both natural substances - we have elements and compounds in real life - and haven't discovered them all yet. Magic entails the supernatural; things that do not exist in nature, and never can. So even if dilithium is non-existent, it can be still be intended as a fictional natural phenomena, just as Sherlock Holmes is a fictional natural character.

To put it another way: If something was magic, simply because it was made up, any device that does not exist in fiction, including genres like the detective novel, or spy novel, would be magic.

Science knows of lithium, it's not inconceivable there's dilithium as a natural (not synthetic, since Trek discusses the direct mining for it) phenomenon. It's a stretch but is closer to fiction than fantasy.

Transporters? What we know of science rules out teleportation as being plausible, so they're magic. Trek itself hasn't been consistent in any theoretical or cartoonish science going behind the how of the process. Yes, like wi-fi the waves can go through other matter. What ruins the idea is that the matter is converted to energy (read: destroyed) and then rebuilt at the other end. And if people wanted to discuss who the clone is they'd watch the 1970s sci-fi spoof "Quark". However, real life teleportation is still debated - good luck to those finding how to make it work on a scale that allows complex organisms to move like that without being killed.

Tricorders and other multipurpose scanning devices are real - just not quite as amazing.

Warp speed might be possible. But to get to another planet in a reasonable time... never mind Einstein's theory of relativity: The faster you move through space, the slower you move through time. What you're moving away from isn't slowing down temporally. Or so the theory goes, it's not been proven or disproved yet.

Now Korob's magic wand... that's just hocus pocus. And yet people often accept various accuracy/realism problems. Which suggests there's a bigger question that has less to do with the level of science accuracy that laymen know at any given time for any given work of fiction, and more to do with the being pulled and buying into the fictional universe and cultivation of suspension of disbelief. Or lack thereof. And that's when things get so complex that even Einstein would be baffled.

 

[Timo]

I guess I just don't get it.

Star Trek isn't concerned with showing us a potential future Earth 200 or 300 years from now. It instead portrays a whole galaxy with billions of years of cultural history. Surely precedent from Earth would establish beyond any reasonable doubt that Clarke's Laws hold true? We have managed in mere couple of thousand years of civilization to create technology beyond magic and completely disprove fundamental laws of nature, several times over. What possible reason would we have to think that this should somehow change in the near future - or that it wouldn't have happened elsewhere a thousand times over in a galaxy where life is abundant and diverse?

We might of course decide to watch a different show, one where there is no other life but the humans of Earth. In that case, we might sadly fail to amaze ourselves in the next 200 or 300 years (although I wouldn't bet on that). Trek is different, though, and miracles millions of years old await us in 2063 already.

Current scientific knowledge really shouldn't count for shit in a science fiction show with the specs of Star Trek. It might be of interest in Blade Runner or the like, with utterly different specs. But Trek is a great way to come to grips with the fact that our science is dead wrong and future tech will be magic. Now, Trek doesn't know exactly which way our science is wrong - but it's the concept that counts.

Which is why I absolutely loathe the insertion of headlines from yesterday's Scientific American into some Trek stories. That anachronistic and archaic nonsense just ruins the illusion. Luckily, though, fairly little of that happens on screen - it's more a novels thing. The aired material derives from safer sources such as the delightful rantings of a certain Paul Stamets, unlikely to be proven wrong any time soon.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[eschaton]

Upon further thought, I'm going to offer a (halfhearted) defense of technobabble.

There's ways in which technobabble should never, ever be used. For example, it's often used as a crutch in Trek to help solve a seemingly impossible conundrum in the episode ("reversing the polarity"). This is not only lazy writing - a classic Dues ex machina - it also limits the narrative punch of an episode, because watching a character furiously press glowing spots on a glass screen isn't that fulfilling.

However, there is an important role technobabble done correctly can play as flavor. Basically it signals to us as the viewers both that the character in question is smarter than we are, and that technology at the time period is more advanced than today. Thus the proper judicious use of seemingly meaningless jumbles of big words helps us to both define a setting and a character.

 

[ITDUDE]

Of all the issues with STD, "bad scientific errors" doesn't even make my top 10

 

[matthunter]

that depends how Earth-centric UFP science conventions are and how xenobiology develops as soon as extraterrestrial life forms get mixed into the the system.

And it is not without precedence. Eurocentric naming conventions led to misnoming in the past

Besides, whatever they're calling it is just how we the audience hear it through the universal translator.

And talking of magical science...

 

[Jedi_Master]

Sound in space.

Transporters

Visible laser weapons

Faster than light travel

Aliens that all breathe the same exact mix of air as humans.

You know, the usual.

 

[Kor]

When it comes down to it, the whole gamut of Trek is about as scientific as Conan the Barbarian.
And that's just fine.

Kor

 

[Hythlodeus]

Of all the issues with STD

I wouldn't know, I never had one, but what are the issues with your STD?

 

[DaveyNY]

I wouldn't know, I never had one, but what are the issues with your STD?

It usually involves a lot of itching and burning when peeing.
At least that's what patients at work have told me.

 

[MakeshiftPython]

Upon further thought, I'm going to offer a (halfhearted) defense of technobabble.

There's ways in which technobabble should never, ever be used. For example, it's often used as a crutch in Trek to help solve a seemingly impossible conundrum in the episode ("reversing the polarity"). This is not only lazy writing - a classic Dues ex machina - it also limits the narrative punch of an episode, because watching a character furiously press glowing spots on a glass screen isn't that fulfilling.

However, there is an important role technobabble done correctly can play as flavor. Basically it signals to us as the viewers both that the character in question is smarter than we are, and that technology at the time period is more advanced than today. Thus the proper judicious use of seemingly meaningless jumbles of big words helps us to both define a setting and a character.

Some of the best uses of technobabble IMO was in the first Barclay appearance in "Hollow Pursuits". The climax has the engineering team trying to figure out what is about to make the Enterprise explode and a lot of technobabble is being blurted out, but the climax isn't about what technobabble will save the day, it's about seeing Barclay finally coming out of his shell and saving the day. Part of this experience is what makes him realize he needs to let got of the holodeck because he's found his place in the real world where people need him.

 

[fireproof78]

Sound in space.

Transporters

Visible laser weapons

Faster than light travel

Aliens that all breathe the same exact mix of air as humans.

You know, the usual.

Pretty much. It would be nice to stop pretending that Star Trek ever was the bastion of scientific realism.

 

[Tenacity]

Now Korob's magic wand... that's just hocus pocus.

No, the episode made clear that the wand was a control mechanism.

The faster you move through space, the slower you move through time.

I can't remember if it's from the show or a fan theory, but the warp field surrounding the ship also encloses a small volume of normal space immediately around the ship. The warp bubble moves faster than light through subspace, however inside the bubble the ship is standing still in normal space. So no time dilation.

Basically it signals to us as the viewers both that the character in question is smarter than we are, and ...

They do possess advanced technical knowledge is particular areas, but I never got the impression that the characters were supposed to be smarter. Picard come off sometimes as rather dense.

but what are the issues with your STD?

Well, he didn't say "his" STD.

 

[fireproof78]

Well, he didn't say "his" STD.

 

[Kor]

Not necessarily bad science within the context of the Trek universe, but I wish they would cut down on the references to EPS conduits. It's just so B&B era.

Kor

 

[Turtletrekker]

Not necessarily bad science within the context of the Trek universe, but I wish they would cut down on the references to EPS conduits. It's just so B&B era.

Kor

EPS conduits that go nowhere and do nothing.

 

[F. King Daniel]

The last episode was about Discovery crossing dimensions to an enchanted forest where the dominant form of life were tiny fairies.

It was pretty awesome.

Scientific accuracy can pop up if Trek ever gets the hard reboot it's been crying out for for decades. Until then...

 

[Ronald Held]

Far behind on this thread. In the mycillium network,is what the crew perceived as "reality" or inputs that are made understandable?

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I can't remember if it's from the show or a fan theory, but the warp field surrounding the ship also encloses a small volume of normal space immediately around the ship. The warp bubble moves faster than light through subspace, however inside the bubble the ship is standing still in normal space. So no time dilation.

That's not a fan theory. It's an essential part of how warp drive works.

 

[Tuskin38]

Not necessarily bad science within the context of the Trek universe, but I wish they would cut down on the references to EPS conduits. It's just so B&B era.

Kor

I could be wrong, but I think this is the first time they've been mentioned in the series.

 

[fireproof78]

Scientific accuracy can pop up if Trek ever gets the hard reboot it's been crying out for for decades. Until then...

If there was ever a reason for a hard reboot this would be one.