Your favorite TNG plot holes

[PureCrimson]

Well - remember in the first few episodes of TNG S1 Data used contractions just fine. Then, suddenly as of TNG S1 - "Datalore", it was said Data COULDN'T use contractions.

[Guess Data's operating system was based on MS Windows; and he must have gotten an update depricating his contraction speaking abilities...]

Worse is that the mistake happens in THIS episode still, when it eventually becomes a plot point too.
As a director or script supervisor, I feel like I would've gone through Data's dialogue with a fine-tooth comb to avoid this mistake, or correct Spiner if he happened to slip up a take.

 

[Elephant999]

What happened to Ensign Ro after her departure? That’s always bugged me.

 

[Nakita Akita]

What happened to Ensign Ro after her departure? That’s always bugged me.

She joined a rebal group.
Maybe the Marquis?

 

[Timo]

Naah. She went back to school, and came out Lieutenant.

And then joined the Maquis.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[at Quark's]

- "Conundrum" (when the whole crew loses their memory): MacDuff makes himself Commander, subject to the captain's orders. The obvious choice would've been to make yourself captain so everyone had to obey.

I was lucky in that this was (one of) the very first episode(s) of TNG I ever saw. I didn't even know all the main characters yet so I only found out that McDuff didn't really belong there at the same time the other crew members did. Made the episode a good deal more enjoyable

All the times Troi's empathy could have been super useful. Like Matter of Time, she only gets some vague feeling that maybe somebody is not being completely honest, when in fact he is a normal human just maliciously lying outright.

Makes me think of this old sev trek cartoon: http://sevspace.com/stupidarchive/sevtrek045.asp.htm

I had to think of one in Disaster (not really a plot hole though) : What do you do when you design a cargo bay? You make sure that the controls for opening the doors and repressurising the bay are at least 10m apart, so that you get the opportunity to struggle heroically through the vacuum to reach the life-giving button just before you faint….

 

[Timo]

...Not to mention standing next to the back wall makes you more or less immune to the blow-out effect. If you manage to retain your grip for the first second or two, you only get hurricane winds if your repressurizing system is up and running and doing its damnedest to kill you.

(Frankly, I think the controls were all available in the console that LaForge reached. The old jokester just wanted to get back on Crusher for her deadpan listing of what LaForge would have to endure in order to implement that harebrained scheme of his.)

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Noname Given]

I had to think of one in Disaster (not really a plot hole though) : What do you do when you design a cargo bay? You make sure that the controls for opening the doors and repressurising the bay are at least 10m apart, so that you get the opportunity to struggle heroically through the vacuum to reach the life-giving button just before you faint….

^^^
Or even worse that with ALL the ADVANCED computer technology - the Chief Engineer can't seem to write a quick command script that with one touch activation, drops the force field, decompreses the bay, then reactivates and re-pressurizes automatically. (Yes, I guess "Batch files" and "JAVA Scripts" no longer exist in the 24th century, eh? )

 

[Nakita Akita]

^^^
Or even worse that with ALL the ADVANCED computer technology - the Chief Engineer can't seem to write a quick command script that with one touch activation, drops the force field, decompreses the bay, then reactivates and re-pressurizes automatically. (Yes, I guess "Batch files" and "JAVA Scripts" no longer exist in the 24th century, eh? )

I know.
I had to write a program in BASIC in college.
It was horrible.
Remember PASCAL and COBAL?

 

[Elephant999]

^^^
Or even worse that with ALL the ADVANCED computer technology - the Chief Engineer can't seem to write a quick command script that with one touch activation, drops the force field, decompreses the bay, then reactivates and re-pressurizes automatically. (Yes, I guess "Batch files" and "JAVA Scripts" no longer exist in the 24th century, eh? )

. Would have preferred him to have to roll under a closing bulkhead door at the same time as well just for added effect.

 

[NewHeavensNewEarth]

Naah. She went back to school, and came out Lieutenant.

And then joined the Maquis.

Timo Saloniemi

If only they would've then used her in DS9, but no.......

 

[at Quark's]

My theory is that Hugh was able to spread his individualiy through the collective since he already was a member of the collective.
When someone is assimilated, there might be somekind of "blocker" so the individuality of the person being assimilated doesn't affect the hive mind.
However, Hugh was already a member of the hive mind so perhaps the Borg just picked up a survivor from a crash site and plugged him in without any suspicions he would be an individual. Why would he be, just a drone alone on a moon.

This was my thought as well. However, if you think about it, it means that the Borg have some really poor safety protocols. They've purportedly assimilated thousands of races over centuries, and a case like this never came up before? Doing a quick check or re-establishing that blocker first wouldn't have impeded the process much .... Then again, Data telling them succcessfully to go to sleep to prevent an attack on your home planet would support this idea about very poor security protocols …

^^ Basically, Deanna was a bit too good and had this ability that could ruin many episodes if that ability wasn't turned off for some reason.

Come to think of it, her entire back story wasn't thought out that well. That her abilities would have to be nerfed on a regular basis is obvious. But she comes from an entire planet of full -blown telepaths! No matter how good her academic achievements were, if you were the captain of the Ent-D, who would you have preferred as your counselor: "Captain, I sense some vague feeling that might be deception but I cannot tell you anything beyond that… just be careful", or "Captain, this man is secretly selling technology to the Romulans and he will meet with their agent in three days in orbit of the moon at Fromulan 9 - he was trying to avoid the thought during the meeting but failed in doing so"?

 

[JesterFace]

They've purportedly assimilated thousands of races over centuries, and a case like this never came up before?

It only needs to happen once and the Borg is history.

 

[KJY]

- "Darmok": Data and Troi have a library of info on a species they supposedly know nothing about.

Speaking of that episode, how did that language evolve in the first place and how is it acquired by children of their species?

One silly plot hole (or contrivance, or whatever) that applies to all TNG era trek is holodeck safety protocols. I've always found it ridiculous that holographic guns are lethal by default and require extra lines of code to be nonlethal again. Why not just program the holographic guns to go "bang" when you pull the trigger and program whatever holographic object it's pointed at to behave as if it's been shot? Why make deadly bullets come out unless the safety protocols are engaged?
Deep Space Nine took it to a whole new level of ridiculousness in Our Man Bashir with holographic lava. Garak and Bashir are trapped in a chamber that's about to filled with lava and are apparently about to be burned to death somehow. So did someone program the holographic lava to heat up to thousands of degrees unless the safeties were on? There was also holographic knock-out gas in that episode, however that works.

 

[CommanderRaytas]

Speaking of that episode, how did that language evolve in the first place and how is it acquired by children of their species?

One silly plot hole (or contrivance, or whatever) that applies to all TNG era trek is holodeck safety protocols. I've always found it ridiculous that holographic guns are lethal by default and require extra lines of code to be nonlethal again. Why not just program the holographic guns to go "bang" when you pull the trigger and program whatever holographic object it's pointed at to behave as if it's been shot? Why make deadly bullets come out unless the safety protocols are engaged?
Deep Space Nine took it to a whole new level of ridiculousness in Our Man Bashir with holographic lava. Garak and Bashir are trapped in a chamber that's about to filled with lava and are apparently about to be burned to death somehow. So did someone program the holographic lava to heat up to thousands of degrees unless the safeties were on? There was also holographic knock-out gas in that episode, however that works.

In general, ST doesn't get how languages work. They get the terminology wrong, they mistake "dialect" for "language" (not the same thing), and the UT makes no sense.

The holodecks don't make much sense, either, but Our Man Bashir is just so awesome.

I don't mind either aspect being used as a plot device (not even the whole new levels of linguistics nonsense on ENT). It works story-wise.

 

[NewHeavensNewEarth]

Speaking of that episode, how did that language evolve in the first place and how is it acquired by children of their species?

One silly plot hole (or contrivance, or whatever) that applies to all TNG era trek is holodeck safety protocols. I've always found it ridiculous that holographic guns are lethal by default and require extra lines of code to be nonlethal again. Why not just program the holographic guns to go "bang" when you pull the trigger and program whatever holographic object it's pointed at to behave as if it's been shot? Why make deadly bullets come out unless the safety protocols are engaged?
Deep Space Nine took it to a whole new level of ridiculousness in Our Man Bashir with holographic lava. Garak and Bashir are trapped in a chamber that's about to filled with lava and are apparently about to be burned to death somehow. So did someone program the holographic lava to heat up to thousands of degrees unless the safeties were on? There was also holographic knock-out gas in that episode, however that works.

I just appreciate that they actually had to go through the process of learning to communicate for once, and I was saying “shaka, when the walls fell” for days after.

 

[Noname Given]

Speaking of that episode, how did that language evolve in the first place and how is it acquired by children of their species?

One silly plot hole (or contrivance, or whatever) that applies to all TNG era trek is holodeck safety protocols. I've always found it ridiculous that holographic guns are lethal by default and require extra lines of code to be nonlethal again. Why not just program the holographic guns to go "bang" when you pull the trigger and program whatever holographic object it's pointed at to behave as if it's been shot? Why make deadly bullets come out unless the safety protocols are engaged?
Deep Space Nine took it to a whole new level of ridiculousness in Our Man Bashir with holographic lava. Garak and Bashir are trapped in a chamber that's about to filled with lava and are apparently about to be burned to death somehow. So did someone program the holographic lava to heat up to thousands of degrees unless the safeties were on? There was also holographic knock-out gas in that episode, however that works.

To me the most ridiculous 'Holodeck plot complication' was in TNG's S1 - "The Big Goodbye" because they said they COULDN'T cut power to the Holodeck without the system de-materializing EVERYONE/EVERYTHING (IE Picard and his crewmember friends)...

WTF?! What organization would clear a system for use that - if it happens to loose power, will KILL any living being in it?? Guess 24th century technology isn't so 'perfected' as GR claimed in the series bible.

 

[Timo]

Why should we think the holodeck had this feature? It was malfunctioning at the time - and in a fairly complex way, actually making use of more of its features and capabilities than usual. The risk of the holodeck deciding to erase the users would rather probably be part of the malfunction rather than of the design specs.

And the holodeck does require the machinery and the capacity to dematerialize stuff, just like every mundane food replicator aboard. It's just a matter of the software being built so that users get special treatment in that respect. And then the ship is hit by this Jarada software weapon of some sort...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Finn]

Also, when a scene showed them entering Picard's ready room via a wall - the other side of said wall WAS to open space.

No. They entered the ready room via the wall separating the ready room opposite the ramp on the port side of the bridge. In fact, we should have seen them fall a foot or so....

 

[tomswift2002]

Why should we think the holodeck had this feature? It was malfunctioning at the time - and in a fairly complex way, actually making use of more of its features and capabilities than usual. The risk of the holodeck deciding to erase the users would rather probably be part of the malfunction rather than of the design specs.

And the holodeck does require the machinery and the capacity to dematerialize stuff, just like every mundane food replicator aboard. It's just a matter of the software being built so that users get special treatment in that respect. And then the ship is hit by this Jarada software weapon of some sort...

Timo Saloniemi

In “Elementary, Dear Data” they also cannot shut down the holodeck Without vaporizing Dr.Pulaski.

 

[gakelly]

I can just see the new feature on the new PS5. Computer, override safety procedures. I understand that if my character dies in the game, my control pad will shoot out a small needle and inject fast acting poison into me that will result in my immediate death.
Why would they have the option on the PS5?
Well, why would they have that option in the holodeck?

 

[Timo]

For the exact same reason people want to jump off cliffs and see if they can make it alive, over and over again? The purpose of the whole exercise is to seek death.

It's a bit futile to try and impose a regulation forbidding dying in a military organization. Much like "Gentlemen, you can't fight here, this is the War Room!"

Timo Saloniemi