Stupid Stuff in TNG

Discussion in 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' started by gakelly, Mar 4, 2019.

  1. gakelly

    gakelly Commander Red Shirt

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    In Angel One, Picard is in the corridor and a snowball hits him from inside the holodeck.
     
  2. Discofan

    Discofan Admiral Admiral

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    I am sure kids from Tasha Yar's planet would be overjoyed to leave that hellhole and be adopted by the people of Aldea.
     
  3. gakelly

    gakelly Commander Red Shirt

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    In Evolution, Wesley has two nanites in a container. He leaves the lid off and they somehow "escape". How do they escape from a container? They are microscopic robot devices.
     
  4. Discofan

    Discofan Admiral Admiral

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    Maybe they're equipped with a tiny rotor, like microscopic helicopters. :D
     
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  5. gakelly

    gakelly Commander Red Shirt

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    I believe it was in Datalore where Picard sends Wesley off the bridge and asks Beverly to go with him. Beverly gets pissy and says, "You're taking me off the bridge!" What exactly does she add by being on the bridge instead of in sick bay.

    By the way, Datalore may have the worst dialogue of any episode in TNG.
     
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  6. Timo

    Timo Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Well, not. Specific things about a subgroup are what matters here: "I am a human, therefore not a mere hominid, and you have to credit me with the ability to compose opera even though this is not inherent in the generic hominid" is a relevant thing to say. The dialogue is perfectly fine as is.

    ...Save for the nuance that in our RW parlance, "android" would merely specify a humanlike body for the robot, whereas in Trek this technical term has gained some other aspects having to do with mental powers or whatnot (that is, Data is humanlike in thought as well as in body). But that's what happens with technical lingo ITRW, too.

    Timo Saloniemi
     
  7. Timo

    Timo Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    In recent DSC, they just pile up on each other to do that tentacle thing...

    Timo Saloniemi
     
  8. Discofan

    Discofan Admiral Admiral

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    What's funny is that ST has all the religious people against them (since to all of them only god can create a mind and that it's even sacrilegious to think otherwise, humans, can merely emulate one) and most of the non-religious ones as I for one don't think that exhibiting the mere symptoms of self-awareness is a proof of it. An actor can make you believe he's feeling emotion when he's not, just as a robot can make all the gestures and moves associated with emotion without feeling any of it. The day we will be able to create self-awareness the universe will have no secrets left to us as for creating it by accident, it would be like throwing pieces of metal at random in a big box, hoping it will become a car, in fact, it's even more unlikely than that.
     
  9. Grendelsbayne

    Grendelsbayne Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    One I rewatched last week and stuck in my mind as weird:

    Suspicions: Dr. Crusher runs a murder investigation because reasons (pretty dumb by itself). Her big breakthrough in the case is99 finding evidence of tetryon particles on the body, which Data told her would specifically (hypothetically) be caused by someone trying to sabotage the shuttle *via a technobabble beam from the Enterprise*. The episode then reveals it was the dead body all along. He faked his death and sabotaged the shuttle experiment *from inside the shuttle*.
     
  10. Discofan

    Discofan Admiral Admiral

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    You can solve anything with technobabble and that's why when an episode rests almost entirely on it, it is kind of a cheat. Technobabble is ST's favorite Deux Ex Machina. The only interesting thing in that episode is the idea of a being without organs, IE with a myriad of microscopic organs throughout his body, like for example millions of micro-livers... It's interesting but impractical as it would mean micro veins and micro arteries coming and going from myriads of micro hearts and micro lungs... to say nothing of the micro brains (not Worf)...
     
  11. saladdays

    saladdays Captain Captain

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    I seriously don't want to start a religious debate or anything, but I'm genuinely curious which type of "religious people" are you talking about? Because not all of them feel the way you are stating here, nor are they all "against" Star Trek for this reason, especially if someone like that also believes that mere self-awareness is not a proof, like you say non-religious people tend to believe.
     
  12. Discofan

    Discofan Admiral Admiral

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    I am not saying that they are against ST, a good many probably like ST in spite of that. But religious people think that some things are the exclusive domain of god and among these the power to create a soul, IE a self-aware mind. That's not true of course of non-religious people. Plus I never said anything about "mere self-awareness", pay attention, please. I said that symptoms of self-awareness are not proof of it, that is it's not because a being does all the song and dance traditionally associated with self-awareness that we can conclude that he's self-aware. Just as an actor can play anger without being angry.
     
  13. saladdays

    saladdays Captain Captain

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    I understand what you mean, but let me further illustrate my point. Let's take someone who is a Christian (which I'm sure fits your general "religious person" requirement). If this person does not believe anyone in the world can create, what you refer to as a self-aware mind (I do not want to equate it to the term "soul" because I do not think that is what most Christians would equate it to), then wouldn't it be likely that that person also believes something that exhibits qualities of self-awareness to not truly be self-aware?

    I apologize if this is coming off obtuse and confusing, because that's not how I'm meaning it.
     
  14. Discofan

    Discofan Admiral Admiral

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    True (the bolded part). But that's not relevant to anything I said.

    Christians, especially, believe that creating a soul or a self-aware being (which is what most of them end up equating a soul with when you question them long enough) is the exclusive privilege of god. They will never admit that anything (artificially) created by man could contain a soul. They'll think that Data is just a complex toaster with super duper AI programs but they'll never admit that he's a person. It would be a contradiction in terms with their religion and if you ask any religious person to choose between their religion and something else like a sci. fi. series, they'll choose their religion without hesitation.
     
    Last edited: Apr 9, 2019
  15. saladdays

    saladdays Captain Captain

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    Yes, I realize that. I just read your earlier post as implying that Person A's beliefs are mutually exclusive from Personal B's beliefs, which I now know is not what you meant.
     
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  16. penguin44

    penguin44 Captain Captain

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    In The Mind's Eye, why would the romulans condition LaForge so perfectly to kill and deceive without detection, yet not brainwash him to mislead the investigation. He literally found himself. (ok well data did) but scanning the rifle that lead them down the romulan path was laforge.
     
  17. Nightdiamond

    Nightdiamond Commodore Commodore

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    Season 2- Riker says he doesn't value combat training that much. He believes in using the mind during battle. 4 years later when he's in command, 2 decades old, out of date Birds of Prey commanded by Ferengis, surprises his ship, disables it and ends up taking his entire crew captives. He only returned one shot and then kept asking for reports. They pounded his ship like crazy.

    Captain Jellico has reason to believe the Cardassian fleet hiding in a nebulae are going about to invade (they were). He has a plan to stop them. He tells the crew about this. They question him and ask him what if the fleet was there to do scientific research. He tells Crusher to get sickbay ready in case of casualties. Crusher cuts him off, glares at him and then leaves. They seemed really ready and eager to defend themselves and the Federation against a fleet of ships about to invade.

    Starfleet and Picard thinks it's perfectly OK to put a 15 year old with no Starfleet training in the main pilot chair during official missions--even though there is supposed to be a big waiting list for the Enterprise.
     
  18. Discofan

    Discofan Admiral Admiral

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    In "The Devil's Due", what does Riker hope to accomplish by yelling "WE DON'T BELIEVE IN YOUR MAGIC!!" at the woman? It's a stupid move that most people will read like a lack of self-confidence.
     
  19. Laura Cynthia Chambers

    Laura Cynthia Chambers Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Adding the "James T. Kirk impersonator of the year" award to his trophy case. :lol::rofl:
     
  20. Discofan

    Discofan Admiral Admiral

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    ;):lol: