The Bad Science of The Next Generation

[TommyR01D]

My thread for Voyager appears to have run its course and been reasonably successful. I now move to this series.

I am attempting similar threads for each of the Star Trek series in turn, where members can list what they think are the most egregious examples of bad science in the franchise.

To prevent this from going off course, I will lay down a few constraints from the start:

• No dismissals of the premise of the thread: Yes, we know it's a TV show. Yes, we know it's science fiction. If that meant details weren't worth dissecting then there would be little point in having a forum at all.
  
• Transporters, warp speed, and lots of inhabited planets are an obvious necessity for Star Trek to work. You can point out specific instances of them being used badly or their implications being misunderstood, but the simple fact of their existence is off-limits for this discussion.

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Everything begins with genesis, and this thread will begin with the episode of that name. The plot sees the Enterprise-D crew contract a virus which activates their introns - vestigial sections of DNA from earlier stages of evolution - and causes them to transform into other animals. The premise of reactivating genes from primitive ancestors is shaky in itself, but pretty standard fare in speculative fiction. What makes the plot really absurd is that victims transform into creatures which are not their species' ancestors, but very distant cousins - Barclay, for instance, turns into a spider, and Spot becomes an iguana. They also act the part in a rather pantomime way - such as caveman Riker alone being characterised by falling intelligence, even though he should be well above the other characters by any logic.

 

[Prax]

All of the humans turn apelike except Barclay, and I think it was either to have him act all crazy, or a reference to the spiders in his last appearance, and also Picard, so that he could be a big scaredy cat but still get the job done.

 

[Mojochi]

All of the humans turn apelike except Barclay, and I think it was either to have him act all crazy, or a reference to the spiders in his last appearance, and also Picard, so that he could be a big scaredy cat but still get the job done.

Picard was going to devolve into a primate too. Lemur or Pygmy Marmoset, IIRC
As for Barclay's singular departure from primate, I always made it work in my head as being due to Barclay being patient zero, & it might have acted on him in a more pronounced way, so where the other humans ended up just devolving into earlier primates, he got driven back further, in some more bastardized way

It's a pretty silly concept in general, but at least that part of it could have a marginally palatable explanation

My offering shall be Picard being reverted to an earlier developmental stage in Rascals. The guy has an artificial heart for God sake. How the hell does that thing still function or maintain it's viability in the body of a child half his size, & then somehow keep working yet again, when they reverse it?

 

[JesterFace]

The risk of threads like these is that someone reveals a massive plot hole in a great episode.
Is that great episode that great anymore if there's a plot hole big enough to drive a train through it?
Fortunately, some kind of sciency explanation can probably be found to fill the hole.

 

[JesterFace]

About people turning into apes and only Barclay becoming a spider.
We don't know what happened to the majority of the crew, Barclay might not have been the only insect?

 

[Tenacity]

As for Barclay's singular departure from primate, I always made it work in my head as being due to Barclay being patient zero

My thought is that Reg's earlier interaction (previous episode) with Miles O'Brien's pet spider had something to do with it.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

The entire handling of DNA in Star Trek is a little ridiculous.

They treat DNA like changing the DNA of an adult will instantly morph them into the creature they would have been if they were born with that DNA. As opposed to, you know, cancer.

If you accept that nonsense though I accept the story's explanation for why it was different for each crewmember. The retrovirus didn't activate specific introns, it activated random introns.

 

[Forbin]

Other ridiculous DNA BS occured when a Ferengi "remotely resequenced" someone's DNA from across the galaxy to make it look like he was Picard's son. I mean, WTF??

 

[Mojochi]

My thought is that Reg's earlier interaction (previous episode) with Miles O'Brien's pet spider had something to do with it.

That really takes any semblance of sciency stuff out of it though, & the effect was do to the power of suggestion or something? Unless you're saying the spider bit him, or he got spidery stuff on him or something? lol. Either way, the episode's concept is so bonkers, you're welcome to any interpretation of it you want, & I'm ok with that

 

[Tenacity]

Maybe Reg was bitten by a radioactive spider?

 

[Prax]

How about Emergence. Was it a lifeform that used the ship, was the ship the lifeform, or did the ship create the lifeform?

Any why?

I feel like the episode shifts between all three explanations.

 

[Mojochi]

How about Emergence. Was it a lifeform that used the ship, was the ship the lifeform, or did the ship create the lifeform?

Any why?

I feel like the episode shifts between all three explanations.

I lean toward some phenomenon recognizing that the ship could be utilized for birthing itself into corporeal form, or its offspring, by allowing the ship to achieve consciousness through its mechanized/computerized systems. Something invaded the ship's systems that began forming the new pathways, for the purpose of using the connected whole to manifest/manufacture the lifeform

 

[JesterFace]

Maybe Reg was bitten by a radioactive spider?

You mean Reginald Parker? ..or was it Peter Barclay?

 

[Farscape One]

Would this fall into the category of the thread... "Symbiosis". Both races being able to be electric eels and shock people.

I always found that odd, even with the reasoning of the oddness of their star. (Though the comment of them possibly needing to recharge always makes me laugh.)

 

[Prax]

Maybe it was a callback to the half white/black people in TOS

 

[Nakita Akita]

The episode would have been even worse if everyone turned into microscopic protozoan sliding around on the floor.
But it was a fun episode.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

In Cause and Effect, I accept the physics of the time loop. But there’s no reasonable explanation why they could remember anything, much less hear echoes of previous loops.

Not to mention the “Maybe turning around is what caused the accident”. Then why did it happen the first time?! And why not just send the message “Turn around?” Then the message would only be sent if going straight caused the accident.

 

[saladdays]

Not to mention the “Maybe turning around is what caused the accident”. Then why did it happen the first time?!

I think the point is that they didn't know exactly what they did in previous loops, so they didn't want to try to second-guess themselves until they were for sure they needed to do something different.

And why not just send the message “Turn around?” Then the message would only be sent if going straight caused the accident.

I thought it was made clear that they needed/intended to send a very basic message.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I think the point is that they didn't know exactly what they did in previous loops, so they didn't want to try to second-guess themselves until they were for sure they needed to do something different.


I thought it was made clear that they needed/intended to send a very basic message.

A very basic message, like “Back”?

I don’t buy that explanation. Yeah, that was Picard’s reasoning, but it makes no sense. The first time around, it’s extremely obvious what decisions they would have made. This is a major suspension of disbelief the script is asking for in an episode which already asks for a lot.

Or they could have even used background radiation to randomly generate a course to follow. They’d avoid the crash eventually.

 

[Prax]

It may be a legitimate hole, but i don't think it's really a suspension of disbelief issue, considering it's one of Star Treks most highly praised episodes.

As for remembering. They didn't remember anything from previous loops, except a sense of deja vu. The ship was sorta doubling itself with each loop, occupying the same space, etc. The loop happens because they keep making the wrong decision. They can't make the right one because they don't remember the last loop.

 

[trekshark]

About people turning into apes and only Barclay becoming a spider.
We don't know what happened to the majority of the crew, Barclay might not have been the only insect?

Troi turned amphibian

 

[saladdays]

A very basic message, like “Back”?

I don’t buy that explanation. Yeah, that was Picard’s reasoning, but it makes no sense. The first time around, it’s extremely obvious what decisions they would have made. This is a major suspension of disbelief the script is asking for in an episode which already asks for a lot.

I don't understand what you mean by "the first time around." You mean the first time they went through the loop? The first time they discovered they were in a loop?

Or they could have even used background radiation to randomly generate a course to follow. They’d avoid the crash eventually.

If the episode already makes you suspend your disbelief, this would make it even more so, IMO.

 

[JesterFace]

If there's something going on that you may find hard to explain, there's a simple answer to those questions: Q

There's a trial going on, those might be tests for the crew?
Sometimes I like to use this method to explain some twists.

HeadCanon, yay.

 

[Prax]

Is Q(I mean... 'Are Q')always watching over the Enterprise all seven years like their personal lord, judge, and savior? I suppose it's technically true.

 

[JesterFace]

Is Q(I mean... 'Are Q')always watching over the Enterprise all seven years like their personal lord, judge, and savior? I suppose it's technically true.

Didn't Q say something like this in 'All Good Things...'
"We said we would be watching you and we have been"

If memory serves, when they talk about the trial, Q says something like "the jury's still out on that", twice.
I think once in 'Q Who' and again in.. maybe it was 'True Q'.