Favourite Star Trek fact... that is not true.

[Timo]

Well, her actions did involve trying to be a starship captain by impersonating a male, a rather difficult route. But that's not supposed to be her life ambition or anything - she only does it to spite Jim Kirk. The issue of her somehow being unable to become a starship captain by more ordinary means never arises... While the issue of her voluntarily quitting her own space activities when Kirk gets his ship does.

Doesn't mean Starfleet didn't undergo a phase where female starship captains were summarily executed and new ones were not allowed. This is another of those "not quite yet proven false" pseudofacts that can be read either way, but reading it "the old way" is becoming increasingly more uncomfortable!

Speaking of reading: "The Universal Translator only translates spoken word, not writing". Never stated, and surprisingly many cultures out there write in English, including aliens who pretend to be Germans in "Patterns of Force"... But again, perhaps writing in English is another genetically engineered universal quality in all humanoids, and the UT indeed is limited that way?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[JoeZhang]

No one was disputing that they were estranged. Merely disputing that their estrangement included never ever seeing each other for 18 years.

Just so - in fact the episode makes it clear that that this is not the case.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Untrue fact = "He's dead, Jim." was never spoken by McCoy.

The truth = It was spoken by McCoy in "The Changeling."

 

[Lord Garth]

Untrue Fact: McCoy says they made first contact with the Klingons 50 years ago in "Day of the Dove".

No one's ever found that line in the finished episode. But it still resulted in a ton of arguments in the ENT Forum in 2001. Including from me (I don't want to white-wash my own posting history). Maybe it might've been in a draft of the script. But if it didn't make it to the finished episode, it doesn't count.

 

[Boris Skrbic]

Let’s call this “Favorite fanmyth” for accuracy and brevity.

 

[BillJ]

Romulan power in “Balance of Terror” can’t be simple impulse. They seem to be running at FTL speeds.

 

[Tenacity]

Utopia, white knight Starfleet and evolved humans.

excellent examples, the trek verse is a utopia is never stated on the show, it's a invention of a group of fans. Picard's evidence pl lved humans is pretentious. And given the PD they're hardly white knights.

"DISCOVERY is set in the Kelvin timeline

Discovery is set in the Discovery universe/timeline.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

It was directly stated that Earth had no poverty, homelessness, or social inferiors. It was never stated that nobody on the entire planet is having a bad time.

 

[Damian]

I never interpreted the sentence "your world of starship captains doesn't admit women" as anything other than Lester resenting that Kirk chose the Enterprise and a five-year mission over their relationship. Granted, I haven't seen Turnabout Intruder in ages, so she might have been actually complaining about a perceived lack of female captains in Starfleet, but even if she was, she was delusional and paranoid, not exactly someone whose statements we should take at face value.

One of the novels actually addressed this, basically as you put it. Of course there were female captains. But that Lester was simply not fit psychologically to be captain. It never had anything to do with her sex, but that not everyone was fit to be captain. It was noted in the novel (I wish I could remember which one) that Kirk had given up on trying to explain it to her and it eventually led to their break up, at least in part. It was a great way to address that inconsistency in story since we do know there were female captains.

I mean, I know that's an in story inconsistency. Real world wise it seems ridiculous that would be a plot point. Why wouldn't women be captains in the 23rd century? So I'm kind of glad one of our novelists decided to tackle that in story to make it less ridiculous.

excellent examples, the trek verse is a utopia is never stated on the show, it's a invention of a group of fans. Picard's evidence pl lved humans is pretentious. And given the PD they're hardly white knights.

I imagine that idea came about because of DS9's "Homefront". In there it is stated Earth has become a paradise by the 24th century. However, paradise does not necessarily have to mean utopia. It simply means compared to the average world, Earth has a better standard of living. They never say 'utopia' and in fact DS9 went to some lengths to show us humanity is still imperfect.

I always saw the Federation not as a utopia. But as an organization that tries to move in a forward, positive direction. But being run by us imperfect mortals, it makes mistakes. I usually say most of the time for every step backwards it takes two steps forward. So the Federation in 200 years has made great strides, but has some stumbles along the way too.

It was directly stated that Earth had no poverty, homelessness, or social inferiors. It was never stated that nobody on the entire planet is having a bad time.

All true. You can say Earth, and the Federation, is a good place to live and not be utopian. In fact, utopia is probably an unachievable goal in any event. We are not gods. We screw up sometimes. Star Trek generally depicts the Federation as the best possible system, but that's not the same as utopia.

 

[SJGardner]

It was directly stated that Earth had no poverty, homelessness, or social inferiors. It was never stated that nobody on the entire planet is having a bad time.

And as an extension, it's Earth that was consistently described as a paradise, not the entirety of Federation space. It's common enough in criticism of the newer shows that I felt the need to point it out.

 

[scotpens]

Untrue fact = "He's dead, Jim." was never spoken by McCoy.

The truth = It was spoken by McCoy in "The Changeling."

And in three other episodes as well. The first time we heard that specific line was in "The Enemy Within," when McCoy was referring to the unicorn-doggie. Memory Alpha link

Untrue fact: Star Trek TOS was a "low-budget" show.

The truth: Trek TOS had a per-episode production budget comparable to other contemporary prime-time filmed TV shows. The pilot film “The Cage” was actually one of the most expensive television productions made up to that time.

 

[Tenacity]

I believe the "Earth is a paradise" (or just the view out of Starfleet HQ's windows) was a one time statement by Sisko.

The Trek verse is comfortable and technologically advanced, but it's also a verse that's engaged in near constant warfare and occasionally has entire planetary populations killed.

 

[Damian]

I believe the "Earth is a paradise" (or just the view out of Starfleet HQ's windows) was a one time statement by Sisko.

The Trek verse is comfortable and technologically advanced, but it's also a verse that's engaged in near constant warfare and occasionally has entire planetary populations killed.

It was also stated by the President of the Federation, Jaresh En-yo (I believe that's how it's spelled). He said he didn't want to be the President to ruin paradise.

 

[BillJ]

And as an extension, it's Earth that was consistently described as a paradise, not the entirety of Federation space. It's common enough in criticism of the newer shows that I felt the need to point it out.

Though I don’t think it was ever described as paradise in TOS.

 

[ToyBoxComix]

Romulan power in “Balance of Terror” can’t be simple impulse. They seem to be running at FTL speeds.

I think that's a result of the universe and technology of Star Trek not really being fleshed out at that point. It really wasn't in a lot of ways until well into TNG. (And we still don't know how the Federation economy works beyond vague platitudes.)

Turnabout Intruder is just a bad, bad episode. I take Lester's comment at face value. TOS was always pretty sexist (a product of its time), and that episode is about as bad as it gets. Shatner's acting makes it so much worse.

Fortunately, I can enjoy the bad parts of Star Trek.

 

[BillJ]

Turnabout Intruder is just a bad, bad episode. I take Lester's comment at face value. TOS was always pretty sexist (a product of its time), and that episode is about as bad as it gets. Shatner's acting makes it so much worse.

I think Lester is an unreliable narrator, at least in universe. The reason? Number One from "The Cage" who is also seen in "The Menagerie". Seems silly for someone to be trained for command and placed in the chain of command but be ineligible to take it. On a deep space assignment, Number One could have theoretically been in command of the Enterprise for weeks, months or years depending on the situations.

Lester was a rambling lunatic.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Romulan power in “Balance of Terror” can’t be simple impulse. They seem to be running at FTL speeds.

It's fanon, but the Bird of Prey blueprints rectify the issue, while also explaining why the ship had to become visible to fire the plasma weapon.

The Romulan Bird of Prey blueprints by McMaster, Mandel, Upton, Maynard, et al addressed the issue of impulse by having the power plant incapable of supporting the warp drive, plasma weapon, and invisibility cloak simultaneously.

"6. Power is provided by twin matter-antimatter generators. Because of the tremendous power requirements of the warp engines, invisibility cloak, and the plasma weapon, they cannot be used simultaneously. When the ship is invisible, it must move under impulse power. At warp speed the weapon can be fired without power accumulators. To fire full power it has to go sublight. It can slowly store power in accumlators while invisible but must become visible to fire. "​

http://www.cygnus-x1.net/links/lcars/romulan-bird-of-prey.php​

https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/in-...ngon-ship-designs.293614/page-3#post-12417329
https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/romulan-engine-power-is-impulse-only.297047/#post-12702858

 

[Imaus]

Romulan power in “Balance of Terror” can’t be simple impulse. They seem to be running at FTL speeds.

Impulse = Fusion power, I thought. The Impulse Engines range from either Fusion Thrusters/Reactors to mini-warp drives, though it was never hashed out.

In fanon at least, it means the Romulans are just using a Fusion-clunker ship, not M/AM like the Federation.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Impulse = Fusion power, I thought. The Impulse Engines range from either Fusion Thrusters/Reactors to mini-warp drives, though it was never hashed out.

The intention that impulse engines were conventional rockets capable of only sublight propulsion was clearly spelled out in the TOS Writers Guide, and (AFAIK) it was never contradicted in canon. The idea that impulse is somehow capable of FTL is pure fanon, and not widely accepted even in that realm.

 

[Tenacity]

TOS was always pretty sexist (a product of its time)

Which makes Lester statement more believable. With only a few exceptions, we saw women top out at the rank of lieutenant.

and that episode is about as bad as it gets

I thought it was quite interesting, I'd place it in about the middle of the pack among TOS episodes.

. Shatner's acting makes it so much worse.

But Sanrda Smith's acting as Kirk was spot on.

least in part. It was a great way to address that inconsistency in story since we do know there were female captains

During TOS? No.

The first woman captain we saw prime universe was during TVH, set over a dozen years after TOS. The next woman captain we know for a fact was a starship captain was the captain of the Enterprise C.

Though I don’t think it was ever described as paradise in TOS.

Neither TNG nor VOY either.