Episodes where the entire plot fundamentally doesn't work

[JirinPanthosa]

I have one... "COLD FRONT".

Why did Silik stop the surge? He was instructed to do it, yes... but why, if Future Guy seemed to be the villain? We never did get an answer in that episode, or any later one for that matter.

The entire Temporal Cold War was a huge mess, and I was THRILLED when it was ended.

The Temporal Cold War was just dumb. For all the flak Kurtzmantrek gets, they have always had a far better mental picture of what makes sense for Star Trek than Berman did toward the end.

They thought they couldn’t go back in the timeline without having an element from the future. And ended up contaminating their good ideas with incomprehensible nonsense.

 

[dupersuper]

They thought they couldn’t go back in the timeline without having an element from the future. And ended up contaminating their good ideas with incomprehensible nonsense.

*looks at the red angel*

 

[at Quark's]

*looks at the red angel*

Yeah, what is it with those series that are supposedly set in an earlier era (both pre-Kirk) and then still invoke the distant future in some way? (As a theme in the series, I mean, a single episode would be no problem).

Not that I'm against a 31st century setting for a series, not at all, but it seems to suggest that anything pre-Kirk needs to be spiced up with such elements. Let's hope SNW (haven't seen anything of it yet) won't need it.

 

[TommyR01D]

The only potentially good thing it might have done was explain why Voyager's nacelles repositioned before she went to warp. But they never bothered actually explaining it.

Even then there are problems.

The only significant effect of this episode was to establish a Warp 5 limit for all starships, but even that was forgotten after TNG ended.

 

[at Quark's]

Even then there are problems.

The only significant effect of this episode was to establish a Warp 5 limit for all starships, but even that was forgotten after TNG ended.

Of course it was. The limitations it imposed would have been far too cumbersome for storytelling. Or you'd have these 'Due to the extremely urgent nature of your assignment you're allowed to exceed warp 5 for the duration of the mission' three times a month, which quickly would strain credibility as well.

 

[Oddish]

The only significant effect of this episode was to establish a Warp 5 limit for all starships, but even that was forgotten after TNG ended.

They could have worked with that, though. The main other ships post-TNG were:
* The runabouts on DS9, which I think only went W5 or so anyway.
* The shuttles, which went W4.
* Voyager. All they had to do was this, in "Caretaker".
TOM: "Those look like retractable nacelles."
STADI: "Yes. Voyager uses a variable geometry warp field, which doesn't adversely affect subspace the way a conventional warp field does."
* The Defiant. Just explain that it's a small ship with internalized nacelles, and its warp field already has a subspace-safe geometry, or it has a negligible subspace footprint, or just have O'Brien announce that he's completed the modifications on the drive that will allow it to safely exceed warp speed limits.

First rule of Trek: technobabble resolves everything. But you have to at least make the effort.

Once all that's done, simply never mention the warp 5 speed limit again.

*~*~*

"Thine Own Self" highlights one of Trek's most ludicrous comparisons...

DATA: Saves Earth from the Borg. Saves the Federation by ending the Klingon civil war. Still a freaking lieutenant commander.
TROI: Requires multiple attempts to kill a hologram of Geordi LaForge. Promoted to CDR. Data has to call her "sir".

 

[JirinPanthosa]

*looks at the red angel*

That's a very different situation than "The entire plot of the show revolves around people from the 27th and 30th centuries trying to change history." That's a "We failed the first time and got hints from the future not to fail again" story.

Remember the Red Angel was not *from* the future. They were both from the 23rd century. She just took a trip to the future to realize the consequences of failing.

 

[Richard Baker]

The only potentially good thing it might have done was explain why Voyager's nacelles repositioned before she went to warp. But they never bothered actually explaining it.

That design gimmick never made sense to me.
If they were down, warp field is not engaged and they are not being used.
If they are up warp field is engaged and they are being used.
What is the point of lowering them? Leave them in operational position and simply turn them off- like what every other federation starship does. That "variable geometry" might make sense if we ever saw them doing domething, like perhaps varying their geometry while being used.
They played around wjth some weird concepts trying to make Voyager look unique, I thnk tbe,worst was having the warp grills swing out on front hinges like bug wings when in use

 

[Jedman67]

Even then there are problems.

The only significant effect of this episode was to establish a Warp 5 limit for all starships, but even that was forgotten after TNG ended. 2 episodes later

That's a very different situation than "The entire plot of the show revolves around people from the 27th and 30th centuries trying to change history." That's a "We failed the first time and got hints from the future not to fail again" story.

Remember the Red Angel was not *from* the future. They were both from the 23rd century. She just took a trip to the future to realize the consequences of failing.

As much as I enjoyed DSC, the Red Angel makes absolutely no sense.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Back in May:

Contraception (contra = against, caption = conception) is not equivalent to abortion.

I think recent developments, and comments by certain political reactionaries (including one whose appointment as a Supreme Court Justice should have been blocked) have pretty much demonstrated that they are equivalent in the minds of those reactionaries, and that their drive to criminalize both is really just a means to further other goals.

 

[1001001]

Okay, that’s enough of that.

 

[Oddish]

Hate to say it, but you're right. Deleted.

I'm going with "The Child", because they were overly concerned about the whole "this pox is growing out of control, what will be do" problem.

You're in space.
Space is full of stars.
Find a star.
Beam the offending pox module into its gravity well.
The Enterprise is safe, and Ian Andrew gets to continue his exploration of humanity.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

Two episodes where the ending makes absolutely NO sense:

TOS: "Tomorrow Is Yesterday" - Somehow beaming Captain Christopher and the security guard into the bodies of their past selves removes all their memories of their experiences aboard the Enterprise? Whaa---?

TNG: "Clues" - The TNG crew realizes that they've been unconscious for over a day instead of for 30 seconds when they discover all the discrepancies in Data's story, like Dr. Crusher's experiment showing a day's growth. So when the crew discovers the truth, they decide to give it a second try, with Picard even saying "Let's get it right this time." They reset the ship's clocks, the crew's short-term memories are erased, everyone's knocked unconscious again, and when they come to, Data STILL says that they've been knocked out for only 30 seconds!

Why did NO ONE think to account for the day they'd already lost? And how does anyone think that the Enterprise-D isn't going to discover that the ship's clocks are off by one or two days the next time they dock at a Starbase, or when they show up late to their next assignment? There's simply no way for them to maintain the charade that the crew were only unconscious for 30 seconds, meaning that within a week, the Enterprise-D crew is right back where they started. This has bothered me since my first viewing of the episode.

 

[Vale]

Why did NO ONE think to account for the day they'd already lost? And how does anyone think that the Enterprise-D isn't going to discover that the ship's clocks are off by one or two days the next time they dock at a Starbase, or when they show up late to their next assignment? There's simply no way for them to maintain the charade that the crew were only unconscious for 30 seconds, meaning that within a week, the Enterprise-D crew is right back where they started. This has bothered me since my first viewing of the episode.

The Paxans' ruse, as shown at the beginning of the episode, involves the ship going through a freak wormhole. Data just fudges it to say that the wormhole displaced them in time as well as space, which wouldn't be terribly unusual.

 

[MAGolding]

How could they remember anything if they literally never had those experiences? Too bad you don't see how, it is one of Trek's better TT tales, imo.

beaming the future bodies into the past bodies would simply double their masses.

The protagonists didn't do anything to erase the previous events in the episode. They didn't do anything to take the Enterprise from in front of Captain Christopher in his jet. They didn't do anything to prevent beaming Christopher and the sergeant aboard the Enteprise.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

The Paxans' ruse, as shown at the beginning of the episode, involves the ship going through a freak wormhole. Data just fudges it to say that the wormhole displaced them in time as well as space, which wouldn't be terribly unusual.

But he doesn't do that. Here's what he says at the end of the episode:

PICARD: What happened, Data?
DATA: The effect from the wormhole was rather intense.
PICARD: So it would seem.
DATA: Everyone but myself was rendered unconscious. My positronic system is immune to the effect.
PICARD: How long were we out?
DATA: Thirty seconds, Sir.

That's after they spent a day covering up the aliens' presence after their first encounter with them, a day of the Enterprise-D crew suspecting Data of lying, and (presumably) another day fixing their mistakes from the first time around. So that's at least 2-3 days unaccounted for.

 

[Tiberius]

The only potentially good thing it might have done was explain why Voyager's nacelles repositioned before she went to warp. But they never bothered actually explaining it.

I always headcanoned it with the idea that they bend to different angles depending on the warp factor.

 

[Vale]

But he doesn't do that. Here's what he says at the end of the episode:

That's after they spent a day covering up the aliens' presence after their first encounter with them, a day of the Enterprise-D crew suspecting Data of lying, and (presumably) another day fixing their mistakes from the first time around. So that's at least 2-3 days unaccounted for.

I don't want to be that guy who asks "did you not pay attention", but seriously... the entire episode is them finding clues that they were "unaware" for a lot longer than 30 seconds, and then Picard states at the end "consider the first time a run-through, a rehearsal to shake out the flaws. The second time will succeed if we leave no clues." As far as the crew is aware at the end of the episode, they were unconscious for 30 seconds after passing through a wormhole that just happened to throw them a few days forward in time and across the system they were investigating, they count their blessings, and carry on their merry way none the wiser.

 

[Tiberius]

I don't want to be that guy who asks "did you not pay attention", but seriously... the entire episode is them finding clues that they were "unaware" for a lot longer than 30 seconds, and then Picard states at the end "consider the first time a run-through, a rehearsal to shake out the flaws. The second time will succeed if we leave no clues." As far as the crew is aware at the end of the episode, they were unconscious for 30 seconds after passing through a wormhole that just happened to throw them a few days forward in time and across the system they were investigating, they count their blessings, and carry on their merry way none the wiser.

The hell of it is that after the second time they wake up, they'll have all these clues that they were out for a week or something.

 

[at Quark's]

Perhaps Data should just have been honest about the time elapsed....

PICARD: How long were we out?
DATA: Two days, eleven hours, forty-seven minutes and three seconds, sir.
PICARD: And what did you do during all that time?
DATA: Just fulfilling my duties at at this station, sir.
PICARD: And did not even once the thought occur to you: ' let's try to revive them' ?
DATA: No, sir.