Episodes where the entire plot fundamentally doesn't work

[Forbin]

Larry Niven also realistically described humans who grew up on heavy- gravity and light-gravity planets.
In one story, a protagonist from a light G planet was critically injured and placed in an autodoc that rebuilt his body from scratch - but based on the 'normal' G of the planet they were on. So the normally very tall, thin character came out of the doc built like an Earth person.

 

[Wally]

There is no reason why evolving on a low-gravity planet would necessitate being tall and lithe, just that there would be less forces to prevent that from happening. Evolution does not work that way. Unless there is a reason to evolve tall and thin (like natural selection favoring tall giraffes with long necks for example) we would not expect it to happen. If anything to operate in microgravity Melora would probably be closer to a fish with gas bladders to keep upright and fins to push through the atmosphere to more easily move about.

Being tall and thin is nice sci-fi shorthand, though to instantly get the point across visually.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Larry Niven also realistically described humans who grew up on heavy- gravity and light-gravity planets.

The Expanse did the same thing with the Belters.

 

[Silvercrest]

I just watched DS9: Melora, and although I admit that I enjoyed the way she learned to accept the consequences of living in a higher gravity environment and learned to rely on others when necessary, and also the way she realized that getting medical treatment that would allow her to function in a higher gravity environment would deprive her of much of her identity, I found my ability to suspend my disbelief to be seriously lacking.

The other characters had far too little familiarity with working in microgravity ... Bashir in particular makes it clear that he never has. Come on, people, this is space travel. Sooner or later it's gonna happen.

Also, the episode couldn't seem to decide if Melora Pazlar's special requirements were due to incompatibility with the tech of a Cardassian-built station, or if they were true everywhere else as well.

I think the writers and the characters BOTH got a little too used to artificial gravity as a storytelling crutch.

So to speak.

 

[Oddish]

Weightlessness is a tough thing to simulate, which is why no matter what goes wrong on a starship or base, the gravity still works.

You do see gravity malfunctions in the Elite Force games (the first one anyway), because it makes for good jumping puzzles.

 

[Silvercrest]

Understood. Artificial gravity is a narrative shortcut, like the transporter and the universal translator:

• They work because the plot says so, and they don't stand up to very close scrutiny.
• And any time you center a plot on them, the inconsistencies start showing up. Which they do here.

 

[Vale]

The other characters had far too little familiarity with working in microgravity ... Bashir in particular makes it clear that he never has. Come on, people, this is space travel. Sooner or later it's gonna happen.

True – Worf seems to imply in First Contact that microgravity training is mandatory for Starfleet Academy cadets, though Bashir as a doctor might have had different training. But it's also important to remember that by the 2370s these people have had warp drive for longer than we've had steam power today; we might expect their expectations of space travel to be somewhat different to ours.

Also, the episode couldn't seem to decide if Melora Pazlar's special requirements were due to incompatibility with the tech of a Cardassian-built station, or if they were true everywhere else as well.

From what I recall it was specifically Melora's antigravity chair that was incompatible with Cardassian technology. Her other requirements would have been the same everywhere, but having to use an old-fashioned wheelchair constrained by limited effects budget technological compatibility issues would have presented its own additional challenges, especially given the Cardassian fondness for raised door thresholds.

 

[Silvercrest]

The transcript says "her normal anti-grav unit isn't going to work here ... Cardassian construction just isn't compatible." You can take that a lot of ways including, yes, an antigravity chair that has to be swapped with a wheelchair on DS9. But it also strongly implies enough control over artificial gravity that she shouldn't be stuck in a chair except specifically on DS9.

I mean, seriously? A chair that can negate gravity enough to rise over obstacles, but can't generate any lift for the body of a person slumped down in it? The implications are that any time she's not on DS9, she's able to stand normally and drive around the equivalent of an antigrav Segway. The dialogue suggests otherwise.

 

[Farscape One]

I used to think the raised floors at the entrance to every corridor and door on DS9 was ridiculous, but then it occured to me.

If the bulkheads need to drop, or you need the force fields to be more secure and confined, the raised element acts as a true grip. Almost like a tongue and groove roof.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

There is no reason why evolving on a low-gravity planet would necessitate being tall and lithe, just that there would be less forces to prevent that from happening. Evolution does not work that way. Unless there is a reason to evolve tall and thin (like natural selection favoring tall giraffes with long necks for example) we would not expect it to happen. If anything to operate in microgravity Melora would probably be closer to a fish with gas bladders to keep upright and fins to push through the atmosphere to more easily move about.

Being tall and thin is nice sci-fi shorthand, though to instantly get the point across visually.

The point was not that aliens would evolve tall and lithe on a low gravity planet.

The point was that it's postulated by some science fiction authors that people (whose species of course did not evolve on a low gravity planet) would, at least in the early generations of colonization from Earth, grow tall and lithe when born and raised in low gravity environments. It's a question of what would result when the species is transplanted to a new environment that has a lower gravity than what is was originally adapted to.

 

[Mojochi]

The clue was that the first time Data said that they had been unconscious for 30 seconds, and then they found things like Worf's healed injury which showed otherwise. That evidence would still be there (if Crusher could remove all evidence, why didn't she do it the first time?), so they're going to find it again.

The thing with this one is you have to accept that the characters aren't trying to remove all evidence of the reality of the event, because yes, that is virtualy impossible. There will always be things that can be traced to the truth. Any tampering Data & Geordi do to the ship's systems, they can certainly figure out they did, if they look deep enough

The same is true of Crusher's medical data. If she can measure our biological clocks at a physiological level, there is no hiding that reality entirely. The truth is out there if they go looking for it. The intent behind their hairbrained solution is to fool themselves enough to NOT go looking into it.

They are merely trying to minimize the evidence of it, so they don't get their curiosities up. If Bev never sees her plant growth, does she begin her campaign to investigate? Does Worf then ever admit he has some wrist discomfort, if he's not ordered to report such things? Without that contrary evidence piling up, do they begin doubting Data, & really comb through everything with dogged intent? Maybe not. They just want to stop the 1st dominoes from falling. Bev's plants, Troi's whackadoo side effects, Data being a shitty liar lol. After dealing with that they maybe don't bother questioning the cover story. That's their half-assed hope at least

I still think it would be safer if they did all that cover story nonsense to placate the Paxans, & then just had Data confess it all at a safe distance, so to be sure that cover story never has a chance to get debunked... Ever by anyone who thinks to ask.

 

[Mojochi]

My choice today is going to be TNG Emergence. We've seen a lot of situations where the concept of them losing control of the ship is a BIG deal. So much so that people really love to rag on that aspect of Rascals (even though I like to hand wave that one away by saying they never really lost control of the main computer, so they were just toying with the dumb Ferengi invaders, who they never really took as much of a threat, so things wouldn't get too ugly, until they could inevitably gain advantage)

But with Emergence? They are really losing control of the ship, & to an absolutely complete unknown. I mean we never even get an explanation of WTF really happened to the ship. They'd just been though some funky magnascopic storm, & maybe picked up some kind of infestation that appropriated & altered their circuitry to birth a creature from the ship's systems, but are you kidding me? You're just going to let that happen?

Picard waves it off at the end by implying that since it had been born out of their own influences on the holodeck, it should be reliably as honorable an entity as they are... & brother is that a bloody reach.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

They are merely trying to minimize the evidence of it, so they don't get their curiosities up. If Bev never sees her plant growth, does she begin her campaign to investigate? Does Worf then ever admit he has some wrist discomfort, if he's not ordered to report such things? Without that contrary evidence piling up, do they begin doubting Data, & really comb through everything with dogged intent? Maybe not. They just want to stop the 1st dominoes from falling. Bev's plants, Troi's whackadoo side effects, Data being a shitty liar lol. After dealing with that they maybe don't bother questioning the cover story. That's their half-assed hope at least

Okay, even buying that though, it's impossible for the crew to not discover that they're one or two days out of sync with the rest of Starfleet. Which is why it's idiotic that Data STILL says they've only been unconscious for 30 seconds at the end.

 

[dupersuper]

You're just going to let that happen?

As opposed to...?

 

[Mojochi]

As opposed to...?

Doing something about it. They've chosen to do something about far unlikelier & more insurmountable things all the time. Hell, there's even a point at which the thing is going to fail at achieving its goal. They could've just tried to abandon ship & let it. They just went along & helped it

Okay, even buying that though, it's impossible for the crew to not discover that they're one or two days out of sync with the rest of Starfleet. Which is why it's idiotic that Data STILL says they've only been unconscious for 30 seconds at the end.

They get told they're out of sync with the rest of Starfleet as part of the cover story Data presents, in them having gone through a wormhole that tossed them days out of sync. It's really not that hard to buy. It's still untrue, & if anyone wanted to look into it, then yes, it all unravels again, but the conceit of the episode is that no one thinks to go looking

Besides, Data telling the crew they'd been unconscious for 2 days raises a LOT more questions than you really want raised. The whole point of the ruse is that the crew needs to think this was an insignificant event. They bumped into something, they fell, they woke up almost immediately afterward, & found they'd come across a fairly common spacial anomaly, that conveniently has the capacity to toss them two days out of whack

 

[dupersuper]

They just went along & helped it

How...Star Trek of them.

 

[at Quark's]

Okay, even buying that though, it's impossible for the crew to not discover that they're one or two days out of sync with the rest of Starfleet. Which is why it's idiotic that Data STILL says they've only been unconscious for 30 seconds at the end.

It worked the first time. The first time they were told they had been out for 30 seconds too. Apparently they had done a day's worth of traveling in that time span, which elicits a comment of surprise from Riker but nothing beyond that. Data then says he should 're-align the clock with Starbase's four ten's subspace signal to adjust for the time distortion', and nobody seems to think anything is off with that.

They only got suspicious when they found other clues, implying that also measured in local (ship's) time they were out for a lot longer than 30 seconds.

 

[drt]

I think what might be bugging people is on the second occasion Data doesn't mention any time difference. However, the episode ends pretty quickly after they wake, so I’m ok believing that a minute or two after the credits roll Data makes an addendum whereby he states there was a time displacement he just noticed and he'll need to synchronize the clocks.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

They get told they're out of sync with the rest of Starfleet as part of the cover story Data presents, in them having gone through a wormhole that tossed them days out of sync. It's really not that hard to buy.

But then they weren't unconscious for 30 seconds.

It worked the first time.

No it didn't.

 

[drt]

But then they weren't unconscious for 30 seconds.

I think the idea was the wormhole moved them in time as well as space, Picard didn't bat an eye the first time, so perhaps we can infer that's not that unusual for such a phenomenon.