Spock's Whoppers

[ZapBrannigan]

As an earlier poster commented, if the Enterprise had a 90% chance of surviving each of the 79 episodes, their overall chance of surviving all those missions would be roughly 4000 to 1 against. Not good odds. 99% per adventure would put them at almost 2 to 1 against. Not great, but much better!

I used to think Spock calculated all those odds to a tenth after the decimal because the show was written by English majors who didn't know about significant digits. But if you take into account the unknowns and intangibles, with the crazy precision Spock was announcing, it's clear he was joking with Kirk. Something only buddies would do. Which is another kind of Vulcan whopper.

 

[Henoch]

As an earlier poster commented, if the Enterprise had a 90% chance of surviving each of the 79 episodes, their overall chance of surviving all those missions would be roughly 4000 to 1 against. Not good odds. 99% per adventure would put them at almost 2 to 1 against. Not great, but much better!

Of the infinite multiverses, statistically, one (or an infinite more) would exist were they the beat all the odds against them. That's the Star Trek universe we are watching.

 

[aridas sofia]

As an earlier poster commented, if the Enterprise had a 90% chance of surviving each of the 79 episodes, their overall chance of surviving all those missions would be roughly 4000 to 1 against. Not good odds. 99% per adventure would put them at almost 2 to 1 against. Not great, but much better!

Extrapolating this over twelve starships doing (presumably) the same kind of thing would help explain why they were the only ship that made it back from the 5YM.

 

[Flux Chiller]

Extrapolating this over twelve starships doing (presumably) the same kind of thing would help explain why they were the only ship that made it back from the 5YM.

Yes, the large number of significant digits is spurious. I suppose if you said the odds were "approximately" 4119.5 to 1, you could argue (and Spock could claim if challenged) that was no different than saying 4000 to 1. The implication is Spock was just deliberately messing with people. I think Spock was not above doing that...

Some scripts were written by science-fiction writers and I wonder if they did the same thing sometimes (they might not necessarily have had scientific or mathematical training much better than the English majors). I also wonder if Kellam de Forest ever made a comment about Spock's absurdly precise odds.

If all of the 12 original starship's missions were as risky as the Enterprise's (the question of the assignments of those starships would be an interesting topic for discussion - maybe there is a thread somewhere already), the number of ships expected to survive would be essentially zero for the 90%/mission odds, but would be roughly 5-6 for the 99%/mission odds, about the half the fleet. We do know a number of starships were lost, so the 99% number may not be so far off. Now that I think of it, Starfleet could not have been too happy at the number of starships they lost if they only had 12 at that time.

Of course, if you posit the multiverse, you can get away with nearly anything!

 

[Okmyx]

In TAS "One of our planets is missing", in describing the cloud, Spock states: It seems to be of irregular shape, some eight hundred thousand kilometers across and about half that in depth.

Some 800,000?
About half?

Why is he so imprecise in here? Since the cloud is irregular in shape, I would have expected him to say something like "it varies from 795,365.681 to 800,353.572 km in length and 395,265.347 to 400,165.758 km in width".

Seems like a whopper of an oversight to me for someone who is so easily disturbed by others being imprecise.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Perhaps he sacrficed accuracy on the altar of brevity. Seems logical.

 

[johnnybear]

He also made a mistake or should I say error by not recording the many images from the past that the Guardian of forever was displaying in the portal! Although he did admit that one!
JB

 

[ZapBrannigan]

In "The Corbomite Maneuver," Spock says that Balok (booming voice of Ted Cassidy) is reminiscent of his father. But later we see that Sarek is the most mild-spoken and genteel of men.

It's clear that Spock was trying to tweak morale on the bridge rather than tell a strict truth.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Perhaps it is how Spock perceived his father when he was a young boy.

So, a half-truth, then.

 

[Tango]

Perhaps it is how Spock perceived his father when he was a young boy.

So, a half-truth, then.

Half-Vulcan, Half-truth.

 

[Vger23]

Which is preposterous, like that scene in Top Gun (1986) when the fighter pilot tries to pick up a girl in a bar by wildly exaggerating the speed and service ceiling of his F-14. Spock is scamming on her to make his story more impressive.

I’ve seen Top Gun more times than I can remember, and I don’t recall the F-14’s capabilities being discussed in any bar scene. Did I miss it?

 

[ZapBrannigan]

I’ve seen Top Gun more times than I can remember, and I don’t recall the F-14’s capabilities being discussed in any bar scene. Did I miss it?

It sounds like I got the movie wrong. But I saw that scene somewhere, with young Navy (I think) aviators trying to pick up women in a bar. I hope somebody can place it, because now I want to know where that was.

 

[Noname Given]

I think the only time Spock himself made any comment about it was in "The Enterprise Incident."

Commander: There's a well-known saying, or is it a myth, that Vulcans are incapable of lying?
Spock: It is no myth.

And this was part of a spy mission, which by its very nature is a big deception. So Spock would have said whatever was necessary for the sake of that mission.

Kor

And he was lying when he answered. But Vulcans lie all the time. The actions of Spock in The Menagerie notwithstanding; Sarek lied to Kirk regarding the circumstances of his werabouts and the actual situation in Journey To Babel, and he lied to Amanda (his wife) with respect to his actual medical condition.

 

[Greg Cox]

View attachment 26807

I'm not 100% certain, but I'm pretty sure I wrote that bit.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

They don't do it flippantly or needlessly, perhaps. When it serves a tactical advantage, or saves a life/lives. But not necessarily to spare one's feelings.

 

[Trekker09]

Not much of a whopper, but clearly untrue when Spock says to the guard, "Sir, there is a multi-legged creature crawling on your shoulder" right before he nerve pinches him to the floor. --"A Taste of Armageddon"

 

[David cgc]

I'm not 100% certain, but I'm pretty sure I wrote that bit.

I remember seeing a very similar joke in a more recent novel, might’ve been one of yours, but it was after this had been floating around as a meme for a while.

God bless Google Books. This line is actually from “Collision Course,” Shatner (and company)’s last Trek novel from back in 2008.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I think the only time Spock himself made any comment about it was in "The Enterprise Incident."

Commander: There's a well-known saying, or is it a myth, that Vulcans are incapable of lying?
Spock: It is no myth.

And this was part of a spy mission, which by its very nature is a big deception. So Spock would have said whatever was necessary for the sake of that mission.

Kor

It is always a logical statement for Spock to say that Vulcans never lie.

Because if they really DON'T lie, then that, by definition, is a true statement.

If, however, Vulcans CAN lie, then saying that they never lie is just an example OF that.

Edit: Ninja'd.

 

[johnnybear]

In "The Corbomite Maneuver," Spock says that Balok (booming voice of Ted Cassidy) is reminiscent of his father. But later we see that Sarek is the most mild-spoken and genteel of men.

It's clear that Spock was trying to tweak morale on the bridge rather than tell a strict truth.

Didn't we cover this one a long time back? The image of Balok as perceived by Spock may have been similar to how the full blooded Vulcans may have originally been designed to have appeared. This is proven when Harry Mudd sort of tells Spock that he is half Vulcanian, which makes no sense from what we know of them later on as they all look the same with the black hair, Atlantean ears (yes I used to read the Sub Mariner comic books) and low forehead denoting...well at least the low forehead and of course the emerald hue that certain light reveals. But what if the original look of the full blooded Vulcans was as chalky skinned, impassive, bald headed and with even larger ears? And that the Spock we know only looked the way he did because of the mixed parentage he had?
JB

 

[Henoch]

I think Harry Mudd is very observant on picking up slight differences between Vulcanians and Human/Vulcanian half-breeds; this is a very useful talent for a con man to have. (Perhaps there is a slight shape difference in the ears and skin hue. ) Just four episodes after The Corbomite Maneuver, we see that Vulcans look like Romulans in Balance of Terror, hence Vulcans most likely never were planned to look like Balok's puppet. Spock is most likely comparing Balok's strict words to his father's strict personality.