Very slight technological nitpick: Don't replicators still require raw materials, to be converted into whatever's being replicated? In which case, there's still an upper limit to society's available resources, albeit a much, much higher one than would be the case in a pre-replicator economy.
Ahh, but a replicator can also recycle used materials, so there's virtually no waste. (Our society would gain incredible material wealth if we had the ability to recycle everything that's ever been dumped in our mountainous landfills.)
Yes, conservation of energy still applies, but to a spacegoing power, energy is easy! The galaxy is made up of several hundred billion ginormous fusion reactors called "stars," pouring out gobs of energy totally for free. If you have the technology to travel between the stars, then you would have access to vastly more energy than any civilization would ever need. Not to mention the immense quantity of material resources just lying around in asteroid belts and cometary clouds and gas-giant atmospheres.
- (and this probably takes the cake) In the first TNG Slings and Arrows book, there is a Changeling infiltrator on the Enterprise. At some point, it makes it's way out into space and how does it escape? The Changeling goes to warp. That's right, apparently Changeling shape-shifting abilities include the ability to simulate dilithium crystals and self-propel themselves through space.
As stated, Laas's spaceflight suggests this is possible. Yes, as someone said, I believe he was at impulse when the runabout first encountered him, but how did he
get there from another star system in a reasonable amount of time if not by warp?
Besides, Changelings can apparently alter their mass, something which should be impossible. Robert Hewitt Wolfe's behind-the-scenes explanation for that was that Changelings can fold part of their mass into subspace. So if they naturally have access to subspace, then it kinda sorta follows that they could potentially achieve warp flight.
The IDIC Epidemic, the ending where the Klingon lad is accepted to Starfleet... Yeah. Nice on paper but given the state of relations between the powers it really couldn't have happened.
Why not? An individual is not a government. Just because the "lad" is Klingon by
species doesn't mean he's Klingon by
nationality. Sure, he'd most likely be considered a traitor by his people, but if he emigrates and is no longer a subject of the Klingon Empire, then he can do whatever he wants regardless of what the Klingon government might say.
But for sheer idiocy, I'll go for Spirit Walk, particularly the scene where Chakotay summons a black jaguar out of thin air to attack a changeling while his sister's fatal wounds are held together by the ghost of her dead boyfriend.
How is that any more absurd than a godlike being who can make anything happen with a snap of his fingers and a flash of light, but who usually uses this infinite power simply to dress up in a Starfleet uniform and annoy Captain Picard? Nothing that happened in
Spirit Walk was any more fanciful than Q's bag of tricks. It's a well-established reality in Trek, unfortunately, that sufficiently "evolved" life forms have enough control over the laws of physics that they can wield effectively magical or godlike abilities. There's no reason why the beings in
Spirit Walk who temporarily endow Chakotay with their abilities can't be interpreted in exactly the same way. Chakotay
chose to interpret them as divine beings, but that's his personal belief system -- just as Kira chooses to interpret the extratemporal aliens who inhabit the Bajoran wormhole as divine beings. I really don't see the difference.
