Which episode most breaks your suspension of disbelief?

[Anwar]

What I found strange was that no one on the Enterprise knew what was happening to Spock in "Amok Time", at all. The Vulcans were founding members of the Federation and they had a Vulcan Specialist Doctor onboard (M'Benga)! You'd think that even if McCoy didn't know (which is bizarre in and of itself) the Specialist would have or it would be in the database.

The Vulcans couldn't be SO conservative and xenophobic they'd withhold vital information on their biology like that, or they'd never help form the Federation to begin with!

 

[Merky]

What I found strange was that no one on the Enterprise knew what was happening to Spock in "Amok Time", at all. The Vulcans were founding members of the Federation and they had a Vulcan Specialist Doctor onboard (M'Benga)! You'd think that even if McCoy didn't know (which is bizarre in and of itself) the Specialist would have or it would be in the database.

The Vulcans couldn't be SO conservative and xenophobic they'd withhold vital information on their biology like that, or they'd never help form the Federation to begin with!

When it comes to sex and the pon farr, it is extremely personal. Even The Doctor in VOY makes a comment about how private Vulcans are when it comes to pon farr, finding it ridiculous for a race built on the ideals of logic to be so Victorian when it comes to sex. I think that ep was called Blood Fever... not really familiar with all the Treks outside of TOS and DS9, lol.

Also, its a time of emotional unbalance and lack of control. Very shameful time for Vulcans and being a race full of pride it's within reason that they would withhold such information for sake of saving face.

 

[Anwar]

So, basically when it comes to sex the Vulcans are all prideful prudes, and not very logical at all? You'd think they'd see the sense in letting the medical community know and just say "please don't print journals about this", once they decided to join the interstellar community. Or are they perfectly willing to let off-world Vulcans who might not be able to return home die because no one else would know how to help them in this extreme case?

 

[Captrek]

The Vulcans were founding members of the Federation

Nobody knew that in 1967.

and they had a Vulcan Specialist Doctor onboard (M'Benga)!

He, too, came along after (fanwank: because of?) Amok Time.

or it would be in the database.

Spock could easily have deleted it.

 

[number6]

The Vulcans were founding members of the Federation

Nobody knew that in 1967.

and they had a Vulcan Specialist Doctor onboard (M'Benga)!

He, too, came along after (fanwank: because of?) Amok Time.

or it would be in the database.

Spock could easily have deleted it.

Spock also didn't think he would ever get Ponn Farr, being half human, so there was never any reason to talk about it to the crew. We don't know how many Vulcans actually serve in StarFleet on TOS. The number changes for the needs of the story. One thinks Spock is the only Vulcan, then there's a Starship full of them.. Obviously some people have heard of it, but in The Cloud Minders it is referenced as a mysterious rumour. Perhaps that's how it is among other species as well.
Given the Vulcan attitude toward humans depicted in all the series, it makes sense that McCoy wouldn't know anything about it. M'Benga, OTOH may know, but perhaps he's sworn to doctor-patient confidentiality.

 

[scotpens]

One thing I found utterly implausible was that Kirk had no clue who Spock’s parents were until they showed up in “Journey to Babel.” Vulcans may be private and secretive, but you’d think a ship’s captain would have at least that much information on his second-in-command. And Sarek was a planetary ambassador, a well-known and respected figure — wouldn’t it be a matter of public record that his wife was an Earth woman, a former teacher named Amanda and that they had a son named Spock?

 

[number6]

One thing I found utterly implausible was that Kirk had no clue who Spock’s parents were until they showed up in “Journey to Babel.” Vulcans may be private and secretive, but you’d think a ship’s captain would have at least that much information on his second-in-command. And Sarek was a planetary ambassador, a well-known and respected figure — wouldn’t it be a matter of public record that his wife was a former teacher named Amanda and that they had a son named Spock?

That is kind of weird, but it doesn't really take me out of the episode.

 

[Captrek]

wouldn’t it be a matter of public record that his wife was a former teacher named Amanda and that they had a son named Spock?

It would. If Kirk weren’t so busy he might have looked up the biographies of all those ambassadors he’s bringing aboard and noticed that one of them has a son who looks familiar.

 

[number6]

wouldn’t it be a matter of public record that his wife was a former teacher named Amanda and that they had a son named Spock?

Sure it would. If Kirk weren’t so damn busy he might have looked up the biographies of all those ambassadors he’s bringing aboard and noticed that one of them has a son who looks familiar.

He didn't know about Spock's Half-brother, or the fact that Chekov didn't have one or that Sulu had a daughter. There's a pattern of behaviour for you.. Kirk is too busy being awesome to be bothered by the details like that.

 

[Sky]

I think it's kind of reaching to say that the crew not knowing about pon farr or Kirk not knowing about Sarek and Amanda breaks suspension of disbelief. After all, there are plausible scenarios where that could easily occur. It's not like Abraham Lincoln floating in space or anything like that.

 

[Anwar]

Also, they couldn't make up their minds on whether or not the Federation was just a benign Terran Empire or not. Sometimes it's the "Earth Federation", sometimes it's an Earth Space Agency, sometimes it's the "Federation of Planets".

I know you'll say "they didn't know back in the 60s", but that's really no excuse. They could easily have just sat down and said "Okay folks, before you write your stories we HAVE set up some fundamental story elements you need to remember". Internal consistency wasn't something alien (heh) in 1960s television.

 

[Merky]

Star Trek, and 60s television in general, was written to be episodic. There was never an arching story because studios believed audiences wouldn't sit at their television every week for a continuing storyline. So, yeah, TOS has a lot of conflicting information. You can simply look at S3 and half the crap in that clusterfuck season contradicts a bunch of crap in S1.

That's really all there is to it. The main focus was writing adventure stories and putting these characters in weird situations with a lesson or two to be learned at the end.

 

[Anwar]

I don't mean giving the show story arcs, I mean just writing up some rules and setting laws to maintain internal consistency in the show itself. As in "Spock is not the only Vulcan in Starfleet, the Federation is made up of several alien species and not just an Earth Empire, etc".

 

[Merky]

I don't mean giving the show story arcs, I mean just writing up some rules and setting laws to maintain internal consistency in the show itself. As in "Spock is not the only Vulcan in Starfleet, the Federation is made up of several alien species and not just an Earth Empire, etc".

That's actually all included in the show's bible.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

With respect to backstory detail and consistency, I believe they pushed the boundary of what the industry of the time could support, as is.

 

[Anwar]

I don't mean giving the show story arcs, I mean just writing up some rules and setting laws to maintain internal consistency in the show itself. As in "Spock is not the only Vulcan in Starfleet, the Federation is made up of several alien species and not just an Earth Empire, etc".

That's actually all included in the show's bible.

And even WITH that they still were inconsistent on those matters.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Like I said: the industry of the time could not support greater consistency, especially on such a "fantasy show".

 

[number6]

Like I said: the industry of the time could not support greater consistency, especially on such a "fantasy show".

That has much less to do with the industry and more to do with the time crunch the creative team were frequently under, especially the first season. Also none of them were expecting people like us to be so closely scrutinizing every detail some 40 years later.

 

[scotpens]

I don't mean giving the show story arcs, I mean just writing up some rules and setting laws to maintain internal consistency in the show itself. As in “Spock is not the only Vulcan in Starfleet, the Federation is made up of several alien species and not just an Earth Empire, etc”.

Even a show like The Man From UNCLE, with its fictitious international espionage/peacekeeping organization, took place in the present day and was grounded in reality. Star Trek was unique in that it created an entire fictional universe. There was simply no way every detail of that universe and every bit of backstory could be thought out in advance. Of necessity, much of it had to be made up as they went along. Anyway, if Trek TOS didn’t have so many internal inconsistencies, what would we geeks have to bicker about?

 

[Merky]

Anyway, if Trek TOS didn’t have so many internal inconsistencies, what would we geeks have to bicker about?

Um... why isn't Spock's ear design consistent from episode to episode and from film to film :P