Name your imponderables for Star Trek

[Robbiesan]

There are always confounders in scripts, things that happen over and over, and make you smack your head...why oh why?

Here's my first one:

Why in the world have they not locked out the shuttlepods with serious safeguards so they cannot be stolen. It's pretty hard to lock out a door, for maintenance reasons, for if jammed or a power outage, then it's pretty tough to gain access. But it only makes sense to have multiple layers of security protocol, perhaps a bioscan of officers for admittance, or something even better.

 

[BoredShipCapt'n]

"And the tribbles had nothing to do with it?"

Kirk has just gotten Arne Darvin to admit that he poisoned the grain. Why is he so interested in exonerating the tribbles?

(Edit: I just realized that this thread is supposed to be for "things that happen over and over." In my defense, I can say that Kirk asks this every time I watch the episode.)​

 

[USS Triumphant]

The holodeck is primarily an entertainment device. Why does it have no external main power cable?

 

[Robbiesan]

If Vulcans follow the path of logic and controlled emotions as dictated by Surak, then why do they often come across as angry and hostile and not serene?

 

[Shawnster]

We, in this barbaric time of the 20th/21st century know to put in stairwells in addition to elevators. Why is there no stairs/ladders access on any of the starship bridges?

 

[maneth]

Why do they go out on potentially dangerous missions without any kind of protective clothing or equipment apart from phasers, certainly in the 24th century? (They remedied this somewhat in ENT.)

Why do the computer consoles require such strong voltages that they're apt to give off sparks at the least excuse?

Why are there no seatbelts in the shuttles?

 

[urbandefault]

Maybe this fits here, maybe not.

Why is it, in The Enemy Within, that when Evil Kirk materializes in the transporter room his tunic has no delta insignia?

 

[Robbiesan]

Does Geordi LaForge in effect have the ability to see everyone naked?

Do Andorian children don mittens on their antenae?

I can't comment on Lt. Data's abilities given he's been programmed in multiple methods of sexual techniques and what that means.....not without breaking the rules of the forum.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Mine are all in my sig

 

[Robbiesan]

Mine are all in my sig

Ugh, sorry I thought "imponderables" was a good original word choice until I saw your sig. I hope I didn't step on your toes. Going to check out your site now.

 

[F. King Daniel]

No worries. I didn't even come up with the name, it was former TBBS'er Jenee. I hope you enjoy my vids!

 

[Robbiesan]

No worries. I didn't even come up with the name, it was former TBBS'er Jenee. I hope you enjoy my vids!

The first one was genuinely funny!

David Gerrolds, the writer of the Trouble with Tribbles, wrote an early Star Trek commentary. His imponderable was "Is it really true Klingons fart in airlocks on purpose?"

EDIT: Actually the first one is very helpful! Your calculation for the Voyager incident has been a really troublesome aspect of making a galactic map that would be accurately scaled. I'd been wanting to make a complete map for the mod in my sig (it's for GalCiv2, Twilight of the Arnor, a computer strategic war game. Anyway, since the premise of Voyager was knocking the crew so far off, it meant it was logically impossible to place that quadrant on the same map.

Maybe now it really isn't though canonically it is....???

Everyone else can ignore this tangental conversation. We return to our regularly scheduled broadcast.

 

[Dale Sams]

How the hell can they sleep on those beds? And C'mon. The Captain doesn't get a bigger bed?

 

[Robbiesan]

How the hell can they sleep on those beds? And C'mon. The Captain doesn't get a bigger bed?

I don't know how it is today in the US Navy, but at one time, sailors actually shared beds. They took shifts and one sailor used the bunk bed, then another got up to do their shift, and switched out. Hard to believe, but essential due to space limitations.

I actually saw some of those style mattresses once at an old conference center. It's hard to believe anyone would have chosen them at all.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

How the hell can they sleep on those beds? And C'mon. The Captain doesn't get a bigger bed?

And they always lie down on their backs, on what looks like a rock hard pillow.

 

[AgentCoop]

Who the heck would ever be dumb enough to play poker with Geordi (can read your physiological responses and possibly even see through your cards), Troi (can tell if you're lying) and Data (a walking computer who can effortlessly keep track of every card in the deck)? Do these people want to lose?

 

[T'Girl]

In The Naked Time, Spock enters the briefing room, the doors close behind him and he falls backwards against the doors. In the same episode Reilly approaches a door moving backwards (a pretty girl pulled his attention) and the door opens for him.

Why didn't the doors open for Spock resulting in his falling into the corridor?

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Who the heck would ever be dumb enough to play poker with Geordi (can read your physiological responses and possibly even see through your cards), Troi (can tell if you're lying) and Data (a walking computer who can effortlessly keep track of every card in the deck)? Do these people want to lose?

Troi can tell when you're bluffing but I bet I could still kick her butt at poker. I bet she calls with Q6. Geordi can be beat by just not using infared transparent cards. Data, yeah, he'd be tough to beat. He could beat me but I bet a pro could beat him, unless it's a Time's Arrow case where he's stacking the deck. He could master the math of the game, but against a human who has also mastered the math of the game he'd be lost.

Speaking of which, why do people in Trek always play 5 card stud? Yeah, the rise of Texas Hold'em is relatively new, but before that all I heard about was 7 card stud, and when you learned poker as a child it was 5 card draw. And now Texas Hold'em, Omahi Hi/Lo, and probably even Razz are more popular than 5 card stud. None of the multigame setups include it. It is a boring game with very little action.

And why do all the militaries of the world do their fighting with huge, fragile ships that are bad at maneuvering? Babylon 5 and Battlestar Galactica both had fighters, because they make so much more sense.

 

[The Wormhole]

Why do starship databases contain such useless information? For example, in Flashback Janeway accesses logs from the Excelsior consisting of Sulu noting "routine maintenance" being done.

1) Wouldn't it make more sense for the ship's computers to access that from Memory Alpha or whatever?

2) Why is "routine maintenance" even considered interesting enough to be saved for 80 years?

 

[Robbiesan]

Hoshi Sato, a person of Japanese ancestry, but played by Linda Park, a person of Korean ancestry, displays no combat ability for three seasons. But in the fourth season proudly discloses she has a black belt in Aikido and has broken someone's arm before.
1) Why not have a Korean person play a Korean person?
2) Why mention this seemingly tangental information?
3) Why are all Asians supposed to know the martial arts on television?

Disclosure: I'm Asian.

Jean Luc Picard is from France. Patrick Stewart is from the UK. He speaks a crisp English accent and never bothers to speak in a French accent except minimally on one occasion.
Why? Why not make him from England and in keeping with his accent as he doesn't seem able to lose it?