Most irreconcilable plot errors in Trek

[Silvercrest]

For an episode that piled up the inconsistencies to the point of absolute breakdown, my vote would be "The Alternative Factor." Voyager's "Threshold" and its ultimately inconsequential Warp-10 nonsense is a close runner-up.

Same here.

Crap, how many minutes did I just spend writing about "Threshold?"

Your post sums up the problem pretty well though.

Did the Doctor say how lucky Tom and Janeway were to have been desalamanderized? I forget...

You know, I could buy it, if Janeway wasn't willing to return to the Alpha Quadrant by that method, if she (and we) knew that roughly one-third of the crew wouldn't survive the desalamanderization process.

There are plenty of rationalizations to try to make this episode work. I won't offer any more, but I do have a new perspective. Anyone notice how the concept of the 24th-century "evolved humanity" was taking a beating on DS9 around the same time? "In the Cards" from a year later, for example.

Here's why. The characters stopped extolling the virtues of "evolved humanity" once "Threshold" showed what they were evolving into.

TOS: The Enemy Within...Sulu and his guys are stranded on a freezing cold planet because the transporter is broken. No one thinks to send a shuttlecraft to pick them up.

I know that the "real world" reason for not using a shuttlecraft in the story was because the models and/or sets weren't built yet, but I believe that the concept of the ship having a set of shuttlecraft predates the filming of this episode, as the shuttle bay doors were part of the ship's design from the beginning.

According to Memory Alpha and the Star Trek Encyclopedia, the existence of shuttlecraft or a hangar deck had not been established even among the writers at the time the episode was written. At the time, writers were under the impression the transporter was the Enterprise's only method transportation on or off the ship.

That's still irreconcilable from a meta perspective, then. The writers assumed that the only access was through a fallible high-tech device??? Forget this episode — what was the crew supposed to do if they had to abandon ship in a hurry?

 

[nightwind1]

Instead of those men freezing nearly to death, why not set one of the phasers to heat and fire at the planet? If you don't trust the system enough to fire right at them, fire up wind and let the warm breeze waffle across them.

Mmmmmm...

...warm waffles.

 

[Nightdiamond]

Voyager had been traveling a year and a half away from the Kazon territory and yet the Kazon were able to reach them in mere hours.

Oh come on! They were traveling through the borderlands between the Viidians and Kazon territory.They were sometimes inside Viidian space where it weren't heavily patrolled due to a certain internal problem. Other times, they were inside Kazon space. They didn't leave Kazon space for good until around Basics part two.

Cullah followed them. Aside from a couple of Kazon, Cullah was the only one Voyager kept bumping into.

I recently rewatched Voyager and I got the feeling they weren't traveling that far during their first year in the DQ. They were under constant attacks by huge ships to the point where Janeway decided to try to make some kind of alliance.

But they also had contact with Talaxians--If I recall correctly, the Talaxians were in the same area as the Kazon.

After almost 2 years of travelling Voyager would have to be at least some distance between those territories.

After the Kazon attacks started, Tom Paris contacted a Talaxian fleet and asked them for help, and they seemed to there almost instantly, implying they were close by.

They did something similar with the Talaxians in Homestead.

They find a colony of Talaxians about 40,000 light years from where the Talaxian system should be. No explanation of how they got there so quickly.

In the 23rd century, women in Starfleet weren't allowed to be promoted to captain.

The line in Turnabout Intruder is something like "your world of starship captains doesn't allow women," which could mean any number of things. Perhaps Lester just thinks women can't be promoted to captain as a means of rationalizing why she never made into command, or perhaps she was just referring to Kirk's devotion to duty leaving him no time for a meaningful relationship.

We know women could be first officers, and the novels have shown us female captains in the 23rd century. In fact, I believe one of the captains in the upcoming The Seekers series is a woman.

True, but one problem is how obsessed Lester is with actually being captain-to the point of swapping bodies with Kirk.

And the incriminating statements from everyone..

Kirk kind of agrees with her statement when she said it.

When the plot fails, she whines, 'now I'll never be the captain'.

And Kirk says some borderline sexist stuff like her "life could have been just as fulfilling as any woman" damn!

 

[T'Girl]

According to Memory Alpha and the Star Trek Encyclopedia, the existence of shuttlecraft or a hangar deck had not been established even among the writers at the time the episode was written.

Which is strange, the large shooting model did have finished outer doors for the flight deck. Clearly visible in WNMHGB and at the end of many early episodes. I've never seen the first edition writer's guide, but I believe that later editions did mention the existence of shuttles.

The line in Turnabout Intruder is something like "your world of starship captains doesn't allow women," which could mean any number of things.

And beyond any statement by (crazy) Janice, we never see any woman with captain rank or above in TOS. We do see a fair number of men who are captains, commodores and admirals.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

According to Memory Alpha and the Star Trek Encyclopedia, the existence of shuttlecraft or a hangar deck had not been established even among the writers at the time the episode was written.

Which is strange, the large shooting model did have finished outer doors for the flight deck. Clearly visible in WNMHGB and at the end of many early episodes. I've never seen the first edition writer's guide, but I believe that later editions did mention the existence of shuttles.

Yeah, you'd think that even just a single line of dialog could have been inserted, about shuttles being unusable in that situation.

If the author (Richard Matheson) hadn't known about their existence, it could have been inserted by the story editor or by Roddenberry himself, who should have known, at the very least. The Writers Guide does say that production staff were to attend to technical details, and that seems like it should have counted as one.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Perhaps it was originally envisioned as a cargo loading deck, rather than a bay with it's own auxiliary craft?

 

[T'Girl]

Something like "we can't possible land a shuttle the way the winds are now" would have done nicely.

 

[F. King Daniel]

^Only if the previous episode ends in Kirk saying "...you can't be afraid of the wind, ensign"

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Perhaps it was originally envisioned as a cargo loading deck, rather than a bay with it's own auxiliary craft?

Oh, that's a good point.

Something like "we can't possible land a shuttle the way the winds are now" would have done nicely.

I'd make it crazy high-altitude winds.

However, it'd be better to try to get away without giving a reason at all, just to avoid future continuity issues if at all possible.

One idea that occurred to me was that something strange and possibly magnetic interfered with the shuttle electronics. Scotty could say that they were working on it, but just have the story never get back to it, thus implying that the problem wasn't solved in time. But, the point being that that strange force could also have had something to do with the transporter accident (maybe it's caused by the total of that weird mineral all over and throughout the planet, some of which was on the injured technician who beamed up).

 

[Finn]

But they also had contact with Talaxians--If I recall correctly, the Talaxians were in the same area as the Kazon.

After almost 2 years of travelling Voyager would have to be at least some distance between those territories.

So?

It was clear from other Trek series and movies that Humans can be found in that same range of distance. Malcor III is two thousand light years from Earth and Starfleet had a full blown operation invested on that planet.

And remember, Talaxians had known about space travellers for at least 900 years. It is safe to say that they have been going to the stars long before Humans did.

After the Kazon attacks started, Tom Paris contacted a Talaxian fleet and asked them for help, and they seemed to there almost instantly, implying they were close by.

So? Talaxians have been scattered across the quadrant following the war

They did something similar with the Talaxians in Homestead.

They find a colony of Talaxians about 40,000 light years from where the Talaxian system should be. No explanation of how they got there so quickly.

So? Voyager made it in seven years. Those Talaxians had a lot more time. We don't even know how fast those ships they used can go. Not to mention they may have known of shortcuts like wormholes or someone with superior technology that Neelix weren't aware of.

 

[The Wormhole]

If the author (Richard Matheson) hadn't known about their existence, it could have been inserted by the story editor or by Roddenberry himself, who should have known, at the very least. The Writers Guide does say that production staff were to attend to technical details, and that seems like it should have counted as one.

Don't blame this on Richard Matheson, his original script was just about the transporter screwing up and creating an evil Kirk. The subplot involving Sulu and the others trapped on the planet was added in "staff re-writes." Which likely means Roddenberry, though it could have been anyone. If they didn't mention shuttles, than that likely means that at the time as far as they were concerned shuttles didn't exist.

Though that does raise a good point that if they hadn't created shuttles yet, what were those big doors for? EVAs perhaps?

True, but one problem is how obsessed Lester is with actually being captain-to the point of swapping bodies with Kirk.

And the incriminating statements from everyone..

Kirk kind of agrees with her statement when she said it.

When the plot fails, she whines, 'now I'll never be the captain'.

And Kirk says some borderline sexist stuff like her "life could have been just as fulfilling as any woman" damn!

Probably best if you just ignore it all together. Everyone else has.

 

[Gotham Central]

According to Memory Alpha and the Star Trek Encyclopedia, the existence of shuttlecraft or a hangar deck had not been established even among the writers at the time the episode was written.

Which is strange, the large shooting model did have finished outer doors for the flight deck. Clearly visible in WNMHGB and at the end of many early episodes. I've never seen the first edition writer's guide, but I believe that later editions did mention the existence of shuttles.

The line in Turnabout Intruder is something like "your world of starship captains doesn't allow women," which could mean any number of things.

And beyond any statement by (crazy) Janice, we never see any woman with captain rank or above in TOS. We do see a fair number of men who are captains, commodores and admirals.

I'm fairly certain that the original drafts for The Cage included a sequence of Captain April coming aboard ship by virtue of a shuttle. This is precisely why the hangar was included on the model. Most of the drafts of The Cage included some scene with a shuttle. This was ultimately scrapped, but the hangar deck remained on the ship.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Don't blame this on Richard Matheson, his original script was just about the transporter screwing up and creating an evil Kirk. The subplot involving Sulu and the others trapped on the planet was added in "staff re-writes." Which likely means Roddenberry, though it could have been anyone.

I'm fairly certain that the original drafts for The Cage included a sequence of Captain April coming aboard ship by virtue of a shuttle. This is precisely why the hangar was included on the model. Most of the drafts of The Cage included some scene with a shuttle. This was ultimately scrapped, but the hangar deck remained on the ship.

Are there references for these?

 

[The Wormhole]

^^Mine comes from Memory-Alpha's page on The Enemy Within.

 

[mtblillie]

Speaking of not picking Sulu up with a shuttle, why not send down EVA suits? They are designed to withstand extreme cold.

 

[Elias Vaughn]

That episode where Odo worked at the roller rink. I know they were trying to show his search for humanity because everyone wants humanity it is simply the best but I really think they went too far, it's a plot error of character of massive proportions.

To be fair, that was way better than the episode's b-plot where Quark explored his childhood dream of becoming an educator.

 

[FormerLurker]

^The life support systems of the EVA suits would have probably been subject to the same problems as the portable heaters that were fouled up by transport. Although that is merely an in-universe explanation.

 

[The Wormhole]

Well, if we really want to push this matter, they could have stuck the EV suits in a crate that would survive atmospheric re-entry...

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

That episode where Odo worked at the roller rink. I know they were trying to show his search for humanity because everyone wants humanity it is simply the best but I really think they went too far, it's a plot error of character of massive proportions.

They also never explained Odo's brief disappearance from "Little Green Men" and his adventures in 1970's Canada.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgGKSjiw0HQ[/yt]

 

[Gotham Central]

Don't blame this on Richard Matheson, his original script was just about the transporter screwing up and creating an evil Kirk. The subplot involving Sulu and the others trapped on the planet was added in "staff re-writes." Which likely means Roddenberry, though it could have been anyone.

I'm fairly certain that the original drafts for The Cage included a sequence of Captain April coming aboard ship by virtue of a shuttle. This is precisely why the hangar was included on the model. Most of the drafts of The Cage included some scene with a shuttle. This was ultimately scrapped, but the hangar deck remained on the ship.

Are there references for these?

Mine come from the book The Making of Star Trek which featured the early production notes and scripts from early TOS.