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10 Things I HATE about Star Trek!

Mistral

Vice Admiral
Admiral
Sorry, this was too amusing. Got it in an anonymous email over the weekend. A little something to laugh at.

[FONT=Arial]10 things I hate about Star Trek[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial]By an anonymous Trekkie


10. Noisy doors.

You can't walk three feet in a starship without some door whooshing or screeching at you. My office building has automatic sliding doors. They're dead silent. If those doors went "wheet!" every time a person walked through them, about once a month some guy in accounting would snap and go on a shooting rampage. Sorry Scotty, the IEEE has revoked your membership until you learn to master WD-40


9. The Federation.

This organization creeps me out. A planet-wide government that runs everything, and that has abolished money. A veritable planetary DMV. Oh sure, it looks like a cool place when you're rocketing around in a Federation Starship, but I wonder how the guy driving a Federation dump truck feels about it?

And everyone has to wear those spandex uniforms. Here's an important fact: Most people, you don't want to see them in spandex. You'd pay good money to not have to see them. If money hadn't been abolished, that is. So you're screwed.


8. Reversing the Polarity.

For cripes sake Geordie, stop reversing the polarity of everything! It might work once in a while, but usually it just screws things up. I have it on good authority that the technicians at Starbase 12 HATE that. Every time the Enterprise comes in for its 10,000 hour checkup, they've gotta go through the whole damned ship fixing stuff. "What happened to the toilet in Stateroom 3?" "Well, the plumbing backed up, and Geordie thought he could fix it by reversing the polarity."

Between Scotty's poor lubrication habits and Geordie's damned polarity reversing trick, it's a wonder the Enterprise doesn't just spontaneously explode whenever they put the juice to it.


7. Seatbelts.

Yeah, I know this one is overdone, but you'd think that the first time an explosion caused the guy at the nav station to fly over the captain's head with a good 8 feet of clearance, someone would say, "You know, we might think of inventing some futuristic restraining device to prevent that from happening." So of course, they did make something like that for the second Enterprise (the first one blew up due to poor lubrication) , but what was it? A hard plastic thing that's locked over your thighs. Oh, I'll bet THAT feels good in the corners. "Hey look! The leg-bars worked as advertised! There goes Kirk's torso!"


6. No fuses.

Every time there's a power surge on the Enterprise the various stations and consoles explode in a shower of sparks and throw their seatbelt-less operators over Picard's head. If we could get Geordie to stop reversing the polarity for a minute, we could get him to go shopping at the nearest Starship parts store and pick up a few fuses. And while he's shopping, he could stop at an intergalactic IKEA and pick up a few chairs for the bridge personnel. If you're going to put me in front of a fuseless exploding console all day, the least you could do is let me sit down.


5. Rule by committee.

Here's the difference between Star Trek and the best SF show on TV last year:

Star Trek:

Picard: "Arm photon torpedoes!"
Riker: "Captain! Are you sure that's wise?"
Troi: "Captain! I'm picking up conflicting feelings about this! And, it appears that you're a 'fraidy cat."
Wesley: "Captain, I'm just an annoying punk, but I thought I should say something."
Worf: "Captain, can I push the button? This is giving me a big Klingon warrior chubby."
Geordie: "Captain, I think we should reverse the polarity on them first."
Picard: "I'm so confused. I'm going to go to my stateroom and look
pensive."

Firefly:

Captain: "Let's shoot them."
Crewman: "Are you sure that's wise?"
Captain: "Do you know what the chain of command is? It's the chain I'll BEAT YOU WITH until you realize who's in command."
Crewman: "Aye Aye, sir!"


4. A Star Trek quiz:

Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and 'Ensign Gomez' beam down to a planet. Which one isn't coming back?


3. Technobabble.

The other night, I couldn't get my car to start. I solved the problem by reversing the polarity of the car battery, and routing the power through my satellite dish. The resulting subspace plasma caused a rift in the space-time continuum, which created a quantum tunneling effect that charged the protons in the engine core, thus starting my car. Child's play, really. As a happy side-effect, I also now get the Spice Channel for free.


2. The Holodeck.

I mean, it's cool and all. But do you really believe that people would use it to re-create Sherlock Holmes mysteries and old-west saloons? Come on, we all know what the holodeck would be used for. And we also know what the worst job on the Enterprise would be: Having to squeegee the holodeck clean.


1. The Prime Directive.

How stupid is this? Remember when Marvin the Martian was going to blow up the Earth, because it obstructed his view of Venus? And how Bugs Bunny stopped him by stealing the Illudium Q36 Space Modulator? Well, in the Star Trek universe, Bugs would be doing time. Probably in a room filled with Roseanne look-alikes wearing spandex uniforms, walking through doors going WHEET! all day. It would be heck. At least until the Kaboom. The Earth-Shattering Kaboom.
[/FONT]
 
I'm pretty sure we had a similar thread, but it might have been so long ago that a newer thread is needed anyway.

And IIRC, the last thread turned out to be a fairly loving way of venting criticisms at the franchise, which by itself is fine. Another but less successful thread about what we all LOVED about Trek was spawned as well.

Anyway, back to the OP, I'd say only some of those complaints apply to certain shows:

-the sparks flying and technobabble I would attribute to Voyager (sparks flew when she landed on a planet -- something she was SPECIFICALLY DESIGNED TO DO! Could you imagine your airplane dashboard blowing up because you got it airborne?)
-rule by committee is a TNG thing. Kirk would ask for options from Spock and *maybe* Scotty while McCoy would often give unwarranted advice, but that was about it. Janeway was confident in her commands whether she was right or wrong, and God help you if you questioned Sisko on his bridge
-the Federation probably only applies to TOS and TNG. DS9 sought to flesh out the Federation and, by default, there couldn't be much of a Federation presence in Voyager or Enterprise due to the premise of their shows
 
Uhmmm, is this, like... By any chance... You know... A TROLL THREAD? :alienblush:
No, I'd say it looks just like a forwarded-via-email joke thread, complete with superfluous formatting tags.

Yeah, pretty much. Didn't notice the formatting tags at first. Sorry. Just thought it was funny.:rolleyes:
Oh, I apologize. I failed to notice the "email" thing... Yeah, pretty funny... It's just that I've heard people (haters) seriously complaining about at least five out of ten things listed here. And I hate Picard bashers. I hate them with a passion. And i don't like Firefly. Not one bit.
 
Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and 'Ensign Gomez' beam down to a planet. Which one isn't coming back?

If this is the lovely Sonya Gomez, Kirk would make sure that she made it back. Spock and McCoy would have to draw straws.
 
That these two are on the list annoys me so I’m gonna comment

9. The Federation.

This organization creeps me out. A planet-wide government that runs everything, and that has abolished money. A veritable planetary DMV. Oh sure, it looks like a cool place when you're rocketing around in a Federation Starship, but I wonder how the guy driving a Federation dump truck feels about it?

The Federation is described as paradise. There is no dreaded DMV in paradise. This there IS no guy driving a Federation dump truck…the truck drives, and cleans, itself. Try using your imagination more and quit fearing a better tomorrow, miser.

5. Rule by committee.
Here's the difference between Star Trek and the best SF show on TV last year:

Star Trek vs. Firefly...
Except neither scene actually takes place in either show. Picard calls a conference when there's time and cause for it. Mal typically fires when he knows it's tactically a viable move. Otherwise, one is a fool for not seeking counsel in matters beyond their purview and is likely to be offed by someone pissed at being shot at when it was unnecessary.

The rest I'd put on a list too, though not for the same reasons exactly.

Here's one I'd throw on there:

Too many humanoids or humans with little bits of pointless artful junk on their faces. I'll even extend this to minor cultural differences. That a Bajoran has a wrinkled nose and an affinity for religion doesn't make them an extraterrestrial. Christ, there's greater variety between human races than there are in half the Trek alien peoples.
 
This kind of thing is kind of bittersweet to me. I like good fun poked at movies, shows, fiction, or whatever, but - nerdy or not - I always have and always will place Star Trek in a special category of honor unique from other creations. To me it isn't just a lame show made to be picked apart and laughed at; it is more of a prophetic vision of humanity as it should be, and as we should strive for it to one day become.

Yes, it has its funny moments; loads of them, as a matter of fact... but in my mind, ST is the history of the future; don't try to tell me that Julius Ceasar didn't really exist, and don't try to tell me that the NCC-1701 won't one day explore the galaxy; and while we are on the subject, be careful what you say about the Federation while in my presence. :)
 
Star Trek vs. Firefly...
Except neither scene actually takes place in either show. Picard calls a conference when there's time and cause for it. Mal typically fires when he knows it's tactically a viable move. Otherwise, one is a fool for not seeking counsel in matters beyond their purview and is likely to be offed by someone pissed at being shot at when it was unnecessary.
I'll point out that the Firefly quote wasn't even Mal to begin with. It was Jayne, who ain't the brightest star in the 'verse.
 
Geez, some of y'all need to get it. It was all in fun, not a diatribe on the flaws of Trek. The show's lasted 43 years-I think it can stand up to a tiny bit of criticism.
 
I have diatribed to everyone who will listen about the lack of safety on deck - when everyone goes flying I know it's for cinematic effect - but you'd think they'd get seat belts or magnets to stick themselves to their workstations or personal airbags or something techy and space like . . .
 
I have diatribed to everyone who will listen about the lack of safety on deck - when everyone goes flying I know it's for cinematic effect - but you'd think they'd get seat belts or magnets to stick themselves to their workstations or personal airbags or something techy and space like . . .

Voyager would have been a really different show if they'd had something like that, that's for sure.

(Cavit would still be dead, though.)
 
I love poking fun at a movie and I don't see how people can't recognize this as a joke. When me and my bro used to watch Trek we used make all sorts of jokes about how Deanna crashes the Enterprise every time she takes the helm, about the zillions of Spock/McCoy or Spock/Kirk fics out there, or just anything else ready to be made fun of in the scene. I thought it was pretty funny :rolleyes:
 
:lol: - I thought it was funny, Mistral!

As to the Firefly reference, "Dumb yokels don't even realize a transport ship ain't got no guns on it. 'Blow a new crater in this moon!' Ha!" ;)
 
I have diatribed to everyone who will listen about the lack of safety on deck - when everyone goes flying I know it's for cinematic effect - but you'd think they'd get seat belts or magnets to stick themselves to their workstations or personal airbags or something techy and space like . . .
Now it rarely works out like this onscreen, but I always kind of figured that with the accelerations they're presumably dealing with, when you get thrown, seatbelts wouldn't be too much use. Either the inertial dampening thing catches you, or it doesn't, and you splatter on the wall. A seatbealt would stop you while you're decelerating at 20Gs and do it just before the IDF worked out the problem, making you much deader than if you'd let yourself go flying. This is about as good an explanation for the lack of basic safety features as I can think of, anyway.

(Plus it sucks if you're in front of a console, I guess, but I presume that's why they stuck Data--invulnerable--and Wesley--expendable--up there.)
 
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