Biggest single contrivances that make stories "work"?

[You_Will_Fail]

I don't mean general contrivances like warp drive, I'm talking about a contrivance that makes the story of an episode possible.

The biggest one for me might have to be in "Pathfinder".
Since Voyager last contacted Starfleet, they had traveled at least 36, 000 lightyears away thanks to a stolen transwarp coil, the quantum slipstream drive and a catapult. And yet somehow Starfleet manages to guess which spacial grid they must be in without this knowledge.

Now this contrivance does make the episode possible, and a good episode it is, but its just such a big one, it never fails to irk me when I watch it.

What is your opinion, what are the biggest episode contrivances for you?

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

The one that Jammer mentioned: The Borg don't destroy the Enterprise after the deflector weapon fails.

 

[Admiral Shran]

When the Borg don't identify themselves as Borg in Regeneration. It's a good episode, and it's necessary that they don't say "We are the Borg" in order to maintain continuity, but it is VERY convenient.

 

[Michael]

How about the Borg sending only one (!) ship to earth in First Contact? Or even better: Why didn't they time travel when they were in save space and then assimilate earth?

 

[BillJ]

Transwarp beaming (Star Trek 2009).

They could have at least tried to make it sound plausible 'in universe', but didn't.

 

[T J]

Transwarp beaming (Star Trek 2009).

They could have at least tried to make it sound plausible 'in universe', but didn't.

That and a super nova that can destroy the whole galaxy... please...

 

[sojourner]

^I must have missed that part of the movie.

 

[AstroSmurf]

That bit of information was given in Spock's meld with Kirk.

 

[Shatnertage]

Every time the E is the "only ship in the sector."

 

[You_Will_Fail]

Oh man you're so right about Star Trek XI, I loved it originally but as time goes on I'm beginning to hate it as a piece of trek.

 

[The Wormhole]

How about the Borg sending only one (!) ship to earth in First Contact? Or even better: Why didn't they time travel when they were in save space and then assimilate earth?

Actually, travelling back in time to assimilate Earth in the past is the contrivance of First Contact. The Borg are attracted to technology, and therefore they only target advanced civilizations for assimilation and ignore the primitive ones. So why the hell is going back to the 21st century, the day before humans achieve warp drive even an option for the Borg?

 

[T'Girl]

I can accept "the only ship in this quadrant of the galaxy" as a overused euphemism.

The ease that just anyone can get onto the ship's bridge.

ST Eleven, Chekov while briefing the crew on the reason the ship is going directly from Earth to Vulcan, also seem to feel the need to mention a "lightning storm" in the far away neural zone.

TOS The shuttles not being available during The Enemy Within.

TNG The children occasional being seen during battles being scared shitless, these kid have been through every single battle ever shown during the series, even when we did not see the kids, you think that they be pretty casual about it after a certain point wouldn't you?

I was in southern California during a fair size earthquake once, the kids playing little league baseball didn't even stop playing.

 

[UssGlenn]

How about the Borg sending only one (!) ship to earth in First Contact? Or even better: Why didn't they time travel when they were in save space and then assimilate earth?

Actually, travelling back in time to assimilate Earth in the past is the contrivance of First Contact. The Borg are attracted to technology, and therefore they only target advanced civilizations for assimilation and ignore the primitive ones. So why the hell is going back to the 21st century, the day before humans achieve warp drive even an option for the Borg?

If only makes sense if the Borg are doing it as an easy way to remove the threat of the Federation. If we assume they didn't learn anything new from 24th Century Fed tech, and thus have no need to assimilate it (as they will not keep knowledge they have of it when they change the timeline) then removing the threat is a perfectly fine goal.

 

[AstroSmurf]

After thinking about this for a little while... I have to say the stealing of the Enterprise in "The Search for Spock" is the biggest contrivance for me. Why not just leave the Enterprise in dry dock and steal a small transport instead. It would be less visible and easier to steal. Instead we get this long dramatic bit centered around the E's theft and another so they can blow her up. Basically it was all totally unnecessary except to add dramatics and action to the story.

 

[The Wormhole]

How about the Borg sending only one (!) ship to earth in First Contact? Or even better: Why didn't they time travel when they were in save space and then assimilate earth?

Actually, travelling back in time to assimilate Earth in the past is the contrivance of First Contact. The Borg are attracted to technology, and therefore they only target advanced civilizations for assimilation and ignore the primitive ones. So why the hell is going back to the 21st century, the day before humans achieve warp drive even an option for the Borg?

If only makes sense if the Borg are doing it as an easy way to remove the threat of the Federation. If we assume they didn't learn anything new from 24th Century Fed tech, and thus have no need to assimilate it (as they will not keep knowledge they have of it when they change the timeline) then removing the threat is a perfectly fine goal.

Okay, so they view Earth and the Federation as a threat to the Collective and go back in time to prevent its formation? Okay, so far so good. Why then did they not simply eradicate Earth? I'm pretty sure the sphere should have had enough firepower to wipe out all life on the planet. Why did they actually assimilate a primitive pre-warp civilization that would have offered nothing to perfection?

After all, the Borg's attraction to technology is one of the first fundamental things established about them when they were introduced on TNG, even before assimilation was first mentioned. And even Voyager, for all the faults its Borg episodes had (and they were many) adhered to this. Ignoring it in First Contact is a contrivance which the movie is contigent on.

 

[sojourner]

^Enterprise followed them through the time-wormhole and destroyed them before they could destroy/assimilate earth. It was a pretty big part of the plot.

 

[OmahaStar]

Nemesis shoe-horning Janeway in as an Admiral just to have an appearance by someone from Voyager ... small universe syndrome and all that. In reality, the character would have been on a penal colony. Sheesh.

 

[BillJ]

^I must have missed that part of the movie.

SPOCK PRIME: One hundred twenty-nine years from now, a star will explode, and threaten to destroy the galaxy.

One hell of a supernova.

 

[Ghel]

^I must have missed that part of the movie.

SPOCK PRIME: One hundred twenty-nine years from now, a star will explode, and threaten to destroy the galaxy.

One hell of a supernova.

This line never bothered me at all for the simple fact that this was stated/felt/shared during a mind-meld and is most likely hyperbole. Of course, I also don't buy the argument from some that Spock would not use hyperbole. Even by STVI Spock specifically stated that logic was only the beginning of wisdom and the older Spock got, the more he seemed to embrace both his logic and his more emotional, human side. Destroying Romulus could indeed have galaxy wide, or at least Alpha Quadrant wide ramifications. Plus, being in a mind meld, Spock may not have all of his emotional "filters" up.

 

[captcalhoun]

red goo that can turn a suupernova into a black hole

the entire crew of the Reliant not being able to count.