That's the essential purpose of this thread.
Episodes where the entire plot fundamentally doesn't work
- Thread starter TommyR01D
- Start date
Not really. You can argue the EMH should be programmed against this scenario but then you'd have to argue the EMH has programming it should never need - it's not intended to run for more than an emergency situation or be left active long enough to ponder these sort of human(oid) questions. The idea that an EMH would have to be the CMO of a starship on an extended basis is the issue, not the dichotomy presented in the ep.
Having established that the Doctor IS a program evolving beyond its limits, this ep is perfectly acceptable and works.
You might as well ask why Measure of a Man didn't just end with Data agreeing to go with Maddox.
Spock's Brain.
Yep. There is no way Kirk or Picard get stranded in the wrong quadrant of the galaxy like rank amateurs.
Homeward.
*Han Solo voice*
That's not how the prime directive works.
*Han Solo voice*
That's not how the prime directive works.
Presumably the concern was that the Kazon would just disable the explosives once they left. The only way they could be sure it worked is by doing it themselves.
For me the answer to the threat is Rascals.
1) The transporter taking out a few chunks of someone's genome causes them to physically revert to children, but be otherwise perfectly formed and in full retention of their memory and cognitive capability - and apparently allows their clothes to shrink to match...
2) A bunch of hapless Ferengi manage to take over the Enterprise.
3) Our kidults manage to win it back.
4) The kidults are magically transformed back to adults again via the reinsertion of the genes.
It's utter tosh.
It's presented at the end like a choice between getting home right now or saving the Ocampa, but it's a bit more complicated than that. The system to send them back to Federation space would take hours to activate and they're in the middle of a space battle, with Kazon reinforcements on the way. They'd already lost one ship in the fight and if they'd stuck around and continued fighting there was a good chance they'd lose everything.
Destroying the array ended the possibility that they could ever use it to get home, but realistically they weren't going to be using it any time soon. Plus it was a big risk even using the thing, as the last time they took a 70,000 light year trip the entire senior staff aside from Janeway was killed!
Don't forget 5) The whole concept basically means that people can use the transporter to gain effective immortality. When you start to get old, take a trip through the transporter and rewind the clock back to age 12. Repeat indefinitely.
Timeless
The slipstream variance kicks in after 17 seconds.
So, just do a series of 15-16 second hops. Or throw in a few lines explaining that this is a one-shot deal for whatever technobabble reason.
Even in that near-disastrous flight they probably weren't in slipstream for much more than 2 minutes at the most and they still managed to nearly reach the edge of the alpha quadrant. So it's not as if the number of jumps would have been prohibitively high.
True, but if you take that one step further, why would they ever need to assimilate new technology in the first place? They'd just be able to think it up, and way more efficiently than a biological species.
Unless, of course, perfection also means that it's more efficient to steal it from a species that has developed the stuff already....
Conversation between Janeway and Chakotay.
Janeway: You know, in theory we should be able to do both. First return home and then destroy the array. You know, it should be possible to somehow duplicate the countdown timer we use in our autodestruct and couple it with the explosive instead.
Chakotay: Don't be ridiculous, what are you? A science fiction fan?
Janeway: I read they did those things as far back as the 20th century.
Chakotay: yes, but that was also a time when consoles magically didn't explode when you fired on other parts. We'll never be able to replicate that fabled technology of the Ancients!
The slipstream variance kicks in after 17 seconds.
So, just do a series of 15-16 second hops. Or throw in a few lines explaining that this is a one-shot deal for whatever technobabble reason.
Even in that near-disastrous flight they probably weren't in slipstream for much more than 2 minutes at the most and they still managed to nearly reach the edge of the alpha quadrant. So it's not as if the number of jumps would have been prohibitively high.
True, but if you take that one step further, why would they ever need to assimilate new technology in the first place? They'd just be able to think it up, and way more efficiently than a biological species.
Unless, of course, perfection also means that it's more efficient to steal it from a species that has developed the stuff already....
Conversation between Janeway and Chakotay.
Janeway: You know, in theory we should be able to do both. First return home and then destroy the array. You know, it should be possible to somehow duplicate the countdown timer we use in our autodestruct and couple it with the explosive instead.
Chakotay: Don't be ridiculous, what are you? A science fiction fan?
Janeway: I read they did those things as far back as the 20th century.
Chakotay: yes, but that was also a time when consoles magically didn't explode when you fired on other parts. We'll never be able to replicate that fabled technology of the Ancients!
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That premise seems strangely familiar in terms of the *ahem* irrationale leading up to a certain recent draft Supreme Court decision. And yet it makes perfect sense if you assume death is the ultimate punishment, and that those not yet born (or not yet conceived) are the ultimate innocents. With those two assumptions, abortion (or even contraception) becomes the ultimate miscarriage of justice, but war and capital punishment are both perfectly acceptable.
Be that as it may, why hasn't anybody mentioned "The Man Trap"? Think about it. Common salt, sodium chloride, is an ionic solid. It forms ionic crystals, and if dissolved in water, it forms a solution of Na+ and Cl- ions, not a solution of any kind of molecules. It does not form molecules (except perhaps if it can be vaporized). Only the natural affinity of Na+ and Cl- hold it together. And it is extremely stable. Moreover, non-water-soluble sodium compounds, and non-water-soluble chlorides, are extremely rare. Therefore, it is extremely unlikely that a metabolic process exists that could derive energy from permanently tying up either Na+ or Cl- ions in a way that permanently removes them from the environment.
If salt vampires' abilities involve actual shapeshifting, then how would a starving individual have the energy to do so? And if those abilities are purely a matter of telepathic projection, then why wouldn't sensors immediately be able to recognize a species that is not known to be aboard the ship?
And that's just scratching the surface.
Contraception (contra = against, caption = conception) is not equivalent to abortion. Abortion is the disruption of the process of life forming, which is set in motion by the fertilization of the ovum by a sperm cell. Contraception is ensuring that the sperm and ovum never meet in the first place (as Mrs. Paroo in "The Music Man" said, if you keep the flint in one drawer and the steel in the other, you don't strike much of a fire).
Until fertilization occurs, the sperm and egg are non-viable
What do they actually say in the movie about casualties from the attack? I can't remember.
Making space aside, they clearly have advanced replicator technology. It's the only way they could scan the Enterprise and duplicate it so precisely. They could also do it fast with a giant replicator. If I remember correctly all the equipment didn't work. They only need the inside of the ship, no nacelles or working reactors or weapons.
Also replicators would allow them to feed everyone, preventing starvation from solving their problem for them.
"The Big Goodbye" - So, you turn off the holodeck, and that can wipe out any actual living person still inside?
While the episode is fun and good, you have to suspend disbelief pretty hard to watch.
(Sort of like LOST... I never watched before now because I found the entire idea of over 70 people surviving a plane breaking apart in midair and crashing the most ridiculous thing I had ever heard. I could never get past that idea in the first place to even bother.)
While the episode is fun and good, you have to suspend disbelief pretty hard to watch.
(Sort of like LOST... I never watched before now because I found the entire idea of over 70 people surviving a plane breaking apart in midair and crashing the most ridiculous thing I had ever heard. I could never get past that idea in the first place to even bother.)
Encounter at Farpoint basically describes the holodeck as using replicator techology to create some of the scenery (like snow or a piece of paper someone might walk out holding), which means it also uses replicator technology to recycle it. If the holodeck breaks then it could presumably end up recycling people.
Also a big theme in Lost is whether the bizarre things that keep happening are caused by something scientifically explainable or by something supernatural, so if the plane crash is too unbelievable it probably won't be your kind of series.
The crew beam down to the site of the Phoenix's bunker, and Beverly scans the people inside it, and says: "They're all dead." That suggests at least three dead. Plus, the ship took a crew of three, two of whom were replaced by Riker and Geordi.
Actually, I am watching LOST with my wife now. We are near the end of season 3. I had to suspend the disbelief very hard to make it work for me, but I will say the character stories and arcs are excellent.
(The reason why I am doing this is because she needed my way of connecting things and attention to details to help her in a watch. Plus, she agreed to watch FARSCAPE with me. So everyone wins!)
TNG Unification
Specifically, the notion that Spock gets taken in by a Romulan mole who is in some way engaged in a plot to have Romulans send a fleet of ships to somehow conquer Vulcan, probably the 1st or 2nd most integral member of the UFP, like that is in any way more doable than just attacking the UFP outright in open war. That anyone would commit ships to such an asinine operation is beyond any believability
Sadly, I really want to like that episode with it's great cast reprisals, but this is just uuuugh
Specifically, the notion that Spock gets taken in by a Romulan mole who is in some way engaged in a plot to have Romulans send a fleet of ships to somehow conquer Vulcan, probably the 1st or 2nd most integral member of the UFP, like that is in any way more doable than just attacking the UFP outright in open war. That anyone would commit ships to such an asinine operation is beyond any believability
Sadly, I really want to like that episode with it's great cast reprisals, but this is just uuuugh
Well, that's been true since Unnatural Selection, if not Counterclock Incident...
Really, you can go all the way back to season 1 of TOS with "THIS SIDE OF PARADISE".
Let people get plant spored, give it a few hours, and they have perfect health. They'll even grow back tonsils.
It may not be immortality, but perfect health for however many years you are alive is pretty damned awesome.
You know that, and I know that, and probably the overwhelming majority of the leaders of the patriarchalist, sexist reactionaries seeking to criminalize not only abortion but contraception know that.
But as Spock so succinctly put it in Harmon & Coon's "A Piece of the Action,"
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