• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Explain it like we're the crew

Laura Cynthia Chambers

Vice Admiral
Admiral
To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

466629796_925240926396425_8158498096594876683_n.jpg



So how would you explain a Trek plot to the crew?
 
JAMES T. KIRK: This is the captain speaking. We have unwittingly taken a hostile alien aboard which has the power to shapeshift its external appearance. It could resemble anyone you work with, anyone you are intimately acquainted with, anyone you pass in the corridor or share a turbolift with. It could even resemble you. You are the crew of the Enterprise. You have shared impossible experiences no one else in the fleet has. You know your shipmates better than anyone. Watch each other closely. Do you see any behaviors out of the ordinary? Critical gaps in memory? One thing we know about this alien is that while it may flawlessly mimic our looks and voice, it is attracted to salt, and will respond eagerly, excitedly to its presence. For your safety, and to put this alien at ease, I am ordering all crewmembers to carry five bags of sodium chloride on their person at all times. Hold on...what's that, Mr. Spock? We don't have that much salt on the ship?
 
JAMES T. KIRK: One thing we know about this alien is that while it may flawlessly mimic our looks and voice, it is attracted to salt, and will respond eagerly, excitedly to its presence. For your safety, and to put this alien at ease, I am ordering all crewmembers to carry five bags of sodium chloride on their person at all times. Hold on...what's that, Mr. Spock? We don't have that much salt on the ship?
SPOCK: We are presently limited to exactly 35 bags, Captain.
KIRK: Which WILL protect exactly seven of US.
SPOCK: Convenient for everyone in this episode who will reappear. And Mister Scott as well.
KIRK: Great. Plan coming together. All hands. Unless you happen to be a senior recurring officer, you may experience a sudden sucking sensation. Or rings running around you...or ON you.
SPOCK: In-damn-deed.
KIRK: Carry on. Risk is YOUR business more than ours. Kirk out.
 
Last edited:
First Contact actually did have Picard giving stumbling awkward exposition. His log at the start where he describes the Borg as "our most lethal enemy." Or later, when the Borg Sphere goes through the temporal vortex and Earth is turned into a Borg planet, Picard spends a minute explaining "they've gone back in time and assimilated Earth in the past. I must follow them back and restore the timeline" before giving the order to go through the vortex after the Sphere.
 
JAMES T. KIRK: This is the captain speaking. We have unwittingly taken a hostile alien aboard which has the power to shapeshift its external appearance. It could resemble anyone you work with, anyone you are intimately acquainted with, anyone you pass in the corridor or share a turbolift with. It could even resemble you. You are the crew of the Enterprise. You have shared impossible experiences no one else in the fleet has. You know your shipmates better than anyone. Watch each other closely. Do you see any behaviors out of the ordinary? Critical gaps in memory? One thing we know about this alien is that while it may flawlessly mimic our looks and voice, it is attracted to salt, and will respond eagerly, excitedly to its presence. For your safety, and to put this alien at ease, I am ordering all crewmembers to carry five bags of sodium chloride on their person at all times. Hold on...what's that, Mr. Spock? We don't have that much salt on the ship?
Honestly, that whole episode could have been solved with Uhura patching Kirk in to all decks.
"This is the Captain. We know you're on board, need salt to survive, and are likely the last of your species. Come to the mess hall. We will provide you with nutritional needs and discuss relocation to a planet that can support your environmental and nutritional needs. Come peacefully and you will not be harmed."

Might of worked. :shrug:
 
First Contact actually did have Picard giving stumbling awkward exposition. His log at the start where he describes the Borg as "our most lethal enemy." Or later, when the Borg Sphere goes through the temporal vortex and Earth is turned into a Borg planet, Picard spends a minute explaining "they've gone back in time and assimilated Earth in the past. I must follow them back and restore the timeline" before giving the order to go through the vortex after the Sphere.
The OP means to the crew, not the audience via logs or talking to the bridge crew.
 
Honestly, that whole episode could have been solved with Uhura patching Kirk in to all decks.
"This is the Captain. We know you're on board, need salt to survive, and are likely the last of your species. Come to the mess hall. We will provide you with nutritional needs and discuss relocation to a planet that can support your environmental and nutritional needs. Come peacefully and you will not be harmed."

Might of worked. :shrug:
Peaceful coexistence is inherently dull, despite Gene Roddenberry's aspirations. TOS realized this more than TNG did. So, TOS would eat the cake it had by giving us violent episodes with redeeming conclusions like FRIDAY'S CHILD. They had red pills in the first aired episode, sure, but they didn't waste time dwelling on non-Vulcan food items like chocolate because they had to keep the butts in the seats interested. End of food digression, though it referenced one of TNG's many annoying timekillers.
 
  • Like
Reactions: kkt
Peaceful coexistence is inherently dull, despite Gene Roddenberry's aspirations. TOS realized this more than TNG did. So, TOS would eat the cake it had by giving us violent episodes with redeeming conclusions like FRIDAY'S CHILD. They had red pills in the first aired episode, sure, but they didn't waste time dwelling on non-Vulcan food items like chocolate because they had to keep the butts in the seats interested. End of food digression, though it referenced one of TNG's many annoying timekillers.
What's "Friday's Child" about? Red pills? What?
 
PICARD, AT HIS SPEECH: It seems there's been an interruption as crew members are suddenly in the costume of characters from a classic fiction from like 800 years ago. This is probably Q's doing because he just earlier showed up and started talking nonsense. Remain calm and---

(Q-Pid, TNG)
 
CAPTAIN PICARD: Attention, all crewmembers. The senior staff and I have determined that the Enterprise is caught in a temporal causality loop. We have been repeating the same sequence of events for an unknown length of time, and will continue to do so if we cannot find a way to break free. As such, all crewmembers are hereby ordered to behave in ways contrary to how they feel they should behave...on the other hand, there is every likelihood that we tried that in a previous loop and our effort failed, so...carry on. Picard out.
 
You know, when it's time to give the order to abandon ship, knowing that will be heard in the next loop, Picard could just start barking out what won't work or what to try.
 
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top