favorite TOS cliches

[sbk1234]

Temis the Vorta said:
Miniskirts for women Starfleet personnel

'Nuff said!

 

[Kagan]

Vulcanian said:
Redshirts dieing

Same redshirt coming back either next week...or later in the episode.

 

[garakfan]

Although not exactly a cliche, the repeated use of music can almost be considered one. One of my favorite Simpsons jokes is Homer training at NASA for his space flight. Part of his training is fighting in the ring with the music and set from Gamsters of Triskelion

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Consoles erupting into geysers of sparks during battle

Camera tilting/bridge personnel falling on the floor during battle

 

[Basill]

Outpost4 said:
Shatner emoting.

Oooo... That's... a good one.

(I was reading a Trek book earlier today and found myself reading Kirk dialog in my head with... pauses and... emphasis )

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Aliens who look completely human.

 

[DanTheGrey]

Basill said:

Outpost4 said:
Shatner emoting.

Oooo... That's... a good one.

(I was reading a Trek book earlier today and found myself reading Kirk dialog in my head with... pauses and... emphasis )

I do that too Then again for any established universe I tend to have the characters speak in their own voice with a few exceptions.

 

[Kagan]

DanTheGrey said:
- Scotty arguing Kirk's request for more power then just getting down to work to make it happen

More specifically...in a Scottish accent...

"It canna be done!"
"You canna break tha laws of physics!"

Then there's...fondness for...

"Scotch!"

 

[Balthier the Great]

I dunno if this is a cliche exactly, but in the sound track, when something dramatic happens, they do some bizaar chord thing that sounds like a person slamming his fist on a piano off screen. What was that all about?

 

[Nerys Myk]

-green/blue alien women (either skin or hair color or both)

Did this happen often enough to be counted as a cliche?

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Well there were a couple green Orion slave women, and the green-haired thrall whose name I forget from The Gamsters of Triskelion. Can't recall any Andorian women, tho. But that's enough for me to consider it a Trek tradition.

 

[DanTheGrey]

Much like my previous "Dammit Jim" one, where things might or might not be in the show but are associated with it as a cliche (through the books or movies)

- Chekov and everything being Russian in origin
- Wire mesh/chicken wire in every control room
- Romance always ends badly, usually with the woman dying

 

[Plum]

Chekov screaming?

 

[RookieBatman]

How could we have forgotten styrofoam rocks?

 

[Broccoli]

the blatantly obvious stunt doubles

 

[RookieBatman]

Broccoli said:
the blatantly obvious stunt doubles

Ouch, yeah. Those are painful to watch.

 

[Wingsley]

They drop in on some alien world and nobody seems amazed that the natives speak fluent English (or whatever tongue the Federation uses).

At least Spock noted an "amazing parallel" in "Bread and Circuses", but that was all but forgotten by the time of "For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky".

Here's another cliche: landing parties making planetfall without enough gear the survive in case they get isolated from the ship. Seems especially ridiculous after "Arena". Was annoying in "The Apple" and "That Which Survives".

 

[Silvermane]

Spock and McCoy sparring. I never get tired of it.

 

[Alyssa]

The landing parties going to one region of a planet where the locals are violent and assuming that the rest of the inhabitants of the world are the same!!

 

[Red Ranger]

-Food that looks like Play-Doh.
-Saurian (sp?) brandy.
-Kirk making up stuff (Corbomite, Fizzbin) to confuse his enemies.