Little things in Trek that just bug you...

Today I watched "Where No Man Has Gone Before" again. I noted once again that Dr. Dehner's shirt apparently zippered in the back instead of being a pullover. And once again I noted those tiny little bumps along the line of that hidden zipper.

Are they some quirk of wardrobe? Do they mean anything? Are they signs that Dr. Dehner's or Sally Kellerman's spine has more pronounced bumps that most people have? Are they supposed to be some subtle hint that Dr. Dehner is a member of some almost human but nonhuman species?

If you wonder about the possible significance of those little bumps too much you might decide that they are indeed "little things in Trek that just annoy you".

 

No matter what desolate rock they need to go to, there always is a breathable atmosphere, no contaminants of any kind, mild weather and temperature conditions so that they can just beam down there in their everyday wear... Correct me if I am wrong but the only time a captain expressed concern about contamination was in the Search For Spock and he was almost mocked by the "scientists" for that.

While even on earth for most of its history there was no breathable air and when there was air we wouldn't have dared to go there without, not only an EV suit, but some armoring to boot! Think of the giant insects of two hundred million years ago (Spiders the size of dogs! Dragonflies the size of birds of prey! Centipedes of one meter long!) to say nothing of the dinosaurs of course...

 

I'm sure the computers Would inform the crew of any biological hazard on the planet they were orbiting to say nothing of the transporter filtering out any alien substance in their DNA when they returned to the ship! (The Omega Glory anyone??)
JB

 

Sisko's evolution is amazing!

Remember when he beats up Garak for killing the Romulan politician without telling him?

Only a few months later he's basically ordering Worf to execute Gowron for similar reasons!

Next thing we know Sisko hires a hitman to shoot the head of Starfleet for not giving him the promotion he wanted...

 

1.) Pockets. Nobody ever seems to have pockets, unless it's plot mandated, and even then, when pockets do show up, they all seem to employ some sort of quantum mechanical Anti Bulge technology

2.) The tricorders. The tiny little device everyone always seems to have on their person, despite the suspicious lack of pockets, or they can get their hands on one within seconds. They can do almost anything in their standard configuration, and they can be modified to do almost anything else with a couple turns of a screwdriver... But they don't have a flashlight, and can't seem to be modified to have one. Even us knuckle dragging troglodytes in the 21st have a flashlight on all of our phones, some of us have them on their keychain for Quark's sake, you mean to tell me they couldn't drop a few LEDs in the housing of that sucker?

3.) This is actually a big one for me. The seemingly complete and utter lack of emergency protocols on board a starship. I get that in the event of a fire, automatic systems are suposed to kick in automatically and suppress the fire, yet how many times have we seen that not happen? How many times have we seen a console burst into flames and turn an entire section into mass conflag, and nobody, not even trained officers, has any CLUE as to how to handle it. Hell, we rarely even hear anyone calling for a damage control team. Worst of all, aside from one or two incidents on ENT, we never even see a simple fire extinguisher. I don't know about you, but if I were on a compartment filled with thousands of ultra high voltage circuits that seem to blow up at the slightest provocation, exotic materials with random ignition points that spew out god knows what kind of toxic chemicals when they burn... I'd want as many backup fire suppression options as I can cram in.

And thatst before you consider the really exotic stuff, like plasma conduits. Fire has always been the biggest danger aboard a ship, always will be. At least on the ocean you have a chance, however slim, to survive by jumping overboard. Not really an option on a starship.

 

The bridge is the most vital part of a starship, it's basically its brain, without it, it would be the equivalent of a beheaded chicken, THEREFORE it should be the most protected, the most secure part of a ship. People would die everywhere on the ship before a single bridge crewman is even wounded. In Star Trek it's the opposite, the bridge is extremely dangerous with exploding conduits put behind every console! It's pure nonsense.

 

"God" is a lousy engineer.

1) He puts recreation centers near waste disposal units.

2) He produces (about) one billion spermatozoids to fertilize one ovum.

3) He leaves defects like the appendix that gets inflamed and killed us a hundred percent of the time before the recent invention of surgery.

To name a few.

 

Things that annoy me about Star Trek:

- episodes that just make you cringe for some reason but still having some deep and meaningful aspects so that it doesn't feel alright to not like them. For example: "The Thaw" from Voyager. The presentation, the overacting, the costumes etc. made it one of those episodes where I thought "oh my god... hopefully nobody notices me watching this"... and yet, the episode talks about fear and dealing with it which is just an interesting topic concerning us all to some point.

- episodes where you have the impression that they needed to save production costs. For example when there's a space battle and you don't see the ships firing but you see them only from the inside, for example from the crew's view on the brigde. I know that Star Trek in its core isn't about action, effects etc. and I enjoy lots of episodes without that. But this way, I don't know... when there is a battle, I actually prefer to see something of it, otherwise it seems cheap somehow in my opinion.

 

Look, the Roms love to be assholes, and the do a lot of devious things, like what they tried to do to the Federation using a clone of Captain Picard, so what Sisko did was fair game and just desserts.

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They don't need any because of inertial dampeners.

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Notice how what Scotty said on TOS is how it's done in the Abramsverse movies as well?[/COLOR][/SIZE][/LEFT]
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First, you've missed my point which was about Sisko's "evolution" not the Romulans'.

However, there's no such thing as "fair game" or "just desserts" when you claim to have principles, the excuse "they did it first" doesn't work.

The show keeps claiming that the Federation has outgrown the need for vengeance or disloyal action. For instance, they claim to be disgusted by the actions of section 31.. but then Sisko turns around and does the exact same thing. At least 31 has the excuse of having existed for more than two hundred years and maybe they lost themselves during that period. Sisko doesn't have that excuse.

 

- Starfleet officers being trained in close combat techniques, but behaving like noobs when being attacked phsically.

 

1. The women in TOS having almost identical personalities. I know it was the 60s but how difficult is it to write different archetypes? Maybe it is just me?

2. The inconsistencies in the episode “Miri”.
And the security guards disappearing midway through!

3. How Troi is describing the emotions going through her at the beginning of “Encounter at Farpoint”. She even says “very, very”. Use your words Troi! Haha!

4. How the pregnant woman’s belly goes down right after she gives birth in “Friday’s Child”. That would be nice if it were realistic I suppose!

...Sorry I can’t think of any better ones!

 

Generations: The emotion chip is fused to Data's neural-net.
First contact: it can be switched off at will.
Insurrection: it's removable.
Nemesis: Emotion chip? What emotion chip?

A little consistency would have been nice!

 

Except for Will Decker's.