Logical inconsistencies within Star Trek episodes
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Kirk's uncertainty might have been what rendered the gas ineffective, even if Scotty completely believed in it.
They all had to believe.
While we only saw one, it would make sense that they made multiple. There were four (?) bad guys and they probably would not stand in a nice little clump.
We see Uhura evidently knowing Swahili despite the mind wipe, plus she will seemingly re-learn everything within a week or so. Very illogical.
I suspect something else happened to Uhura. Perhaps not a true and complete memory erasure. Maybe a brain scrambler effect, memories were jumbled in a way that she couldn't access or comprehend them... giving an appearance of a memory wipe.
Shortly thereafter, Uhura didn't really need to re-learn everything, but rather re-connect and access memories she still had. Swahili came back to her more quickly, English more slowly. Then other skills and memories began to fall into place more quickly once they realized what to do, explaining how she got back to college-level in a week or so.
Just a theory.
Indicating that (perhaps) Swahili is Uhura's native language, what she spoke as a child. But English was learned later, maybe in High School or after she entered Starfleet Academy.
What Nomad did to her might have been similar to a stroke, all the information is still there, but you have to relearn how to get to it.
Indicating that (perhaps) Swahili is Uhura's native language, what she spoke as a child. But English was learned later, maybe in High School or after she entered Starfleet Academy.
What Nomad did to her might have been similar to a stroke, all the information is still there, but you have to relearn how to get to it.
This makes sense. After all, she had all of her other memories, such as childhood memories, memories of family and friends. Memories are more than just what can be taught.
Yeah, in all those "We can't save them because of the PD" episodes you have to accept that all these people who believe strongly in science will also allow millions of people to die because it might interfere with the "Grand fate of the universe".
Here's were it gets more odd. He objects on ethical grounds to giving them the cure, but not because the Valakians were jerks who were exploiting the Menk.
He objected on ethical grounds because it interfered with the evolutionary development of the two cultures.
I wouldn't blame him if he didn't wanted to help because of the way the Valakians treated the Menk, but he wasn't really bothered by the exploitation and mistreatment.
Perhaps Phlox (like Deanna Troi) believed in Fate. It simply was the Valakian's destiny to die out.
How did the PD go so far from simply 'not interfering' to being based on some grand cosmic plan?
It sounded like mixing heavy philosophy with scientific guesses to create pseudoscience.
It's like they were jumping the shark on science fiction reasoning.
Indicating that (perhaps) Swahili is Uhura's native language, what she spoke as a child. But English was learned later, maybe in High School or after she entered Starfleet Academy.
What Nomad did to her might have been similar to a stroke, all the information is still there, but you have to relearn how to get to it.
But NOMAD itself said:
NOMAD: The unit Scott required simple structural repair. The knowledge banks of this unit have been wiped clean.
So NOMAD didn't understand what it did?--Which I'd have guessed was a cut and paste job with Uhura's knowledge the files. But it was clearly interested in what she knew, hence the "think about music" command. It wasn't using something it considered a weapon, I'd say, something that scrambled her for the sake of scrambling her. It was more like it was interfacing with another machine to gather data. But not copy and paste, cut and paste, if we can believe NOMAD itself.
NOMAD refers to her knowledge banks. I don't know about others, but I don't usually think of my first language as "knowledge," although I know that it is. I think of it as part of my inherent, day-to-day makeup, that is, speaking with other people, reading, etc, are so ingrained as instant habit that they're nothing like, say, learning a branch of math you never studied before, or learning 100 new songs. Could be equivalent to a computer's operating system instead of data files, and maybe NOMAD viewed such deeply ingrained parts of a biological unit's functioning as its operating system, separate from its "knowledge." So Uhura wouldn't have lost her first language (but almost all else).
Not a logic failure, but a simple math miscalculation.
VOY: FURY:
JANEWAY: Don't you remember? You made that holo-recording because you didn't want this to happen again. Three years ago, you travelled back in time. Kes, you wanted to take that woman with you and you were willing to hand the rest of us over to the Vidiians to do it. It didn't work. You forced me to kill you, Kes.
As is pretty obvious, the narrative being described took place approximately five years before this dialogue was uttered. Continuity errors be damned, this is just plain negligent!!!
VOY: FURY:
JANEWAY: Don't you remember? You made that holo-recording because you didn't want this to happen again. Three years ago, you travelled back in time. Kes, you wanted to take that woman with you and you were willing to hand the rest of us over to the Vidiians to do it. It didn't work. You forced me to kill you, Kes.
As is pretty obvious, the narrative being described took place approximately five years before this dialogue was uttered. Continuity errors be damned, this is just plain negligent!!!
This is one those things you just have to chalk up to dramatic licence.* The Catch-22 was that it's unbelievable that the crew wouldn't at least think of changing course, yet this simple and logical solution would have ended the plot ahead of time. One can imagine Braga tying himself in knots trying to make it work before deciding to hang a lantern on it; the reason given for not doing it is flimsy but at least the option is addressed and discussed.
*Another example of this is The Next Phase, with Geordi and Ro being completely insubstantial yet still able to walk on a solid floor; if they'd stuck to hard logic, there would have been no story.
Not to mention the failure to eject the core...
It always seemed to me in Cause and Effect that even if they thought maybe reversing course led to the accident, that not knowing the correct course of action they could have randomized their decision based on cosmic background radiation which would be different every loop. They might not have gotten out of it that loop but would have in a couple loops.
Of course it also made absolutely no sense that audio from the previous loops would randomly occur in Beverly's quarters.
One of the big logical inconsistencies for me is Distant Voices.
In and of itself it's fine, but if he's a genetic augment, it retroactively makes absolutely no sense.
Also the existence of replicators is logically inconsistent with the exchange of physical materials for wealth. As early as 2014 we're seeing the beginning of virtualization of wealth, but Quark and various DS9 thieves are always obsessed with gems and physical objects.
Nog shouldn't have questioned the acquisition of real estate in exchange or a bunch of replicatable bolts. Can't replicate real estate.
Of course it also made absolutely no sense that audio from the previous loops would randomly occur in Beverly's quarters.
One of the big logical inconsistencies for me is Distant Voices.
In and of itself it's fine, but if he's a genetic augment, it retroactively makes absolutely no sense.
Also the existence of replicators is logically inconsistent with the exchange of physical materials for wealth. As early as 2014 we're seeing the beginning of virtualization of wealth, but Quark and various DS9 thieves are always obsessed with gems and physical objects.
Nog shouldn't have questioned the acquisition of real estate in exchange or a bunch of replicatable bolts. Can't replicate real estate.
In all of the episodes and movies where the warp core is going to blow. And the core ejection system has failed. Why doesn't someone just turn off the antimatter fuel supply? If your fuel pump is off or dead. The engine don't run.
Come to think of it. Ejecting one of those antimatter storage pods would make for one Hell of a bomb.
Come to think of it. Ejecting one of those antimatter storage pods would make for one Hell of a bomb.
Simply 'not interfering' as a philosophy disappeared apparently in the TOS era, it not clear if it persisted even until the TOS movies.
Nomad (IIRC) was from the late 20th century, with my computer if I delete something it doesn't immediately disappear, that section of memory gets "walled off" and made available for reuse. The deleted memory will eventually get over-written.
Perhaps Nomad meant Uhura's memory was "deleted."
Nomad employed sloppy language. Not all of Uhura's memories were "wiped," she could still breathe, stand with some assistance, her heart was still beating. So the human equivalent of her operation system was intact.
Or simply vent the contents of the warp core into space in a controlled fashion, straight out the bottom of the ship?
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I'm not going to remember this clearly, so bear with me. There was an ep of Voyager where they had to cross a dangerous expanse of space. They made it perfectly clear to us that it was a dangerous area, and they had to get thru it quickly and without deviation or delay, or be in really big trouble. About a minute after they started, they detected another ship, and Janeway casually says "Let's stop and see if they need help!"
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Nomad (IIRC) was from the late 20th century, with my computer if I delete something it doesn't immediately disappear, that section of memory gets "walled off" and made available for reuse. The deleted memory will eventually get over-written.
Perhaps Nomad meant Uhura's memory was "deleted."
Nomad employed sloppy language. Not all of Uhura's memories were "wiped," she could still breathe, stand with some assistance, her heart was still beating. So the human equivalent of her operation system was intact.
That's what I meant. And her first language would be part of that operating system (also things like toilet training).
You're right about the files being there in our computers until overwritten, in "free space," but maybe NOMAD overwrote that as it cut and pasted.
NOMAD was from the 20th century, but what it had become had super-sophisticated stuff from Tan-Ru (which would explain why it could even interface with a "biological unit" at all, as well as destroy worlds).
All Our Yesterdays:
Spock "reverts" to his savage Vulcan ancestry in the Sarpeidon ice age. I think we're supposed to conclude that he's reverting because of the preparation that folks go through before passing through the atavachron. But why doesn't McCoy revert? He went through the same time portal. As far as I can tell, McCoy is no more or less emotional than he always is, and is definitely much more still inclined to deduction than Spock is.
But, of course, neither one was "prepared" anyway, any more than Kirk was! So what the hell? Spock is "reverting"--why?
Spock "reverts" to his savage Vulcan ancestry in the Sarpeidon ice age. I think we're supposed to conclude that he's reverting because of the preparation that folks go through before passing through the atavachron. But why doesn't McCoy revert? He went through the same time portal. As far as I can tell, McCoy is no more or less emotional than he always is, and is definitely much more still inclined to deduction than Spock is.
But, of course, neither one was "prepared" anyway, any more than Kirk was! So what the hell? Spock is "reverting"--why?
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