Mistakes You Thought Were Made In OS, But Weren't

[Samuel]

The Deadly Years

Mistake I Thought Was Made

The Romulan plasma weapon was considered a horrendously dangerous threat to the Enterprise just the year before in "Balance of Terror" yet in "The Deadly Years" Enterprise takes multiple hits from the plasma weapon without suffering significant damage.

Why It's Not A Mistake

Watch the original version of the episode carefully. Technically, the visual effect of the Romulan ship firing the plasma weapon at the Enterprise (Balance of Terror stock footage) occurs only three times. One can presume that the Enterprise since "Balance of Terror" has modified its shields to be more effective against plasma bolts.

All the other Romulan strikes are by Klingon style photon torpedoes (Errand of Mercy stock footage). And as we saw in "Errand of Mercy", Enterprise is pretty effectively shielded against those weapons.

So it probably is not a mistake that Enterprise even after three plasma weapon hits and more than a dozen photon torpedo strikes is still able to haul ass at Warp 8 and get away clean.

 

[Samuel]

The Enterprise Incident

Mistake I Thought Was Made

When the Enterprise cloaks itself, Subcommander Tal says with hesitation "Gone?" followed by a surprised "They have the cloaking device!" I thought "Well no shit Tal, of course they have the cloaking device! Isn't that one of the big reasons you are chasing the Enterprise in the first place!!"

Why It's Not a Mistake

Obviously Tal was surprised by the Enterprise using the cloaking device on two levels:

First- The Romulans probably had no idea the cloaking device would work on a Starfleet vessel.
Second-Even assuming that Starfleet ships COULD be adapted to use a cloaking device, Tal had to be surprised at the rapidity that Scotty successfuly installed it (one of Scotts' better jobs by the way). A matter of minutes.

Well done

 

[Redfern]

Second-Even assuming that Starfleet ships COULD be adapted to use a cloaking device, Tal had to be surprised at the rapidity that Scotty successfuly installed it (one of Scotts' better jobs by the way). A matter of minutes.

Poor guy was probably thinking, "D*mn industry standard 'plug and play'!"

 

[johnnybear]

Scotty must have looked up the Tan-Ru manual!
JB

 

[Marsden]

Yeah, really! What if the cloaking device actually weighed over a ton and took up a small room?

He walked out with it under his arm!?

 

[cgervasi]

Even assuming that Starfleet ships COULD be adapted to use a cloaking device, Tal had to be surprised at the rapidity that Scotty successfuly installed it (one of Scotts' better jobs by the way). A matter of minutes.

Yes. And it was a top-secret device, whose detailed were only shared with the most loyal officers. Maybe he spent a decade getting to the level where he could know about it. Then their enemy boards the ship, makes off with it, and adapts it for use in a matter of hours.

I also think TV in those days required making it understandable to someone who walked by the TV in the room. There was no rewinding or watching it later.

 

[johnnybear]

I always thought it strange that the Enterprise had already battled a Romulan ship with cloaking abilities and yet still seemed shocked to find that the Romulans had the technology in the Enterprise Incident! Although it could have been Kirk and Spock playing silly rascals with the crew just in case it all went badly!
JB

 

[MAGolding]

The references in TWoK to the Gamma Hydra system, a neutral zone, and the no-prisoners policy were all elements found in “The Deadly Years”, an episode featuring Romulans. I’m sure there’s a logical explanation for replacing them with Klingons.
View attachment 4263
Right?
View attachment 4264

To paraphrase Monty Python's Flying Circus "Nobody expects Klingons in the Romulan Neutral Zone!". So maybe this version (version 15.7 or something?) of the Kubyashi Maru test had Klingons patrolling in the Romulan Neutral Zone to take those tested by surprise.

Or possibly the Klingons now ruled one section of Romulan Space near Gamma Hydra due to some treaty between the Klingons and the Romulans, but the Federation insisted on the Klingons keeping the Romulan side of the neutral zone treaty, which meant that the Federation had to keep their part of the neutral zone treaty.

 

[Marsden]

Gamma Hydra, Tis a silly place.

Isn't the Kobyashi Maru just an elaborate video game?

On the one hand, the continuity lover in me likes that they kept the details from the previous episode but then hates they just race swapped the enimies, EVEN AFTER IT WAS ESTABLISHED THE ROMULANS USE KLINGON SHIP DESIGNS! D'oh! But then they reused the footage from TMP and did a much better job of it than when Generations reused the footage from VI, so that's a good use of the ships but why couldn't they have been Romulan?

Also back to it being a video game, though, it really doesn't have to make any sense, it's whatever the test designer feels like throwing in there to make the cadet sweat a bad situation and see what their reactions would be, that's the point, not "historical" accuracy.


Looking back at the 6 movies, the Romulans really had a poor showing, no ships at all, just two ambassadors.

 

[Shawnster]

I always thought it strange that the Enterprise had already battled a Romulan ship with cloaking abilities and yet still seemed shocked to find that the Romulans had the technology in the Enterprise Incident! Although it could have been Kirk and Spock playing silly rascals with the crew just in case it all went badly!
JB

. Y head canon is the EI was stealing an advanced version of the cloaking device. An evolution from the previous design encountered in BoT

 

[Phaser Two]

I always thought it strange that the Enterprise had already battled a Romulan ship with cloaking abilities and yet still seemed shocked to find that the Romulans had the technology in the Enterprise Incident! Although it could have been Kirk and Spock playing silly rascals with the crew just in case it all went badly!
JB

Zactly, JB. A fundamental flaw in a highly overrated ep.

 

[Discofan]

Personally, I don't see the point of the Kobayashi Maru test. Your options are very limited, you can't refuse to lend assistance because it ends the test right there and likely you won't get any praise for that decision and if you do lend assistance then everything is out of your hands, no matter what you do your ship is going to be destroyed. Experience fear? Please, you don't experience fear in a video game!! which is basically what it is. I just think the test is useless and that it was meant as a plot point that later for some reason got out of hand and became a meme.

 

[Mytran]

As one command test among many that might be offered to junior officers, the KM is fine.
As "the" definitive command assessment, a lot of the effectiveness of it is lost.

 

[Marsden]

I like to think that maybe the KM was the test Captain Merick failed, and that's why he wasn't allowed to be a "Starship" captain, only a spaceship captain.

And he kind of lost his life in the same situation, he saved Jim at the cost of his life.

But I agree with @Discofan , it's just one test but it's blown out of proportion how much attention it gets.
The success of ST II is a double edged sword, it's great that it was successful but it seemed like too many things that came after clung to it as "the" example of a Star Trek episode/movie/novel.

I always thought it strange that the Enterprise had already battled a Romulan ship with cloaking abilities and yet still seemed shocked to find that the Romulans had the technology in the Enterprise Incident! Although it could have been Kirk and Spock playing silly rascals with the crew just in case it all went badly!
JB

JB, in BoT they could track the Romulan ships movements easily on motion sensors even though they couldn't "see" it.

In EI, right after they decloak, KIRK: Mister Spock, your sensors read clear. What happened?
They were watching for that motion and the new cloaking device masks even that, which is why they wanted to steal one in the first place. If no new better cloak was made, they wouldn't have gone just to steal the one they already knew about. Knowhatimean?

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

I like to think that maybe the KM was the test Captain Merick failed, and that's why he wasn't allowed to be a "Starship" captain, only a spaceship captain.

Merik's failed test is described as a psychosimulator test. If there was a psychological manipulation element to the KM, a way that it can seem real, the way our dreams sometimes do until we awaken, I could see how the KM would be much more believable than a playacting test with McCoy jumping out of his chair and playing dead, ala Saavik's test in TWOK.

It makes sense, sort of, that you wouldn't necessarily need a battle-oriented simulation for a civilian ship. I don't think learning how to dogfight is part of getting your pilot's license to fly a personal/corporate jet either.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

"Kirk to Sickbay" means the computer can't know how to route the call till the end of the message

How do you figure? As soon as Kirk says "to Sickbay" the computer knows where he's calling and can route the call there.

 

[Discofan]

How do you figure? As soon as Kirk says "to Sickbay" the computer knows where he's calling and can route the call there.

When Kirk says "Sickbay" it's already too late to route "Kirk to Sickbay" because he already said it. So "Sickbay" may hear the message that follows but it won't start with "Kirk to Sickbay" unless the computer cheats and speeds up the message so it will start with "Kirk to sickbay" and end at the end of the message but that would be a cheat and not the message live.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

When Kirk says "Sickbay" it's already too late to route "Kirk to Sickbay" because he already said it.

I agree that whoever is in Sickbay won't actually hear Kirk say "Kirk to Sickbay", but they will hear everything he says AFTER that. Which is all they need.

 

[Maurice]

The POINT is that the naval nomenclature makes sense because by stating the intended recipient first it grabs the attention of that person so they pay attention to the message that follows. And c'mon TOS never treated the intercoms as anything more than that, especially given how instantly people respond.

 

[Discofan]

I agree that whoever is in Sickbay won't actually hear Kirk say "Kirk to Sickbay", but they will hear everything he says AFTER that. Which is all they need.

Except that they need to know who's talking and they won't know it unless the computer makes a separate announcement. There are about 400 people on the Enterprise. I doubt every one of them will be recognized by the sound of his voice. Plus voices can be similar, my brothers and I are often mistaken one for another, IOW, for identification, you need to hear "kirk to" and with this system you don't.