Star Trek clichés?

[Lance]

Every long-running show creates its own patchwork quilt of clichés over time, and Star Trek is no exception.

I wonder how many of them there really are, though? Has anyone ever made a list?

Here are a few I can think of off the top of my head:

- Explosive consoles
- The 'Star Trek shake' (actors holding onto a console and bouncing around while the cameraman shakes the camera)
- The movie villain wants revenge
- Asshole unhelpful Admiral forces hero to make a difficult choice to disobey orders
- Ship gets saved from disaster in nick of time
- Ship gets destroyed in some brutal way, but replaced almost as quickly
- Techno babble solution
- "Shields are holding at X percent..." (cue Star Trek shake) "Y percent..."

 

[The Wormhole]

When you need to eject the warp core, the ejection systems aren't working.
An officer and an alien stranded on a planet together, unable to communicate with each other, need to cooperate.

 

[Kilana2]

Ranking officers stuck in the holodeck and the safety systems fail while a crisis occurs.

 

[TribbleFeeder]

“The girl” isn’t who she says she is.

 

[Greg Cox]

If Kirk is looking forward to meeting a mentor or idol, chances are they are evil, deluded, or insane.

 

[Lance]

An officer and an alien stranded on a planet together, unable to communicate with each other, need to cooperate.

Also, two characters who dislike each other (Spock/Bones, Odo/Quark, etc) are forced to survive alone on an alien surface, and bond as a result.

 

[Kilana2]

Also, two characters who dislike each other (Spock/Bones, Odo/Quark, etc) are forced to survive alone on an alien surface, and bond as a result.

Don't forget Neelix and Tom Paris. Janeway 'forced' them on a mission.

 

[Kilana2]

Characters who are dead beyond help return from the death or are wondrously resuscitated.

 

[Blamo]

The deflector dish being able to do everything with little to no modification. By the end of Voyager I wouldn't have been surprised if they could use it to generate a warp field.

Torpedoes being treated as cannon rounds and doing about a much damage.

The prime directive being treated as some sort of religious dogma in the TNG era, where the universe is heading in a specific direction and ANY interference would be wrong.

"Shields/hull plating is at ##%, we can't take much more of this!"

Time travel stories using two different rule books at the same time, so they can have both paradoxes AND many-worlds.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Our justice system holds you guilty until proven innocent, automatically guilty, allows for summary convictions based on hearsay, or otherwise is designed specifically for you to get falsely convicted!

 

[Kilana2]

Disaster movie episodes. Everyone is stuck somewhere on a ship or station and has to fight - alone or in groups - for dear life.

 

[DonIago]

The Reset Button

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

"More enlightened humans".

 

[Kilana2]

Engineers always being granted half of the estimated time for repairs by their Captains.

 

[The Wormhole]

Engineers always being granted half of the estimated time for repairs by their Captains.

I liked when Stargate tackled that.
Gen. Hammond: How long before the Stargate is operational again?
Sgt. Siler: Twenty-four hours.
Hammond: You have twelve.
Siler: Doesn't work like that, sir. Twenty-four is the best I can do.
Hammond: Then get to it.

 

[SpocksOddSocks]

The deflector dish being able to do everything with little to no modification.

Makes me think of Aurelio Voltaire's "USS Make Shit Up".

Bounce a graviton particle beam off the main deflector dish , that's the way we do things lad, we just make shit up as we wish.
The Klingons and the Romulans, they hold no threat to us, 'cause if we find we're in a bind, we'll just make some shit up.

 

[Smellmet]

The only ship in the area.

 

[marlboro]

I liked when Stargate tackled that.
Gen. Hammond: How long before the Stargate is operational again?
Sgt. Siler: Twenty-four hours.
Hammond: You have twelve.
Siler: Doesn't work like that, sir. Twenty-four is the best I can do.
Hammond: Then you're fired. Bring me a drunken Scotsman

Fyp

 

[Forbin]

Talking a computer into destroying itself, or at least locking up.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

We're deployed on a deep space mission to explore where nobody has gone before. Oh, we're needed on Earth? Be there in 24 hours!