Stupid Stuff in TNG

[gakelly]

I was watching The Big Goodbye, and the hard-ass cop that hated Dixon Hill came to arrest Hill/Picard because Hill's business card was found on the dead body. That was the evidence that was used to arrest him. That was so completely ridiculous. The whole episode was asinine to begin with.
The problem was that the Holodeck doors wouldn't open up. That is the crisis...think about how stupid that is.
Wesley saves the day yet again.
The holodeck will destroy human tissue if it is turned off
Picard has to say some stupid bug words or the other aliens will become so offended they will not have contact with the federation for another 60 years.

 

[Discofan]

I was watching The Big Goodbye, and the hard-ass cop that hated Dixon Hill came to arrest Hill/Picard because Hill's business card was found on the dead body. That was the evidence that was used to arrest him...

Worse things happen in real life. A man was arrested in France and later condemned for the murder of a woman, on the sole evidence that she (allegedly) wrote his name in a message on a wall of the cellar she was found in with her own blood, but the message contained some nasty grammar mistake and she was known to be well-educated. Plus it was demonstrated that from where the body was found it was nearly impossible for her to write the message (unless someone helped her... if you see what I mean). The man was charged with murder, sentenced and only years later pardoned. The case shouldn't have even made it past the probable cause hearing!!!

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

I was watching The Big Goodbye, and the hard-ass cop that hated Dixon Hill came to arrest Hill/Picard because Hill's business card was found on the dead body. That was the evidence that was used to arrest him. That was so completely ridiculous.

Aside from being planted, the victim could have taken it out to look at again before being killed, having acquired it for any number of reasons, even finding it after somebody else had dropped it, and wondering what it was.

 

[Discofan]

Aside from being planted, the victim could have taken it out to look at again before being killed, having acquired it for any number of reasons, even finding it after somebody else had dropped it, and wondering what it was.

In their defense, in most detective series like that the cops often look ridiculous, (e.g. in the Sherlock Holmes stories the cop in charge of the case often says the stupidest of things, same thing with the Hercule Poirot novels). It makes the hero look that much clever by contrast.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

The "whoever isn't us is stupider than us, by a long shot." trope.

 

[Discofan]

The "whoever isn't us is stupider than us, by a long shot." trope.

True. Also, like the Captain Proton stories on Voyager, "The Big Goodbye" is meant as a parody of the genre.

 

[gakelly]

In the Hunted when Dinar knocked out the 3 guys in engineering, when Worf shows up in engineering a few moments later, all 3 of the crew members come to at exactly the same time. (it happens in a few other episodes too).

 

[donners22]

I hate the ending to The Wounded.

Firstly Picard is dumb enough to let Maxwell remain in command without any Enterprise personnel sent over, notwithstanding that he has murdered numerous Cardassians and his crew have apparently had no issue following his orders to date.

Then Picard beams over unexpectedly - apparently onto the bridge, as he walks into the ready room (where Maxwell is, inexplicably, in the middle of a crisis) and NOBODY on Maxwell’s ship does anything about it.

I know the latter is just a budget-saving effort to avoid paying extras or building another bridge set, but it is nonsensical.

 

[Discofan]

From the very beginning of the series, I was puzzled by the fact that Data is supposed to be a walking talking encyclopedia but at the same time, he's incapable of using an expression or cite a proverb with the proper terms, he often replaces them by more unlikely ones. There must be a glitch in his program that compels him to do something so stupid. I know they meant that as a way to showcase his robotic nature, but that's a stupid way to go about it.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Then Picard beams over unexpectedly - apparently onto the bridge, as he walks into the ready room (where Maxwell is, inexplicably, in the middle of a crisis) and NOBODY on Maxwell’s ship does anything about it.

Maybe Maxwell instructed them to let O'Brien come aboard. They did serve together once.

 

[Discofan]

Some stupid incoherent stuff:

In Devil's due they are capable of projecting holograms anywhere without limits. The con artist takes the appearance of different people and then they return the compliment (once they've figured out how she does it). But outside of this story, they're INCAPABLE of having holograms outside of the holodeck or outside of areas where they have holographic projectors in Voyager. The mobile emitter of the doctor comes from the future!! Which is a major breach of the temporal directive BTW, they even go as far as thinking of using it for research which should certainly upset the people in charge of preserving the timeline!!! That's some messy shit!!!

It would be like teaching people from the end of the 19th century how to make smartphones!!!

Do you really think that the timeline would remain unaffected if someone did something like that?

 

[gakelly]

In Sarek, when Riker and Picard are walking in the teaser, Riker claims he studied Sarek at the academy. He mentions 3 or 4 treaties that he helped negotiate.
Can you name anyone in history who helped negotiate a treaty?
Imagine how boring that would be...studying some guy who negotiated treaties.

 

[STR]

In Sarek, when Riker and Picard are walking in the teaser, Riker claims he studied Sarek at the academy. He mentions 3 or 4 treaties that he helped negotiate.
Can you name anyone in history who helped negotiate a treaty?
Imagine how boring that would be...studying some guy who negotiated treaties.

Eh...makes sense for a guy whose job will involve diplomacy. But yeah, these people remember their academy research papers a lot better than I recall mine.

"The Klingon Imperial Empire."

Kor

"Autocrat" comes from the Greek title "autokrator" which translates to "self ruler". Autokrator was held higher than anax or regas, both meaning "king". Who do you rule? Yourself? Okay, you win. I just rule other people.

Formal government titles, especially translated ones stripped of context, are weird.

 

[Discofan]

The Game: Given the numerous ways of brainwashing someone and how efficient they are. One would think they'd be a mandatory check up after someone (especially someone who's second in the chain of command!!) has taken a trip alone somewhere. Wesley and his "girlfriend" easily found out about the mind-controlling effects of the game. I suppose it would have been a lot easier for Beverly to come to the same conclusions. I am surprised that they (the enterprise crew) managed to stay alive for so long given the crappiness of their security procedures, or lack thereof.

 

[gakelly]

In Peak Performance, Starfleet wants to improve the tactical skill of the crew. Why would they set up the simulation so it was the flagship of the fleet against a derelict vessel that needs to be fixed up? What tactical skills would the crew of the Enterprise gain from pummeling a pathetic old ship?
And suddenly Worf can trick Ferengi sensors into believing there are more Starfleet vessels? Why not use this trick more often?

 

[MAGolding]

In Sarek, when Riker and Picard are walking in the teaser, Riker claims he studied Sarek at the academy. He mentions 3 or 4 treaties that he helped negotiate.
Can you name anyone in history who helped negotiate a treaty?
Imagine how boring that would be...studying some guy who negotiated treaties.

I can name several persons who helped negotiate the treaties that made up the Final Act of the Congress of Vienna in 1815, including the French foreign minister Tallyrand and the Austrian foreign minister Metternich.

As I remember, the "Jay Treaty" in 1795 between the USA and Great Britain was negotiated by John Jay on the American Side.

I remember that the Adams-Onis Treaty in 1719 established a border between The USA and Spain. It was negotiated by John Quincy Adams, then US Secretary of Sate.

Eh...makes sense for a guy whose job will involve diplomacy. But yeah, these people remember their academy research papers a lot better than I recall mine...

 

[gakelly]

In Timescape, the tricorders that Geordi, Data, and Troi take with them work, but the other equipment in the frozen time zone do not work. Yet, the only reason Geordi, Data, Troi, and Picard are not frozen in time is because of the arm bands they wear. The Romulan disruptors are not working on the ships, yet the heroes draw their phasers as if they are going to use them.
Why is their equipment they take with them able to work?

 

[Discofan]

In Timescape, the tricorders that Geordi, Data, and Troi take with them work, but the other equipment in the frozen time zone do not work. Yet, the only reason Geordi, Data, Troi, and Picard are not frozen in time is because of the arm bands they wear. The Romulan disruptors are not working on the ships, yet the heroes draw their phasers as if they are going to use them.
Why is their equipment they take with them able to work?

Because of a universal law of physics, that's common to all these episodes: the law of plot convenience.

 

[Kirks_Flying_Wig]

Data's ridiculous verbosity ("pursuing an untamed ornithoid without cause"). Most of "Lonely Among Us" but mainly Riker telling the ambassador that humans don't "enslave animals for food" and the ambassador declaring replicators to be "barbaric", probably just to make him seem weird and alien. The same episode basically ends with a major interstellar diplomatic assassination that gets played as a punchline (womp womp). Picard doesn't want to deal with this though because he fancies a mid-afternoon nap.

 

[Discofan]

Picard who's supposed to be French yet his French is terrible, a lot worse than Data's for example. But I guess they must think it's good enough for a non-French audience.