The curse(?) of small universe syndrome

[Maurice]

Plus, the regulars are under contract and have to appear every week (though that's seemingly less the case now than it used to be), so you have to contrive excuses to use them even when another character would make more sense.

Yeah. But on Star Trek only the three stars had to be used every week. Regulars mostly meant recurring, specifically Rand, Scotty, Sulu, Uhura and Chekov, and, at best, they had a guarantee of X out of Y shows ("contract"), but the reality was most of them were mostly on an as-needed-and-available basis, so no contractual guarantees at all, characters like Scotty were cut from scripts if it was cheaper to use a guest actor for a day than pay Doohan his guaranteed rate.

 

[Maurice]

Was that actually an alternative way of saying "what have you"?

English is delightfully fungible. It's more along the lines "whatever you will have [for your answer[."

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Using a guest also keeps the regulars from being know-it-alls; the specialist of the week gets to consult on something they're more familiar with than the generalist is.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Using a guest also keeps the regulars from being know-it-alls; the specialist of the week gets to consult on something they're more familiar with than the generalist is.

And then there's Spock.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

He makes the rest of the crew look like slackers.

 

[Nerys Myk]

He makes the rest of the crew look like slackers.

Poor Scotty, sitting in his office waiting for a call.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

I'm sure he can find a way to entertain himself in the meantime. *hic*

@Maurice whoever they don't recognize (new discoveries aside-I mean known-species scientists, con men, etc.) is a mere computer search away from being learned about.

 

[Christopher]

But on Star Trek only the three stars had to be used every week.

I was thinking more in terms of the TNG/DS9/VGR era where nearly every main-title cast member (except Cirroc Lofton) had to have at least one token walk-on scene in every episode, even if it was just, say, Sisko delivering a couple of lines in an episode focused on Quark and Rom, or Quark having a couple of lines in an episode that was about Bashir on an alien planet. You could often see how they had to stretch to insert contrived scenes that had no other purpose than to give every regular at least a token appearance that week.

 

[publiusr]

We like connections, and the familiar. "Pattern Seeking Species" we are.

I do like that the Ware are not the Borg.
I have often wondered how easy a fit Binars would be in either culture. An easy assimilation for the Borg--or would they actually look up to the Binars as a more perfect union of biology and technology.

The Borg are a rougher fit--I have this feeling the Binars could be older or better balanced.

The Ware would perhaps have them all hung from the ceiling--like Dead Stop and COMA.

With the new Doctor Who--Cyberman are perhaps the end no matter what species is involved....Earth humans--Mondas, etc.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

@Christopher How often was it part of the a plot, part of the b plot, or an unrelated one-shot scene respectively?

 

[Christopher]

@Christopher How often was it part of the a plot, part of the b plot, or an unrelated one-shot scene respectively?

I'm not gonna make a list. I was thinking of something like DS9: "The Quickening," where Quark and Odo are only in the opening scene and it's just a gag about Quark advertising on the station comm network, which has nothing to do with the rest of the episode.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

I suppose it makes it feel larger, in a way - it gives a sense that other things are happening beyond just the events the plot centers around. Everyone has their own cares and concerns at the same time.

 

[CoveTom]

And then there's Spock.

It actually has always bugged me that, with very few exceptions, it always ended up being Spock who solved the engineering problem rather than Scotty. From figuring out the magic cold restart formula to cross-circuiting to B to reversing the polarity on the magnetic probe to trying inverse phasing, all the way up to properly balancing the warp engines in TMP or figuring out how to re-crystalize the dilithium in TVH. Scotty was described as a miracle worker, but more often than not, he couldn't solve the issue without Spock. In fact, the only real exceptions I can think to that are situations where Spock was not present for some reason.

 

[Christopher]

It actually has always bugged me that, with very few exceptions, it always ended up being Spock who solved the engineering problem rather than Scotty. From figuring out the magic cold restart formula to cross-circuiting to B to reversing the polarity on the magnetic probe to trying inverse phasing, all the way up to properly balancing the warp engines in TMP or figuring out how to re-crystalize the dilithium in TVH. Scotty was described as a miracle worker, but more often than not, he couldn't solve the issue without Spock. In fact, the only real exceptions I can think to that are situations where Spock was not present for some reason.

Well, it's not really fair to compare them, because it's the difference between theory and practice. Spock figures out the physics and math of what needs to be done, and Scotty figures out the nuts and bolts of how to make the engines do it. They're not in competition because they're complementary disciplines, theoretical vs. applied science. It isn't Scotty's job to invent novel theories, it's his job to figure out how to apply them in practical terms once a physicist like Spock comes up with them. (ST '09 gave Scotty credit for the theory of transwarp beaming, but theory is not an engineer's job, it's a physicist's. Fiction often fails to grasp the difference between the two.)

I'm more annoyed by DS9 doing the reverse in early episodes like "Battle Lines" where they had O'Brien figure out scientific solutions and explain them to Dax, when it should've been the other way around, since she was the science officer. That felt like straight-up male chauvinism on the writers' part.

 

[Danja]

I recently read a fan's idea of what Starfleet Academy SHOULD'VE been ("Why couldn't we have had a show where we had Worf, Riker, Troi, La Forge, Picard, and Crusher all attending the Academy at the same time?")

If this isn't the epitome of "small universe syndrome", I don't know what is.

 

[Turtletrekker]

I recently read a fan's idea of what Starfleet Academy SHOULD'VE been ("Why couldn't we have had a show where we had Worf, Riker, Troi, La Forge, Picard, and Crusher all attending the Academy at the same time?")

Executive producer Terry Matalas.

(However, to be fair, that was essentially Harve Bennett's idea for his Starfleet Academy movie except it would have been Kirk, Spock and McCoy.)

 

[Set Harth]

Jim Henson's Star Trek Babies

 

[Nerys Myk]

I recently read a fan's idea of what Starfleet Academy SHOULD'VE been ("Why couldn't we have had a show where we had Worf, Riker, Troi, La Forge, Picard, and Crusher all attending the Academy at the same time?")

If this isn't the epitome of "small universe syndrome", I don't know what is.

It could have been The Trekfast Club with the Outcast, the Jock, the Cheerleader and the Nerd. Just need a basket case. Picard is of course the teacher.

 

[Danja]

Executive producer Terry Matalas.

(However, to be fair, that was essentially Harve Bennett's idea for his Starfleet Academy movie except it would have been Kirk, Spock and McCoy.)

McCoy was several years older than Kirk and Spock. It wouldn't have made sense.

Everyone on the TNG crew graduated from the Academy at different times. It wouldn't have worked.

 

[HIjol]

)@Adventerprise; very much interesting Thread! Thank you!$

Even Earth's role in the Federation is small world, at least for the viewer. Not only is it the Federation capital, it's also Sector 001. Starbase 1 is literally in Earth's backyard. It's depicted as being in the center of the Federation's territory.

My “geographic” take on this resembles more like “lines” radiating out from a single point - Earth.
When I was reading all of your contributions, Trantor and Asimov popped into my brain. I remember well my feelings on first read, and how his vision changed mine; from lines radiating to a circle.

“A Circle Has No End”

Maybe that better explains Sector 001 and Small Universe Syndrome, at least in my head?