Weird or "no shit" moments in Star Trek

[The Wormhole]

Again, not the biggest problem with the episode in question, but: VOY "Fortunate Son" has an alien Delta Quadrant race claiming that they "seed" their males on different planets, from which said males find their way back to their homeworld. One of "said males" is supposedly Harry Kim, of Earth. This is taken quite seriously, and supposedly was actually considered by TPTB as a possible alternate origin for Kim.

This shouldn't have passed the giggle test! And nobody, absolutely nobody, thought to ask two key questions that would have blown the alien claim straight to hell. 1) How did you get him (I think it was embryonic "him," please don't make me look it up!) to Earth, all the way across the galaxy? 2) What reason did you have to think that Harry would even be able to get "back" to your planet in his lifetime? It's only the dumbest of luck and the most random of chance that brought Harry to that region of space in the first place.

That actually is addressed in the episode.

LYRIS: Welcome. We're so glad to have you here. This is a day of celebration. Another Taresian has returned.
ELIANN: Welcome.
MALIA: You're home now, Harry.
KIM: Er, wait a minute. I still don't understand how this is possible.
JANEWAY: We'd like to ask some questions before we start celebrating.
LYRIS: Of course.
KIM: Our Doctor has found some genetic fragments in my DNA which could be part of an alien genetic structure.
LYRIS: Yes, those are part of your Taresian genes. They're becoming active. We'd be happy to provide your Doctor with some DNA samples for comparison.
KIM: What I want to know is how I could have gotten them.
LYRIS: You were conceived here, on this world. While you were still an embryo, you were placed in stasis and taken to Earth to be implanted in the womb of an Earth woman.
KIM: My mother. What did you do to her?
LYRIS: She would have been completely unaware of the procedure. After the implantation process, the child begins to incorporate some DNA from the surrogate parent. You developed physically as a human, so she would have thought you were her natural child.
KIM: But you're saying I'm not.
(The only other male there speaks. He has two adoring women hanging on his arms.)
TAYMON: We understand how you feel. Everyone here was born on other worlds. We all found our way back home like you, and discovered we're not quite who we thought we were.
RINNA: Harry, maybe you'd like to sit down.
ELIANN: Why don't you go get him something to drink?
TUVOK: All of your children are born to alien parents?
LYRIS: Yes, and when they return, each child brings an infusion of new genetic material as well as of first hand experience about another culture.
JANEWAY: But Harry wasn't trying to return here. We came to the Delta Quadrant by accident.
LYRIS: His DNA was encoded with certain instincts, including the desire to explore space. Your accident may have brought him here faster, but he always would have been driven to find his way back. You are the first to return from such a great distance.

 

[Kor]

What? Which episode is that? ...

TOS "Shore Leave."

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It's funny how quickly Kirk has the massage stopped when he realizes it isn't from Spock.

Kor

 

[Discofan]

"The Chute": The last thing you should do when you're starving is think about food!! What kind of idiot doesn't know that? When you think of food it stimulates your digestive system and makes you suffer even more!

 

[The Old Mixer]

After they found Amelia Earhart in the Delta Quadrant, it was "anything goes" in that department.

 

[Greg Cox]

After they found Amelia Earhart in the Delta Quadrant, it was "anything goes" in that department.

Abraham Lincoln agrees.

 

[MAGolding]

In both TNG "Genesis" and VOY "Macrocosm," the captain and another crewmember return from away missions, to be met with absolutely no response from their ships, and evidence that something bizarre, and possibly biological in nature, has happened aboard. Now, I understand there is no reason for Data to put on an environment suit, but why didn't Picard? Or Janeway? When Picard got infected, I found myself thinking, "Serves you right, dumbass."

"Sub Rosa" admittedly had worse problems than the one I'm about to list, but here goes anyway. Ronin hooked up with a string of "Howard women," beginning with Jessel Howard, back in the 16th century, up through Bev's grandma, and finally Bev herself. If memory serves, there was some particular physical quality of the Howard women that helped to sustain him. Except that if all the Howard women, since the 16th century, were genetically related, the Howard name was passed from mother to daughter, through the female line. No woman in the line of descent, until Bev herself, ever took a spouse's name or allowed a child to carry Dad's surname. I can't emphasize this part strongly enough: since the 16th century. Yeah. Under cultural naming conventions, that just would not have happened.

Vonda McIntyre touches on this in her adaptations of TWOK and TSFS. Certain Scottish families have a naming practice that is gender-based, with the patronymic being only for boys, and the matronymic only for girls. That is, if Mister Smith marries Missus Jones, their sons will be named Smith, and their daughters will be named Jones. It's possible that the Howard women are and have been, since the 16th century, just such a family. Once again, I'm speculating about non-canon material, but the practice fits with what we see.

Interesting if true, and would certainly explain the passing on of the female-line surname. I've been looking up Scottish naming customs and not finding this one, but I'd like to hope McIntyre wouldn't just make something like that up. Any Scots who would like to weigh in?

His "relationship" with Bev (and, by implication, his relationship with all of her direct-line female ancestors) involves dubious consent at best. That Bev is angry at him when she finds out what was going on suggests that she didn't consent entirely of her own free will.

Sometimes it is, especially if someone is acting in a way that's completely out of character. And I would imagine that goes about triple in a universe where telepathy and actual possession are real and verified things.

Her guest? Ronin is possessing her.

Ronin has taken control of generations of Beverly's ancestors, and now Beverly herself. He consistently lies about what he is and what he wants. And we have no reason at all to think that Quint was the first guy he killed. I think we could make a pretty good case for him actually being a bad guy. And the fact that he's pulling Bev away from her life and her friends reminds me rather too much of how abusers like to separate their victims from other personal connections.

As for Picard, he has a friend who's acting dramatically out of character, and making life-changing decisions while in that state. His worry, and his anger at Ronin, are natural.

A little coherence would indeed be welcome, though I for one would have preferred their intentions toward the Crystalline Entity to be what changed. I couldn't believe they were trying to come to terms with it.

I just remembered that European society did have a practice of passing on the mother's surname to her child under certain circumstances. In European society an illegitimate child was not legally entitled to inherit a surname from their father - that has probably changed in modern times. Thus an illegitimate child was usually given their mother's surname.

{And there were even surnames that were allegedly given to record that the family originated with an illegitimate child. For example, it has been said that the surname Moonlight originated in the surname given to a baby found in basket on a doorstep on a moonlit night in 17th century Scotland.)

So if Ronin always had affairs with unmarried or widowed Howard women who didn't have husbands who would be assumed to be the fathers of the children that resulted, each of the boy and girl babies that resulted would be given their mother's surname, and thus the Howard surname would be passed down from generation to generation of illegitimate sons and daughters from the first Howard woman who had an affair with Ronin. (It is possible that Ronin only fathered girls for some reason.)

If all the Howard women lived in the same village for centuries and always gave birth to illegitimate children given the Howard surname of their mothers, Howard might come to be used as a slang term for "illegitimate child" in that village and perhaps all illegitimate children in that village would be given the surname Howard, and maybe that custom would spread to neighboring villages.

As medical science progressed over the centuries perhaps Beverly's mother lived long enough for Beverly to marry, take her husband's surname, become a mother, and become a widow before Ronin moved on to Beverly.

 

[Discofan]

"Non Sequitur": So Harry is with the woman he loves (allegedly), he has a good situation and for all, he knows Voyager is better off without him. But he's willing to compromise all that, become a criminal, risk death even, in order to (maybe) go back to his former status, IE for one thing very far from the woman he loves (allegedly).

Yeah, right!

Seriously, what makes him think that Voyager is worse off because of his absence?

 

[Abi Smith]

"Non Sequitur": So Harry is with the woman he loves (allegedly), he has a good situation and for all, he knows Voyager is better off without him. But he's willing to compromise all that, become a criminal, risk death even, in order to (maybe) go back to his former status, IE for one thing very far from the woman he loves (allegedly).

Yeah, right!

Seriously, what makes him think that Voyager is worse off because of his absence?

What's weirder is that Tom is on Earth too, the person he really loves. Perhaps he wants to keep their relationship a secret in the far flung reaches of the Delta Quadrant, away from his fiance, his parents and his repressed psyche.

 

[Brennyren]

That actually is addressed in the episode.
LYRIS: Welcome. We're so glad to have you here. This is a day of celebration. Another Taresian has returned.
ELIANN: Welcome.
MALIA: You're home now, Harry.
KIM: Er, wait a minute. I still don't understand how this is possible.
JANEWAY: We'd like to ask some questions before we start celebrating.
LYRIS: Of course.
KIM: Our Doctor has found some genetic fragments in my DNA which could be part of an alien genetic structure.
LYRIS: Yes, those are part of your Taresian genes. They're becoming active. We'd be happy to provide your Doctor with some DNA samples for comparison.
KIM: What I want to know is how I could have gotten them.
LYRIS: You were conceived here, on this world. While you were still an embryo, you were placed in stasis and taken to Earth to be implanted in the womb of an Earth woman.
KIM: My mother. What did you do to her?
LYRIS: She would have been completely unaware of the procedure. After the implantation process, the child begins to incorporate some DNA from the surrogate parent. You developed physically as a human, so she would have thought you were her natural child.
KIM: But you're saying I'm not.
(The only other male there speaks. He has two adoring women hanging on his arms.)
TAYMON: We understand how you feel. Everyone here was born on other worlds. We all found our way back home like you, and discovered we're not quite who we thought we were.
RINNA: Harry, maybe you'd like to sit down.
ELIANN: Why don't you go get him something to drink?
TUVOK: All of your children are born to alien parents?
LYRIS: Yes, and when they return, each child brings an infusion of new genetic material as well as of first hand experience about another culture.
JANEWAY: But Harry wasn't trying to return here. We came to the Delta Quadrant by accident.
LYRIS: His DNA was encoded with certain instincts, including the desire to explore space. Your accident may have brought him here faster, but he always would have been driven to find his way back. You are the first to return from such a great distance.

But -- that explanation doesn't make sense. With literally every planet in the galaxy to choose from, why would anyone go to such a remote planet, that offered such a minimal (seriously, the odds were mathematically nonexistent!) chance of return? Also, nobody asked the obvious follow-up, namely: "Hey, how did supposed Taresian mom get to Earth? Is it a method we could use to get back there?"

 

[tharpdevenport]

Okay, it's more of complaints, but the thread seems to have morphed a little into that, so...

How about Troi sensing things ... through space?
That's a bigger distance between ships than we realize, yet it seems to be instantaneous for her.

Or threw subspace communications?
Is it translating through the signal and from the view screen? How the fuck does that work?

 

[CommanderRaytas]

"Non Sequitur": So Harry is with the woman he loves (allegedly), he has a good situation and for all, he knows Voyager is better off without him. But he's willing to compromise all that, become a criminal, risk death even, in order to (maybe) go back to his former status, IE for one thing very far from the woman he loves (allegedly).

Yeah, right!

Seriously, what makes him think that Voyager is worse off because of his absence?

Tom. That's the real romance, here.

 

[Kor]

But -- that explanation doesn't make sense. With literally every planet in the galaxy to choose from, why would anyone go to such a remote planet, that offered such a minimal (seriously, the odds were mathematically nonexistent!) chance of return? Also, nobody asked the obvious follow-up, namely: "Hey, how did supposed Taresian mom get to Earth? Is it a method we could use to get back there?"

Maybe the vessel "disappeared into what they used to call a black hole."

Kor

 

[Discofan]

...what they used to call a black hole."

I think my what they used to call a horseless carriage needs a tune-up.

 

[Brennyren]

Maybe the vessel "disappeared into what they used to call a black hole."

 

[The Wormhole]

But -- that explanation doesn't make sense. With literally every planet in the galaxy to choose from, why would anyone go to such a remote planet, that offered such a minimal (seriously, the odds were mathematically nonexistent!) chance of return? Also, nobody asked the obvious follow-up, namely: "Hey, how did supposed Taresian mom get to Earth? Is it a method we could use to get back there?"

Two possibilities:
1) Taresian mom had a hella long lifespan and traveled at warp for seventy-five years.
2) Taresians are warp 10 capable and can cure the resulting evolution into a salamander. Even though Voyager can also cure it (and at this point the Doctor has his mobile emitter and could leave sickbay to administer the cure to the entire crew) they're apparently not interested in going through with it.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

I find this completely believable. Have you ever gone through your life without bringing up what year it is, well into the year...?

Just yesterday morning. I got a call from my doctor's office concerning a recommendation to a specialist. I asked them to just email me the information, as I was literally just about to walk into work. When they replied that they didn't have email set up, I replied, "It's 2019! How do you not have email?"

As the nurse was hanging up I could hear her saying to the office, "This guy was laughing at us for not having email." Yeah, you're damn right I was. 20 years ago, that might have been acceptable. Today, it isn't.

 

[Discofan]

Two possibilities:
1) Taresian mom had a hella long lifespan and traveled at warp for seventy-five years.
2) Taresians are warp 10 capable and can cure the resulting evolution into a salamander. Even though Voyager can also cure it (and at this point the Doctor has his mobile emitter and could leave sickbay to administer the cure to the entire crew) they're apparently not interested in going through with it.

The doctor couldn't cure the Voyager crew of its endemic disease, which is called the "reset button" syndrome... A terrible disease that's stronger than anything even common sense.

 

[Greg Cox]

Just yesterday morning. I got a call from my doctor's office concerning a recommendation to a specialist. I asked them to just email me the information, as I was literally just about to walk into work. When they replied that they didn't have email set up, I replied, "It's 2019! How do you not have email?"

As the nurse was hanging up I could hear her saying to the office, "This guy was laughing at us for not having email." Yeah, you're damn right I was. 20 years ago, that might have been acceptable. Today, it isn't.

Heck, I probably type "Because it's 2019 and not 1966" at least once a week in the DISCOVERY forum.

 

[Discofan]

"Masks": The story makes no sense whatsoever. Why would an ancient civilization set-up a so-called library to turn into a pile of rock any unsuspecting spaceship that would get too close to it? Seems like a very bad prank to play on people in the far future. Plus Picard keeps repeating that the imagery is deceptively simplistic, while it's just simplistic period. The dialogues with the different "entities" are just strings of clichés put together.

 

[The Old Mixer]

"Masks": The story makes no sense whatsoever.

Coulda just stopped there.