What are the top worst TOS episodes for plausibility errors?

[Nero's Shadow]

1. Gary7, it could have stretched out. The info dump, I mean. Post, let someone answer, then continue on with the next one. It wasn't necessary to do it all at once, was it, whether in one post or a bunch?

2. Nero's Shadow, Captain Robert April. Knock it off. NOW. I have a pretty bad headache which means the Romulan is grumpier than usual. Don't push it. If you don't like the thread, hop over it and go to another one. How hard is that? Nothing is wrong with the thread.

3. To ALL. DON'T post more than one post in a row. Do I have to start warning people for this?

Bonz, Grump

Sorry about the comment to gary7.? I shall behave myself in future LLAP PALL

 

[darkwing_duck1]

Re: The Apple

"The Apple"
Whoa now... a sophisticated and powerful computer needs vegetation to run? And it needs to be fed daily? Ummmm... isn't that hugely inefficient? And I'm sorry, but to be able to lock onto a starship in orbit and drain it's energy requires an enormous reserve of power that I can't believe is supplemented by digesting plant life.

No, they "fed" VAL (note spelling) the high-energy containing ore that the landing party (literally) stumbled across earlier.

And apparently this machine named Vol has the fountain of youth as well, as these beings serving it appear ageless. They don't know what children are... and then later we learn that procreation is only enacted when a replacement is necessary. I guess if someone manages to fall off a cliff or something, they need to get another person to take his/her place. But then, they'd need to be raised, right? Which means that the people should know what children are. DING! Huge plausibility hole.

Apparently one had not been needed for some time, so they may easily have forgotten. Or it was (as depicted) a difference in terminology.

As for the "agelessness" of the people, Val was actively manipulating the entire planetary environment for their benefit, screening out harmful radiations, controlling climate and such to maximize growth of foodstuffs, etc. The implication is that the people didn't age because there were no environmental stressors TO age them.

It's also implied that the purpose of the People is to serve Val. It could easily be that their DNA has been altered to switch off harmful genetic changes that result in disease and aging.

These are humanoid beings that are being well cared for, but they never get sick? What protects them from viruses and bacteria? Vol? If so, then this machine has an amazing store of knowledge and capability.

That is indeed the implication.

But it's only interface is with a single individual via telepathy?

No, via direct electrical induction into the brain/nervous system, hence the antennae.

No other interfaces?

None needed.

And what if that individual is the one who accidentally dies? What next?

Presumedly another would be chosen. It may be common knowledge that in the event the "Speaker" were to be lost, all the people would report to Val.

Huge weakness. Again...

Some improbabilities, perhaps, but no impossibilities, and certainly no worse than some assumptions made in OTHER sci-fi of those years, film, tv AND print.

 

[ToddPence]

RE: BY ANY OTHER NAME

Rojan and Hanar have this big discussion about how agoraphobic the Kelvans are, about how they can't stand living on planets and are uncomfortable unless they are on board the confines of a space ship. If that's true, then what do they need a galaxy for? (Just so they can conquer and rule it?)

Would the Kelvans really have been able to conquer our galaxy? Wouldn't the Organians, for one, be able to stop them?

In a nice touch of continuity, Spock gives the exact same readout on the energy barrier as he did in "Where No Man Has Gone Before" . . . "Radiation negative, density negative, energy negative."

Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Scott were the only four kept from being "neutralized" because the Kelvans considered them essential personnel. Were they intended to be essential through the entire voyage, which the Kelvans said that they themselves would not live to complete? How did the Kelvans intend on replacing the Enterprise men when they died?

The Kelvans said that they barely escaped to the planet they were on in a life craft, but they brought enough technology with them to take over the Enterprise and modify her engines.

Rojan also states that they had spent the time on the planet studying and learning about Earth people. How??

Rojan states that the Kelvans mission is going to be completed by his descendant. But he doesn't even know how to kiss a woman. Rojan, buddy, if you plan of having any descendants at all with that human body you're in, I think you need to study up some more on human mating rituals and practices.

 

[darkwing_duck1]

RE: BY ANY OTHER NAME

Rojan and Hanar have this big discussion about how agoraphobic the Kelvans are, about how they can't stand living on planets and are uncomfortable unless they are on board the confines of a space ship. If that's true, then what do they need a galaxy for? (Just so they can conquer and rule it?)

No, because their home galaxy was becoming uninhabitable.

Would the Kelvans really have been able to conquer our galaxy? Wouldn't the Organians, for one, be able to stop them?

Maybe, maybe not...we didn't see all that the Kelvans could do.

The Kelvans said that they barely escaped to the planet they were on in a life craft, but they brought enough technology with them to take over the Enterprise and modify her engines.

Those belt boxes didn't take up much room, and the important part of modifying the engines was knowing HOW. Knowledge doesn't take up much space.

Rojan also states that they had spent the time on the planet studying and learning about Earth people. How??

Rojan states that the Kelvans mission is going to be completed by his descendant. But he doesn't even know how to kiss a woman. Rojan, buddy, if you plan of having any descendants at all with that human body you're in, I think you need to study up some more on human mating rituals and practices.

Given that their natural forms (as stated in the ep) were VERY non-human, it only makes sense that they would know very little about BEING human, which is how Kirk and Co were able to beat them.

 

[T'Girl]

Rojan and Hanar have this big discussion about how agoraphobic the Kelvans are, about how they can't stand living on planets and are uncomfortable unless they are on board the confines of a space ship. If that's true, then what do they need a galaxy for? (Just so they can conquer and rule it?)

No, because their home galaxy was becoming uninhabitable.

These particular Kelvans were born within a ship in transits, living on the surface of a planet is likely the normal state for the Kelvan race, that's why they don't simply live inside habitats far from any galaxy.

Rojan states that the Kelvans mission is going to be completed by his descendant. But he doesn't even know how to kiss a woman. Rojan, buddy, if you plan of having any descendants at all with that human body you're in, I think you need to study up some more on human mating rituals and practices.

Given that their natural forms (as stated in the ep) were VERY non-human, it only makes sense that they would know very little about BEING human, which is how Kirk and Co were able to beat them.

maybe they're used to making love like an octopus would do it?

Technically you don't HAVE to kiss (just less fun).