Re: What is/are the worst or most unbelievable plot convenience device
24th century Starfleet combadges. How the heck does a small device with no control panel choose the correct frequency to relay to its wearer when someone else contacts the wearer in question?
I very much agree with the one about the Enterprise/protagonist ship being the only ship around. And here's a recent example. The climax of Star Trek Into Darkness. Where is the rest of Starfleet when the Enterprise gets chased by the Vengeance to Earth's local space? True, dirty old Section 31 leader Admiral Marcus probably sent the rest of Starfleet on a wild goose chase in order to take out the Enterprise and Khan unchallenged, but no other vessels in orbit of Earth whatsoever? Come on!!! Did they dismiss all possibility of surprise danger after the Narada attacked Earth just the previous year???
The more I think about it in TMP it is even more ridiculous that the Enterprise is the only ship able to intercept V'ger before it reached earth. So there was one ship that had just been refitted and not tested in the heart of the Federation. Once the Enterprise launches that means there are exactly ZERO starships anywhere earth. Seems to me that it the Klingons wanted to attack earth that would be a REALLY good time to do so. So either the Klingons didn't want to take such a drastic action, or their spy network really sucks and they had no idea earth was defenseless.
Not only that though but apparently there was no starship within 3 days or so of earth. So the Enterprise is the only ship that can catch before it reaches earth. But as soon as the Federation learns of V'ger heading towards earth they would certainly tell any ship nearby to get their ass back to earth at maximum warp so the can make a defense, no matter how futile it may me.
By the time V'ger reaches earth though.....still no starships around. Who the hell plans starship defense strategy for earth? Helen Keller.
Aside from Generations the also pull the "Only ship in range" around earth in The Best of Both Worlds. So while the Enterprise is trying to stop or stall the Borg, Starfleet assembles a fleet of 40 ships at Wolf 359 to make their stand there....makes sense.
After the fleet is destroyed though the Borg have a clear path direct towards earth. So starfleet didn't think to keep at least a few ships back as a last line of defense. Maybe even load up one or two of them full or matter and anti matter and ram them into the cube as a last resort.....Nope they had that silly Mars defense perimeter of 3 small ships (I literally laughed how the Borg destroyed them all with one shot each and the Enterprise announced how they'd broken through......like it was going to be hard)
But when the Enterprise reaches the Borg it's the only ship left, again no other starships anywhere around.
I don't think the whole "Were the only ship in range" thing is always ridiculous, space is big and even millions of ships would still leave vast empty places open. But when you're in the MIDDLE OF THE FEDERATION and they use it......that's beyond the pale.
It's be like a US Navy destroyer in the middle of the Pacific getting a distress call and maybe it's having engine trouble so it says can someone else pick it up and the response is "Nope, you're the only one who can get there in time" That's believable because the Pacific Ocean is a big ass body of water.
If the same destroyer gets the same distress call and is having problems so it asks for some other ship to pick it up but they're the only ship in range, only this time it's 10 miles away from Pearl Harbor......uh right. So every other ship in Pearl Harbor, headquarters of the Pacific Fleet, is far away or unable to get underway quickly....I think the Commander of the Pacific Fleet would be fired pretty quickly if that was his defense strategy.
