• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

What is/are the worst or most unbelievable plot convenience device(s)

Re: What is/are the worst or most unbelievable plot convenience device

One word: Genesis.

I really like the two movies where it was involved. But it is totally stupid if one really thinks about it.

Indeed, the idea that what is basically an elaborate bomb could not only create the complexity of life but entire ecosystems in a matter of minutes is stupid beyond belief. Most fairy-tales have better chances of being true.
 
Re: What is/are the worst or most unbelievable plot convenience device

One word: Genesis.

I really like the two movies where it was involved. But it is totally stupid if one really thinks about it.

Indeed, the idea that what is basically an elaborate bomb could not only create the complexity of life but entire ecosystems in a matter of minutes is stupid beyond belief. Most fairy-tales have better chances of being true.

Even if was ridiculous beyond belief, at least it was given a good introduction and explanation. Reliant was looking for a planet to test it on and the planet had to be just right, so you got the feeling it was big. You see them finishing it up in Regula I and David expressing how his mother would be remembered for it with famous scientists, but also show concern about it being used as a weapon. Carol looses it when Chekov says they're coming to get it for testing and she flips out on Kirk for allegedly giving the order. Kirk, Spock and McCoy watch the video of it, which needs top secret security clearance and the video explains it's purpose and gives some technical mumbo jumbo on how it works and it's clear this something they've been working for a long time. Spock and McCoy get into an argument about the morality of it when McCoy realized how destructive it could be.

So by the time Khan shows up to attack Enterprise we have a good understand about Genesis and why Khan wants it so much. It wasn't some random thing that they just pulled out of their ass like the Nexus or the Great Barrier which was given minimal explanation and we were just basically left to fill in the many gaps ourselves.

It was the same for the Borg like Genesis. In Q Who Picard gets a little too cocky around Q about how mankind is ready to meet whatever challenges await out there, so Q decides to teach him a lesson. So we meet the Borg, learn who they are, how they function, what their purpose is and that they are way more powerful than anything the Federation has and are almost invincible. It's only Picard's admitting to Q he was wrong and begging for help (great scene BTW) that allows them to escape.

Still though it's foreshadowed just how much trouble the Federation in in for. They let it go for a while and it you begin to wonder it they're going to appear again. So when you see them in TBOBW you're like "Uh-oh" because you know how bad this is.

It's not just like a regular episode and the Enterprise just randomly comes across the Borg and are like "Holy shit...who are these things and how can we stop them?" The set up made it so they didn't have to waste time on TBOBW explaining because you already knew the important info about them so they could get right to the action.

At least when they take time to set up and give some serious thought on explaining these things and don't just whip something up and say "It's just that way, trust us" it makes it easier for me to accept and like.
 
Re: What is/are the worst or most unbelievable plot convenience device

Any time they don't think about the logical implications of introducing a techtech plot solution of the week. Unlike in the real world where we only use each revolutionary new application of currently existing technogy once ever and then forget it exists, amirite?
 
Re: What is/are the worst or most unbelievable plot convenience device

The Nexus makes no sense at all and is the focal point of a really dumb movie where one of Trek's coolest character eats it for no reason, so it's a tempting target. The transporters and all their various malfunctions are often pretty silly too.

I sort of cringe whenever the holodeck mysteriously, and massively, expands in size to allow, say, a baseball game to be played in full (though I do like that particular episode, so screw it).

I don't like the Nexus, I believe it's a stupid plot device. Come on! A place where all our wishes are fulfilled? Who other than a child would believe in something like that?
 
Re: What is/are the worst or most unbelievable plot convenience device

The Nexus makes no sense at all and is the focal point of a really dumb movie where one of Trek's coolest character eats it for no reason, so it's a tempting target. The transporters and all their various malfunctions are often pretty silly too.

I sort of cringe whenever the holodeck mysteriously, and massively, expands in size to allow, say, a baseball game to be played in full (though I do like that particular episode, so screw it).

I don't like the Nexus, I believe it's a stupid plot device. Come on! A place where all our wishes are fulfilled? Who other than a child would believe in something like that?

The guy who wrote Peter Pan?
 
Re: What is/are the worst or most unbelievable plot convenience device

A place where all our wishes are fulfilled? Who other than a child would believe in something like that?
Members of various religions worldwide?
 
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.
 
Re: What is/are the worst or most unbelievable plot convenience device

The fact that on too many occasions the Enterprise was the only ship in range. In TMP, V'Ger was six days away from Earth, but the Enterprise, who wasn't even mechanically ready for launch was the only ship close enough?
If the Klingons would had that intel, then they'd all been speaking Klingonese by TWOK.
Even if the Enterprise was the most advanced ship, wouldn't you be better off sending a lesser ship, rather that one that may possibly explode before it even got there?
 
Re: What is/are the worst or most unbelievable plot convenience device

Even if the Enterprise was the most advanced ship, wouldn't you be better off sending a lesser ship, rather that one that may possibly explode before it even got there?
You would pretty much have to send a ship that was capable of matching speed with the fast moving "intruder," and also a ship with the fire power to (hopefully) contend with something that took out three big Klingon starships.

The border space station was briefly in range and that didn't do Starfleet any good.

:)
 
Re: What is/are the worst or most unbelievable plot convenience device

Borg Nanoprobes in Voyager were the ducktape of the universe. Any problem could be solved by just adding more nanoprobes.
 
Re: What is/are the worst or most unbelievable plot convenience device

And then there was the short tachyon pulse.



:)
 
Re: What is/are the worst or most unbelievable plot convenience device

Borg Nanoprobes in Voyager were the ducktape of the universe. Any problem could be solved by just adding more nanoprobes.

Hey, they brought Neelix back from the dead...
 
Re: What is/are the worst or most unbelievable plot convenience device

But couldn't fix Tuvok's blindness.

:)
 
Re: What is/are the worst or most unbelievable plot convenience device

I don't know about the rest of you, but we could really use that Genesis wave about now.
 
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top