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

[Enterprise1701]

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

What about universal translators? A device capable of converting 95% of languages which it has never interacted with before. Bullshit. Complete bullshit.

 

[arch101]

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

A race of people who learn with a plastic sphere that has spark plugs stuck into it? And then they forget and become drooling dependents in short order. Hmmmm

Actually, one thing I REALLY liked about Trek '09 was that the Enterprise wasn't the only ship in range. There were LOTS of other ships who got there first. Unfortunately for them...Hulk Smash.

 

[Marsden]

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

I always thought it was completely unbelievable that a person could fall to their death in space. Of course artificial gravity is another one. But it's compounded by having people need to climb in it or having a falling risk from it.

 

[enterprisecvn65]

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

A race of people who learn with a plastic sphere that has spark plugs stuck into it? And then they forget and become drooling dependents in short order. Hmmmm

Actually, one thing I REALLY liked about Trek '09 was that the Enterprise wasn't the only ship in range. There were LOTS of other ships who got there first. Unfortunately for them...Hulk Smash.

This was also true with the Borg in TBOBW where there were a large number of ship in interception range.

Unfortunately Starfleet defense strategy seems built on throwing every available ship in one major attack where they all get wiped out and the path to earth is wide open except for the oh so powerful Mars defense perimeter. Instead of holding a few back at earth for a last ditch effort of some kind.

Natural the Enterprise is absent when these massacres happen and it ends up being the only ship left anyway that can stop earth from being destroyed.

 

[The Old Mixer]

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

Hey! Nobody picks on my little buddy, the Mars defense perimeter!

 

[BK613]

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

Genesis: agree it's kinda stupid but really only because it is so overpowered for its size; one could argue that it is an extreme extension of transporter technology (matter -> energy -> matter).

TMP only ship in range: IDK, the first overt use of the trope in a ST movie should get a pass IMO. Copying this motif in later films was the error. In-universe explanation: Organian Peace Treaty + demilitarized border with monitoring stations + using the Kilngon Empire as a shield + the unusual nature of the V'Ger threat.

 

[kirkfan]

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

A race of people who learn with a plastic sphere that has spark plugs stuck into it? And then they forget and become drooling dependents in short order. Hmmmm

Actually, one thing I REALLY liked about Trek '09 was that the Enterprise wasn't the only ship in range. There were LOTS of other ships who got there first. Unfortunately for them...Hulk Smash.

Brain, brain, what is brain?

 

[tharpdevenport]

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

What about universal translators? A device capable of converting 95% of languages which it has never interacted with before. Bullshit. Complete bullshit.

I wouldn't say complete bullshit. A lot of languages contain similar ways about them, but certainly not 95%. What's really unbelievable is not only that the translator works from the very fits friggin' word without hearing enough to pick up the language and translate it, but what about the other races? The Federation has a universal translator. There's no way even half the races they've encountered have such a device, specially ones that are newly discovered and donm't have contact with United Federation of Planets members. How in the world do THEY understand? Want to talk about convenience.....

 

[kirkfan]

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

What about universal translators? A device capable of converting 95% of languages which it has never interacted with before. Bullshit. Complete bullshit.

I wouldn't say complete bullshit. A lot of languages contain similar ways about them, but certainly not 95%. What's really unbelievable is not only that the translator works from the very fits friggin' word without hearing enough to pick up the language and translate it, but what about the other races? The Federation has a universal translator. There's no way even half the races they've encountered have such a device, specially ones that are newly discovered and donm't have contact with United Federation of Planets members. How in the world do THEY understand? Want to talk about convenience.....

A lot of languages ON EARTH. There no way to know how similar hypothetical alien languages will be. It's likely that they will have absolutely nothing in common.

 

[enterprisecvn65]

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

Hey! Nobody picks on my little buddy, the Mars defense perimeter!

Sorry.

I just remember in the middle of one of the most intense moments in Star Trek history laughing out loud when those three small phalic shaped ships flew towards the cube and were destroyed with one shot each. Then Worf says how they've broken through the Mars defense perimeter like it's some big deal......

I mean really? That's all they had for defense on the last planet before Earth. That be like putting up a wall made of two layers of tin foil around a military base and then announcing with surprise that the enemy tanks have smashed through the base's perimeter defense.

How do three small ships make up a "perimeter" anyway

 

[Mytran]

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

Regarding TMP's "only ship in range", the novelization did go into some detail about his this came about. As I recall there were a couple of other ships that might have intercepted the cloud, but their chances of success would have been minimal compared to the Enterprise.

Of course, none of this actually made it into the movie and as others have pointed out the very same trope was subsequently overused. But the first time, it was not so bad

 

[kirkfan]

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

Hey! Nobody picks on my little buddy, the Mars defense perimeter!

Sorry.

I just remember in the middle of one of the most intense moments in Star Trek history laughing out loud when those three small phalic shaped ships flew towards the cube and were destroyed with one shot each. Then Worf says how they've broken through the Mars defense perimeter like it's some big deal......

I mean really? That's all they had for defense on the last planet before Earth. That be like putting up a wall made of two layers of tin foil around a military base and then announcing with surprise that the enemy tanks have smashed through the base's perimeter defense.

How do three small ships make up a "perimeter" anyway

Plus the Mars perimeter? Really? What if Mars is currently on the other side of the sun vis a vis the Earth? Then you'd get to the Earth without even having been anywhere near the planet Mars? Or is that so called perimeter the size and shape of a sphere including the orbit of Mars, kind of like a virtual Dyson sphere? I see ,no evidence of that, so I don't believe it.

 

[Marsden]

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

How do three small ships make up a "perimeter" anyway

What the hell were those 3 things? Were they ships or missles? Why did they move very slowly in a straight line?

I think that scene hurt the show rather than helped it, I think it should have been cut and the budget used for something else.

 

[Richard Baker]

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

How do three small ships make up a "perimeter" anyway

What the hell were those 3 things? Were they ships or missles? Why did they move very slowly in a straight line?

I think that scene hurt the show rather than helped it, I think it should have been cut and the budget used for something else.

IIRC those three things were automated ship/drones. The whole scene was more of a joke instead of adding to the feeling of incoming doom. If they had 700 of those drone ships and the Borg cube just punched through the cloud like it was not there it would have been a good scene.

 

[BillJ]

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

IIRC those three things were automated ship/drones. The whole scene was more of a joke instead of adding to the feeling of incoming doom. If they had 700 of those drone ships and the Borg cube just punched through the cloud like it was not there it would have been a good scene.

Probably one of those times where there wasn't enough money for what they envisioned.

 

[kirkfan]

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

IIRC those three things were automated ship/drones. The whole scene was more of a joke instead of adding to the feeling of incoming doom. If they had 700 of those drone ships and the Borg cube just punched through the cloud like it was not there it would have been a good scene.

Probably one of those times where there wasn't enough money for what they envisioned.

Isn't that what happened, every time?

 

[enterprisecvn65]

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

IIRC those three things were automated ship/drones. The whole scene was more of a joke instead of adding to the feeling of incoming doom. If they had 700 of those drone ships and the Borg cube just punched through the cloud like it was not there it would have been a good scene.

Probably one of those times where there wasn't enough money for what they envisioned.

Isn't that what happened, every time?

Well it can go the other way too. Look at what happened when George Lucas had all the money in the world to create any scene he wanted.

We get scenes like the opening of ROTS where there are hundreds of ships flying around, unless you are REALLY familiar with all the participants you have no idea who is shooting at who and it's such a jumbled mess that I'm shocked didn't induce seizures in more people who saw it in the theaters.

 

[kirkfan]

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

Probably one of those times where there wasn't enough money for what they envisioned.

Isn't that what happened, every time?

Well it can go the other way too. Look at what happened when George Lucas had all the money in the world to create any scene he wanted.

We get scenes like the opening of ROTS where there are hundreds of ships flying around, unless you are REALLY familiar with all the participants you have no idea who is shooting at who and it's such a jumbled mess that I'm shocked didn't induce seizures in more people who saw it in the theaters.

ROTS? Which one is that?

 

[Enterprise1701]

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

^Revenge of the Sith.

 

[BillJ]

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

ROTS? Which one is that?

Revenge of the Sith