What is THE Worst continuity error in Trek history..?!

[lurok]

I just saw that episode the other day as working my way through TNG (now on season 4). Huge DS9 fan already and to be honest didn't bother me in slightest, any more than Romulans looks different in TOS. And I was impressed Alaimo made Macet different enough: felt like a first draft sketch for Dukat

You know, though...I think that the two of them still have very different personalities. Macet is a quieter, think-first-THEN-speak person. His gestures aren't as sweeping, as egotistical and arrogant. You can believe he got stuck having to defend a really, really shitty policy by his government, rather than that he was deliberately trying to screw everyone over. Everything about Dukat's tones and body language is different.

What all three of those first Cardassians did was provide "archetypes" for the varied Cardassian personalities we saw later on. They weren't simply 2-dimensional aliens-of-the-week that you could write off as all being the same.

I completely agree I was actually praising Alaimo, as yes, they are different, and yes, I think the show does set up the archetypes. I just meant as an actor was nice to see Alaimo do a Cardassian character, so that was his first sketch. Sorry about confusion

 

[RandyS]

My view of continuity is that whatever the shows screw up, the novels usually fix. Or at least explain away.

 

[T'Girl]

TOS: Janice Lester ""Your world of starship captains doesn't admit women." (Turnabout Intruder)

ENT: ummm, remind again...who was the captain of the Columbia?

Para-phrasing

James Kirk's world of starship captains (both male and female) doesn't include Janice Lester.

Just as with Will Riker some time later, Kirk put his profession before his personal affairs.

 

[JB2005]

My view of continuity is that whatever the shows screw up, the novels usually fix. Or at least explain away.

Indeed, Christopher was my favourite for this, there's a page in Greater than the Sum where they basically explain all the problems that the Borg have presented (components for the ships instead of fully integrated systems, assimilation at Wolf 359 etc) and then one of the characters just says something like, "wow, you guys are clearing everything up for us today!" I lol'd! When I read it!

 

[Cyke101]

Scotty was supposed to be Spock in GEN.

Yes, and it ended up not being Spock and Moore and Braga knew that and wrote in Scotty anyway.

From Memory-Alpha: "Episode writer and Generations co-writer Ronald D. Moore has stated he included Scotty in Generations out of affection for the character, in full knowledge of and despite the inconsistency" -- 1997 AOL chat

Yes, Nimoy was right when he said anyone could have spoken his lines and Doohan proved it. But that doesn't negate the fact that Moore was a fan of Scotty and wanted him in there after Kelley and Nimoy said no. For Moore, with Kelley and Nimoy turning the producers down, it was Moore's desire to have Scotty there. It's a continuity error, but it's an error made in spite of the continuity.

 

[F. King Daniel]

My view of continuity is that whatever the shows screw up, the novels usually fix. Or at least explain away.

Indeed, Christopher was my favourite for this, there's a page in Greater than the Sum where they basically explain all the problems that the Borg have presented (components for the ships instead of fully integrated systems, assimilation at Wolf 359 etc) and then one of the characters just says something like, "wow, you guys are clearing everything up for us today!" I lol'd! When I read it!

I hated that bit. It bored me to death and only served to highlight just how broken Trek's continuity is. IMO these sorts of things should be glossed over, not drawn out.

 

[FalTorPan]

That the various Trek shows and films have any continuity at all is pretty impressive. With very few exceptions, virtually no one who worked on any Trek production is as obsessed with trivial minutiae as we are.

 

[Dukhat]

You know what lets me sleep better at night? I hypothesize that those two Romulan BoP's were actually from the future, way post-Nemesis. They look futuristic, have cloaking devices, have nacelles that look like they got the technology from the Dominion, and no birdies were painted on their undersides in direct contrast to Styles's statement in BoT. Future Guy (going along with the hypothesis that he was Romulan) sent them back in time to scuttle Archer's plans.

Makes better sense to me...

 

[JB2005]

^ That would fit with the idea "Future Guy is a Romulan" but I prefer the idea that these were simply prototypes who ultimately failed.

After all the characters aren't Trekkers, they don't follow their past as religiously as we do!

 

[BillJ]

You know what lets me sleep better at night?

Valium makes me sleep better at night.

 

[Arpy]

My view of continuity is that whatever the shows screw up, the novels usually fix. Or at least explain away.

Indeed, Christopher was my favourite for this, there's a page in Greater than the Sum where they basically explain all the problems that the Borg have presented (components for the ships instead of fully integrated systems, assimilation at Wolf 359 etc) and then one of the characters just says something like, "wow, you guys are clearing everything up for us today!" I lol'd! When I read it!

I hated that bit. It bored me to death and only served to highlight just how broken Trek's continuity is. IMO these sorts of things should be glossed over, not drawn out.

Yep, same here. They always take me out of the narrative. We KNOW why there are differences and have decided we still like the show. They should stay on the story THEY'RE telling. The rest is basically spin-doctoring. Unless the explanation is essential to the new story being told - which it never is.

One I don't like is one that was never stated but should be obvious - Bajor's solar system being the next one over from Cardassia's. There's no way in Hell the Cardassians would ever let go of the system even if that were so. It wouldn't matter if they'd depleted every last natural resource and had the entire population in arms against them. It would be just too strategically important.

Along the same vein...there's the Klingon home-world being 4 days from Earth on ENT, and the unlikelihood of Vulcan and Andor also being next-door neighbors, independently producing intelligent life.

Yeah, yeah, "The Chase". If it worked that way, Earth, Romulus, Qo'noS, Cardassia, Andor, Vulcan, Tellar, Bajor, Kazon, and Vorta Prime would all be three weeks from each other.

 

[The Wormhole]

I'm going to have to go with the Romulans having a cloaking device in Minefield. After all, even Brannon Braga admitted that was a continuity error, so how can anyone argue that it isn't?

And since everyone's mentioning Scotty thinking Kirk was alive in Relics, I feel compelled to point out that one (and its rationalisation) is so infamous that Family Guy even did a joke about it.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

And since everyone's mentioning Scotty thinking Kirk was alive in Relics, I feel compelled to point out that one (and its rationalisation) is so infamous that Family Guy even did a joke about it.

LOL. That's a pretty good standard for THE Worst continuity error in Trek history: just how mainstream is it?

 

[BlobVanDam]

I'm going to have to go with the Romulans having a cloaking device in Minefield. After all, even Brannon Braga admitted that was a continuity error, so how can anyone argue that it isn't?

And since everyone's mentioning Scotty thinking Kirk was alive in Relics, I feel compelled to point out that one (and its rationalisation) is so infamous that Family Guy even did a joke about it.

They did? What ep was that, I wanna watch it!

 

[The Wormhole]

I'm going to have to go with the Romulans having a cloaking device in Minefield. After all, even Brannon Braga admitted that was a continuity error, so how can anyone argue that it isn't?

And since everyone's mentioning Scotty thinking Kirk was alive in Relics, I feel compelled to point out that one (and its rationalisation) is so infamous that Family Guy even did a joke about it.

They did? What ep was that, I wanna watch it!

Not All Dogs go to Heaven, the one which featured the TNG cast. The scene in question is only in the DVD version of the episode. Basically two fans are arguing, one points out that Scotty should have known Kirk was dead in Relics, the other points out the signal degradation which could have effected his memories. Patrick Stewart and Jonathan Frakes then walk by, beat them up and steal their lunch money.

 

[Cyke101]

Patrick Stewart and Jonathan Frakes then walk by, beat them up and steal their lunch money.

Yep, that's the Stewart and Frakes that we all know and love!

 

[Temis the Vorta]

people who moan about ENT and ignore the continuity cock-ups in TOS.

TOS gets a pass because it was first and didn't suck.

Mostly.

Not as much as ENT, okay?

The Ferengi and Borg shit still bothers me...

 

[F. King Daniel]

I'm going to have to go with the Romulans having a cloaking device in Minefield. After all, even Brannon Braga admitted that was a continuity error, so how can anyone argue that it isn't?

And since everyone's mentioning Scotty thinking Kirk was alive in Relics, I feel compelled to point out that one (and its rationalisation) is so infamous that Family Guy even did a joke about it.

They did? What ep was that, I wanna watch it!

Not All Dogs go to Heaven, the one which featured the TNG cast. The scene in question is only in the DVD version of the episode. Basically two fans are arguing, one points out that Scotty should have known Kirk was dead in Relics, the other points out the signal degradation which could have effected his memories. Patrick Stewart and Jonathan Frakes then walk by, beat them up and steal their lunch money.

DVD extras aren't canon!

 

[Temis the Vorta]

James T. Kirk

You mean James R Kirk on his gravestone in TOS episode WNMHGB now that bugs me ??

That was charming.

What about those smiling Vulcanians from the planet Vulcanis?

Also charming.

TOS: Janice Lester ""Your world of starship captains doesn't admit women." (Turnabout Intruder)

ENT: ummm, remind again...who was the captain of the Columbia?

The long-held general consensus is that Janice Lester was a nut and that her words shouldn't be taken seriously.

Works for me. A continuity error isn't bad if it can be easily retconned away. It's the ones that make you do loop de loops that push it too far...

 

[Crazy Eddie]

You know what lets me sleep better at night? I hypothesize that those two Romulan BoP's were actually from the future, way post-Nemesis. They look futuristic, have cloaking devices, have nacelles that look like they got the technology from the Dominion, and no birdies were painted on their undersides in direct contrast to Styles's statement in BoT. Future Guy (going along with the hypothesis that he was Romulan) sent them back in time to scuttle Archer's plans.

Makes better sense to me...

That would also explain why the quantum beacons couldn't scan through their cloaking devices. If you assume the quantum beacons eventually become a standard part of Starfleet sensor systems, that would explain why "Practical invisibility" is only possible at an enormous power cost.

Here's a thought: depending on how far into the future they came from, those Romulan ships might have arrived for the purpose of chasing Enterprise away from that planet and this circumventing the entire Earth-Romulan War.