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What tropes in science fiction annoy you?

Or how VOY 2.21 mentioned "Kent State University" as still existing in the era of subspace technology. What even is a "state" on United Earth? The United States of America is defunct in the 24th century. Are all the other districts of Earth also legally classified as "states" as well? What naming honor did Kent State University earn that every other tertiary institution on Earth lacks?
...

Other "States" have been mentioned multiple times in various series and other countries still exist--if the United States no longer exists as a country then it is logical that individual States have the same status as countries (probably akin to our contemporary provinces or departments within a country) in however the Earth government works.

I agree with your spoiler observation--a writer couldn't have come up with a few more names that sounded like they came from those planets?
 
https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/what-are-your-controversial-star-trek-opinions.304751/page-729

A discussion in another thread today reminded me of the continual reaction debates to humanoid versus non-humanoid characters courtesy of production budgets.
Prometheus is a prime example that depicts supposedly well-educated people acting stupidly for no good reason. That script should have been shredded and forgotten.
Well said. Among other sins of logic (made worse by the producers being unable to settle on a consistent long-term direction for sequels, all due respect to Michael Fassbender's performance), Prometheus expects us to believe all organic life on Earth originated from alien tampering to create the first microbes, which had to evolve to produce humans. That's just a creationist fantasy. Sometimes it can be in interesting ways for an Aesop, like TNG 6.20 "The Chase" trying to plead for interstellar peace in the face of rival hostilities. But in Prometheus, the Engineers' relationship to humanity ultimately served nothing, and the movie would have had nearly the same result without that plot point.

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One thing that really annoys me is the way they always get fever wrong. This isn't just a sci-fi trope, though, other shows do it too. You feel cold when your body temperature goes up, not hot.

The one that bugs me the most, though, is the way they start to have trouble breathing as soon as the environmental controls shut down. In a ship the size of the Enterprise, running out of air, or rather being poisoned by CO2 would take hours at least, if not days, rather than minutes.
 
I have it on DVD so could be that lower resolution.

In the scene in the streets, some of the guards when shot look like they turn to dust or such
I just rewatched it with some friends, and I have not noticed anything like that. Do you have a precise timestamp of the scene?
 
OK this is one close to our hearts as Trek fans but the advancement of technology in a short time. Not sure if I'd call it a trope but the idea that in a couple of hundred years humanity finds ways to do things like break physics with things like warp drive, or other exotic propulsion systems.

In Star Trek Zephram Cochrane invents warp drive in the year 2063 which seems very close to our time now and that they gave that an actual year in the movie and in Trek lore just seems a bit too close to make a real call either way don't you think?
 
OK this is one close to our hearts as Trek fans but the advancement of technology in a short time. Not sure if I'd call it a trope but the idea that in a couple of hundred years humanity finds ways to do things like break physics with things like warp drive, or other exotic propulsion systems.

In Star Trek Zephram Cochrane invents warp drive in the year 2063 which seems very close to our time now and that they gave that an actual year in the movie and in Trek lore just seems a bit too close to make a real call either way don't you think?

That's why Trek is doing...

A Terminator type of thing where temporal manipulations to the timeline have pushed into the future at least some events that had been established by date in earlier series.
 
That's why Trek is doing...

A Terminator type of thing where temporal manipulations to the timeline have pushed into the future at least some events that had been established by date in earlier series.


But isn't that just rewriting the lore to fit things in better?
 
But isn't that just rewriting the lore to fit things in better?
Yes and I feel like Trek has always done so.

It might not be literally our future but it's tied to humanity in a way that I think makes Trek more unique in some ways. Obviously Terminator did this thing too, but I haven't watched it/am not as interested in that series.
 
Yes. It is rewriting the lore to address the fact that the franchise has gone on longer than anyone ever expected.

Yes and I feel like Trek has always done so.

It might not be literally our future but it's tied to humanity in a way that I think makes Trek more unique in some ways. Obviously Terminator did this thing too, but I haven't watched it/am not as interested in that series.

Oh yeah for sure I get that guys.

What made me think of that oddly was a video game. I was playing Mass Effect Andromeda, and my mind drifted to Star Trek when I logged off and was thinking that that's set around the same time period as the ME games, at least 300 or 400 years in our future yet the technology they have seems light years beyond what we have or could possibly hope for, even on an experimental platform.

The closest thing to our reality is possibly The Expanse, at least they tried for more realism
 
Yes. It is rewriting the lore to address the fact that the franchise has gone on longer than anyone ever expected.
Yeah, when a series is based around the idea that it's our future, then you kind of have to keep pushing at least things in the backstory farther and farther into the future if you want to stick to that concept. It's kind of like how comic books or The Simpsons keeping pushing the backstory forward in time more and more so that it stays the same distance away from the show.
In The Simpsons, when Marge and Homer met keep jumping forward by a decade every few years. First they got together in the '70s, then a few seasons later it was the '80s, then the '90. Not sure it's been pushed forward again to the '00s, but if it hasn't it probably will be soon.
 
Shapeshifters who can shapeshift their clothing. I understand it's just a shortcut, but it feels like an overpowered cop out. Even worse than mass shifting.
 
Shapeshifters who can shapeshift their clothing. I understand it's just a shortcut, but it feels like an overpowered cop out. Even worse than mass shifting.

But why would there BE any clothing? It's all part of the shapeshifter itself.

Odo, for example. He's not a blob wearing the uniform of the Bajoran Militia, he's just a blob, and the uniform was always part of him. So what's the problem? :shrug:
 
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