# A Stupid Thing in Star Trek That Has Annoyed Me For Years (Add Your Own!) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 14, 2008, 9:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-stupid-thing-in-star-trek-that-has-annoyed-me-for-years-add-your-own/456414 "2008-07-14T09:53:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 18
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2008, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-stupid-thing-in-star-trek-that-has-annoyed-me-for-years-add-your-own/456414/341 "2008-07-24T16:36:58Z")
In the very excellent book _Spock’s World_, it’s stated that Spock’s mom had to basically have IVF to get pregnant. ---
**Author:** ![Illuminatiprimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/illuminatiprimus/32/11520_2.png) [@Illuminatiprimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Illuminatiprimus)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2008, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-stupid-thing-in-star-trek-that-has-annoyed-me-for-years-add-your-own/456414/342 "2008-07-24T20:26:09Z")
[QUOTE=ivylass] In the very excellent book _Spock’s World_, it’s stated that Spock’s mom had to basically have IVF to get pregnant. [/QUOTE] No amount of IVF will allow inter-species mixing. You could put a ton of eggs and a swimming pool of sperm in the most perfect womb in existence but if they’re from different species you won’t get a single conception, and trying to achieve it in a petri dish won’t change that. You can’t breed daffodils and cats, you can’t breed Klingons and Cardassians. They have completely different DNA, it would be like trying to make a boat using the instructions for a microwave. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2008, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-stupid-thing-in-star-trek-that-has-annoyed-me-for-years-add-your-own/456414/343 "2008-07-24T20:29:27Z")
[QUOTE=Cervaise] I’m pretty sure I mentioned this in one of the _Enterprise_ threads, but it never ceases to amaze me how our courageous crew will bring some strange vessel or pod or other hollow object into their landing bay, then immediately crack the hatch and stick in their heads without any kind of containment. You’d think they’d have some kind of remotely operated camera drone or something, or at the very least put on an airtight suit. It’s a wonder their brains haven’t melted from some new variety of space tuberculosis. Although, now that I think about it, perhaps a partial brain melt would explain a lot of this thread’s observations. [/QUOTE] QUARANTINE! People, too - Wrath of Khan always bothered me because those two guys should have been quarantined. Why on earth were they allowed to just rejoin the regular crew. plot device ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2008, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-stupid-thing-in-star-trek-that-has-annoyed-me-for-years-add-your-own/456414/344 "2008-07-24T20:43:31Z")
[QUOTE=Anaamika] QUARANTINE! People, too - Wrath of Khan always bothered me because those two guys should have been quarantined. Why on earth were they allowed to just rejoin the regular crew. plot device [/QUOTE] Chekov even _says_ “They put creatures into our bodies!” Why didn’t McCoy use his handy-dandy tricorder to explore this rather unusual claim? ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2008, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-stupid-thing-in-star-trek-that-has-annoyed-me-for-years-add-your-own/456414/345 "2008-07-24T21:12:14Z")
[QUOTE=Chimera] Take no chances. [/QUOTE] Risk is our business mister. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2008, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-stupid-thing-in-star-trek-that-has-annoyed-me-for-years-add-your-own/456414/346 "2008-07-24T22:50:19Z")
[QUOTE=Zebra] Risk is our business mister. [/QUOTE] Manage your risk or be managed by it. ---
**Author:** ![mazinger\_z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@mazinger\_z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mazinger_z)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2008, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-stupid-thing-in-star-trek-that-has-annoyed-me-for-years-add-your-own/456414/347 "2008-07-24T22:56:56Z")
[QUOTE=Illuminatiprimus] No amount of IVF will allow inter-species mixing. You could put a ton of eggs and a swimming pool of sperm in the most perfect womb in existence but if they’re from different species you won’t get a single conception, and trying to achieve it in a petri dish won’t change that. You can’t breed daffodils and cats, you can’t breed Klingons and Cardassians. They have completely different DNA, it would be like trying to make a boat using the instructions for a microwave. [/QUOTE] IIRC, Spock’s parent’s reproductive material went through a lot of DNA re-sequencing (with the help of Vulcan and Earth scientists, no doubt) specifically to allow the birth of Spock. The scene in {shudder} Star Trek V was a little too simplified. Even under these circumstances, is it still impossible? ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2008, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-stupid-thing-in-star-trek-that-has-annoyed-me-for-years-add-your-own/456414/348 "2008-07-25T00:29:44Z")
[QUOTE=Illuminatiprimus] Oooooh ooooh oooooh - can’t believe it’s taken me this long to remember it, but: What the hell is up with all the half-Klingon, half Betazoid, one-quarter human etc etc individuals? A species is by definition: “the major subdivision of a genus or subgenus, regarded as the basic category of biological classification, composed of related individuals that resemble one another, **are able to breed among themselves, but are not able to breed with members of another species**.” If we can’t cross breed two animals that originated on earth then it stands that you couldn’t breed two creatures that have evolved ON DIFFERENT PLANETS. Even worse they throw in this concept of species characteristics that differ depending on how close to fully whatever you are i.e. the guy that was one quarter Betazoid so couldn’t telepath but could sense emotions, Deanna Troi who is half Betazoid who can empath but only telepath with other Betazoids. And then of course there are all these diseases that indiscriminately affect different species in the same way at the same time, even though pan-species diseases that affect said species the same way are extremely rare (and in most cases are as a result of a mutation over time). So not only did the creators of Star Trek not pass chemistry 101 and understand what makes up different elements (see my previous grip) they didn’t pass biology 101 either. [/QUOTE] Oh, bah! We have plant-animal hybrids **today!** You don’t think that in 300 years we’ll be able to hybridize Humans and Vulcans? Besides - we are all related - there was a Next Gen episode that explained how all the major players came from a single origin. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2008, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-stupid-thing-in-star-trek-that-has-annoyed-me-for-years-add-your-own/456414/349 "2008-07-25T01:43:38Z")
[QUOTE=Illuminatiprimus] No amount of IVF will allow inter-species mixing. You could put a ton of eggs and a swimming pool of sperm in the most perfect womb in existence but if they’re from different species you won’t get a single conception, and trying to achieve it in a petri dish won’t change that. You can’t breed daffodils and cats, you can’t breed Klingons and Cardassians. They have completely different DNA, it would be like trying to make a boat using the instructions for a microwave. [/QUOTE] Maybe not right now, but we are talking a few hundred years in the future. 😉 Although, if genetics is right, shouldn’t Spock be sterile? Mules and ligers are sterile. ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2008, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-stupid-thing-in-star-trek-that-has-annoyed-me-for-years-add-your-own/456414/350 "2008-07-25T04:00:20Z")
For some reason, it turns out that barriers to interspecies mating don’t apply at warp speeds. Nobody anticipated this effect. But then, nobody predicted that traveling faster than warp 10 would turn you into a newt either. ---
**Author:** ![Spatial\_Rift\_47](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a8b319/32.png) [@Spatial\_Rift\_47](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spatial_Rift_47)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2008, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-stupid-thing-in-star-trek-that-has-annoyed-me-for-years-add-your-own/456414/351 "2008-07-25T04:57:39Z")
[QUOTE=Terrifel] But then, nobody predicted that traveling faster than warp 10 would turn you into a newt either. [/QUOTE] … They got better. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2008, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-stupid-thing-in-star-trek-that-has-annoyed-me-for-years-add-your-own/456414/352 "2008-07-25T06:25:09Z")
[QUOTE=beowulff] Oh, bah! We have plant-animal hybrids **today!** You don’t think that in 300 years we’ll be able to hybridize Humans and Vulcans? Besides - we are all related - there was a Next Gen episode that explained how all the major players came from a single origin. [/QUOTE] Didn’t _Enterprise_ try to tackle this and end up with “it can’t be done naturally but artificially …” ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2008, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-stupid-thing-in-star-trek-that-has-annoyed-me-for-years-add-your-own/456414/353 "2008-07-25T12:44:01Z")
[QUOTE=Spatial Rift 47] … They got better. [/QUOTE] I think that was the last show I watched of Voyager. What season was that? ---
**Author:** ![essell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/34f0e0/32.png) [@essell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/essell)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2008, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-stupid-thing-in-star-trek-that-has-annoyed-me-for-years-add-your-own/456414/354 "2008-07-25T13:22:52Z")
[QUOTE=Elendil’s Heir] Another oft-repeated bit of dialogue that annoyed me every time I heard it (I’ve ranted about this in earlier ST threads): LaForge (or whoever): “Captain, please report to Main Engineering.” Captain: “What is it?” LaForge: “Well… I think you’d better just come down here.” Captain: “Okeley-dokeley!” [/QUOTE] Finally a real complaint! How many times did they call someone into the room just to show them something on a computer monitor? They call up images on the main viewer of the other side of a planet but not take a look at the same screen Geordi is looking at. The rest of this stuff is easily explained however. _“That doesn’t make scientific sense!”_ You think you know more than a academy graduate four hundred years in the future? Ha. Get over yourself. _Can’t cross breed humanoids?_ In the TNG episode **Emmisary** Deana says “I didn’t think Human and Klingon DNAs were compatible”. The klingon/human hybrid replies “They are with a little help”. Clearly science allows, what we would call, miracles. _No security Cameras_ Duh. Internal Sensors. _No diplomat ever has an uneventful voyage_ Rubbish. They ferry loads of people without incident. It would just make for a crap episode so we don’t get to see it. Lets take TNG. We get less than 150 hours of episodes in a seven year period. That’s .25% of those seven years we were actually witness to. Plenty of adventures to reuse that nifty trick they developed or let Worf earn his reputation as a great warrior. It’s even possible in that 99.75% of the time we didn’t see that Troi said something useful or interesting. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2008, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-stupid-thing-in-star-trek-that-has-annoyed-me-for-years-add-your-own/456414/355 "2008-07-25T13:41:12Z")
[QUOTE=essell] [ It’s even possible in that 99.75% of the time we didn’t see that Troi said something useful or interesting. [/QUOTE] Sorry, my Disbelief Suspenders will not stretch that far. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2008, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-stupid-thing-in-star-trek-that-has-annoyed-me-for-years-add-your-own/456414/356 "2008-07-25T15:46:49Z")
[QUOTE=Elendil’s Heir] Another oft-repeated bit of dialogue that annoyed me every time I heard it (I’ve ranted about this in earlier ST threads): LaForge (or whoever): “Captain, please report to Main Engineering.” Captain: “What is it?” LaForge: “Well… I think you’d better just come down here.” Captain: “Okeley-dokeley!” [/QUOTE] Quoth the dinosaur: -FrL- ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2008, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-stupid-thing-in-star-trek-that-has-annoyed-me-for-years-add-your-own/456414/357 "2008-07-25T16:03:34Z")
[QUOTE=essell] _No diplomat ever has an uneventful voyage_ Rubbish. They ferry loads of people without incident. It would just make for a crap episode so we don’t get to see it. Lets take TNG. We get less than 150 hours of episodes in a seven year period. That’s .25% of those seven years we were actually witness to. [/QUOTE] This ain’t _24_, though - those 150 (well, 178) “hours” weren’t in real time. Most episodes played out over several days of time instead of one hour (some were shorter - except for the epilogue conversation, _Inner Light_ takes place over a roughly 30-minute period). Of course, even assuming the average episode depicts a week in the life of the _Enterprise-D_, that leaves about half of the seven _TNG_ years undepicted. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2008, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-stupid-thing-in-star-trek-that-has-annoyed-me-for-years-add-your-own/456414/358 "2008-07-25T16:07:12Z")
Yeah and did you ever notice that where ever Angela Landsbury went, somebody got murdered? ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2008, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-stupid-thing-in-star-trek-that-has-annoyed-me-for-years-add-your-own/456414/359 "2008-07-25T16:29:17Z")
[QUOTE=Bryan Ekers] This ain’t _24_, though - those 150 (well, 178) “hours” weren’t in real time. Most episodes played out over several days of time instead of one hour (some were shorter - except for the epilogue conversation, _Inner Light_ takes place over a roughly 30-minute period). Of course, even assuming the average episode depicts a week in the life of the _Enterprise-D_, that leaves about half of the seven _TNG_ years undepicted. [/QUOTE] Well, speaking of defence of **Bryan** , Paramount has tried to rerig their “Star Date” system so that the dates can be recalculated into our current calendar system. When you move into a new seaon of ST:TNG, the Star Dates sorta reflect that. [http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Star\_date](http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Star_date) **Edit** : In other words, Paramount themselves complicated the issue by providing the means with which a fan may become confused about the length of missions, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2008, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-stupid-thing-in-star-trek-that-has-annoyed-me-for-years-add-your-own/456414/360 "2008-07-25T22:51:29Z")
[QUOTE=Frylock] Quoth the dinosaur: -FrL- [/QUOTE] Man, I hope that’s a coincidence. That cartoonist seems way too well-adjusted to be finding inspiration on the SDMB. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-stupid-thing-in-star-trek-that-has-annoyed-me-for-years-add-your-own/456414.md?page=17) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-stupid-thing-in-star-trek-that-has-annoyed-me-for-years-add-your-own/456414.md?page=19)