# Star Trek inaccuracies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted, star-trek-paramount\ **Created:** [September 19, 2022, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-inaccuracies/971862 "2022-09-19T23:05:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2022, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-inaccuracies/971862/201 "2022-11-02T23:19:58Z")
> [@eburacum45](#): > > They would probably smell like burnt rubber, too. I read once that a silicon life form would burst into flame in an oxygen atmosphere! Johnny Horta Torch! Speaking of Shore Leave, my theory is that there IS no “keeper”. The planet is fully automated (and designed for beings more advance than humans) and it gives you whatever you want. When everybody wanted an explanation, the planet gave them one their primitive minds could handle. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2022, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-inaccuracies/971862/202 "2022-11-02T23:34:42Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > h, and Giordi needs to stop reversing the polarity on stuff. That’s generally a bad idea. But I reversed the polarity of my microwave and now I get ice in three minutes. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2022, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-inaccuracies/971862/203 "2022-11-02T23:44:22Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Speaking of Shore Leave, my theory is that there IS no “keeper”. The planet is fully automated (and designed for beings more advance than humans) and it gives you whatever you want. When everybody wanted an explanation, the planet gave them one their primitive minds could handle. Not a bad theory, but in one of the Animated episodes they returned to the planet and found the keeper’s grave. TAS is considered canon these days, right? My theory is that the shore leave world later became known as Risa. ---
**Author:** ![Steven\_Maven](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steven_maven/32/3272_2.png) [@Steven\_Maven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steven_Maven)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2022, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-inaccuracies/971862/204 "2022-11-02T23:49:36Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > > [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > > > I want to know who cleans up the spooge. > > That’s what ensigns are for. I figured that there was a giant tank of antimatter that annihilated “spooge” but nothing else. ---
**Author:** ![Steven\_Maven](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steven_maven/32/3272_2.png) [@Steven\_Maven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steven_Maven)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2022, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-inaccuracies/971862/205 "2022-11-02T23:53:32Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > I don’t think it’s been canonically addressed, but I assume the floor is a sort of omni-directional treadmill. I vaguely recall somebody “waiving their hands” in that general direction. ---
**Author:** ![Steven\_Maven](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steven_maven/32/3272_2.png) [@Steven\_Maven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steven_Maven)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2022, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-inaccuracies/971862/206 "2022-11-02T23:56:19Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > In TNG, Ensign Barclay had a holodeck program featuring a holographic Councilor Troy, for implied sexy purposes. I loved that character. He also had a program with a character who looked like Riker but was a 5’1” buffoon. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2022, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-inaccuracies/971862/207 "2022-11-03T00:06:13Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > But I reversed the polarity of my microwave and now I get ice in three minutes. And if you put instant coffee in the microwave you can go back in time. (Old Steven Wright joke) ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2022, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-inaccuracies/971862/208 "2022-11-03T00:08:06Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > TAS is considered canon these days, right? I thought not, but I could be behind. > [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > My theory is that the shore leave world later became known as Risa. Now that I can get behind! ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2022, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-inaccuracies/971862/209 "2022-11-03T00:09:57Z")
> [@Steven\_Maven](#): > > What about the Holodeck? > > First, people seem to be able to travel distances much greater than the deck or even the ship itself. > > Nobody has sex with anything? Not even the most attractive crew member of their gender of choice? We all know what the holodeck is really used for. And we know what the worst job is on the Enterprise - having to squeegie clean the holodeck. ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2022, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-inaccuracies/971862/210 "2022-11-03T00:55:53Z")
All the spooge and detritus is raw material for the food replicator. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2022, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-inaccuracies/971862/211 "2022-11-03T01:59:47Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Pretty sure it’s canon that Quark had “adult” programs available in his holosuits on _Deep Space 9_. Nonsense, I’m sure **Vulcan Love Slaves** is one of the great epics of Vulcan history.😉 ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2022, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-inaccuracies/971862/212 "2022-11-03T02:27:23Z")
> [@Jasmine](#): > > Dr. Crusher saves the day. Pulaski, not Crusher. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2022, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-inaccuracies/971862/213 "2022-11-03T11:14:10Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Pulaski, not Crusher. Nice catch! I remember her vaguely, but I had forgotten her name. One season only? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2022, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-inaccuracies/971862/214 "2022-11-03T11:21:20Z")
It’s OK, because there is also a new, junior member of bridge crew, who we have never seen before, in the away team ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2022, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-inaccuracies/971862/215 "2022-11-03T12:58:12Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > I read once that a silicon life form would burst into flame in an oxygen atmosphere! Johnny Horta Torch! I read somewhere that a silicon-based life form would be problematic because, assuming the biochemical processes are analogous to carbon-based life forms, the silicon version of carbon dioxide, silicon dioxide, could not be exhaled because it’s a solid (we know it better by the name ‘quartz’). But a silicon-based life form could just poop out its waste silicon dioxide, couldn’t it? I’m not too well-versed on silicon-based biochemistry. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2022, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-inaccuracies/971862/216 "2022-11-03T14:58:21Z")
Yes, and it was the final show of the second season. Hence the use of clips. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2022, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-inaccuracies/971862/217 "2022-11-03T15:03:58Z")
The planet in “The Devil in the Dark” supposedly had an “artificial oxygen” atmosphere that allowed the miners to work there. That might explain ho a silicon-based life form could evolve there, but not what kept it from catching fire now. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2022, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-inaccuracies/971862/218 "2022-11-03T15:09:14Z")
She is a good actress, but I could never warm up to her in that role. One scene I loved, though, was the scene where she was talking to Lt. Commander Data where she inadvertently pronounced his name incorrectly. [“One is my name, the other is not”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WssBJeExiOM) ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2022, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-inaccuracies/971862/219 "2022-11-03T20:26:20Z")
> [@eburacum45](#): > > Curiously enough, I always thought that was deliberate; the closest analogues to carbon macromolecules in silicon chemistry are silanes and silicones. It might be possible to imagineer an alternative biochemistry based on, or incorporating, silicones. Perhaps. But we call ourselves “carbon-based life”, not “carbonate-based life” or “carbonyl-based life” or even “hydrocarbon-based life”, etc. Though I admit that “hydrocarbon-based life” might in fact be a better descriptor for our own basic chemistry than simply “carbon-based”. ---
**Author:** ![CaptMurdock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/captmurdock/32/11736_2.png) [@CaptMurdock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaptMurdock)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2022, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-inaccuracies/971862/220 "2022-11-03T20:28:28Z")
Why annihilate the spooge? Just resequence the proteins into the replicator. They recycle _everything_ on a starship. * * * Ninja’d! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-inaccuracies/971862.md?page=10) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-inaccuracies/971862.md?page=12)