# 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:** 5
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2022, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-inaccuracies/971862/81 "2022-09-21T15:20:49Z")
I don’t know how to spell it. They were Scrians. They all had severe psoriasis and shed little skin flakes wherever they went. ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2022, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-inaccuracies/971862/82 "2022-09-21T15:33:52Z")
> [@Arcite](#): > > the ship’s artificial gravity was still working. The artificial gravity must be the most reliable technology the Federation has invented because there are numerous times it should failed across the whole franchise. (And I know the real world reason is the cost and difficulty of recreating a weightless environment to film.) ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2022, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-inaccuracies/971862/83 "2022-09-21T15:50:41Z")
The Klingon’s artificial gravity, not so much (Undiscovered Country) ---
**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:** [September 21, 2022, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-inaccuracies/971862/84 "2022-09-21T15:53:01Z")
I don’t see how that contradicts me. It took a while to work out the language, and then it implanted the knowledge in people’s brains so they could speak it. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2022, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-inaccuracies/971862/85 "2022-09-21T15:53:11Z")
Fan wank- I always assumed the assassins intentionally targeted the Klingon ship’s gravity to make their mission easier. ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2022, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-inaccuracies/971862/86 "2022-09-21T15:54:27Z")
I do remember that. Is that the ONLY time the artificial gravity failed? Because off the top of my head I can NOT think of another example. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2022, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-inaccuracies/971862/87 "2022-09-21T15:56:14Z")
OTTOMH I cannot either. The inertial dampeners seem to fail all the time though. ETA There was an episode of DS9 where in a person from a low gravity planet intentionally adjusts the gravity in her quarters to be (I forget.) lower than 1 G. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2022, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-inaccuracies/971862/88 "2022-09-21T16:11:29Z")
The Scrians didn’t have a UT stuck in their head. So how were they speaking English? ---
**Author:** ![Pavelb1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/439d5e/32.png) [@Pavelb1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pavelb1)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2022, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-inaccuracies/971862/89 "2022-09-21T16:12:31Z")
Now i want to see a Robot Chicken of the following, (Crew member bumps into Captain Picards chest…a slight communicator chirp is heard) Crewmember: “Ulp…Captain Picard.” Picard: “Uhh…crew…uhh” (Sketch continues as Picard is unaware everything he’s doing is being picked up by the crew. Think Naked Gun.) ---
**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:** [September 21, 2022, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-inaccuracies/971862/90 "2022-09-21T16:15:59Z")
The artificial gravity and “inertial dampers” have to work in concert, if not be aspects of the same mechanism. It isn’t just being held to the floor under normal conditions that’s important, but also keeping you off the walls when the ship accelerates, or gets hit by ginormous energy weapons, or sent 1000 (990.7) light years in a flash. Plus, it has to work just right that you don’t get pulled up to the ceiling by the next deck’s gravity/inertial field. And that your head and feet feel the same gravity\*. I think (unless the AG system works by magic) that the crew can tell they are on a ship by these little fluctuations in gravity. The episodes just never bother to show this unnecessary bit of trivial detail. My fan wank is, when the shock wave hits the ship and the camera is tilted and everyone flails around like clothes in the dryer, that what we are seeing is the “overload”. The ship is really accelerating at 100g’s but the dampener/AG can’t keep up, so instead of being a red stain, you just bounce around a little. All in all, it’s best to not think about the artificial gravity. \*The centrifuge in 2001 would make everyone sick in short order. The difference in perceived gravity between your head and feet would make a mess of your balance. Running would be right out. Even going across the wheel, or even standing up, would make a mess of one’s inner ear. ---
**Author:** ![Arcite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/67e7ee/32.png) [@Arcite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arcite)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2022, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-inaccuracies/971862/91 "2022-09-21T16:17:16Z")
That was a movie, though. The high-end artificial gravity systems studios can afford on a movie budget are much more finicky than the low-cost ones that fit within a UHF syndication TV budget. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2022, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-inaccuracies/971862/92 "2022-09-21T16:18:35Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > The episodes just never bother to show this unnecessary bit of trivial detail. IIRC An episode of Enterprise had a character playing around in ‘the sweet spot’ a place in the ship where all gravitational pulls cancelled out and he was weightless. ---
**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:** [September 21, 2022, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-inaccuracies/971862/93 "2022-09-21T16:32:18Z")
One of the technical labels that came in the Star Trek TMP Peel off Graphic sticker book (supposedly all used in the movie, somewhere) had one that warned of variable gravity. > **[Star Trek: The Motion Picture Peel-Off Graphics Book](https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Star_Trek:_The_Motion_Picture_Peel-Off_Graphics_Book)** > > The Star Trek: The Motion Picture Peel-Off Graphics Book is a trade paperback-sized book published by Wallaby Books that recreates many of the various graphics, symbols and labels used in Star Trek: The Motion Picture in sticker form as designed by... ---
**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:** [September 21, 2022, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-inaccuracies/971862/94 "2022-09-21T18:25:21Z")
This would be a shorter thread if the question was, “What science in Star Trek was accurate?” Star Trek is science fantasy. It’s a fantasy show with sciency buzzwords and technobabble. A lot of it was just made up as they went along - sometimes by the actors. There is almost no attempt to get any of the science right. It just has to sound good in the moment. “Captain, I believe that if we reverse polarity to the sensor array we can create a phased diffusion wave that will propagate through the enemy’s dilithium matrix, causing a rift in time that will, theoretically, allow us to escape through the myceneum highway created by the space fungus.” ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2022, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-inaccuracies/971862/95 "2022-09-21T18:51:48Z")
At least Trek writers had a sense of humor and occasionally joked about the technobabble: [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/WU_RGhavFbY/hqdefault.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEmCOADEOgC8quKqQMa8AEB-AH-DoACoAuKAgwIABABGHIgQSg7MA8=&rs=AOn4CLBPftyiBVUlocMAMAufC64vlp_C6w "Riker Double Talks A Ferengi") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WU_RGhavFbY) ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2022, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-inaccuracies/971862/96 "2022-09-21T19:02:40Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > IIRC An episode of Enterprise had a character playing around in ‘the sweet spot’ a place in the ship where all gravitational pulls cancelled out and he was weightless. The most recent episode of _Lower Decks_ also had a scene where the main characters, while climbing through the ships internal structures, end up in the internal housing for the deflector dish, which is low gravity, and they spend some time floating around until it activates and nearly kills Boimler. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.E](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.e/32/8932_2.png) [@Mr.E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.E)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2022, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-inaccuracies/971862/97 "2022-09-21T19:27:18Z")
I think my favorite inconsistency is when the Enterprise crew comes up with a clever solution for their problem, but then that should be their solution for every problem. Like say, folks are afflicted with a disease that rapidly ages them, or rapidly evolves them, or rapidly de-ages them, and the solution is to put them in the transporter and have them reverted back to their old self with a previous transporter pattern. So why not do that all the time? Worf breaks his back. Transporter reset. Picard gets borgified. Transporter reset. Lieutenant Yar gets murdered by an evil puddle? Make a new Lieutenant Yar from the pattern when she beamed down. Do this for everyone who ever dies or gets hurt on an away mission. Heck, instead of beaming yourself down, just beam down a transporter clone of you to do the dirty work. If you can beam Data the (mostly) one-of-a-kind android, you can duplicate him, so why not make a half dozen Datas and have them do the away mission? Beam down a new set of androids every time. Leave them there, or destroy them when you’re done since Data never seemed to mind dying anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Pavelb1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/439d5e/32.png) [@Pavelb1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pavelb1)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2022, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-inaccuracies/971862/98 "2022-09-21T19:39:07Z")
Early TOS still has start-up checklists. But you made me think of another funny one “Captain the helm isnt responding!” “Go to manual!” “Nothing!” OK: 1} Go to manual never works. 2} It sure doesn’t look like the helm went to manual. Though I’d squeel if a giant wheel with pedals came out of the floor for Sulu to use. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2022, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-inaccuracies/971862/99 "2022-09-21T19:45:44Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > More a continuity error- Spoilers for TNG Movies > In Generations- Data gets an emotion chip. He cannot remove it or deactivate it. > In First Contact- He’s feeling very afraid so he deactivates it. > In Insurrection- ‘Could it be a problem with his emotion chip?’ ‘No, he left it on the ship.’ Enough time presumably passed between these events that it’s reasonable to assume that they figured out how to deactivate and/or remove it in the interim. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2022, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-inaccuracies/971862/100 "2022-09-21T19:52:04Z")
I’m not sure that’s a reasonable assumption. Dr Soong made 3 positronic brains- Data, Lore, and the replica of his wife. She was the only one to be fully functional. Data had no emotions. Lore had severe mental problems. Data made Lal. She experienced emotions and then died. Warp engines, phasers, etc have made great strides since TOS. Positronic brains not so much. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-inaccuracies/971862.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-inaccuracies/971862.md?page=6)