# 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:** 8
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2022, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-inaccuracies/971862/141 "2022-09-28T15:01:45Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > So do the Star Trek writers, as that’s why they had to create Heisenberg compensators. That’s not what I was asking. “Every molecule reassembled _ **just as it was** _” meant exactly that to me, all the uncertainty accounted for. I didn’t mean “only with molecular resolution and ignore the subatomic level”, which is what you’re reading it as. I was asking if Procrustus thought there was some component of personality or memories unaccounted for in a purely physical copying, even if it was with complete fidelity. It was a _metaphysical_ question, not a physics one (where such fidelity is literally impossible anyway). ---
**Author:** ![cormac262](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f14d63/32.png) [@cormac262](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cormac262)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2022, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-inaccuracies/971862/142 "2022-09-28T15:17:44Z")
> [@Arcite](#): > > I always groan at the banking-in-space too. Has there ever been a SF movie or TV show that depicts this realistically? The show **The Expanse** does a good job of not banking-in-space. And even depicts the deceleration required for various maneuvers. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2022, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-inaccuracies/971862/143 "2022-09-28T15:21:15Z")
> [@cormac262](#): > > > [@Arcite](#): > > > > I always groan at the banking-in-space too. Has there ever been a SF movie or TV show that depicts this realistically? > > The show **The Expanse** does a good job of not banking-in-space. And even depicts the deceleration required for various maneuvers. _Star Trek_ avoids the banking-in-space problem entirely by having not having money at all. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2022, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-inaccuracies/971862/144 "2022-09-28T15:25:34Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > I was asking if Procrustus thought there was some component of personality or memories unaccounted for in a purely physical copying, even if it was with complete fidelity. It was a _metaphysical_ question, not a physics one (where such fidelity is literally impossible anyway). Yes. I’ll confess to not understanding how memory works, but I have a hard time accepting you can arrange molecules in a way that will create a memory. ---
**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 28, 2022, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-inaccuracies/971862/145 "2022-09-28T15:26:37Z")
> [@dorvann](#): > > In regards to shrinking powers and other superpowers it can take me out of a story if the authors try over-explain everything with techno-babble instead just accepting the premise that the powers just exist. Isaac Asimov worked some techno-babble explanations into his novelization of _Fantastic Voyage_ that actually improved the story by adding more challenges to accomplishing the mission (refilling the air tanks isn’t as simple as stopping by the patient’s lungs when air molecules are almost big enough to see on your scale, and the wreck of the ship had to be extricated along with the crew). Digressing a bit, another nice touch was to add a “fair play mystery” element in identifying the onboard saboteur. ---
**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 28, 2022, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-inaccuracies/971862/146 "2022-09-28T16:09:11Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > Yes. I’ll confess to not understanding how memory works, but I have a hard time accepting you can arrange molecules in a way that will create a memory. Why? What’s special about a mempry that it couldn’t be stored by arranging molecules? ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2022, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-inaccuracies/971862/147 "2022-09-28T16:16:47Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > What’s special about a mempry that it couldn’t be stored by arranging molecules? I should probably just stay out of this. But intuitively, if I had billions of carbon, oxygen, nickle, whatever, molecules and started putting them together, how are they going to know what happened 10 years ago on the beach in South Carolina? ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2022, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-inaccuracies/971862/148 "2022-09-28T16:22:15Z")
Really he should be bounced about violently from Brownian motion. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2022, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-inaccuracies/971862/149 "2022-09-28T16:27:08Z")
If you have some silicon and copper, and started putting them together, how are they going to play a youtube video? ---
**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 28, 2022, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-inaccuracies/971862/150 "2022-09-28T16:30:23Z")
> [@caligulathegod](#): > > It’s literally in the script. Is this the actual script, or a fan-made transcript? There’s a difference. > [@Pleonast](#): > > _Star Trek_ avoids the banking-in-space problem entirely by having not having money at all. Ba-da-boom-tish. 🤣 ---
**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:** [September 28, 2022, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-inaccuracies/971862/151 "2022-09-28T16:40:35Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > The thing that always bugged me about TOS “Court Martial” episode is, what was Finney’s plan after Kirk got court martialed and lost command? He couldn’t hide on the ship forever. Finney was crackers. “Plan for what happened after” wasn’t on the menu. > [@digs](#): > > We’ve been watching Fun Star Trek (The Orville). The crew trying to keep a straight face while in the presence of the Butt-heads would have been a major subplot of every scene that they were in. The payoff to that gag is, after the Orville crew bust out laughing and then shamefully apologize to the Butt-heads, the Butt-heads turn around, chuckle and say, “You people actually remind us of the growths around our genitals with all that hair on your heads!” * * * The TNG episode “Relics.” I love it because we see Scotty again. I hate it because it has a Dyson Sphere. That nobody has _ever_ seen before. This object is two A.U.'s across and Starfleet hasn’t spotted it from half the quadrant away?? Plus, the Enterprise is orbiting the Dyson Sphere at transporter range (so, figure 40k kilometers max) and you can _see the curvature of the Sphere_. At even the Moon’s distance from Earth, all you would see is a wall extending in all four directions to the limit of visibility. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2022, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-inaccuracies/971862/152 "2022-09-28T16:42:59Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > > [@caligulathegod](#): > > > > It’s literally in the script. > > Is this the actual script, or a fan-made transcript? There’s a difference. That’s the script, as published about 1980. I used to have a copy, but lost it years ago. ---
**Author:** ![iamatractorboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iamatractorboy/32/21261_2.png) [@iamatractorboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamatractorboy)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2022, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-inaccuracies/971862/153 "2022-09-28T16:45:21Z")
The Alien prequels Prometheus and Covenant committed that sin too. Colonists, people who really should know better, inexplicably either taking off their spacesuits or even just wandering about on an unexplored planet without them in the first place. At least in the original Alien film, the crew were miners and not colonists so had a plausible excuse for acting dumb when they broke quarantine. ---
**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 28, 2022, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-inaccuracies/971862/154 "2022-09-28T16:46:17Z")
IIRC Ripley didn’t want John Hurt back on the ship after he was attacked by the facehugger. She was over ruled. ---
**Author:** ![iamatractorboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iamatractorboy/32/21261_2.png) [@iamatractorboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamatractorboy)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2022, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-inaccuracies/971862/155 "2022-09-28T16:46:45Z")
Maybe ‘Subspace’ is the ether! Do we ever get an explanation (with or without Trek technobabble) as to what Subspace actually is? ---
**Author:** ![iamatractorboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iamatractorboy/32/21261_2.png) [@iamatractorboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamatractorboy)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2022, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-inaccuracies/971862/156 "2022-09-28T16:49:09Z")
Yes you’re right, she acted correctly and ignored Dallas’s order, then Ashe intervened (for reasons we later learn). Dallas should never have put her in that position, but his actions are pretty understandable given his character. The decisions in Prometheus are just stupid though. ---
**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 28, 2022, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-inaccuracies/971862/157 "2022-09-28T16:53:49Z")
> [@iamatractorboy](#): > > The decisions in Prometheus are just stupid though. The writing in Prometheus was stupid. awful film. so much wasted potential. **CalMeacham** I remember from a ‘year’s best sf’ collection a story called Chip Runner. It’s about a kid who believes he can shrink. It deals with many of the issues you describe. The kid’s therapist asks a physicist friend what a photon or a quark would look like and receives scientifically accurate answers. ---
**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 28, 2022, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-inaccuracies/971862/158 "2022-09-28T16:57:57Z")
How about decaying orbits as a plot device? There is no reason for the Enterprise or any other ship to orbit so low that they would experience atmospheric drqg, but every time the power goes out in orbit we learn that they have only hours before the orbit decays and they all burn up. Here’s a radical,idea: Orbit a little higher so your life isn’t on the line every time a fuse blows. You’d think the Starfleet Captain’s manual would point that out. Oh, and Giordi needs to stop reversing the polarity on stuff. That’s generally a bad idea. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2022, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-inaccuracies/971862/159 "2022-09-28T17:05:47Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > Oh, and Giordi needs to stop reversing the polarity on stuff. That’s generally a bad idea. It turns out Geordie is a fan of old entertainment and really loves “Ghostbusters.” ---
**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 28, 2022, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-inaccuracies/971862/160 "2022-09-28T17:08:05Z")
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