# Star Trek: Most annoying contradictions **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 3, 2001, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-most-annoying-contradictions/79491 "2001-09-03T05:36:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Cleophus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a88e57/32.png) [@Cleophus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cleophus)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2001, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-most-annoying-contradictions/79491/21 "2001-09-03T22:32:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Hugh Jass \* > As for other inconsistencies, I believe at some point in TOS they get the Enterprise to Warp 11+. In Voyager, it is a big deal when they break the “barrier” of Warp 10. I’ve seen this explained as recalibrating the warp scale sometime between TOS and TNG. > [@](#): > > 1. In one of the first TNGs, Picard beams himself out into space, and they recover him by copying his pattern from the transporter. That means Picard was a clone! I’ve noticed that TNG frequently uses the transporter to save someone’s ass. Too frequently, IMO. ---
**Author:** ![LordVor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/90ced4/32.png) [@LordVor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LordVor)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2001, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-most-annoying-contradictions/79491/22 "2001-09-03T22:38:53Z")
One of the two episodes that made me completely give up on voyager (the other one wasn’t a contradiction, just blatent stupidity): The crew ends up in 20th century earth. Instead of warping around the sun to return to earth in their time (like Kirk did on at least two occasions), they go through the bloody hole back to the deep space. LV ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2001, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-most-annoying-contradictions/79491/23 "2001-09-03T22:52:09Z")
One that I don’t find particularly annoying, but that other people make a huge deal over, and which I don’t find terribly contradictory, is that some Klingon said sort of throwaway that “Klingons have no devil.” Then Ardra turns herself in one episode into “Feklar,” the Klingon guardian of the underworld. Set off alarm bells among the faithful, how can there be a Feklar if there’s no Klingon devil? Well, there can be a Feklar because “guardian of the underworld” doesn’t necessarily mean “devil.” Hades, for example, was the Greek god of the underworld but was not equivalent to the Judeochristian Satan. So get over it already. ---
**Author:** ![BigGiantHead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b4bc9f/32.png) [@BigGiantHead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigGiantHead)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2001, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-most-annoying-contradictions/79491/24 "2001-09-03T22:53:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Pergau \* > One of the ones that bothers me is when someone on the bridge says somehing like “the ship is is visual range now sir” so the Captain says “display”, and then “magnigy”. > > And suddenly you can see the Borg cube filling up the screen. > > So what exactly is visual range? For my money, the original display would be “life-size”, i.e., the way it would appear if you were looking not at a giant CRT but out into space through a giant window. IAW this definition, “visual range” would be that distance at which the thing in question is visually different from all of the other specks of light out there. To then go to “magnify,” well, that’s easy. Zoom lenses have been doing this for over a century already, yesno? - Dave ---
**Author:** ![King\_Rat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7bcc69/32.png) [@King\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/King_Rat)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2001, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-most-annoying-contradictions/79491/25 "2001-09-03T22:53:45Z")
I bought the [http://www.nitcentral.com](http://www.nitcentral.com) Original Series nitpickers book and enjoyed it vey much. I recommend these books to anyone interested in contradictions and inconsistencies. My question isn’t strictly speaking a contradiction: In STIV why does the probe give out a signal that can destroy the Earth? Why the hell is it interested in humpback whales? If the probe was returning to Earth to “check up” on humpback whales why would it send out a signal that, in the absence of a response, destroy the Earth? One thing that annoys me is that time travel became a far to convenient resolution of sticky situations. You have so many people now traipsing about through time it’s a wonder that the universe is still in one piece. Let me not forget the fact that Voyager can take heavy damage every episode, smoke pouring out of the consoles, yet everything is always perfectly repaired and not a singe mark to be found! ---
**Author:** ![Chocobo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/898d66/32.png) [@Chocobo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chocobo)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2001, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-most-annoying-contradictions/79491/26 "2001-09-03T22:53:57Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Cleophus \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by Hugh Jass \* > > As for other inconsistencies, I believe at some point in TOS they get the Enterprise to Warp 11+. In Voyager, it is a big deal when they break the “barrier” of Warp 10. > > I’ve seen this explained as recalibrating the warp scale sometime between TOS and TNG. Yeah, but in All Good Things… in TNG, the Pasteur and Enterprise both show the capacity to go far past Warp 10…I think warp 14 was what it was. And since in Voyager, breaking Warp 10 essentially put them at every point in the galaxy at once, you’d think Warp 14 would get the Pasteur/Enterprise to their destination instantly. The biggest inconsistency I can think of the Vulcan’s apparent change of blood color. In TOS and the movies, McCoy is always calling Spock green-blooded. However in Voyager, whenever Tuvok gets hurt or something his blood is red. (Am I missing something, or what?) ---
**Author:** ![Chocobo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/898d66/32.png) [@Chocobo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chocobo)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2001, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-most-annoying-contradictions/79491/27 "2001-09-03T22:55:16Z")
Apparently I am missing something…my ending bold tag… ---
**Author:** ![lurkernomore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@lurkernomore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lurkernomore)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2001, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-most-annoying-contradictions/79491/28 "2001-09-03T22:56:23Z")
as for the Klingons, the original series had a smaller budget, so less prosthetics. At least this makes sense (and why the same guys keep reappearing after they die, they were Shatner’s stand-ins, etc who just filled uniforms). STV went back to the 1990s. TOS said the world was in the Eugenics Wars then. Not according to blow-up-a-shuttle-a-week Voyager. ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2001, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-most-annoying-contradictions/79491/29 "2001-09-03T23:15:22Z")
… was in the _ST:Voyager_ episode “Threshold.” Stuck tens of thousands of light-years away from the Federation, the crew of the _Voyager_ discovered how to make a shuttlecraft break through the “transwarp threshold” and go Warp 10, which is infinitely fast. The only side effect was a **slow** transformation of the shuttle passengers into lizards. The Doctor then figured out a way to **reverse** this transformation with no lasting side-effects. So then, **why didn’t the _Voyager_ start shuttling its crew members home?!** You pack as many of them as you can into the transwarp shuttle, you give them each a hypospray full of the lizard-transformation antidote, and you send them to Star Fleet headquarters at infinite speed. Then **one** of them flies the shuttle back and carries the **next** load of passengers back to the Federation. You keep doing this until your entire crew is back home safe and sound. (Except for Janeway, of course, who is determined to Go Down With Her Ship.) And even if **this** wasn’t feasible, Tom Paris could at **least** have used the transwarp shuttle to get word to Starfleet that (a) _Voyager_ was intact in the Delta Quadrant, and (b) they just figured out transwarp technology. They did neither of these things. They had to wait 1 or 2 more whole **seasons** before the Holographic Doctor got to take a digital trip onto a Federation starship in the Alpha Quadrant and told Star Fleet all about their situation. They **never ever** so much as **mentioned** transwarp technology again! In a word: **PAH!!** ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2001, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-most-annoying-contradictions/79491/30 "2001-09-03T23:37:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by tracer \* > \*\*… was in the _ST:Voyager_ episode “Threshold.” > \*\* And what about those little baby lizards, hunh? ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2001, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-most-annoying-contradictions/79491/31 "2001-09-04T00:42:04Z")
I’ll bet the baby lizards spontaneously turned into baby humans when the Doctor cured their **parents** of their lizardly condition. (That’s typical of the “magic” nature of 24th century medicine on this show – kill the evil wizard, and all spells he cast while he was alive are now broken. Ptooi!) ---
**Author:** ![SpaceGhostofArrakis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@SpaceGhostofArrakis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpaceGhostofArrakis)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2001, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-most-annoying-contradictions/79491/32 "2001-09-04T00:47:17Z")
How come Scotty in TNG’s “Relic” expects Kirk to have rescued him, When in “Generations” he was clearly there at Kirks death? ---
**Author:** ![Kaitlyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/73ab20/32.png) [@Kaitlyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaitlyn)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2001, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-most-annoying-contradictions/79491/33 "2001-09-04T00:47:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Baraqiyal \* > \*\* > Here’s my contribution to the thread: The Chase(TNG) and The Paradise Syndrome(TOS) give contradictory explanations to the reason why humanoid life is spread throughout the galaxy. \*\* I don’t think these neccesarily contradict each other. Indeed, I think they actually compliment each other. The Preservers in “The Paradise Syndrome” seeded species from one planet to another, in this case American Indians. The aliens in “The Chase” were the first to develop FTL travel and found themselves alone. They seeded their DNA in the biospheres of twenty-something planets, but not nearly enough to explain the widespread existence of pre-spaceflight humanoid cultures. In other words, billions of years ago, the aliens in “The Chase” helped create the humaniod species, and a few thousand years ago (during the time of American Indian settlement of North America) the Preservers came along and help distribute them. Both were instrumental in the widespread distribution of humanoid life. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2001, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-most-annoying-contradictions/79491/34 "2001-09-04T01:03:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SpaceGhostofArrakis \* > **How come Scotty…** I’m sure it has to do with wrinkled foreheads. ---
**Author:** ![PlanMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/2bfe46/32.png) [@PlanMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlanMan)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2001, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-most-annoying-contradictions/79491/35 "2001-09-04T01:29:30Z")
Not really a contradiction, but annoying nit … Howcum when 2 or more spacecraft come upon each other, they are ALWAYS oriented the same way? That is, all have “up” (as represented by their dorsal surface) in the same direction? The only time this doesn’t apply is when one ship has “lost power” and is “adrift” - represented by NOT being oriented to the Universal Rodenberry Axes, but a few degrees off? ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2001, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-most-annoying-contradictions/79491/36 "2001-09-04T01:35:08Z")
Since we’re talking mostly the Original Series because it will be pre-quelled (how’s that for a new word?), I nominate the following: Sometimes, you’re out of communication range and it’ll take weeks to hear from Star Fleet. Sometimes, you can call them up right away. I think the biggest potential timeline difficulty will be the Klingons. Presumably the Klingons will be a race we are just starting to encounter in _Enterprise_. Tension with this newly found race will be part of the show, I hope. But, of course, you have the trouble that, if they make the Klingons look like they did with TNG, then all the supposed explanations for the difference from TOS will be out the window. Oh, and is there anyone else who wonders why the hell they don’t have to drop out of warp to seperate the saucer section in TNG? Do YOU see a warp drive attched to that sucker? ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2001, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-most-annoying-contradictions/79491/37 "2001-09-04T02:07:58Z")
Here’s another contradiction from _Voyager_: Apparently, everyone’s always afraid of the Doctor’s mobile emitter from being damaged (when he’s using it) because if it goes offline, he’ll be deleted forever. But in one episode (I believe it was called _Living Witness_), it’s shown that the Doctor has at least one backup of himself. If they can store hundreds, if not THOUSANDS, of holographic programs from the holodeck, why can’t they simply do a daily backup of the Doctor? ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2001, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-most-annoying-contradictions/79491/38 "2001-09-04T02:18:57Z")
PlanMan wrote: > [@](#): > > Howcum when 2 or more spacecraft come upon each other, they are ALWAYS oriented the same way? That is, all have “up” (as represented by their dorsal surface) in the same direction? > > The only time this doesn’t apply is when one ship has “lost power” and is “adrift” - represented by NOT being oriented to the Universal Rodenberry Axes, but a few degrees off? I am convinced that “space” in the _Star Trek_ universe has a universal “up” pointer embedded with in it, obvious and recognizable to all species throughout the galaxy. My proof for this comes from that _Voyager_ episode where they encountered giant space-borne alien critters, and they get out of a tough spot with them by having their starship show “submissiveness.” How do they show this? By **rolling over and turning blue!** If there was no preferred “up” direction in Rodenberry Space, “rolling over” would have no meaning, would it?! ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Rhosis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@Sir\_Rhosis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Rhosis)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2001, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-most-annoying-contradictions/79491/39 "2001-09-04T02:34:28Z")
Ronald D. Moore (co-writer of Generations and writer of Relics), when asked about the contradiction of Scotty being at Kirk’s death and then making the “rescue me” comment in Relics, said something to the effect, “Well, Scotty does drink a lot.” I just read the “Broken Bow” scipt tonight. Possible contradiction between it and TOS and TNG, vis a vis the “disastrous first contact” with the Klingons. In Broken Bow, the first “official” contact on Kronos is brief and somewhat friendly, with the Klingon High Chancellor even giving a “nod of approval” to Captain Archer. Granted a hick farmer shoots the first Klingon to land on Earth, but it hardly leads to anything “disastrous.” Sir Rhosis ---
**Author:** ![Ennui](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ennui/32/3396_2.png) [@Ennui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ennui)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2001, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-most-annoying-contradictions/79491/40 "2001-09-04T02:40:07Z")
One thing that used to bug me, from the beginning of next generation and on into the spin offs, the upside down V insignia is used for com badges, uniforms through out the fleet, Starfleet command and probably federation issue condoms. But in the original series the upside down V was exclusive to the enterprise. When they showed crews of other federation ships they had different gizmos on their chest, and the federation insignia was a bastardization of the Untied Nations emblem. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-most-annoying-contradictions/79491.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-most-annoying-contradictions/79491.md?page=3)