# Star Trek tech features that logically should exist but didn't seem to **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted, star-trek-paramount\ **Created:** [March 18, 2021, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tech-features-that-logically-should-exist-but-didnt-seem-to/938193 "2021-03-18T16:30:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tech-features-that-logically-should-exist-but-didnt-seem-to/938193/41 "2021-03-19T00:22:35Z")
> [@John\_DiFool](#): > > On naval ships which ply the seas, it makes sense to put the bridge relatively high on the ship, to increase the distance to the visual horizon. > > On a starship it makes zero sense when you have a viewscreen (the camera(s) can be mounted anywhere), when a lucky hit on the bridge can take out the entire command staff in one shot. Put it deep in the center of the saucer section already. Why does there even need to be a “bridge”, really? It makes for a singular point of tactical vulnerability. Most of what goes on on the bridge can be handled in various parts of the ship with little loss of functionality. > [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > As for “should exist”, how about a portable computer device with a bit more memory than a 4 inch floppy disc? There were never four inch floppies. There were eight inch and five inch floppies, with the cardboard sleeve and then three-and-a-half inch floppies with the shuttered plastic shell. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tech-features-that-logically-should-exist-but-didnt-seem-to/938193/42 "2021-03-19T00:40:37Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > Why does there even need to be a “bridge”, really? It makes for a singular point of tactical vulnerability. Most of what goes on on the bridge can be handled in various parts of the ship with little loss of functionality. - Because it’s a TV show with face to face interaction of the cast. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tech-features-that-logically-should-exist-but-didnt-seem-to/938193/43 "2021-03-19T00:52:07Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > Why does there even need to be a “bridge”, really? It makes for a singular point of tactical vulnerability. Most of what goes on on the bridge can be handled in various parts of the ship with little loss of functionality. More to the point, why does there need to be a command crew? The ship is quite capable of autonomous operations as demonstrated on multiple occasions. Really, there should be a captain, an executive officer (to give the captain someone to yell at), an engineer (to give the captain someone to demand reports from), a bartender (to give the captain someone to talk to), and a bunch of children (to rack up the tension that they might be killed because the captain inadvisably put the ship in harm’s way instead of sending an automated probe to investigate). I guess you could put some ‘scientists’ on board to do stellar cartography or map gaseous anomalies or some such to make the eggheads at Command happy, and maybe a few ensigns for the exec to sexually harass, but really, that’s pretty much all that is needed. Everything else can be done by automation, simulation, and replication. That also eliminates the bulk of the habitable area of the ship, making it much smaller, and most of the consumables, shuttlebays, cargo bays, transporter rooms, holodecks, and that weird exercise room that only a couple of crew members use at a time for fencing or to punch each other with padded sticks. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tech-features-that-logically-should-exist-but-didnt-seem-to/938193/44 "2021-03-19T01:09:06Z")
You can, to a large extent, have robotic planet exploration, but there are lots of people on the ship because they want to go out there. Perhaps it is curiosity, or the excitement of seeing strange new worlds and, for the most part, decidedly mundane new life forms, or maybe they think Homeworld is a sucky place that they want to not be on anymore, or maybe they have other reasons – certainly not the pay. If you have crew going down to planets, you are going to lose a few, so it is probably a good idea to carry enough spares. But holy crap, that ship is ridiculous. You have seen the images: the scale of it is such that you could stroll the corridors for hours without seeing another person. And what is with all those damn corridors? Talk about inergonomic wasted interior space. They should be able to design the ship far more efficiently than that (apart from the fact that they are vital for Sorkinian dialogue). ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tech-features-that-logically-should-exist-but-didnt-seem-to/938193/45 "2021-03-19T01:24:32Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > And what is with all those damn corridors? Talk about inergonomic wasted interior space. They should be able to design the ship far more efficiently than that (apart from the fact that they are vital for Sorkinian dialogue). If _Star Trek_ were an Aaron Sorkin show, people would be referencing Molière and _All About Eve_, pretentiously bragging about the school they graduated from (even though they all graduated from Starfleet Academy), accidentally throwing things through windows, and agonizing about dating coworkers, with only the occasional “RED ALERT!” which would turn out to be some kind of existential identity crisis. Oh, and they’d all agonize about violating the Prime Directive, and then in the final episode decide that it is really no big deal after all. Actually, it would probably look very much like _Deep Space Nine_, except Sisko would be quippier. It would certainly be better than those JJ Abrams films, or whatever _Discovery_ is supposed to be, so…there’s that. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![abcdefghij](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/43a26b/32.png) [@abcdefghij](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/abcdefghij)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tech-features-that-logically-should-exist-but-didnt-seem-to/938193/46 "2021-03-19T01:27:11Z")
Weren’t the Sorkinians the civilization that the Federation allowed to be assimilated by the Borg because they talked too much? ---
**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:** [March 19, 2021, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tech-features-that-logically-should-exist-but-didnt-seem-to/938193/47 "2021-03-19T01:46:10Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Typical landing party exchange. > “Lieutenant, what are you seeing?” > “Something…amazing!” > > Aside from the fact video feed should be standard on all landing party/away team missions, you’re telling me a trained Starfleet officer can’t give a better description that that? Remember in the first Borg episode, when they send an away team over to what appears to be a dormant cube, and they have to hack into Geordi’s visor so the bridge crew can see what the away team sees? The show was made in the '90s! Camcorders were not future tech! ---
**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:** [March 19, 2021, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tech-features-that-logically-should-exist-but-didnt-seem-to/938193/48 "2021-03-19T01:55:51Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Remember in the first Borg episode, when they send an away team over to what appears to be a dormant cube, and they have to hack into Geordi’s visor so the bridge crew can see what the away team sees? The show was made in the '90s! Camcorders were not future tech! I remember twom things about that: 1) that they spent half the time in a critical mission marvelling at how Geordi’s visor worked instead of concentrating on the situation. They should have done tests first. And 2) they never used it again. ---
**Author:** ![mikecurtis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikecurtis/32/3284_2.png) [@mikecurtis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mikecurtis)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tech-features-that-logically-should-exist-but-didnt-seem-to/938193/49 "2021-03-19T02:11:38Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > Seat belts. Or at least seats fitted with some type of inertial dampening system so that the crew members aren’t flung out of their seats [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/9ysvyXDebsM/maxresdefault.jpg "All the Seat Belts in Star Trek . Updated Compilation") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ysvyXDebsM) ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tech-features-that-logically-should-exist-but-didnt-seem-to/938193/50 "2021-03-19T02:22:42Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > I had a thread on clothing a while back. Given the capabilities of the replicators (holodeck in particular), why do characters have cloth on their bodies? Remember the device they used to allow “Dr. Zimmerman” to leave the sickbay on Voyager? Everyone could have a small anklet that generates holographic attire to suit the crewmember’s needs at a given moment. “After the battery on Admiral Johansen’s Personal Hologram Unit failed during his address to the Starfleet Academy class of 2342, Starfleet Command opted to reinstate the usage of cloth uniforms.” ---
**Author:** ![TheGunIsMightierThanThePen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thegunismightierthanthepen/32/2981_2.png) [@TheGunIsMightierThanThePen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheGunIsMightierThanThePen)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tech-features-that-logically-should-exist-but-didnt-seem-to/938193/51 "2021-03-19T02:42:35Z")
In the _Deep Space Nine_ episode “Homefront”, the Federation President is told that Starfleet Security has been stockpiling, among other things, personal force fields in anticipation of a Dominion invasion. So it is canon that they exist. Now, how come it seems like characters are never equipped with one of these personal force fields, when beaming down to an uncharted planet for a potentially dangerous away mission? I’ve heard people chalk it up to excessive cost or power consumption. It could also be that the writers straight-up forgot about their existence. Or that an invincible character makes for boring theater. ---
**Author:** ![Omniscient](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omniscient/32/3290_2.png) [@Omniscient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omniscient)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tech-features-that-logically-should-exist-but-didnt-seem-to/938193/52 "2021-03-19T04:11:45Z")
I’m by no means Star Trek technobabble expert here, but I’ve always felt that the transporter was really under utilized. Seems like it could make for an amazing defensive tool, teleporting incoming photon torpedoes off into open space or back at the enemy. Teleporting explosives either onboard unshielded ships or installations or teleporting them into precise locations up against a failing or vulnerable shield. Using the teleporter to remove critical components as an act of sabotage. Or using it to recover some resource or artifact from a planet in lieu of sending an away team. In a different vein, they could leverage either warp technology or even impulse drives to propel warheads/masses at incredible speeds. Basically the supercharged version of a rail gun firing a sabot round at a shielded ship. The amount of energy that a heavy mass moving at full impulse power could carry would probably disintegrate any shield and the vehicle behind it. You could basically pull a Holdo Maneuver against any enemy without having to sacrifice the ship. Drone tech is one that others have already mentioned. It’s long been understood that the entire idea of sending away teams, especially when comprised of the most senior officers, is probably the stupidest recurring idea on the series. They should have cheap, near disposable drones that can almost instantaneously be transported into almost any situation to provide recon, retrieve samples and even establish communication with habitants. These drones also should be fully autonomous using the AI tech that’s selectively used throughout the series. In fact they seem to have lost track entirely of camera technology. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tech-features-that-logically-should-exist-but-didnt-seem-to/938193/53 "2021-03-19T04:32:30Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > The other one I thought of is that instead of bothering to poo you could have the computer transport the poo out of your bowels and into space If they do this, some other nerd is going to come by and complain about them wasting a valuable resource. After all, poo is matter and matter is energy. You can use the poo to power things on the ship, like the matter replicators that create the food that the crew eats that eventually gets turned back into poo. ---
**Author:** ![abcdefghij](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/43a26b/32.png) [@abcdefghij](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/abcdefghij)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tech-features-that-logically-should-exist-but-didnt-seem-to/938193/54 "2021-03-19T05:01:11Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > “After the battery on Admiral Johansen’s Personal Hologram Unit failed during his address to the Starfleet Academy class of 2342, Starfleet Command opted to reinstate the usage of cloth uniforms.” “Failed”. Yeah, right. It’s funny how often Admiral Johansen’s Personal Hologram Unit “failed”. ---
**Author:** ![Omniscient](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omniscient/32/3290_2.png) [@Omniscient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omniscient)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tech-features-that-logically-should-exist-but-didnt-seem-to/938193/55 "2021-03-19T05:08:49Z")
> [@Terminus\_Est](#): > > If they do this, some other nerd is going to come by and complain about them wasting a valuable resource. After all, poo is matter and matter is energy. You can use the poo to power things on the ship, like the matter replicators that create the food that the crew eats that eventually gets turned back into poo. Yeah…I thought about responding with exactly that. Certainly the Enterprise is all about recycling matter. Toilets and waste baskets are probably just reverse replicators. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tech-features-that-logically-should-exist-but-didnt-seem-to/938193/56 "2021-03-19T05:35:03Z")
Feces contain quite a lot of useful content. The holographic attire field would probably also be designed to collect that and extract energy to power itself, thus the “battery” would never run out. In fact, given the frequency of trouser-loading incidents that the bridge crew is exposed to, it would be all but necessary. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tech-features-that-logically-should-exist-but-didnt-seem-to/938193/57 "2021-03-19T06:03:41Z")
> [@Terminus\_Est](#): > > If they do this, some other nerd is going to come by and complain about them wasting a valuable resource. After all, poo is matter and matter is energy. You can use the poo to power things on the ship, like the matter replicators that create the food that the crew eats that eventually gets turned back into poo. It’s the circle of life! ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tech-features-that-logically-should-exist-but-didnt-seem-to/938193/58 "2021-03-19T10:05:44Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > As for “should exist”, how about a portable computer device with a bit more memory than a 4 inch floppy disc? > > “Here’s your homework assignment”. {Proceeds to pile 15 PADDs into the flustered ensign’s arms.) > > Why can’t they all fit on one device? We have that NOW. When TNG was on the air we didn’t have that - though I’m not sure why they couldn’t have foreseen that. TOS did anticipate some things - flip phones, for example, although those have been superseded - and although they referred to computer “tapes” the props used in the show were more like 3.5" “floppy” disks. TNG struck me as not as good in the predicting tech department, and in some ways TNG tech was even more stupid and illogical than what was in TOS. > [@eschereal](#): > > I had a thread on clothing a while back. Given the capabilities of the replicators (holodeck in particular), why do characters have cloth on their bodies? Remember the device they used to allow “Dr. Zimmerman” to leave the sickbay on Voyager? Everyone could have a small anklet that generates holographic attire to suit the crewmember’s needs at a given moment. Some of us women wear bras because we find the support they give a good thing while working or moving vigorously - this would not be supplied by a hologram alone. > [@Lobohan](#): > > Powered armor. Nightvision contacts. Mental computer interfaces. Transporter bombs / poison gas cannisters / remote sensors. Transporter ripcords that send out a beacon that the ship is scanning for to transport them up immediately (that’s from the Prime Directive RPG). Real-time AI observing every square inch of the ship for shenanigans. Flight belts. Emplacement forcefields. We get those when they’re useful to the plot. Consider the suit Spock was wearing while working in the volcano in Into Darkness (just handwave the 5,432 reasons none of that makes sense for other reasons), seems if they can whip up a suit that lets you hang out in a lava lake they could have powered armor. Geordi’s visor would work for night vision, and there’s no damn reason other than lazy writing other people don’t have it. Hell, they should probably have it in the form of contact lenses. Into Darkness also had a version of “transporter bombs” (the photon torpedo’s used to hold Kahn’s people used as actual weapons after being modified). No flight belts, but Final Frontier had Spock and his rocket boots. So, yeah, they actually DO have the tech, they just don’t use it. Why? 🤷‍♀️ ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tech-features-that-logically-should-exist-but-didnt-seem-to/938193/59 "2021-03-19T10:39:19Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > BTW, I’d pay big bux to see a spinning beachball on the science officer screen. “[That man is playing Galaga!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4Fy6AUMv8E)” ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tech-features-that-logically-should-exist-but-didnt-seem-to/938193/60 "2021-03-19T14:19:23Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > > [@Lobohan](#): > > > > Drones should be microscopic at their tech level. It might not work against technologically equivalent foes (because of ECM) but imagine if they were at a more primitive planet with a swarm of microscopic drones at their disposal (for combat and recon). > > As long as you ignore real-world physics, I suppose. (Things like light-collecting ability, energy storage, how to swim through the thick molasses we call air…) Ignoring real-world physics is kinda Star Trek’s thing. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tech-features-that-logically-should-exist-but-didnt-seem-to/938193.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tech-features-that-logically-should-exist-but-didnt-seem-to/938193.md?page=4)