# Stupendous Stupidity in Science Fiction (open spoilers) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 27, 2009, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupendous-stupidity-in-science-fiction-open-spoilers/507932 "2009-08-27T17:57:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 17
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2009, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupendous-stupidity-in-science-fiction-open-spoilers/507932/321 "2009-09-15T20:22:03Z")
> [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > No, that was when the dialogue has McCoy himself \*\*obliquely reference \*\*the TOS nickname. He didn’t call himself Bones, and Kirk didn’t call him Bones. In the last scene, the first one with Kirk in a gold shirt. Pine did a passable William Shatner-esque “Bones!” Maybe he did in one of the Academy scenes too, but I am 100% certain that _Captain_ Kirk calls McCoy “Bones.” ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2009, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupendous-stupidity-in-science-fiction-open-spoilers/507932/322 "2009-09-15T20:34:33Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Just choke the service guy before he can cash the check. Dude, in the far future (a long, long time ago) don’t **nobody** fuck with Cisco’s union. -Joe ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2009, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupendous-stupidity-in-science-fiction-open-spoilers/507932/323 "2009-09-15T21:17:30Z")
> [@The\_Tooth](#): > > In the last scene, the first one with Kirk in a gold shirt. Pine did a passable William Shatner-esque “Bones!” Maybe he did in one of the Academy scenes too, but I am 100% certain that _Captain_ Kirk calls McCoy “Bones.” Poifect, that’s what I was looking for. Of course, it’s so distant from the “all she left me was my bones” quip that it could still \*\*also \*\*be a play on “sawbones.” ---
**Author:** ![emarkp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3be4f8/32.png) [@emarkp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emarkp)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2009, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupendous-stupidity-in-science-fiction-open-spoilers/507932/324 "2009-09-15T22:15:39Z")
> [@Pushkin](#): > > They looked like a sudden halt might snip something vital IIRC… > > Back to Star Wars, Grand Moff Tarkin, [why not blow up the planet and _then_ the moon?](http://www.cracked.com/article_17546_p2.html) Dude, you [missed the video reference](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzoeEdW-EDQ). ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2009, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupendous-stupidity-in-science-fiction-open-spoilers/507932/325 "2009-09-16T00:41:58Z")
> [@Pushkin](#): > > Ah, there’s a blast from the past. Indeed, why not mount a couple of missiles per craft? Especially when the sea based interceptor manages to do so. This was partially answered by the show itself and the rest through fanwanking. Maintaining three manned interceptors full time on the moon was fantastically expensive. Straker wanted to expand Moonbase’s capacity to repel a mass attack and even the military/intelligence complex balked at the cost. The compromise was that they put remote mobile missile launchers scattered around the moon, and they were deployed the one time there was a mass attack. Wiki says that in that episode four manned interceptors were launched, one must have been kept in reserve. Apparently at the speeds typical of spaceflight if one interceptor’s missile wasn’t going to hit, it wouldn’t get a second chance. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2009, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupendous-stupidity-in-science-fiction-open-spoilers/507932/326 "2009-09-17T20:34:43Z")
> [@The\_Tooth](#): > > In the last scene, the first one with Kirk in a gold shirt. Pine did a passable William Shatner-esque “Bones!” Maybe he did in one of the Academy scenes too, but I am 100% certain that _Captain_ Kirk calls McCoy “Bones.” Yup, it really is Shatner-esque. He greets McCoy on the bridge with a “Bones, buckle up”. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2009, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupendous-stupidity-in-science-fiction-open-spoilers/507932/327 "2009-09-17T21:46:17Z")
So are the crossed leg and twitchy foot when Kirk takes the center seat. I really, really enjoyed this goofy movie. ---
**Author:** ![Valgard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/7feea3/32.png) [@Valgard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Valgard)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2009, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupendous-stupidity-in-science-fiction-open-spoilers/507932/328 "2009-09-17T23:54:03Z")
> [@Zoot\_Sutra](#): > > I always thought of it as a super-effective digestive enzyme, not an actual acid per se. Think about it, in the first movie, the alien grows from a gleam in a facehuggers light-sensing organ to a 12-feet-tall toothy Freudian nightmare with no mention of how it acquired enough nutrition to gain all of that body mass. Obviously it must be capable of digesting anything and everything that crosses its path, animal, vegetable, or mineral base notwithstanding. In the novelization by Alan Dean Foster they find that it’s been breaking into the food storage lockers. ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupendous-stupidity-in-science-fiction-open-spoilers/507932/329 "2009-09-18T00:25:28Z")
I didn’t read “The Great Hoth Debate” in it’s entirety, but I have a couple of interesting ones: The Matrix: If the agents can take over anyone still in the system, why didn’t they take over Neo during his initial meeting with Morpheus and kill everybody? Star Trek: From the outside, obviously two engines. On the inside, one engine room. Star Trek (2009): What are the odds that an egotistical vulcan and a crazed miner looking for revenge would pick the exact same planet, within a few hundred meters of each other, to abandon their prisoners? ---
**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 18, 2009, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupendous-stupidity-in-science-fiction-open-spoilers/507932/330 "2009-09-18T00:44:27Z")
> [@Superhal](#): > > Star Trek: From the outside, obviously two engines. On the inside, one engine room. A V-8 has one block and two heads. The Titanic had one engine room and three screws. B-17s had four engines and one place to control them from. > [@Superhal](#): > > Star Trek (2009): What are the odds that an egotistical vulcan and a crazed miner looking for revenge would pick the exact same planet, within a few hundred meters of each other, to abandon their prisoners? “One million, nine hundred and ninety nine thousand, nine hundred ninety nine point nine nine nine nine…” “Two million, Spock, Gawd dammit, the answer is two million!” ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupendous-stupidity-in-science-fiction-open-spoilers/507932/331 "2009-09-18T01:03:30Z")
> [@Superhal](#): > > I didn’t read “The Great Hoth Debate” in it’s entirety Snow Walkers: dumb idea. > [@](#): > > but I have a couple of interesting ones: > > The Matrix: If the agents can take over anyone still in the system, why didn’t they take over Neo during his initial meeting with Morpheus and kill everybody? Nobody saw them. Agents pop out of regular folks after those folks see Neo. That’s my guess. > [@](#): > > Star Trek: From the outside, obviously two engines. Well, three actually. > [@](#): > > On the inside, one engine room. One per Chief Engineer, of course! > [@](#): > > Star Trek (2009): What are the odds that an egotistical vulcan and a crazed miner looking for revenge would pick the exact same planet, within a few hundred meters of each other, to abandon their prisoners? Better than the odds of a third person both of the first two know being there as well, I think. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupendous-stupidity-in-science-fiction-open-spoilers/507932/332 "2009-09-18T01:07:46Z")
> [@Superhal](#): > > I didn’t read “The Great Hoth Debate” in it’s entirety, but I have a couple of interesting ones: > > The Matrix: If the agents can take over anyone still in the system, why didn’t they take over Neo during his initial meeting with Morpheus and kill everybody? Didn’t the other guys remove the tracking bug Neo had in his belly before bringing him to Morpheus ? If so, well, they don’t know where the hell Neo is. Plus, he’s the One, dontcherknow. ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupendous-stupidity-in-science-fiction-open-spoilers/507932/333 "2009-09-18T01:18:28Z")
re: Star Wars Wouldn’t it have been awesome if the cloners in ep 2 made some reference to the stormtrooper’s terrible aim? Cloner: Yes, we have raised them and trained them, although we skimped a little bit on target practice, I hope you don’t mind. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupendous-stupidity-in-science-fiction-open-spoilers/507932/334 "2009-09-18T03:57:11Z")
They did have Jango hit his head. Also, I’d like to submit that blowing up Jupiter is a little harder than blowing up Earth. For one, larger, for two, much more solid. Solid things break easier. Thus, gonna have to wait to clear the gas giant to hit the moon. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupendous-stupidity-in-science-fiction-open-spoilers/507932/335 "2009-09-18T13:08:08Z")
> [@Superhal](#): > > Star Trek: From the outside, obviously two engines. On the inside, one engine room. > > S Those are warp nacelles. A warp core is in the “engine room” (Main Engineering). My car has one engine, but look! it has 4 wheels driving it. YMMV 😛 ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupendous-stupidity-in-science-fiction-open-spoilers/507932/336 "2009-09-18T13:09:30Z")
And yes, my car is all wheel drive. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupendous-stupidity-in-science-fiction-open-spoilers/507932/337 "2009-09-18T13:13:17Z")
Oh yeah, in ST:TNG and ST:E, there were eps with action taking place in the warp nacelles. TNGs was the one that had the latent murder memory in it and Es was some SPACE STORM! problem. There may be other scenes and eps that I’m not currently recalling due to Pon Farr issues in my life … ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupendous-stupidity-in-science-fiction-open-spoilers/507932/338 "2009-09-18T15:32:51Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > Didn’t the other guys remove the tracking bug Neo had in his belly before bringing him to Morpheus ? If so, well, they don’t know where the hell Neo is. Plus, he’s the One, dontcherknow. Oh, right the tracking bug. The one that is able to bend the real world laws of physics enough that it doesn’t kill, injure, or even cause pain to Neo while six inches of metal is wriggling around inside him, but still has to be massive enough in the Matrix-world to be physically grabbed and broken. ---
**Author:** ![Unintentionally\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unintentionally_blank/32/5418_2.png) [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupendous-stupidity-in-science-fiction-open-spoilers/507932/339 "2009-09-18T15:46:41Z")
I’m not picking on you, specifically, **Quercus** but if literature were written so that it was logically sound and didn’t take any literary leaps of logic…it’d be pretty dull. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupendous-stupidity-in-science-fiction-open-spoilers/507932/340 "2009-09-18T15:51:38Z")
> [@](#): > > Oh, right the tracking bug. The one that is able to bend the real world laws of physics enough that it doesn’t kill, injure, or even cause pain to Neo while six inches of metal is wriggling around inside him, but still has to be massive enough in the Matrix-world to be physically grabbed and broken. The tracking bug isn’t in the Real World – it’s in the Matrix world, and it can bend the rules all it needs to. In the Real World Neo is still wrapped up in his saline-solution cocoon. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupendous-stupidity-in-science-fiction-open-spoilers/507932.md?page=16) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupendous-stupidity-in-science-fiction-open-spoilers/507932.md?page=18)