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OT: Star Trek Absurdity


Synthoid

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A couple weeks ago I watched an episode of Star Trek: TNG where Picard has to help land an alien shuttle in distress.

 

I'd never given this a lot of thought over the years, but isn't it amazing how Picard, Chief O'Brien, Geordi, and others can instantly navigate, land, or repair any alien ship they encounter? Does the universal translator work with text on an instrument panel as well?

 

Apparently all of the technology and propulsion systems within the United Federation of Planets is the same. :facepalm:

When an eel hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's a Moray.
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It's possible........

The late great Bob Hoover was shot down behind enemy lines during WWII and was captured. He managed to escape from his POW camp, made his way to a German airfield, stole a FW 190 fighter, and flew back to England.

I'm pretty sure their controls didn't have English labels.

 

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Well, you see, the ship had an "instant training" video. It's not dramatically interesting for us to watch Picard watch the video, so they cut that part out in the editing.

 

Okay, maybe there are only a handful of basic designs that are in virtually all spacecraft, because races have copied each other. So, for example, analyzing a captured Klingon ship (or even just getting its documentation) would let you pretty much know how to operate tons of other ships that have basically stolen/adapted Klingon design. So then, okay, they cut out the line of dialogue where someone says, "Luckily, this race copied their shuttle operation design from the Klingons, so I know how to land it."

 

Really, when it comes to believability, I'd say that the ability for the crew to operate alien ships isn't even in my top ten list of Star Trek things that require serious suspension of disbelief.

 

 

 

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One of my favorite is from an episode of Voyager that I saw this week. They encounter a nebula with harmful radiation. On the map the nebula stretched from the left side to of the map to the right. It will take them months to go around so they decide to spend a month going through with the crew hibernating in stasis pods for protection from the radiation. I could have questioned how a ship that always seems to be out of energy and is keeping everyone on replicator rations can suddenly manufacturer stasis pods for every crew member. But no, my question is, how can those people look at the map and NOT say, "Hey, we are in space. We don't just go left, right and forward. We can go up and down. Lets just go over it." I've seen a lot of episodes where something blocked them on the map by stretching side to side, but not stretching up and down. They never seem to think about going above or below.

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Okay, maybe there are only a handful of basic designs that are in virtually all spacecraft, because races have copied each other.

 

Well, for Picard to immediately jump onto the controls and successfully land the shuttle during a panic situation is just ridiculous.

 

And yes, I've been a Trek fan since the 60's and there are far more unbelievable things about the show. This is just one of the more practical ones.

 

Even when test-driving a new car, you familiarize yourself with all the controls first.

When an eel hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's a Moray.
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That's what it's called science FICTION lol! :)

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I just assume when I watch TNG (which I do over and over again. Great wallpaper when I'm multi-tasking,) that I'm just seeing the final viewing cut. They cut out the hours when they're pushing buttons and cursing as they try to get the alien ship to start.

 

Fun fact: I read they shot the hour show in usually 5 days.

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They cut out the hours when they're pushing buttons and cursing as they try to get the alien ship to start.

 

Han Solo has that problem from time to time:

 

[video:youtube]

 

 

 

 

When an eel hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's a Moray.
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I've seen a lot of episodes where something blocked them on the map by stretching side to side, but not stretching up and down. They never seem to think about going above or below.

 

Khan certainly didn't...

 

[video:youtube]

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And speaking of the universal translator... which is something you need to accept and not think about too much...

 

In the TOS episode "Breads and Circuses", the big reveal at the end (SPOILER ALERT!) is that the rebels are not SUN worshippers, but rather, that they are SON worshippers. But this is a planet where Rome never fell. If Rome never fell, they would not be speaking English.We don't know whether the UT is translating from Latin, or Italian, or some alien language, there's no indication what their native language is, but there's no rationale at all for it to be English. So here's the problem... for the whole reveal to make sense, WHATEVER language they're speaking, they had to have had the same homophone as English, i.e. their words for "sun" and "son" had to sound the same to the translator. Hmmph!

Maybe this is the best place for a shameless plug! Our now not-so-new new video at https://youtu.be/3ZRC3b4p4EI is a 40 minute adaptation of T. S. Eliot's "Prufrock" - check it out! And hopefully I'll have something new here this year. ;-)

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Well, for Picard to immediately jump onto the controls and successfully land the shuttle during a panic situation is just ridiculous.

...

Even when test-driving a new car, you familiarize yourself with all the controls first.

I'll give them dramatic license for that. We can pretend he took 10 seconds to familiarize himself with the basic controls, and that part was cut because it would have been too boring to watch.

 

Though I do seem to remember a scene... maybe in STIII where Chekov is trying to figure out how to fly a Bird of Prey... where they did deal with this... he hopes he's about to hit the right button...

Maybe this is the best place for a shameless plug! Our now not-so-new new video at https://youtu.be/3ZRC3b4p4EI is a 40 minute adaptation of T. S. Eliot's "Prufrock" - check it out! And hopefully I'll have something new here this year. ;-)

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For me the only absurdity that really grated was the story arc in the last season of Enterprise where they tried to justify why Klingons in the original series looked different than all subsequent Klingons.

 

That was just wrong. :(

 

Actually first discussed in the DS9 Episode Trials and Tribble-ations. One of my favorites.

 

 

[video:youtube]

 

 

 

When an eel hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's a Moray.
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Okay, maybe there are only a handful of basic designs that are in virtually all spacecraft, because races have copied each other.

 

Well, for Picard to immediately jump onto the controls and successfully land the shuttle during a panic situation is just ridiculous.

 

And yes, I've been a Trek fan since the 60's and there are far more unbelievable things about the show. This is just one of the more practical ones.

 

Even when test-driving a new car, you familiarize yourself with all the controls first.

 

Much more plausible:

[video:youtube]

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Another thing that was kooky was the way Picard,Janeway, and Archer would loan out their chief engineers to fix alien ships.

 

That did not always go well.

 

Ah yes, especially the "low functioning" Pakled episode:

 

 

[video:youtube]

 

 

 

 

 

 

When an eel hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's a Moray.
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The absurdity is that many alien species are all bipeds that have hands that grasp controls and push buttons. They all see in the same visual spectrum and all hear in the same frequency spectrum. They are all at a similar technology level that is on par with the humans in the story so none can ovewhelm the others like the spanish did with mexico. Can picard fix an alien spaceship? In any sort of reality its doubtful he could fix an alien bicycle. Could the wright brothers fix the spaceshuttle?

FunMachine.

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They are all at a similar technology level that is on par with the humans in the story so none can ovewhelm the others

 

Well, the Borg did a lot of damage for awhile.

When an eel hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's a Moray.
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