Invader Tak

I always associated this with Doctor Who!

"I'm going to reverse the polarity of the neutron field!"

EarlFlynn

The 24th century series (TNG, DS9, and Voyager) all featured backlit touchpads instead of buttons on the control panels. My brother and I were watching Voyager once, and the ship took a hit, and all the panels started winking. This, of course, would present control difficulties in the real world - how would you return fire if you couldn't see your fire button anymore.

So my brother put on a great "mock panic" voice:

"Captain! THE PANELS ARE FLASHING! I can't see my controls! What do I do???"

Beetle

How about the over reliance on time travel as a plot device in the Star Trek universe? Don't they realize that after the 80th time travel episode (where at the end everything is exactly the same as the beginning), it's not "cool" or "innovative" anymore. Instead, it's become repetitive and boring. Hasn't Enterprise constructed their whole meta-plot around a war across time? Sheesh.

It's even more annoying than the constant use of the word "anomaly". (can't anybody say "Gee, captain, I don't have a god damn clue what that is.")

Godless Dave

Yeah, good time travel stories are very hard to write. IMO they are best suited to a vast universe like Dr. Who. The problem with that is you need new sets and costumes every week.

BrotherMan

Technically, no one in Starfleet has seen a Romulan, they've only fought at a distance.

No one knew what to call the Borg in Enterprise as the drones never said the full speech. Instead of "We are the Borg," they simple said "Prepare to be assimilated. Resistance is futile." So, again, technically no one knows. Also, some have been backing into the apologetic that Q tossed the Enterprise at the Borg to awaken Starfleet and the UFP before the message was recieved by the Borg in TNG's time.

I'm not saying B&B are right in doing so, they merely scrape by on infuriating technicalities. To fully answer your question, yes, it's just sloppy story telling. They're trying to give Enterprise more weight in the canon of Star Trek by relating it to other series.

Godless Dave

In my opinion the series would have more weight if it gave us more information about the early Federation and Starfleet and backstory for the other series, instead of retreading the same aliens and story ideas.

JonathanChance

You are mistaken. The Federation had contact with the Ferengi before the Time of TNG. In fact it was the Ferengi that attacked one of Picar's previous commands, the U.S.S. Stargazer that caused the death of Wesley's father, Jack Crusher. In fact, the famous "Picard Maneuver" was designed for combat aganst the Ferengi, becaue at the time, the Ferengi did not possess Faster-than-light sensor technology. [/former trekkie nitpick]

Godless Dave

Interesting. I don't disbelieve you. I just remember the first episode with the Ferengi (when Tasha Yar and an away team beamed down to the planet with all the lightning storms, and some guardian that was testing the Ferengi and the humans, and the Ferengi had those light whips) that Data had to tell Picard who they were, and compared them to Yankee traders. So the error was in the TNG episode, not Enterprise.

Sakpo

I quite like DS9, even the religious side of it, because it was still all science fictioney and there was a rational way to look at the Prophets ("wormhole aliens"), etc. Still, their constant overt reenactment of biblical stories could get annoying. Yes, the bible has some reat stories in it, that have been retold countless times, but couldn't they be less obvious about it? Like when the Prophets make it so that Sisko must sacrafice his son (Jake) to win an extremely important battle against Pa-wraiths (the bad wormhole aliens), and Sisko (Abraham) does so, rejecting a scientific answer to the problem (to flood the space station with Star Trek Mumbo Jubmo Rays or something and drive all the aliens away), saying he has faith in the Prophets, and sure enough DS9's version of the lamb magically shows up to be sacraficed instead, and Jake (Isaac) is saved.

I quite liked Q and the the Prophets and such, though, the idea that godlike creatures could really just be space aliens, a level humans might reach one day as well. Entertaining fiction.

I'm suprised nobody has mentioned this one: they all speak English! And the "universal translator" bit is pretty weak. I know it's just a neccesary convention of the show, but it can annoy me nonetheless (especially since aliens can speak in alien tongues and not be understood by others, indicating there's nothing there instantly translating what they're saying or anything like that).

Godless Dave

The Universal Translator works by means of a well-known Star Trek scientific device: magic.

What gets me is that pretty much any kind of humanoid alien can mate with a human and produce offspring.