Shadowy Man

The Next Generation had an episode in which they actually "explained" that.

Abacus

I find it remarkable that all of these different civilizations (humans, klingons, romulans, etc) reached the same level of technological development at nearly the same time.

muon

Any plot device that gets Ti'pol to remove clothing and get oily is not to be dismissed.

Sakpo

Well, to be fair, they've encountered alien species/civilizations far more advanced than the lot of them, and they often encounter far less advanced civilizations (that's the whole purpose of the Prime Directive, which states they can't interfere with their development).

Another thing really, really irks me, but I can't put it in words, it's a visual thing. I shall try though:

Alright, two spaceships encounter one another in an empty sector of space. They get close, and fight, or talk, or beam crap around, or whatever, and then both fly off to wherever. They are always...how to put this. In space you can fly anywhere, in any direction. It's not like driving on a flat surface...I'm not good at explaining this.

Pretend this is the Starship Enterprise: __ __

and

this is a Klingon Bird of Prey: ===

in Star Trek they always encounter each other like this:

__ __ ===

But wouldn't they ever meet like this? :

===
|
|

or something similiar? And when they fly off, it's always the same, they might turn around or whatever, but they don't turn to face downward or upward...

And why do they have flat maps? How could a flat map accurately portray their needed information ? They don't seem layered or anything.

I know it's just a convention of the show, but I really have to work to not think about it.

mecca777

That always bugged me as well. How come every starship from every race is orientated on the same plane? In fact, the last episode of TNG addressed this very thing, when Riker's Enterprise launches an attack from a point directly below the enemy at a perpendicular angle. The only stupid thing is... why couldn't the enemy ship detect them just as easily as if they were directly in front? Do Trek sensors only work in 2D?

tronvillain

Here are a couple of entertaining essays on Star Trek from Mike Wong:

The Economics of Star Trek: The Federation as a Communist State
Engineering and Star Trek

As much as I enjoy most of it, Star Trek really is completely ridiculous. The exploding consoles alone should make their ship designs a joke, but then there is the lack of seatbelts, the laughably slow weapons and flight interfaces, the terrible weapons designs, and so on. The list of reasonable things that are totally lacking is virtually endless. Still, they can be entertaining shows.

Azathoth

I really enjoyed that show.I hope something similar is put out one of these days.

The Lone Ranger

I feel much the same way about Star Trek* as I do about the Star Wars movies: they can be fun to watch, but the moment your really stop to think, they don't make any sense at all.


* I like the original Star Trek pretty well, though it seems cheesy at times. Spock and Scotty were terrific characters, though. The Next Generation is generally pretty good, even if annoyingly PC at times. Deep Space Nine had its moments, but I never really got into it. I never got into Voyager at all, and what little I've seen of Enterprise didn't impress me.


I did see an amusing comparison between Babylon 5 and Star Trek once. I'll see what I can remember of it:

In Babylon 5:
Characters grow and change over time, in response to their experiences.

In Star Trek:
Change? What's that?


In Babylon 5:
Aliens have rich and ancient cultures.

In Star Trek:
Aliens are walking stereotypes.


In Star Trek:
When the Enterprise encounters hostile aliens, Captain Picard calls a staff conference to discuss the matter.

In Babylon 5:
When hostile aliens show up and start to talk tough, Captain Sheridan blows them straight to hell.


In Babylon 5:
Doctors have to work for a living. They have to diagnose diseases, and concoct cures, and perform surgery. And all too often, they fail.

In Star Trek:
Doctors wave magic wands at their patients which instantly determine what ails them. Then the doctor pulls out his hypospray and injects the patient with a magic elixir (the same one used to treat every ailment) and the patient's fine.


In Star Trek:
Wesley Crusher. Enough said.

In Star Trek:
JMS actually wrote in the Babylon 5 Bible, "no cute kids or robots -- ever!"


In Babylon 5:
Spacecraft actually obey the laws of physics. (Usually)

In Star Trek:
"'Laws of Physics?' What is this thing you speak of?"



In Star Trek:
No matter how badly-damaged the ship is, it's all magically repaired a few minutes later.

In Babylon 5:
If the station is damaged, you see the damage being progressively repaired over the next several weeks.


In Star Trek:
When hostile aliens invade the ship, the crew tries to reason with them. Only after half the security force has been brutally killed does it occur to them that this tactic isn't working.

In Babylon 5:
Invading aliens are shot on sight and/or lured into an area that is then evacuated to space.


In Star Trek:
Super-powerful aliens treat the Enterprise and its crew like playthings.

In Babylon 5:
Captain Sheridan blows up super-powerful aliens with nuclear bombs. That'll teach 'em to screw with us!



In Star Trek:
Every problem is solved by the end of the episode, to everyone's satisfaction. (Unless it's a 2-part episode.)

In Babylon 5:
Problems may take years to be resolved, and the good guys often lose outright. Happy endings are not a given.



In Babylon 5:
Characters that have been carefully developed over years can be killed off without warning.

In Star Trek:
Would Ensign Expendable please report to the transporter room?


****

I'm sure there were plenty more.

Cheers,

Michael

Majestyk

Babylon 5 was unique. The premise of the show was written to unfold over its entire run as a series. Rather well done, too.

The quality of any individual Star Trek related episode depended on the quality of the writer of that particular episode. Some were great. Some were cheesy. The great ones dealt with human interactions while respecting the science behind the technology (in as much as they could given the precedents set in previous episodes). The cheesy ones ignored basic human tendencies as well as real world technical realities in an effort to stuff an esoteric concept into a one-hour box.

All in all, not too bad an effort, for an ongoing commercial enterprise.

Ennazus

My husband loves to discuss inconsistencies in Star Trek TNG, but it is probably our favorite show. We watch it Monday thru Friday on TNN and just love a Sunday TNG marathon. We have a WWJLPD? Picard picture on our fridge, that's how much we love this show....

If I had to pick something I dislike about it, it's that none of the characters who had chemistry together ever got TOGETHER! (Or stayed together, if they did..) Leave it to a girl to go for to LOVE angle...

Troi and Worf have great chemistry and only were married in an alternate universe..BOO! My husband wanted to criticize last night's episode for many technical reasons and I just wanted to see Worf and Deana kiss!

Riker and Ro Laren--I love those two.

Picard and Guinan would have been great, even if just in an alternate universe episode. They have great chemistry, I especially like them together in Data's Head.

Geordi, poor Geordi he wasn't real lucky in love.

Wesley, UGH... When I see his cheesy dorky smile I am SO glad he went off to be a traveller.......Nobody I have in mind to pair him up with.


Q and Beverly could be interesting...

Q and Janeway were a riot on Voyager. (Even though I liked her with Chakote.. there's another unfulfilled romance!!)