Worst Star Trek Plot Device

You mean Reginald Barkley? He's so cute lol

I liked his part in Voyager more than the ones in TNG, though.

People don't asplode in space mkay. That's a Hollywood myth.

http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/answers/970603.html

But yeah, I agree with your sentiment.

That was a great episode.

I was once invited by Harlan Ellison to punch him in the gut.

I declined.

By far the dumbest star trek episode I can remember is the next gen episode where Jordy and someone else were "phased" and were running around the Enterprise like ghosts who couldn't touch anything without passing through it... yet somehow miraculously they didn't drift through the floor and out into space! Stupid stupid stupid!!!

OMG, how did you get to be invited to do that?

yes, but Ro was teh hot

No argument there! She's on the new BSG right now as the evil admiral Cain, and she's still hot.

Two words:

Transporter Malfunction.

Good gravy, why the hell did they ever use the damn thing? McCoy was right, those things ARE dangerous. Especially when you realize that you aren't being transported anywhere! That infernal contraption is disintegrating you, killing you utterly, and constructing an exact duplicate of you somewhere else (and that's if it is working as intended). Sure, to everyone else the duplicate might as well be you, but the original person that got on the transporter pad is still dead.

I used to write sf, and on this occasion was at a party in New York, as I recall, where Harlan was present.

He was in somewhat ebullient mood, and was demonstrating his physical strength (he is actually a small man) by inviting me to punch him in the stomach.

As I writer I think he is very variable, often producing work that is over-sentimental, or flawed in some other way, but now and again he mines deep and extracts a diamond. I think that Startrek episode was a good example of his better work.

I remember that and saw some interview about the people who made the story line. They said it didn't matter and it was for "entertainment aspects" or something about as retarted and stupid of that sort.
That was one of the first episodes that turned me off on star trek so long ago.
I hope that guy was fired.
Maybe he works for Andramida now?
That reminds me of the superman series when he couldn't breath under water but he could fly into space. Not that it's sci-fi but just the same. Stupid stupid.

Sean, any Starfleet techie knows that the engine management systems "warn" the inertial dampners before applying any form of thrust - while bumps and shots are unanticipated, and take a moment for the dampners to compensate.

This is first-year Starfleet stuff. Hell, even ooh-look-at-me-I-can-fly-a-space-ship-although-I'm-dumb-as-a-Ferengi-charity pilots know this shit. You should feel ashamed for showing your ignorance so.

Yeah, thats the one.

Not exactly a worst plot device, but...
Does every episode of Voyager have to start with "Captain, there's a subspace anomoly on the XXXX bow"?

LOL
Yes I failed Starfleet academy. I was too busy doin, um, other stuff.

Also, even if that was the case couldn't they just push a button when they sit there looking at the torpido flying at them to Warn the systems. Or when they are going to ram a ship on purpose as I recall that being the case in a few episodes.
Or for that matter just keep the systems running so no warning is needed.

IMO the absolute worst plot devices were the "alternate universe" episodes where you'd get characters playing a different/evil version of themselves. Most of these I can't even name because I just couldn't stand watching them.

The only exception I saw to this was the original one with a grinning Mr. Spock in a goatee. That was pretty cool.

No. There are deep technical reasons.. wait - deep, intricate, technical - no... - deep technical quantum intricate technical ummmm reasons that that won't work.

Now shut up and get back to your other stuff, drop-out

At first I voted for holodeck plots, they were to easy "OoOOoOO ANYTHING can happen with the holodeck!" They might as well called them dream episodes, or 'whit if' episodes.

But then ... Wesley Crusher ......

Yes, anything at all to do with Wesley Crusher was the worst of the worst.

On a sepreate note, the last episode,the story, the writing and the idea of wrapping up the series with Q ... brilliant! Absolutely the best last episode of any show I've seen.

I thought I knew her from somewhere!

I loved them all..so I can't pick one.

That was the beginning of the end for me as well. I found that I couldn't enjoy it anymore because it was impossible not to pick it apart. It just became too contrived for me to suspend disbelief.

As anyone who knows me even slightly is aware, I am probably the ultimate SL Trekkie. I created SL's first full-sized acurate replica starships, my av is a dead ringer for Seven of Nine, and my home is a full size replica of Starfleet Academy, just for a few examples.

So, what's my biggest problem with the show, you might ask? Well, it's certainly not Q. He was a wonderful character, and his presence was vital to the overall story and message of TNG.

And it's not the holodeck. Sure, they had their share of dumb episodes centered around it, but it was certainly plausible as a necessary tool for the psychological well-being of a thousand human beings living in a tin can for years on end.

And, Ananda, it definitely wasn't the mirror universe, because all 8 episodes that featured it were quite good. (Well, 9 episodes if you count the South Park one, which was awesome. Cartman with a gotee. I laughed my ass off.)

It absolutely wasn't time travel. Like the holodeck, time travel generated its share of barely watchable silliness (hello, the whole first 3 seasons of Enterprise) but it also yielded some great things, "City on the Edge of Forever" and "All Good Things" being some prime examples, as has already been mentioned. Hell, "City on the Edge of Forever" was haraled as "the single greatest hour in the history of television" when it first aired in 1967, and TV Guide still lists it as one of the 100 greatest TV episodes of all time.

It's not Wesley Crusher, although he's mighty high on the list. What an annoying moron he was. I'd love to put him in the Vulcan Pon Farr death match arena with that kid from Seaquest and let them fight to the death over the mating rights to Darwin the Dolphin. Those two need to bleed, badly.

And it's not that people don't get squished by warp speed. Inertial dampeners are a fine example of the magical, impossible technology we all trekkies hold dear. I'm reminded of an interview I saw with one of Trek's consulting physicists. He said, "Someone once called me and asked how the Heisenberg compensator works in the transporter. I said 'very well, thanks' and hung up the phone." Trek science is so much fun.

And it wasn't that Jordi and Roe didn't fall through the floor when they were phased. Sure, it was dumb, but no more so than any other time something similar happened to anyone else on any other show. Anyone see Ghost? Same difference. Oh, and Sean, unlikely that writer is doing Andromeda now, since it was cancelled last year. That show still causes me pains, by the way. It had so much promise. It could have and should have been so good, but it sucked. In the end, I continued to watch it for one reason, and one reason only. Lexa Doig is so smokin' hot, I could never resist an opportunity to see her in skin tight pleather. I sincerely hope the ghost of Gene Roddenberry will haunt and terrorize the producers of Andromeda and Earth Final Conflict until the end of time for the way they butchered his ideas.

Okay, I think that covers everything mentioned so far. So what's my beef with Trek? What is that which sets my plot sensability compass spinning out of control? It's simpler than you might think. Here it is.

Why the hell did they need starships when they had transporters? Think about it. If you've got a device that can send you anywhere instantly, why would you ever voluntarily climb inside a giant mobile terrarium that will get you where you're going infinitely slower, and cause you to run into unpredictable dangers at every turn?

Yeah, yeah, I know, transporters have limited range, right? WRONG! Think about this seriously for a second. TOS is set in the 23rd century, right? Spacecrafts were first developed in the 20th century. That means by the time of Trek, humanity had roughly 300 years development time on space ships. Imagine if they'd spent even 100 years of that time focusing on nothing but transporter technology. Don't you think that particular issue could have been solved? Limited range, my ass.

And even if the limitation itself couldn't be resolved, there's a really easy solution. Just use two of the damned things, and set them up to work in tandum. One beamse the other to max distance away, and then the second one beams the first, etc. It's basically leap-frogging across the galaxy, and I'm sure it would be much faster than travelling in a ship, not to mention safer.

Of course, no ship would have meant no show, so I can forgive, but this question has been bugging me for like 30 years now. Feels good to get it out in the open I guess.

Same sort of thing happened to Batman and Robin long ago, I must have been around 7 or 8 and it bothered me then, walk through walls, ought to sink in floor.

One must engage their "willing suspension of disbelief" and put it in overdrive. Hyperdrive.

The worst Star Trek plot device?!

STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE

Talk about throwing continuity out the window! I half expected Q to show up in the last episode and say to Captain Archer, "I'm sorry, I'm wiping you, your crew, and all traces of this Enterprise from history. It shall be as it never existed." Actually, now that I think about that, that would have been a good ending to the series, if only Q could actually wipe its memory from mine as well.