"STAR TREK" Gripes & Pet Peeves (generic) (1 Viewer)

[Jason Seaver]

The best explanation I ever heard for that is that Starfleet has "Safety Grenades" installed in all consoles as standard equipment. The reasoning being that if a system is not functioning properly, any attempt to use it could potentially be catastrophic. So, at the first sign of systems failure, the built-in Safety Grenade explodes, rendering the console useless and protecting the entire crew, albeit occasionally at the cost of the person using the console (but, hey, needs of the many, right?).

 

[Chuck Anstey]

Just another quick one:

Why o' why don't they use previously discovered technology, alien modifications, etc. in future episodes. TOS had several advances to their ship that they stopped using immediately after the episode. "By Any Other Name" comes to mind specifically. The Kelvins modified the Enterprise to go over Warp 12 safely. Wouldn't that be the new top speed of the vehicle and smoke any "Trans-warp" drive of old?

Chuck Anstey

 

[DaveF]

My biggest pet peeve is the Exploding Control Console. Why on Earth would a LCD touch panel control panel explode when the mechanism it controls gets hit?

Didn't you realize that spaceships are steam-powered? That's the only explanation for why steam vents from the walls every time the ships sustains damage. (Well, that and dramatic license to visually show the damage to the ship and the danger of the situation.)
Like Mike, I like Q; Q was not deus ex machina, in that Q was part of the Star Trek universe and followed its own logic and rules. And Q never popped in at the end, wholly unexpectedly, to solve a problem. Q always (I believe) was introduced at the beginning of a story, and was an organic part of the the resolution.
As for utopian solutions: TNG was clearly built on a humanist utopian ideal, where all humanity's problems could be solved by sufficient effort. DS9 brought in a bit more 'dirtiness' with, for example, the Bajorians (sp?) ong-going problems, Section 39 (#?), Odo's self-identity and love-life crises, and Dax's death.

 

[Mike Broadman]

Yes, that exploding console thing is so true! I always make fun of that, I can't believe I didn't think of that for this thread. That doesn't even make any sense.

My old apartment with crummy wiring has fail-safe switch thingies to prevent fuses being blown and such. Such an advanced spaceship can't have the same thing?

 

[Jack Briggs]

Hell, not just the exploding consoles--how about the bridge crew's carefully practiced being-knocked-around choreography when the Enterprise/Defiant/Voyager is being attacked? If the "artificial gravity" is working, wouldn't external forces be rendered a moot point?

Again, love this franchise, silliness and all. Great thread.

 

[Mike Soltis]

Why o' why don't they use previously discovered technology, alien modifications, etc. in future episodes.

Like the transwarp on the Excelsior in ST III ? ?
Bitch about how bad Voyager was, at least they deigned to explain why they couldn't continue to use the 'Slipstream' drive technology after the one episode.
Will the Enterprise E be fixed up with Multi-Vector Attack mode in Nemesis??

 

[Brad_V]

i mean really...is it just me or can they convert/modify/create/customize/adjust/fine-tune just about anything on that ship? i can't think of how many episodes i've seen where they do sommething like that.

pretty soon they're going to be turning the food creator doohickey into the warp-core turbo enhancement thing-a-ma-jig.

--------------------

You must have missed all those episodes where Scotty and Geordi were late to answer the captain's call because they were watching Macgyver reruns in engineering. If you look closely, you can see the engineering guys always carrying a swiss army knife and some duct tape.

I can't believe I never considered the exploding consoles, either. I'll never be able to watch the show again without saying, "Why did that console blow up just because engineering got hit? That doesn't make any sense." And now I'm starting to worry my keyboard might blow up if my motherboard shorts out.

I guess the alien technology is just something that would cause too many story problems. If you go back, the Klingons had cloaking in the original series, but then Kirk and crew stole it so that The Federation would have it, too. He must have misplaced it after that episode.

 

[Wayne Bundrick]

Wasn't there a treaty in which the Federation agreed to not use cloaks?

 

[RobertR]

how about the bridge crew's carefully practiced being-knocked-around choreography when the Enterprise/Defiant/Voyager is being attacked?

What makes it even sillier is that I could swear there was a discussion about that very issue prior to TNG coming on the air, which resulted in ONE early episode where they were being fired on with nary a jostle. But it didn't stick--they went back to the old style.

 

[Chuck Anstey]

Actually the cloaking device was stolen from the Romulans and the explanation as to its effectiveness was discussed between Spock and the Romulan commander at the end. They agreed that it would soon be penetrated by sensors on both sides, making it useless. The Federation just wanted it so they could penetrate it, not to use it themselves.

As for the treaty against the Federation developing cloaking technology brought up in TNG.. mustn't... get .. started... on .. a .. rant.. against ... Picard ...... ARRRGGHHHH.............

Chuck Anstey

 

[Rex Bachmann]

Production pet peeve: Star Trek tv music, or, though the music's gone, the malady lingers on.
The main theme and some of the other music from TOS, like the Spock theme, are good, but, in general Trek tv music leaves a lo-o-o-ot to be desired. In general, ST music has pretty much been of the "canned, heroic" sort. It was particularly bad on Voyager. (Gosh, to my mind, even Jerry Goldsmith's Voyager theme fits this description, and I usually like his stuff very much.) This very same type of canned music has now popped up on Enterprise, I'm sad to report and , oh, boy, . . . !!!!
The lone exception in new Trek times was TNG's simply wonderful synth-composer, Ron Jones, who refused(!) to stop composing his "emotive", strange "space music" (remember the Borg-chorus in "The Best of Both Worlds"?), so, Rick Berman, ever a great arbiter of taste, fired him. A pity! That music was one of the few shining points in some of those early mediocre (or worse) NG episodes.
A check of the imdb.com site seems to indicate that Jones hasn't worked much in Hollywood since then. That's a real crime. I could see myself buying Ron Jones scores from the show, but most of Trek tv music I can't bear to hear even in context, much less as pure musical listening experience. (By the way, a few pieces by Jay Chattaway, who does similar synthy scores, were better than average.)
As for the new, Enterprise theme song---as the kids say, we won't even go there.

 

[Rex Bachmann]

Chuck Anstey wrote:

As for the treaty against the Federation developing cloaking technology brought up in TNG.. mustn't... get .. started... on .. a .. rant.. against ... Picard ...... ARRRGGHHHH............

That's the "Treaty of Algeron" from "The Pegasus" episode, I suppose. This peeve is filable under: Noblesse oblige . . . above.
Unreal, ain't it?

 

[Rex Bachmann]

Objects on Screen may not be as genuine as they appear
One of Star Trek's great claims to fame is its theme(s) of tolerance and diversity of other peoples, of other ways, of other viewpoints. Too often though it just ain't so.
Exhibit a) "The Outcast":
Although this episode presents a (not so veiled) plea for tolerance about divergent sexual orientation, if you rewatch it and think about it, it actually ends up having the audience rooting for Riker's androgynous love interest, Soren---hmmm, did "she" become a doctor later?---, to "go straight"! "Tolerance for what we already got!!! Heterosexuality rules! Yeah!!!" Too easy.
Exhibit b) K'Ehleyr, the popular semi-Klingon character from "The Emissary" and "Reunion" who produced a Worf heir spends much of her time denouncing and disparaging Klingons, their heritage, customs, and world (cosmic) outlook. My sense is that she was wildly popular with a good part of the audience (especially females?), and I always wondered why. (I liked her, too, by the way.) I came to the conclusion some years ago that she (being part-human anyway) is really a stand-in for the totally human, (at first) predominantly American audience as she mocks the "otherness" of her fellow Klingons. (She finds all the rituals stupid, for example.) I think here is an example where, despite the vaunted theoretical goal of respecting and promoting tolerance (so-called), the program and its producers (unconsciously) show their intolerance for cultural values not held by Yankees ("Death before dishonor, blah, blah, blah"). We laugh and applaud when she scolds, denounces, or defyies any Klingon ("You go, girl!")---I sure did when I originally saw these. Then I thought about it and, although I still react much the same, I now realize that there's a whole intolerant aura around this character that emanates, not from the writers or producers specifically, but from the audience, which was originally overwhelmingly American.
Related but not totally the same is a special case of this
Exhibit c: Whatever you guys say is okay with me, or, interpretatio Foederationis.
Good presentation of alien races should, I think, take into account different mindsets, different points of view, different orientations. Rarely does it in ST, I'm sorry to say.
Example
Not only does everybody speak "English" (so to speak)---shouldnt this by now have morphed into "Federationese"? Never mind!---, everybody's point of reference begins and ends with that of the Federation. If alpha through gamma is to be the designation of the four "quadrants" of the Milky Way, for which themselves I have yet to hear or see not a shred of a scientific, or even pseudo-scientific, justification, if alpha stands for ground-zero point of reference (and why shouldnt it?), how come, when alien species of/from other "quadrants" speak about it they don't refer to the other "quadrant", that is, their own, as "alpha", since that should be their ground-zero point of reference? It seems they've taken on the point of view of the Federationists, no? (Of course you could say---and I think its a big cop-out to do so---that the so-called "universal translator" just translates the aliens' term for their own point of reference into the appropriate term in English, but that requires the device not only to translate, but to interpret as well, and, so, I dont buy it.)

 

[Mike Broadman]

Rex, speak for yourself. I don't root for the half-Klingon when she mocks Klingons. I see her as someone who is struggling with the clashing cultures that influence her. This is explored in more detail with Torres from Voyager, and their attitudes are not surprising. Klingon culture simply does not flow with human logic, and these women live in human environments.

When it comes to looking at entertainment's representation of culture, more of it is the viewer's subjectivity than anything else.

 

[Wayne Bundrick]

The only thing I hate about the transporter is that whenever they beam down to join someone, they are always facing the right way. I'd love to just once see them beam down w/ their backs to whoever and having to turn around.

That happened to Troi's mother in her first episode.

 

[DaveF]

how come, when alien species of/from other "quadrants" speak about it they don't refer to the other "quadrant" ... Of course you could say...that the so-called "universal translator" just translates the aliens' term ..., but that requires the device not only to translate, but to interpret as well...

D'oh! You ruled out my first explanation But, to quote my Russian Professor, "Translation is Interpretation." You can't translate without also interpreting; so the UT must do interpretation.
As for the music: I don't recall the in-show music, but I think that the Voyager theme is excellent. (DS9 also has great theme music.)

 

[Wayne Bundrick]

The main theme and some of the other music from TOS, like the Spock theme, are good, but, in general Trek tv music leaves a lo-o-o-ot to be desired. In general, ST music has pretty much been of the "canned, heroic" sort. It was particularly bad on Voyager. (Gosh, to my mind, even Jerry Goldsmith's Voyager theme fits this description, and I usually like his stuff very much.)

Did Jerry Goldsmith do the Voyager theme? It's so bad I thought somebody else did it. I just checked IMDB and it says Goldsmith did it.

 

[Rex Bachmann]

Mike Broadman wrote:

Rex, speak for yourself. I don't root for the half-Klingon when she mocks Klingons.

That should have said: "We [meaning 'the audience'] are supposed to to laugh and applaud . . ." From what I've read of the production and the fan response to the character that the producers received, I think that was the reaction intended by the originators and, as it turns out, this character seemed to strike a chord with the viewership (or at least that part that bothered to write in) and I often wondered why. And I think I got it right. Whether you personally had such a reaction or not is irrelevant.
To be sure, both K'Ehleyr and the Torres-character are conflicted about their cultural duality or liminality. However, Torres seems to take no joy in her repudiation of Klingonness, while K'Ehleyr relishes the acid put-down of all things Klingon with such delectation and verve as to suggest that it's more than just a vent for "self-loathing" or whatever.

 

[Rex Bachmann]

DaveF wrote:

As for the music: I don't recall the in-show music . . .

That's because it's so utterly forgettable! (Which is apparently exactly what Rick Berman wants.)

 

[Geoffrey_A]

Finally, a forum in which to express my particular peeves with the series, hazzaa.

1: I don't know if this remained true throughout the run of the show, as I didn't watch, but early on in Voyager we were supposed to believe they were rationing their replicator use because they didn't have the power to operate them in the normal manner. Yet, holodecks were still fine. It's the same technology with just minor differences. Supposedly they were hooked up to different power grids that couldn't be linked or whatever. All I could ever think whenever they said that was "Geordi could do it."

2: Space must be awfully small. If we go by example, The first enterprise made it from Earth to the Klingon Homeworld in a matter of days, and that wasn't a straight line either, they went other places first. All this with a top speed of warp 4. Then of course there's first contact, in which the Enterprise makes it from the Romulan border to Earth in seemingly a matter of minutes. Space seems to be getting awfully crowded.

3: They never used the captain's Yacht in the series.

4: I have recently gained a new appreciation for DS9, a series I previously disliked, but I still always come back to one thing. It's a space station, it's stationary, by it's very nature it negates the franchise title.

5: Why do they keep making control panels out of explosive materials?

6: Sentient Holograms? Wow, if only Dr. Soong had known it was just that easy to make a fully functional and self aware conciousness.

7: Man, they sure wussified the borg. The borg were scary because they were faceless, they were a perfect hive, and they couldn't be reasoned with. Giving the Borg a face, with all the human frailties we're familiar with totally defanged the Borg.

8: Neelix and Dr. Phlox, seperated at birth?

9: T'Pol: "We need to decontaminate, here, rub this blue jello all over my body... but not my whole body, just a few key bits, the other bits will become decontaminated through osmosis."

10: We don't have money on Earth in the future, but we do have transporter credits, so be sure to budget your travel.

11: Enterprise Vulcans aren't so much logical as they are snotty and irritable.

12: We can't make a good odd-numbered movie to save our lives.

13: Nothing ever came of that first season conspiracy with the little bug things that took over peoples minds and tried to bring down starfleet. The arc ended with a message being transmitted into space, but we never heard from them again. I think it's time for the crawlly things to come back with a vengence.

and finally, my biggest pet peeve

14: No Lightsabres