The warp scale changed. The Enterprise exceeded warp 10 several times in the Original Series. Then that infamous episode of Voyager claims that warp 10 is a theoretical limit which is difficult to reach and literally impossible to exceed.
What are some of the biggest continuity errors in Star Trek?
Submitted 2 weeks ago by StarvingMartist@sh.itjust.works to startrek@startrek.website
https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-of-the-biggest-continuity-errors-in-Star-Trek
Comments
SatyrSack@quokk.au 2 weeks ago
SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
This my head canon… In the movies they were working on transwarp drive on the Excelsior. The warp factor on transwarp drives is different from a regular TOS warp drive.
When Sulu put the hammer down on the Excelsior in ST VI, it proved that transwarp was just way better than regular warp drive. For whatever reason they couldn’t make transwarp work on the Constitution class so most of them were decommissioned.
By the time of TNG, pretty much everything is transwarp, so no one bothers calling it that ,they just call it warp drive since it became the standard. The transwarp factor is used everywhere, but everyone just calls it warp factor.
So it’s kinda like a change from imperial to metric units.
Summzashi@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
The warp scale did indeed change. I Actually seem to remember that was adressed in TNG.
Also the stardate naming convention changed after TOS.
GraniteM@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
It’s not a continuity error as such, but I’m a big fan of all the technologies that by rights should have completely upended galactic civilization but then just get forgotten.
The Genesis device should be an appalling superweapon that would change the face of war.
And then those missiles from Generations that can kill an entire solar system should, too.
And the time on TNG that they stumbled on a weird transporter trick that could make it so no one would ever need to die of old age ever again.
And the Tribble blood that cures death.
And so forth.
SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
Presumably every warp capable species would have the ability to construct a few thousand hydrogen bombs (or weapons even more powerful) so would have the capability of wiping out life on a planet if they wanted to. So the Genesis device wouldn’t be a thing that would change the face of war, the problem was that a crazy person had such a weapon.
Though Star Trek is kinda hand wavy around nuclear weapons in general… maybe photon torpedoes are more powerful than an H-Bomb? But it doesn’t feel that way. At any rate, Starfleet, the Klingons, Romulans, etc. all have technology to wipe out a planet because we have that technology in the present day. They just don’t do that I guess? To me that’s the real continuity error.
And the time on TNG that they stumbled on a weird transporter trick that could make it so no one would ever need to die of old age ever again.
Another time a transporter accident led to a copy of Riker (with all of his memories) both on the ship and on the planet. You could recreate those conditions and create endless copies of people. The Federation wouldn’t do that because of morals and stuff, but the Dominion wouldn’t give a shit. They could have their best squad of Jem Hader stand on a transporter pad and beam down endless copies of them down onto a planet. They’re cloning people anyway, so why not take it to the next level?
The transporter is just endless continuity problems. Shields are down, oh no they’re beaming over boarding parties! Why are they doing that instead of using the transporting the crew of the enemy ship into their brig (if they’re good guys) or into space (if they’re bad guys)?
grozzle@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
I can suggest an explanation - conservation of mass/ energy.
let’s assume that Lt Riker’s ship had to use up at least 40kg of antimatter (and 40kg of matter, but that’s cheap) to generate the energy for that transporter operation that produced a whole extra 80kg Riker.
that’s a bare minimum with perfectly efficient engines and transporters, so it was probably well over 70kg of antimatter.
the Dominion decides that a few years of growing and training new troops is far less expensive than spending so much antimatter.
HubertManne@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
you ever read bad space. he has a great one where they have something like a transporter so they start remaking everything but the brain to a younger pattern.
Trigger2_2000@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Vanth@reddthat.com 2 weeks ago
backalleycoyote@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
lectricleopard@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Is the cannon explanation for tos to tng change being a skin disease or something that has infected the whole population?
Kwdg@discuss.tchncs.de 2 weeks ago
No that is actually somewhat the explanation why they look more human. It is explained in Enterprise, the Klingons try to create some super soldier serum, but that kills them. Phlox helps them create a cure, but that makes them look more humanoid. I think at the end of the episode they say that it might take centuries to revert this effect
themoken@startrek.website 2 weeks ago
Enterprise established it as a result of Klingons experimenting with human augment DNA and it getting out of hand. It probably didn’t need to be addressed in universe, but I thought it was a fun retcon.
RamenJunkie@midwest.social 2 weeks ago
Well, at least continuity wise, the Discovery thing works. Because of these shows, it wpukd be Disco -> TOS -> TNG -> Academy
grue@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
The 2009 movie. Just, like, the whole thing.
rob_t_firefly@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
This would be the same continuity in which magic villain blood is found to be the cure for actual death, and they use it once and then never speak of it again.
ClipperDefiance@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
This could be argued to be a thing related to the split from the original timeline, but the Kelvin version of Chekov is born four years earlier than his original timeline counterpart.
RamenJunkie@midwest.social 2 weeks ago
The one that gets me me, and its a bit of a “its different” complaint. Apparently the interior designer for the original Enterprise was Vukcan, because its all white and huge.
HubertManne@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
maybe its closer to the mmo universe where everyone goes from just graduating the academy as a ensign to being made leuitenant but given a command as part of it.
aldhissla@piefed.world 2 weeks ago
So how big are DS9 and the Defiant actually? The scales were all over the place.
SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
The Defiant is big enough for a runabout to easily fly around inside of it.
aldhissla@piefed.world 2 weeks ago
And if Honey, I didn’t shrink the kids?
adarza@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
you mean like new zealand missing in first contact?
ValueSubtracted@startrek.website 2 weeks ago
Obviously you’re going to cloak the facility where you keep your most hardened criminals.
adarza@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
elsewhere in the film, new zealand is on a map shown on a display.
charonn0@startrek.website 2 weeks ago
I contend that it is not actually missing, it’s just not visible from that perspective. When I recreate the shot in Google Earth only the extreme north tip of New Zealand is actually visible:
Munkisquisher@lemmy.nz 2 weeks ago
There’s a lot north of Auckland, its a 5 and a half hour drive to Cape Reinga
bigbangdangler@reddthat.com 2 weeks ago
Not a continuity error specifically, but this has always irked me: In STIV, Kirk says that he and Spock are headed “back to San Francisco”, presumably from Sausalito. But anyone with a passing knowledge of geography can see from the position of the bridge behind them that they are, in that moment, standing in San Francisco. In fact, you can see Sausalito across the bay behind them.
charonn0@startrek.website 2 weeks ago
PSA: There’s a special screening of Star Trek IV in San Francisco on June 13 to honor the 40th anniversary. Nick Meyer (writer/producer on IV) will be there.
CookieOfFortune@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I rewatched this movie recently and noticed this as well! Still one of my favorites.
bigbangdangler@reddthat.com 2 weeks ago
Oh yes, definitely one of the greats!
MalikMuaddibSoong@startrek.website 2 weeks ago
Warp 10 and salamanders. Great examples 👌
But what about TNG 7x09, the one where we learn that warp travel damages subspace and that a warp speed limit is the solution?
Later, the Federation Council issues a new directive limiting all Federation vessels to a speed of warp five except in extreme emergencies.
Laughs in Janeway
directive0@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Isnt the warp speed limit part of the in universe reason that Voyager has new variable nacelle geometry?
MalikMuaddibSoong@startrek.website 2 weeks ago
I had no idea they were related, but apparently they were (thanks 😉). But that too was soon retconned:
According to comments by Michael and Denise Okuda, when mentioning of the speed limit was abandoned a few years after “Force of Nature”, it was assumed that newer ships, such as the USS Voyager and USS Defiant, had improved environmentally friendly warp drive systems, that did not cause damage to the spatial continuum.
SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
But what about TNG 7x09, the one where we learn that warp travel damages subspace and that a warp speed limit is the solution?
That was an analogy for Global Warming. The government issued a big proclamation but never actually did any real action about it.
HubertManne@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
janeway? I don’t think ships stranded so far they are unlikely to get back are going to be obeying speed edicts. the whole setup is an extreme emergency.
unit327@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
Voyager fired 123 of its 38 photon torpedos www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIGxMENwq1k
Doomsider@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Nu uh, the casing can be replicated and the anti matter can be siphoned from the ships engines.
Source: Star Trek Adventures
rob_t_firefly@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
That’s also how it works in the recent game where you replay Voyager’s journey. You just have your engineers research photon torpedo building, and then doing so uses up a portion of your normal tech resources.
ValueSubtracted@startrek.website 2 weeks ago
I enjoyed a couple of seasons of Ben Sisko’s heavily-implied-to-be-dead dad.
Einskjaldi@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
How’s that?
ValueSubtracted@startrek.website 2 weeks ago
It’s all in past tense until he shows up in the flesh.
“Emissary”: How about letting me cook dinner for you tonight? My father was a gourmet chef. I will make for you his famous aubergine stew.
“A Man Alone”: Every night in my house, my dad insisted that we have supper together as a family. He would try out his new recipes on us. He used to call us his test tasters.
“The Alternate”: When my father became ill, I can remember how small and weak he looked lying there in the bed. He’d been so strong, so independent. It always seemed to me there was nothing that he couldn’t do. But in the end, I realised that there was nothing that he could do, and nothing I could do to help him.
“Paradise”: Well, my father was a chef. He grew all his own vegetables. My brothers and I were sent out to the gardens every day.
EarMaster@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I think he refers to the first season of DS9 where it was never explicitly mentioned that Joseph Sisko is well and alive (but neither was the opposite). He first appeared in season 4. He just doesn’t exist before that.
Solumbran@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
The church in Discovery.
I am convinced that they put it there without having an explanation yet, then forgot they did it when they made the explanation.
themoken@startrek.website 2 weeks ago
Ugh, Discovery just made no sense in a million ways. My (least) favorite is how Control was sentient AI like a century before Data was a thing, or even M-5. That and every time Section 31 was acknowledged as Starfleet black ops instead of a rogue agency of assholes.
Solumbran@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Let’s not forget the part where they want to go in the future to stop control because they think they can’t destroy it, then control gets destroyed, then they go in the future anyway.
Also, I don’t think any star trek depicted section 31 in a way that didn’t make the show worse, but Discovery really went the extra mile
EarMaster@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Deep Space Nine is supposed to host up to 7000 lifeforms, but the infirmary is tiny and has three biobeds max.
kieron115@startrek.website 2 weeks ago
Image
StarvingMartist@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Looks good to me
HubertManne@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
ok but the tos example was just that they found harry muds ship adrift in space.