5 Things I never understood about Star Trek
Scout and I are done with our DVDs of Star Trek: Voyager. It got me thinking, there are some things that have always bothered me, about Voyager and Star Trek in general:
1. Temporal anomalies. I’d like to describe it in my own words but Janeway said it best: “Time travel. Ever since my first day in the job as a Starfleet Captain I swore I’d never let myself get caught in one of these god-forsaken paradoxes. The future is the past, the past is the future. It all gives me a headache.”
2. Seatbelts. Why don’t they have seatbelts? And why are some stations on the bridge chair-less? These people are so high tech, but when they encounter a bit of turbulence and stuff, the best they can do is yell “Hang on!”
3. Security cameras. Where are they? Again, they’re so high tech and they don’t have security cameras in the corridors or the turbolift (elevators). Many crimes could’ve been easily solved if there were security cameras.
4. The Prime Directive. Non-interference with the affairs of other cultures, especially pre-warp ones. This is a joke because They. Interfere. All. The. Time. Just by being around, they often interfere.
5. The universal translator. Some of the words they say cannot be literally translated. And why are their lips moving as if they’re all speaking English? If the device were real, talking to another species should be like watching a badly dubbed Mexican soap opera.
Yes, I realize that this is so geeky.
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22 Users Commented In " 5 Things I never understood about Star Trek "
They dont need cameras. The ships computer can find anyone at request.
What I want to know is why they have humans aiming the wepons and shit. Surely a super computer could do better than Warf.
And is there really a universal translator (I watch in passing)? Seems that there are a lot of people in the univserse that they dont understad.
Voyager’s weapons system has automatic targeting capability (not sure about the older Star Trek ships). But yeah, the handheld weapons should have a sort of targeting sensor, specially at mid to long range.
“They dont need cameras. The ships computer can find anyone at request.”
Yes, they do. The computer tries to find people by locating their combadge. If someone left their combadge somewhere, it will be a bit difficult to trace them. Also, there was one episode (Repression - 7×04) wherein a murder was committed in the holodeck, and they initially had a hard time finding out who did it. If a security camera or any other visual recording device was present, the crime could have been solved in an instant, preventing others from getting hurt while they figure it out. Plus, you know, random monitoring. Tuvok, as security chief, would have found it useful and efficient.
“And is there really a universal translator (I watch in passing)? Seems that there are a lot of people in the univserse that they dont understad.”
The “universal translator” is part of their combadge in Voyager. It seems like a misnomer since it’s far from universal. There are some species with language too complex for it to understand, like Species 8472, the fairy-like beings in Equinox, and the species native to “The Void” whom they eventually communicated with thru musical notes.
Wow. I actually *know* these things?
Of course they dont need seatbelts,because the spaceship is so advanced,that they dont have to think about petty stuff like nature laws.!lol!
Since I am probably the biggest geek alive as well as a MAJOR Star Trek/Voyager fan, I feel the need to respond:
1) Agreed.
2)Two Words “Inertial Dampeners”; however since these are usually the first things targeted by any self respecting attacker, seat belts would help tremendously.
3)There are security cameras on starships, but they only use them when they need something watched. It’s supposed to be an “enlightened era” and there are no need for such things.
4) Agreed.
5)I like your idea better.
In regards to 4), the universal translator is, hypothetically, not a word-to-word translator like gtranslate or freetranslation.com. Rather, it is a computer system which, overseen by linguists, can translate idioms, analyze tone of voice to determine context, etc. It really is one of the most realistic pieces of Treknology - I actually think that a japanese company has developed a rudimentary portable voice translator device.
oops, I meant 5
OK, I don’t want to offend anybody, but I just want to point out that this is a Star Trek-related post written by a 20-something Asian lesbian. Life is good.
Joel…
“…this is a Star Trek-related post written by a 20-something Asian lesbian. Life is good.”
Perhaps our host would like to comment about her feelings for 7 of 9?
Seems like Starfleet could use a 24th Century Ralph Nader.
“Unsafe at any Warp Factor”
Oh come on ladies, how can you pay a tribute to the women Star Trek Voyager without mention of B’Lanna Torres. She is amazing, her strength, her courage, her sometimes snippiness. Her love hate relationship with 7 of 9. How can you not mention B’lanna??
I love B’Elanna Torres. She’s my biggest Star Trek crush. I might just take you up on that idea and write an entire article about her. It’s a miracle that Scout wasn’t annoyed every time I was “rewriting” B’Elanna’s scenes with Seven to include a lesbian subtext.
What always bothered me was the constant sparks and the fact that the bridge looked like a tornado went through it after a few phaser blasts. You would think they would have some sort of failsafe to prevent consoles from catching people on fire every time the ship was hit because it’s killed countless people throughout all series.
Konijn: Good call. The Bridge and Engineering people really take a beating. Wish they’d solve that, or at least minimize it.
You forgot the most blaring bullshit. Whenever they find a new planet the captain or second in command takes the entire crew running the freakin ship dangerous or not down to the surface. I mean they would have strike teams, medical teams on stand by. I mean guys with alot of red shirts on. And what really gets me is how good man turns out. How money isn’t an issue anymore. I want to know how they got through our giant corporations or owners however you want to put it. Thats the star trek history I want to know.
What always does my head in is that whenever theyhave an away mission (all star trek series) for some reason they can only communicate by voice! Why on earth don’t they have mini-cams so that the bridge crew can actually watch what is happening?
Don’t even get me started on how the security/medic teams always seem to be strolling along to the emergency rather than running hell for leather or even beaming directly to the area… I could easily spend a few day punching holes in star trek but I still love it 
Wow how informative. I never knew StarTrek was such a hotbed for hidden lesbian metaphors. Almost makes me wish i was one!
Gepeto: Actually, it’s not. Unless you have an active imagination.
For all of Star Trek’s diversity, we have yet to see an openly gay character on the franchise. Or am I missing something?
Check out my new site:)
It’s television.
There should have be sensors and weapons in all of the corridors so the ship could defend itself from invasion. Shoot anything above a sertain size that isn’t a crew member. How many stories would that eliminate?
Greetings!..l
You make some good points. The temporal anomalies are pretty bad. And with 24th Century technology Voyager really should have cameras with face recognition software. That way crew members couldn’t just throw away their combadge, go AWOL, and cause all kinds of mayhem. Anytime somebody wanted to go renegade they just took off their badge and nobody could find them.
But I don’t think seatbelts would help very much at the speeds they’re travelling. Realistically, if they accelerated to lightspeed in less then a second by turning on their warp drive, they’d all be jelly anyway.
“It’s a miracle that Scout wasn’t annoyed every time I was “rewriting” B’Elanna’s scenes with Seven to include a lesbian subtext.”
Celine, I like the way you think.
And no, there haven’t been any gay characters. But Dax did have an affair with a woman on DS9. And that relationship was destroyed by other people’s unfair expectations. So I think they made a pretty good point about how gay people deserve to be treated better.
