History Fridge / StarTrek

* ''Fridge/StarTrekTheMotionPicture''

* The Borg are often criticized for attacking the Federation with only one cube (and trying it twice), while at the same time doing things against humanity that they do not do against other species (messing around with time travel, trying to "seduce" people like Locutus of Borg and Seven of Nine to rejoin the Collective, etc.) However, the Borg are not actually interested in humanity. Like the Kazon, humanity is described as inferior and its technology pales before the Collective's. However, the Borg ARE interested in Q. Q first brought them into the line of sight of a Borg cube, and saved them right as they were about to be assimilated. The Borg want to know more about Q (since being semi-omnipotent puts you pretty high on the Collective wishlist) but at the same time they know they can't fight Q directly and thus want to cut their losses by only sending one cube at a time. The Borg, in a sense, are right that doing things like traveling through time and picking specific human representatives attract Q's attention, if the game ''Star Trek: Borg'' is to be believed. - Tropers/{{Freiberg}}

* Kirk's overt reaction to Spock on the bridge, and Spock's flight to Gol in the first place, in ''Film/StarTrekTheMotionPicture'' never quite made sense to me, until I heard a theory that [[HoYay Something Of A Romantic Nature]] had happened between them after the end of the five-year mission. ''That's'' what sent Spock fleeing to a place centered around purging all emotion. ''That's'' why Kirk looks like the sun has just come out for the first time in years when Spock shows up. And that scene in Sickbay, with Spock's admission of "this simple feeling"? ''That was them getting back together... for good.'' Thank you, ''WebVideo/TheShipsCloset''. ~@/AcrossTheStars

* For years, I'd been confused about a line in ''Film/StarTrekGenerations''. When Picard first meets Soren, Soren wants to get back to the outpost. Picard stonewalls him for a while, and Soren becomes more insistent. Picard continues to stonewall, and Soren says "They say time is the fire in which we burn." Picard is visibly affected by this and has an immediate change of heart. Now, '''we''' know why Picard is affected by this ([[spoiler:His brother and nephew just burned to death in a fire.]]), but did Soren know about that, and if so, how? My first thought was that Soren had something to do with it. However, upon examination, that doesn't hold up. Soren is only just meeting Picard, and prior to this, his entire life has been dedicated to his quest. He would have no reason to look up Picard or do anything that would affect Picard. So, no... Soren wasn't involved in it. After dismissing that theory, I just figured that it was a coincidence that happened to fall his way. Coincidences ''do'' happen. But then, just yesterday, something clicked in my head. What is Soren? ''El-Aurian''. Who's the other El-Aurian we know? Guinan. What's Guinan said her about her race? They're a race of ''listeners''. Where did Picard find Soren? 10 Forward. What's 10 Forward? A social area for off-duty officers. What happens in off-duty places, like bars? Gossip. Putting this all together, I realized that we're finally seeing the evil side of this gift. Guinan uses the gift as a friend and therapist. Soren uses it to manipulate and extort for his own gain. He's been taken away from his experiments, and wants to get back. He knows Picard is the one who can get him back where he wants. So, he goes to 10 Forward and covertly listens to the conversations of the crew. Picard's issue has obviously entered the gossip grapevine somehow, people are talking about it, and Soren's particularly listening for information about Picard. He hears this tidbit and realizes he can use it to get an upper hand in his conversation with Picard.

* The [[RubberForeheadAliens similarity of aliens]] because of budgeting and time constraints is often mocked, however there is precedent for this in the real world, albeit on a much smaller scale, known as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convergent_evolution convergent evolution]]. Since most of the humanoid races come from planets with similar environments (M-class, in Star Trek's terminology), it makes them more likely to evolve similar features.

* The Star Trek Reboot timeline has changes from the original timeline that couldn't have been caused by Nero or Spock's time-travelling (e.g. the design of the Kelvin, which doesn't fit with the Federation's aesthetics from that time period.). But, actually, there is a good explanation for this: Because of the change in the timeline, the events of ''Film/StarTrekIVTheVoyageHome'' and ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact'' happened differently, causing the changes they caused to the timeline to be different, causing things in the timeline to change even before Nero's appearance. This, and other time-travelling could cause [[ForWantOfANail minor changes to the timeline]], which could add up and explain the differences between the original timeline and the reboot timeline.

%StarTrekExpandedUniverse

* The Star Trek Reboot timeline has changes from the original timeline that couldn't have been caused by Nero or Spock's time-travelling (e.g. the design of the Kelvin, which doesn't fit with the Federation's aesthetics from that time period.). But, actually, there is a good explanation for this: Because of the change in the timeline, the events of ''Film/StarTrekIVTheVoyageHome'' and StarTrekFirstContact happened differently, causing the changes they caused to the timeline to be different, causing things in the timeline to change even before Nero's appearance. This, and other time-travelling could cause [[ForWantOfANail minor changes to the timeline]], which could add up and explain the differences between the original timeline and the reboot timeline.

* The verity of aliens and the "evolution" in Star Trek is always mocked, and it was just "hay, add some spots" because of costs, and the need for sexy aliens, however it works scientifically, as the eye was evolved 3 separate times on earth so it makes sense that the basic bi-pedal form has taken hold on most minshara - class planets as it is the most effective way of surviving to civilization the superficial differences visually can be explained by slight variations in the non-essential parts of the chromosome. This is known as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convergent_evolution convergent evolution]].
** The eye has evolved three separate, distinct times? That sounds very unlikely. It makes far more sense that they just evolved from the same root creature.

* The verity of aliens and the "evolution" in Star Trek is always mocked, and it was just "hay, add some spots" because of costs, and the need for sexy aliens, however it works scientifically, as the eye was evolved 3 separate times on earth so it makes sense that the basic bi-pedal form has taken hold on most minshara - class planets as it is the most effective way of surviving to civilization the superficial differences visually can be explained by slight variations in the non-essential parts of the chromosome.

** In both TNG and DS9 it's mentioned that the Federation has a treaty with the Romulans prohibiting the Federation developing or using cloaking devices, however it's never said when the Treaty was signed, so it's possible it was signed shortly after this episode. Also figuring out how the device works and building your own is not the same thing as figuring out how to turn it on (unless I'm misremembering, all Scotty does is figure out how to plug it into the Enterprise's systems). Think of it like this - you know how to fuel a car, turn it on and drive it, but not everyone knows the exact details of how the engine works, let alone be able to build one from scratch. Now obviously this isn't a perfect analogy as Star Fleet engineers have far more training/education in such matters than the average person trying to reverse engineer a car, but it could still take them time and in that time the treaty could have been signed. And even if they could perfectly replicate the device without understanding the exact science behind it, maybe Federation Health and Safty would prevent them being employed until they do, giving further time in which the treaty could be signed. And on top of this, the. Enterprise often operates on the frontier, away from where Federation cloaking devices would be developed/built meaning that even if they were going into full scale production prior to the treaty, the Enterprise may not have made it back to be fitted for one before the treaty got signed. Also, unless I'm misremembering, the episode in question happened in the third season; in universe there are nearly ten years between season 3 ending and The Motion Picture meaning that in that time Federation starships might have operated with cloaking devices and the treaty got signed while the Enterprise was being refitted. Yet another also, we don't know how cloaking devices operate; for all we know they require special crystals/metals/etc that are only found on worlds controlled by the Romulans and Klingons meaning that even if the Federation could figure everything out, they wouldn't be able to build any until they got hold of such materials (and considering the hostility between those three powers, it would be hard for them to do so legally until after The Undescovered Country)

*** Real life: Taffey. In WW2, a destroyer group engaged the Japanese fleet and the Yamato to stall them long enough for the real Enterprise and her air wing.

*** We actually ''do'' have a rough date for the treaty you are referring to (the Treaty of Algeron is indicated as 'having kept the peace for sixty years' in 2370, indicating it was signed some time around 2310, well after the TOS movies), but it is entirely possible that similar if less stringent provisions were part of earlier agreements (after all, in the early 2290s Federation-Romulan relations were decent enough that the Romulan ambassador could sit in on some Starfleet briefings not directly related to the Romulan Star Empire), or that Starfleet simply had decided to prioritise detecting cloaked ships (if you can hit it, after all, a cloaked ship until the Scimitar is in ''worse'' state than a non-cloaked one) over putting cloaking devices in Starfleet vessels.

** In both TNG and DS9 it's mentioned that the Federation has a treaty with the Romulans prohibiting the Federation developing or using cloaking devices, however it's never said when the Treaty was signed, so it's possible it was signed shortly after this episode. Also figuring out how the device works and building your own is not the same thing as figuring out how to turn it on (unless I'm misremembering, all Scotty does is figure out how to plug it into the Enterprise's systems). Think of it like this - you know how to fuel a car, turn it on and drive it, but not everyone knows the exact details of how the engine works, let alone be able to build one from scratch. Now obviously this isn't a perfect analogy as Star Fleet engineers have far more training/education in such matters than the average person trying to reverse engineer a car, but it could still take them time and in that time the treaty could have been signed. And even if they could perfectly replicate the device without understanding the exact science behind it, maybe Federation Health and Safty would prevent them being employed until they do, giving further time in which the treaty could be signed. And on top of this, the. Enterprise often operates on the frontier, away from where Federation cloaking devices would be developed/built meaning that even if they were going into full scale production prior to the treaty, the Enterprise may not have made it back to be fitted for one before the treaty got signed. Also, unless I'm misremembering, the episode in question happened in the third season; in universe there are nearly ten years between season 3 ending and The Motion Picture meaning that in that time Federation starships might have operated with cloaking devices and the treaty got signed while the Enterprise was being refitted. Yet another also, we don't know how cloaking devices operate; for all we know they require special crystals/metals/etc that are only found on worlds controlled by the Romulans and Klingons meaning that even if the Federation could figure everything out, they wouldn't be able to build any until they got hold of such materials (and considering the hostility between those three powers, it would be hard for them to do so legally until after The Undescovered Country)

* A nice bit of FridgeBrilliance from ''StarTrekIntoDarkness'': It took this troper a while to figure out why the planet in the opening sequence was named "Nibiru". Nibiru is the theoretical name for a rogue planet that [[ConspiracyTheorist the government is supposedly hushing up]], due to its imminent [[ColonyDrop collision with Earth]]. The connection doesn't become apparent until you remember that the movie's release date was pushed back to summer 2013 from [[MayanDoomsday late 2012]].

*** Well... the Eugenics wars were actually retconned as to being in the twenty first century and not the twentieth. Episodes such ''Futures End'' where there was no sign of war or Botany Bay level spacecraft, ''The Augments'' where Archer and Soong pretty much state that it was ''a hundred years ago'' and of course we have all the discussions between the genetically engineered Bashir and his co-workers. There is a very popular fan theory that believes the Eugenics Wars and the Third World War was actually the same thing - after all; doesn't it stand to reason that the world powers would have been using SuperSoldiers to fight a nuclear war considering the technology essentially exists today?
*** I don't know when, but I'm almost completely certain (note:almost) that somewhere in-canon, in actual spoken dialog, it is explicitly stated that the third world war WAS the war between Khan and his Eugenics derived kindred, a.k.a. The Eugenics Wars.

*** Not exactly. Drone/ship adaptation can be programmed in and simply be a latent capability rather than a conscious innovative intelligence. It's not like drones are very smart otherwise. (See: the bit in First Contact where they defend the deflector dish beacon one at a time, probably because they never needed to and thus were never programmed for zero-gee combat where being pushed away from the 'ground' neutralizes you. Or most episodes with drones in combat.) Also, Voyager doesn't ever try establish that the Borg only gain knowledge from assimilation - it actually specifically contradicts it by establishing drone classes (medical, tactical, repair) and the Queens. The Queens are the innovators.

*** Not exactly. Drone/ship adaptation can be programmed in and simply be a latent capability rather than a conscious innovative intelligence. It's not like drones are very smart otherwise. (See: the bit in First Contact where they defend the dish beacon one at a time, probably because they never needed to and thus were never programmed for zero-gee combat where being pushed away from the 'ground' neutralizes you. Or most episodes with drones in combat.)

* Some FridgeHorror about the transporters. They take a person and change him into energy, transmit his code along an energy beam, and reconstitute him in a different place. So it vaporizes you, leaves the original you just floating around in the air, and reconstitutes a copy of you from the atoms in the area where it transports you to. Anyone who's been through a transporter has been destroyed, and what's walking around now is a copy. Almost everyone in the Star Trek universe is a copy of a person, the original of which was destroyed. And therefore, the human soul either does not exist or most people have no soul anymore. (Credit here to David Wong and ''Literature/ThisBookIsFullOfSpiders.'')
** However, the perspective of someone inside a transporter is seen in a TNG episode, suggesting that people being transported somehow stay conscious inside the beam instead of just having their code transferred, so this wouldn't happen.

* At first, ''Franchise/StarTrek'' appears to violate tactical logic by lacking any true examples of a SpaceFighter, a standard among rival SpaceOpera settings ''StarWars'', ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|Reimagined}}'', ''Series/BabylonFive'', ''Series/{{Farscape}}'', ''Franchise/{{Stargate|Verse}}'', ''Series/{{Andromeda}}'', etc. After all, small, maneuverable fighter crafts can target a larger opponent's [[AttackItsWeakPoint vulnerable points]] in ways a bigger ship can't. Then you realize DeflectorShields mean ships don't ''have'' weak points! The only way to defeat an opponent is by mustering enough force to overload their shields, making small ships all but useless in direct combat.

* At first, the absence of any form of data corruption attacks in Star Trek struck me as a kind of {{Zeerust}} element that had crept into the show over time: computer viruses were entirely unknown in the 1960's, but the casual viewer today might wonder why someone doesn't try to hack the ''Enterprise'' (or the ''Enterprise'' crew try to hack a Klingon ship, etc.) But in reality any race advanced enough to build starships with AI-capable computers ''and'' has reason to fear its neighbors likely also has strong enough security to render these attacks either ineffective or easily reversed (by contrast, take the reboot of ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|Reimagined}}'', where the Cylon attack on the humans hinged around their being able to exploit a backdoor in the Colonial defense network created by one of their agents. The mothballed Galactica's lack of a modern computer network is the only reason it survives). Oddly enough, this has the result of TOS appearing to have ''stronger'' computer security than its successors (particularly in episodes where the ship/Data/etc. get hacked by an outside entity). --Tropers/{{Snarf}}

* ''StarTrekTheAnimatedSeries''

* Whatever happened to that cloaking device that the TOS crew steals from the Romulans in one episode? Scotty manages to use it to cloak the Enterprise so I'm assuming it shouldn't be too hard for him or other Federation engineers to make copies of that device and install them in other Federation ships. However, the fact that the Enterprise has the ability to cloak and that the crew stole a cloaking device that can be reverse engineered is never mentioned again throughout the entire franchise. Even though there are countless films and TV episodes where it would be incredibly helpful for the main characters to have a cloaking device, especially since they are constantly at odds with other species who possess cloaking technology.
** In both TNG and DS9 it's mentioned that the Federation has a treaty with the Romulans prohibiting the Federation developing or using cloaking devices, however it's never said when the Treaty was signed, so it's possible it was signed shortly after this episode. Also figuring out how the device works and building your own is not the same thing as figuring out how to turn it on (unless I'm misremembering, all Scotty does is figure out how to plug it into the Enterprise's systems). Think of it like this - you know how to fuel a car, turn it on and drive it, but not everyone knows the exact details of how the engine works, let alone be able to build one from scratch. Now obviously this isn't a perfect analogy as Star Fleet engineers have far more training/education in such matters than the average person trying to reverse engineer a car, but it could still take them time and in that time the treaty could have been signed. And even if they could perfectly replicate the device without understanding the exact science behind it, maybe Federation Health and Safty would prevent them being employed until they do, giving further time in which the treaty could be signed. And on top of this, the. Enterprise often operates on the frontier, away from where Federation cloaking devices would be developed/built meaning that even if they were going into full scale production prior to the treaty, the Enterprise may not have made it back to be fitted for one before the treaty got signed. Also, unless I'm misremembering, the episode in question happened in the third season; in universe there are nearly ten years between season 3 ending and The Motion Picture meaning that in that time Federation starships might have operated with cloaking devices and the treaty got signed while the Enterprise was being refitted. Yet another also, we don't know how cloaking devices operate; for all we know they require special crystals/metals/etc that are only found on worlds controlled by the Romulans and Klingons meaning that even if the Federation could figure everything out, they wouldn't be able to build any until they got hold of such materials (and considering the hostility between those three powers, it would be hard for them to do so legally until after The Undescovered Country)