History Headscratchers / StarTrek

** ''https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E2Darmok''

[[folder: Federation Armor]]
* Why doesn't anyone in the Federation wear armor, even if just in ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', which is military based? It wouldn't cost that much to put in the series, just a spray painted helmet or recycled and recolored paintball armor set should do the job for devoted combat infantry such as in the siege of AR-558. Even if phasers can't be blocked by any armor the Federation can make they could prove useful against blades which are often used during battles. It would be pretty cool to see during the series.
** Same reason the phasers don't have sights and are about as ergonomic as a bat'leth.
** Just to expand the above: the Kirk-era Starfleet ''did'' issue armor to security guards (and presumably marines); we see it in the films. This was the same era that also had actual rifles and pistols, uniforms that looked like uniforms, and no civilians on board. Times change. Half of the problem with the entire Dominion war was that it was being waged by a side that had forgotten most of the basics of combat, over preceding decades of peace mixed with overwhelming superior firepower - it would be baffling if the defenders at AR-558 ''had'' been properly trained and/or equipped.
** Meta-reason: Cost for props. In ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'' and ''VideoGame/StarTrekEliteForce'', they have personal shielding, because it's probably easier to make CG models of armor. They have armor in the movies because of the higher budget.
** [[http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Starfleet_uniform_%28late_2360s-early_2370s%29#Combat_jacket Starfleet battle dress]], which we've seen on at least two occasions in ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine DS9]]'', seems to be made of a thick, rubber-like material. The garments offer no protection from disruptor fire--both Klingon and Dominion energy weapons have been shown to burn right through them--but they must serve ''some'' purpose if Starfleet issues them to its [[RedShirt grunts]]. I'd speculate that these uniforms ''are'' Starfleet body armor, and that they offer some measure of protection against shell fragments, bladed weapons, and other kinetic trauma. No clue as to why troops fighting the Dominion don't have helmets, though.
** I'd say that it's simply that beam weapons in general will go directly through most materials one could make body armor out of and the technology to make shields portable enough to be practical didn't exist until the STO era. Maybe Voyager gave it to the rest of the Federation when they got back?
*** Worf built a one-shot shield generator out of a combadge and a telegraph in Fistful of Datas.
*** Important word there, "one shot", and it only had to hold up to at most a couple of (very slow) physical projectiles, not a highly condensed energy beam.
*** Sure, but it demonstrates that personal shields are possible in principle and could probably be done much better under better conditions.

[[folder:Kirk's Bad With Dates (Not That Kind)]]
* On the subject of film chronology: the given time gaps between "Space Seed", "Wrath of Khan" and "Generations" don't add up. "Wrath of Khan" takes place when Kirk is turning 50 - that's the year 2283. They say that "Space Seed" happened fifteen years ago - officially, it happened in 2267, which is OK assuming they're rounding off. But then the Kirk-era part of "Generations" takes place in 2293... and in Kirk's Nexus fantasy, Kirk says "This is nine years ago!" Nine years ago, Kirk would have been commanding the Enterprise-A. If they wanted the fantasy scene to be of a time just prior to "Wrath of Khan" (which it seems was the intention), they should've said "''eleven'' years ago".
** A mistake, plain and simple. But a possible explanation is that, in RealLife, people might say that something that happened in 1990 happened "ten years ago," even if it's 2009 or something. Possibly something happened two years ago to Kirk that made the number stick in his head, so he just said it without thinking, and no one wanted to correct him.

[[folder:A Pon Farr with Rosie Palms?]]
* About the whole Pon Farr MateOrDie thing, why doesn't ADateWithRosiePalms work?
** It's probably not just a question of release. Consider when Tuvok went into pon farr. Tom Paris was able to rig up a hologram of his wife that allowed Tuvok to blow off steam, but the implication is that nothing else would have worked. It might be an emotional thing. There are multiple episodes that suggest that the Vulcan emotional suppression is not good for them. Pon farr could very easily be a consequence of that.
*** There was a prior Voyager episode where Ensign Vorik entered pon farr and the holoprogram failed to work for him.
*** Vorik had another option: B'Elana. Pon farr basically had him obsessed with her. Perhaps if Tom had thought to make a B'Elana hologram for Vorik to bang, he would have been able to pull a Tuvok.
** In the first ''Star Trek: New Frontier'' novel, we see a pretty explicit Pon Farr between two Vulcans, where they mind meld in the middle of coitus. Presumably doing this (combined with the physical act) is what causes the Vulcan's internal sex clock to reset.
*** Hormones. Very specific ones, too-where you NEED the hormones produced by your matched partner. Also why TheOldestProfession doesn't work for them.
** It probably is specifically something to do with the emotions. While a mind meld would help facilitate an emotional release, Tuvok and Vorik certainly couldn't have melded with holograms. The reason the hologram worked for Tuvok (once he was able to get it to stay online) is that he really did love his wife, and could express his love for her with this reminder of her. Vorik, on the other hand, only got temporary relief from T'Pera because she was a purely fictional holodeck character and he couldn't really fool himself into loving her the way he would love a real person. Each of the three known ways to resolve pon farr also show signs of being related to emotional release:
*** Mating is the most direct method of demonstrating one's love for another, of course.
*** Ritual combat for one's mate is somewhat less direct, but is much-romanticized in many cultures. Certainly, a man would have to love a woman quite a lot to be willing to fight for her, possibly to the death.
*** The intensive meditation, which did not prove effective for Vorik, probably focuses on one's intense love for an absent mate. As Vorik acknowledged, his betrothed had probably already given him up for lost. Tuvok, on the other hand, knew his wife was waiting for him at home, and he had the hologram to help remind him of that further. She presumably had some similar thoughts of him to comfort her through her own intensive meditation, knowing he was alive and on his way home.

[[folder:What does the Alpha Quadrant Look like?]]
* When the dust had settled, you pretty much had four great powers in the Alpha Quadrant: the Federation, the Klingons, the Romulans, and the Cardassians. Then there are secondary powers like the Ferengi, the Breen, and the Nausicaans, and one-off species like the Tzenkethi and the Son'a; but dealing just with the Core Four, this is complex enough, so let's leave them be.
** I'm not sure that the Cardassians are really in quite the same league as the others; TNG makes it quite clear that they were pawning their priceless cultural treasures in order to maintain their war economy against the Feds (and given that this war wasn't even mentioned onscreen until it was over, it's fair to assume that for the Federation this wasn't a conflict on anything like the same scale as the wars with the Dominion or Klingons), bearing in mind that during this time the Cardassians had a highly militaristic society and the Federation didn't even have dedicated warships and still they felt so unthreatened by the war with Cardassia that they were using the flagship as a taxi half the time; plus the Klingons go through them like a hot knife through butter in Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine. It seems more likely that they're sort of first among the secondary powers, rather than a Great Power.
*** Although we don't get much canon on this, it's hard to imagine the Cardassians as still being a major power after the Dominion War, as it was ''particularly'' unkind to them.
*** I agree. To make some analogy with our world, lets say the Klingons, Romulans and Federation are like the US, Russia and China, then Cardassia is something in the lines of Iran, certainly a regional power and can give a good fight specially in a border's conflict, but can hardly withstand a whole invasion by any of the three above.

* At different points, each of the four powers is referred to as sharing a border with each of the other three. Assuming they all have contiguous territories--which I guess they might not--there are only two possible explanations: There's a point where the borders of all four come together at a ninety-degree angle and they meet in some center, like Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico; or three of them have borders that ''would'' come together and meet at a 120-degree angle (like an equilateral triangle divided into thirds) and the fourth one being plunked down in the center of this and extending out from the central point.
** Assuming that Federation's territory is continuous is kind of a stretch for this reason. Any planet can became a member of the Federation, that means that if a planet near Klingon space becomes a member, even if isolated from the rest of the Federation, that planet's star system (and its colonies if it has) becomes Federation space. Thus, is easy to see why the Federation has borders with everybody, their way to expansion has no reason to be continuous unlike empires that expand whether by conquest or by colonization which would be difficult to do if you’re not territorially connected. Something similar happened with the Dominion which's an evil version of the Federation, with Cardassia as the most obvious example as it became a member of the Dominion and suddenly the Dominion had territory in the Alpha Quadrant. In fact if you see most maps (although all of them are non-canonical) you'll see “pockets” of Federation space. Of course, is logical that the Federation has some very large continuities of space, on one hand because its members tend to colonize other worlds thus expanding Federation territory continually, and on the other because as is logic Federation members obviously influence nearby worlds and if you live near the Federation border you'll be under its cultural, economic and political influence and joining the Federation would see appealing, is something similar on how the European Union expands (with their neighbors first) but you also has something like Cyprus which is nor even in Europe, is in Asia.
*** This is all true, but the tendency is to visualize the Federation and other powers as amoeba-like blobs.

* Actually, the former doesn't work, either: The Federation had a Klingon Neutral Zone ''and'' a Romulan Neutral Zone ''and'' a Cardassian DMZ. So it had borders with all three extending for a good while. For the Square States model to work, it would only touch one of the three at a geometric point.

* As for the latter setup--I guess it works, but it's pretty stupid, isn't it?
** Allow me to introduce you to a concept called "3 Dimensions". Space is not a flat map where 4 regions can only meet at a single corner. Granted, this *is* Star Trek which adores the SpaceIsAnOcean trope. The boundaries can wander and roam all over the place, and it would be pretty easy for all 4 empires to share stretches of contiguous border.
** The relevance of the third dimension depends how big the empires are: the Galaxy is much narrower along its "vertical" axis (its thickness is only 1% of its diameter). While this is still an enormous distance, and it's reasonable to expect overlap, we're also dealing with incomprehensibly-huge nations here that may well extend far further than that in the "horizontal" plane. Assuming they each spread evenly from a central point, the borders would reasonably tend to line up when viewed from above.

* And another thing: Federation space includes a bajillion species, both Fed members and pre-warp civilizations whom they ignore under the Prime Directive but protect from foreign interlopers by maintaining their own territorial integrity. The Romulans have only the Remans. The Cardassians had only the Bajorans until they got thrown out. The Klingons tried to enslave two races in TOS and had one whom they had enslaved in ENT. But for the most part all three species had their space to themselves.
** If worths something, the Expanded Universe does establishes that the Romulans are a true empire, having control over several species, not only the Remans. The Klingons use to be like that but they mostly liberated most of their non-Klingon subjects but maintain a certain influence over them, something along the lines of the Commonwealth or the relation of Spain with Latin America and Ecuatorial Guinea.

* Now assuming that the likelihood of a Class-M planet will develop an intelligent race is pretty much the same anywhere (and I can't see any reason it wouldn't be) that means that the Federation is either much larger territorially than the others, or it has a much denser concentration of inhabitable planets, which one assumes mean many more resources to exploit. Either of those factors would give it a huge advantage over the other civilizations, would make the the Alpha Quadrant's dominant superpower. But it deals with each of the other three as equals most of the time.

** In the first half of TNG I could easily imagine the Federation being run by such shrinking violets that they can be bested by enemies a fraction of their size. Then the Borg came along and gave them a wake-up call. It's kind of like the United States in WWII: In 1940, despite being much larger than Germany, the US army was severely outnumbered, outweighed, and outclassed by its German counterpart, because the Germans were on a war footing and the US wasn't. In 1943, the US war machine was going all-out, and even without the rest of the Allies would have had every advantage over the Germans in a one-on-one fight.

** Where this breaks down is that the Federation had had a ton of Pearl Harbor moments, starting with Wolf 359, the near-war with Cardassia in "Chain of Command," the war with the Klingons in Season 5 of Deep Space Nine, the Dominion alliance with Cardassia, the second Borg invasion. . . . Eventually, the Federation certainly created the impression that it was going balls-to-the-wall to deal with all these threats. But if it were, and if it's as much a potential powerhouse as you suggested, it couldn't help being as strong in the Alpha Quadrant as the Dominion was in the Gamma--In which case it would have beaten the Cardassians and the fraction of the Jem'Hadar fleet that got through before the wormhole got cut off like a rented mule, even without the Klingons' help, and would have faced the entire Gamma Quadrant Dominion force on an even footing. Instead, it's barely keeping its head above water with the fraction of the Dominion fleet in the Alpha Quadrant, and at the beginning of the sixth season everyone's puckering their assholes at the thought the rest of the Jem'Hadar will show up and give the Dominion an insurmountable numerical advantage.

** Remember the Federation supposedly has no military, that most of Starfleet's ships are equipped for research and humanitarian aid and that most of the crew signed up for the engineering or scientific opportunities. Starfleet simply doesn't operate on the level of the Cardassian or Klingon militaries; it seems reasonable that the Federation must be many times larger and more (economically) powerful if it's even able to maintain an equal relationship. Even when they get onto a "war" footing, they're still mostly using obsolete ships (notice the ''Excelsior''-class appears a lot in Deep Space Nine), crewed by personnel with woefully inadequate combat training, as they have no dedicated military academy or warship production facilities. The few instances where a ship or crew is up to scratch militarily (the ''Defiant'', any ''Galaxy''-class with the children offloaded) they're normally portrayed as being able to tear through enemy ships by the dozen, with the exception of the very first battle with the Dominion.

** While this is pure fanon, it is also possible that the Klingons, Romulans, and Cardassians have enough worlds and subject species under their control to have comparable resources to The Federation, but the fact that they are Empires that conquered these territories instead of democracies that formed alliances with them along with a healthy dose of institutionalized racism means that the races who these Empires are named after are the ruling class and are the only ones to rise to the positions where The Federation deals with them (i/e: Government and Military)

** The EU mentions that the Romulans do have several subject species apart from the Remans, the Klingon use to but mostly liberated them all just keeping a certain political and cultural influence like the Commonwealth of Nations to England, and the Cardassians only subjugated the Bajorans for a while. Regarding “the likelihood of a Class-M planet will develop an intelligent race is pretty much the same anywhere” that’s actually not the case, in fact in a similar way how we have Goldilocks areas in solar systems that allow for the development of life, same happens with the Galaxy, there are areas of the Galaxy that are more likely to allow for the developing of life than other. Thus, that may be the explanation; Klingon and Romulans developed (or in the case of the Romulans colonized) areas of the Galaxy hostile for life, which would explain in the case of the Klingon why are they so toughened. Is not that this areas are totally unable to harvest life, some life form can develop, but is much more rare than in other areas thus the Klingon had very few inhabited planets as neighbors, whilst the original Vulcans that colonized Romulus choose it precisely because of its isolated position with very few inhabited planets around. Whilst in other areas life thrill and was plentiful as the area was perfect for the developing of life, this is the area where Earth, Vulcan, Andoria etc. are and as may sound logic the civilizations of this areas will interact with each other and have further cooperation and integration, similarly how we have the European Union or the United States (which was originally a confederation) in our world. In fact is very similar to our world how Russia and China hold very large territories many of them vastly underpopulated, like Siberia.

[[folder: I hate having women on the bridge, right female first officer?]]
A fairly minor one from the first pilot, but... what is up with Pike's reaction when the female yeomen visited the bridge to deliver a report? He complains about having a woman on the bridge, to his female first officer! When she asks what the hell is up with that, he just claims that the first officer is different. No explanation given on what or why. And it's not even like the yeoman was going to permanently stationed on the bridge, she just delivered a report! What, are women supposed to wait until you leave the bridge to deliver reports? And aside from that, its not like he has anything against women in the command structure, since the yeomen was in the meeting room later in the episode.
* An EU novel states that it wasn't that she was a woman, but the fact that his previous yeoman, a male friend of his, had just recently died, so he was feeling a bit bitter.
* I always assumed Number One was treated as OneOfTheBoys and therefore was excepted from the rule- Cpt. Pike pretty much implies it in the dialogue.

[[folder: Somebody holds stock in a pecan pie company?]]
* Latter-day Franchise/StarTrek has an odd obsession with [[http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Pecan_pie pecan pie]]. What's with the pecan pie references, writers?
** Maybe it's for the same reason they like the number 47?
** As of 2020, that's four episodes between two different shows. If that qualifies as an obsession, the writers must also be getting payoffs from Big Asparagus. But to humor you: pecan pie is a popular dessert from North America, where Trip Tucker (who obsesses over it the most) was born. Star Trek routinely throws in references to modern generic Earth foodstuffs to connect with its audience, who might have a better idea of what they taste like than they would plomeek soup or gagh.

[[/folder]]






[[folder:The names of Romulus, Remus, and Vulcan]]
* Why are the planets Romulus, Remus, and Vulcan, as well as their inhabitants, named after beings from ancient Earth mythology? It can't be just a function of the Universal Translator, because it doesn't translate the names of other planets, such as Klingon. And it can't be that those are just the names humans came up for them, because other races (including inhabitants of these planets themselves) use the same names as well. It's never mentioned or even implied any of these planets might have a different name in their own language.
** Well, the expanded universe does explains that the alien seen in the episode ''Who Mourns for Adonais?'' Named itself Apollo belong to a race of god-like aliens that inspired Earth’s Greek-Roman culture and ancient Vulcan culture. If this is ever explained on-screen, IDK.
** The concept is probably that these are just the human names for them and they have indigenous names that we don't hear just because of a TranslationConvention. Diane Duane famously invented "Rihannsu" as the Romulans' name for themselves.
** If it's just a case of TranslationConvention, why are there meaningful human names for these three planets, but not for any others, such as Klingon or Cardassia or Bajor?
*** Well actually Klingon is not the name the Klingon give to themselves, is tlhIngan.
*** This is just it: who's to say that they're not? The Romulans hail from a planet that for whatever reason got the classical appellation "Romulus." The Cardassians hail from a planet that did not get such a name -- but it could well be that "Cardassian" is still just the name the Federation uses, rather than the indigenous name the Cardassians use for themselves (just as we English speakers generally say "German" rather than "Deutsch").
*** That's a good example. The Federation calls "Cronos" (another Greek god) the Klingon home world, but the name in Klingon is Qo'noS, so we know that at least there's other case of translation convention. Wether cases like Cardassia or Bajor remain (probably) untranslated, that's not uncommon in real life either. Deutschland in German is call Germany in English and Alemania in Spanish for example, but Costa Rica is call the same in every language even when it means "Rich Coast", so there are cases in which, for whatever reasons, some names are translated and some not. Maybe the same happens with planets.
*** I gather we're supposed to think that the name of the Klingon home world, Qo'noS, transliterates to "Kronos," the same name as the Titan, and this is a coincidence.
** These are likely [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exonym exonyms]]. Much like Germany is an exonym for Deutschland, and Japan is an exonym for Nihon/Nippon, these exonyms are probably based on humans' impressions of the planets. Kronos, land of the titans. Vulcan...a hot place. Romulus, land of people who dress like Romans. Remus...the other inhabited planet in the same system as Romulus. It's a well precedented phenomenon.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Send Out the Clones]]
* Why is the Federation filled with luddites? How can such an advanced society be so hung up about clones and genetic engineering? Whenever a genetically engineered or cloned person appears, the Enterprise crew reacts with awe and dread. Sometimes, the appearance of a clone warrants a commercial break.
** The Star Trek universe had some ''very'' bad experiences with gene engineering. The first large-scale effort unleashed a wave of augments that took over a fourth of the planet in the mid-80s and until the mid-90s, and the results were devastating... whenever the canon remembers them. Klingon attempts at genetic engineering on similar lines resulted in a plague that nearly killed off their entire species. Military technology enhancement projects or cloning likewise tend to have rather [[AIIsACrapshoot nasty results]], presumably with the local universe (or at least Federation scientists) being predisposed to such issues. This has driven those fields to the edges of space and pseudoscience, with the resulting increase in similar mistakes and further enforced prejudices. The Federation Counsel is also a rather humans-only club, so they seem to suffer from a degree of Frankenstein syndrome.
*** That's not even mentioning when TNG episode with the genetically engineered uberkinder who had immune systems so effective, they killed normal people...
** Wait, what? What on Earth gave you the impression that the Federation, the people who put ''touch screens'' on '''a pair of barbells''', are in any way "luddites"?
** The problem with cloning and genetic engineering seems to be more of a fear of the past. As they said in one episode, "For every Julian Bashir, there's a Khan Singh waiting in the wings." Given the abysmal catastrophes that cloning and genetic engineering have created in the past, no one wants to take the chance again.
** But all of this emphasizes the EarthIsTheCenterOfTheUniverse trope. The Eugenics Wars happened before humanity developed warp capability and were limited exclusively to Earth. The botched attempt to create Klingon Augments was an example of taking science that was already known to have bugs waiting to be fixed and injudiciously trying to implement it on a short timetable. None of this explains why the numerous other Federation species would have a ban on cloning and[=/=]or genetic engineering other than to accommodate human paranoia about it. On the other hand, some Federation species (e.g. Vulcans) have a suspiciously high number of very valuable adaptations. Is this because they found a little genetic fine-tuning "logical"? It would certainly account for why they are telepathic when Romulans do not appear to be. Betazoids are also suspicious, because their telepathy is just awesome (it works at really long range), which could leave one wondering why they even have the ability to speak vocally at all (after all, the Cairn can't). If their telepathy evolved very recently in their history, and their not-so-distant ancestors were not telepathic, that would explain why they can speak. But traits like that rarely spread through an entire species gene pool without either a lot of generations, or else artificial intervention.
** It also raises the question of just what they're scared of in genetically enhanced people - Julian Bashir learns faster than normal humans and has better hand-eye coordination. Khan learns fast and has super-strength. This apparently makes them especially dangerous to normal humans. Vulcans and Klingons are stronger than humans, Vulcans and Betazoids are telepathic, Trill carry all the knowledge and experience of their past lives, but no one's scared of them. It can't be a problem with making "better" humans because that should also apply to humans having children with superhuman aliens and to giving Geordi a VISOR with a wider range of vision than human eyes. It can't be purely a fear of science either - Data has superhuman strength, coordination, learning and thinking speeds, and is potentially immortal, but no one's scared of him; they just argue over whether or not he's sapient. What's so special about genetic engineering?
** Klingons and Vulcans do not have the possibility of becoming the masters of humanity. Besides judging by most Augments we know, is not only the superior strength and intelligence, is that they are mentally unstable and with anti-social tendencies.
*** Why don't Klingons and Vulcans have the possibility of becoming masters of humanity? The Klingons even tried - they were the enemy of the entire Federation in TOS. But after the Khitomer Accords were signed, no one had a problem with them.
*** Well, even if they can or not, humans can't do anything about it as there's no way to exterminate Klingons and Vulcans, but they do can avoid the existence of Augments all together by banning genetic manipulation.
*** Wait, you're arguing that if they had the chance, humans would go full-on ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' and genocide everyone else?
*** Previous poster here. I don't get the reference because I only know about Warhammer by name, but no, my point that even if there are humans who distrust aliens for their power they can do much about it, but they do can control their own population.

[[folder:Picard's No Solid Snake]]
* Where do people on Star Trek learn their infiltration skills? Whenever anyone sneaks into a facility, or up on someone, they have no silenced weapons, night vision goggles, flash grenades, or, in case things get real messy, combat knives. If a guard accidentally discovers them, they don't silently put a bullet in his head or slit his throat. Instead, they take him out, from a distance, with a glowing, noisy beam of plasma. In Star Trek VI, the Undiscovered Country, for example, a sniper tries to take out the president (or kung fu master). The assassin fails but still. No self-respecting sniper would fire at a target with a noisy, glowing beam of plasma that can be traced back to the sniper's position. Every Star Trek show does this. When they're scoping tangos, they don't do it through rifle scopes. Hell, they usually don't have rifles to begin with. Usually, the only ordinance that they carry with them is their dustbusters which shoot noisy, glowing beams of plasma. Now, the Federation has a code against killing with hand weapons. Phasers are almost always set to stun, even if the other guy has a supernova disruptor pointed at them. But come on!
** A couple points: First, when they have rifles, they don't need an optical scope, they have sensors and a display screen tied into a computer assist that lets them fire off-axis. Second, that I recall, when Starfleet crew were sneaking around, they beat down/nerve pinched/sedated opposition far more often than they used phasers. (I do, though, agree that knives would have been ''very'' helpful.) Third, Colonel West's scheme in STVI, with his Klingon disguise, would only have worked if he was seen--you can't blame someone you can't (mis)identify. Following from this, he likely didn't intend to survive; if the imposture was to be maintained, suicide by disintegration would have been far more practical than evading capture after being spotted.
*** Incidentally, there are a couple of notable exceptions. Janeway packed a Ka-Bar in "Macrocosm" (Seriously, it was an honest-to-goodness Ka-Bar Combat Knife). She retrieved it from an equipment locker aboard Voyager, implying that combat knives are, in fact, standard-issue aboard Starfleet ships, but nobody ever uses them. Later, in ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'', [=MACOs=] carry metallic side-handle stun batons. It's a really bizarre choice for an infantry weapon, but they do manage to come in handy on more than one occasion.
** Because the Star Trek universe is populated by idiots who have never heard of the concept of "combined arms".
** Degradation of warfare mentality due to a shift in combat norms. Most warp-capable species do the majority of their fighting via ship-to-ship combat, having found more enemies out in space than on their own worlds. Consequently, they don't employ snipers as often, and so have forgotten/neglected a lot of the applicable tactics for them.

[[folder:Kirk's Bad With Dates (Not That Kind)]]
* On the subject of film chronology: the given time gaps between "Space Seed", "Wrath of Khan" and "Generations" don't add up. "Wrath of Khan" takes place when Kirk is turning 50 - that's the year 2283. They say that "Space Seed" happened fifteen years ago - officially, it happened in 2267, which is OK assuming they're rounding off. But then the Kirk-era part of "Generations" takes place in 2293... and in Kirk's Nexus fantasy, Kirk says "This is nine years ago!" Nine years ago, Kirk would have been commanding the Enterprise-A. If they wanted the fantasy scene to be of a time just prior to "Wrath of Khan" (which it seems was the intention), they should've said "''eleven'' years ago".
** A mistake, plain and simple. But a possible explanation is that, in RealLife, people might say that something that happened in 1990 happened "ten years ago," even if it's 2009 or something. Possibly something happened two years ago to Kirk that made the number stick in his head, so he just said it without thinking, and no one wanted to correct him.

[[folder:Time Cops Are Useless]]
* Remember those various groups of TimePolice that kept on showing up in ''Voyager'' and ''Enterprise'' (and that ''Deep Space Nine'' tribble episode) to ensure that history didn't get changed? Um... where were they?
** The rules of TimeTravel vary. In some cases a self-confirming loop is created, such as in Time's Arrow, when discovering Data's head causes them to go back in time and leave Data's head there, enabling their relative past selves to discover it. Obviously though, in other cases there seems to be a risk of altering/damaging the timeline, or else why would they bother 'protecting' it? It's logical to suppose that the various factions can distinguish between the rules at play and only interfere when needed to.
** They show up when a temporal incursion will change their timeline. For whatever reason, this temporal incursion created a ''new'' timeline not in line with previous canon. In essence if there are TimeCops in this world, all these events ''are'' what happened, to them. (The real world reason it created a second timeline was so they could, in essence, do a reboot but leave the old timeline intact.)

[[folder:We've Been Boarded! Oh well...]]
* Any time a starship gets boarded, it annoys the heck out of me. Only occasionally do they use force fields. Also, couldn't they evacuate those areas and shut off life support or something? Or maybe shut the turbolift to the bridge? Or beam them into space (or if that's not cool) into the brig? The amount of times where intruders (or really anyone) can just walk in on the bridge like that is hilarious. And also, I noticed security never ever runs. They just walk there.
** Shutting off life support to a whole deck wouldn't instantly suck all the air and heat out of the area (unless it's the main bridge or an area with an exterior door like the shuttlebay). Even when it has happened elsewhere on the ship, it takes ''hours'' to get to the point where it would be incapable of supporting life. As for beaming them into the brig - having a holding cell that you can beam people into and out of would kinda defeat the purpose of having one in the first place. I mean, any ship that can get close enough could just beam the prisoner off.
*** Transporters can be blocked, scrambled and jammed with trivial ease, so just keep some low-level jammers around the brig unless you're moving prisoners around. Hell, if I were designing a brig for ST (or any universe with teleportation tech for that matter), I'd build it so you can ''only'' get in and out via transporters. Good luck breaking out when there's no door.
*** Shutting off life support might not instantly kill everyone who wasn't in a spacesuit, but trapping the boarders in a forcefield and ''sucking their air out'' sure would. So would adjusting the temperature to a level of unendurable heat or cold. Then there's the option of pumping poison or knockout gas into that section. Given that the ''Enterprise'' has a fire control system that works by setting up a forcefield around the fire that kind of thing should be pretty easy. Then we have the ''canon'' tactic of turning up the gravity in one section so high your opponent can't stand up from ''Enterprise: In A Mirror Darkly''. There are tons of nasty things you could do to any (living, organic) hostile fool enough to board your ship without a space suit with Star Trek technology, but for some reason hardly anybody ever seems to do them.
*** When Data shut down Bridge life-support in "Brothers", he had to bypass multiple independent safety systems to do it. Considering how easy it is to take over or corrupt Federation computer software, the risks aren't worth the rewards.
** What about, say, increasing the gravity in a section? You could even have safeties in place so that the gravity can be increased beyond the ability of a boarding party to operate as an effective fighting force, but well short of the point where short exposure would cause serious permanent health effects. I'm not sure where the respective thresholds are exactly, but I'd imagine five or six G-forces would do the trick. Then the redshirts stand just beyond the affected areas and stun the intruders, who are too busy trying to stay on their feet even to think about returning fire. Then as soon as everyone's been neutralized, you restore the regular gravity to be extra-sure there are no lasting effects on the people you've trapped.
*** If it's Deep Space Nine or ENT, and we're fighting the enemy like we mean it, make it fifty G's instead of five, record the boarding party going splat, and send the video to the deceased enemies' superiors with instructions not to fuck with Starfleet.
*** Used in William Shatner's "Totality" trilogy. The alien beings from the invading "Totality" are made of Dark Matter, and don't really like gravity fields. They can barely stand one G, and disintegrate under higher weights. As they can impersonate people similarly to the Founders, Starfleet quickly institutes a policy of regularly turning up the gravity all over the ship, and keeping officers' quarters constantly on high.
** Also, you can play with temperature. Humans can function just fine at temperatures well below those at which Klingons curl up into shivering balls. Since Klingons are humans' greatest enemies in TOS, the movies, and a season of ''Deep Space Nine'', you'd think they'd have used it to their advantage once or twice. The same thing would work on Cardassians, too; they're comfortable at temperatures which are too warm for most other species, even non-humanoids like the Founders. So chances are they wouldn't be able to fight effectively if they boarded Deep Space Nine and O'Brien lowered the temperature to, say, 273 K (the freezing point of water).

[[folder:A Pon Farr with Rosie Palms?]]
* About the whole Pon Farr MateOrDie thing, why doesn't ADateWithRosiePalms work?
** It's probably not just a question of release. Consider when Tuvok went into pon farr. Tom Paris was able to rig up a hologram of his wife that allowed Tuvok to blow off steam, but the implication is that nothing else would have worked. It might be an emotional thing. There are multiple episodes that suggest that the Vulcan emotional suppression is not good for them. Pon farr could very easily be a consequence of that.
*** There was a prior Voyager episode where Ensign Vorik entered pon farr and the holoprogram failed to work for him.
*** Vorik had another option: B'Elana. Pon farr basically had him obsessed with her. Perhaps if Tom had thought to make a B'Elana hologram for Vorik to bang, he would have been able to pull a Tuvok.
** In the first ''Star Trek: New Frontier'' novel, we see a pretty explicit Pon Farr between two Vulcans, where they mind meld in the middle of coitus. Presumably doing this (combined with the physical act) is what causes the Vulcan's internal sex clock to reset.
*** Hormones. Very specific ones, too-where you NEED the hormones produced by your matched partner. Also why TheOldestProfession doesn't work for them.
** It probably is specifically something to do with the emotions. While a mind meld would help facilitate an emotional release, Tuvok and Vorik certainly couldn't have melded with holograms. The reason the hologram worked for Tuvok (once he was able to get it to stay online) is that he really did love his wife, and could express his love for her with this reminder of her. Vorik, on the other hand, only got temporary relief from T'Pera because she was a purely fictional holodeck character and he couldn't really fool himself into loving her the way he would love a real person. Each of the three known ways to resolve pon farr also show signs of being related to emotional release:
*** Mating is the most direct method of demonstrating one's love for another, of course.
*** Ritual combat for one's mate is somewhat less direct, but is much-romanticized in many cultures. Certainly, a man would have to love a woman quite a lot to be willing to fight for her, possibly to the death.
*** The intensive meditation, which did not prove effective for Vorik, probably focuses on one's intense love for an absent mate. As Vorik acknowledged, his betrothed had probably already given him up for lost. Tuvok, on the other hand, knew his wife was waiting for him at home, and he had the hologram to help remind him of that further. She presumably had some similar thoughts of him to comfort her through her own intensive meditation, knowing he was alive and on his way home.

[[folder:Supersize Those Starships]]
* Sure, the starships in Star Trek look awesome, but is there any logistical reason why they have to be so ''huge?'' What are all those personnel for, anyway?
** Not an exhaustive answer but, apart from the Defiant class, Starfleet general policy has always been not to build dedicated warships. Instead, every starship is designed as some kind of flying city, with an emphasis on scientific research.
** In TOS, various claims are made that the facilities on board the ''Enterprise'' alone pretty much match anything available at a starbase, that the ship can wipe out an entire planet easily, and that the dilithium crystals were virtually inexhaustible as long as you weren't stressing the ship. Really, the ship often does provide a technological solution to Kirk's risky god-defeating habit; it was supposed to be the limitless pinnacle of imaginable human accomplishment. Therefore, the large ship makes a bit of sense... a lot of inspiration was taken from WWII-era U.S. naval ships in the design (Jeffries designed the TOS bridge to be kind of spartan) and sheer prodigiousness of the power a "starship" packs. And even though "starships" are supposed to be ''the'' biggest and baddest machines available to humans, the complement of the NCC-1701 doesn't come ''close'' to its 19th-21st century equivalents. The ''Enterprise''-D does, it should be noted, but still cuts it on the small side compared to, say, a nuclear aircraft carrier (not a fair comparison because the ''Enterprise'' is more like a battleship than a carrier, which needs more crew to take care of the planes, but ''Film/{{Star Trek IV|The Voyage Home}}'' did it first so nyeh nyeh).\\
You have to bear in mind that a lot of these things were designed with the idea that SpaceIsAnOcean. For actual warships in real life, there is a lot of redundancy required so that parts of the crew can take shifts (sleep), and so parts of the crew can die in a war situation without leaving the ship helpless in any one of its capacities. And there are also a lot of things that require crew to keep an eye on, too; any given ''part'' of a ship might keep one to several people busy non-stop if the ship's operation demands it. Add a command structure on top of that. That's how you get the huge complements on ships with a wide field of capabilities--many of those capabilities will have specialists, and then there's necessary redundancy.
** There's also something to be said for the psychological effect that a huge capital ship has on both friends and enemies whenever Starfleet wants to show the flag. To Federation citizens and allies, a behemoth like an ''Ambassador'', ''Sovereign'', or ''Galaxy''-class starship rolling into town sends the message "Starfleet is here, and your problems are over." Enemies, on the other hand, get the message "Starfleet is here. Don't even ''think'' about starting any trouble." By the 24[[superscript:th]] Century, Romulans seem to subscribe to that idea, as well; making the ''D'deridex''-class warbird about twice the size of Starfleet's ''Galaxy''-class; which is part of the reason that the universal reaction to a D'deridex de-cloaking anywhere in the vicinity is 'OhCrap'
** Also keep in mind that not all new starships are bigger and badder. ''Intrepid''-class ships, for example, are smaller and more efficient. Starfleet uses both big and small ships depending on what's needed, just like any navy.
[[/folder]]






[[folder:What does the Alpha Quadrant Look like?]]
* When the dust had settled, you pretty much had four great powers in the Alpha Quadrant: the Federation, the Klingons, the Romulans, and the Cardassians. Then there are secondary powers like the Ferengi, the Breen, and the Nausicaans, and one-off species like the Tzenkethi and the Son'a; but dealing just with the Core Four, this is complex enough, so let's leave them be.
** I'm not sure that the Cardassians are really in quite the same league as the others; TNG makes it quite clear that they were pawning their priceless cultural treasures in order to maintain their war economy against the Feds (and given that this war wasn't even mentioned onscreen until it was over, it's fair to assume that for the Federation this wasn't a conflict on anything like the same scale as the wars with the Dominion or Klingons), bearing in mind that during this time the Cardassians had a highly militaristic society and the Federation didn't even have dedicated warships and still they felt so unthreatened by the war with Cardassia that they were using the flagship as a taxi half the time; plus the Klingons go through them like a hot knife through butter in Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine. It seems more likely that they're sort of first among the secondary powers, rather than a Great Power.
*** Although we don't get much canon on this, it's hard to imagine the Cardassians as still being a major power after the Dominion War, as it was ''particularly'' unkind to them.
*** I agree. To make some analogy with our world, lets say the Klingons, Romulans and Federation are like the US, Russia and China, then Cardassia is something in the lines of Iran, certainly a regional power and can give a good fight specially in a border's conflict, but can hardly withstand a whole invasion by any of the three above.

* At different points, each of the four powers is referred to as sharing a border with each of the other three. Assuming they all have contiguous territories--which I guess they might not--there are only two possible explanations: There's a point where the borders of all four come together at a ninety-degree angle and they meet in some center, like Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico; or three of them have borders that ''would'' come together and meet at a 120-degree angle (like an equilateral triangle divided into thirds) and the fourth one being plunked down in the center of this and extending out from the central point.
** Assuming that Federation's territory is continuous is kind of a stretch for this reason. Any planet can became a member of the Federation, that means that if a planet near Klingon space becomes a member, even if isolated from the rest of the Federation, that planet's star system (and its colonies if it has) becomes Federation space. Thus, is easy to see why the Federation has borders with everybody, their way to expansion has no reason to be continuous unlike empires that expand whether by conquest or by colonization which would be difficult to do if you’re not territorially connected. Something similar happened with the Dominion which's an evil version of the Federation, with Cardassia as the most obvious example as it became a member of the Dominion and suddenly the Dominion had territory in the Alpha Quadrant. In fact if you see most maps (although all of them are non-canonical) you'll see “pockets” of Federation space. Of course, is logical that the Federation has some very large continuities of space, on one hand because its members tend to colonize other worlds thus expanding Federation territory continually, and on the other because as is logic Federation members obviously influence nearby worlds and if you live near the Federation border you'll be under its cultural, economic and political influence and joining the Federation would see appealing, is something similar on how the European Union expands (with their neighbors first) but you also has something like Cyprus which is nor even in Europe, is in Asia.
*** This is all true, but the tendency is to visualize the Federation and other powers as amoeba-like blobs.

* Actually, the former doesn't work, either: The Federation had a Klingon Neutral Zone ''and'' a Romulan Neutral Zone ''and'' a Cardassian DMZ. So it had borders with all three extending for a good while. For the Square States model to work, it would only touch one of the three at a geometric point.

* As for the latter setup--I guess it works, but it's pretty stupid, isn't it?
** Allow me to introduce you to a concept called "3 Dimensions". Space is not a flat map where 4 regions can only meet at a single corner. Granted, this *is* Star Trek which adores the SpaceIsAnOcean trope. The boundaries can wander and roam all over the place, and it would be pretty easy for all 4 empires to share stretches of contiguous border.
** The relevance of the third dimension depends how big the empires are: the Galaxy is much narrower along its "vertical" axis (its thickness is only 1% of its diameter). While this is still an enormous distance, and it's reasonable to expect overlap, we're also dealing with incomprehensibly-huge nations here that may well extend far further than that in the "horizontal" plane. Assuming they each spread evenly from a central point, the borders would reasonably tend to line up when viewed from above.

* And another thing: Federation space includes a bajillion species, both Fed members and pre-warp civilizations whom they ignore under the Prime Directive but protect from foreign interlopers by maintaining their own territorial integrity. The Romulans have only the Remans. The Cardassians had only the Bajorans until they got thrown out. The Klingons tried to enslave two races in TOS and had one whom they had enslaved in ENT. But for the most part all three species had their space to themselves.
** If worths something, the Expanded Universe does establishes that the Romulans are a true empire, having control over several species, not only the Remans. The Klingons use to be like that but they mostly liberated most of their non-Klingon subjects but maintain a certain influence over them, something along the lines of the Commonwealth or the relation of Spain with Latin America and Ecuatorial Guinea.

* Now assuming that the likelihood of a Class-M planet will develop an intelligent race is pretty much the same anywhere (and I can't see any reason it wouldn't be) that means that the Federation is either much larger territorially than the others, or it has a much denser concentration of inhabitable planets, which one assumes mean many more resources to exploit. Either of those factors would give it a huge advantage over the other civilizations, would make the the Alpha Quadrant's dominant superpower. But it deals with each of the other three as equals most of the time.

** In the first half of TNG I could easily imagine the Federation being run by such shrinking violets that they can be bested by enemies a fraction of their size. Then the Borg came along and gave them a wake-up call. It's kind of like the United States in WWII: In 1940, despite being much larger than Germany, the US army was severely outnumbered, outweighed, and outclassed by its German counterpart, because the Germans were on a war footing and the US wasn't. In 1943, the US war machine was going all-out, and even without the rest of the Allies would have had every advantage over the Germans in a one-on-one fight.

** Where this breaks down is that the Federation had had a ton of Pearl Harbor moments, starting with Wolf 359, the near-war with Cardassia in "Chain of Command," the war with the Klingons in Season 5 of Deep Space Nine, the Dominion alliance with Cardassia, the second Borg invasion. . . . Eventually, the Federation certainly created the impression that it was going balls-to-the-wall to deal with all these threats. But if it were, and if it's as much a potential powerhouse as you suggested, it couldn't help being as strong in the Alpha Quadrant as the Dominion was in the Gamma--In which case it would have beaten the Cardassians and the fraction of the Jem'Hadar fleet that got through before the wormhole got cut off like a rented mule, even without the Klingons' help, and would have faced the entire Gamma Quadrant Dominion force on an even footing. Instead, it's barely keeping its head above water with the fraction of the Dominion fleet in the Alpha Quadrant, and at the beginning of the sixth season everyone's puckering their assholes at the thought the rest of the Jem'Hadar will show up and give the Dominion an insurmountable numerical advantage.

** Remember the Federation supposedly has no military, that most of Starfleet's ships are equipped for research and humanitarian aid and that most of the crew signed up for the engineering or scientific opportunities. Starfleet simply doesn't operate on the level of the Cardassian or Klingon militaries; it seems reasonable that the Federation must be many times larger and more (economically) powerful if it's even able to maintain an equal relationship. Even when they get onto a "war" footing, they're still mostly using obsolete ships (notice the ''Excelsior''-class appears a lot in Deep Space Nine), crewed by personnel with woefully inadequate combat training, as they have no dedicated military academy or warship production facilities. The few instances where a ship or crew is up to scratch militarily (the ''Defiant'', any ''Galaxy''-class with the children offloaded) they're normally portrayed as being able to tear through enemy ships by the dozen, with the exception of the very first battle with the Dominion.

** While this is pure fanon, it is also possible that the Klingons, Romulans, and Cardassians have enough worlds and subject species under their control to have comparable resources to The Federation, but the fact that they are Empires that conquered these territories instead of democracies that formed alliances with them along with a healthy dose of institutionalized racism means that the races who these Empires are named after are the ruling class and are the only ones to rise to the positions where The Federation deals with them (i/e: Government and Military)

** The EU mentions that the Romulans do have several subject species apart from the Remans, the Klingon use to but mostly liberated them all just keeping a certain political and cultural influence like the Commonwealth of Nations to England, and the Cardassians only subjugated the Bajorans for a while. Regarding “the likelihood of a Class-M planet will develop an intelligent race is pretty much the same anywhere” that’s actually not the case, in fact in a similar way how we have Goldilocks areas in solar systems that allow for the development of life, same happens with the Galaxy, there are areas of the Galaxy that are more likely to allow for the developing of life than other. Thus, that may be the explanation; Klingon and Romulans developed (or in the case of the Romulans colonized) areas of the Galaxy hostile for life, which would explain in the case of the Klingon why are they so toughened. Is not that this areas are totally unable to harvest life, some life form can develop, but is much more rare than in other areas thus the Klingon had very few inhabited planets as neighbors, whilst the original Vulcans that colonized Romulus choose it precisely because of its isolated position with very few inhabited planets around. Whilst in other areas life thrill and was plentiful as the area was perfect for the developing of life, this is the area where Earth, Vulcan, Andoria etc. are and as may sound logic the civilizations of this areas will interact with each other and have further cooperation and integration, similarly how we have the European Union or the United States (which was originally a confederation) in our world. In fact is very similar to our world how Russia and China hold very large territories many of them vastly underpopulated, like Siberia.
[[/folder]]






[[folder: Boarding Party Massacre]]
* Given the amount of control over the environment that we see on starships, it beggars belief that any hostile boarding party could ever seize one... yet they do with some regularity. As people have suggested elsewhere, if somebody beams on, beam them back. Or beam them to the brig. Or if you're feeling nasty, decorporalize them and leave them that way. Transporter not working? Turn off the lights. Turn off the heat. Turn off the gravity... or ramp it way up. Drop force fields wherever you feel like it. Worst comes to worst: open an airlock. Some of these strategies would be more drastic and risk more collateral damage than others, but the point is that there should be about a billion strategies to stop or at least slow down intruders, yet in episodes like "Rascals," "Basics, Part I" and too many others to count, our heroes just lean back as the bad guys waltz in.
** Beaming has to deal with the fact you would have to drop your shields, and if you beam out the boarding party the enemy ships with antimatter warheads knows they have no reason to torpedo you while you have no shields. For the rest... RuleOfCool.
*** Having the shields up does not mean your transporters suddenly stop working -- you can still beam people within your ship (or decorporalize them altogether).
[[/folder]]









[[folder: I hate having women on the bridge, right female first officer?]]
A fairly minor one from the first pilot, but... what is up with Pike's reaction when the female yeomen visited the bridge to deliver a report? He complains about having a woman on the bridge, to his female first officer! When she asks what the hell is up with that, he just claims that the first officer is different. No explanation given on what or why. And it's not even like the yeoman was going to permanently stationed on the bridge, she just delivered a report! What, are women supposed to wait until you leave the bridge to deliver reports? And aside from that, its not like he has anything against women in the command structure, since the yeomen was in the meeting room later in the episode.
* An EU novel states that it wasn't that she was a woman, but the fact that his previous yeoman, a male friend of his, had just recently died, so he was feeling a bit bitter.
* I always assumed Number One was treated as OneOfTheBoys and therefore was excepted from the rule- Cpt. Pike pretty much implies it in the dialogue.
[[/folder]]









[[folder: Why don't they handle beaming cargo more efficiently?]]
* Whenever we see cargo being transported on board, usually it's a crate about the size of a beer cooler being beamed to the ''personnel'' transport pad. Wouldn't it make more sense to have transporter pads large enough to handle big cargo containers in the hold (and maybe move them with small tractor beams)? This is especially odd in ''Star Trek: Enterprise'' where the transport beams are a new technology and we are told they are mainly used to transport cargo for safety reasons. And then, the first we see it in use is with a pad about the right size for a person, used to beam in one of those small crates!
** The Enterprise D had cargo transporters and tractor beams to move things around in the cargo bays. Small items carried with a person are transported on the personnel transporter pad and large pallets of stuff are transported to the cargo bays. With ''Enterprise'' the transporter was probably as big as they could make it, and that just happened to be big enough for a person. And if they needed those parts immediately then there was no point in waiting until another set of crates arrived so they could all be transported together.
[[/folder]]


[[folder: Somebody holds stock in a pecan pie company?]]
* Latter-day Franchise/StarTrek has an odd obsession with [[http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Pecan_pie pecan pie]]. What's with the pecan pie references, writers?
** Maybe it's for the same reason they like the number 47?
** As of 2020, that's four episodes between two different shows. If that qualifies as an obsession, the writers must also be getting payoffs from Big Asparagus. But to humor you: pecan pie is a popular dessert from North America, where Trip Tucker (who obsesses over it the most) was born. Star Trek routinely throws in references to modern generic Earth foodstuffs to connect with its audience, who might have a better idea of what they taste like than they would plomeek soup or gagh.

[[/folder]]






[[folder:The names of Romulus, Remus, and Vulcan]]
* Why are the planets Romulus, Remus, and Vulcan, as well as their inhabitants, named after beings from ancient Earth mythology? It can't be just a function of the Universal Translator, because it doesn't translate the names of other planets, such as Klingon. And it can't be that those are just the names humans came up for them, because other races (including inhabitants of these planets themselves) use the same names as well. It's never mentioned or even implied any of these planets might have a different name in their own language.
** Well, the expanded universe does explains that the alien seen in the episode ''Who Mourns for Adonais?'' Named itself Apollo belong to a race of god-like aliens that inspired Earth’s Greek-Roman culture and ancient Vulcan culture. If this is ever explained on-screen, IDK.
** The concept is probably that these are just the human names for them and they have indigenous names that we don't hear just because of a TranslationConvention. Diane Duane famously invented "Rihannsu" as the Romulans' name for themselves.
** If it's just a case of TranslationConvention, why are there meaningful human names for these three planets, but not for any others, such as Klingon or Cardassia or Bajor?
*** Well actually Klingon is not the name the Klingon give to themselves, is tlhIngan.
*** This is just it: who's to say that they're not? The Romulans hail from a planet that for whatever reason got the classical appellation "Romulus." The Cardassians hail from a planet that did not get such a name -- but it could well be that "Cardassian" is still just the name the Federation uses, rather than the indigenous name the Cardassians use for themselves (just as we English speakers generally say "German" rather than "Deutsch").
*** That's a good example. The Federation calls "Cronos" (another Greek god) the Klingon home world, but the name in Klingon is Qo'noS, so we know that at least there's other case of translation convention. Wether cases like Cardassia or Bajor remain (probably) untranslated, that's not uncommon in real life either. Deutschland in German is call Germany in English and Alemania in Spanish for example, but Costa Rica is call the same in every language even when it means "Rich Coast", so there are cases in which, for whatever reasons, some names are translated and some not. Maybe the same happens with planets.
*** I gather we're supposed to think that the name of the Klingon home world, Qo'noS, transliterates to "Kronos," the same name as the Titan, and this is a coincidence.
** These are likely [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exonym exonyms]]. Much like Germany is an exonym for Deutschland, and Japan is an exonym for Nihon/Nippon, these exonyms are probably based on humans' impressions of the planets. Kronos, land of the titans. Vulcan...a hot place. Romulus, land of people who dress like Romans. Remus...the other inhabited planet in the same system as Romulus. It's a well precedented phenomenon.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: What does everybody else on that ship do?]]
* It seems like they travel through space in a huge spaceship with at least a hundred people on it, and yet only the people on the bridge do anything, even when they go down to the planet. Now it's true that there need to be people to look after a ship of that size, but surely it would be easier just to have a smaller ship with less crew who are there just to be killed off every time they run into a little bit of trouble, as it seems to be their only job is cannon fodder and it seems strange that anyone in this type of Utopian society would sign up just to be cannon fodder.
** Several episodes give the crew size as 430, which really isn't very many at all (a real world aircraft carrier has a crew complement of about 5000). The commanding officers would beam down because only they had the authority to make contact with a newly discovered planet. The cannon fodder redshirts were security guards whose job was to act as bodyguards for the main characters. (Although it does seem serving as a security guard under Kirk was more hazardous than most captains in the Federation.)
** The vast majority of the crew are going to be maintenance and operations crews. You only need a small number of people to give orders, but that translates into hundreds of people to carry them out: e.g. the captain orders the ship to go to warp, a full maintenance crew is keeping an eye on the engine and adjusting the power levels. Giving the order to fire a torpedo means the torpedoes have to be armed and loaded, which requires supervision, and a team of people to keep them ready for use and properly looked after. Shuttles need to be fueled, repaired, cleaned after use, etc. Food, air and fuel need to be organized. People need to fill out paperwork whenever any of these resources is used up. And so on. Double that for the large science teams Federation ships carry... who in turn need their ''own'' maintenance and administrative personnel for their scientific equipment... (You'd expect the computer to do a lot of the work, but the story 1. doesn't allow shipboard AI for some reason and 2. is based on present day ship crews.)
** There are several episodes dedicated to the lower decks of the various ships who sit at a console waiting for something to happen. Nothing is immune to decay. Fuses, lightbulbs, plasma couplings and other things need to be maintained, probably on a daily basis. That stuff isn't very glamorous but it is necessary. Scotty merely represents the leadership of the entire engineering department that is putting the ship back together after every battle.
** The franchise as a whole ''does'' have a pretty bad case of TheMainCharactersDoEverything. Series/StarTrekEnterprise, to its credit (a phrase that I find painful to type), actually steps away from this significantly by finally including marines--[=MACOs=], in-universe--with the crew.
** In theory, of course, full automation would allow a ship like the ''Enterprise'' to function with a much smaller crew. There are two reasons that Starfleet sticks with semi-automation: 1) Every position on a military ship needs to have a backup - and, ideally, two backups - to allow for casualties. Note that in this film, ''the main cast'' are largely those very backups. 2) The ST universe has a ''lot'' of AIIsACrapshoot instances which would lead almost any starship designer to feel that having everything run through a central computer cannot end well.
*** Assuming AIIsACrapshoot were not in force, you'd also have that the Federation is a post-scarcity, post-money society which doesn't have to worry about things like budget constraints (of employing larger crews than necessary) and are probably people-oriented in their values- they employ people because it gives them a reason to do something of value to themselves.
** On the original ''Enterprise'' much of the crew were scientific specialists to perform research projects on all of the strange new life and new civilizations they were encountering. And when Kirk needed a specialist on, say, 20th century history and technology, he could bring one along.

[[folder:Earth Standard Time Everywhere]]
* Why is it that no matter what planet, space station, or alien culture we're talking about, time is always referred to in Earth-centric units? Days, weeks, months, years...these units are all based on the rotation and orbit of planet Earth! So, when we're not on Earth, or dealing with species not from Earth, it makes no sense that they would use them! Prisoners talk about having done "seven years" in penal colonies in space, Vulcans talk about being several hundred years old, and the crews of the various starships talk about how many days they are away from their destinations. In an episode of Enterprise, Archer even tells Phlox to turn a lever to the "three o'clock position" - another Earth idiom, based not just on our measurements of time, but on the standard physical 12-hour clock used to measure time on Earth, that everyone on Earth is familiar with, but which Phlox's planet probably doesn't have. Granted, some of this can be handwaved by the universal translator converting alien time units into a form that humans are familiar with, or maybe the Federation uses Earth time units as the standard seeing as it's a human-based organization, but mostly, it's a mark of lazy writing. It would be nice to hear an alien race use units of time that are germane to THEIR planet for a change. Also, there's another problem: The passage of time is not constant throughout the universe! One day on earth does not equate to one day (or the equivalent of one Earth day) on another planet, or in space; the theory of relativity holds that time is not "synced" between places very far apart in the universe. This issue becomes extremely mind-boggling in Enterprise when Archer's captains logs are still being recorded using Earth's calendar rather than stardates (which, according to lore, were devised specifically to avoid this entire issue). Just because it's July 12 on Earth, doesn't mean it's July 12 in the middle of space. Lazy writing.
** It's a human-built and human-staffed starship in addition to the fact that MostWritersAreHuman, they have a priority to use the time scales created by their own species. Trying to resolve time frames for every species they encounter is not lazy writing, it's recognizing what is not needed to tell a compelling story. It can also be assumed that when meeting species unfamiliar with Earth or humans at all when they refer to any time scale it is a factor of the [[TranslatorMicrobes universal translator]], it's adjusting what they mean to the closest approximation of hours, minutes and seconds.
* For that matter, how do they work out duty shifts on vessels with multiple species aboard? Not all planets have a 24-hour day cycle. Is it just that all M-class (which I interpret as Earth-like) planets have similar-length days, or is some other arrangement made?
** ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Deep Space Nine]]'' used the Bajoran schedule. I'm guessing it's majority rule.
** Starfleet might prefer a standard 24-hour day because 24 is just a really easy number to work with. Being a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superior_highly_composite_number superior highly composite number]], it's simple to use 24 for scheduling because 24 is evenly divisible by so many whole numbers: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 12, and 24.
* There has to be ''some'' standard (on Earth, if a planetary standard is needed, it's generally Greenwich Mean Time, which is essentially arbitrary) and Earth is as good as any - it is where Federation HQ is after all (and obviously MostWritersAreHuman and Most Viewers Are Human, too). That does ignore the effect of Relativity, admittedly.
* It's almost unavoidable as using the current measure of time immediately gets the point across to the audience without bogging down the narrative with constant time unit conversions. And if they're using some new-fashioned clock then what they say is essentially gibberish unless someone asks and gets it converted in the show, but if even the Federation uses a different clock, then who would ask for a modern Earth time? How else would they know what a [[Film/MenInBlack Standard Galactic Week]] is? You could assume it's roughly equivalent to an Earth week, [[EarthShatteringKaboom but that would be wrong]]. Units of time are essentially all arbitrary, so it's just choose one to make your standard. It could be Earth time, or something entirely new. Chances are since the Federation capitol is on Earth that they decided to use Earth time for this reason. It's hard to say how much of an effect relativity would have had on the NX-01, but I am sure they took care of it, likely by means of the occasional synchronization with Earth time. We deal with relativity today the same way on a daily basis with all our major clocks from financial to GPS to our home computers synchronizing to stationary atomic clocks, but the effects of relativity at this level are too minuscule to really notice, more noticeable being the clock's own natural inaccuracies (being that it's not an atomic clock). Even in TNG they still synchronized clocks (using Federation Time Beacons). As for Phlox, though he might not have been born on Earth, he spent some time there, so it's not unlikely that he would have picked up on a few human idioms. Given the Universal Translator was relatively new tech, he probably spoke the same language as everyone else on the ship.

[[folder:Everybody's MacGuyver]]
* Anyone ever notice that EVERY MEMBER of Starfleet is an engineering genius? I mean, yes, the chief engineer is supposed to be awesome like that, but everyone else seems to know far more about engineering than they should. When stranded on a planet, if any member of the crew has the parts, even members of Security or Command divisions, they can assemble any device. Sometimes, they don't even have the parts, just raw materials. This is generally absurd, and bugs the heck out of me. It makes me wonder why they even need anyone in engineering other than the Chief. Just have more security guys, and when they aren't needed put them in engineering.
** There was an episode in season one of ''TNG'' where a child who looks to be about ten years old was complaining about having to go to ''calculus'' class. I think you have your answer.
** Basically, a ''normal'' Starfleet officer is near what we consider expert level in several sciences, engineering, combat, law enforcement, and diplomacy. When you add a specialization on top of that, you hit outright FutureBadass level in that discipline. May have a slight connection to EvolutionaryLevels.
*** Think about this: the Academy (as nicely shown in the most recent movie) has enough cadets around to staff approximately eight to ten ships. These cadets are drawn from the finest students on every world of the Federation. We're almost literally talking about one in a billion talents for even the lowest security officer. Out of Earth's current population, there's probably only ten people who'd be good enough for Starfleet Academy.
** This also works the other way. In ''Deep Space Nine'' we see the main cast regularly shoot down Jem Hadar soldiers, which are supposed to be very tough. This main cast includes a Doctor, an Engineer, and a Science Officer. Admittedly, the Doctor is genetically engineered (But so are the Jem Hadar, and they also train from birth), the Engineer used to be a soldier, and the Science Officer is several hundred years old, but it should least appear that Worf, ya know, the actual Klingon Security Officer is better than these guys, yet it is rarely the case.
*** Saying colloquially that Jem'Hadar are trained "from birth" is misleading, since they reach mature adulthood in a few days. Entire generations might not equal human lifespans, making Jadzia and Bashir more experienced in combat by virtue of having lived through more fights (across many more years).
*** The main cast of ''Deep Space Nine'' may be in mostly non-combat professions, but they're still ''members of a military organization''. And like any military organization, Starfleet obviously gives combat training to ''all'' of its recruits, not just its security officers.
*** What we don't see is that the Jem Hadar train from birth against ''puppies''. Space puppies, but still puppies.
*** I think those are pretty big things to just count out, especially in the case of O'Brien and Jadzia. They know how to shoot a gun because of long experience, and guns are pretty equalizing now matter how good Jem'Hadar are. It still stretches my ability to accept it when Jadzia beats Klingons or Jem'Hadar in hand-to-hand though, for all that Curzon was a master of Klingon martial arts...
*** Jadzia doesn't just have old memories. It's indicated from early on that she stays in practice, and is one of the best hand-to-hand fighters on the station, and, though not quite as strong as Curzon was, still a superb athlete.
*** And IIRC O'Brien is actually a war veteran from the Cardassian War.
** Starfleet Academy is pretty much the U.S. Naval Academy [[RecycledINSPACE In Space.]] At the Naval Academy, you automatically graduate with a bachelor of science regardless of the major you choose - in fact, they advocate choosing any major you want; you'll receive all the training you need when you get your ship assignments. So it's not too hard to imagine that the curriculum at the Academy includes basic training in pretty much everything you need to run a ship. The difference is the level of depth the technology is studied. Basically, the captain and company can make the Phlebotinum run the ship, but the engineer can make it sit up and beg.
* Also consider that the impressive skills of Starfleet Engineers is {{lampshaded}} on ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Deep Space Nine]]''. A Vorta states that Starfleet Engineers can make [[WorthyAdversary rocks into replicators]].
* The ''[[Series/StarTrekVoyager Voyager]]'' episode "Good Shepherd" is a rare occasion wherein we see a Starfleet member who is really struggling with all the complicated stuff Starfleet people are supposed to do. The episode is about the problem that being stranded in the Delta Quadrant and all, the USS Voyager is lacking the usual options of dealing with under-performers and other "misfits" like her. (Like transferring them to a job somewhere more appropriate for their skill level, or even booting them out of Starfleet altogether.)

[[folder:Send Out the Clones]]
* Why is the Federation filled with luddites? How can such an advanced society be so hung up about clones and genetic engineering? Whenever a genetically engineered or cloned person appears, the Enterprise crew reacts with awe and dread. Sometimes, the appearance of a clone warrants a commercial break.
** The Star Trek universe had some ''very'' bad experiences with gene engineering. The first large-scale effort unleashed a wave of augments that took over a fourth of the planet in the mid-80s and until the mid-90s, and the results were devastating... whenever the canon remembers them. Klingon attempts at genetic engineering on similar lines resulted in a plague that nearly killed off their entire species. Military technology enhancement projects or cloning likewise tend to have rather [[AIIsACrapshoot nasty results]], presumably with the local universe (or at least Federation scientists) being predisposed to such issues. This has driven those fields to the edges of space and pseudoscience, with the resulting increase in similar mistakes and further enforced prejudices. The Federation Counsel is also a rather humans-only club, so they seem to suffer from a degree of Frankenstein syndrome.
*** That's not even mentioning when TNG episode with the genetically engineered uberkinder who had immune systems so effective, they killed normal people...
** Wait, what? What on Earth gave you the impression that the Federation, the people who put ''touch screens'' on '''a pair of barbells''', are in any way "luddites"?
** The problem with cloning and genetic engineering seems to be more of a fear of the past. As they said in one episode, "For every Julian Bashir, there's a Khan Singh waiting in the wings." Given the abysmal catastrophes that cloning and genetic engineering have created in the past, no one wants to take the chance again.
** But all of this emphasizes the EarthIsTheCenterOfTheUniverse trope. The Eugenics Wars happened before humanity developed warp capability and were limited exclusively to Earth. The botched attempt to create Klingon Augments was an example of taking science that was already known to have bugs waiting to be fixed and injudiciously trying to implement it on a short timetable. None of this explains why the numerous other Federation species would have a ban on cloning and[=/=]or genetic engineering other than to accommodate human paranoia about it. On the other hand, some Federation species (e.g. Vulcans) have a suspiciously high number of very valuable adaptations. Is this because they found a little genetic fine-tuning "logical"? It would certainly account for why they are telepathic when Romulans do not appear to be. Betazoids are also suspicious, because their telepathy is just awesome (it works at really long range), which could leave one wondering why they even have the ability to speak vocally at all (after all, the Cairn can't). If their telepathy evolved very recently in their history, and their not-so-distant ancestors were not telepathic, that would explain why they can speak. But traits like that rarely spread through an entire species gene pool without either a lot of generations, or else artificial intervention.
** It also raises the question of just what they're scared of in genetically enhanced people - Julian Bashir learns faster than normal humans and has better hand-eye coordination. Khan learns fast and has super-strength. This apparently makes them especially dangerous to normal humans. Vulcans and Klingons are stronger than humans, Vulcans and Betazoids are telepathic, Trill carry all the knowledge and experience of their past lives, but no one's scared of them. It can't be a problem with making "better" humans because that should also apply to humans having children with superhuman aliens and to giving Geordi a VISOR with a wider range of vision than human eyes. It can't be purely a fear of science either - Data has superhuman strength, coordination, learning and thinking speeds, and is potentially immortal, but no one's scared of him; they just argue over whether or not he's sapient. What's so special about genetic engineering?
** Klingons and Vulcans do not have the possibility of becoming the masters of humanity. Besides judging by most Augments we know, is not only the superior strength and intelligence, is that they are mentally unstable and with anti-social tendencies.
*** Why don't Klingons and Vulcans have the possibility of becoming masters of humanity? The Klingons even tried - they were the enemy of the entire Federation in TOS. But after the Khitomer Accords were signed, no one had a problem with them.
*** Well, even if they can or not, humans can't do anything about it as there's no way to exterminate Klingons and Vulcans, but they do can avoid the existence of Augments all together by banning genetic manipulation.
*** Wait, you're arguing that if they had the chance, humans would go full-on ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' and genocide everyone else?
*** Previous poster here. I don't get the reference because I only know about Warhammer by name, but no, my point that even if there are humans who distrust aliens for their power they can do much about it, but they do can control their own population.

[[folder:Picard's No Solid Snake]]
* Where do people on Star Trek learn their infiltration skills? Whenever anyone sneaks into a facility, or up on someone, they have no silenced weapons, night vision goggles, flash grenades, or, in case things get real messy, combat knives. If a guard accidentally discovers them, they don't silently put a bullet in his head or slit his throat. Instead, they take him out, from a distance, with a glowing, noisy beam of plasma. In Star Trek VI, the Undiscovered Country, for example, a sniper tries to take out the president (or kung fu master). The assassin fails but still. No self-respecting sniper would fire at a target with a noisy, glowing beam of plasma that can be traced back to the sniper's position. Every Star Trek show does this. When they're scoping tangos, they don't do it through rifle scopes. Hell, they usually don't have rifles to begin with. Usually, the only ordinance that they carry with them is their dustbusters which shoot noisy, glowing beams of plasma. Now, the Federation has a code against killing with hand weapons. Phasers are almost always set to stun, even if the other guy has a supernova disruptor pointed at them. But come on!
** A couple points: First, when they have rifles, they don't need an optical scope, they have sensors and a display screen tied into a computer assist that lets them fire off-axis. Second, that I recall, when Starfleet crew were sneaking around, they beat down/nerve pinched/sedated opposition far more often than they used phasers. (I do, though, agree that knives would have been ''very'' helpful.) Third, Colonel West's scheme in STVI, with his Klingon disguise, would only have worked if he was seen--you can't blame someone you can't (mis)identify. Following from this, he likely didn't intend to survive; if the imposture was to be maintained, suicide by disintegration would have been far more practical than evading capture after being spotted.
*** Incidentally, there are a couple of notable exceptions. Janeway packed a Ka-Bar in "Macrocosm" (Seriously, it was an honest-to-goodness Ka-Bar Combat Knife). She retrieved it from an equipment locker aboard Voyager, implying that combat knives are, in fact, standard-issue aboard Starfleet ships, but nobody ever uses them. Later, in ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'', [=MACOs=] carry metallic side-handle stun batons. It's a really bizarre choice for an infantry weapon, but they do manage to come in handy on more than one occasion.
** Because the Star Trek universe is populated by idiots who have never heard of the concept of "combined arms".
** Degradation of warfare mentality due to a shift in combat norms. Most warp-capable species do the majority of their fighting via ship-to-ship combat, having found more enemies out in space than on their own worlds. Consequently, they don't employ snipers as often, and so have forgotten/neglected a lot of the applicable tactics for them.

[[folder:Boldly Going Where No Waiter's Gone Before]]
* Why do restaurants and bars still need wait staffs? Why don't they just put food replicators at everybody's tables? It's not like Quark, Whoopi Goldberg, Neelix and Sisko's father need jobs, right? Nobody does. Because they don't use money, right?
** I always considered the entire "They Don't Use Money in the Future" to be a load of hogwash, so in my eyes they do need jobs.
** Neelix they needed him because they had to cut down on replicator usage. As for Sisko's father there's a theory [[http://canonfodder.ex-astris-scientia.org/index.php?Society_%26_Culture:Federation_Economy here]] that doing stuff like having a restaurant earns you prestige or something. For Quark, I think people go there for entertainment as well. For Whoopi, I got nothing.
*** You don't see why someone would want to develop a relationship with a bartender? I love my favorite bartenders, I'd miss them so much if I stopped drinking there or they quit or whatever, and they don't have a tenth of Guinan's insightfulness.
** I always thought Sisko's father had a restaurant just because he enjoyed cooking and serving people. As for the waiters i've got nuffin. Actually what do humans do in a world where we don't need money and everything is handed to you on a replicated plate?
*** Captain Picard said in ''First Contact'', "we work to better ourselves". Draw from that what you will.
** Whoopi was a morale officer, someone who you could talk to about your problems or whatever and someone who wasn't required to answer to anyone (so she wouldn't have to tell your secrets if she was ordered to). Also she was immortal, had lived for a long time, was present in events in the past that the Enterprise crew was part of, and also knows a lot of unwritten information on species and et cetera. Besides, when you go to a bar or restaurant, you're actually not buying the food (well, you ARE, but), what you're buying is the ambiance, the freedom from having to clean up after yourself, the possible chance of meeting someone new or interesting, and the chance to try food that you wouldn't be able to cook, or in this case, food that you wouldn't think to replicate on your own. If everyone didn't find a point for having social interaction over dinner where they didn't have to clean up the mess, we'd probably just see everyone as incredibly anti-social shut-ins who just eat replicated gruel in their quarters.
*** "Whoopi was a morale officer, someone who you could talk to about your problems or whatever and someone who wasn't required to answer to anyone (so she wouldn't have to tell your secrets if she was ordered to)." WOW. That's an...interesting angle to take. Now I'm wondering even more why anyone listens to Counselor Troi if she can be ordered to violate doctor-patient confidentiality by anyone who outranks her.
** Or maybe, just like everyone else in the Federation, they were waiting table/tending bar because they wanted to. Hell, if you've got replicators and holodecks, you only ever do something because you want to.
** Replicators just generate a whole MESS of problems - the only things that are of any value are the random things that are unreplicatable. This is presumably why ''Deep Space Nine'' dedicated an episode or two to playfully skirting around the issue of the nebulous economic mechanics... but of course, one gets to thinking that if you can replicate just about anything in a starship... and get to making a really, really big replicator, shouldn't it become possible to just put in the materials, hit the button and create a ship in a minute or two?
*** The Technical Manuals make note on this. The [=DS9=] TM states the largest replicator that Starfleet has was only 50m x 70m or so. Big enough for parts, but not enough for whole starships. The TNG manual does one better and states, "If you could replicate a starship, you wouldn't need to." Replication is energy intensive, and if you have the wherewithal to replicate something that big and complicated, then you have the technology and energy budget that lets you play in the "godlike races" end of the pool.
** Deep Space Nine had the wormhole mined with Rom's cloaked self-replicating mines... Assuming that these mines can maintain their number indefinitely... isn't this a big ol' conservation of mass violation? Should these mines run amok, couldn't they fill the universe?!
*** The mines require an input of matter and energy to replicate. These come from the ships the mines blow up. Every ship destroyed adds its own mass to the mine field and some of that is converted to energy to fuel the mines. If it take 20 mines to blow up the ship, and the ship adds enough mass and energy to create 30 mines, the field grows by 10 mines. In theory, yes, they could run amok and eat everything. In practice, it would take dozens or hundreds of fleets to expand the mine field enough to reach the point where it would be able to reach and blow up even a tiny astronomical body and therefore become a potential threat to the local system, let alone the galaxy or universe. It is more likely that the mines just break even when blowing up a ship, so that the field doesn't much shrink. it is even possible that the minefield was shrinking with each hit, making few mines that it took to blow up. But as they were cloaked, there was no way to know that was the case.
** On the subject of the restaurants... if there was a replicator at every table, then that would completely defeat the purpose of having a restaurant, because people go to restaurants because they want non-replicated food. Quark still tens bar because the drinks he serves are real, not replicated, and you still need a bar tender to mix them. Same thing for Guinan. And honestly, for places that use a mix of replicators and real food like Quark's and Ten Forward, it just eats up more power to have a replicator at every table than to have a half dozen and some waiters.
** As for why people do it, other than 'because they want to' (since one might suppose that being a waiter is only the ideal job of a select few people) jobs in the service industry might be a way to earn passage into space, exploration, etc. without necessarily joining Starfleet. Since we only see civilian ships every once in a blue moon, one gets the impression that anyone who wants to leave their planet and isn't a genius-level Starfleet recruit has to get creative about it.
*** Also, I'd imagine there's a higher work-life balance for someone with a lower level job. Someone with the aptitude and ambition can be a revered Starfleet captain, but they'll have to put off any hope of a personal life 'till after retirement. Alternately, someone who wants to spend more time with their family or pursue their outside interests could take a job like being a waiter and, though they don't get the prestige and power, they only have to work at a nearby restaurant for a few hours a day. It's much the same reason people choose different jobs today, except money doesn't factor into it anymore.
* As for having a waiter job or running a business, why not? It gets you out of the house. Cabin fever is a bitch.
* Why be a waiter? Because in this society where money isn't important anymore, what matters is your skill and your ability. Waiting tables at one of the most popular and successful Cajun restaurants in the city is a perfect way to learn the trade so that, when you are ready, you can go open your own restaurant, having learned at the hands of the master.
* Several times in [=DS=]9 cooked meals were described as "better than that replicated stuff". Replicated things might be good, but it could not be the same quality as if it was made "the old fashioned way". I guess you could apply the same thing to the replicating starships idea, will they have the same sort of stress tolerance a traditionally built ship have? So yeah, people go to restaurants because they want to eat something good.

[[folder:Where Did All the Religious People Go?]]
* What's up with Star Trek and religion? Other species seem to have it, but all humans have is some weak New-Agey Stuff. Even Chakotay's practice isn't for a specific tribe. We don't even know whether they are from Latin America or North America (the show gives evidence to both). It seems odd that in a culture where you or your loved ones could drop dead at any moment (hey, all those red shirts had families) and a good percentage of the population spends their time staring into the dark void of space, organized religion wouldn't have any appeal.
** Well... the "real" answer is that Creator/GeneRoddenberry was a secular humanist and a WriterOnBoard.
** What do you want them to do? Have Commander Goldman eating a bagel while reminding the captain he can't work on Saturday? For one, it can get offensive pretty easy just like my example. For two it's the 24th century. All religions that exist now still exist, but people aren't jerks about trying to force their religion's dogma on the rest of the universe anymore. Also we always see military installations, and usually when people are on duty. That's not an appropriate time to discuss religion. In fact, there have been religious humans in Trek. (a catholic in TOS, Joseph Sisko quotes from the Bible, and it's implied O'Brien's wife is a Buddhist, just off the top of my head) As a further note, some forms of Islam and Hinduism both forbid military service. That's one of the in-universe reasons that there are so few South Asian and Middle Eastern crew members on starships.
*** Let's not forget that when Joe Sisko quotes the Bible, Ben immediately says, "I've never known you to quote from the Bible." So this is hardly evidence of Joe being strongly religious. If he had quoted Hesiod, would that be evidence that he's an adherent of the Greek gods? Nor can I think of a Catholic in TOS (though there is a vaguely Christian quality to the marriage ceremony in "Balance of Terror"; perhaps you mean Dr. Ozaba in "The Empath"?) or any evidence that Keiko is a Buddhist (it's not like her personal faith in "In the Hands of the Prophets" seems anything other than scientific materialism). In fact, this Commander Goldman example reminds me that distinctly Jewish surnames are weirdly absent from ''Franchise/StarTrek'' too, where, as has often been noted, Anglo-Saxon and otherwise Western European surnames are wildly overrepresented.
*** Funny you mention 'forcing dogma' since I could say the same thing about any philosophy, including atheism. There isn't any such thing as neutrality. Also, if you seriously believe that your faith or philosophy is the best, would you not want to let others know about it so they too could benefit from it? Telling those that are interested about your faith is not forcing anything. Forcing others to join anything at bayonet point to join anything, however, is a problem.
*** "would you not want to let others know about it so they too could benefit from it?" Well actually a lot of religions frown upon proselytizing. Islam, for example. And Buddhism. Yes, they both expanded at some point both due to military conquest and preaching, but both religions establish that you should not actively proselytise, only if asked you should talk about your religion. In fact the Soka Gakkai is considered weird among Buddhists because they do activelty proselytise, same case with the Hare Krishna for mainstream Hinduism, and American Wiccans for the very secretive Gardnerian Wiccans. And let's not start with religions that actually forbid sharing information and seek converts and outlaw conversions as a whole (Parsis, Druze, Yazidis). Jews have no interest in preaching either, they do accept conversion but do not seek for it, and so on. In fact the idea that you have to preach your religion is pretty much limited to Christians and for some new religious movements.
*** How do they handle things like the Cmdr. Goldman example in today's military?
** It's also a documented fact that religious belief (on Earth anyway) is negatively correlated with widespread scientific understanding of the universe. Put simply, in Star Trek science has advanced to the point that many of the Earth religions relying on miracles and such are simply viewed as incompatible with what's known about reality. Most people simply don't believe in them anymore for this reason. Remember, Starfleet personnel are some of the best educated people around. Education is also negatively correlated with religious belief.
*** Not negatively enough, according to [[http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/index.asp?pid=359 the Harris Poll.]] Yes, there is a difference, but that still left 85% of postgraduate degree recipients having some sort of religious beliefs. Most people find their religious beliefs go just fine with their education. This troper has not found that her two science degrees have harmed her (Christian) beliefs in any way, nor do most others of her religion; it seems likely the same is true of most Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and other educated religious people. No, I think we can safely say this is a WriterOnBoard case.
*** I couldn't figure out which of the many polls listed you were referring to, but I'll take your word for it. Harris polls of Americans are just a little irrelevant because of the off the charts level of religiosity Americans demonstrate when compared to our peers. In the broader Western world, far fewer educated people believe in Christianity or other miraculous religions. Surveys of members of the Royal Academy of Sciences (UK) and the National Academy of Science (USA) show that a vast majority of the best scientists in these two countries do not believe in a god. When you consider that the humans portrayed on Star Trek would probably be the equivalent of members of the Academies, it makes perfect sense that few are religious. This troper has found that nearly all of her friends who achieve a M.S. do not remain believing Christians. Some become deists, but most become atheists or agnostics.
*** Your experience does not equal reality. Bluntly, religion is something that's not remotely disappearing. Europe had this view for a while and now seems to be uncomfortably aware it's not just the United States that seems to have an overfondness for it.
*** "Religion = Christianity" is another strictly American POV. Europeans tend not to have the cultural assumption that you can't be spiritual or Deist. If you correct the questions to allow for a range of results rather than just asking "are you a Fundie?", you'll find them to be much more balanced regardless of education level.
*** "Education is negatively correlated with religious belief"? -- Learn what Jews believe about education, study Jewish and Islamic history, and see if you still think that. Not all religious belief, not even all Christian belief, is blind, mindless faith.
*** Probably the issue here is what the other troper mentioned of “Christianity = Religion” bias. With the exception of the US, most developed world is very secular with very low religiosity, cases of Europe, Japan and Russia for example. Non-religiousity, however, does not equal scientific materialism as with hardline atheists, in Japan for example spirituality is a still a very important cultural part of society, same in Russia and some European countries. You can be spiritual and non-religious. In any case, and with not disrespect for Judeo-Christian believers, truth is that an interplanetary civilization that has contact with aliens, advance scientific technology and the like would see a decrease in Christian and other Abrahamic faiths. Why? Well for starters because you already know that Evolution is real, the world wasn’t created in six days and so on, you also know that there are other civilizations and intelligent life out there so Jesus, who is an Earthling, can’t be the savior. Buddhism won’t be affect by this (in fact is anything would be re-inforce as Buddhism teaches that Buddha is only one of countless enlightened beings some of them who appear in other planets), Jews won’t be affected, nor Hindus nor Wiccans. Christians and Muslims… mmm they might have a problem as their religions outright say their human founders are the specific person send by God to the whole universe to preach and teach humanity. So yes, in a way it is realistic that certain religions decrease for the time Star Trek happens no matter how much you want to finger Roddenberry for WriterOnBoard. In fact is a problem that modern religions are already starting to face, some churches are already taking preventive stances on the issue like the Vatican.
** Er, am I the only one who remembers that in ''Star Trek: Generations'', Picard meets his (imaginary) family when they're ''celebrating Christmas''? Or that the Hindu Festival of Lights was mentioned as one of the ship's scheduled events during "Data's Day"? Religion isn't shoved in people's faces at every turn, but it's still there.
*** This troper is an atheist and celebrates Christmas, too. Not for religious reasons but because it's nice to spend some time with the family now-and-then.
** Real reason: Because Gene Roddenberry was a silly, silly man with an unrealistic concept of the future. As for all the new-agey/Eastern religion floating around the Trek-verse, ask yourself what kind of religious beliefs are popular in Hollywood ''today''.
*** That can't be it, there are no Scientologists on board.
*** Okay, correction. Consider what kind of religious beliefs were popular in Hollywood back when TNG was in its hey-day.
** Gene Roddenberry had a lot of liberal beliefs he tried to imbue in his creation. While this isn't as noticeable in TOS, by TNG he had gained ProtectionFromEditors and set about painting his vision of what humanity could, should, and would be like in the future, if only it tried. This included things like atheism, tolerance, communism, technological advancement, abundance, noninterventionism (the prime directive), and other such ideas that he liked and that he thought would be great improvements to the human race (note episodes like "Encounter at Farpoint" and "The Neutral Zone," where Roddenberry's disgust and contempt for the history and present state of humanity is contrasted with his idealism and optimism that we would one day rise above it all). [[OutgrownSuchSillySuperstitions Thus, no religion for the Federation in Star Trek.]] Mind you, this ''has'' weakened a bit [[AuthorExistenceFailure since his death.]]
*** Shatner and others had their own opinions on it. William maintains the "God" of the Undiscovered Country was actually the Devil.
* If you were aware of beings like Q, wouldn't you question your religious beliefs?
** Maybe, but I'd also expect our most vocal thorough-going atheists who are ''so sure'' that empiricism and rational thought (as they choose to define it) can explain everything to question their anti-religious beliefs.
*** Huh? How does that logic work, exactly? Given all the God Like Beings floating around the Trek universe with rational scientific explanations behind them, why would running in to Q make any atheist or skeptic more likely to reverse their position?
*** Feel free to scientifically explain the Q for us. If you can.
*** Yes, feel free to scientifically explain a species who's very shtick is that they operate on a level of scientific understanding that is as far beyond us as we are beyond microbes. That's a ''perfectly'' logical argument. The Q aren't gods, they just have more understanding then we do. The same is true of all beings like them. See: SufficientlyAdvancedAlien
*** This is a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Necker_cube Necker cube]]. Q and related beings are aliens who "may as well" be gods. Perhaps the distinction is hairsplitting. Should this make the Star Trek ''theists'' reconsider their views (the alien side of the argument "beats" the deity side), or ''atheists'' (vice versa)? Perhaps it's impossible to say by definition.
*** "The Q aren't gods, they just have more understanding then we do." That's a pretty big assumption. How do you know the Q are using anything even approaching science to do what they do? At the end of the day, "we can't explain it, therefore God did it" and "we can't explain it, therefore it must be a science we don't understand" are basically the same statement. You're making an assumption based on little more than what you prefer to believe.
*** They don't fit the traditional philosophical definition of "God". They're not all powerful. Beyond that, I don't know of any precise traditional definition of a god, so it's a matter of opinion whether you want to call them gods or not.
*** Also, there's no actual factual issue in dispute here. Whether gods or not, the Q "use science" to do what they do in that whatever they do follows the rules that any correct scientific theory would advocate. This is true of any and all possible gods/God, and whatever they do, no matter how miraculous; by definition, within the fictional universe where they exist and do those things, they fit within what a *correct* scientific theory allows. It just may not be the type of theory we're used to (though neither is quantum mechanics, which already allows for "miracles" of a sort). And the Q may not "use science" in the sense of understanding the science behind why what they do is possible, although if they're as knowledgeable as they say they are, they probably do understand. But it may not be the understanding, or any sort of technology, that allows them to do it. None of this bears in any obvious way on the question of whether "god" is the proper term for what they are.
*** "They don't fit the traditional philosophical definition of "God". They're not all powerful." That's ''A'' philosophical definition of God. Not ''THE'' philosophical definition of God. Many if not the majority of cultures on Earth did not use that definition. The Ancient Greeks, for instance, did not consider their Gods to be all-powerful. They had limits. They could be tricked. They could even be ''killed''. Yet we still call them Gods. [[NoSuchThingAsSpaceJesus How are the Q any different?]]
*** But this is a fundamental problem that would be just as applicable to existing Earth religions, including Abrahamic ones. Remember [=McCoy=]'s little breakdown over the Genesis Device? "God created the world in six days. Now, watch out, here comes Genesis! We'll do it for you in six ''minutes''!". Every single miracle in the Bible could be matched or outdone by the Q at will. Thus raising the question of the NoSuchThingAsSpaceJesus problem. An Atheist could readily argue that the Bible ''could'' be literally true, except that "God", was a Q or even a less powerful but still godlike being. Believers would have to fall back on non-Biblical theology regarding the creation of ''everything'' from ''nothing'' by God, because the Bible does ''not'' really explicitly state that God created what later people would call the universe. It also creates the problem of an ever-greater distance between beings like humans and any kind of being that would be beyond the likes of the Q.
** Q fits right into a pagan-type pantheon, so an atheist of the type who denies the existence of anything remotely like pagan gods should question their beliefs. But an atheist who simply denies the traditional definition of the Abrahamic God is still safe. Q are not all-powerful, as we learn later; different Q can overpower each other. They are also clearly not infinitely good, and seem not to know everything either, at least as concerns the plans of other Q, despite claims to the contrary. On the other hand, Abrahamic theists are safe too, at least as safe as they are now; there could still be an all-powerful true God who is simply just as hands off about the actions of the Q as he is with other (sometimes annoying) powerful beings.
*** I’m pretty sure that if the existence of the pagan gods is discovered, and is discovered that they are actually living biological creatures like the Q who are just nearly all powerful god-like creatures, every single atheist would accept that as it will be scientific fact indeed. The issue with atheism is that is not blinded to science, if science proves that something is real an atheist accepts it. The reason why atheists do no believe in gods (or ghosts or yetis etc) is because they haven’t been proven to exist, an atheist would change his/her view according to scientific factuality. Now, how exactly would the prove that the pagan gods exists and are some sort of living creature questions atheism or rather re-inforces it is another matter. In any case the evidence of God as the creator of the universe is something that nor even the Q can know as if it happened it happened before the Big Bang.
** Let's look at this perspective. For primitive civilizations, [[HumansAreCthulhu we're basically reality warpers]]. The primitives don't have the sufficient science to explain them, and that's why they end up dismissing us as Gods (Fundies insisting that everything is AWizardDidIt is a pretty much cancerous obstacle on science for far too long). The most iconic example of ClarkesThirdLaw is the tech-worship CargoCult. Now extend that parallel to the Federation's perspective on the Q. Sure the Q may be Reality Warpers, but the most important difference is that the Federation is actually rational enough to see them ''objectively'' for what they are (extra-terrestrials) instead of dismissing "Qdidit" and torturing and killing each other screaming "My Q is better than your Q!"
* I don't know, but I'm pretty sure I saw some [[SpaceJews Space Fundies]] in the episode ''Let He Who Is Without Sin...''. They were complaining about the sinful ways of Risa or something like that.
** They were complaining that the Federation citizens had become complacent while the Dominion was aggressively encroaching on the Alpha Quadrant. Whatever your opinions on the quality of their message, it had zero religious content whatsoever.
* I write Star Trek fanfic and myself and others on my fanfic site have written characters with religious beliefs. My theory is that they're still there; after all, Sisko's dad once quoted the Bible. They've just restructured themselves to do away with the "God made marriage for one man and one woman!", "Jesus said I can have guns!", "The path to Allah is terrorism!" soundbites and all that crap. Now, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and others are structured to being a better person, teaching about love, understanding and tolerance, which is still important if the Federation is to keep the moral high ground.
** No offense, but it sounds like you just watered down religious beliefs into meaninglessness, particularly with the 'marriage' example. According to the Bible (since most of those using that phrase are Christian) marriage can easily be found to be defined as being between one man and one woman, not so much for those of the same gender. The fact that there is even a debate over this anywhere that once called itself Christian shows just how much (lack of) belief affects a culture. It might make more sense to say that religions are there but, with no extremely large percentage, especially when you go past Earth to include all the different cultures just within the Federation, they have less of an effect on the culture of the Federation as a whole than if the number of their numbers were larger.
** Acceptance of same-sex marriage does not necessarily mean a loss of Christian faith. You'd be surprised at the number of Christian churches that now accept LGBT members, ordain non-celibate LGBT clergy, and perform same-sex marriages or covenants. There's even a movement within the Mennonites to allow these things. Religion evolves just like everything else.
* In many ways, Gene Roddenberry's death opened the Star Trek canon to considerable ''improvement'' on this subject, widening the theories and interpretations available.
** We get to see the Klingon religion that comes off sounding remarkably Judeo-Christian for all that it denies its Messianic figure is a Messiah or that its Devil is a Devil.
*** If you're referring to Fek'lhr, that's definitely not the same thing. Fek'lhr is an avatar of punishment (and not considered a deity by Klingons). Whereas the Devil is the personification of evil itself. Fek'lhr is closer to Cerberus or Hades.
*** Let's not forget that Fek'lhr is explicitly presented as a cognate of Satan in "Devil's Due." One can say that's Ardra's (mis)interpretation, sure, but it's somewhat against the spirit of the thing to insist "no, definitely not all related to the Devil!"
*** ''Devil's Due'' comes long after ''Sins of the Father'' where Picard proves that he is very knowledgeable on Klingon culture. If Ardra was that far off in her interpretation of Fek'lhr, I don't see why he wouldn't have pegged it immediately and called her on it.
*** We also know that, in legend at least, Kahless defeated something called the Fek'lhri. Demons? Satanists? Either way, sounds kind of Judeo-Christian...
** The Bajorans have their Prophets, bringing up the question of whether there's really any meaningful distinction between a SufficientlyAdvancedAlien and God (or at least, gods).
** The Dominion and its Founders took this question even further in the case of the Vorta, who considered their genetic benefactors a kind of deity. (When Odo questions whether the Vorta are genetically programmed to worship the Founders, the one in his care replies along the lines of "Well, of course; that's what gods do!")
** Chakotay on the Voyager had his odd Native American beliefs, although he acknowledged there was a strong scientific explanation for the inner workings of most of its practices.
** Vulcans, the Ocampa, and Talaxians all have some concept of souls and the afterlife, although Neelix has his faith rather badly shaken at one point. Also, when [=McCoy=] asked Spock about what the afterlife was like, Spock told him that basically he had no frame of reference in common with [=McCoy=] by which to explain it; if he wanted to know, he'd have to die and pay the afterlife a visit himself.
** Even the Borg have a kind of religious reverence for the Omega Particle, though Seven of Nine indicates their idea of "worship" is to assimilate it at all costs. (They want perfection, this God particle represents perfection, and therefore they must assimilate it.)
* Evidently, the religions and religious peoples of Star Trek haven't gone anywhere. Gene Roddenberry just couldn't see them through his biases. Moreover, the series is not committed to just one point of view: the future is neither an atheist utopia, a garden of New Age synergism, nor yet a theocratic paradise; it's more like an enormous zoo in which religion has even more competing species than biology does.
* Whether someone is religious is a lot more than just whether you understand science. It has more to do with what kind of person you are and what your individual experiences have been. The Federation, or even a single starship, represents a much wider sampling of people than, say, America, so it would vary a lot, but I don't think religion is somehow extinct in the 24th century because of space exploration. One of the themes of Star Trek is that the universe is a big, big place and there are many things we can't explain, even with super-advanced technology, such as Q, the Bajoran prophets, various anomalies-of-the-week, etc. As for what we see on the show, it's likely a Federation ship takes a pretty neutral position, considering just how many religions there are, and there isn't any ship-wide celebrations or religious holidays. People are probably left to practice on their own or in independent groups and maybe there's a policy on time off.
* America has seen religiosity decline rather steadily over the decades. The number of people identifying as atheist, agnostic, or otherwise not affiliated with a religion has gone from under 5% in the 1960's to around 20% in the New Millennium. I don't know what the statistics are like in other countries, but given that the Trek writers are mostly American and infuse a lot of American culture into the Federation, it's not unreasonable to expect this trend to continue in the coming centuries.
* Between the bindi worn by Lt. Rahda in "That Which Survives" and the reference to the Hindu Festival of Lights in "Data's Day," you can make the case that, in canon, the human religion that best survives into the future is Hinduism.
* Phlox does mentions in ENT that he visit Earth and heard speeches of both the Pope and the Dalai Lama, tho this in still pre-Federation time. However, whether people like it or not, religious practice are indeed in decrease specially in the West, the US is the exception, not the rule, the only industrialized country were most people is still religious, from Europe to Russia and even Latin America religious practice and observance is reducing exponentially. You can criticize Roddenberry all you want but is truly not a stretch to think that huminity's future would be incredibly secular with most religions, if they remain, being mostly followed by non-observants much like is shown in Star Trek.
** To be more precise, Phlox says this in "Cold Front": "I spent two weeks at a Tibetan monastery where I learned to sing chords with the high lamas. I attended Mass at Saint Peter's Square." An indication that Tibetan Buddhism and Catholicism still exist, or at least their trappings survive in some form, but no reference to figures of authority like a Pope or Dalai Lama. I'll add that Kasidy Yates says "My mother would prefer for her daughter to be married by a minister," which certainly sounds Christian.
* The original ''Enterprise'' had a dedicated ship's chapel (it's used for the wedding in ''Balance of Terror''). The simplest explanation is probably that there are still plenty of religious people around, it's just that the subject doesn't come up very often in the stories presented.
** It even has a cross in it (albeit an odd-looking one).

[[folder:Religion Part II: Nontheistic Religions and SufficientlyAdvancedAliens?]]
* An interesting question regarding religion arises when one considers nontheistic religions such as Buddhism, which in the present-day real world has roughly one billion adherents on Earth. For those faiths that do not take a firm stance one way or the other on the existence of a [[{{God}} Creator deity]], what is the impact of the scientifically-proven existence of SufficientlyAdvancedAliens and documented instances of individuals and entire species having AscendedToAHigherPlaneOfExistence on these religions?
** Buddhism would seem like the most obvious religious beneficiary of the discoveries made by Starfleet. Essentially, it has been demonstrated many times that it is possible to achieve a higher state of being, and even to [[EnergyBeings transcend the physical body entirely]]. The rather Buddhist-like Organians calmly noted that none of their race had died in a long time, and they demonstrated PsychicPowers great enough to put a stop to a Federation-Klingon interstellar war and impose a peace treaty on both sides. They are virtually poster children for Buddhist philosophy and theology.
** Vulcans, interestingly enough, also have a religion, which also has a definite Asian/Buddhist flavor to it. They are known to meditate, pray and practice observances in temples, although they no longer appear to venerate any particular deities.
** But how does this fit with Federation law about NoTranshumanismAllowed, when the explicit goal of a number of religions is to transcend biological humanity? Does the Federation permit the concept as an abstract theology, but legally oppose any efforts to ''actually'' ascend, since it is known to be possible to do so?
*** That's not what the Federation law is. The Federation bans genetic engineering to create superior beings with superior ambition. You want to correct congenital birth defects or whatever with whatever technology is available (except wholesale genetic enhancement of the entire organism), even if that results in some superior abilities (Geordi's VISOR)? Great, go ahead. You want to try and AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence through sheer force of will? Knock yourself out. You want to wait a jillion years until your species evolves into EnergyBeings? Enjoy the ride.

[[folder:Religion Part III: Evolution is God?]]
->'''Commander William Riker:''' If there is a cosmic plan, is it not the height of hubris to think that we can, or should, interfere?
--->'''TNG: "Pen Pals"'''
* There seems to be a very strong belief in GoalOrientedEvolution amongst Federation people, in particular humans. In addition to their NoTranshumanismAllowed policy, on various occasions when the [[AlienNonInterferenceClause Prime Directive]] is under debate the arguments frequently end up turning towards the notion of a "cosmic plan" or that Evolution is a purpose-driven force whose decisions should not be questioned. By that argument, isn't Evolution therefore a "God"? And if so then how is this reconciled with the well-known fact that SufficientlyAdvancedAliens, including ones such as the Q who could legitimately claim godhood, routinely intervene in the multiverse with a casualness that clearly demonstrates their disdain for the idea behind the Prime Directive? Does this mean that Evolution and the "cosmic plan" are above even [[TheOmnipotent omnipotent]] beings such as the Q? Are the Federation closet theists without even realizing it?
** Not really. It's less GoalOrientedEvolution, though ''Star Trek'' is pretty bad about that on the whole, but more that the watchwords of the Prime Directive is "interfere in the ''natural'' development of a culture." If a sapient species is evolving themselves into a dead-end where they will become extinct. . . well, sucks for them, but their die-off will allow new creatures claim that vacuum. By interfering and keeping that on-the-road-to-extinction species alive, no new species can evolve to take their place, just like if some starship had swooped in and stopped a certain asteroid from hitting Earth some 65 million years ago. And if the forces of nature on a given planet have selected a specific species for extinction, or the species has somehow selected itself for extinction, just about anything you can do to correct the "problem" is a stopgap measure, because that species no longer has what it takes to survive its environment, and will die off one way or another. And in the case of a sapient species, the question gets even thornier: Is this crisis the kick in the pants they need to decide, as a species, to do what they need to do to survive, or will they refuse to fix what's wrong (with themselves or their planet) and go the way of the dinosaur? That's ''their'' decision to make.

[[folder:Kirk's Bad With Dates (Not That Kind)]]
* On the subject of film chronology: the given time gaps between "Space Seed", "Wrath of Khan" and "Generations" don't add up. "Wrath of Khan" takes place when Kirk is turning 50 - that's the year 2283. They say that "Space Seed" happened fifteen years ago - officially, it happened in 2267, which is OK assuming they're rounding off. But then the Kirk-era part of "Generations" takes place in 2293... and in Kirk's Nexus fantasy, Kirk says "This is nine years ago!" Nine years ago, Kirk would have been commanding the Enterprise-A. If they wanted the fantasy scene to be of a time just prior to "Wrath of Khan" (which it seems was the intention), they should've said "''eleven'' years ago".
** A mistake, plain and simple. But a possible explanation is that, in RealLife, people might say that something that happened in 1990 happened "ten years ago," even if it's 2009 or something. Possibly something happened two years ago to Kirk that made the number stick in his head, so he just said it without thinking, and no one wanted to correct him.

[[folder:Time Cops Are Useless]]
* Remember those various groups of TimePolice that kept on showing up in ''Voyager'' and ''Enterprise'' (and that ''Deep Space Nine'' tribble episode) to ensure that history didn't get changed? Um... where were they?
** The rules of TimeTravel vary. In some cases a self-confirming loop is created, such as in Time's Arrow, when discovering Data's head causes them to go back in time and leave Data's head there, enabling their relative past selves to discover it. Obviously though, in other cases there seems to be a risk of altering/damaging the timeline, or else why would they bother 'protecting' it? It's logical to suppose that the various factions can distinguish between the rules at play and only interfere when needed to.
** They show up when a temporal incursion will change their timeline. For whatever reason, this temporal incursion created a ''new'' timeline not in line with previous canon. In essence if there are TimeCops in this world, all these events ''are'' what happened, to them. (The real world reason it created a second timeline was so they could, in essence, do a reboot but leave the old timeline intact.)

[[folder:We've Been Boarded! Oh well...]]
* Any time a starship gets boarded, it annoys the heck out of me. Only occasionally do they use force fields. Also, couldn't they evacuate those areas and shut off life support or something? Or maybe shut the turbolift to the bridge? Or beam them into space (or if that's not cool) into the brig? The amount of times where intruders (or really anyone) can just walk in on the bridge like that is hilarious. And also, I noticed security never ever runs. They just walk there.
** Shutting off life support to a whole deck wouldn't instantly suck all the air and heat out of the area (unless it's the main bridge or an area with an exterior door like the shuttlebay). Even when it has happened elsewhere on the ship, it takes ''hours'' to get to the point where it would be incapable of supporting life. As for beaming them into the brig - having a holding cell that you can beam people into and out of would kinda defeat the purpose of having one in the first place. I mean, any ship that can get close enough could just beam the prisoner off.
*** Transporters can be blocked, scrambled and jammed with trivial ease, so just keep some low-level jammers around the brig unless you're moving prisoners around. Hell, if I were designing a brig for ST (or any universe with teleportation tech for that matter), I'd build it so you can ''only'' get in and out via transporters. Good luck breaking out when there's no door.
*** Shutting off life support might not instantly kill everyone who wasn't in a spacesuit, but trapping the boarders in a forcefield and ''sucking their air out'' sure would. So would adjusting the temperature to a level of unendurable heat or cold. Then there's the option of pumping poison or knockout gas into that section. Given that the ''Enterprise'' has a fire control system that works by setting up a forcefield around the fire that kind of thing should be pretty easy. Then we have the ''canon'' tactic of turning up the gravity in one section so high your opponent can't stand up from ''Enterprise: In A Mirror Darkly''. There are tons of nasty things you could do to any (living, organic) hostile fool enough to board your ship without a space suit with Star Trek technology, but for some reason hardly anybody ever seems to do them.
*** When Data shut down Bridge life-support in "Brothers", he had to bypass multiple independent safety systems to do it. Considering how easy it is to take over or corrupt Federation computer software, the risks aren't worth the rewards.
** What about, say, increasing the gravity in a section? You could even have safeties in place so that the gravity can be increased beyond the ability of a boarding party to operate as an effective fighting force, but well short of the point where short exposure would cause serious permanent health effects. I'm not sure where the respective thresholds are exactly, but I'd imagine five or six G-forces would do the trick. Then the redshirts stand just beyond the affected areas and stun the intruders, who are too busy trying to stay on their feet even to think about returning fire. Then as soon as everyone's been neutralized, you restore the regular gravity to be extra-sure there are no lasting effects on the people you've trapped.
*** If it's Deep Space Nine or ENT, and we're fighting the enemy like we mean it, make it fifty G's instead of five, record the boarding party going splat, and send the video to the deceased enemies' superiors with instructions not to fuck with Starfleet.
*** Used in William Shatner's "Totality" trilogy. The alien beings from the invading "Totality" are made of Dark Matter, and don't really like gravity fields. They can barely stand one G, and disintegrate under higher weights. As they can impersonate people similarly to the Founders, Starfleet quickly institutes a policy of regularly turning up the gravity all over the ship, and keeping officers' quarters constantly on high.
** Also, you can play with temperature. Humans can function just fine at temperatures well below those at which Klingons curl up into shivering balls. Since Klingons are humans' greatest enemies in TOS, the movies, and a season of ''Deep Space Nine'', you'd think they'd have used it to their advantage once or twice. The same thing would work on Cardassians, too; they're comfortable at temperatures which are too warm for most other species, even non-humanoids like the Founders. So chances are they wouldn't be able to fight effectively if they boarded Deep Space Nine and O'Brien lowered the temperature to, say, 273 K (the freezing point of water).

[[folder:Marriage in the 24th Century]]
* WHY are pretty much ''all'' women, 200-300 years in the future, STILL automatically taking their husband's names? Does this bug the heck out of nobody but me?
** Umm... examples? The only ones I can think of is Keiko O'Brian and Dr. Crusher (see below). Troi didn't change her name (see below), Jadzia didn't change her name (she's a Trill and she married a Klingon, so who knows what the name convention is), and in the case of most of the other married couples we meet, there's actually nothing to say for sure that the husband didn't take ''his wife's'' name.
** Not necessarily true. In ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' B'Elanna says to Tom that perhaps he should now be known as "Tom Torres" as "it's the 24th century, after all" (though for the rest of the season neither of them change their names). In ''Film/StarTrekNemesis'' Picard says to Commander Riker "You have the bridge Mr. Troi" (though most likely out of humor). And in "Sub Rosa" it's implied that Beverly's family have been keeping their maiden names and Beverly was apparently the first to break it. Then again, said episode was a TransplantedCharacterFic of something else best taken with a pinch of salt.
*** Betazoid culture is matrilineal; Deanna's father took her mother's surname. Will probably won't, but Deanna is unlikely to insist upon it as much as her mother would have to Ian Troi.
** Same reason pretty much all women 200-300 years in the future still grow their hair long and wear make-up, I suppose.
** Actually it gets worse, there are at least two TNG episodes where women are referred to as "Mrs [husband's-first-name, husband's-last-name]", granted that "Mrs William Riker" was a simulation but there was certainly nothing to imply that addressing a woman as such was culturally inappropriate for Federation humans. Of course, this is just a victim of SocietyMarchesOn and it was probably already something of a DeadHorseTrope in RealLife by the time the series aired
** I'm going to be That Guy here and point out that just because you find the tradition of women taking their husband's surname or someone being referred to as ''Mrs William Riker'' as wrong doesn't mean that is a majority held view. Even today - half a century after the start of this series - the amount of women who break with this tradition is still very small indeed. Women have been taking their husband's name at minimum since the 15th century, so there is also no reason to automatically assume that this will change by the 24th just because it happens to be a long way away.
** Not all cultures have women taking the husband's name. In Latin America and Spain women kept their maiden names, that's why people in Spanish speaking countries have two last names. Same in Portuguese. In other countries like IIRC Japan the oldest family name is the one that prevails disregarding gender. So, in a similar way maybe some Anglo-Saxons in the future are keeping the tradition out of cultural connection.

[[folder:A Pon Farr with Rosie Palms?]]
* About the whole Pon Farr MateOrDie thing, why doesn't ADateWithRosiePalms work?
** It's probably not just a question of release. Consider when Tuvok went into pon farr. Tom Paris was able to rig up a hologram of his wife that allowed Tuvok to blow off steam, but the implication is that nothing else would have worked. It might be an emotional thing. There are multiple episodes that suggest that the Vulcan emotional suppression is not good for them. Pon farr could very easily be a consequence of that.
*** There was a prior Voyager episode where Ensign Vorik entered pon farr and the holoprogram failed to work for him.
*** Vorik had another option: B'Elana. Pon farr basically had him obsessed with her. Perhaps if Tom had thought to make a B'Elana hologram for Vorik to bang, he would have been able to pull a Tuvok.
** In the first ''Star Trek: New Frontier'' novel, we see a pretty explicit Pon Farr between two Vulcans, where they mind meld in the middle of coitus. Presumably doing this (combined with the physical act) is what causes the Vulcan's internal sex clock to reset.
*** Hormones. Very specific ones, too-where you NEED the hormones produced by your matched partner. Also why TheOldestProfession doesn't work for them.
** It probably is specifically something to do with the emotions. While a mind meld would help facilitate an emotional release, Tuvok and Vorik certainly couldn't have melded with holograms. The reason the hologram worked for Tuvok (once he was able to get it to stay online) is that he really did love his wife, and could express his love for her with this reminder of her. Vorik, on the other hand, only got temporary relief from T'Pera because she was a purely fictional holodeck character and he couldn't really fool himself into loving her the way he would love a real person. Each of the three known ways to resolve pon farr also show signs of being related to emotional release:
*** Mating is the most direct method of demonstrating one's love for another, of course.
*** Ritual combat for one's mate is somewhat less direct, but is much-romanticized in many cultures. Certainly, a man would have to love a woman quite a lot to be willing to fight for her, possibly to the death.
*** The intensive meditation, which did not prove effective for Vorik, probably focuses on one's intense love for an absent mate. As Vorik acknowledged, his betrothed had probably already given him up for lost. Tuvok, on the other hand, knew his wife was waiting for him at home, and he had the hologram to help remind him of that further. She presumably had some similar thoughts of him to comfort her through her own intensive meditation, knowing he was alive and on his way home.
[[/folder]]





[[folder:I Want to Be a Federation Janitor When I Grow Up!]]
* Okay fine: the Federation doesn't use money. Are you telling me that jobs like sanitation worker, janitor, pest control and other unglamorous non-military jobs are either done by volunteers or are completely automated? Targ droppings!
** Why shouldn't they be completely automated? They have teleporters that can move anything halfway around the planet in the blink of an eye, and machines that can manufacture everything from food to electronics out of thin air. And antimatter-based power sources. They can pretty much do ''anything.'' Sanitation for an entire continent could be five technicians sitting in a room with a big computer panel somewhere, programming a transporter network to beam the contents of every trash can in every driveway into a giant direct-matter-to-energy incinerator each evening. And they'd have plenty of time left afterwards to go off to the opera and pursue other wholesome and personal-growth-supporting activities... or to go make out with holographic hotties. :P In addition, they don't necessarily have ''no money.'' Credits are occasionally mentioned, in some cases credits for specific things (transporter credits you have to spend to teleport yourself around Earth, for example). I think the main point is that Earth culture is no longer founded on greed or the pursuit of wealth for its own sake; doing certain unpopular jobs might still get you more transporter/replicator/whatever credits to provide incentive, it's just that people don't take up jobs just to be rich, and everyone is provided with everything they need to lead a happy life, so work is done mostly because you ''want'' to do it, not because you have to.
*** Why wouldn't they be? Because they're not on starships, where such a thing would be an advantage. And even if they weren't, you're telling me that no one ever has to go fish Sewerbot #242 out of Junction 1234X because it's jammed or some stupid kids have covered a statue of Admiral Archer in Ferengi graffiti? Even if they have machines for that sort of thing, no one 's running them? Even by remote control? No sale, sir!
*** No matter how shitty a job is you can always find someone who honest-to-god-actually ''enjoys'' doing it. It's like RuleThirtyFour of employment. Plus jobs aren't just about money, there is a social element to them as well. People enjoy getting out of the house, doing stuff, mixing with others, and feeling useful in society at large. I bet there is an employment ladder thing there too, y'wanna do #cleannicejob, well there is four hundred people wanting that, so we'll only give it to you if you've done #dirtynastyjob first.
*** Forgive me if this seems a bit rude, but this argument strikes me as rather naive. It's easy to say that "someone" must enjoy, say, shoveling shit for a living when you yourself don't have to shovel shit for a living. As for the possible psychosocial benefits of shoveling shit, those are all well and good until our hypothetical shit-shoveler runs into someone else who has the exact same quality of life as he does...without having to shovel shit all day long (an office worker for instance). The shit-shoveler will start to wonder why this other person gets to spend his time sitting in a comfy chair in an air-conditioned office, while he has to perform back-breaking labor under the hot sun and has to go home smelling like the southbound end of a northbound cow. In the real world the only reason the shit-shoveler would keep doing his job is if he was unable to get the education/training to find a better job or his paycheck was fat enough to make shoveling shit all day worth it. Lack of skills or education would not be an issue in the utopian Federation, where such resources are available to everyone. So if the hypothetical shit-shoveler is not drawing a big fat paycheck, then what keeps him from quitting his job?
*** In one episode, it is mentioned that the Enterprise-D has some ability to clean itself (specifically, someone gets told that they don't ''have'' to clean up something, the ship will do that for them). And running the machines, well, that changes the nature of the job.
*** Changes the nature, perhaps. But it doesn't eliminate dirty and degrading jobs. And our concept of what a "bad job" is is very relative. Running a cleaning robot may seem better than doing the cleaning yourself, but once everyone has replaced their janitors with clean-bot operators, then being a clean-bot operator will become the new "bad job" that nobody wants. Instead of parents saying to their kids "Don't skip school or you'll end up as a janitor!" they'll say "Don't skip school or you'll end up as a clean-bot operator!" And as one of the above tropers pointed out, there will inevitably be times when a clean-bot malfunctions and gets itself stuck somewhere unpleasant. So who has to go fish it out? Or are there also robots for retrieving stuck clean-bots in the future? And robots for retrieving stuck retrieval-bots?
** I got the impression that officers were paid, but, as Picard said, "The acquisition of wealth is no longer our primary goal." So they get paid, but the majority of people don't care about the amount, just that they're contributing to society.
*** Alternatively, Picard and other Starfleet personnel are trumpeting the official Federation line, but many individual Federation citizens do care about money.
*** While that is an interesting theory that adds a rather disturbing undertone to the Trek franchise (a society where the military and the civilian populace are so ideologically at odds with each other is a recipe for bad things) it doesn't jibe with everything we see on screen. For instance, in The Neutral Zone the Enterprise encounters some 20th-century humans in cryogenic stasis. When one of them (some sort of banker or stock broker or some such) says he wants to see how much his financial assets have grown in the centuries he's been in stasis, Picard reacts with puzzlement and confusion. Far from simply disdaining the acquisition of wealth, Picard clearly doesn't understand even the ''basic concept'' of monetary investment.
** Adding a strange twist to it all is that, in "In the Cards," Jake Sisko explicitly states (in a sequence that gloriously sends up this entire issue) that ''humans'' don't have money -- not the Federation, per se. So maybe humans just refrain from making money. So... Starfleet pays Dax but doesn't pay O'Brien or Sisko?
*** It could be a planetary government thing, with each member of the Federation having its own economic system (in fact, it'd almost have to be that way, unless abandoning money is a requirement for joining the Federation, which doesn't seem to be the case). Earth government doesn't use money, but let's say the Trill government does, in which case each one handles its own reimbursement for citizens serving in Starfleet; Earth would cover the moneyless O'Brien and Sisko's expenses with "Federation credits," as Quark called them, while Dax would just get a paycheck from the Trill government.
*** Also, keep in mind that Jake said humans don't ''need'' money, not that they don't ''have'' money. To cover essentials, humans don't need money, but it would be safe to assume that, in order to afford some luxuries (e.g. anything you can't just order out of a replicator, such as an authentic Willie Mays rookie baseball card), humans would have to use money like anyone else. Whether or not that translates into pay for Starfleet officers isn't ever really made clear ("Federation credits" notwithstanding), but it does suggest that there is at least an incentive system to entice people to perform otherwise lousy jobs (I don't think there are enough people in Starfleet who believe that being a janitor or whatever is the ultimate job to cover all the janitorial work that needs to be done).
*** For what it's worth, Jake's precise line is "I'm human, I don't have any money." Nog follows up with "It's not my fault that your species decided to abandon currency-based economics in favor of some philosophy of self-enhancement."
*** Followed by Jake espousing the Starfleet philosophy, to which Nog replies, "What does that mean, exactly?" and Jake says, "It means...it means we don't need money." Humans don't need money, so Jake, being human, doesn't have any, or at least he doesn't until someone has something he wants and won't give it up without payment. Though I suppose it's splitting hairs at this point; the line could be interpreted several different ways. The point is that evidence that other humans do use and seek money (Vash, for example) does exist, so going from "humans don't need money as a general rule, as part of their philosophy" to "no human ever uses money ever" doesn't work.
*** Yes, but Jake's reaction then is not "let me access the incentive programs by which human beings acquire money under exceptional circumstances," but rather "let's go on a wacky bartering adventure." One assumes that those humans who deal with money, like Vash (or Harry Mudd?) are dealing with different economies (and implicitly betraying that "philosophy of self-enhancement"). This is one of those issues that seems to have no adequate answer. In ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact'', Picard unblinkingly says "Money doesn't exist in the 24th century" which is demonstrably untrue, although one assumes he's limiting it to the human context and oversimplifying for his audience. The problem really seems to be that the writers haven't thought this through: they're committed to the idea of the future as a nebulous post-scarcity Utopia but haven't worked out the details.
*** There's an entry on the [=DS=]9 page that covers money. It's probable that Star Fleet officers do get paid something, so they can use it when they're visiting places that do require money. There are plenty of scenes where characters eat in restaurants and/or shop in places where you probably have to pay. It's just that if you live in the Federation you won't need money to get by; all the essentials are free. As for the "working for pleasure" matter, if you just sit around at home you'll get bored, and also people will probably value you more if you have a work ethic. If you want to be a janitor because you love it, well, more power to you, but otherwise there are other reasons to start out in bottom-rung job. You'll meet people and hopefully get promoted. And if you were applying to another job, having something like that on your resume shows that you were willing to work and contribute even when it isn't the greatest job.
*** If you go back, you'll find Roddenberry thinking technology will solve the problem of money, with no idea of how, so the show just acts like it doesn't change much. Well, if you assume enough Federation citizens value being an enlightened being enough, technology can solve it, but with dramatic visual changes: a transparent society. This allows checking on someone's enlightenment. Adding a standardized rating system could allow individuals to take on a penalty in exchange for giving someone else a bonus — that is, to exchange enlightenment rating as if it were money. (I.e, to print fiat money against their personal economy as a producer of enlightenment.) If this is what Federation credits are — as in "credit where credit is due", not as in "credit and debit" — the Ferengi objections would be obvious. It would also mean jobs that nobody wants to do are probably a quick way to rack up the ability to print credits. So there's a mix of janitors who're in it because they like fixing society's shit, even if that must be literal, and janitors who're in it to make the big bucks(er, to better themselves quickly).
** If those people were provided with food, accommodation and healthcare then that might be payment enough? They do get to travel the universe, after all, it's not that bad a deal.
** To quote Film/AMatterofLifeandDeath, "There are millions of people of Earth who'd think it heaven to be a clerk." Even Utopias will require unglamorous jobs, but that doesn't mean people won't be happy to do them.
*** I have not seen the film you're referring to, but I would wager that in context that quote is referring to people who live even worse lives than the average clerk. I'm sure a starving person in Africa or a homeless man living under a bridge would love to be a clerk, but only because it would give them a steady source of income, not because they've always dreamed of being a clerk.
*** It actually refers to Heaven, where you can do what you like for eternity (apparently).
* This is really a question about the peculiar thing called "job satisfaction." No job is intrinsically satisfying or unsatisfying. Just about any job ''can'' be fulfilling to the person doing it; conversely, any job can be unfulfilling (I'm sure we all know people who are miserable in what would seem to be a "dream job"). The Federation has two advantages. One, it's very large: unhappy with your job? There's bound to be another one somewhere that suits you, and there's a strong likelihood that social engineering exists to connect people with the jobs they'll do best in (since fulfillment and productivity tend to run together, this is overall best for society). The other is that, as a Utopian enterprise, if people buy the "dream" of the Federation (often framed in quasi-religious terms, as with Sisko in "The Ship"), then it becomes much easier to derive satisfaction from working to maintain that dream, even as a small cog in a vast machine. Furthermore, in a post-scarcity future like the one we see, it seems likely a lot of people maintain a "work to live" mentality; put in whatever hours necessary at whatever they do and even if that's no fun, a few hours in the Holodeck or strolling the paradise that is Earth make all the difference.
** I hasten to note, however, the presence of characters like Richard Bashir for whom the work prospects of the future seem to have barely panned out. Adds a touch of realism (even a great system is bound to fail a few people now and again) or, on a darker note, reveals the cracks in the system.
[[/folder]]




[[folder:Lily-White Starfleet?]]
* The biggest question of them all: where are all the ethnicities? This becomes a major head against wall moment for this troper, because the timeline of the Star Trek universes includes several major wars, including a nuclear World War III that supposedly killed 600 million people. It would be fair to assume that most of these casualties occurred in the world's most powerful nations, namely, the United States, Europe, Russia, and China. ''So why do white people still make up 90% of Starfleet?'' The world population has always been overwhelmingly non-white, so any world government/military would reflect that one-fifth of the the world population is Chinese, one-fifth Indian, one-fifth African, and two-fifths various other ethnicities. Starfleet also seems to prefer rather Anglo names for its ships. Star Trek in all its incarnations has been noted for being progressive for showing different ethnicities, and has gotten better at doing so over time, but it always bugs this troper how it appears all non-white populations are minorities in the future.
** Cause the Americas won the third world war or at least survived it best. India, the middle east, and Asia got nuked to hell and back, Khan was in India, suggesting the wars were against him. At least that's Fanon attempts to explain it, and why all non whites tend to be Americans still. Some suggestions of discrimination in Starfleet as well as the preferred cadets are all from the Western Hemisphere. Only three major human crew members are suggested from being from Earth and not from the Americas, Picard, Uhura and Malcolm. Possibly, some Fanon has held, parts of Asia and so forth are still more or less uninhabitable. (Chekov is Russian, and Worf is a non-human Russian.)
*** Most humans should be African, then. If Asia got wiped out, that would make Africa the most populous continent. [[BrokenAesop Discrimination in Starfleet, you say?]]
*** Geordi [=LaForge=] is an African, not an African-American. Miles O'Brien is Irish, and Dr. Bashir is most likely of Middle Eastern descent. Presumably a fair amount of the humans aren't Americans but just sound like they have American (or English) accents due to the Universal Translator.
*** Uhura is also African.
*** If I were required to make a canon explanation, I'd have a bio-engineered plague that responded poorly to cold-- probably have it originate in Russia-- as part of the response to the [[http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Eugenics_Wars wars]] that gave us Khan. That would explain the lack of Africa, South America, Australia, etc-- if you also assume that the Universal Translators remove accents and the only reason Picard, Scotty, O'Brien, Bashir and such have accents (while Keiko, who's Japanese, doesn't) is because they're speaking Federation standard. Most of the rest of the world being royally screwed would also explain why so much happens in San Fran. (Would you base your Space Fleet there? It's crowded as heck NOW!)
** Another demographic oddity: Japanese are hugely overrepresented in Starfleet compared to Chinese. On Earth today, there are 10 times as many Chinese as Japanese, yet virtually every major Asian character in Trek is Japanese: Sulu in TOS, Keiko in TNG and Deep Space Nine, and Hoshi in ENT. The only exception, Harry Kim in VOY, is Korean. I don't recall seeing a single character in any Trek series with a Chinese surname, except for some Academy instructor in an early season ep of TNG.
*** It possibly has to do with China being decimated by World War III. Maybe the population loss was so much that they really ''are'' proportionally represented in Starfleet? Or Japan imposed their culture on China during [=WWIII=], liked they tried to do in [=WWII=], so some people of Chinese descent ended up with Japanese names?
*** Along those same lines, it's also noteworthy that the eastern half of the United States is almost never mentioned in Trek, and cities like New York and Washington DC don't seem to exist. Characters from North America usually hail from the rural midwest or the west coast, and the Earth government's based in San Francisco. It may be that the nuclear war was fought between China and the U.S., and both mainland China and the eastern U.S. were hit so hard that their populations fell permanently behind everyone else.
*** Well, Archer's from (upstate) New York, Trip's from Florida, and [=McCoy=]'s from Atlanta, Georgia, so it's not like the eastern U.S. is ''totally'' unrepresented.
** Given that regions such as China and India ''are'' so densely populated, it could be that those ethnic groups were among the first populations to migrate ''en masse'' to colony worlds. Their colonies would therefore be the longest-established human settlements outside our solar system, which would make them the best-defended and most-civilized ... hence, the ''least'' likely planets to require a visit from an exploratory vessel like the ''Enterprise''. They do exist, we just don't see episodes about them.
* It should be noted that [[MST3KMantra as a television series]], the casting of all the ''Star Trek'' series is dependent on the average population makeup of the city in which it's produced, so what appears on screen is not indicative of the population of Earth, but the population of LA-based Paramount Studio's casting calls. So for all we know the crew of the Enterprise ''should'' be more, er... brown than normally shown, but when you make a casting call for extras and only caucasians show up, are you really going to hold up production until you've found more extras of the appropriate ethnic makeup?
** Err... is there any actual evidence that "only Caucasians showed up" to casting calls for extras? May have been truer in the 1960s, but from the '80s onward?
*** Also, the names of ships and planets in Star Trek are still Anglo- and Euro-centric, which has nothing to do with filming location.
*** It's a show made by Americans for an American audience. Ships have Anglo and Euro centric names because the core audience for the show at the time of it's production did... In America.
*** The evidence that only caucasians showed up for the casting calls...is the fact that the extras they hired were almost entirely caucasian. The only other explanation is intentional discrimination. If you have any evidence of that, please feel free to share it with the rest of us.
*** I suppose the question is, considering that the series is supposed to depict the future of all humanity, whether it would have behooved the casting people, including those casting the extras, to specifically seek out a diverse group of men and women?
*** (ahem) There's a little thing called "practicality" that makes that difficult. A scifi tv show needs to save as much money as possible for sets, props, and special effects. They couldn't afford to be that choosy with their extras. It's easy for you to say what they ''should'' have done when ''you'' don't have to manage their budget.
*** I find just about every part of this post puzzling, not the least the presence of "(ahem)." Ahem what? Do you think that non-white people get paid more as extras? -- in Hollywood, extras are virtually always paid union scale. Or is it that you think L.A. is such a monoracial city that they'd have to, say, import non-white people in from faraway and exotic parts of the world at great expense so they can walk around in the background of scenes? Or that the budget for extras is more than a drop in the bucket for a show that cost at least $1.3 million an episode? Why would it be impractical to find non-white extras? Perhaps I am not understanding: are you seriously saying "they had to cast white people because that's all they could afford"? Because as a defense for lack of diversity, that is a pretty weak one.
*** "Ahem what?" What do you mean "what?" What's not to get? I was trying to ''politely'' say that I thought your response (assuming you are the same troper I was responding to; if not I apologize) was naive. Firstly, Hollywood may be more diverse than most cities but the ''acting industry'' isn't. The profession was and is still dominated by white actors. So right from the start your choice of extras is limited. Secondly, because extras are often cast after everything else has been finalized, you have a very slim window to vet them, hire them, and drill them for their stage business before shooting begins. If you can't find a diverse enough group of extras you have to delay the shoot, which throws off the entire production schedule and can quickly snowball into an ungodly snow-''boulder'' of costs. You might think Trek's $1.3 million per episode budget would allow them the luxury to do that, but in fact it's the opposite. The reason Trek had such a large budget was because they needed it for the new and expensive special effects they would be using almost every episode, not to mention the costumes, alien prosthetics, props, and sets. It's not like a family sitcom where no special effects are necessary, you can buy the wardrobe at the local thrift store, and your set can be a repaint from some other show. In Trek, 99% of what you see on screen had to be custom made for the show. They had to save money anywhere they could, so any expense that wasn't strictly necessary was on the chopping block. And for most episodes it wasn't strictly necessary to go on a scavenger hunt for as many racially diverse extras as they could find, so they just hired whoever was available. And apparently most of the ones available were white. Unfortunate, but there it is.
*** For the record, typing "ahem" actually makes something less polite, not more. This all makes it sound like you think extras are hired off the street, rather than through large, well-established casting agencies. I suspect that if we examined the pool of L.A. extras, we would find that there would a sufficient number of non-white people willing to work -- provided you think to ask. My guess is that nobody asked, simply because this was an element of the production sufficiently uncoupled from those making creative decisions.
*** "For the record, typing "ahem" actually makes something less polite, not more." No, it's a way for the other person to save face. I could have been a lot more insulting but I chose not to be, because it seemed clear that the mistake was an innocent one. And extras often are hired off the street. Especially for newer shows that haven't yet proven their staying power. What you "suspect" about the situation and what actually ''is'' are two different things. You really overestimate how represented minorities were in the acting industry in the 80s and early 90s (or even today). Sure, it would have been ''possible'' for them to have cast a more "even" racial balance of extras for the show. And who knows? Maybe if they asked a casting agency for exactly X number of minority extras by next Friday the agency would have said "Oh sure! We just happen to have X minority extras available right now." Or ''maybe they wouldn't''. Maybe the agency wouldn't be able to muster up that many on short notice, forcing them to delay the shoot until the right number of extras can be found. That's the problem. It's all a gamble. A gamble that, in the grand scheme of things, really isn't worth taking. Did the apparent deficit of non-white extras somehow negate Star Trek's message of tolerance and coexistence? Is the moral of the show somehow rendered invalid just because there aren't enough black people milling around in the background? And as a troper below points out, if we really get down to it the ''most'' realistic thing would be for almost all the human characters (including the main actors) to be racially ambiguous. If this truly is a post-racial future, shouldn't the races be so blended as to be almost indistinguishable?
*** "Did the apparent deficit of non-white extras somehow negate Star Trek's message of tolerance and coexistence? Is the moral of the show somehow rendered invalid just because there aren't enough black people milling around in the background?" Yes and no. File it under UnfortunateImplications -- the kind of thing that certainly isn't intentional and no one in particular is to blame, and indeed may have real-world protection concerns behind it, but it still ends up reflecting societal values in a way that is, well, unfortunate (except for the implication that non-white = black, although a great many Americans seem to like to forget that other racial minorities exist). Here's why: there is a tendency in Euro-American society to treat whiteness as a kind of default. Black people are black people, Native people are Native people, etc. but white people are simply people and are presumed to be able to represent humanity seemingly through lacking race (check out Richard Dyer's book ''White'' for a good primer on this). Franchise/StarTrek, while certainly deserving respect for advances in depictions of minorities, still mostly abides by this; as you note, even Star Trek's purportedly post racial future ends up mostly being a white one. For a related point, see this [[http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/inconsistencies/human_names.htm study]] of the overrepresentation of British Isles names for Franchise/StarTrek characters. Franchise/StarTrek is most certainly not unique in this regard, but it seems possible to suggest that it did less to correct it than it might have. That's all I am saying here.
** As WebSite/SFDebris pointed out in his review of [=TNG=]'s "Code of Honor", it ''is'' entirely possible to cast an entire planet filled with black people, so they certainly could be more ethnically diverse if they wanted to.
*** The casting people for that episode likely searched ''specifically'' for black actors to populate the planet. And it was only for one episode. The rest of the time they probably sent out a generic call for actors with no racial requirement. It just so happened that the majority of the actors who responded to those calls were white.
*** Frankly, short of an actual archival investigation of what these calls for extras actually said, this line of discussion quickly becomes unproductive.
*** Also considering the reception of that episode and the apparent intent of the person who made it I'm not really sure it's a good example of diversity casting.
*** The point being made is that one ''could'' have a large number of non-white extras, that it's not infeasible for a production to get them. That's hardly a defence of anything about "Code of Honor."
* Another problem with human races on the series is that, realistically, in Franchise/StarTrek's post-racial future, we should see many more people who would appear racially traceless to our eyes, the results of centuries worth of mixing. Hard to cast, obviously. Also, surnames will be a less reliable predictor of outward appearance (a point Creator/ArthurCClarke makes in ''3001: The Final Odyssey'' with, for instance, a character of outwardly Japanese appearance named Indra Wallace. Of course, it's not easy to cast post-racial -- much easier to cast multi-racial.
* ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'' says hi.
* This is a rather ironic question considering that the original ''Star Trek'' went far out of its way, far beyond what any other '60s TV shows did, to show a multi-ethnic crew, and was rightly praised at the time for doing so.
** That does not exempt all of ''Star Trek'' from criticism along racial lines forever.
* The extra casts are actually fairly diverse. Maybe you're just focusing really hard on the white people. Might say more about you than Star Trek, just so y'know.
* Well, this is actually a subject we have [[WordOfGod some first-hand accounts of]]. David Gerrold, for instance, talked about this exact issue in ''The World Of Star Trek''. Per his account, on the first season of TOS, Roddenberry specifically ensured their background extras were as diverse as possible. But as time went by, the casting agency stopped making the effort, and by Season 3, the new producers didn't care. So you can actually see the Enterprise get whiter in the third season, and yes, it was because the casting agency was racist. Probably not consciously, but that's how systemic racism works. Also, LA had a population of ''millions'' in the mid-60s, of course there were thousands of non-white actors looking for work. People being under-represented on television was never because they were under-represented in the industry.
[[/folder]]





[[folder:The Future's Into Retro?]]
* Other than a few isolated examples, why does pop culture in the Trek universe seem to have completely stopped after the Sixties? Tom Paris is the self-proclaimed expert on the 20th century, yet we get the impression that if someone were to ask his opinion of Pearl Jam (which existed and was quite popular when the show was created), he'd have no idea what they were talking about. As far as literature goes, it's even worse; we almost never see anyone reading anything written after about 100 years ago (from the viewer's perspective). In three or four centuries, not one writer's managed to produce a novel that's considered a classic? That would be like us in the 21st century disregarding everything written after early 1700's.
** Things went down hill so bad that we had literal warlords with control over most of the earth by the early 90s. By 2024, folks have been caged up long enough to trigger the Bell Riots. The music never was created, and the things that may have become classic were overpowered by the influx of [[http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Literature alien lit.]] Or the writers just aren't that creative.
*** I'm gonna have to go with option 2. If indeed everything after our (the viewers') present got destroyed in the turmoil of the early 21st century, then how did anything ''before'' our present survive? And if indeed "alien lit" supplanted everything, then why are people still so in love with Charles Dickens?
** There's enough novels from the many printings over the years that some survived the destruction so they were reproduced.
** Thanks to expanded UsefulNotes/{{copyright}} law, overly-aggressive UsefulNotes/{{DRM}} and inadvertent EMP blasts in the Eugenics Wars, all post-1920's pop culture, music, film, and literature are locked behind an inoperative region coded Content Scrambling System.
*** Of course, one of the real-world explanations is that because of copyright law, they often had to use public domain stuff in the first place when they didn't make things up. In addition, the reason that the only "old" music used was classical and jazz because because the creators considered it universal where as rock music would make the show dated.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Supersize Those Starships]]
* Sure, the starships in Star Trek look awesome, but is there any logistical reason why they have to be so ''huge?'' What are all those personnel for, anyway?
** Not an exhaustive answer but, apart from the Defiant class, Starfleet general policy has always been not to build dedicated warships. Instead, every starship is designed as some kind of flying city, with an emphasis on scientific research.
** In TOS, various claims are made that the facilities on board the ''Enterprise'' alone pretty much match anything available at a starbase, that the ship can wipe out an entire planet easily, and that the dilithium crystals were virtually inexhaustible as long as you weren't stressing the ship. Really, the ship often does provide a technological solution to Kirk's risky god-defeating habit; it was supposed to be the limitless pinnacle of imaginable human accomplishment. Therefore, the large ship makes a bit of sense... a lot of inspiration was taken from WWII-era U.S. naval ships in the design (Jeffries designed the TOS bridge to be kind of spartan) and sheer prodigiousness of the power a "starship" packs. And even though "starships" are supposed to be ''the'' biggest and baddest machines available to humans, the complement of the NCC-1701 doesn't come ''close'' to its 19th-21st century equivalents. The ''Enterprise''-D does, it should be noted, but still cuts it on the small side compared to, say, a nuclear aircraft carrier (not a fair comparison because the ''Enterprise'' is more like a battleship than a carrier, which needs more crew to take care of the planes, but ''Film/{{Star Trek IV|The Voyage Home}}'' did it first so nyeh nyeh).\\
You have to bear in mind that a lot of these things were designed with the idea that SpaceIsAnOcean. For actual warships in real life, there is a lot of redundancy required so that parts of the crew can take shifts (sleep), and so parts of the crew can die in a war situation without leaving the ship helpless in any one of its capacities. And there are also a lot of things that require crew to keep an eye on, too; any given ''part'' of a ship might keep one to several people busy non-stop if the ship's operation demands it. Add a command structure on top of that. That's how you get the huge complements on ships with a wide field of capabilities--many of those capabilities will have specialists, and then there's necessary redundancy.
** There's also something to be said for the psychological effect that a huge capital ship has on both friends and enemies whenever Starfleet wants to show the flag. To Federation citizens and allies, a behemoth like an ''Ambassador'', ''Sovereign'', or ''Galaxy''-class starship rolling into town sends the message "Starfleet is here, and your problems are over." Enemies, on the other hand, get the message "Starfleet is here. Don't even ''think'' about starting any trouble." By the 24[[superscript:th]] Century, Romulans seem to subscribe to that idea, as well; making the ''D'deridex''-class warbird about twice the size of Starfleet's ''Galaxy''-class; which is part of the reason that the universal reaction to a D'deridex de-cloaking anywhere in the vicinity is 'OhCrap'
** Also keep in mind that not all new starships are bigger and badder. ''Intrepid''-class ships, for example, are smaller and more efficient. Starfleet uses both big and small ships depending on what's needed, just like any navy.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Working Day and Night?]]
* Why do Starfleet ships and installations have a day/night cycle? It makes little enough sense on ships, where hostile aliens or spatial anomalies could show up at any time; it makes ''no sense whatsoever'' for Deep Space Nine, which is permanently attached to a planet, and therefore in constant contact with local authorities (which don't sleep - planets are round), as well as managing dozens if not hundreds of ships docking and departing all the time. Even worse, in that situation why would ''Quark'' of all people ever want to close the bar and turn away paying customers?
** Because people have a day/night cycle built into their genes and tend to go a little [[SanitySlippage Janeway]] if the environment doesn't reflect that. All the essential tasks are covered, but non-essential stuff is only run during day-shift (or if there is a crisis).
** As for Quark, three possible reasons. First is that even in the future a public establishment needs downtime to clear up, run maintenance, etc. There is a lot more to running a bar than just serving booze and a lot of this stuff can't be done unless you clear the customers out. Also remember Deep Space Nine and inhabitants has a day/night cycle so there will be a period where even Morn has gone home and it isn't cost effective to keep paying staff to work when wages would cost more than income. If you run a cost-benefit analysis it works out cheaper to close down for a few hours to do the back of shop properly and let the staff sleep than just try and keep running. Second, Deep Space Nine has to work under Bajoran laws and there is probably a licensing restriction about how long bars can stay open that Odo loves to enforce to the second. Third, even Quark needs to sleep and he isn't willing to trust any of his underlings not to try and screw him on the finances if he leaves them in charge.
[[/folder]]





[[folder:What does the Alpha Quadrant Look like?]]
* When the dust had settled, you pretty much had four great powers in the Alpha Quadrant: the Federation, the Klingons, the Romulans, and the Cardassians. Then there are secondary powers like the Ferengi, the Breen, and the Nausicaans, and one-off species like the Tzenkethi and the Son'a; but dealing just with the Core Four, this is complex enough, so let's leave them be.
** I'm not sure that the Cardassians are really in quite the same league as the others; TNG makes it quite clear that they were pawning their priceless cultural treasures in order to maintain their war economy against the Feds (and given that this war wasn't even mentioned onscreen until it was over, it's fair to assume that for the Federation this wasn't a conflict on anything like the same scale as the wars with the Dominion or Klingons), bearing in mind that during this time the Cardassians had a highly militaristic society and the Federation didn't even have dedicated warships and still they felt so unthreatened by the war with Cardassia that they were using the flagship as a taxi half the time; plus the Klingons go through them like a hot knife through butter in Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine. It seems more likely that they're sort of first among the secondary powers, rather than a Great Power.
*** Although we don't get much canon on this, it's hard to imagine the Cardassians as still being a major power after the Dominion War, as it was ''particularly'' unkind to them.
*** I agree. To make some analogy with our world, lets say the Klingons, Romulans and Federation are like the US, Russia and China, then Cardassia is something in the lines of Iran, certainly a regional power and can give a good fight specially in a border's conflict, but can hardly withstand a whole invasion by any of the three above.

* At different points, each of the four powers is referred to as sharing a border with each of the other three. Assuming they all have contiguous territories--which I guess they might not--there are only two possible explanations: There's a point where the borders of all four come together at a ninety-degree angle and they meet in some center, like Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico; or three of them have borders that ''would'' come together and meet at a 120-degree angle (like an equilateral triangle divided into thirds) and the fourth one being plunked down in the center of this and extending out from the central point.
** Assuming that Federation's territory is continuous is kind of a stretch for this reason. Any planet can became a member of the Federation, that means that if a planet near Klingon space becomes a member, even if isolated from the rest of the Federation, that planet's star system (and its colonies if it has) becomes Federation space. Thus, is easy to see why the Federation has borders with everybody, their way to expansion has no reason to be continuous unlike empires that expand whether by conquest or by colonization which would be difficult to do if you’re not territorially connected. Something similar happened with the Dominion which's an evil version of the Federation, with Cardassia as the most obvious example as it became a member of the Dominion and suddenly the Dominion had territory in the Alpha Quadrant. In fact if you see most maps (although all of them are non-canonical) you'll see “pockets” of Federation space. Of course, is logical that the Federation has some very large continuities of space, on one hand because its members tend to colonize other worlds thus expanding Federation territory continually, and on the other because as is logic Federation members obviously influence nearby worlds and if you live near the Federation border you'll be under its cultural, economic and political influence and joining the Federation would see appealing, is something similar on how the European Union expands (with their neighbors first) but you also has something like Cyprus which is nor even in Europe, is in Asia.
*** This is all true, but the tendency is to visualize the Federation and other powers as amoeba-like blobs.

* Actually, the former doesn't work, either: The Federation had a Klingon Neutral Zone ''and'' a Romulan Neutral Zone ''and'' a Cardassian DMZ. So it had borders with all three extending for a good while. For the Square States model to work, it would only touch one of the three at a geometric point.

* As for the latter setup--I guess it works, but it's pretty stupid, isn't it?
** Allow me to introduce you to a concept called "3 Dimensions". Space is not a flat map where 4 regions can only meet at a single corner. Granted, this *is* Star Trek which adores the SpaceIsAnOcean trope. The boundaries can wander and roam all over the place, and it would be pretty easy for all 4 empires to share stretches of contiguous border.
** The relevance of the third dimension depends how big the empires are: the Galaxy is much narrower along its "vertical" axis (its thickness is only 1% of its diameter). While this is still an enormous distance, and it's reasonable to expect overlap, we're also dealing with incomprehensibly-huge nations here that may well extend far further than that in the "horizontal" plane. Assuming they each spread evenly from a central point, the borders would reasonably tend to line up when viewed from above.

* And another thing: Federation space includes a bajillion species, both Fed members and pre-warp civilizations whom they ignore under the Prime Directive but protect from foreign interlopers by maintaining their own territorial integrity. The Romulans have only the Remans. The Cardassians had only the Bajorans until they got thrown out. The Klingons tried to enslave two races in TOS and had one whom they had enslaved in ENT. But for the most part all three species had their space to themselves.
** If worths something, the Expanded Universe does establishes that the Romulans are a true empire, having control over several species, not only the Remans. The Klingons use to be like that but they mostly liberated most of their non-Klingon subjects but maintain a certain influence over them, something along the lines of the Commonwealth or the relation of Spain with Latin America and Ecuatorial Guinea.

* Now assuming that the likelihood of a Class-M planet will develop an intelligent race is pretty much the same anywhere (and I can't see any reason it wouldn't be) that means that the Federation is either much larger territorially than the others, or it has a much denser concentration of inhabitable planets, which one assumes mean many more resources to exploit. Either of those factors would give it a huge advantage over the other civilizations, would make the the Alpha Quadrant's dominant superpower. But it deals with each of the other three as equals most of the time.

** In the first half of TNG I could easily imagine the Federation being run by such shrinking violets that they can be bested by enemies a fraction of their size. Then the Borg came along and gave them a wake-up call. It's kind of like the United States in WWII: In 1940, despite being much larger than Germany, the US army was severely outnumbered, outweighed, and outclassed by its German counterpart, because the Germans were on a war footing and the US wasn't. In 1943, the US war machine was going all-out, and even without the rest of the Allies would have had every advantage over the Germans in a one-on-one fight.

** Where this breaks down is that the Federation had had a ton of Pearl Harbor moments, starting with Wolf 359, the near-war with Cardassia in "Chain of Command," the war with the Klingons in Season 5 of Deep Space Nine, the Dominion alliance with Cardassia, the second Borg invasion. . . . Eventually, the Federation certainly created the impression that it was going balls-to-the-wall to deal with all these threats. But if it were, and if it's as much a potential powerhouse as you suggested, it couldn't help being as strong in the Alpha Quadrant as the Dominion was in the Gamma--In which case it would have beaten the Cardassians and the fraction of the Jem'Hadar fleet that got through before the wormhole got cut off like a rented mule, even without the Klingons' help, and would have faced the entire Gamma Quadrant Dominion force on an even footing. Instead, it's barely keeping its head above water with the fraction of the Dominion fleet in the Alpha Quadrant, and at the beginning of the sixth season everyone's puckering their assholes at the thought the rest of the Jem'Hadar will show up and give the Dominion an insurmountable numerical advantage.

** Remember the Federation supposedly has no military, that most of Starfleet's ships are equipped for research and humanitarian aid and that most of the crew signed up for the engineering or scientific opportunities. Starfleet simply doesn't operate on the level of the Cardassian or Klingon militaries; it seems reasonable that the Federation must be many times larger and more (economically) powerful if it's even able to maintain an equal relationship. Even when they get onto a "war" footing, they're still mostly using obsolete ships (notice the ''Excelsior''-class appears a lot in Deep Space Nine), crewed by personnel with woefully inadequate combat training, as they have no dedicated military academy or warship production facilities. The few instances where a ship or crew is up to scratch militarily (the ''Defiant'', any ''Galaxy''-class with the children offloaded) they're normally portrayed as being able to tear through enemy ships by the dozen, with the exception of the very first battle with the Dominion.

** While this is pure fanon, it is also possible that the Klingons, Romulans, and Cardassians have enough worlds and subject species under their control to have comparable resources to The Federation, but the fact that they are Empires that conquered these territories instead of democracies that formed alliances with them along with a healthy dose of institutionalized racism means that the races who these Empires are named after are the ruling class and are the only ones to rise to the positions where The Federation deals with them (i/e: Government and Military)

** The EU mentions that the Romulans do have several subject species apart from the Remans, the Klingon use to but mostly liberated them all just keeping a certain political and cultural influence like the Commonwealth of Nations to England, and the Cardassians only subjugated the Bajorans for a while. Regarding “the likelihood of a Class-M planet will develop an intelligent race is pretty much the same anywhere” that’s actually not the case, in fact in a similar way how we have Goldilocks areas in solar systems that allow for the development of life, same happens with the Galaxy, there are areas of the Galaxy that are more likely to allow for the developing of life than other. Thus, that may be the explanation; Klingon and Romulans developed (or in the case of the Romulans colonized) areas of the Galaxy hostile for life, which would explain in the case of the Klingon why are they so toughened. Is not that this areas are totally unable to harvest life, some life form can develop, but is much more rare than in other areas thus the Klingon had very few inhabited planets as neighbors, whilst the original Vulcans that colonized Romulus choose it precisely because of its isolated position with very few inhabited planets around. Whilst in other areas life thrill and was plentiful as the area was perfect for the developing of life, this is the area where Earth, Vulcan, Andoria etc. are and as may sound logic the civilizations of this areas will interact with each other and have further cooperation and integration, similarly how we have the European Union or the United States (which was originally a confederation) in our world. In fact is very similar to our world how Russia and China hold very large territories many of them vastly underpopulated, like Siberia.
[[/folder]]




[[folder: Single Parents]]
This doesn't really bug me per se, but it does strike me as odd. Just about every child character who's got a remotely prominent role is being raised by a single parent. The reasons for this vary and are all unrelated, but it does seem an unlikely coincidence, especially since we're given every indication that the nuclear family is still the norm.

To review:

* David Marcus: Raised only by his mother, who went out of her way to keep him from his father until he was an adult. (Which gives us the FridgeHorror of realizing that while Kirk was warping around the galaxy earning our respect and admiration, he was arguably a deadbeat dad, though it's not exactly like he was receiving and ignoring repeated requests from Carol for child support, or anything.)
** As I understand it "deadbeat dad" usually refers to fathers who stiff the mother of their child on child support. There's no evidence that Kirk did anything other than keep a distance on Carol's request. Absentee father certainly applies...

* Wesley Crusher: Raised only by his mother. His father died when he was very young.

* Alexander: Raised only by his mother at first; she pulled a Carol Marcus on Worf for a few years, then introduced father and son. No sooner had this happened than she died, meaning that the poor kid only had a couple of days of knowing both his parents.

* Lal: Okay, she was a special case.

* Jake Sisko: Raised only by his father. His mother died. He was old enough to remember her, but she didn't come anywhere close to seeing him as an adult.
** Also, he gets the Alexander treatment, in that his dad finally marries Kasidy Yates (making her Jake's stepmother), only to be whisked off to a [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence higher plane of existence]] a short time later. Given the events in "The Visitor" and the final shot of the series, the future doesn't look too happy for poor Jake Sisko.
*** The future shown in "The Visitor" was an alternate timeline created by the accident. When Ben Sisko returned to his own time, that Jake Sisko's life was overwritten with whatever he would have done without having a father trapped in a temporal bungee cord.
*** True, but Jake at the end of the series was only a few years older than he was in that episode (the beginning part, anyway), and the situation was very similar. The point being that "The Visitor" showed the level of obsession Jake was capable of to bring his father back, and the fact that that future didn't actually happen still doesn't mean that Jake isn't the type of person that'd become obsessed about it again, especially since we've seen it in him already.
*** In "The Visitor," Ben was removed from Jake's life by an accident that Jake hadn't thought to try to reverse until Ben started coming back from the "dead." Yes, he could technically be considered KIA until he returns, but presumably Kasidy will pass the word along to Jake that this is supposed to be a good thing and that he'll be back in due time. Besides, Ben points out that the Prophets could very well deposit him back yesterday. Since they barely have a concept of time, they'd probably let Ben guide them in what time to send him back to, and he'd select the very next day, or next week.

* Nog: Raised only by his father. No one seemed to notice that his mother was absent. I can only remember one instance of any of the Ferengi characters (or any of the non-Ferengi characters, for that matter) even mentioning her: Rom frets that Leeta will grow tired of him, as Nog's mother had. From that I assumed she'd left Rom for being a loser, which, given how ''emphatically'' Ferengi men hold all the cards in their marriages, is really saying something. I suppose that explains why Rom kept Nog, though: Fathers are probably the default custodial parents in cases of divorce.
** It's actually established in one episode -- I don't remember if it's the same one where Rom is worried about Leeta -- that Ferengi marriages are five-year contracts and that Nog's mother (and Rom's father-in-law) opted not to renew it. On account of Rom's being a loser.

* Molly and Kirayoshi O'Brien: As of the end of ''Deep Space Nine'' they're being raised in a two-parent household. That makes them unique among the kids, though.

* Naomi Wildman: Raised only by her mother. Presumably would be in a two-parent household had Samantha Wildman not been on a ship whose three-hour tour turned into a fateful trip.

* Icheb: Was raised by both his parents, but only if your definition of "raised" is "infected with a cybernetic STD and abandoned at the Borg's doorstep; miraculously survived, returned to them, and then they tried to do it again."

* New Coke Kirk: Raised by his mother. Father died on the day he was born. The real Kirk was raised by both parents, but we only know this because the real Spock pointed it out by way of contrast with New Coke Kirk.

Also common for adult characters: Of the TNG regular cast members other than Wesley (see above), Worf, Beverly, and Tasha Yar were orphans; Riker and Troi each lost one parent in childhood; and Data was abandoned by his parents when the Crystalline Entity struck. Geordi's parents both survived into his adulthood, though he lost his mother during the show's run; and Picard's parents were both dead before the show started, though we don't know when they died. His father apparently lived long enough to try to talk him out of joining Starfleet. Over on Deep Space Nine, Sisko's mother left him and his father after the Prophets stopped possessing her. Kira's mother faked her death when she became Dukat's concubine, and her father died when she was young though not quite a child anymore. O'Brien and Bashir had both parents still living during their Starfleet careers. Quark's father died when he was and adult, Worf I already mentioned, Jadzia's parents we never heard of, Ezri's family was apparently led by a single mother, Jake I mentioned above, and Odo . . . We don't know how the Founders reproduce, but whoever was responsible for bringing up new Founders decided he'd be fine just floating around on his own. On VGR, Janeway's father died when she was fourteen, Belanna's father walked out on her, and Seven's parents were assimilated when she was little (as was she). On ENT, Archer's father died when he was twelve. T'Pol's father died before the show started, though we don't know how old she was. Everyone else seemed to have a complete set.

On TOS, Kirk and Spock were both raised by both their parents, and I don't think they ever mentioned the parents of the other five. We know [=McCoy=]'s father died when Bones was a young man. We also know Bones had a daughter, and when we first met New Coke [=McCoy=], he's complaining that he's going through a tough divorce, which means we're probably looking at yet another broken home for his girl.

** From a writer's point, it creates more drama and opens up more potential storylines (Deceased parent comes back, last parent dies, etc). But logically, you are watching a series about military ships floating around in space and poking their noses in every last nook with a "Oh hello, I see you are being wiped out by an insanely dangerous threat, you want to join our society and we'll save you" theme on going. What do you expect when nearly every action episode contains the line "Casualties being reported from decks X through Y"?
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQTsaDKxmvA Oh, it's not just Star Trek.]] I defy you to find any movie or series where some main character hasn't lost a parent tragically to cancer or mugging-gone-wrong or alien invasion. Harry Potter, Luke Skywalker, Frodo Baggins, and Batman are all missing both of their parents. There are a few reasons for this trope: first of all, like mentioned in the previous point, nothing makes better filler episode than a tear-jerking episode where a character angsts about their absent parents. Second, (and this particularly applies when it's a kid missing his parents,) no parents means no one to fret and keep the main character home, rather than out risking their life fighting the MonsterOfTheWeek. On the flip side, the character him/herself is more easily able to plunge headfirst into danger without stopping to consider, "What will my mother do if I die?" Now, this trope isn't actually all that much of a stretch; [[http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-untold-burden-one-in-seven-americans-lose-a-parent-or-sibling-before-the-age-of-20-88809487.html a 2010 American survey]] showed that 1 in 7 Americans lose a parent or sibling before the age of 20, and a lot of the angsty issues we see in our favorite book, movie, and tv characters seem pretty consistent with other findings of the survey. Granted, this is often a trait associated with Mary Sues. But the beauty about this trope is that, when it's used in most tv, movies, and books, it's handled very tastefully and realistically, and usually enhances the character and the story.
[[/folder]]



[[folder: Where has all the writing gone?]]
* At least in TOS, it seems that there is next to no written text. No labels to any of the (numerous! Very, very numerous!!) switches and levers on all the ship. No keyboards. No labels to doors, nor on the uniforms. How in the bloody hell does everyone know what key to press? Okay, I can understand that the more experienced crew members know their stuff by heart - but there are bound to be newbies somewhere in starfleet. How does one write a book, or a poem, or a love letter?
** Handwritten letters are very uncommon in the 24th century. One episode of Voyager has Chakotay writing a letter to himself about an alien woman he fell in love with whom—because of her physiology and her race's deliberate tampering with the ship's computer—he will soon be unable to remember. He's visibly struggling with writing since it's something he's likely never done before, not to mention the "pencil" is the size and shape of a D cell battery.
** Even typing seems to have gone by the wayside later on; Scotty had no trouble operating a keyboard and mouse on late 1980s Earth (once he remembered the mouse is for pointing, not entering voice commands), but when the Voyager crew traveled back to the 1990s on Earth, none of them could do any better with a keyboard than to use the hunt-and-peck method. Apparently, the future is almost entirely composed of touch screens and voice transcription.
*** That creates an oddity in Voyager's "Future's End," where Chakotway remarks to Janeway "You never learned to type," which in itself would imply that some people in the future know how to type but some don't. Janeway replies, "Turn of the millennium technology wasn't a required course at the Academy. It's like stone knives and bearskins," referencing Spock in "City on the Edge of Forever." But if typing is a feature of turn of the millennium technology, why is Scotty so good at it in the 23rd century? Just a retro hobby?
*** Typing is by far the most efficient method of entering information into a computer that we currently have (and that is ever shown on Star Trek as well) - you can augment it with various predictive systems but by itself it's still whole orders of magnitude faster than dictation or graphical input. It wasn't a required course ''for commanders'' because Janeway isn't required to do large amounts of programming and designing in her day job, and only needs to ''operate'' existing computer systems. She's probably exhibiting the management-stereotype of taking a highly disparaging attitude towards skills she doesn't fully understand. Scotty, on the other hand, will likely have used it quite a lot since he's an engineer, and programming with voice input and an LCARS terminal would be painful at best (more likely, flat-out impossible).
*** Nice though but everything about Janeway's statement indicates that typing is a lost art. If people still do it as a matter of course, even in other lines of work, why would anyone refer to it as "turn of the millennium technology"?
*** Janeway may not have to do much programming and designing as a Captain, but what does she do when she has to ''make a report?'' And she wasn't always a Captain. Once upon a time she was a science officer. Back then she probably had even more reports to write about all the '''science!''' she did. And part of that science may even have included some programming and designing.
*** Trek has a long, long tradition of showing people primarily making audio logs. In fact at least once it's shown the computer screen doing speech-to-text along with the recording. So Janeway probably narrates her reports aloud and then goes back and does simple editing on any bits that need tweaking afterwards.
* Most English keyboards are Qwerty by default, which is an artifact from the typewriter era and unergonomic. Starfleet-era typists probably use Dvorak or something, so when they go back in time they have to hunt and peck on the unfamiliar layout. (Doesn't explain Scotty, but maybe he just likes Qwerty for some reason.) Also, voice recognition (and thus dictation) is ''loads'' better in the future than it is today, so typing and writing by hand then might be similar to fountain pens and calligraphy now. It's a nice way to write, but only people who are into it will go to the trouble of learning it.
** Whether Dvorak is superior to Qwerty is still a matter of debate. But even if Starfleet does use it, then why don't we ever ''see it?'' Never are we shown anything like a keyboard layout, whether Qwerty or Dvorak. It's possible Starfleet uses some sort of Stenotype system but that's pure speculation on my part. And if that's what they do, then it makes the complete absence of pen and paper writing even more glaring. Stenotype is hard to learn and doesn't accommodate hunt-and-peck typing, so anyone not trained to use it would have a tough time writing anything.
** Watching [[https://youtu.be/xaVgRj2e5_s?t=185 that scene]] in ''IV'' again, Scotty seems to be hunting and pecking as well - just really quickly. It's exactly like watching somebody who's been using keyboards long enough to be familiar with them, but who never took a formal typing class. This seems perfectly in character for him.
* Things like computer code in the future have probably become so long and complex that programs are no longer human-readable. In all likelihood they use software to ''write'' software. The programming that went into Data and Lore, as an example, would have taken a small army of programmers years to produce at best. Yet somehow Dr. Soong managed to fit that in along with designing the positronic brain and all the other novel aspects of his androids' bodies...''doing the work himself''! So user interfaces have very likely become very oriented towards executing processes, rather than text entry. Likewise, things like officer logs are invariably dictated verbally (although speech-to-text software may transcribe them as well).
* Also one thing some people seem to be forgetting is that "typing" has a different meaning in a professional connotation than in a casual one... professional level typing is expected to adhere to certain standards that more casual use isn't. So most of the characters probably can type a fair bit on a touchscreen keyboard but haven't taken specific classes using a mechanical one, which would be where actual speed typing would come in. Besides, this is likely a SmallReferencePools issue... people who make entries on sites like TV Tropes are more likely to do a significant amount of typing than most people, who even if they do it in their jobs probably only do it in short bursts. While some amount of typing ability became pretty common as the internet first really came into vogue, I would imagine its commonality has dropped like a rock as most casual internet users have moved to using the internet entirely on smartphones or tablets... or, if you like, [=PADDs=].
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Boarding Party Massacre]]
* Given the amount of control over the environment that we see on starships, it beggars belief that any hostile boarding party could ever seize one... yet they do with some regularity. As people have suggested elsewhere, if somebody beams on, beam them back. Or beam them to the brig. Or if you're feeling nasty, decorporalize them and leave them that way. Transporter not working? Turn off the lights. Turn off the heat. Turn off the gravity... or ramp it way up. Drop force fields wherever you feel like it. Worst comes to worst: open an airlock. Some of these strategies would be more drastic and risk more collateral damage than others, but the point is that there should be about a billion strategies to stop or at least slow down intruders, yet in episodes like "Rascals," "Basics, Part I" and too many others to count, our heroes just lean back as the bad guys waltz in.
** Beaming has to deal with the fact you would have to drop your shields, and if you beam out the boarding party the enemy ships with antimatter warheads knows they have no reason to torpedo you while you have no shields. For the rest... RuleOfCool.
*** Having the shields up does not mean your transporters suddenly stop working -- you can still beam people within your ship (or decorporalize them altogether).
[[/folder]]







[[folder: PowerPerversionPotential & Star Trek Sex Crimes.]]
To be sure, we know Captain James T. Kirk did some serious womanizing in his time, but managed not to leave too many illegitimate children behind thanks to those monthly contraceptive injections that (although rarely mentioned) are apparently standard issue for the fleet. Consider, however, two issues:
* Both biologically and culturally speaking, the Federation and more importantly the entire Milky Way is teeming with diversity. ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' in particular managed to show some really bizarre races that matured backwards (that little kid is actually 96 years old and has grandkids), aged exceedingly rapidly (the Ocampa, with their 9-year lifespan, look and act ''12 years old'' by the time they're ''6 months old''), and achieved sexual maturity and started whole families by age 3 (the Breen, according to the Doctor). What must the Federation's age-of-consent laws be like, and how are they keeping some major perverts from engaging in sex tourism?
** Maybe they just define the age of consent per species? Though I'd love to know whose job it is to assign ages of consent to newly discovered species.
** One can imagine the species itself might have some laws concerning that subject. What really starts raising questions is hybrids. In ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'': "Before And After" for instance, Kes marries Tom Paris and has a girl named Linnis Paris. A few years later, Tom's friend Harry Kim marries Linnis and they have a son named Andrew. It's not clear how much the hybridization with humans slowed the maturity rate and increased the lifespan of the part-Ocampa children, but presumably (this being shown as having happened only a few years into the future), they still grew up amazingly fast. All the same, had this alternate timeline not been erased, Tom and Harry would each have had a lot of explaining to do when they got home.
-->[Hypothetical situation]
-->'''Owen Paris''': You married a ''five-year-old''!?
-->'''Tom Paris''': Oh, come on, Dad, it's not like I robbed the cradle! She looked thirty. She was at her adult height. She was quick learner, and she'd had a boyfriend before. We were even able to have a daughter.
-->'''Owen Paris''': Next thing you'll be telling me is you married her off when she was five too!
-->'''Tom Paris''': Yeah. To Harry Kim. They had a son named Andrew, and he married Naomi Wildman when she was ten. Come on, Dad! Give it a rest already. We were all adults. Ask Admiral Janeway; she presided over our marriages. I think she's as qualified as anyone to say whether they were legal.
-->'''Owen Paris''': Hmph! Well I still think the Voyager was a ship of perverts!
* Even leaving that aside, just imagine what kinds of perversion must be possible using holodecks. Is ''any'' spectacularly perverted use of the holodeck illegal, and if so, how does the Federation (or the Romulan Star Empire or the Dominion or anyone else, really) enforce these laws?
** Probably nothing short of creating an actual AI to do the deed with is illegal. There would be no victims after all.
** It is weird, though. Consider the present: You go to work, chat with your colleagues, then you go home and play GTA IV, where you run around stealing cars, beating, stabbing and shooting people willy-nilly. That's fine, but is there some cutoff point where the illusion is so close to reality that it becomes creepy? How do you work an eight-hour shift next to a guy if you know that come quittin' time, he's heading straight to the holodeck to beat people to death with a golf club for two hours? I think we know it's not illegal to do so, as we see Worf's training program several times.
** Some of the pornography that exists ''now'' is pretty creepy for this very reason, though that's not really the issue. The biggest problem with people being able to play out their most twisted sexual fantasies with holograms is that certain fantasies (especially sadistic and rapacious ones) do require some elaborate AI programming (to ensure that the program puts up some real resistance to being tortured and raped), and that ''every single instance'' of a sophisticated hologram's becoming sentient, self-aware, and capable of free will has come from being thrust into some kind of situation that forced the holographic being to seek out self-improvement. What's to stop somebody's holographic rape slave from getting inventive enough to realize that physical resistance, cries of pain, and feelings of self-loathing are exactly what the rapist wants, and that one can best punish him by submitting and spoiling his fantasy? The day a holographic rape slave says "Fine, have it your way, sicko!" is likely to be a great day for the Federation's photonics' rights lawyers and a total nightmare for everyone else.
*** Surely though if you just restart the program each time you are finished as opposed to saving it there would be no danger of your hologram ever thinking of itself as a real woman. One interesting example is when Quark is asked by a client to try and create a sex-hologram of Kira and it does require the person in question being scanned by a Tricorder or by the Holodeck itself so there are some safeguards present to prevent having sex with anyone you like (which as Barclay proved are immediately invalidated if you happen to be using a public Deck.) Copyright law is ''extremely'' lax in the Federation; in real life it would probably be extremely illegal to reproduce the likeness of someone real without written permission which I imagine would be an insane boost to the adult entertainment industry. As for a Grand Theft Auto style program I would argue this would be covered by ValuesDissonance; the original game was extremely controversial and was accused of many ''many'' moral corruptions whereas These days the majority of the hatred is from a few musty old senators. GTA 25 Holodeck Edition would probably be no different.
*** Even so, what is the nature of a holodeck character- are they capable of self-awareness or independent thought, or are they just computer programs which merely simulate intelligence very well? This is bound to present moral dilemmas in-universe.
** Could well be that the holodeck is seen as a way of cathartically indulging in your fantasies and urges which you would not dare indulge in in RealLife. Some people justify porn pretty much this way now, same with violent games. Consider the fairly mild example of Riker's "I'll be on Holodeck Four" scene right after he refuses to "take advantage" of the empath who's promised to some alien dignitary. (Never mind that she was making the advances on him and there was no real issue of it from her POV.) It's implied he's quite willing to indulge in the fantasy of what would have happened if he was prepared to consent. Whether it could not in fact have the opposite effect in some senses remains to be seen.
** It could also well be that there are in-built protections, similar to the safety protocols, which prevent illegal use of the holodeck.
* It's a FreeLoveFuture, so people are a little desensitized to this kind of stuff. Which is why nobody noticed the Traveler nearly ravishing Wesley in Main Engineering. Picard is regularly subject to sexual harassment by a legally-recognized Federation ambassador (might be diplomatic immunity) who happens to be a telepath and should know that he's just not that into her. Riker tried to hook up with an alien whose "gender" entry in the records would have to be listed as "not applicable". But considering that the question of whether or not Data was a "person" finally had to be decided by a JAG after ''decades'' in Starfleet, one can assume that the Federation handles this sexual stuff via case law and precedent rather than fixed statutes.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: I hate having women on the bridge, right female first officer?]]
A fairly minor one from the first pilot, but... what is up with Pike's reaction when the female yeomen visited the bridge to deliver a report? He complains about having a woman on the bridge, to his female first officer! When she asks what the hell is up with that, he just claims that the first officer is different. No explanation given on what or why. And it's not even like the yeoman was going to permanently stationed on the bridge, she just delivered a report! What, are women supposed to wait until you leave the bridge to deliver reports? And aside from that, its not like he has anything against women in the command structure, since the yeomen was in the meeting room later in the episode.
* An EU novel states that it wasn't that she was a woman, but the fact that his previous yeoman, a male friend of his, had just recently died, so he was feeling a bit bitter.
* I always assumed Number One was treated as OneOfTheBoys and therefore was excepted from the rule- Cpt. Pike pretty much implies it in the dialogue.
[[/folder]]



[[folder: Risa: Planet of Danger]]
* For a place renowned for being peaceful and relaxing, a lot seems to go on in Risa, and, curiously, to and from Risa. There's the Tandaran operatives, the buried super weapon, the pesky Essentialists, and the Ktarians brainwashing Starfleet officers with their evil games. And then there's the Romulans abducting Geordi on the way to Risa ("The Mind's Eye"), and the Dominion doing the same to Ambassador Krajensky ("The Adversary"). The Risian tourist board must be in constant damage control mode.
** That's hardly going to make a dent in Risian tourism. There are likely millions of people who go to Risa every year and have nothing bad happen to them. It's more a function of being a high profile individual traveling to Risa alone than it is about Risa being an inherently unsafe destination.
** In addition, each of Risa's reputations could come from it being a favorite vacation spot for criminals as well as more legitimate customers, sort of the way Saint Paul in Minnesota used to be. Risa would still have plenty of criminals, but mostly only rich crime lords who are on vacation; muggers and other poverty-stricken petty criminals like the ones who tried to rob Tucker and Reed actually would be pretty rare, though one still might have to watch out for the occasional con artist or embezzler. (However, most con artists and embezzlers [[VillainsOutShopping are on vacation too]], and can't be bothered to ply their trade.)
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Doesn't anybody know how to do salvage?]]
* Granted, Kirk, Picard, and Sisko wouldn't have much reason to go picking through debris fields for spare parts most of the time, since they're in Federation space with plenty of places for ships to stop and refuel and lots of friendly neighbors. With Archer and Janeway, however, I couldn't help wondering why it never occurred to them to send their entire crew on salvaging expeditions whenever they came across a destroyed or disabled ship with no clear claimants in sight. In Archer's time, humanity might have gotten Warp 7 a lot sooner had it occurred to anyone to swipe one of those "classified" warp coils from, say, a disabled Vulcan ship that had lost its entire crew to Trellium-D poisoning. As for Janeway, the debris field from one Borg cube Species 8472 has lately splattered would surely provide a wealth of useful materials. If that's too risky, any other destroyed ships she finds might have a few spare kilos of Gallicite for refitting the warp coils, extra photon torpedoes to restock her supply, or even a spare slip-stream device to help speed up her journey home. Come on, doesn't anyone know the value of salvage and surplus anymore?
** This kind of thing happening offscreen probably would explain why ''Voyager'' (the ship) never really had the supply problems it should have.
** It was especially glaring in the episode "Collective", where ''Voyager'' runs into an entire, intact, Borg cube whose whole crew of drones had been killed, leaving behind only a handful of half-assimilated drone kids, all of whom had been deliberately disconnected by the Collective itself. This thing was a gigantic technological gold mine! All the more so because it was ''intact'' and they had a former Borg drone who knew exactly how to access all of its systems, including the stuff the kids could not get into. Voyager needs to get home? The secret of Borg transwarp technology was built right into that cube, along with advanced shields, weapons and who only knows what else. Heck, it was so big that they could have reasonably parked ''Voyager'' '''inside''' of the cube and flown around the galaxy in it!
*** Well, it was ''mostly'' intact; the propulsion systems did get damaged with all the fighting, and the transwarp coil may well have already been out of commission. Even before the ''Voyager'' crew found out it had only five pre-teen-to-teenage kids left to run it, the exterior showed the cube was already in pretty rough shape. Also, the episode "Dark Frontier" in which Janeway and her crew ''did'' go scavenging for a Borg transwarp coil with some success (getting some 20,000 light years out of it before it gave out) reveals that the Borg do have some auto-destruct safeguards built into a lot of their technology to keep people like Janeway from just stealing it; this cube may well have self-destructed soon after she and Seven rescued the kids. On the other hand, an intriguing detail of "Collective" is that it ends with a time skip of unspecified length between scenes (the kids abandoning ship and Janeway noting in her log that now ''Voyager'' has some very troubled children aboard), and there's plenty more off-screen time between it and the next episode as well. During this time, it seems very probable that the ''Voyager'''s crew ''did'' go ahead and scour whatever was left of that cube (or its debris field) for anything of value they could carry. Since Seven established earlier that the Borg had cut off this cube and wouldn't be coming back to salvage it any time soon--if at all--Janeway and her crew could certainly afford to take their time picking it clean.
** The ''Voyager'''s meeting with the Borg does seem to mark the end of most of their supply troubles; Janeway, for one, never seems to have much trouble getting her coffee after "Scorpion" (except when they've got much bigger problems, such as during "Year of Hell"), and we also stop hearing so much about those replicator credits, suggesting the rationing was over by that point.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Tanning decks are everywhere.]]
* Is there ever any explanation for how the white human characters aren't ultra-pale after something like five years in space? I know they go down to planets with suns often but it isn't something they do every day and when they do they are often inside.
** Haven't you seen Data? Really though, it's probably something that it's actually Future Space Lighting From The Future that ''looks'' like fluorescent lights, but actually is a much closer mimic of actual light from the Sun... although, is it the light from the sun or the radiation from it that causes melanin production?
** lol. It's the radiation I believe. Which makes me wonder why no Trek villain has tried to push the "turn up the radiation" button, (which probably would be helpful if a species needed more of it than most areas have)to poison or burn the crew. Knowing how terrible the fail safes are in Star Fleet it shouldn't be too hard.
[[/folder]]



[[folder: Why don't they handle beaming cargo more efficiently?]]
* Whenever we see cargo being transported on board, usually it's a crate about the size of a beer cooler being beamed to the ''personnel'' transport pad. Wouldn't it make more sense to have transporter pads large enough to handle big cargo containers in the hold (and maybe move them with small tractor beams)? This is especially odd in ''Star Trek: Enterprise'' where the transport beams are a new technology and we are told they are mainly used to transport cargo for safety reasons. And then, the first we see it in use is with a pad about the right size for a person, used to beam in one of those small crates!
** The Enterprise D had cargo transporters and tractor beams to move things around in the cargo bays. Small items carried with a person are transported on the personnel transporter pad and large pallets of stuff are transported to the cargo bays. With ''Enterprise'' the transporter was probably as big as they could make it, and that just happened to be big enough for a person. And if they needed those parts immediately then there was no point in waiting until another set of crates arrived so they could all be transported together.
[[/folder]]


[[folder: Somebody holds stock in a pecan pie company?]]
* Latter-day Franchise/StarTrek has an odd obsession with [[http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Pecan_pie pecan pie]]. What's with the pecan pie references, writers?
** Maybe it's for the same reason they like the number 47?
** As of 2020, that's four episodes between two different shows. If that qualifies as an obsession, the writers must also be getting payoffs from Big Asparagus. But to humor you: pecan pie is a popular dessert from North America, where Trip Tucker (who obsesses over it the most) was born. Star Trek routinely throws in references to modern generic Earth foodstuffs to connect with its audience, who might have a better idea of what they taste like than they would plomeek soup or gagh.

[[/folder]]



[[folder: Therapy]]
* The Federation, along with non-Federation races have encountered numerous anomalies in space, countless new life forms, beings that inhabit someone's body or communicate telepathically in a manner that causes stress to humanoids, need I go on. Knowing that, why is the Federation from TNG on so willing to write off anything odd someone may be going through as a mental problem? True, it's still likely that people get stressed, depressed, etc, but even foregoing therapy there's also wonderful future medicine to combat such conditions. Furthermore, how many times was Barclay really in trouble? The one time he was actually suffering a mental disorder was his holodeck addiction- all other times it was something genuine.

My point is, there have been so many DOCUMENTED instances of crewmen being taken over, seeing things because of telepathy, time travel, etc, PLUS the freaking Q, that merely writing off anything strange as something that can be treated by the ship's counselor is the dumbest thing they could do, and is the dumbest thing because they continue to do it and never learn even after the 50th time some hallucinating crewman does so because of a mysterious alien being.

I'm not saying to get rid of the mental health program, but any such claims should be checked beyond merely a trip to a therapist, even if it's merely having the ship's computer compare the counselor's patient notes to ship's sensors to see if any oddities in behavior could relate to some unknown sensor blip. Writing off the possibility of an outside influence(some of which have proven to be major) in favor of a mental disorder, especially after so many instances proved to be something possibly threatening, is stupid.

And for the love of all things holy, after the 10th or so time Barclay's paranoia proved to be right, LISTEN TO THE MAN!
* The real reason is going to be because it's a writing cliché. The off-screen reason could be that all those anomalies make ''a lot'' of people paranoid and we just don't get the scenes where people are wrong. The final conclusion could be that they just need to accept that Barclay's paranoia is healthy and should be trained in all Starfleet Officers. Minus the stammering.
[[/folder]]





[[folder: Why is nearly everyone a FanOfThePast?]]
* Think about the depictions of entertainment we see in Federation society, at least in the TNG era. Picard's love of Dixon Hill, Data's fondness for Sherlock Holmes, Sisko's baseball, Bashir's James Bond pastiche, Janeway's regency era holoromances, Tom Paris and Captain Proton. For a society that likes to claim it has outgrown the flaws of the past humans in the 24th century spend a remarkable amount of time looking backwards if they want to relax. Where is the contemporary fiction, art or music?
** Good question, and the writers actually seem to agree:
** From "The Die is Cast":
--> '''Bashir:''' Modern playwrights have become obsessed with writing human interpretations of alien theatrical works while ignoring completely our own unique cultural heritage in hopes of...
** Same reason we do in the present time. Why are we so obsessed with westerns, costume-dramas and other period works, Shakespeare plays etc. despite the fact that these eras often contained values (including things like slavery and genocide as perfectly acceptable policies) we find abhorrent, yet choose to overlook? It could well be that, in the absence of a capitalist entertainment industry, the constant drive towards new trends and novelty is much less pronounced and culture a lot more timeless than it is now.
** Also, quite possibly because it helps a present-day audience relate to the characters if they are into things we would find familiar. Contemporary works from 400 years in the future would seem pretty alien (not to mention, from a writer's perspective, suffering from a severe case of SocietyMarchesOn as the time draws nearer).
** When music features in the original series, it also sounds pretty strange.
** Selection bias may also be at work, in the case of TOS and TNG. Who is most likely to seek a posting to a vessel with a name as deeply weighted with history in their Verse as ''Enterprise''? Someone who's a FanOfThePast, that's who.
** In between our time and the Federation's, there was a nuclear war. Presumably, a lot of cultural artifacts and recordings were lost in the devastation. Maybe all these recreations of past works have, for the characters, a shine of novelty because surviving copies of these works are only now being rediscovered.
[[/folder]]



[[folder:In the future, we'll have no pop music?]]
* Most of the times when music is played in Star Trek, it tends to be classical music or some other type of art music (such as Klingon opera). In ''The Next Generation'' we also hear jazz a few times, since Riker plays the trombone. But we almost never hear pop music of any sort. The only occasions I can think of where pop is played, it's pop music of the 20th century: Vic Fontaine singing crooner tunes in ''Deep Space Nine'', and Kirk listening to the Beastie Boys in the new movies. Are we supposed to think that pop music doesn't exist in the future anymore, so if people want to listen to it, they have to turn to songs that are 300 or 400 years old?
** The obvious Doylist answer is that the show doesn't want to pay the licensing fees for copyrighted music.
*** Maybe the question was a bit unclear, but I wasn't asking why Star Trek doesn't use licensed pop music from our era, I was wondering why we never hear any of pop music ''from its own era''. Obviously such music would have to be written for the show (just like Klingon opera and other pieces of pieces of original 23rd/24th century music are), so it wouldn't require any extra licensing fees.
*** We never hear 24th century pop music to keep the show from being too dated. Classical music has lasted hundreds of years, so it's logical to expect it to last for longer. But, we do not know what, if any, modern styles of music are going to be around 300+ years from now. It's safer to go with what they KNOW is likely to last.
*** ''Trek'' is already notorious for the NoNewFashionsInTheFuture trope, with ''TOS'' characters showcasing fashions readily recognizable as being from TheSixties. FutureSpandex and EightiesHair were glaring on ''TNG''. Even ''[=DS9=]'', ''VOY'' and ''ENT'' were not beyond this. So just trying to insert other pop culture elements would have made a known problem worse.
*** Apparently they had no problem suggesting that 1950s crooner music and the Beastie Boys would still be remembered and listened to 300 years into the future, though.
** I wonder if it's possible that language and cultural differences between species means that most popular music--or even art in general--is mostly regional; even more so than it is today. Universal translators can turn any language into the one you speak, but the can't make the verses rhyme. And then there are culture's differences. Who's to say that one culture's top forty even meets another culture's ''definition'' of music? I'd imagine even biological differences could be a factor: AC/DC and Led Zeppelin[[labelnote:*]]God I'm old.[[/labelnote]] could probably kill a Ferengi. We don't hear a lot of pop music, because it's considered impolite to all but the stuffiest old music aloud in the cosmopolitan environment of a Federation starship.
** We did get 23rd Century pop music in "[[Recap/StarTrekS3E20TheWayToEden The Way To Eden]]", and Doyle-ist answer is that that episode was so badly received that they never did it again. Watsonian explanation is that it is there, but we just never get to hear it, although there was (non-Klingon) music at Dax's bachelorette party in [=DS9=]'s "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS06E07YouAreCordiallyInvited You Are Cordially Invited]]" which was apparently contemporary 24thC party music.
** We do do very occasionally (like Jono listening to Talarian electronica in "Suddenly Human," allowing Picard to sneer at this "music" in sitcom dad fashion).
[[/folder]]



[[folder:The names of Romulus, Remus, and Vulcan]]
* Why are the planets Romulus, Remus, and Vulcan, as well as their inhabitants, named after beings from ancient Earth mythology? It can't be just a function of the Universal Translator, because it doesn't translate the names of other planets, such as Klingon. And it can't be that those are just the names humans came up for them, because other races (including inhabitants of these planets themselves) use the same names as well. It's never mentioned or even implied any of these planets might have a different name in their own language.
** Well, the expanded universe does explains that the alien seen in the episode ''Who Mourns for Adonais?'' Named itself Apollo belong to a race of god-like aliens that inspired Earth’s Greek-Roman culture and ancient Vulcan culture. If this is ever explained on-screen, IDK.
** The concept is probably that these are just the human names for them and they have indigenous names that we don't hear just because of a TranslationConvention. Diane Duane famously invented "Rihannsu" as the Romulans' name for themselves.
** If it's just a case of TranslationConvention, why are there meaningful human names for these three planets, but not for any others, such as Klingon or Cardassia or Bajor?
*** Well actually Klingon is not the name the Klingon give to themselves, is tlhIngan.
*** This is just it: who's to say that they're not? The Romulans hail from a planet that for whatever reason got the classical appellation "Romulus." The Cardassians hail from a planet that did not get such a name -- but it could well be that "Cardassian" is still just the name the Federation uses, rather than the indigenous name the Cardassians use for themselves (just as we English speakers generally say "German" rather than "Deutsch").
*** That's a good example. The Federation calls "Cronos" (another Greek god) the Klingon home world, but the name in Klingon is Qo'noS, so we know that at least there's other case of translation convention. Wether cases like Cardassia or Bajor remain (probably) untranslated, that's not uncommon in real life either. Deutschland in German is call Germany in English and Alemania in Spanish for example, but Costa Rica is call the same in every language even when it means "Rich Coast", so there are cases in which, for whatever reasons, some names are translated and some not. Maybe the same happens with planets.
*** I gather we're supposed to think that the name of the Klingon home world, Qo'noS, transliterates to "Kronos," the same name as the Titan, and this is a coincidence.
** These are likely [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exonym exonyms]]. Much like Germany is an exonym for Deutschland, and Japan is an exonym for Nihon/Nippon, these exonyms are probably based on humans' impressions of the planets. Kronos, land of the titans. Vulcan...a hot place. Romulus, land of people who dress like Romans. Remus...the other inhabited planet in the same system as Romulus. It's a well precedented phenomenon.
[[/folder]]











[[folder: Hallowwhat?]]
* In "Catspaw," [=McCoy=] casually mentions Halloween as if it's an understandable cultural reference point. In "The Big Goodbye," Picard reacts as if he's never heard the word. Did Halloween become obscure between the 23rd and 24th centuries, or is the difference between the American and French upbringings that makes the discrepancy?
** Speaking as a European it is barely celebrated here. And when it is, it is considered entirely a children's thing for the most part. Adults are expected to have grown out of it.
** Speaking as a Latin American, here is quite the opposite, only adults (who celebrated Halloween in the 80s when it was popular among children) celebrated it mostly by going to bars in customes. Is no longer common among children partly because is too dangerous for them, or because some religious groups have much more influence here, or because some nationalist groups reject it as "foreign", either way, same result; is dying out.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Use the EMH as an AI ship or at least a starship captain]]
* The EMH from Voyager seems to be eager to adopt a command role in a starship (he even seems regretful to relinquish this role in an episode). He is loyal to the Federation and as innovative a thinker as any of the crew (he sometimes comes up with the technobabble solution). He is shown to mainly be limited by the program uploaded into him, much like a person needs training in an area (he helped pull off a ruse when he had a command program uploaded into him). The Federation is interested in developing an AI run starship such as the M5 computer. The doctor would like this solution, why don't they upload his program into the ship's main computer with every possible program uploaded and have him run the whole ship? Even if he doesn't excel at particular areas, it would at least significantly reduce the crew needed. With the aid of interactive holograms (on Voyager he can lift and move things) such as himself which are simultaneously controlled by him, they could operate without other staff in sickbay. He could control all or most of the command functions from within the computer. If he is able, he could run engineering with the computer controlled holograms or with a skeleton staff. It would create a formidable ship. If no crew are needed then it would be immune to atmosphere loss, have no internal hallways big enough for boarding parties to enter (holograms can take a variety of shapes, this also helps with construction) and not worry about inertial dampeners, possibly pulling off maneuvers like a Romulan Drone ship. If he is able to be replicated then you could create many of these ships.
* This wouldn't violate the Federations no warship rule. Just call it can autonomous exploration ship or escort ship.
** No reason it couldn't happen. The Federation just happens to be really behind on AI ethics, they only acknowledged the sapient rights of an android in 2365, for crying out loud!
** Given that this was pretty much the entire plot of ''Message in a Bottle'', there's definitely no technical obstacle. The Federation's cultural problems, on the other hand... Actually the episode goes even further: with no crew you wouldn't need the EMH personality program at all, as the StarfishAlien that is the ship's main AI can do ''literally'' everything by itself anyway.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Life Support Belts Out of Style?]]
* I suppose we'll never know the answer to this, but... how come we've gone from spacesuits to "life support belts"; around Kirk's time... but afterwards, ''back'' to spacesuits?
** Of course, as I write this, all the many, many times their supposedly foolproof gadgets broke down for various reasons come to mind. Chances are, a few too many life support belts shorted out when a Main/NegativeSpaceWedgie sneezed.
** Gene Roddenberry declared ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekTheAnimatedSeries'' (in which the life support belts appeared) to be non-canonical. That's why the belts weren't in ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration''.
* If a belt can provide life support, an entire suit can provide much MORE life support. When it comes to living, I want backup systems!
* The FASA RPG explained this by any hit inflicting over 10 points of damage would render the belt useless. This is one good punch or a grazing shot from any energy weapon.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Starfleet's Run By Reed Richards?]]
* Why can't anyone in Star Trek ever seem to take their technology and use it in remotely intelligent ways? After the episodes with the extra Riker and the return of Scotty, for example, you'd think that transporters would be retrofitted to be save points. The Borg - why do they send giant obvious ships, instead of small subtle ships with drones built to blend in with the natives, and get everybody at once, by releasing nanoprobes into the atmosphere, or at least convert key personnel, so as to undercut defenses and have all the important data, like Friend-Or-Foe identification, and shut-down codes BEFORE they start the fight. So much technology, so few people actually using it remotely intelligently.
** The extra Riker created the same individual twice. Assuming it could be replicated, and they successfully accomplished it, it would be ''ridiculously'' immoral to actually do so. Scotty is a different case--he created a "save point," as you call it, but a) he couldn't get himself out, b) he couldn't do anything while inside it, and c) it didn't actually work--the other person locked in the transporter buffer degraded too much to be restored.
*** That, and having a 'save point' of you doesn't make the original any less dead. From a purely military standpoint the ability to photocopy a human is useful, but in practice that's the sort of thing that results in mutiny or military coup -- there's a not unreasonable fear you'd be used as a RedShirt.
** The Borg aren't necessarily trying to conquer the Federation. Think about it: any conquered Federation territory would be too far to reinforce without transwarp and there's tons of non-Borg space in the Delta Quadrant, so why go after Earth for territory? There's tons of more advanced cultures in the Delta Quadrant, and the Borg have anything they could already want from the Federation through the Enterprise and the Neutral Zone outposts. The only plausible explanation for why they'd attack Earth in the first place is that they'd want to prepare them to be assimilated in a few decades or centuries, like with Species 116.
** The Borg don't ''care''. The Borg aren't [[Literature/{{Animorphs}} Yeerks]], subtly infiltrating society in order to conquer them before they're even aware of it. They're a force. If they lose a few vessels, if they lose a few drones, no big deal. There are more. ''There are always more.'' Which is why they're effective villains. They're as malicious and as dangerous as a hurricane.
*** Actually, in Dark Frontiers, when Seven and the Borg Queen are chit chatting, the Queen suggests a method of dispersing nanobots into a planet's atmosphere as a means of subtle assimilation. Given that in Scorpion Seven proposes a multi-gigatonne weapon that could spread the 8472 killing nanobots over LIGHTYEARS. You'd think that would be pretty handy.
*** She wanted to do that nanobots in the atmosphere thing because they'd had two straight-up invasions fail. They would have happily kept sending cubes against the fleet if each one had brought them a little closer to their goal, but the complete and utter lack of progress led them to want to try other things. (Though why "other things" didn't start with "Let's send five hundred cubes through this handy-dandy transwarp corridor we've never gotten around to using" is a valid question.)
** Why rely so heavily on assimilation? Why not clone new drones with the desired combination of traits?
*** They would stagnate. The Borg know that they don't innovate, they merely add "biological and technological distinctiveness" to the Collective. Even their upgrades that they develop upon being introduced to new and interesting ways to destroy them is a technology stolen from another species. There is no species they could create that would be "perfect" enough for Borg sensibilities.
*** Except they ''do'' innovate, and have done so in most every major appearance in the franchise. To quote Riker, "They have the ability to analyze and adapt.” For several examples, look no further than ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact'', and their series of bat-shit crazy contingency plans—several of which are improvised on the spot. Frontal assault on Earth fails? Send an auxiliary vessel into the past to shell the site of Earth’s first warp flight and RetGone Federation resistance. ''Enterprise'' unexpectedly follows them into the past? Beam a small contingent of drones aboard the ship as it [[CurbStompBattle curb stomps]] the sphere. Making slower progress than expected in assimilating ''Enterprise?'' Turn the ship’s main deflector dish into a beacon to contact the Collective and get reinforcements. Data locks you out of the main computer with an unbreakable encryption protocol? Capture him, and proceed to figuratively (and possibly literally?) seduce him to our side by offering him the chance to achieve his dream of becoming more human. Suffice to say, you don’t graft living tissue to an android’s body in a bizarre plan to manipulate him into giving you computer access if you lack creativity and imagination.
*** Also, they ''do'' clone, or breed in vitro, new drones-to-be; at least, that was the implication of the "nursery" scene in their first appearance. Assimilating adults is just faster, and adds new information.
*** An implication drawn by the characters with less than thirty seconds of visual observation. Probably safe to say they could have misunderstood what was going on in that room.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Why Don't Ya Just Beam Him?]]
* When site to site, or point to point transports have been demonstrated in multiple series, why have we never seen the following scenario:
-->Hostile Boarding Party Member appears on Federation vessel. Random Federation Crew member: "Computer, execute Defense Protocol Epsilon 7 Alpha." Hostile Boarding Party Member reappears in space. Or, Weapon appears in every Federation Crew member's hand. Or, Federation Crew member disappears to safety. Or, Hostile Boarding Party Member's heart appears a meter to the left of Hostile Boarding Party Member. In short, why do they not have set protocols to arm and distribute the crew strategically via the transporter?
** Site-to-site transporting is ''extremely'' power-intensive. Not to mention that the targeted crewman would have to be standing perfectly still or else the phaser would end up transported ''into'' their body by mistake.
*** The transporter-to-the-brig idea above is much more convenient, especially if you custom make the brig to have a transporter pad built in. Then it becomes point-to-pad, not point-to-point. Confiscating prisoner weapons? It's canon that a transporter can be preset to selectively choose what to transport, so that's no issue. (one running gag in any Academy-Days storyline is cadets infiltrating the transporter room immediately before its use by an intended victim, and setting it to not transport anything matching the molecular structure of nylon, rayon, or other common synthetic fibers found in cadet uniforms. Cue the victim appearing at his destination in falling-apart rags if not outright naked.). You can make that "transporter-to-the-escape-pod" if you prefer to run away from a fight.
** Probably because a transporter lock has been shown to be blocked so easily it's surprising carrying around a piece of tissue paper wouldn't be all that a boarding party would need to prevent exactly what tactic. Anyone who is going to send a party to personally board a ship instead of just having it blasted would ensure that the transporters of the ship they are boarding isn't going to work on them before they even began, especially if they do it routinely.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Those Ships Need Seat Belts!]]
* Why are there no seat belts on the Bridge? They get knocked around often enough that you'd think some sort of restraining device would be only logical.
** This is addressed in a deleted scene/alternate ending to ''Nemesis'' where Picard is shown some new features they've installed on the bridge, including a seat belt. Picard's response is along the lines of, "It's about time!"
** A couple reasons, two Watsonian, one Doylian. Firstly, TOS, which introduced having characters fly around the bridge to increase tension, came out in the 60's when seatbelts were nowhere near as widespread or considered as neccesary in the cars the writers had the most expirience with, so this could fall under the GrandfatherClause. Plus, like the exploding consoles, plain old RuleOfDrama. Also, it makes some in-universe sense, at least conceptually: a ride in a starship, even during takeoff and landing, is riduculously smooth, and crew members have to do a lot of walking around even for their normal jobs, so having to put on and take off a seatbelt everytime you need to check wiring somewhere (which is part of the bridge team's job description because TheMainCharactersDoEverything) might seem unnecesary, especially since, logically, a normal seatbelt wouldn't help in the kind of crashes a starship is likely to get into. After over a century of being thrashed by the klingons and romulans though, you'd think engineering would wise up, which was Picard's point, and something that's apparently happened sooner in the new timeline.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Holographic Doctors Ain't Got No Soul?]]
* Starting with the EMH on [[Series/StarTrekVoyager Voyager]], and continuing with Vic Fontaine on ''Deep Space Nine'' (or maybe it's the other way around, I don't remember), we see that self-aware holograms are starting to become, if not commonplace, then at least not totally unheard of. This raises a ''huge'' issue: Doesn't the creation of self-aware computer programs to do your bidding more or less amount to slavery? Think about it. The EMH and Vic are both fully aware that they're holograms, yet neither (at least initially) is allowed to do anything except perform whatever function they were designed to do. Only the Doctor seems to see a problem with this; he complains all the time that crew members talk right past him as if he's not there, forget to turn him off before leaving sick bay, and any number of other indignities. Did nobody think about this when the idea of giving holograms consciousness was first floated? More to the point, what happened to the much-touted evolved sensibilities that the Federation is supposed to embody? Data was specifically stated to be a conscious, free being despite being artificially created rather than born; why doesn't anyone extend the same courtesy to holograms until they're beat over the head with it? Hell, the EMH program was even repurposed to produce menial laborers; if that doesn't scream UnfortunateImplications, I don't know what does.
** Bear in mind that no EMH was ever ''supposed'' to be self-aware, the Doctor becoming so was an accident, and as the crew come to understand that he ''has'' become self-aware, they start to allow him time off, to upgrade his program with other abilities, and so on. The end of "Author, Author" is problematic, though, because it implies that all the menial labour holograms have become something close to people, which ''would'' make it slavery, and it doesn't make sense anyway: the Doctor becoming sapient was a result of a combination of the crew overcomplicating his program by trying to get him to do much more than he was supposed to be able to, and the fact that he was left on for far too long. The menial labour holograms, by contrast, were presumably reprogrammed for a very simple task, and not left on for extended periods of time. They shouldn't really have gained sapience.
*** Nope. The Doctor knew from the beginning that he was a hologram, and it was in the very first season that he started complaining about being mistreated by the crew. So the original point still stands. Plus, you still haven't addressed the problem of Vic Fontaine, who ''also'' knew he was a hologram; he just didn't complain about it because the crew treated him relatively well. The closest he came was when Nog was using the Holosuite as his rehabilitation facility, and Vic complained that he wasn't used to being on 24/7 (or whatever the hell clock they used on Deep Space Nine), and even then he didn't seem to hold it against Nog.
*** We're getting into P-zombie issues at this point, though. The Doctor said he was a hologram and complained about the crew, but a computer could be programmed to say "I'm a computer, and you guys suck" without being sentient. It's later revealed that the Doctor's program was mimicking his creator Dr. Zimmerman at first, and only later started branching off into things Zimmerman wouldn't have approved of, like raising a family and singing opera. So even though a hologram's saying things that make him sound sentient, that could just be a very advanced but still mindless AI running a "what would this character do" simulation. Though now we're getting into solipsism and the question of how to prove that anyone's really sentient at all, which is the kind of philosophical nightmares the Federation's probably trying not to get legally sucked into (which is likely why the court in "Author Author" ruled that the Doctor can be an author while specifying that the ruling does not necessarily mean he's sentient). On the other hand, they'll have to deal with it sooner or later...
*** What bugs me is the idea of sentient holograms in general, going all the way back to Moriarity. It's not that these weren't great characters and some great stories, but it just raises too many issues. First of all, there's Data. Data is made out to be this very unique, highly sophisticated android, the product of one man's entire life's work; a truly sentient form of artificial life. Data is something so special that top researchers can't duplicate him. But then the holodeck accidentally succeeds in creating an artificial life form more sophisticated than Data, with a full range of emotion and personality, who then goes on to create another program like himself. This very idea completely undermines Data's uniqueness. Secondly, consider that the holodeck is a part of the ship's computer, and all holodeck programs are stored there. So now we're suggesting that the Enterprise itself is capable of creating multiple living entities by itself, within itself. Doesn't it stand to reason that the Enterprise itself is capable of sentience? And thirdly, this bugs me because by the time we get to Author, Author (if you even count Voyager, which you shouldn't) we're now dealing with the issue of Hologram rights. This was just one of those things that I think got out of hand in Star Trek. Suddenly there's an entire race of accidentally created lifeforms. It just stretches my suspension of disbelief too far. One of the fundamental problems with Star Trek is that if you consider every episode, there's always some idea or piece of technology lying around that the characters never consider, like the way the transporter could essentially solve every single problem if you really think about it.
* It seems generally accepted that Vic Fontaine is a person; he certainly doesn't seem to operate by the normal hologram rules, what with the ability to ''turn himself on when he's been turned off''. Okay, maybe he gained some measure if sentience, if not sapience, over time. But then, when the hidden Mafia subplot in his holosuite program switches on, the author of the program simply refuses to restore the status quo. First, if Vic is a person, isn't that reckless endangerment? And second, isn't that ''godawful'' customer service, refusing to disable an unwanted "feature" completely unrelated and in fact contrary to the purpose for which the program was purchased (to be a simple casino lounge)?
** I think the possibility of simply resetting the program was brought up in that episode. However, that would also have erased Vic's memory from an unspecified period of time which is why they decided to play by the program's rules.
** For the record, they never actually said in the episode that the safeties were disabled when the jack-in-the-box kicked in, so it's quite possible that the [=DS=]9 crew were never in any danger at all during their big heist. The only one in danger was Vic himself, and Bashir could always reset the program and bring Vic back if he had to, but that would have reset Vic's memory too. And perhaps...that was the entire purpose. Perhaps Felix was trying to open people's eyes about holographic rights by creating this sentient program, getting people attached to it, and then putting that program in danger. Suddenly the crew is willing to enact a complex plan, possibly even risking life and limb, to get rid of the jack-in-the-box. And not because they don't like the Mafia subplot, but because they want to ''help Vic''. All of a sudden they realize they've stopped thinking about Vic as "just another hologram" and started thinking of him as a ''real person''. And once they realize that, maybe they start looking at some of their other favorite holo-characters a little bit differently...
[[/folder]]

[[folder: The end of all life]]
* How hard is it to destroy all life on a planet? Hard, you'd say: after all, the large combined Romulan/Cardassian fleet in "The Die is Cast" planned to destroy the Founder's home world by bombarding its crust for an hour, and the Klingons committed their fleet to destroying the tribble home world. But this clashes with "The Chase," in which Nu'Daq destroys all life (as in: all life, not even any bacteria remaining) on Indri VIII, using a "plasma reaction." One ship does this, unseen, nobody knowing about it until it's too late. If wiping out all life on a planet is that easy, it's a wonder that some of the more duplicitous of the alien races don't do this all the time. True, it wouldn't be good if you want a planet to be useful real estate afterwards, but it'd be a great way to wipe out enemy base or home world (imagine if the Breen had opted to do this to Earth, for example).
** It's probably a matter of how well that planet's inhabitants are equipped to discover and fight back against such a weapon. Total planetary destruction has always been a threat in Star Trek. Several people have already pointed out that the Genesis Torpedo from the Star Trek movies in Kirk's time could still serve as a planet-wrecker after it proved too unstable for its original purpose, which is why the Klingons were not too happy to see the Federation having it. Species 8472 from ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' managed to smash an entire Borg planet into rubble with some coordinated firing from their bio-ships, and Neelix's backstory involved the Talaxians having had everyone on one of their moons nuked into oblivion with something called the Metryon Cascade. Even in Archer's time, the planet-busting Xindi were a completely credible threat to Earth, while over in the MirrorUniverse a Constitution-class ship from just a hundred years into the future was a credible threat that could wipe out Earth's cities with its photon torpedoes. Arguably, Nu'Daq probably just got lucky. The Breen would have a harder time catching Earth napping later with the Dominion War in full swing, and Starfleet was undoubtedly hard at work coming up with counter-measures to every such potential attack. There's also the potential for Mutually Assured Destruction, which is part of why, despite some of our own unscrupulous peoples in their unscrupulous nations, we haven't exercised the capacity for wiping out each other's countries that we already have ''right now''.
** I think you're misremembering what happened in "The Chase". What Nu'Daq did was destroy the ''atmosphere'' of the planet. Obviously that would kill the vast majority of life-forms on that planet, but that's hardly the same as complete sterilization. And what the Cardassians and Romulans tried to do in "The Die Is Cast" was ''completely destroy the planet'', not merely wipe out all life on it. They wanted to blast away the crust and the mantle, and I suppose if they had time they would have destroyed what was left after that as well. I don't know about you but that sounds like the sort of thing that would take a lot more time and effort than a mere "plasma reaction".
*** The fact that Nu'Daq set out to (and succeeded at) sterilizing the planet is a plot point; he was doing it to make sure nobody else could get the piece of the DNA-puzzle after him. It's unambiguous:
---> '''Data:''' All life on the planet is being destroyed, sir.
---> '''Riker:''' Why would anyone want to destroy all the life on an uninhabited, neutral planet with no strategic importance whatsoever?
---> and later:
---> '''Picard:''' I believe that one of you has a fragment from Indri Eight.
---> '''Nu'Daq:''' Yes. And there will be no other samples from Indri Eight.
---> '''Ocett:''' What is that supposed to mean?
---> '''Picard:''' He destroyed the biosphere of the planet after he had taken the sample.
---> '''Ocett:''' Typical Klingon thinking. Take what you want and destroy the rest.
*** Actually it is kind of ambiguous. If the Enterprise came upon a ship that had been attacked by space pirates who murdered everyone on board, would you fault them for saying the pirates "wiped out" or "killed every living thing" on the ship even though there are probably still bacteria and other microorganisms hanging around? Nu'Daq rendered the planet uninhabitable and killed every flora and fauna that could be used to take a DNA sample. That much is indisputable. But whether that's the same thing as "complete sterilization" is another matter. Considering his obsession with absolute precision, I think if Data had meant to say "the planet is completely sterilized" he would have.
*** Sterilization refers to the elimination of microbial life. DNA is contained in microbial life. The Enterprise is unable to collect any DNA from the planet after what Nu'Daq did to it. Q.E.D., what he did to it counts as sterilizing the planet. If there is ever a case for which "killed every living thing" and "complete sterilization" certainly coincide, this is it (for instance, the Cardassians and Romulans wouldn't have cared much about whether they kill microbes on the Changeling home world -- Nu'Daq's whole point is killing everything down to the last microbe). But this distinction is a minor issue compared to the bigger point: what Nu'Daq does seems to be far too easy. The only thing I can think is that the when the Enterprise arrives as the "plasma reaction" is underway (soon to be accompanied by a dramatic special effect), and we don't know how long it took to that point -- could be that it was a fairly slow process and they are just seeing its crescendo.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: How their circadian clocks don't get screw up? ]]

* Ok, here’s the thing: We all have something call the circadian rhythm which allows our brains to know what time is it and when to sleep. This depends in great deal on environmental lighting. If space ships have the same lighting all the time people would start suffering from a series of mental disorders and health issues. Yes, they turn off the lights in their rooms to sleep, but that’s not enough, your brain need to have different lightings during the day in order to function correctly. A lighting that make you feel that is clearly morning, afternoon and night. During whatever timeslot they choose as “nighttime” the lighting has to be very low and very high during the morning period, but in the series we see them having always the same lighting all the time, except when they go to sleep inside their rooms. In that scenario several problems like fatigue, diabetes, obesity and different sleep disorders would affect the crew. In fact current spacecrafts mimic the 24 hours lighting in favor of the astronauts’ health.
** I'm certain that ''Voyager'' dimmed the lights at night, at least in the later seasons when Harry Kim was commanding the night shift. Which implies to me that every ship does, it just doesn't seem like it because this is a very old franchise that has suffered greatly in places from its low budget and dated studio filming techniques.
*** We see the changeover from the night to day shift in TNG in "Data's Day." Of course, it raises the question of why the problems that face the crew overwhelmingly happen during the "day."
*** Because that's when the alpha shift is, which is the one the main characters are on, and they're called the main characters for a reason: we tuned in to watch them deal with this week's negative space wedgie, not a bunch of "Who?"s from the gamma shift.
*** Well, you could easily have the main characters acting to deal with a crisis during the "night" period, even if it's outside of their usual shifts -- that's what crises are about. I suspect it's more that the writing and production staff just had no interest in the whole concept of maintaining "day" and "night" with different lighting on a starship, which has the potential to confuse viewers even though it makes a certain amount of sense.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Join the Redshirt Army Today!]]
* Wouldn't the Star Fleet security department start to, er, run into recruiting problems after a while? (James Alan Gardner memorably skewers this point in his ''Expendable'' series.)
** The mass production of Replacement Redshirt clones is the Federation's largest growth industry.
*** WWI fighter pilots had a life expectancy slightly shorter than that of ice cream left out in the sun on a warm day, but they still recruited plenty of people. Plus, security officers probably aren't the brightest recruits out of the Academy - anyone with real talent gets pushed to command, all the geniuses go into science, and the gear heads go into Engineering. Security officers result from people who still want to go into space, but have no talent in any of the high-profile areas.
*** OK, but getting into Starfleet is no easy task (going off by TNG, I would even say that the exam is the same for everyone, except possibly medics) and they pick the brightest people for every single division. Redshirts would not be as smart as blue shirts or even yellow shirts, but they hardly would lack talent. Jokes aside, the biggest/most important security defenses on a ship would be the weapons system which means every red shirt should know them inside out - Malcolm Reed probably had more instances of tinkering with and upgrading the weapon systems than Trip working on the warp drive (probably). And has army recruits ever been a problem in the real world, let alone the future where all those people are actually exploring space? And another thing I've noticed is unlike the flagships, other USS vessels we see rarely have more dead red shirts; I can even recall a few instances when they were like 5-6 yellow and blue shirts dead and only one red (shown at the very least).
** [[SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale Star Trek Critics have No Sense Of Scale]]. Starfleet is a large organization, granted, however it's staffing levels pale into insignificance compared to the population base it can draw on. Take Earth, population around the 4 Billion mark in the Trek Era that is one single planet. The Federation has 150 member planets, plus countless colonies and allies. Now, of those 150 the population probably bobs around a bit but for most will be in the billions (most likely between 2 and 10 billion). That is a huge population pool to draw from. Even if only a tiny fraction of a percent of the population want to be in Starfleet then Starfleet will still have more applicants than they can handle. We've seen how difficult it is to get accepted to the fleet, only the best of the best, of the best, of the best [[AndZoidberg and Harry Kim]] even get to the entry test. And most of those who take the entry test fail. In the unlikely event of there being a shortage all Starfleet needs to do is lower the standards a tiny little bit and they are back to having more than they can handle. Plus even with the conflicts like the Dominion War you are still unlikely to die or be killed. After all, even in UsefulNotes/WW1 most soldiers who marched off to war marched home again no worse for wear, we just notice deaths more than survivals, so the people bright enough to look at the numbers (which is the group Starfleet wants anyway) will not be put off applying. And as I said they've got a population pool upwards of 300 Billion to recruit from.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Those Meddling Feddies]]
* Gene Roddenberry was completely convinced for some reason or another that human beings are basically good, and that given enough time we'll eventually evolve to become even better. That said, doesn't the whole concept of the Federation seem kind of really, really racist? I mean, they don't interfere with species that aren't capable of warp, for better or for worse, but they'll willingly interfere with anyone else. That seems kind of... White Man's Burden-y to me. Prime Directive aside.
** Hngh... it's hard to place, I'll admit, but think there's a line somewhere between "White Man's Burden" and "hey, we like to poke our noses into your problems."
*** They never ''willingly'' interfered with someone else. It was always either to save a life of a Starfleet or Federation citizen, or by accident. Granted, most of the situations were still easily avoidable in the first place, but they didn't just throw darts at a starmap and say "today I'm going to radically alter ''this'' society".
*** Yeah. "White Man's Burden" is what you get when the 'advanced' empire takes it upon itself to 'civilize' all those poor primitive natives who ''obviously'' don't know how to live because they don't have cool technology like steam engines and top hats. Starfleet has an actual policy against doing that. It isn't perfectly consistent, and it gets bent a lot by the people out on the sharp end, but the policy is ''there''.
*** Kirk still did things like that all the time, with good examples being "Return of the Archons," "The Apple," and "The Omega Glory," the latter after he'd chewed out another captain for doing it.
*** Whether or not the federation "interferes" with other cultures usually has absolutely nothing to do with that culture's ''species''. And at least they often go out of their way to keep other cultures happy in the interest's of diplomacy.
*** A big point is that they also don't want species who have just discovered warp drive (and per First Contact, are much more likely to show up on sensors) to blunder into the middle of a situation they're woefully unprepared for.
*** Granted, but Federation culture is almost always painted as fairly ideal. Even Deep Space Nine painted a fairly hopeful look at humanity, despite the darker undertones. Other cultures aren't painted as ''wrong'', per se, but misguided, and if you would just do things a little more humany, you'd be set. Klingons are savage and preach honor but practice dishonor. Worf, on the other hand, was raised by humans, acquired a human morality in addition to his Klingon honor, and because of that, he's ''the best Klingon ever.'' Nog and Rom joined Starfleet and the Bajoran militia, respectively, and they're painted in a much more sympathetic light than their older, more typical Ferengi characterizations. It just seems like the Federation (and provisional member worlds) make everything ''better.''
*** The conspiracy theory that most Klingon are dishonorable and that Worf “tries to hard” to be a good Klingon had spread all over TV Tropes like butter in bread and appears everywhere. And the funny thing is that is presented as a fact and is not. Is speculation. A hypothesis at best and very thinly supported I must add. Most arguments in favor of the “Except for Worf all Klingon are dishonorable beasts that do not follow their codes” are based on cherry picking and circumstantial evidence. In any case, if you rest the often cherry picked examples of dishonorable Klingons and do the same the other way around with all the Klingon in camera that do follow their code, yes, post-TNG Klingon culture as presented in Star Trek is pretty idealized. Maybe more than the Federation.
** The undertones of "white man's burden" is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to racist undertones in Star Trek. See [[http://www.stardestroyer.net/Empire/Essays/Racism.html#StarTrek this essay]].
*** The essay is not a particularly good one. It's full of false comparisons. Alien cultures aren't supposed to stand in for different races, they're supposed to stand in for different cultures, and the reality is that it ''would'' be acceptable to chastise a child for acting disgusted because a French friend enjoyed escargot or whatever. And the "torn between two cultures" thing is something that really does affect people of mixed descent. It's oversimplified, yes, and not always handled as well as it might be, but it's legitimate. Honestly, I find the essay more racist than the arguments: "There's a clear allegory for the differences between people. All these people look different, therefore it must be a race based allegory! It couldn't possibly be cultural, otherwise they would look the same."
*** "Alien cultures aren't supposed to stand in for different races, they're supposed to stand in for different cultures" That's precisely the problem. In Star Trek, aspects of ''culture'' are treated as immutable characteristics, a classic form of racism. The escargot example isn't applicable because this wasn't just an example of differing food preferences. This was an example of ''behavior''. Nog was behaving like a chauvinistic jerk. When Jake Sisko complained about it, his father basically told him "well son, Ferengi are just like that". If a black child did something mean to your son or daughter and they ran home crying, would you tell them "well, black people are just like that"? "And the "torn between two cultures" thing is something that really does affect people of mixed descent." Spoken like someone who is not mixed race and has never met someone who is mixed race. Mixed race children are not "torn between two cultures". As a teacher, I've had several mixed race students in my classes. NONE of them were ever "torn between two cultures". Yet ALL of the mixed race characters in Star Trek are routinely described as "torn" between their human and non-human (because it's ''always'' human and non-human) sides. In real life, children of mixed race marriages grow up identifying with one side of their ancestry or the other, or some combination of both. They don't grow up "torn" between the dueling cultures of their parents. One wonders how such a marriage could even function if there was so much culture clash that children were routinely "torn" between two backgrounds.
*** I'm glad you've never met any mixed-race children who had to deal with that sort of issue, but that hasn't always been the case. Cultural acceptance of mixed-race children has improved of late, but don't you dare sit there and tell me that the experiences my family has had are illegitimate because you've never seen it happen. Moreover, Sisko wasn't saying "All Ferengi are like that," he was saying, "His behavior is acceptable in his culture." And in Sisko's culture, which is the Federation, he's expected to be tolerant of other social mores even if he himself disagrees with them.
*** Another point to raise is that perhaps Sisko was indeed being a bit racist with respect to Nog -- Quark calls him out on something similar in "The Jem'Hadar." Nog earns Sisko's respect in the fullness of time, though the point remains that he does so by what could seem like an assimilationist move -- going to Starfleet Academy.
*** We're not talking about "cultural acceptance" of mixed race children. We're talking about the ''nature'' of mixed race children. In Star Trek, every child of a mixed-species union is ''inevitably'' described as "torn" between two fundamentally conflicting natures. Human/Klingon hybrids have to struggle to control their fiery Klingon tempers. Human/Vulcan hybrids struggle to reconcile the human desire to emote with the Vulcan desire to suppress emotion. They suffer ''physical and psychological stress'' trying to reconcile their mixed-species heritage. ''This does not happen in real life.'' Only in the world of Star Trek (and apparently in the mind of Gene Roddenberry) does this happen. "Moreover, Sisko wasn't saying "All Ferengi are like that," he was saying, "His behavior is acceptable in his culture."" Wrong. Sisko's exact words were: "Sounds like he's acting like a Ferengi to me. You can't blame him for that." I defy you to explain to me how that is not racist.
*** It's only racist if you're assuming that aliens in ''Franchise/StarTrek'' are no more different from humans than human races are from each other. And that's not true. Other alien races in Trek have talked time and again about how their cultures all have a single defining trait, and how weird humans are for jumping wildly from one extreme to the other (in ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'', the Vulcan ambassador Soval admits that the Vulcans are deeply worried about what humans might do to the galaxy, because they're so unpredictable compared to everyone else). So, armed with the knowledge that diverse personalities are considered humanity's [[PlanetOfHats hat]] by everyone else, it makes perfect sense that the Ferengi would seem to be mostly alike from a human's perspective, and there's no reason why Sisko wouldn't point that out to Jake, just as Soval, Quark and others have pointed out that humans seem emotionally schizophrenic to them. That's not racism, that's just plain old HumansAreSpecial.
*** Keep in mind that different species in Star Trek are not a perfect allegory for different races among humans. Among human races, there is no biological hardwiring that makes races act certain ways; behavior is all taught through culture. A black child raised by white parents will not have a tendency to "act black" because there is no such thing as "acting black". But in Star Trek, the Vulcans and Klingons and Ferengi are not different races, they are different SPECIES. They evolved completely independently of humans and as such their brains probably don't function exactly the same. So to say someone is "acting Klingon" may actually be a legitimate statement, even if it is wrong to say someone in the real world is "acting Asian". And this means that a human-Klingon hybrid having to tone back her fiery temper may be legitimate too, because who knows what psychological, emotional, and hormonal effects Klingon biochemistry would impart on a hybrid child.
*** What about Worf's son Alexander (as he is in TNG)? He's got an excellent sense of himself and his identity as an individual from a very early age -- not in terms of his heritage on either side. He is himself, and he'll decide who and what he wants to be. Worf keeps pestering him about it, and he does send himself back through time to encourage his younger self to be a warrior, because he blames himself for Worf's death, but in the end Worf realizes Alexander must be what he is.
*** "But in Star Trek, the Vulcans and Klingons and Ferengi are not different races, they are different SPECIES." If they were different species they wouldn't be able to successfully breed together. They can produce fertile offspring with each other, therefore they are different races, not different species. QED.
*** Different species CAN interbreed, right here on Earth even. No doubt you've heard of mules? A donkey and a horse are ''not'' the same species. Even species that aren't even from the same ''genera'' interbreed sometimes. Now (as with mules), such hybrids are usually sterile - but [[WeCanRebuildHim They Have The Technology]] to fix that...
*** Being able to interbreed is not sufficient to tell whether two specimens are one species or two: they must produce ''fertile'' offspring: their children must be able to have children as well. So: a horse and a donkey don't produce fertile offspring because mules can't breed, so horses and donkeys are different species. A Klingon and a human produce fertile offspring because their children can have children as well, so Klingons and humans are the same species. QED.
*** Actually its stated in various series that hybrid like Spock and B'lanna only exist because of technological assistance. Klingons, Vulcans and humans all evolved on different planets and have very different internal biology of course they are different species.
*** See: K'ehlyr and B'elanna Torres. Both were human/Klingon hybrids who produced children with no apparent medical intervention. Ergo, Star Trek humans can be classified as ''Homo sapiens terra'' and Klingons as ''Homo sapiens kronos'' (excuse my terrible Linnean taxonomy).
*** Actually the different aliens in Star Trek are not just different species, or different genuses, or different taxonomical families, or different orders, they are all different domains. As they come from different planets they should have a whole different biochemistry. Of course this is overlooked in the Star Trek lore.
*** Only ''male'' mules [[ConvictionByCounterfactualClue are invariably infertile]], females are sometimes fertile. This doesn't merge ''Equus asinus'' and ''Equus caballus'' into a single species. (Producing fertile offspring could made the hybrids a legitimate species in its own right, but it would not merge the parent species into one - e.g. ''Beefalos'' are hybrid of domestic cattle and bisons - which are still separate species.) Klingons evolved outside Earth - they would be not even classified as belonging to genus ''Homo'', let alone species ''Homo sapiens''.
*** B'Elanna Torres had to underwent some form of [[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS7E11Lineage genetic manipulation]] (which she attempted to modify even further on her own, so the child would not have Klingon cranial ridges) which made her pregnancy possible - because nothing is mentioned in K'ehlyr's instance (perhaps due to the LawOfConservationOfDetail), it does not mean that otherwise is unassisted pregnancy feasible.
*** About two centuries before K'ehlyr or B'lanna were born, augmented human DNA was introduced into the Klingon genome (ENT-"Affliction", "Divergence"), which resulted in the appearance of the smooth-headed Klingons seen in TOS. It is plausible that this enabled the existence of Klingon/human hybrids.
*** It might be worth noting that essay is from a site that is dedicated solely to unfavorably comparing Star Trek to Star Wars, so bias is heavy here. In the example of respecting Ferengi cultural values being a racist statement, cultures DO have different values. Any sane person will tell you that. It's just that when people say, "He's acting like a Ferengi" it's because the species has a dominant mainstream culture that is then synonymous with the people. You could read it that Sisko meant Nog is biologically hardwired to be chauvinist, but I'd argue you read it wrong. Unless people freak out and cry racism any time someone calls Monty Python "British humor" implying there is one monolithic British people who all find Monty Python equally funny, then saying Nog is acting like a Ferengi isn't racist.
*** This troper never got the impression that the different species in Star Trek were actually supposed to stand in for different cultures so much as they were supposed to stand in for different ''philosophies''. Hence the [[PlanetOfHats hats]] everybody is always wearing.
*** I never saw an episode with Deanna Troi "conflicted" over her mixed origin, nor Alexander as mentioned before. Saying that every character of mixed origin is "conflicted" is cherry picking, and is also cherry picking to say that that doesn't happen in real life, because it does. On the other hand on the argument that Sisko's expression about the Ferengi is racist it should be remembered that they are not different race, they are different '''species''', and yes the fact that due to budgetary reasons they are all HumanoidAliens may cause us to overlook that, however the issue here is that they are not only different for culture, they are '''biologically'' different, which is a problem we don't have unless you count our relationship with other animals. Except for some marginal pseudoscientific groups mostly ideologically motivated (ehum, white supremacists, ehum) is the scientific consensus today that races are cultural in nature, not biological, and thus there's nothing really organic that causes racial differences being race a social or cultural construct. That does not apply to aliens. Aliens ''are'' biologically differnet, thus Sisko's words about the Ferengi are not analogical to refering to "a black kid", saying "Sounds like he's acting like a Ferengi to me. You can't blame him for that." sounds bad if you change Ferengi for African-American, but not if you change Ferengi for cat.
* I think Azetbur in [[Film/StarTrekVITheUndiscoveredCountry ST:VI]] said it best: "'Inalien'. If only you could hear yourselves. 'Human rights'. Why the very name is racist. The Federation is no more than a Homo-sapiens-only club."
** This is a pretty thin argument on her part. Neither "alien" nor "human" are terms specifically connected to species in 21st-century usage (i.e. ''Homo sapiens'' is one of several known species ''of'' human; illegal aliens of the species ''H. sapiens'' are often pursued by immigration authorities). It would have made more sense to assume that by the 23rd century, "human" also includes Klingons, Vulcans, etc., and... there's no logical connection ''whatsoever'' between the word "inalienable" and any species.
*** "Human" includes Klingon? Isn't that a bit like saying "Mankind includes women"? It may be linguistically accurate, but that doesn't mean people won't take offense when alternative words exist (Sentients in former case, People in the latter).
*** There is no canonical basis for the argument that the word "human" refers to ''any'' other species besides actual people descended from those on Earth. Quite the opposite in fact. Even HumanAliens are invariably referred to by their home world or species name and ''never'' as "humans". Even HalfHumanHybrid individuals like Spock and Troi are specifically identified as Vulcan and Betazoid respectively, as those are the planets they come from despite their human ancestry. To take it a step further, "the Federation" and "Starfleet" invariably carry a connotation of "human". In "Encounter At Farpoint" for example, Deanna explains that she is only half-Betazoid and that her father was "a Starfleet officer". It was an interesting bit of phrasing, because she did not feel the need to specify that he was a ''human'' Starfleet officer. That was inferred. It was her Betazoid lineage that was being called out, ironically by a Bandi, a HumanAlien species native to Deneb IV who are never referred to as "human" in the episode.

[[folder:Why So Military?]]
* In Star Trek, almost everything that happens revolves around military officers. Military officers doubling as explorers, but military officers all the same. An unintended consequence of this is creating the (almost certainly unintentional) impression that the supposedly utopian Federation is a military society. For example, in the ''Deep Space Nine'' episode "Paradise Lost," there is an attempted military coup, which has no trouble with civilian resistance, but instead is only opposed by the good military officers. Why don't more people inside the Trek-verse notice this?
** Because they don't watch the show. They actually get to ''see'' all the behind-the-scenes civilian stuff that's not onscreen.
*** That said, this Troper was rather stunned when Star Trek VI actually showed the (civilian) Federation President.
** Massive glorification of the military is a common theme in communist regimes. And the Federation is, by any definition, a communist regime.
*** "By any definition"? An odd statement, considering there are several definitions by which it doesn't fit.
*** The fact that it has a president definitely excludes it from some definitions right there!
*** The Federation might be socialist, but not communist. Communism is a stateless stage with no government, more or less what Anarchism proposes. The difference between socialists and anarchists is that while the later believe that the statelessness can be achieve right away just by dismantelling the state over night the socialist believe that several generations of planned economy and socialism is needed before.
** Also, as said, the military officers double as explorers - so it might be safe to say that the Federations IS a military regime (just like the Klingon and Romulan Empires) but with a substantially different philosophical and social view of what that means.
* It should be noted that Star Trek is focused on ''Star Fleet''; the arm of the Federation that has explicitly military responsibilities, over and above the peaceful roles of exploration and diplomacy. Asking ''Franchise/StarTrek'' "Why So Military" is like asking of ''Franchise/LawAndOrder'' "Why So Police-ey?".
** The level of militancy in Starfleet is directly proportional to the level of combat expected by its members. For example, the Enterprise and its crew in TOS was focused on exploration and were MildlyMilitary; the Kirk-era movies were explicitly taking place during a war against the Klingons, so operations were pretty much entirely military in nature (that time-trip to get some whales notwithstanding); TNG introduced an Enterprise where combat was considered so unlikely that the ship carried a sizable civilian population but still wasn't considered a Civilian ship; ''Deep Space Nine'' became progressively more military because, well, there was a war on; Voyager is a bad example because it operates in a vacuum and is notoriously inconsistent from episode to episode, but still follows the pseudo-military organization of Starfleet.
** Gene Roddenberry's original vision of the future is that the people in Star Trek are 'scientists first' and 'military second'. Star Fleet was never meant to be a 'Might Makes Right' organization.
*** Which is interesting, considering the starring vessels of the show are armed to the teeth. For example, when the meeting with Chancellor Gorkon goes wrong, "We will have to count each torpedo, visually." "That could take HOURS!" Good lord, Scotty, how many antiship antimatter bombs do you HAVE onboard?
*** They are arguably in denial, but Starfleet's self-image is that they aren't a military organization. There are several instances of characters saying as much, particularly in TNG. Notably there were objections to the Enterprise engaging in war games that basically came down to "that's not what we do." The explanation for their firepower is that it's not wise to plunge into the unknown unarmed. The Defiant is considered Starfleet's first actual warship, and it was built in response to the Borg almost assimilating Earth.
*** Even in Kirk's era, the Enterprise was designated a "Heavy Cruiser" - yes a somewhat military name but the Klingon D7 (essentially the Constitution class Enterprise's opposite number) was designated a "Battle Cruiser" and the Romulans flew "Warbirds" - much more military and aggressive names. The Defiant is officially designated as an "Escort Cruiser" despite it's design and actual role/abilities.
* That was the franchise premise, focused on the selected segment of the Federation society. We can equally say that in e.g. "In ''Series/{{JAG}}'' almost everything that happens revolves around military officers. Military officers doubling as lawyers, but military officers all the same..."
* Starfleet is the quintessential MildlyMilitary organization, basically being the only agency of the Federation for the outer space we get to see. This ''also'' includes military responsibility, but it seems that the military part is being taken only reluctantly, and when necessarily needed - e.g. after the Wolf 359 and during the Dominion War, and purely military capabilities being rapidly reduced or lost in peacetime (e.g. Riker - or Picard? - claiming in an early NG episode that combat skills are just not much important for a starship captain or disappearance of [=MACOs=] between STE and TOS). It seems to be modeled more after the UsefulNotes/CoastGuard and/or the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NOAA_Commissioned_Officer_Corps NOAA Corps]] - uniformed service organized along military lines, but with more substantial responsibilities in areas of exploration, rescue and law enforcement, and geared more towards the 'military' part only when needed, not a classical SpaceNavy. After all this is the organization which disposed of SpaceMarine-like [=MACOs=] and replaced them with the original RedShirts.
* That said, it seems that TNG and [=DS9=] writers gradually repurposed the Starfleet to being in charge of basically everything in space, (while in TOS era Captain Kirk was sometimes involved in InterServiceRivalry with members of other Federation agencies/departments) and later seasons of [=DS9=], during the Dominion war, had definitely the "military is running everything" vibe.
* Starfleet is not a military, in the sense that their primary reason to exist is to protect their sponsoring nation (the Federation) from aggression by its enemies, or to engage in aggression against it's sponsoring nation's enemies. That is a role they are called upon to fill when necessary, but Starfleet's ''primary'' mission is exploration, science, expanding the boundaries of knowledge and understanding. They need a hierarchy to fulfill their missions efficiently, and humans have a lot of practice with military-type hierarchies, so that system was ready to go. But really, Starfleet doesn't exist to fight wars, and they'd really rather not if they don't have to. The various iterations of ''Enterprise'' may, indeed, be "the most heavily armed fishing scows ever made," but that just proves the Federation isn't run by imbeciles. . . . just because you're only interested in peaceful exploration doesn't mean the other guy is, too. [[Series/Babylon5 Never start a fight, but always finish it.]]

[[folder:Prime Directive, Who Needs It?]]
* The Prime Directive doesn't make any sense at all. What would be so horrible about a species that hasn't developed warp drives to find out about species that do? It's not any more shocking than experimenting with warp drives and have the Federation and a bunch of aliens showing up. Something about the warp drive seems to magically make it easier, and it makes no sense.
** Pre-warp versus post-warp makes a convenient dividing line for Starfleet. It probably wouldn't do that much harm if they made first contact with a species that already has stuff like the Internet and orbital spacecraft but no warp drive. But it could do a ''lot'' of harm if some Starfleet captain decided to bend the rules and make first contact with some culture that's still in the Bronze Age. So they just define TechnologyLevels with warp drive as the dividing line. It's arbitrary, but at least it protects the kind of society that would mistake Captain Kirk for a legendary demigod. Or it would, if Kirk followed the rules.
*** It's easy to tell if a civilization has warp drive or not, whereas it might be hard to tell if they're advanced enough to make contact by other standards. For example, one popular science fiction standard for dividing 'advanced' from 'primitive' civilizations is the use of atomic power. But a civilization might simply not bother to invent nuclear weapons or nuclear reactors if they didn't have to fight a big war right around the time nuclear fission was discovered.
*** On ''[[Series/StarTrekEnterprise Enterprise]]'' some crew members were captured by a pre-warp society, believing them to be spies form another country. Reed suggested the idea of just telling the civilization the truth, reasoning how much contact with the Vulcans helped Earth. Archer specifically rejected the idea because this society hadn't split the atom yet. When Earth achieved warp travel right after WWIII, society was in a much more reasonable state. There is no absolute perfect strategy, and some bronze age people might be more ready then the microchip age, but the Federation wants to eliminate the gray area that's open to reinterpretation.
*** It's a pretty safe bet that any culture advanced enough to build warp drives is mature and technically sophisticated enough that the arrival of aliens in {{CoolShip}}s won't devastate or confuse them too badly. They've probably at least considered the possibility of running into aliens once they start exploring the galaxy, and they'll be familiar enough with machines to recognize that the visitors are not gods, but instead are just people with better machines than theirs.
*** More importantly, there's the fact that once they develop warp drive, it's just a matter of time before they meet you or another alien species (Probably a generation or so as they perfect the drive and ships). If they can meet you, you can meet them. That's what makes it the convenient dividing point. Once they develop warp, the Federation drops in and says hi, before the newly space-traveling species ends up running into Romulan space.
*** Exactly. To wit, from the TNG Episode "First Contact", Picard saying "We prefer meeting like this rather than a random confrontation in deep space." Basically a combination of the fact that a civilization that is warp-capable is hopefully mature enough (though not necessarily; see the Ferengi, Malcorians, and maybe others), but also because they are basically forcing the issue at that point.
*** The EU implies there are other qualifications besides 'warp drive' they can hit, species just tend to hit warp drive first. It's not stated what they are, but interstellar subspace communication would logically be one of them, as that also would also quickly have them interacting with other civilizations. And we know contact with other space-faring species counts, once they are in contact with one group of aliens, contact with another group can't hurt them too badly.
*** Cynically, if you wait for them to develop warp, they may come up with something better than you have-- and if you beam down just after they figured out the can maybe meet other cultures, you've got the whole awe thing that SHOULD keep them from challenging you, and might get them to join your space club.
** But why worry so much about introducing yourself to a "primitive" and warp-less society? Really, what's the worst that could happen?
*** You end up getting mistaken for gods and people start trying to sacrifice people for you, etc.
*** That any jerk with a relatively cheap set of modern supplies could turn a whole planet full of sentient beings into his slaves?
*** ''A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court''. Enough said.
*** That very example was discredited in "Time's Arrow."
*** Enterprise makes the point that by waiting until the civilization has invented Warp technology, then 'cultural contamination' would be lessened. I suppose they want the alien culture to be itself, rather than just a mimic / parrot of the race that gave them possibly the most important technology on a galactic scale. Promotes diversity, that sort of thing.
*** More to the point of a matter-when the Federation DID try a pre-Warp first contact, it ended up with the primitive culture wiping out itself. Warp tech brings a level of understanding about the universe as well as the fact that most cultures that do it have started to do away with War, Poverty, Prejudice, etc. thus are * mature* enough to handle interstellar relationships. Hell, Babylon 5 shows what happens with primitive races getting FTL tech rather well.
** And all this is simplified, anyway. The Federation doesn't meddle in the international affairs of any (other) civilization at all, all the way up to their allies the Klingons. From the top to the bottom, the Federation stays out of the affairs of non-members. That is the 'Prime Directive', it's not 'Don't talk to pre-warp people'. (In other words, Sisko's tricking the Romulans into the war was a Prime Directive violation.) The Federation just consider informing civilizations that don't know about aliens (and aren't about to find out about them via their new warp drive) about aliens to automatically be 'meddling'. I wouldn't be surprised if this was actually a 'court decision' interpretation of the PD instead of actual written policy.
** It's an arbitrary metric designed to make the Prime Directive enforceable, it doesn't have to make sense. Without some kind of concrete standard the only thing a Starfleet captain has to rely on is his/her own individual judgment. And if the number of times Picard and Janeway have foolishly plunged their ships into unknown spacial anomalies is any indication, common sense and good judgment is not a required skill for a Starfleet captain.
** The scope of the Prime Directive seems to vastly increase between TOS and far surpass the mere notion of non-interference with pre-warp civilization. The best example is when Picard flat out refuses to help Gowron (the lawful leader of the Klingon Empire - who were their ALLIES) against an attempt to overthrow him because it's apparently a violation of the Prime Directive. Not only that, Picard at another point openly admits that the Prime Directive has prevented them from helping races be EXTERMINATED. Not wanting to interfere with the development of a less advanced civilization is one thing but they seem to treat the Prime Directive like some infallible all knowing oracle. It's hard to say whether that's crazy or just plain stupid.
*** A rather effective demonstration of the increase in scope and dogmatification of the Prime Directive is in comparing the TOS and TNG reactions to finding a doomed world that the Enterprise can save without revealing to the world that aliens interfered - TOS had ''The Paradise Syndrome'', in which the reaction is "Starfleet rules mandates that we save this civilization, if it can be done without revealing ourselves" while TNG had ''Pen Pals'', in which the reaction is "Unless we can find a loophole, the Prime Directive forbids us from saving this civilization". From the perspective of a modern-day observer, it does look as if Starfleet forgot that the original purpose of the Prime Directive was to ''protect'' primitive cultures.
** It's merely a matter of self-protection: Any civilization capable of FTL travel is technically capable of building a spacecraft designed to crash into the Star Fleet HQ at relativistic speed, turning a good chunk of Earth into molten rock. So they figured it would be better for them to introduce themselves before things get awkward.
** Its one thing to forbid contact or trade. Perhaps that's pretty reasonable as allowing societies to develop and become reasonable enough to deal with. Where it gets stupid is stuff like not taking out a comet before it kills of a world full of people because they are too primitive. Or allowing a world that's sophisticated enough to send distress messages into space if not travel far die because of plague or natural disaster.
*** To play devil's advocate, the Federation's reasoning is probably that they can't possibly save everyone, and would wipe themselves out trying to rush around the galaxy and rescue every primitive society that faces extinction. And if they can't save everyone, then it's the height of arrogance to start picking winners and losers, choosing which planet should be saved from a purely natural disaster based on convenience, shared ideals or any other criteria. For that reason, as well as all the potential unintended consequences, the Federation's decided that it doesn't step in unless a society reaches out and asks for help. That's the rule Picard cited as justifying saving Data's pen pal; in that case, he was deliberately stretching the definition of a "call for help", but that the rule exists at all shows that the Federation isn't so much heartless as merely practical.
*** We have [[PerfectSolutionFallacy a trope]] for this line of reasoning.
*** Except the Federation ''has'' a partial solution. It helps anyone it's allowed to have contact with, and judging by all the vaccine deliveries, comet impacts to avert and other planetary-scale disasters of the week that send the Enterprise-D running ragged every other episode, that keeps them plenty busy as it is. Starfleet even saved ''the Klingons'' from extinction, and tried to save the Romulans too. Barring infinite resources, the line for delivering aid always has to be drawn somewhere, and the people on the other side of that line will always complain that it's not fair (and it's not, but it's also unavoidable).
*** "Anyone it's allowed to have contact with"...'allowed' by ''whom'', exactly? The Federation came up with the Prime Directive ''all on its own''; it wasn't handed down by some nebulous higher authority. Thus, the above statement basically reduces to "The Federation helps whoever it damn well feels like", again. (The 'limited resources' argument is something of a [[TheWarOnStraw Strawman]] here; nobody, I think, is seriously arguing that the Federation should actually try to take on ''all'' the galaxy's woes all by its lonesome, especially not those it's not even aware of yet. What's being questioned is the merit of ''a priori'' denying potential aid -- as slippery a slope as that may sometimes be -- to a sizable chunk of the galaxy's intelligent population based on nothing more than their [[TechnologyLevels technology level]].)
*** Are you out of your mind? The Prime Directive's rule against making contact with pre-warp level civilizations isn't some arbitrary piece of bureaucracy. It's because the implications of first contact for pre-warp civilizations can be disruptive at best and devastating at worse. And I'm not talking about simply "primitive" societies. If aliens made contact with Earth tomorrow it would probably trigger World War III. Imagine it from the aliens' point of view? What country do they make contact with first? Do they go through the UN? Is there intelligence about us even good enough to understand what the UN is and what role it plays in international law? What if one nation, or a hand full of nations feel threatened by the arrival of the aliens. What if they declare war on any nation that opens diplomatic relations with the aliens? What about religious fundamentalists who view the very idea of extraterrestrial life as blasphemous? There are a million things that can go horribly wrong, resulting in untold deaths, and that's with our reality advanced global civilization. Only making contact with warp-level civilizations makes perfect sense, because with a warp-level civ, it's ready or not, here they come. Before that point, the risks far outweigh any ethical duty to intervene. A case maybe could be made that if a pre-warp civ faced total extinction it would be better to accept the risks than see them wiped out, but any thing short of that, it would be the height of irresponsibility to make first contact with a civ that wasn't ready for it (though this makes some of the times Kirk et el break the Prime Directive major wall-bangers).
*** Except that that entire argument was invalidated by ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact''. When the Vulcans made first contact there was '''no''' [[OneWorldOrder United Earth]] yet! In fact, the warring nations of Earth had only taken a breather and declared a ''ceasefire'', not a peace treaty, from their ''nuclear'' WorldWarIII! This is why Lily Sloane assumed that the attacking Borg were really the Eastern Coalition resuming hostilities. The Vulcans did not even make first contract with a ''country'', but with just the single, isolated, community from which the test flight of the ''Phoenix'' occurred! This was in 2063. As we had already seen in ''[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS1E1EncounterAtFarpoint Encounter At Farpoint]]'', barbarities would continue well after that until at least 2079. But the crew of the ''Enterprise-E'' is adamant that first contact with the Vulcans is what ''saved'' humanity from itself and caused them to pull together, which is why the ''Phoenix'' test flight ''had'' to happen on the specific day that the Vulcan survey ship would be in-system. If it happened so much as a day later, then humanity would still have warp drive, but might nonetheless plunge back into global war instead of heading to the stars! And then there would have been no Federation at all to push its Prime Directive gospel!
*** According to ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'', it's a Vulcan policy that was indeed handed down to Earth Starfleet as part of the alliance, which at the time wasn't on any sort of equal footing. The Federation probably wouldn't have been formed if Earth hadn't conceded the Prime Directive to its biggest and most important ally. Besides, the Federation does have limited resources. By the TNG era it had already spread itself ''way'' too thin trying to help everyone it has contact with, acting more like an interstellar UN/Red Cross than a defensive fleet. When the Dominion showed up, Starfleet spent the first half of the war paying a devastating price for its diplomatic and humanitarian focus. If "too primitive" seems to be a sucky cutoff point for intervention and aid, it's a lot better than "outside our borders", which is what just about every spacefaring society apart from the Federation has declared.
** Ooh, ooh! FridgeBrilliance! FridgeBrilliance! Here's the reason for the seemingly "arbitrary" standard of warp capability: The Federation doesn't bother with non-warp species because non-warp species have no way of affecting the Federation in any way. Without warp travel, any given species is effectively limited to their own solar system. So why should the Federation bother with them? They're not a threat if they don't have interstellar travel. And if they're technologically advanced enough to build a warp drive but haven't yet, then they're obviously not interested in dealing with other races and are content to remain isolated.
** I think it's unethical for the Federation ''not'' to make contact with primitive civilizations (in a controlled, respectful way). By not offering to share their medical advancements, the Federation is condemning countless beings all over the universe to preventable deaths.
*** The risk of disruption to the primitive civilization far out weighs any benefit they would gain. There's also a strong argument that by handing out technology to civilizations who had not developed to a sufficient degree that the federation would be
*** The risk of disruption to the primitive civilization far out weighs any benefit they would gain. There's also a strong argument that by handing out technology to civilizations who had not developed to a sufficient degree that the federation would be stunting the growth of that culture, and affecting it with untold unforeseen consequences. Ethically, the mere fact the Federation can prevent death is not the only factor to consider. Indeed, due to the dangers of contact with a culture unready for its implications, utilitarian calculus would dictate the ethical course of action is non-contact.
** At the end of the day, speaking from the perspective of a pre-Warp civilization myself, the Prime Directive just comes across as rather patronizing. "We will not make contact with your planet because in our wisdom we already know, without so much as ''needing'' said contact to inform our decision, that there is just no way you primitive screwheads could possibly handle it." In other words, it's the Federation's excuse to act as NeglectfulPrecursors.
*** It's called a Bright Line Rule, and it's why it's illegal for a person one day away from their 21st birthday to buy beer, but legal for a person one day after his 21st birthday to do so. Warp capability makes perfect sense as a Bright Line test, since before that, the chances of the civilization is insular, but once it has warp drive it's only a matter of time before they make contact with an interstellar species, so let's make contact first before the Romulans beat us to it. Warp-capability doesn't seem to be the only standard for contact, if my memory serves, the civilization the Enterprise was observing in the episode "First Contact" was pre-warp, but the Federation was close to making first contact, so probably some sort of balancing test is also used, no doubt weighing factors like ethical advancement, political stability, lack of complicating factors like religious extremist sects or national factionalism etc. But warp-capability forces the issue of contact, because a warp-capable species just cruising around the galaxy with no knowledge of its other inhabitants is a recipe for trouble.
*** Isn't this the exact definition of what the ships and crews in Star Trek are doing?
* It was fair enough for Picard to refuse Gowron's plea for help. After all, Duras had not attacked the Federation so there was no reason to get involved. However, when dealing with warp-capable empires, the Federations does do the right thing by ''indirectly'' getting involved. They couldn't help the Bajorans directly because it was a "legal" client world of the Cardassian Empire. Only way they could have helped would have been to push deep into Cardassian space to liberate the Bajorans. They did manage to apply political pressure by averting a Cardassian invasion and having Picard released from prison at a time when most Cardassians were getting fed up with the occupation as well.
* I always looked at it like the Federation didn't want to interrupt the evolution of a culture. Personally I can see why it would get annoying if some random aliens landed on my planet and paraded around with their technology. I figured that was why the Vulcans waited until we achieved Warp drive. This way you don't get a bunch of planets which are basically Federation clones by imposing your technology.
* The Federation wants to maintain trade and diplomatic relations with other cultures as equals. Primitive cultures have little nothing to offer other than as subjects of study. Saving people from natural disasters is, obviously, different from getting involved in a civil war. That being said, it doesn't make sense to have an absolute "no getting involved" policy apply to advanced civilizations like the Klingons. It would make more sense to say, "no getting involved without permission from higher-ups". But there's plenty of precedent for the Federation to help peacefully resolve conflicts as long as they're invited. They had Riva, after all.
* There is more than a little hypocrisy in play though (or at least EarlyInstallmentWeirdness). In the TNG episode ''[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS1E13AngelOne Angel One]]'', the titular planet supposedly has a 20th Century level of technology at the time the ''Enterprise-D'' shows up there, and apparently Starfleet had had prior contact with the planet ''62 years earlier''! This is either a massive case of ModernStasis, or else the Federation happily made first contact with a pre-spaceflight civilization. Why? Well, one possibility is that the planet is conveniently close to the Romulan Neutral Zone, and it is explicitly stated that the Federation hopes to bring Angel One in as a member! This is especially appalling as it is not even clear from the episode that Angel One has spaceflight, much less being anywhere even close to warp drive! The most impressive technology they are shown to have is a device the size of a large piece of furniture that can apparently disintegrate a large vase or a person considerably less efficiently than a handheld Starfleet phaser -- from ''Kirk's era''! Apparently the Prime Directive can be waived in circumstances where the Federation feels like they would get some benefit out of ignoring it, such as acquiring a strategically valuable, if technologically and socially primitive, planet.
* I figure that the Federation is ''really'' big on galactic diversity. They want every culture to grow and mature on its own, without the homogenizing influence of outside powers. (After all, if starfaring species contacted a pre-warp species, the former would dominate in every way. Their technology would simply be too powerful for anyone to oppose them. Even if they tried to be polite, they might dominate the conversation by default.) Now, does this entirely make sense? No! Cultural diversity is great, but the Federation has gone too far with it. They should maintain a basic level of contact with many pre-warp societies. They should provide medicine, in particular. But it all works out if you just abandon the idea that the Federation is perfect. It's not perfect. It's got weird quirks, just like every other society that ever existed. One of those quirks is the obsession with the Prime Directive.
* Do you want to create a Planet of Nazis or a Planet of 1920's Gangsters? 'Cause that's what you're gonna get.
* The problem with "provide humanitarian aid to primitive worlds" is unintended consequences. Pop up and cure several diseases plaguing the world when they can't deal with them yet themselves, and now there's an overabundance of population that they don't have the technology to care for, resources are strained, wars start. How do you ensure your aid reaches all the people who need it fairly without cutting the local governments (who may not want to see help given to "Them Folks Over There") out of the loop completely? Benefit just one nation-state on a world, and suddenly they have an advantage over everyone else, wars start. The only way it would work is if the Federation basically takes all control over the planet in question, quashing its normal rate and direction of development and forcing it to grow as the Federation dictates. It may sound a bit TheSocialDarwinist, but in this case, it probably is the most ethical policy: let pre-warp civilizations advance or not, succeed or not, develop or not, in their own way in their own time. Anything else is arrogant presumption, that ''you'' know better how their world should be run than they do. As we in real life are a pre-warp civilization, it may seem cruel that some hypothetical Federation deems us too primitive to be worthy of contact, thus withholding all their awesome technology from us that could make life on Earth so much better. But just look at the problems we already have giving humanitarian aid to our own people, and picture what it would be like if the Federation were to swoop in an offer us all we could ever want, but only if we start living by their rules, since that's the only way they can ensure we won't blow ourselves up with their toys. That's a no-win scenario.

[[folder:Why does having warp drive make a species "civilized"?]]
* Narrowing the Prime Directive focus down to this one item: on what basis is it argued that possession of warp drive technology is a reasonable threshold for differentiating "primitive" from "advanced" civilizations?
** As seen in ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact'', when Dr Zefram Cochrane conducted his test flight of the ''Phoenix'' in 2063, Earth had only just emerged from WorldWarIII, post-war problems plagued much of the planet and a unified world government with real authority would not solidify until the next century. So basically Earth was exactly the kind of planet that the Federation would normally avoid like the plague and it was largely a mistake on the part of the Vulcan's that they decided to make first contact with humans at that time.
** However, ironically (and hypocritically), Troi gives a speech to Cochrane about how his warp drive flight and first contact with the Vulcans are what causes humanity to pull together and become unified in the coming decades! In other words, by basically ''violating'' the principles behind the Prime Directive and getting involved in shaping the development of a violent, factionalized species just come out of decades of world war produced a ''positive'' result that led to the unification of the human race, the push for interstellar exploration and ultimately the founding of the Federation itself! Essentially: by "interfering" in a primitive civilization's development, the Vulcans actually ended up ensuring the future of entire Alpha and Beta Quadrants!
** But it still leaves the question of what made warp drive proof of sufficient progress as a civilization. Given that Earth was still divided into nations and post-war atrocities would continue for at least another couple of decades, all that this proved was that ''one'' human was a clever scientist. Otherwise, there was no indication that humanity was a truly civilized species. Indeed, the Vulcans of all people should have known that a species could have warp drive technology and still be barbaric and violent based on their own history! So why is this the key metric in the Prime Directive? Certainly pre-warp species that were ''much'' more civilized than 21st Century humanity have been shown (e.g. the Valakians).
** There is also an ironic case in "VOY: The Omega Directive". In the episode, a ''pre-warp'' alien civilization has nonetheless managed to create, and at least partially contain, the so-called [[{{Unobtainium}} "Omega Molecule"]], an incredibly difficult to produce but "perfect" compound which represents an incredible threat to spacefaring civilizations because [[TheMagicGoesAway it can permanently destroy subspace]], making FTLTravel impossible within the effected area. This is a scientific accomplishment exceeding similar experiments conducted by both the Federation and the ''Borg''! In fact, the Federation failure caused a local destruction of subspace and modest loss of life. The Borg attempt cost 29 cubes and over ''600,000'' drones! Janeway, thanks to the emergency powers granted to her by the Federation's Omega Directive, can even summarily suspend the Prime Directive itself due to the threat to interstellar civilizations posed by Omega! The entire incident, however, illustrates how a "pre-warp civilization" can exceed the technological accomplishments of warp-capable ones, to the extent of necessitating disregard of the Prime Directive.
** Civilizations that develop warp drive aren't exempt from the Prime Directive's protections/strictures because they're necessarily more "civilized" than others, they're exempt because they can go out ''themselves'' and contact other spacefaring races. The only realistic way to ''stop'' them from doing so would be to curtail their use of technology they'd independently discovered, which would be interference in itself. Hence, the Prime Directive vanishes in a Puff Of LogicBomb.
** Which raises an issue, because civilizations that are warp-capable are deemed inherently more valuable than ones that are not. The Federation actively tries to recruit such civilizations. They will also bend over backwards to try to save such civilizations from calamities (as seen in episodes such as "Deja Q" and "True Q", wherein the mission of the ''Enterprise'' was specifically to save planets from a natural catastrophe in the first instance, and a self-inflicted environmental disaster in the latter. Were either civilization pre-warp, they would have instead been having a raging internal debate over whether or not the Prime Directive allows them to prevent extinction events!
*** We actually have that debate in RealLife with the uncontacted peoples. There are still hundreds of very primitive isolated tribes, some of them have not discover fire yet. There's a debate whether is unethical to intervene and let them alone until they on their own contact others or if we should bring to them medicines, vaccines and modern technologies. But if there's a natural catastrophe, well if there's an Earthquake on a normal country no one would bath an eye in the need to give them humanitarian help whether is Iran or Japan or Buthan, but if there's a catastrophe affecting the uncontacted people, governments don't really know what to do (it happened with the Amazon fires in Brazil). In a way we apply the Prime Directive in real life.
** Once a species invents the warp drive, they'll make contact with other species sooner or later, and will try to interact with them. (By scientifically studying them, diplomacy, trade, war...) From this point on, interferences and cultural contamination are inevitable at least to a certain degree. The Federation seems to be keen on establishing a friendly relationship with such newbie warp civilizations as early as possible (strategically speaking of course a smart thing to do), so they tend to do the first step. The intergalactic equivalent to paying your first visit to the new neighbor who just moved in, with a smile on your face and a bottle of wine in your hand.
** As mentioned, once a planet has a warp engine, they're ''going'' to be out in the galaxy, sooner or later. You detect a warp drive from a place where one shouldn't be, you'd better investigate and see if this culture just made a massive leap forward, or if it was just something a local Tony Stark equivalent built in a cave with a box of scraps (pretty much the case with Zephram Cochrane). And remember what Cochrane's original plan for his warp drive was: prove it worked, then sell it to whoever on Earth wanted it for shitloads of money. So you'd likely have Earth carrying their wars off planet and embroiling others in them, unless someone stepped in to head off this budding catastrophe. Enter the Vulcans.

[[folder:Everybody's MacGuyver]]
* Anyone ever notice that EVERY MEMBER of Starfleet is an engineering genius? I mean, yes, the chief engineer is supposed to be awesome like that, but everyone else seems to know far more about engineering than they should. When stranded on a planet, if any member of the crew has the parts, even members of Security or Command divisions, they can assemble any device. Sometimes, they don't even have the parts, just raw materials. This is generally absurd, and bugs the heck out of me. It makes me wonder why they even need anyone in engineering other than the Chief. Just have more security guys, and when they aren't needed put them in engineering.
** There was an episode in season one of ''TNG'' where a child who looks to be about ten years old was complaining about having to go to ''calculus'' class. I think you have your answer.
** Basically, a ''normal'' Starfleet officer is near what we consider expert level in several sciences, engineering, combat, law enforcement, and diplomacy. When you add a specialization on top of that, you hit outright FutureBadass level in that discipline. May have a slight connection to EvolutionaryLevels.
*** Think about this: the Academy (as nicely shown in the most recent movie) has enough cadets around to staff approximately eight to ten ships. These cadets are drawn from the finest students on every world of the Federation. We're almost literally talking about one in a billion talents for even the lowest security officer. Out of Earth's current population, there's probably only ten people who'd be good enough for Starfleet Academy.
** This also works the other way. In ''Deep Space Nine'' we see the main cast regularly shoot down Jem Hadar soldiers, which are supposed to be very tough. This main cast includes a Doctor, an Engineer, and a Science Officer. Admittedly, the Doctor is genetically engineered (But so are the Jem Hadar, and they also train from birth), the Engineer used to be a soldier, and the Science Officer is several hundred years old, but it should least appear that Worf, ya know, the actual Klingon Security Officer is better than these guys, yet it is rarely the case.
*** Saying colloquially that Jem'Hadar are trained "from birth" is misleading, since they reach mature adulthood in a few days. Entire generations might not equal human lifespans, making Jadzia and Bashir more experienced in combat by virtue of having lived through more fights (across many more years).
*** The main cast of ''Deep Space Nine'' may be in mostly non-combat professions, but they're still ''members of a military organization''. And like any military organization, Starfleet obviously gives combat training to ''all'' of its recruits, not just its security officers.
*** What we don't see is that the Jem Hadar train from birth against ''puppies''. Space puppies, but still puppies.
*** I think those are pretty big things to just count out, especially in the case of O'Brien and Jadzia. They know how to shoot a gun because of long experience, and guns are pretty equalizing now matter how good Jem'Hadar are. It still stretches my ability to accept it when Jadzia beats Klingons or Jem'Hadar in hand-to-hand though, for all that Curzon was a master of Klingon martial arts...
*** Jadzia doesn't just have old memories. It's indicated from early on that she stays in practice, and is one of the best hand-to-hand fighters on the station, and, though not quite as strong as Curzon was, still a superb athlete.
*** And IIRC O'Brien is actually a war veteran from the Cardassian War.
** Starfleet Academy is pretty much the U.S. Naval Academy [[RecycledINSPACE In Space.]] At the Naval Academy, you automatically graduate with a bachelor of science regardless of the major you choose - in fact, they advocate choosing any major you want; you'll receive all the training you need when you get your ship assignments. So it's not too hard to imagine that the curriculum at the Academy includes basic training in pretty much everything you need to run a ship. The difference is the level of depth the technology is studied. Basically, the captain and company can make the Phlebotinum run the ship, but the engineer can make it sit up and beg.
* Also consider that the impressive skills of Starfleet Engineers is {{lampshaded}} on ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Deep Space Nine]]''. A Vorta states that Starfleet Engineers can make [[WorthyAdversary rocks into replicators]].
* The ''[[Series/StarTrekVoyager Voyager]]'' episode "Good Shepherd" is a rare occasion wherein we see a Starfleet member who is really struggling with all the complicated stuff Starfleet people are supposed to do. The episode is about the problem that being stranded in the Delta Quadrant and all, the USS Voyager is lacking the usual options of dealing with under-performers and other "misfits" like her. (Like transferring them to a job somewhere more appropriate for their skill level, or even booting them out of Starfleet altogether.)

[[folder:Starfleet's Run By Reed Richards?]]
* Why can't anyone in Star Trek ever seem to take their technology and use it in remotely intelligent ways? After the episodes with the extra Riker and the return of Scotty, for example, you'd think that transporters would be retrofitted to be save points. The Borg - why do they send giant obvious ships, instead of small subtle ships with drones built to blend in with the natives, and get everybody at once, by releasing nanoprobes into the atmosphere, or at least convert key personnel, so as to undercut defenses and have all the important data, like Friend-Or-Foe identification, and shut-down codes BEFORE they start the fight. So much technology, so few people actually using it remotely intelligently.
** The extra Riker created the same individual twice. Assuming it could be replicated, and they successfully accomplished it, it would be ''ridiculously'' immoral to actually do so. Scotty is a different case--he created a "save point," as you call it, but a) he couldn't get himself out, b) he couldn't do anything while inside it, and c) it didn't actually work--the other person locked in the transporter buffer degraded too much to be restored.
*** That, and having a 'save point' of you doesn't make the original any less dead. From a purely military standpoint the ability to photocopy a human is useful, but in practice that's the sort of thing that results in mutiny or military coup -- there's a not unreasonable fear you'd be used as a RedShirt.
** The Borg aren't necessarily trying to conquer the Federation. Think about it: any conquered Federation territory would be too far to reinforce without transwarp and there's tons of non-Borg space in the Delta Quadrant, so why go after Earth for territory? There's tons of more advanced cultures in the Delta Quadrant, and the Borg have anything they could already want from the Federation through the Enterprise and the Neutral Zone outposts. The only plausible explanation for why they'd attack Earth in the first place is that they'd want to prepare them to be assimilated in a few decades or centuries, like with Species 116.
** The Borg don't ''care''. The Borg aren't [[Literature/{{Animorphs}} Yeerks]], subtly infiltrating society in order to conquer them before they're even aware of it. They're a force. If they lose a few vessels, if they lose a few drones, no big deal. There are more. ''There are always more.'' Which is why they're effective villains. They're as malicious and as dangerous as a hurricane.
*** Actually, in Dark Frontiers, when Seven and the Borg Queen are chit chatting, the Queen suggests a method of dispersing nanobots into a planet's atmosphere as a means of subtle assimilation. Given that in Scorpion Seven proposes a multi-gigatonne weapon that could spread the 8472 killing nanobots over LIGHTYEARS. You'd think that would be pretty handy.
*** She wanted to do that nanobots in the atmosphere thing because they'd had two straight-up invasions fail. They would have happily kept sending cubes against the fleet if each one had brought them a little closer to their goal, but the complete and utter lack of progress led them to want to try other things. (Though why "other things" didn't start with "Let's send five hundred cubes through this handy-dandy transwarp corridor we've never gotten around to using" is a valid question.)
** Why rely so heavily on assimilation? Why not clone new drones with the desired combination of traits?
*** They would stagnate. The Borg know that they don't innovate, they merely add "biological and technological distinctiveness" to the Collective. Even their upgrades that they develop upon being introduced to new and interesting ways to destroy them is a technology stolen from another species. There is no species they could create that would be "perfect" enough for Borg sensibilities.
*** Except they ''do'' innovate, and have done so in most every major appearance in the franchise. To quote Riker, "They have the ability to analyze and adapt.” For several examples, look no further than ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact'', and their series of bat-shit crazy contingency plans—several of which are improvised on the spot. Frontal assault on Earth fails? Send an auxiliary vessel into the past to shell the site of Earth’s first warp flight and RetGone Federation resistance. ''Enterprise'' unexpectedly follows them into the past? Beam a small contingent of drones aboard the ship as it [[CurbStompBattle curb stomps]] the sphere. Making slower progress than expected in assimilating ''Enterprise?'' Turn the ship’s main deflector dish into a beacon to contact the Collective and get reinforcements. Data locks you out of the main computer with an unbreakable encryption protocol? Capture him, and proceed to figuratively (and possibly literally?) seduce him to our side by offering him the chance to achieve his dream of becoming more human. Suffice to say, you don’t graft living tissue to an android’s body in a bizarre plan to manipulate him into giving you computer access if you lack creativity and imagination.
*** Also, they ''do'' clone, or breed in vitro, new drones-to-be; at least, that was the implication of the "nursery" scene in their first appearance. Assimilating adults is just faster, and adds new information.
*** An implication drawn by the characters with less than thirty seconds of visual observation. Probably safe to say they could have misunderstood what was going on in that room.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Send Out the Clones]]
* Why is the Federation filled with luddites? How can such an advanced society be so hung up about clones and genetic engineering? Whenever a genetically engineered or cloned person appears, the Enterprise crew reacts with awe and dread. Sometimes, the appearance of a clone warrants a commercial break.
** The Star Trek universe had some ''very'' bad experiences with gene engineering. The first large-scale effort unleashed a wave of augments that took over a fourth of the planet in the mid-80s and until the mid-90s, and the results were devastating... whenever the canon remembers them. Klingon attempts at genetic engineering on similar lines resulted in a plague that nearly killed off their entire species. Military technology enhancement projects or cloning likewise tend to have rather [[AIIsACrapshoot nasty results]], presumably with the local universe (or at least Federation scientists) being predisposed to such issues. This has driven those fields to the edges of space and pseudoscience, with the resulting increase in similar mistakes and further enforced prejudices. The Federation Counsel is also a rather humans-only club, so they seem to suffer from a degree of Frankenstein syndrome.
*** That's not even mentioning when TNG episode with the genetically engineered uberkinder who had immune systems so effective, they killed normal people...
** Wait, what? What on Earth gave you the impression that the Federation, the people who put ''touch screens'' on '''a pair of barbells''', are in any way "luddites"?
** The problem with cloning and genetic engineering seems to be more of a fear of the past. As they said in one episode, "For every Julian Bashir, there's a Khan Singh waiting in the wings." Given the abysmal catastrophes that cloning and genetic engineering have created in the past, no one wants to take the chance again.
** But all of this emphasizes the EarthIsTheCenterOfTheUniverse trope. The Eugenics Wars happened before humanity developed warp capability and were limited exclusively to Earth. The botched attempt to create Klingon Augments was an example of taking science that was already known to have bugs waiting to be fixed and injudiciously trying to implement it on a short timetable. None of this explains why the numerous other Federation species would have a ban on cloning and[=/=]or genetic engineering other than to accommodate human paranoia about it. On the other hand, some Federation species (e.g. Vulcans) have a suspiciously high number of very valuable adaptations. Is this because they found a little genetic fine-tuning "logical"? It would certainly account for why they are telepathic when Romulans do not appear to be. Betazoids are also suspicious, because their telepathy is just awesome (it works at really long range), which could leave one wondering why they even have the ability to speak vocally at all (after all, the Cairn can't). If their telepathy evolved very recently in their history, and their not-so-distant ancestors were not telepathic, that would explain why they can speak. But traits like that rarely spread through an entire species gene pool without either a lot of generations, or else artificial intervention.
** It also raises the question of just what they're scared of in genetically enhanced people - Julian Bashir learns faster than normal humans and has better hand-eye coordination. Khan learns fast and has super-strength. This apparently makes them especially dangerous to normal humans. Vulcans and Klingons are stronger than humans, Vulcans and Betazoids are telepathic, Trill carry all the knowledge and experience of their past lives, but no one's scared of them. It can't be a problem with making "better" humans because that should also apply to humans having children with superhuman aliens and to giving Geordi a VISOR with a wider range of vision than human eyes. It can't be purely a fear of science either - Data has superhuman strength, coordination, learning and thinking speeds, and is potentially immortal, but no one's scared of him; they just argue over whether or not he's sapient. What's so special about genetic engineering?
** Klingons and Vulcans do not have the possibility of becoming the masters of humanity. Besides judging by most Augments we know, is not only the superior strength and intelligence, is that they are mentally unstable and with anti-social tendencies.
*** Why don't Klingons and Vulcans have the possibility of becoming masters of humanity? The Klingons even tried - they were the enemy of the entire Federation in TOS. But after the Khitomer Accords were signed, no one had a problem with them.
*** Well, even if they can or not, humans can't do anything about it as there's no way to exterminate Klingons and Vulcans, but they do can avoid the existence of Augments all together by banning genetic manipulation.
*** Wait, you're arguing that if they had the chance, humans would go full-on ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' and genocide everyone else?
*** Previous poster here. I don't get the reference because I only know about Warhammer by name, but no, my point that even if there are humans who distrust aliens for their power they can do much about it, but they do can control their own population.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Picard's No Solid Snake]]
* Where do people on Star Trek learn their infiltration skills? Whenever anyone sneaks into a facility, or up on someone, they have no silenced weapons, night vision goggles, flash grenades, or, in case things get real messy, combat knives. If a guard accidentally discovers them, they don't silently put a bullet in his head or slit his throat. Instead, they take him out, from a distance, with a glowing, noisy beam of plasma. In Star Trek VI, the Undiscovered Country, for example, a sniper tries to take out the president (or kung fu master). The assassin fails but still. No self-respecting sniper would fire at a target with a noisy, glowing beam of plasma that can be traced back to the sniper's position. Every Star Trek show does this. When they're scoping tangos, they don't do it through rifle scopes. Hell, they usually don't have rifles to begin with. Usually, the only ordinance that they carry with them is their dustbusters which shoot noisy, glowing beams of plasma. Now, the Federation has a code against killing with hand weapons. Phasers are almost always set to stun, even if the other guy has a supernova disruptor pointed at them. But come on!
** A couple points: First, when they have rifles, they don't need an optical scope, they have sensors and a display screen tied into a computer assist that lets them fire off-axis. Second, that I recall, when Starfleet crew were sneaking around, they beat down/nerve pinched/sedated opposition far more often than they used phasers. (I do, though, agree that knives would have been ''very'' helpful.) Third, Colonel West's scheme in STVI, with his Klingon disguise, would only have worked if he was seen--you can't blame someone you can't (mis)identify. Following from this, he likely didn't intend to survive; if the imposture was to be maintained, suicide by disintegration would have been far more practical than evading capture after being spotted.
*** Incidentally, there are a couple of notable exceptions. Janeway packed a Ka-Bar in "Macrocosm" (Seriously, it was an honest-to-goodness Ka-Bar Combat Knife). She retrieved it from an equipment locker aboard Voyager, implying that combat knives are, in fact, standard-issue aboard Starfleet ships, but nobody ever uses them. Later, in ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'', [=MACOs=] carry metallic side-handle stun batons. It's a really bizarre choice for an infantry weapon, but they do manage to come in handy on more than one occasion.
** Because the Star Trek universe is populated by idiots who have never heard of the concept of "combined arms".
** Degradation of warfare mentality due to a shift in combat norms. Most warp-capable species do the majority of their fighting via ship-to-ship combat, having found more enemies out in space than on their own worlds. Consequently, they don't employ snipers as often, and so have forgotten/neglected a lot of the applicable tactics for them.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Boldly Going Where No Waiter's Gone Before]]
* Why do restaurants and bars still need wait staffs? Why don't they just put food replicators at everybody's tables? It's not like Quark, Whoopi Goldberg, Neelix and Sisko's father need jobs, right? Nobody does. Because they don't use money, right?
** I always considered the entire "They Don't Use Money in the Future" to be a load of hogwash, so in my eyes they do need jobs.
** Neelix they needed him because they had to cut down on replicator usage. As for Sisko's father there's a theory [[http://canonfodder.ex-astris-scientia.org/index.php?Society_%26_Culture:Federation_Economy here]] that doing stuff like having a restaurant earns you prestige or something. For Quark, I think people go there for entertainment as well. For Whoopi, I got nothing.
*** You don't see why someone would want to develop a relationship with a bartender? I love my favorite bartenders, I'd miss them so much if I stopped drinking there or they quit or whatever, and they don't have a tenth of Guinan's insightfulness.
** I always thought Sisko's father had a restaurant just because he enjoyed cooking and serving people. As for the waiters i've got nuffin. Actually what do humans do in a world where we don't need money and everything is handed to you on a replicated plate?
*** Captain Picard said in ''First Contact'', "we work to better ourselves". Draw from that what you will.
** Whoopi was a morale officer, someone who you could talk to about your problems or whatever and someone who wasn't required to answer to anyone (so she wouldn't have to tell your secrets if she was ordered to). Also she was immortal, had lived for a long time, was present in events in the past that the Enterprise crew was part of, and also knows a lot of unwritten information on species and et cetera. Besides, when you go to a bar or restaurant, you're actually not buying the food (well, you ARE, but), what you're buying is the ambiance, the freedom from having to clean up after yourself, the possible chance of meeting someone new or interesting, and the chance to try food that you wouldn't be able to cook, or in this case, food that you wouldn't think to replicate on your own. If everyone didn't find a point for having social interaction over dinner where they didn't have to clean up the mess, we'd probably just see everyone as incredibly anti-social shut-ins who just eat replicated gruel in their quarters.
*** "Whoopi was a morale officer, someone who you could talk to about your problems or whatever and someone who wasn't required to answer to anyone (so she wouldn't have to tell your secrets if she was ordered to)." WOW. That's an...interesting angle to take. Now I'm wondering even more why anyone listens to Counselor Troi if she can be ordered to violate doctor-patient confidentiality by anyone who outranks her.
** Or maybe, just like everyone else in the Federation, they were waiting table/tending bar because they wanted to. Hell, if you've got replicators and holodecks, you only ever do something because you want to.
** Replicators just generate a whole MESS of problems - the only things that are of any value are the random things that are unreplicatable. This is presumably why ''Deep Space Nine'' dedicated an episode or two to playfully skirting around the issue of the nebulous economic mechanics... but of course, one gets to thinking that if you can replicate just about anything in a starship... and get to making a really, really big replicator, shouldn't it become possible to just put in the materials, hit the button and create a ship in a minute or two?
*** The Technical Manuals make note on this. The [=DS9=] TM states the largest replicator that Starfleet has was only 50m x 70m or so. Big enough for parts, but not enough for whole starships. The TNG manual does one better and states, "If you could replicate a starship, you wouldn't need to." Replication is energy intensive, and if you have the wherewithal to replicate something that big and complicated, then you have the technology and energy budget that lets you play in the "godlike races" end of the pool.
** Deep Space Nine had the wormhole mined with Rom's cloaked self-replicating mines... Assuming that these mines can maintain their number indefinitely... isn't this a big ol' conservation of mass violation? Should these mines run amok, couldn't they fill the universe?!
*** The mines require an input of matter and energy to replicate. These come from the ships the mines blow up. Every ship destroyed adds its own mass to the mine field and some of that is converted to energy to fuel the mines. If it take 20 mines to blow up the ship, and the ship adds enough mass and energy to create 30 mines, the field grows by 10 mines. In theory, yes, they could run amok and eat everything. In practice, it would take dozens or hundreds of fleets to expand the mine field enough to reach the point where it would be able to reach and blow up even a tiny astronomical body and therefore become a potential threat to the local system, let alone the galaxy or universe. It is more likely that the mines just break even when blowing up a ship, so that the field doesn't much shrink. it is even possible that the minefield was shrinking with each hit, making few mines that it took to blow up. But as they were cloaked, there was no way to know that was the case.
** On the subject of the restaurants... if there was a replicator at every table, then that would completely defeat the purpose of having a restaurant, because people go to restaurants because they want non-replicated food. Quark still tens bar because the drinks he serves are real, not replicated, and you still need a bar tender to mix them. Same thing for Guinan. And honestly, for places that use a mix of replicators and real food like Quark's and Ten Forward, it just eats up more power to have a replicator at every table than to have a half dozen and some waiters.
** As for why people do it, other than 'because they want to' (since one might suppose that being a waiter is only the ideal job of a select few people) jobs in the service industry might be a way to earn passage into space, exploration, etc. without necessarily joining Starfleet. Since we only see civilian ships every once in a blue moon, one gets the impression that anyone who wants to leave their planet and isn't a genius-level Starfleet recruit has to get creative about it.
*** Also, I'd imagine there's a higher work-life balance for someone with a lower level job. Someone with the aptitude and ambition can be a revered Starfleet captain, but they'll have to put off any hope of a personal life 'till after retirement. Alternately, someone who wants to spend more time with their family or pursue their outside interests could take a job like being a waiter and, though they don't get the prestige and power, they only have to work at a nearby restaurant for a few hours a day. It's much the same reason people choose different jobs today, except money doesn't factor into it anymore.
* As for having a waiter job or running a business, why not? It gets you out of the house. Cabin fever is a bitch.
* Why be a waiter? Because in this society where money isn't important anymore, what matters is your skill and your ability. Waiting tables at one of the most popular and successful Cajun restaurants in the city is a perfect way to learn the trade so that, when you are ready, you can go open your own restaurant, having learned at the hands of the master.
* Several times in [=DS=]9 cooked meals were described as "better than that replicated stuff". Replicated things might be good, but it could not be the same quality as if it was made "the old fashioned way". I guess you could apply the same thing to the replicating starships idea, will they have the same sort of stress tolerance a traditionally built ship have? So yeah, people go to restaurants because they want to eat something good.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:USS Stands for United States... Wait, What?]]
* Why the names of Federation starships start with "USS" (USS Enterprise, USS Voyager, etc.)? USS is the shortcut for: "United States Ship", right? But in the Star Trek universe the USA is only a part of the planet, which is only a small part of the Federation. Why not name them like: "UFPS Enterprise" (United Federation of Planets Starship Enterprise)?
** I think it's been said somewhere U.S.S. stands for "United Space Ship" or "United Star Ship".
*** United ''Star'' Ship. The distinction between a "Starship" and a "Spaceship" is important in TOS (more so in the early EU. In ''Best Destiny'', Enterprise is revealed to be the first ''star''ship. IIRC, ''space''ships bear names using just "S.S." instead of "U.S.S.". Also, the dedication plaque next to the bridge turbolift says that the Enterprise is "Starship Class". 'Course, this got totally dropped in the TNG era.) What I want to know is: What does 'NCC' mean?
*** Naval Construction Code. In other words, it indicates a ship built for (and presumably by) Starfleet, as opposed to a ship built for some other purpose (like a cruise liner or a cargo carrier). The NX prefix used in a couple of ships that are first of their kind is Naval Experiment.
*** [[WildMassGuessing Just a guess]] but maybe the ships are registered in the same numbering series as Federation (or maybe Earth) civilian ships, "NCC" happened to be the next full 0000-9999 block of numbers available and the equivalent of the DMV found it easier to hand it over to Starfleet than register each new ship individually upon completion.
*** The Excelsior is NX-2000 when it's brand new and the Transwarp testbed, but when it's still in use 80 years later in various TNG episodes (and I think when Sulu commands it in Undiscovered Country) it's been reclassified NCC-2000.
** Possibly they did: '''U'''nited Federation of Planets '''S'''tar '''S'''hip.
** Outside of the storyline, the naming mimics American ships-- this troper served on the USS Essex, LHD-2, and is still impressed at how many folks can rattle off ALL of the Enterprises from the USN.
*** Third and fourth posters have it right. The rest of you don't.
** Note that it's not mandatory to put the name of the country in a ship's designation—for example, the British use "HMS", which stands for "His (Her) Majesty's Ship" with no indication of ''which'' Majesty is being referred to. On the other hand, "United Space Ship" is actually a pretty odd term, unless they sometimes refer to The Federation as "(The) United". Bottom line, though, the real reason they used "USS" is almost certainly for the sake of familiarity to an American audience.
*** Maybe it is not the "United Space Ship", as in "Spaceship of the United", but rather "United Space Starship", meaning Starship of the United Space, which makes more sense for me.
** United Starfleet Ship
*** This would actually make a lot of sense if you consider that the Starfleet of the early Federation was probably made up of a hodgepodge of ships from the star navies of the Federation’s founding worlds. Those ships would no longer be a part of individual Human, Vulcan, Andorian, and Tellarite fleets; they would be a single ''united'' Starfleet.
** In "The Cage," the phrase is "United Space Ship Enterprise." In "Squire of Gothos" and "Court Martial," "United Starship" is used. Draw your own conclusions.
** Any ship using the USS signifier is generally named after a ship that actually had that name at some point in the past. Calling it a "United Star Ship" is basically turning the USS into a backronym at that point. I'm fairly sure that there are at least a handful of ship names that aren't USS whatever in the fleet (among them Vulcan ships), and I vaguely recall at least a passing mention of one that used the HMS version instead. Of course this is probably largely DependingOnTheWriter since for the most part they're probably going to let writers of whatever episode or movie it is name whatever ships they want, and if the writer like most fans assumes every Starfleet ship is a USS, they'll name it the USS Queen Anne or whatever if they want.
*** For what it's worth, the USS Victory is explicitly named after the HMS Victory.
*** You might be thinking of the stolen bird-of-prey that [=McCoy=] named HMS ''Bounty'' as a joke. There ''was'' a computer readout listing the HMS ''Lord Nelson'' and the HMS ''New Zealand'' in "Up the Long Ladder" but both ships were launched in the mid 22[[superscript:nd]] century, during which the Royal Navy still canonically existed in some form. It's possible that these ships actually ''did'' belong to the United Kingdom--which, come to think of it, might explain why one of those ships was filled to the brim with Irish stereotypes.

[[folder:No Romulan Ale For You!]]
* Why is Romulan ale illegal?
** Possibly an embargo against Romulan goods. Or because it's clearly not at all healthy: even the mighty Klingon can't really handle it that well.
*** It was explicitly stated in ''Deep Space Nine'' that it was an embargo, when they lifted it. And there are solid reasons for it. Crossing the Romulan Neutral Zone (if you're caught, which gives an unfortunate advantage to the Romulans with their cloaking devices) means an international incident, possibly full-scale war. The Federation has good reason to discourage its private traders from going there; sooner or later one would take the short way, instead of cutting through a third party's territory (especially when the most notable such party is the Klingons), and that's a very stupid way to start a war.
*** The Neutral Zone is only off-limits to the Federation and the Romulans (and often not them, either, it seems). Even the Jem'Hadar were allowed to use it before they found themselves at war with the Federation ''and'' the Romulans. So there should be neutral species at peace with both powers who can carry ale into the Federation. Of course, if the embargo is strict enough, a third-party middleman wouldn't be legal, either, as with Cuban products in the United States.
*** And it is, amusingly one of the most loosely enforced laws on the books. Every time they break out the Romulan Ale, someone remarks that it is illegal, yet it is given as gifts amongst officers, a Federation starship on a diplomatic mission has it in stock to serve to foreign dignitaries, and it is even brought up during Kirk and [=McCoy=]'s trial on Q'Onos in ''Film/{{Star Trek VI|The Undiscovered Country}}''. Notably, it ''wasn't'' brought up to discredit them because it was illegal, but merely to bring up the possibility that [=McCoy=] was ''drunk''. If there was a great time for anyone to use Romulan Ale's illegality against the heroes, that would have been it. So why didn't they? Even in a sham trial, ''nobody cared.'' Presumably both the Romulans and Federation turn a blind eye to traders carrying the stuff back and forth, because the humans like to drink it and the Romulans like to sell it. Hell, [[WildMassGuessing the traders might even double as low-profile spies and couriers]], discretely carrying information (and booze) back and forth, giving both sides further reason to laxly enforce the embargo: If one side cracks down, their own information flow from the other side gets clamped off too.
** Presumably it's a deliberate parallel to Cuban tobacco products being illegal in the US.
** Because it ''[[GargleBlaster should]]'' be ([[HangoverSensitivity owwww]]).

[[folder:United Federation of Nutcase Bureaucrats?]]
* On that note, why is it that everyone in Starfleet who isn't a main character is either an ObstructiveBureaucrat or a nut case just waiting for the opportunity to go rogue?
** The same reason why holodecks malfunction almost every time we see them. It doesn't ''really'' happen all that much. It's just that the invisible cameraman who is us is always around when it does.
** You're forgetting the redshirts and token love interests, too.

[[folder:Kirk's Bad With Dates (Not That Kind)]]
* On the subject of film chronology: the given time gaps between "Space Seed", "Wrath of Khan" and "Generations" don't add up. "Wrath of Khan" takes place when Kirk is turning 50 - that's the year 2283. They say that "Space Seed" happened fifteen years ago - officially, it happened in 2267, which is OK assuming they're rounding off. But then the Kirk-era part of "Generations" takes place in 2293... and in Kirk's Nexus fantasy, Kirk says "This is nine years ago!" Nine years ago, Kirk would have been commanding the Enterprise-A. If they wanted the fantasy scene to be of a time just prior to "Wrath of Khan" (which it seems was the intention), they should've said "''eleven'' years ago".
** A mistake, plain and simple. But a possible explanation is that, in RealLife, people might say that something that happened in 1990 happened "ten years ago," even if it's 2009 or something. Possibly something happened two years ago to Kirk that made the number stick in his head, so he just said it without thinking, and no one wanted to correct him.

[[folder:Time Cops Are Useless]]
* Remember those various groups of TimePolice that kept on showing up in ''Voyager'' and ''Enterprise'' (and that ''Deep Space Nine'' tribble episode) to ensure that history didn't get changed? Um... where were they?
** The rules of TimeTravel vary. In some cases a self-confirming loop is created, such as in Time's Arrow, when discovering Data's head causes them to go back in time and leave Data's head there, enabling their relative past selves to discover it. Obviously though, in other cases there seems to be a risk of altering/damaging the timeline, or else why would they bother 'protecting' it? It's logical to suppose that the various factions can distinguish between the rules at play and only interfere when needed to.
** They show up when a temporal incursion will change their timeline. For whatever reason, this temporal incursion created a ''new'' timeline not in line with previous canon. In essence if there are TimeCops in this world, all these events ''are'' what happened, to them. (The real world reason it created a second timeline was so they could, in essence, do a reboot but leave the old timeline intact.)

[[folder:We've Been Boarded! Oh well...]]
* Any time a starship gets boarded, it annoys the heck out of me. Only occasionally do they use force fields. Also, couldn't they evacuate those areas and shut off life support or something? Or maybe shut the turbolift to the bridge? Or beam them into space (or if that's not cool) into the brig? The amount of times where intruders (or really anyone) can just walk in on the bridge like that is hilarious. And also, I noticed security never ever runs. They just walk there.
** Shutting off life support to a whole deck wouldn't instantly suck all the air and heat out of the area (unless it's the main bridge or an area with an exterior door like the shuttlebay). Even when it has happened elsewhere on the ship, it takes ''hours'' to get to the point where it would be incapable of supporting life. As for beaming them into the brig - having a holding cell that you can beam people into and out of would kinda defeat the purpose of having one in the first place. I mean, any ship that can get close enough could just beam the prisoner off.
*** Transporters can be blocked, scrambled and jammed with trivial ease, so just keep some low-level jammers around the brig unless you're moving prisoners around. Hell, if I were designing a brig for ST (or any universe with teleportation tech for that matter), I'd build it so you can ''only'' get in and out via transporters. Good luck breaking out when there's no door.
*** Shutting off life support might not instantly kill everyone who wasn't in a spacesuit, but trapping the boarders in a forcefield and ''sucking their air out'' sure would. So would adjusting the temperature to a level of unendurable heat or cold. Then there's the option of pumping poison or knockout gas into that section. Given that the ''Enterprise'' has a fire control system that works by setting up a forcefield around the fire that kind of thing should be pretty easy. Then we have the ''canon'' tactic of turning up the gravity in one section so high your opponent can't stand up from ''Enterprise: In A Mirror Darkly''. There are tons of nasty things you could do to any (living, organic) hostile fool enough to board your ship without a space suit with Star Trek technology, but for some reason hardly anybody ever seems to do them.
*** When Data shut down Bridge life-support in "Brothers", he had to bypass multiple independent safety systems to do it. Considering how easy it is to take over or corrupt Federation computer software, the risks aren't worth the rewards.
** What about, say, increasing the gravity in a section? You could even have safeties in place so that the gravity can be increased beyond the ability of a boarding party to operate as an effective fighting force, but well short of the point where short exposure would cause serious permanent health effects. I'm not sure where the respective thresholds are exactly, but I'd imagine five or six G-forces would do the trick. Then the redshirts stand just beyond the affected areas and stun the intruders, who are too busy trying to stay on their feet even to think about returning fire. Then as soon as everyone's been neutralized, you restore the regular gravity to be extra-sure there are no lasting effects on the people you've trapped.
*** If it's Deep Space Nine or ENT, and we're fighting the enemy like we mean it, make it fifty G's instead of five, record the boarding party going splat, and send the video to the deceased enemies' superiors with instructions not to fuck with Starfleet.
*** Used in William Shatner's "Totality" trilogy. The alien beings from the invading "Totality" are made of Dark Matter, and don't really like gravity fields. They can barely stand one G, and disintegrate under higher weights. As they can impersonate people similarly to the Founders, Starfleet quickly institutes a policy of regularly turning up the gravity all over the ship, and keeping officers' quarters constantly on high.
** Also, you can play with temperature. Humans can function just fine at temperatures well below those at which Klingons curl up into shivering balls. Since Klingons are humans' greatest enemies in TOS, the movies, and a season of ''Deep Space Nine'', you'd think they'd have used it to their advantage once or twice. The same thing would work on Cardassians, too; they're comfortable at temperatures which are too warm for most other species, even non-humanoids like the Founders. So chances are they wouldn't be able to fight effectively if they boarded Deep Space Nine and O'Brien lowered the temperature to, say, 273 K (the freezing point of water).

[[folder:Emergency Redshirt Holograms]]
* Related to the above - why do unarmored, flesh-and-blood security officers respond to boarders, instead of hundreds of Emergency Security Holograms? The computer might only have enough power to manage one ''medical'' program at a time, but surely repelling boarders can't be much more demanding than what the holodeck gets up to every day.
** Those might just be a slow-in-coming development. During TNG, getting a hologram to exist ''outside'' of the holodeck is something of a challenge. In Voyager, the EMH is confined to sickbay or the holodeck until he gets his mobile emitter. Once that technology spreads to the wider Federation, it seems more plausible that we'd see things like holographic security officers. In the meanwhile, they probably don't have them because they'd have to put holographic projectors all over the ship, and such officers would be useless for away missions and whatnot.
*** The ''Prometheus'' had holo-emitters on every deck, and while that was an experimental ship, Andy Dick seemed to be saying that that aspect at least had become standard. We never saw it on the ''Defiant'' (or the new ''Defiant'' after the original got destroyed at Chintoka) or the ''Enterprise E,'' but then we never really saw a situation where it would have come up. "Vic Fontaine to the bridge, please."
** Starfleet learned its lesson from the "Ultimate Computer" incident and doesn't give deadly weapons to artificial intelligences any more. Except Data.
*** And the Emergency Command Hologram.
*** Holographic crew is a sizable part of your redshirt crew in ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline''

[[folder:Marriage in the 24th Century]]
* WHY are pretty much ''all'' women, 200-300 years in the future, STILL automatically taking their husband's names? Does this bug the heck out of nobody but me?
** Umm... examples? The only ones I can think of is Keiko O'Brian and Dr. Crusher (see below). Troi didn't change her name (see below), Jadzia didn't change her name (she's a Trill and she married a Klingon, so who knows what the name convention is), and in the case of most of the other married couples we meet, there's actually nothing to say for sure that the husband didn't take ''his wife's'' name.
** Not necessarily true. In ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' B'Elanna says to Tom that perhaps he should now be known as "Tom Torres" as "it's the 24th century, after all" (though for the rest of the season neither of them change their names). In ''Film/StarTrekNemesis'' Picard says to Commander Riker "You have the bridge Mr. Troi" (though most likely out of humor). And in "Sub Rosa" it's implied that Beverly's family have been keeping their maiden names and Beverly was apparently the first to break it. Then again, said episode was a TransplantedCharacterFic of something else best taken with a pinch of salt.
*** Betazoid culture is matrilineal; Deanna's father took her mother's surname. Will probably won't, but Deanna is unlikely to insist upon it as much as her mother would have to Ian Troi.
** Same reason pretty much all women 200-300 years in the future still grow their hair long and wear make-up, I suppose.
** Actually it gets worse, there are at least two TNG episodes where women are referred to as "Mrs [husband's-first-name, husband's-last-name]", granted that "Mrs William Riker" was a simulation but there was certainly nothing to imply that addressing a woman as such was culturally inappropriate for Federation humans. Of course, this is just a victim of SocietyMarchesOn and it was probably already something of a DeadHorseTrope in RealLife by the time the series aired
** I'm going to be That Guy here and point out that just because you find the tradition of women taking their husband's surname or someone being referred to as ''Mrs William Riker'' as wrong doesn't mean that is a majority held view. Even today - half a century after the start of this series - the amount of women who break with this tradition is still very small indeed. Women have been taking their husband's name at minimum since the 15th century, so there is also no reason to automatically assume that this will change by the 24th just because it happens to be a long way away.
** Not all cultures have women taking the husband's name. In Latin America and Spain women kept their maiden names, that's why people in Spanish speaking countries have two last names. Same in Portuguese. In other countries like IIRC Japan the oldest family name is the one that prevails disregarding gender. So, in a similar way maybe some Anglo-Saxons in the future are keeping the tradition out of cultural connection.

[[folder:A Pon Farr with Rosie Palms?]]
* About the whole Pon Farr MateOrDie thing, why doesn't ADateWithRosiePalms work?
** It's probably not just a question of release. Consider when Tuvok went into pon farr. Tom Paris was able to rig up a hologram of his wife that allowed Tuvok to blow off steam, but the implication is that nothing else would have worked. It might be an emotional thing. There are multiple episodes that suggest that the Vulcan emotional suppression is not good for them. Pon farr could very easily be a consequence of that.
*** There was a prior Voyager episode where Ensign Vorik entered pon farr and the holoprogram failed to work for him.
*** Vorik had another option: B'Elana. Pon farr basically had him obsessed with her. Perhaps if Tom had thought to make a B'Elana hologram for Vorik to bang, he would have been able to pull a Tuvok.
** In the first ''Star Trek: New Frontier'' novel, we see a pretty explicit Pon Farr between two Vulcans, where they mind meld in the middle of coitus. Presumably doing this (combined with the physical act) is what causes the Vulcan's internal sex clock to reset.
*** Hormones. Very specific ones, too-where you NEED the hormones produced by your matched partner. Also why TheOldestProfession doesn't work for them.
** It probably is specifically something to do with the emotions. While a mind meld would help facilitate an emotional release, Tuvok and Vorik certainly couldn't have melded with holograms. The reason the hologram worked for Tuvok (once he was able to get it to stay online) is that he really did love his wife, and could express his love for her with this reminder of her. Vorik, on the other hand, only got temporary relief from T'Pera because she was a purely fictional holodeck character and he couldn't really fool himself into loving her the way he would love a real person. Each of the three known ways to resolve pon farr also show signs of being related to emotional release:
*** Mating is the most direct method of demonstrating one's love for another, of course.
*** Ritual combat for one's mate is somewhat less direct, but is much-romanticized in many cultures. Certainly, a man would have to love a woman quite a lot to be willing to fight for her, possibly to the death.
*** The intensive meditation, which did not prove effective for Vorik, probably focuses on one's intense love for an absent mate. As Vorik acknowledged, his betrothed had probably already given him up for lost. Tuvok, on the other hand, knew his wife was waiting for him at home, and he had the hologram to help remind him of that further. She presumably had some similar thoughts of him to comfort her through her own intensive meditation, knowing he was alive and on his way home.

[[folder:Why Don't Ya Just Beam Him?]]
* When site to site, or point to point transports have been demonstrated in multiple series, why have we never seen the following scenario:
-->Hostile Boarding Party Member appears on Federation vessel. Random Federation Crew member: "Computer, execute Defense Protocol Epsilon 7 Alpha." Hostile Boarding Party Member reappears in space. Or, Weapon appears in every Federation Crew member's hand. Or, Federation Crew member disappears to safety. Or, Hostile Boarding Party Member's heart appears a meter to the left of Hostile Boarding Party Member. In short, why do they not have set protocols to arm and distribute the crew strategically via the transporter?
** Site-to-site transporting is ''extremely'' power-intensive. Not to mention that the targeted crewman would have to be standing perfectly still or else the phaser would end up transported ''into'' their body by mistake.
*** The transporter-to-the-brig idea above is much more convenient, especially if you custom make the brig to have a transporter pad built in. Then it becomes point-to-pad, not point-to-point. Confiscating prisoner weapons? It's canon that a transporter can be preset to selectively choose what to transport, so that's no issue. (one running gag in any Academy-Days storyline is cadets infiltrating the transporter room immediately before its use by an intended victim, and setting it to not transport anything matching the molecular structure of nylon, rayon, or other common synthetic fibers found in cadet uniforms. Cue the victim appearing at his destination in falling-apart rags if not outright naked.). You can make that "transporter-to-the-escape-pod" if you prefer to run away from a fight.
** Probably because a transporter lock has been shown to be blocked so easily it's surprising carrying around a piece of tissue paper wouldn't be all that a boarding party would need to prevent exactly what tactic. Anyone who is going to send a party to personally board a ship instead of just having it blasted would ensure that the transporters of the ship they are boarding isn't going to work on them before they even began, especially if they do it routinely.

[[folder:I Want to Be a Federation Janitor When I Grow Up!]]
* Okay fine: the Federation doesn't use money. Are you telling me that jobs like sanitation worker, janitor, pest control and other unglamorous non-military jobs are either done by volunteers or are completely automated? Targ droppings!
** Why shouldn't they be completely automated? They have teleporters that can move anything halfway around the planet in the blink of an eye, and machines that can manufacture everything from food to electronics out of thin air. And antimatter-based power sources. They can pretty much do ''anything.'' Sanitation for an entire continent could be five technicians sitting in a room with a big computer panel somewhere, programming a transporter network to beam the contents of every trash can in every driveway into a giant direct-matter-to-energy incinerator each evening. And they'd have plenty of time left afterwards to go off to the opera and pursue other wholesome and personal-growth-supporting activities... or to go make out with holographic hotties. :P In addition, they don't necessarily have ''no money.'' Credits are occasionally mentioned, in some cases credits for specific things (transporter credits you have to spend to teleport yourself around Earth, for example). I think the main point is that Earth culture is no longer founded on greed or the pursuit of wealth for its own sake; doing certain unpopular jobs might still get you more transporter/replicator/whatever credits to provide incentive, it's just that people don't take up jobs just to be rich, and everyone is provided with everything they need to lead a happy life, so work is done mostly because you ''want'' to do it, not because you have to.
*** Why wouldn't they be? Because they're not on starships, where such a thing would be an advantage. And even if they weren't, you're telling me that no one ever has to go fish Sewerbot #242 out of Junction 1234X because it's jammed or some stupid kids have covered a statue of Admiral Archer in Ferengi graffiti? Even if they have machines for that sort of thing, no one 's running them? Even by remote control? No sale, sir!
*** No matter how shitty a job is you can always find someone who honest-to-god-actually ''enjoys'' doing it. It's like RuleThirtyFour of employment. Plus jobs aren't just about money, there is a social element to them as well. People enjoy getting out of the house, doing stuff, mixing with others, and feeling useful in society at large. I bet there is an employment ladder thing there too, y'wanna do #cleannicejob, well there is four hundred people wanting that, so we'll only give it to you if you've done #dirtynastyjob first.
*** Forgive me if this seems a bit rude, but this argument strikes me as rather naive. It's easy to say that "someone" must enjoy, say, shoveling shit for a living when you yourself don't have to shovel shit for a living. As for the possible psychosocial benefits of shoveling shit, those are all well and good until our hypothetical shit-shoveler runs into someone else who has the exact same quality of life as he does...without having to shovel shit all day long (an office worker for instance). The shit-shoveler will start to wonder why this other person gets to spend his time sitting in a comfy chair in an air-conditioned office, while he has to perform back-breaking labor under the hot sun and has to go home smelling like the southbound end of a northbound cow. In the real world the only reason the shit-shoveler would keep doing his job is if he was unable to get the education/training to find a better job or his paycheck was fat enough to make shoveling shit all day worth it. Lack of skills or education would not be an issue in the utopian Federation, where such resources are available to everyone. So if the hypothetical shit-shoveler is not drawing a big fat paycheck, then what keeps him from quitting his job?
*** In one episode, it is mentioned that the Enterprise-D has some ability to clean itself (specifically, someone gets told that they don't ''have'' to clean up something, the ship will do that for them). And running the machines, well, that changes the nature of the job.
*** Changes the nature, perhaps. But it doesn't eliminate dirty and degrading jobs. And our concept of what a "bad job" is is very relative. Running a cleaning robot may seem better than doing the cleaning yourself, but once everyone has replaced their janitors with clean-bot operators, then being a clean-bot operator will become the new "bad job" that nobody wants. Instead of parents saying to their kids "Don't skip school or you'll end up as a janitor!" they'll say "Don't skip school or you'll end up as a clean-bot operator!" And as one of the above tropers pointed out, there will inevitably be times when a clean-bot malfunctions and gets itself stuck somewhere unpleasant. So who has to go fish it out? Or are there also robots for retrieving stuck clean-bots in the future? And robots for retrieving stuck retrieval-bots?
** I got the impression that officers were paid, but, as Picard said, "The acquisition of wealth is no longer our primary goal." So they get paid, but the majority of people don't care about the amount, just that they're contributing to society.
*** Alternatively, Picard and other Starfleet personnel are trumpeting the official Federation line, but many individual Federation citizens do care about money.
*** While that is an interesting theory that adds a rather disturbing undertone to the Trek franchise (a society where the military and the civilian populace are so ideologically at odds with each other is a recipe for bad things) it doesn't jibe with everything we see on screen. For instance, in The Neutral Zone the Enterprise encounters some 20th-century humans in cryogenic stasis. When one of them (some sort of banker or stock broker or some such) says he wants to see how much his financial assets have grown in the centuries he's been in stasis, Picard reacts with puzzlement and confusion. Far from simply disdaining the acquisition of wealth, Picard clearly doesn't understand even the ''basic concept'' of monetary investment.
** Adding a strange twist to it all is that, in "In the Cards," Jake Sisko explicitly states (in a sequence that gloriously sends up this entire issue) that ''humans'' don't have money -- not the Federation, per se. So maybe humans just refrain from making money. So... Starfleet pays Dax but doesn't pay O'Brien or Sisko?
*** It could be a planetary government thing, with each member of the Federation having its own economic system (in fact, it'd almost have to be that way, unless abandoning money is a requirement for joining the Federation, which doesn't seem to be the case). Earth government doesn't use money, but let's say the Trill government does, in which case each one handles its own reimbursement for citizens serving in Starfleet; Earth would cover the moneyless O'Brien and Sisko's expenses with "Federation credits," as Quark called them, while Dax would just get a paycheck from the Trill government.
*** Also, keep in mind that Jake said humans don't ''need'' money, not that they don't ''have'' money. To cover essentials, humans don't need money, but it would be safe to assume that, in order to afford some luxuries (e.g. anything you can't just order out of a replicator, such as an authentic Willie Mays rookie baseball card), humans would have to use money like anyone else. Whether or not that translates into pay for Starfleet officers isn't ever really made clear ("Federation credits" notwithstanding), but it does suggest that there is at least an incentive system to entice people to perform otherwise lousy jobs (I don't think there are enough people in Starfleet who believe that being a janitor or whatever is the ultimate job to cover all the janitorial work that needs to be done).
*** For what it's worth, Jake's precise line is "I'm human, I don't have any money." Nog follows up with "It's not my fault that your species decided to abandon currency-based economics in favor of some philosophy of self-enhancement."
*** Followed by Jake espousing the Starfleet philosophy, to which Nog replies, "What does that mean, exactly?" and Jake says, "It means...it means we don't need money." Humans don't need money, so Jake, being human, doesn't have any, or at least he doesn't until someone has something he wants and won't give it up without payment. Though I suppose it's splitting hairs at this point; the line could be interpreted several different ways. The point is that evidence that other humans do use and seek money (Vash, for example) does exist, so going from "humans don't need money as a general rule, as part of their philosophy" to "no human ever uses money ever" doesn't work.
*** Yes, but Jake's reaction then is not "let me access the incentive programs by which human beings acquire money under exceptional circumstances," but rather "let's go on a wacky bartering adventure." One assumes that those humans who deal with money, like Vash (or Harry Mudd?) are dealing with different economies (and implicitly betraying that "philosophy of self-enhancement"). This is one of those issues that seems to have no adequate answer. In ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact'', Picard unblinkingly says "Money doesn't exist in the 24th century" which is demonstrably untrue, although one assumes he's limiting it to the human context and oversimplifying for his audience. The problem really seems to be that the writers haven't thought this through: they're committed to the idea of the future as a nebulous post-scarcity Utopia but haven't worked out the details.
*** There's an entry on the [=DS=]9 page that covers money. It's probable that Star Fleet officers do get paid something, so they can use it when they're visiting places that do require money. There are plenty of scenes where characters eat in restaurants and/or shop in places where you probably have to pay. It's just that if you live in the Federation you won't need money to get by; all the essentials are free. As for the "working for pleasure" matter, if you just sit around at home you'll get bored, and also people will probably value you more if you have a work ethic. If you want to be a janitor because you love it, well, more power to you, but otherwise there are other reasons to start out in bottom-rung job. You'll meet people and hopefully get promoted. And if you were applying to another job, having something like that on your resume shows that you were willing to work and contribute even when it isn't the greatest job.
*** If you go back, you'll find Roddenberry thinking technology will solve the problem of money, with no idea of how, so the show just acts like it doesn't change much. Well, if you assume enough Federation citizens value being an enlightened being enough, technology can solve it, but with dramatic visual changes: a transparent society. This allows checking on someone's enlightenment. Adding a standardized rating system could allow individuals to take on a penalty in exchange for giving someone else a bonus — that is, to exchange enlightenment rating as if it were money. (I.e, to print fiat money against their personal economy as a producer of enlightenment.) If this is what Federation credits are — as in "credit where credit is due", not as in "credit and debit" — the Ferengi objections would be obvious. It would also mean jobs that nobody wants to do are probably a quick way to rack up the ability to print credits. So there's a mix of janitors who're in it because they like fixing society's shit, even if that must be literal, and janitors who're in it to make the big bucks(er, to better themselves quickly).
** If those people were provided with food, accommodation and healthcare then that might be payment enough? They do get to travel the universe, after all, it's not that bad a deal.
** To quote Film/AMatterofLifeandDeath, "There are millions of people of Earth who'd think it heaven to be a clerk." Even Utopias will require unglamorous jobs, but that doesn't mean people won't be happy to do them.
*** I have not seen the film you're referring to, but I would wager that in context that quote is referring to people who live even worse lives than the average clerk. I'm sure a starving person in Africa or a homeless man living under a bridge would love to be a clerk, but only because it would give them a steady source of income, not because they've always dreamed of being a clerk.
*** It actually refers to Heaven, where you can do what you like for eternity (apparently).
* This is really a question about the peculiar thing called "job satisfaction." No job is intrinsically satisfying or unsatisfying. Just about any job ''can'' be fulfilling to the person doing it; conversely, any job can be unfulfilling (I'm sure we all know people who are miserable in what would seem to be a "dream job"). The Federation has two advantages. One, it's very large: unhappy with your job? There's bound to be another one somewhere that suits you, and there's a strong likelihood that social engineering exists to connect people with the jobs they'll do best in (since fulfillment and productivity tend to run together, this is overall best for society). The other is that, as a Utopian enterprise, if people buy the "dream" of the Federation (often framed in quasi-religious terms, as with Sisko in "The Ship"), then it becomes much easier to derive satisfaction from working to maintain that dream, even as a small cog in a vast machine. Furthermore, in a post-scarcity future like the one we see, it seems likely a lot of people maintain a "work to live" mentality; put in whatever hours necessary at whatever they do and even if that's no fun, a few hours in the Holodeck or strolling the paradise that is Earth make all the difference.
** I hasten to note, however, the presence of characters like Richard Bashir for whom the work prospects of the future seem to have barely panned out. Adds a touch of realism (even a great system is bound to fail a few people now and again) or, on a darker note, reveals the cracks in the system.

[[folder:Those Ships Need Seat Belts!]]
* Why are there no seat belts on the Bridge? They get knocked around often enough that you'd think some sort of restraining device would be only logical.
** This is addressed in a deleted scene/alternate ending to ''Nemesis'' where Picard is shown some new features they've installed on the bridge, including a seat belt. Picard's response is along the lines of, "It's about time!"
** A couple reasons, two Watsonian, one Doylian. Firstly, TOS, which introduced having characters fly around the bridge to increase tension, came out in the 60's when seatbelts were nowhere near as widespread or considered as neccesary in the cars the writers had the most expirience with, so this could fall under the GrandfatherClause. Plus, like the exploding consoles, plain old RuleOfDrama. Also, it makes some in-universe sense, at least conceptually: a ride in a starship, even during takeoff and landing, is riduculously smooth, and crew members have to do a lot of walking around even for their normal jobs, so having to put on and take off a seatbelt everytime you need to check wiring somewhere (which is part of the bridge team's job description because TheMainCharactersDoEverything) might seem unnecesary, especially since, logically, a normal seatbelt wouldn't help in the kind of crashes a starship is likely to get into. After over a century of being thrashed by the klingons and romulans though, you'd think engineering would wise up, which was Picard's point, and something that's apparently happened sooner in the new timeline.

[[folder:Lily-White Starfleet?]]
* The biggest question of them all: where are all the ethnicities? This becomes a major head against wall moment for this troper, because the timeline of the Star Trek universes includes several major wars, including a nuclear World War III that supposedly killed 600 million people. It would be fair to assume that most of these casualties occurred in the world's most powerful nations, namely, the United States, Europe, Russia, and China. ''So why do white people still make up 90% of Starfleet?'' The world population has always been overwhelmingly non-white, so any world government/military would reflect that one-fifth of the the world population is Chinese, one-fifth Indian, one-fifth African, and two-fifths various other ethnicities. Starfleet also seems to prefer rather Anglo names for its ships. Star Trek in all its incarnations has been noted for being progressive for showing different ethnicities, and has gotten better at doing so over time, but it always bugs this troper how it appears all non-white populations are minorities in the future.
** Cause the Americas won the third world war or at least survived it best. India, the middle east, and Asia got nuked to hell and back, Khan was in India, suggesting the wars were against him. At least that's Fanon attempts to explain it, and why all non whites tend to be Americans still. Some suggestions of discrimination in Starfleet as well as the preferred cadets are all from the Western Hemisphere. Only three major human crew members are suggested from being from Earth and not from the Americas, Picard, Uhura and Malcolm. Possibly, some Fanon has held, parts of Asia and so forth are still more or less uninhabitable. (Chekov is Russian, and Worf is a non-human Russian.)
*** Most humans should be African, then. If Asia got wiped out, that would make Africa the most populous continent. [[BrokenAesop Discrimination in Starfleet, you say?]]
*** Geordi [=LaForge=] is an African, not an African-American. Miles O'Brien is Irish, and Dr. Bashir is most likely of Middle Eastern descent. Presumably a fair amount of the humans aren't Americans but just sound like they have American (or English) accents due to the Universal Translator.
*** Uhura is also African.
*** If I were required to make a canon explanation, I'd have a bio-engineered plague that responded poorly to cold-- probably have it originate in Russia-- as part of the response to the [[http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Eugenics_Wars wars]] that gave us Khan. That would explain the lack of Africa, South America, Australia, etc-- if you also assume that the Universal Translators remove accents and the only reason Picard, Scotty, O'Brien, Bashir and such have accents (while Keiko, who's Japanese, doesn't) is because they're speaking Federation standard. Most of the rest of the world being royally screwed would also explain why so much happens in San Fran. (Would you base your Space Fleet there? It's crowded as heck NOW!)
** Another demographic oddity: Japanese are hugely overrepresented in Starfleet compared to Chinese. On Earth today, there are 10 times as many Chinese as Japanese, yet virtually every major Asian character in Trek is Japanese: Sulu in TOS, Keiko in TNG and Deep Space Nine, and Hoshi in ENT. The only exception, Harry Kim in VOY, is Korean. I don't recall seeing a single character in any Trek series with a Chinese surname, except for some Academy instructor in an early season ep of TNG.
*** It possibly has to do with China being decimated by World War III. Maybe the population loss was so much that they really ''are'' proportionally represented in Starfleet? Or Japan imposed their culture on China during [=WWIII=], liked they tried to do in [=WWII=], so some people of Chinese descent ended up with Japanese names?
*** Along those same lines, it's also noteworthy that the eastern half of the United States is almost never mentioned in Trek, and cities like New York and Washington DC don't seem to exist. Characters from North America usually hail from the rural midwest or the west coast, and the Earth government's based in San Francisco. It may be that the nuclear war was fought between China and the U.S., and both mainland China and the eastern U.S. were hit so hard that their populations fell permanently behind everyone else.
*** Well, Archer's from (upstate) New York, Trip's from Florida, and [=McCoy=]'s from Atlanta, Georgia, so it's not like the eastern U.S. is ''totally'' unrepresented.
** Given that regions such as China and India ''are'' so densely populated, it could be that those ethnic groups were among the first populations to migrate ''en masse'' to colony worlds. Their colonies would therefore be the longest-established human settlements outside our solar system, which would make them the best-defended and most-civilized ... hence, the ''least'' likely planets to require a visit from an exploratory vessel like the ''Enterprise''. They do exist, we just don't see episodes about them.
* It should be noted that [[MST3KMantra as a television series]], the casting of all the ''Star Trek'' series is dependent on the average population makeup of the city in which it's produced, so what appears on screen is not indicative of the population of Earth, but the population of LA-based Paramount Studio's casting calls. So for all we know the crew of the Enterprise ''should'' be more, er... brown than normally shown, but when you make a casting call for extras and only caucasians show up, are you really going to hold up production until you've found more extras of the appropriate ethnic makeup?
** Err... is there any actual evidence that "only Caucasians showed up" to casting calls for extras? May have been truer in the 1960s, but from the '80s onward?
*** Also, the names of ships and planets in Star Trek are still Anglo- and Euro-centric, which has nothing to do with filming location.
*** It's a show made by Americans for an American audience. Ships have Anglo and Euro centric names because the core audience for the show at the time of it's production did... In America.
*** The evidence that only caucasians showed up for the casting calls...is the fact that the extras they hired were almost entirely caucasian. The only other explanation is intentional discrimination. If you have any evidence of that, please feel free to share it with the rest of us.
*** I suppose the question is, considering that the series is supposed to depict the future of all humanity, whether it would have behooved the casting people, including those casting the extras, to specifically seek out a diverse group of men and women?
*** (ahem) There's a little thing called "practicality" that makes that difficult. A scifi tv show needs to save as much money as possible for sets, props, and special effects. They couldn't afford to be that choosy with their extras. It's easy for you to say what they ''should'' have done when ''you'' don't have to manage their budget.
*** I find just about every part of this post puzzling, not the least the presence of "(ahem)." Ahem what? Do you think that non-white people get paid more as extras? -- in Hollywood, extras are virtually always paid union scale. Or is it that you think L.A. is such a monoracial city that they'd have to, say, import non-white people in from faraway and exotic parts of the world at great expense so they can walk around in the background of scenes? Or that the budget for extras is more than a drop in the bucket for a show that cost at least $1.3 million an episode? Why would it be impractical to find non-white extras? Perhaps I am not understanding: are you seriously saying "they had to cast white people because that's all they could afford"? Because as a defense for lack of diversity, that is a pretty weak one.
*** "Ahem what?" What do you mean "what?" What's not to get? I was trying to ''politely'' say that I thought your response (assuming you are the same troper I was responding to; if not I apologize) was naive. Firstly, Hollywood may be more diverse than most cities but the ''acting industry'' isn't. The profession was and is still dominated by white actors. So right from the start your choice of extras is limited. Secondly, because extras are often cast after everything else has been finalized, you have a very slim window to vet them, hire them, and drill them for their stage business before shooting begins. If you can't find a diverse enough group of extras you have to delay the shoot, which throws off the entire production schedule and can quickly snowball into an ungodly snow-''boulder'' of costs. You might think Trek's $1.3 million per episode budget would allow them the luxury to do that, but in fact it's the opposite. The reason Trek had such a large budget was because they needed it for the new and expensive special effects they would be using almost every episode, not to mention the costumes, alien prosthetics, props, and sets. It's not like a family sitcom where no special effects are necessary, you can buy the wardrobe at the local thrift store, and your set can be a repaint from some other show. In Trek, 99% of what you see on screen had to be custom made for the show. They had to save money anywhere they could, so any expense that wasn't strictly necessary was on the chopping block. And for most episodes it wasn't strictly necessary to go on a scavenger hunt for as many racially diverse extras as they could find, so they just hired whoever was available. And apparently most of the ones available were white. Unfortunate, but there it is.
*** For the record, typing "ahem" actually makes something less polite, not more. This all makes it sound like you think extras are hired off the street, rather than through large, well-established casting agencies. I suspect that if we examined the pool of L.A. extras, we would find that there would a sufficient number of non-white people willing to work -- provided you think to ask. My guess is that nobody asked, simply because this was an element of the production sufficiently uncoupled from those making creative decisions.
*** "For the record, typing "ahem" actually makes something less polite, not more." No, it's a way for the other person to save face. I could have been a lot more insulting but I chose not to be, because it seemed clear that the mistake was an innocent one. And extras often are hired off the street. Especially for newer shows that haven't yet proven their staying power. What you "suspect" about the situation and what actually ''is'' are two different things. You really overestimate how represented minorities were in the acting industry in the 80s and early 90s (or even today). Sure, it would have been ''possible'' for them to have cast a more "even" racial balance of extras for the show. And who knows? Maybe if they asked a casting agency for exactly X number of minority extras by next Friday the agency would have said "Oh sure! We just happen to have X minority extras available right now." Or ''maybe they wouldn't''. Maybe the agency wouldn't be able to muster up that many on short notice, forcing them to delay the shoot until the right number of extras can be found. That's the problem. It's all a gamble. A gamble that, in the grand scheme of things, really isn't worth taking. Did the apparent deficit of non-white extras somehow negate Star Trek's message of tolerance and coexistence? Is the moral of the show somehow rendered invalid just because there aren't enough black people milling around in the background? And as a troper below points out, if we really get down to it the ''most'' realistic thing would be for almost all the human characters (including the main actors) to be racially ambiguous. If this truly is a post-racial future, shouldn't the races be so blended as to be almost indistinguishable?
*** "Did the apparent deficit of non-white extras somehow negate Star Trek's message of tolerance and coexistence? Is the moral of the show somehow rendered invalid just because there aren't enough black people milling around in the background?" Yes and no. File it under UnfortunateImplications -- the kind of thing that certainly isn't intentional and no one in particular is to blame, and indeed may have real-world protection concerns behind it, but it still ends up reflecting societal values in a way that is, well, unfortunate (except for the implication that non-white = black, although a great many Americans seem to like to forget that other racial minorities exist). Here's why: there is a tendency in Euro-American society to treat whiteness as a kind of default. Black people are black people, Native people are Native people, etc. but white people are simply people and are presumed to be able to represent humanity seemingly through lacking race (check out Richard Dyer's book ''White'' for a good primer on this). Franchise/StarTrek, while certainly deserving respect for advances in depictions of minorities, still mostly abides by this; as you note, even Star Trek's purportedly post racial future ends up mostly being a white one. For a related point, see this [[http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/inconsistencies/human_names.htm study]] of the overrepresentation of British Isles names for Franchise/StarTrek characters. Franchise/StarTrek is most certainly not unique in this regard, but it seems possible to suggest that it did less to correct it than it might have. That's all I am saying here.
** As WebSite/SFDebris pointed out in his review of [=TNG=]'s "Code of Honor", it ''is'' entirely possible to cast an entire planet filled with black people, so they certainly could be more ethnically diverse if they wanted to.
*** The casting people for that episode likely searched ''specifically'' for black actors to populate the planet. And it was only for one episode. The rest of the time they probably sent out a generic call for actors with no racial requirement. It just so happened that the majority of the actors who responded to those calls were white.
*** Frankly, short of an actual archival investigation of what these calls for extras actually said, this line of discussion quickly becomes unproductive.
*** Also considering the reception of that episode and the apparent intent of the person who made it I'm not really sure it's a good example of diversity casting.
*** The point being made is that one ''could'' have a large number of non-white extras, that it's not infeasible for a production to get them. That's hardly a defence of anything about "Code of Honor."
* Another problem with human races on the series is that, realistically, in Franchise/StarTrek's post-racial future, we should see many more people who would appear racially traceless to our eyes, the results of centuries worth of mixing. Hard to cast, obviously. Also, surnames will be a less reliable predictor of outward appearance (a point Creator/ArthurCClarke makes in ''3001: The Final Odyssey'' with, for instance, a character of outwardly Japanese appearance named Indra Wallace. Of course, it's not easy to cast post-racial -- much easier to cast multi-racial.
* ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'' says hi.
* This is a rather ironic question considering that the original ''Star Trek'' went far out of its way, far beyond what any other '60s TV shows did, to show a multi-ethnic crew, and was rightly praised at the time for doing so.
** That does not exempt all of ''Star Trek'' from criticism along racial lines forever.
* The extra casts are actually fairly diverse. Maybe you're just focusing really hard on the white people. Might say more about you than Star Trek, just so y'know.
* Well, this is actually a subject we have [[WordOfGod some first-hand accounts of]]. David Gerrold, for instance, talked about this exact issue in ''The World Of Star Trek''. Per his account, on the first season of TOS, Roddenberry specifically ensured their background extras were as diverse as possible. But as time went by, the casting agency stopped making the effort, and by Season 3, the new producers didn't care. So you can actually see the Enterprise get whiter in the third season, and yes, it was because the casting agency was racist. Probably not consciously, but that's how systemic racism works. Also, LA had a population of ''millions'' in the mid-60s, of course there were thousands of non-white actors looking for work. People being under-represented on television was never because they were under-represented in the industry.

[[folder:Always Keep a Spare Bridge Crew in the Trunk]]
* Whenever the bridge crew assembles an away team, we see some of the main characters leave their stations while others walk in from the off and man the vacated stations. Are there special 'secondary crew lounges' right next to the bridge where the replacements sit, twiddling their thumbs, until a senior officer goes on an away mission?
** Kind of like an On Call area, probably.
** Possibly those stations just aren't ever supposed to be left unmanned unless there's no alternative, so the nearest qualified person takes them until the 'official' replacement shows up.
*** Yeah, I'd guess there are some stations more vital than others and the bridge crew has some cross-training on them, so if one's vacated they can just switch what they're doing to "autopilot" and run over to the other one.

[[folder:Holographic Doctors Ain't Got No Soul?]]
* Starting with the EMH on [[Series/StarTrekVoyager Voyager]], and continuing with Vic Fontaine on ''Deep Space Nine'' (or maybe it's the other way around, I don't remember), we see that self-aware holograms are starting to become, if not commonplace, then at least not totally unheard of. This raises a ''huge'' issue: Doesn't the creation of self-aware computer programs to do your bidding more or less amount to slavery? Think about it. The EMH and Vic are both fully aware that they're holograms, yet neither (at least initially) is allowed to do anything except perform whatever function they were designed to do. Only the Doctor seems to see a problem with this; he complains all the time that crew members talk right past him as if he's not there, forget to turn him off before leaving sick bay, and any number of other indignities. Did nobody think about this when the idea of giving holograms consciousness was first floated? More to the point, what happened to the much-touted evolved sensibilities that the Federation is supposed to embody? Data was specifically stated to be a conscious, free being despite being artificially created rather than born; why doesn't anyone extend the same courtesy to holograms until they're beat over the head with it? Hell, the EMH program was even repurposed to produce menial laborers; if that doesn't scream UnfortunateImplications, I don't know what does.
** Bear in mind that no EMH was ever ''supposed'' to be self-aware, the Doctor becoming so was an accident, and as the crew come to understand that he ''has'' become self-aware, they start to allow him time off, to upgrade his program with other abilities, and so on. The end of "Author, Author" is problematic, though, because it implies that all the menial labour holograms have become something close to people, which ''would'' make it slavery, and it doesn't make sense anyway: the Doctor becoming sapient was a result of a combination of the crew overcomplicating his program by trying to get him to do much more than he was supposed to be able to, and the fact that he was left on for far too long. The menial labour holograms, by contrast, were presumably reprogrammed for a very simple task, and not left on for extended periods of time. They shouldn't really have gained sapience.
*** Nope. The Doctor knew from the beginning that he was a hologram, and it was in the very first season that he started complaining about being mistreated by the crew. So the original point still stands. Plus, you still haven't addressed the problem of Vic Fontaine, who ''also'' knew he was a hologram; he just didn't complain about it because the crew treated him relatively well. The closest he came was when Nog was using the Holosuite as his rehabilitation facility, and Vic complained that he wasn't used to being on 24/7 (or whatever the hell clock they used on Deep Space Nine), and even then he didn't seem to hold it against Nog.
*** We're getting into P-zombie issues at this point, though. The Doctor said he was a hologram and complained about the crew, but a computer could be programmed to say "I'm a computer, and you guys suck" without being sentient. It's later revealed that the Doctor's program was mimicking his creator Dr. Zimmerman at first, and only later started branching off into things Zimmerman wouldn't have approved of, like raising a family and singing opera. So even though a hologram's saying things that make him sound sentient, that could just be a very advanced but still mindless AI running a "what would this character do" simulation. Though now we're getting into solipsism and the question of how to prove that anyone's really sentient at all, which is the kind of philosophical nightmares the Federation's probably trying not to get legally sucked into (which is likely why the court in "Author Author" ruled that the Doctor can be an author while specifying that the ruling does not necessarily mean he's sentient). On the other hand, they'll have to deal with it sooner or later...
*** What bugs me is the idea of sentient holograms in general, going all the way back to Moriarity. It's not that these weren't great characters and some great stories, but it just raises too many issues. First of all, there's Data. Data is made out to be this very unique, highly sophisticated android, the product of one man's entire life's work; a truly sentient form of artificial life. Data is something so special that top researchers can't duplicate him. But then the holodeck accidentally succeeds in creating an artificial life form more sophisticated than Data, with a full range of emotion and personality, who then goes on to create another program like himself. This very idea completely undermines Data's uniqueness. Secondly, consider that the holodeck is a part of the ship's computer, and all holodeck programs are stored there. So now we're suggesting that the Enterprise itself is capable of creating multiple living entities by itself, within itself. Doesn't it stand to reason that the Enterprise itself is capable of sentience? And thirdly, this bugs me because by the time we get to Author, Author (if you even count Voyager, which you shouldn't) we're now dealing with the issue of Hologram rights. This was just one of those things that I think got out of hand in Star Trek. Suddenly there's an entire race of accidentally created lifeforms. It just stretches my suspension of disbelief too far. One of the fundamental problems with Star Trek is that if you consider every episode, there's always some idea or piece of technology lying around that the characters never consider, like the way the transporter could essentially solve every single problem if you really think about it.
* It seems generally accepted that Vic Fontaine is a person; he certainly doesn't seem to operate by the normal hologram rules, what with the ability to ''turn himself on when he's been turned off''. Okay, maybe he gained some measure if sentience, if not sapience, over time. But then, when the hidden Mafia subplot in his holosuite program switches on, the author of the program simply refuses to restore the status quo. First, if Vic is a person, isn't that reckless endangerment? And second, isn't that ''godawful'' customer service, refusing to disable an unwanted "feature" completely unrelated and in fact contrary to the purpose for which the program was purchased (to be a simple casino lounge)?
** I think the possibility of simply resetting the program was brought up in that episode. However, that would also have erased Vic's memory from an unspecified period of time which is why they decided to play by the program's rules.
** For the record, they never actually said in the episode that the safeties were disabled when the jack-in-the-box kicked in, so it's quite possible that the [=DS=]9 crew were never in any danger at all during their big heist. The only one in danger was Vic himself, and Bashir could always reset the program and bring Vic back if he had to, but that would have reset Vic's memory too. And perhaps...that was the entire purpose. Perhaps Felix was trying to open people's eyes about holographic rights by creating this sentient program, getting people attached to it, and then putting that program in danger. Suddenly the crew is willing to enact a complex plan, possibly even risking life and limb, to get rid of the jack-in-the-box. And not because they don't like the Mafia subplot, but because they want to ''help Vic''. All of a sudden they realize they've stopped thinking about Vic as "just another hologram" and started thinking of him as a ''real person''. And once they realize that, maybe they start looking at some of their other favorite holo-characters a little bit differently...

[[folder:The Future's Into Retro?]]
* Other than a few isolated examples, why does pop culture in the Trek universe seem to have completely stopped after the Sixties? Tom Paris is the self-proclaimed expert on the 20th century, yet we get the impression that if someone were to ask his opinion of Pearl Jam (which existed and was quite popular when the show was created), he'd have no idea what they were talking about. As far as literature goes, it's even worse; we almost never see anyone reading anything written after about 100 years ago (from the viewer's perspective). In three or four centuries, not one writer's managed to produce a novel that's considered a classic? That would be like us in the 21st century disregarding everything written after early 1700's.
** Things went down hill so bad that we had literal warlords with control over most of the earth by the early 90s. By 2024, folks have been caged up long enough to trigger the Bell Riots. The music never was created, and the things that may have become classic were overpowered by the influx of [[http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Literature alien lit.]] Or the writers just aren't that creative.
*** I'm gonna have to go with option 2. If indeed everything after our (the viewers') present got destroyed in the turmoil of the early 21st century, then how did anything ''before'' our present survive? And if indeed "alien lit" supplanted everything, then why are people still so in love with Charles Dickens?
** There's enough novels from the many printings over the years that some survived the destruction so they were reproduced.
** Thanks to expanded UsefulNotes/{{copyright}} law, overly-aggressive UsefulNotes/{{DRM}} and inadvertent EMP blasts in the Eugenics Wars, all post-1920's pop culture, music, film, and literature are locked behind an inoperative region coded Content Scrambling System.
*** Of course, one of the real-world explanations is that because of copyright law, they often had to use public domain stuff in the first place when they didn't make things up. In addition, the reason that the only "old" music used was classical and jazz because because the creators considered it universal where as rock music would make the show dated.

[[folder:Supersize Those Starships]]
* Sure, the starships in Star Trek look awesome, but is there any logistical reason why they have to be so ''huge?'' What are all those personnel for, anyway?
** Not an exhaustive answer but, apart from the Defiant class, Starfleet general policy has always been not to build dedicated warships. Instead, every starship is designed as some kind of flying city, with an emphasis on scientific research.
** In TOS, various claims are made that the facilities on board the ''Enterprise'' alone pretty much match anything available at a starbase, that the ship can wipe out an entire planet easily, and that the dilithium crystals were virtually inexhaustible as long as you weren't stressing the ship. Really, the ship often does provide a technological solution to Kirk's risky god-defeating habit; it was supposed to be the limitless pinnacle of imaginable human accomplishment. Therefore, the large ship makes a bit of sense... a lot of inspiration was taken from WWII-era U.S. naval ships in the design (Jeffries designed the TOS bridge to be kind of spartan) and sheer prodigiousness of the power a "starship" packs. And even though "starships" are supposed to be ''the'' biggest and baddest machines available to humans, the complement of the NCC-1701 doesn't come ''close'' to its 19th-21st century equivalents. The ''Enterprise''-D does, it should be noted, but still cuts it on the small side compared to, say, a nuclear aircraft carrier (not a fair comparison because the ''Enterprise'' is more like a battleship than a carrier, which needs more crew to take care of the planes, but ''Film/{{Star Trek IV|The Voyage Home}}'' did it first so nyeh nyeh).\\
You have to bear in mind that a lot of these things were designed with the idea that SpaceIsAnOcean. For actual warships in real life, there is a lot of redundancy required so that parts of the crew can take shifts (sleep), and so parts of the crew can die in a war situation without leaving the ship helpless in any one of its capacities. And there are also a lot of things that require crew to keep an eye on, too; any given ''part'' of a ship might keep one to several people busy non-stop if the ship's operation demands it. Add a command structure on top of that. That's how you get the huge complements on ships with a wide field of capabilities--many of those capabilities will have specialists, and then there's necessary redundancy.
** There's also something to be said for the psychological effect that a huge capital ship has on both friends and enemies whenever Starfleet wants to show the flag. To Federation citizens and allies, a behemoth like an ''Ambassador'', ''Sovereign'', or ''Galaxy''-class starship rolling into town sends the message "Starfleet is here, and your problems are over." Enemies, on the other hand, get the message "Starfleet is here. Don't even ''think'' about starting any trouble." By the 24[[superscript:th]] Century, Romulans seem to subscribe to that idea, as well; making the ''D'deridex''-class warbird about twice the size of Starfleet's ''Galaxy''-class; which is part of the reason that the universal reaction to a D'deridex de-cloaking anywhere in the vicinity is 'OhCrap'
** Also keep in mind that not all new starships are bigger and badder. ''Intrepid''-class ships, for example, are smaller and more efficient. Starfleet uses both big and small ships depending on what's needed, just like any navy.

[[folder:Working Day and Night?]]
* Why do Starfleet ships and installations have a day/night cycle? It makes little enough sense on ships, where hostile aliens or spatial anomalies could show up at any time; it makes ''no sense whatsoever'' for Deep Space Nine, which is permanently attached to a planet, and therefore in constant contact with local authorities (which don't sleep - planets are round), as well as managing dozens if not hundreds of ships docking and departing all the time. Even worse, in that situation why would ''Quark'' of all people ever want to close the bar and turn away paying customers?
** Because people have a day/night cycle built into their genes and tend to go a little [[SanitySlippage Janeway]] if the environment doesn't reflect that. All the essential tasks are covered, but non-essential stuff is only run during day-shift (or if there is a crisis).
** As for Quark, three possible reasons. First is that even in the future a public establishment needs downtime to clear up, run maintenance, etc. There is a lot more to running a bar than just serving booze and a lot of this stuff can't be done unless you clear the customers out. Also remember Deep Space Nine and inhabitants has a day/night cycle so there will be a period where even Morn has gone home and it isn't cost effective to keep paying staff to work when wages would cost more than income. If you run a cost-benefit analysis it works out cheaper to close down for a few hours to do the back of shop properly and let the staff sleep than just try and keep running. Second, Deep Space Nine has to work under Bajoran laws and there is probably a licensing restriction about how long bars can stay open that Odo loves to enforce to the second. Third, even Quark needs to sleep and he isn't willing to trust any of his underlings not to try and screw him on the finances if he leaves them in charge.

[[folder:Omnidisciplinary security forces]]
* Why do the same people seem to be responsible for internal shipboard security, ground combat, ''and'' ship-to-ship combat? Admittedly there's probably a fair bit of overlap between security guards and marines, which explains part of it, but the really glaring issue is the choice to always make the chief of security also the main weapons officer - these roles don't overlap in any way besides letting Worf attempt to shoot more things with different weapons. Really "Starfleet security" ought to be at least three separate corps (as using unarmored security guards as ground troops is also just wanton cruelty to the common redshirt).
** They've tried to deal with this on a few occasions, like Worf and Tasha Yar's dual roles during the first season of TNG, and then Worf and Odo in Deep Space Nine, and Malcolm Reed and the space marines in Season 3 ''Enterprise'', but it usually results in the characters who are in charge of intraship security and combat stations butting heads. The creators are probably just trying to conserve characters by making one of them "the action guy". It's not realistic, but when they do split the roles up, one character often starts to seem redundant.

[[folder:What does the Alpha Quadrant Look like?]]
* When the dust had settled, you pretty much had four great powers in the Alpha Quadrant: the Federation, the Klingons, the Romulans, and the Cardassians. Then there are secondary powers like the Ferengi, the Breen, and the Nausicaans, and one-off species like the Tzenkethi and the Son'a; but dealing just with the Core Four, this is complex enough, so let's leave them be.
** I'm not sure that the Cardassians are really in quite the same league as the others; TNG makes it quite clear that they were pawning their priceless cultural treasures in order to maintain their war economy against the Feds (and given that this war wasn't even mentioned onscreen until it was over, it's fair to assume that for the Federation this wasn't a conflict on anything like the same scale as the wars with the Dominion or Klingons), bearing in mind that during this time the Cardassians had a highly militaristic society and the Federation didn't even have dedicated warships and still they felt so unthreatened by the war with Cardassia that they were using the flagship as a taxi half the time; plus the Klingons go through them like a hot knife through butter in Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine. It seems more likely that they're sort of first among the secondary powers, rather than a Great Power.
*** Although we don't get much canon on this, it's hard to imagine the Cardassians as still being a major power after the Dominion War, as it was ''particularly'' unkind to them.
*** I agree. To make some analogy with our world, lets say the Klingons, Romulans and Federation are like the US, Russia and China, then Cardassia is something in the lines of Iran, certainly a regional power and can give a good fight specially in a border's conflict, but can hardly withstand a whole invasion by any of the three above.

* At different points, each of the four powers is referred to as sharing a border with each of the other three. Assuming they all have contiguous territories--which I guess they might not--there are only two possible explanations: There's a point where the borders of all four come together at a ninety-degree angle and they meet in some center, like Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico; or three of them have borders that ''would'' come together and meet at a 120-degree angle (like an equilateral triangle divided into thirds) and the fourth one being plunked down in the center of this and extending out from the central point.
** Assuming that Federation's territory is continuous is kind of a stretch for this reason. Any planet can became a member of the Federation, that means that if a planet near Klingon space becomes a member, even if isolated from the rest of the Federation, that planet's star system (and its colonies if it has) becomes Federation space. Thus, is easy to see why the Federation has borders with everybody, their way to expansion has no reason to be continuous unlike empires that expand whether by conquest or by colonization which would be difficult to do if you’re not territorially connected. Something similar happened with the Dominion which's an evil version of the Federation, with Cardassia as the most obvious example as it became a member of the Dominion and suddenly the Dominion had territory in the Alpha Quadrant. In fact if you see most maps (although all of them are non-canonical) you'll see “pockets” of Federation space. Of course, is logical that the Federation has some very large continuities of space, on one hand because its members tend to colonize other worlds thus expanding Federation territory continually, and on the other because as is logic Federation members obviously influence nearby worlds and if you live near the Federation border you'll be under its cultural, economic and political influence and joining the Federation would see appealing, is something similar on how the European Union expands (with their neighbors first) but you also has something like Cyprus which is nor even in Europe, is in Asia.
*** This is all true, but the tendency is to visualize the Federation and other powers as amoeba-like blobs.

* Actually, the former doesn't work, either: The Federation had a Klingon Neutral Zone ''and'' a Romulan Neutral Zone ''and'' a Cardassian DMZ. So it had borders with all three extending for a good while. For the Square States model to work, it would only touch one of the three at a geometric point.

* As for the latter setup--I guess it works, but it's pretty stupid, isn't it?
** Allow me to introduce you to a concept called "3 Dimensions". Space is not a flat map where 4 regions can only meet at a single corner. Granted, this *is* Star Trek which adores the SpaceIsAnOcean trope. The boundaries can wander and roam all over the place, and it would be pretty easy for all 4 empires to share stretches of contiguous border.
** The relevance of the third dimension depends how big the empires are: the Galaxy is much narrower along its "vertical" axis (its thickness is only 1% of its diameter). While this is still an enormous distance, and it's reasonable to expect overlap, we're also dealing with incomprehensibly-huge nations here that may well extend far further than that in the "horizontal" plane. Assuming they each spread evenly from a central point, the borders would reasonably tend to line up when viewed from above.

* And another thing: Federation space includes a bajillion species, both Fed members and pre-warp civilizations whom they ignore under the Prime Directive but protect from foreign interlopers by maintaining their own territorial integrity. The Romulans have only the Remans. The Cardassians had only the Bajorans until they got thrown out. The Klingons tried to enslave two races in TOS and had one whom they had enslaved in ENT. But for the most part all three species had their space to themselves.
** If worths something, the Expanded Universe does establishes that the Romulans are a true empire, having control over several species, not only the Remans. The Klingons use to be like that but they mostly liberated most of their non-Klingon subjects but maintain a certain influence over them, something along the lines of the Commonwealth or the relation of Spain with Latin America and Ecuatorial Guinea.

* Now assuming that the likelihood of a Class-M planet will develop an intelligent race is pretty much the same anywhere (and I can't see any reason it wouldn't be) that means that the Federation is either much larger territorially than the others, or it has a much denser concentration of inhabitable planets, which one assumes mean many more resources to exploit. Either of those factors would give it a huge advantage over the other civilizations, would make the the Alpha Quadrant's dominant superpower. But it deals with each of the other three as equals most of the time.

** In the first half of TNG I could easily imagine the Federation being run by such shrinking violets that they can be bested by enemies a fraction of their size. Then the Borg came along and gave them a wake-up call. It's kind of like the United States in WWII: In 1940, despite being much larger than Germany, the US army was severely outnumbered, outweighed, and outclassed by its German counterpart, because the Germans were on a war footing and the US wasn't. In 1943, the US war machine was going all-out, and even without the rest of the Allies would have had every advantage over the Germans in a one-on-one fight.

** Where this breaks down is that the Federation had had a ton of Pearl Harbor moments, starting with Wolf 359, the near-war with Cardassia in "Chain of Command," the war with the Klingons in Season 5 of Deep Space Nine, the Dominion alliance with Cardassia, the second Borg invasion. . . . Eventually, the Federation certainly created the impression that it was going balls-to-the-wall to deal with all these threats. But if it were, and if it's as much a potential powerhouse as you suggested, it couldn't help being as strong in the Alpha Quadrant as the Dominion was in the Gamma--In which case it would have beaten the Cardassians and the fraction of the Jem'Hadar fleet that got through before the wormhole got cut off like a rented mule, even without the Klingons' help, and would have faced the entire Gamma Quadrant Dominion force on an even footing. Instead, it's barely keeping its head above water with the fraction of the Dominion fleet in the Alpha Quadrant, and at the beginning of the sixth season everyone's puckering their assholes at the thought the rest of the Jem'Hadar will show up and give the Dominion an insurmountable numerical advantage.

** Remember the Federation supposedly has no military, that most of Starfleet's ships are equipped for research and humanitarian aid and that most of the crew signed up for the engineering or scientific opportunities. Starfleet simply doesn't operate on the level of the Cardassian or Klingon militaries; it seems reasonable that the Federation must be many times larger and more (economically) powerful if it's even able to maintain an equal relationship. Even when they get onto a "war" footing, they're still mostly using obsolete ships (notice the ''Excelsior''-class appears a lot in Deep Space Nine), crewed by personnel with woefully inadequate combat training, as they have no dedicated military academy or warship production facilities. The few instances where a ship or crew is up to scratch militarily (the ''Defiant'', any ''Galaxy''-class with the children offloaded) they're normally portrayed as being able to tear through enemy ships by the dozen, with the exception of the very first battle with the Dominion.

** While this is pure fanon, it is also possible that the Klingons, Romulans, and Cardassians have enough worlds and subject species under their control to have comparable resources to The Federation, but the fact that they are Empires that conquered these territories instead of democracies that formed alliances with them along with a healthy dose of institutionalized racism means that the races who these Empires are named after are the ruling class and are the only ones to rise to the positions where The Federation deals with them (i/e: Government and Military)

** The EU mentions that the Romulans do have several subject species apart from the Remans, the Klingon use to but mostly liberated them all just keeping a certain political and cultural influence like the Commonwealth of Nations to England, and the Cardassians only subjugated the Bajorans for a while. Regarding “the likelihood of a Class-M planet will develop an intelligent race is pretty much the same anywhere” that’s actually not the case, in fact in a similar way how we have Goldilocks areas in solar systems that allow for the development of life, same happens with the Galaxy, there are areas of the Galaxy that are more likely to allow for the developing of life than other. Thus, that may be the explanation; Klingon and Romulans developed (or in the case of the Romulans colonized) areas of the Galaxy hostile for life, which would explain in the case of the Klingon why are they so toughened. Is not that this areas are totally unable to harvest life, some life form can develop, but is much more rare than in other areas thus the Klingon had very few inhabited planets as neighbors, whilst the original Vulcans that colonized Romulus choose it precisely because of its isolated position with very few inhabited planets around. Whilst in other areas life thrill and was plentiful as the area was perfect for the developing of life, this is the area where Earth, Vulcan, Andoria etc. are and as may sound logic the civilizations of this areas will interact with each other and have further cooperation and integration, similarly how we have the European Union or the United States (which was originally a confederation) in our world. In fact is very similar to our world how Russia and China hold very large territories many of them vastly underpopulated, like Siberia.

[[folder: Rank Structure]]
Why do they even bother? I don't mean the insubordination; that's [[MildlyMilitary a separate issue]]. But they have actual procedures specifically devoted to working around rank structure. From "The Doomsday Machine," when Spock cites regulation that allows a captain to countermand a commodore if he uses his "personal authority," to "Harbinger," when Major Hayes said he didn't have a problem taking orders from Reed despite the fact that a major outranks a naval lieutenant--outranks everyone on that ship except Archer and Tucker. And in "Zero Hour" the same major says he wants a corporal to take command of his unit after he's gone. Harry Kim got screwed out of promotions all the time, but was still fifth in command despite being junior to every single Starfleet officer on the ship as well as however many Maquis were either made lieutenants or had previously had Starfleet commissions which predated Kim's own. Department heads with lower ranks than members of their departments. Acting captains and especially acting first officers of lower rank than some of the people under their temporary command. Inconsistent rules over whether a person could be promoted to captain and/or admiral without transferring to the Command department. Inconsistent rules about how the Bridge Officer test was applied. Officers from foreign services (Kira Nerys, T'Pol) pulling rank on Starfleet officers on Starfleet ships (not Deep Space Nine, of course, but the ''Defiant.'') It just . . . grr!
* Pay grade? As long as you choose to ignore the claims about not having salaries, because they're silly.
* The "personal authority" thing probably has to do with who is captain of what - the personal authority cited is Kirk's as "Captain of the Enterprise.". Presumably, a captain of a ship has some authority over even higher-ranked visitors, which technically is what Decker was. As for T'Pol, she was an exchange officer. Starfleet might just have given her an acting rank while she served as part of the Enterprise's crew.
** In addition to being "Wagon Train to the Stars" Star Trek was also Hornblower InSpace and there was, indeed, an old British naval tradition that a Commodore visiting another officer's ship had little to no authority to command that ship's crew despite their much higher rank. In fact, in one of the Hornblower books, Hornblower - by then not only a Commodore, but also 1. a lord and 2. married to the sister of the Duke of Wellington - has to hitch a ride on a glorified patrol boat, commanded by a mere Lieutenant. Said Lieutenant is not particularly competent, and Hornblower muses on how despite his vastly higher rank, wealth, and social status, he can't actually order the Lieutenant to do anything related to the running of the ship, he has to reason with the Lieutenant or hope to awe the Lieutenant into doing his bidding with his titles. A visiting admiral, on the other hand, could relieve a captain in his squadron (which, apart from the fact that the crew just respects him that damn much, is probably why there's little drama attached to Admiral Kirk taking the Enterprise in the movies (Decker Junior's little hissy fit notwithstanding). This tradition isn't carried over to modern navies, which may be why we don't see that many of the numerous mad admirals in the TNG-era just try to relieve the captains.

[[folder: Single Parents]]
This doesn't really bug me per se, but it does strike me as odd. Just about every child character who's got a remotely prominent role is being raised by a single parent. The reasons for this vary and are all unrelated, but it does seem an unlikely coincidence, especially since we're given every indication that the nuclear family is still the norm.

To review:

* David Marcus: Raised only by his mother, who went out of her way to keep him from his father until he was an adult. (Which gives us the FridgeHorror of realizing that while Kirk was warping around the galaxy earning our respect and admiration, he was arguably a deadbeat dad, though it's not exactly like he was receiving and ignoring repeated requests from Carol for child support, or anything.)
** As I understand it "deadbeat dad" usually refers to fathers who stiff the mother of their child on child support. There's no evidence that Kirk did anything other than keep a distance on Carol's request. Absentee father certainly applies...

* Wesley Crusher: Raised only by his mother. His father died when he was very young.

* Alexander: Raised only by his mother at first; she pulled a Carol Marcus on Worf for a few years, then introduced father and son. No sooner had this happened than she died, meaning that the poor kid only had a couple of days of knowing both his parents.

* Lal: Okay, she was a special case.

* Jake Sisko: Raised only by his father. His mother died. He was old enough to remember her, but she didn't come anywhere close to seeing him as an adult.
** Also, he gets the Alexander treatment, in that his dad finally marries Kasidy Yates (making her Jake's stepmother), only to be whisked off to a [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence higher plane of existence]] a short time later. Given the events in "The Visitor" and the final shot of the series, the future doesn't look too happy for poor Jake Sisko.
*** The future shown in "The Visitor" was an alternate timeline created by the accident. When Ben Sisko returned to his own time, that Jake Sisko's life was overwritten with whatever he would have done without having a father trapped in a temporal bungee cord.
*** True, but Jake at the end of the series was only a few years older than he was in that episode (the beginning part, anyway), and the situation was very similar. The point being that "The Visitor" showed the level of obsession Jake was capable of to bring his father back, and the fact that that future didn't actually happen still doesn't mean that Jake isn't the type of person that'd become obsessed about it again, especially since we've seen it in him already.
*** In "The Visitor," Ben was removed from Jake's life by an accident that Jake hadn't thought to try to reverse until Ben started coming back from the "dead." Yes, he could technically be considered KIA until he returns, but presumably Kasidy will pass the word along to Jake that this is supposed to be a good thing and that he'll be back in due time. Besides, Ben points out that the Prophets could very well deposit him back yesterday. Since they barely have a concept of time, they'd probably let Ben guide them in what time to send him back to, and he'd select the very next day, or next week.

* Nog: Raised only by his father. No one seemed to notice that his mother was absent. I can only remember one instance of any of the Ferengi characters (or any of the non-Ferengi characters, for that matter) even mentioning her: Rom frets that Leeta will grow tired of him, as Nog's mother had. From that I assumed she'd left Rom for being a loser, which, given how ''emphatically'' Ferengi men hold all the cards in their marriages, is really saying something. I suppose that explains why Rom kept Nog, though: Fathers are probably the default custodial parents in cases of divorce.
** It's actually established in one episode -- I don't remember if it's the same one where Rom is worried about Leeta -- that Ferengi marriages are five-year contracts and that Nog's mother (and Rom's father-in-law) opted not to renew it. On account of Rom's being a loser.

* Molly and Kirayoshi O'Brien: As of the end of ''Deep Space Nine'' they're being raised in a two-parent household. That makes them unique among the kids, though.

* Naomi Wildman: Raised only by her mother. Presumably would be in a two-parent household had Samantha Wildman not been on a ship whose three-hour tour turned into a fateful trip.

* Icheb: Was raised by both his parents, but only if your definition of "raised" is "infected with a cybernetic STD and abandoned at the Borg's doorstep; miraculously survived, returned to them, and then they tried to do it again."

* New Coke Kirk: Raised by his mother. Father died on the day he was born. The real Kirk was raised by both parents, but we only know this because the real Spock pointed it out by way of contrast with New Coke Kirk.

Also common for adult characters: Of the TNG regular cast members other than Wesley (see above), Worf, Beverly, and Tasha Yar were orphans; Riker and Troi each lost one parent in childhood; and Data was abandoned by his parents when the Crystalline Entity struck. Geordi's parents both survived into his adulthood, though he lost his mother during the show's run; and Picard's parents were both dead before the show started, though we don't know when they died. His father apparently lived long enough to try to talk him out of joining Starfleet. Over on Deep Space Nine, Sisko's mother left him and his father after the Prophets stopped possessing her. Kira's mother faked her death when she became Dukat's concubine, and her father died when she was young though not quite a child anymore. O'Brien and Bashir had both parents still living during their Starfleet careers. Quark's father died when he was and adult, Worf I already mentioned, Jadzia's parents we never heard of, Ezri's family was apparently led by a single mother, Jake I mentioned above, and Odo . . . We don't know how the Founders reproduce, but whoever was responsible for bringing up new Founders decided he'd be fine just floating around on his own. On VGR, Janeway's father died when she was fourteen, Belanna's father walked out on her, and Seven's parents were assimilated when she was little (as was she). On ENT, Archer's father died when he was twelve. T'Pol's father died before the show started, though we don't know how old she was. Everyone else seemed to have a complete set.

On TOS, Kirk and Spock were both raised by both their parents, and I don't think they ever mentioned the parents of the other five. We know [=McCoy=]'s father died when Bones was a young man. We also know Bones had a daughter, and when we first met New Coke [=McCoy=], he's complaining that he's going through a tough divorce, which means we're probably looking at yet another broken home for his girl.

** From a writer's point, it creates more drama and opens up more potential storylines (Deceased parent comes back, last parent dies, etc). But logically, you are watching a series about military ships floating around in space and poking their noses in every last nook with a "Oh hello, I see you are being wiped out by an insanely dangerous threat, you want to join our society and we'll save you" theme on going. What do you expect when nearly every action episode contains the line "Casualties being reported from decks X through Y"?
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQTsaDKxmvA Oh, it's not just Star Trek.]] I defy you to find any movie or series where some main character hasn't lost a parent tragically to cancer or mugging-gone-wrong or alien invasion. Harry Potter, Luke Skywalker, Frodo Baggins, and Batman are all missing both of their parents. There are a few reasons for this trope: first of all, like mentioned in the previous point, nothing makes better filler episode than a tear-jerking episode where a character angsts about their absent parents. Second, (and this particularly applies when it's a kid missing his parents,) no parents means no one to fret and keep the main character home, rather than out risking their life fighting the MonsterOfTheWeek. On the flip side, the character him/herself is more easily able to plunge headfirst into danger without stopping to consider, "What will my mother do if I die?" Now, this trope isn't actually all that much of a stretch; [[http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-untold-burden-one-in-seven-americans-lose-a-parent-or-sibling-before-the-age-of-20-88809487.html a 2010 American survey]] showed that 1 in 7 Americans lose a parent or sibling before the age of 20, and a lot of the angsty issues we see in our favorite book, movie, and tv characters seem pretty consistent with other findings of the survey. Granted, this is often a trait associated with Mary Sues. But the beauty about this trope is that, when it's used in most tv, movies, and books, it's handled very tastefully and realistically, and usually enhances the character and the story.

[[folder: We Will Not Use Army Tactics In The Future]]
* Can somebody explain to me why the Federation (and Dominion for that matter) has forgotten about such things as tanks, [=IFVs=], personal armor, ground attack aircraft, helicopters, artillery, squad automatic weapons, barbed wire, digging trenches, offensive tactics that did not involve imitating Leeroy Jenkens, and other things we did not see at the Siege of AR-558? Really, has everybody forgotten about all but the most basic ground tactics?
** Because that would have completely busted the show's budget.
*** And yet they had enough money for several [=CGI=] space battles. They could have diverted some of time and cash to show a long range [=CGI=] tank duel, or if the budget was already over the limit, at least mention that "our armor divisions were overwhelmed". Plus, there's the matter of body armor. Why not reuse something from [=TNG=], [=TOS=], or even a non-Trek show? And really, there is no excuse whatsoever for the hilariously poor infantry tactics. Was it too much trouble for the writers to consult with somebody in the armed forces or at the very least rent a WWII movie? Sure, any of these suggestions would have probably cut into other parts of the budget, but Starfleet probably wouldn't have ended up looking like total idiots.
*** Excuse me, but I'm pretty sure that most of those space battles ''weren't'' CGI. At least according to [[http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/CGI this page]]. Of course they did use CGI on numerous occasions, but most shots of ship-to-ship combat were models.
*** A CGI tank battle would have looked completely ridiculous. And saying "they've overwhelmed our armored divisions!" would have ''sounded'' ridiculous. The viewers would have immediately asked why they didn't get to SEE those armored divisions being overwhelmed (the old "show don't tell" rule). And their tactics weren't ''that'' bad. In the Siege of AR-558 they did at least hunker down under cover and herd enemies into a choke point. It just broke down into a melee fight when the Jemhadar overwhelmed them with superior numbers. What you asked was why the Federation didn't use, and I quote, "tanks, [=IFVs=], personal armor, ground attack aircraft, helicopters, artillery". True they could have afforded some body armor (though in the Siege of AR-558 they were explicitly low on supplies so it's somewhat understandable) but all those ''other'' things you listed would have drained the budget completely even if it was just for one episode.
*** ^^"And yet they had enough money for several [=CGI=] space battles." A [=CGI=] space battle is far cheaper and faster to make than a live-action ground battle sequence is to film. ^While I agree that the general suckitude of the Starfleet tactics used at AR-558 has been overstated, they still made several key errors. For instance, they didn't even attempt to collapse the cave entrance. At the very least this would have slowed the Jemhadar down, perhaps long enough for Starfleet to return and reinforce their position. But then, the Jemhadar weren't immune to this problem themselves. The disappearing-reappearing mines they set up were almost completely worthless. It hurt the morale of the Starfleet forces, sure, but they would have been much more effective if they worked like real mines. Instead of letting the enemy walk past the same spot a dozen times before exploding, they should have been set to drop out of their little subspace pocket and explode the first time someone got close to them. If they had done that, the Starfleet officers might have all been killed before Sisko ever made it to AR-558.
** Apart from the budget, what kind of space armada would bother with ground equipment for most of its engagements? All the real battles would be fought among the stars. Over in the MirrorUniverse, I recall the chilling ending to the ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' two-parter which had the Terran Empire's new Empress introducing herself to Earth by declaring "Surrender now or we'll begin targeting your cities." In other words, if they don't surrender, she's going to start ''blasting whole cities into oblivion'' with phasers and photon torpedoes from a Constitution-Class starship of the kind available to James T. Kirk in his time. If ''one'' of those ships has roughly the firepower of a nuclear-armed submarine fleet, it stands to reason that all the real action in these wars takes place between these starships. The only time to send in troops is while attempting to occupy a place, and once you've destroyed the other guy's shields, you can send them in directly with your transporters. Equipment intended for use in two-dimensional warfare is obsolete.
*** "...what kind of space armada would bother with ground equipment for most of its engagements?" Uh, the kind that sometimes needs to secure ground targets without completely demolishing them in the process? A salvo of modern-day [=ICBM=]s (with or without nuclear warheads) can utterly annihilate an enemy city from miles away, and yet the American government has yet to phase out the US Army. It's all well and good to say "Surrender or we'll glass your city from orbit" ...until someone calls your bluff. If your enemy knows you need the city intact, or is willing to gamble on you not being the type to wantonly slaughter civilians (which the Federation is decidedly not), then what do you do when you say "Surrender or else!" and the enemy responds "Or else ''what?''"
*** "Or else we phaser you into submission!" It's not mentioned incredibly often, but a star ship's phasers can be set on stun just like the handhelds, and with a wide beam too. (See the original series episode "A Piece of the Action" for a demonstration of this.) Another possibility: "Or else we'll transport these six thousand troops we're carrying right into your citadel." ''Deep Space Nine'' in particular showed that the Federation does have ''some'' shock troops, and the ''Next Generation'' episode "Yesterday's Enterprise" indicated that the Enterprise-D on war footing was capable of housing that many troops at a time. For that matter, considering some of the ruthless and downright genocidal enemies the Federation was facing in each series, it might well be willing to get a bit nastier and say "Or else we'll release this brand new silicon-based virus of ours on your planet; there's no known cure and it's extremely contagious and deadly." In the case of the Dominion War, this was the very kind of enemy the Federation was facing, and I should point out the Cardassians and Romulans certainly didn't pull any of ''their'' punches trying to slag (what they thought to be) the Founders' home world with their armada's weapons during their ill-fated attack on the Dominion. Again, some of the fighting ''was'' hand-to-hand or at least phaser-to-phaser, but this was mostly between troops on star ships and space stations, not on the ground. Having troops still makes sense in a future with energy shields and transporters, but making them march and roll artillery across a field at each other does not. Of course, over in the MirrorUniverse, where neither the Terran Empire nor the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance had any scruples whatsoever against slaughtering civilians, there's no question at all that anyone would be using scorched-earth tactics early and often.
** For the same reason that armies don't make rectangular formations on open fields and take turns shooting at each other anymore. Combat evolves over time, and what was once the most innovative tactic in the book is now obsolete.
*** There's a very real difference between "evolving over time" and abandoning a still useful tactic.
** RuleOfDrama and RuleOfCool basically; the Klingons are still using ''swords'' and not very efficient swords at that, but it's more entertaining to watch than both sides sitting in bunkers targeting one another with swarms of automated AP drones and different types of Technobabble from across the horizon.
** Out-of-universe reason: because the writers assume a starship can do anything, including phasering into submission enemies in a bunker or an army covered by a tactical theatre shield. In-universe reasons: by the time we saw Federation ground forces they were in the non-militant TNG era, where their military abilities for ground combat had decayed to the point they can't even design a decent handguns are ergonomic nightmares; the Klingon we saw on the ground are space vikings and would naturally prefer blades to guns and other practical equipment (and even then they still used mortars in "Nor the Battle to the Strong"); by the time we saw the Jem'hadar army, the Dominion was forced to use a more aggressive and apparently less competent version of the Jem'hadar, they probably were just too stupid or aggressive to use them; other powers we never saw on the ground, so for what we know the Romulans and the Cardassians do have powerful armies (and that would explain Shinzon's status as a war hero in spite of his incompetence: if he's army he would have gained his reputation in ground battles, and his incompetence in ''Nemesis'' would be explained by him simply having no training in starship combat and improvising as best as he can).

[[folder: I claim this planet in the name of...]]
* One thing that has never made much sense to me is the colonization and border procedures of the Federation (et al). Early in ''First Contact,'' Admiral Hansen relates that the Federation colony on Ivor Prime has been destroyed (he even describes it as "our colony"). A scene later, Picard states that the Borg ship "will cross the Federation border in less than an hour." So: Federation colonies lie outside the Federation's borders. This follows in a SpaceIsAnOcean kind of way... but does it really make sense? If the Federation has colonized a planet, why do the Federation's borders not then extend to claim it? This question touches on a set of broader issues: how does one claim a planet in space? How does one claim ''space itself''? We have certainly seen examples of different powers disputing ownership of given worlds (Cestus III, for example, and the various border conflicts with the Cardassians, and the business with the Sheliak), which reminds us that there is no one agreed-upon way of claiming interstellar territory. So: just what constitutes the Federation's borders? And why establish colonies outside of them (especially considering that habitable yet uninhabited, M-class planets always seem to be in such plentiful supply)? And do said colonies outside of the Federation's borders not enjoy the Federation's protection... at least not the same degree as worlds within its borders?
** Could be they're non-contiguous borders or an exclave and you have to fly through, say, Ferengi space to get to Ivor Prime. Or borders aren't perfectly even, but are a bit more "jagged" so a Borg ship flying straight for Earth would pass through Federation space when it hit Ivor Prime, then fly into Ferengi space and come out the other side into Federation space again.
*** Consider the United States of America, which includes states that are not geographically attached to the main portion of the country (Alaska and Hawaii) as well as territorial possessions like Puerto Rico. To get to Hawaii for example, you must actually leave U.S. territory and cross over the international Pacific Ocean. One of the weirder ideas of ''Star Trek'' (and a lot of other science fiction space nations) is that anyone would bother to make territorial claims to empty space. It could be argued that this is a security issue (you do not want Klingons buzzing around just outside the boundaries of the Sol System). But especially in the case of remote colonies, the Federation may not hold formal claim to all the space around them, especially if there are other civilizations in the area.
** Some people may hate to think of the Federation this way, but it's basically a matter of power and control. If you have enough ships to take control of an area, and your enemies think it's too much of a risk to try and take it from you, then it's yours. Ergo, "Federation Space" is the area of the Alpha and Beta Quadrants where the Federation has undisputed control. The colonies outside this area are places where the Federation is still encroaching. In theory, those worlds will become part of Federation Space once the Federation solidifies its control over them.
*** Yes, but even in saying this, there needs to be formal, legal, recognized mechanisms in place to establish where these areas of control begin and end if you're going to call them "borders."
** Trek has never shown an actual canonical map of the Federation, and has been rather inconsistent on this, but judging from what've seen on the various series, the most likely conclusion is that the Federation's borders are not contiguous, like most nation states today, but rather that Federation space consists of numerous pockets of worlds and colonies separated by stretches of open, unclaimed space.
** Here is an intriguing question... what is the status of space itself in terms of ownership (especially the bulk of space that lies outside of solar systems)? Is it analogous to the ocean here on Earth -- that is, no power can claim it beyond a certain distance? Or is it more like mountains or tundra or some other kind of terrain that you can't built large-scale settlements on but can put railroads or highways through -- it's yours and only some sort of border dispute will suggest otherwise? Or is it some complex combination of the two, where there are spaceways or shipping lanes that are policed and maintained but beyond them an "open space" that's a kind of no man's land?

[[folder: Where has all the writing gone?]]
* At least in TOS, it seems that there is next to no written text. No labels to any of the (numerous! Very, very numerous!!) switches and levers on all the ship. No keyboards. No labels to doors, nor on the uniforms. How in the bloody hell does everyone know what key to press? Okay, I can understand that the more experienced crew members know their stuff by heart - but there are bound to be newbies somewhere in starfleet. How does one write a book, or a poem, or a love letter?
** Handwritten letters are very uncommon in the 24th century. One episode of Voyager has Chakotay writing a letter to himself about an alien woman he fell in love with whom—because of her physiology and her race's deliberate tampering with the ship's computer—he will soon be unable to remember. He's visibly struggling with writing since it's something he's likely never done before, not to mention the "pencil" is the size and shape of a D cell battery.
** Even typing seems to have gone by the wayside later on; Scotty had no trouble operating a keyboard and mouse on late 1980s Earth (once he remembered the mouse is for pointing, not entering voice commands), but when the Voyager crew traveled back to the 1990s on Earth, none of them could do any better with a keyboard than to use the hunt-and-peck method. Apparently, the future is almost entirely composed of touch screens and voice transcription.
*** That creates an oddity in Voyager's "Future's End," where Chakotway remarks to Janeway "You never learned to type," which in itself would imply that some people in the future know how to type but some don't. Janeway replies, "Turn of the millennium technology wasn't a required course at the Academy. It's like stone knives and bearskins," referencing Spock in "City on the Edge of Forever." But if typing is a feature of turn of the millennium technology, why is Scotty so good at it in the 23rd century? Just a retro hobby?
*** Typing is by far the most efficient method of entering information into a computer that we currently have (and that is ever shown on Star Trek as well) - you can augment it with various predictive systems but by itself it's still whole orders of magnitude faster than dictation or graphical input. It wasn't a required course ''for commanders'' because Janeway isn't required to do large amounts of programming and designing in her day job, and only needs to ''operate'' existing computer systems. She's probably exhibiting the management-stereotype of taking a highly disparaging attitude towards skills she doesn't fully understand. Scotty, on the other hand, will likely have used it quite a lot since he's an engineer, and programming with voice input and an LCARS terminal would be painful at best (more likely, flat-out impossible).
*** Nice though but everything about Janeway's statement indicates that typing is a lost art. If people still do it as a matter of course, even in other lines of work, why would anyone refer to it as "turn of the millennium technology"?
*** Janeway may not have to do much programming and designing as a Captain, but what does she do when she has to ''make a report?'' And she wasn't always a Captain. Once upon a time she was a science officer. Back then she probably had even more reports to write about all the '''science!''' she did. And part of that science may even have included some programming and designing.
*** Trek has a long, long tradition of showing people primarily making audio logs. In fact at least once it's shown the computer screen doing speech-to-text along with the recording. So Janeway probably narrates her reports aloud and then goes back and does simple editing on any bits that need tweaking afterwards.
* Most English keyboards are Qwerty by default, which is an artifact from the typewriter era and unergonomic. Starfleet-era typists probably use Dvorak or something, so when they go back in time they have to hunt and peck on the unfamiliar layout. (Doesn't explain Scotty, but maybe he just likes Qwerty for some reason.) Also, voice recognition (and thus dictation) is ''loads'' better in the future than it is today, so typing and writing by hand then might be similar to fountain pens and calligraphy now. It's a nice way to write, but only people who are into it will go to the trouble of learning it.
** Whether Dvorak is superior to Qwerty is still a matter of debate. But even if Starfleet does use it, then why don't we ever ''see it?'' Never are we shown anything like a keyboard layout, whether Qwerty or Dvorak. It's possible Starfleet uses some sort of Stenotype system but that's pure speculation on my part. And if that's what they do, then it makes the complete absence of pen and paper writing even more glaring. Stenotype is hard to learn and doesn't accommodate hunt-and-peck typing, so anyone not trained to use it would have a tough time writing anything.
** Watching [[https://youtu.be/xaVgRj2e5_s?t=185 that scene]] in ''IV'' again, Scotty seems to be hunting and pecking as well - just really quickly. It's exactly like watching somebody who's been using keyboards long enough to be familiar with them, but who never took a formal typing class. This seems perfectly in character for him.
* Things like computer code in the future have probably become so long and complex that programs are no longer human-readable. In all likelihood they use software to ''write'' software. The programming that went into Data and Lore, as an example, would have taken a small army of programmers years to produce at best. Yet somehow Dr. Soong managed to fit that in along with designing the positronic brain and all the other novel aspects of his androids' bodies...''doing the work himself''! So user interfaces have very likely become very oriented towards executing processes, rather than text entry. Likewise, things like officer logs are invariably dictated verbally (although speech-to-text software may transcribe them as well).
* Also one thing some people seem to be forgetting is that "typing" has a different meaning in a professional connotation than in a casual one... professional level typing is expected to adhere to certain standards that more casual use isn't. So most of the characters probably can type a fair bit on a touchscreen keyboard but haven't taken specific classes using a mechanical one, which would be where actual speed typing would come in. Besides, this is likely a SmallReferencePools issue... people who make entries on sites like TV Tropes are more likely to do a significant amount of typing than most people, who even if they do it in their jobs probably only do it in short bursts. While some amount of typing ability became pretty common as the internet first really came into vogue, I would imagine its commonality has dropped like a rock as most casual internet users have moved to using the internet entirely on smartphones or tablets... or, if you like, [=PADDs=].

[[folder: Boarding Party Massacre]]
* Given the amount of control over the environment that we see on starships, it beggars belief that any hostile boarding party could ever seize one... yet they do with some regularity. As people have suggested elsewhere, if somebody beams on, beam them back. Or beam them to the brig. Or if you're feeling nasty, decorporalize them and leave them that way. Transporter not working? Turn off the lights. Turn off the heat. Turn off the gravity... or ramp it way up. Drop force fields wherever you feel like it. Worst comes to worst: open an airlock. Some of these strategies would be more drastic and risk more collateral damage than others, but the point is that there should be about a billion strategies to stop or at least slow down intruders, yet in episodes like "Rascals," "Basics, Part I" and too many others to count, our heroes just lean back as the bad guys waltz in.
** Beaming has to deal with the fact you would have to drop your shields, and if you beam out the boarding party the enemy ships with antimatter warheads knows they have no reason to torpedo you while you have no shields. For the rest... RuleOfCool.
*** Having the shields up does not mean your transporters suddenly stop working -- you can still beam people within your ship (or decorporalize them altogether).

[[folder: PowerPerversionPotential & Star Trek Sex Crimes.]]
To be sure, we know Captain James T. Kirk did some serious womanizing in his time, but managed not to leave too many illegitimate children behind thanks to those monthly contraceptive injections that (although rarely mentioned) are apparently standard issue for the fleet. Consider, however, two issues:
* Both biologically and culturally speaking, the Federation and more importantly the entire Milky Way is teeming with diversity. ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' in particular managed to show some really bizarre races that matured backwards (that little kid is actually 96 years old and has grandkids), aged exceedingly rapidly (the Ocampa, with their 9-year lifespan, look and act ''12 years old'' by the time they're ''6 months old''), and achieved sexual maturity and started whole families by age 3 (the Breen, according to the Doctor). What must the Federation's age-of-consent laws be like, and how are they keeping some major perverts from engaging in sex tourism?
** Maybe they just define the age of consent per species? Though I'd love to know whose job it is to assign ages of consent to newly discovered species.
** One can imagine the species itself might have some laws concerning that subject. What really starts raising questions is hybrids. In ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'': "Before And After" for instance, Kes marries Tom Paris and has a girl named Linnis Paris. A few years later, Tom's friend Harry Kim marries Linnis and they have a son named Andrew. It's not clear how much the hybridization with humans slowed the maturity rate and increased the lifespan of the part-Ocampa children, but presumably (this being shown as having happened only a few years into the future), they still grew up amazingly fast. All the same, had this alternate timeline not been erased, Tom and Harry would each have had a lot of explaining to do when they got home.
-->[Hypothetical situation]
-->'''Owen Paris''': You married a ''five-year-old''!?
-->'''Tom Paris''': Oh, come on, Dad, it's not like I robbed the cradle! She looked thirty. She was at her adult height. She was quick learner, and she'd had a boyfriend before. We were even able to have a daughter.
-->'''Owen Paris''': Next thing you'll be telling me is you married her off when she was five too!
-->'''Tom Paris''': Yeah. To Harry Kim. They had a son named Andrew, and he married Naomi Wildman when she was ten. Come on, Dad! Give it a rest already. We were all adults. Ask Admiral Janeway; she presided over our marriages. I think she's as qualified as anyone to say whether they were legal.
-->'''Owen Paris''': Hmph! Well I still think the Voyager was a ship of perverts!
* Even leaving that aside, just imagine what kinds of perversion must be possible using holodecks. Is ''any'' spectacularly perverted use of the holodeck illegal, and if so, how does the Federation (or the Romulan Star Empire or the Dominion or anyone else, really) enforce these laws?
** Probably nothing short of creating an actual AI to do the deed with is illegal. There would be no victims after all.
** It is weird, though. Consider the present: You go to work, chat with your colleagues, then you go home and play GTA IV, where you run around stealing cars, beating, stabbing and shooting people willy-nilly. That's fine, but is there some cutoff point where the illusion is so close to reality that it becomes creepy? How do you work an eight-hour shift next to a guy if you know that come quittin' time, he's heading straight to the holodeck to beat people to death with a golf club for two hours? I think we know it's not illegal to do so, as we see Worf's training program several times.
** Some of the pornography that exists ''now'' is pretty creepy for this very reason, though that's not really the issue. The biggest problem with people being able to play out their most twisted sexual fantasies with holograms is that certain fantasies (especially sadistic and rapacious ones) do require some elaborate AI programming (to ensure that the program puts up some real resistance to being tortured and raped), and that ''every single instance'' of a sophisticated hologram's becoming sentient, self-aware, and capable of free will has come from being thrust into some kind of situation that forced the holographic being to seek out self-improvement. What's to stop somebody's holographic rape slave from getting inventive enough to realize that physical resistance, cries of pain, and feelings of self-loathing are exactly what the rapist wants, and that one can best punish him by submitting and spoiling his fantasy? The day a holographic rape slave says "Fine, have it your way, sicko!" is likely to be a great day for the Federation's photonics' rights lawyers and a total nightmare for everyone else.
*** Surely though if you just restart the program each time you are finished as opposed to saving it there would be no danger of your hologram ever thinking of itself as a real woman. One interesting example is when Quark is asked by a client to try and create a sex-hologram of Kira and it does require the person in question being scanned by a Tricorder or by the Holodeck itself so there are some safeguards present to prevent having sex with anyone you like (which as Barclay proved are immediately invalidated if you happen to be using a public Deck.) Copyright law is ''extremely'' lax in the Federation; in real life it would probably be extremely illegal to reproduce the likeness of someone real without written permission which I imagine would be an insane boost to the adult entertainment industry. As for a Grand Theft Auto style program I would argue this would be covered by ValuesDissonance; the original game was extremely controversial and was accused of many ''many'' moral corruptions whereas These days the majority of the hatred is from a few musty old senators. GTA 25 Holodeck Edition would probably be no different.
*** Even so, what is the nature of a holodeck character- are they capable of self-awareness or independent thought, or are they just computer programs which merely simulate intelligence very well? This is bound to present moral dilemmas in-universe.
** Could well be that the holodeck is seen as a way of cathartically indulging in your fantasies and urges which you would not dare indulge in in RealLife. Some people justify porn pretty much this way now, same with violent games. Consider the fairly mild example of Riker's "I'll be on Holodeck Four" scene right after he refuses to "take advantage" of the empath who's promised to some alien dignitary. (Never mind that she was making the advances on him and there was no real issue of it from her POV.) It's implied he's quite willing to indulge in the fantasy of what would have happened if he was prepared to consent. Whether it could not in fact have the opposite effect in some senses remains to be seen.
** It could also well be that there are in-built protections, similar to the safety protocols, which prevent illegal use of the holodeck.
* It's a FreeLoveFuture, so people are a little desensitized to this kind of stuff. Which is why nobody noticed the Traveler nearly ravishing Wesley in Main Engineering. Picard is regularly subject to sexual harassment by a legally-recognized Federation ambassador (might be diplomatic immunity) who happens to be a telepath and should know that he's just not that into her. Riker tried to hook up with an alien whose "gender" entry in the records would have to be listed as "not applicable". But considering that the question of whether or not Data was a "person" finally had to be decided by a JAG after ''decades'' in Starfleet, one can assume that the Federation handles this sexual stuff via case law and precedent rather than fixed statutes.