History Headscratchers / StarTrekTheNextGenerationTechnology

*** Also, there are exact three ways off the ship: transporter, shuttlecraft/other auxiliary vessel, and airlock. It's been demonstrated several times that the computer makes transporter logs and keeps track of ''Enterprise's'' shuttle inventory. I don't recall any mention of monitoring the airlocks, but if all that's keeping you alive in deep space is essentially a tin can full of breathable air, you'd really hope that ''someone'' is notified every time an airlock opens or closes. If the number of people leaving by the means that we ''know'' the computer monitors or the one it '''probably'' monitors doesn't agree with the number of people currently on the ship, it should raise some alarm. ''Literally''.

*** Right, and let's not forget how in "Booby Trap" and "Galaxy's Child", Geordi used the ship's holodeck to simulate a renowned Starfleet engineer Dr. Leah Brahms, which he used to brainstorm engineering problems (perhaps among [[ADateWithRosiePalms other things]]). While the computer greatly exaggerated her sensual nature as per Geordi's specific request, its simulation of her intellectual capacity was apparently so spot-on that Geordi and the Dr. Brahms simulation actually independently reached the same solution to a particular engineering problem as Dr. Brahms had reached in her own private research back on Earth. That the computer can simulate an engineer to the point of solving engineering problems speaks volumes to the computer's capacity to mimic human intelligence. Of course, when he does meet the real Dr. Brahms, the episode turns into a bit of an absurdity, as [[spoiler:she is pretty much a complete bitch to the point of criticizing Geordi about every modification he'd made to the ship, ''including the one that she had already been planning to implement.'' She was ''mad at Geordi'' for coming up with ''the same solution as she had.'']]

** This reaches the height of [[IdiotPlot stupidity]] in ''Identity Crisis''. Geordi, who is in danger of mutating into an alien, specifically recommends programming the computers to make sure he doesn't leave the ship. Yet later Crusher has to ask the computer where Geordi is before it divulges that he is not aboard the Enterprise.

** Riker being prosecutor was a NecessaryWeasel. The judge\arbitrator's justification was that there were no legal specialists at hand and only a commanding officer (or whichever term includes Picard\Riker but no one else on base) could act as such in special circumstances. He prosecuted in good faith to the point of feeling bad about it. If the conflict-of-interest was at any point apparent, the judge\arbitrator would cancel the trial in Maddox's favor, and you can be sure that Riker would get career trouble over it (formally if his bias could be proven, informally otherwise). If he left anything out, Maddox is on hand to speak up. Even if they waited for an actual legal specialist, they probably couldn't prosecute as well as Riker did, even if Riker is holding back in ways that he think he can get away with, which he doesn't seem to be.

** He does try to mimic emotion several times throughout the show, and every single time it comes off as exactly that; [[UncannyValley him simply mimicking it]]. It probably doesn't matter how well he reads up on the subjects, so long as he's unable to experience it himself, he lacks the fundamental knowledge of how to do it.

*** It's not said in so many words, but when Riker points out that the Borg have access to everything Picard knows, Hanson dismisses it by saying Picard wouldn't give that information up. That at least implies his intention of using established tactics.

** As it is, the episode's presentation of Professor Hawking is ''still'' not consistent with how Hawking is in real life. In real life, it takes him an ''extremely'' long time to write (and therefore have his computerized voice say) even a single sentence. From Wiki/ThatOtherWiki:

** The program is limited by the order it is given. Geordi wants a Sherlock Holmes mystery that can stump Data. The computer can create any scenario, obviously, but it can only go so far before it strays from the concept of a 'Sherlock Holmes' story. A normal person would probably be tied up if you were to mishmash 4 different stories together coherently, but Data has his android-level pattern recognition skills, which forces the computer to take a villain UpToEleven in order to challenge him.

*** Again, this would be fine except that Data has outright stated that he ''cannot'' use contractions (as in "The Offspring").

*** If inclined to get around this, we can say that Data meant that he cannot use them effectively (doesn't know when to use them naturally).

** In "The Offspring", while Data does say that he "cannot" use contractions, in the same episode he says that using contractions are something his "program has never mastered". The latter implies that he has tried but cannot do it well. That also suggests that his "cannot" statement is oddly imprecise for Data.

* Blowing up a star appears to be terrifyingly easy in the 'trek universe. In Generations we see that Soran is able to do it using a small missile and a base he set up and built himself. In [=DS9=] a changeling is able to build a sun-buster using a few hour's uninhibited access to an industrial replicator and a standard-issue Starfleet runabout. In an episode of Star Trek, the Enterprise-D blows one up accidently with a couple of modified torpedoes(they were trying to fix it). Blowing up stares appears to be so easy that's even possible to do by mistake. So why aren't there more suns blowing up? If its that easy it seems like quite a few hostile governments, let alone terrorist organizations, should be busting suns left, right, and sideways.

** The suggestion seems to be that while it was a marvel of bootleg technology, the ship was AwesomeButImpractical. They located the ship because every time Ardra used one of her tricks, the single-person vessel used enough power to light up like a beacon through a cloaking field that could hide the Enterprise. Impressive, but not a design that would scale in a practical way.