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[[Franchise/StarTrek Main Page]] | StarTrek/TropesAToD | StarTrek/TropesEToH | StarTrek/TropesIToL | StarTrek/TropesMToP | '''Tropes Q To T''' | StarTrek/TropesUToZ
These tropes are featured across the entire ''Star Trek'' franchise. Please add tropes for specific works to their individual pages.
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* RagnarokProofing: Trek has its fair share of technologies that still work long after they should, often outlasting the society that built them.
** On TNG, you have the Iconian gateway and computer system that still worked when the Iconians had been gone for 200,000 years, the Tkon Empire's automated border guard functioning 600 millennia after the empire blew up, and [[ItMakesSenseInContext Data's severed head being easily reattached to his body to function as normal after lying in a cave below San Francisco for 500 years]].
** The abandoned Hur'q museum on [=DS9=] in "The Sword of Kahless" still has functioning force fields and security systems. It's not clear how long it was abandoned, but it was found in an archaeological dig and the Hur'q were last heard from in the ''14th century''.
** In "Living Witness", Season 4, Episode 23 of ''Voyager'', the Doctor's program was bootlegged onto a storage device, and wakes up 700 years in the future in an alien museum, where all of the devices left from ''Voyager'', such as a tricorder, the Doctor's holo emitter, etc., works perfectly after being buried and forgotten for over 680 years.
** In one of the ''Star Trek: Short Treks'', the ''Discovery'' is still in fine working condition after being abandoned for 1000 years. (This was before the third season established the DOT robots that could have potentially been used to maintain everything).
* RagtagBunchOfMisfits:
** ''Deep Space Nine'' has a very motley crew compared to its predecessors, and at the start nobody on the station really wants to be there: Sisko originally wanted to transfer to civilian service, Kira resented working with Starfleet and was only comfortable blowing things up, Garak is barred from returning to his homeworld, Bashir is an illegal genetic experiment, Worf is hated by his homeland for siding with the Federation. And what's more, Quark was planning to split town altogether. He is a civilian; he's just there to sell beer and run gambling tables, but he usually gets dragged along on adventures anyway.
** ''Voyager'', of course. Janeway's first officer and chief engineer (and half the crew) are [[YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters insurgents]] she was sent to arrest, her helmsman is an ex-con out on parole because he knew the region where the former were hiding out, and her security chief happened to be working among them as TheMole. The Doctor is supposed to be a [[ProjectedMan temporary replacement]], Neelix happened to be in the neighbourhood and tricked ''Voyager'' into helping rescue his girlfriend, Kes claims refugee status out of boredom and Seven of Nine gets basically kidnapped.
** ''Picard'' really cranks it up, since they aren't even an official ''crew'' in Starfleet. Picard is retired and way too old to be doing this; Agnes doesn't want to be there [[spoiler:(and she's been brainwashed to kill the man they're looking for)]], Soji just found out she's an android yesterday [[spoiler:and her ex-boyfriend wants to kill her]], Cris and Raffi are both ex-Starfleet -- he has PTSD and she's a drug addict. And that's not even touching on the Romulan samurai raised by nuns, who's there to work through his unresolved surrogate daddy issues with Picard.
** This seems to be the general perception of the ''Cerritos'' crew (and the ''Cali'' class at large) by the rest of Starfleet InUniverse, but they aren't actually that bad. At worst you can say their security chief has anger issues, their X.O. is a little too obsessed with working out, their doctor swears too much and their counselor is kind of a dipshit. Freeman is a thoroughly competent captain, she just has a difficult relationship with her daughter who also happens to be a crew member (and whose rule-breaking shenanigans occasionally make her look bad).
** ''Prodigy'' takes it even further with a cast of minors (and one hologram) who don't even know what they're doing. Dal is a selfish, anti-authoritarian teenage [[RebelliousSpirit rebel]] who doesn't even know what ''species'' he is ([[spoiler:turns out the answer is "all of them"]]), Rok-Tahk is a young child, Zero is an EnergyBeing piloting a self-built containment suit because their true form [[BrownNote drives people insane]], Jankom is thousands of light years from his species's home planet and Murf is a blob of slime who can't talk and doesn't even have arms [[spoiler:at first]]. Gwyn gets dragged along as a hostage and up until a few weeks ago her dad was enslaving all the others, not to mention she's the [[LastOfHisKind last of an extinct race]]. None of them have ever belonged to Starfleet (and at the start probably wouldn't even be accepted as recruits) and they're flying around in a stolen ship with no help except Hologram Janeway, who's basically the starship equivalent of Microsoft Clippy with amnesia.
* RandomTransportation: In the Franchise/TrekVerse, wormholes can be used ''in principle'' for very long distance interstellar travel, but in practice aren't because they're unstable and can land you at any random location in the galaxy with no guarantee that they'll open up again to bring you back.
** The wormhole in ''[=DS9=]'' is notably stable, taking you from point X in the Alpha Quadrant to point Y in the Gamma Quadrant and back again every time; but that's because it was artificially created by the Prophets/wormhole aliens instead of being a natural phenomenon.
* RayGun: Phasers and disruptors.
* RaygunGothic: ''TOS'' solidly fits this trope. By ''TNG'', the Federation is in transition between RayGunGothic and CrystalSpiresAndTogas.
* RecycledInSpace: The franchise itself is, in the words of its creator, [[WagonTrainToTheStars Wagon Train]] [-TO THE STARS-]!
** In ''TOS'', the Klingons are Russians [-IN SPACE!-] while the Romulans are the then-inscrutable Chinese... [-IN SPACE-]!
** Vulcans are [[SpaceElves Elves]] [-IN SPACE-]!
** Romulans are Dark Elves/Drow, Klingons are Orcs/Orks, Ferengi are Goblins, Tellarites are Dwarves, Borg are Undead, etc.
*** Borg are more specifically Horror Film Zombies [-IN SPACE-]!
** Nicholas Meyer, director of ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'' and ''Film/StarTrekVITheUndiscoveredCountry'', describes the series as "''Literature/HoratioHornblower'' [-IN SPACE-]!"
*** Creator/GeneRoddenberry described James T. Kirk as a space-age Horatio Hornblower in the book ''The Making of Star Trek'' (1968).
* RedShirt: The TropeNamer! Members of the Operations Division (engineering and military services) were particularly likely to be used as the "victim of the week," as their jobs made them particularly likely to fall afoul of traps or the latest alien monster and this was an easy way to build drama by killing off nameless or clearly minor characters. Strictly speaking, the name of the trope is only accurate in ''TOS''; whilst differing shades of blue were standard for the Science/Medical Division throughout all the series, Operations and Command were red and gold in ''TOS'' and then switched colors from ''TNG'' onwards.
* RejectionRitual:
** The Klingons have Discommendation, in which a Klingon is ceremonially shunned and reduced to an honorless pariah in their society. In the ceremony, the Klingons present cross their arms in front of the discommendee and turn their backs on him.
** In the ''TNG'' episode "Sins of the Father", Worf was subjected to this as a result of the charges brought against his family by the Duras family.
** ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'' {{deconstruct|ed}}s this in the episode "Warzone", mission "The House Always Wins". Chancellor J'mpok orders Councillor Torg to be discommendated and the House of Torg dissolved for [[spoiler:conspiring with the Romulan Star Empire to destroy the rival House of Martok]]. The Klingons present ritually turn their backs on him, but Torg decides on TakingYouWithMe and attempts to {{backstab}} Worf. Worf's son Alexander jumps in front of the knife and bleeds out in Worf's arms.
* RestrictedExpandedUniverse:
** The comics do this. At one point, even [[CanonForeigner new characters]] couldn't be used because of fears that they would become {{Canon Immigrant}}s that required royalties.
** Also a problem in the novels, although the ''Literature/StarTrekNewFrontier'' and ''I.K.S. Gorkon'' series dodge it by having new crews based on one-shot characters, and the ''Titan'' series does by being set after the events of ''Film/StarTrekNemesis''.
** It seems that Paramount has given the writers more freedom in changing the status quo in post-Nemesis stories, as [[spoiler:Admiral Janeway]] from ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence Ascends To A Higher Plane Of Existence]] in ''Before Dishonor''.
** The complete anhilitation/liberation of [[spoiler:the Borg]] in the Destiny trilogy was only possible because new canonical material coming out was deemed unlikely at the time.
** ''Star Trek'' novels have gone back and forth between Restricted and non-Restricted a couple of times. The novels of the '70s and early '80s tended to give authors a lot of freedom to interpret ''Star Trek'' in their own idiosyncratic ways, though the books rarely referenced or built on one another. By the later '80s, Pocket Books' Trek authors began referencing popular novels like Creator/DianeDuane's Romulan/Literature/{{Rihannsu}} books and Creator/JohnMFord's Klingon epic ''Literature/TheFinalReflection'', and authors who did multiple novels increasingly carried continuity arcs forward within them, so an overall book continuity gradually began to emerge. But once ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' was on the air, Paramount began restricting the books and comics, forbidding them from referencing anything but the live-action canon, which killed continuity between books. Those rules began to relax in the late '90s, and by now, with all the shows off the air, the books have built up an elaborate, interconnected continuity. However, the new movie continuity (J. J. Abrams) operates under rules so restricted that only prequels to the movie have been allowed to be published so far.
** ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'' is set in the prime universe post-dating the Hobus supernova from ''Film/StarTrek2009''. However, due to [[ScrewedByTheLawyers a confluence of legal issues]] --the license comes from CBS rather than Paramount--, it can only use story details, not visuals. CBS also has veto power over Cryptic's ideas, and they're also restricted in their use of TV-canon characters because, while the ''character'' belongs to CBS and is thus usable, the ''likeness'' belongs to the actors so Cryptic has to negotiate with them separately or use an OffModel (the latter of which they've mostly stopped doing). They also have to negotiate separately to use elements from other works in the ''Franchise/StarTrekExpandedUniverse'' (although they do often get permission).
* RevisitingTheRoots:
** For better or for worse, ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' was this for the franchise: A lone Federation starship exploring the dangerous unknowns and meeting new life and new civilizations.
** ''Series/StarTrekStrangeNewWorlds'' even more so: a return to the tone of 1960s/'80s Trek, the same premise as ''TOS'', with episodic storytelling rather than the lengthy plot arcs used by ''Disco'' & ''Picard'', and set on the original Enterprise no less.
* RobotsEnslavingRobots:
** [[HiveMind The Borg Collective]] is an interesting aversion of this. Although it has no compunction sacrificing drones to adapt to phasers and forces individuals to act against their will, it would not outright order individuals like Picard/Locutus or Hugh to ''die'' when they became a threat... it prized them too much, like limbs. It was effectively a hydra that ''liked'' some of its heads. Part of this is because, at least in earlier depictions, the Borg -- despite appearances -- value diversity. Uniqueness allowed it to expand its own capabilities. However, born and raised Borg like Hugh that undergo a period of individuality can grow to reject the Collective's absolute stranglehold on them, and even ''infect'' other drones with TheEvilsOfFreeWill.
** However, the [[HiveQueen Borg Queen]] in ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact'' and ''[[Series/StarTrekVoyager Voyager]]'' is a straight cyborg example of this trope. She sees herself as the pinnacle of perfection, knowingly enslaves her drones to make them fit her view of perfection by squashing any individuality and will thoughtlessly sacrifice thousands of drones to capture and coerce individuals like Seven of Nine or attacking the invincible aliens in Fluidic Space.
* RuderAndCruder: Most of the ''Star Trek'' TV series don't have any profanity stronger than "hell" and "damn," however, ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' has "ass" and "son of a bitch" and ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'' even occasionally gets away with "shit" as well as the franchise's first F-bomb. ''Series/StarTrekPicard'' fires off the profanities like photon torpedoes (including ''multiple'' F-bombs).
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[[folder:S]]
* SapientCetaceans: A frequent theme in the series.
* SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale:
** "Does it look good on screen" is always the rule for multi-ship scenes. Though it's established in dialogue that most ship-to-ship encounters take place with dozens or even hundreds of kilometers of separation, external shots will usually put ships within two ship-lengths or less.
** ''Voyager'' cruising over a planet's rings in the opening credits. Why does it take sixty years to fly back to the Alpha Quadrant? All they have to do is walk from one side of the ship to the other.
* ScreensAreCameras:
** All viewscreens behave like this in every show.
** On ''[=DS9=]'', the producers rolled out a new invention: a portable 3D holocommunicator. Instead of conversing via a viewscreen, two actors could share the same room and still appear to be talking over great distances. Ironically, this looks even cheaper than the viewscreen did, despite being ''more'' time-consuming and expensive (due to various camera trickery to make the 'effect' look less blatant). The device only shows up in two episodes, "For the Uniform" and "Doctor Bashir, I Presume?"
** ''Discovery'' brings back the hologram conversations, creating a bit of a ContinuitySnarl as to why [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries other]] [[WesternAnimation/StarTrekTheAnimatedSeries shows]] [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration in the franchise]] never used them. It's stated they take up a ''lot'' of bandwidth and after a severe computer malfunction Pike orders Number One to "rip them out" of the ''Enterprise'' (which sort of explains why we never saw them on ''TOS'', at least). Could be a case of BoringButPractical; in RealLife, UsefulNotes/NaziGermany had working videophones but the technology didn't come into widespread use until the 2010s.
* ScreenShake: The usual method of showing impact. Shake camera, shimmy actors.
* ScrewTheRulesTheyreNotReal: This comes up twice with James T. Kirk and the [[UnwinnableTrainingSimulation Kobayashi Maru]] scenario:
** In the {{backstory}} of ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'', he reprograms the simulator so he can win. This is generally applauded (he says he received a commendation for original thinking).
** ''Film/StarTrek2009'': Kirk reprograms it less plausibly and Academy Instructor Spock brings formal disciplinary action against him for cheating. Later, when Kirk meets prime universe Spock:
--->'''Kirk:''' You know, coming back in time, changing history... that's cheating.\\
'''Old Spock:''' A trick I learned from an old friend.
* SecularHero: Creator/GeneRoddenberry firmly believed that humanity would eventually abandon religion, so this is the default status for human characters in the franchise, although various alien characters (particularly Klingons and Bajorans) are shown to have religious or spiritual beliefs and practices. The only major human exceptions are Sisko, whose major character arc is his gradual acceptance of his status as a religious figure to the Bajorans, and Chakotay, who has some MagicalNativeAmerican tendencies thanks to series co-creator Michael Piller's interest in New Age spirituality (in general, Native Americans in the Trek franchise seem to be the exception to the "humans are secular" rule).
* SelfDestructMechanism: They must teach the "destroy your ship rather than let aliens take it" method at Starfleet Headquarters, seeing as every single Captain uses it at least once in a series. Janeway must have threatened to use it 30 times.
* SelfMadeOrphan: Uses this trope in Klingon mythology. According to it, the gods created Klingons, who then turned around and killed them for the trouble.
* SexyDimorphism: The Orion women are {{Green Skinned Space Babe}}s considered among the most beautiful of all humanoid females, and their men are big bruisers (sometimes as much as twice the size of their women), usually ugly and not very smart.
%%* SciFiFlyby: As a matter of course for the series.
* ShakespearianActors:
** Patrick Stewart was briefly the butt of jokes in England for putting his career on hold to do ''Star Trek''; the press assumed he was having a mid-life crisis and just wanted a fat pension and swarms of fangirls all over him. Most charmingly, he retorted he considered his years in the "training" for his role as Picard. But in reality, the franchise is famous for casting many stage actors over regular TV guest actors. Actors who ''lacked'' theater experience (Terry Farrell, Kate Mulgrew) are sometimes disparaged in fandom and even felt like the odd man out on occasion.
--->'''[[http://docohobigfinish.blogspot.com/2012/02/voyager-season-one.html Joe Ford]]''': I have heard people dismiss Mulgrew's performance in the past because she is a TV veteran and [[NoTrueScotsman not a Shakespearean actor or from an impressive theatrical background]], but in all honesty she is one of the strongest actors in the ''Star Trek'' universe. I would happily squeeze Mulgrew into the arsenal of talent that fronts ''[=DS9=]'' because she is far too good for a show like ''Voyager'' and I do feel they were [[TookTheBadFilmSeriously lucky to have her.]]
** They all seem to do their best work when immersed in the Shakespearean politics of the Klingon Empire. According to J.G. Hertzler, "They tend to go with people who can operate in a strangely heightened reality and somehow make it as close to reality as you can. That's sci-fi; that's what you need".
* ShoutOutToShakespeare: Many characters quote the Bard. Alien cultures tend to admire him too, even claiming him as their own.
* SightedGunsAreLowTech: Hand phasers, at least. Heavy-duty phaser rifles usually have a sight.
* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: ''Star Trek'' is a fairly idealistic franchise.
* SlowElectricity: The console displays always go on/off in sequence around the bridge. If there's a ship-wide outage, expect an outside shot of windows lighting up/going out one at a time.
* SlowLaser: Common throughout the franchise, although beam weapons move faster in later series, particularly ''Enterprise''. HandWaved in most instances, as the weapons used are not actually ''lasers'' (which are described once as terribly obsolete), but particle beams that move at sublight speed.
* SmartHouse: The ships behave much like this from ''TNG'' onward.
* SoldierVsWarrior:
** Starfleet approaches warfare as a professional military with soldiers; this is what gives them an advantage over aggressive alien races like the Klingons who are [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy self-described warriors]] who [[BloodKnight lust for battle]]. While the Klingon military might be the fiercest offensive fighting force in their part of the galaxy, they have no stamina whatsoever for fighting a war of attrition. Starfleet by comparison will fight and never lose hope until the last soldier is dead. A Ferengi character points this out, that a Starfleet soldier is more dangerous than the most bloodthirsty Klingon warrior when pushed to the cliff edge and forced to fight for the lives of all the innocents who are depending on him.
** The first time the legendary Starfleet resolve was nearly shattered in a full scale war was when the Federation faced off against the Dominion: an empire with the one mission of subjugating all of known space, that has literally engineered its soldiers to be little more than biological robots who fight because it's their only purpose.
* SomeKindOfForceField: Characters are always touching the force fields to show the audience that they are there.
* SonsOfSlaves:
** Slavery was just one of the cruel practices inflicted on the Bajorans by the occupying Cardassians. Post-Occupation Bajorans are portrayed as the ''Trek'' universe's equivalent of both freed slaves ''and'' holocaust survivors.
** In the classic episode "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield", Lokai accuses Bele's race of enslaving his own. Bele doesn't deny it, and in fact, tries to rationalize it by saying Lokai's race were savages. DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything?
* SpaceCossacks:
** The Maquis. Average Federation colonists who found themselves under the Cardassians after a treaty in which they had no say. They won numerous engagements against both the Cardassians and Starfleet, with large numbers of Starfleet officers even defecting to join the 'good fight.'
** ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': Tasha Yar was raised by human dissidents on Turkana IV, where various factions were constantly at war and gang rape was a common occurrence.
* SpaceFighter:
** Fighters are rare, but do turn up now and then -- especially in ''[=DS9=]'', where they were used by [[LaResistance the Maquis]] before being adopted by TheFederation. They are generally avoided because typical starship defenses are both [[BeamSpam fast firing]] and [[AlwaysAccurateAttack extremely accurate,]] making it difficult to [[https://youtu.be/d734afLFPds?t=17 justify]] [[https://youtu.be/FXy_DO6IZOA?t=64 using]] [[https://youtu.be/1InzMnq8pSI?t=64 them.]]
** ''Picard'' introduces the Romulan Snakehead fighter, a single-pilot scout ship that packs a lot of firepower for its small size.
* SpaceNavy: Starfleet.
* SpaceSector: The original series often used "quadrant" instead of "sector" (with references to the Enterprise being "the only ship in the quadrant") but by the ''Next Generation'' era named sectors ("the Archanis Sector") or numbered sectors ("Sector 001") are firmly established as regions of space. Other parts of the franchise also refer to "sector blocks", large groupings of a hundred sectors. "Quadrants" are also still used, but now more logically refer to one of four divisions of the entire galaxy.
* SpaceshipSlingshotStunt: A common trick for time travel no less.
* SpecialEffectBranding: This trope is avoided in most cases: for instance, both Klingon and Romulan ship-mounted disruptors use green effects, and both Cardassian and Federation phasers are the same yellow/orange color. (Despite their similarities, "phasers and "disruptors" are different technology). However, transporters generally follow this trope, having similar, but distinct special effects: blue transporters for Starfleet, red transporters for Klingons, green transporters for Romulans, and so forth. ''[=DS9=]'' made a special point of this, as the titular station, although operated by Starfleet, was of Cardassian origin and used Cardassian transporter effects.
* SpiesAreDespicable: Intelligence agencies have a distinct tendency to overlap with StateSec or SecretPolice groups, and are inevitably portrayed in a negative light. Regardless of whether it's the Obsidian Order for the Cardassians, the Tal Shiar for the Romulans, Section 31 (or other various paranoid security/intelligence groups) for the Federation.
* StandardSciFiArmy: Codified the use Security personnel. Follows the visual media model of focusing mostly on Infantry.
* StandardSciFiHistory: Earth's history follows this.
* StandardSciFiSetting: One of the most famous {{Trope Codifier}}s.
* StandardStarshipScuffle: The TropeCodifier, especially the final battle in ''[[Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan The Wrath of Khan]]''.
* StandardTimeUnits: Stardates.
* StarfishAliens:
** While the series is often mocked for excessive use of RubberForeheadAliens, special mention must be made of the Tholians that appeared in the ''TOS'' episode "The Tholian Web", who were ''so'' strange, while visible only partly through the main viewscreen during negotiations, that the writers themselves (like anyone else) couldn't figure out what they actually were implied to be for the better part of 30 years, even while being passingly mentioned once or twice in different series. Only toward the end of ''Enterprise'' did they finally settle on the head being a carapace, and the Tholians as a race of advanced arachnids.
** For a show with a limited budget, even ''TOS'' featured a decent number of non-humanoids. Apart from a bunch of EnergyBeings, it also had the Horta, Yarnek, the Melkotians, a few shapeshifters like Sylvia and Korob, and the Kelvans, whose ''real'' forms were non-humanoid. Each of the later series added a few more to the list. The show that far and away had the most non-humanoids was the one where budget limitations could not hinder creature design: ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekTheAnimatedSeries''.
** ''[[Series/StarTrekDiscovery Discovery]]'' adds to the lineup with Unknown Species 10-C, who eventually turn out to be [[spoiler:bizarre, cephalopod / dragon things that live in gas giants]].
* StateSec: Romulans and Cardassians both got their own versions in the form of the Tal Shiar and the Obsidian Order, respectively. Arguably Starfleet's Section 31. The Ferengi's FCA might also qualify given their cultural bias.
* StealthInSpace: The Romulans developed a cloaking device in the time frame of ''TOS'', which was soon stolen by the Federation; subsequently, the Treaty of Algeron prohibited the Federation from using or developing any cloaking technology of its own.
* StockStarSystems:
** One of the first Earth colonies outside the Sol System is in the Alpha Centauri System (the closest system to ours, in fact).
** Janeway's father drowned on Tau Ceti Prime.
** The Andorians and Vulcans come from Procyon and 40 Eridani A, respectively.
* SubspaceAnsible: All of the space-faring civilizations have this. (Radio is explicitly referred to as "old-style" because transmission speed is only the speed of light). The exact speeds are never explicitly given, but it's implied to be measured in Warp factors and it definitely takes days to send a signal across several parsecs. Signals also degrade long before they travel across the galaxy.
* SufficientlyAdvancedAlien: ''Star Trek'' has probably the largest and most diverse variety of these out of any science fiction franchise, including a multitude of races of EnergyBeings, {{Physical God}}s and the flat-out [[TheOmnipotent omnipotent]] Q.
* SuperDoc: Any Sickbay doctor.
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[[folder:T]]
* TechnicalPacifist: The Federation aspires to peace above all and will always take a diplomatic solution to conflict where possible, but is fully prepared to defend itself if attacked. ''[=DS9=]'' deconstructs this with revelation of Section 31, a shadow organization that does the Federation's dirty work for them in secret.
* {{Technobabble}}: More or less the TropeCodifier. In the script it would be labeled as [TECH] and they had a separate writer to put in whatever seemed appropriate.
* TechnologyPorn: A staple of the series.
* TeleportationWithDrawbacks: Transporters are severely range-limited and highly plot-sensitive with frequent failures, problems of signal interference, and needing to lock onto the target, along with personnel needing to be sent from a special room because otherwise they could simply be beamed out of any problem.
** In the ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "Day Of The Dove", when Klingons have taken over the ''Enterprise'', Kirk decides the only way to stop them involves intra-ship transporting, with Spock warning him, "It has rarely been done because of the danger involved. Pinpoint accuracy is required. If the transportee should materialize inside a solid object, a deck or wall..".. In the later Trek productions, intra-ship transporting is seen more often due to the technology having improved since the 23rd century. ''Film/StarTrek2009'' has Spock Prime explaining to the alternate universe's Scotty that his Prime universe counterpart eventually developed an equation that made it possible to safely transport much further distances to a ship even while traveling at warp speed.
** The Ansatan separatists in the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode [[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS3E12TheHighGround "The High Ground"]] use a folded-space transporter called an "Inverter", which allows them to transport through shields, prevents their enemies from tracking them, and makes them resistant to normal transporters. But repeated use of the device causes cellular damage, eventually warping the user's DNA beyond recognition and killing them.
* TeleporterAccident: Transporters work by literally disassembling an object (or person) into energy, shooting it some distance away, and reassembling that object at the new location. Contrary to popular opinion, the transported object is indeed the original, but the reintegration process can be [[LiterallyShatteredLives rather]] [[NoBodyLeftBehind dangerous]]. There have been some [[PhlebotinumBreakdown grisly accidents]] in each iteration of ''Trek'': two ''Enterprise'' crewmen died agonizing deaths (''TOS: The Motion Picture'') after being [[BodyHorror re-integrated incorrectly]], Riker ([[AssPull somehow]]) unwittingly twinned himself when he tried beaming through a distorted atmosphere (''TNG'': "Second Chances"), Scotty's transporter pattern was stuck in limbo for ''75 years'' (''TNG'': "Relics"), and another crewman's body was mixed with rocks and foliage while attempting to beam out during a fierce windstorm, although he survived (''ENT'': "Strange New World"). Sabotage of the transporter buffer is not uncommon, either. If you hide a remat detonator (described as being 2 square millimeters in size) on their person, you can [[KickTheDog disrupt the passenger's transporter pattern]] as they beam up, [[LudicrousGibs leaving a smoking, half-finished corpse on the pad.]] Yech.
-->'''Weyoun:''': You were supposed to be on that transporter pad with him.\\
'''Damar:''' I was called away. [[IHaveToGoIronMyDog An urgent meeting with the Central Command]].\\
'''Weyoun''': How convenient.\\
'''Damar''': I always was lucky.
* TeleportInterdiction: It's not possible to transport through DeflectorShields (most of the time: [[DependingOnTheWriter once in a while the screenwriters forget)]]. [[RuleOfDrama This is used as a way to add drama]] -- with the ship having to drop its shields briefly in the middle of battle in order to beam back any crew who are off ship, [[note]] Whether landing party, away team, or other.[[/note]]or the away team/landing party not simply being able to flee danger because there's a shield between them. There are numerous other technologies and natural phenomena with can also interfere with transporters, but the deflectors are the most commonly cited.
** The original ''Enterprise NC-1701'' had an "old-style" sensor array which acted as a sonar. By waiting for the right point in a scan cycle, a ship could de-cloak and beam over to the ''Enterprise'' before cloaking again, without being detected. This only works when the ships are parked and the deflector array is down.
** In
* TestOfPain:
** ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': in "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS06E07YouAreCordiallyInvited You Are Cordially Invited]]", O'Brien and Bashir are looking forward to debauchery at Worf's "bachelor party". They are dismayed to learn that said party is really the four-day Klingon ceremony of Kal'hyah. The group is expected to fast, endure brutal heat, shed blood, and pass other tests of pain and endurance, which leads to [[PlayedForLaughs some dark humor]] when O'Brien and Bashir begin to crack under the pressure. [[spoiler:They get to take it out on him later: part of the marriage ceremony involves the groomsmen attacking the newlyweds with sticks, in homage to how Kahless's wedding was attacked by one of his enemies.]]
--->'''Bashir:''' It's working. I'm having a vision... about the future... I can see it so clearly...\\
'''O'Brien:''' Yeah?\\
'''Bashir:''' I'm going to kill Worf. That's what I'm going to do. I'm going to kill Worf. It's all so clear to me now. Kill Worf... kill Worf...\\
'''Both:''' [[SurvivalMantra Kill Worf... kill Worf...]]
** ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': Painstiks are {{Shock Stick}}s used by Klingons in two important rites:
*** The Rite of Ascension is a two-step ritual which formally recognizes a Klingon as a warrior. In the second step, the Klingon must demonstrate the depth of his inner strength by walking between eight warriors wielding painstiks, who deliver powerful jolts to the Klingon's torso while he expresses his most deeply-held feelings. Worf undergoes this step in "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS2E14TheIcarusFactor The Icarus Factor]]", since he hadn't had an opportunity to go through it at the time that a Klingon normally would.
*** The first step in the Rite of Succession is the Sonchi ceremony. The Arbiter of Succession and all those who are vying for the position of Chancellor give a formal challenge to the corpse of the former Chancellor and shock him with a painstik. The thought process is that between the pain from the painstik and the challenge, no living Klingon would dare back down lest he lose his honor, and this confirms that the former Chancellor is indeed dead and not faking it. This ceremony is shown in "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS4E7Reunion Reunion]]" being done to K'mpec by Duras, Gowron, and Picard (named Arbiter by K'mpec before his death due to suspicions that Duras was the one who masterminded his poisoning).
** ''Series/StarTrekStrangeNewWorlds'': "[[Recap/StarTrekStrangeNewWorldsS2E05Charades Charades]]": One of the Vulcan engagement rituals involves the groom-to-be making tea for the bride's parents, wherein they are required to pour the boiling hot kettle bare-handed--a test of their ability to suppress their emotional response to pain. While rehearsing this with the [[HumanityEnsues temporarily biologically human]] Spock, his mother Miranda Grayson mentions that living among Vulcans involves hiding ''a lot'' of pain.* TieInNovel: A huge range of novels based on all eras of the franchise (and the spaces in between) exists, including novelizations of several episodes and ''Literature/StarTrekNewFrontier''. Other than the novelizations, these are all officially declared ''non''-canon by Paramount and Creator/GeneRoddenberry. When Jeri Taylor was the [[invoked]]WordOfGod on ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'', her original novels about the crew's history were considered canon. They aren't any more.
** Pre-''Nemesis'', authors had a standing order not to kill any character that had appeared on-screen. Afterwards, because ''Nemesis'' was seen as the last time the original timeline was to be seen on-screen before ''Discovery'' was announced as being set there, all bets are off. (Still non-canon, however).
* TimePolice: The Federation of the 29th Century and Daniels' faction from the 31st Century. [[RunningGag They aren't very effective at this]].
** Janeway is described as casually flaunting the timeline so frequently it actually managed to [[NiceJobBreakingItHero drive Captain Braxton ''insane''.]] He comes up with something called "The Janeway Factor," meaning that you can fully expect her to blunder into any time-sensitive activities going on.
** Also, the time police hate Kirk; when Sisko gives his report about "Trials and Tribble-ations," and first mentions Kirk, the two operatives [[EyeTake exchange a look]] which says, "we hate the Kirk cases".
--->"[[CowboyCop Seventeen separate temporal violations!]] The biggest file on record!"
* TimeToStepUpCommander: A frequent device (often in the disaster episode) is to have a member of the secondary bridge crew or even the counselor forced to take command when the captain is knocked out or cut off from the rest of the ship.
* TimeTravelTaboo:
** ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'': A series UrExample of the TimeTravelTaboo involves the planet Gateway, from the episode "City on the Edge of Forever". After the Federation was nearly wiped out by [=McCoy=] saving a 1930s woman who delayed the US' entry into UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, the planet was placed under strict quarantine. Some non-canon licensed works upped the ante to the same death penalty used for Talos IV. Funnily enough, this taboo did not seem to apply to the rest of the series, where intentional time travel occurred twice (and once [[Film/StarTrekIVTheVoyageHome in the films]]).
** ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' introduces a Department of Temporal Investigations, which seems to at the very least try and ensure Starfleet personnel aren't altering history all willy-nilly (though that doesn't stop Kira from [[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS06E17WrongsDarkerThanDeathOrNight casually using a religious artifact to go back in time and find out if Dukat banged her mom]]).
** ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' establishes that Starfleet of the 29th Century has "timeships" tracking and eliminating any anomalies that might mess with the timeline. ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' takes this one step further with a "Temporal Cold War" where the Federation acts as the TimePolice, constantly trying to prevent other factions from changing the past for their own benefit.
** ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'' shows that in the 32nd Century all forms of time travel are now very illegal after a horrific series of [[GreatOffscreenWar Temporal Wars]], to the point even [[EliteAgentsAboveTheLaw Section 31]] refuses to use it [[spoiler:to stop Mirror Georgiou from dying a horrible, painful death]].
* TimeyWimeyBall: Across the franchise as a whole, the exact nature of TimeTravel and its relationship to TheMultiverse is never really clarified. Are AlternateUniverse[=s=] the result of time travelers changing history? Naturally occurring phenomena? The creations of bored Q entertaining themselves at the expense of Starfleet captains? No definitive answer is ever given despite the fact that travel through time and between parallel universes is far from unusual, and in many cases used as AppliedPhlebotinum for solving otherwise unsolvable problems.
* ToBeLawfulOrGood: One of the most common sources of conflict in the series. The Prime Directive produces seemingly endless cases of characters having to decide whether to follow the rules and allow an atrocity to occur, or ignore them and abandon the Federation's principles. Often made more complicated by the fact that the Federation and Starfleet Command are not above MovingTheGoalPosts when it comes to application of the Prime Directive.
* TokenHeroicOrc: Most of the "Big Bad" species produce a black sheep who sees the light, defects to the good guys, and becomes a bridge officer.
** ''TNG'': Worf is a Klingon, the primary antagonists from ''TOS'', who was raised by humans and is the ''Enterprise'''s security chief. Captain Kirk would be shocked.
** ''[=DS9=]'': Nog becomes the first Ferengi to join Starfleet and serves on both the Deep Space 9 station and the ''Defiant''.
** ''VOY'': Seven of Nine is a RogueDrone from the Borg Collective who becomes part of ''Voyager'''s crew. Having a Borg on a Starfleet vessel would be unthinkable for Captain Picard.
** ''PIC'': Elnor is the first heroic Romulan character who's part of the main cast, being a member of Picard's motley crew and is even the latter's [[FamilyOfChoice surrogate son]]. The Romulans were the BigBad in ''TNG'' (and they still are in this series), so the younger Picard could not have predicted that his elderly self would embrace a Romulan as family. Elnor is the most ''un-Romulan'' Romulan in the franchise because he follows [[CulturalRebel the Way of Absolute Candor as taught to him by the Qowat Milat]].
** ''LD'': D'Vana Tendi is the first Orion series regular in the franchise and the first Orion Starfleet officer seen in the prime timeline. Her species is mostly portrayed as villainous criminals.
** Interestingly, we do see Romulans and Cardassians among Starfleet's uniformed ranks, but only in [[BizarroWorld alternate realities]]. On rare occasions, Starfleet officers turn out to have Romulan ancestry as well (If Saavik had appeared in ''Film/StarTrekVITheUndiscoveredCountry'', [[spoiler: [[WhatCouldHaveBeen this would have been her reason for supporting the conspiracy.]]]])
* TouchTelepathy: The Vulcan mind meld.
** Spock touches the heads of the listed people in the following ''TOS'' episodes while doing a MindMeld with them.
*** "Dagger of the Mind": Simon van Gelder, to find out what deviltry is going on at Elba II.
*** "The Devil in the Dark": The Horta in order to communicate with it.
*** In "Requiem For Methuselah": Kirk, in order to remove his memories of Rayna Kapek.
*** "Spectre of the Gun": Kirk, [=McCoy=] and Scotty, to convince them that the situation they're in isn't real (so the simulated bullets can't [[YourMindMakesItReal kill them]]).
*** "Mirror, Mirror": Evil!Spock does it with Dr. [=McCoy=] so he can find out what's going on.
*** "I, Mudd": He tries it on Norman, but fails because Norman's a robot.
*** "The Return of The Archons": He tries to do it on [=McCoy=] but fails because of Landru's MindControl.
*** ''Film/StarTrekIVTheVoyageHome'': He melds with the humpback whale, Gracie. He learns that Gracie is pregnant.
** Several other characters perform it, as well: Miranda to Spock in "Is There In Truth No Beauty?", T'Pau to Spock in "Amok Time".
** The lack of a Vulcan main character on ''TNG'' and ''[=DS9=]'' reduced the frequency of the mind melds, but they still occasionally crept in. Sarek to Picard in "Sarek", and Spock to Picard in "Unification". Additionally, a failed attempt was made by a Maquis rebel on Gul Dukat in the ''[=DS9=]'' episode "The Maquis".
** The reintroduction of a Vulcan main cast member in ''VOY'' and ''ENT'' reintroduced frequent melds. Tuvok on ''VOY'' did it in the following episodes:
*** "Ex Post Facto", to Tom Paris to learn the secret of the crime for which Paris had been accused
*** "Meld", with Ensign Suder, to try to understand what drove the man to commit murder
*** "Flashback", to Captain Janeway, to let her help investigate his own memory
*** "The Gift", to Kes, to attempt to help stabilize her powers
*** "Random Thoughts", to a black marketer who traded in violent thoughts
*** "Infinite Regress", to Seven of Nine, to help cure her induced multiple personality syndrome
*** "Unimatrix Zero", to both Janeway and Seven of Nine, to allow Janeway to enter the PlatonicCave that Seven had recently remembered.
** In the prequel series ''Enterprise'', the idea of mind melds are initially discussed in Vulcan society as something of a taboo, that only heretics and rebels would ever perform. Nonetheless, it was performed at least four times, two of which involving main character T'Pol (once by her, once to her against her will)
** On ''Picard'', [[spoiler:Zhat Vash mole]] Commodore Oh performs one on Dr. Jurati to pass along the Admonition (a severely traumatic psychic warning about artificial intelligence). [[spoiler:It's so effective it convinces Agnes to murder her ex-boyfriend Bruce Maddox, though in season 2 we learn she was found not guilty by reason of "mind-meld-induced psychosis".]]
** Hoping to deepen their relationship, Spock & T'Pring (on ''Strange New Worlds'') perform an unusual one that causes them to [[FreakyFridayFlip switch bodies for awhile]].
* TranslatorMicrobes: The Universal Translator. We occasionally get to see the Translator in action, such as in "Sanctuary" where the aliens' gibberish ''gradually'' turned to English.
** And of course, "Darmok" famously subverted it by having the aliens talk in allegories, which aren't so easily translated.
* TransparentTech: The usual manifestation of the trope--the transparent display screen--was exceedingly rare before ''[[Series/StarTrekDiscovery Discovery]]'', but ForceFieldDoors seem to be standard equipment for brigs in Starfleet for much of the franchise's history.
* TravelingAtTheSpeedOfPlot: While numerous fans, as well as authors of [=RPG's=] and other supplementary materials, have tried to translate Warp Factor into a firm measurement of speed, actual writers of episodes and films tend to ignore such efforts and simply have ships take however long the plot requires to get from place to place. This is paralleled by the many conflicting maps of the galaxy that have been produced over the decades, which inconsistently depict the locations of major planets and non-Federation space nations.
* TreacheryIsASpecialKindOfEvil: The three pillars of Klingon philosophy are duty, honor, and loyalty. Officially, the Klingons play this trope straight.
** Worf does, but he's a particular case. Firstly, his parents died in a treacherous attack by the Romulans who had Klingon accomplices. Secondly, since he has been adopted by human parents, he developed an idealized conception of the Klingon way of life.
** This aspect wasn't yet established during ''TOS'', but the trope is still played straight by Kang. He has always respected scrupulously the Organian treaty, so he's pretty angry when his ship's disabled by what seems to be an unjustified attack from the Enterprise.
** Overall, a lot of treacherous Klingons appear on screen. Sometimes, their strategy is accusing the adversary of treachery.
** In Klingon society, losing honor is officially worst than being killed and traitors are usually stripped of their honor. Actually, honor and dishonor are tools for political maneuver. That's why Worf's family, the House of Mogh, is dishonored, then vindicated and dishonored again.
** There's also the episode "The Drumhead". Of course, that starts with a Klingon who did an espionage job for the Romulans, so Worf is personnaly engaged, but there's also the fight between Admiral Satie who considers the end justifies the means to find imaginary traitors and Picard who point out her methods betrays the principles on which Federation justice are based.
* TroubleFromThePast: We have the Eugenics Wars of the mid-1990s, the "sanctuary districts" of the early 21st century where the homeless, jobless, and mentally ill were left to rot, and the post-atomic horror following WorldWarIII in the late 21st century.
* TruceTrickery:
** ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'':
*** The Federation has a peace treaty with the Romulan Star Empire that established a demilitarized zone along their mutual border, the Romulan Neutral Zone. "[[Recap/StarTrekS1E14BalanceOfTerror Balance of Terror]]" revolves around a string of Romulan raids on Federation listening posts along the Neutral Zone, meant to test the Federation's willingness to retaliate for breaches in the treaty.
*** "[[Recap/StarTrekS3E22TheSavageCurtain The Savage Curtain]]": Kirk points out to Colonel Green that he was notorious for striking his enemies while in the midst of negotiating with them.
** ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'':
*** "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS4E12TheWounded The Wounded]]" revolves around the captain of the USS ''Phoenix'' [[RogueSoldier going rogue]] after accusing the Cardassians of trying to subvert the recent ceasefire in the border dispute between them and the Federation by shipping additional weapons to the front lines. Though he's stopped and arrested by the ''Enterprise'', Captain Picard tells his counterpart Gul Macet that he thinks the accusations are valid and warns him to get his government to knock it off. "We will be watching."
*** The Romulan Star Empire is established to have signed an additional treaty with the Federation since TOS, the Treaty of Algeron--which keeps the peace in exchange for the Federation banning its own use of cloaking devices--but repeatedly pushes the limits of it during the series up to and including trying to launch an invasion of Vulcan in "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E8Unification2 Unification, Part 2]]". Conversely, in "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS7E11ThePegasus The Pegasus]]", we find out that the eponymous ship was experimenting with cloaking technology, likewise violating the treaty (which the captain in question opposed).
** ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'':
*** The series begins shortly after the Cardassians were forced to concede defeat in their occupation of the planet Bajor and withdrew, and the Bajorans invited the Federation to establish an embassy and military presence. In the three-part season two premiere, a CivilWar breaks out on Bajor between the interim government and ultranationalist extremists called the Circle, but it's revealed in "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS02E03TheSiege The Siege]]" that the rebels were being covertly supplied by the Cardassians, who hoped to reoccupy Bajor once the Federation had been kicked out and the Bajorans had exhausted themselves.
*** "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS02E20TheMaquis The Maquis]]": A guerrilla war breaks out in the Federation-Cardassian Demilitarized Zone between Federation and Cardassian settlers, with the Cardassian Empire eventually proven to be arming its own settlers to prosecute a deniable ProxyWar against the Federation despite the peace treaty they signed late in ''The Next Generation''. This ultimately leads to the formation of the Maquis, a militia raised from among the Federation colonies that then also turns its guns on Starfleet when [[HonorBeforeReason the Federation refuses to resume hostilities despite the Cardassians' repeated blatant disregard for the treaty]].
** ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'': In "[[Recap/StarTrekDiscoveryS1E02BattleAtTheBinaryStars Battle at the Binary Stars]]", Klingon leader T'Kuvma verbally agrees to a ceasefire with Starfleet Admiral Anderson, and then promptly sends a ship on a [[RammingAlwaysWorks ramming attack]] against Anderson's flagship [[KickTheDog just to show what he thinks of the Federation's preference for peaceful dialogue]] (as well as [[DecapitationStrike decapitating the Starfleet response force]]).
** ''Series/StarTrekStrangeNewWorlds'':
*** "[[Recap/StarTrekStrangeNewWorldsS1E10AQualityOfMercy A Quality of Mercy]]" revisits the Romulan raids on Federation border outposts from "[[Recap/StarTrekS1E14BalanceOfTerror Balance of Terror]]" in defiance of the treaty, this time with Captain Pike in the ''Enterprise'''s command chair. [[spoiler:He misjudges the Romulans' intentions and a full scale war breaks out.]]
*** Feigned in "[[Recap/StarTrekStrangeNewWorldsS2E1TheBrokenCircle The Broken Circle]]". A group of [[FromCamouflageToCriminal renegade ex-Klingon and -Federation soldiers]] fly a salvaged Federation starship in a {{false flag|Operation}} attack on a Klingon D7 battlecruiser. This is supposed to look like a breach of the ceasefire between the Federation and the Klingon Empire, meant to restart the war and [[WarForFunAndProfit increase profits from the dilithium mine the renegades are guarding]]. The ''Enterprise'' destroys the ship before it can do any damage and Spock is able to convince the Klingon captain that [[NotMeThisTime the Federation wasn't involved]].
[[/folder]]
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These tropes are featured across the entire ''Star Trek'' franchise. Please add tropes for specific works to their individual pages.
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* RagnarokProofing: Trek has its fair share of technologies that still work long after they should, often outlasting the society that built them.
** On TNG, you have the Iconian gateway and computer system that still worked when the Iconians had been gone for 200,000 years, the Tkon Empire's automated border guard functioning 600 millennia after the empire blew up, and [[ItMakesSenseInContext Data's severed head being easily reattached to his body to function as normal after lying in a cave below San Francisco for 500 years]].
** The abandoned Hur'q museum on [=DS9=] in "The Sword of Kahless" still has functioning force fields and security systems. It's not clear how long it was abandoned, but it was found in an archaeological dig and the Hur'q were last heard from in the ''14th century''.
** In "Living Witness", Season 4, Episode 23 of ''Voyager'', the Doctor's program was bootlegged onto a storage device, and wakes up 700 years in the future in an alien museum, where all of the devices left from ''Voyager'', such as a tricorder, the Doctor's holo emitter, etc., works perfectly after being buried and forgotten for over 680 years.
** In one of the ''Star Trek: Short Treks'', the ''Discovery'' is still in fine working condition after being abandoned for 1000 years. (This was before the third season established the DOT robots that could have potentially been used to maintain everything).
* RagtagBunchOfMisfits:
** ''Deep Space Nine'' has a very motley crew compared to its predecessors, and at the start nobody on the station really wants to be there: Sisko originally wanted to transfer to civilian service, Kira resented working with Starfleet and was only comfortable blowing things up, Garak is barred from returning to his homeworld, Bashir is an illegal genetic experiment, Worf is hated by his homeland for siding with the Federation. And what's more, Quark was planning to split town altogether. He is a civilian; he's just there to sell beer and run gambling tables, but he usually gets dragged along on adventures anyway.
** ''Voyager'', of course. Janeway's first officer and chief engineer (and half the crew) are [[YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters insurgents]] she was sent to arrest, her helmsman is an ex-con out on parole because he knew the region where the former were hiding out, and her security chief happened to be working among them as TheMole. The Doctor is supposed to be a [[ProjectedMan temporary replacement]], Neelix happened to be in the neighbourhood and tricked ''Voyager'' into helping rescue his girlfriend, Kes claims refugee status out of boredom and Seven of Nine gets basically kidnapped.
** ''Picard'' really cranks it up, since they aren't even an official ''crew'' in Starfleet. Picard is retired and way too old to be doing this; Agnes doesn't want to be there [[spoiler:(and she's been brainwashed to kill the man they're looking for)]], Soji just found out she's an android yesterday [[spoiler:and her ex-boyfriend wants to kill her]], Cris and Raffi are both ex-Starfleet -- he has PTSD and she's a drug addict. And that's not even touching on the Romulan samurai raised by nuns, who's there to work through his unresolved surrogate daddy issues with Picard.
** This seems to be the general perception of the ''Cerritos'' crew (and the ''Cali'' class at large) by the rest of Starfleet InUniverse, but they aren't actually that bad. At worst you can say their security chief has anger issues, their X.O. is a little too obsessed with working out, their doctor swears too much and their counselor is kind of a dipshit. Freeman is a thoroughly competent captain, she just has a difficult relationship with her daughter who also happens to be a crew member (and whose rule-breaking shenanigans occasionally make her look bad).
** ''Prodigy'' takes it even further with a cast of minors (and one hologram) who don't even know what they're doing. Dal is a selfish, anti-authoritarian teenage [[RebelliousSpirit rebel]] who doesn't even know what ''species'' he is ([[spoiler:turns out the answer is "all of them"]]), Rok-Tahk is a young child, Zero is an EnergyBeing piloting a self-built containment suit because their true form [[BrownNote drives people insane]], Jankom is thousands of light years from his species's home planet and Murf is a blob of slime who can't talk and doesn't even have arms [[spoiler:at first]]. Gwyn gets dragged along as a hostage and up until a few weeks ago her dad was enslaving all the others, not to mention she's the [[LastOfHisKind last of an extinct race]]. None of them have ever belonged to Starfleet (and at the start probably wouldn't even be accepted as recruits) and they're flying around in a stolen ship with no help except Hologram Janeway, who's basically the starship equivalent of Microsoft Clippy with amnesia.
* RandomTransportation: In the Franchise/TrekVerse, wormholes can be used ''in principle'' for very long distance interstellar travel, but in practice aren't because they're unstable and can land you at any random location in the galaxy with no guarantee that they'll open up again to bring you back.
** The wormhole in ''[=DS9=]'' is notably stable, taking you from point X in the Alpha Quadrant to point Y in the Gamma Quadrant and back again every time; but that's because it was artificially created by the Prophets/wormhole aliens instead of being a natural phenomenon.
* RayGun: Phasers and disruptors.
* RaygunGothic: ''TOS'' solidly fits this trope. By ''TNG'', the Federation is in transition between RayGunGothic and CrystalSpiresAndTogas.
* RecycledInSpace: The franchise itself is, in the words of its creator, [[WagonTrainToTheStars Wagon Train]] [-TO THE STARS-]!
** In ''TOS'', the Klingons are Russians [-IN SPACE!-] while the Romulans are the then-inscrutable Chinese... [-IN SPACE-]!
** Vulcans are [[SpaceElves Elves]] [-IN SPACE-]!
** Romulans are Dark Elves/Drow, Klingons are Orcs/Orks, Ferengi are Goblins, Tellarites are Dwarves, Borg are Undead, etc.
*** Borg are more specifically Horror Film Zombies [-IN SPACE-]!
** Nicholas Meyer, director of ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'' and ''Film/StarTrekVITheUndiscoveredCountry'', describes the series as "''Literature/HoratioHornblower'' [-IN SPACE-]!"
*** Creator/GeneRoddenberry described James T. Kirk as a space-age Horatio Hornblower in the book ''The Making of Star Trek'' (1968).
* RedShirt: The TropeNamer! Members of the Operations Division (engineering and military services) were particularly likely to be used as the "victim of the week," as their jobs made them particularly likely to fall afoul of traps or the latest alien monster and this was an easy way to build drama by killing off nameless or clearly minor characters. Strictly speaking, the name of the trope is only accurate in ''TOS''; whilst differing shades of blue were standard for the Science/Medical Division throughout all the series, Operations and Command were red and gold in ''TOS'' and then switched colors from ''TNG'' onwards.
* RejectionRitual:
** The Klingons have Discommendation, in which a Klingon is ceremonially shunned and reduced to an honorless pariah in their society. In the ceremony, the Klingons present cross their arms in front of the discommendee and turn their backs on him.
** In the ''TNG'' episode "Sins of the Father", Worf was subjected to this as a result of the charges brought against his family by the Duras family.
** ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'' {{deconstruct|ed}}s this in the episode "Warzone", mission "The House Always Wins". Chancellor J'mpok orders Councillor Torg to be discommendated and the House of Torg dissolved for [[spoiler:conspiring with the Romulan Star Empire to destroy the rival House of Martok]]. The Klingons present ritually turn their backs on him, but Torg decides on TakingYouWithMe and attempts to {{backstab}} Worf. Worf's son Alexander jumps in front of the knife and bleeds out in Worf's arms.
* RestrictedExpandedUniverse:
** The comics do this. At one point, even [[CanonForeigner new characters]] couldn't be used because of fears that they would become {{Canon Immigrant}}s that required royalties.
** Also a problem in the novels, although the ''Literature/StarTrekNewFrontier'' and ''I.K.S. Gorkon'' series dodge it by having new crews based on one-shot characters, and the ''Titan'' series does by being set after the events of ''Film/StarTrekNemesis''.
** It seems that Paramount has given the writers more freedom in changing the status quo in post-Nemesis stories, as [[spoiler:Admiral Janeway]] from ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence Ascends To A Higher Plane Of Existence]] in ''Before Dishonor''.
** The complete anhilitation/liberation of [[spoiler:the Borg]] in the Destiny trilogy was only possible because new canonical material coming out was deemed unlikely at the time.
** ''Star Trek'' novels have gone back and forth between Restricted and non-Restricted a couple of times. The novels of the '70s and early '80s tended to give authors a lot of freedom to interpret ''Star Trek'' in their own idiosyncratic ways, though the books rarely referenced or built on one another. By the later '80s, Pocket Books' Trek authors began referencing popular novels like Creator/DianeDuane's Romulan/Literature/{{Rihannsu}} books and Creator/JohnMFord's Klingon epic ''Literature/TheFinalReflection'', and authors who did multiple novels increasingly carried continuity arcs forward within them, so an overall book continuity gradually began to emerge. But once ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' was on the air, Paramount began restricting the books and comics, forbidding them from referencing anything but the live-action canon, which killed continuity between books. Those rules began to relax in the late '90s, and by now, with all the shows off the air, the books have built up an elaborate, interconnected continuity. However, the new movie continuity (J. J. Abrams) operates under rules so restricted that only prequels to the movie have been allowed to be published so far.
** ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'' is set in the prime universe post-dating the Hobus supernova from ''Film/StarTrek2009''. However, due to [[ScrewedByTheLawyers a confluence of legal issues]] --the license comes from CBS rather than Paramount--, it can only use story details, not visuals. CBS also has veto power over Cryptic's ideas, and they're also restricted in their use of TV-canon characters because, while the ''character'' belongs to CBS and is thus usable, the ''likeness'' belongs to the actors so Cryptic has to negotiate with them separately or use an OffModel (the latter of which they've mostly stopped doing). They also have to negotiate separately to use elements from other works in the ''Franchise/StarTrekExpandedUniverse'' (although they do often get permission).
* RevisitingTheRoots:
** For better or for worse, ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' was this for the franchise: A lone Federation starship exploring the dangerous unknowns and meeting new life and new civilizations.
** ''Series/StarTrekStrangeNewWorlds'' even more so: a return to the tone of 1960s/'80s Trek, the same premise as ''TOS'', with episodic storytelling rather than the lengthy plot arcs used by ''Disco'' & ''Picard'', and set on the original Enterprise no less.
* RobotsEnslavingRobots:
** [[HiveMind The Borg Collective]] is an interesting aversion of this. Although it has no compunction sacrificing drones to adapt to phasers and forces individuals to act against their will, it would not outright order individuals like Picard/Locutus or Hugh to ''die'' when they became a threat... it prized them too much, like limbs. It was effectively a hydra that ''liked'' some of its heads. Part of this is because, at least in earlier depictions, the Borg -- despite appearances -- value diversity. Uniqueness allowed it to expand its own capabilities. However, born and raised Borg like Hugh that undergo a period of individuality can grow to reject the Collective's absolute stranglehold on them, and even ''infect'' other drones with TheEvilsOfFreeWill.
** However, the [[HiveQueen Borg Queen]] in ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact'' and ''[[Series/StarTrekVoyager Voyager]]'' is a straight cyborg example of this trope. She sees herself as the pinnacle of perfection, knowingly enslaves her drones to make them fit her view of perfection by squashing any individuality and will thoughtlessly sacrifice thousands of drones to capture and coerce individuals like Seven of Nine or attacking the invincible aliens in Fluidic Space.
* RuderAndCruder: Most of the ''Star Trek'' TV series don't have any profanity stronger than "hell" and "damn," however, ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' has "ass" and "son of a bitch" and ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'' even occasionally gets away with "shit" as well as the franchise's first F-bomb. ''Series/StarTrekPicard'' fires off the profanities like photon torpedoes (including ''multiple'' F-bombs).
[[/folder]]
[[folder:S]]
* SapientCetaceans: A frequent theme in the series.
* SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale:
** "Does it look good on screen" is always the rule for multi-ship scenes. Though it's established in dialogue that most ship-to-ship encounters take place with dozens or even hundreds of kilometers of separation, external shots will usually put ships within two ship-lengths or less.
** ''Voyager'' cruising over a planet's rings in the opening credits. Why does it take sixty years to fly back to the Alpha Quadrant? All they have to do is walk from one side of the ship to the other.
* ScreensAreCameras:
** All viewscreens behave like this in every show.
** On ''[=DS9=]'', the producers rolled out a new invention: a portable 3D holocommunicator. Instead of conversing via a viewscreen, two actors could share the same room and still appear to be talking over great distances. Ironically, this looks even cheaper than the viewscreen did, despite being ''more'' time-consuming and expensive (due to various camera trickery to make the 'effect' look less blatant). The device only shows up in two episodes, "For the Uniform" and "Doctor Bashir, I Presume?"
** ''Discovery'' brings back the hologram conversations, creating a bit of a ContinuitySnarl as to why [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries other]] [[WesternAnimation/StarTrekTheAnimatedSeries shows]] [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration in the franchise]] never used them. It's stated they take up a ''lot'' of bandwidth and after a severe computer malfunction Pike orders Number One to "rip them out" of the ''Enterprise'' (which sort of explains why we never saw them on ''TOS'', at least). Could be a case of BoringButPractical; in RealLife, UsefulNotes/NaziGermany had working videophones but the technology didn't come into widespread use until the 2010s.
* ScreenShake: The usual method of showing impact. Shake camera, shimmy actors.
* ScrewTheRulesTheyreNotReal: This comes up twice with James T. Kirk and the [[UnwinnableTrainingSimulation Kobayashi Maru]] scenario:
** In the {{backstory}} of ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'', he reprograms the simulator so he can win. This is generally applauded (he says he received a commendation for original thinking).
** ''Film/StarTrek2009'': Kirk reprograms it less plausibly and Academy Instructor Spock brings formal disciplinary action against him for cheating. Later, when Kirk meets prime universe Spock:
--->'''Kirk:''' You know, coming back in time, changing history... that's cheating.\\
'''Old Spock:''' A trick I learned from an old friend.
* SecularHero: Creator/GeneRoddenberry firmly believed that humanity would eventually abandon religion, so this is the default status for human characters in the franchise, although various alien characters (particularly Klingons and Bajorans) are shown to have religious or spiritual beliefs and practices. The only major human exceptions are Sisko, whose major character arc is his gradual acceptance of his status as a religious figure to the Bajorans, and Chakotay, who has some MagicalNativeAmerican tendencies thanks to series co-creator Michael Piller's interest in New Age spirituality (in general, Native Americans in the Trek franchise seem to be the exception to the "humans are secular" rule).
* SelfDestructMechanism: They must teach the "destroy your ship rather than let aliens take it" method at Starfleet Headquarters, seeing as every single Captain uses it at least once in a series. Janeway must have threatened to use it 30 times.
* SelfMadeOrphan: Uses this trope in Klingon mythology. According to it, the gods created Klingons, who then turned around and killed them for the trouble.
* SexyDimorphism: The Orion women are {{Green Skinned Space Babe}}s considered among the most beautiful of all humanoid females, and their men are big bruisers (sometimes as much as twice the size of their women), usually ugly and not very smart.
%%* SciFiFlyby: As a matter of course for the series.
* ShakespearianActors:
** Patrick Stewart was briefly the butt of jokes in England for putting his career on hold to do ''Star Trek''; the press assumed he was having a mid-life crisis and just wanted a fat pension and swarms of fangirls all over him. Most charmingly, he retorted he considered his years in the "training" for his role as Picard. But in reality, the franchise is famous for casting many stage actors over regular TV guest actors. Actors who ''lacked'' theater experience (Terry Farrell, Kate Mulgrew) are sometimes disparaged in fandom and even felt like the odd man out on occasion.
--->'''[[http://docohobigfinish.blogspot.com/2012/02/voyager-season-one.html Joe Ford]]''': I have heard people dismiss Mulgrew's performance in the past because she is a TV veteran and [[NoTrueScotsman not a Shakespearean actor or from an impressive theatrical background]], but in all honesty she is one of the strongest actors in the ''Star Trek'' universe. I would happily squeeze Mulgrew into the arsenal of talent that fronts ''[=DS9=]'' because she is far too good for a show like ''Voyager'' and I do feel they were [[TookTheBadFilmSeriously lucky to have her.]]
** They all seem to do their best work when immersed in the Shakespearean politics of the Klingon Empire. According to J.G. Hertzler, "They tend to go with people who can operate in a strangely heightened reality and somehow make it as close to reality as you can. That's sci-fi; that's what you need".
* ShoutOutToShakespeare: Many characters quote the Bard. Alien cultures tend to admire him too, even claiming him as their own.
* SightedGunsAreLowTech: Hand phasers, at least. Heavy-duty phaser rifles usually have a sight.
* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: ''Star Trek'' is a fairly idealistic franchise.
* SlowElectricity: The console displays always go on/off in sequence around the bridge. If there's a ship-wide outage, expect an outside shot of windows lighting up/going out one at a time.
* SlowLaser: Common throughout the franchise, although beam weapons move faster in later series, particularly ''Enterprise''. HandWaved in most instances, as the weapons used are not actually ''lasers'' (which are described once as terribly obsolete), but particle beams that move at sublight speed.
* SmartHouse: The ships behave much like this from ''TNG'' onward.
* SoldierVsWarrior:
** Starfleet approaches warfare as a professional military with soldiers; this is what gives them an advantage over aggressive alien races like the Klingons who are [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy self-described warriors]] who [[BloodKnight lust for battle]]. While the Klingon military might be the fiercest offensive fighting force in their part of the galaxy, they have no stamina whatsoever for fighting a war of attrition. Starfleet by comparison will fight and never lose hope until the last soldier is dead. A Ferengi character points this out, that a Starfleet soldier is more dangerous than the most bloodthirsty Klingon warrior when pushed to the cliff edge and forced to fight for the lives of all the innocents who are depending on him.
** The first time the legendary Starfleet resolve was nearly shattered in a full scale war was when the Federation faced off against the Dominion: an empire with the one mission of subjugating all of known space, that has literally engineered its soldiers to be little more than biological robots who fight because it's their only purpose.
* SomeKindOfForceField: Characters are always touching the force fields to show the audience that they are there.
* SonsOfSlaves:
** Slavery was just one of the cruel practices inflicted on the Bajorans by the occupying Cardassians. Post-Occupation Bajorans are portrayed as the ''Trek'' universe's equivalent of both freed slaves ''and'' holocaust survivors.
** In the classic episode "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield", Lokai accuses Bele's race of enslaving his own. Bele doesn't deny it, and in fact, tries to rationalize it by saying Lokai's race were savages. DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything?
* SpaceCossacks:
** The Maquis. Average Federation colonists who found themselves under the Cardassians after a treaty in which they had no say. They won numerous engagements against both the Cardassians and Starfleet, with large numbers of Starfleet officers even defecting to join the 'good fight.'
** ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': Tasha Yar was raised by human dissidents on Turkana IV, where various factions were constantly at war and gang rape was a common occurrence.
* SpaceFighter:
** Fighters are rare, but do turn up now and then -- especially in ''[=DS9=]'', where they were used by [[LaResistance the Maquis]] before being adopted by TheFederation. They are generally avoided because typical starship defenses are both [[BeamSpam fast firing]] and [[AlwaysAccurateAttack extremely accurate,]] making it difficult to [[https://youtu.be/d734afLFPds?t=17 justify]] [[https://youtu.be/FXy_DO6IZOA?t=64 using]] [[https://youtu.be/1InzMnq8pSI?t=64 them.]]
** ''Picard'' introduces the Romulan Snakehead fighter, a single-pilot scout ship that packs a lot of firepower for its small size.
* SpaceNavy: Starfleet.
* SpaceSector: The original series often used "quadrant" instead of "sector" (with references to the Enterprise being "the only ship in the quadrant") but by the ''Next Generation'' era named sectors ("the Archanis Sector") or numbered sectors ("Sector 001") are firmly established as regions of space. Other parts of the franchise also refer to "sector blocks", large groupings of a hundred sectors. "Quadrants" are also still used, but now more logically refer to one of four divisions of the entire galaxy.
* SpaceshipSlingshotStunt: A common trick for time travel no less.
* SpecialEffectBranding: This trope is avoided in most cases: for instance, both Klingon and Romulan ship-mounted disruptors use green effects, and both Cardassian and Federation phasers are the same yellow/orange color. (Despite their similarities, "phasers and "disruptors" are different technology). However, transporters generally follow this trope, having similar, but distinct special effects: blue transporters for Starfleet, red transporters for Klingons, green transporters for Romulans, and so forth. ''[=DS9=]'' made a special point of this, as the titular station, although operated by Starfleet, was of Cardassian origin and used Cardassian transporter effects.
* SpiesAreDespicable: Intelligence agencies have a distinct tendency to overlap with StateSec or SecretPolice groups, and are inevitably portrayed in a negative light. Regardless of whether it's the Obsidian Order for the Cardassians, the Tal Shiar for the Romulans, Section 31 (or other various paranoid security/intelligence groups) for the Federation.
* StandardSciFiArmy: Codified the use Security personnel. Follows the visual media model of focusing mostly on Infantry.
* StandardSciFiHistory: Earth's history follows this.
* StandardSciFiSetting: One of the most famous {{Trope Codifier}}s.
* StandardStarshipScuffle: The TropeCodifier, especially the final battle in ''[[Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan The Wrath of Khan]]''.
* StandardTimeUnits: Stardates.
* StarfishAliens:
** While the series is often mocked for excessive use of RubberForeheadAliens, special mention must be made of the Tholians that appeared in the ''TOS'' episode "The Tholian Web", who were ''so'' strange, while visible only partly through the main viewscreen during negotiations, that the writers themselves (like anyone else) couldn't figure out what they actually were implied to be for the better part of 30 years, even while being passingly mentioned once or twice in different series. Only toward the end of ''Enterprise'' did they finally settle on the head being a carapace, and the Tholians as a race of advanced arachnids.
** For a show with a limited budget, even ''TOS'' featured a decent number of non-humanoids. Apart from a bunch of EnergyBeings, it also had the Horta, Yarnek, the Melkotians, a few shapeshifters like Sylvia and Korob, and the Kelvans, whose ''real'' forms were non-humanoid. Each of the later series added a few more to the list. The show that far and away had the most non-humanoids was the one where budget limitations could not hinder creature design: ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekTheAnimatedSeries''.
** ''[[Series/StarTrekDiscovery Discovery]]'' adds to the lineup with Unknown Species 10-C, who eventually turn out to be [[spoiler:bizarre, cephalopod / dragon things that live in gas giants]].
* StateSec: Romulans and Cardassians both got their own versions in the form of the Tal Shiar and the Obsidian Order, respectively. Arguably Starfleet's Section 31. The Ferengi's FCA might also qualify given their cultural bias.
* StealthInSpace: The Romulans developed a cloaking device in the time frame of ''TOS'', which was soon stolen by the Federation; subsequently, the Treaty of Algeron prohibited the Federation from using or developing any cloaking technology of its own.
* StockStarSystems:
** One of the first Earth colonies outside the Sol System is in the Alpha Centauri System (the closest system to ours, in fact).
** Janeway's father drowned on Tau Ceti Prime.
** The Andorians and Vulcans come from Procyon and 40 Eridani A, respectively.
* SubspaceAnsible: All of the space-faring civilizations have this. (Radio is explicitly referred to as "old-style" because transmission speed is only the speed of light). The exact speeds are never explicitly given, but it's implied to be measured in Warp factors and it definitely takes days to send a signal across several parsecs. Signals also degrade long before they travel across the galaxy.
* SufficientlyAdvancedAlien: ''Star Trek'' has probably the largest and most diverse variety of these out of any science fiction franchise, including a multitude of races of EnergyBeings, {{Physical God}}s and the flat-out [[TheOmnipotent omnipotent]] Q.
* SuperDoc: Any Sickbay doctor.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:T]]
* TechnicalPacifist: The Federation aspires to peace above all and will always take a diplomatic solution to conflict where possible, but is fully prepared to defend itself if attacked. ''[=DS9=]'' deconstructs this with revelation of Section 31, a shadow organization that does the Federation's dirty work for them in secret.
* {{Technobabble}}: More or less the TropeCodifier. In the script it would be labeled as [TECH] and they had a separate writer to put in whatever seemed appropriate.
* TechnologyPorn: A staple of the series.
* TeleportationWithDrawbacks: Transporters are severely range-limited and highly plot-sensitive with frequent failures, problems of signal interference, and needing to lock onto the target, along with personnel needing to be sent from a special room because otherwise they could simply be beamed out of any problem.
** In the ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "Day Of The Dove", when Klingons have taken over the ''Enterprise'', Kirk decides the only way to stop them involves intra-ship transporting, with Spock warning him, "It has rarely been done because of the danger involved. Pinpoint accuracy is required. If the transportee should materialize inside a solid object, a deck or wall..".. In the later Trek productions, intra-ship transporting is seen more often due to the technology having improved since the 23rd century. ''Film/StarTrek2009'' has Spock Prime explaining to the alternate universe's Scotty that his Prime universe counterpart eventually developed an equation that made it possible to safely transport much further distances to a ship even while traveling at warp speed.
** The Ansatan separatists in the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode [[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS3E12TheHighGround "The High Ground"]] use a folded-space transporter called an "Inverter", which allows them to transport through shields, prevents their enemies from tracking them, and makes them resistant to normal transporters. But repeated use of the device causes cellular damage, eventually warping the user's DNA beyond recognition and killing them.
* TeleporterAccident: Transporters work by literally disassembling an object (or person) into energy, shooting it some distance away, and reassembling that object at the new location. Contrary to popular opinion, the transported object is indeed the original, but the reintegration process can be [[LiterallyShatteredLives rather]] [[NoBodyLeftBehind dangerous]]. There have been some [[PhlebotinumBreakdown grisly accidents]] in each iteration of ''Trek'': two ''Enterprise'' crewmen died agonizing deaths (''TOS: The Motion Picture'') after being [[BodyHorror re-integrated incorrectly]], Riker ([[AssPull somehow]]) unwittingly twinned himself when he tried beaming through a distorted atmosphere (''TNG'': "Second Chances"), Scotty's transporter pattern was stuck in limbo for ''75 years'' (''TNG'': "Relics"), and another crewman's body was mixed with rocks and foliage while attempting to beam out during a fierce windstorm, although he survived (''ENT'': "Strange New World"). Sabotage of the transporter buffer is not uncommon, either. If you hide a remat detonator (described as being 2 square millimeters in size) on their person, you can [[KickTheDog disrupt the passenger's transporter pattern]] as they beam up, [[LudicrousGibs leaving a smoking, half-finished corpse on the pad.]] Yech.
-->'''Weyoun:''': You were supposed to be on that transporter pad with him.\\
'''Damar:''' I was called away. [[IHaveToGoIronMyDog An urgent meeting with the Central Command]].\\
'''Weyoun''': How convenient.\\
'''Damar''': I always was lucky.
* TeleportInterdiction: It's not possible to transport through DeflectorShields (most of the time: [[DependingOnTheWriter once in a while the screenwriters forget)]]. [[RuleOfDrama This is used as a way to add drama]] -- with the ship having to drop its shields briefly in the middle of battle in order to beam back any crew who are off ship, [[note]] Whether landing party, away team, or other.[[/note]]or the away team/landing party not simply being able to flee danger because there's a shield between them. There are numerous other technologies and natural phenomena with can also interfere with transporters, but the deflectors are the most commonly cited.
** The original ''Enterprise NC-1701'' had an "old-style" sensor array which acted as a sonar. By waiting for the right point in a scan cycle, a ship could de-cloak and beam over to the ''Enterprise'' before cloaking again, without being detected. This only works when the ships are parked and the deflector array is down.
** In
* TestOfPain:
** ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': in "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS06E07YouAreCordiallyInvited You Are Cordially Invited]]", O'Brien and Bashir are looking forward to debauchery at Worf's "bachelor party". They are dismayed to learn that said party is really the four-day Klingon ceremony of Kal'hyah. The group is expected to fast, endure brutal heat, shed blood, and pass other tests of pain and endurance, which leads to [[PlayedForLaughs some dark humor]] when O'Brien and Bashir begin to crack under the pressure. [[spoiler:They get to take it out on him later: part of the marriage ceremony involves the groomsmen attacking the newlyweds with sticks, in homage to how Kahless's wedding was attacked by one of his enemies.]]
--->'''Bashir:''' It's working. I'm having a vision... about the future... I can see it so clearly...\\
'''O'Brien:''' Yeah?\\
'''Bashir:''' I'm going to kill Worf. That's what I'm going to do. I'm going to kill Worf. It's all so clear to me now. Kill Worf... kill Worf...\\
'''Both:''' [[SurvivalMantra Kill Worf... kill Worf...]]
** ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': Painstiks are {{Shock Stick}}s used by Klingons in two important rites:
*** The Rite of Ascension is a two-step ritual which formally recognizes a Klingon as a warrior. In the second step, the Klingon must demonstrate the depth of his inner strength by walking between eight warriors wielding painstiks, who deliver powerful jolts to the Klingon's torso while he expresses his most deeply-held feelings. Worf undergoes this step in "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS2E14TheIcarusFactor The Icarus Factor]]", since he hadn't had an opportunity to go through it at the time that a Klingon normally would.
*** The first step in the Rite of Succession is the Sonchi ceremony. The Arbiter of Succession and all those who are vying for the position of Chancellor give a formal challenge to the corpse of the former Chancellor and shock him with a painstik. The thought process is that between the pain from the painstik and the challenge, no living Klingon would dare back down lest he lose his honor, and this confirms that the former Chancellor is indeed dead and not faking it. This ceremony is shown in "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS4E7Reunion Reunion]]" being done to K'mpec by Duras, Gowron, and Picard (named Arbiter by K'mpec before his death due to suspicions that Duras was the one who masterminded his poisoning).
** ''Series/StarTrekStrangeNewWorlds'': "[[Recap/StarTrekStrangeNewWorldsS2E05Charades Charades]]": One of the Vulcan engagement rituals involves the groom-to-be making tea for the bride's parents, wherein they are required to pour the boiling hot kettle bare-handed--a test of their ability to suppress their emotional response to pain. While rehearsing this with the [[HumanityEnsues temporarily biologically human]] Spock, his mother Miranda Grayson mentions that living among Vulcans involves hiding ''a lot'' of pain.* TieInNovel: A huge range of novels based on all eras of the franchise (and the spaces in between) exists, including novelizations of several episodes and ''Literature/StarTrekNewFrontier''. Other than the novelizations, these are all officially declared ''non''-canon by Paramount and Creator/GeneRoddenberry. When Jeri Taylor was the [[invoked]]WordOfGod on ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'', her original novels about the crew's history were considered canon. They aren't any more.
** Pre-''Nemesis'', authors had a standing order not to kill any character that had appeared on-screen. Afterwards, because ''Nemesis'' was seen as the last time the original timeline was to be seen on-screen before ''Discovery'' was announced as being set there, all bets are off. (Still non-canon, however).
* TimePolice: The Federation of the 29th Century and Daniels' faction from the 31st Century. [[RunningGag They aren't very effective at this]].
** Janeway is described as casually flaunting the timeline so frequently it actually managed to [[NiceJobBreakingItHero drive Captain Braxton ''insane''.]] He comes up with something called "The Janeway Factor," meaning that you can fully expect her to blunder into any time-sensitive activities going on.
** Also, the time police hate Kirk; when Sisko gives his report about "Trials and Tribble-ations," and first mentions Kirk, the two operatives [[EyeTake exchange a look]] which says, "we hate the Kirk cases".
--->"[[CowboyCop Seventeen separate temporal violations!]] The biggest file on record!"
* TimeToStepUpCommander: A frequent device (often in the disaster episode) is to have a member of the secondary bridge crew or even the counselor forced to take command when the captain is knocked out or cut off from the rest of the ship.
* TimeTravelTaboo:
** ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'': A series UrExample of the TimeTravelTaboo involves the planet Gateway, from the episode "City on the Edge of Forever". After the Federation was nearly wiped out by [=McCoy=] saving a 1930s woman who delayed the US' entry into UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, the planet was placed under strict quarantine. Some non-canon licensed works upped the ante to the same death penalty used for Talos IV. Funnily enough, this taboo did not seem to apply to the rest of the series, where intentional time travel occurred twice (and once [[Film/StarTrekIVTheVoyageHome in the films]]).
** ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' introduces a Department of Temporal Investigations, which seems to at the very least try and ensure Starfleet personnel aren't altering history all willy-nilly (though that doesn't stop Kira from [[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS06E17WrongsDarkerThanDeathOrNight casually using a religious artifact to go back in time and find out if Dukat banged her mom]]).
** ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' establishes that Starfleet of the 29th Century has "timeships" tracking and eliminating any anomalies that might mess with the timeline. ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' takes this one step further with a "Temporal Cold War" where the Federation acts as the TimePolice, constantly trying to prevent other factions from changing the past for their own benefit.
** ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'' shows that in the 32nd Century all forms of time travel are now very illegal after a horrific series of [[GreatOffscreenWar Temporal Wars]], to the point even [[EliteAgentsAboveTheLaw Section 31]] refuses to use it [[spoiler:to stop Mirror Georgiou from dying a horrible, painful death]].
* TimeyWimeyBall: Across the franchise as a whole, the exact nature of TimeTravel and its relationship to TheMultiverse is never really clarified. Are AlternateUniverse[=s=] the result of time travelers changing history? Naturally occurring phenomena? The creations of bored Q entertaining themselves at the expense of Starfleet captains? No definitive answer is ever given despite the fact that travel through time and between parallel universes is far from unusual, and in many cases used as AppliedPhlebotinum for solving otherwise unsolvable problems.
* ToBeLawfulOrGood: One of the most common sources of conflict in the series. The Prime Directive produces seemingly endless cases of characters having to decide whether to follow the rules and allow an atrocity to occur, or ignore them and abandon the Federation's principles. Often made more complicated by the fact that the Federation and Starfleet Command are not above MovingTheGoalPosts when it comes to application of the Prime Directive.
* TokenHeroicOrc: Most of the "Big Bad" species produce a black sheep who sees the light, defects to the good guys, and becomes a bridge officer.
** ''TNG'': Worf is a Klingon, the primary antagonists from ''TOS'', who was raised by humans and is the ''Enterprise'''s security chief. Captain Kirk would be shocked.
** ''[=DS9=]'': Nog becomes the first Ferengi to join Starfleet and serves on both the Deep Space 9 station and the ''Defiant''.
** ''VOY'': Seven of Nine is a RogueDrone from the Borg Collective who becomes part of ''Voyager'''s crew. Having a Borg on a Starfleet vessel would be unthinkable for Captain Picard.
** ''PIC'': Elnor is the first heroic Romulan character who's part of the main cast, being a member of Picard's motley crew and is even the latter's [[FamilyOfChoice surrogate son]]. The Romulans were the BigBad in ''TNG'' (and they still are in this series), so the younger Picard could not have predicted that his elderly self would embrace a Romulan as family. Elnor is the most ''un-Romulan'' Romulan in the franchise because he follows [[CulturalRebel the Way of Absolute Candor as taught to him by the Qowat Milat]].
** ''LD'': D'Vana Tendi is the first Orion series regular in the franchise and the first Orion Starfleet officer seen in the prime timeline. Her species is mostly portrayed as villainous criminals.
** Interestingly, we do see Romulans and Cardassians among Starfleet's uniformed ranks, but only in [[BizarroWorld alternate realities]]. On rare occasions, Starfleet officers turn out to have Romulan ancestry as well (If Saavik had appeared in ''Film/StarTrekVITheUndiscoveredCountry'', [[spoiler: [[WhatCouldHaveBeen this would have been her reason for supporting the conspiracy.]]]])
* TouchTelepathy: The Vulcan mind meld.
** Spock touches the heads of the listed people in the following ''TOS'' episodes while doing a MindMeld with them.
*** "Dagger of the Mind": Simon van Gelder, to find out what deviltry is going on at Elba II.
*** "The Devil in the Dark": The Horta in order to communicate with it.
*** In "Requiem For Methuselah": Kirk, in order to remove his memories of Rayna Kapek.
*** "Spectre of the Gun": Kirk, [=McCoy=] and Scotty, to convince them that the situation they're in isn't real (so the simulated bullets can't [[YourMindMakesItReal kill them]]).
*** "Mirror, Mirror": Evil!Spock does it with Dr. [=McCoy=] so he can find out what's going on.
*** "I, Mudd": He tries it on Norman, but fails because Norman's a robot.
*** "The Return of The Archons": He tries to do it on [=McCoy=] but fails because of Landru's MindControl.
*** ''Film/StarTrekIVTheVoyageHome'': He melds with the humpback whale, Gracie. He learns that Gracie is pregnant.
** Several other characters perform it, as well: Miranda to Spock in "Is There In Truth No Beauty?", T'Pau to Spock in "Amok Time".
** The lack of a Vulcan main character on ''TNG'' and ''[=DS9=]'' reduced the frequency of the mind melds, but they still occasionally crept in. Sarek to Picard in "Sarek", and Spock to Picard in "Unification". Additionally, a failed attempt was made by a Maquis rebel on Gul Dukat in the ''[=DS9=]'' episode "The Maquis".
** The reintroduction of a Vulcan main cast member in ''VOY'' and ''ENT'' reintroduced frequent melds. Tuvok on ''VOY'' did it in the following episodes:
*** "Ex Post Facto", to Tom Paris to learn the secret of the crime for which Paris had been accused
*** "Meld", with Ensign Suder, to try to understand what drove the man to commit murder
*** "Flashback", to Captain Janeway, to let her help investigate his own memory
*** "The Gift", to Kes, to attempt to help stabilize her powers
*** "Random Thoughts", to a black marketer who traded in violent thoughts
*** "Infinite Regress", to Seven of Nine, to help cure her induced multiple personality syndrome
*** "Unimatrix Zero", to both Janeway and Seven of Nine, to allow Janeway to enter the PlatonicCave that Seven had recently remembered.
** In the prequel series ''Enterprise'', the idea of mind melds are initially discussed in Vulcan society as something of a taboo, that only heretics and rebels would ever perform. Nonetheless, it was performed at least four times, two of which involving main character T'Pol (once by her, once to her against her will)
** On ''Picard'', [[spoiler:Zhat Vash mole]] Commodore Oh performs one on Dr. Jurati to pass along the Admonition (a severely traumatic psychic warning about artificial intelligence). [[spoiler:It's so effective it convinces Agnes to murder her ex-boyfriend Bruce Maddox, though in season 2 we learn she was found not guilty by reason of "mind-meld-induced psychosis".]]
** Hoping to deepen their relationship, Spock & T'Pring (on ''Strange New Worlds'') perform an unusual one that causes them to [[FreakyFridayFlip switch bodies for awhile]].
* TranslatorMicrobes: The Universal Translator. We occasionally get to see the Translator in action, such as in "Sanctuary" where the aliens' gibberish ''gradually'' turned to English.
** And of course, "Darmok" famously subverted it by having the aliens talk in allegories, which aren't so easily translated.
* TransparentTech: The usual manifestation of the trope--the transparent display screen--was exceedingly rare before ''[[Series/StarTrekDiscovery Discovery]]'', but ForceFieldDoors seem to be standard equipment for brigs in Starfleet for much of the franchise's history.
* TravelingAtTheSpeedOfPlot: While numerous fans, as well as authors of [=RPG's=] and other supplementary materials, have tried to translate Warp Factor into a firm measurement of speed, actual writers of episodes and films tend to ignore such efforts and simply have ships take however long the plot requires to get from place to place. This is paralleled by the many conflicting maps of the galaxy that have been produced over the decades, which inconsistently depict the locations of major planets and non-Federation space nations.
* TreacheryIsASpecialKindOfEvil: The three pillars of Klingon philosophy are duty, honor, and loyalty. Officially, the Klingons play this trope straight.
** Worf does, but he's a particular case. Firstly, his parents died in a treacherous attack by the Romulans who had Klingon accomplices. Secondly, since he has been adopted by human parents, he developed an idealized conception of the Klingon way of life.
** This aspect wasn't yet established during ''TOS'', but the trope is still played straight by Kang. He has always respected scrupulously the Organian treaty, so he's pretty angry when his ship's disabled by what seems to be an unjustified attack from the Enterprise.
** Overall, a lot of treacherous Klingons appear on screen. Sometimes, their strategy is accusing the adversary of treachery.
** In Klingon society, losing honor is officially worst than being killed and traitors are usually stripped of their honor. Actually, honor and dishonor are tools for political maneuver. That's why Worf's family, the House of Mogh, is dishonored, then vindicated and dishonored again.
** There's also the episode "The Drumhead". Of course, that starts with a Klingon who did an espionage job for the Romulans, so Worf is personnaly engaged, but there's also the fight between Admiral Satie who considers the end justifies the means to find imaginary traitors and Picard who point out her methods betrays the principles on which Federation justice are based.
* TroubleFromThePast: We have the Eugenics Wars of the mid-1990s, the "sanctuary districts" of the early 21st century where the homeless, jobless, and mentally ill were left to rot, and the post-atomic horror following WorldWarIII in the late 21st century.
* TruceTrickery:
** ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'':
*** The Federation has a peace treaty with the Romulan Star Empire that established a demilitarized zone along their mutual border, the Romulan Neutral Zone. "[[Recap/StarTrekS1E14BalanceOfTerror Balance of Terror]]" revolves around a string of Romulan raids on Federation listening posts along the Neutral Zone, meant to test the Federation's willingness to retaliate for breaches in the treaty.
*** "[[Recap/StarTrekS3E22TheSavageCurtain The Savage Curtain]]": Kirk points out to Colonel Green that he was notorious for striking his enemies while in the midst of negotiating with them.
** ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'':
*** "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS4E12TheWounded The Wounded]]" revolves around the captain of the USS ''Phoenix'' [[RogueSoldier going rogue]] after accusing the Cardassians of trying to subvert the recent ceasefire in the border dispute between them and the Federation by shipping additional weapons to the front lines. Though he's stopped and arrested by the ''Enterprise'', Captain Picard tells his counterpart Gul Macet that he thinks the accusations are valid and warns him to get his government to knock it off. "We will be watching."
*** The Romulan Star Empire is established to have signed an additional treaty with the Federation since TOS, the Treaty of Algeron--which keeps the peace in exchange for the Federation banning its own use of cloaking devices--but repeatedly pushes the limits of it during the series up to and including trying to launch an invasion of Vulcan in "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E8Unification2 Unification, Part 2]]". Conversely, in "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS7E11ThePegasus The Pegasus]]", we find out that the eponymous ship was experimenting with cloaking technology, likewise violating the treaty (which the captain in question opposed).
** ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'':
*** The series begins shortly after the Cardassians were forced to concede defeat in their occupation of the planet Bajor and withdrew, and the Bajorans invited the Federation to establish an embassy and military presence. In the three-part season two premiere, a CivilWar breaks out on Bajor between the interim government and ultranationalist extremists called the Circle, but it's revealed in "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS02E03TheSiege The Siege]]" that the rebels were being covertly supplied by the Cardassians, who hoped to reoccupy Bajor once the Federation had been kicked out and the Bajorans had exhausted themselves.
*** "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS02E20TheMaquis The Maquis]]": A guerrilla war breaks out in the Federation-Cardassian Demilitarized Zone between Federation and Cardassian settlers, with the Cardassian Empire eventually proven to be arming its own settlers to prosecute a deniable ProxyWar against the Federation despite the peace treaty they signed late in ''The Next Generation''. This ultimately leads to the formation of the Maquis, a militia raised from among the Federation colonies that then also turns its guns on Starfleet when [[HonorBeforeReason the Federation refuses to resume hostilities despite the Cardassians' repeated blatant disregard for the treaty]].
** ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'': In "[[Recap/StarTrekDiscoveryS1E02BattleAtTheBinaryStars Battle at the Binary Stars]]", Klingon leader T'Kuvma verbally agrees to a ceasefire with Starfleet Admiral Anderson, and then promptly sends a ship on a [[RammingAlwaysWorks ramming attack]] against Anderson's flagship [[KickTheDog just to show what he thinks of the Federation's preference for peaceful dialogue]] (as well as [[DecapitationStrike decapitating the Starfleet response force]]).
** ''Series/StarTrekStrangeNewWorlds'':
*** "[[Recap/StarTrekStrangeNewWorldsS1E10AQualityOfMercy A Quality of Mercy]]" revisits the Romulan raids on Federation border outposts from "[[Recap/StarTrekS1E14BalanceOfTerror Balance of Terror]]" in defiance of the treaty, this time with Captain Pike in the ''Enterprise'''s command chair. [[spoiler:He misjudges the Romulans' intentions and a full scale war breaks out.]]
*** Feigned in "[[Recap/StarTrekStrangeNewWorldsS2E1TheBrokenCircle The Broken Circle]]". A group of [[FromCamouflageToCriminal renegade ex-Klingon and -Federation soldiers]] fly a salvaged Federation starship in a {{false flag|Operation}} attack on a Klingon D7 battlecruiser. This is supposed to look like a breach of the ceasefire between the Federation and the Klingon Empire, meant to restart the war and [[WarForFunAndProfit increase profits from the dilithium mine the renegades are guarding]]. The ''Enterprise'' destroys the ship before it can do any damage and Spock is able to convince the Klingon captain that [[NotMeThisTime the Federation wasn't involved]].
[[/folder]]
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