Star Trek

Correction: Given the number of ships in the fleet many of the insignia are likely very similar. The differences may not be obvious at this distance.

The Trouble With Tribbles - S2-E15

Corrected entry: There is something funny about the station's storage compartments: first, since when do these compartments need overhead doors, especially since it is supposed to store several tons of goods (one big set of doors would be enough). And second, loose grain (and especially since it is so valuable for the project featured in the episode) would hardly be kept just like this, ready to pour out whenever the compartment doors are opened. It should have been stored in some sort of containers.

Correction: It isn't a mistake simply because you don't approve of the design. Also, the overhead doors may be access doors to get ABOVE the grain for sample access.

Correction: Apart from that, as far back as ancient Egypt and Babylonia, loose grain would be stored in silos that were bolted and fairly air-tight, and unfastening them would result in the grain 'pouring out' to be filled in baskets.

Correction: This is the first time its being done by a human. In Return to Tomorrow the aliens did it.

The Conscience of the King - S1-E14

Corrected entry: When Spock talks about his ancestors, McCoy comments that they were "conquered." Not only does Spock later say (in "The Immunity Syndrome") that Vulcans have never been conquered, but we've never heard anything in Star Trek or its sequels mentioning Vulcan's "conquest." And yet Spock doesn't mention that McCoy is in error - something he never refuses the opportunity to do.

Correction: Maybe McCoy was referring to The Vulcan Renaissance, mentioned in a 3-episode arc of Enterprise. It was discovered that the Romulans were corrupting the Vulcan High Command, causing them to stray from Surak's teachings. To McCoy, this could have been a "conquest".

The Tholian Web - S3-E9

Corrected entry: At the beginning of the episode the bridge crew is looking at the viewing screen as the Defiant draws closer. By the time Capt. Kirk says "The Defiant", it is totally obvious that it's a starship. However, when Kirk says "The Defiant", the bridge crew gives quite a reaction as though they had no idea what this thing shaped a starship was until Kirk clued them in.

Correction: ...or they had no idea it was specifically the Defiant, which they may have believed couldn't be there.

johnrosa

Whom Gods Destroy - S3-E14

Corrected entry: Garth can apparently shapeshift clothes (or he doesn't wear clothes and the "clothing" we see is shapeshifted skin). But when Garth changes from Cory to Garth, a working phaser appears at his holster - where'd it come from? Or how'd he create it?

Correction: The weapon was concealed while in the form of Cory.

johnrosa

Let That Be Your Last Battlefield - S3-E15

Corrected entry: Kirk says Cheron is in an uncharted region of the galaxy. How does Kirk know about it then? Later Spock identifies its exact position when he says the ship is heading for it. Again, if it's "uncharted" how do they know where it is to figure out this stuff.

Correction: Cheron may be an obvious 'marker', a known distant system that has yet to be charted in detail, but the existence and location of Cheron itself is known, much like knowing the moon was above earth centuries ago, but its details had yet to be charted.

johnrosa

Spock's Brain - S3-E1

Corrected entry: When they arrived in the system they said they were heading for the sixth planet in the system of Sigma Draconis, but in his captain's log about halfway through the episode, Kirk calls it Sigma Draconis VII.

Correction: Sigma Draconis VI and VII may have orbits that intersect twice, so that, when first discovered and named, SD VII was seventh from the sun, but on this visit, it is 'currently' the sixth. (See "The Wrath of Khan" for the Ceti Alpha V & VI mis-recognition issue for a similar, not identical, situation.)

johnrosa

Correction: Purely a reflex, not a mistake. While she may not have done it before, she seems to respond to it just fine. But then, she is a humanoid, so why expect her reflexes to be that different?

johnrosa

Correction: The distances were described using the system of measure wherein the specific distance can be described by the most round number. Example: If something is 1.1 quarts, he'll just say it's one liter. We can assume humans can handle the conversion in their heads easily in the future.

johnrosa

The Doomsday Machine - S2-E6

Corrected entry: Spock says that they will be unable to close with the Machine because Enterprise's energy cells will draw its attention, but then later he says it ignores ships such as themselves beyond a certain size radius - which is it?

Correction: Spock is cautious about energy early on, but later determines size is the draw. He simply doesn't say 'Gee, looks like I was wrong.'

johnrosa

Wink of an Eye - S3-E11

Corrected entry: This episode breaks the laws of physics. After Kirk has been hyper-accelerated to Scalosian rate, he fires a phaser at Deela but the phaser light crawls out slowly and she steps out of the way. Phasers would fire at the speed of light, which is CONSTANT, a fundamental basis of modern physics. She would not have been able to avoid getting shot regardless of being hyper-accelerated.

Correction: Being hyper-accelerated, time is moving at a faster rate for them. The phaser is not hyper-accelerated so she easily steps out of its way. In near light-speed physics frame of reference becomes particularly important.

Rlvlk

Correction: The episode never claimed that it did. The episode revolved around the concept that damage had been done before the prime directive was in place.

Bread and Circuses - S2-E25

Corrected entry: We hear about "Hodgkin's' Law of Parallel Planet Development" but it still seems unlikely that this planet is going to have the same names for its deities as Earth's ancient Rome.

Correction: The Universal Translators adapt indigenous languages and terms into the closest Terran equivalent. The planet's deities' names may have been different.

Wink of an Eye - S3-E11

Corrected entry: The physics here don't make any sense. If the Scalosians are moving 840 times faster, that means when they walk down a corridor (at 2 miles/hour, their speed) they are really moving at about 1680 miles per hour - that's Mach 2. The Scalosians don't create sonic booms, and they don't have any trouble stopping and turning corners despite the Mach 2 speeds they're moving at.

Correction: Time was accelerated for them too. They had to stand in place for several of their minutes to be seen. They said it would the equivalent of standing still for several hours.

Rlvlk

Correction: The pink boundary at the edge of the galaxy is only shown from the same plane of space the Enterprise is at. If the Enterprise tried to go up or down the pink boundary would still be there.

Mark English

Correction: http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Delta_Vega. There is no listing for when the site was built. At the time it was built, it could have been manned and then left to automatic control.

Rlvlk

Where No Man Has Gone Before - S1-E4

Corrected entry: At the beginning, Kirk is talking about the Valiant having only impulse power so it didn't have enough power to leave the galaxy. Given the size of the galaxy and Kirk later saying that since the Enterprise was now on impulse power "that planets that were only hours away are now months away", it would take the Valiant about 200 years to get to the edge of the galaxy, thus arriving about the same time as the Enterprise. Also, the Valiant would have had to be launched around 1966.

Richard Welty

Correction: At some point the Valiant encountered a magnetic storm and was swept towards the edge of Galactic barrier because its impulse engines were not strong enough. It was swept ½ lightyear out of the galaxy, thrown clear, and then turned and headed back into the galaxy. http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/SS_Valiant.

Rlvlk

Show generally

Corrected entry: Romulans come from the planet Romulus, which has a nearby twin called Remus. These planets are named for the mythical founders of Rome, the twin sons of the war god Mars and the Vestal Rhea Silvia. But Romulans would not know about ancient Earth history, so it seems unlikely that they would name their planets after our mythology and refer to themselves as "Romulans."

Mark Bernhard

Correction: They didn't, any more than the Vulcans chose to name their planet after the Roman god of fire. These are simply the names given to those worlds by the humans - the universal translator is programmed to use Romulus and Remus to replace the true names of the planets. The same follows with the species name.

Tailkinker

The Enterprise Incident - S3-E2

Corrected entry: The Romulan Commander believes that Spock is trying to steal the cloaking device. So she hauls him down to the room holding it, goes into the room, and looks pretty much everywhere except the spot where it was mounted - doesn't she know where the device is. Finally her sub-commander tells her that it's gone, and she turns around and sees the empty slot.

Correction: She's not an engineer, and quite obviously has no idea how the cloaking device works nor what it looks like. Most people have no idea how their car runs, and it makes sense for the commander of the vessel to simply know what happens, not how it happens.

Tomorrow is Yesterday - S1-E20

Factual error: Towards the end of the show the Enterprise is leaving Earth orbit and heading towards the sun. We see the Earth diminish and the moon appear looking exactly as it does from Earth. From this angle we should be seeing the "dark side" of the moon, which looks completely different. (00:40:50)

von

More mistakes in Star Trek

Spock: Live long and prosper.

More quotes from Star Trek

Trivia: Gene Roddenberry created the transporter as an easier (and cheaper) way of getting Enterprise crew members onto a planet's surface, rather than landing the ship on the planet.

More trivia for Star Trek

Answer: Kirk was getting his physical and Dr. McCoy probably turned off communications, because if he hadn't, Kirk would have left and headed straight for the bridge, leaving McCoy irritated.

More questions & answers from Star Trek

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