poehitman

Silicon Avatar - S5-E4

Corrected entry: When the colonists go into the cave to escape from the Crystalline Entity, you can see perfectly formed steps going down into the cave. The colonists were the first people there. Why would there already be perfectly formed steps in a cave?

poehitman

Correction: There is nothing in the episode stating that the caverns had never been used before.

The Pegasus - S7-E12

Corrected entry: Apparently when it came to taking the ship into the asteroid, the entire bridge crew conveniently forgot that Galaxy class federation starships can separate. The obviously prudent course of action would be to separate the ship and send the star drive section (the narrower section) into the asteroid while the saucer section (the wider section) stood guard outside. The only reason this wasn't done was to provide drama for the rest of the episode when the Romulans collapsed the entrance to the chasm.

poehitman

Correction: This is purely speculation. They may have needed the equipment, sensors, and weapons of the entire ship.

Booby Trap - S3-E6

Corrected entry: It's a given that the Enterprise had the ability to use phasers to fire at the aceton collectors, but since they run on energy, why didn't they use photon torpedoes to destroy the collectors? They don't rely on regular energy, but explosive force to do their destructive capabilities. Even those collectors wouldn't be able to withstand a matter/anti-matter explosion of a photon torpedo without any type of shielding.

poehitman

Correction: A matter/anti-matter explosion still releases energy that other collectors would use. Matter/anti-matter explosions is how they power the ship, by harnessing the power from the explosion.

Silicon Avatar - S5-E4

Corrected entry: When Dr. Marr arrives on the Enterprise, she states that she's excited because there have never been survivors from an attack from the Crystalline Entity. They also state that the Entity consumes all organic matter (including bacteria) and leaves none behind. Later, when Dr. Marr and Data are inspecting the cave the colonists took refuge in, she states that on two other planets, victims took refuge in caves and still perished. Now if the Entity consumes all organic matter (including bacteria) and there were no survivors, how would they know where the colonists took refuge, or even if they took refuge there at all? If all organic matter is gone, then there would be no trace of the colonists remaining.

poehitman

Correction: Synthetic clothes, equipment, luggage, any non-organic items the people had on them would be piled up in the caves. Once you know you're dealing with something that consumes all organic material, it wouldn't be hard to figure out what happened when you find a pile of polyester shirts and piles of keys and such lying in a cave.

Gary O'Reilly

The Big Goodbye - S1-E12

Corrected entry: When Picard leaves the holodeck after the holodeck character kisses him, the lipstick remains on his face. As we're told later in the episode, matter created on the holodeck cannot exist outside the holodeck. So once Picard left, the lipstick should have vanished since it came from a holodeck character. The "correction" that says simple matter can leave the holodeck is incorrect, since in another episode, they throw a book (which is simple matter) out of the holodeck and it dissolves.

poehitman

Correction: The book was, as you pointed out, thrown. It was not being carried by a person. The technical manual states that many of the objects on the holodeck are in fact generated using the standard replication process. But when Picard threw the book, the holodeck simply recycled the energy from that book, the same way the food replicators recycle any food left over. When Picard walks off with lipstick on his face, or when Data walks off with a piece of paper that Moriarty gave him on "Elementary, Dear Data", the system allowed those things to be carried out without recycling them. You can take issue with what makes the holodeck decide when to recycle material or not, but the fact is simple: some simple objects can be taken off of the holodeck.

Garlonuss

Final Mission - S4-E9

Corrected entry: Why would the Enterprise need to tow the barge all the way through the asteroid belt? The reason given was they needed the deflector shields to clear a path through the asteroid belt. They could easily tow it enough to build up enough inertial speed, and then calculate the correct trajectory and have the computer tell them when to cut it loose on that trajectory towards the sun. Then increase speed and pull out ahead and clear out a clear path for the barge to pass through at a safe distance. The only reason to do it the way they did was to make it more dramatic.

poehitman

Correction: You assume the asteroids are stationary. If the Enterprise is too far ahead, a stray asteroid could still enter the barge's path.

JC Fernandez

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.