Star Trek

Requiem for Methuselah - S3-E19

Corrected entry: Mr. Flint grabs the Enterprise out of orbit and transfers it onto the table. We assume, because the ship is small, it doesn't weigh much. However, Star Trek canon states the Enterprise weighs 190,000 metric tons, size not withstanding. There's no way that small table could hold such a massive weight.

Mike Lynch

Correction: We have no idea of how the technology he uses works. If he can shrink the ships down to a miniature size and instantly put everyone in suspended animation, there's no telling if he can alter the weight as well. Not to mention the fact that if he has such advanced technology, he could have a table that's able to bear the weight.

Bishop73

The old "Fantastic Voyage" problem. There are only 2 ways to make something shrink - either you reduce the physical size, and the mass stays the same, in which case the Enterprise on the table now has neutron-star level gravitational pull, OR you delete 99% of the atoms and keep 1 out of every 100 (sampling), like reducing a bitmap image in size. And just like that image, when the Enterprise went back up to full scale, everything would be "chunky."

The Cloudminders - S3-E21

Corrected entry: Just how the Troglyte spy manages to leap over one of the cloud city's balconies to his death is a bit puzzling. Stratos City is held aloft by huge anti-gravity generators. An anti-grav field should, sensibly, extend far enough past the balcony railings to keep people from falling off. Surely the self-obsessed Stratos dwellers would extend that field, since they want to protect their own skins above all else. (00:07:05 - 00:11:30)

Jean G

Correction: This is not a plot hole. It is your judgment that the technology should work this way.

Correction: This isn't a mistake. It could barely be classified as trivia.

The Mark of Gideon - S3-E16

Corrected entry: The whole plot centers on the crowded conditions of the planet. The people are literally bumping into each other. Even if they had the blueprints to build a full size model of the Enterprise, there would be no room for it.

Correction: That's actually a plot point of the episode; that they were so desperate for this to work they were willing to sacrifice that much space.

Correction: The ship was originally on a crash course with Daran V but Spock discovered that the Oracle computer that runs the ship had a faulty part that caused it to change course.

The Mark of Gideon - S3-E16

Corrected entry: How the heck did the Gideons (who are not members of the Federation) get such exact specifications to make what Spock describes as "an exact duplicate of the Enterprise"? Does Starfleet just hand the plans out to anyone?

Correction: This is an unanswered question, not a plot hole. They could very well have advanced scanning capabilities. In fact, that would be a more realistic explanation than schematics, as personal items are duplicated as well.

The Cloudminders - S3-E21

Corrected entry: When Plasus and two sentinels beam down to break up the fight near the mine, Plasus is on the end of the trio as they materialize. The camera angle changes as they step off the dais, and Plasus is suddenly in the middle. (00:05:10)

Jean G

Correction: When Plasus and the two sentinels are materializing on the landing pad, Plasus is between and behind the two sentinels (look at their feet in relation to the outer rim of the pad). The initial camera angle makes it a bit difficult to see, but the men are in fact positioned consistently during and after transport.

Correction: Spock only gives her the instructions after Scott opened the access plate. Prior to that he gave no instructions for her to not take her eyes off the readings. Once Scott inserted the probe is when the magnetic readings needed to be monitored, calling Uhura's name and having her take her eyes off the monitor at that moment caused no danger (or plot hole error).

Bishop73

Is There in Truth No Beauty? - S3-E5

Corrected entry: In the sickbay near the end, Diana Muldaur got her line wrong, resulting in this contradictory dialogue: Kirk: "He'll die. But that's what you want, isn't it?" Miranda: "That's a lie!" Kirk: "Oh yes it is - you want him to die." Miranda's line was supposed to be, "That's not true," with Kirk's "Yes it is" contradicting her. As it stands, she claims it's a lie, and Kirk replies "Yes it is."

Jean G

Correction: Kirk's reply of "yes it is" refers back to his statement of what Miranda wants - "that's what you want...yes it is, you want him to die". He's continuing his train of thought, not replying to her statement.

Bishop73

The Tholian Web - S3-E9

Corrected entry: Spock has been known to say that Vulcans don't lie. But in this episode, he backed up McCoy who was trying to spare Kirk's feelings. When asked by Kirk about the final taped orders he left them, Spock said that "The crisis was upon us and passed so quickly there wasn't time to view the tape." A bald faced lie.

Correction: Spock says "the crisis passed so quickly," and then trails off. He never says they didn't watch it.

In reference to hearing Kirk's last taped orders, it was actually Dr. McCoy that said "there wasn't time. We never had a chance to listen to them."

Correction: Of course, the good Doctor would not be fiddling with Spock's forehead using his hands. He'd be manipulating mechanical servos (Waldos) or something analogous, since reconnecting neurons would require microscopic instruments and likely nanotechnology.

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

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

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

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

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.

Wink of an Eye - S3-E11

Corrected entry: Just after Kirk is "accelerated" by the Scalosians, he draws and fires his phaser. Even if the burst was a mere microsecond in length, wouldn't the instruments he hit be fried?

Correction: It's unlikely. Phasers are rarely used at their highest setting - combined with the very short beam time, this would be enough to spare the instruments any damage.

Tailkinker

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

Journey to Babel - S2-E10

Amanda: And you, Sarek, would you also say thank you to your son?
Sarek: I don't understand.
Amanda: Well, for saving your life.
Sarek: Spock acted in the only logical manner open to him. One does not thank logic, Amanda.
Amanda: Logic, logic - I'm sick to death of logic! Do you want to know how I feel about your logic?
Spock: Emotional, isn't she?
Sarek: She has always been that way.
Spock: Indeed? Why did you marry her?
Sarek: At the time, it seemed the logical thing to do.

Super Grover

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Who Mourns for Adonais? - S2-E2

Trivia: An ending that was planned but abandoned for this episode would have revealed that Lieutenant Palamas was pregnant with Apollo's child.

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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.

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