Star Trek

The Doomsday Machine - S2-E6

Plot hole: Commodore Decker takes over command of the enterprise but Spock says if McCoy can certify him incompetent (which he obviously is) he can be relieved of command. McCoy says he will certify him now, so why doesn't he? In other episodes it has been stated that McCoy can order anybody regardless of rank to an examination to see if they are physically or mentally fit.

hifijohn

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Suggested correction: Spock immediately asks McCoy for the results of his medical exam of Decker, which are required for him to be certified unfit. McCoy says he hasn't done one. Therefore, he can't certify it.

That Which Survives - S3-E17

Character mistake: Watkins is asked to check the bypass valve, there the woman appears, asked about the panel, it's obvious she's not part of the crew. Instead of calling security or Mr Scott he starts to describe the panel, which I'm assuming would be classified information.

hifijohn

Requiem for Methuselah - S3-E19

Factual error: Spock plays a piece on a harpsichord that he says is by Brahms, but Brahms was a late romantic composer and the piece is a simple baroque dance piece. Also by the time of Brahms the harpsichord was already obsolete, a composition like this wouldn't be sitting on a harpsichord.

hifijohn

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Suggested correction: The first sentence is logical; if Spock is able to recognize the style as Brahms, then it should not possess the style and structure of Baroque music. The second sentence is not necessarily true because some romantic composers did write for the harpsichord. For instance, the late romantic composer Richard Strauss composed, "Divertimento for Chamber Orchestra after Keyboard Pieces by Couperin", which is scored with a harpsichord part.

The Naked Time - S1-E5

Continuity mistake: In the opening, the crewman gets a few drops of the infectant on his hand, but the reddish mass on the wall remains. On the ship, when the spectral view is shown, the red mass is nowhere to be seen.

Movie Nut

The Menagerie (2) - S1-E13

Deliberate mistake: At the very end, the Talosians send a final visual transmission of Vina and Christopher Pike, now whole and happy and reunited after 13 years, holding hands as they enter the Talosian elevator in the hillside. However, in this last shot, the elevator is still half-disintegrated, exactly as it was 13 years earlier when the Enterprise crew destroyed the hillside with a laser cannon. Within the context of "The Menagerie" storyline, this suggests that the Talosians never attempted to repair the elevator for 13 years (even though they continued using it). This incongruity is due to Gene Roddenberry cannibalizing his Star Trek pilot "The Cage," which contained zero footage of Jeffrey Hunter and Susan Oliver entering the intact elevator together (only the destroyed elevator). So, Roddenberry deliberately tried to "slip one by" the audience in this brief shot.

Charles Austin Miller

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Suggested correction: There are reasons why the elevator would appear damaged. As the Talosians were in control of everything shown on the ship's viewer, the entire scene could be an illusion, or at least the elevator's condition may have been, with the Talosians choosing to allow the viewers to see the elevator in the same condition they last saw it. Just as likely, however, is that the Talosians truly never did reconstruct the elevator, as the whole point of their having a menagerie of other beings was an attempt to breed a race that could physically serve them, for their concentration on their mental powers had led to a complete inability and unwillingness to perform physical tasks (like repairing an elevator).

Still, as long as the Talosians are creating the illusion of Christopher Pike and Vina in their "restored" bodies, why not create an illusion of the elevator and hillside restored, as well? One big illusion of restoration, rather than a composite of dismal reality and happy-ending illusion? Again, to the point of my original post, the obvious incongruity is due to Roddenberry using the only happy-ending footage he possessed, that of Pike and Vina entering the half-obliterated elevator as they did at the end of "The Cage." Certainly, if Roddenberry only had the foresight to shoot Jeffrey Hunter and Susan Oliver entering the intact elevator, he would have used that footage instead. Any attempt to explain away the 13-year incongruity is mere wishful thinking.

This would qualify as a question, not a mistake. It is entirely plausible that the Talosians wouldn't bother to repair the elevator. It's also possible, as the previous correction points out, that the entire scene is an illusion. Remember, Captain Kirk sees Vina and Pike together on the planet literally moments after Spock wheels Pike out of the room. It's unlikely Pike had already been beamed down.

The Menagerie (2) - S1-E13

Revealing mistake: When the Talosians place Christopher Pike and Vina into the "picnic" illusion (in the countryside on Earth), Pike wanders around marveling at how real it all seems. Well, "real" except for the fact that Pike's body is casting 4 distinct shadows in 4 different directions on the ground, the result of studio set lighting.

Charles Austin Miller

I, Mudd - S2-E8

Plot hole: How did the android Norman get aboard the enterprise? If he beamed aboard I'm sure someone would have noticed and where did he beam from? The Enterprise was nowhere near any planet and I'm sure they would have detected any spacecraft nearby.

hifijohn

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Suggested correction: These are unanswered questions, not plot holes.

But something phrased as a question because it has no decent answer can constitute a plot hole.

Jon Sandys

The Man Trap - S1-E2

Plot hole: The salt creature needs salt, but there is no need for the creature to kill anybody, just have them deliver a large shipment of salt the next time some ship come to visit the planet.

hifijohn

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Suggested correction: As shown several times, the creature is acting on craving and impulse. It's able to not attack Dr. Crater because they have a mutual relationship, as well as he provides salt for her from their supplies. But their supplies are running low, as he even stated they did have 25 pounds of salt but displays a jar with barely any left in it. It is reasonable to assume that he has had to start rationing the supply of salt to her to keep her till they could get another shipment. They were not getting the salt right off after Kirk arrived, and so the creature could not resist the urge to suck salt it needed out of the crewman when they were together alone, reason and logic being clouded by its desire and feral cravings.

Quantom X

Shore Leave - S1-E16

Character mistake: Yeoman Barrows is a crew member on an star ship and I assume has experienced or has trained to experience many different things she will encounter on the tour of duty but she freaks out and cries uncontrollably just because she sees Don Juan.

hifijohn

Miri - S1-E9

Plot hole: 300 years is just too long for the children to be on their own. How did they keep their clothes relatively clean for 300 years? Since the kids are playing all day they aren't out in the fields planting and harvesting crops for food, how did they eat?

hifijohn

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Suggested correction: For the clothes, it's highly unlikely that they wore the same sets for 300 years. They are in a town/city and on a world that is mostly empty of most human life now. They can easily just find more clothing their size from other houses and even stores. As far as food, children are very good scavengers.

Quantom X

The issue of clothing is not so much an issue as is the issue of food. Given that the children are growing at an incredibly slow rate, their metabolism is probably much, much, much slower and would require far less sustenance.

Charles Austin Miller

Ah yes, didn't think of that. That too.

Quantom X

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Suggested correction: Spock explains that it is deeply personal and is never talked about with other worlders. Even McCoy didn't know about it.

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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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.

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I, Mudd - S2-E8

Question: When Kirk and crew neutralized all the androids on the planet, what happened to the androids on the Enterprise running the ship?

Answer: After causing Norman to overload, all of the other androids shut down. The same could be said for the androids on the Enterprise.

Answer: If all the humans beamed down and only Androids were on the ship as Larry Mudd said then how did they get back aboard the Enterprise if all the robots were shut down.

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