What's the most improbable aspect of the Trek universe?

[Sionnach Glic]

Aye, they mention the language issue a total of once in SG-1, and make some vague comment about it being due to some magical ability of the Stargate. Much like the TARDIS's abilities in that same area.

[Black Jesus]

I think another for top contender is that Starfleet engineers have no knowledge of the fuse. Perhaps WWIII wiped out all knowledge of the fuse and they've yet to re-discover this centuries old technology. If only they would then so many lives would be saved from non-exploding control panels.

[Mark]

The Universal Translator. Being able to translate an entire language after just a couple words...yeah...

And make an aliens mouth form the words in English as well 8)

[Tyyr]

And throw in the occasional accent.

I think another for top contender is that Starfleet engineers have no knowledge of the fuse. Perhaps WWIII wiped out all knowledge of the fuse and they've yet to re-discover this centuries old technology. If only they would then so many lives would be saved from non-exploding control panels.

Oh come on, everyone knows you need a couple dozen megawatts to power a control panel.

[Nickswitz]

He has a point though, a fuse would fix so many problems, the control panels wouldn't have to be rebuilt, you just pop open the back and put in a new fuse.

[Tyyr]

Of course he has a point. It's just one of Trek's more ridiculous tropes.

[Mark]

Falling debris or a hole in the bridge is a messy way to kill off the bridge crew. A handy exploding panel is much nicer.

[Lazar]

I remember when Riker died in "Yesterday's Enterprise", it looked like a pile of rocks fell on him from the ceiling.

[Tsukiyumi]

I remember when Riker died in "Yesterday's Enterprise", it looked like a pile of rocks fell on him from the ceiling.

Well, what else would they use for fireproofing?

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

I remember when Riker died in "Yesterday's Enterprise", it looked like a pile of rocks fell on him from the ceiling.

Same thing with Garrett(sp) in the E-C when she got killed.

[kostmayer]

What was it he said in Contagion - "If it should become necessary to fight, could you arrange to find some rocks to throw at them?"

Should always be careful what you wish for.

[Tyyr]

Sharp rocks, that managed to slit his throat.

[steamrunner]

The Universal Translator. Being able to translate an entire language after just a couple words...yeah...

And make an aliens mouth form the words in English as well 8)

Exactly... Memory Alpha has a pretty good article on the UT, also mentioning this point. (I'd post a link, but I'm not sure how...) It would be like watching a film dubbed in English...er...Federation Standard.

[Lazar]

And make an aliens mouth form the words in English as well 8)

I think this can be explained as a sort of dramatic convention, or you could say, an imperfect representation of the fictional universe. Look at the scene between Chang and Azetbur in STVI, or some of the scenes in "Little Green Men", where there's an abrupt switch in the language that the actors are speaking, and you can see that lip movements are determined by the language that the actors are speaking OOU, not by the language that the characters are speaking IU. So I think lip movements have a certain kind of... canon-flexibility.

Then there's the question of how the UT masks the sound of the aliens' voices - maybe that's another dramatic convention, or maybe the UT actually includes some sort of noise-reducing feature... but then what if you've got two Ferengi and two humans all talking among each other? That would be a flipping mess. If you consider any case where we've seen an alien talk to a human in English and then turn to talk to another alien in English, then I think it's likely that the UT (at least the portable version of it) doesn't mask the sound of people's voices IU.

[Sionnach Glic]

I'd post a link, but I'm not sure how...

Linking to a site's not too hard. Simply type what's below:

Code: Select all

[url]whatever the adress is[/url]

For example, if I wanted to link to DITL:

Code: Select all

[url]www.ditl.org[/url]

That comes out like this:
http://www.ditl.org

To dress (shorten) a link, type the following:

Code: Select all

[url=www.ditl.org]Link[/url]

Which comes out like:
Link