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Teaos wrote:They could have been capable of building other bits of a transporter with out being able to build the key component.

Mechanical engineers and computer engineers ar two totally different fields. The Kazon could very well have decent mechanical engineers but **** computers. It was said their computers are not nearly up to federation spec.

The Cardassian had been feeding them info for ages and been with them for awhile. It is very possible she told them how to build the rest of it but the vital computing parts are far beyond her.

Yes, that's all possible, but stretches credibility to the limit. The fact that they are warp-capable, spacefaring, and aggressive to boot indicates that they would have computer tech at least up to the task of high-warp capability, extended operations, and mediocre-to-good fire control. As you said, it's POSSIBLE that this is not the case; it's just highly improbable.

But most if not all that tech was premade and designed by them by that race they overthrew. Duplicating something and keeping it running is different to making something new. They could follow the basic instructions on how to make athe bits of a transporter but had no chance of making something as advanced as a control unit.

If the Trabe had transporter technology before, why was everybody in the DQ - including Neelix AND the Kazon themselves - completely unfamiliar with it?

My point was that they have computers in general because they got it off the Trabe. They can duplicate it but not really better it or make it do something new like it would need to for the transporter.

The Cardassian told them how to build the basic transporter hubs ect but the control unit was well beyond her and them.

To use the car example again they had the chassy and the tyres but not the wheel or engine.

While saying that Seska was largely responsible for the Kazon transporter project is the most reasonable explanation, being the most reasonable of a number of bad explanations does not make it good. She was a spy, not an engineer, and while she probably had enough knowledge to maintain existing equipment, I don't see how that equates to building an entire transporter system from first principles, using a technological base that hasn't even conceived of it.

Captain Seafort wrote:While saying that Seska was largely responsible for the Kazon transporter project is the most reasonable explanation, being the most reasonable of a number of bad explanations does not make it good. She was a spy, not an engineer, and while she probably had enough knowledge to maintain existing equipment, I don't see how that equates to building an entire transporter system from first principles, using a technological base that hasn't even conceived of it.

She was an engineer on Voyager! I'm sure she did something while on board. She wouldn't be a very good spy if she was trying to blend in as an engineer and didn't know diddly squat about what she was doing. Cardassians also have perfect recall, so combine her memory of a transporter schematic with her knowledge of engineering and I'm sure she could get a basic transpoter built. The module they stole may be the engine they need to make it all work.

Would all this stuff we're saying be likely to happen? Maybe not. However when all other possibilities have been eliminated the remaining possibility however unlikely must be the solution. Unless someone else has a more plausible in-universe explination they would like to share? I belive all the possible plot holes have been explained fairly well.

ChakatBlackstar wrote:She was an engineer on Voyager! I'm sure she did something while on board. She wouldn't be a very good spy if she was trying to blend in as an engineer and didn't know diddly squat about what she was doing. Cardassians also have perfect recall, so combine her memory of a transporter schematic with her knowledge of engineering and I'm sure she could get a basic transpoter built. The module they stole may be the engine they need to make it all work.

I see you didn't read the post you quoted. Certainly she had the knowledge to maintain and repair starship systems, and probably had a working knowledge of how the transporter worked. That does not mean that she could create a transporter from first principles which, given the Kazon's lack of comprehension even of the concept, she would have had to. You're comparing the people who have to maintain equipment with those who design it - they're different jobs with different skills.

It'd be like a computer technician who works in a nuclear power plant being able to build a nuclear reactor and all other requirements with a team of brick layers.

Okay, one knows how a nuclear reactor works, the others know how to build a wall and maybe some shielding.

They can't build a reactor.

I too find that you are giving Seska quite a lot of credit.

Captain Picard's Hair wrote:I too find that you are giving Seska quite a lot of credit.

Well, she's probably more intelligent than the entire Kazon race combined (not that that's saying much), and more importantly has a technical background back in the Alpha Quadrant. The fact that she served as an engineer on Voyager shows that she at least knows something about starship maintainence, and could probably draw a circuit diagram of a transporter if Blackstar's assertion of her having a photographic memory is correct. The problem is that the ability to draw a circuit diagram does not equate to the ability to build one from scratch with no supporting infrastructure whatsoever. Thorin's analogy regarding a technician and a bunch of bricklayers trying to build a nuclear reactor is an apt one, although it probably overestimates the intelligence of the average Kazon.

Yet, despite what we've seen of the Kazon, they must have had some smart people working for them if they were able to build the transporter

The whole thing just makes no sense at all.

CPH wrote:Yet, despite what we've seen of the Kazon, they must have had some smart people working for them if they were able to build the transporter

The whole thing just makes no sense at all.

So they were smart enough to build a WHOLE TRANSPORTER SYSTEM, but not a control module?

Wait... I'm getting dizzy from these circles...

Can't we just settle for them being Mostly stupid

Can't we just settle for the episode and the writers being completely stupid?

That too