Posted: Mon Feb 26, 2007 3:11 am
Kinda hate to simply rehash an old thread of mine from SB.com but;
Enterprise continuity issues
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I’ve always thought that every episode has at least one continuity flaw, granted many of them are minor nit-picks (Tribbles come to mind as well as the Telerites having 5 fingers instead of 3, etc,etc). I have compiled this list of the flaws which in my opinion are not minor nit-picks; the ones which I believe are the very heart of continuity flaws and in the end simply make the Starfleet personnel look stupid. This might all be academic at this point considering that B&B have made it official that ENTERPRISE is set in an alternate time line (as of the episode ‘Carpenter Street’), no doubt in order to leave themselves an out for all the fans who keep making an issue out of the continuity. Some would ask “Why the concern over continuity? Can’t you just enjoy the show? After all the other Star Trek shows have all had similar flaws.” The answer to that is; no they haven’t, the other shows have had continuity flaws to be sure, but none of the other shows were prequels. This show should fill in the gaps of established trek history, not make up new stuff that ends up re-writing what we do know about star trek. We who cry about the continuity do so because we want the show to make sense ,if you have to sit around thinking up all kinds of elaborate excuses to explain away some of these major flaws, flaws that should not have popped up in the first place then that makes the show less enjoyable. Some of these flaws simply make not only the ENTERPRISE characters look like idiots, but also has a rippling effect that can make the later characters look like uninformed idiots as well. I fully expect some will no doubt disagree with my viewpoint on this matter, and that’s fine, it will encourage more debate on this subject, and that’s the fun part.
And now, the flaws that ENTERPRISE could do without.
VULCAN MIND MELD
First it was an ancient technique abandoned centuries ago, and then it was a genetic anomaly that only a small minority possessed. Keep in mind however that up until ENT, almost every Vulcan seen in all other incarnations of star trek had this rare ability, that almost indicates that the Federation and Starfleet only accepts those with this ability. I know, I know, a lot can happen in 100 years, the problem with that is that we are not talking about just a hundred years; we’re talking about one generation. Spock’s father, who happens to be one of these genetic freaks, is born sometime in the decade that ENT takes place in, and within half of his lifetime (he appeared to be middle aged in ‘Journey to Babel’) this ability which would have gotten him ostracized by his own people, instead becomes a tradition used for parent and child bonding, male and female bonding for later mating, as well as being included in later ceremonies. Some of the most revered and respected matriarchs on Vulcan are melders (T’Pau, who B&B were originally going to make the part that eventually became T’Pol) yet in their younger days they would have been shunned. Here’s something to think about; seeing as how every major Vulcan character on all the other Star Trek series have all been able to mind meld while very few have never been observed melding at all, and considering that all the older Vulcan females that have appeared in leadership positions on Vulcan can all meld (Amok time, STTMP, ST3). Does this mean that the melding Vulcan’s did something to the non-melding Vulcan’s and took over the planet?
CLOAKING DEVICE
Kirk and Spock refer to the Romulan cloaking screen as an invisibility screen and Spock has to inform Kirk that ’Invisibility is theoretically possible’. It is clear from Kirk’s and his crew’s reaction, as well as the reaction of the guy in outpost 4, that a ship able to become invisible is new to them (remember the guy at the outpost sounded surprised at the Romulan ship becoming visible for only a moment. If the Romulan's had had this ability in the past he should not be surprised at all with a ship that can become invisible ether visually or on sensors). There isn’t an ‘Hmm a new type of cloaking device’ reaction; it’s more of a ‘WTF!’ reaction. Yet a hundred years before this we learn that Kirk, his crew and the guy on outpost 4 are all uninformed idiots because Archer encountered a cloaking device in the third or fourth episode, and the Suliban cell ships all appear to have cloaks as well (at least the one Archer captured has a very sophisticated one), not to mention they now have the ability to detect the Suliban's advanced future tech cloaks. And lo and behold, the Romulan’s already had cloaking technology as well, so refined was it that they were able to cloak hundreds of small mines. This is so distressing to Starfleet that they waited a hundred years so that they could send Kirk to steal one of these devices for study.
TIME TRAVEL
Well at least Kirk can still lay claim to having been the first ship to LEARN how to travel through time, even if he and his crew are no longer the first to prove time travel or even to be first to travel through time…. Of course ENTERPRISE isn’t over yet.
RURA PENTHE
Kirk you nimrod, you obviously aren’t the first to escape from Rura Penthe, you uninformed dweeb.
XINDI WAR
I was going to bring this up, but as they really aren’t at war with the Xindi yet and Daniels has confirmed that they have no records of any conflict with the Xindi (can you say alternate time line?) Why bother.
FERENGI
They captured the ship, incapacitated the crew, stole all the weapons as well as a few torpedoes, tried to kidnap all the women, caused damage to several systems in an attempt to steal everything that WAS nailed down, Trip and Archer managed to capture them and force them at gun point no less to put back everything they stole, only to let them go without asking what species they are!? If you are supposed to be seeking new life and new civilizations, then shouldn’t you at least ask the aliens who hijacked your ship and tried to sell half of your crew into slavery what their species is called?! This isn’t a continuity flaw for anyone else, but it makes Archer look stupid (it’s an ‘I can’t believe they gave him a ship’ moment). Apparently this run in with humans was so traumatizing that the Ferengi avoided all contact with them (and it would appear the federation as a whole) for the next 200 years even though their culture is based solely on commerce and trade with multiple races (and cheating them of course).
THE BORG
This episode showed how the Borg first became aware of Earth, and upon receiving this message the Borg immediately raids the Earth/Romulan neutral zone…. And then go back home. Keep in mind that in STFC the Borg were attempting to contact the Borg of that time period by using an interplexing beacon so that the Borg in that time frame could come and assimilate Earth in the past (of course the Borg in ENT didn’t think to make an interplexing beacon so it’s all OK now). I’ll bet Picard was pissed when he learned that Starfleet had advanced Borg tech from a 200 year old crash site and they never bothered to tell him about it. Let’s recap; The Borg had raided Guinan's people who had already had contact with Earth and the Federation in Kirks era, they captured a federation vessel the Raven, with a young 7 of 9 aboard, they had raided a number of outposts along the neutral zone and even had a confrontation with Picard. The problem with ENTERPRISES encounter with the Borg is that it was unnecessary and redundant. All the other episodes had already showed how the Borg became aware of the Federation, at best you could say that the Borg became fully interested in the Federation after Picards first encounter with them AND THEN they receive this Borg message from 200 years ago. Remember The Borg were attempting to send a message to the Borg of 2061 in order to have those Borg arrive to assimilate Earth before the Federation existed, so the fact that the message sent in this episode of ENT would take 200 years to reach its destination made the whole episode completely pointless. (What is interesting is that these 200 year old weapons appear to be more effective than the weapons in Picard’s era).
AKIRAPRISE
I’m sorry but I really am disappointed in the new ships design, when I saw the first pic of it on the cover of TV Guide I thought at first that it was a pic of the Akira class until I got a close look at it. It does not look like a predecessor to Kirk’s ship; at best it looks like a failed in-between concept between the TOS Constitution class and the movie Constitution class refit. I think the ship should have a more Spartan appearance, it doesn’t have to be absolutely completely smooth but I don’t think it should have so many retro and streamlined sections on it. The Bridge looks more like the movie bridge than the TOS Bridge and of course there is the Akira look. “But obviously it was a highly successful design, so much so that they reused it for the Akira 200 years later.” No doubt, but this seams to indicate that the design was flawless from the get go, that Starfleet’s very first attempt was absolutely perfect with no flaws at all. I don’t buy it, and I would still prefer a design that I hadn’t seen before, something that would make me believe that it would eventually evolve into the classic Enterprise, I don’t get that from this new ship, even its portholes come from the movie version. http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/mi...gn_comment.htm has a couple of designs that are based off of the Akira class and look more like predecessors to TOS than this one does, and I recall someone here posting a pic of a ship (Starship Archer I think it was called) which had a more believable look than the Akiraprise, in short I don’t buy it as a precursor at all. On the plus side however, the ships interiors are well done (the only really believable interior from TOS for me was the Bridge.)I’m willing to overlook the color bands on the uniform shoulders as well which are a little to TNG if you ask me (not to mention the rank pips). The only set I have a problem with is the bridge, I think it should have more duty stations, and whatever happened to the navigators position next to the helm?
STORY ARCS
The temporal cold war is uninteresting, it obviously was not planed out in advance which would make the stories hard to write for and stay within established continuity without unnecessarily changing history (something they apparently aren’t worried about), besides time travel stories have been mostly played out in Star Trek at this point. The better story line in the series dealt with the relationships between Earth, Vulcan and Andoria, I love those episodes, and I like the Human/Vulcan tension. I wish that had been the main focus of the show building up to the creation of the Federation, in more competent hands it would have been. As for the new Xindi story arc, it’s fine for its own sake, but I would still prefer the above story arc instead.
Well that’s it, there are other issues no doubt but these are the main flaws for me in the series (OK a couple of them are kind of uninteresting). People have attempted to come up with a variety of explanations for the main issues that I have listed here, some of them kind of work, while others do not. Most of them simply seem to make the various characters look like idiots, not to mention that all of our explanations are all non-cannon. I leave the debate as well as the interpretation of all that I have written to those who were willing to slog through my meanderings.