Why do many Star Trek fans insist that Trelane could have been from the Q Continuum, when he needed a device to enhance his powers?
122314
Few characters in Star Trek are known by their name only, with zero knowledge of the species to which they belong. Some examples are Trelane, Nagilum, and the Edo god.  "The Squire of Gothos" gives us Trelane, a powerful being that many have considered to be a Q. I personally don't believe that this is the case---Q-Squared is not canon---and the TOS episode shows that Trelane has weaknesses that members of the Q do not have.  Undoubtedly Trelane does not belong to any of the other species in the Star Trek canon. Based on the evidence, though, what species could Trelane belong to?  A) Trelane states that his people have found a way to perfect the converting of matter into other forms (words to that effect).  B) Trelane is not omniscient.  C) Trelane has respect for Captain Kirk's crew, and humanity in general (another reason why Trelane is not a good candidate for the Q).  D) Trelane enjoys "playing" with the crew of the Enterprise, and has no problem judging Captain Kirk, and scheduling his execution.  E) Trelane's creations are not illusions, but they are not perfect, either (the fire has no heat, for example).   F) Trelane apparently required the use of a machine to help him with his effects, though this may have been for show.
4681
I have very vague impressions of a book I must have read as a child/teenager in the 1980s (so probably published in the UK in the 1970s or early 1980s).  It featured a man who had been technologically enhanced with special powers that he could activate only for short periods (probably because they took a lot of energy), possibly by tonguing one of his teeth.  They gave him:   Much faster reactions; everything around him slowed down. Greater strength/speed. Metal fingernails/claws. Possibly some sort of enhanced vision, too.   I think it described him engaging these powers as: He activated. or similar.  He may have been a mercenary type, who had paid a lot for them; they were rare or unique.  I don't recall any plot or other characters; it was probably a techno-action story.  (No magic, armies, warrior races, telepathy, vampires, or mutants, and I don't recall aliens or space travel.)  It may have been part of a short series of 2 or 3 books.  I'm afraid this isn't much to go on!  I'd completely forgotten about this book until recently, and my impressions are very hazy, so any of the above could be wrong.  (I remember enjoying it, though.)  I've not found anything I recognise on this site, or others; nor in lists of adult and young-person's SF for that period (so it probably wasn't a big-name author).  Does it ring any bells for anyone?
110466
DS9: "Sons of Mogh":     KURN: I have never understood you, Worf. But I do know this. In your own way you are an honourable man.  (Kurn passes out.)       WORF: And you will be an honourable man again, but not as my brother.   Above implies that Kurn did not know what was about to happen to him and that this was a unilateral decision by Worf.     WORF: What will he remember?       BASHIR: He'll know he's a Klingon, and how to speak the language, and   virtually everything he needs to know in order to survive, except who   he is. And that's the first question he'll ask. Who am I? Do you have   an answer?       WORF: There is a man named Noggra, a friend of our father's. He will   be arriving in a few hours. He has agreed to provide Kurn with a new   identity and a new family. He will supply Kurn with all the answers he   needs.       BASHIR: Are you absolutely certain about this, Worf? Once I've erase   his memory engrams it'll be almost impossible to restore them. He   won't remember you or anything about his real life.       WORF: It is the only way. You may begin.   Again by Worf asking Bashir about the procedure while Kurn is on the table unconscious implies that Kurn was not consulted about this procedure beforehand.  Bashir is a Federation doctor that took a hippocratic oath. Part of that oath is to do no harm. Most people wouldn't want their family doing an elective procedure on them without their consent. In fact, most people wouldn't want any procedure done on them without their consent. (especially one to wipe their memory)   Kurn was effectively stipped of his very being, his memories, everything that made him who he was. Bashir even said it, he won't remember anything about his "real life." He became an empty shell, basically how Klingons refer to their dead.   He didn't really get his honor back, his soul and/or lineage did not change. Plastic surgery, some DNA changes, and wiping someone's memory doesn't change their soul. Although this is not my question, it is something to consider.   I can't believe Sisko would allow it to happen on DS9. There has to be some Federation law against something like this. Telepathically reading someone's mind without their consent is illegal in the Federation. Remember in the same episode Sisko reams Worf for trying to kill his brother to regain his honor, which clearly is a Klingon ritual. Bashir had just saved Kurn earlier thereby stopping a Klingon ritual before it ended.  Even the way they did it was sneaky. If they had asked Kurn, there's a good chance he'd say no. There's no honor in living a lie. What a horrible violation it was.  The Federation is supposed to be an enlightened advanced society.  In light his hippocratic oath to do no harm, existing Federation law, and Kurn's civil liberties, how could Bashir possibly perform this operation without Kurn's consent?  STU, EU, and writers notes are welcome. Anyone with knowledge of Hippocratic oaths or Federation law would be helpful as well.
40042
I recently watched Interstellar and it was quite an amazing movie. There is something that has been bothering me. At the end, when Cooper is stuck in the time-space shelf created by the other beings (themselves/humans), he communicates with himself and Murph and he himself is the one to call himself in the space and save the earth by communicating the code back to his daughter.  My question is: If the future humans knew about the solution to the problem, why did they or Cooper chose himself to go through all the trouble to go through the space and then communicate with his daughter. Why couldn't they have done it themselves and sent the solution back to Murph themselves from the future.   Let me put it this way: "When Cooper saw himself from the shelf, why did he send himself the co-ordinates again. Why not just give Murph the solution only" Instead of sending himself the co-ordinates, couldn't he just have given Murph the solution. If the people of the future knew the solution (that they knew because that is how they survived) couldn't Cooper have just sent it to Murph from the future instead of going through the loop in space again?
90291
I just finished watching Star Trek: Voyager and it occurred to me that the Borg (especially with the transwarp hub that Voyager destroyed) could have assimilated the Alpha Quadrant with waves of ships.  In episode 26 of season 4 (Hope and Fear), Arturis mentioned how the Borg surrounded their entire system with a thousands of ships.  I thought this reference was surprising as that was really the only instance of the Borg acting collectively to assimilate a species beyond the incident with fluidic space.
108058
In Star Trek: Discovery (Season 1, Episode 4), the “tardigrade” that the crew of the Discovery had taken from the Glenn      killed Landry, the Security Officer of the Discovery.    This felt, for lack of a better word, rushed. She ordered the tardigrade tranquilized, and was prepared to rush in to lop off a claw, despite Michael’s rather sensible warnings. She was, after all, the Security Officer, and hadn’t shown such extreme recklessness previously. In-universe, why was she so confident that a few seconds of sedation would render it safe to drop the containment field?   It was also rushed on the scale of the show: she was pronounced dead very quickly, and the show moved on to other things (despite her having seemed, in my impression, Lorca’s right hand).  So on a highly related note, was there an out-of-universe explanation for this, which might explain the apparent sloppiness? For example, did the actor not want to sign on for more episodes?
112949
Is there an in-universe explanation for why the Borg always move like 1950s cheap-special-effects sci-fi tin can robots?   With the advanced technology they have, you'd think they would have BETTER (faster, more graceful) movement than humans, with more advanced power sources, better motors (or augmented muscles), and better controlled software/hardware.  Instead, they have these jerky, slow motion movements that make absolutely no sense whatsoever, except possibly that "the studio people wanted to make them look 'like robots'" (on top of all the visible Borg gear) and this was the only, not-too-brilliant, idea they came up with.  Is there an explanation for this? (ideally, in-universe, or an "official" franchise out-of-universe one)?   P.S. I'm interested in an existing explanation, NOT in someone's personal theory.
28328
Is there any canon reference to the Mirror Universe Borg that would explain more about them?   I've tried searching on my own and haven't found anything.
45726
As shown in various episodes ("Mirror, Mirror," "Phantasms," etc.), other universes exist, oftentimes containing the same characters, albeit in different situations than in the prime universe. I'm curious, though, whether individuals that apparently exist outside of the multiverse, such as members of the Q, would not be duplicated elsewhere. It seems reasonable to me, but I'm not sure.
54918
The  prohibited the development or use of cloaking technology by the Federation. This treaty was a peace treaty and use of cloaking technology in one's own space couldn't disturb peace. Plus, the Romulans already had cloaking technology, so banning it was unfair for the Federation. So, why was this ban introduced?  Another thing: There were many things to ban, but why cloaking technology?
50434
After watching (I'm sure quite too) many Star Trek episodes, I've noticed a number of occasions where the characters seem to step away or onto a more specific location to get transported, even if they are not anywhere near a transporter "pad."  Recently, I noticed this at the end of Deep Space Nine, Season 4, Episode 11, Paradise Lost - Part 2 where it's clear that Sisko steps slightly out of the way and closer to the group of other people to get transported, before he actually is ...   However, I've noticed this, to some extent in episodes of all 5 live-action TV series.  So, the question is ... is there there something inherent in transporter technology that requires people to be either:   Closer together in proximity or ... In a certain location before normal transportation is possible?   Note: I realize this is sci-fi and an easy answer is "well it's a bit of a plot device, it depends ..." That's kinda weak, I'm looking for a more well-rounded anwser.
48225
I was surprised to be reminded that while Q appeared many times on The Next Generation and Voyager, he also appeared in one Deep Space 9 episode "Q-less".  Obviously, this is pretty lucky that he happens to have interacted with exactly the three crews we have TV shows about.  We know he interacted in the past with the El-Aurians (Guinan), the Borg, and any number of single-reference species.    But the obvious ones I can think of are throwaway references or backstory.  Are there any canon references to Q interacting in a more concrete way, in contemporary times with a major race (from our point of view) such as a Federation member, another Federation ship, the Klingons, Romulans, Ferengi, etc?
36999
Star Trek is one of the few SF shows to have the distinction of running long enough to make some of their original situations outdated.  In the original Star Trek, the Eugenics wars took place between 1993-1996.  Star Trek: The Next Generation was produced from 1987 until 1994, so it was being produced during that time period and Star Trek: Voyager started production after that, so those shows were actually produced during and after the time when Earth was supposedly going through a terrible war.  The Eugenics Wars were not mentioned in The Next Generation or Deep Space Nine, and were never directly mentioned in Voyager.  However, The Next Generation started with Q putting humanity on trial in a courtroom modeled after trials that took place after World War III, which is in the 21st century.  In Voyage there are at least two episodes that deal with the late 1990s or early 21st century, a time that was after the Eugenics wars were supposed to happen.  In Future's End, the ship Voyager is in orbit around Earth in 1996 (current time for viewers when it was produced) and crew members spend time on Earth.  Everything looks as we'd expect for people living in 1996.  There's no trace of the Eugenics wars or any of the aftermath.  In the episode 11:59 we see Janeway's ancestor in the year 1999 and there's no trace of any recent wars.  While this was necessary, since Trek had been around so long, at that time, that it had outdated itself, it does create problems in terms of internal continuity.  I realize that the Voyager producers were more concerned about not confusing newer viewers than about maintaining continuity with a show that aired 20 years before then, but there are repeated references to Kirk later in the series that do keep some continuity between the shows.  Was there ever any on-screen or canon reference to this?  Was the timing of the Eugenics wars moved forward to fit a new timetable?  Were they just combined with World War III, sometime in the 21st century?  Were retconned dates for the Eugenics wars ever given to go with a revised timeline?  If this was never addressed in canon, did any of the novels or games provide any explanation for the discontinuity between the 1990s as the time for the Eugenics Wars and the fact that we're still here, without such wars, in the 21st century?  Please understand: I know what the Eugenics Wars were and about them.  What I'm focusing on, with this question, is what was done within the studio or the writer's meetings to handle the retconning when our world caught up to the time of the Eugenics Wars and Voyager was airing episodes of their characters visiting our non-wartorn planet instead of one decimated by those wars.  Or did the writers in Voyager even realize that was an issue?
8298
Given the ending of Rogue One...      ...it is obvious that the Imperials and Vader know that the Tantive IV ship was just engaged in a rebellion battle.   Therefore why does Captain Antilles, while getting choked by Darth Vader, say:     We intercepted no transmissions. ... This is a consular ship. We're on a diplomatic mission.   Why would he say such an obviously false lie? Especially when it is his last words?
56700
"Prometheus" is meant to be a prequel to "Alien", happening 30 years before ().  If that's the case, how come one of the very earliest spaceships, Prometheus from 2089, has a spiffy new technology, while Nostromo has antique text based CRTs, mechanical IBM style keyboards, and all the associated technologies screaming "1980s called, and they want their IBM PC back!" ?  The great visuals of this can be seen in this Youtube Video  (ignore the russian voice-over - the guy is a movie critic who is complaining pretty much of the same discrepancy listed above).  Please note that I'm looking ONLY for in-universe answers (movies, scripts, explanations from creative team). I'm utterly un-interested in the obvious out of universe "well, for 1979 Alien film, 1980s technologies was the future, and 2012 movie is expected to look futuristic in 2012, duh" or speculations that make sense but aren't confirmed in canon.          And for those who don't believe me... to quote the immortal quip from Men in Black 2:   Old and busted:        New hotness:
63139
We are talking about battle station with a hyperdrive. And there we have to wait till it orbits around Yavin to get a shot at the moon.   .  But why didn't they navigate DS1 so that it had a clear shot at the rebel moon in the first place?  And why couldn't it orbit faster?    (Source: )
61460
Computers on board Starfleet vessels are quite primitive compared to on board computers such as . At their best, they can decipher requests such as "Computer, delete that last sentence" and utter things such as "That crewman is no longer on board this vessel". Even real life computers will be capable of this within a decade or so (by some estimates). Even computers such as HAL 9000 are likely to be available within a few decades.  So, in a genre where intelligent computers are abound, why this strange absence? Did the Federation run into some Battlestar-Galactica-like problem with AI in the past and decide to keep on board computers decentralized?  But if that is the case, how can one explain Data and highly intelligent holographic characters? The technology and programming constructs clearly exist, yet Starfleet vessels continue to be manned by hundreds of people standing in front of consoles.