Truth OR Myth- Error, Error, Mistakes! TNG Season 1 (Part 4)

Hello and welcome or Truth OR Myth! In today’s episode, we’re taking a fun and fast look at the mistakes made in Episodes 17-21 of Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 1.

It should be noted that only canon (or Facts) will be looked at in this video. So explanations outside of canon such as comics, books, video games or your Aunt Betty aren’t valid sources to explain away the mistakes… Nor are explanations from the real world, these are IN UNIVERSE mistakes, so IN UNIVERSE explanations are the only ones that can be accepted… So with that let us begin…

(CBS) “When The Bough Breaks” – TNG S1x16

When The Bough Breaks

Wait, does this episode want us to believe that there are NO orphan children in the Federation at all? I mean come on? Wouldn’t the away team bring that up as a possibility at least?

This episode is a little odd when it comes to mathematics. Troi informs Captain Picard that she senses thousands of minds from the invisible planet… Yet when the Aldeans show up and abduct the children from the Enterprise they only take 7 of them. Why exactly? Don’t they want to keep their culture going? Wouldn’t taking ALL of the Enterprises Children to ensure a better chance of that?

The Aldeans cloaking device is a bit odd. When Data is explaining to Wesley how it works he basically compares it to the Romulan Cloaking Device, a device that bends light rays around the planet rendering it invisible. I have no problem with that, however, what about the gravitational pull of the planet itself… Wouldn’t ANY vessel travelling through this star system detect that? It’s not like a cloaking device would suddenly get rid of Gravity Displacement, would it?

Watch when Wesley beams into the Custodians room late at night, the Camera suddenly moves…

(CBS) “Home Soil” – TNG S1x18

Home Soil

So when the lifeform describes to the crew how they’re now at war with these ugly bags of mostly water we also find out from the female terraformer that had they dropped the water on the planet slightly it would have destroyed the crystals. Ultimately killing them. Well I don’t know about you, but I don’t see ANY water in sickbay, so why isn’t the lifeform dead or dying?

The Female Terraformer is a great source of information for mistakes in this episode. Again we find out from her that the planet has a balanced night a day schedule. So then why when Riker dims the lights in Sickbay is the life form suddenly in distress and dying? Shouldn’t it be able to survive without light for a little while? And if not, how does it survive on the planet then at night?

Watch Doctor Crushers monitor in sickbay. At one point she orders a magnification on the life form. Then later she requests a demagnification. But after that watch when we get a close-up, suddenly her monitor is showing the magnified view once again…

(CBS) “Coming of Age” – TNG S1x19

Coming Of Age

Ok so right off the bat I have a problem with the shuttle scene. When the guy Wesley beats out for a chance to battle royal on the planet for a position at Starfleet Academy steals the shuttle almost immediately that shuttle runs into engine problems. One of the things we are told is that the shuttle is out of range, how can this be? The Enterprise is in orbit of the planet and people are constantly beaming up and down from planet so why can’t they just beam him out exactly? I mean the shuttle IS between the Enterprise and the Planet right? And there are no lines about any interference preventing beaming…

Here’s another Antimatter ratio Problem… In this episode, we’re told there is ONLY ONE possible ratio that being 1 to 1. Yet in multiple episodes we’re told that people are altering, increasing and decreasing the matter the antimatter ratio, see Where No One Has Gone Before.

Speaking of these tests. During the ratio question, we get an over the shoulder view off of the Vulcan female. She looks happy, doesn’t she? But also notice Wesley in the background he’s working on the dynamic relationships test, a test that DOESN’T occur until later in the episode. it looks like someone cut in the wrong shot here.

And after the Dynamic Relationships test watch Mordock Testing Screen, while he and Wesley are talking to the guy in charge of testing, Mordock’s screen turns itself on and off multiple times!

Why after giving his report to Admiral Quinn does the door Commander Remmick walks up to and then stands close by not open exactly? Then suddenly before he even begins to turn the door suddenly pops open? I know some people have tried on my other videos to explain away mistakes like this by saying the computer monitors everything, so it knows… This simply doesn’t make any sense what so ever. For the computer to keep the door closed and then to open it when the scene was finishing would mean it would have to have been able to read the minds of everyone on board. So sorry to the people that will try that explanation in advance, it simply doesn’t fly…

(CBS) “Heart of Glory” – TNG S1x20

Heart Of Glory

Ok so the Enterprise is responding to an Emergency situation, and yet Picard thinks THIS is the best time to test out LaForges Camera? And not only that Picard starts a HUGE conversation about it. How many people died while Picard was chatting? At least Riker gets it!

Picard makes a mistake when referring to vessel the Klingons were travelling on. Early on it’s established that the vessel is Ta-Lar-ian, however, when talking to Riker in Sickbay, Picard calls it a Teralian Ship. TNG fans will remember that a Teralian ship was a plague ship that the Enterprise had to deal with in the TNG Episode Haven.

Why at the end of the episode when the Klingon is pointing a weapon at the Warp Core does no one suggest separating the saucer? I mean at the beginning of the episode Riker suggests it just because they could be going into a dangerous situation, yet when one is actually happening no one bothers to mention it?

(CBS) “The Arsenal Of Freedom” – TNG S1x21

The Arsenal Of Freedom

After Data figures out how to release Riker from the stasis bubble he tells Riker very casually that they need to find Picard and Crusher. We know from “Encounter at Farpoint”, along with many other episodes how Riker feels about Captains going on away missions. Yet he doesn’t bat an eye at Data’s passing remark. After all, he was in a stasis bubble so finding out the Captain had beamed down to the surface during that time should have ticked him off, shouldn’t it? At the very least he would have a LOT of questions…

At the end of the episode, Picard outwits the Demo Computer by agreeing to purchase the system. As a result, the pod that supposedly would have killed Riker and Yar evaporates because the demonstration is over… So why then is LaForge and The Enterprise still battling a pod in orbit? Shouldn’t it have vanished too?

So in a brilliant tactical manoeuvre, LaForge takes the Enterprises Stardrive section into the planet’s atmosphere causing the pod to follow. As a result, Worf is able to target and destroy the pod because of the atmospheric friction caused by travelling through the upper atmosphere of the planet. Yet immediately after the pod’s destruction, LaForge orders the shields down and the away team beamed up. Does this not seem a little dangerous being that they’re still travelling through the planet’s atmosphere?

 

Thank you for watching today’s episode of Truth OR Myth. 

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