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Old 07-12-2020, 05:04 PM
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Explaining Errors in DS9, Part Six


The question is asked what would happen if the Founders found the adrift Sword of Kahless and sent one of their own to the Klingon Empire posing as Kahless. I reply with 1. Space is really REALLY big, what are the odds that they'll find it? 2. Even if they stumble upon it, it'll just register as as a bit of metal, what are the odds that their sensors are calibrated to identify this unique bat'leth design. 3. Since the Kahless clone is still around, what are the odds that a second one could show up and not be examined down to their cellular level and not be identified as a Changeling?


Odo's regeneration cycle was shortened from 18 hours to 16 hours at some point. Someone proposes that the increase in traffic due to the discovery of the wormhole has created additional pressure on him. Sorry, but no dice. Additional pressure? One imagines that the Occupation was just as stressful as this. Personally I always hated this set time between regenerations. In reality the time would vary with how much Odo changes shape during a given cycle. So it's 18 hours (or whatever) if he stays in default form the entire time and shortens with each shapeshift.



In "Starship Down" it's brought up that food and drink on the bridge of the Defiant is relatively common, given that Geordi told Sonya Gomez that it's a bad idea to have such things on duty. The explanation is that Sisko allowed it to maintain morale. I reply that Geordi was a stick in the mud given that all of the consoles are sealed, the ship is self-cleaning, and you can't expect people to just plain not eat and drink during extended shifts, especially on a warship where people need to be kept at their posts as much as possible.



Also in "Starship Down" systems are down and yet Kira and Sisko can talk to each other. Someone brought up the Universal Translators in their combadges or they could be talking the same language. Of course they could. Sisko learning Bajoran and Kira learning English (oh, my Federation Standard rants are coming back to me) are both plausible. But odds are it's just their combadges. They both have one and both languages are known by the translation circuitry.



IMDB brings up that in "The Sound of Her Voice" Quark pronounces "human" normally instead of "hew-mon." Well, duh. "Hew-mon" was always a mild insult, not a real case of Ferengi not being able to pronounce the word. It would be good for business to have the best Universal Translators in known space.



The Nit Central users brought up inconsistencies with Captain Cusak's uniform. The Olympia left known space a year before TNG started, and yet is wearing a third season TNG uniform. Oops. It's also brought up that Cusak is surprised at hostilities with the Cardassians when Starfleet was still at war with them when she left.


Someone also questions why the barrier timeshifted subspace signals, but not the shuttlepod. Well, duh, it can only timeshift transmissions, not a huge leap.



There's much discussion about imposing human regulations on Klingon traditions in "Sons of Mogh." The question is brought up as to whether or not the rituals could be considered religious in nature, and therefore protected. Yeah, that wouldn't fly. As Sisko said, it's premeditated murder.


A Nitcentral user brings up the question as to whether or not a Klingon house has a set name (Worf still says House of Mogh, not House of Worf), or changes with the name of the present head (we hear of the House of Duras, not the house of his father Ja'rod or his son Toral). This is a whole kettle of fish that could be its own post. The simplest solution is that the members of a given house can choose to change the name with a new generation or not.



For "Sons and Daughters" the question of Alexander's birth date and age was brought up on Nit Central. He was born Stardate 43205 ("The Emissary" is 42901.3 and "Reunion" is 44246.3, so Klingon pregnancies are three months and Alexander was a little over a year old when Worf met him. So either there's some time dilation going on here (which I thought the stardate system was created to avoid) or a lot of people Just Didn't Care.


Also in "Sons and Daughters" Alexander says that it's been five years since he saw Worf, but "Firstborn" was three years ago and it stands to reason that Alexander was on the E-D until it was destroyed, then went back to the Roshenkos. Put this all together, and you have to assume that Klingons mature faster than humans (reasonable) and mix and match Klingon and Federation timekeeping when talking (not reasonable).


The question of what happened to the "puppy" from "The Forsaken" when they blew up the computers prior to the Dominion Occupation comes up. My reply is that O'Brien would've localized the program ages ago for easy transfer, but more likely is that they only blew up the Ops interfaces to spite the Dominion. You can't just turn off all computers on DS9 and expect people to survive more than a day or so on backup systems.


How can Joran see the photo when Ezri is looking away? It's not like Joran is really there and seeing things; he only sees what Ezri sees. The explanation is reasonable, Ezri knows about the photo on a subconscious level and Joran knows what she knows and can point it out.



A Nitcentral user also points out that a transporter cycle takes time, longer than it takes to fire a bullet and have it hit its target at short range. Good point. Chalk this one up to artistic license, but could you imagine "smearing" the transporter beam (as I've discussed elsewhere regarding ship-to-ship transport) with these kinds of distances and time intervals?


It's pointed out on Nitcentral that Grilka should've been tossed out of her house when Quark lost his license. Good point, but given her personal wealth she probably bribed some officials to look the other way.


A Nitcentral user had many comments about the inconsistencies in "Far Beyond the Stars." I'll have to link you to it, it's too long to even summarize here.



Supposedly Guinan wrote some stuff back in the "Time's Arrow" days, so someone wondered why she wasn't mentioned as a notable African American writer in "Far Beyond the Stars". Simple solution: Sisko didn't know about it, and this "world" isn't the real thing, it's based on his knowledge.


Someone else wondered why Bashir's skin color wasn't a problem for a photo of the staff, given that he's (Asian) Indian. I'm not sure being that's on the same level as Africans or women in that time period. But then again, this is a Sisko illusion and not the real thing, he probably doesn't think of Indian prejudice at all. Then of course we have the question as to whether or not Bashir's race would be noticed in a black-and-white photo?
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