Nitpicker have always been generous with their submissions to the Nitpickers Guild Glossary. Unfortunately, including all of them would quickly swell the glossary to near uselessness! So, I as the Chief Nitpicker am required the less than pleasant task of deciding which entries become a part of the glossary and which do not! Rather than merely discarding these "unincluded" entries, I thought you--my fellow nitpickers--might enjoy reading through them. Note: There's always a possibility that a term on this list might get promoted to the primary glossary. I like lots of the ideas here. They just need a little "dress-up" (an acronym that easy to remember; a different creative way to express the entry; just something to make them stand out a bit). (Last update: June 5, 1997)
Kathryn Rosanna Louise Harkins: TRHEA, Tuvok Raises His Eyebrows Again--meaning that Voyager is in a chancy situation that the crew will always get out of, no matter who screws up.
PMYASJ, Paris Makes Yet Another Stupid Joke--meaning Paris makes yet another stupid joke
TWSOIWEWI, That Was So Obvious It Wasn't Even Worth It--I think you know what that means
DYJHIWTH?, Don't Ya Just Hate It When That Happens?--meaning--well, TWSOIWEWI
OMCGWNKA, One More Cool Gadget We Never Knew About
Roland Spickermann of Ann Arbor, Michigan: I would like to submit the "SKO" Syndrome -- the fact that they always discover or encounter "some kind of (insert three-word multisyllable trekspeak here)". The item encountered can never be something instantly recognizable or familiar. I cannot remember an instance where the phrase "some kind of" actually improved the dialogue.
Robert Beeler of Knoxville, TN: BTAOSA - Blast they're one step ahead. This occurs whenever someone is able to outwit security using a loop hole in the plot. The most common example is removing a comm badge so they can't track you (ie O'Brien in the Tosk episode.)
TCAESCYK - The characters aren't exactly squeeky clean you know. This occurs whenever a person watching the show makes a gasp or other such gesture that a certain charater or characters are not acting in a starfleet way (ie Dax and the slug's former wife in Rejoined.)
UFSO-SSZ - User frienly softwar one - Secure Ship Zero. This occurs when ever an alien race (usually hostile) is able to use the panels on a Stafleet vessel (ie Kazon take over Voyager in Basics, and Jem'Hadar pilot the Defiant in Broken Link.)
Jeremy Jones of Oakdale, MN: LROTN--"Let's Rip Off The Novels." Many episodes contain aspects that seem disturbingly similar to certain novels. For example, the scenes of Q and Amanda popping around the Enterprise in "True Q" are very similar to scenes between Q and Lwaxana Troi in Peter David's excellent novel, "Q-In-Law." Also, in the novel "Boogeymen," certain crewmembers believe they have left the holodeck, when in fact they haven't. The same thing happens in "Ship In A Bottle." The episode "Homeward" has the crew beaming some aliens off their planet and onto the holodeck without the aliens' knowledge. The same thing happens with a group of Klingons in the novel, "War Drums." Finally, the novel "Imzadi," another Peter David masterpiece, features an aging, bitter Admiral Riker mourning Deanna's untimely death. The episode, "All Good Things. . ." features an aging, bitter Admiral Riker mourning Deanna's untimely death. In all these cases, the novels came before the episodes. Coincidence? You be the judge.
Frank: I think we should add a new entry to the Lexicon - "Ripping Off Red Dwarf", or RORD for short. (Red Dwarf is a British sci-fi comedy in which four crewmembers of a Jupiter Company mining ship, stranded three million years from home, try to get back while trying to cope with their situation. _Very_ funny, even if the humor is off-key sometimes. Internet Dwarfers even have their own nitpickers! :) Specifically, [holodoc's] "auto- nomous emitter" is directly analogous to a "Light Bee", a unit which creates a hologrammatic projection of anybody it has data for - specifically, this Light Bee projects Arnold J. Rimmer, a Space Corps officer. First, both Holo- doc and Rimmer are projections of people - Holodoc is based off of Doctor Zimmerman, and Rimmer is based on... well, the real Arnold Rimmer. (The real Rimmer was killed in a radiation leak that wiped out most of Red Dwarf's crew - but that's part of the back story, so I won't go into detail here.) Also, both have been known to handle objects, although they have been in several situations where their holographic integrity has been breached, i.e. the bullets passing through Holodoc. (This was remedied for Rimmer in an ear- ly sixth season episode of RD - his Light Bee was modified to emit "hard" light.) Also, both Zimmerman and Rimmer have personalities which can border on grating (more so for Rimmer). This, and the fact that Star Trek has occasion- ally done some RODW, is precedent for adding RORD to the lexicon. (Phew! :)
Robert McDaniel of Fairfax, Virginia: CTCFSETPOBO?:Acronymn for "Can't the Creators Find Someone Else to Pick On Besides O'Brien?" Poor O'Brien. He has to be the most picked-on character in all of Star Trek. Think about it:He's been possessed by an entity, his wife's been possessed by an entity, his wife's been turned into a kid, he was captured by some alien race and forced to live 20 years in prison in the space of a few minutes via VR, his former captain's gone off the deep end, one of his best friends was killed in a Cardassian labor camp, he was captured by the Cardassians and put on trial just to please the citizens of Cardassia, he's had some nasty dental work done on him...the list goes on and on.
Robert Beeler of Knoxville, TN: BVS - "Because Violence Sells" - Note DS9's increased popularity after the Defiant was introduced.
IOEO - "Its one episode only." - This occurs whenever we learn something new about one or more characters, yet the creators choose not to explore this changeex: Janeway and Chekotay seemed to have a new relationship on the planet they were stuck on, yet once they got back to the ship it was business as usual.
TMI - "Too much information" - This occurs when we find out more than we want to know about a character. Ex: In "The Naked Now" we learn that Data is fully functional and skilled in a wide variety of techniques.
Murray Leeder: [Regarding Future's End, Part II,] Wow! I've never seen such diverging opinions of an episode! And never so many glossay terms spawned from one episode! I though I'd jump on the bandwagon with IHTM... that's I Hate Temporal Mechanics. O'Brien said this in "Visionary" and it's more true than ever now!
Tripp Summey: [Regarding Future's End, Part II,] A new glossary term for you: MTIBTY (My Tricorder Is Bigger Than Yours). Whenever there's a senior officer's briefing, Everybody tries to top the everyone else with their info on the mission (Kim: The rift is unstable! Torres: That means if he goes through he'll destroy Earth's solar system. Chakotay: Hey, I want a line!)
Evan Lorentz: [Regarding Future's End, Part II,] I think it's time to instate a new term into the Nitpicker's Glossary. POIAB, or Part One Is Always Better. From "Best of Both Worlds" to "Basics," or as far back as "The Menagerie," up to now "Future's End," it seems an impossible task to write a second half of a two-part episode that's anywhere near as good as the first half. At least the writers let Doc keep his mobility at the end of the episode. The best thing about the show is now only going to be better as a result.
Erin Hunt of High Point, NC: [Regarding Future's End, Part II,] The inevitable goodbye scene between Tom Paris and Raine was, I thought, predictible and uninspired ( my two vocabulary words for the day). If there isn't already a glossary term for this love and lose syndrome, I'd like to suggest LOLYACU. It stands for Love Of Life Yet Again Completely Unattainable.
Robert Beeler of Knoxville, TN: TPDIS "The Prime Directive is Stupid" - This occurs whenever the Prime Directivebecomes inconvenient. Ex: "Who Watches the Watchers". In "Future's End, Part 2" Voyager can not get home because of the "Temporal Prime Directive" which is interesting considering the number of times the Prime Directive applies to a developing culture, rather than the crew themselves."
TPTD - "The Prime Time Directive" - To make each hour of television as exciting as possible, no matter how many nits you create in the process.
Pulaskied - Named for the infamous Doctor Pulaski who disappeared without a trace, this term applies to all things that are important yet are gone, yet never mentioned again.
ASAPTT - "Add Salt and Pepper to Taste" - This occurs when we learn something about a culture/planet/species/whatever that we will probably never see on screen. Data does this quite frequently.
BTAOSA - "Blast They're Always One Step Ahead" - This occurs whenever someone uses a plot oversight to cover their tracks. The most common example of this is the removal of one or more comm badges to evade the ship/station's sensors (As O'Brien did in the Tosk episode). THIS WILL NOT WORK! The ship/station must have someway of tracking people who do not have comm badges (such as children, ambassadors, criminals, etc.)
DTRQA - "Duck the Religion Question Again" - This occurs whenever 1) A characterclaims that a religious society is backwards ("Who Watches the Watchers") 2) A character does not give a staight answer to a question about their faith (ex: In a recent episode of DS9, Sisko captures a Jem'Hadar ship, later in the episode the Vorta asks him if he has gods and Sisko replies "There are things I believe in."
HMTCTLTTOGSA - "How many times can they lose the timer or get seperated anyway? This requires no explanation if you have watched the television show "Sliders" for any length of time.
JTJTKCOTFF - "James T., James T. Kirk, Captain of the Final Frontier" - The title must be sung to the Ballad of Davy Crockett to make any sense. This occurswhenever a character from one of the Trek spinoffs refers to Kirk & Company in a legendary sense (As in Voyager's "Meld" or DS9's "Trials and Tribble-ations"). UFSO-SSZ - "User Friendly Software One - Secure Ship Zero" - This occurs when a hostile alien force takes over the ship and is able to work the bridge panels (ex: Kazon in "Basics Part One" and Jem'Hadar in "Broken Link"). Haven't these people ever heard of password protection? (On another note: I would not feel safe on a ship where anyone with a basic understanding of a tricorder could work the warp core.)
TCAESCYK - "The Characters aren't exactly squeky clean you know."- Refers to any time someone watches an episode of Star Trek (or spin off) and is amazed at how the characters aren't acting like outstanding Starfleet officers. Ex: "Rejoined"
HDTBCGS - "How did this backwards civilization get started?" - Refers to the beginnings of the Trill culture. Why did this race start surgically putting giant slugs into their stomach with no idea what would happen. If we had intelligent slug things on Earth, we would have probably eaten the suckers millions of years ago.
TMWSOAOO - "They messed with Sisko once and only once." Refers to the fact that Q
TMWSOAOO - "They Messed With Sisko Once and only once." - Refers to the fact that Q has visited DS9 once in five seasons, yet appeared numerous times on TNG and is scheduled to make his second appearance on Voyager. Also note that the Borg have appeared only once on DS9 ("Emmissary") yet were a once a season enemy on TNG.
OWTE - "One Word Title Epidemic" - Read through the titles of Voyager's second season episodes and I'll think you'll see what I mean.
Sean Corcoran of Clifton, VA: ONNATL - acronym for "Oh no, not another time loop." For no apparent reason, the Starships Enterprise (all the way through the Enterprise-E, in its first on-screen adventure, no less) have had an uncanny knack for running into or creating temporal vortexes, temporal rifts, temporal causality loops, time-traveling aliens, time-transcending aliens, time warps, temporal paradoxes, alternate timelines associated with time travel, and a whole bunch of other fun technobabble terms that I can't remember right now. As the guys from Temporal Investigations said in "Trials and Tribble-ations," Jim Kirk alone had 17 temporal violations, the biggest file on record (well, the NextGen crew isn't done with their adventures yet, so I wouldn't stop counting).
Mark Blankenship, Greenville,TX: TICS- The Interstllar Crossroads Syndrome. The is the tendency to portray the earth as the single-most-important-planet-in-the-entire- cosmos-for-all-time-so-that-every-alien-race-wants-to-visit-influence- or-conquer-it. Examples of this are in ID4, V, Guinan's visit in "Time's Arrow", the probe in ST IV, the Preservers in TOS, Q3's visits to earth mentioned in the Q suicide ep, Stargate, and about every comic book ever written. It would also apply to time travel in that no matter what part of the galaxy you are in, if you travel into the distant past, you end up on earth (of course, that could be a corrollary - The Temperal Crossroads Sydrome- TTCS). (Note from Phil: This is *very* close to making it into the primary glossary. It just might in the next update!)
Matt Dameron: I was reading the entry for T?TW? (Ten? Ten what?) and it brought to mind a scene in Generations.
So I created WHANTAWN (We Have A Number, That's All We Need). The scene to which I refer is when the Duras sisters are sitting on their ship, happily watching Geordi stroll into Engineering and finally look at a screen with one of them all-important data bits (or FTQs) displayed. Then Lursa screams "Their shields are operating on a modulation of 257.4!" No units, no nothing! We're left to scream "257.4 WHAT!!!!" They never explain, but apparently it works, because those neat-o torpedoes go zipping right through the shields of our friend NCC-1701-D and Ker-BOOM! So apparently "WHANTAWN"!
Aaron Nadler of New Cumberland, PA: WDYTOTAAWDAWJPTCNHCTYBHWKNATFCT ---Stands for "Why Didn't You Think Of That, After All, We Did, And We're Just Primitive Twentieth - Century NEANDERTHAL Humans Compared To You, But Hey, We Know Nothing About Twenty - Fourth Century Technology!!"
Here's some examples -
1. Future's End - Why didn't the Voyager crew slingshot around the sun to get home? They would have stayed in the solar system, and gotten home at the same time! ( I know - all of the science officers got addicted to a primitive 20th century game called DOOM II !!)
2. Star Trek : First Contact - Why doesn't the Enterprise-E have force fields around that big tube Data breaks to kill the Borg Queen? After all, it only does a teeny-tiny thing like shoot out liquid that KILLS ALL ORGANIC MATERIAL!!!!! The Enterprise crew is certainly organic. If someone were to trip and knock their head on it, it could have devistating affects!
WWYDSTUS -- Stands for "Why Would You Do Something That Unbelievably Stupid?"
Example:
1. Star Trek: First Contact - Why in the world would you take a sharp, sharp, sharp, SHARP (you know what I'm saying?) dagger with you out in space when you're wearing a pressure suit??? Worf could have died from being so stupid!
Nels C. Strandberg: TCIYF: The Computer Is Your Friend: Taken from the old "Paranoia" role-playing game, this acronym represents the "The Computer has all the answers" mindset that everyone seems to have, mainly on TNG. All of these people are supposed to be experts in their respective fields, yet choose to rely on the Computer rather than their own knowledge and expertise.
Anonymous: YAROBI - Acronym for "Yet Another Really Obvious Betazoid Insight." This term specifically applies to Counsellor Troi on TNG. 'YAROBI' is to be used whenever she tells us something that a 4 year old could have figured out. The most famous YAROBI: "Captain, their hiding something!"
RNS - Acronym for "Recycled Name Syndrome" Apparently the creators run out of new names occasionally, and resort to using (or twisting slightly) old words.
Witness: The race called Kes in TNG episode "Attached" was RNS'd into the character called Kes on Voyager.
In 'Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan', the name of the main character, (and genetically engineered super-human) was Khan Noonien Singh (sp?). This was RNS'd into Dr. Noonian Soongh, the cyberneticist who created Data (not to mention Lore) in TNG.
I believe that in the Nitpicker's guide, it was noted that Delos was the name of a star system in both the TNG episodes 'Symbiosis' and 'Remember Me'.
Lisa Solinas: EUBM: "Extremely Unnatural Birthing Methods" Usually involed lying flat on the back, screaming at the midwife, hair all over the place. Usually casualties, often involving either a Klingon nurse or horns and scales.
WWGGGOC: "Women Who Go Ga-Ga Over Chakotay" I am one; I think he's a babe with lovely eyes.
JSQAPNCH: "Janeway Squelches Q As Picard Never Could Have" Picard groans and stiffens up and sucks his thumb when Q arrives; Janeway heinously insults him with uncomebackable remarks.
BTNETTRSAAC: "B'Elanna Torres Never Ever Tries To Repair Shuttlecrafts After A Crash" "Tattoo" They leave the shuttlecraft behind; "Parturition" they don't try to pick up the pieces, and so on...
GOVWAB: "Guys On Voyager Who Are Babes" Chakotay, Tom, Harry...
TINOUA: "The Incredible Number Of Unnamed Aliens" Those lumpy-headed-dudes in "Tatoo"; those humanesque people on "Time And Again"; more humanesque people in "False Profits" to name only a few.
PTGOT: "Photon Torpedoes Grow On Trees" I wonder if Janeway is even counting, considering how darn many they use.
SLTSTTMBB: "Sacred Law That Star Trek Teens Must Be Brats": I have been screaming this at my parents for ages. Nog steals from Kira's quarters. Kar nearly got Chakotay fried. Unnamed Jem'Hadar teen trashed DS9. Everyone hates Wesley. Adolescent Chakotay was Superbrat. Jonal [whatever that kid's name was] stabbed the Bald Avenger.
NOEGROABTTLM.... No one ever gets rid of a bomb till the last minute! [Re: Macrocosm] Janeway was seven second on the timer when she picks it up!
Rob Roszkowski: THERE"S NO PLACE LIKE HOME SYNDROME, The "sin"-drome that explains why each Alpha Quadrant (or Alpha-Quadrant introduced race for those suburbanites like Klingons) race (Human, Vulcan, Klingon, Bajoran, Cardassian, Romulan, Ferengi, Bolian, Betazoid, and now soon Borg .. who OK are really from there but we net them here first) must be integrated into space like the Delta Quadrant where we want to meet new races (or even new standys ... I want more Talaxaians and less Kazon). Will one of the many changlings sent out years ago wind up here soon too? Couldn't we omit at least one race entirely (besides the oft omitted Deltans. I mean soon Morn will be sitting in the holo-pool room ...!)
Robert Beeler of Knoxville, TN: PLOTS - "Placing Long Old Tired Stories" - Basically the Rehash Syndrome. This occurs because the creators are using a story line again and again. For Example: Kirk, Picard, Data, Riker, and Torres all had evil doubles in one episode or another.
Anonymous: ADP - Acronym for 'Alien Dental Problems' Ever notice the horrible state of the teeth of several of the alien races on Star Trek? I think the two biggest examples are the Klingons and Ferengi, but humans' teeth are always perfect! Is this yet more propoganda about the superiority of humans? Are we really WTTB? (Actually, I can't really imagine a Klingon going to the dentist though, or a Ferengi shelling out the latinum for a trip to the chair!)
NIAI - Acronym for "Neelix is an Idiot". No offense, but Neelix ALWAYS does the dumbest things, causing me to want to throw a shoe at the screen and say this (preceeded by an infuriated "Aaaaaaaargh!") Also, when you're watching an episode with other nitpickers, and an NIAI moment occurs, it's nice to be able to say "All together now", and have everyone chime in with "Neelix is an Idiot!" :)
Anonymous: SSA Stands for 'Scaly Skinned Aliens' is for all those poor snake Like aliens that are ALWAYS dying through the episodes.
W.N.S Wandering Neelix Syndrome example: In "Twisted", Neelix wandered off from his 'buddy', Chakotay and ended up disappearing into the halls.
Ronald E. Miller: the abbreviation for the coincidence of timing of turbolifts and conversations (Innocence, among other episodes) for the glossary for V'ger- ITCT(INCIDENT OF TIMING OF CONVERSATIONS IN TURBOLIFTS).
Lisa Solinas: GODS; "Guild Of Dads, Single"; They have done away with this. Riker thought he was in "Future imperfect", Sisko has Jake, Worf has Alexander. For awhile I thought Chakotay might join it until we discovered Seska's baby wasn't his.
Laura Pinson of Wilmington, DE: Whenever any one scans for life forms, such as in ST:VII(Generations), they give the amount of humanoid life forms but leave out the wildlife and one-celled organisms. AALFT (Amoebae Are Life Forms Too). Or maybe Data was just scanning for "those happy little life forms". (Note: Do non-sentients HAVE emotions?)
Johanna Sundberg of Varby, Sweden: YASOWSKODIHHHB Acronym for Yet Another Starfleet Officer With Some Kind Of Dysfunction In His/Her Home Background
This phenomenom occurs whenever (almost) the creators want to give a character a little more dept or need a reason to focus an episode on a character or want the audience to ”get to know” a character a bit better: They either tell us about a tragic/traumatic episode in the character’s past or introduce a relative with whom the character in question does not get along. Just once I’d like to see a character who doesn’t disagree with a parent about choice of career, who wasn’t abandoned by his only surviving parent at the age of fifteen, who doesn’t find her mother far too dominant, who dosn’t have a hard time getting along with his big brother (who of course dies in a fire together with a beloved nephew), who hasn’t lost her husband thanks to a certain Starfleet captain, who hasn’t lost his father thanks to a certain Starfleet captain, who hasn’t lost his wife thanks to a certain Starfleet captain, who hasn’t lost his mother thanks to a certain Starfleet captain... (Hmmm... I think I’d better move along. You’ve propably got the idea by now.) I know too well that family tragedies do happen, but... haven’t anybody in Starfleet had a happy childhood?
Jason Morrell Torrance, CA: IRIFOTN = Its Right In Front Of There Nose. Shows: Take your pick (Happened to many times)
Douglas Bruzzone: I've got a new glossery term. SDAMCFSOC (Spock Devises A Miracle Cure For Ship Or Crew.) It was in that nuclear device in Star Trek 4. And that one where everyone was about to go on that one planet. (Forgot the name) There are others, I just can't remember them
Corey Hines, Hamilton, ON: TCLF Acronym for "That Character Looks Familiar" This is the opposite of the Savvik Syndrome. Many times in the Star Trek series' that actors are hired to play different characters. Many characters in Star Trek that looked like others are: Quark(Peak Performace), Rom(Captain's Holiday, The Perfect Mate), Odo(STIV), Tuvok(Starship Mine, ST:Generations), Neelix(Menage A Troi,ST:FC), Paris(The First Duty). And these are just regular characters in the series'. There are at least a hundred more examples.
Chad Brown from Altadena, Calif.: This is not so much a nit as it is a new glossary term that I've come up with after seeing the episode "Fair Trade" and seeing the new Vulcan fellow who has suddenly appered (and who's name escapes me right now). "FMCM," which stands for "Forshadowing Minor Crew Member" and it specificly applys to Star Trek: Voyager.
A FMCM is any member of the Voyager crew who is not in the main credits, is not mentiond or talked to or about until seen in a specific introdutory episode and then is the main perosn in some critical plot point in a episdoe a few weeks later. After which they ether sucme to "The Durst Syndrome" (they die in there critical plot point episode) or "The Cary Syndrome" (They dissappere, never to seen or mentioned or talked about ever again--or not seen or talked about again for a really long time and then only spuraticly[sp?].)
Examples of this include Pete Durst who was introduced one episode before the episode "Faces" in which he was killed by a Vidiian ("The Durst Syndrome's" origin of course), Lt. Cary who was seen in almost every episode from "Parallax" to "State of Flux" and then seemingly dissappered after that. ("The Cary Syndrome's" origin.), Samantha Wildman who was introduced in "Euglium", was seen in "Tatoo", "Dreadnought", gave birth in "Deadlock" and then was never seen again until "Basics Pt. II" and then dissappered again only to be mentioned but not seen in "Macrocosm" ("The Cary Syndrome"). Michele Jonas who was introduced in "Alliances" for the sole purpuse of sitting in front of a screen in a dark room and getting bullied by a Kazon and Seska in the episodes "Threshold," "Meld," "Dreadnought," and "Lifesigns," only to succme to "The Durst Syndrome" in "Investigations," Ensign Lon Suter who we saw in "Meld" and then never saw again ("The Cary Syndrome") until "Basics I and II" in which he then fell prone to "The Durst Syndrome," and of course Crewman Hogan who had the longest run of any FMCM to date, ("Alliances," "Threshold," "Meld," "Dreadnought," "Lifesigns," "Investigations," "Deadlock," "Tuvix," and "Resolutions") before he sucumed to "The Durst Syndrome" in "Basics Pt. II." The New Vulcan Ensign in Engerneering is a definate frshadowing to the epsiode "Blood Feaver" in which a young Vulcan is said to supposed to be going into Pon Farr and asking B'Elanna--who works in engerneering (more forshadowing!)--for help. After that episode, he will of course succum to either "The Durst Syndrome" or "The Cary Syndrome."
Jason Gaston: THE BARNEY SYNDROME - Refers to the way every senior officer on every Trek incarnation will go out of their way to call whatever rude alien they come in contact with "charming" or "friendly" For example, after the Romulan rudly meets the senior staff of DS9 in "The Search" Kira calls her charming. In "Eye of the Needle" Tom Paris calls the rude romulan a, "friendly fellow" And in "Unification", Riker calls the rude Zakdorn "delightful" or something.
Morgan Moloney: I'd like to propose a new syndrome to the guild, if this isn't around already. I call it "Tomorrow is Another Day" syndrome, or TIAD. That is, characters snappingright back after tragedies or ordeals a lot faster than they should. It shows up in such episodes as "Genesis", "The Inner Light", "Ethics", and to a lesser extent in such eps as "Hard Time" and "The Chute". In fact, you mentioned it in your review of "Genesis", something to the effect of "It doesn't matter that they've all turned into monsters and back! Tomorrow is another day!"
Michael Teplitsky: Phil, in the glossary you forgot to include your own USD/UED: "Universal sperm donors, universal egg donors" :)
Matthew McLauchlin: Two new acronyms: NANJAO: Not a nit, just an observation. NANJAP/NANJAW: Not a nit, just a puzzlement/wonderment. OGTHID: Oy gevaltd, that holodeck is dangerous! (Note from Phil: Before you write, yes, I realize there are three here not two!)
Richard Steenbergen: Here's one, SOFTNESS: Some One Found The Neeto Scream Sound Whenever you hear that computerized scream on Voyager previews (like 'The Chute' or 'The Thaw' hrmmm I see a resemblances in the titles), just remember, SOFTNESS!
Joe Griffin of Des Plaines, IL: Well, I'm sorry I can't come up with a specific example of this, but PCB (PSYCHIC COMM BADGE) refers to any scene where a character fails to manually activate his/her comm badge to call someone but they answer anyway, as if the badge is somehow activated by intent. It's very inconsistent--sometimes the badge is tapped, and then the character speaks, and sometimes s/he simply speaks into thin air. Ironically, the most blatant offender in this department is Sisko, who made such a big deal of slapping his chest repeatedly as a sight gag in the Tribbles episode of DS9, as if it's ingrained reflexive behavior...but spends most of his time just lifting his head and yelling, "Sisko to Ops!" I suppose this could be explained away by imagining comlinks in the walls, but again, how are _they_ activated? And how do crewmembers get any privacy? And I'm pretty sure this happens planetside as well (alas, I still have no citations...but I'll pay better attention, I swear). BTW, does the comm badge automatically shut off after the conversation is through? If so, how? If it's voice-activated, why does it not stay open when the character continues a conversation he was having with someone in the same room after he gets off the Comm Badge call? Perhaps this function is psychic, as well.
Lisa Solinas: FOS: "First Officer Syndrome": This refers to all them FO on Star Trek. .... Getting knocked down: there's a list of how many times Riker gets walloped in TNG. Kira gets bopped by Cardies, Bajorans, Jem'Hadar, shapeshifters, and so on. Spcok was slapped by Kirk [I think] his mom, and the Romulan gal. Chakotay gets hit by Cullah, a maniac, at least one other Kazon, and Tom....
.... Getting needles stuck in them: Riker in that insane asylum, Chakotay by Seska, but Kira and Spock don't seem to have suffered that yet.
.... Falling down then getting back up: Spock is always clinging to that cute little console of his. Riker gets thrown down [and is the first one to get up numerous times. Kira is hurled to the floor in "The Search 1" and "Starship Down". Chakotay is thrown down and has to belly-crawl to his chair in "The Q and the Grey", gets shoved over by Tom Paris "Lifesigns" and bounds to his feet in the blink of an eye in "Alliances"
Alex Smith of Westfield, NJ: GCJ? - Gonna cry, Janeway? This kind of links back to TFJG and KMYF, but it's more pronounced. Janeway looks at a character (usually after a "meaningful" speech), her eyes wobble, and she looks like she's about to burst into tears. You just wanna shout, "Gonna cry, Janeway, huh? Huh is the baby gonna cry? Come on, cry Janeway cry! 1 2 3 CRY! 1 2 3 CRY!"
Infinite Ensign Theory - In Voyager, where do all those ensigns come from?!?! Voyager isn't the Enterprise; it can't hold thousands of people and get new people when it wants. But Voyager stills seems to kill off so many ensigns! I don't watch Voyager religiously, but ensigns were killed in "Basics, Part II" (eaten), another one as a spy (don't remember episode; but Nelix was playing journalist and threw him into the warp core or something), and I seem to remember other ensigns being killed in "Deadlock" (other than Kim). Maybe this explains the UE on Voyager; no one's around since everyone's dead!
I was surprised not to see this in the glossary (maybe I missed it), LBPDYA - Let's Break the Prime Directive Yet Again The most obvious example of this is Janeway in "Swarm", where she chooses to barge through alien territory to save some time on the way back home. So saving time on their fruitless trip back to earth (they're never getting there anyway) is more important than trespassing on an alien's territory? It seems to me that the Prime Directive is _the_ major guideline of the Feds, but all the captains seem to break it all the time.
Eric Penner Haury of Vista, CA: AWPNB (A Watched Pot Never Boils): That saying is certainly true in Star Trek. Events-paticulrly tencnical proceidures-have a tendancy to take longer when they're shown on screen. The most common example is beaming. When an away team's down on a planet and calls for beam-out, the special effects can start in just a second or so. But when its being shown on camera, there're quite a number of buttons or touch pads that need to be pressed and it can take much longer. Anoiother example comes from the pilot of VGR. Janeway asks the Betazoid pilot to get [departure] clearance from DS9's OPS. Instantaniously, she says that the Moorings are clear -something else Janeway had her do-and that "OPS has cleared us." Usually, the proceidure for clearing ships from OPS had soneone notifying the senior officer present and then the senior officer present giving the clearance, with them has to be relayed back by the first person. There wasn't enough time for that. (Of course, as the pilot was Betazoid, she could've anticipted Janway's orders and started the process early. But that's not ethical, is it? And what if Janewy changed her mind? Besides, maybe the Betzoid couldn't read Janeway's mind. See below.)
ISBT Incredible Shrinking Betazoid Telepathy): It is said that every memer of a bamboo species flowers and dies at the aame time. Its a mystery as to how all bamboo of a species know to do it at the same time. Perhaps the Betzoid race has a similar mysterious conection relating to their telepathic powers. GFor their powers have been dying over the past few years. Season one of TNG, Troi could read anything and anyone and reported hr rsults often. She could only sense emotions because she was half-Betzoid; her mother could sense any thoght in any mind.
You mentioned many time the inconsistancy with Ferengi brains. Perhpas the telepathic power had started dying and now was no longer strong enough to read them. And it kept getting weaker, with Rasmusin (Matt Frewer. Was that the right name.) and the like not being spotted.
Later, in Lwaxana's first DS9 epsode, she had to close her eyes and use effort to use telepathy
.And finally in Voyager, Suder (in his first appesance) said that usually Betazoids can detect emotions. That's Betazoids, not half-btzoids. (What happened to detecting thoughts? The telepathy has greown too weak.) And furthermore he, a full Betazoid, couldn't even read his own. Whether this death of telepathy is temoprary or permenant is yet to be seen.
FCR (Former Comic Relief): Ever noiced that most recent Q and Lwaxana Troi episodes aren't funny. (Lwaxana goes dark in "Dark Page" and is moslyly serious in the DS9 one where she gets trapped in th turnbolift w/Odo and in the pregnant and fleeing her husband eppisode.) Oh, there was humor in both of the VGR Q episods, but Quinn had a few more jokes than Q in "Deathwish" and all the humor died once the Qs fired on Fort Sumpter in "Q & the Grey." There's nothing wrong with daling with serious issues in those stotries. The Q-bcomes-human TNG story had srious issues, little change in costume, and was fantastic. But it seems a waste to take such wonderfully wild characters and tame them. Use originally tame haracters for stories requiring tame characters. Let Q and Lwaxanna be in wild stories. In the end I agree with Quin, "I miss the irrepressable Q." (And I I hope he reppears irepressably in a film!)
But right now... Besides the seductive bathrobe and his Civil War fantasy, when was the last time Q wasn't weaing a Strfleet uniform? Oh, on that subject...
Fashion Stasis: After the first season, in which Starfleet admirls' unifomrs shifter at least once, the Starfleet admiral's uniform went into stasis. The current admiral's uniform matches the TNG uniform well. Red shirt for admirals just as those in command branch. Both even had black shoulders. But when I looked at Sisko in is thick, coarse "First Contact" uniform stnding next to the admirlal in the admiral's uniform, it was odd. (This took place in the first DS9 episode with the FC unifirms, by the way.). The fabric is different. The style is different. Sisko was mostly in black with red shouldsers; the admiral had black shoulders and red below (until the trousers). And looking at that, I thought that without the com badges they would look like they were in different militaries.
SUT (Shoulda Used That): In our search for explanations to Nits, I think it should be fair to mention non-canonical information from pocket books, novelizations, early drafts of scripts, rejected scripts, interviews with producers and writers, and so forth. And to say, "Gee, if this were only part of cannon, the problem woiuld be solved." Example: The novelization of "All Good things..." explains why the future Eterprise foud the future anomololy when it returned to whtever-sytem-that-was. The reason was that the rupture was tied to a particlar point in space, not in time. The rupture of anti-time could have occured at any point of time. The time just happened to be convenient. (This isn't mentioned, but maybe Q had a hand in that) Now, that explanation works for me; if only it had been mentioned in the actual episode.
AWG (Another White Guy): I read your conmment for the glossary WHIGEEs. And I'll agree that they're simplitically one-sided and by now are fairly pase. But there is a flip side to race in Star Trek. As a white guy myself, I think we sould acknoledge that White Guys are portrayed as the norm in Star Trek's universe. Almost ever alien species mentioned looks ethnically European even those with strange ears or foreheads. And more often then not, the maority of those seen are guys. When either characteristic-but particularly the white bit-is laking from an alien species, its often mentioned, as if it weren't normal. For example, the black/Arab race in "Code of Honor." Picard mentions that they resemble an old earth cultue. Well, so do most species found-well, except for the ancient bit. In the TOS epiode "All Our Yesterdays" shows that on culture looked almost exactl like Salem village. In "Who Watches the Wachers?", the Vulcanoids dress sort like Gypsys are portrayed as dressing. But because the race in "Code of Honor" don't resemble a Eurpoean culture, that difference is mentioned. (As I think about it, it may be because Picard was trying to butter up this cuklture to get the medicine. And Rome is seen as odd in "Bread and Circuses", but that's because it was nearly identical, not just siminlar.)
Of course, if this is selected for use, there would be so many AWGs that perhaps it would be better just to lable the NAWG (Not another White Guy)s. The best way to lable a NAWG would be yo noytice when a character isn't played to a European (TNG and after guest Klingons, becaue of Dorn, probably shouldn't count) especially if non-whiteness wasn't required by the script. Sisko, for example. (A sumilar glossary entry would be [N]AA: [Not] Another American. Unless the US was the only country to have bomb shelters in WWIII, there should be more non-Americans in Starfleet. But in the last 2 series, almost every human regular was (or appears to have been) born in USA. [OK, DS9 has two from English-speaking Europe.] I know that the actors mostly come from the USA, but they're actors. I find it a bit dull that now that Picard's off the air, every human Starfleet officer in a regular cast has a English-based first name except Chakotay. Where are the Pavels, the Hikarus?) From inside the story, random chance can explain the heavy white and American bent to the crews. But esopecially with the Enterprise-D, wouln't UFP want to display the diversity it cherishes on its flagship? Don't they believe all species and ethnicities have generally equal ability? (Ok, everyone but the Pakleds.)
A second explanation for all the Aemricans is that some could not be American. As Worf's brother, the American accented Gralt rised child of Russians, and colony raised Tasha Yar apparently demostrqate, "The President's English" has become Federation Colony standard. .
The Berman Falicy: The belief that a Star Trek series can be created in which members of the regular cast can exist in a state of conflict.
DS9 and VGR were billed, in part, as series in which confliuct between different types of regular characters will be common. Both did OK with that in their first seasons. But once the 3-oart season 2 opener of DS9 was done, Federation/Bajor culture clash pisodes have been rarely. They're almost like "Mirror, Mirror" episodes; they keep coming back to them them, but they're not the normal type of episode. And now even Garak and Quark are semi-Federationized. Starfleet/Maquis conlict in VGR has also diminished. Indeed, Chakotay has estblished that he now considerss his Maquis days to be misguided. Berman mentioned that he belived a lack of intracrew conflict was one of Star Trek's failings; but because of those two series it must now be considered one of Star Trek's inevitabilities. If there are future series, Berman's belief could be proven possible; but so far nature appears to abhor intracrew conflict.
But... One crew member desrves special scrutiny.
BOMS (B'Elanna's on Mood Stabilizers): Lt. Torres has recently displayed every emotion except anger. I can accept Chaotay's loss of anger as character growth, but Be'lanna's got Klingon ancestry to deal with. What's the deal? The best explanatoon is that the Doctor has blocked her emotion with some sort of medicine. Possibly, he's pumping it into the air, which is why there have been so few Maquis/Starfleet conflit of late. I think I first noticed her lack of anger in "The Dreadnaut." I thouh she sghouyld be furious at the drednaught for not cooperating. Instad she gets phiosophical and misty. The only recent anger episode I can remember is at the end of "Remember," but in that one it seemed to be rightous anger over a mass murder, which is somthing even mood stbilizers couldn't control. Shouldn't, for that matter.
Martin Jack, Brighton: IGSTTYS-"I've got something to tell you syndrome"- this occurs when Picard and Crusher are stuck together in a life-threatening situation and Crusher turns around to Picard and says this rather frustrating line( being a big Bev fan!). Whenever this line turns up you can bet that they are just about to rescued e.g. The High Ground, or that Picard will disappear e.g. Remember Me.
Lisa Solinas: Someone submitted a glossary term for Janeway opening her mouth too wide. What about TOSUHE: "TOm Squinches Up His Eyes", which he does several times here. ("The Chute")
Robert Beeler of K-town TN: TIME - "Time in More Episodes" - Star Trek may be about space travel, but there also seems to be alot of time travel involved. For example, three of the eight Star Trek movies have featured time travel (Kirk & Co. save the whales, Kirk saves Picard, and Picard gets a backbone). I imagine that when the writers get stumped they say "Let's do one about time travel!" (This might also explain all the "holodeck goes bad episodes")
DID - "Data in Danger" - Whenever there is a dangerous mission in TNG, it seems that Data gets picked on (sort of like Ensign Expendible in TOS). Does Picard not think that Data deserves a better future than being blown up? Won't some hapless redshirt take a life threatening, career advancing mission?
ATAMC - "Aren't they all M class" - It seems like all the planets the crew visits are M-Class. Not only are they M-Class but they are conveniently placed M-Class planets (DS9, "Ascent"). Worse yet, aare those planets that are barely M- Class (Not enough to kill you, just make you very uncomfortable).
Urac 'Ratbat' Sigma: MCML Acronym for 'My Culture, My Language'. STAR TREK doesn't suffer much from this, but it refers to the way creators will often have a character from a non-English-speaking culture replace small or simple words with those from their home language. Easy example: French characters that call everyone 'Monsieur' and say 'Oui' instead of 'Yes', 'Bonjour' instead of 'Hello', etc. Not that showing multiculturalism is a bad thing, but if there's one thing I've found over fifteen years of learning other languages, it's that it's these 'little' words that are generally learnt first, and tend to be the ones most frequently put into the 'adopted' language!
Brian Straight, Shawnee, Kansas: I think I thought of a new acronymn for you! P.O.V.A, feel free to modify this, Planetary Orbital View Angle. This can actualy translate to the trouble ships have with orbits. In Futures End we see a shot of Voyager orbiting Earth. It comes to the end of the planet, and continues foward, rather than turning with the planet, this happens in the opening credits as well,. Also in Futures End moments later Kim walks into the Mess Hall and talks to Nelix and Kes as they watch TV. Outisde the Mess Hall windows the planet covers the bottom of the windows. When we see the ship orbit the planet the planet sits off to the port side of the ship.
Stephen Mendenhall: There's a major problem with Coda.
WKHIE--We Know How It Ends. Of course Janeway will come back to life to be in next week's episode.
Also, NSAS--Nasty Space Alien Syndrome, as contrasted with BSAS-- Benevolent Space Alien Syndrome
Jason Morrell of Torrance, CA: SAETTDN syndrome, It Stands for "Send Another Eng. Team To Do Nothing" witch refers to alot of shows in TOS, TNG, VOY, and DS9. I think it happens on TNG & VOY the most. Its when a commanding officer says "Get a Eng. Team down there and fix it" but it is never fixed untill the battle is over or the strange light is gone.
Richard Steenbergen: SNISM: Sweeps, Need I Say More? Whenever the show turns into "Voyager does the Delta Quadrant," just remember, SNISM!
Gregory Pietsch of Ewing, New Jersey: ECMAH, for "Every Crew Member's a Humanoid". In other words, why can't the Federation have a world which the sentient species is a clam or an insect? I wouldn't mind seeing an insect as a crew member on board the Voyager. Then we could have neat lines like, "Let's crush the Kazon like a bug! Present company excepted, of course."
Come to think of it, the only sentient nonhumanoid species we've seen are the Sheliak. Why wouldn't Voyager or any subsequent series have a Sheliak crew member?
John Latchem: WIVRON (What Is Voyager Ripping Off Now?) A fun new game to play while watching Star Trek:Voyager. When you see a story element that seems familiar, shout "WIVRON" and name the source. Example: In the beginning of "Coda" Janeway dies but she and Chakotay appear back on the shuttle. WIVRON: "TNG Cause and Effect." See how many you can name in the hour. Play it with a friend or two and see who scores the most points.
Jim DiCillo of Lyndhurst, Ohio: (Note from Phil: I didn't just update the glossary with this because every time I've done any research at the library on the actual distance to stars I've always come up with a range of number for the same star! So maybe Jim and Stephen are just using different sources! Ain't science grand?)
To correct an item in your glossary,
Under IGG (Interstellar Geography Goof), Stephen Mendenhall states that Regulus is 55 lightyears from Earth and Rigel is about 800 lightyears from Earth. Actually, Regulus is 84 lightyears from Earth and Rigel is 900. (I refer you to The Observer's Handbook of The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada as one reference. There are many more.) In spite of the numerical error, the point is that he says DS9 isn't so far from Earth. Well, since Bajor, is 300 light years from Regulus (Fascination) and Regulus is 84 light years from Earth, DS9 is between 216 and 384 light years from Earth. Now, according to The Star Trek-Encyclopedia, warp 9.6 is 1909 times the speed of light. So, lets do a little math.
time = distance/velocity = 216 ly / 1909 ly per year = 0.113150 years = 41 days, 7 hours So, the fastest that anyone could get to Earth from Bajor is 41 days, 7 hours.
However, the episodes The Search Part 1, Paradise Lost and Past Tense Part 1 all indicate that Earth is only a week away. ( Must be those Borg engines in the Defiant).
Gregory Pietsch of Ewing, New Jersey: Here's another Glossary item - TAPS, for "Transporter Accident Perfection Syndrome".
This refers to TOS "The Enemy Within" and TNG "Second Chances". In the first episode, Kirk splits in two, but it is apparent by the end of the episode that neither Kirk could survive as a distinct entity for too long. Then, in "Second Chances", Riker splits in two, but both versions of Riker survive for years afterward!
Jeff Burns of Overland Park, Kansas: Here's a new term for 'ya: "Borged," as coined by my 8-year-old little brother Mason while we were seeing First Contact, it is meant to be used as an alternate term for "assimilated." Y'see, "assimilated" was just to big a word for my little brother to remember, so he decided to refer to those crewmen who had been "assimilated" as those crewmen who had been "Borged."
Simon Crowley: FTLTTNSIS! Acronym for "For the last time: There's no sound in space!!! Now how many times have we seen *this* crop up? Photon torpedoes make a nice loud "boom," warp engines whine and roar, ships "whoosh" by the camera (refer to FTLTTNAIS: For the last time: There's no air in space!) If there's no air, there's no way sound can travel. Simple science.
Jim DiCillo: I suggest a new acronym, TUD, or Totally Unecessary Dialog. For an example of TUD, we look at a line in DS9's Trials And Tribble- ations
After Worf says that Darvin was altered to look human, Dax says, "That surgeon does nice work."
I guess she needed another line. Bashir altered Kern's appearance, turned Sisko, O'Brien and Odo into Klingons, and remade Kira from being a Cardassian. Crusher changed peoples' appearance all the time (She could have specialized in it). Seems like a common operation to me., not worthy of any comment from Dax.
Now, Dax has plenty of other lines in this episode, so it wasn.t a matter of cutting her only line, or EGAL
For further examples of TUD, listen to seven years of Counselor Troi's dialog
Ari Rosner, from Palo Alto, CA: TTSUS Acronym for "Time Travel Slip-Up Syndrome" This refers to all the times a crew member goes to the past and mentions something that was just thrown to add humor. Examples include Kirk mentioning that Spock did too much LDS, Tom Paris referring to the KGB.
Marian Perera: I came up with the glossary term TCBYF yesterday. It refers to the all-pervasive belief writers entertain concerning aliens : They Can Be Your Friends. Observe : the Klingons in TOS were Bad, Bad Guys but in TNG we have Worf and episodes like "A Matter of Honor" to restore our faith in the intrinsic good nature of the Klingon Empire. Ditto for the Romulans, who came off as potential Federation material in "The Defector". Hugh really spelled out TCBYF in "I, Borg" and although the Cardassians came off as villains initially, DS9 redeemed their reputation. The Jem'Hadar got their turn in "Hippocratic Oath" and Voyager jumped on the bandwagon with the nice-Vidiian episode "Lifesigns" and the Kazon kid in "Initiations". So remember folks, the next time you meet a nasty alien species who wants your internal organs, your life, or just your assimilation, TCBYF!
Gregory Pietsch of Ewing, New Jersey: NYSNYN, for "Now you're sentient, now you're not". This refers to Data (and to a lesser extent, Lol, Lore, and Data's mom) on TNG and the Holodoc on Voyager and the fact that the Creators seem to waffle on whether these characters have individual rights or not. For example, an admiral comes on board the Enterprise and wants to disassemble Data in one episode, or take Lol away from Data and possibly disassemble her.
Here's the full definition of the BCP (Borg Cliche' Plot):
Scene 1: The AOTW reaks havoc amongst the Enterprise.
Scene 2: Our heroes figure out the AOTW's Achilles heel (this takes about 40
minutes of on-screen time, during which the AOTW reaks more havoc).
Scene 3: Our heroes risk life and limb implementing the Achilles Heel plan.
Scene 4: It works! The Enterprise/DS9/Voyager is saved, and life, liberty,
truth, justice, and the Federation way continues on, at least until the next
episode!
(Note from Phil: Trevor Ruppe collected these from newsletters and Guides and Brash Reflection because they weren't noted in the glossary yet.)
GCFRNCR: Galactic Court For Race-Name Conflict Resolution. Hey, it's a big galaxy out there, so you're bound to find a few Tallarians and Tellerians and Tallerians and Tarrellians and...
DCD: Descriptionally-Challenged Disorder. Afflicts crewmembers who, when asked by their commanding officers to report on what's happening, reply with a glib remark like "Trouble, big time."
SSS: Short Show Syndrome. Occasionally the crew have to act like cabbageheads at the start of the episode, because if they used their brains, the plot would end by the first commercial break.
TAD: Technobabble As Dialogue. So called because there would only be a TAD of dialogue if all the technobabble were removed from this show. (This would also cause a SSS!)
Trevor Ruppe: TCF: Twentieth Century Fixation. Suggested by Trevor Ruppe of Hickory, NC. The people of the 24th century have an abnormal fixation with the 20th century, including knowledge of its history and continued use of its catch-phrases. Case in point: the pick-up truck floating in deep space in a Voyager episode. DS9 isn't as guilty of this, but the other three series have used the dialogue "Back in the 20th century..." more often than they've had trouble with transporters! Granted, there will be historians in the future, and some of them may specialize in the 20th. But if you had one more space to fill in your ship's roster, would you--on your voyage into deep, uncharted space--bring 1) a stellar-anomalies expert, or 2) an expert on Earth's 20th century? How many people do you personally know today who are obsessed with the 16th century? Forsooth!
IALOML,CU: Instant-Attraction Love-Of-My-Life, Completely Unattainable. Suggested by Trevor Ruppe of Hickory, NC. Previously used by others as LOML,CU in the Ask the Chief columns. I've added the "Instant-Attraction" because the crewmember involved falls madly in love in so short an amount of time. This also happens in several films, esp. action movies, where the man and woman go through a few traumatic events together and, at the end, although they've just met, are groping each other and planning the rest of their lives together. (For a refreshing twist on this, watch the movie "Broken Arrow"--which ends not with a kiss but with the man and woman formally introducing each other and saying, in effect, it was nice meeting you and good-bye.) For specific TREK examples, see the entry GDS (Gilligan's Dating Syndrome).
SOAT: Same Old Away Team. Suggested by Trevor Ruppe of Hickory, NC. The whole point of using Away Teams in NextGen was to keep the Captain safe on the ship while a secondary officer went into dangerous situations. But Away Teams often consisted of putting Data (a one-of-a-kind android), Worf (chief tactical/security officer), Geordi (chief engineer), and Beverly (chief surgeon) in the thick of danger on a weekly basis. Surely it would make more sense to have Riker lead *a* security officer, *a* nurse, *an* engineer away on missions and keep the whole Senior Bridge Staff safe on the ship.
WNAF,T?: Who Needs a Flagship, Then? Suggested by Trevor Ruppe of Hickory, NC. During the early years of NextGen, the Enterprise-D patrolled the whole of Federation space, often on official Starfleet business (political, military, and/or science). Anytime there was something major happening in the Alpha Quadrant, the Ent-D was there! With NextGen off the air, though, suddenly all the important Alpha-Quad events someway, somehow managed to involve DS9. Even when you would think the Ent-E would appear on the show (when the Dominion finally "invaded"), it turns out it wasn't an invasion at all, and the Dominion ships made a sharp left turn and booked it for Cardassia before any Starfleet ships managed to reach DS9! Likewise, as soon as the Voyager starts puttering about the Delta Quadrant, suddenly we find all these various links to the Alpha Quadrant that by a strange coincidence we'd never heard of before Voyager came on the air!
TTGTBU: Technology Too Good To Be Used. Suggested by Trevor Ruppe of Hickory, NC. Whenever the Creators come up with a really great way to use their 24th century technology, it is used in one episode and then forgotten forever. Want a specific example? In VOY:Future's End, the Voyager was in orbit around 20th century Earth, and no one mentioned that DS9:Past Tense established that transporters can beam people through time. All the crew had to do was beam down through time onto 24th century Earth! This is an important combination of The Donut Factor (mundane tech suddenly aquires miraculous abilities) and CFTOH (cast forgets their own history). This has been called Techno Amnesia by some, but I don't think it's a good idea to use the abbreviation TA! (Not that "TTGTBU" is all that appealing, of course...)
BTTSQ: Back To The Status Quo. Suggested by Trevor Ruppe of Hickory, NC. Policy adopted by nearly every American-made TV show (except BABYLON 5) and rejected by most good, dramatic British TV shows (like BLAKE'S 7--maybe it's a numbers thing). The characters spend the first half-hour getting into a situation and then spend the second half-hour putting things back exactly the way they were at the beginning of the episode so they'll all be in place to do the same thing next week, and the next week, and the next week...
Glenn St-Germain: YAGLA - acronym for Yet Another God-Like Alien Refers to the large number of cosmic beings which inhabit the Star Trek Universe. TOS had the Organians ("Errand of Mercy"), Trelane's people ("The Squire of Gothos"), and the Melkotians ("Spectre of the Gun"). In TNG we have the Q Continuum, the Douwd ("The Survivors"), The Traveler ("Where No One Has Gone Before", "Remember Me", "Journey's End"), the Zalkonians ("Transfigurations")... and it almost appears that Wesley Crusher is on his way to becoming a YAGLA in "Journey's End" humself...
Mike Leinoff of Glens Falls, NY: PPAC: People with Power are Always Corrupt. This refers to any time we see a character (usually an admiral) who can order our crew around, and they order them to do something stupid, or something that breaks Starfleet laws. Take, for instance, Admiral Pressman from (TNG) The Pegasus. He ordered the crew to go looking for illegal technology. Or take Admiral Norah Satie from (TNG) The Drumhead. She came on the Enterprise, and started accusing Picard of being a Romulan collaborator! And let's not forget the Commodores from TOS who constantly thought they could do a better job than Kirk, and took over the ship. Where does Starfleet dredge up these guys? And better yet, why does it give them positions with so much power?
Eric Penner Haury: Dukat said it. He admiyted that having hm as a patriotic freedom fighter helping Kira "Never seemed quite right." (It wasn't that bad at first, but it was reaching its limit and definately wasn't as good as the recent turn of events.) Anyway, that quote of his is perfect for something I've noticed in Star Trek lately. Whether deciding that Chakotay wasn't the father of Seska's baby, or restoring Odo's Changelingness, or (as in "By Inferno's Light") returning power to the Cardassians and restoring the the Klingon/Federation Alliance, the creators have decided to undo things.. And the undoing is done in such an abrupt manner that it looks like they are admittig (not saying we agree or we don't) that it was a bad idea that needed to be scrapped. Any time they appear to be backstepping about the plot because of a precieved bad idea is an example of INSQR (It Never Seemeed Quite Right)
Scott Rehm: DSN (LPHI) is my submission for he guild glossary. No, it is not "Deep Space Nine", it's "Discomendate Sisko??? Nah." (You have to drag out the nah when you say it, and say "disconedate sisko" with kind of a stunned surprise). It refers to the remarkable (or obscene) number of times Sisko has defied Star Fleet's orders or done something without Star Fleet's say so and has not been discomendated! It started in "The Siege", when Sisko refused to evacuate the station, and most recently shows up in the episode "For The Uniform". I find it remarkable that Star Fleet had nothing to say about Sisko's poisoning the atmosphere of Solosos 3. "Don't you think Sisko should have gotten in trouble for that? Discomendate Sisko??? Naaaahhh."
The LPHI means "Let's promote him instead!" and can be added the next time Sisko gets a promotion. "Captain Sisko, for your brave terrorist attacks against the Maquis, all to bring in one guy for a personal vendetta, we hereby promote you to admiral."
Sam Tingey of Salt Lake City, UT: ADSNRAFSOPITAQ Acronym for "Another Deep Space Nine Representing A Fundamental Shift Of Power In The Alpha Quadrant"
How come every time a big two part episode of Deep Space Nine is aired treaties are broken and some new ones, or old ones are formed. I wonder how many different combinations of alliances we'll see between the powerful military empires.
Ed Watson of Downingtown PA: I just found the glossary and there was only one thing that I didn't see. You didn't list the "Don't give Picard a straight answer" syndrome. I remind you that this is your creation. If you do add it, I would suggest a more generic "don't give the captain a straight answer" syndrome.
We all know the TNG references to this syndrome, and for the other shows I would sight these examples. In DS9's "In Purgatory's Shadow", Sisko sent Kyra in the Defiant to confirm that the Jem'Hadar are actually coming. Upon her return, she contacted the station. Sisko asked her what she found. Her answer; "Trouble". Next, in Voyager's "Projections", the doctor had to get rescued from the holodeck and "Grendel". When he got back to sick bay, part of his arm was missing. Janeway asked Paris if he got the doctor back. His answer; "More or less".
Luke Allen, Albuquerque NM: No more nits about sound in space! All Sound In Space Is Sound As It Would Be In Atmosphere/Ship(s), or SISISAIWBIS/SISISAIWBIA; for short, it would be Sound As it Would Be In Atmosphere/Ship, or SAWBIA/SAWBIS. When a show/movie is made with scenes in space without sound, there should be applause, but no boo's for those that have really neat sound effects for space.
Every time a half-human halfbreed is talked about, even by non-humans, they are always referred to as half-alien. For example, Belanna (sp?) and Khey'Lar (sp?) are half-Klingon, Spock is half-Vulcan, etc. That takes care of one half, doesn't it? SO WHAT'S THE OTHER HALF?!?!? Very Humanocentric. This should be called a "What Is The Other Half" moment, or WITOH.
Gregory Pietsch of Ewing, New Jersey: SCSACPASCR, for "Ship's Computer Scientists and Computer Programmers are Sentient Cockroaches".
We never see these guys, yet we know they exist! These ships have a lot of computers and technical equipment, yet nobody's around to maintain the computers and program them, so I guess that that's the job of sentient cockroaches, who can do their programming and hide before the camera finds them. Evidence of sentient cockroach programmer activity: TOS, "I, Mudd" (on the androids); TOS, the episode where they try to get Jack the Ripper out of the computer system by calculating the last digit of pi; TNG and DS9, anytime the crew gets a new holodeck program; and Voyager, anytime Holodoc refuses to act like a doctor.
2MD, for "Two Minute Drill"
Series-specific to Voyager. A typical episode of "Voyager" has four parts: the introduction (when a conflict is introduced), the rising action (which takes most of the show), the climax (when the conflict is resolved), and the denouement, in that order. If the climax and denouement take place in less than two minutes of on-screen time, that episode is said to end with a two-minute drill.
The reason for this is that it's a lot easier for the director to cut stuff from a script than for a writer to add stuff. Consequently, the writer has to write a 75-or-more page script when a one-hour TV episode takes up about 63 to 68 pages. Apparently, the directors feel that it's easier to cut from the denouement than the rising action, forcing us to see a two minute drill.
The term "two minute drill" is borrowed from American football. When there's less than two minutes left in a half or in the game, teams try to move down the field in a hurry. Because it appears in "Voyager" that Janeway and company tend to rush the ending of certain episodes, those episodes end with a two-minute drill.
Ray Andrade: The term I've come up with is LSOOBAGTLSKOOU or lets sit on out buts and get the living snot kicked out of us. For example, Generations and Peak Preformance. Where the ship is attacked and the bridge crew just sit around for five mnutes. And when they finnaly attempt to fight back the weapon systems are of line (how could that of happened? wink)
I don't want to subject you to another 10+ character acronym so I have decided to call it The Hellraiser Syndrome. Take your pick.
Bob Sabatini: I have a new addition to your glossery. KTCITD- keep the captin in the dark. This happens countless times in trTrek. My favorite eximple is in the epiode "skin of Evil" when Piccard asks, "What do yoyu see number one?" and riker answers,"Trobule"
"The New Mexico theroy"- Living in Albuquerque New Mexico, I know that NM is tie forty-seventh stateof the union. And also, the Rio Grande (Big River, for all who don't understand spanish) is the biggest river in the land of enchantment. This may explain the immunity of the "Rio Grande" runabout, and the constant use of the number 47. Possibly one of the creators came from New Mexico. (Note from Phil: This one was close to getting included in the primary glossary! If it wasn't for the fact that the real reason there are 47s is Paloma College . . . )
Ronan Mitchell: "Shine a light in Kirk's face at the moral bit" - whenever there's a moral bit in the original series, or when someone dies, they always shine a great big studio light in Kirk's face when he's talking. Why is that?!
ABOFAM:This applies solely to Dr. Bashir. It goes like this - someone's in the infirmary. Someone else asks to see them, to which Bashir always responds - "Alright (pause,tilt head), but only for a minute".
Charles W. Schultz of Pittsburgh, PA: FOTW- Forehead of the Week. This is when they need an alien for the show, often throwaway for one episode, so they do some little squiggles on the bridge of the nose, lines on the forehead, or other things that tend to make so many species blend together. I guess it reduces the makeup budget, and the creativity synapses saved can be utilized later to think up another way to beam someone through the shields for just one episode.
LCAGC- Let's Crash and Get Cozy. Often a "filler" episode, this tends to happen by means of a crashed shuttle or when the tranporters and communications don't work that week (in other words, every episode of Voyager). Two cast members get stranded together, preferably ones that have latent sexual desires and/or hatred or contempt for each other. They then have to spend lots of quality time trying to survive or strangle one another. This has been done in one fashion or another with Picard and Wesley, Picard and Beverly, Chakotay and Janeway, Tuvok and Neelix, Odo and Quark, Sisko and Quark, and plenty of others that have blurred in my mind by this point.
Ed Watson of Downingtown, PA: I'd like to nominate a new entry for the glossary. With this weeks Voyager episode "Favorite Son", I now have three instances of this. I'm calling it BDWF, an acronym for "Bad Dream, Wash Face". I sight Roga Danar in TNG's "The Hunted", Picard in "First Contact", and now Mr. Kim in "Favorite Son".
Beau Landaiche of St. Gabriel, LA: I want to submit a new term to the glossary. It is SYDO,BYSUSEH-DN, or Sure You Disobeyed Orders, But You Saved Us So Everything's Hunky-Dorey Now. This refers to the amazing lack of disciplinary action taken against any officer who won't obey his superior officer. Examples of this are Kirk's court-martial in STIV, Picard disobeying orders in STFC (although we never actually see what happens to Picard after the Enterprise returns, you can bet he'll still be the captain afterwards), Dax helping Koloth and the other Klingons kill the Albino Alien (and Sisko's not punishing her for disobeying him), etc.
Lars Ormberg of Rimbey, Alberta: OLITERWA:Oh Look Its The Evil Right Wing Again
The most blatent use was "Looking for Par'mach in All the Wrong Places" where Worf sides with the Newt Gingrich/Steve Harper (he's a Canadian politician, okay!) minded jerk who sabotages the whole planet to protect the morals of the Federation. The basic premise to the episode? "Worf & Dax battle the evil right wing". Variations of this theme include the filler space occupied by the anti-government militia men in "Future's End Part II", striking against the evil capitalists in "Bar Association", and perhaps a few others.
This is a similar idea with WHIGEE, but instead of portraying how evil the white man was, it portrays how evil (right wing) white men are.
Bob Sabatini: A fter reading the nitpickers guild glossery, I have discoverd that the preview for "Blood Fever" was NOT an example of PAL, because It did not lie at all. It was more of a PAS then a PAL, because it told TOO MUCH TRUTH.
Matthias Roth, Hennigsdorf, Germany: BSE - Big Synchronization Error (BSE is also the acronym for the deadly "Mad Cow Disease" and that fact fits perfectly in this place, because we must suppose, that some translators had BSE from time to time)
In the newsletter v1i2 were some really nasty examples (four ton torpedoes, emergency landing on a shuttle). I have found a very nice BSE in the german (of course...) version of STTNG:Redemption, part 1. Gowrons cruiser is attacked by enemy forces and Worf has to hold the tactical officer's position. Worf cannot fire, because the DISRUPTORS are somewhat damaged or offline. In the german version, they never translated the term DISRUPTOR, but here (and only in this episode) they changed their behaviour and named the "Klingon Big Guns" UNTERBRECHER (which means interrupter, contact breaker etc.).
When I saw this episode first I wondered why Worf didn't fire and what those unterbrechers are for, but later I realized the nature of this BSE and screamed about five minutes. I think, to DISRUPT and to INTERRUPT are some very different things.
A variant of BSE is the Big Translation Error BTE, which also occurs in the german version of your Next Generation Guide, where the (Romulan) warbird becomes a war-swallow (Kriegsschwalbe). (Note from Phil: This was very close to getting included in the primary glossary. I'll have to think about it a bit more!)
Mark Sutcliffe: CUPTIAF stands for Can't Use Proton Torpedos In A Fight.
I understand that there are distance problems when using these torpedos, but, they seem very effective, so why don't the captains ever use a proton torpedo on the enemy at a safe distance, even if it does need some manoevering? It would simplify things greatly, I guess it still relates to having to dramatize fight sequences and making things twice as hard.
Eric Brasure of Wilmington, DE: Those Crazy Moon Boots (TCMB)! Let me explain. In at least one place in the DS9 Guide, you remarked on Kira's sudden height increase because the creators' decided to have her wear heels. Well, that a TCMB! It denotes any character (although most likely a female, no sexism, just that most males don't wear heels!) that starts wearing heeled boots for no apparent reason. Also, TCMB's happen to Janeway sometimes.
If you want, this could be expanded to include any inexplicable change of footwear, like Dr. Bashir's white sneakers in that TNG episode (But that would be a TCMS, or Those Crazy Moon Shoes!). If you don't want to use it, I'll understand, but I think it's pretty darn good myself! Just a funny way to describe something.
Lisa Solinas: NEEHACOAHP: "Never Ever Ever Have A Colony On a Hospitable Planet" Best example of this term is "Hippocratic Oath", where Bashir and O'Brian crash-land on a bee-yew-tiful uninhabited planet, while on TOS, they had gazillions of colonies on nasty worlds.
Bob Sabatini: Ms. FBSLJLT- Achronym for Ms. From behind, She Looks Just Like Torres. So far, we have seen her twice. the first time, in "The Q And The Grey" she was the woman on the bridge who looked just Like Torres from the back, even though Torres was supposed to be in engenering. We see her again in "Before and After" In a future timeline were many people, Including Torres were killed. She dosen't say anything and you can only see her back, but she turns her head a little and you can see forehead ridges.
Stephen Mendenhall of Ann Arbor MI: Kes time travelling was interesting, but there's a glossary item. IIC--Isn't It Convenient. Kes was supposed to get the chronotemporal signature of the torpedo, and it's only 3 digits! Lucky it wasn't 17 digits on both sides of the decimal point! And it's lucky it wasn't a number which *changes* every few seconds!
CPE--Competent Prevarication Event. Well, we could call it CL-- Competent Lying, but that doesn't seem fancy enough. Anyway, it rarely happens in the ST universe. Kirk's lies were invariably incompetent. But the best lie was in DS9 "Personae Dramatis" when Odo convinces Bashir that Odo is on Bashir's side, and manipulates Bashir...despite Odo claiming in earlier episodes that he isn't a sneaky underhanded sort of person. But, people do change.
Eric Penner Haury of Vista, CA: I have a problem with Louis Zimmerman. I don't think he's qualified for his job. The EMH program doesn't have a good bedside manner; he's getting there. But even for something thats supposed to be a backup doctor, bedside manner is a crucuial component of a doctor. Leaving that out of the EMH (even with the ability to learn it) is a sign either of incompetence in planning or incompetence of execution.
But even worse, the Doctor didn't start out with a realistic humanoid peresonality. He strted out obviously sythetic. No9w, with Data, Song could get away with it. Original Series androids were either destroyed or few and far between. And it wouldn't be surprising for them to be hard to duplicate.
But there musst have been hundreds of holodeck characters in TNG and its followers, and they have consistantly been given realisic personalities. The most problems the Enterprise computer had with a holopersonality was the HoloLeah Brahms. And the only problem the computer had was matching the holopersonlity to a real on; it had no problem making the personality realISTIC. (OK, Riker mentioned problem with ettig Minuet back or somone with her specialness, but I don't uerstnd precisely what was so (tecnologically) special about her, anyway.)
For a while I wondered if the EMH's problem was that personallity realism required loads of memory, and that the Sick Bay HoloEnvironment had less memory than the Holodeck and that the EMH couldn't access ny memory but Sick Ba memory unless he trasfered to the Holodeck. I worried that that did contradict dssomething in VGR
Until I reeaized it contradictreed something in TNG!! In the episode "Ship in the Bottle", Moriarity and the Conutess are transfered into a hollodeck simulation of a large portion of he galaxy. True, there was no mater simulaion, but there was personality simulation. I assume that their personalities were not diminidshed, for the crew didn't talk about any diminshmnt And, Data, in paricular, wouold be (unemotionally) upset for trampling on the righs of sentint synthetics. And PIcard would've at least brooded afterwards. Besides, Picard says there is enough power for years of adventure. That not only means populated planets with beings realistic enough to fool the coupple (which even at minimum persoanlity development would have overwelmed a small amont of memory bcaue of the sheer # of being), but tghe concep of adventure requires a certain degree of mental awareness. Ergo: Moririty and the Countess retain eough of thir minds to understand adventure. To me, that meaans that there was little or no degredation of their minds after being placed in the tiny storage unit.
Moe simply put: Two complex holographic personalities could be maintained by a device little bigger than an Apple Newton.
Therefore, it seems unlikely that there wouldn't be room in the sickbay circutry to have something that could allow the doctor to hav a realisitc personlity. If its not a hardware problem, its got to be a software problem. That means the unrealism IS Zimmermn's fault. The episode in which he appeared in DS9 implies he could make a reealistic personality (but with moee dificulty than those in TNG could just by saying Make a character who is _________.") To me, that's evidence of incompetence of both planning and execution.
So, submitted for your approval:
Zimmerman's Syndrome: A condition cauing the inability to give a trait to a hologram that others have easily ggiven.
Katrina Pipinis: I've been thinking about Independence Day (and a lot of other movies which involve worldwide disasters), and I'd like to add a new (maybe) word to the glossary. OACSTW (or Only Americans Can Save The World)!
The situation goes like this. Someone or Something destroys most of the world's resources or means to defend itself. They intend to destroy life as we know it for they're own purposes (i.e. they're going to invade or they're doing God a favour). A bunch of Americans come up with a completely ludicrous idea about how to save the world, then carry it out. The movie then shows scenes from various locations around the world where people are partying and the Americans are the toast of the world. Happy ending, and the Americans are the heroes. Successful use of the cliche of the American ego rising above impossible odds.
Corey Hines, Hamilton, ON: NOLTWWCYLSWCIB Acronym for "No One Liked The Way We Changed Your Life So We'll Change It Back" - Sometimes the writers will make a drastic change in the life of the character and it would seem better if it was the way it was before the changed. First they change Odo from Changeling to human (Broken Link), then back to Changeling again. Quark's Ferengi business licence is revoked (Body Parts), then re-instated again (Ferengi Love Songs). The Klingons were at war with the Federation (Way of the Warrior), then at peace with them again (By Inferno's Light).
Brad Higgins: STPL (Spot The Plot Link)
This goes hand-in-hand with GWOITBP (Guess Which One Is The B-Plot). This occurs when there are two plots in one episode, and there are one or two scenes or moments that apply to both plots. Examples of this include the Voyager episode "Real Life" in which the Doctor creates a holographic family, and the rest of the crew investigates a subspace anomaly. The plot link occurs when Tom Paris comes into sickbay to get checked both before and after flying the shuttle through the anomaly, and has a little heart-to-microchip chat with Holodoc. Another example is the DS9 episode "Business as Usual" where Quark gos into business with his arms-merchant cousin. The B-plot deals with O'Brien and his baby who will only stop crying when O'Brien is holding him. The plot link occurs during Quarks "dream of conscience" when O'Brien says "Why'd you kill my baby, Quark?" A very brief, subtle link, but there none the less.
Josh Truax of Platteville, WI: Captains Are Babes Too (CABT)
TNG has Deanna Troi. DS9 has Jadzia Dax. Voyager, on the other hand, has never really had a "babe" character, but it does have a seemingly unlikely wannabe: Captain Janeway herself! It doesn't happen often, but every now and then Janeway is portrayed in a manner more befitting the aforementioned sex kittens than a starship captain. Case in point: the opening scene of Act Two of "Resolutions" [VGR], which I have taken to calling "The Infamous Bathtub Scene." The first time I saw Janeway's sultry performance in - and out of - that tub, I nearly fell out of my chair. Even the likes of Troi and Dax have never had a scene like this! (No wonder Chakotay's been flirting with her ever since...) Other CABT scenes are debatable, but my count also includes Janeway's "seduction" of a prison guard in "Resistance"...
Geordi LaForge Syndrome: Afflicts anyone who has ever fallen in love with a holodeck character. (That's *love,* people, not just lust; otherwise we'd have to include anyone who's ever visited Quark's holosuites.) Named for its first sufferer, who fell for the hologram of Dr. Leah Brahms in "Booby Trap" [TNG]. Voyager's Capt. Janeway flirted briefly with LaForge Syndrome in her holo-novel, before the creators decided to chuck the holo-novel out the proverbial airlock. Harry Kim ("Alter Ego" [VGR]) is the most recent sufferer...
James Bond Syndrome: Occurs anytime the bad guy(s) insist on using some elaborate method of bumping our heroes off, instead of just shooting them and being done with it; thus giving them the opportunity to escape and/or turn the tables on the bad guy(s). This sort of thing is a staple of the 007 movies; hence the moniker I've given it. This has also been known to happen in Star Trek, most notably in "Basics" [VGR], when the Kazon-Nistrim leave the Voyager crew to die on "Jurassic Planet" (aka Hanon IV), instead of just killing them all on the spot...
MUYMO! (Make Up Your Mind, Odo!): Refers to Odo's ongoing indecision regarding a significant other. The concept of romance was completely lost on Odo in DS9's first few episodes, until Lwaxana Troi won him over in "The Forsaken"... or so it seemed at the time. They remain attached through "Fascinations," but then in "Heart of Stone" Odo reveals (at least to viewers) that he has fallen hard for Kira. He never lets on to Kira about this, even after she starts seeing Bajoran First Minister Shakaar in "Crossfire." Curiously, however, he does tell Lwaxana, who goes off and impulsively marries a Tavnian, prompting Odo to crawl back to her and break up the marriage in "The Muse." Just when I'd thought he'd settled on Lwaxana once and for all, he obliges a Bajoran woman who asks him out at the end of "Broken Link." Then there's the woman he "puddles" with in "A Simple Investigation" - and now, from what I've been hearing, Odo's about to start pursuing Kira again! That makes six MUYMO!'s so far, by my count.
NANJAT (Not a Nit, Just a Thought) Used so frequently by nitpickers (in various forms) that I thought it should have its own glossary entry...
NHOI (Never Heard of It) Goes hand-in-hand with CODE. At least with CODE, the creators are making an effort to explain why the crew doesn't just eject a damaged warp core. Just as often, however, they don't bother to do even that. This results in the crew conveniently forgetting that the core ejection system (or some other safety system) even exists! Two glaring examples of this come to mind. One, of course, is in Star Trek Generations, when the Enterprise-D's warp core breaches and no one thinks to eject the core. The other is in "Resolutions" [VGR], when Janeway and Chakotay get infected with a deadly virus, and everyone (especially the script's writer, Jeri Taylor) completely forgets about the transporter biofilters. (Of course, this instance is also an ICBN, because if the virus had been removed by the biofilters, there would be no show, meaning Janeway wouldn't get to do the Infamous Bathtub Scene, and Chakotay wouldn't get to tell her that not-so-ancient legend of his...)
TLC (Touchin' Lovin' Captain) Yet another Voyager-exclusive entry. This one should be pretty self-explanatory...
Stephen Mendenhall: Answer: ICCILA--It Causes Cancer In Laboratory Animals.
Question: Why don't they use the Naked Time Virus to catch potential troublemakers, and to defeat the bad guys? Why don't they use the Midos Weapon from "The Arsenal of Freedom"? Why don't they use the Dividian Time Cane from "Time's Arrow"? Why don't they use the Scalosian Water to become invisible? Why don't they...well, you get the idea.
Jim Coyle of Oakwood, Ontario: ADACEIPWSAE (Another Deadly And Convenient Exploding Instrument Panel With Sparks And Everything) The list of examples is endless! The exploding control panels have killed more "extras" and principals (Janeway and Belona in Kes' regression episode) than any other technnology in ST (in any incarnation). I think the script writers double as saboteurs whenever the plot demands a quick exit, a plot twist or an entry in the damage report log. Funny, though: I don't ever remember a Red Shirt or anyone else getting killed by a console in ST:TOS.
Brian O'Marra, Little Rock, AR: PASS (Prevent A Short Show) syndrome. (I thought I'd tweak the definition a bit from my Rise nit). Constantly the creators take great lengths to sidestep solutions or outcomes to drag the show on. (You've pointed this out many times). For example, in Voyager "Rise," the ship couldn't detect the man-made element triadium in the asteroids at the beginning of the show, but Torres' handy, dandy tricorder could later on. This element if detected earlier would have exposed the fact that these asteroids were directed to the planet deliberately.
Travis McCord: Just looked through the Displaced nits, and was surprised that this one didn't come up: with all those intruders, why didn't somebody either try & blow up the ship, or at least lock out the control panels as in TNG: Rascals? They had plenty of chances... but, didn't use 'em, and the IFOS was in evidence again. I mean, security was sadly lacking... after all this time, wouldn't somebody put a little subroutine in StarFleet computers to check whether the guy operating the ship's controls actually _should_ be operating the ship's controls?
(Of course, the real reason it doesn't work is that it would short-circuit most of the writers' plots. While you're updating the glossary, throw these in: WWOPP and WWOCS--Writing Wins Over Proper Procedure/ Common Sense. Not only new terms, but fun to say! :)
Actually, some of the writing glitches aren't really faults of ST:Voyager in particular as much as TV writing in general. You can usually tell these 'Rules Of Hollywood' when you see them (good guys always win, bad guys get their comeuppance, characters last just as long as their contracts, no one speaks (and gets paid for it) unless specifically called for, et cetera.) That's how I knew the psycho would heroically sacrifice himself in the season opener--the unwritten 'Tragic Redemption' rule. It fits here too: logic dictates self-destruct or command lockout; but the ship is kind of a character of its own, and it should survive, and be part of a conflict later in the show. Then again, we should probably thank those Rules Of Hollywood, without which they'd have died or blown up 78 times, and there'd be no show!
Jason Barnes: I also thought of a new glossary term for you. I call it the "EITOSIR" or "Enterprise Is The Only Ship In Range." It's a reoccuring theme throughout classic and Next Gen. Example's would be Star Trek: Generations where Enterprise B is the only ship in range of the Elorian ships. ST:TMP where Enterprise is the only ship in range of V'ger. I thought it a little strange when I realized that my new term is pronounced "Ito sir." Kinda gave me the willies. :)
Scott Vogt, Cedar Rapids,IA: LUTJ Acronym for "Look Up To Janeway" Refers to anytime Janeway needs to feel more "captainly". In "Caretaker", as she tells Tuvok she'll get the crew home, she goes up her Ready Room steps to tower over him. In the next episode, "Parallax", she does the same thing to chew out Chakotay. It also refers to practically any briefing room scene. She never sits, she's either leaning on the table, the back of her chair, or walking around the table.
Katrina Pipinis: Just a thought, but now, in every Star Trek series, one main character has been accused of murder: Scotty in "Wolf in the Fold", Riker in "A Matter of Perspective" (I think), Dax in "Dax", and Paris in "Ex Post Facto". I'm not sure if there's been a term dreamed up for it yet, but how about AMCAOAMHDC (or something shorter if that's to your taste) for Another Main Character Accused of A Murder He Didn't Commit? And it's only been male characters that were accused (Dax is presently living inside Jadzia but was living inside Curzon at the time of the murder), which leads me to conclude that the creaters believe that women can commit murder -- or even be accused of it!
Mary Szabady: ICOEDHICR (In Case Of Emergency, Data's Head Is Completely Removable) It seems to me that when ever the writers want to get out of some sort of situation, they just pop Data's head off for no good reason except that it's kind of cool to have a crew member with a detachable head. For example, Data's decapitated head saves the day in 'Disaster' although it was completely unnecessary to remove it (I'm sure they could have come up with some other way.) The situation repeats in 'Time's Arrow' when a message inscribed in Data's head warns the Enterprise not to fire on Devidia II. Therefore, I think the phrase 'In Case Of Emergency, Data's Head Is Completely Removable' is one of the safety measures abord the Enterprise when all else fails.
Chris Booton: While watching The next generaation last night I thought some syndromes that has been seen many times on trek.
This is what I like to call: The Remember Me Effect or TRME. What this basicly involves is a charcter being introduced being in sereral episodes or just one and then after that character has had their episode in the spotlight (If only appearence is one episode can be in that episode) they are never in another episode again with, or never mentioned again,(without any explanation) it's alomst as if they have ceased to exist like the people did in TNG episode "Remember Me". This has happened on Voyager to Vorik and Carrey. And it happened on TNG to the alien from "Future Imperfect" and Jeremy astar (I'm not sure how to spell that) from that episode where his mother was killed and an alien tried to mascarade as her. It also happened to Guinan in between Generations and First Conatct.
There is also the Murphys Law Effect or MLE. This is when the events of an episode follow Murphys Law by the letter, ie if something bad can occur, it will occur. Examples of this include the DS9 epiosodes "the ship" "empok nor" and "Starship down" Voyager suffers from this in "deadlock" and in "Basics parts 1 and 2".
Another one I have seen is what I like to call The Jackpot Syndrome. this is when our heros get out of a situation (usually only they get out and all red shirts die or suffer some terrible fate) that in reality someone would have like a 1/1000000 of getting out of (sort of like winning the lottery jackpot every drawing), and thats getting out of it alive, the odds of getting out without injury would be like 1/infinity. This is something that occurs all the time in Trek and in just about any action based movie or tv show there is. Of course if reality ruled then then would die and there would not be a series. This can be seen in the DS9 episodes "Starship down" "The ship" and "way of the warrior" This is also seen quite a bit in "the best of both worlds".
And there is my personal favorite "History Changes To Meet Your Needs" syndrome. This is when an enemy who we have seen many times on a series, apppears on a movie or in a later season and has changed and yet durring flashbacks to those previous episodes the sceens show the enemys as being just like they are now!. This happens most extensivley with the borg.
Copyright 1997 by Phil Farrand. All rights reserved.