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NITPICKERS GUILD GLOSSARY (SECONDARY)

There came a point when the Nitpickers Guild Glossary was too big for its own good. I stripped out all the terms that didn't quite ring the bell for me and moved them to this list. I'd be more than happy to return any of these to the Primary Nitpickers Guild Glossary if someone could suggest a bit of "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)

I have also compiled at list of Pending Entries to the Nitpickers Guild Glossary.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ADSNWWTFNR
ADWMM
AEEHD (new!)
ARCM
ASBTD
BMOSE
BOAS-BIAS
BT!BT!BT! (new!)
BTTFFS
BTWSS
CFTOH
CITT
CPINOBTE
CREUEC
CUTBOTMTITA
DEM
DSDR
DLWOER
DSDR
EAGBLM?
EDN
Evolutionary Payback
ESS
Friday the 13th Syndrome
FLAT-PIP
FTQ
Halloween Syndrome
GGG
GGK
GDS
GOG
GWOITBP
GYFHOM
Halloween Syndrome
HBO
He's Dead, Jim Syndrome
HFS
ICHIM[TYVM!]
IGG
INH
IPOTW
IRU
ISEIPV
ITTSIO (new!)
JBTTFSAECDIDMWC
JIT
JLE (new!)
Janeway Maneuver
JTG (new!)
LHTHA
LITSW
LRDW
LROB5
MTGSF
MTSOWMITE
MTSWMITE
NBB
NCC
NCN
NYNA
The Optimistic Designers Syndrome
OEI
OFFES
O'Brien Syndrome
OSMITU
PALFT
PCPS
PRTL
PTCS
PTT
RM (new!)
RSN (new!)
SATBAI
SCS
SEAL
SHSS
SKYMS
SLES
SPCS
SQDA
SSDS
STS
T?TW?
TBR
Time Warp
TFJG
TFS
TFTOO
TIOMIPSWLIUDADS
TUBR (new!)
UE
The Unspoken Rule
UTB
UTO
UTS
UVCI
VTD
WATDC
WATSBITS
WD
WFIIWHA
WIDBIO
WSUSLNWGTTTHE
WSYDLYLTWIWDY?
WTTB
WWJH
YAI
YAMOTT
YWTOTT
ZIORE

ADSNWWTFNR Acronym for "Another Deep Space Nine With Worf There For No Reason"
Submitted by Richard Compton of Aberdeen, SD who wrote, "I for one think he doesn't fit in at all. doesn't look right in that uniform, have any chemistry with the characters, or any purpous. He didn't even need to be in the season opener." (Note from Phil: While I understand Richard's opinion, I would add that it is very difficult to add a character to a mix after three years of shows. I do needle the creators for this in the DS9 Guide but I would expect that as the episodes progress we will see the creators finding a sensible place for Worf.)

ADWMM Acronym for "Another Dead White Maquis Male"
Submitted by Kim Harris who wondered, "How come almost everyone show dies on the Voyager crew is a white Maquis male?"

AEEHD Acronym for "All Evil Empires Have Dissidents"
Submitted by Murray J.D. Leeder who said, "The Romulans have those pacifists working with Spock, the Borg have Hugh's colony (or the Lorg, as I like to call them), the Cardies got overthrown by their civilian dissidents, the Klingons have Worf, the Jem'hadar has those rebels from 'To The Death'... the list goes on."

ARCM Acronym for "Another Resurrected Crew Member"
Submitted by Martin Jack, Brighton of England who commented, "This seems to happen on every Star Trek series where a fave character is killed off but returns later in the episode. Classic examples are Ensign Kim being sucked out into space in 'Deadlock', O'Brien dying of radiation poisoning in 'Visionary', Chekov is seen shot in 'Spectre of the Gun' but is as good as new at the end of the episode, and La Forge is seen killed in 'Parallels' with a very uncomplimentary towel lying over his loins."

ASBTD Acronym for "Another Shuttle Bites The Dust"
Submitted by Richard Steenbergen. (Note from Phil: If you've watched Voyager at all, this is pretty self-explanatory!)

BMOSE Acronym for "Beam Me Out the Second it Explodes"
Submitted by Omar Buhidma Dallas, TX who observed, "This has happened in many Trek episodes - but it seems to be a ploy that TNG favors the most. You know, it goes something like this:

PICARD "Transporter room 1, Lock on to the away team and beam them up"

Cut to scene of vessel (the one the away teams in) exploding

(couple of seconds for the fans to think 'did they die?!!')

Cut to transporter room as away team miraculously appears, Transporter Chief (and any fan w/o a brain - or previous BMOSE experiance) wipes the sweat from his/her brow

BOAS-BIAS Acronym for "Beam Out A'Sittin'-Beam In A'Standin'"
Submitted by Bob Canada who wrote, "Similar to the 'passenger orientation' clause of STS (Selective Transport Syndrome). Whenever anyone is piloting a shuttlecraft or runabout, and they need to be beamed out of there in a hurry (due to a convenient warp core breach or alien attack), they will dematerialize in a sitting position, yet invariably rematerialize on the transporter pad in a standing position. Granted, you'd look pretty silly materializing squattin' down in a sitting position with no chair under you, and the first thing you’d probably do is fall backward once the annular confinement beam let go, but this demonstrates once again the amazing list of options available for all federation transporters-not only can it scan and store the positions of every atomic particle in your body, store that massive amount of info, convert your matter into energy, send it to a remote site, and convert the energy back into matter based on your stored pattern, it can also apparently straighten out bended knees and elbows.

BT!BT!BT! Acronym for "Boring Titles! Boring Titles! Boring Titles!"
Submitted by Murray Leading who ranted "'The Chute'. 'The Swarm'. 'The Ship'. Decent episodes, but with completely boring titles! The creators ought to get hints from X-Files, which always has obscure, but interesting titles for their episodes (too bad they don't post them!)."

BTTFFS Acronym for "'Back to the Future' Family Syndrome"
Submitted by Brian Fitzgerald who wrote, "That is the syndrome of many members of the same family looking exactly the same. Now I realize that there are some fathers and sons who look the same, but sometimes writers stretch it way to far. Like in the 'Back to the Future' movies Shamus, Marty, Marty jr., and Marlene Mcfly(thats right Maicael J. Fox played his daughter in the Future) all look the same. Along with 'Mad Dog', Biff, and Griff Tannen; Goldey Wilson the 1st and 3rd; Mr. Strickland, and Marshal Strickland; and one of Biff's Goons, and one of neadles' goons. Examples in Trek are and Young Picard in Raskels, and Rene Picard in Family; Colonel Worf of STVI and Worf of next gen. This nit occurs in MANY TV Shows."

BTWSS Acronym for "Because the Writers Said So"
See The Parent Syndrome

CFTOH Acronym for "Cast Forgets Their Own History"
Submitted by Rob Sayer of Vancouver, British Columbia. For instance, in "Inheritance," Data tells his "mother" that no one had ever calls his playing beautiful but at the end of "Ensigns of Command" Picard calls Data's playing "quite beautiful."

CITT Acronym for "Captain (or Crewmember) Is The Tick"
Submitted by Matt Nelson of Spokane, WA and Kevin Rudolph, of Medical Lake, WA who wrote, "This is for all those Saturday morning cartoon fans out there; whenever the captain is distracted by something shiny. Case in point: The Loss. Picard hears about a little trail of energy and decides to chase it. Chaos ensues. Star Trek II:TWOK. Capt. Farrell & Chekov beam down to investigate a life sign. Chaos ensues. Both instances could have been avoided if the crew involved had decided to move on, but noooo-- CITT. "Shiiiiiny.." and goes lumbering off after it.

CPINOBTE Acronym for "Captain Picard Is Not On Board The Enterprise"
Submitted by Philip Engdahl of Mt. Shasta, CA who wrote, "This applies mostly to TNG, in which people are routinely 'removed' or leave the Enterprise and nobody knows until someone expects to find them and asks the Computer, 'Where is so-and-so?', to which they invariably get the answer CPINOBTE! Shouldn't the computer have raised an alarm when, within the space of a millisecond, the Captain's communicator signal is suddenly not there, as happened almost every time Q came on board? I know that this has already been mentioned in SQDA, but I wanted to be more specific."

CREUEC Acronym for "Can't Resist Entering Unknown Energy Cloud"
Submitted by Frank Kennedy of Lenox, MA who noted, "Cadet training must include CREUEC protocol. One can picture the exercises:Can't resist ... DANGER ... cloud... NO!! MUST ENTER! Ahead one quarter impulse! CREUEC may be found repeatedly in all Trek, past and present. See especially TNG 'Hero Worship.'"

CUTBOTMTITA Acronym for "Can't Use Transporters Because Of Too Much Turbulance In The Atmosphere"
Submitted by Philip Engdahl of Mt. Shasta, CA who explained, "This applies mainly to the Voyager episodes, and is closely tied to ASBTD. On almost all of the Voyager episodes where they find a new planet, they CUTBOTMTITA, resulting in the necessity to use a shuttlecraft, which of course ends in ASBTD. Of course, on most of the planets, when they finally land, the skies are as blue and clear as you please!"

DEM Acronym for "Dramatic Escape Mandatory."
Submitted by David D. Porter who suggested, "For the last-minute escape, mentioned by Steven Mendenhall in the nits for 'Investigations,' how about 'Dramatic Escape Mandatory (DEM)'? Keep in mind, this phenomenon dates back to 'The Galileo Seven' and 'The Doomsday Machine'."

DLWOER Acronym for "Dramatic License Wins Over Established Rules"
Submitted by Sam Dorman of Minneapolis, MN who noted, "In cases where a rule specically says something should happen, or it shouldn't; the dramatic effect of wonderous TV takes over, and says its RIGHT!! Example: In 'Relics', at the end, Geordi and Scotty are beamed from the Jenolen, even though it's shields were up!"

DSDR Acronym for "Different Species, Different Rules."
Submitted by Rob Roszkowski of Jackson Heights who explained, "Sure we have some similar DNA, enough to mate, but if you ever need a convenient Klingon redundant set of organs, a Vulcan inner eyelid or mind meld ability, or even a Cardassian neck trick (I'm still dying to see that), then lo and behold."

EAGBLM? Acronym for "Eaten Any Good Books Lately, Microbrain?"
Submitted by Cydney Williams, Chicago Heights, IL who offerred that this term could be used whenever a characters insults Worf's intelligence.

EDN Acronym for "Earth-Derived Names"
Submitted by Stephen Mendenhall who offered, "I can accept Vulcan, Tiburon, a few others. But then we have Beth Delta, Angel One, Daled IV; there's also Uxmal--granted I didn't know at first it's from the ancient Mayans, but why couldn't they change just one letter? Now, some of these could be human colonies, and they are more evocative than random names--Andronesia and Pacifica are nice names. But having names like Betazed and Delta IV is pretty ridiculous. Why not use the native names? By the way, the word Betazoid means, resembling the Greek letter Beta. The writers don't seem to know much about real nomenclature. Mira Ceti is from 'This Side of Paradise'; it's the same star as Omicron Ceti from 'Conspiracy'; Theta Cygni is incorrect, it should be Theta Cygni; then Gary Seven mentions Omicron IV; he was raised by aliens; why are aliens using Greek letters? And the writers are giving the impression that Federation nomenclature is going to be even more inconsistent and messed up than it is now. Imagine getting your luggage lost on an interstellar flight!"

Evolutionary Payback
Submitted by Reid E. Joiner of Arkadelphia, AR who stated, "'When a species evolves, its next form will be determined by the actions of the previous race.' This can be used to determined by the actions of the previous form.' This can be used to explain how many peaceful, advanced races, like TOS's Organians, evolve into all-powerful energy beings while a 'warlike, aggressive child-race' like us humans get to evolve into toads. (see "Threshold") We were bad, so Evolution gets its revenge."

ESS Acronym for "Expendible Ships Syndrome"
Submitted by Jeff Burns of Overland Park, KS who noted, "If the Enterprise was ever destroyed, it was always somehow resolved (except in "Generations," but the series was over, so thats OK). But why are so many ships out there destroyed, killing hundreds, sometimes thousands of people, when the Original Enterprise, the Enterprise -A, the Enterprise -D, Deep Space 9, and U.S.S. Voyager always seem to avert destruction?"

Friday the 13th Syndrome
Submitted by Anon who explained is as "someone coming back to life after being dead (as did Paris in 'Threshold,' and Worf did in 'Ethics')."

FLAT-PIP
Submitted by Jason Gaston of San Angelo, Texas. FLAT-PIP is a combination of REDSHIRT and ADWMM.

FTQ Acronym for "Future Trivia Question"
Submitted by Paul R. Lilly. The term FTQ refers to any tidbit of information within an episode that has no real relevance to the plot but is simply included to add background color. The term "FTQ" recognizes the propensity of nitpickers to use these unrememberable tidbits for trivia questions.

GGG Acronym for "Gorgeous Girls Galore"
Submitted by Stephen Mendenhall who wrote, "The only women who show any romantic interest in Kirk, Picard and Riker are young, and attractive. In 'The Man-Trap', Nancy Crater didn't want Kirk, so she presents herself as being older, though still attractive. Tamoon, in 'Gamesters of Triskelion', showed an interest in Chekov, who wasn't interested in her, presumably because she wasn't slender. I don't mind seeing gorgeous girls, I just expect some imagination and consistency. In 'Angel One', Picard's log states the women of the planet are large, strong and aggressive; but they look a lot like the women of any other planet. There aren't any bodybuilders around. They could have had Spice Williams in that episode; she's a female bodybuilder who was a Klingon in Star Trek V. They could have had Milton Berle in drag; I read somewhere that he's a Star Trek fan. I wish they'd had Phyllis Diller as the planetary leader, trying to seduce Riker. How would he have responded to her?" GGK Acronym for "Geordi Gets Kidnapped"
Submitted by Eva Schultz of Joliet, IL who explained, "I once commented that my favorite TNG was 'the one where Geordi gets kidnapped.' My dad laughed and pointed out that there were numerous episodes in which that happens (The Enemy, Samaritan Snare, Identity Crisis, The Mind's Eye, Descent, Starship Mine, to name a few). Whenever I mention Trek, my dad now asks, 'Which one is on? The one where Geordi gets kidnapped?' The term has expanded to include any instance in which Geordi is held against his will. Considering Harry Kim's track record so far, we'll have to call it a HGK episode whenever the hapless ensign is taken anywhere against his will; it seems to happen often enough! And yes, HGK in most of my favorite Voyager episodes!"

GDS Acronym for "Gilligan's Dating Syndrome"
Submitted by Bob Canada who noted, "It's similar to Voyager's GIS. Refers to the recurring phenomenon that happens to every Starfleet officer (except O'Brien, although he's not really an officer) who's ever fallen in love with anyone, only to have their heart (metaphorically) ripped from their chest and stomped on by the end of the episode. Invariably, the object of their affection gets killed, or must be killed in order to save the timeline, or almost gets killed (prompting the realization that love and captaincy don’t mix), or they come from another dimension that only interphases with ours every 47 years, or they're from an alternate timeline that must not be allowed to continue, or they were an alien-induced illusion, or they were a holodeck character that you created yourself but still managed to fall in love with, or they were killed in a Borg attack led by a fellow captain, or they turn out to be a Maquis using you to further their cause, or a Changeling disguised as someone engulfed in a big rock, or a transporter-created duplicate that you don't feel the same about anymore, or you left them behind when you got stranded in another quadrant, or they can't live in the same gravity as you, or they're no longer the opposite sex, or they no longer inhabit the same body, or you find out they were never real in the first place and the past 40 or 50 years really happened in 20 minutes, or…well, you get the idea.

GOG Acronym for "Geordi, Olympic Gymnyst"
Submitted by Gerry Canavan of Randolph, NJ who noted, "Why is it that whenever there is a problem in engineering and the guys in yellow suits have to evacuate, Geordi always has to run and dive and barely make it under that falling metal wall? Do Chief Engineers have to minor in Acrobatics at Starfleet Academy?

GWOITBP Acronym for "Guess Which One Is The B-Plot"
Submitted by Martin Jack of Brighton, England who wrote, "This relates directly to the DS9 episode 'The Muse' which had me and some of my friends at a recent convention a little baffled. Is the Lwaxana plot the main story or is it the entity stealing lifeforce from Jake thing?"

GYFHOM Acronym for "Get Your Filty Hands Off Me"
Submitted by Katherine Smith who noted, "This has happened several times that a crew member will help someone and untill someone pryes them off the person they don't let go one instance that comes to mind is when in "Twisted" when Kim helps Janeway when she was stuck in the jeffries tube Harry pulls her out and he will not let go Janeway has to shake him off.

Halloween Syndrome
Submitted by Alfredo Ruanova of Mexico who noted, "It happens when the only way the story moves or anything can happen is when the people involved behave like complete idiots. For example : 'Gee, we just found out that somebody killed one of us, we better split and look around so the kller can pick us off one by one,' instead of just getting out of there."

HBO Acronym for "Historical Bajoran Oddities"
Submitted by Stephen Mendenhall who wrote, "There are a number of strange things in Bajoran history. They had a thriving civilization a hundred thousand years ago, but according to the recent DS9 where the other emissary shows up they only began numbering their years about 9474 years ago. They've also got these amazingly accurate and helpful Prophets and Prophecies which failed to warn them about the Cardassians. I'm sure you could come up with other oddities."

He's Dead, Jim Syndrome
Submitted by Joanna Cravit who explained, "I've always used the 'He's dead, Jim' syndrome to refer to a person not be able to get in touch with someone and instantly assuming that they are dead."

HFS Acronym for "Hair Follicle Syndrome."
Submitted by Roger Sorensen of Collegeville, MN who recalled, "'Natural Selection,' in which a hair follicle was used to provide uncorrupted DNA to pattern the reconstitution of Dr. Pulaski. HFS could have fixed Paris in 'Threshold' and in 'Lifesigns' since the Holodoc was able to use uncorrupted DNA to create a holobody for the Vidiian, they should have been able to use it to fix her physical body."

ICHIM[TYVM!] Acronym for "I Can Handle It Myself,[optional: thank you very much!]"
Submitted by Derek Linden of Cambridge, MA who explained "This occurs whenever an evil creature comes up to a crewmember and says 'I'm gonna knock your noggin off and then eat everyone else/take over the Enterprise/rule the universe!', proceeds to try to make good on this threat, and the crewmember decides to handle it on his/her own and never touch that comm badge that they always wear and let people know something is wrong. Sometimes this happens fast, as when Geordi is attacked in his quarters by the creature that morphs from a dog in 'Aquiel.' This is an example of straight ICHIM: though the consequences to the Enterprise would have been devastating if the creature had succeeded in taking Geordi's form, Geordi is at least a little excused by the suddenness of the event and his mad scramble for a phaser. Example of ICHIM with the optional TYVM, implying colder, more rational thinking on the part of the crewmember: when Lor threatens Data in 'DataLore,' Data has about 30 seconds to decide to send a message to the bridge and say 'Lore, who looks just like me and sounds just like me, and can think and move much faster than any of you, is threatening me, is probably going to try to deactivate me, and could try to take my place. Please use caution when approaching androids that look like me.' However, Data must have decided he could handle it himself, even though he was in fact wrong and Lore ended up almost fooling everyone and destroying the Enterprise. Shouldn't Starfleet have a little reflex training class at the Academy for these cases? ('Okay, class, if threatened by someone of equal or greater strength who wants to put out our lights and then take over the ship, we, say it with me now, TOUCH OUR COMM BADGE AND WARN OUR FRIENDS *BEFORE* THEY GET US...')

IGG Acronym for "Interstellar Geography Goof"
Submitted by Stephen Mendenhall who wrote, "In one DS9, Jake says Regulus is only 300 lightyears away! Well, Regulus is 55 lightyears from Earth, so DS9 isn't very far from Earth at all. But it's supposedly out in the boonies, and the ST Encyclopedia claims the edge of Federation space is 10,000 lightyears away! Why didn't the writers check the Encyclopedia? Why don't they ever check real astronomy books? Also, Pike visited Rigel 120 years before; Rigel is about 800 lightyears away. It's ironic that the absurd episode 'Spock's Brain' was one of the few episodes which used a real, sunlike star, Sigma Draconis, 22 lightyears away; but if it's so close, why hadn't they thoroughly investigated the system before? And Pike told the Talosians he was from a star group on the other side of the galaxy. And, of course Voyager seems to be running in place, 70,000 lightyears away. They're still encountering Kazons and Vidians."

INH Acronym for "It Never Happened"
Submitted by Stephen Mendenhall who defined it as, "what Tasha said to Data, and no doubt what the producers said after some episodes like 'Wink of an Eye', 'Genesis', 'Arsenal of Freedom'. Those events would have had a major impact on people, but we'll never see it. The weapons in 'Arsenal of Freedom' would make it too easy to beat the Borg, and of course the Borg aren't going to get those weapons either. In fact, the upcoming movie will probably not refer to 'I, Borg' or any of the other Borg episodes."

IPOTW Acronym for "Imaginary Phenomenon of the Week"
Submitted by Stephen Mendenhall who offered, "You already have POTW, YADA and YAI, which provide the major plots of episodes, and/or provide solutions to problems. We should have another acronym for imaginary things which cause problems, such as conveniently making it hard to use the transporter or communications. Funny how they didn't seem to have this problem quite so often in the Original Series; a little bit, but it didn't seem so blatant. They didn't use the technobabble quite so much back then."

IRU Acronym for "It's Really Us."
Submitted by Joanna Cravit who invented the term after becoming frustrated with some of Trek's preachiness and it's propensity to get heavy-handed in its messages. (Note from Phil: "IRU" should be said with mock surprise and possibly followed with the response, "Well, duh!")

ISEIPV Acronym for "In Space, Everything Is Perfectly Visible."
Submitted by Michael Wyzard of Lomita, CA who wrote, "This refers to something that I've noticed in just about every sci-fi production. Even though the action is supposed to be taking place out in _the middle of space_, all the ships are very well lit. Not only that, but every planet is seen from the side that is facing the local sun and rarely do these planets have enough precipitation to keep the viewers from seeing the landscape of the planets (if it's one thing that pictures of Earth from space have taught us, it's that it's always a cloudy day somewhere). Think about the stock shot of the Enterprise hovering in space, it's lit up like....there's some studio lights a few feet away from it. I think the movies have dealt with this more realisticly, but even when the Enterprise approaches unknown objects, the image on the viewer is one of a very well lit craft, probe, meteor, etc. There's not a lot of ambient light in space, folks.

ITTSIO Acronym for "It's Two, Two, Two Scripts In One."
Submitted by Phil Farrand with explained, "This terms refers to the habit of creators to cram two completely different ideas into the same script when they could have both been decent episodes all by themselves. Rene Charbonneau offered the example of 'BirthRight, Part 1,' where Worf thinks his father is still alive and Data begins his dreaming."

JBTTFSAECDIDMWC Acronym for "Just Because The Top Federation Scientists And Engineers Couldn't Do It Doesn't Mean We Can't."
Submitted by Robert Beeler of Oak Drive, Knoxville, TN who noted, "Examples of this include Threshold were the crew of Voyager is distressed because they can't figure out how to break the transwarp threshold (something that the federation has been working on for about a hundred years) before the first commercial break and the fact that DS9 can get the Defiant up and running yet everyone else at starfleet could not."

JIT Acronym for "Just In Time."
Submitted by Christine Henry of Boring, OR who wrote, "[This is] for all those episodes where starfleet personel always manage to escape shuttle disasters, bomb explosions, transporter accidents, and the like at the last moment.

JLE Acronym for "Just Like Earth."
Submitted by Phil Farrand. Michael Wyzard provided the following example from "Remember": " Worlds across the galaxy have things so surprisingly similar to Earth culture (specifically, American culture). In the scene when they're making music, it sounded like these people have equally tempered (12 notes to the octave) music, as well. The creators could have worked a little harder to make it alien-sounding, it's not that hard with modern music technology. There's even other cultures here on Earth that divide the octave differently."

Janeway Maneuver
Submitted by Cydney Williams, Chicago Heights, IL who asked, "Why is it that every time the ship takes a bruising, Janeway takes out the time to fix her hair?"

JTG Acronym for "Just That Good"
Submitted by Erin Hunt of High Point, NC who noted, "How did he (insert amazing feat)? I guess he's... just that good!"

LHTHA Acronym for "Let's Help the Humans Along"
Submitted by Jackie Joe who wrote, "This refers to the Trek idea that humans were too dumb to evolve on their own, so alien races had to help them along. This idea can be found in the Voyager episode Tattoo, where the migration of the Indians is not a quest for food, but the gift of an alien race. It also occurs in Deathwish where the second Q is seen as helping humans along at key points in history."

LITSW Acronym for "Look, It's the Secret Weapon"
Submitted by Richard Steenbergen who noted, "This refers to the tendancy of Star Trek writers (or all writers for that matter) to include a 'Secret Weapon', that they only bring out in the most important and critical of circumstances (ex: season finale's), after showing it off once or twice in a non-critical situation so that everybody knows what it does. In TNG it was the 'Saucer Seperation', which they used in one non-critical situation (Farpoint) and one semi-critical situation (the one with Geordi vs The Improving Weapon!), and then didn't use again, even in situations where it would be helpful, until Best of Both Worlds II. Why? To get us super-excited? If they use it routinely we become accustomed to it, but if they only use it on big suspenseful exciting episodes then we say 'Looks, it's the secret weapon' and get all excited. Voyager's version of this is 'Land The Ship', a pretty useless invention but all the Voyager writers could think up as a 'Secret Weapon'. The first episode they used it on it was totally 100% unnecessary, and we've now seen enough uses of it to get the jist (including seeing it used by someone who's never used Federation technoligy before he called up the 'So you've just captured Voyager' interactive help tutorial). If Voyager's creators decide landing on a planet is 'kewl' enough to be the 'Secret Weapon' we'll see it gradually fade from use until some really 'important' time when they absolutily NEED it. Otherwise it'll become more commonplace and they'll have to think of another 'Secret Weapon'. Maybe it'll rotate really fast and fire in every direction when the ship is surrounded (aka The Last Starfighter), or maybe they have some secret 'core of the ship' that'll be released to save all the crewmembers from some kind of madness/disease (aka the Transformers cartoon)."

LRDW Acronym for "Let's Rip-off Doctor Who"
Submitted by Martin Jack of Brighton, England who offered, "Here are some examples: 1. One of Dax's hosts is called Leela. The 4th Dr. Who's companion is called Leela. 2. In the episode 'The Neutral Zone' Claire Raymond's family had the names of the seven actors who played the Doctor. 3. 'I-Borg' is almost a complete reworking of the classic Who episode 'Genesis of the Daleks.' Just watch the bit when the Doctor decides not to kill the Dalek incubators and you'll see what I mean. 4. In 'A Matter of Time', the guest character also has a time capsule. 5. The whole Trill idea. Since Timelords also change their bodies (through regeneration) and their personalities. 6. The Exocomps in 'A Quality of Life' are just K-9 without the cutesy voice." (Note from Phil: In all fairness to the Star Trek creators, I think some of these should be named LHDW for "Let's Honor Doctor Who" but Martin is from the United Kingdom. I can understand his viewpoint!)

LROB5 Acronym for "Let's Rip Off Babylon 5."
Submitted by Matthew Murray who wrote, "Normally, I would refrain from using this, but as I was looking through the glossary, I noticed LRDW (Let's Rip-off Dr. Who). I feel it necessary to suggest LROB5 (Let's Rip Off Babylon 5). This one is series-specific to Deep Space Nine. For instance, in 'Bar Association,' where Quark's employees formed a union, the idea for the strike in the Babylon 5 episode 'By Any Means Necessary' came from someone of Irish descent. Hmm... It was definitely O'Brien in this case, too. After the person who should solve the problem was unable to, someone else had to be brought in to fix things 'by any means necessary,' yet that person was overruled and the person who should have solved the problem in the first place came in and used trickery to solve the problem instead. That is but one of many examples."

MTGSF Acronym for "My They Grow So Fast!"
Submitted by Jason Gaston of San Angelo, TX who wrote, "This can also apply to the fact that Alexander was conceived, given birth to, and grew to the age of three in only one year. and Molly grew two years in only one."

MTSOWMITE Acronym for "Maybe the Senior Officers Won't Make It This Episode"
See MTSWMITE.

MTSWMITE Acronym for "Maybe the Ship Won't Make It This Episode"
Submitted by Richard Poythress who said,"I am reffering to the way trailers always lead us to believe that the Enterprise or Voyager will get destroyed and won't return to finish the series. MTSWMITE occurs in Cause and effect, Basics, The Best of Both Worlds ex al. This can also be translated to "Maybe the Senior Officer Won't Make It This Episode" (MTSOWMIITE)

NBB Acronym for "Nitpicking Before Broadcast (or Nitpicking Before Boxoffice"
Submitted by Stephen Mendenhall who defined it as, "Nitpicking an episode or movie before it's broadcast or released into the theaters. Like the bit about Scotty appearing in 'Relics' and ST Generations."

NCC Acronym for "Not Clear Consistantly"
Submitted by Rob Roszkowski of Jackson Heights who provided no explanation or example but obviously wishes the creators would tie-up their loose ends a bit better!

NCN Acronym for "No Clearance Needed"
Submitted by Frank Kennedy of Lenox, MA who observed, "It's amazing how often irate scientists and crew members steal shuttles with seemingly NO difficulty. It's not until the computer is queried that the deed is discovered!"

NYNA Acronym for "Not Your Normal Admiral"
Submitted by Mike Ballway of Evanston, IL who gave as examples Mark Jameson and Greg Quinn. "One was hiding a youth drug, the other a deadly parasite (in Conspiricy). This can be extended to NYNC, NYNAR, etc. (Not your normal crewman, Not Your Normal Alien Race, etc. etc.). Basically, anyone who's hiding something that is not normal. NYNAR comes in handy for Alien-Of-The-Week episodes ("Darmok") when some AOTW race has everything but one thing in common with the galactic mean (ie, speaking in metaphors). NYNC can be used for a variety of different things, especially "introspective" episodes where a character's past is examined. So in conclusion, there's NYNA, NYNC, NYNAR..."

The Optimistic Designers Syndrome
Submitted by Murray J.D. Leeder of Calgary, Alberta who wrote, "It explains pretty much any lapse in intelligence in ship design. Eg: The reason why there aren't any seatbelts on the chairs... it's because the designers never thought they'd be needed ('No, they'll never get hit by aliens, or shaken about by spatial anomalies, or...')"

OEI Acronym for "Old Earth Influence"
Submitted by Mike Ballway of Evanston, IL who offered, "Stuff like 'Data's Just A Toaster,' outdated in the 24th century but widely used today; this could pertain to objects as well as phrases."

OFFES Acronym for "Officer Expendable Syndrome"
Submitted by Rebecca Doten of Cottage Grove, MN who wrote, "Whenever a landing party beams down (Esp. during TOS) it is always 'Officer Expendable' who is willing to go the other way, and of course ends up being killed within two minutes. Another way to say this: if there is a no-name ensign beaming down to a planet, he/she will without fail die. Evidence: Almost every one of TOS shows."

O'Brien Syndrome
Submitted by Carrie Sager of Berkeley, CA. "O'Brien Syndrome" is a specific case of WSYDLYLTWIWDY?. It occurs when the creators change someone's rank arbitrarily.

OSMITU Acronym for "Only So Many Ideas In The Universe"
Submitted by John Latchem who recounted the similarities of other Trek episodes to "Deadlock"--an episode that features the duplication of the Voyager and its crew, the death of Harry Kim and the subsequent replacement of Harry Kim by his doppleganger from the other ship when the other Janeway destroy her ship to defeat the Vidiians. "Freak occurance causes one entity to split into two: Kirk in 'The Enemy Within,' Riker in 'Second Chances.' Main Character dies, is replace by an alternate version of himself: O'Brien in 'Visionary.' Main character who was replaced by himself needs reassuring that he is in the right place: Also in 'Visionary.' Self-Destruct countdown in which the intended victim is caught off-guard by the timer: Klingons in 'Star Trek III.'

PCPS Acronym for "Poor Control Panel Shunting"
Submitted by Derek Linden of Cambridge, MA who noted that PCPS was "a design flaw that allows an exterior hit on a ship to blow up a control panel deep inside and injure its operator, usually on the bridge. This happens on just about every ship in just about every serious battle, and leads to many unnecessary injuries and deaths. You'd think the designers would include shunting circuitry that would handle the small fraction of power from a hit that might travel back up the control lines to the panel (though with the digital control panels of ST:TNG, there probably is no real hardwire link), or at least make some progress on the problem in the 70-odd years from ST to ST:TNG. It is also obvious that the engineers know about this problem, because they duplicated it in The Kobiyashi Maru simulation (STII: The Wrath of Khan)."

PALFT Acronym for "Plants Are Lifeforms Too"
Submitted by Matthew McLauchlin who offered, "In The Alternative Factor (TOS), Spock reports no life forms, but when Kirk & co beam dow, the place has got lots of plants."

PRTL Acronym for "Phaser-Related Time Lapse"
Submitted by Reid E. Joiner of Arkadelphia, AR who defined it as, "A technology used in the days of the original series which caused time to stop when hand phasers were fired. This explains how people would freeze SOLID whenever a phaser was fired all through TOS."

PTCS Acronym for "Psychic Transporter Chief Syndrome"
Submitted by Urac Sigma of Canberra, Australia who commented, "Ever notice that, say, five of our heroes would be down on some planet, one would send to the ship that there were 'two to beam up', and the transporter chief would always get the right two without any help? Maybe that's why Betazoids get to join Starfleet: to train techies like Miles! (I'm waiting for the day we're told 'three to beam up' to escape some attackers, and the poor transport operator brings the attackers up instead!)

PTT Acronym for "Preview, Take Two"
Submitted by Richard Steenbergen who offered, "Recently Voyager creators have begun updating their previews when they know the first ones they used will no longer fool anybody. Some examples of this are the recent airing of Maneuvers & Resistance. The Maneuvers previews had me convinced that we were getting a new episode. The Resistance previews weren't quite as successful, but it's still obvious they've changed it from 'Prepare to meet a race that has perfected the art of torture, and what Janeway does will SHOCK you' to 'There is only one person who can save Janeway and the crew, the only problem is, he's STARK...RAVING...MAD...' And somehow I doubt we'll be talking about that guys performance for years to come."

RM Acronym for "Riker Maneuver"
Submitted by Sean Corcoran of Clifton, VA who observed, "In times of crisis, for no good reason, Riker gets up from his chair and walks over to Ops, Data's station. Then he puts his left foot up onto the supporting arm for Data's console, leans his arm on his left knee, and looks down onto the console's controls. This position is the Riker Manuever. I think that he has an inherent distrust of androids, and feels it necessary to come over and check up on Data once in a while. Of course, this probably causes more harm than good, since there are controls on the console arm, and Riker's boot is covering them up!

RSN Acronym for "Reused or Similar Names"
Submitted by Adam Farlinger who wrote, "Torres' 'dream man' in 'Remember' is named Dathon. That's the same name as the alien captain from the TNG episode 'Darmok.' There's another guy named Jobril ( I can't remember if he was the father or leader or something...). Wonder if there's any relation to Dr. Jobril from TNG's 'Suspicions' (he was the green guy who faked his own death and eventually got phasered - make that vaporized - by Dr. Crusher. Talk about 'doing no harm.')?"

SATBAI Acronym for "Shoot Another Tachyon Beam At It"
Submitted by Dawson E. Rambo and Michelle Olmstead. See POTW

SCS Acronym for "Selective Camera Syndrome"
Submitted by Joanna Cravit of Toronto, Ontario who defined it as, "Some vitally important or significant action expected by the viewer to occur but it never does on screen. For example, in 'Return to Glory,' Gul Dukat steals the Klingon warship and announces his intention of forming a terrorist group, we never actually see Kira report to anyone about this seemingly significant event. Yet, surely she must have reported to somebody, right? This also can be used for the incident in 'Tattoo' where they mention the name 'Captain Sulu' although this person is probably dead by now. Really, it was another captain who happened to be named Sulu, whom they never showed us. Why? SCS!"

SEAL Acronym for "Stop Everything And Listen"
Submitted by Will Phillips of North Royalton, OH who commented, "I was just watching Star Trek V the other day. At one point, when I believe Sybok pages the entire ship to give the speech to the crew about flying to the center of the galaxy, they show a shot of a couple crewmembers in a hallway, just stopping wherever they happen to be. One guy even stops in the doorway of the turbolift!

SHSS Acronym for "Shield-Hit Ship Shake"
Submitted by Derek Linden of Cambridge, MA who explained, "That shaking effect that occurs every time the shields are hit even though the ship is never physically touched. You'd think those shield design engineers would not rigidly affix them to the ship so a shield hit doesn't jar the ship and its contents whenever it happens (and they know it will because of the Federation's TIOTS policy).

SKYMS Acronym for "Should've Kept Your Mouth Shut"
Submitted by David L. Tayman of Springfield, MO who stated, "I'm not saying that I made this term up, but it is one that I believe should be added to the nitpicker glossary. Some examples of SKYMS would be in ST6 when Kirk said 'I've never been able to forgive [Klingons] for the death of my boy' If he would've Kept His Mouth Shut, there would've been a little less evidence for The Trial. Another example comes from the same movie, when Kirk says something like 'Far be it for me to dispute my first officer's opinion, but...'."

SLES Acronym for "Supplemental Log Entry Syndrome"
Submitted by Jim Ferris who observed, "As of 'Lifesigns,' it seems our dear Doctor suffers from the same disorder as Captain Janeway. He enters a Supplemental log where there was none previously!"

SPCS Acronym for "Seven per cent solutions"
Submitted by Toni Mattis defined it as, "The intentional mixing of fictional and historical characters, named for the novel where Sherlock Holmes meets Sigmund Freud. (I originally called this the Bonanza Syndrome for all the times Mark Twain, Charles Dickens or the Emperor Norton dropped by the Ponderosa for a game of chess with Ben Cartwright.) Thus we have the Clantons in 'Spectre of the Gun,' and Abraham Lincoln and Genghis Kahn in 'The Savage Curtain' (TOS), Mark Twain and Jack London in 'Time's Arrow' (TNG) and Amelia Erhardt in Voyager and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. One way to avoid SPCS in an episode is to refer to a historical character, 'That piano-playing Democrat isn't as dumb as he looks,' without showing him."

SQDA Acronym for "Same Questions, Different Answers"
Submitted by Richard Steenbergen who wrote, "When ever someone would disappear from the Enterprise, and someone else would ask the computer where they were, it would say 'So-and-so it not on board the Enterprise.' When HoloDoc asks where Janeway is, the computer says 'Captain Janeway is not on board the ship.' I know the Enterprise holodecks have always suffered from this syndrome but I think this is the first real time it's spread to something different (of course the reason they did that is because 'not on board the Enterprise,' or 'not on board the Defiant' sounds 'kewl,' but 'not on board the Voyager' sounds dorky.)

SSDS Acronym for "Same Story, Different Series"
Submitted by Matt Cotnoir of Coventry, RI who wrote, "It is an extension of SOSO except that it involves the same basic story lines crossing series barriers. Witness the number of ST:TNG episode plots that end up in DS9 and Voyager."

STS Acronym for "Selective Transport Syndrome"
Submitted by Andrew Rakowski who noted, "Only those things that you 'want' transported get transported. Beam someone out of an area with noxious fumes, and there are never any noxious fumes transported to the ship. I don't know if 'passenger orientation' also fits in this category, but consider that whenever [1] someone is beamed aboard, they are facing forward. You never see someone beamed up facing backwards, or perhaps rotated in any other dimension. I suppose if you always beam folks up from directly 'below' and always keep the ship oriented with 'down' towards the planet's core, you'd avoid those heads-down beam-ups. ([1] persons with weapons, such as the Security Guard in the TOS episode where the Enterprise was slingshot back in time, and Captain Christopher captures the ship's image on film, may beam up facing away from the transporter operator, though I'm unaware of the mechanism involved.)"

T?TW? Acronym for "Ten? Ten what?"
Submitted by Brad Sanford and Josh Witkop of Davison, Michigan who wrote, "Though the words came from 'The Arsenal of Freedom' when the imposter hologram of the captain of the Drake reacted to Riker's vague answer of 'Ten' (the hologram said 'Ten? Ten what? Riker, your answers make no sense...'), it actually applies to any time the creators want to leave something purposefully vague for simplicity or to avoid a changed premise. This can be accomplished by making up a whole new measuring system that noone could ever have heard of or by using no measuring system at all. An example of the latter comes from the Voyager pilot 'Caretaker' when, upon encounter storms in the 'badlands', a background officer says 'Storms have been measured at levels three and four'. Three and four? Three and four what?"

TBR Acronym for "Token Bajoran Reference"
Submitted by Devon Freeny of College Park, MD who wrote, "Sure, DS9 focuses a lot on the Dominion, the Klingons, and the Cardassians. But the writers never forget that the show is supposed to be centered around relations between the Federation and the Bajorans for whose station they are caring. So they make sure to include periodic mini-references to Bajor and Bajora, as if to say, 'We care enough to let you know that Bajor is still there.' For example: Dax worrying about the Klingons attempting to seize Bajor in 'The Way of the Warrior'; Kira wondering if the mysterious wormhole activity in 'Homefront' is a message from the Prophets; and many, many more."

Time Warp
Submitted by Sara Green of Lake Elsinore, CA who explained "A strange phenomenon that allows things to occur in stretches of time wildly too short or too long to the task. An example from Star Trek would be the conception, gestation, birth, and growth to the age of about ten of Alexander Rozhenko. He's only provided about four or five years to accomplish this feat! [Also,] soap operas operate under a 'Reverse Time Warp,' which allows the events of one day to be stretched over three weeks."

TFJG Acronym for "The Famous Janeway Gasp"
Submitted by Jason Gaston of San Angelo, TX who explained, "That cute little gasp Janeway executes whenever she hears or sees somthing shocking. Examples: After learning that the duplicate Voyager was destroyed in 'Deadlock', and after Q appears in 'Deathwish'.

TFS Acronym for "The Farragut Syndrome"
Submitted by Jeff Burns of Overland Park Kansas who asked, "Why is it that only the Original Enterprise, the Enterprise-A, the Enterprise-D, Deep Space 9, and U.S.S. Voyager have adventures worth watching on T.V.? I first came up with this while watching the old episode 'Obsession.' Kirk told luetenant Garrovik that there were several 'tall tales' he wanted to tell him about his father, Captain Garrovik. Well, if he has so many 'tall tales' going for him, why did we never see 'The Adventures of Captain Garrovik on the U.S.S. Farragut?' I mean, there has got to be other stuff happening on other starships out there."

TFTOO Acronym for "They Forgot Their Original Objective"
Submitted by Murray J.D. Leeder of Calgary, Alberta who wrote, "This springs from the DS9 episode 'To The Death', where the event that sets everything into motion is that the rebel Jem'hadar stole stuff from the station, and then is conveniently forgotten about and never mentioned again."

TIOMIPSWLIUDADS Acronym for "This Is Our Most Important Planet So We'll Leave It Utterly Defenseless Against Disasters Syndrome"
Submitted by Reid E. Joiner of Arkadelphia,AR who pointed out, "The habit of many large empires of Trek to leave their home base defended by little more than toothpicks and butter knives. Phil refers to this frequently throughout the Guides. Some examples: Earth, capital of the Feds. Gee, where to begin here. In the movies you have STI, and episodes such as "Best of Both Worlds"(all there were to face the Borg were those three pathetic ships (I call them TIEs) around Mars) and many others. There's Romulus, capital of Romulan Empire, eaasily infiltrated by a single cloaked Bird-of-Prey. (Unification) And Quo'nos, capital of Klingon Empire, unable to evacuate after Chernobyl...oops, er, I mean Praxis. (STVI) You get the idea now."

TUBR Acronym for "The Unspoken Bad Guy Rule"
Submitted by Rene Charbonneau of Vanier Ontario who wrote, "This rule states, that under contract, all bads guys must give the good guy enough time to escape. This is usually done by having the bad guy put off killing the good guy and telling him his plan to conquer the world, or something like that. Thus, not only can the good guy escape, but he can also foil th ebad guy's plan. I' m not sure if there's an example in Trek, but I have one from Back to the Future, Part 2. Instead of killing Marty right away, Biff tells him how he got the Sports Almanac with info about the future, telling how he got and when, thereby gving Marty enough time to escape.

UE Acronym for "Unemployment Epidemic"
Submitted by Joanna Cravit of Toronto, Ontario who explained, "This refers to the relatively conspicuous abcense of someone because they don�t want to pay the actor. This applies not only to Corbin Bernsen�s non-appearance in Deathwish, to Alexander always seeming to be on Earth with his grandparents, and to all those times on Voyager when engineering or sickbay are deserted . . . every time I see ENSIGN KIM in engineering, I go 'Where's Carey?'"

The Unspoken Rule
Submitted by Murray J.D. Leeder of Calgary, Alberta who said, "I got this one from Roger Ebert's review of 'Generations.' He speaks of the unspoken rule that even-numbered Star Trek movies are always better than their odd-numbered counterparts.

UTB Acronym for "Unnecessary Technobabble"
Submitted by Matt Nelson who wrote of the Voyager episode, "The Swarm," "Isn't the phrase 'interferimetric' a little ridiculous? How about just plain 'interfering'?

UTO Acronym for "Universal Translator Overlooked"
Submitted by Stephen Mendenhall who wrote "It works perfectly, instantly, infallibly, and nobody ever notices it. Tuvok would say, 'I am Tuvok.' This disembodied voice would say something like, 'Tuvok akaik.' It's likely that the person listening would hear both voices, and make a remark like, 'Where's that other voice coming from?'"

UTS Acronym for "Universal Translator Selectivity"
Submitted by Sue Medina of Fayetteville, NC who defined it as"The ability of the Universal Translator to determine which utterances to translate, and which to leave untranslated. I also thought about calling this "UTID" for Universal Translator Intention Detector, since the UT is apparently able to detect which utterances the speaker wishes not to have translated."

UVCI Acronym for "Unnecessary Verbal Computer Interface"
Submitted by Sue Medina of Fayetteville, NC who commented, "This applies to Voyager's Holo-Doc, who shouldn't have to verbally communicate with the computer. Of course, if he didn't we viewers would miss a lot of what was happening.

VTD Acronym for "Visor Technical Difficulties."
Submitted by Rob Roszkowski of Jackson Heights who wrote, "Not a sexually transmitted disease, but the VISOR TECHNICAL DIFFCULTIES than allow Geordi to forget he can see humans lie, the glow around androids, or through the cards at poker (and for that matter, people's clothes maybe)."

WATDC Acronym for "Walk and Talk During Crises."
Submitted by Rebecca S. Bare who defined it as: "During a crisis on any star ship, engineers have to walk from one station to another while telling the captain what is going on. LaForge did it all the time and now Torres is doing it, the latest being on 'Deadlock.'

WATSBITS Acronym for "Why Aren't There Seat Belts In These Ships?"
Submitted by Robert Smith of Toronto, Ontario who wrote: "You usually can't have a battle without someone being thrown across the bridge. Even travelling through a rough area one has to hold on to something while the camera shakes or tilts. I know it adds to the action but it seems so stupid sometimes. Maybe the ship designers should remember to use crash test dummies."

WD Acronym for "Well, Duh!"
Submitted by Jason Gaston of San Angelo, TX recalled from "Deadlock," "Attempting to contact the Damaged Voyager, Janeway sends some sort of test pattern through subspace that Torres on the Damaged Voyager picks up. Now, if you look at the display, it says, 'Emergency Transmission; Lock -- 12 Gigaherzts'. Then Torres says to Janeway, 'I think someone is telling us to lock onto a frequency of 12 Gigahertz!' You know B'elanna! I THINK your right!"

WFIIWHA Acronym for "Who's Fault Is It We're Here Anyway?"
Submitted by Rebecca Sycamore of Stirling, Scotland who said it's "for those moments when the crew forget that if it weren't for one short woman they would all be at home going about their business about now. In fact it applies to most of the Voyager series."

WIDBIO Acronym for "When in doubt, blow it out"
Submitted by Richard Steenbergen of Gaithersburg, MD who offered "If it will save one innocent lifeform, or if something bad has happened to Voyager and it seems like it'll be hard to fix it, or probibly if Janeway is having a bad hair day, it's 'Lets blow up the ship'."

WSUSLNWGTTTHE Acronym for "We Screwed Up Some Life-Form Now We're Going To Try To Help Episode"
Submitted by Martin Jack of Brighton, England who wondered, "How many times have we seen the Enterprise or the Voyager going in with a due lack of consideration and then ending up harming some alien? Answer: plenty of times e.g. 'Galaxy's Child,' 'The Cloud,' 'Heroes and Demons,' 'Elogium,' 'The Loss'..."

WSYDLYLTWIWDY? Acronym for "Whoops, Sorry, You Didn't Like Your Life The Way It Was Did You?"
Submitted by Rebecca Sycamore who noted, "[The term] is for those occasions when a characters life history is inadvertently changed." (Note from Phil: My favorite of these is the infamous rank of poor Miles O'Brien. He appeared to be a lieutenant for the first four seasons of NextGen and then all of a sudden became an non-commisioned officer!)

WTTB Acronym for "Worse Than The Borg"
Submitted by Sylvia Drake of Mill Valley, CA who explained, "It refers to the overwhelming tendency for Trek writers to show the 'superiority' of humans, usually by having every single nonhuman sympathetic character either be pretty much human already, or end up leaving their own culture/nature to be like the humans (or at least the Federation, which is of course dominated by humans). Examples: Data wants to be human (why not Vulcan?), the Founders turn Odo into a human (why not a Bajoran?), Quark's entire family has now rejected Ferengi to embrace human values, etc. It seems that humans are the only 'normal' race around. 'Worse Than The Borg,' of course, comes from Eddington's speech from 'For the Cause,' where he accuses the Fed of being worse than the Borg in their 'assimilation' of every race."

WWJH Acronym for "Weren't We Just Here?"
Submitted by Richard Compton of Aberdeen, SD who noted, "The Voyager has been traveling at warp (apparently high warp) for over a year yet don't seem to get anywhere. Neelix stills knows the area, they keep running into the same aliens, and the Kazon keep popping up. You would think they would be leaving the vicinity sometime now."

YAI Acronym for "Yet Another Interference."
Submitted by Joanna Cravit of Toronto, Ontario who explained "'Interference' refers more to wierd clouds and gasses, and storms that make impossible things happen. Such as: two Rikers. Why? Some wierd 'Interference' of some vague kind did something to the transporter. YADA seems to refer to more tangible things. Also, when you use this term, you have to say the word interference with a vague, up-talkish kind of inflection and wave your hand in a vague snakey zig-zag motion."

YAMOTT Acronym for "Yet Another Method Of Time Travel"
Submitted by Lee Lorenz after seeing the Voyager episode "Flashback" in which we the viewers were treated to an adventure with Captain Sulu from Classic Trek.

YWTOTT Acronym for "Yeah, we thought of that, too."
Submitted by Devon Freeny of College Park, MD who wrote, "Refers to all those times when the Trek writers include a pathetic throwaway line to explain away a Nitpick. (But which usually ends up bringing up more nitpicks in the process.) Example: in DS9's 'To The Death', the crew beam down to a planet, beat up the Jem'Hadar guards, and plant explosives to blow up a magic gateway thingie. 'But why couldn't they just torpedo the site from orbit?' we ask. 'Yeah, we thought of that, too,' the writers say, and include a line in which someone says that the structure containing the gateway is made of a material which torpedoes can't hurt. (So why don't they just torpedo all those Jem'Hadar soldiers, and then move in?)"

ZIORE Acronym for "Zoom In On Rear End."
Submitted by Katherine Smith who found, "on several ocasions the camera men zoom in on the rear ends of several female crew members especially Deanna Troi and Kes and on sevral instances Janeway.

Copyright 1997 by Phil Farrand. All rights reserved.