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With a fandom of such extent, it makes sense that over time, some inconsistencies emerged in Star Trek. They were something the fans noticed and were quick to comment on. However, even all the inconsistencies and smaller or bigger errors don’t mean that anybody who likes space opera or just science fiction, in general, can’t enjoy Star Trek and everything it has to offer.
5 The Klingons Look Much Different From What They Used To
In the original Star Trek series, Klingons were in many ways similar to humans, except for the fact that they all seemed to have darker skin and hair. The subsequent series introduced the best-known version of Klingons, the one that most Star Trek fans think of when somebody says Klingon. This is what Worf, the first Klingon serving in Starfleet, looked like (minus the long flowing hair).
But the newest seasons portrayed Klingons that looked very much different from what they used to both in Star Trek: The Original Series and in Star Trek: The Next Generation or Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. And the change isn’t necessarily for the better. The newest series made them look very inhuman and monster-like, even though not all Klingons are violent fanatics who want to destroy everything around them.
4 An Advanced Tech They Shouldn’t Have
It’s natural that the newer Star Trek shows have a more scientific look to them than Star Trek: The Original Series. The first series had a limited budget, and it reflected in how the starship Enterprise and its equipment looked. The ships in the newer Star Trek series have much more modernistic equipment. That creates a continuity problem, though, since the first two seasons of Star Trek: Discovery takes place even before the original series, so by all rules, their equipment and ship should be less modernistic. The change makes sense in the Abrams movies where Nero’s time travel changed everything but not so much in the Star Trek shows.
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Aesthetics aside, the crew also has inventions in Star Trek: Discovery that isn’t supposed to exist yet - because they didn’t have them in the original series. The replicators are a good example of one such inconsistency since they only appeared in the Federation’s ships in the 23rd century, not the 22nd. In other words, Picard or Sisko already had them, but not Kirk so the crew of Discovery shouldn’t have them either. They also possess holographic technology, an advanced one, but once again, this sort of technology only became more available in the 23rd century.
3 James T. Kirk’s Name
It’s a well-known fact that Captain Kirk’s whole name is James Tiberius Kirk and that he got both his first and middle name after his grandfathers. However, in the very first Star Trek episode with Kirk as the captain of the Enterprise, the series claims that Kirk’s middle name doesn’t start with the letter T, but with the letter R instead. This is shown when Kirk fights his former friend Gary Mitchell to the death on Delta Vega after Mitchell had been transformed, gained special powers, and became a villain.
Mitchell creates a grave for Kirk and the tombstone says James R. Kirk. Unlike other Star Trek inconsistencies, this is a relatively small, albeit a still visible one, and it can be simply explained by the fact that in the series’ beginnings, the creators hadn’t yet definitely decided what Kirk’s middle name would be.
2 Spock’s Relationship With T’Pring
In the most recent live-action Star Trek series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Spock and his fiancée T’Pring are quite close. They spend time together whenever they can and even are intimate. However, that’s not how their relationship looked like in the original series. In the original version, Spock and T’Pring were engaged as children but only saw each other again as adults on their wedding day on Vulcan.
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T’Pring refused to marry Spock because she had her eyes set on another, and Spock and Kirk ended up fighting to the death. Considering that Leonard Nimoy’s Spock never had such a close relationship with T’Pring as Ethan Peck’s Spock does, it begs the question of whether Spock and T’Pring of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds will stay together or whether their relationship will end up in a similarly dire way.
1 No Female Captains?
In the final episode of Star Trek: The Original Series, Captain Kirk’s old girlfriend and now an enemy, Janice Lester, tries to steal Kirk’s body. Her plan succeeds for a time as she and Kirk switch their bodies and Lester ends up controlling the Enterprise. According to her, stealing someone else’s body is the only way she could ever be a captain since Starfleet apparently doesn’t allow women to become captains. That’s not the case, though, as there have been female captains before.
One of them is Captain Hernandez who lived a hundred years before the events of the original series. And, of course, Star Trek: Discovery introduced two other female captains, Captain Philippa Georgiou and Captain Michael Burnham. In the end, it seems that Lester was mistaken in her assessment and attributed her inability to become a Captain to a rule presumably imposed by Starfleet. It’s true that female captains are still a minority in Star Trek, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any.
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