Engineering Failures in Star Trek

[Baffalo]

Darth Tedious requested this be moved to a separate thread to discuss the nature of the engineering failures demonstrated in Star Trek. So, naturally, I'll oblige him. This is a list I made of the TOS, TNG and VOY episodes I've seen that have included a major engineering failure of some kind as the central plot point. DS9 and ENT are not included because I haven't seen the episodes and don't want to go into that with a bias or misunderstanding. One thing I will note is that I was harsher at the beginning of the list to include elements, so if someone thinks an element needs removal, we can discard it from the list. Basically, this is a breakdown of Starfleet's failures to comprehend engineering principles such as redundancy and learning from previous mistakes, despite being the most advanced species in the Alpha Quadrant. Only Starfleet's failures will be mentioned, as they're the central figures in the show, and this does not include accidents that aren't Starfleet's fault. Starfleet is solely to blame for these failures and no one else.

The categories are broken down according to which holds precedence over the show, because some episodes are built around multiple failures but one is the key to everything.

Misguided/Misunderstood Science and Research (10 entries) When Starfleet doesn't bother paying someone to run a few simulations or run a few extra tests and just puts it out in the field.

• TOS: The Ultimate Computer
• TNG: Where No One Has Gone Before
• TNG: Datalore
• TNG: We'll Always Have Paris
• TNG: Unnatural Selection
• TNG: Remember Me
• TNG: The Nth Degree
• TNG: Genesis
• VOY: Threshold*
• VOY: Spirit Folk

Transporter Accidents/Mishaps (10 entries) "It really is the safest way to travel" yeah... straight to Hell

• TOS: The Enemy Within
• TOS: Mirror, Mirror
• TNG: Hollow Pursuits
• TNG: Data's Day
• TNG: Realm of Fear
• TNG: Rascals
• TNG: Second Chances
• VOY: Non Sequitur
• VOY: Tuvix
• VOY: Macrocosm

Holodeck Accidents/Mishaps (10 entries) I am never, ever, getting a holographic sex doll

• TNG: The Big Goodbye
• TNG: Elementary Dear Data
• TNG: Who Watches the Watchers
• TNG: A Fistful of Datas
• TNG: Ship in a Bottle
• VOY: Alter Ego
• VOY: Worst Case Scenario
• VOY: Latent Image
• VOY: Bride of Chaotica!
• VOY: Flesh and Blood

Failure of Security and Safeguards (8 entries) "Bridge, we've got another un-welcomed alien aboard. Do we shoot it or wait for the Engineer to pull a solution out of his ass?"

• TNG: 11001001
• TNG: Contagion
• TNG: Peak Performance
• TNG: Evolution
• TNG: Conundrum
• TNG: Starship Mine
• VOY: Heroes and Demons
• VOY: Projections

Ungodly Influence (1 entry) "This is why I became an atheist!"

• TNG: The Child

Failure for No Real Reason (6 entries) The door fell off. Again.

• TNG: Disaster
• TNG: Relics
• VOY: Twisted
• VOY: Dreadlock
• VOY: The Swarm
• VOY: Threshold

*Special Note: Threshold is listed twice because 1) Warp 10 is supposed to go instantly everywhere in the universe. That's simply impossible, as they stated in the show, and 2) Even by pulling a solution out of their ass, they still fuck things up.

Also a breakdown of the engineering failures of the movies for your enjoyment.

Motion Picture

• Transporter Accident (When the two crewmen died during transport)
• Technobabble Failure (Pressed into service without finishing out the ship)

Wrath of Khan

• Failure for No Real Reason (The Mutara Nebula)

Search for Spock

• Failure of Security/Safeguards (Spacedock doors opened remotely, Scotty sabotages the Excelsior)
• Technobabble Failure (When Genesis just blows up because it's unstable)

Voyage Home

• Ungodly Influence (The Whale Probe)

Final Frontier

• Failure of Security/Safeguards (Too many to list)
• Technobabble Failure (Too many to list)
• Ungodly Influence (God wanted a Star Trek V, but the Devil picked the director)

Undiscovered Country

• Failure of Security/Safeguards (Unaccounted for torpedoes, Unregistered transporter use)

Generations

• Technobabble Failure (Warp Core Breech)
• Failure of Security/Safeguards (Enterprise B only ship in range with no crew, Dr. Soren's secret lair)
• Transporter Failure (Secret transmitter in Geordi's visor)

First Contact

• Technobabble Failure (Borg Adaptability, No access to shuttlepods, loss of power, no internal sensors)
• Failure of Security/Safeguards (Beaming down to unsecure location without sensors)
• Holodeck Failure (Fake guns kill real people)

Insurrection

• Misunderstood Science (Sona and their obsession with the metaphasic radiation, exploding gas in space)
• Failure of Security/Safeguards (Holoship's controls hacked, lack of Starfleet presence, phasers carried by observers, ejecting warp core during battle)
• Holodeck Failure (Imperfect holomatrix on holoship)

Nemesis

• Failure of Security/Safeguards (B4 brought aboard and assembled after Lore incident, Violent interaction with planet's inhabitants, Flying through nebula instead of going around)
• Technobabble Failure (New containment field around warp core suddenly fails, forcefields take too long sealing breech)
• Transporter Failure (Sensors don't work to beam Data over, but can instantly lock on to emergency beacon)

[Metahive]

Nice list, just replying to the first set for now.

Misguided/Misunderstood Science and Research (10 entries) When Starfleet doesn't bother paying someone to run a few simulations or run a few extra tests and just puts it out in the field.
TOS: The Ultimate Computer

I think that was less a failure of Starfleet than a failure of Mr. Daystrom to fully inform SF about all the extra functions he had put into the M5. It wasn't also until then that it was revealed that he had patterned the M5 after his own heretofore unknown and rather unstable psyche. Since he was renowned as a genius I can't really fault SF for being overly trusting.

TNG: Where No One Has Gone Before

Brush that up to the Traveller toying around with SF in a rather reckless manner.

TNG: Unnatural Selection

Total failure, not to say that according to Federation laws it should have even been illegal to create "superhumans" in the first place.

TNG: The Nth Degree

That had once again aliens toying around with SF deliberately and covertly. I therefore don't count that as a failure of them.

TNG: Genesis

O my o my, Dr Crusher got overwhelmed by 50's monster movie logic.

VOY: Threshold*

The failure here wasn't the whole out of nowhere "evolve into newt" drawback but that they relied on the computer to accurately simulate such a situation for their "tests"

VOY: Spirit Folk

That was less a failure of the machinery than VOY's crew being lazy idiots that couldn't be bothered to run it safely.

[Skylon]

Transporter Accidents/Mishaps (10 entries) "It really is the safest way to travel" yeah... straight to Hell
TNG: Data's Day

Foul play was at work there (and nobody actually died). The Romulans tricked the Enterprise crew into thinking they'd killed a Vulcan ambassador, who in face beamed aboard their ship safely (and was a spy).

Motion Picture
Technobabble Failure (Pressed into service without finishing out the ship)

How is that a technobabble failure? The ship just wasn't ready.

Wrath of Khan
Failure for No Real Reason (The Mutara Nebula)

What the fuck?

Search for Spock
Failure of Security/Safeguards (Spacedock doors opened remotely, Scotty sabotages the Excelsior)

Yes, and it was shown to be a well thought out plan on the part of Kirk's crew. Any well thought out plan by skilled professionals can work.

Voyage Home
Ungodly Influence (The Whale Probe)

Shall we just include all Q instances in this list then?

Undiscovered Country
Failure of Security/Safeguards (Unaccounted for torpedoes, Unregistered transporter use)

This was more of a break in computer records, as Ent-A never fired torpedoes, but one of the data banks showed it did. It helps the assassins had a member of the senior staff to help cover for them.

[Darth Tedious]

VOY: Threshold*

The failure here wasn't the whole out of nowhere "evolve into newt" drawback but that they relied on the computer to accurately simulate such a situation for their "tests"

Come on, man! How were they to know? The computer is supposed to predict something like that happening!

And besides, they got better...

Undiscovered Country
Failure of Security/Safeguards (Unaccounted for torpedoes, Unregistered transporter use)

This was more of a break in computer records, as Ent-A never fired torpedoes, but one of the data banks showed it did. It helps the assassins had a member of the senior staff to help cover for them.

I'd call it a pretty big failure in computer security. Even a senior staff member shouldn't be able to enter such false records. True, manual adjustment of logs should be possible in the event of a malfunction, but even that should be traceable. Modern home computers record when files are accessed, updated or modified.

[Darth Tedious]

If they'd been using fuses, the generator shouldn't have caused a surge.

But then, if starships had fuses, control panels wouldn't explode and kill bridge crew...

[Baffalo]

Ok, some of you are asking why I put certain failures down, so I'll try and go through them one by one.

1) TNG: Where No One Has Gone Before (Misguided Research) Basically, this guy created computer simulations, and then was unaware they didn't work. I'm willing to chalk it up to the Traveler, but I'm not entirely sure he's to blame if the man's basic theories aren't reviewed independently before implementing them on other starships. Wouldn't the results go away as soon as the Traveler left?

2) TOS: The Ultimate Computer (Misguided Research) Same as above (sorry, having to go in reverse order) in that no one independently reviewed the work prior to putting it aboard starships. Letting an untested device with access to shipgrade weaponry loose without proper testing is dangerous and reckless, which is why it made the list.

3) Ungodly Influences: I included Ungodly Influence when a device interacts with Starfleet machinery to produce unintended consequences while not being deliberate. The Whale Probe was heading to Earth to search for Humpbacks, and just happened to knock out power to Federation starships in the process. The Whale Probe may or may not have been doing it deliberately, but it's pretty dangerous to have all your equipment fail all at once, and so I'd say that it's an engineering failure.

4) Search for Spock: Failure of Security/Safeguards. I included the sabotage because the station should be on watch at all times, even if there's no one coming (similar to aircraft controllers), and someone should've been able to run a quick diagnostic to check if their engines worked. Granted, the Excelsior's engines couldn't work anyway, but the point remains.

5) Wrath of Khan: Failure for No Real Reason (The Mutara Nebula). I should've elaborated on this more. Starfleet knows there are nebulas out there, and that they might pose dangers to navigation. And yet, between Wrath of Khan and Nemesis, we never see them able to fix this, tells me that there's a problem somewhere. Granted, it's probably a minor problem in the grand scheme of things, but being unable to see or raise shields is a huge problem if you have to go in for any reason.

6) Motion Picture: Technobabble Failure. Technobabble failure is what I lumped the unknown failures and problems into, and that includes this one when the ship isn't ready. There could be an entire debate on why the Enterprise is the only ship in range and has to be pressed into service, but the fact they have to be means they're taking an untested, unready ship with known faults out on a mission to save Earth. The entire ship is an unknown. And the reason I'm saying this now is because a few of these are on the list just because they're worth mentioning, but aren't really true failures.

7) TNG: Data's Day. That's one of the few episodes that made the list that I just skimmed Memory Alpha on, so if you want, we can scratch that one off the list.

8 ) TNG: Who Watches the Watchers. The biggest issue I have with this is that, honestly, a generator surge is a very, very bad thing. And very, very rare. The reason I say this is because generators are built pretty strong (mechanical ones, anyway), and even if the device was a fusion generator, the only way they would have a surge in power would be if they had an EM pulse. The EM Pulse would produce surges in voltage and current and possibly trip a few breakers, but that's why they should have back-up generators. Even if they didn't think of that (which would be a redundancy failure), the entire task is to remain unnoticed and undetected. I'll let it slide, though, because it's only one occurrance of a holofailure of this nature, and they might have fixed the others.

9) TNG: Realm of Fear. Overfiltered the crew? Sounds like a failure to me, even if it was caused by someone.

[Metahive]

2) TOS: The Ultimate Computer (Misguided Research) Same as above (sorry, having to go in reverse order) in that no one independently reviewed the work prior to putting it aboard starships. Letting an untested device with access to shipgrade weaponry loose without proper testing is dangerous and reckless, which is why it made the list.

Again, the problem here was trusting a person that hadn't displayed any mental unbalance before and had so far done great work. That's not an engineering problem, that's a human problem. Also, any evidence that the device was completely untested until they wired it into the Enterprise? I mean Daystrom must have presented something to SF just to get the "funds" rolling prior to this, don't you think?

3) Ungodly Influences: I included Ungodly Influence when a device interacts with Starfleet machinery to produce unintended consequences while not being deliberate. The Whale Probe was heading to Earth to search for Humpbacks, and just happened to knock out power to Federation starships in the process. The Whale Probe may or may not have been doing it deliberately, but it's pretty dangerous to have all your equipment fail all at once, and so I'd say that it's an engineering failure.

O come on now, crazy-ass space probe knocking out technology left and right by projecting whalesong soundwaves into space is such ridiculous an idea that you can't fault SF for not having a contingency plan for just such an occasion.

"Captain, the Klingons are leaning out of the windows of their ships and shoting obscenities at us! Crew morale is down by 50%!"
"Aw bugger, should have invested in that soundproof armor after all!"

4) Search for Spock: Failure of Security/Safeguards. I included the sabotage because the station should be on watch at all times, even if there's no one coming (similar to aircraft controllers), and someone should've been able to run a quick diagnostic to check if their engines worked. Granted, the Excelsior's engines couldn't work anyway, but the point remains.

Not the age old "the villains/obstacles must suck because the heroes overcome them" fallacy again! Scotty is by then SF's best engineer and had root access to the Excelsior's engines, don't you think that's credible enough?

5) Wrath of Khan: Failure for No Real Reason (The Mutara Nebula). I should've elaborated on this more. Starfleet knows there are nebulas out there, and that they might pose dangers to navigation. And yet, between Wrath of Khan and Nemesis, we never see them able to fix this, tells me that there's a problem somewhere. Granted, it's probably a minor problem in the grand scheme of things, but being unable to see or raise shields is a huge problem if you have to go in for any reason.

Okay, let's stop right here. Are faulting you SF for not designing invincible Überships that can't be fazed by anything? I'm getting the impression that this is your real problem here. What's this about making the ship capable to work in loopy space nebulas when there's little reason for ships to ever operate in one? Are you faulting present time shipbuilders for still not having devised unsinkable ships as well?

It's all a bit petty, don't you think?

[Baffalo]

2) TOS: The Ultimate Computer (Misguided Research) Same as above (sorry, having to go in reverse order) in that no one independently reviewed the work prior to putting it aboard starships. Letting an untested device with access to shipgrade weaponry loose without proper testing is dangerous and reckless, which is why it made the list.

Again, the problem here was trusting a person that hadn't displayed any mental unbalance before and had so far done great work. That's not an engineering problem, that's a human problem. Also, any evidence that the device was completely untested until they wired it into the Enterprise? I mean Daystrom must have presented something to SF just to get the "funds" rolling prior to this, don't you think?

Yes, Daystrom was a genius in his field and yes, he had obviously produced excellent work in the past. But the point remains that his computer took access of a starship. I'm calling it an engineering failure even if it's only as a technicality.

3) Ungodly Influences: I included Ungodly Influence when a device interacts with Starfleet machinery to produce unintended consequences while not being deliberate. The Whale Probe was heading to Earth to search for Humpbacks, and just happened to knock out power to Federation starships in the process. The Whale Probe may or may not have been doing it deliberately, but it's pretty dangerous to have all your equipment fail all at once, and so I'd say that it's an engineering failure.

O come on now, crazy-ass space probe knocking out technology left and right by projecting whalesong soundwaves into space is such ridiculous an idea that you can't fault SF for not having a contingency plan for just such an occasion.

"Captain, the Klingons are leaning out of the windows of their ships and shoting obscenities at us! Crew morale is down by 50%!"
"Aw bugger, should have invested in that soundproof armor after all!"

You're in space. Think about your statement a second.

4) Search for Spock: Failure of Security/Safeguards. I included the sabotage because the station should be on watch at all times, even if there's no one coming (similar to aircraft controllers), and someone should've been able to run a quick diagnostic to check if their engines worked. Granted, the Excelsior's engines couldn't work anyway, but the point remains.

Not the age old "the villains/obstacles must suck because the heroes overcome them" fallacy again! Scotty is by then SF's best engineer and had root access to the Excelsior's engines, don't you think that's credible enough?

I'm not denying Scotty had access to the engines and I'm not denying that he knows his way around an engine room. The fact remains that the equipment failed and they didn't detect the failure prior to leaving spacedock. Yes, Scotty probably made that sabotage deliberate, and yes, he probably bypassed the controls, but it's still a technical failure. It falls into the same category as the M5 computer.

5) Wrath of Khan: Failure for No Real Reason (The Mutara Nebula). I should've elaborated on this more. Starfleet knows there are nebulas out there, and that they might pose dangers to navigation. And yet, between Wrath of Khan and Nemesis, we never see them able to fix this, tells me that there's a problem somewhere. Granted, it's probably a minor problem in the grand scheme of things, but being unable to see or raise shields is a huge problem if you have to go in for any reason.

Okay, let's stop right here. Are faulting you SF for not designing invincible Überships that can't be fazed by anything? I'm getting the impression that this is your real problem here. What's this about making the ship capable to work in loopy space nebulas when there's little reason for ships to ever operate in one? Are you faulting present time shipbuilders for still not having devised unsinkable ships as well?

It's all a bit petty, don't you think?

No, I don't think it's petty. If a nebula causes problems for your sensors, that's a major issue! A Klingon battlefleet could hop from nebula to nebula to avoid detection and get beyond Starfleet's sensors! Pirates could prey on nearby shipping lanes from nebulas. It's impossible to scan inside and your shields go down, so you're at risk. They did fix the shield issue by TNG, but the fact remains that having huge areas that are immune to scans is an engineering failure that can lead to major problems down the line. They also disrupt long-range communications, meaning anything that goes inside is cut-off from outside communication. I know, I know, nebulas are extremely rare to fly into, but the fact remains that they're huge hurdles that point out an obvious flaw.

[Metahive]

Yes, Daystrom was a genius in his field and yes, he had obviously produced excellent work in the past. But the point remains that his computer took access of a starship. I'm calling it an engineering failure even if it's only as a technicality.

What part of the machinery here failed? The M5 functioned exactly as it was supposed to , its "psychosis" was based on the fact that it operated on the patterns of an unstable person. Again human, not engineering failure.

You're in space. Think about your statement a second.

You are the one who says that SF's machinery somehow "failed" because it wasn't made soundproof just for the one occasion where some sort of heretofore unknown alien tech shouts gibberish at them, you think about it!

I'm not denying Scotty had access to the engines and I'm not denying that he knows his way around an engine room. The fact remains that the equipment failed and they didn't detect the failure prior to leaving spacedock. Yes, Scotty probably made that sabotage deliberate, and yes, he probably bypassed the controls, but it's still a technical failure. It falls into the same category as the M5 computer.

If I steal the motor of your car, is it an "engine failure" that you can't get anywhere with it?

No, I don't think it's petty. If a nebula causes problems for your sensors, that's a major issue! A Klingon battlefleet could hop from nebula to nebula to avoid detection and get beyond Starfleet's sensors! Pirates could prey on nearby shipping lanes from nebulas. It's impossible to scan inside and your shields go down, so you're at risk. They did fix the shield issue by TNG, but the fact remains that having huge areas that are immune to scans is an engineering failure that can lead to major problems down the line. They also disrupt long-range communications, meaning anything that goes inside is cut-off from outside communication. I know, I know, nebulas are extremely rare to fly into, but the fact remains that they're huge hurdles that point out an obvious flaw.

How can they be huge hurdles when you yourself admit that they're rare?

[Baffalo]

You're in space. Think about your statement a second.

You are the one who says that SF's machinery somehow "failed" because it wasn't made soundproof just for the one occasion where some sort of heretofore unknown alien tech shouts gibberish at them, you think about it!

Sound. In Space. Does. Not. Compute.

I'm not denying Scotty had access to the engines and I'm not denying that he knows his way around an engine room. The fact remains that the equipment failed and they didn't detect the failure prior to leaving spacedock. Yes, Scotty probably made that sabotage deliberate, and yes, he probably bypassed the controls, but it's still a technical failure. It falls into the same category as the M5 computer.

If I steal the motor of your car, is it an "engine failure" that you can't get anywhere with it?

Because it was a prototype, untested new engine. It didn't work even without Scotty's sabotage. And if you steal my motor, I'll chase you down and attack you with a hose clamp.

No, I don't think it's petty. If a nebula causes problems for your sensors, that's a major issue! A Klingon battlefleet could hop from nebula to nebula to avoid detection and get beyond Starfleet's sensors! Pirates could prey on nearby shipping lanes from nebulas. It's impossible to scan inside and your shields go down, so you're at risk. They did fix the shield issue by TNG, but the fact remains that having huge areas that are immune to scans is an engineering failure that can lead to major problems down the line. They also disrupt long-range communications, meaning anything that goes inside is cut-off from outside communication. I know, I know, nebulas are extremely rare to fly into, but the fact remains that they're huge hurdles that point out an obvious flaw.

How can they be huge hurdles when you yourself admit that they're rare?[/quote]

Because while it is rare, you still have to deal with it on occasion! And it's right there, just sitting there, in your territory, perfectly suitable for a team to park there and play around with some theories. It's a natural phenomenon that can pose a threat to security, and no one's following up on it.

[Metahive]

Sound. In Space. Does. Not. Compute.

That's what the Wacky Space Cylinder does, projecting whalesong soundwaves into space! Haven't you watched the movie? It's as retarded and gut-bustingly anti-intuitive as it sounds so I can't fault SF for not planning ahead for such incidents.

Because it was a prototype, untested new engine. It didn't work even without Scotty's sabotage. And if you steal my motor, I'll chase you down and attack you with a hose clamp.

Irrelevant, the one and in all of Trek only time we saw a ship with transwarp drive fail it was due to sabotage.

Because while it is rare, you still have to deal with it on occasion! And it's right there, just sitting there, in your territory, perfectly suitable for a team to park there and play around with some theories. It's a natural phenomenon that can pose a threat to security, and no one's following up on it.

Evidence that it is such a huge threat to security? Evidence that its deletrious effects on treknology can even be overcome with the tech base they have? Too much assumption, too little fact.

[Skylon]

Undiscovered Country
Failure of Security/Safeguards (Unaccounted for torpedoes, Unregistered transporter use)

This was more of a break in computer records, as Ent-A never fired torpedoes, but one of the data banks showed it did. It helps the assassins had a member of the senior staff to help cover for them.

I'd call it a pretty big failure in computer security. Even a senior staff member shouldn't be able to enter such false records. True, manual adjustment of logs should be possible in the event of a malfunction, but even that should be traceable. Modern home computers record when files are accessed, updated or modified.

However, there were conflicting records. Spock's databanks noted two torpedoes had fired. Where as the torpedo bay inventory (which Scotty checked) listed a full compliment. This was either due to negligence on the part of Valeris, or she only had the time/ability to alter one of the computer's records.

Maybe this was also a case of some actual system redundancy?

[Skylon]

3) Ungodly Influences: I included Ungodly Influence when a device interacts with Starfleet machinery to produce unintended consequences while not being deliberate. The Whale Probe was heading to Earth to search for Humpbacks, and just happened to knock out power to Federation starships in the process. The Whale Probe may or may not have been doing it deliberately, but it's pretty dangerous to have all your equipment fail all at once, and so I'd say that it's an engineering failure.

O come on now, crazy-ass space probe knocking out technology left and right by projecting whalesong soundwaves into space is such ridiculous an idea that you can't fault SF for not having a contingency plan for just such an occasion.

"Captain, the Klingons are leaning out of the windows of their ships and shoting obscenities at us! Crew morale is down by 50%!"
"Aw bugger, should have invested in that soundproof armor after all!"

You're in space. Think about your statement a second.

To be fair, in space (especially Star Trek's depiction of it) there is a ton of shit you cannot predict, therefore you cannot build in every form of redundancy. In reality, we've had to deal with plenty of harsh realities that people just didn't think of - like a chunk of foam slamming into a heatshield can kill you. Or that an O2 tank that had been improperly handled on the ground (and thought to be fixed) would explode. Smart people cannot think of everything.

In the Trek universe, they've had Q, an alien claiming to be a Greek god, aliens that could stop you from killing each other (the Organians), can create full up illusions of starships (whatever the fuck that was in TNG's "Where Silence Has Lease") and as noted probes that emit whale songs so powerful they disable you.

Space is crazy in the Star Trek universe. Really strange shit happens.

[Baffalo]

You're in space. Think about your statement a second.

To be fair, in space (especially Star Trek's depiction of it) there is a ton of shit you cannot predict, therefore you cannot build in every form of redundancy. In reality, we've had to deal with plenty of harsh realities that people just didn't think of - like a chunk of foam slamming into a heatshield can kill you. Or that an O2 tank that had been improperly handled on the ground (and thought to be fixed) would explode. Smart people cannot think of everything.

In the Trek universe, they've had Q, an alien claiming to be a Greek god, aliens that could stop you from killing each other (the Organians), can create full up illusions of starships (whatever the fuck that was in TNG's "Where Silence Has Lease") and as noted probes that emit whale songs so powerful they disable you.

Space is crazy in the Star Trek universe. Really strange shit happens.

Right. I didn't ever claim my list was final or definitive, and I'm willing to give Star Trek IV's engineering failures over to the Ungodly Influence, because that's really where I suppose it goes. We don't know how it happened, but something made it happen. It's still a failure, but not by the fault of Starfleet personnel.

[TimothyC]

Failure of Security and Safeguards (8 entries) "Bridge, we've got another un-welcomed alien aboard. Do we shoot it or wait for the Engineer to pull a solution out of his ass?"

• TNG: 11001001

What?

The Bynars were doing a computer replacement, and as such had full computer access. This is akin to giving someone root access to a server, and them then sending a message to everyone on the network that the server was going to blow up, so everyone needs to get off of it. The only breakdown was that Starfleet let their IT crew have root access to the main computer on a ship, which they needed to do their job.

[Ahriman238]

A number of these all amount to the systems not being immune to sabotage by intelligent people who know the system forwards and backwards and/or have unrestricted access. Scotty's stealing of Excelsior computer chips, Bynars hi-jacking the Enterprise, Seska turning a holodeck training program into a deathtrap, etc. Arguably, some of these belong in Security failures, the Bynars have unrestricted computer access to run an upgrade but don't believe the Federation owuld save their civilization if they asked? Can anyone just rig a holodeck to kill someone, or is that a special skill of Seska's? But I can't really say they belong on the same list as accidently creating a sentient, malevolent computer program through an inconvenient turn of phrase, a person reproducing through trasporter mitosis (happened twice!) or almost destroying the universe because you wanted to fuck with time, just to see what would happen.

Actually, I just realized that while the Federation's technology has not yet let them duplicate Data's brain, they twice created a sentient AI by accident in TNG alone. (Elementary, Dear Data, the Quality of Life.) Huh, I'd think there'd be hordes of researchers all over that.

[Stofsk]

Well the incident involving Moriarty's 'awakening' is probably directly responsible for the EMH. I doubt the idea of an EMH would have been possible were it not for that accident.

[Darth Tedious]

There was also that one time that the Big E herself developed sentience, though that was due to alien interference.

I must say, I'm really glad that Baffalo did make this list a thread of its own.

"Captain, the Klingons are leaning out of the windows of their ships and shoting obscenities at us! Crew morale is down by 50%!"
"Aw bugger, should have invested in that soundproof armor after all!"

I knew good things would come of this!

[Baffalo]

Well the incident involving Moriarty's 'awakening' is probably directly responsible for the EMH. I doubt the idea of an EMH would have been possible were it not for that accident.

Having sentience does give the program a flexibility that AIs would need in practicing medicine. What works for one patient might not work for another, and without flexibility, the program would be confused easily and unable to function. I think one of the major successes of the Doctor aboard Voyager was letting an AI program function long enough that it was able to make its own decisions, which shows just how far the technology can advance if given enough time. The fact that the program evolved to fill new roles instead of sticking to what was set out to be its only function is brilliant. I'm sure it also might have given a few people in Starfleet a few ideas, such as a partially holographic crew. Imagine what would be possible if you could build a ship whose crew didn't need sleep? Didn't need food? Didn't need quarters of their own? The possibilities mean smaller ships that can function the same way as their larger counterparts.

[TOSDOC]

Had to take issue with a few of these:

You're in space. Think about your statement a second.

You are the one who says that SF's machinery somehow "failed" because it wasn't made soundproof just for the one occasion where some sort of heretofore unknown alien tech shouts gibberish at them, you think about it!

You're both wrong. Sound doesn't travel through space, but the probe's carrier wave does, and that's what was impacting on starship systems. It's in the dialogue.

TOS: The Enemy Within. The transporter was working fine until someone beamed up a hitherto undiscovered ore with curious properties. Scotty's mistake was to not check the unit (which he was in the process of doing) BEFORE transporting his captain aboard. Human Error.

TOS: The Ultimate Computer. Perhaps simulations were already run. We don't know. The point is that Daystrom told no one about his own engrams on the computer before it was connected to Enterprise, and the computer was doing exactly what it was programmed to do. Human Error.

Nebulas affecting Ship Systems: That's why ships don't fly into them. Pirates can't use them except to hide in, but good luck ambushing a convoy in a nebula when they don't travel through nebulas. And tactically, for Picard it was an advantage to fly into a nebula and hide in The Best of Both Worlds. I still wonder why the wank-almighty Borg Cube didn't follow them in--maybe because the ships would be evenly matched?

Star Trek III: People can get away with amazing shit when they're trusted with stuff and no one expects them to do something against the rules. Scotty is the Captain of Engineering on Excelsior--he would have full clearance to do whatever he wanted to the ship, and no one would be the wiser. They were able to steal Enterprise because no one imagined they would--it would be analogous to the retired crew of the decommissioned Battleship Massachusetts making off with the ship out of the dock to go resurrect one of their dead comrades in the Pacific. How many jet liners do you hear being stolen out of terminals today, especially by their own flight crews?

I'd recommend watching the shows and movies to grabbing a list off of Memory Alpha. And to show you I'm not defending the show to the death, here's a REAL piece of Engineering Failure you didn't list:

TOS Where No Man Has Gone Before: Mitchell tells Kelso to check the packs on the Impulse Deck, which Kelso had seen (and Mitchell had seen in his mind with his newfound powers) but hadn't noticed that the points had nearly decayed to lead. Activating the packs would have blown the whole Impulse Deck. Why weren't computer alarms screaming about a decayed pack? A red light blinking? Visual inspection had failed to confirm a component, but a failsafe should have activated if the component was no longer viable rather than blowing up the whole engineering section.

EDIT: quotes

[Batman]

Pfft. That's Starfleet computers for you. I mean, what about E-D? 'Computer, locate crew member Whatsherface.' 'Crew member Whatsherface is not aboard the Enterprise.' Hey, thanks for mentioning that a crew member has gone missing while we're in the middle of nowhere. It's not like that's somehow odd and maybe the bridge crew should know or something.

And what's the point of a holographic crew? Just have the AI run the ship directly and give it mechanical remotes for maintenance and damage control.

[Crazedwraith]

Pfft. That's Starfleet computers for you. I mean, what about E-D? 'Computer, locate crew member Whatsherface.' 'Crew member Whatsherface is not aboard the Enterprise.' Hey, thanks for mentioning that a crew member has gone missing while we're in the middle of nowhere. It's not like that's somehow odd and maybe the bridge crew should know or something.

Yes, because the fact that the computer can initiate a location check on request means that it constantly monitors the position of all ships crew at all times. That makes sense.

[Skylon]

Star Trek III: People can get away with amazing shit when they're trusted with stuff and no one expects them to do something against the rules. Scotty is the Captain of Engineering on Excelsior--he would have full clearance to do whatever he wanted to the ship, and no one would be the wiser. They were able to steal Enterprise because no one imagined they would--it would be analogous to the retired crew of the decommissioned Battleship Massachusetts making off with the ship out of the dock to go resurrect one of their dead comrades in the Pacific. How many jet liners do you hear being stolen out of terminals today, especially by their own flight crews?

The only aspect of the Enterprise's theft that I take issue with is when they cut to Spacedock's control center during the theft its empty. It seems like something that should be manned at all times. Maybe had someone been on duty they'd have been able to prevent the Enterprise crew from overriding the security measures and open the space doors. As it was they nearly crashed into the doors, indicating it wasn't easy for Scotty to bypass the security measures.

But that's not an engineering failure.

As an aside, I always loved the way this line: "Sir, someone is stealing the Enterprise!" was delivered. It was just stated with the appropriate level of shock and confusion such an event would generate. Because, as you point out, who the fuck would expect the theft of a warship from its home port?

[Captain Seafort]

The only aspect of the Enterprise's theft that I take issue with is when they cut to Spacedock's control center during the theft its empty. It seems like something that should be manned at all times.

You mean with the exception of one bloke cleaning up? That was the restaurant.

[TOSDOC]

Pfft. That's Starfleet computers for you. I mean, what about E-D? 'Computer, locate crew member Whatsherface.' 'Crew member Whatsherface is not aboard the Enterprise.' Hey, thanks for mentioning that a crew member has gone missing while we're in the middle of nowhere. It's not like that's somehow odd and maybe the bridge crew should know or something.

"Captain Picard is not on board the Enterprise."

That was chilling and funny drama when you were watching it and you see the crew just get this look of "Holy fuck! We're light years out in deep space, where's the Captain at?"

Now it's just a perfect example of nothing wrong with the computer, just doing what it's programmed to do.