It is perhaps an inevitability, a sad one, that a long-running franchise such as Star Trek is going to drop the ball on some of its plotlines. Not all of the writers have been on the same page, and ideas that perhaps a writer, producer, or director might want to have followed up on, doesn't mean the studio agreed. Unfortunately, in film and television🅷, creativity has to contend with what is practical, or what makes good commercial sense. As much as we viewers may not like it, sometimes decisions are made behind the scenes to keep a show we love commercially viable.
That said, there a number of mysteries and plot holes from over the years that many fans would like to have seen resolved, had the powers-that-be behind Star Trek compromised and allowed it. Fans have tried to fix these in their own personal headcanon, and tie-in media such as Star Trek: Online have made a valiant effort to close the gaps left by the franchise's many unsolved mysteries. However, since nothing in Star Trek that doesn't take place in a movie or television episode is considered hard canon by the license holders, we fans are left to debate and speculate as to what the truth really is behind Trek's unsolved gaffes and untapped possibilities.
Make sure your inertial dampeners are ready and that your replicator rations are stocked. We're going back to the Final Frontier to explore twenty-five plot holes and unresolved storylines from Star Trek's fifty-plus year history.
25 The Preser✱vers
Originally referenced in "The Paradise Syndrome," the Preservers were an ancient Milky Way race that relocated certain humanoid species or subsets to more protected areas for study and, well, preservation. They used music as part of their language and technology. The possibilities of such a race and the stories of their studies were promising but were not followed up on again outside of non-canon material in Star Trek: Online and novels such as William Shatner's Preserver.
24 𓄧 What Hꦯappened To Janice Rand?
Early in season one of The Original Series, there were a number of recurring guest stars, prominently among them being Grace Lee Whitney as Yeoman Janice Rand. The Yeoman and Captain Kirk were shown to have a mutual attraction and strong tension, something that added conflict to Kirk's command duties. Although there were real-world reasons why the character was written off, no explanation was given onscreen, and Rand wasn't seen again until Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
23 ಌ ꧋ The Galactic Barrier
Established in the second pilot, "Where No Man Has Gone Before," the negative energy barrier surrounding the Milky Way factored into se🌸veral subsequent episodes as a grave threat.
The barrier was not brought up again in any of Trek's sequel series, nor was its purpose or nature ever explored or postulated on.
There are theories and non-canon stories linking the barrier to a protect♛ion put in place by the P⛄reservers, but unfortunately, nothing onscreen has been presented to clear the matter up.
22 ꦜ Where Did V'Ger ඣReally Come From?
Gene Roddenberry is said to have teased that the machine world Voyager 6 landed on was the Borg homeworld, but there is nothing to substantiate this idea in any canon media. The most we are given in The Motion Picture is that Voyager encountered a world populated by a race of machines that saw it as kindred. Since the probe had no biological c🌸omponents it would not have been akin to the Borg. Spock also mentions that V'Ger had data on whole galaxies, implying it cam🐎e from somewhere far beyond us... but we'll perhaps never know for sure.
21 What Was Up With The Ion Pod In "C𒆙ourt Martial"
A seemingly throwaway bit of tech made up for this episode, the Enterprise's ion pod supposedly caused the demise of Lt. Cmdr. ꦰBen Finney, landing Kirk in hot water. Why a survey pꦫod that has to be jettisoned during a violent storm is run by a person and not a computer is never explained at all, and the ion pod never resurfaces again for the rest of the series. Convenient for the plot of "Court Martial," but leaves us scratching our heads.
20 𓂃 The Founta✤in Of Youth In "The Deadly Years"
Though meant to be an analysis on aging and how it affects our heroes, "The Deadly Years" ends up creating a conundrum. Although the affliction that ravages the senior staff in the epis☂ode is said to be radiation that recreates the effects of old age on its victims, this fails to explain how Doctor McCoy's antidot𝔉e manages to instantly restore Captain Kirk back to his youthful self, especially since it is based on adrenaline. Maybe that stuff should have been bottled up for later use.
19 The Federaꦺtion Cloaking Device
Kirk and Spock went through an incredible amount of effort, at great risk of being compromised by the Romulans, in order to steal a cloaking device in "The Enterprise Incident." Despite being successful, there seems to be no shift in the balance of power, and this dramatic tactical victory for the Federation is swept under the rug (only being spiritually revisited in The Next Generation episode "The Pegasus").
18 The Treatment Of Time🐟 Travel 🌟
When the Enterprise crew accidentally travels through time twice (in "The [Bare] Time" and "Tomorrow Is Yesterday"), it is shown to be a dangerous, taxing ordeal. However, jumping forward to season two's "Assignment: Earth," Starfleet has gone as far as to order the Enterprise toౠ go back in time for r💧esearch, like it's just another mission.
Then by Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, time travel has become dangerous again.
The fact that later in Deep Space Nine we see a hardly secretive Department of Temporal Investigations in operation, suggests a rather casual attitude adopted about t🎶ime travel. The series can't seem to make up its mind on time travel's dangers.
17 ꦓ Kirk Kn🤪owing What The Audience Does In Star Trek III
It takes a fair bit of processing to make sense of Kirk's actions in Star Trek III: The Search For Spock. We as the audience get to see everything happening on the Genesis planet, and know that Spock is alive, but there is nothing onscreen to suggest that Kirk or Sarek for that matter, would know what's going on. That's an important bit of information! We have to assume that before he goes renegade, Kirk is privy to sensitive information about the ongoing Genesis research and what the Grissom crew found, but at face value we have no proof of t❀his and have to go along with it to advance the plot.
16 The Enterprise Traveling To The Center Of The Galaxy 📖
The crew of Voyager must wish they had these kinds of warp engines. The troubled Star Trek V: The Final Frontier has the Enterprise-A make it to the center of the Milky Way galaxy in what seems to be hours, perhaps a few days at most. Though the time needed to warp around has hardly been consistent in Trek, this one takes the cake. Some sources don't refer to The Final Frontier as being hard canon like the other films, but until this is confirmed by CBS/Paramount, we're left with an inexplicably fast Enterprise in a story that already has a c🥀argo hold full of p🀅roblems.