Star Trek might have the biggest expanded universe of any science fiction property. Doctor Who might be older, but it was a show that was only popular in Great Britain for most of its existence. Star Wars might be more popular than Star Trek, but there were large gaps in the franchise's history when no new content was being produced. Star Trek kept on receiving new iterations on both the big screen and on television, which meant that the franchise had room to grow to an🍬 unheard of extent.

With so much Star Trek material in existence, it's only natural that the writers will make mistakes when trying to tell stories within the setting. You can't expect anyone to have perfect background knowledge of the setting, especially when parts of it contradict the other. The longer a series gets, the more likely it is to have plot holes. And when a franchise has been running as long as Star Trek, it's bound to have more than a few inconsistencies along thꦑe way.

We are here today to look at the numerous mistakes that have crept into the Star Trek movies ♛and TV shows over the years🍸. From the villain who can't keep Kirk's epitaph straight, to the mystery of the missing country.

Here are Twenty Times Star Trek Made No Sense (And Fans Didn’t Care)

20 T🐼he R Stands For Tiberius 🎶

It took a single episode for Star Trek: The Original Series to make a mistake.

"" is the first official episode of Star Trek, though there was a pilot episode before this which were repurposed into a later episode. This episode was Captain Kirk's debut, where he battled Gary Mitchell, a former friend of his from Starfleet Academ🌺y, who had gained ꧒godlike powers. Gary Mitchell uses his powers to create a tombstone for Captain Kirk.

He screws up the name, however, and writes "James R. Kirk" instead of "James T. Kirk" which is his actual name. 

Gene Roddenberry's official answer to this discrepanc💧y was that Gary Mitchell🍌 had simply misremembered the name and Kirk was clearly too polite to correct him.

19 ♍ ꦅFermat Fooled Picard

There have been instances when Star Trek has mistakes that cannot be blame🍨d on the✱ writers, due to events transpiring after an episode has aired that contradicts statements that they had written.

One of the biggest examples of a statement being contradicted in Star Trek happened in "The Royale" when Captain Picard discussed . This is a real-life equation that was written by a French mathematician, named Pierre de Fermat, which had still not been solved when "The Royale" had been written. Picard talked about how he somet🌊imes spent nights trying to solve the equation, which even the wonders of modern technology could not work out.

Fermat's last theorem woul♍d go on to be solved six years after "The Royale" was aired. This means that Picard spent years trying to solve an unfinished equation that had now been answered.

18 Data Cannot Use Conꦓtractions (Except When He Can) 🎃

Data and the other creations of Doctor Noonian Soong represent the closest that a scientist had ever come to creating an a🌼ndroid that was indistinguishable from a human being. This is not to say that Data was a perfect replica of a human, as he lacked the ability to use contractions in sentences. This was something❀ both Data and Lore commented on during the series.

Brent Spiner screwed up on a couple of occasions (mostly during the early episodes of the show's run) when it came to speaking in Data's unique speech patteꩵrn. This means that Data did actually in his sentences on a few, rare occasions. It seems as if these were missed during the edit of the show and the creators felt it wasn't worth expensive reshoots and hoped that the audience wouldn't notice.

17 Khꦏan Remembers Things That Didn't Happen 💮

Khan Noonien Singh was one ofℱ the last living human augments from the period of time before genetic engineering became illegal. He represents the peak of human ability and has an ego to match his skills.

It seems that Khan's memory leaves a lot to be desired, as he tells Chekov in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan that he never forgets a face. The problem with this is that the episode in which Khan appeared ("Space Seed") happened during the first season of Star Trek: The Original Series, while C꧃hekov did not become a c🐈haracter on the show until the second season, when Khan was long gone.

The creators of Wrath of Khan have admitted that this is an inconsistency, which hasn't stopped tಞhe fans from coming up with theories about how Chekov could have met Khan in the past.

16 Troi's Pilot Powers 💜

Telepathy is a rare ability in the Star Trek universe and is one seldom seen used by members of the main cast. The reason for this is due to the fact that f🍃unction🍃ing telepathy would make it much harder to write certain kinds of stories, as the ability to read minds makes it harder for characters to keep secrets.

The Vulcan mind meld was made dangerous in order to limit its use within the story and prevent characters like Spock from solving every problem. 

Deanna Troi had her empathic abilities severely toned down after the pilot episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, likely for this very reason. Troဣi demonstrated the ability to communicate telepathically with Ri🎃ker during "Encounter at Farpoint" which is an ability that she never used again.

15 The 🅺Trill Ch𝓰ange

A member of the Trill species first appeared in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode called "The Host." The Trill would go on to become a major part of the story of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, due to Jadzia Dax (a joined Trill) being one of the main chဣaracter♓s.

The Trill were portrayed very differently in "The Host" then how they would become in Deep Space Nine. One of the biggest examples of this was the fact that using the transporter would damage the symbiont, which stopped being an issue in Deep Space Nine as Jadzia and Ezri would teleport all of the time without any adverse effects. The Trill symbiont in "The Host" also tried to🀅 rekindle their romance with Beverly Crusher after being moved into a new body, even though it was later revealed that this was strictly forbidden in Trill society.

14 Ponꦍ Farrs For Everyo📖ne

The concept of the pon farr was introduced in the Star Trek: The Original Series episode called "Amok Time" where it was explained that Vulcan males wou♋ld go through a period where they would lose control over their emotions. The Vulcan would have to mate, otherwise, they would succumb to the pon farr and perish.

"Am♑o🐈k Time" established that only Vulcan males had to endure the pon farr and that it happened every seven years, though Spock's human heritage meant that his took longer to begin.

Star Trek: Enterprise would later retcon years of continuity and establish that Vulcan females also endured the pon farr, though other pieces of non-canon Star Trek media (such as the comics) had♕ also established this to be the case.

13 ♌ Voyager's Multiplying Missiles 💙

The first episode of Star Trek: Voyager concluded with the titular ship 𒈔being trapped in the Delta Quadrant. This meant that they were years away from the nearest Starfleet base.

One of the effects of being separated from a base meant that Voyager was unable to restock its supply of photon torpedoes, as they lacked the resources to create more. Voyager initially only had thirty-eight photon torpedoes at the start of the show, wh🐈ich slowly depleted over time.

It seems that the writers of Star Trek: Voyager stopped caring about the limited amount of photon torpedoes, as the ship fired of them꧒ throughout 🦄the series, despite lacking the resources to create more than the initial thirty-eight.

12 Picard Doesn't Care About His Family 🅘 ꦕ

Ca🌠ptain Picard briefly visited his fa🃏mily in France after he was brought back from his assimilation by the Borg. We got to see Picard's brother, Robert, who chose to run the family vineyard. It was suggested that Robert's son, Rene, would follow in his uncle's footsteps and join Starfleet.

Rene would never get the chance, as both he and his father perished in a fire at the start of Star Trek Generations. 

Captain Picard would enter a heavenly dimension, known as the Nexus, during the story of Generations. While in the Nexus, he had the ability to return to the real world at any point in time. He decided to go bacಞk a few hours and fight the villain𒅌 of the movie, instead of going back a few days and warning his family about the house fire that was coming.

11 𝕴 The Ever-Changing Rank Of Miles O'Brien

It seemed as if the writers of Star Trek: The Next Generation were always on the fence about making Miles O'Brien a main character on the show. He didn't really get his due until Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, where he became a memb🐟er of the main cast and was th🌟e focus of several episodes.

The writers of The Next Generation could never seem to keep Mil▨es O'Brien's , as he went through numerous different roles throughout his time on the show. O'Brien started out as an ensign and became a Transporter Chief with the Lieutenant rank within the space of a season. It would later be established that O'Brien was a Petty Officer and had never attended Starfleet Academy.

Miles O'Brien's rank would change continuously throughout The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine, with numerousꦬ statements made by himself and other characters that cont🌼radict his official position and previous Starfleet career.