Vulcans Using Transporters & Mind Melds in 20th Century ?! Star Trek Picard Continuity Mistake

[MajorGrin]

in short : Vulcans indeed visited Earth in the 1950's but they did not yet have transporters . when the group that crashed in the "Enterprise" episode was rescued, the rescue ship had to land to pick them up . a century later a Vulcan ship had to land to make First Contact. and even 200 years later Vulcans were still not seen using transporters, and had to use shuttles to land/take off and dock with starships.
Mind Melds were considered taboo until season 4 of Enterprise when the corrupt Vulcan government was overthrown and the teachings of Surak were accepted by Vulcan society.
so the idea of Vulcans beaming to Earth and using mind melds in the 20th century is illogical unless those Vulcans were from the future too, which seems unlikely .

[johngaltline]

While there’s been a bunch of issues with Picard this season, the use of the mind meld really hit home that the writers never even bothered looking at the source material

[SoyElDiabloRojo]

"Continuity!? We don't NEED no stinkin' continuity!"

- Alex Kurtzman

[PRLYago]

I miss the tone of old Trek shows. Even Enterprise got that aspect perfect from beginning to end.

[dcb_]

With Quark, you can easily write it off as him just not knowing history well and that fits with his character but with the rest, mindmelds were a major thing in Enterprise so there is no excuse in them not knowing vulcans wouldn't use them. But this is what happens when the people in charge don't give a damn about the past shows and history - this is the story they want to tell and how they want to tell it and if that happens to contradict canon, so be it. It is arrogance at its finest.

[NihilusShadow]

I was wondering this myself. I don't recall the Vulcans ever using transporters in the 22nd century. They always docked with Enterprise and lunched shuttles. I think it's a safe bet they didn't have them in the 20th or 21st centuries. Technically Mind Melds are something any Vulcan can do, but very few people practiced it because it was extremely taboo, which this video demonstrates. It's POSSIBLE that that Vulcan could be a "Syrrannite" or a Vulcan who does practice it, but what are the odds of that. It being a mistake is far more probable.

[x]

Looking at the Vulcan/Romulan Timeline, I'm pretty sure they had warp tech, Though I can see the Vulcan's abandoning it.
- The Vulcan's built their "monastery" on P'jem around 850 BC.
- 370 AD, "Those who march beneath the raptor's wings, " left Vulcan after a post apocalyptic Nuclear civil war. Surak died from radioactive fallout. It's probably about here that the Vulcan's regressed, or stopped developing warp tech.
- While "Those who march beneath the Raptor's wings, " The Romulan's, went on to develop Singularity Drives. Again. something JJ/Kurtz New Trek forgot was a thing.
- I bet you in New Trek, they don't even know what a Singularity warp Drive is. JJ Trek certainly did not know that the Romulan Star Empire had at least 70ish planets, each with populations on par with Romulus.

[brandonlink]

On multiple occasions we've seen that grabbing on to someone causes them to be beamed as well (Voyage Home, Enterprise Incident, Best of Both Worlds, etc.) so shouldn't he have been beamed up with the Vulcans? The Vulcans who should have had proximity sensors or at least a hat to cover their ears since Vulcans already knew to how to disguise themselves as Terrans thanks to Carbon Creek, not that he could have seen their ears anyways from that distance in the dark.

[jimjam]

This is why you can walk into any specialty/toy store at present and see William Shatner's face on more merch than Sonequa Martin-Green, Chris Pine, or even Patrick Stewart, for that matter.

And Shatner stopped playing the character almost 30 years ago.

[cellulanus]

I'd believe that Quark doesn't actually know his history very well.

But mind melds were never something to be taken lightly even by TOS era.

[svsguru]

Remember Star Trek 6, where Mind Melding was akin to rape? And Spock forcibly melded with Valeris?
That's what he did to that kid.

[ge]

lol, so the vulcans pretty much look human, but if someone stumbles across your little setup in the woods, just act like an alien and try to mind meld with the kid and then also beam away in the middle of it. dont just be like "hey there, are you lost? awful late for a kid your age to be out in the woods alone.... oh whats this stuff? were just scientist conducting a weather experiment"

[kathleenhensley]

Why even worry about it any more? Its not Star Trek. Its not anything like Star Trek.

[phantommercenary]

I love how ST: Picard just showcases that Patrick Stewart is a very dim man IRL and had no idea what he was parroting from the scripts of TNG, just the emotes

[mysterymastermind]

arnie throwing kurtzman was a highlight of my day

[tlr]

Of course there are continuity mistakes. The writers of Picard haven't actually watched Star Trek.

[richardmcgowan]

Early Vulcans were even more anal about emotions and thoughts than Vulcans in later Star Trek. The main reason the transfer of thought was very much seen as taboo in Vulcan culture.

[TheRealKaiProton]

No matter how long its been since DS9, I will never get tired of the way ferengi say "human"

[frthlvfchrt]

I think the whole "kid in the woods" sequence was just the writers going "people fucking loved Stranger Things, so if we put in a throwaway scene with a kid in the woods with a shitty 1970s flashlight, then people will fucking love our show"

[Melkur]

It's weird how modern Trek requires people to figure out how it could all work together...it's ridiculous.

So, maybe the Vulcans were time travellers as well? Best I've got.

Sad times.