Start Trek Problem?

Why in the star trek series do space ships only meet in straight lines? There is no gravity in space and a forward course to one ship could be up to another.

why do the ships not meet at off angles?

Star Trek, despite its extreme influential status, is NOT scientific accurate. In one episode, a derelict ship was shown *listing*. In one of the movie (The Wrath of Khan) Spock even says to Kirk that Khan is smart but not thinking in 3D, so the Enterprise "dived" to catch Khan unsuspected.
I guess most of the people working in Star Trek were also thinking along the line of a surface vessel, like space is the surface of an ocean.
Or perhaps they thought that the average watcher would not be able to grasp the concept of having ships meeting at odd angles to one another.
I am still waiting for a Sci-Fi show that will picture ships as they should behave. One that comes close (but still no cigar) is the new BattleStar Galactica series, but it is not perfect. The ships are still always pointing in the same directions, but at least, the enemy ships can appear in all directions.

good point !

They have to face each other while communicating, from the human point of view.

I think they sometimes met at angles, but if they did only meet in straight lines, it was probably because of the low budget. Or for visual effect.

The time question is never addressed in all the Star Trek series either. They go to the end of the Galaxy (or the Universe) and return and it's the same time on Earth as when they left, although hundreds or thousands of years would have passed on Earth. The language question is another: everyone speaks perfect English (or whatever language the series is broadcast in). We won't even talk about gravity.

Just sit back and enjoy it. It's fiction and details are ignored as much as possible by the producers.

Orientation.we like to see things face to face so that was how they put it on TV.Will our first contact be head to head or at an angle?.Will we or the aliens refer to the others comfort zone there very comfortable seeing other all over the place or us who are most comfortable head to head.

Side angles could put them on a collision course.
See and be seen.

The coordinates they give for meeting another ship use the plane of the galaxy and the perpendicular axis of the galactic centre as a point of reference if they are meeting in deep space. If they are meeting near a planet, they use the surface of the planet, or moon etc, as a point of reference, that is, the surface of the planet will be deemed as "straight down". By following this convention, they always meet each other at the same orientation.

It makes for better photo angles

Some times they did. But it's often better face to face.

In the Ocean, however, it's generally side to side.

Also, it's easier to do effects face to face, probably.

Well we ALL know that the Slavers gave the StarTrek world artifitial graviety.

Also, to the person who asked about perfect englich, Hoshi perfected the UT(nx-01). DUH

Okay, let's look at it like this. If zero (0) represents a plain being completely level with the center of the universe, and 50 would represent 5 light years above it, and -50 would represent 5 light years below it, then consider this:

If the Starship Enterprise detects a Romulan Warbird in Federation space, and the Enterprise is somewhere near -25 and the Warbird is somewhere near +30, then the Enterprise is going to set course for the Warbird and take off. That means that as the Enterprise moves through space, it's range away from the centerpoint (0) is going to get lower and lower, so -25, -24, -23, -22, and then eventually, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 until it reaches the Warbird. When it finally arrives, the Enterprise will be facing diagonally where as the Warbird may be facing horizontal. I'm sure the Enterprise would even out though to face the forward section of the ship to the forward section of the Romulan ship at that point, so they would be face to face.

But consider this: even if the Romulan Warbird also set course for the Enterprise at the same time, they are now both traveling diagonally towards each other. When they meet, they will both be diagonally facing each other... but wait! What would happen if we kind of turned the camera about, oh, 30 degrees? They would appear to be facing each other on a straight, horizontal plain.

So in conclusion, space is diagonal, horizontal, vertical, sideways, anyway you want to look at it, it's completely based on your point of view. Turn the camera bit, then it's diagonal just like you wanted it to be.

Finally, if you really want to see a ship attack another ship on a completely different plain of space, watch the last episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, 'All Good Things' where the Future Enterprise attacks a Vor'cha class Klingon Battlecuiser from the bottom side up. Very nice.

I'm guessing you're specifically asking why all the ships in "Star Trek," flying around a three-dimensional space, behave as if they are locked on a two-dimensional plane? Simple. Rick Berman. Head honcho of the franchise from 1988 to 2005, Berman has a very low opinion of the average public. Which is to say that he issued an idiotic edict that ships whould never fly at odd angles to each other, so as not to confuse viewers, and make some things, especially battles, easier to follow. Because, you know, we're all stupid. Funny thing, no such edict was issued for "Babylon 5" and the new "Battlestar Galactica," two shows that use mostly accurate real-world newtonian physics, and viewers seem to have no problem following them.

"Trek" is a franchise where 700-meter-long ships stop on a dime and bank like airplanes! Scientific accuracy has never been a strong point for it.

Sometimes they do.