Ackshually… in season three episode seven “The Enemy” it is made clear that Romulan technology is generally assumed to be completely interoperable when Geordi could not connect his VISOR to his tricorder in more than a superficial way… Quote he: “they don’t speak the same language”. :-)
I applaud the writers of that episode for doing that, but I’ve seen too many episodes/movies where people use alien technology with no indication they have a hard time with the interface, or where a Federation ship outright trades equipment with previously uncontacted aliens, and it just works. Hell, even Trip’s reproductive system is so compatible with an alien’s that she can get him pregnant! And don’t even get me started on how often people just walk up and use a control panel to access sensitive systems without needing to present any kind of credentials.
Ackshually… in season three episode seven “The Enemy” it is made clear that Romulan technology is generally assumed to be completely interoperable when Geordi could not connect his VISOR to his tricorder in more than a superficial way… Quote he: “they don’t speak the same language”. :-)
I applaud the writers of that episode for doing that, but I’ve seen too many episodes/movies where people use alien technology with no indication they have a hard time with the interface, or where a Federation ship outright trades equipment with previously uncontacted aliens, and it just works. Hell, even Trip’s reproductive system is so compatible with an alien’s that she can get him pregnant! And don’t even get me started on how often people just walk up and use a control panel to access sensitive systems without needing to present any kind of credentials.