The 90's Golden Age.

Discussion in 'General Trek Discussion' started by WhateverMan, Sep 22, 2013.

  1. BigJake

    BigJake Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Really, the "Earth is a money-free Paradise and humans have perfected themselves" business was one of the absolute worst ideas TNG Trek had; it took the "Earth should be a sympathetic society" dictum from the old show to an absurd extreme. It retrospect I think of it as a sign of sentimentalism starting to coat the arteries of the franchise. Even as a kid I can remember cringing every time Picard opened his mouth to talk about how humanity had "evolved beyond" the need for this or that.

    They sort-of-tried to move away from it in later shows and in the movies, but couldn't bring themselves to really break with it.
     
  2. RandyS

    RandyS Vice Admiral Admiral

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    That was actually one of my first childhood memories too (not in New York, here in California). I was three when TAS was new, and my mom and I watched it together (She was a fan from the TOS NBC years). She used to get a big kick out of telling her friends how I would ask her "Mommy, how come Spock is a cartoon on the morning show, and a real person at the dinnertime show?".
     
  3. Smellmet

    Smellmet Commodore Commodore

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    I never really had a problem with it, it was still set nearly a century after TOS, think how we look at ourselves from a hundred years ago, hell even only 30 years ago, surely it's just a goal for humanity to strive for - the abolition of war and famine etc.
     
  4. JRoss

    JRoss Commodore Commodore

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    The thing about Trek in the nineties is how warm it felt. I could talk about it with a lot of people,it was fresh, popular and everywhere. It felt like a golden age as I lived it.
     
  5. BigJake

    BigJake Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I even believe we may get there one day, provided we make it out of this century. But material improvement is one thing; having it eliminate all conflict to the degree of virtual Nirvana is another. It closes off story possibilities and makes the setting less interesting. (They eventually realized that on TNG and tried to reintroduce a few snakes back into Eden here and there, but it was too timid and too late and never stuck.)

    It also actually made Our Heroes less sympathetic to me, to a certain extent, in that it always seemed kind of self-satisfied for them to be wandering around -- Picard was particularly bad for it, but they all did it -- lecturing less well-off or less-enlightened cultures about how great they have it back in the home country.
     
  6. WhateverMan

    WhateverMan Ensign Newbie

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    Agreed.

    The discussion sure has taken flight since my original posting. But I think this is a point that I should've made originally.

    Kudos.
     
  7. SpHeRe31459

    SpHeRe31459 Captain Captain

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    +1