Too Much Death in Star Trek?

[BillJ]

So your only choice is to throw joyously your red shirts into the woodchipper...

I'm okay with that.

 

[kirkfan]

So your only choice is to throw joyously your red shirts into the woodchipper...

I'm okay with that.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

What is the "magic" death toll number, anyway? Why does it matter?

I don't want to restate my whole thesis, but Star Trek (which I love) seems to kill more fictional people than most TV shows have people.

And it's not just TOS; the tradition continued. Look at Neelix on Voyager. In order to give him an emotional back story, he came from a world where all 300,000 colonists were killed just after he left. And JJ-Trek isn't kind to the planet Vulcan.

It's part of the setting. The "space" you are so fond of.

Its also makes me chuckle when people when people talk about how Star Trek shouldn't be dark and gritty like NuBSG, when if you think about it the destruction of the 12 colonies would have probably just been considered an average Tuesday around the time of TOS.

 

[BillJ]

I don't want to restate my whole thesis, but Star Trek (which I love) seems to kill more fictional people than most TV shows have people.

And it's not just TOS; the tradition continued. Look at Neelix on Voyager. In order to give him an emotional back story, he came from a world where all 300,000 colonists were killed just after he left. And JJ-Trek isn't kind to the planet Vulcan.

It's part of the setting. The "space" you are so fond of.

Its also makes me chuckle when people when people talk about how Star Trek shouldn't be dark and gritty like NuBSG, when if you think about it the destruction of the 12 colonies would have probably just been considered an average Tuesday around the time of TOS.

The huge difference being the characters are likable and upbeat in one, pretty unlikable in the other.

 

[BK613]

It's part of the setting. The "space" you are so fond of.

Its also makes me chuckle when people when people talk about how Star Trek shouldn't be dark and gritty like NuBSG, when if you think about it the destruction of the 12 colonies would have probably just been considered an average Tuesday around the time of TOS.

The huge difference being the characters are likable and upbeat in one, pretty unlikable in the other.

No kidding; likable and upbeat characters were most likely to be spaced.

 

[IrishNero]

Star Trek is often themed around death and destruction because those are often elements that create suffering that compels the 'heroes' to act. One need only sample modern literature to see that war consistently provides a backdrop against which good central characters act to stop evil actions that would otherwise annihilate a civilization or a people that could not fend for themselves. Besides, no one would be interested if the crew were acting to stop a slide in the Bajoran stock market.

Comparisons to BSG are mismatches from the start. The Galactica was running out of self-preservation; while simultaneously protecting what may be the remnants of the human species. I've always thought of Star Trek as tru SCiFi, while NuBSG was a drama that just happens to be in space. That's probably just me though.

 

[RandyS]

Star Trek is often themed around death and destruction because those are often elements that create suffering that compels the 'heroes' to act. One need only sample modern literature to see that war consistently provides a backdrop against which good central characters act to stop evil actions that would otherwise annihilate a civilization or a people that could not fend for themselves. Besides, no one would be interested if the crew were acting to stop a slide in the Bajoran stock market.

Comparisons to BSG are mismatches from the start. The Galactica was running out of self-preservation; while simultaneously protecting what may be the remnants of the human species. I've always thought of Star Trek as tru SCiFi, while NuBSG was a drama that just happens to be in space. That's probably just me though.

No it isn't. I've had the same thought.

 

[Mudd]

Star Trek is an action-adventure format, so they're gonna rack up a body count.

 

[Shawnster]

Kirk: [to Harriman] Risk is part of the game if you want to sit in that chair.

 

[IrishNero]

Another thing to remember is that the costume department would need to employ fewer people to make red shirts if they cut back on the deaths in Star Trek. So, no phasers set for stun, you know?