TNG-era Trek sidestepped the issue with synthehol. But I imagine that would just mean that if those "evolved" humans hit the hard stuff, they'd have a harder time dealing with it.
Spoilers The supporting cast
- Thread starter EnriqueH
- Start date
No. The character being written in a bad/shitty way is one thing, actresses' performance is another. An opposite example would be the character played by Pill, Dr Jurati. While I find her character annoying, her acting skills are not that bad, although I wouldn't call them great either. Her acting borders on melodramatic as well, which seems to be the overall approach in this series, but her acting at least doesn't seem so contrived, insincere and unconvincing, except maybe in those silly comic relief scenes.
So, Star Trek.
In the 24th century alcohol(ism) is a thing of the past. That has been established in the TNG episode The Neutral Zone.
It has been, believe it or not. Wars, poverty, diseases had also been part of the human history for thousands of years, yet they are all gone by the 24th century of Trek.
Yep, no wars or diseases on Star Trek, no sir...
Except that Rios very clearly isn't a stereotypical badboy, if you pay attention to the character. Even in that introductory scene, he doesn't come across as a wannabe badass so much as a tired, apathetic guy who lives very much in the rough and tumble and has a very fatalistic view of life. Since then we've seen that he has a sense of humour buried beneath all that existential broodiness. We've learned that he harbours a lot of trauma and bitterness about what happened to end his Starfleet career. We've seen that despite being frustrated about all the extraneous people on his ship (he only signed up for one passenger, remember) he is very patient about having his space invaded. We've seen that he remains calm and level-headed in a crisis. We've seen that he is ever so slightly star-struck by Picard and is excited to be part of his mission, although he doesn't want to admit it. We've seen that he is quiet and introverted most of the time, but will lighten up and swap gossip with a good friend. We've seen him go along with a dangerous undercover mission requiring an absurd costume, without complaint - and we've seen how professionally he handled that mission, remaining 100% focused and alert, saving Picard's life from an attack he wouldn't have seen coming, and talking Seven down when Picard couldn't.
None of that characterisation comes anywhere close to 'stereotypical badboy' to me. The only 'bad' thing about him we've really seen so far is the cigar! As Picard observed in their first meeting, he is still Starfleet at heart, even if he doesn't want to admit it.
What part of the human history is not clear?
Sonny is clearly surprised that they don't drink, and the crew is surprised, shocked actually, at the organic damage from alcohol after he's treated aboard the Enterprise. Based on what did you infer people of the 24th century are still boozers (like Sonny) and addicts?
On Earth as well?
I'm glad you reread it. But haven't you watched TNG at all? I suppose you're not familiar with the episode Symbiosis.
There is no alcoholism, no drug addictions, that's the point.
You'd really like to convince me I see 5 lights, huh? What a piece work you are...
No they haven't, not in the slightest. We've watched several wars unfold in the 24th century, we've seen diseases as being the driver of many episodes, we've seen people starving on colonies.
Now, I have a copy of the TNZ transcript ope on another page. Could you direct me to the section where it states alcoholism is no longer a problem in the 24th century? Closest I've found yet is this exchange:
which does nothing beyond establishing that duty personnel on a starship don't drink as far as Sonny knows, despite the replicator making a good martini. We know, however, they do drink on duty. Because we have seen them do so on several occasions. The words alcoholism, alcoholic plain old alcohol aren't mentioned anywhere in the episode, as are several other keywords I searched for to be sure after skim reading it.
EDIT
Ok, checked the transcript for Symbiosis too.
It explicitly confirms that drug addiction does indeed exist in the 24th century, as evidenced in this exchange:
Last edited:
You're not making a convincing case of proving alcoholism and drug addiction are still part of the 24th century. Not in the slightest.
So, Riker tells him there's no bar despite there being one, he concludes that "they don't drink", and we are to take it as an objective fact regarding 24th century society? They were shocked that something that is considered minor, easily treatable organ damage (per Crusher) was actually able to progress to a lethal state in the 21st century.
Tasha herself says right in that episode how she grew up in an environment filled with gang warfare and drug addicts. Nowhere in that episode were it stated that addiction itself is unknown to humans. Earth might not have a rampant drug problem in the 24th century but that doesn't mean that people like Raffi couldn't obtain their choice of poison if they wanted to.
No one has ever said in this the Neutral Zone or Symbiosis that alcoholism or drug addiction was en bloc eliminated throughout the entirety of human society in the 24th century, and just because we haven't seen alcoholics on TNG it doesn't mean they don't exist. We haven't seen my home city Budapest or the country of Hungary on The Next Generation, therefore I conclude Hungary doesn't exist in 2364. Seems perfectly reasonable.
I think we're talking past each other on this point.
Not until next season!
What you said was this...
I won't touch the poverty thing with a 10-meter duranium pole; and I'll buy the conceit that they've eliminated terrestrial wars and terrestrial diseases...but as we've seen and heard of many, many times, they've just upgraded to space wars and space diseases.
Mod hat on: Careful there.
Indeed.
The fact that narcotics, their dangers, abuses and societal effects have been a recurring theme throughout Star Trek (including within the Federation) is hardly news. Our friend seems to have missed those bits.
So in the series we've seen Ornarans addicted to felicium, unnamed drugs being commonplace on Yar's homeworld, Vulcans addicted to trellium D, the Jem Hadar addicted to ketracel white, starfleet officers addicted to stimulants during wartime (DS9: Valiant), we've seen several crew members as heavy drinkers, we've seen crew afected by passive ingestion of drugs (not the least Spock) and we've seen various drug analogies including hypnosis, mind controlling computer games, mind controlling aliens, mind controlling humans, yadda yadda.
Pretty sure I've missed more than a few.
But NEVER did ANYONE vape. Benzites excluded!
Similar threads
