Is STAR TREK Inherently Dark?

[Farscape One]

Since this subject covers ALL series, I thought it best to post here. If the mods feel it belongs in another part, please feel free to move it.

The subject is the thread title. Is STAR TREK inherently dark?

I keep hearing how DS9 was too dark, and how DISCOVERY and PICARD are also extremely dark, and ENTERPRISE had a year of darkness with the Xindi arc.

TNG and dark are never mentioned in the same breath, and I can understand why. It certainly would win the award for least dark of the franchise, second only to the Animated Series.

But what about TOS?

I mentioned in another thread about how dark STAR TREK got at times... Miramanee's fate, Tyree's planet, Bele and Lokai, the Salt Vampire. The list goes on.

Is it possible that darkness has been within the franchise the entire time, but it wasn't until DS9 that it actually became apparent?

I think this is the case. "THE ENEMY WITHIN" is probably the best example I can use to make my case. Humans have a dark half and a good half... one cannot live without the other.

While I agree that DISCOVERY can be a little too dark, I could never agree that DS9 was. If anything, DS9 was the most balanced of the shows, having dark matter but equally having light, comedic episodes.

So perhaps it's not fair to say a STAR TREK show is too dark... maybe our perceptions are clouding how we view the shows. 9/11 and so many tv shows that came after certainly have altered how we view everything. Maybe it just amplified what was already there from the start.

Thoughts, everyone?

 

[fireproof78]

TOS was far more willing to acknowledge humanity's darker sides. "The Enemy Within," "Balance of Terror" and "Mirror, Mirror" (among others) acknowledge that humans can be very dark. It wasn't shy about those aspects. But, it also acknowledged the ability to move past them as well.

What I think has changed is how it is presented. Star Trek is often treated as though it must remain static rather than, as all art does, move with the times. As many have acknowledged, TOS pushed the limits of censorship as far as it could for the times. But, Star Trek would be poor art if it remained built with 60s sensibilities still in mind.

To answer the OP: No, start is not inherently dark. However, humanity has darker elements and Star Trek is ostensibly about humanity. Which means that it can get dark.

 

[Orphalesion]

As i wrote in another thread, I am wondering whether older Trek (be it 60s or 90s) was less *obviously* dark only because it was a show on network TV that needed to appeal to as broad an audience as possible, including children.

If you look at TNG they tried to go "darker" with things like Conspiracy and the introduction of the Borg, which then fell through for various reasons. DS9 pushed it as far as it could go while still being for general audiences in the 90s and Voyager tried to go for a full Year of Hell before that was axed.
So it seems a trend or wish to include darker elements and storylines might have always been there.

I think a reason for why the newer shows are more obviously "dark" or pull less punches when it comes to unsettling or vulgar/sleazy content is because as shows on online Streaming Services they have less restrictions and don't have to worry about appealing to younger viewers.

 

[Armus]

TNG did a few dark shows like Q Who and Chain Of Command but most of the shows were vanilla lite so what you were left with was Shades Of Grey.

 

[BillJ]

It could be dark when the story called for it. Inherently dark? I don't think so. The entire premise is that we mostly figured out how to get along and become a space faring civilization.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

This is how I would order the series in terms of how "dark" they are, from most positive to darkest:

TNG > Voyager > TOS > Picard > Discovery > Enterprise > DS9

I'd say that everything to the left of Enterprise is mostly positive, and absent of one season, Enterprise itself would be positive as well. And inspite of being darker, DS9 is still optimistic when compared to other franchises.

Being positive does not, IMO, preclude using horror elements.

 

[fireproof78]

Being positive does not, IMO, preclude using horror elements.

Nor does it preclude exploring more darker storylines either.

 

[XCV330]

it is very dark.... in spaaaace

 

[Orphalesion]

This is how I would order the series in terms of how "dark" they are, from most positive to darkest:

TNG > Voyager > TOS > Picard > Discovery > Enterprise > DS9

I'd say that everything to the left of Enterprise is mostly positive, and absent of one season, Enterprise itself would be positive as well. And inspite of being darker, DS9 is still optimistic when compared to other franchises.

Being positive does not, IMO, preclude using horror elements.

Completely right. I mean DS9 was the show that included a genocide in its backstory, included religious extremism (with bombings of civilian targets) innocents dying in horrible and unnecessary ways, PTSD, war attrition, genetically ingeneered, drug addicted super soldiers....
It's really not a happy-go-lucky show by Star Trek standards. But it's a good one, and that's what's important.
And I agree that it and modern Star Trek are still a lot more optimistic and gentle when compared to other franchises such as BSG.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I think post-9/11 sci-fi is inherently dark because how to stay principled in a violent world is what’s on sensitive people’s minds.

 

[Lord Garth]

TOS --> Things become better.
TNG --> The "peak" before things head south.
DS9 --> Things become complicated and worse.
VOY --> N/A. Voyager is cut off from its society.
ENT --> Things are getting better.
DSC --> Things get worse before they become better.
PIC --> The worst already happened.

To put it more simply:
TOS --> Up
TNG --> Up
DS9 --> Down
VOY --> Neutral
ENT --> Up
DSC --> Down-Up
PIC --> Down-Up

If you want to look at it in chronological order (excluding VOY), here's the general status of Earth, the Federation, and the Alpha Quadrant:

ENT --> Up
DSC --> Down-Up
TOS --> Up
TNG --> Up
DS9 --> Down
PIC --> Down-Up

 

[XCV330]

ENT --> Up
DSC --> Down-Up
TOS --> Up
TNG --> Up
DS9 --> Down
PIC --> Down-Up

I think that gives you all the good weapons cheat code in GTA: Vice City

 

[Farscape One]

Or the code to a new Scorpion Brutality...

 

[Alexander Corrino]

I've never viewed Trek as a "dark" franchise. It had and has plenty of dark elements tho, that's for sure, but it always managed to also insert the hope and drive to make things better.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

TOS --> Things become better.
TNG --> The "peak" before things head south.
DS9 --> Things become complicated and worse.
VOY --> N/A. Voyager is cut off from its society.
ENT --> Things are getting better.
DSC --> Things get worse before they become better.
PIC --> The worst already happened.

To put it more simply:
TOS --> Up
TNG --> Up
DS9 --> Down
VOY --> Neutral
ENT --> Up
DSC --> Down-Up
PIC --> Down-Up

If you want to look at it in chronological order (excluding VOY), here's the general status of Earth, the Federation, and the Alpha Quadrant:

ENT --> Up
DSC --> Down-Up
TOS --> Up
TNG --> Up
DS9 --> Down
PIC --> Down-Up

It's the Howard Jones scale.

 

[BillJ]

This is how I would order the series in terms of how "dark" they are, from most positive to darkest:

TNG > Voyager > TOS > Picard > Discovery > Enterprise > DS9

When you hash it out, none of the shows have the death total of TOS.

 

[The Wormhole]

I'm not sure I'd say Star Trek is dark, but it's definitely not the sunshine and roses everyone makes it out to be. The start of TOS actually implies humanity are galactic conquerors, and even when the Federation was established within the show, it was hardly a peaceful union, given half the members were willing to wage war with the other half according to Journey to Babel. Hell, The Cage itself starts off with Pike depressed over recent crew losses and questioning if he wants to continue on being a starship captain, with the alternative he's seriously considering becoming a pimp running a strip club. Throughout the first season of TOS we have a story of a colony where the governor ordered half the population executed in order to deal with a food shortage. In addition we have a prison where forced conditioning is considered progress, people in several episodes are openly bigoted, a colony falls victim to alien parasites, and the Federation even declares war with the Klingons, even if it's brief.

Even TNG with its reputation for depicting a utopian paradise shows a failed colony world which devolved into complete anarchy ruled by rape gangs, a Federation which actually makes it policy that innocent people have to die just because they aren't advanced enough, and despite the fact that an android can join Starfleet, get officer's rank and achieve a position in which he's third in command of the flagship, he can still be considered property and has to fight for the same rights everyone else is entitled to. Hell, TNG is actually the only Trek series in which everyone in the main cast has a member of their immediate family who's dead throughout the TV series run. TOS you have to wait until the movies, and even then the fifth movie before Spock loses someone in his immediate family and we learn of a death in McCoy's. Granted, we don't know enough about the family details of the casts of Disco and Picard yet, though I guess it's fair to say that as of Disco season 3 all the characters in that show will have everyone in their immediate families dead.

 

[Lord Garth]

I think that gives you all the good weapons cheat code in GTA: Vice City

Have to get with the times.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

What? No. Trek is, at its heart, about how we come together to solve our problems. That's an inherently optimistic premise.

 

[1001001]

My son and I are in Season 2 of The Expanse.

That's dark.

Star Trek is a light crème colored coffee in comparison.