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Spoilers Lower Decks General Discussion Thread

That was the one that bothered me the most. Couldn’t simply have them move on from Starfleet and be happy, they had to drop a dead kid on it.

No one can have a happy life in Discovery/Picard.
Yeah, that was very sad and I could have done without it too. As a parent, I wouldn't want to even think of having to go to such extremes to save a child, ultimately to no avail. That one thing aside, however, I greatly enjoyed the episode. It was a quiet and introspective respite within an otherwise tumultuous mission.

Although, to be fair, TNG's entire cast was pretty cursed from the beginning:
  • Picard: A front-to-back career man who never had time for a family of his own, ultimately to lose whatever family he had in a fire, including his young nephew. Lost his first command and best friend in the process, plus much of his crew on the Stargazer.
  • Riker: Dead mom and an asshole dad whose only way to win at some goofy-ass quasi-martial art with oversized Q-tips was to cheat.
  • Troi: Dead dad and rocky relationship with Riker prior to service on the Enterprise, an equally-rocky subsequent relationship with Worf, as well as an unknown dead sister and less-than-stable control freak of a mother.
  • Worf: Both parents dead. Wife dead. Kid who hates his guts.
  • Geordi: Starfleet brat. Mom MIA whose fate was later discovered, plus abysmal relationship history and questionable infatuation with holodeck simulation of a real person (yet saw fit to hypocritically ridicule Barclay for doing pretty much the same thing).
  • Data: Noonian Soong, "mom", Lore, Lal, B4, etc. 'Nuff said...
  • Beverly: Dead husband and shit-ton of baggage over it.
  • Wesley: Dead dad and shit-ton of baggage over it.
  • Tasha: Dead parents, lived life as an orphan trying to constantly escape from "rape gangs", hated by her sister for leaving Turkana IV "like a coward", only to eventually die at the hands (nubs?) of a tar-covered trash bag.
Yeah, come to think of it, the history of perpetual kicks-to-the-junk started long before Disco and PIC. :lol:

I won't even get into the dysfunctional natures of the crews on DS9 & VOY.
 
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No one can have a happy life in Discovery/Picard.
That is the nature of storytelling.

I mean, that even started with TWOK and Generations for each crew not getting a happily ever after for a bit. Picard lost two members of his family to a fire. Kirk discovers he has a son only for his son to be killed. Star Trek, for all its other positives, has tended to fall in to that storytelling trap that we can't even have a 100% positive ending.

More on point, I do agree that the Riker's dead child just overmuch. I guess I disagree that Discovery/Picard is the only place where no one gets a happy life. Pretty much saw that from TOS on.
 
Geordi: Starfleet brat. Mom MIA whose fate was later discovered, plus abysmal relationship history and questionable infatuation with holodeck simulation of a real person (yet saw fit to hypocritically ridicule Barclay for doing pretty much the same thing).
Actually, Geordi didn't really ridicule Barclay for his holodeck fantasies. Geordi only had issue with the fact that Barclay was allowing his holodeck fantasies to interfere with his work. Riker was the one who wanted to give Barclay a hard time for creating holograms based on real people, with Geordi being the one who came to Barclay's defense by pointing out there are no regulations against such a thing.
 
Actually, Geordi didn't really ridicule Barclay for his holodeck fantasies. Geordi only had issue with the fact that Barclay was allowing his holodeck fantasies to interfere with his work. Riker was the one who wanted to give Barclay a hard time for creating holograms based on real people, with Geordi being the one who came to Barclay's defense by pointing out there are no regulations against such a thing.
Ah, thank you for clarifying that. My memory was hazy on it - I remember bits and pieces from those episodes and I guess I misremembered Geordi's negativity towards him - I do recall that he accidentally said "Broccoli", though, but catching himself before he let it all the way out. I may also be merging his horrid treatment of Scotty in the mix as well. Memory is really an imperfect thing. :(
And he is dead.
Oh yes, there is that too! :lol:
 
Kirk: A string of failed love affairs, at least two lovers are dead. Son from one relationship he can’t see.
Spock: Estranged from his father. Has trouble fitting in with Vulcans and humans.
McCoy: Apocryphal ex wife and child. Might have a drinking problem.
Scotty: Does have a drinking problem. Not lucky in love Likes engines more than humans.
 
Have some forgotten that Kirk's brother George (Sam), died horribly in the original series?

I'm not sure how this happening in following Trek shows is so much worse.

It's just a Trek staple at this point.
 
Not to mention Kirk, in his youth, was witness to (and was lucky to avoid becoming part of) a massacre that killed half of the colony on which he was living.

Some utopia.
The novel I'm reading is incredibly enjoyable in that it highlights that Kirk was experiencing serious trauma and had impacted a lot of his life and relationships.
 
Kirk: A string of failed love affairs, at least two lovers are dead. Son from one relationship he can’t see.
Spock: Estranged from his father. Has trouble fitting in with Vulcans and humans.
McCoy: Apocryphal ex wife and child. Might have a drinking problem.
Scotty: Does have a drinking problem. Not lucky in love Likes engines more than humans.

They weren't all defined by death, and did seem to find happiness with the exception of McCoy. Who ran away to Starfleet, yet was never really seemed happy there. Spock found a home on the Enterprise for sixteen years, Scott had his love of Engineering and Kirk had his command.

I watched episode eight of Picard the other day, and yet another character was defined by death, this time Rios and the captain who phasered himself into oblivion. It is no longer dramatic when that is what most every character rotates around. Four episodes in a row, I believe had death of some kind related to the characters. Seven killed Icheb and her ex-girlfriend, Jurati offs Maddox, dead Riker kid, Rios' captain on the ibn Majid phasers himself.

That is from my perspective.
 
But those characters didn't have happy endings in the traditional sense.

TOS? Kirk passes after the Nexus incident (making a difference by helping save 230 million Veridians), still trying to decide where his life is headed. Spock ends up being a big-time diplomat, and chases Romulan reunification, McCoy ends up a Starfleet Admiral, Scott was last seen heading to the Norpin V colony. Outside of Kirk and Scott, we have huge gaps in the histories of the TOS crew after 2296.
 
TOS? Kirk passes after the Nexus incident (making a difference by helping save 230 million Veridians), still trying to decide where his life is headed. Spock ends up being a big-time diplomat, and chases Romulan reunification, McCoy ends up a Starfleet Admiral, Scott was last seen heading to the Norpin V colony. Outside of Kirk and Scott, we have huge gaps in the histories of the TOS crew after 2296.
I see those as nonendings, aside from Kirk which is just such a weird ending that I still can't make that as "happy." Even Spock I would not call that ending "happy" in that traditional sense. The specter of death still seemed to linger, or it was just a nonending.
 
They weren't all defined by death, and did seem to find happiness with the exception of McCoy. Who ran away to Starfleet, yet was never really seemed happy there. Spock found a home on the Enterprise for sixteen years, Scott had his love of Engineering and Kirk had his command.
Kirk’s life in TOS was pretty much defined by tragedy and loss. The weight of command sat heavily on his shoulders. As some one mentioned up thread, drama is propelled by tragedy.
 
As some one mentioned up thread, drama is propelled by tragedy.

But not the same style of tragedy over and over again. Death is the primary propeller going all the way back to Star Trek (2009). It seems to be the calling card of Kurtzman related Trek products. I'd be appreciative if they'd mix it up some.

Probably why I'm liking Lower Decks so much. It has the positive spin that Trek has been lacking for a long time.
 
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