Star Trek is about those things too.
What will make it "Star Trek"?
- Thread starter ChallengerHK
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Unfortunately, then you get into the conflicting opinions held by Berman and Braga vs what UPN wanted. Berman and Braga really wanted to make the show distinctly different from the other Star Treks. No transporters, and a first season which would largely be Earth centred, as the ship would still be under construction. Then UPN stepped in and said it's not Star Trek without transporters nor is it Star Trek if they stay at Earth. And UPN also wanted a shipboard boy band which would break out into a musical number every episode. Berman and Braga fought UPN about the boy band and won, but the price was they had to do a "traditional" Star Trek series with planets of the week and transporters. And since UPN had no faith in the prequel concept, they had to add the Temporal Cold War to give the show some sort of "future momentum."
No wonder UPN failed.
Honestly, if Star Trek doesn't have relationships then I'm out. It's ostensibly about the human journey, how we survived to the future despite the dangers faced and were willing to work together as a species. That unity, not uniformity, would contribute to humanity's greater good and expansion across the stars. If that isn't about relationships then I honestly don't know what is.
That's...generous.
Watched an episode of Voyager last night, that had a romance between the Doctor and a Vidiian , which was sell done. Done in one romances seem to fare better than ones between main characters.I think they do friendships very well.
Romantic relationships...well, let’s say it’s mixed...
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Although it ultimately become on of the better romances, Tom Paris and B'Ellanna Torres kind of came out of left field when they first started it. The two characters have practically no interactions at all during the first two seasons, then suddenly in the third they're flirting with each other. As it is, I'm pretty sure it had more to do with the performances of Robert Duncan McNeil and Roxann Dawson that the relationship worked as well as it did rather than the writing.
Stamets and Culber probably is the best romance in the franchise, though.
Stamets and Culber probably is the best romance in the franchise, though.
Torres/Paris was probably one of the few relationships in Trek done OK.
I'm watching Voyager, almost through season 2, and Torres is one character that seems adrift. She has ties to Chakotay, but it rarely comes up. She and Janeway sort of bonded early on, but that faded. She's stuck with a lot of tech the tech stuff. At least she got a showcase when she split in two.
UPN was perhaps forgetting the success of Deep Space Nine, which had a stationary base of operations, unlike the other three series in the franchise.
One could argue there is a difference because the space station has a much more foreign environment, with aliens coming and going, but a P(ost)F(irst)C(ontact) Earth on the verge of joining the interstellar community in a real way certainly offers the opportunity for the presence of the alien (even just in the sense of that which is different in terms of our own species and their technological expansion.)
I actually really enjoyed Enterprise as it was produced, but hearing some of Berman and Braga's early conceptualization for the series makes me really want to see that version of it. We would have seen more of what humanity's future looked like, not to mention gotten a chance to get to know our protagonists better, and watching it develop over time would have made that first flight of the NX-01 Enterprise have more impact -- remember what it felt like seeing the NCC-1701 or the 1701-A on their first flights?
Further, as much as I liked UPN's entry into the franchise, Berman and Braga's original premise would have (smartly) made it significantly different from prior Star Trek shows without abandoning the fundamental aspects of the universe. I think that was the right call. It's too bad we'll never see how it might have worked out.
I agree completely that Star Trek is, at its core, about humanity's relationships -- with each other, with outsiders, and with the universe around them. It's about how we learned in our maturity to better respect and manage those relationships for the mutual benefit of all those involved.
I think the way you worded it above is the perfect way to describe the behavioral principles of Star Trek's humanity, and the Federation as a whole -- unity, not uniformity. That's the core of Star Trek thematically, if you really want to strip away everything else and break it down to its most fundamental aspect.
I think they do friendships very well.
Romantic relationships...well, let’s say it’s mixed...
I absolutely loved the Doctor's relationship with Danara Pel. I think it was handled very well.
I'll admit that Star Trek hasn't always handled relationships well, but there are certainly romantic interactions, even among the main crew that I enjoyed, and felt were reasonably realistic in their portrayals.
It might be controversial or unpopular to say, but I count B'Elanna Torres and Tom Paris among the better examples personally. Chakotay and Seven of Nine on the other hand was ham-fisted and ridiculous. There are ups and downs, like any franchise, especially when it comes to relationships.
The relationship between Sisko and his son was wonderful
I agree one hundred percent. The Sisko family dynamics were incredibly well crafted -- father, son, and grandfather (what little we saw of Benjamin's father.)
Ironically, as I'm stating it might be unpopular to think Torres and Paris had a well-handled relationship, several posts slip in before mine saying they agree with me. Way to make me look like an idiot internet.
-- Tom
This comes up ocassionally. Was the boy band thing being pushed hard, or was it just some casual thought in a brain storming session and no one gave it any priority?
UPN was right (imho) on not staying on Earth for the first season, I think it would have killed the series. Getting into space during the pilot was the way to go. The producers were wrong.
The unpopular opinion is praising Keiko and Miles or saying anything positive about Keiko.
Oh, I'll keep my thoughts to myself on that matter then. You know what they say -- never discuss religion, politics, or shipping if you want to be friends.
I agree that they should have gotten into space, but I don't think that had to be onboard the Enterprise (to begin with.) There are slower ships at Earth's disposal in the time period as established. There are space stations in orbit. There are Vulcan starships potentially available to them. There could have been plenty of opportunity to get some spacefaring stories in the mix while splitting the attention between those characters and some still on Earth, and keeping the Enterprise in final production stages for at least part of, if not the whole, season.
Again, I enjoyed the show that way it was, and I'm not saying the producers ideas WOULD have worked out any better. I'm just saying that they COULD have worked out better. They certainly have the potential. In my opinion.
Don't forget your lens flares and bad lighting. They're complimentary.
Wait wait wait.... Wait...
We could have had a Ship-based boy band and musical numbers in Enterprise? And fracking Brannon and Braga were against it?
That would have been effing awesome!
I would love Enterprise if it had musical numbers with cheesy early 2000s pop. I would be on the floor laughing each episdoe instead of being bored/annoyed as I am with the series as it exists.
Now I want a Trek show about bad future music. Maybe a Federationvision Song Contest?
No, no, no. Our protagonists are the members of a traveling band with their own small starship. They visit a different planet each week and help solve bizarre scientific mysteries and catch nefarious aliens who are up to no good.
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