What are your controversial Star Trek opinions?

[Kor]

To some Trufans, no.

Yes, as a fan of TOS, I find it really odd that TOS is often swept under the carpet, with TNG instead being held up as the "original" gold standard by which all later Trek must be judged.

My controversial opinion: TOS is the Star Trek. It is its own standalone thing, separate from, and a cut above, the bloated "franchise" that came later. Everything else including TNG is just a spinoff which I do enjoy to varying degrees, but I don't consider all that stuff to be true Star Trek.

Kor

 

[fireproof78]

Yes, as a fan of TOS, I find it really odd that TOS is often swept under the carpet, with TNG instead being held up as the "original" gold standard by which all later Trek must be judged.

My controversial opinion: TOS is the Star Trek. It is its own standalone thing, separate from, and a cut above, the bloated "franchise" that came later. Everything else including TNG is just a spinoff which I do enjoy to varying degrees, but I don't consider all that stuff to be true Star Trek.

Kor

This is similar to my view.

 

[cooleddie74]

Yes, as a fan of TOS, I find it really odd that TOS is often swept under the carpet, with TNG instead being held up as the "original" gold standard by which all later Trek must be judged.

My controversial opinion: TOS is the Star Trek. It is its own standalone thing, separate from, and a cut above, the bloated "franchise" that came later. Everything else including TNG is just a spinoff which I do enjoy to varying degrees, but I don't consider all that stuff to be true Star Trek.

Kor

Too many people today call TOS the "cardboard sets and strings holding everything together" series in the franchise and can't resist calling it too silly or campy or both for today's audiences. What can I say? Late '60s sci-fi was a different beast than 21st century streaming sci-fi series but for the time and still to this day TOS has a weight to it that the spinoff series have tried with varying degrees of success to recapture.

If all you can see is velour costumes and painted wooden backdrops then you're missing the point and just playing into the stereotype that modern sci-fi audiences are focused on "pew pew" and shiny things. Not a good look.

 

[1001001]

I agree with the Phillip J Fry Ratio for TOS: 79 episodes, about 30 good ones.

I really like movies II-VI, though.

It was the original and deserves its due. But I enjoy modern Trek a lot more.

 

[tesral]

Star Trek became a period piece instead of actually speculating on future humanity. More's the pity.

All SF does.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

All SF does.

Seriously.

 

[Paul755]

Yes, as a fan of TOS, I find it really odd that TOS is often swept under the carpet, with TNG instead being held up as the "original" gold standard by which all later Trek must be judged.

Kor

Too many people today call TOS the "cardboard sets and strings holding everything together" series in the franchise and can't resist calling it too silly or campy or both for today's audiences. What can I say? Late '60s sci-fi was a different beast than 21st century streaming sci-fi series but for the time and still to this day TOS has a weight to it that the spinoff series have tried with varying degrees of success to recapture.

If all you can see is velour costumes and painted wooden backdrops then you're missing the point and just playing into the stereotype that modern sci-fi audiences are focused on "pew pew" and shiny things. Not a good look.

I don’t have a problem with fans doing it so much because…well…fans gonna fan. But when this mentality starts to permeate show runners, writers and designers on the current series…then we have a problem.

it seems like it’s become fashionable to take a dump on TOS simply because it’s the oldest.

 

[fireproof78]

All SF does.

Star Trek tried to do things a little bit differently.

 

[tesral]

Seriously.

Science Fiction tells you more about the time in which it was made, than anything about a nebulous future.

Star Trek tried to do things a little bit differently.

It did things differently for TV SF, but it also reflects the time it was made, any of the series do. TOS is a child of the 60s, TNG reflects the attitudes of the 80s and so forth. You will find this true all the way back to Verne, Wells, and Gernsback.

 

[fireproof78]

it seems like it’s become fashionable to take a dump on TOS simply because it’s the oldest.

I think TOS gets the shoft shift because of more relying on memory of what they think TOS was, vs. what it actually did.

 

[PCz911]

Controversial opinion: ALL TNG movies were horrible.

…and I really hated first contact, which ruined the character of Cochrane.

…and everyone seems to hate nemesis. To me, it’s just as awful as all the other TNG movies which had characters of the same name as those we were used to, but who’s behavior was not in line with those characters.

I will now run for cover.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

Easier must be relative..

Did you not learn about Cartesian Coordinates in school during math class?
It's a very common / basic level 3D Coordinate System.
3D Cartesian Coordinates aren't that much more complicated.

It's usually the easiest to use the Cartesian Coordinate System if you're going to be making maps for the average person and for mass use by the populace to travel space.

Of the 3x most popular Coordinate Systems: (Cartesian, Cylindrical, Spherical), Cartesian should be the most popular.

Just look at how most people look at 2D maps using 2D Cartesian coordinates to interpret things on a daily basis like Google Maps. Just add in the 3rd Dimension when flying between Star Systems or flying around locally within 3D space.

It's not like you're trying to teach everybody how to use Trilinear Coordinates.
Yes that is a Coordinate System for finding a specific point on a Triangle.

 

[JesterFace]

Controversial opinion: ALL TNG movies were horrible.

…and I really hated first contact, which ruined the character of Cochrane.

…and everyone seems to hate nemesis. To me, it’s just as awful as all the other TNG movies which had characters of the same name as those we were used to, but who’s behavior was not in line with those characters.

I will now run for cover.

No need to run from me, I don't like any of the TNG movies, that series ended with 'All Good Things...'.

Nice to notice I'm not the only one who doesn't like those movies.

 

[Hofner]

Yeah, in a way it's like running zero degrees longitude through Greenwich, England. Or counting AD 1/1 AD/1 CE from the year Jesus was supposedly born in. We still use these systems, even if we aren't British or Christian.

Of course, cultural imperialism has been present in the Federation to some degree all along in Star Trek, and attention was drawn to it in TUC, even if somewhat ham-fistedly [http://www.chakoteya.net/movies/movie6.html].

CHEKOV: We do believe all planets have a sovereign claim to inalienable human rights.
AZETBUR: Inalien... If only you could hear yourselves? 'Human rights.' Why the very name is racist. The Federation is no more than a 'homo sapiens' only club.​

In the Jules Verne book "Mysterious Island, one of the men stranded on the island calculated their location.

The latitude was straightforward but when giving the longitude, Verne gave it relative to London, Washington D.C., paris, Berlin and I Think, Moscow and Rome. At the time Verne wrote the book, Greenwich hadn't been settled upon as the zero reference yet so you could say he was being politically correct by listing all those longitudes.

I found this to be interesting from a historical standpoint but good lord it would become very old very, very fast if the longitude had to be referenced in this manner every time it's mentioned.

So when people complain about Earth being the zero reference, the only solution would be to follow Verne's example and list Earth's location relative to every capital mentioned in Trek.

As for being bothered by references to Alpha Quadrant powers when Sol is supposed to divide the Alpha and Beta Quadrants, I wonder if people are bothered by the fact that a large portion of Western culture or civilization is in the Eastern Hemisphere.

Robert

 

[fireproof78]

Did you not learn about Cartesian Coordinates in school during math class?
It's a very common / basic level 3D Coordinate System.
3D Cartesian Coordinates aren't that much more complicated.

Common/basic does not mean easy. Yes, I learned it. I learned how to use a map and a compass to get myself and three hiking companions lost in the Idaho mountains. I have constructed maps, and worked with such things. That does not mean, in any meaning of the word, that it is easy for me to understand.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

Common/basic does not mean easy. Yes, I learned it. I learned how to use a map and a compass to get myself and three hiking companions lost in the Idaho mountains. I have constructed maps, and worked with such things. That does not mean, in any meaning of the word, that it is easy for me to understand.

Did you ever have to use a physical Thomas Bros. Map before the advent of GPS Navigation & Google Maps?

I can still use Thomas Bros. maps even today if I had to.

 

[fireproof78]

Did you ever have to use a physical Thomas Bros. Map before the advent of GPS Navigation & Google Maps?

I can still use Thomas Bros. maps even today if I had to.

That's how I learned to do orienteering. I had to do a challenge course at a National Park in Idaho, with markers. Google maps? GPS? What were those twenty years ago? Certainly not available to a teen like me.

 

[eschaton]

All SF does.

Well yeah, but why should we continue making new SF which hews tightly to a mid 1960s worldview?

Freaking comic books get rebooted every 10-20 years.

 

[dupersuper]

Well yeah, but why should we continue making new SF which hews tightly to a mid 1960s worldview?

Freaking comic books get rebooted every 10-20 years.

DC's got it down to 3 or 4 years, and it's very annoying. I don't mind a long memory in my stories.

 

[Lord Garth]

Controversial opinion: ALL TNG movies were horrible.

I agree with you 75%!