What are your controversial Star Trek opinions?

[TREK_GOD_1]

Wesley Crusher is one of my favorite characters.

I never shared that over-the-top hatred of Wesley. When introduced, he had a logical reason for being on the ship (like other children of working parents). His intelligence was something else which did not offend me because--guess what? There are above average kids in the world, but some early TNG viewers resented Wesley to disturbing levels. Their arguments were not of the "He's not a well developed character" variety, but of the "He's too smart MU****!" kind, which is more telling about the people who made that argument than any point about the character. In short, there was some hatred of the character because if they were not blessed with above-average intellect, then they did not want to see a teen-aged character interacting on the Enterprise with said above-average intellect.

Wesley was not Lost in Space's Will Robinson; in other words, he wasn't the resident genius who was at the forefront of most stories while the adults only reacted to events they had no direct participation in other than to back up Will.

Regarding present day Will Wheaton? Well, that's another matter.

 

[1001001]

Wesley got a lot better as time went on.

 

[Henoch]

Wesley got a lot better as time went on.

Like when he left the show?

 

[1001001]

Like when he left the show?

 

[cooleddie74]

Ilia in TMP was a more interesting character than Troi was in Season 1 of TNG, odd considering both were based on the same unused Phase II concept for a recurring female character.

 

[Tallguy]

Ilia in TMP was a more interesting character than Troi was in Season 1 of TNG, odd considering both were based on the same unused Phase II concept for a recurring female character.

Well, Ilia had less "to do" which meant she existed as a character and not a function.

It might have helped that Ilia was on the poster and thus the audience might have had a higher expectation. She also wasn't Troi in Encounter at Farpoint. I love Farpoint (another controversial opinion, I suppose) but that character and performance was not good.

 

[Orphalesion]

Ilia in TMP was a more interesting character than Troi was in Season 1 of TNG, odd considering both were based on the same unused Phase II concept for a recurring female character.

How can you even tell, she was replaced by an android pretty quickly.

 

[cooleddie74]

I saw enough.

 

[Lord Garth]

There's an interesting thing to what Picard says to Lily in First Contact: "We work to better ourselves and the rest of Humanity," not "the rest of the Federation" or "the rest of our Interstellar Community", but "the rest of Humanity". Earth brought the founding worlds of the Federation together to benefit them. They saw Earth being the glue that held the Federation together as a form of validation to advance their own way and agenda.

At the end of the day, Earth is only interested in bettering itself and Humans. To quote Azetbur, "If you could only hear yourselves. Human rights."

When it came to the test: Earth withdrew from the Federation after The Burn because it ceased to benefit them, and they only returned because they felt it benefitted them once again. They didn't stay with the thing they formed through thick and thin.

 

[Farscape One]

Interesting take, and that does have a lot of merit. Humans are, by and large, more likely to be selfish creatures than selfless creatures.

 

[Farscape One]

Not sure if this is controversial, but "TAKE ME OUT TO THE HOLOSUITE"... love it or hate it, it gave us one of the funniest scenes in DS9. (And DS9 had a lot of funny scenes, arguably more than any other show in the franchise save LOWER DECKS, but definitely more than most.)

Odo practicing his umpire calls. That was pure comedy gold.

 

[Prometheus59650]

Pulaski should have stayed; infinitely a better character and doctor than Crusher.

 

[ananta]

This is definitely a mileage thing. I generally do not enjoy romance any more in Trek, and find it off putting at best regardless of orientation and/or gender identity.

Star Trek’s “romance” episodes are generally utter dreck. They subscribe to an extremely basic, immature, adolescent understanding of what “love” is on the basis of a character falling head over heels for some guest star over the space of about 10 minutes (the old episodic format really didn’t work for these stories because everything had to be rushed to fit into 45 minutes).

Maybe I’m betting old and cynical but that kind of “love” is just infatuation and a cocktail of chemicals being released in the brain. Trek really expected us to believe that whatever character was involved had suddenly found their soul mate when in fact it’s just the excitement of a new relationship. “Rejoined” was one of the very few episodes that actually sold me on the relationship because it wasn’t just a passing infatuation but dealt with an old, proper relationship and genuine love in a touching way.

One of the benefits of a serialised approach to storytelling is they can develop relationships over the span of several episodes and have them feel more genuine and natural. Not that they’ve really capitalised on that opportunity much—although Burnham and Book (Burnook?) worked decently due to the actors’ chemistry.

 

[ananta]

Pulaski should have stayed; infinitely a better character and doctor than Crusher.

I will die on that hill too! Didn’t like her as a kid watching the show, but now find she’s just light years ahead of Crusher. She has a personality for a start, and Diana Muldaur has so much more screen presence than Gates McFadden.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Pulaski had a personality all right. Leonard McCoy called and asked for it back.

 

[1001001]

Pulaski should have stayed; infinitely a better character and doctor than Crusher.

 

[Prometheus59650]

I will die on that hill too! Didn’t like her as a kid watching the show, but now find she’s just light years ahead of Crusher. She has a personality for a start, and Diana Muldaur has so much more screen presence than Gates McFadden.

Add to that the fact that Crusher was just a lousy doctor with no respect for her patients ("Ethics,") their customs, ("Suspicions,") and then just does whatever the hell she wants anyway, ("The High Ground," Decent II, etc,) it's Pulaski all day.

 

[fireproof78]

Maybe I’m betting old and cynical but that kind of “love” is just infatuation and a cocktail of chemicals being released in the brain. Trek really expected us to believe that whatever character was involved had suddenly found their soul mate when in fact it’s just the excitement of a new relationship. “Rejoined” was one of the very few episodes that actually sold me on the relationship because it wasn’t just a passing infatuation but dealt with an old, proper relationship and genuine love in a touching way.

One of the benefits of a serialised approach to storytelling is they can develop relationships over the span of several episodes and have them feel more genuine and natural. Not that they’ve really capitalised on that opportunity much—although Burnham and Book (Burnook?) worked decently due to the actors’ chemistry.

Indeed and that's one of the biggest arguments for me towards serialization over episodic formatting. To instead of seeing the momentary infatuation, or sexual tension, but an actual relationship, where there are ups, downs, frustrations, miscommunications and tenderness. Getting away from the warm fuzzies and showcasing the difficulties of relationship, including some conflict too.

And that might be a controversial opinion in of itself, since most utilize Trek as fantasy escapism and preferring the warm fuzzies to the actual work of real world relationships might be a bit too real. But, for me, after being burned by the infatuation unreality of romantic fantasies I am far more engaged with long haul relationships that have some long term dedication to them.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

Indeed and that's one of the biggest arguments for me towards serialization over episodic formatting. To instead of seeing the momentary infatuation, or sexual tension, but an actual relationship, where there are ups, downs, frustrations, miscommunications and tenderness. Getting away from the warm fuzzies and showcasing the difficulties of relationship, including some conflict too.

And that might be a controversial opinion in of itself, since most utilize Trek as fantasy escapism and preferring the warm fuzzies to the actual work of real world relationships might be a bit too real. But, for me, after being burned by the infatuation unreality of romantic fantasies I am far more engaged with long haul relationships that have some long term dedication to them.

This is why I liked Tom Paris & B'Elanna Torres relationship.

It wasn't simple, it took alot of time to develop, it had Ups/Downs.

 

[Paul755]

Pulaski had a personality all right. Leonard McCoy called and asked for it back.

the worst was trying to start a Spock/Bones dynamic between her and Data. But it came off so much meaner because she was way more condescending and Data by nature didn’t punch back. Spock would at least throw a barb back at Bones.

gimme Crusher and the will they/won’t they with Picard.