What are your controversial Star Trek opinions?

[at Quark's]

My spicy hot take is I don't care for "The Inner Light."

Having come into Trek from ENT, I don't have the feel good nostalgia for this series that most millennial Trek fans do, but when I heard for years what a great episode it was, I gotta say I was disappointed to say the least.

Allison Pregler did a much better in depth episode on this:

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Well, I am from the generation that was introduced to Trek by TNG, and I remember the series fondly and with nostalgia and I like 'the inner light', but I have to admit she has some good points and it's a hilarious review of the episode.

 

[Tallguy]

I don't if that's all that controversial.

I can't imagine there are many Trek fans who don't think those little shits got exactly what they deserved.

I don't. I mean, sure they were responsible for themselves. But they were also cadets. They weren't supposed to be in charge of anything.

I think it muddied the story to say "Yeah, well they were ALSO dislikable." We just re-watched The Ghosts of Illyria. Like Una says "What if I wasn't one of the good ones?" If they weren't jerks but they were still making terrible decisions would they "deserve" it? Aren't we led to believe that one J.L Picard was rather full of himself back in the day?

I think the episode wanted to be black and white AND nuanced at the same time. And I wanted 1) Jake to say "This isn't your job!" and 2) Rom to say "I'm on a vital mission to Ferenginar!"

What should not be in Star Trek:

• flying robots

Nomad?

Love of TMP is how we know who to shun.

Smile when you say that. Oh. You did. Carry on.

 

[fireproof78]

I don't if that's all that controversial.

I can't imagine there are many Trek fans who don't think those little shits got exactly what they deserved.

I don't. I mean, sure they were responsible for themselves. But they were also cadets. They weren't supposed to be in charge of anything.

Yeah, sorry, I can't go "oh those little shits deserved it." Sorry, they are cadets. I am routinely told that cadets should not be put in charge of anything. So why are these cadets considered more capable and therefore should be punished for bad decisions?

Nomad?

Doesn't count. Not Starfleet equipment

 

[Sci]

None of the Red Squad cadets deserved to die. That's just horrific nonsense. But, Cadet Watters was disobeying direct orders by attempting to destroy a tactically superior ship instead of returning to Allied territory with their new intel. They should have clearly returned to Federation space, returned the Valiant and the intel to Starfleet, and resumed their duties. Furthermore, Cadet Watters should have immediately turned command over to Ensign Nog when he came aboard, since he was the only one who was the one who actually had a commission and was therefore the ranking officer on site. Had Cadet Watters survived, he clearly should have been subjected to a court-martial.

 

[thewanderingjack]

TNG is immensely, blatantly racist and antisemitic.

 

[Elias Vaughn]

None of the Red Squad cadets deserved to die. That's just horrific nonsense. But, Cadet Watters was disobeying direct orders by attempting to destroy a tactically superior ship instead of returning to Allied territory with their new intel. They should have clearly returned to Federation space, returned the Valiant and the intel to Starfleet, and resumed their duties. Furthermore, Cadet Watters should have immediately turned command over to Ensign Nog when he came aboard, since he was the only one who was the one who actually had a commission and was therefore the ranking officer on site. Had Cadet Watters survived, he clearly should have been subjected to a court-martial.

Is that controversial instead of, like, the entire point of the episode?

...do people say Watters was right?!

edit: Full disclosure, I did not scroll up before replying here.

 

[tomalak301]

My spicy hot take is I don't care for "The Inner Light."

Having come into Trek from ENT, I don't have the feel good nostalgia for this series that most millennial Trek fans do, but when I heard for years what a great episode it was, I gotta say I was disappointed to say the least.

Allison Pregler did a much better in depth episode on this:

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Why have I not heard the "My Heart Will Go On" on the flute recorder thing before. I have changed my opinion on this episode mainly because of the Mind Rape issue, but she seemed a little harsh. Still, the MHWGO thing was funny.

 

[Richard S. Ta]

Nearly every question I had about TOS was answered in funk and wagnalls or popular Science.

Did the magazines teach you how a star going 'cold' in TOS could cause an orbiting planet to explode and how that planet could defy the laws of physics and change its mass before doing so?

Or even better, how the disembodied spirit of Jack the Ripper could travel across several light years and possess not only people, but also computers?

How about the one where Apollo, the actual Greek God is sad because nobody worships him anymore?

Or how, more generally, FTL travel is made possible by magic red space crystals?

ALL Trek is full of nonsense science. Let's not pretend it's just the new, eh?

 

[tomalak301]

This is a series that has transporters and faster than light travel. You have to suspend some disbelief.

 

[fireproof78]

This is a series that has transporters and faster than light travel. You have to suspend some disbelief.

Since when?

 

[tomalak301]

Since when?

1966, give or take.

 

[fireproof78]

1966, give or take.

Hmmm...well, things were different back then. People didn't take it so seriously*



*it was very difficult to type that with a straight face.

 

[Richard S. Ta]

TNG is immensely, blatantly racist and antisemitic.

It's not though is it?

Not really.

Next!

 

[Tallguy]

It's not though is it?

Not really.

Next!

IMMENSELY and BLATANTLY. (But just TNG.)

 

[Vger23]

IMMENSELY and BLATANTLY. (But just TNG.)

 

[Awesome Possum]

I don't know season 1 of TNG has some episodes that aged like raw milk.

 

[cooleddie74]

"When the Bough Breaks" means well but it's as boring as watching drywall. "Coming of Age" has the great Wesley-attempts-to-enter-Starfleet Academy subplot but otherwise it doesn't offer much. And then you have "The Naked Now" which was done far better in 1966 and by a different cast with fewer resources.

 

[Sci]

TNG is immensely, blatantly racist and antisemitic.

Yeah, I can see that. Worf fits into various "noble savage" stereotypes. And it's pretty noticeable that the almost all-white writing staff wrote Geordi to fit into the trope of the "black nerd who can't get a girl" -- a trope that African-American science fiction writer Steven Barnes has argued is often used by white male writers who subconsciously don't want to depict black men as viable sexual competition to white men. And obviously the majority of the TNG cast was white or coded as white, and Latino, Asian, and Indigenous representation was almost nonexistent. And obviously the Ferengi as depicted in TNG come uncomfortably close to quite a few antisemitic stereotypes, and the fact that we never once saw evidence that Jewish culture still exists in the 24th Century doesn't help.

 

[fireproof78]

ct that we never once saw evidence that Jewish culture still exists in the 24th Century doesn't help.

That is one thing that I miss.

 

[thewanderingjack]

IMMENSELY and BLATANTLY. (But just TNG.)

Not just, but possibly most. DS9 being a close second.

Obviously TOS was, as much of the media at the time was, but mostly by ommission, which has mostly been the issue with the whole franchise until recently.

But TNG and DS9 were actively racist AF.