What are your controversial Star Trek opinions?

[ananta]

I really dislike the CGI TOS-R effects. I mean, most of them are ok, some are overdone and trying to be too slick…but it’s not what I watched as a kid. The grainy, outdated, flawed effects are part of the package and charm. I stick to the original effects on the blu ray. But it’s nice people have the options.

Now, I’m not sure if this is controversial or not…but I hate the opening 20 second fanfare they put at the start of the newer CBS NuTrek shows. It’s unnecessary and naff. We know we’re watching Star Trek and I know it’s only 20 seconds out of my life, but….no. Just get on with the show.

 

[fireproof78]

I skip all intros are shows.

Period.

 

[Tallguy]

Now, I’m not sure if this is controversial or not…but I hate the opening 20 second fanfare they put at the start of the newer CBS NuTrek shows. It’s unnecessary and naff. We know we’re watching Star Trek and I know it’s only 20 seconds out of my life, but….no. Just get on with the show.

Gotta say, I love those. Because as we all know, the ships themselves are characters.

Now the fact that they keep showing me previews that I can't skip for shows that are unpleasant looking enough that I don't even want to see the trailers? That's a problem.

 

[Farscape One]

I really dislike the CGI TOS-R effects. I mean, most of them are ok, some are overdone and trying to be too slick…but it’s not what I watched as a kid. The grainy, outdated, flawed effects are part of the package and charm. I stick to the original effects on the blu ray. But it’s nice people have the options.

Now, I’m not sure if this is controversial or not…but I hate the opening 20 second fanfare they put at the start of the newer CBS NuTrek shows. It’s unnecessary and naff. We know we’re watching Star Trek and I know it’s only 20 seconds out of my life, but….no. Just get on with the show.

I'm with you on the logo at the beginning of each episode of the current era. I prefer getting right into the episode like all shows from TOS - ENT did.

 

[Lord Garth]

It'll feel weird to see the Discovery flyby during Season 5. Because the flyby is what I associate with Phase 2 of Kurtzman Trek.

 

[Poldon]

I feel they should add the flyby intro to all episodes and movies. Although seeing DS9 zipping around would be weird.

 

[Tallguy]

I feel they should add the flyby intro to all episodes and movies. Although seeing DS9 zipping around would be weird.

That's what runabouts are for. And the Defiant.

 

[Shawnster]

DISCO should just replay the scene from the pilot with Georgiou and Burnham walking in the sand.

 

[at Quark's]

I feel they should add the flyby intro to all episodes and movies. Although seeing DS9 zipping around would be weird.

That's what runabouts are for. And the Defiant.

Of course, you could film DS9 from that zipping-by-runabout (supposedly).

Reminds me of the first time I saw the Grand Canyon, I was impressed. Still, something was off. After some thinking we knew what it was: we'd always seen it moving by in those helicopter movies, horse chase scenes, etc.

 

[Paul755]

I feel they should add the flyby intro to all episodes and movies. Although seeing DS9 zipping around would be weird.

Yeah, I’d love to see them add one with the Enterprise, the refit, E-D, E-E, Voyager, NX-01 and maybe the Runabout for DS9 S1-2 and the Defiant for S3-7.

 

[Denise]

Arguably, couldn’t you say that in these instances that either a computer/technology or mind-meld is assembling a copy of their neurological pattern, and that copy is what is being transferred from place to place in the instances we’ve seen a person’s “consciousness” being put inside other bodies?

In James Blish's novel, Spock Must Die!, Spock and McCoy have an ongoing discussion about whether or not the person who is transported is the same person who goes into the transporter. He also wants to know if while being transported, you lose your soul (if you had one). It's been a long time since I read the book, but I seem to recollect that Spock makes some comment like "a difference which makes no difference is no difference."

 

[CorporalCaptain]

In James Blish's novel, Spock Must Die!, Spock and McCoy have an ongoing discussion about whether or not the person who is transported is the same person who goes into the transporter. He also wants to know if while being transported, you lose your soul (if you had one). It's been a long time since I read the book, but I seem to recollect that Spock makes some comment like "a difference which makes no difference is no difference."

It's Scott who says it in Spock Must Die! But he says that Spock often says it.

But yeah. It's attributed to Alfred Korzybski, a profound statement alright.

https://memory-beta.fandom.com/wiki/Alfred_Korzybski
https://www.bookey.app/quote-author/alfred-korzybski

 

[Eckauskas]

Glad to say DS9 is no longer my wife's least favourite show, the honour has now moved onto Discovery.

 

[Arpy]

I'm watching DS9's "The Passenger" and glimpsing a show that might have been, a show in which there's more conflict with and amongst the Starfleet/Federation members. It starts off with a cooler Bashir than we came to know, bragging to Kira about being a brilliant doctor, and soon introduced Lt. George Primmin from Starfleet Security ostensibly the station's security/tactical officer, where Odo is a beat cop keeping order on the Promenade. In both cases the setup is for conflict from within Starfleet with the natives, Sisko right from the start dressing good ol' boy Primmin down for his dismissive take on Odo/the Bajorans. Where might this have lead if? Would Primmin been Eddington? Which one, the one that sabotaged the Defiant on the admiralty's orders to thwart rogue Sisko, I'd bet, not the Romantic defying King & Country for Love & Honor.

My controversial take is that I'd glad they went that way with them in Season One as I don't think they would have later in the series. The allure of an alternate universe is strong, but I was not impressed with where the series did go with Bashir and Eddington later on. The Federation-wide forever ban on genetic-engineering was anachronistic and silly, a fourth wall breaker, that will age the series in the real world (one gravitating toward genetic therapies/engineering, luddite Frankenstein tales be damned) in the same way some fans see *Counselor Troi on the bridge (a holdover from the therapy obsessed 1980's) aging TNG. The less said about Eddington when he did go Valjean the better.

 

[MikHutch]

Isn't therapy less stigmatized than ever?

I feel a therapist aboard isn't a bad idea. Troi and betazoids are just boring

 

[fireproof78]

Isn't therapy less stigmatized than ever?

I feel a therapist aboard isn't a bad idea. Troi and betazoids are just boring

I feel like therapy is far more accepted than even when I was a child.

Also, Troi could have been the diplomatic officer and would have helped out a lot more.

 

[MikHutch]

I feel like therapy is far more accepted than even when I was a child.

Also, Troi could have been the diplomatic officer and would have helped out a lot more.

I think Troy's is just being a bland character. Theoretically an Mc who looks into someone's mental state could be helpful but not on the bridge

 

[fireproof78]

I think Troy's is just being a bland character. Theoretically an Mc who looks into someone's mental state could be helpful but not on the bridge

Indeed, yes. I think Ezri was a better fit despite the late addition. She makes sense in her role as a therapist, vs. Troi who sits there and provides advice or superfluous observations around feelings.

By the way, is that how people think therapists talk? "He seems angry."

 

[Citiprime]

The Federation-wide forever ban on genetic-engineering was anachronistic and silly, a fourth wall breaker, that will age the series in the real world (one gravitating toward genetic therapies/engineering, luddite Frankenstein tales be damned) in the same way some fans see *Counselor Troi on the bridge (a holdover from the therapy obsessed 1980's) aging TNG.

I disagree. And I think I'm in the minority as to how Strange New Worlds has dealt with the issue, but I can see the reasoning for the Federation's position on a genetic-engineering ban.

If that technology was available in the present-day, just think of the implications. The same people who send their kids to camps to "pray the gay away" would use it to fiddle with their child's genome in order to make them into the child they want them to be. We'd be robbing entire generations of their agency to be the person they are, and instead allow parents to assign their futures for them. That's what makes Bashir resent his parents in DS9. They didn't accept him for the child he was, and instead made him into something else.

From TNG's "Masterpiece Society":

PICARD: "They've given away their Humanity with this genetic manipulation. Many of the qualities that they breed out – the uncertainty, self-discovery, the unknown – these are many of the qualities that make life worth living. Well, at least to me. I wouldn't want to live my life knowing that my future was written, that my boundaries had been already set."​

 

[Farscape One]

I disagree. And I think I'm in the minority as to how Strange New Worlds has dealt with the issue, but I can see the reasoning for the Federation's position on a genetic-engineering ban.

If that technology was available in the present-day, just think of the implications. The same people who send their kids to camps to "pray the gay away" would use it to fiddle with their child's genome in order to make them into the child they want them to be. We'd be robbing entire generations of their agency to be the person they are, and instead allow parents to assign their futures for them. That's what makes Bashir resent his parents in DS9. They didn't accept him for the child he was, and instead made him into something else.

From TNG's "Masterpiece Society":

PICARD: "They've given away their Humanity with this genetic manipulation. Many of the qualities that they breed out – the uncertainty, self-discovery, the unknown – these are many of the qualities that make life worth living. Well, at least to me. I wouldn't want to live my life knowing that my future was written, that my boundaries had been already set."​

Completely agreed. Plus there's the fact of all sorts of unknown consequences and unforeseen side effects when you're screwing around with dna. See the Jack Pack as proof.

Or even worse, you get people like Khan.


Regarding shrinks in Starfleet...

Troi as one was hardly ever used. And Ezri, in the middle of a war, only got used twice in her actual position. ("AFTERIMAGE" and "IT'S ONLY A PAPER MOON", and the former was before she even agreed to staying on DS9.) Otherwise, she was a helping hand for engineers, a murder investigator, or bringing back engineers who are being detectives. ("THE SIEGE OF AR-558", "FIELD OF FIRE", and "PRODIGAL DAUGHTER".)