What are your controversial Star Trek opinions?

[Rowdy Roddy McDowall]

That said, I also love 2010 and IMHO it is an entirely worthy sequel. I love the fact that Peter Hyams asked for, and got, Kubrick's blessing. And of course Roy Scheider knocks it out of the park.

A few years back I realized Scheider was my all-time favorite American actor. A couple of years before that I began to think of 2001 as a poem in three (or four) cinematic segments.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

A few years back I realized Scheider was my all-time favorite American actor.

Mine is Vaughn Armstrong.

IMHO it's criminal that none of the current Trek shows have (apparently) asked him to return.

 

[1001001]

Mine is Vaughn Armstrong.

You don’t say…

 

[Forbin]

<Fires up Memory Alpha and Wikipedia>

Ron Moore went to Cornell on a Navy ROTC scholarship and served on a navy frigate for one month during the summer after his freshman year.

Naren Shankar, another Cornell alum, got PhDs in physics and electrical engineering.

René Echevarria went to Duke University in North Carolina, majored in history, and also acted in theater.

Melinda Snodgrass went to college in New Mexico, has had a distinguished prose career both before and after TNG, and has degrees in both history and law.

Tracy Tormé is the son of Mel Tormé and also wrote for Saturday Night Live.

Hilary J. Bader studied mime in Paris and toured the U.S. for ten years performing a story theater play she'd co-written.

According to Robert Hewitt Wolfe, Peter Allen Fields (who wrote for TNG before moving on to DS9) lied about his age, joined the Marine Corps at 16, fought in Korea and was a P.O.W. He also had a career as a lawyer.

There were also a lot of veteran TOS writers who wrote on TNG in the early days, like D.C. Fontana, David Gerrold, John D.F. Black, who brought in their wealth of life experiences during the time they'd written for the show. There is more to life experience than just fighting in wars and having adventures.

If you're writing for a quasi-military action/adventure show?
You named 7 people - one who was a veteran of a foreign war who experienced privation, danger and strife (presumably), and 6 who... went to college.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

If you're writing for a quasi-military action/adventure show?
You named 7 people - one who was a veteran of a foreign war who experienced privation, danger and strife (presumably), and 6 who... went to college.

I was unaware that military service was a requirement for writing an action/adventure show. I hope someone told Stephen J. Cannell.

Star Trek was an action/adventure show, yes, but it was also (and often primarily) a dramatic show. David Gerrold pointed out in his book The World of Star Trek that the best Star Trek episodes boiled down to "Kirk has a decision to make."

And I mentioned their college experiences to point out that many TNG writers did not go to college in California, as you asserted.

The writers for TNG... went to college in California in the 80s.

 

[Forbin]

I was unaware that military service was a requirement for writing an action/adventure show.

I didn't specify military service.

And I mentioned their college experiences to point out that many TNG writers did not go to college in California, as you asserted.

Jesus, quibble much? My mistake for plopping a specific into a generalization. The point was they hadn't much life experience beyond college.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Jesus, quibble much? My mistake for plopping a specific into a generalization. The point was they hadn't much life experience beyond college.

I doubt everyone's college experience is exactly the same. Or that every writer went from the classroom to the writer's room.

 

[cooleddie74]

Hell, mine was radically different from most of the people I shared the same classes with. I didn't pursue a writing degree but still.

 

[Forbin]

I doubt everyone's college experience is exactly the same. Or that every writer went from the classroom to the writer's room.

Watching TNG, tho, I wouldn't be surprised.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Watching TNG, tho, I wouldn't be surprised.

I don't think it's blandness was related to that.

 

[Arpy]

We’ve heard it multiple times that a group think tends to happen in the writers room where people from often the same socioeconomic backgrounds go to the same constellation of colleges and tend to have similar ascendencies into the Hollywood/successful writer’s caste. That’s what the programs are for after all. And that’s fine to an extent.

But when writers grow up only reading and watching other writers/work, they’re not getting as much real world experience (leaving the tribe to being in new things/thoughts) as one would ideally like.

Cut to the late Berman era where one show was a copy of another of another. Or to the problem with a lot of television today that just doesn’t seem to draw or keep the attention of modern audiences as much as other media.

 

[Macintosh]

I'm reminded of the last few moments of this scene from Yes, Minister...

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[JonnyQuest037]

I didn't specify military service.

You did right here:

You named 7 people - one who was a veteran of a foreign war who experienced privation, danger and strife (presumably), and 6 who... went to college.

You don't often become a veteran of a foreign war without being in the military. And your implication that only the military vet's life experience was valid was very clear.

My mistake for plopping a specific into a generalization.

I'd say so, yes.

 

[Nyotarules]

I would imagine that “the right to mental privacy”would be copperfastened into Federation law.
Maybe members of Starfleet and affiliated contractors are exempt from that though.

A law that discriminates against the Betazoids who are natural telepaths?

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Betazoids may communicate with each other telepathically all the time, but I'm sure they respect the privacy rights of visitors. They wouldn't need a law to force them to do so. They would never read an offworlder's mind without permission.

 

[1001001]

Betazoids may communicate with each other telepathically all the time, but I'm sure they respect the privacy rights of visitors. They wouldn't need a law to force them to do so. They would never read an offworlder's mind without permission.

Lwaxana tried to do it to Picard all the time (with various degrees of success).

 

[Forbin]

You did right here:

You don't often become a veteran of a foreign war without being in the military. And your implication that only the military vet's life experience was valid was very clear.

I'd say so, yes.

My mistake, again, for thinking we were having a friendly discussion, rather than a fucking inquisition.

 

[Shawnster]

My mistake, again, for thinking we were having a friendly discussion, rather than a fucking inquisition.

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[1001001]

My mistake, again, for thinking we were having a friendly discussion, rather than a fucking inquisition.

Okay, let’s bring the temperature down a few degrees.

Thanks

 

[Nyotarules]

Betazoids may communicate with each other telepathically all the time, but I'm sure they respect the privacy rights of visitors. They wouldn't need a law to force them to do so. They would never read an offworlder's mind without permission.

I'm sorry this is like telling a species with auditory organs to switch off their ability to hear. Imagine if in Trek the Enterprise met a race of people who were naturally 'deaf', where sign language was the norm. They would not even consider their ability not to hear a disability. Imagine meeting someone like us, with our two big ears!

Maybe SNW should do this episode (my concept royalty rate demand will be 25%)