What are your controversial Star Trek opinions?

[Farscape One]

I may be in the minority on this one...

But I think of all the shows in the franchise, TNG did horror/creepy episodes the best. VOY, second place.

Perhaps because we were so used to the well lit corridors and bridge that when they did go to the dark side, it just amplified the vibe. (And even with partly off ship stories that were in that realm, like "Frame of Mind", TNG did a damned good job with creepy and horror vibes.)

Robert Wiemer, in particular, did creepy well... "Violations", "Schisms", "Masks".

 

[Shawnster]

Nick Meyer wrote "There is no money in the future

My head canon is/was/has always been that line meant the 23rd century was a cashless society, whereas 1980s Earth definitely wasn't

 

[Tallguy]

My head canon is/was/has always been that line meant the 23rd century was a cashless society, whereas 1980s Earth definitely wasn't

That was how I took it even back in 1986. Also if I went back to 1686 I wouldn't be able to pay for anything either!

 

[fireproof78]

That's one perk to carrying cash. Prepared for time travel...sort of.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

I like how DS9's "In the Cards" squared the circle (i.e., did the impossible), and established that Earth literally has no money. This is elaborated on a bit with the mention of the New World Economy in VOY "Dark Frontier" and also in SNW "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" with the description of Earth as a "no money, socialist utopia."

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/New_World_Economy

The Federation itself of course uses money.

"I'm Human, I don't have any money."
"It's not my fault that your species decided to abandon currency-based economics in favor of some philosophy of self-enhancement."
"Hey, watch it. There's nothing wrong with our philosophy. We work to better ourselves and the rest of Humanity."
"What does that mean exactly?"
"It means… it means we don't need money!"
"Well, if you don't need money, then you certainly don't need mine!"

— Jake Sisko and Nog, "In the Cards"​

 

[1001001]

That's one perk to carrying cash. Prepared for time travel...sort of.

Eyeglasses also work.

 

[XCV330]

The next person who mentions “breaking the fourth wall” will be Ultra Banned.

 

[Shawnster]

That's one perk to carrying cash. Prepared for time travel...sort of.

To steal an idea from Doctor Who, carry psychic money. Always the right currency, denomination, and era appropriate mint date.

 

[ananta]

I like how DS9's "In the Cards" squared the circle (i.e., did the impossible), and established that Earth literally has no money.

This leads to the inevitable question, how do the DS9 Starfleet personnel pay their bar bill? It’s unlikely Quark accepts “I’m human, we don’t do money”. The logistics are where this falls apart.

 

[Tallguy]

This leads to the inevitable question, how do the DS9 Starfleet personnel pay their bar bill? It’s unlikely Quark accepts “I’m human, we don’t do money”. The logistics are where this falls apart.

You want to talk non-interference? What happens when a Fed citizen has "post scarcity" money and decides to pour that into some poor schmoe's economy?

Based on a single episode (the baseball card thing) there has to be some kind of barrier set up. Otherwise Jake could have just Federationed up a bunch of whatever someone on the other side of The Money Wall wanted and converted that into currency that he could have used to buy a baseball card.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

This leads to the inevitable question, how do the DS9 Starfleet personnel pay their bar bill? It’s unlikely Quark accepts “I’m human, we don’t do money”. The logistics are where this falls apart.

Starfleet officers serve the Federation. It's canonical that the Federation pays their officers in Federation credits. Earth pays humans nothing.

 

[Lord Garth]

I especially like P.F. in THE BAD SEED. A second-act character, yet Oscar-worthy.

Adding that to the list of things I need to see from before my time.

Thanks!

 

[fireproof78]

You want to talk non-interference? What happens when a Fed citizen has "post scarcity" money and decides to pour that into some poor schmoe's economy?

Based on a single episode (the baseball card thing) there has to be some kind of barrier set up. Otherwise Jake could have just Federationed up a bunch of whatever someone on the other side of The Money Wall wanted and converted that into currency that he could have used to buy a baseball card.

That's probably part of the Federation's bureaucratic and government oversight is managing exchange between member worlds.

 

[Rowdy Roddy McDowall]

Adding that to the list of things I need to see from before my time.

Thanks!

1956 version.

 

[Macintosh]

I remember reading an article by Arthur C Clarke once where he outlined what he thought would replace money in the future, and he postulated a sort of "credit system" based on computer processing capacity and energy allocation. Which isn't money per se, but it would be a method for a "socialist utopia" like the Federation to have a way of giving people significant though finite resources. I suppose the way we see Voyager ration holodeck and replicator usage is somewhat similar. You would need to save up your allocation to get something major, like an interplanetary craft of your own, or do something that increased your allocation; and realistically no individual would ever be in a position to buy a real starship today in the same way that not even the richest people in the world are able to buy aircraft carriers. People in positions of responsibility or power would have larger allocations. But if you didn't want to work, your default ration would be enough to live on and do whatever you wanted to do, within reason. Presumably therefore Starfleet "pays" for things in Quark's by reducing the rent he has to pay on his premises, payment for station resources, and holosuite processing capacity by some concomitant amount based on a pre-calculated exchange rate. It's essentially super-bartering with no need for actual currency since everything is handled virtually and there's no need for intermediate tokens of exchange any more.

 

[Grendelsbayne]

I remember reading an article by Arthur C Clarke once where he outlined what he thought would replace money in the future, and he postulated a sort of "credit system" based on computer processing capacity and energy allocation. Which isn't money per se, but means that a "socialist utopia" like the Federation does have a way of giving people significant though finite resources. I suppose the way we see Voyager ration holodeck and replicator usage is somewhat similar. You would need to save up your allocation to get something major, like an interplanetary craft of your own, or do something that increased your allocation; and realistically no individual would ever be in a position to buy a real starship today in the same way that not even the richest people in the world are able to buy aircraft carriers. People in positions of responsibility or power would have larger allocations. But if you didn't want to work, your default ration would be enough to live on and do whatever you wanted to do, within reason. Presumably therefore Starfleet "pays" for things in Quark's by reducing the rent he has to pay on his premises, payment for station resources, and holosuite processing capacity. It's essentially super-bartering with no need for actual currency since everything is handled virtually and there's no need for tokens of intermediate exchange any more.

That's pretty much exactly how it has to work.

Also, because Starfleet is a diplomatic service, too, and represents the Federation among other cultures where money is still normal, I assume Starfleet automatically procures some locally acceptable currency for use by SF officers when they're officially representing the Federation. You wouldn't want your official representatives to be completely cut off from the local culture because they don't have money to pay for anything. That's not a good way of putting the best face forward for the Federation. Presumably, a lot of worlds simply accept Federation Credits as the Federation is happy to honor credits with energy or replicated goods, but in other places the ship's captain/mission leader would likely offer something to the local govt. in exchange for a basic amount.

 

[Tallguy]

People in positions of responsibility or power would have larger allocations.

I'm pretty sure this system has been attempted. Who decides what allocation the people in positions of power get?

 

[Macintosh]

I'm pretty sure this system has been attempted. Who decides what allocation the people in positions of power get?

A big computer somewhere.

 

[Tallguy]

A big computer somewhere.

"You are being watched. There is a secret system that spies on you every hour of every day..."

No wonder Kirk hated the super computers so much. They kept denying his pay raises. Either that or it's why he has an apartment with a swell view. "Hey, FedComp can't be any harder to crack than Landru!"

 

[fireproof78]

I'm pretty sure this system has been attempted. Who decides what allocation the people in positions of power get?

They do.