What are your controversial Star Trek opinions?

[ananta]

A lot of fans LOATHED the Ferengi episodes back in the day, whereas I generally found them hugely enjoyable. I think the hate was strangely prophetic though. By “Profit and Lace” and “Emperor’s New Cloak” they’d become unutterably abysmal. But there were so many fun instalments before that, not least “Little Green Men” and “The Magnificent Ferengi”.

 

[Tallguy]

Just from the limited amount of info on the "TNG" bonus material, I always thought Mrs. Fontana was a short-lived writer for that show, who was fired for disagreeing with Gene Roddenberry. But I looked her up anyway, and it turned out she wrote ten episode of "TOS", five of "TNG", and one each of "TAS", "DS9", and "New Voyages". She also wrote one novel for Pocket Books, called "Vulcan's Glory", and an IDW comic book titled "The Enterprise Experiment". She also wrote the scripts for Bethesda Softworks video games "Star Trek: Legacy" and "Star Trek: Tactical Assault". Todd Vaughn, the company's VP of Development, described Mrs. Fontana as "one of Star Trek's most prolific and distinguished writers".

Sadly, she passed away in 2019, from cancer.

Legendary.

 

[Commander Troi]

Just from the limited amount of info on the "TNG" bonus material, I always thought Mrs. Fontana was a short-lived writer for that show, who was fired for disagreeing with Gene Roddenberry. But I looked her up anyway, and it turned out she wrote ten episode of "TOS", five of "TNG", and one each of "TAS", "DS9", and "New Voyages". She also wrote one novel for Pocket Books, called "Vulcan's Glory", and an IDW comic book titled "The Enterprise Experiment". She also wrote the scripts for Bethesda Softworks video games "Star Trek: Legacy" and "Star Trek: Tactical Assault". Todd Vaughn, the company's VP of Development, described Mrs. Fontana as "one of Star Trek's most prolific and distinguished writers".

Sadly, she passed away in 2019, from cancer.

I'm glad you've discovered Dorothy! She's one of my heroes - she went from being Gene's secretary to an essential builder of Star Trek. Just an amazing woman.

 

[Moviefan2k4]

I'm glad you've discovered Dorothy! She's one of my heroes - she went from being Gene's secretary to an essential builder of Star Trek. Just an amazing woman.

Of the five "TNG" episodes Mrs. Fontana was involved in, my two personal favorites are "Encounter at Farpoint" (just because I love the pilot so much), and "Too Short A Season" (because it illustrates fairly well, humanity's near-obsession with youth).

 

[fireproof78]

A lot of fans LOATHED the Ferengi episodes back in the day, whereas I generally found them hugely enjoyable. I think the hate was strangely prophetic though. By “Profit and Lace” and “Emperor’s New Cloak” they’d become unutterably abysmal. But there were so many fun instalments before that, not least “Little Green Men” and “The Magnificent Ferengi”.

Ferengi episodes are a case by case for me. Some are ok, some are terrible. But, I won't click away from one just because Ferengi, but the wide range of strange episodes they appear in definitely makes it a mixed bag.

 

[Shawnster]

Yes, I have tremendous respect for Fontana and what she accomplished. She was one of the architects of Star Trek.

I'm glad you've discovered Dorothy! She's one of my heroes - she went from being Gene's secretary to an essential builder of Star Trek. Just an amazing woman.

DC Fontana is Star Trek's mom. Almost literally.

And BjobTremble is a favorite aunt.

 

[Cr0sis21]

Oh, I have another controversial opinion:
I actually really enjoy Let He Who Is Without Sin.
I think it's a lot more entertaining than something like A Man Alone

 

[Relayer1]

Ferengi episodes are a case by case for me. Some are ok, some are terrible.

I think I enjoyed ALL the Ferengi episodes to some extent.

That's probably controversial.

 

[Citiprime]

Possible controversial take: I'll watch the worst Ferengi episode over any of the Neelix-centered episodes that Voyager did.

I mean no offense towards Ethan Phillips, but I think the entire conception of that character was off from the beginning. I vividly remember reading a TV Guide article before Voyager's premiere where they were predicting Neelix to be the big standout character for the show, but I remember having the same annoyed feeling that Tuvok suppresses every time Neelix appeared on-screen.

There's zero chemistry between Neelix and Kes, I never really buy that he provides much help as their "guide" through the Delta Quadrant, and his comedic relief isn't really grounded. I think a huge difference between how Voyager used Neelix and how DS9 utilized Quark and the Ferengi is that while Quark and the Ferengi could be goofy, they could turn that around on a dime and believably use them to make serious commentary on the human condition.

Quark has some of the most cynical but piercing commentary on humans in all of Star Trek, and I think it makes his slow conversion to liking the "root beer" more believable over the run of DS9.

 

[cooleddie74]

"Prophet Motive" is ridiculous fun. It's upper-tier Ferengi episode storytelling as it threatens to upturn the entire foundations of Ferengi society and absolutely will if Quark can't find out what the Wormhole Prophets did to Zek. Watching Quark and Rom almost have nervous breakdowns watching their Grand Nagus suddenly behave so benevolently and, well, at cost is just a lot of entertainment value for this fan.

 

[Relayer1]

Possible controversial take: I'll watch the worst Ferengi episode over any of the Neelix-centered episodes that Voyager did.

I mean no offense towards Ethan Phillips, but I think the entire conception of that character was off from the beginning. I vividly remember reading a TV Guide article before Voyager's premiere where they were predicting Neelix to be the big standout character for the show...

Agreed.

I didn't hate Neelix. I didn't like him, especially early on, but (and this is entirely down to Ethan Phillips being a great actor, not the abysmal writing) as it went on I grew more accepting.

Still a massive misfire creatively.

 

[Grendelsbayne]

Neelix and Kes was terrible stuff.

Neelix being a substitute dad for Naomi Wildman - that's what the character should've been all along. It really brought out the underlying pathos of Neelix as someone who lost his family along the way in life, as well as far better contextualizing his (often overzealous and offputting) attempts at making himself helpful and useful.

And for a corroborating controversial opinion:

Once upon a time is a genuinely good episode. The costuming is terrible, but if the holo-characters had been given a less ridiculous look I don't think it would be anywhere near as badly remembered as it is. And if they had had the budget (never would've happened, but if) to go full cgi and make the holoprogram actually live up to how amazing a Federation kids program actually ought to be, I think most people would've highly enjoyed it.

 

[Moviefan2k4]

I liked the on-screen relationship between Kes and Neelix. Jennifer and Ethan usually came across as mutually kind, patient, and understanding. I know that Neelix as a character occasionally lost his cool, but I usually chalked that up to him knowing that Kes would only live for nine years. That's not long for anyone, and he wanted to keep her in his life for as long as possible.

 

[at Quark's]

Possible controversial take: I'll watch the worst Ferengi episode over any of the Neelix-centered episodes that Voyager did.

Disagree with this specific statement. While I can understand the more general sentiment you express in the rest of your post, I'd rather rewatch Jetrel or Fair Trade than Profit and Lace.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

TNG Seasons 1 through 3 were particulary dialed into the "humans from the 24th century are not only from a paradise but are going to lecture more primitive societies on how backwards they are while at the same time withholding any technology from those worlds."

Yes, early TNG can get particularly hard to take because of all the self righteous sermonizing about how much more advanced they are than the poor dumb unevolved clods of the 20th Century.

Yeah, part of the problem is that the early seasons of TNG treated the PD like a straitjacket, to the point where the crew sometimes seemed perfectly willing to let cultures suffer and die because any logical form of aid or communication would be considered "interference."

Peter David had a great observation in one of his old "But I Digress" columns in The Comics Buyer's Guide that Vietnam killed a lot of the fun of Star Trek. TOS reflected the cockiness of an America that had won World War II and was an unquestioned world leader. On TOS, Kirk would beam down to an alien planet, spend about 20 minutes there, and go, "Okay, I think I've got the gist of how things work here. Here's how we're going to change things..." And it was all okay because Kirk, and by extension the Enterprise and Starfleet, was almost always right. The Prime Directive was that annoying thing you'd discount in one way or the other, because it got in the way of the fun stuff.

TNG reflected the cautiousness of post-Vietnam America. "We've got to be very careful, and not do the wrong thing here, because we might he wrong and really screw things up, the way we did in Vietnam." Suddenly, the Prime Directive was the thing that was always brought up to illustrate that we shouldn't interfere, and that was portrayed as the right and proper way to do things, even if it resulted in a planet's suffering and destruction.

 

[fireproof78]

I mean, Patterns of Force and A Private Little War both laid the ground work for that.

 

[Weyoun 251]

I doubt this is controversial: but I consider the best Phaser Fights in Star Trek to be from, in release order:

"Rocks and Shoals" (DS9)
"The Siege of AR-558" (DS9)
"What's Past Is Prologue" (DSC)

There were some good ones in Ent - especially once the MACOs joined the crew - where they used the environment to far better effect (actually duck and covering, pop up shots etc rather than standing tall and proud and firing straight)

 

[Moviefan2k4]

Yes, early TNG can get particularly hard to take because of all the self righteous sermonizing about how much more advanced they are than the poor dumb unevolved clods of the 20th Century.

"DS9" eventually poked some truly amusing fun though, with their "Little Green Men" episode. That story showed Quarm and Rom being accidentally sent to 1947 Roswell, where the Earthlings of that time mistake them for Martians. I still love Quark's semi-frustrated remark, about the entire situation...

"I'd always heard primitive humans lacked intelligence, but I had no idea they were this stupid!"

 

[eschaton]

I don't mind Neelix at all as a character, which may be controversial. He's a magnificently flawed character - petty, thin-skinned, insecure as all hell, papering over a lifetime worth of trauma and existential dread. He has the sort of complexity that other Trek characters dream of.

The only issue with Neelix is that, for some reason, the EPs thought he was funny, when, of course, he was not. His relationship with Kes was incredibly ill-thought-out, though. It seems like it was created for the pilot, and then the writers realized after that they fucked up tremendously by having this creepy middle-aged dude who was "dating" a two-year old, and walked it right back. Like, they had separate quarters on the ship, and Elogium seemed to strongly infer they had never boned. There was very little sign they has anything beyond a platonic relationship, other than Neelix's jealousy regarding Tom Paris.

 

[Commander Troi]

"DS9" eventually poked some truly amusing fun though, with their "Little Green Men" episode. That story showed Quarm and Rom being accidentally sent to 1947 Roswell, where the Earthlings of that time mistake them for Martians. I still love Quark's semi-frustrated remark, about the entire situation...

"I'd always heard primitive humans lacked intelligence, but I had no idea they were this stupid!"

I loved that episode!