What are your controversial Star Trek opinions?

[Ray Hardgrit]

Good heavens. It's almost enough to make me interested in ENT.

They brought in Trek novelists Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens in the final season, and the series takes a real turn from 'let's just do Star Trek stuff in the past where the ships move slower' to 'the first steps leading to the birth of the Federation'.

You could probably watch the Vulcan+Andorian episodes of S1-3 (Andorian Incident, Cease Fire etc.), then go straight into S4 and be satisfied with what you get. In fact I basically did that myself the first time I watched it, as I lost interest partway into season 1, and didn't really come back until the last third of s3.

 

[Tallguy]

So I've been reading a lot of 1970's and 1980's fan tech since Lora Johnson's death.

You know what's in most of it? A Klingon / Federation War in the 2250s! (Or at least 10-15 years before TOS wherever that lands.)

So Disco was completely in keeping with a pre-TNG understanding of TOS! Huzzah!

 

[Citiprime]

So I've been reading a lot of 1970's and 1980's fan tech since Lora Johnson's death.

You know what's in most of it? A Klingon / Federation War in the 2250s! (Or at least 10-15 years before TOS wherever that lands.)

So Disco was completely in keeping with a pre-TNG understanding of TOS! Huzzah!

Released in 1986: "THE FOUR YEARS WAR"

The Four Years War is a role-playing game sourcebook detailing a mid-23rd century war with the Klingons, a prelude to the cold war seen in Star Trek: The Original Series and the Star Trek films.​

​

The "Axanar" production from some years back that caused a lot of controversy is based on that RPG.

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[drt]

So I've been reading a lot of 1970's and 1980's fan tech since Lora Johnson's death.

Heh, I've been on a similar 70s tech kick recently as well. As you noted, it's interesting how much those early tech manuals ended up influencing the later shows. Another one i was thinking about, it's obvious that the founding members of the UFP specifically detailed in the FJ Tech Manual were intended to be Earth and her colonies, because all of the iconography of the other planets is 100% human in origin. Yet, when the Medical Manual was produced a couple years later, the authors of that work assigned some of those worlds to the Andorians, Tellarites and Vulcans. And now those races plus humans are considered the founding members of the Federation, and lets be honest, those races get the nod because they were the only ones mentioned by name in "Journey to Babel", but there's nothing from TOS that makes them any more important than the little gold guys.

 

[fireproof78]

but there's nothing from TOS that makes them any more important than the little gold guys.

Still waiting for their reappearance.

 

[cooleddie74]

The Ithenites? We know from Daniels they're members of the Federation in the 26th century. So maybe, just maybe, they're already in the Federation in the 23rd or 24th century.

 

[drt]

The Ithenites? We know from Daniels they're members of the Federation in the 26th century. So maybe, just maybe, they're already in the Federation in the 23rd or 24th century.

I think I remember reading along the way that Coto wanted to bring them back in S4 of ENT and have them be a founding species, but the idea got dropped along the way. That would have been a neat little touch.

 

[Paul755]

simple one here. Sisko’s first Defiant should have been NCC-1764-A and the second one 1764-B

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

simple one here. Sisko’s first Defiant should have been NCC-1764-A and the second one 1764-B

I would've thought they'd be up to E or F by that point, if the registry numbers had worked like that.

 

[Citiprime]

simple one here. Sisko’s first Defiant should have been NCC-1764-A and the second one 1764-B

Isn't the suffix designation to the registry not a normal thing though?

I know this isn't explicitly expressed in canon, but I remember the speculation was that the reason the Enterprise got that honor was its accomplishments, not that Starfleet does it in every single instance where a ship is replaced by another of the same name.

For example, I have to believe Janeway's Voyager is not the first Federation starship to carry that name. And yet, it has a standard hull number and no suffix.

 

[Tallguy]

If I'm remembering right in early TNG there were a few instances (maybe only one?) where they added a suffix to a registry. Then The Powers that Be said "No. Stop doing that. The Enterprise is a unique case."

 

[BillJ]

If I'm remembering right in early TNG there were a few instances (maybe only one?) where they added a suffix to a registry. Then The Powers that Be said "No. Stop doing that. The Enterprise is a unique case."

The Yamato was NCC-1305-E, in an early episode. "Where Silence Has Lease"? Though that could just be chalked up to Nagilum not knowing Starfleet naming practices.

I've grown to hate the letter scheme, over the years. Was cool with the 'A', Kirk and company just saved the planet. The 'D' was okay because they were trying to ride the coattails of a popular movie. The rest, it just shows the total lack of imagination of the people these shows are made by.

 

[Rahul]

Ok, this will put the cat amongst the pigeons.

It’s been a while since I’ve seen it, so maybe my thoughts my change on a rewatch but…I genuinely think the material Pike and Spock got in season two of Discovery was more interesting and compelling than pretty much anything they’ve had in two seasons of SNW.

I dislike the way SNW has turned Spock into something of a joke character and the relationship with Chapel was the moment I think I checked out from the show. After loving Pike in Discovery, I find him almost a little smug and weak on SNW. I’m not sure what happened honestly. About the only character arc he’s had is with his boring girlfriend whose name I can’t even remember.

I said it! Let the stoning commence!

No, you're onto something here, and I say this as an absolute SNW fan.

DIS tried to be generally way darker & edgier. Having a genuine upstanding "good guy" character in there stood out immensely. I also think he worked very well as a mentor to Burnham, the emotional "hotshot". And in general being the leader of an absolute bunch of misfits.

In early S1 I could absolutely see Pike, the dark & broody doctor M'Benga & the cynical but good hearted Hemmer being an absolute TOS rivaling power-trio.
Sadly that hasn't materialised, IMO the biggest wasted opportunity of SNW so far, and in the general more light-hearted tone Pike is not out of place, but not really the absolute show-stealer he was on DIS either.


(Never was a fan of Peck-Spock in either form, for me he's just there because he's part of this canon - by all means I think his love tri-angle at least gave him some interesting stuff to do)

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

The Yamato was NCC-1305-E, in an early episode. "Where Silence Has Lease"? Though that could just be chalked up to Nagilum not knowing Starfleet naming practices.

I've grown to hate the letter scheme, over the years. Was cool with the 'A', Kirk and company just saved the planet. The 'D' was okay because they were trying to ride the coattails of a popular movie. The rest, it just shows the total lack of imagination of the people these shows are made by.

Yeah, the Yamato is a bit of a mess when it comes to its registry number, but the the model for Contagion with NCC-71806 written on it apparently came before the script for Where Silence Has Lease, so the -E was a mistake even at the time.

I softened a bit on the idea of giving other ships the suffix when we got a second Voyager, and I realised it was nice to have a way to tell which one people were talking about. I am the guy who complains whenever movies and games are given a title that's already been used, so I supposed I'd be a hypocrite to whine too much about the Titan-A and Voyager-A.

 

[BillJ]

I softened a bit on the idea of giving other ships the suffix when we got a second Voyager, and I realised it was nice to have a way to tell which one people were talking about. I am the guy who complains whenever movies and games are given a title that's already been used, so I supposed I'd be a hypocrite to whine too much about the Titan-A and Voyager-A.

I'm just someone that would rather new writers come up with new ways to honor starships that have a legacy. The original Enterprise-A excited me because it added something new to the universe (and I was 15). The Voyager-J irritates me because the writers can't come up with anything new. It is a small irritant that points to a much larger problem with the current Trek series. A lack of imagination.

 

[Rahul]

There is no such thing as a good musical episode (except for the Buffy the Vampire Slayer one). The moment any characters start singing and dancing I'm suddenly VERY aware that I'm not watching Starfleet officers on board a mighty starship exploring the unknown, I'm watching trained performers prancing about on a soundstage. My suspension of disbelief couldn't come crashing down quicker if the director wandered into camera and sent everyone for lunch.

They did. "Anomaly of the week make the crew do odd things" A tried and true Trek Trope.

Sir, this is Star Trek.

Reminds me of the way Scrubs handled their musical episode.

Yeah, I I'm much more a fan of the idea of having (finally) a musical episode in Star Trek, than in the actual episode.

They should have done either:

• Just completely play it straight as a musical, without any type of explanation (but a music focused plot, like a famous singer or aliens that communicate singing)
• Connect it to something else completely ridiculous or meta in the Trek canon (like Q, evil cloud alien mind control, or a god-like computer not understanding singing)
• Go somewhat dark, like mind-control, head injury or else, where the singing is part of the signs showing the world is somewhat "off".

Going for a semi-routine Trek explanation (anomaly, translator malfunction, holodeck) was probably the least exciting explanation to have a musical, and a bunch of the songs being about the characters themselves not understanding why they're singing certainly dragged the whole thing down.

For me, it turned an absolute standout-concept into a mediocre-to-somewhat-good episode. Certainly happy that it exists, but it could have been sooo much more.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

The Yamato was NCC-1305-E, in an early episode. "Where Silence Has Lease"? Though that could just be chalked up to Nagilum not knowing Starfleet naming practices.

Riker asserts it's their sister ship, though, after reading off the registration. So, if it's Nagilum's error, then it's Riker's, also.

 

[Richard S. Ta]

I’m maybe in the minority but I really like the suffix that some ships get at the end of their registry. For me, it gives ships a sense of lineage and history and makes the universe feel more real.

 

[at Quark's]

Is it controversial when I say I really don't care about registry numbers? I even don't know Voyager's or Defiant's by heart

 

[Farscape One]

Is it controversial when I say I really don't care about registry numbers? I even don't know Voyager's or Defiant's by heart

You don't know them by heart?!

Then you shall be forced to write down Voyager's registry 74,656 times and the Defiant's registry 74,205 times!