What are your controversial Star Trek opinions?

[fireproof78]

Look, I grew up in the Berman era of Trek and I feel confident in saying that, for some reason, fandom thinks everyone running the show hates Trek. Or at least gets it wrong. Rick Berman, Brannon Braga, Terry Matalas, Alex Kurtzman, Harve Bennett, Fred Freiberger, heck even Roddenberry himself have all gotten the vitriol. I think it's just par for the course, unfortunately.

Extremely sad but often true. I just feel it's rather unfair for different creative vision equals hatred or ill will.

 

[Alexander Corrino]

I'd be more worried if certain parts of the fandom DIDN'T hate whoever is in charge. It's like a universal fandom constant by now.

 

[BillJ]

I'd be more worried if certain parts of the fandom DIDN'T hate whoever is in charge. It's like a universal fandom constant by now.

It would be a sign of the end times.

 

[fireproof78]

I'd be more worried if certain parts of the fandom DIDN'T hate whoever is in charge. It's like a universal fandom constant by now.

In a franchise that espouses IDIC and human evolution and capabilities I have come to reflect that standard more and would sincerely hope that some might take it to heart rather than repeat the past.

 

[Richard S. Ta]

Denise Crosby's continuous association with Trek irks me to no end after she left during the very first season of TNG. Her insistence on being apart of Trek and seemingly trying to reverse her decision does not come across very proper to me. If anyone has more insight on this, I'll gladly hear it, but from my little knowledge, it seems she regrets missing out on what could have been a very successful role for her

Wow.

She left during the first season… but continued to be involved throughout TNGs run.

There are folks out there who were in Star Trek once and milk their association with it. Crosby did more than that.

Plus, she’s a cool person.

 

[evilchumlee]

Was it thy she wasn't a polyglot, or was it the fact she was using physical books?

By the end of the 23rd century those books should have been digital.

Sure, although I don't really see an issue with having books.

As for Uhura's linguistic skills, she's a life long Starfleet communications officer who spent a lot of time along the Klingon border. It's reasonable to conclude she learned Klingon.

To your point, though, her linguistic ability was not necessary. Uhura was presented as a radio operator. It was the Abrams universe that first retconned her into a linguist, I believe. A retcon carried over into SNW.

To the first point, I think why it's Uhura doing the actual talking. She knows... some Klingon, she probably understands pronunciation and such better than most others on the ship. I really don't see why she would have actively learned the language when there was very little need for her to ever learn the language.

To the second point, yeah. Now i'll give her more than "radio operator". She had a more technical / administrative posting. She handled communications for the ship, which is a pretty big deal. But I didn't really get why the Kelvin films brought in the "Oh, also she speaks like every language", and then even MORE don't get why SNW brought in, "Oh, and also she's like a super genius."

It's just... all not necessary and actively takes away from the character.

It’s bizarre to me that fans can mentally visualise space battles ,magnificent alien beings and cities but cannot retroactively insert their heroes onto appropriately advanced bridge sets and such.

Or Klingon foreheads for that matter.

I *CAN* do that, but I prefer to stick what has been established. If TOS had just been totally ignored from TNG on, cool. Whatever. It wasn't. It's been reiterated several times that time period looked like that. So... that's what I visualize in my head, what the shows have repeatedly reinforced as the visuals of that time period.

Klingon foreheads as well. I would have been fine if we just ignored the TOS Klingons from TNG on and just acted as if the smooth ones didn't exist. The lore of the show chose to address it, and we since know that Klingons in TOS had smooth foreheads. We even know WHY. Although... I can excuse not having smooth head Klingons in DSC/SNW. It's fine. What I can't excuse are whatever the hell those things in DSC were. At least, SNW fixed that.

I find it almost more bizarre though that DSC had an entire plot point about a Klingon who looked human... and like... ALSO totally ignored smooth head Klingons in that plot point about... a... smooth head Klingon. Like... you were so close.

 

[Shawnster]

It would be a sign of the end times.

Quite true.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

To the first point, I think why it's Uhura doing the actual talking. She knows... some Klingon, she probably understands pronunciation and such better than most others on the ship. I really don't see why she would have actively learned the language when there was very little need for her to ever learn the language.

She probably did it on her own accord, given how the Klingons are generally a major adversarial power in the 23rd century, knowing what they are talking about is critical to survival.

To the second point, yeah. Now i'll give her more than "radio operator". She had a more technical / administrative posting. She handled communications for the ship, which is a pretty big deal.

Oh definitely, there's a reason why Communications is a dedicated manned post generally IRL.
The importance in communication can't be overstated.

But I didn't really get why the Kelvin films brought in the "Oh, also she speaks like every language", and then even MORE don't get why SNW brought in, "Oh, and also she's like a super genius."

They just really wanted to give her more & more things to make her feel "More Special".

It's just... all not necessary and actively takes away from the character.

It's layers of Writing Staff over many generations wanting to make each character "Special" in their own way.
For Uhura, they just wanted to keep adding onto her backstory & abilities.
That's how we get to where we are now.

She's a Genius in Learning Languages and will become even more vital into the future once her escapades off the USS Enterprise ends and she works in StarFleet HQ to help with the Communications Division.

The TOS Connie Crew is considered a "All Star Crew" by many, so each major officer needs to have something they're good at.

Every Officer working together combined is what makes them a "All Star Team" at the end of the day.

Eventually, long after her career with the main TOS cast is done, she will be promoted to Captain of the USS Leondegrance & carried out a five-year mission to the Lesser Magellanic Cloud, and participated in over one hundred first contact missions with the civilizations encountered there.

 

[flandry84]

The fact is that Trek movies sell its own characters short more than any other franchise.
We know the characters are bright resourceful people but put a movie camera near them and suddenly we get the stupid.

 

[drt]

"Oh, and also she's like a super genius."

This is an odd thing that permeates all post TOS Trek.

On TOS, Kirk was the only one who was shown to be extraordinary, as he had come come up through the ranks very rapidly. Maybe one could make an argument for Spock, but it is unclear if his intelligence was simply average for a Vulcan. Everyone else was competent at their jobs, but nothing particularly special.

Then with the Berman era, with only few exceptions (sorry Worf), almost every crew is composed of genius polymaths, so the newer productions retconned the genius thing to also apply to the TOS characters, presumably since that's what had become the norm for Starfleet crews.

 

[137th Gebirg]

Yeah, poor Worf was simply the gauge by which other invading alien intruder species of the week could show off how bad-ass they were by throwing the big bad Klingon around like a ragdoll.

His tactical prowess in battle amounted to "Mr. Worf: Execute defensive maneuver Omega-Zeta-Two and fire a full spread of torpedoes!" and how fast his fingers could manage the controls behind Picard's head.

Kind of sad, actually.

 

[CoveTom]

If you think about it, the same thing happened with the ship even. In TOS, Kirk loved the Enterprise and being the commander of a starship was a big deal, yes. However, the Enterprise was just one of 12 Constitution class starships and was never portrayed as being anything out of the ordinary in terms of capabilities, prestige, etc. By the time of TNG, everyone liked to talk about how the Enterprise is the "flagship" of the Federation, how officers wait years just to get a chance to serve there, how lucky you are if you get to set foot on the ship, etc.

 

[fireproof78]

Meh, it shows how other career paths in Starfleet are completely devalued over time. Enterprise becomes that flagship, crews will not accept promotion to stay on the Enterprise.

Then, it wasn't good enough to just be a good officer but you have to become a ship's captain or a flag officer to demonstrate even better achievements. Only starship captains are the best goals and achievers.

 

[137th Gebirg]

That's why I always loved Lower Decks. The humor could be a bit puerile at times, but its irreverence towards the elite smugness of "hero ships" and their senior crews always felt quite endearing and genuine to me.

Most people in real life are lower-deckers, just trying to scrape by, while people in power, over time, demonstrate their absolute incompetence and constantly reminding everyone else why they really shouldn't be there.

 

[evilchumlee]

This is an odd thing that permeates all post TOS Trek.

On TOS, Kirk was the only one who was shown to be extraordinary, as he had come come up through the ranks very rapidly. Maybe one could make an argument for Spock, but it is unclear if his intelligence was simply average for a Vulcan. Everyone else was competent at their jobs, but nothing particularly special.

Then with the Berman era, with only few exceptions (sorry Worf), almost every crew is composed of genius polymaths, so the newer productions retconned the genius thing to also apply to the TOS characters, presumably since that's what had become the norm for Starfleet crews.

Yes and no.

Scotty was generally portrayed as like, a particularly good engineer, and McCoy was a particularly good doctor.

Although even Kirk gets inflated later on. In TOS, he's just like, a particularly good Captain? Now with Kevlin / SNW he's ALSO a super genius too, because of course he is.

I would somewhat disagree on the TNG crew though. They're all... exceptional in terms of their job, but really I don't think anyone is really portrayed as overly extraordinary just in general.

Picard is... a good captain.
Riker is... a good first officer.
Troi is... Idk, Troi.
Worf is kind of terrible at everything.
Geordie is a... good engineer.
Crusher is a... good doctor.

The only truly exceptional person on the E-D is Data, and that's kind of cheating.

I think in the Berman era, there was an attempt to portray like... EVERYONE in general as being overall more intelligent/more highly educated that most people today.

Meh, it shows how other career paths in Starfleet are completely devalued over time. Enterprise becomes that flagship, crews will not accept promotion to stay on the Enterprise.

Then, it wasn't good enough to just be a good officer but you have to become a ship's captain or a flag officer to demonstrate even better achievements. Only starship captains are the best goals and achievers.

I think that is somewhat clouded by, in general, the "main characters" of the shows being highly prestigious ship captains. If we did an entire show about Deanna Troi, I doubt it's going to be about her strong desire to be a ship captain... you have people like Scotty who expressly did NOT want to be a ship captain.

I think it's a positive thing to show that people can and will not accept promotion to stay on the Enterprise. I think that really shows how Starfleet generally wants it's people to be happy and do what they want to do... if someone is happy in their position on the flagship, and they're doing their job well, cool! Stay there! I think it's exactly the opposite, those career paths are highly valued, to the point that if someone is doing a career they enjoy and they're on the Enterprise... they will actively reject moving onto the "only job that matters captain"...

 

[fireproof78]

. if someone is happy in their position on the flagship, and they're doing their job well, cool! Stay there! I think it's exactly the opposite, those career paths are highly valued, to the point that if someone is doing a career they enjoy and they're on the Enterprise... they will actively reject moving onto the "only job that matters captain"...

Which is a delicate balancing act because then it becomes strange that their knowledge and experience is not rewarded or put to other use across the fleet.

 

[evilchumlee]

Which is a delicate balancing act because then it becomes strange that their knowledge and experience is not rewarded or put to other use across the fleet.

I mean, it could be, if they want it to be. Starfleet generally isn't huge on forcing people to do stuff. If you're a REALLY GOOD Stellar Cartographer, you may be offered a higher position to go do more Stellar Cartography on a wider scale... but... if you're on the Enterprise and you're happy to be there, you can ALSO stay there.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

I think in the Berman era, there was an attempt to portray like... EVERYONE in general as being overall more intelligent/more highly educated that most people today.

But I like that outside of Data being a "Living/Walking" (Super Computer / Android), everybody else is above average.

Any form of "Greatness" is earned over the course of it's adventures.

It wasn't just assigned to them by titles or tidbits given to them in one-line descriptors.

 

[fireproof78]

I mean, it could be, if they want it to be. Starfleet generally isn't huge on forcing people to do stuff. If you're a REALLY GOOD Stellar Cartographer, you may be offered a higher position to go do more Stellar Cartography on a wider scale... but... if you're on the Enterprise and you're happy to be there, you can ALSO stay there.

Yes, but you don't become a higher rank, necessarily, because Captain gets treated as "starship commander" a lot in Trek, rather than acknowledging an officer and perhaps daring to give them some sort of recognition for being so good at their job and their contributions.

Maybe even a promotion of some kind. I know, it's a weird thought.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

I mean, it could be, if they want it to be. Starfleet generally isn't huge on forcing people to do stuff. If you're a REALLY GOOD Stellar Cartographer, you may be offered a higher position to go do more Stellar Cartography on a wider scale... but... if you're on the Enterprise and you're happy to be there, you can ALSO stay there.

I guess that's the seperation/distinction between "StarFleet" & a traditional branched Military Service.

There's no Hard Requirement for "Up or Out".

They can always make new postings to put people in since the economies of the 24th century are "Different".

Now with Kevlin / SNW he's ALSO a super genius too, because of course he is.

Just because one's good at chess, doesn't make him a "Super Genius".

I think what makes Kirk more special is that he's a good Gambler / very good at Calculating the Odds in his head and/or Bluffing.