What are your opinions regarding Star Trek that are, shall we say, unorthodox?

[cooleddie74]

I'm glad he finally came around on Sarjenka in Season 2 but, yeah, he shouldn't have to be shamed by almost his entire senior staff into bending the rules and in a private meeting in his quarters for added finger-wagging. Maybe Kirk was a little cavalier at times and a gunslinging cowboy, but I'll take that over Season 1 and 2 Picard and his, "we're above these more crude cultures and if they want to prove themselves and even earn the right to survive then they need to invent warp drive."

 

[BillJ]

Leaving Doctor Crusher in command during “Descent” was stupid. I understand wanting to stretch the actors, but this wasn’t the way to do it.

 

[Farscape One]

Watching “Descent”, forgot how much I dislike Worf with a ponytail.

I actually prefer Worf with the ponytail.

If I remember correctly, he first started having it in "Face Of The Enemy".

 

[BillJ]

Data and Geordi need better anti-virus software, or else they need nice desk jobs.

 

[FredH]

TWOK is an okay Star Trek movie but an awful film if one were to scratch off the serial number.

I sort of feel the opposite: I feel TWOK is a great *movie*, completely by itself, but I’ve seen some pretty convincing arguments that it breaks with established Trek logic about the existing characters. I do still personally love it as both, but I can see how one can dislike it as Trek while liking it as a movie in itself. (Which is funny, since the general consensus back in the day — Roddenberry aside — was that “With this film, Star Trek is finally back!” It takes all kinds.)

Anyways, I love TMP and TWOK (and TSFS), while recognizing that they all hit very different things, and are set on very different settings, so to speak. To me, that’s always been the Movie Trilogy, not TWOK-TVH.

 

[Set Harth]

yeah, for some of us TWOK witnessed in an old-school theater was essentially our meaningful franchise entry, despite prior limited exposure to TOS through occasional glimpses in syndication and even the odd bit of merchandise like a toy or a comic book (including TMP merchandise!)

and we weren't exactly sitting there like "this film is awful."

 

[FredH]

I actually prefer Worf with the ponytail.

If I remember correctly, he first started having it in "Face Of The Enemy".

He can do anything he wants with his hair, as long as he doesn’t turn back into Lightbulb Head Man again.

 

[cooleddie74]

He can do anything he wants with his hair, as long as he doesn’t turn back into Lightbulb Head Man again.

Even the TNG series finale ignored his Season 1 makeup, so apparently you were in good company as far back as 1994.

 

[BillJ]

I prefer bowl cut Worf.

 

[Ovation]

I suppose we could read between the line of this piece of dialog:

Wouldn't be the first Trek fans to do so.

That’s exactly how I read it. I don’t need to have. Every. Detail. Fully. Articulated. To. Follow. The. Story.

 

[FredH]

That’s exactly how I read it. I don’t need to have. Every. Detail. Fully. Articulated. To. Follow. The. Story.

Which is why I find character history descriptions over on fandom.com just excruciating, where they seem to think they have to describe every, single, slight, action a character took during every, single, episode…

 

[fireproof78]

Which is why I find character history descriptions over on fandom.com just excruciating, where they seem to think they have to describe every, single, slight, action a character took during every, single, episode…

I've watched biographies that were less detailed

 

[CoveTom]

I would say it’s the series’ frequent moral smugness that’s aged badly. That sense that, rather than “We are uncomfortably trying, but trying” in TOS, “We are right, and we hope you catch up soon” in TNG.

I think some of that was a reflection of the evolution of Roddenberry's perspective to, where somewhere around the mid-70's, he seems to have forgotten what TOS actually contained and instead morphed his idea of Trek into this preachy perfected utopian vision thing.

(Which is funny, since the general consensus back in the day — Roddenberry aside — was that “With this film, Star Trek is finally back!” It takes all kinds.)

Worth remembering that TMP did better than TWOK at the box office and, in fact, when adjusted for inflation was the most successful Trek film until the J.J. Abrams Trek in 2009 came around.

 

[1001001]

I wonder how many people skipped Wrath of Khan in the theaters because TMP was so awful?

TWOK has an audience score of 90 on Rotten Tomatoes, TMP’s audience score is 43 (both have over 50,000 audience ratings).

 

[cooleddie74]

Solo is a pretty above average and fun movie in its franchise but its pretty well-accepted in 2026 that blowback from how controversial and generally unimpressive The Last Jedi was seen and received by audiences (and less than a year before) had a detrimental effect on the Alden Ehrenreich film's box office performance. I'm pretty sure some Trekkies stayed home because they weren't terribly excited by TMP and box office ended up suffering.

Having a preceding film with a mixed or negative reception rarely helps a franchise's next entry.

 

[Starflight]

After rewatching some TNG episodes, I’ve finally figured out that the show itself isn’t aging as badly as I originally thought.

It is the Picard character that is aging badly.

As much as everyone mocks Stewart for his infamous "more fucking and fighting" remark, I think he was at least partly right. The image of haughty paternalistic authority that Picard is often written to project just seems increasingly ridiculous in retrospect, and you can always tell Stewart's having more fun when he finally just gets to deck someone.

It's a shame because Stewart's performance can be really dynamic and comedic, but the scripts, especially around the fourth season, insist on treating him as a dry moral authority who exists just to demolish strawmen by reciting the writer-of-the-week's views, which is just tedious to watch (and must have been very unrewarding to play).

Another thing I noticed last time I rewatched TNG is that people who are in the wrong (ie against Picard) often exist to be publicly humiliated and personally destroyed so that Picard can look more righteous. That's a sharp contrast with TOS, which even managed to treat nutcases like Finney with a level of dignity and compassion.

 

[cooleddie74]

I'm glad the box office failure of TFF didn't hobble TUC too much. It probably had some degree of effect since Star Trek V was not a popular entry in the franchise, but getting the creative team that helmed TWOK back for the original crew's farewell was a smart move. It excited hardcore Trekkies and even middling fans probably liked the second movie enough to feel like the sixth would be a good theatergoing experience. That 25th Anniversary cycle for the franchise probably helped smooth over some of the big cracks created by TFF.

 

[The Salt Umpire]

He can do anything he wants with his hair, as long as he doesn’t turn back into Lightbulb Head Man again.

It was almost a Centari peacock cut.

 

[Nyotarules]

It just feels like Picard is the nexus of that smugness.

He's a Frenchman raised in England with a Yorkshire accent. Smug is his middle name

 

[cooleddie74]

Jack Crusher is in deep trouble then. He already has his father's accent by 22 and didn't even grow up on Earth.