DEBATE MOTION: Star Trek Needs More Social History

[Molyfar]

DEBATE MOTION: Star Trek Needs More Social History

The motion: Star Trek has spent 60 years telling us about Admirals, treaties and battles. It’s time it spent more time telling us how ordinary people live.

Proposing the motion:

For decades we’ve had political and military history. The Federation was founded in 2161. The Khitomer Accords were signed in 2293. The Dominion War ended in 2375.

We know what Starfleet Command decided. We rarely see what it was like to live with that decision.

Social history would ask:

• If replicators ended scarcity, why does anyone still work? Why does Joseph Sisko get up at 5 am to scrub clams?
• What was it like to be a civilian teacher on the Enterprise-D, trying to keep a classroom calm during Red Alert?
• How did a kid on Earth feel when Vulcans moved into the neighbourhood in the 2060s? Were they inspired, or did they think they were stuck-up?
• How do Bajorans and Cardassians share a Promenade after 50 years of occupation?

Shows like DS9 and Lower Decks prove this works. They feel lived-in because they show the waiters, the families, the dockworkers, not just the bridge.
Trek’s promise isn’t just better technology. It’s a better society. But we’ve never really been shown how that society works on a Tuesday afternoon.
Star Trek doesn’t need another war. It needs to show us the peace.

I propose that Star Trek needs more social history. For or Against?

 

[BillJ]

Against. I’ve just never cared about the civilian side of the ST universe. Much like I don’t care about the workings of the Federation government.

Simply put, I watch Trek because I want the adventure and exploration associated with it.

 

[XCV330]

against. the more world building the more Star Trek is constrained by its own canon baggage.

 

[Ragitsu]

Against. I’ve just never cared about the civilian side of the ST universe. Much like I don’t care about the workings of the Federation government.

Simply put, I watch Trek because I want the adventure and exploration associated with it.

against. the more world building the more Star Trek is constrained by its own canon baggage.

Consider me split. I appreciate regularly-honored canon (i.e., consistency), because it makes a setting feel alive/believable, but...I want adventure; there isn't much adventure in growing tomatoes in the 23rd to 24th century.

 

[Catboots]

I want both. You mention DS9, and that had both. Bartenders and battles. Civilians and officers. I'd like to see more civilians and ordinary folk and people like O'Brien, but I also want adventures and weird space stuff and the occasional epic battle. A mixture of the two. Having someone deal with mundane life can be a good cooling off from an alien invasion or a time travel adventure. All mundane all the time would be dull, all adventure all the time and it turns into frantic Doctor Who with ever escalating universe ending perils. Dips and lulls, a bit of everything.

 

[BillJ]

I want both. You mention DS9, and that had both. Bartenders and battles. Civilians and officers. I'd like to see more civilians and ordinary folk and people like O'Brien, but I also want adventures and weird space stuff and the occasional epic battle. A mixture of the two. Having someone deal with mundane life can be a good cooling off from an alien invasion or a time travel adventure. All mundane all the time would be dull, all adventure all the time and it turns into frantic Doctor Who with ever escalating universe ending perils. Dips and lulls, a bit of everything.

I think they’d have a tough time capturing DS9’s magic a second time.

 

[Catboots]

I think they’d have a tough time capturing DS9’s magic a second time.

Totally agree, but that's no reason not to even try, surely? I mean we'd hope that they try their very best when making new Trek, not just shrug and say "Eh, whatever, let's just make a new Section 31 movie."

Plus I've seen folks saying they should try and make another TOS or TNG. Another DS9 would be worth a shot (though I wouldn't want a clone).

 

[BillJ]

Plus I've seen folks saying they should try and make another TOS or TNG. Another DS9 would be worth a shot (though I wouldn't want a clone).

I’d prefer a show about exploration. It was what captured my imagination.

Just have to wait and see what’s next.

 

[Catboots]

Heck I'd rather have a third season of Prodigy and have exploration in that than another DS9 type show, but given the way Prodigy was treated I reckon I'd have more chance of winning the lottery. Or someone reading and reviewing one of my books.

 

[NYPinTA]

I think it would be easy to do a few stories that could cover some of these topics, but following some of the crew when they go home on leave. Which while I know they won't do it as often, but they have to return at some point, no? They did an episode during Enterprise where Mayweather went home and how his family and friends dealt with him being in Starfleet vs how they lived, etc. And it's not like the crew on the show never travel in time and could be there for some of the past social change events, like just after Vulcan's started moving to Earth (if any did...)

 

[F. King Daniel]

I have often wondered what motivates people in Trek's future, who could eat, have and act out every fantasy they could ever want via replicators and holodecks. Are there people living in holocubes, opting out of "utopia" to eat replicated junk food, snort synthacoke and indulge in the most depraved horrors this side of Epstein Island? People who would make that "Gamer Leg" guy look healthy and normal.

Why does Picard get a huge mansion and housekeepers, but everyone else doesn't? What motivates you to be a housekeeper or bar staff?

The answer of course, is there IS no plausible answer that ticks all the boxes, and Trek's society is a happy comfort fantasy. Looking at it too closely is like trying to understand the science of Cinderella.