What do you HATE about Star Trek?

[urbandefault]

From what I've read in your last several posts it seems to me that you can't find much to like about Star Trek.

That's such an utterly bizarre thing to read into my last several posts that it makes me doubt whether further responses to you are worthwhile... but I'll give it one more try.

That I have no patience with this "shut up and eat your porridge" business says nothing about whether I can "find much to like about Star Trek." It says that I don't find grousing about People Having Opinions to be productive. That's a pretty simple distinction.

Not just this thread, but others as well.

It's my perception from your posts in this and other threads that you have an agenda, an axe to grind. If I'm mistaken, my apologies. If I'm right, you'll have to look for another wheel. I'm not interested in participating.

Either way, Live Long and Prosper.

 

[BigJake]

You can dance around all you want, but you know exactly the type of posts I'm talking about.

As long as you're not talking about mine, I'm certainly willing to throw those other people under the bus. There are of course trolls of every persuasion.

It's my perception from your posts in this and other threads that you have an agenda, an axe to grind.

Yeah, you're quite mistaken. I have interests; I'm far from being organized enough for them to rise to the level of an "agenda."

 

[Jeyl]

While labeling Star Trek as entertainment is a correct statement, it is by no means the right answer to this issue. It's like telling someone who complains about how their steak was cooked well done instead of medium rare that they should wave it off simply because "It's just food". Yeah, your statement is correct, but you will be hard pressed to fine someone who would be satisfied with an answer like that. And like certain episodes of Star Trek, not every steak is going to be the same, and sometimes the steak you want might turn out to be bad. And sometimes a steak will be prepared in a different way that actually surprises you and introduce something that makes it better.

And that's the key. Some people like their steaks well done and some people don't. The truth is that they both like Steak! People are by no means entertained by the same things, and even those who do enjoy Star Trek probably enjoy it for different reasons. What makes Star Trek unique in it's fan base is that Star Trek has a ton of variety. Not all of it is about exploration, dramatic stories, non-stop action, comedy, or even about humanity. It's like when I say that Star Trek is my #1 favorite franchise and my favorite series is Deep Space Nine. I bet if Star Trek is another person's favorite franchise, they would pick a different series as their favorite show. Some like TNG the best, some the original series. Heck, even Voyager probably gets a few faves from certain fans. Again, we like steak, just not served the same way.

But why should we care? Steak is just food as Star Trek is just entertainment.

 

[Kemaiku]

O...kay.

 

[Gov Kodos]

The Prime Directive, loathsome and condescending horse hockey.

 

[Cyke101]

ANYway, I really dislike the amount of technobabble during the Berman years and most especially during Voyager. Technobabble while the crew is doing their job? Okay, that's fine. Technobabble as a plot device to save the day or as part of their every day social conversations? Ugh. ESPECIALLY when they the writers try to shove it into song. Thankfully, DS9, the latter Enterprise writers, and NuTrek consciously tried to tone it down. And Scotty in TOS never ever had to go to such verbose lengths to get the job done.

Runner up -- that Trek jargon had become so much of a crutch that it becomes part of bad sitcom-like writing trying too hard to be cheeky. "You know that woman that you had an awkward date with? Here she comes -- red alert!" Hah. hah. hah.

 

[RandyS]

Shows like Star Trek encourage

But then you run headlong into the TNG version of the prime directive. Very harsh, and the opposite of "enlightened."

We have the president of the federation (in TUC) abandoning two starfleet officers to a foreign power, just so he could proudly proclaim my administration is not above the law. How nice that his public image is more important than two people's lives.

Actually, that IS realistic. What president wouldn't put himself above the people?

 

[Cyke101]

Shows like Star Trek encourage

But then you run headlong into the TNG version of the prime directive. Very harsh, and the opposite of "enlightened."

We have the president of the federation (in TUC) abandoning two starfleet officers to a foreign power, just so he could proudly proclaim my administration is not above the law. How nice that his public image is more important than two people's lives.

Actually, that IS realistic. What president wouldn't put himself above the people?

Heh, I bet plenty of presidents wouldn't! But anyway, I would think that Trekkies would be among the first to notice abuses of power and corruption coming from officials who thought they were above the law. Starfleet admirals, anyone?

The president in TUC was right. And ultimately, if he went after Kirk and McCoy, he would have played right into the conspiracy's hands of instigating war with the Klingons. The president's job is to try and protect the nation while maintaining peace, which is what he did with that choice. And in the real world, at least with the US, we've seen presidents make choices like that for the exact same reason, by using diplomacy instead of force. Saving two men through force at the cost hundrds or thousands (or, if war does indeed start, potentially millions) doesn't quite justify it.

 

[Hazel]

Wesley's jumpers.

The brown, bobbled monstrosity in particular haunts my dreams.

 

[Commishsleer]

The Skant

 

[I am not Spock]

At a certain point, Star Trek became too in love with its own continuity, and focused on just the hardcore fans who would tune in to see the latest events in a sci fi soap opera. I am a hardcore fan, but I think Trek needs to have the casual fans as well, to survive.

Initially TOS set out to just tell a good science fiction story, and didn't pay a great deal of attention to its own continuity and mythos. The mythos mainly came about with the movies, I think.

 

[T'Girl]

The president in TUC was right.

It's difficult to see how.

And ultimately, if he went after Kirk and McCoy, he would have played right into the conspiracy's hands of instigating war with the Klingons.

Not necessarily, it would depend on how well he handled the situation, simply caving in to the Klingon Chancellor wasn't the only option.

And war wasn't a given.

The president's job is to try and protect the nation while maintaining peace, which is what he did with that choice. And in the real world, at least with the US, we've seen presidents make choices like that for the exact same reason, by using diplomacy instead of force. Saving two men through force at the cost hundrds or thousands (or, if war does indeed start, potentially millions) doesn't quite justify it.

Chancellor Azetbur: "Mister President, let us come to the point. You want the conference to go forward and so did my father. I will attend in one week, on one condition. We will not extradite the prisoners and you will make no attempt to rescue them in a military operation. We would consider any such attempt an act of war."

President Backbone: "Yes I do want a conference and apparently we both want peace, but madam that peace will not be bought at the price of two men, or even one.

Chancellor Azetbur: "Mister President, what you're doing ..."

President Backbone (calmly): "Is my job and my duty. Madam Chancellor, your home world's atmosphere is heavily contaminated, you lack the means to both fight a major war and save the lives of the majority of your species, we both know this. You require our help, which we won't be in a position to give if we're fighting each other.

If your wish is to die as a people, far be it for me to deign you this ... now then, do you release those two men, or do we come and get them?

Your access to peace and survival, rests in the lives of those men. Or you can have neither

Madam Chancellor, what do you want, and how badly do you want it?"

 

[Isolinear]

Terrible deaths/goodbyes: Jadzia, Kes, Tasha, Trip, Kirk, Prime Universe. Writers: "Yep they're dead. Deal with it."

Exploding consoles killing crewmembers.

Deus ex machina technobabble.

Offscreen action. (Tuvok: "firing torpedo". "a direct hit!". Really? If you say so...)

Small (Cheap) sets. Example: Damar's Dominion Warroom was the size of a telephone booth.

 

[urbandefault]

I don't hate anything about Star Trek, but ...

I'll tell you what I miss. I miss the days in the 70s when there wasn't so much Trek that people felt like they could pee all over the stuff they didn't like because there was always more coming down the road.

The Trek I grew up with was all there was. My friends and I loved it, exploring the bits and pieces of what we could see in the reruns after school. Building the AMT models and making cardboard backdrops and, in one case, lining a ceiling with black paper and spritzing on "stars" with flourescent paint so we could take pics with the blacklight on.

In those days, we made uniforms out of whatever we could find. We had little club meetings and talked about our favorite episodes and had slideshows of film clips mail-ordered from typed and Xeroxed Lincoln Enterprises catalogs that you had to send away for in the first place.

I don't remember people back then complaining about character flaws or plot holes or moral compasses. It was just Star Trek, and we loved it. It never occurred to me or my friends that it had flaws. It was just a tv show, and it was a lot of fun.

I guess what I hate is that those days of appreciating what you had, because that's all there was, are gone forever.

 

[Toxteth O´Grady]

Has to be technobabble for me. No matter how dire the situation is or how likely it seems that the universe is going to blow up, somebody in the crew will pull some "quick fix" out of their pocket that involves a lot of made-up words.

It happened way to often in the 24th century shows. Luckily Enterprise managed to avoid that for the most part.

 

[BillJ]

I don't hate anything about Star Trek, but ...

I'll tell you what I miss. I miss the days in the 70s when there wasn't so much Trek that people felt like they could pee all over the stuff they didn't like because there was always more coming down the road.

The Trek I grew up with was all there was. My friends and I loved it, exploring the bits and pieces of what we could see in the reruns after school. Building the AMT models and making cardboard backdrops and, in one case, lining a ceiling with black paper and spritzing on "stars" with flourescent paint so we could take pics with the blacklight on.

In those days, we made uniforms out of whatever we could find. We had little club meetings and talked about our favorite episodes and had slideshows of film clips mail-ordered from typed and Xeroxed Lincoln Enterprises catalogs that you had to send away for in the first place.

I don't remember people back then complaining about character flaws or plot holes or moral compasses. It was just Star Trek, and we loved it. It never occurred to me or my friends that it had flaws. It was just a tv show, and it was a lot of fun.

I guess what I hate is that those days of appreciating what you had, because that's all there was, are gone forever.

I feel exactly the same way.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

I don't hate anything about Star Trek, but ...

I'll tell you what I miss. I miss the days in the 70s when there wasn't so much Trek that people felt like they could pee all over the stuff they didn't like because there was always more coming down the road.

The Trek I grew up with was all there was. My friends and I loved it, exploring the bits and pieces of what we could see in the reruns after school. Building the AMT models and making cardboard backdrops and, in one case, lining a ceiling with black paper and spritzing on "stars" with flourescent paint so we could take pics with the blacklight on.

In those days, we made uniforms out of whatever we could find. We had little club meetings and talked about our favorite episodes and had slideshows of film clips mail-ordered from typed and Xeroxed Lincoln Enterprises catalogs that you had to send away for in the first place.

I don't remember people back then complaining about character flaws or plot holes or moral compasses. It was just Star Trek, and we loved it. It never occurred to me or my friends that it had flaws. It was just a tv show, and it was a lot of fun.

I guess what I hate is that those days of appreciating what you had, because that's all there was, are gone forever.

I feel exactly the same way.

Seconded. This is exactly the way my friends and I were, too. I feel like I just went through a time warp.

 

[Push The Button]

I don't hate anything about Star Trek, but ...

I'll tell you what I miss. I miss the days in the 70s when there wasn't so much Trek that people felt like they could pee all over the stuff they didn't like because there was always more coming down the road.

The Trek I grew up with was all there was. My friends and I loved it, exploring the bits and pieces of what we could see in the reruns after school. Building the AMT models and making cardboard backdrops and, in one case, lining a ceiling with black paper and spritzing on "stars" with flourescent paint so we could take pics with the blacklight on.

In those days, we made uniforms out of whatever we could find. We had little club meetings and talked about our favorite episodes and had slideshows of film clips mail-ordered from typed and Xeroxed Lincoln Enterprises catalogs that you had to send away for in the first place.

I don't remember people back then complaining about character flaws or plot holes or moral compasses. It was just Star Trek, and we loved it. It never occurred to me or my friends that it had flaws. It was just a tv show, and it was a lot of fun.

I guess what I hate is that those days of appreciating what you had, because that's all there was, are gone forever.

Agreed, 100% with this, every word.

 

[Amaris]

I was just thinking (there was smoke. Honest!), and the only thing I can think of that really irks me is the exploding consoles. Did circuit breakers and disconnects go out of fashion, or maybe the technology was lost when they were building the gigaquad computers?

Oh, also, seatbelts. They're in space.

 

[RandyS]

I don't hate anything about Star Trek, but ...

I'll tell you what I miss. I miss the days in the 70s when there wasn't so much Trek that people felt like they could pee all over the stuff they didn't like because there was always more coming down the road.

The Trek I grew up with was all there was. My friends and I loved it, exploring the bits and pieces of what we could see in the reruns after school. Building the AMT models and making cardboard backdrops and, in one case, lining a ceiling with black paper and spritzing on "stars" with flourescent paint so we could take pics with the blacklight on.

In those days, we made uniforms out of whatever we could find. We had little club meetings and talked about our favorite episodes and had slideshows of film clips mail-ordered from typed and Xeroxed Lincoln Enterprises catalogs that you had to send away for in the first place.

I don't remember people back then complaining about character flaws or plot holes or moral compasses. It was just Star Trek, and we loved it. It never occurred to me or my friends that it had flaws. It was just a tv show, and it was a lot of fun.

I guess what I hate is that those days of appreciating what you had, because that's all there was, are gone forever.

Agreed.