Spoilers R rated content - what does it add?

If they were going own that route, the flashbacks we've seen wouldn't really be a fake out. If what we saw was torture; it was painful, horrific and unwanted. If what we saw was a forced transition (and more), it was painful, horrific and unwanted. Either way what happened would effect both outcomes in mostly the same way.

The only real difference is the fallout and what comes next,

 

When the TV ratings first came out in 1996, it was a pretty good way to gauge how adult shows seemed in the past. If a show from the 1960s or 1970s was rated TV-PG in the late 1990s, there was a good shot that it was considered geared for adults during its original run. Monty Python and M*A*S*H were examples of shows that were regularly rated TV-PG in reruns. TOS was a show that would sometimes be rated TV-G and sometimes be rated TV-PG. That put it just slightly less adult than the Star Trek shows of the Berman-era, or the sitcoms on Must See TV, most of which were rated TV-PG (though Seinfeld would have an occasional TV-G episode). The first episode of Star Trek rated TV-14 was Carpenter Street, on ENT, which aired in 2003. To compare the movies, TMP was rated G, but rerated PG for more intense effects with the Director's Edition. First Contact was the first PG-13 movie, Insurrection was PG again, and all the movies since have been PG-13.

TOS was designed to be a show that wasn't necessarily for adults, but was more serious and realistic than the shows designed for children's matinee serials of the previous generation. The aesthetic was supposed to evoke the US Navy, Air Force, and NASA, and have a utilitarian look, as opposed to the Googie look of much of the rest of science fiction of the time.

But, I think my advice to parents who want family-friendly Star Trek is that, like Doctor Who (which started out designed as an educational children's show with a science-fiction coat of paint, has had spinoffs aimed at a very adult audience with Torchwood, and younger audiences like K-9 and the Sarah Jane Adventures), the franchise is so prolific, that it's possible to curate based on interest level and age appropriateness, and still have a vast amount of content. If you start a kid on Trek at six, maybe you'd pick the lighter episodes of TOS, TAS, TNG, VOY, and maybe the PG-rated movies, most of which can be viewed out of order. By the time they get to late elementary school, they'd be ready for some of the tougher material in all of those series, the rest of the movies, and ENT. Then follow that up with the more nuanced DS9 and DSC when they get to middle school and high school. I know for me, by accident of age, I started Trek with TNG season four, when I was in fourth grade, and DS9 was perfectly timed for me, starting in sixth grade and ending the day before I graduated high school.

I think there was a great description of what the content added in this SPOILERY comment from page-3.

Oh, and if present-day sailors swear, then I'm kind of shocked 22nd-24th century space sailors don't swear nearly as much.

 

I think some of the gore really has added to the sense of horror in some episodes. The twisted bodies in particular in Context is for Kings, really sold the danger of the spore drive if anything goes wrong. The Klingon rape scene, I don't know that we really needed to see it. It's presence in the plot adds a lot to Ash's character but that could have been communicated verbally rather than visually. As for the swearing, it varies. Burnham's "oh shit" felt natural and got a laugh out of me when I heard it. The "Fucking cool" scene on the other hand felt forced. Maybe that's just because I knew it was coming though.

 

I could pretty easily tell when the scary parts were coming but I didn't know about the bad words. They didn't do that in the other episodes though so maybe they learned their lesson I don't know, that was still kinda awkward but it was supposed to be so that's okay. It's sorta realistic I guess. But maybe someone should do an edit where they cut those parts out and made it more like the original Star Trek. That would be cool. Just plain cool!

 

The TV-MA rating allows the show to be creatively free to do whatever it wants, within any given scene, where as before it would have to follow various censorship rules. The show isn't going to get extreme, it just means when we see a red shirt being killed, it'll look like he actually died.

 

I think they usually looked fairly actually dead in the olden days. I mean I couldn’t get in the TV to take a pulse, but the falling down dead, glassy stares and occasional non-gory impaling and/or SF means of death seemed pretty final. I guess I don’t need chunky meat to make me realise ‘he’s dead jim’.

 

They went full on nudity, that's pretty much as extreme as you can get.

 

You have a remarkably low threshold of “extreme”.

 

They did? I didn't even notice that!

 

Klingon nipples, man. That's XXX hardcore extreme!!!!!!

 

The three breasted cat woman in V was more extreme.

 

What does the R- Rated content add?
Klingon boobies, that's what.

 

If by "full on nudity", you mean they went blink and you'll miss it, flashing lights, blurry filter, vertical camera position, covered in scales and gray body-paint view that was so quick and in a rapid sequence of shots lots of people didn't even realize what happened, then yeah, that's full on nudity alright.

I've seen more "extreme" when T'pol wore her little left to the imagination tank top in the decon chamber or when those body-painted alien strippers with the frog tongues danced in Broken Bow. I've seen more extreme in a William Ware Theiss Star Trek costume collection. I've seen more extreme on regular CBS when they air Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Specials and the models are covered in body-paint and nothing else.

 

Watch it agin...there also appears to be a wriggly crotch shot. My second viewing also pretty much confirmed the Tyler Is Klingon Dude theory for me.

 

As appealing as "wriggly Klingon crotch" sounds, I'll take your word for it.

 

Hey, it shocked me. Was watching with Mrs, and first time I watched the ep was on my phone. I was...frankly surprised...however...there’s a wrapped in plastic Klingon guy (Twin Peaks ahoy, or its pre-surgery into Tyler.) and a shot of Tyler looking into a mirror...so...OT I grant you, but it’s looking like Tyler is both...Tyler...and Klingon dude (you may notice I have forgotten his name.) so, just for once, it’s looks like the R rated stuff was all about hiding the reveal.

 

Season 1 so far reminds me of Series 1 of Torchwood. "Hey, we can be 'adult' now! We can say 'fuck' and show lots of sexy situations". Eventually Torchwood toned it down in the second series. So as a desperate Trekkie I'm willing to write this off as "first season weirdness".

 

While I do think they "Manchurian Candidated" Tyler and turned him into some sleeper spy who will be reactivated by the Klingons, I don't think he's Vok.

 

Honestly though, I think the scene in "Choose Your Pain" where Tilly blurted out "This is so fucking cool!", and then apologized to Stamets, only to have Stamets say about her apology "No, cadet...it IS fucking cool" was one of the more fun pieces of dialogue in the series.

It underscored Tilly's unabashed exuberance (her lack of a filter when she gets really excited about something), and it made Stamets quite a bit more relatable as a person because he, for a moment, shared in Tilly's unchecked exuberance.

The swearing was needed to accentuate that "unchecked exuberance".