A good reason to hate Trek?

[Cyke101]

That's one of the things I hated about ENT! In the first place, humans couldn't afford to go pissing off more powerful aliens. They should have been cautious to the point of paranoia. Also, Archer pissed people off because he was stupid, which is never something you want to see in a main character.

I suppose it could be looked at as something of a challenge... despite Archer pissing off superpowerful aliens, Humanity has managed to come through. What does that mean?

Oh, that the galaxy will just barely tolerate us and think we're a nuisance... until we take over the Alpha Quadrant. Mwahaha.

 

[Triskelion]

It's not the aggression. It's not class. Not fear and mistrust and race. It's that humanity laid down it's baser instincts and started pulling together. Started telling each other the truth. Started learning how to overcome prejudice and woodenheaded conceits. The point is, for us to reach a state of enlightened peace, we have to embrace peace. If people today can't imagine themselves ever giving up aggression and competition and mistrust, that says more about them then it does about human potential.

Further, what wins out, in this fictional future, is intelligent perception and dialogue and harmony. NOT hegemony.

People willingly surrendered their conceit in favor of learning and open-mindedness - which is something many of us humans can't even conceive at present. And in the Trek universe, intelligence has elevated us. Post-TNG was just an appeal to our current sensibilities and ratings.

Change does happen. Social progress can be made -has been made - that is the point of Trek. To give up without trying is to squander one's intelligence and potential, and to neglect one's accountability for one's choices.

Choices.

 

[Antihero]

Honey, you really need to get out more!

I've tried that.....it just doesn't work for me. Real women are cruel heartless creatures who won't hesitate to ruin your life. I find the downloadable ones to be much safer.

 

[kv1at3485]

While 'hate' is too strong a word, one big reason to dislike, or at least be wary of, Trek is that it portrays a future where people everywhere have stopped thinking. That alone undermines any ideas that Trek portrays an "enlightened" future.

 

[TheProphet]

Let's be serious ! Is there a bad reason to hate trek ?

 

[ButT SekS]

Let's be serious ! Is there a bad reason to hate trek ?

What kind of asshole posts at a trek board if they hate trek?

 

[Rÿcher]

Let's be serious ! Is there a bad reason to hate trek ?

What kind of asshole posts at a trek board if they hate trek?

QFT

I love Trek. It'll always have a special place in my heart.

but

It is getting old and stale. I can only watch Next Gen so many times.

See, I was the type to wear t-shirts and flash people the live long and prosper salute and quote lines in the typical social retard non-sequitus way. I got to thinking why I didn't have a date for the prom or why I hadn't been laid yet. Then it occurred to me, I was too much of a geek. I toned it down a lot and lo and behold, I got laid.

 

[Triskelion]

While 'hate' is too strong a word, one big reason to dislike, or at least be wary of, Trek is that it portrays a future where people everywhere have stopped thinking. That alone undermines any ideas that Trek portrays an "enlightened" future.

You mean they have stopped thinking of themselves first.

 

[kv1at3485]

While 'hate' is too strong a word, one big reason to dislike, or at least be wary of, Trek is that it portrays a future where people everywhere have stopped thinking. That alone undermines any ideas that Trek portrays an "enlightened" future.

You mean they have stopped thinking of themselves first.

Not at all. Their 'enlightenment' has come at the cost of original thinking. I cannot imagine how an entire galactic metacivilization could end up living in such an archaic manner. Like so many tech fantasies, technology has had surprisingly little effect on their culture. Either they really are all that stupid or complacent, or there's some malicious supression going on.

The most obvious demonstration of this atrophy of thought can be seen in the Dominion War. Perhaps during peacetime they could get away with such a primitive utilization of their technology to complement their own dogma and lipservce. But one would expect in such a life and death struggle (at least the guys in the UFP viewed it as an existential threat) the brain cells would start chugging. it didn't happen. The same brain dead way of going about things persisted.

 

[Triskelion]

The point is, they aren't us.

 

[K'Ehleyr]

Honey, you really need to get out more!

I've tried that.....it just doesn't work for me. Real women are cruel heartless creatures who won't hesitate to ruin your life. I find the downloadable ones to be much safer.

I waited 39 years for my perfect man. It does happen, don't be bitter, be friendly! All luck to you.

 

[Rÿcher]

why are people in such a hurry to be miserable?

 

[asdf1]

Interesting topic, a little depressing as well.

It's a TV show, lighten up.

 

[Brutal Strudel]

It's a socialist utopia.

But the thing is, within any utopia there is always some sort of fascist price to pay. And that means keepiong the unwanted people out.

That's one of the things I find highly unrealistic about Trek, is that humanity is incapable of overcoming it's petty jealousies and xenophobia.

I hate when people trot this nugget out

As I've explained before, Utopianism is all relative, Europe would be a utopia compared to someone from Somalia, our time would be a utopia compared to the 15th century.
When dictators set out to create a utopia it usually ends in disaster, but it's not the goal that made them dictators, it's that they were already dictators.
Nowhere in the show did they show a historical figure saying they wanted to create a utopia, just that the current federation consider themselves a uptopia comapred to the nasty places humanity has been in the past, and they'd be right.

Even with all our problems today, we could make the same claim in relation to 400 years previously, theres nothing wrong with setting aspirations for ourselves.

As for us overcoming our problems, we've overcome dozens of others why not poverty and xenaphobia? If you told someone 500 years ago we'd have the internet, no slavery, social welfare, the internet, universal sufferage etc they'd have thought you were insane.

Try to zoom out people, don't look at our poitential future through the context of our own time.

That is a very intelligent post--brilliant, even.

I love Star Trek--TOS, at least. I like DS9 but never much cared for ENT or VOY. When I was in college, I was very fond of TNG but I'n not so crazy for it now.

The only people who hate Trek whose opinions I give a rat's ass for are people like the late Thomas Disch, who see it as naive and simplistic science fiction.

 

[Lynx]

I can't see any reason for hating Trek. It's a good show with good, exciting episodes, good characters and a good premise for a posible future.

What we need in the troubled world of today are positive messages, visions of a better future and characters to look up to and have as role models. Trek has all that.

By the way, episodes like "The Gift" and "Fury" annoyed me and made me almost lose my interst for the show but it never made me start hating Star Trek because all that was good with the different series were still there.

 

[Therin of Andor]

The only people who hate Trek whose opinions I give a rat's ass for are people like the late Thomas Disch, who see it as naive and simplistic science fiction.

Actually, I'm reading "The Dreams Our Stuff is Made Of" at the moment, and he was critical of others who saw ST as naive and simplistic, and quotes at least one critic, Peter Nicholls - and calls his opinions about ST "bile"!

I didn't get that Disch shared that opinion.

 

[Jeri]

I've read a lot of alleged alien encounters. My impression is that real contact with alien civilization will be more like Spielberg's WOTW, and it will never, ever be like Trek.

Here is where I think you are going astray. In recent interviews, astronaut Dr. Edgar Mitchell specifically said this view is incorrect.

wcbstv.com:

...He also said that other movies, like "War of the Worlds," got it wrong.

"It's not hostile," Mitchell said. "It's pretty obvious that if it were hostile, we'd have been gone by now..."

I'm a UFO buff myself -- have read a number of books on the various aspects of the subject; listened to a lot of Wendy Connors's "Faded Discs" audio cd's (UFO archivist of historic interviews and radio shows, as well as the NUFORC reporting tapes); subscribe to the UFO Updates daily mailing list and their podcasts -- and I came to the same conclusion as Mitchell. I think if they are here, and were they hostile, we'd be history already. (Unless, of course, we are livestock, and they are our caretakers.)

 

[ambelamba]

I think the livestock analogy perfectly fits.

I've read a lot of alleged alien encounters. My impression is that real contact with alien civilization will be more like Spielberg's WOTW, and it will never, ever be like Trek.

Here is where I think you are going astray. In recent interviews, astronaut Dr. Edgar Mitchell specifically said this view is incorrect.

wcbstv.com:

...He also said that other movies, like "War of the Worlds," got it wrong.

"It's not hostile," Mitchell said. "It's pretty obvious that if it were hostile, we'd have been gone by now..."

I'm a UFO buff myself -- have read a number of books on the various aspects of the subject; listened to a lot of Wendy Connors's "Faded Discs" audio cd's (UFO archivist of historic interviews and radio shows, as well as the NUFORC reporting tapes); subscribe to the UFO Updates daily mailing list and their podcasts -- and I came to the same conclusion as Mitchell. I think if they are here, and were they hostile, we'd be history already. (Unless, of course, we are livestock, and they are our caretakers.)

 

[Star Treks]

Star Trek is a generally optimistic vision, but using that as a reason to hate it is like saying that you don't like Picasso's paintings because they don't look like real people. It might be a reason YOU don't like it, but it is not a good reason to hate it. Star Trek is about combining entertainment with a vision of the future where most people generally strive for happiness and the common good. I'm sorry this bothers so many people, but I appreciate the message, and I do believe in its possibility of happening, albeit perhaps not in the same timeframe as depicted on the show. Obviously, Trek is doing a lot of stuff right or we wouldn't be discussing it right now.

 

[Jeri]

I think the livestock analogy perfectly fits.

But it's a wery nice gilded cage. Just kidding. I think there's more to it than a livestock relationship, if it's the case. I still enjoy Star Trek; they are very human stories, which is a good thing to celebrate.