Dragnet.
News Discovery New Character Breakdowns
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None that probably didn’t get cancelled after a few episodes. That’s not how you write a show.
I don't think you're alone in that one, in fact Barclay is an excellent example of my point.
They all are to some extent, naturally, but the emphasis varies. Trek has always tended use the sci fi setting as a means to frame stories rather than driving them a la Asimov
It's not like I'm someone who is totally unable to feel empathy. Probably my favorite episode of Trek of all time is The Visitor, which always brings me to tears. The poignancy of the connection between Benjamin and Jake had great impact when I was Jake's age, and now as an adult with my own children, it has an added dimension as well. Hell, although I don't identify with O'Brien in general at all, I do see some of myself in the parts about his family. But the purpose of the character development is to make us think about the themes of the episode in general, whether it be Kirk being torn between love and the greater good, Picard dealing with the horrors of torture, or Neelix dealing with the terror of oblivion. When the story is done, I'm done with the characters. When I was a child and teenager I sometimes daydreamed about self-insertion into fictional media (including Trek) but I never spent any time thinking about what was happening to the characters when I wasn't around.
I do agree that good character development is necessary to have a good show. Indeed, a few months back I was vocal in my criticism of the diminution of Stamets into a mere plot device in the back half of DIS's first season (when he was my standout favorite in Act 1). However, for me, good character development isn't enough, because if I wanted to deal with complicated human beings in a mundane social setting I'd spend more of my free time socializing rather than watching generic drama.
I would - personally speaking - love a set of "fake documentaries" which take place in the Trekverse, but I know I'm probably in the distinct minority there.
What a bizarre statement.
To chime in on that discussion pretty late:
I don't think having a guy in a wheelchair on Discovery is a good idea. Because Discovery already dropped the ball HARD on this subject once, with the guy in a wheelchair at the party. Who was stil in service, on a starship.
Having a guy in a wheelchair in Star Trek is difficult no matter what, because there are so many things that need to be balanced: Star Trek is both the "perfect" utopian future, where every possible sickness can be cured. But on the other hand, being an astronaut has physical requirements, that simply exclude the people not being able to perform them. Hell, Tuvoc once gave a former Maquis shit because he wasn't athletic enough!
There are already some good eyamples of how people with disabilities were shown on Star Trek:
Imo, putting someone in a wheelchair could work on DIS, they just have to be carefull, and be aware of the following:
I don't think having a guy in a wheelchair on Discovery is a good idea. Because Discovery already dropped the ball HARD on this subject once, with the guy in a wheelchair at the party. Who was stil in service, on a starship.
Having a guy in a wheelchair in Star Trek is difficult no matter what, because there are so many things that need to be balanced: Star Trek is both the "perfect" utopian future, where every possible sickness can be cured. But on the other hand, being an astronaut has physical requirements, that simply exclude the people not being able to perform them. Hell, Tuvoc once gave a former Maquis shit because he wasn't athletic enough!
There are already some good eyamples of how people with disabilities were shown on Star Trek:
- Geordie's Visor was perfect. They never told us what exactly he had, we only knew how severe it was. Depending on how his defect was, a simple grown eye wouldn't have worked. But it was treated like someone wearing glasses - he was still physically capable of performing service on a starship
- The inventor of the transporter, Dr. Erickson, on ENT: He had a beaming accident. That fucks you up on the inside. That the guy was alive was a wonder. Also he wasn't in active service, but a "guest" on the NX-01
- Nog losing his leg: They were able to grew a new one for him, but he was impaired for a period of time. That was perfectly futuristic!
- Cpt. Pike: His problem was his brain. The medicine might have been perfectly capable to give him new legs - he simply couln't use them. That he was able to move around was the miracle, he was physically totally shut-in
- Detmer on DIS (and Seven of Nine on VOY): Both have implants, making destroyed body functions working again.
- The woman that came from a planet with lower gravity on DS9 that Bashir fell in love with and built an exoscelet for. There was so much wrong with that episode, chief among that she wasn't disabled in the first place, but the episode treated is this way anyway
- And the wheelchaired party guy at the party on DIS.
Imo, putting someone in a wheelchair could work on DIS, they just have to be carefull, and be aware of the following:
- The reason for the impairment shouldn't be anything that should by all means be curable in the future.
- The person should not be an active serviceman, but either a) a guest on the ship, or b) there because he alone is capable of doing certain things (like, say, being a master scientist who alone can handle a certain experiment), but otherwise should be excempt from regular service on a starship.
Why exactly?
I mean, take the most mundane setting imaginable with believable, three-dimensional characters. No sci-fi, no zombies or superheroes, nothing "magical." Let's have the people be pretty normal too, so no serial killers, no historical setting, not based around a police force, no mobsters or drug dealers, presidents, etc. Just normal people living out normal lives - except not played up for laughs like on a sitcom.
Once you exclude everything which makes the premise of a show something outside of your daily frame of reference, it's much harder to make a show compelling. I mean, how many top dramas would fit this? Maybe some teen dramas? But those are generally about teenagers who are much richer, better looking, and more popular than the viewer, so the setting isn't fully "mundane" either.
The fact of the matter is a good drama requires not only good characters, but an interesting premise to hold people's interest. For me personally, that includes speculative fiction. YMMV.
You must have watched a different show. McCoy's xenopolycythemia was incurable. Kirk's eye problems couldn't be cured.
How exactly did they drop the ball, hard or otherwise?
There are disabled soldiers on active duty.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23345-2004Nov30.html
https://www.army.mil/article/182626/im_not_disabled_prosthetics_keep_amputee_soldiers_on_active_duty
A show called "This Is Us" has been pretty successful.
JESUS. There was SO. MUCH. WRONG. with your reply, I'm actually contemplating if it was actually meant serious.
A disease - especially an alien one - not being curable is NOT comparable to someone not being able to use their limbs because of a physical defect. Those are entirely different things.
Because he was allergic to the cure. Just because an illness is curable, doesn't mean that cure works for everyone.
Also his physical defect WAS perfectly repaired: He had a pair of glasses. Like a Visor. Just more low-tech.
That was disgusting and exploitative. If you didn't see that, I really would recommend you to work on your social skills.
See how they all can physically perform?
Again, there is nothing wrong with someone in a wheelchair being on active service. I'd applaud that. Just not as an Astronaut, a member of a SWAT team, a rescue climber, or any other purely physical job.
A disease - especially an alien one - not being curable is NOT comparable to someone not being able to use their limbs because of a physical defect. Those are entirely different things.
Because he was allergic to the cure. Just because an illness is curable, doesn't mean that cure works for everyone.
Also his physical defect WAS perfectly repaired: He had a pair of glasses. Like a Visor. Just more low-tech.
That was disgusting and exploitative. If you didn't see that, I really would recommend you to work on your social skills.
See how they all can physically perform?
Again, there is nothing wrong with someone in a wheelchair being on active service. I'd applaud that. Just not as an Astronaut, a member of a SWAT team, a rescue climber, or any other purely physical job.
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Hrrm...looking it up on Wiki now. I had never even heard of it. But I haven't actually owned a TV since 2001, so I generally have no idea what's currently running on broadcast unless I hear about it on forums or somesuch. 90%+ of my viewing is through Netflix or Amazon Prime, with little workarounds for the shows I can't see on either one.
You've just described a soap opera, which funnily enough is an enormously successful mainstream genre.
Hrrm, I'm not sure what you're getting at here. Do you mean that the shot of the guy (I think) in the wheelchair was basically just intended to "show, not tell" the horrors of war by showing someone who had been injured?
IIRC it happened exactly as some sort of speech was made about the sacrifices that everyone had made, which meant it wasn't even show not tell, it was just visual reinforcement.
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Sickness was the word you used. McCoy's ailment is a sickness. I happen to have the non xeno version,
My social skills are fine, Not sure how showing someone in a wheelchair is disgusting and explotive. Please explain. It actually becoming more common to see disabled people on TV, In entertainment and adverts
They aren't astronauts in the modern day sense, They are more akin to sailors, I doubt working on a starship is a "purely physical job". They don't spend their days shoveling coal or rigging sails.Most days they're sitting at a consol pushing buttons, So your analogy doesn't work.
At a party. Where everyone was trying to get laid. On a ship that is on active combat service. It felt demeaning.
I honestly wouldn't have had a problem with the same scene taking place back at home on Earth: Would be a great way to show the people suffering for the Federation are still integrated into regular life. In fact, I was missing that a lot during the speeches in the finale, where every sacrifice was basically forgotten and the veterans hidden away.
But that scene? It didn't do anyone any sort of justice. It was a cheap move to show "inclusiveness", without actually giving the barest thought about the situation or implications. Like putting a black actor in a Confederate uniform in a hitorical movie, just to pander to "the black" audiences, and without actually thinking about the implications of this situation through.
Why?
Exactly. I mentioned having been in a wheelchair 18 years ago. It wasn't because I was paralyzed. There were other medical issues going on. I'm lucky to have had doctors and physiotherapists who figured out what was wrong and were able to help me get as mobile as I am - which is still far short of a normal able-bodied person, but at least I don't need an attendant to get around town anymore, just transportation with a driver who knows how to help mobility-challenged people.
Some disabilities are "invisible" in that it's not immediately obvious to an able-bodied person what the difficulty is. A former premier of my province, many years ago, openly sneered at a voter who asked him if the government would consider raising the disability allowance. When asked about his behavior, he said "They didn't look disabled to me." (this premier is now dead, and may he rot)
Not General Hospital. That show has had aliens, vampire hunters, serial killers, mad scientists, and one of the main families on the show are in the mob.
Oh, there are some normal people on it, too.
Not even remotely the same thing.
You too? We're not a common bunch by any stretch of the imagination, reguler venesection sucks.....
Because people in wheelchairs can't get laid? Should they stay at home and be dignified but unproductive and sterile?
My question exactly.
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