Do you often wish that you were living in Star Trek now?

The holodeck is the equivalent of television, film, theatre, gaming, and the internet under another name.

 

The OP may be interested in reading the short story, "Beam Us Home," by James Tiptree, Jr. (AKA Alice Sheldon), in which the main character, a Star Trek fan, feels that the reason he doesn't fit into the world is because he's actually a crew member of the USS Enterprise from the future who's been stranded on earth.

 

I'd go tomorrow if I could.

Despite the advances that mankind has made to this point, life is still nasty, brutish and short for most of humanity, and things are probably going to get worse before they get better, if they get better at all.

 

Like many have said above, not for permanent residence...that said, Holodecks, Holosuites, Transporters, Replicators...um, hmmm...now just a darn min-...you know what?!?!?!...I think we need to bring the Star Trek Reality here to OUR lives!...

...except JJ...sorry...

...oh, swear to god, I am watching an episode of "Fringe"' and what to my wondering eyes did appear but, in a street scene, a LENS FLARE!!!!...ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!

...sorry...I am better now...

 

I've said this many times: If I could live in the Trek time, I would choose to be a civilian freighter captain in the 22nd century. I'd love one of those Y-class freighters. That'd probably fit my personality the best.

There was a rumor that Rasmussen would show up on ENT, at a time prior to his stealing the time pod. We would even learn that he and Archer were roommates at MIT.

 

Humans fight wars with alien powers. But other than the Dominion there hasn't been a serious threat to Earth itself since what, the Romulan War? Humans aren't murdering each other anymore. It's too bad they never made any reference to 'Beautiful Somalia' to hammer that point home and instead mostly referenced places on Earth that are relatively peaceful in present day.

The Federation in the 24th century are master appeasers, it takes an unappeasable threat like the Dominion to actually cause them to show their fangs. Until Paradise Lost, civilian life on Earth hadn't been interrupted in a long time.

 

I'd go in a second. I'm sick of the shit that goes on in the world today. In the future, Earth is a paradise, plus 24th century medicine.

 

Plus the smug, self-righteous attitude Picard displays along with all this 24th-century paradise?

Yep. I could sure use a transporter, replicator, holodeck, and 24th-century medicine. Clean energy would be nice, too, plus a way to clean up the toxic mess our environment is in.

 

It's like a trade off. Less stress, advanced medicine, longer lives, no strife.

Imagine instantly replicating a big greasy cheeseburger whenever you like-and you can design it to burn calories and be healthy on top of that. You can pig out all the time and nbever worry about getting fat.


OTOH, life on earth as portrayed by TNG seemed very conformist and bland.

Classical music all the time, plays for entertainment, tea is the usual drink-- no rap/rock/contemporary music, soda, or "movies" or anything?

Present life compared to the benefits of Star Trek suck. The internet (though I love it) doesn't help

The lifestyle of the people though, from the way it portrayed, seems really, really bland and conformist.

 

This.

 

That's how it was on TNG (except that Riker occasionally played jazz).

Voyager was a whole different thing. Janeway was a galaxy-class grouch without her coffee. Thanks to Tom Paris and his love for the 20th century, they did have 20th-century stuff on the holodeck, and B'Elanna made him a TV for their quarters. It wasn't unusual for Tom to relax in front of the TV with a tub of popcorn or a pizza.


Actually, there's nothing wrong with having live plays for entertainment. As long as the acting is decent, plays are fine (and singing/dancing, if it's musical theatre).

 

Same here. I'd rather live in Star Trek as shown in TNG.

To hell and back with today.

 

The best kind of wars are foreign wars.

What with the complete absence of gays and all.

There does seem to be a general lack of diversity, maybe they "evolved" beyond the need for that particular form of freedom. The ability make your own choices, to control your own life, your own destiny.

Jean-Luc Picard: " That kind of control is an illusion."

 

And there's the rub. ST: IV is one of my guilty pleasures, but it played with time travel in much the same way. I can give Scotty a pass for giving Nichols the keys to transparent aluminium, because maybe the reason he sought out Nichols in the first place was because he DID come up with the formula. Being a very knowledgeable engineer, Scotty knew it and he was just screwing with McCoy.

But Kirk allowing Gillian to come back with them was completely inexcusable. The same goes for keeping Rasmussen in the 24th Century. Maybe Dr Taylor thought she had nothing to stick around for in the mid 80's, but what if she was supposed to meet and marry Michael Cochran in 1990 and have a son who goes on to marry a woman 15 years his junior in 2020 and 10 years later they give birth to their son Zephram? What if Rasmussen was supposed to eventually marry, have a child who has a child that give birth to a little girl they name Winona? I guess George Kirk would just be SOL, right?

I know the examples are extreme, small universe and all. But they are meant to be to make my point. The term Butterfly Effect exists for a reason. One small tweak to the timeline can cause a cascade of unintended consequences. The one time Trek really got this right was Tapestry(EDIT: That is strictly from Picard's existence. The reality is, if Picard had taken the other path, the entire crew of the E-D would have been different, not just Picard's position). To remove an entire person from the timeline? The possibilities are mind numbing.

Awesome. Max Headroom and Sam Beckett as roommates.

But seriously, that could have been an interesting episode.

 

V'ger and the Whale Probe?

 

And, everyone pretty much has to stay with their own kind...unless you're an (human female, specifically Asian woman) and (human male, specifically white male).

It definitely gives an interesting perspective on the supposed 'utopia' the Trek franchise is supposed to uphold. Even the Abramsverse seems to be questionable, even though it's technologically advanced...with it's 'peace-keeping armada.'

 

But viewing it from the 24th century, Rasmussen had likely disappeared from their history in the late-22nd century. If they sent him back, they would be changing their timeline.

Rasmussen may end up being the one who runs over the woman who would give birth to that little girl named Winona.

Time travel gives me a headache...

 

D'oh! I guess they just needed to turn him over to The Department of Temporal Investigations and let them sort it out.

(On a side note, I forgot the one episode that did it better than Tapestry. Tomorrow Is Yesterday pretty much nailed it.)

My feelings exactly.

 

Wow. You just figured out how to be self righteous about not being self righteous.

What does your analysis of the portrayal of one character have to do with what it is like to live in the 24th century in general? We have similar attitudes today about people's behavior from centuries ago.

Or did you just randomly interject this into an unrelated conversation because you like talking smugly about Picard's smugness?

I tend to think the apparent blandness on Earth is production fail rather than an indication of actual boringness. I tend to think life for an average family on Earth is more like the holodeck family Torres programmed for the Doc.

 

I give DS9 (later episodes) Enterprise and Voyager credit with making humans seem more contemporary.

Now plays and theater can be entertaining, but TNG made it seem like they were only type of entertainment there was.

And with the idea that TV viewing is extinct, it makes you wonder, "exactly what are they getting at?" This is what people do??

And seriously how many times has tea been offered in this universe? No matter how far away, the age or how different the species is, tea is the beverage of choice, the choice of champions.

There's like well over 70 references to this stuff on Trek lol. Where's the soda, the coffee, wine coolers, beer, smoothies, etc, etc, etc...

If you look at the way characters tended to dress and act, especially in thee earlier episodes of TNG, it's right out of the 19th century.

Like the hologram of Leah Brahm ; http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Leah_Brahms?file=Leah_Brahms.jpg

Doesn't it resemble just a little 19th century fashion and hairstyling..

Ok, minor gripes out of the way. But did it ever give anyone watching the feeling they would be out of place in a society that was depicted this way? Enough to pass on it?

Nah !!!