The Next Generation started the (in my opinion, unfortunate) trend of every series revolving around some alien race. In TNG it was Q, which made the mistake of making a "Puck" into a central and dangerous character rather than a simple creator of harmless mischief-- not only does Q end up introducing the Borg to the Federation, but he even endangers all humanity at the end. (And like the Puck in Shakespeare, he makes an ass of Picard).
This led to the "Prophets" or "wormhole aliens" at the center of DS9, with the entire series doing nothing to learn anything about or from them; and of course Voyager had "The Caretaker," while of course Enterprise had the Suliban and "Cold War" aliens.
I have to say that goofy aliens don't relate much to the original premise of "boldly going where no man has gone before--" particularly since Q was a literal clean-lift of Trelane, who was simply an immature child-alien; but ironically, Q accuses humanity of being "a dangerous savage child-race" (right before he proves to be little more an outright immature sadist himself).
Does anyone know about the basis of this obsession with mysterious but inexplicable aliens? Some people seemed to like the thing with Q in TNG, but after that it just got real old, real fast, as Star Trek hit rock bottom when the "Enterprise" finally got cancelled.
In TOS, advanced alien-races were typically wise and profound, as with the Organians or Trelane's parents; meanwhile others tended to have destroyed themselves when they became too powerful beyong their wisdom (as with Sargon or the Talosians-- or indeed, Earth in WWIII, leading to the Prime Directive).
However as I've alluded elsewhere, the franchise seemed to have "jumped the shark" when it began revolving around inexplicably odd super-races that were neither especially wise nor profound, but simply troublesome.
This led to the "Prophets" or "wormhole aliens" at the center of DS9, with the entire series doing nothing to learn anything about or from them; and of course Voyager had "The Caretaker," while of course Enterprise had the Suliban and "Cold War" aliens.
I have to say that goofy aliens don't relate much to the original premise of "boldly going where no man has gone before--" particularly since Q was a literal clean-lift of Trelane, who was simply an immature child-alien; but ironically, Q accuses humanity of being "a dangerous savage child-race" (right before he proves to be little more an outright immature sadist himself).
Does anyone know about the basis of this obsession with mysterious but inexplicable aliens? Some people seemed to like the thing with Q in TNG, but after that it just got real old, real fast, as Star Trek hit rock bottom when the "Enterprise" finally got cancelled.
In TOS, advanced alien-races were typically wise and profound, as with the Organians or Trelane's parents; meanwhile others tended to have destroyed themselves when they became too powerful beyong their wisdom (as with Sargon or the Talosians-- or indeed, Earth in WWIII, leading to the Prime Directive).
However as I've alluded elsewhere, the franchise seemed to have "jumped the shark" when it began revolving around inexplicably odd super-races that were neither especially wise nor profound, but simply troublesome.
