Have you ever given up on a Trek series? If so, what was the last straw for you?

[fireproof78]

Yup, agreed. You can't levy the argument of "well, people talked differently 500 years ago, so why should people in the future talk like us today" when that's exactly what the franchise has always done. Television is written for contemporary audiences. If you tried to extrapolate what future English might sound like, it would be so incomprehensible that the first note from the network would be to "lose the archaic language and make it so people can understand."

Whenever I read about slang I'm like, "did people not think about ink wells and pay checks" as something no longer existing in that era? Like, why is that acceptable in TOS/TNG/DS9/VOY but the moment newer Trek inserts it it is distracting?

Honestly, we utilize phrases that are derived from a wide variety of sources over the decades and millennium

Getting back to the original topic, it dawns on me that I have still never watched TAS in its entirety.

I think it's great and worth at least one watch.

 

[Greg Cox]

That's interesting. Since novels are considered non-canon also, what harm would there be in referencing another non-canon source?

The books need to be consistent with the TV continuity -- whatever that happens to be at the time.

That's just part of the approval process, regardless of what franchise you're talking about.

(In other words, not just a Trek thing.)

 

[bdub76]

The same way "slag" was a good fake slur on the Alien Nation series. It had the right sort of ugly sound for a slur.

It worked well.

I binged all of Alien Nation last year. It holds up.

 

[bdub76]

The second I heard the theme to “Enterprise.” I could never ever take the show seriously. Nope.

I actually liked the theme song. No idea why. Maybe because it was so different than what came before it.

 

[The Wormhole]

People today do not speak the same as people did 500 years ago and it is ridiculous to think people 500 years in the future will speak the same as people do today.

However, if you were watching something set 500 years ago, the characters are very likely talking like people today do, simply because people of today are the ones watching it, it should be something they can follow. Hell, the show Reign, set in th 16the century included modern day pop music within the show's narrative.

Simply because they weren't dropping f-bombs doesn't mean that they were using language that contemporary audiences could not decipher.

Of course it was decipherable. The problem with the dialogue in TNG, or really all the Berman era was that it was too stiff and formal to the point of alienating some people. 90s Trek was the kind of show which would call a spade a soil blade as opposed to simply calling it a spade. Indeed, Ron Moore later complained this gave things an unnatural feel to him and was a factor in why he took the approach he did with BSG.

Indeed, I'd go so far as to say the "anti-Trek" sentiment that defined sci-fi television of the 2000s was in reaction to this. Stargate, Nu BSG, modern Doctor Who, these are sci-fi shows which endured in an era where sci-fi was trying to distance itself from being Star Trek and they all had their characters talking and acting in a way modern audiences could relate to. Even Star Trek itself took notice of this fact, which is why all Trek produced since these shows had their heyday has also had the characters talking and acting in a manner modern audiences could relate to. Hell, Star Trek might actually kicked off this trend, as Enterprise predates Nu BSG and modern Doctor Who. Stargate does predate Enterprise, though Stargate's popularity was only just starting to kick off when Enterprise premiered.