Spoilers Let’s talk about the destruction of Trek utopia…

[The Old Mixer]

The future is left for us to write. And we have powerful tools...openness, optimism, and the spirit of curiosity. All they have is secrecy and fear, and fear is the great destroyer.​

Anyone who thinks that's all doom and gloom should do themselves a favor and just stop watching.

 

[Lynx]

Because its not all dystopia, despite that being the buzzword nowadays.


And this right here is why it can never satisfy (Cue Rolling Stones). There is no satisfaction if we are constantly comparing past products to today. Oh, if only it was like "back in my day" when TV was good and fun, and we didn't have all this doom and gloom. Granted it wasn't great for every demographic but it was great for someone!

Yeah, a little bit of hyperbole. But, that is how it comes across. It is taking all contemporary production and tossing it in to the trash bin labeled "Not my entertainment."

That's not destruction. That's an overreaction by a huge margin.

These are not just robots who mindlessly churn out mass entertainment that is cookie cutter. These are people with their own artistic imaginations, and visions. And reimagining something is not destruction.

"Doom and gloom?" I'm sorry that I want characters to actually go through challenges and crises. That's what I deal with in my life even if not on the same scale. I like seeing characters who actually are struggling, who need help, or maybe fail from time to time.

Yes, it is uncomfortable. And you know what? I want that. I'm tired of being told that there is this happy world where no problems exist and if they do they can be solved within 45 minutes. That there is a freedom from consequences, a freedom where we can just runaway from our problems because nothing bad will ever happen again.

That's a fantasy world. And that's fine for me when I was younger. And that's fine if I am with my children. But, Picard isn't for my kids;it's for people like me who struggle, and fight, and failed, and faced depression and anxiety on the daily because life is hard. It's the kind of optimism that I have had in spite of all the evidence to the contrary. That there is light even when I can't see it.

Give me those stories. If I need the safe stories I know where to find them.

You actually did hit the nail on the head there even if it wasn't your intention.

You see, in my daily life I see this doom-and-gloom everywhere, I "struggle fight and fail just like everybody else, I face depression and anxiety on the daily because life is hard" just as you wrote. I guess it's the same for all of us.

And sometimes I just get tired of it and want to relax with something exciting and entertaining and not have those daily fights and all that rammed down my throat constantly.

I think that people need some time and space away from the daily doom-and-gloom. Look at the 60's and 70's when people faced nuclear extinction but still managed tocome up with great music, movies and such. it was like "OK, we might die tomorrow but let us live today" and I guess that it was more healthy and constructive because it gave peoiple hope,like "OK,if we do happen to survive, then there might be a great future waiting".

Today, there's no such hope and I do fear that all that doom-and.gloom will be self-fulfilling if it continue.

And as for Star Trek, I just don't like when they screw up established Trek history and destroy establisghed Trek planets, species and main characters from better times.

 

[Greg Cox]

Look at the 60's and 70's when people faced nuclear extinction but still managed tocome up with great music, movies and such. it was like "OK, we might die tomorrow but let us live today" and I guess that it was more healthy and constructive because it gave peoiple hope,like "OK,if we do happen to survive, then there might be a great future waiting"..

To be fair, the 60s and 70s were also the time of THE TWILIGHT ZONE and THE OUTER LIMITS and THE INVADERS and PLANET OF THE APES and THE OMEGA MAN and SOYLENT GREEN and LOGAN'S RUN and THE ROAD WARRIOR and ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, etc. Post-atomic wastelands, many set in the 1990s, were a cliche.

Dystopias are nothing new. Kinda of depends of which show and movies you gravitated to.

How many classic TZ eps took World War III for granted?

 

[Nerys Myk]

I think that people need some time and space away from the daily doom-and-gloom. Look at the 60's and 70's when people faced nuclear extinction but still managed tocome up with great music, movies and such. it was like "OK, we might die tomorrow but let us live today" and I guess that it was more healthy and constructive because it gave peoiple hope,like "OK,if we do happen to survive, then there might be a great future waiting".

Today, there's no such hope and I do fear that all that doom-and.gloom will be self-fulfilling if it continue.

Bull Shit.
How old were you in the 60s and 70s? There was a lot of crap back then. Just as much as there is now.
It wasn't all Woodstock and love ins either.

 

[cooleddie74]

The happy, Reagan Era 1980s were also the decade that gave us The Day After and David Cronenberg films. Even Trek back then wasn't happy and utopian.

I mean, come on, Spock's half-brother went looking for God and got killed by an alien entity who looked like Willie Nelson after too many bong hits. That wasn't happy Trek.

 

[Greg Cox]

Heck, even in STAR TREK, remember Roberta Lincoln explaining that her generation was so crazy because they didn't think they were going to live to see the future, what with the threat of nuclear war and all? Not to mention JFK being assassinated, and MLK, and RFK . . . .

Real life was not "The Brady Bunch."

 

[Nerys Myk]

The happy, Reagan Era 1980s were also the decade that gave us The Day After and David Cronenberg films. Even Trek back then wasn't happy and utopian.

I mean, come on, Spock's half-brother went looking for God and got killed by an alien entity who looked like Willie Nelson after too many bong hits. That wasn't happy Trek.

So regular Willie Nelson, then?

 

[Nerys Myk]

Heck, even in STAR TREK, remember Roberta Lincoln explaining that her generation was so crazy because they didn't think they were going to live to see the future, what with the threat of nuclear war and all? Not to mention JFK being assassinated, and MLK, and RFK . . . .

Real life was not "The Brady Bunch."

Riots in the streets. Kent State. Stonewall. Manson Murders...

 

[Greg Cox]

Riots in the streets. Kent State. Stonewall. Manson Murders...

The Cuban Missile Crisis. Viet Nam.

Every generation thinks the good old days were better before the world went went to hell. A while back I was watching an old 1932 movie in which a disillusioned World War I vet and a cynical showgirl lamented how crass and commercial the modern world had become . . . .

 

[Nerys Myk]

The Cuban Missile Crisis. Viet Nam.

Where's Billy Joel?

 

[Bornin1980something]

The Cuban Missile Crisis. Viet Nam.

...S-S-Saigon!

 

[cooleddie74]

Where's Billy Joel?

Judging from the way he looks? Underneath Darth Vader's helmet.

 

[fireproof78]

Today, there's no such hope and I do fear that all that doom-and.gloom will be self-fulfilling if it continue.

Bullshit.

You have to look for it, but trust me the 60s and 70s were mired in depression and doom and gloom too. They just found ways to survive.

What people don't know is that quality of living has improved in the overall world, among other positives. But, happiness doesn't fall in one's lap. One does need to seek it out.

And, no, I don't want escapism anymore. Sick to death of it. Escapism never improved my depression or my anxiety.

And as for Star Trek, I just don't like when they screw up established Trek history and destroy establisghed Trek planets, species and main characters from better times.

What's been destroyed, exactly? Did TNG Klingons become DSC Klingons and I didn't notice? What has been destroyed?

 

[Lord Garth]

The mid-1980s: The Enterprise was destroyed, Kirk's son who he just reunited with was mercilessly killed, Starfleet was a bureaucracy that couldn't or wouldn't get anything done, Kirk and his crew were wanted by the Federation, and Kirk himself was labelled a "renegade" and a "terrorist" by the Klingons.

But you know what the thing was about the 1980s? They made even the worst things seem happy and cheery. Listen to the songs. "Jump" is about suicide. "Every Breath You Take" is about a stalker. "Obsession" is about someone who's unhealthily obsessed with an infatuation. I can go on. They all sound like feel good songs but, when you listen to the lyrics, they're really not.

Even the cartoons. GI Joe was about fighting terrorists. They just called them "Cobra". Transformers? The Autobots were the Americans and the Decepticons were the Russians. They were mentally trying to condition kids in case the Cold War with the Soviets ever turned hot. In almost every cartoon I watched as a kid, there was always at least one enemy with a Russian accent.

It's the '90s that was the oddball time. Not the other way around. There was the way things were from the end of WWII all the way up through the 1980s, there's the way things have been since 2001... and then there was the '90s, which were this relatively quiet time in-between.

 

[donners22]

No, the hook is reconnecting with a established character that we know.

And we have that. The difference is that he’s now older, in a different environment and having undergone some additional experiences. That doesn’t make him a new character, it’s an evolution.

I just don’t understand why people would expect or want a static character. You can get that by rewatching episodes or reading novels (at least the earlier ones; the relaunch books do far more of a disservice to characters than the new shows do). Picard is not TNG season 8, nor should it ever have been.

 

[The Old Mixer]

"I'll Be Watching You" is about a stalker.

Did you mean "Every Breath You Take" by the Police?

 

[Lord Garth]

Did you mean "Every Breath You Take" by the Police?

Yeah. Fixed that.

 

[The Old Mixer]

From 1967, "The Summer of Love":

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[fireproof78]

Did you mean "Every Breath You Take" by the Police?

Doesn't matter the title. Still creepy. Use to hear it on the store radio when I worked retail. There are some creepy songs that pass as easy listening.

 

[Noname Given]

The Cuban Missile Crisis. Viet Nam.

Every generation thinks the good old days were better before the world went went to hell. A while back I was watching an old 1932 movie in which a disillusioned World War I vet and a cynical showgirl lamented how crass and commercial the modern world had become . . . .

And as for political party strife - there was the Democatic Party convention riots in 1968. (That's for all the folks who claim "Oh, the political parties were less polarized too back then...") U.S. politics has always been somewhat of a shitshow EVERY decade.