A redshirt is always a redshirt. It's not the color of the uniform, it's the way of life (or death as the case may be)
Spoilers Let’s talk about the destruction of Trek utopia…
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Indeed. Frankly, it's low stakes storytelling if I know that people are always going to survive. Which is fine for some stories, because I can appreciate that it is about the journey. But, if I know they will be spared day in and day out then it becomes more disposable for me to participate in.
I know its not the only way to tell stories but I definitely appreciate having some personal stakes.
I think people are going to be people, regardless of what century they live in, and you would find the behavior of Picard’s Federation bureaucrats and Romulan secret police/assassins, pie in the sky idealists and anti-Synth religious fanatics, drug addicts and vigilantes as recognizable in the 24th century as you would in first century Rome. Gene Roddenberry’s vision of utopia was always extremely unlikely. I simply have never bought that this is a universe without money or religion or injustice or that things would not eventually fall apart. The center cannot hold. The Federation is a gigantic bureaucracy comprised of planets with competing interests where some people are more equal than others. I sympathized with the Maquis, who were great examples of the problems with the Federation, and with Seven’s Fenris Rangers.
Or anyone they disagree with full stop.
NAZISM is is Authoritarianism + Militarism +Disregard to basic human rights + white supremacy with a mixture of sexism and other bigotry thrown in.
The nearest thing in trek to a NAZI would be the Cardassians.
The Romulans are borderline but lack the sexism and don't seem as heavily military focused.
The "utopianism" is more that humanity has overcome 20th century problems and moves along a new philosophy of unity and cooperation. That doesn't mean a state of perfection has been reached; it just means that a whole new set of challenges has arisen.
The fulcrum of the "utopianism" is the Klingon Federation alliance which is first witnessed in full flourish in TNG. It's the aging Roddenberry now with alot of authority and he presents us with the impossible - a universe in which the war-like Klingons and the Federation have put aside their differences..
Going by the show and the "cruise liner" aesthetic of the Enterprise D, the release of the resources that had otherwise been engaged in the Klingon Cold War has forged a Federation of almost uncontested strength creating a safe Federation and within which a comfortable stability has been forged.
Naturally as TNG progresses, writers want to create conflict and so we see the Romulans return, putting the Federation on the defensive. Romulan plots are always bubbling in the background as the Romulans are set upon breaking their political isolation, wrecking the Fed/Klingon alliance with the aftereffect of wrecking the Federation's "utopian" equilibrium which had been built. An anxious Federation on the defensive against several powers would disturb that equilibrium.
Then the borg arrive and score several near misses and suddenly we have militaristic projects like the "Defiant" and Admirals with genocidal intentions. Seems like all the instability and the feeling of being violated/vulnerability has ended the sense of "utopianism".
So we have the post-Dominion War circumstances (the changeling threat even having created a brief military dictatorship) but it isn't too long until Romulus explodes creating chaos and then the synths apparent "betrayal" within the heart of the Federation creating a very pessimistic unFederation Federation.
So we arrive with Star Trek Picard and a Picard that remembers the old Federation, he remembers the selflessness and goes on a journey as much as anything to recover the Federation's "heart". The "utopianism" is absent from the Federation on this show but lives on in the show within Picard himself.
The fulcrum of the "utopianism" is the Klingon Federation alliance which is first witnessed in full flourish in TNG. It's the aging Roddenberry now with alot of authority and he presents us with the impossible - a universe in which the war-like Klingons and the Federation have put aside their differences..
Going by the show and the "cruise liner" aesthetic of the Enterprise D, the release of the resources that had otherwise been engaged in the Klingon Cold War has forged a Federation of almost uncontested strength creating a safe Federation and within which a comfortable stability has been forged.
Naturally as TNG progresses, writers want to create conflict and so we see the Romulans return, putting the Federation on the defensive. Romulan plots are always bubbling in the background as the Romulans are set upon breaking their political isolation, wrecking the Fed/Klingon alliance with the aftereffect of wrecking the Federation's "utopian" equilibrium which had been built. An anxious Federation on the defensive against several powers would disturb that equilibrium.
Then the borg arrive and score several near misses and suddenly we have militaristic projects like the "Defiant" and Admirals with genocidal intentions. Seems like all the instability and the feeling of being violated/vulnerability has ended the sense of "utopianism".
So we have the post-Dominion War circumstances (the changeling threat even having created a brief military dictatorship) but it isn't too long until Romulus explodes creating chaos and then the synths apparent "betrayal" within the heart of the Federation creating a very pessimistic unFederation Federation.
So we arrive with Star Trek Picard and a Picard that remembers the old Federation, he remembers the selflessness and goes on a journey as much as anything to recover the Federation's "heart". The "utopianism" is absent from the Federation on this show but lives on in the show within Picard himself.
Calling solving social problems "utopian" reads to me like giving up, ascribing solving those problems to a fantasy future. Utopia, as a concept, is explicitly perfect.
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And that's the reason I'll quit watching new SF-shows and most of other series as well. Not to mention all those sword-waiving clowns.Actually, I was thinking of such a thread. Spin the wheel and kill a cast member!
Finally, FINALLY, we have Trek were we don't know for a fact that any given character will survive whatever peril they are in. Kind-of like GoT, which was a very good show for first seven seasons, one of the reasons being, who da hell knows who will survive!
I hate all those doom-and-gloom blood spatter crap series with it's one-dimensional and worthless characters played by actors who can't act themselves out of their toilets.
Well, utopia means perfection by definition Unless I'm discovering a whole new definition I was previously unaware of.
That's why I don't watch those. Good thing PIC and DSC are not that
I've got to say, the first two episodes of DS9's sixth season are darker than the first six episodes of PIC combined.
But with DS9, it's "okay" because it came out in the '90s and has now achieved Honored Old Show Immunity Status, complete with rose-tinted shades to gaze through. "But that was different!" It always is.
But with DS9, it's "okay" because it came out in the '90s and has now achieved Honored Old Show Immunity Status, complete with rose-tinted shades to gaze through. "But that was different!" It always is.
HOSIS?
As long as it happened in the past it is definitely OK...no need to question it. It just works!
This is pretty much how I feel. The destruction of the Utopia was complete long ago and was barely even a reality to begin with. It was a stated aim of DS9’s creator. The criticisms thrown at new shows are generally very lazy and, actually, just rehashings of criticisms of thrown at shows that have now finished when they were airing. Ah, Trekkies... what can you do.
Not HOSHI??
Where's the cream filling?
Are the criticisms of PIC saying that the depiction of the Federation in TNG was a utopia? Most of the time I hear the term "utopia" it's usually as a criticism of other people's complaints about PIC's depiction of the Federation.
yes, oh yes they do. they do it so much.
Absolutely. I've even seen some saying Trek as a whole depicted a utopia, which is even more ridiculous.
Yes.
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