I don't know why, but "rape gangs" almost sounds comical. Thus we risk trivializing something that in real life is serious and traumatic.
Moments on TNG that make you cringe.
- Thread starter ED-209
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The problem with the anti-drug speech is that it has *absolutely* nothing to do with the drug story in that actual episode and it sounds exactly like an after school PSA instead of sounding like Tasha Yar (Wesley also sounds nothing like himself in that scene).
It's painfully obvious it has nothing to do with the episode and no reason to exist in that episode other than because the people in charge were afraid of being attacked by parents or politicians if they made a drug episode that didn't include a 'Just Say No' stand-in for the kids.
Unfortunately, this was 80's television. They couldn't be too graphic. One of the books described Tasha's encounter with one, and her subsequent rescue by the Federation. The attackers found out that the weapons they were trying to use on Tasha weren't much good against phaser fire. It wasn't graphic, but it wasn't easy to read.
It is telling that civilization of a sort returned to Tasha's world after she was gone. Though it still seemed like a lousy place to live.
I think the novel you are talking about was TNG's Survivors, their 4th book. It was the last that took place during the first season, with Strike Zone being set during the second season.
Troi's orgasmic experience with a chocolate sundae in "The Game" is a bit WTF.
I dunno, chocolate sundaes are pretty good.
I've always found numerous Troi behaviors kind of cringy. Let's not even get into how she's always nosing in on people's romantic lives. Instead, this one just rubs me wrong. Now, I know Riker can be a bit of a blowhard sometimes (subsequent pun intended) but he's the 1st officer, & is still congenial enough to join in on music sessions in 10-Forward, even being a somewhat novice, which is a thing a lot of command staff would never let themselves be seen doing (I'm looking at you Picard)
And what does she do in Second Chances? She gets all gussied up & drags Crusher down there to deliberately request a song she KNOWS he has had difficulty playing, just to see him publicly fail at it. Interestingly, in the earlier script on st-minutiae.com, Beverly "Dis-invites" Troi to a dance recital of hers right after seeing that... because who wants someone like that at their public performance? a friend... more than a friend, wants to see you publicly embarrassed in front of your peers & subordinates.
It's clearly there to just make a funny moment & I'm the 1st to admit Riker can use getting taken down a peg now & then, but not when he's being genuinely nice enough to socialize & participate with the crew, in ways that show him to be a good guy, when most others wouldn't do that. It's just mean. Sometimes I feel like she's the most subtly elitist of them all.
Oops sorry... back-to-back posts, cuz I thought of another one. I've always objected to Lwaxana interfering in Worf's (Albeit godawful) parenting of Alexander. It hasn't aged well imho. Mind your business, lady. It's a kid & it ain't your kid... & even if anyone did care, you're not exactly a model parent yourself to be judging others.
Lwaxana having a mud bath with a prepubescent boy. Disgusting. She might as well have been asking Alexander if he hangs around gymnasiums. Or if he likes movies about gladiators.
Definitely out of the ordinary; not since season 1's "Justice" was anything overt. Only this time it's only verbosity, and not showing people oiling each other up but without the climax involving an electrical wire.
IMHO, it's more akin to ASMR, Trek's first example of using descriptions of food to achieve the effect. DS9 and VOY has it without any overt sexual connotations or double entendres that Troi unwittingly uttered, about spooning around the rim and so on... yeah, the original outing with her was a bit cringe. This isn't "Star Troi: The Next Chocolate Affair". Imagine seven seasons of just that... the Borg would be the ultimate villain since it's a growing blob of goo...
TOS season 2 was scrambling to find ways to save on budget, with 1920s Gangster Planet and Roman Toga Party Planet and Planet of the Backlot With the Ripped Burlap and Constitution and so on being the result. Each time the crew are amaaaaaaazed at how it's just like teh Earth! It all got ridiculous. Interspersing planetary adventures with bottle episodes probably would have worked better; season 3 succeeded more often with that measure...
Be glad they didn't have a traditional Betazoid wedding. All participants, including the guests, are naked.
Betazoids don't have the same hangups about nudity that some humans do.
Don't give a damn. Still inappropriate.
That's fine. The point of this topic is what makes you cringe. And that varies from person to person.
I just found it really unlikely that a kid Alexander's age would be so much into mud baths. I mean when I think of myself at that age just sitting around in a basin filled with warm mud would have sounded like the most boring thing in the world to me. Couldn't the writers think of an activity that was more likely to be enjoyable to the average kid? I get it had to be something that could easily be done in a sound stage, but still.. They already had the funnily dressed "artist" aliens, so why not have Lwaxana take Alexander to some sort of fair? Was it really just for that brief shot of Troi sitting in the mud, implied to be naked, in the last scene?
Which is why I say changing her reference to them to more general drug cartels or organized crime gangs, or marauders or generic "street gangs" or really anything that still implies without outright stating would have been better.
But that's the thing...they were writing a mid/late-80s general audience show. So they were never going to be able to treat the subject with the seriousness it would have required.
Which is why I say changing her reference to them to more general drug cartels or organized crime gangs, or marauders or generic "street gangs" or really anything that still implies without outright stating would have been better.
Nazis in TV shows weren't very shocking in the mid eighties. I’m not even sure how shocking they were in the sixties, but by the mid eighties they were staple kiddies villains in stuff like Indiana Jones.
