One thing that makes me sad....

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

I mean it's great they we may finally be getting epic Trek film nwe've never gotten before with effects, character interaction, moral dillemmas and good acting, with the studio actually having confidence in the film but...

I was perusing a thread in GEN TREK about the Cardassians, and how their status is ambiguous.. not black and white, neither villains nor heroes, yet both as well, and how they make the TREKverse a more challenging

the point is i find the Trek more challenging when it doesnt involve new tech that can drill singularities into planets, or when people are not giving advice to younger selves. I hated reading novels like Cloak and Rogue because they involved new technology that could literally destroy the universe. thats why people tended to hate BTTF2 when Doc said that the universe itself could be destroyed and automatically people put a red flag and no longer buy the story anymore. Fortunately Doc's manic delivey of that speech reminded us that it could be taken as a joke. But when Trek writers are going around "cheating" in their own universe instead of using the dramatic possibilities aleady there it bugs me

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Oh, the Cardassians were as clearly villainous as any group of actual people can be if one observes them long enough. At base, they were resurrected TOS Klingons. That said, they were portrayed as individuals rather than orcs.

Trek is sophisticated enough as a storytelling environment - and clearly remains so with this film - that the degree to which adversaries might be portrayed with nuance is a matter of a given script, not a pre-imposed limitation of the premise. Hell, even Star Wars was capable of that.

I've never seen villains on Trek, though, that are half as eccentric and individual as those on nuBSG or, say, Buffy The Vampire Slayer.

 

[DaveyNY]

Oh, the Cardassians were as clearly villainous as any group of actual people can be if one observes them long enough. At base, they were resurrected TOS Klingons. That said, they were portrayed as individuals rather than orcs.

OOOooo..... a Cardassian/Klingon Orc... What a great RPG character that would be!

Talk about UUG-LY!!