Sorry, I know this is a little bit off the topic of the thread, but it did come up here. I was just curious, for those of you who prefer to interpret Star Trek as being specifically in our future, what makes that an important element for you?
Just from my personal perspective, I watch and read a fair bit of fiction where the characters' history is not "our" history, but that doesn't prevent me from emotionally engaging with the characters or their stories. So it isn't a concern for me at all that the Star Trek characters' world did not experience the same history that our real world did, and I am still able to be heavily invested in their stories. But I am interested in hearing any thoughts about the opposite viewpoint.
Well, when I was a kid, I initially got attracted to the "our future" idea in contrast to Star Wars (which I did NOT like). I found the Trek stories so meaty and compelling and interesting, and they really made me think about our world today and where it could go in the future. Trek was instrumental in building my value system, and I don't think I would have necessarily thought of it in those terms without the "our future" framing to guide me there.
Meanwhile, Star Wars felt utterly empty. There was no substance to those stories, they were about nothing beyond their own insular universe. I attributed this hollowness to Star Wars being set a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. So this made me grow even more attached to the Trek approach.
Obviously, since then I've come across plenty of stories set in fantastical realms that still have something compelling to say about real life, or are just engaging/entertaining/moving stories on their own merits (and I've even grown to appreciate Star Wars). The MCU is a great example -- it started as our world and has now massively diverged, but the stories still resonate. So I don't consider it a requirement across the board for everything. But I still remain deeply attached to the notion that Trek is our future, in that sentimental childhood way that'll always be there.
I also find it fun to hop around the various eras of the franchise and see how the vision of what a hopeful future is has changed over the decades. It is
fascinating to watch a rapey TOS straight into an ultra-modern Discovery.
FFS, the contrivance I am complaining about is that the transporter conveniently injured the one of the three that would best fit into the 21st century anti-immigrant story. Not complaining about taking on that story at all. (And as I said in another post clarifying that, if the ship had put down in the Antebellum South, then the writers would have injured Raffi with the transporter instead. Contrived.)
OK. Not remotely clear from your first post. If it upsets you to be misunderstood, you could avoid that by writing with greater clarity.
And
@Serveaux nails it with
"It's called 'plotting.'" It actually is not necessary to injure Raffi or Rios to tell these stories, there's plenty of other plot points that could have fulfilled the same function. This one worked for me, and many others -- I've seen a lot of positive comments in this thread on that bit. Of course, YMMV.