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Star Trek Picard is not Star Trek

I'm so sad I missed the (fun?) conversation last night.

I noticed the OP referenced his/her pedigree as a fan (I started watching when I was x age), and that is a common element of these "gatekeeper" style diatribes, along with the condescension and profanity.
However, it has no relevance whatsoever to the subject at hand. A fan who just started watching Star Trek yesterday, and a fan who saw the very first episode and has seen everything ever since have the same right to express an opinion, and the same right to have a say (financially) in the future of the franchise.
Star Trek has never been able to survive purely on the goodwill of its long time fans. Each iteration released after TOS has attracted new fans, and even TOS gained new fans (too young to have seen it when it originally debuted) when it was released in syndication.
When fans seek to define what the franchise "is", often without consideration of any evidence, they are attempting to cut off the very thing that has helped Trek become the cultural phenomenon it is today.

I do understand the desire for escapist television, to see a future portrayed where heroes are heroes, problems are solved in 42 minutes, the lights are bright, the people are fit, healthy, and good looking, where the music swells, and the bad guys can be turned with a properly good speech. There really is no such thing anymore, and perhaps when all those fans were clamoring for a return to the "Prime" timeline, THAT is what they wanted.
Perhaps someone, somewhere, will make such a show but for better or for worse fiction reflects the environment in which it is created. Star Trek began in the post-WWII era where American power and optimism was at a high, despite the turmoil of the civil rights era, Vietnam, etc. TNG began when American power was at its ascendancy, and the thing Americans had been told was a hindrance to world peace (Soviet style communism) was fading fast.
At that moment, it sure looked like there was a bright future just around the metaphorical corner.
Subsequent series were created during a more uncertain period, leading to today when what many of us thought was the gentle curve of goodness has been slashed apart by stone cold reality, particularly after 9/11 and the subsequent Iraq War.
We live in a dark/uncertain world, and our fiction reflects that reality. If a fan wants something better, wants a Star Trek that reflects their hope and optimism, that restores the vision of a inescapably bright future where conflicts are external not internal, then by all means - MAKE THAT SHOW. Fan films are still allowed, as long as you follow certain rules, OR MAKE SOMETHING NEW. Stop complaining and waiting to be hand fed a show that fits your personal and unique tastes and MAKE SOMETHING. Anything. Turn that frustration that you have harnessed for 1701 tweets, YouTube videos, and discussion board posts into a creative catalyst for something new.
You never know, we might just watch THAT show.
Jean-Luc Picard Award for most amazing speech of the year!
 
Yeah. Is just that i got so annoyed when i watched the 1st scene of the last episode. I had seen Endgame from VOY last day and i was shocked when i saw that scene. I'm sorry if I ofended anyone and I'm happy to read your opinion. We are not alone, a lot of people thinks the same way.
Being shocked doesn't make it less Star Trek. Not liking it is fine. There is a lot of Trek I don't like. And that's okay.
 
Being shocked doesn't make it less Star Trek. Not liking it is fine. There is a lot of Trek I don't like. And that's okay.
Exactly! To me, if it says Star Trek on it, and was something made by CBS or Paramount, then it's technically Star Trek. But like all things, parts of it will not be enjoyed by everyone.

Picard is a series I don't particularly care for at this point, mainly due to writing, but it's still Star Trek and is giving us a chance to see what happened to Picard and some of his and Voyager's crew years after we last saw them (as well as what happened after Spock left that timeline in the 2009 movie with the supernova).
 
well, since Battlestar Galactic reboot, most of the recent sci fi stuff has a dystopian bent to it.. some lightly in just saying.. Its humans.. were' still going to be asshats.. even in the future.. to complete dark and moody..
This move towards dark completely ended StarGate.. I watched stargate from day 1, enjoyed its campy goodness.. when Universe started, I stopped watching after the first season ( Still haven't watched season 2) they went dark and moody, that by itself wasnt that bad.. but the crew just sucked hind tit.. They could have spaced the entire ship of fools and I would have just smiled.. I missed the campy optimistic fun of the previous series.. the Were all going to die.. but were still cracking jokes..

Now with Picard, it shows a peaceful earth, but that doesn't mean that the rest of the galaxy is peaceful and everybody is happy.. We had a huge war with the Dominion war.. then Romulus's star went pop.. and now a major power is seemingly caput.. with millions of refugees all around. I don't blame the show for showing the rougher parts, most other shows showed the best and brightest on a ship saving lives.. this is a more of a grounded adventure with people that don't necessarily have everything together.. there will still be addiction, still be murder, still be humans/aliens taking advantage of others, still planets that have the seedier places..
Now if a Pike series comes up, I hope it goes more optimistic.. but Picard is telling a story.. a story that is darker than normal trek..
 
I still don't get "dystopian" from Picard. Dystopian is becoming a buzz word that is beginning to lose its meaning. Just because things are not perfectly happy in Picard doesn't make it dystopian.
Neither do I. The future Earth still looks like a good place. There is no totalitarianism, just some corruption (from one of the two agencies that have had problems with corruption in the past).
 
Neither do I. The future Earth still looks like a good place. There is no totalitarianism, just some corruption (from one of the two agencies that have had problems with corruption in the past).
That is the question in Picard.

Never mind what Zhat Vash have done, are they right.

Its looking like they may be, is the unknown cabal of 8 (if not connected to ZV) right as well.

Are we talking about just the one conspiracy or are there multiple layers with different agenda's.
 
Actually I think a lot of the first post was due to shock.

It was pretty in your face stuff for Star Trek, especially at the start of an episode.

Didn't bother me but I can understand why others may have been a bit startled by it.
Same here. Despite the frustration I think the OP was willing to at least have some discussion. But, they also stated they didn't want to start the discussion so perhaps this isn't the place for them.

That's OK. Doesn't equal trolling. Also, getting ready for mod. *eats popcorn*
 
I cannot for the life of me fathom any serious comparison between Picard and BSG at all. Picard is really not much darker than TNG. It's purely a question of how long the camera lingers, what sort of mood the music sets, how many stories there are, etc. TNG shows gore for a few seconds and then cuts away and gives you some time to calm down with the characters talking alongside a tense but not too tense soundtrack and next week you'll forget all about it because the show is episodic. Picard lingers on what you see to drive home the point and doesn't give you as much of a calming down moment afterwards and you can't forget what it does give you because it's all one big story.

But that is all a question of technique NOT story. The story of Picard is no darker than what we saw on TNG. Worf murdered the man who killed his mate. Starfleet ordered Picard to commit genocide (a fair step up from not rescuing refugees). Maddox wanted to treat Data as property. All of that stuff was already there in TNG and if it didn't make the Federation any less utopian then it doesn't make it any less utopian now.

Picard is optimistic and believes he can make a difference. Maddox is optimistic and a far sight better person than he was on tng. Soji is sweet and optimistic and dedicating herself to helping people. Raffi is damaged, but clearly working hard to be a better person. Zhaban and Laris are cynics, but cynics who believe in Picard deeply and very uncynically. Elnor is a borderline innocent child. There's plenty of light in this series.

By comparison, NuBSG is fundamentally dark in almost every way. It's baked into the series dna so far that really the *only* points of light I can even remember are their pride in their battle prowess (which is still all about the darkness, just in a positive way) and their faith in their religion (which also turned out to be seriously dangerous in some episodes). They even took the classic jokester character from the original and turned him into a super-angry chick with alcohol issues and scathing sarcasm.
 
That is the question in Picard.


Its looking like they may be, is the unknown cabal of 8 (if not connected to ZV) right as well.

Are we talking about just the one conspiracy or are there multiple layers with different agenda's.

Let me put a different spin on the question: if Picard were a political thriller or a spy movie, would we still call it dystopian?
 
Yeah. Is just that i got so annoyed when i watched the 1st scene of the last episode. I had seen Endgame from VOY last day and i was shocked when i saw that scene. I'm sorry if I ofended anyone and I'm happy to read your opinion. We are not alone, a lot of people thinks the same way.

Never seen Star Trek: First Contact?
 
Never seen Star Trek: First Contact?
I think the people shocked by Picard haven't seen a lot of Trek in a while. We filter stuff through memories and then reconstruct what we like. TWOK is certainly one that I don't view with any great nostalgia-the Ceti Eels are famous enough, but Terrell's suicide, Khan's blowed up visage, Spock's death, and the like all stick with me and not in a good way.

It's there.
 
I think the people shocked by Picard haven't seen a lot of Trek in a while. We filter stuff through memories and then reconstruct what we like. TWOK is certainly one that I don't view with any great nostalgia-the Ceti Eels are famous enough, but Terrell's suicide, Khan's blowed up visage, Spock's death, and the like all stick with me and not in a good way.

It's there.

I didn't get the chance to see the episode until yesterday. The way people were talking, I thought we were going to be in Texas Chainsaw Massacre territory. I thought it was pretty tame.
 
I dont care what this Star Trek Picard fans say, is not Star Trek and It wont never be. This series doesnt represent Star Trek, Gene Rodenberry's vision. Until Enterprise ended, It evolved but always inside that vision, just in different ways. And im sorry for you guys, but a lot of people thinks like me and there are millions of Star Trek fans that just wont lose time writting about this garbage.
"Gene's vision" is a bunch of hooey that never belonged in Star Trek in the first place. GR picked up some self-important hippy-dippy pop philosophy ideas while on the lecture circuit in the 1970s, and he tried to shoehorn that stuff into Trek well after the fact. And overzealous fans, who for some reason attribute some kind of profound significance to a commercial media franchise, ate it all up.

Kor
 
"Gene's vision" is a bunch of hooey that never belonged in Star Trek in the first place. GR picked up some self-important hippy-dippy pop philosophy ideas while on the lecture circuit in the 1970s, and he tried to shoehorn that stuff into Trek well after the fact. And overzealous fans, who for some reason attribute some kind of profound significance to a commercial media franchise, ate it all up.

One thing is for sure, Gene wasn't doing any of this for free.
 
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