Spoilers Star Trek: Starfleet Academy 1x03 – “Vitus Reflux”

[eschaton]

3.5 points from me. 100 years after the burn and alien youth who have never been to Earth act like teenagers from the 21st century USA.......

I just presume this stuff is being translated into modern slang for the sake of the audience.

No one in Star Trek is trying to reinvent "the wheel" when it comes to familiar behaviors. (No matter how much Picard pontificates)

There's nothing really stopping Star Trek from pulling an Expanse and coming up with a whole uptime creole with its own unique lingo. Though I can understand why they don't want to do that.

 

[I am not Spock]

Exactly. One of the great things about Trek is that the format is broad enough to accomodate lots of different kinds of storytelling: morality plays, topical allegories, courtroom dramas, war stories, high-concept SF, tragic love stories, poltical intrigue, murder mysteries, horror, even the occasional out-and-out farce.

(Not unlike The Twilight Zone, its immediate predecessor back in the sixties.)

I always get leery when folks start getting too prescriptive about what is and isn't Star Trek.

yes. Trek is a genre unto itself , it can tell any kind of story.

Just like my other favourite show, The Twilight Zone

 

[FredH]

Again: Starfleet officers 240-odd years from now used lingo most people now no longer use. Spock referenced flypaper in a 1966 episode and I couldn't tell you anyone I know right now who uses or even needs to buy flypaper.

I dunno about paper, but I’ve certainly put up flystrips during an unfortunate gnat invasion.

 

[cooleddie74]

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[tomalak301]

I've been reading this thread a lot today and trying to understand the perspective of those who like this episode, but I have to ask. When did we decide to tolorate bullying, especially in a Star Trek setting. Yeah there were shenanigans and college kids acting like college kids, but what struck me about this episode was just the mean-spiritedness of it all. From the teleporting the cadets who were barely clothed to even the chancellor being a part of it, the tone just seemed off. Maybe I'm just off base here but I thought we were in a time where there is no justification for bullying and this episode seemed to relish in it.

 

[Mudd]

I was surprised Tawny Newsome wasn't one of the writers of this episode.

Overall, the series feels more like Lower Decks than anything else.

 

[Mudd]

Yeah, much like 23rd and 24th Century adults acted like 20th Century Americans. No one in Star Trek is trying to reinvent "the wheel" when it comes to familiar behaviors. (No matter how much Picard pontificates)

Star Trek is an American entertainment franchise that's always been written primarily for an American audience. So of course the characters behave like Americans.

Especially the Klingons.

 

[cooleddie74]

Even the Romulans are just Americans with bad attitudes, pointed ears and glittery sashes.

 

[eschaton]

Exactly. One of the great things about Trek is that the format is broad enough to accomodate lots of different kinds of storytelling: morality plays, topical allegories, courtroom dramas, war stories, high-concept SF, tragic love stories, poltical intrigue, murder mysteries, horror, even the occasional out-and-out farce.

(Not unlike The Twilight Zone, its immediate predecessor back in the sixties.)

I always get leery when folks start getting too prescriptive about what is and isn't Star Trek.

I've been saying for quite a long time now that Trek is The Twilight Zone, but fans really, really want it to be Lord of the Rings, for some bizarre reason.

I feel like so many long-running franchises are being ruined by elevation of "lore drops" above storytelling.

 

[fireproof78]

When did we decide to tolorate bullying, especially in a Star Trek setting

Since Yesteryear.

 

[Greg Cox]

I've been saying for quite a long time now that Trek is The Twilight Zone, but fans really, really want it to be Lord of the Rings, for some bizarre reason.

I feel like so many long-running franchises are being ruined by elevation of "lore drops" above storytelling.

"Lore" is rapidly joining "canon" as a word I never need to hear again.

 

[Nerys Myk]

"Lore" is rapidly joining "canon" as I word I never need to hear again.

What if we called it "data'?

 

[Greg Cox]

I've been reading this thread a lot today and trying to understand the perspective of those who like this episode, but I have to ask. When did we decide to tolorate bullying, especially in a Star Trek setting. Yeah there were shenanigans and college kids acting like college kids, but what struck me about this episode was just the mean-spiritedness of it all. From the teleporting the cadets who were barely clothed to even the chancellor being a part of it, the tone just seemed off. Maybe I'm just off base here but I thought we were in a time where there is no justification for bullying and this episode seemed to relish in it.

I don't think Trek has ever glorified bullying; the bullies are almost always the antagonists. But, alas, bullies are among the challenges young people often encounter, and Star Trek has never pretended otherwise, going all the way back to the Original Series.

(See both "Shore Leave" and "Journey to Babel.")

 

[I am not Spock]

I've been reading this thread a lot today and trying to understand the perspective of those who like this episode, but I have to ask. When did we decide to tolorate bullying, especially in a Star Trek setting. Yeah there were shenanigans and college kids acting like college kids, but what struck me about this episode was just the mean-spiritedness of it all. From the teleporting the cadets who were barely clothed to even the chancellor being a part of it, the tone just seemed off. Maybe I'm just off base here but I thought we were in a time where there is no justification for bullying and this episode seemed to relish in it.

i mean, there was Finnegan in TOS, the Academy bully.

 

[Mudd]

"Lore" is rapidly joining "canon" as I word I never need to hear again.

Come on, it's...

"iconic."

 

[Charles Phipps]

"Lore" is rapidly joining "canon" as I word I never need to hear again.

I mean, Greg, didn't Star Trek INVENT modern fandom's obsession with niggling details never meant to be taken seriously?

 

[Bad Thoughts]

It was a good episode. Light hearted, nothing weird. It was no Take Me Out to the Holosuite, but then again, no one joined the Republican party either.

 

[Greg Cox]

I mean, Greg, didn't Star Trek INVENT modern fandom's obsession with niggling details never meant to be taken seriously?

My understanding is that Sherlock Holmes fandom was obsessing over exactly where Watson's war wound was, how many wives Watson actually had, and other minutiae long before television even existed.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

I mean, Greg, didn't Star Trek fans INVENT modern fandom's obsession with niggling details never meant to be taken seriously?

FTFY

 

[firehawk12]

I don't think Trek has ever glorified bullying; the bullies are almost always the antagonists. But, alas, bullies are among the challenges young people often encounter, and Star Trek has never pretended otherwise, going all the way back to the Original Series.

(See both "Shore Leave" and "Journey to Babel.")

You really want to bully a kid who was about to have his arms chopped off and serve as a slave in a prison mine?
Like they keep saying these kids (I mean, really, young adults) have seen some shit so I'm surprised they don't just snap and go nuclear on the privileged ones. lol

I just imagine someone trying to haze a young Kira and she just decides to go all Bajoran resistance on them in response.