The 90's Golden Age.

[BigJake]

And they were too timid to move far enough away from that with Enterprise....They squandered the opportunity to show us a humanity that was still learning to become that perfect futuristic society.

Really, the "Earth is a money-free Paradise and humans have perfected themselves" business was one of the absolute worst ideas TNG Trek had; it took the "Earth should be a sympathetic society" dictum from the old show to an absurd extreme. It retrospect I think of it as a sign of sentimentalism starting to coat the arteries of the franchise. Even as a kid I can remember cringing every time Picard opened his mouth to talk about how humanity had "evolved beyond" the need for this or that.

They sort-of-tried to move away from it in later shows and in the movies, but couldn't bring themselves to really break with it.

 

[RandyS]

I take it you weren't around for any of that?

Yeah I was just a baby in the 1970s so I don't remember. One of my first childhood memories is watching the animated series. Its what got me started with Trek. Then came the 11pm Trek episodes on channel 11 WPIX in NY which is what made me a fan of Trek.

That was actually one of my first childhood memories too (not in New York, here in California). I was three when TAS was new, and my mom and I watched it together (She was a fan from the TOS NBC years). She used to get a big kick out of telling her friends how I would ask her "Mommy, how come Spock is a cartoon on the morning show, and a real person at the dinnertime show?".

 

[Smellmet]

And they were too timid to move far enough away from that with Enterprise....They squandered the opportunity to show us a humanity that was still learning to become that perfect futuristic society.

Really, the "Earth is a money-free Paradise and humans have perfected themselves" business was one of the absolute worst ideas TNG Trek had; it took the "Earth should be a sympathetic society" dictum from the old show to an absurd extreme. It retrospect I think of it as a sign of sentimentalism starting to coat the arteries of the franchise. Even as a kid I can remember cringing every time Picard opened his mouth to talk about how humanity had "evolved beyond" the need for this or that.

They sort-of-tried to move away from it in later shows and in the movies, but couldn't bring themselves to really break with it.

I never really had a problem with it, it was still set nearly a century after TOS, think how we look at ourselves from a hundred years ago, hell even only 30 years ago, surely it's just a goal for humanity to strive for - the abolition of war and famine etc.

 

[JRoss]

The thing about Trek in the nineties is how warm it felt. I could talk about it with a lot of people,it was fresh, popular and everywhere. It felt like a golden age as I lived it.

 

[BigJake]

I never really had a problem with it, it was still set nearly a century after TOS, think how we look at ourselves from a hundred years ago, hell even only 30 years ago, surely it's just a goal for humanity to strive for - the abolition of war and famine etc.

I even believe we may get there one day, provided we make it out of this century. But material improvement is one thing; having it eliminate all conflict to the degree of virtual Nirvana is another. It closes off story possibilities and makes the setting less interesting. (They eventually realized that on TNG and tried to reintroduce a few snakes back into Eden here and there, but it was too timid and too late and never stuck.)

It also actually made Our Heroes less sympathetic to me, to a certain extent, in that it always seemed kind of self-satisfied for them to be wandering around -- Picard was particularly bad for it, but they all did it -- lecturing less well-off or less-enlightened cultures about how great they have it back in the home country.

 

[WhateverMan]

The thing about Trek in the nineties is how warm it felt. I could talk about it with a lot of people,it was fresh, popular and everywhere. It felt like a golden age as I lived it.

Agreed.

The discussion sure has taken flight since my original posting. But I think this is a point that I should've made originally.

Kudos.

 

[SpHeRe31459]

The thing about Trek in the nineties is how warm it felt. I could talk about it with a lot of people,it was fresh, popular and everywhere. It felt like a golden age as I lived it.

+1