A few points to go over before I begin. This represents my opinion which is no more or less valid than anyone else's. While the title appears inflammatory it conveys thoughts made before I decided to make this post and is not intended to provoke anyone. I'm more than happy and willing to entertain opinions that differ from my own. Finally there is no way to accurately describe my position without giving away spoilers regarding Picard and the latest S02E09 episode of Strange New Worlds (SNW).
I was a 90's kid. I grew up watching TNG and Voyager with a bit of DS9. I still like to rewatch TNG and became excited when new Star Trek series started to come out, ESPECIALLY when the OG Picard came back. The nostalgic elation I felt was only matched by the supreme crash back down to Earth as I watched what I perceived to be the bastardization of the Star Trek canaan, mostly with Picard and SNW.
Picard
When they landed in 21st century Earth you could see the trashed streets and I immediately went, "here we go." Sure enough the "we're trashing our planet" speeches came quick. I'll be the first to defend Star Trek exploring certain viewpoints. TNG was way ahead of it's time addressing things like a maternal society, an androgynous species, and one of my favorite episodes, "Measure of a Man" where they fight for Data to have rights as a sentient being. My problem is in how they did it. Guinan came into the picture and for whatever reason they wrote the episode as if they hadn't met yet. I'm not nitpicking some little detail - not only was it a two part episode but it was a season finale where they went back to the 18th century and met Guinan. In that episode, as in the "future" (TNG) Guinan was eloquent and poised, armed with centuries of experience and wisdom. All of a sudden they have her on a soap box yelling what some call liberal viewpoints (I'm as politically center as it gets). The cringe I felt was pretty epic. I think that's the only point that could inflame some political bias, but my points go far beyond politics.
I'm seeing how long this is getting so I'm going to try and be brief. Q, and the Borg. In one episode they absolutely obliterated two of the best protagonists in the entire canaan. Q was dying and he turned out he just wanted a friend?! The Borg all of a sudden becomes benevolent? Are you f*ing kidding me? Not only is this bad writing, but it completely betrays the history AND the potential for those protagonists. I suppose the Borg can always go bad again, but there's no coming back from Q literally crying on Picard's shoulder.
The series finale of Picard wasn't any better. This is less "bastardization" and more just lazy writing, but it still irritates me. TV shows use clever plot twists and reveals to get the viewer into that, "oooooh, man" feeling, but it seemed like all they did with Picard was just exploit viewer nostalgia for TNG. It was as if every single plot twist or reveal was just them revealing the return of some OG TNG character.
Strange New Worlds
Again, trying to wrap this up. SNW has had a hell of a lot of potential and for the most part I've really enjoyed it. Last season there was an episode where the crew reenacted the plot for a children's book. It was a bit out there, but the reasoning they used was at least plausible for the show. This last episode nine almost caused me to throw my laptop through a window. It wasn't even stretchably plausible in any way. The only thing that made less sense was their solution to sing a long. The whole thing was so cringy I had to skip over the singing which means the episode for me was about seven minutes long.
I'm not against a show departing from it's original path, but it at least has to make sense. It at least has to be written well. When you're making episodes for a series as iconic as Star Trek, you need to know what the f* you're doing. Does anyone consider me to be off base here? Am I the only one that's watched this unfold and thought, "what the hell are they doing?"
I was a 90's kid. I grew up watching TNG and Voyager with a bit of DS9. I still like to rewatch TNG and became excited when new Star Trek series started to come out, ESPECIALLY when the OG Picard came back. The nostalgic elation I felt was only matched by the supreme crash back down to Earth as I watched what I perceived to be the bastardization of the Star Trek canaan, mostly with Picard and SNW.
Picard
When they landed in 21st century Earth you could see the trashed streets and I immediately went, "here we go." Sure enough the "we're trashing our planet" speeches came quick. I'll be the first to defend Star Trek exploring certain viewpoints. TNG was way ahead of it's time addressing things like a maternal society, an androgynous species, and one of my favorite episodes, "Measure of a Man" where they fight for Data to have rights as a sentient being. My problem is in how they did it. Guinan came into the picture and for whatever reason they wrote the episode as if they hadn't met yet. I'm not nitpicking some little detail - not only was it a two part episode but it was a season finale where they went back to the 18th century and met Guinan. In that episode, as in the "future" (TNG) Guinan was eloquent and poised, armed with centuries of experience and wisdom. All of a sudden they have her on a soap box yelling what some call liberal viewpoints (I'm as politically center as it gets). The cringe I felt was pretty epic. I think that's the only point that could inflame some political bias, but my points go far beyond politics.
I'm seeing how long this is getting so I'm going to try and be brief. Q, and the Borg. In one episode they absolutely obliterated two of the best protagonists in the entire canaan. Q was dying and he turned out he just wanted a friend?! The Borg all of a sudden becomes benevolent? Are you f*ing kidding me? Not only is this bad writing, but it completely betrays the history AND the potential for those protagonists. I suppose the Borg can always go bad again, but there's no coming back from Q literally crying on Picard's shoulder.
The series finale of Picard wasn't any better. This is less "bastardization" and more just lazy writing, but it still irritates me. TV shows use clever plot twists and reveals to get the viewer into that, "oooooh, man" feeling, but it seemed like all they did with Picard was just exploit viewer nostalgia for TNG. It was as if every single plot twist or reveal was just them revealing the return of some OG TNG character.
Strange New Worlds
Again, trying to wrap this up. SNW has had a hell of a lot of potential and for the most part I've really enjoyed it. Last season there was an episode where the crew reenacted the plot for a children's book. It was a bit out there, but the reasoning they used was at least plausible for the show. This last episode nine almost caused me to throw my laptop through a window. It wasn't even stretchably plausible in any way. The only thing that made less sense was their solution to sing a long. The whole thing was so cringy I had to skip over the singing which means the episode for me was about seven minutes long.
I'm not against a show departing from it's original path, but it at least has to make sense. It at least has to be written well. When you're making episodes for a series as iconic as Star Trek, you need to know what the f* you're doing. Does anyone consider me to be off base here? Am I the only one that's watched this unfold and thought, "what the hell are they doing?"
