Things that date Trek

The Alien movies had seat belts, so the actors could be thrown against them in a dramatic fashion.

 

I think the only scifi shows that would have seat restraints are the ones going more for realism. It's more production friendly for all the cast to be able to move around the room freely at all times during dramatic fight scenes.

 

If the ship is functioning properly, then there is absolutely no need ever for a seatbelt. People live and walk and work on that starship. Inertial dampers and artificial gravity ought to prevent any 'feel' of outside movement. I don't have seatbelts at my house or work, so why should they?

If the bridge crew need seatbelts, what about the poor soul watering his plants in the Arboretum, or the couple canoodling on Holodeck 3, or Miss Gladstone's third-grade class?

Star Trek is full of Red Alert set diving, but that's always been ridiculous dramatic license to me. If the ship can't handle a few scrapes to it's hull, how does everyone survive the sudden acceleration to a billion kph before hitting warp?

 

So did cars in the 60s. Lack of seat restraints is not a product of the times

 

I guess this is meant to be mostly rhetorical, but...

I'm sure in universe, they say the inertial dampeners do this, but the computer doesn't calculate sudden unexpected movements. However, in theoretical attempts to model a warp drive system (such as Miguel Alcubierre's from 1994) suggest that wouldn't be necessary. Because the craft would actually be be stationary relative to space, and it is the space itself it what would be moving, physical effects of acceleration wouldn't actually apply in this scenario. In other words, inertial dampeners would only be required for other methods of propulsion.

 

*Before* hitting warp. When they're moving conventionally using impulse drives before hitting subspace.

 

Dated? Hmm
Most sci fi /tv/movies reflect the era they were produced in. Ideas of what the future will look like change with the invention of new technology. There weren't flat screens in the 60's, or any computer more powerful than an average cell phone ( hell cell phones are more powerful than an early 2000's desktop!) So idea's change, new ones are made, old ones are junked. Progress!
As in fashion, hair, social ideas, those change with time, alot of 70s clothes are coming back in to style (sadly) so its a revolving wheel, and on skirts.. there not going anywhere, even today's military has skirts, usually at a womans descresion if they want to where it though, i think. but thats a dress uniform, work duds, everyone where's pants!
Someone brought up phasers one handed. Well, today we hold hand guns with 2 hands because of the recoil, phasers don't have any! so one hand or duel weild is perfectly acceptable! Now the idea that phasers don't have sights on them.. never thought of that! he he, yes it needs some, even if its just a long groove on the top of the phaser since it "Fires Straight"
In 10 years Battlestar Discovery will seem dated by the "grim and darkness" becasue its the flavor of the month. Tastes change, in 10 years peoples attitudes may change and hope and happiness in tv might become the in thing again ( i hope, these dark shows get abit grating, why I like orvilles lightness)

 

Again, you don'y just hold a handgun with both hand to control recoil, you hold it with two hands to help steady your aim. Tho how that might help without sights is another thing.

 

Well, when traveling on impulse itself, yes. But when engaging warp drive, they would still be stationary relative to space before hitting "warp 1" because the warp field is the method of propulsion in warp drive. In First Contact, the Phoenix was traveling at sub light speed, but it was suggested that it was using the warp drive during acceleration.

 

I like the idea that Phasers have a bit of an AI to figure out what you're aiming at and adjust accordingly. It doesn't make sense for the beam itself to bend, but to rather come out at odd angles on occassion.

 

With a normal gun you need to aim to hit someone in the heart or brain to basically disable them. A phaser has more of the range of a shotgun so a gun-sight isn't needed.

The things that age Star Trek for me aside from the hair and off-duty clothes are the acting style and the music. Watching a TNG Season 1 episode and noticed the music was really dramatic.
The TOS acting style is quite theatrical like other 60s television while TNG tends towards the style of 80s dramas

 

Which is why I have a seatbelt in both.

 

I agree that sexism dates "TOS." As we know Sexism disappeared back in the 90's and is no longer something in the world. As for a thearphist on the bridge or being important I disagree. People are always going to need proffesionals to deal with their issues especially in the work place since we now know just how toxic a work enviroment can be. If anything it's more futuristic and something I can see as a future development that springs from the MeTo movement.

Jason

 

Needs updates in technology all over the place.
A lot more automation: self-repairing and self-maintaining tools, ships, etc. (we've seen evidence of this before until Trek progressively/quietly moved away from that for some reason).
Fully self-sufficient ships in the field - the technology way more advanced to allow for that, so there should technically be no need for ships to get back to drydock for repairs, upgrades, etc.
Just use replicators in conjuction with star's energy, and/or find nearest asteroids that contain raw matter, and use shuttles, etc. to harvest them and convert them into usable superior synthetic materials that can be used.

Massive advancements in Warp propulsion would have happened by 23rd, let alone 24th century (so it wouldn't take 75 years to traverse the galaxy, but rather less than a day - actually, even in canon, we have evidence that indicates, Warp drive is much more advanced/faster than what was touted... but we need more consistency) thanks to exponential developments and automated research (I mean come on, computers and automation today are easily hundreds of thousands of times faster than humans and we're using that in R&D... Trek ships would easily conduct automated R&D with transluminal processing and come up with new vastly improved technologies inside a day or less).

Use of nanotechnology... molecular based computers, universal translators, tricorder functions, etc. all embedded into clothing - heck, a lot of this could easily be implanted into the body and conceal it from external sensors as much as possible so they can't be removed if starship crews are forcibly separated from the ship or the rest of technology.

Dyson Swarms (should have been included since before the NX-01 era, but hey, we can say they had them in the background, just never really seen).

Many cultural inhibitions would have disappeared by the 23rd and 24th century.
I realize Trek was initially set as a family show on American TV, but they should have a lot more 'liberty' to portray things they couldn't before.

If a Trek story is set so far out in the future, don't make their technology look like its more likely to happen in a decade or few from now.
Setting it too far into the future is utterly unrealistic.

Maintain a moneyless society of the Federation and build on it by basing it on Resource Based Economy.
Trek might actually be a good setting to showcase that... if the writers did any research.

Warp speeds - make them more consistent and distances appropriate for the speeds in question.
ST actually did this if I'm not mistaken.
Besides, it wouldn't be that difficult to pick up a calculator and quickly calculate how long it would take to travel to a location with a distress signal and stick to that.

Just a few suggestions.

 

The very fact that it shows human crews on less-than-fully automated spaceships and limited AI in a very subservient role probably dates almost the entirety of Trek to be (based upon) a 60's vision of the future.

But I still love it.

 

The first thing that comes to mind when I read the title of this thread, is those space hippies from 'The Way to Eden' just about everything in that episode exudes the 60s. (Not that I was around back then.)

Incidentally this is one of my fave episodes of TOS.