Things that date Trek

[Blamo]

The Starfleet costumes they tried to make look futuristic have dated really badly.

The forehead aliens themselves have all badly dated. That includes the Klingons. Forehead aliens just feel ridiculous nowadays, almost as bad as very human aliens you got in TOS (including the Klingons of course).

The sets, camera work and direction in TNG has a very 90's feel to them, much more so than a lot other 90's shows (I presume because a lot of it's studio bound).

 

[The Old Mixer]

Kirk reciting the Declaration of Independence in "The Omega Glory."

*coughcoughPreambletotheConstitutionwheeze*

 

[Lord Garth]

Not Dated: "Those words were spoken so badly. Without meaning. Down through the years, you've slurred the meaning of the words We The People."

 

[The Wormhole]

How much did you pay to get in?

If I reveal how many quatloos were spent, do I get them back?

 

[JonnyQuest037]

Hair. The first season or two of TNG is full of awful 80s hair.

Yep. Yar deserves special mention. At least they had the sense to keep Troi's style more classical after the pilot.

TNG S1 and 2 have dated worse than TOS in a lot of ways.

Agreed! I felt this way before the 90s were even out. I feel that TOS's more classical style stands the test of time much better (YMMV).

One of the TNG writers (Maurice Hurley?) once said that the thing that would date TNG the most was the thought that the therapist was important enough to have a seat on the bridge.

Kind of makes you wonder what Discovery is doing now that will look outdated in 20 years.

My prediction: The laser-etched Starfleet emblems on the uniforms. That's going to be remembered as a trademark of early 2000s science fiction costuming. It's the same as the psychedelic-style costumes you saw on TOS as it wore on. It was perceived to be "futuristic" because it was the latest thing, but it became dated as soon as the next latest thing came around.

Chekov's outfit in STIII is so ridiculous it's amazing (and Koenig must have pitched a fit over it, since Chekov gets a badass leather jacket in STIV)

He did. You'll notice that the white collar disappears mid-film. Koenig said that it made him look like the Little Dutch Boy. Apparently costume designer Robert Fletcher modeled the outfit after some classical painter.

You know what part of TOS has really dated? The speed with which McCoy gives up on redshirts. In a world in which the doctors and EMTs will struggle valiantly to revive "dead" patients, sometimes for ten minutes or longer, it's funny to see McCoy just shrug and say "He's dead, Jim" the minute a redshirt keels over.

"Good Lord, Bones, you could at least try applying CPR . . . ."

My nominees:

-TOS's habit of calling grown women "girls" and automatically assuming that the women will leave Starfleet as soon as they find a husband.
-All the psychedelic styles we saw in TOS's third season. Ditto the longer, shaggier hairstyles we started seeing on the men.
-TMP's leisure suit & velour look. All those drab pastel uniforms and the bright orange detailing on the Enterprise furniture! It's a good thing that Trek missed most of the 70s...
-The shoulder pads in TNG.
-The tan & beige look on the TNG and STV bridges.

 

[tharpdevenport]

Thick desk-top monitor computers. Laptops are thinner than that right now.

Too short on time to think of more.

 

[1001001]

If I reveal how many quatloos were spent, do I get them back?

I refer you to the First Rule of Acquisition...

 

[Tuskin38]

the constant 9/11 references in ENT and the Kelvin movies

Where?
The only one I noticed (or at least remember) was the actual recording of the attacks at the end of Stormfront Part 2.

 

[1001001]

Where?
The only one I noticed (or at least remember) was the actual recording of the attacks at the end of Stormfront Part 2.

ENT Season 3?

 

[Tuskin38]

I guess I was taking references too literally.

 

[WraithDukat]

There’s the Vengeance attack on Starfleet head quarters during STiD too.

 

[F. King Daniel]

The attack on Earth in ENT: "The Expanse" and all of season 3.

Vulcan being destroyed in ST'09.

The Vengeance crash in ID (which, to quote Team America: World Police, was 9/11×10,000)

 

[at Quark's]

Well let's see….

Those references in TOS to the Eugenics Wars of the 1990's probably date those TOS episodes prior to that.

Seriously though, I think the era in which an episode is made has a pervasive effect, much more and much deeper than just make up, and technology, or even attitudes on "big" matters.

To mention a minor example I cited in an earlier discussion. Should DS9 be made today, I'm fairly certain that the habit of Vedeks grabbing the ears of people unasked to feel their pagh would have been left out -even if only to avoid any possible association with stories that surfaced relatively recently about clerics. And I think that if you really start searching for it, you would find hundreds of such 'small' examples.

 

[MacLeod]

The way they hold their phasers in TOS always reminded me of old western movies. Anyone who fires a weapon with one hand isn’t going to hit the target very accurately. Military has been holding their weapons with two hands for decades now.

A doubt a hand phaser would have any kick back like today's firearms do.

The omnipresence of 4:3 monitors always gets me. I mean sure, in the 80s and 90s most people would give WTF reactions if they were told future TVs would be rectangular, but it makes the shows and movies look very dated all the same.

I noticed CRT really became a thing on DS9. The station had CRT screens all over the place, as did the runabouts and even the Defiant. I remember back in the 90s I actually approved of this, as it helped give the series more of a realistic look over TNG, but now, yeesh, it does date the show.

The PADD stacks or crates are terrible, as is the habit of walking around the ship handing PADDs to people. In the case of Neelix personally delivering the letters from home, I just overlook that as a morale-boosting thing, making a big deal of the first letters the crew is getting from their families in four years. I imagine that if the letters had become a regular thing, they would eventually just be sent to the crew's email accounts (for lack of a better term) with no fuss.

Ah, but that's part of the charm, make the show look like it's about a group of adventurers.

In the 80's maybe but by the mid-late 90's Widescreen CRT TV's were becoming the norm for new TV's (at least in the UK).

But the stack of PADD's is basically a visual shorthand for a stack of paper work.

 

[Nyotarules]

. Looking three hundred years in the future, we should expect many reappearances of miniskirts as fashionable.

1. 'Its the mid 23rd century, equal rights for human woman is a normal as breathing. The Operations division of Starfleet comes up with a great idea..."what about those old earth traditions where females showed their underwear at work, what were they called again?"

The idea is implemented and lasts from 2265-2270 but abandoned after Lt Uhura reports how impractical the uniform is, pulling down her mini dress to avoid showing her underwear on the bridge took up most of her time that should be spent doing her duties.

2. Poor diversity among the human crew dates Trek. The novels do a better job.

 

[Kibbin]

But the stack of PADD's is basically a visual shorthand for a stack of paper work.

Yeah I figure this is one of those t.v things that they would still do today like all those technological faux pars we constantly make fun of on csi: wherever. It's not that data padds can't hold millions of files it's just that it looks "better" on telly.

 

[F. King Daniel]

While they'll never admit it, Family Guy dated Trek for awhile. Now there's this kid called Orville running around.

 

[nightwind1]

LOL, it’s more because they seemed to be compulsory uniform for women rather than an option. Number one wire trousers in Tge Cage so it was probably at the insistence of the networks.

No, it was at the insistence of Roddenberry. Probably to give him easier access.

 

[Forbin]

A doubt a hand phaser would have any kick back like today's firearms do.

Well, you don't hold a gun two-handed only to control the recoil, you hold it two-handed to steady your aim so you don't miss.

 

[Nyotarules]

Yeah I figure this is one of those t.v things that they would still do today like all those technological faux pars we constantly make fun of on csi: wherever. It's not that data padds can't hold millions of files it's just that it looks "better" on telly.

For me as a viewer it looks absolutely stupid