Things Trek in general could have done better?

[Prax]

I thought Tom and B'elanna was one of the best Trek romances. It was planned before the show began. We started seeing hints of it in the first season, then more in the second, third, and finally they "profess their love" in the fourth. They get closer over the next few seasons, have quarrels, etc. Then they get married in the 7th season and have a child in the finale.

 

[MacLeod]

You are right about that.

One of the most glaring examples of that was Worf's behavior in "The Ship" (DS9). I saw this episode not too long ago, so it's still somewhat fresh in my mind.

Sisko and his landing party took refuge in a downed Jem'Hadar ship. One of the men, Muniz, was seriously wounded. He happened to be one of O'Brien's underlings. Worf and O'Brien almost came to blows because Worf kept insisting that the wounded dude was a goner; that it would be better for O'Brien to put an end to Muniz's suffering because that would be a more honorable death; and that O'Brien was just another weak human afraid of facing death.

Worf showed zero compassion for Muniz. Worf was behaving like a Klingon, even though his behavior may have been obnoxious and insensitive to a human. Worf is what he is. And his culture is what it is.

However at the end of the episode, Worf, all of a sudden, became compassionate. He went to the cargo bay to sit alongside O'Brien, who was keeping Muniz's body (which was in a torpedo casket) company. Worf went against his Klingon instincts and culture. He suddenly "discovered" his humanity instead of being what he is.


On a side note, Worf's explanation for his presence was that there is a Klingon tradition that when a warrior dies, his comrades stay with the body to keep away predators in order to give time for the spirit to go to stovokor. How come we never heard of that tradition before?

Was Worf making up this tradition? Previously, we were told that a Klingon's dead body was nothing but an empty shell that didn't need any further respect paid to it.

Perhaps he did make it up, but that begs the question why he would.Could it be perhaps a sort of apology to O'Brien?

 

[TommyR01D]

To go for something entirely different - I wish the people who designed ships, stations and other space objects would nail down right from the start what their dimensions are supposed to be.

This would avoid recurring irritants such as the space-dock which somehow expands to fit the Enterprise-D, the three different sizes of Klingon Birds of Prey (sometimes they're wider than a D'Deridex, other times they're barely more than a runabout), and the Sovereign-class which has 24, 26 or 29 decks depending on whom you ask.

 

[Gary7]

if Roddenberry didn't have such a huge ego and a narcissistic need to control everything. Season 3 of TOS might have turned out better if he'd been involved more as a creative consultant than being out of the loop. Fred Freiberger left to his own devices destroys things (another being Space: 1999). I think TOS would've had a chance at a Season 4 or 5. It would've been a nicer foundation for the franchise. Comparatively, I find just 3 seasons to be not enough.

Star Trek succeeded in surviving, despite Roddenberry's attempts to meddle with it, make it into something unpalatable. He wanted ST-TMP to be what "Final Frontier" ended up being... a search for God. Had that happened, I think Star Trek's movie series future would've died.

Lastly, if Roddenberry hadn't been so desperate to make a buck, there might have been a good 50% more footage of Star Trek filming takes in the archive. Hate to think of how many great moments we'll never see, because Lincoln Enterprises sold off so much of it.

 

[Shawnster]

To go for something entirely different - I wish the people who designed ships, stations and other space objects would nail down right from the start what their dimensions are supposed to be.

This would avoid recurring irritants such as the space-dock which somehow expands to fit the Enterprise-D, the three different sizes of Klingon Birds of Prey (sometimes they're wider than a D'Deridex, other times they're barely more than a runabout), and the Sovereign-class which has 24, 26 or 29 decks depending on whom you ask.

This is more budget constraints than not having the size nailed down. Size for spacedock was established with first on screen appearance. That still did not matter later when the script called for a spacedock. They used what was available to save time and budget. When making a weekly show they don't have the luxury of always making new designs to fit our fan sensibilities.

Nailed down size does not matter.

 

[DamarsKanar]

For me, Star Trek in general could have done character continuity better. I'm not asking for serialisation in all Trek (though I love it when it happens!) but there are so many times across all the series (largely excluding DS9) that characters could have learned, grown, reflected on their experiences in other episodes and in most instances they don't. A lot to ask (especially of a show in the 60s, or in the 80s) but it's the thing that bugs me the most probably.

 

[Tenacity]

The problem with this line of thinking is that it makes no sense. Why wouldn't another race of intelligent beings be at least somewhat diverse?

You see some fans insisting that Humans in the future also have a mono-culture, that there is a lack of diversity. Humans (supposedly) are all utopians who define themselves as seeking to better themselves and all Humanity. No greed, no conflict, a single uniform society.

Because two Human characters mentioned these traits, that means all Human everywhere must follow the exact same ideology.

In the case of the Klingons, we only saw a few who weren't warriors or a part of the leadership. Those outside these two groups were seen as different.

The same for the Romulans.

 

[2takesfrakes]

Star Trek could've been so much better at keeping Gene's Vision intact rather than pushing the Chariots of the Gods as the motivating factor in Earths attainin utopia. Man didn't need Vulcan's leading by the nose, or other. alien. intervention for that matter....

 

[F. King Daniel]

Inclusiveness. For a show that's supposed to celebrate diversity, that it's only now we're getting gay characters in Trek is a joke.

Even that aside, they've never been very good at not looking down on other races/lifestyles from their upper-middle-class gated community perch.

It's people telling themselves over and over that they're inclusive and accepting, rather than them actually being inclusive and accepting.

Rant over.

 

[DamarsKanar]

Yeah Star Trek in general could maybe have done better in terms of inclusiveness regarding sexuality. There's the lack of non-straight characters, which is glaring. But there's also the ubiquity of marriage as an institution (across humans but also alien cultures) and very specific dating rituals, etc. There are definitely exceptions with this (Klingons are depicted as having a relatively interesting culture of romance) and there are some good variations here and there (e.g. in Enterprise's Cogenitor or the Denobulans' polygamy) but overall, I feel there is too much sameness in terms of romantic/sexual/family relations across Trek.