Trek's lowest moment

[Voth commando1]

Grimdark is popular because when there is no light one can justify reveling in their own darkness and immorality.

Trek isn't perfect but it strives to be towards Utopia-29-31st century galactic unity mastery of time and space and beyond that to other galaxies and throughout the cosmos bringing light, joy, and an eventual universal federation finding a way to reverse entropy uniting with other multiversal federations and one day in the far far future walking through a bluish grey door and meeting Q as an equal.

That's where Trek should be headed.

 

[RAMA]

The offscreen..the period when Nemesis tanked in 2002 to 2005 when Enterprise was canceled. Followed by a further 3 years till ST09 was filming and saved the franchise.

On screen. Possibly the 3rd season of TOS.

 

[CorporalClegg]

The point of Trek is to entertain people for one hour every week.

 

[Sci]

What, no one's mentioned "Code of Honor" yet?

Yeah, I'd definitely say Trek's lowest point was "Planet of the Scary Black Men (Hide the White Women)." I cannot begin to describe how racist and offensive this episode is or how many anti-black stereotypes it supports.

 

[Balok's Decoy]

When I think about "lowest moment," I don't think "worst" moment, I think "Trek should have known better," which isn't always quite the same thing.

Code of Honor and Up the Long Ladder immediately come to mind. The tone-deaf rape content in The Enemy Within also falls into this category.

 

[Tenacity]

Yeah, I'd definitely say Trek's lowest point was "Planet of the Scary Black Men (Hide the White Women)." I cannot begin to describe how racist and offensive this episode is or how many anti-black stereotypes it supports.

Disagree, having the leadership of a planet be composed of Black people was a breath of fresh air, and was something that should have continued through Star Trek, instead there was a immediate return to "the planet's of scary White people." Leadership was usually White, with some few cases being multi-racial.

Excepts to that rule was dark complexion Klingons, and the empire of scary Grey men (Cardassians).

 

[Balok's Decoy]

Disagree, having the leadership of a planet be composed of Black people was a breath of fresh air, and was something that should have continued through Star Trek, instead there was a immediate return to "the planet's of scary White people." Leadership was usually White, with some few cases being multi-racial.

Excepts to that rule was dark complexion Klingons, and the empire of scary Grey men (Cardassians).

Just because it's a planet populated with black people doesn't mean the portrayal is not problematic.

 

[The Old Mixer]

(Anyone else having keyboard issues on here when typing from an iPad? This has taken me minutes of the keyboard slowing or freezing or reloaded...and I get a big blank spot at the top of every page.)

https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/loading-weird-and-typing-lag.286663/

 

[rcjames]

May 2005: These Are the Voyages

When Star Trek went into limbo for the first time in a very, very long time and no one really knew what the future of the franchise would look like, or even if it had one.

 

[Anwar]

The point of Trek is to explore the human condition, both the good and the bad. TNG lost sight of that with its sanctimonious and un-relateable human characters..

Kor

Not really, the attitude TNG displayed early on really isn't any different from how people today think they're better than their predecessors.

People were just too hyper-sensitive and didn't like how their own attitudes came back for them.

 

[Voth commando1]

The point of Trek is to entertain people for one hour every week.

No the point of Trek is to do what I said give the beacon for Utopia and humanistic Ascension to godhood.

 

[Nerys Myk]

No the point of Trek is to do what I said give the beacon for Utopia and humanistic Ascension to godhood.

Nope.

 

[Kor]

Well... when it comes right down to it, the real point of Trek was dollars in Roddenberry's pocket.

Kor

 

[Nerys Myk]

 

[Voth commando1]

Nope.

Yes.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Yes.

I've read the Writer's Guide for TOS. I've read Roddenberry's quotes in the Making of Star Trek. I've read what producers Justman and Solow wrote about the show in Inside Star Trek.
So, Nope.

 

[Voth commando1]

You obviously can't see the forest beyond the trees. I have watched Trek and read and that is the end goal.

It isn't explicitly stated anywhere except maybe Q Who but that clearly is the aspiration it points to.

 

[Nerys Myk]

You obviously can't see the forest beyond the trees. I have watched Trek and read and that is the end goal.

It isn't explicitly stated anywhere except maybe Q Who but that clearly is the aspiration it points to.

It's a TV show not a guide book. Most of it's ideas are vague at best and simplistic at worst. Ideas developed by all sorts of people.

 

[CorporalClegg]

If it were really true, most peoples' 25 favorite episode lists would look significantly different. When Star Trek gets didactic and preachy, people tune-out.

 

[Spot261]

The point of trek has always in the first instance to entertain and thus make money, let's not forget that or underestimate how much of an affect that has on what we see on screen.

That being said it has, at its best, strove to use that medium as a cultural trojan horse for social commentary that would struggle to make mainstream media otherwise. I disagree TNG lost the way there, TOS had some pretty heavy handed and cumbersome examples too, but as with any social commentary it works best when it guides you into asking questions rather than beat you over the head with an answer. That's what distinguishes commentary from propaganda, the fact it relies on your own intellect rather than the simplicity of the message.

As for, ahem, "a beacon to guide our ascension to Godhood", that's never really been something I've ever seen, more a series of analogies that examine aspects of our world, the human condition, our hopes for the (secular human) future.

I get that we see Q and the Metrons dropping hints that in universe humanity is expected by many to develop much further but to me that's at best an expression of generic hope for our evolving beyond our current state of ignorance, at worst simply a standard sci fi trope referring to anything but genuine godhood.

If anything "godhood" and religion sit alongside tribalism and blind patriotism as ideas which trek consistently portrays as outdated, divisive and dangerous, representing the WORST aspects of our natures.