I would hope and believe that a Federation starship has a better work environment and operates at a higher level of professionalism than your average retail job or call center.
I would ask you not to use that kind of classist language. There's no reason to assume a retail worker or a call center worker is less likely to behave with professionalism than a military officer.
Nowhere in this thread, especially from me, has it been claimed that there isn't emotions or a psychological toll to military service that could be used for drama in Star Trek. The argument is over whether Discovery depicts it well or says anything particularly insightful about it. And my opinion, just my opinion if we're still allowed to have those, is that what we get from Discovery is usually shallow and cheap, where if you had well-written characters having a natural catharsis it might have some depth that was meaningful for the audience. Instead, Discovery says let's have our commanding officer bring her personal life issues onto the bridge during a crisis where entire sections of the Alpha Quadrant are being destroyed by extra-galactic aliens so we can emotionally manipulate the audience into a cry.
Starfleet officers bring their personal life issues onto the bridge in crises
all the time in
Star Trek! Sisko going after Kassidy in "For the Cause." Being fixated on Eddington's betrayal in "For the Uniform." Picard becoming obsessed with genocide and revenge against the Borg in both "I, Borg" and
First Contact. Kirk putting his friendship with Spock over his duty in "Amok Time." Kirk hesitating to kill his best friend Gary Mitchel in "Where No Man Has Gone Before." Pike almost letting his libido get the best of him in "The Cage." Janeway endangering her ship to punish Ransom and the
Equinox crew in "
Equinox, Parts I & II." Janeway endangering herself and others to extract Seven of Nine from the Borg Unicomplex even though Seven had given every indication she had gone willingly in "Dark Frontier, Parts I & II." Picard intervening in the Klingon Civil War in significant part because of his loyalty to Worf in "Redemption I & II." Kirk trying to save Edith Keeler until Spock restrained him in "The City on the Edge of Forever." Kirk hijacking the
Enterprise to retrieve Spock's katra in
The Search for Spock, and then Kirk treating the Chancellor of the High Council of the Klingon Empire and his court like shit at a diplomatic dinner aboard the
Enterprise-A in
The Undiscovered Country.
From the (TOS)
Star Trek writer’s/director’s guide:
“The time is today. We’re in Viet Nam waters aboard the navy cruiser U.S.S. Detroit. Suddenly an enemy gunboat heads for us, our guns are unable to stop it, and we realize it’s a suicide attack with an atomic warhead. Total destruction of our vessel and of all aboard appears probable. Would Captain E. L. Henderson, presently commanding the U.S.S. Detroit, turn and hug a comely female WAVE who happened to be on the ship’s bridge.
As simple as that. This is our standard test that has led to STAR TREK believability. (It also suggests much of what has been wrong in filmed sf of the past.) No, Captain Henderson wouldn’t! Not if he’s the kind of Captain we hope is commanding any naval vessel of ours. Nor would our Captain Kirk hug a female crewman in a moment of danger, not if he’s to remain believable. (Some might prefer Henderson were somewhere making love rather than shelling Asiatic ports, but that’s a whole different story for a whole different network. Probably BBC.)”
But Kirk
did hug female officers during times of danger on the bridge, in very paternalistic ways!
And you know what other Trek series have done? They've SHOWN those emotional connections to us before those moments. They've depicted those emotional connections through actions to the audience. So when the time came there was an emotional payoff.
So has DIS.
They didn't just rely on cringey monologues from characters, like Tilly fretting about whether she's ready to be a commanding officer for the umpteenth time,
To what episode are you referring?
But ya know I guess it would have been better if Sisko would have gotten everybody in a semi-circle to express their emotions in the moment before confronting the Jem'Hadar. That's the Discovery way.
Please cite an episode wherein this has happened.
'Cos right now, your complaints about
Star Trek: Discovery lack specificity, ignore context, and seem to represent an inconsistent standard not applied to other
Star Trek shows.
