What are your controversial Star Trek opinions?

Is it controversial to say The Cloud Minders is not very good?

 

it'd be controversial to call tos series #3 good

 

The Tholian Web... Requiem for Methuselah... The Savage Curtain... The Paradise Syndrome... they're not all to be avoided.

 

i didn't say that, did it? especially the tholian web is one of my alltime favourites but to me tos 3 is the worst season of all trek which means the one with the most drop-outs during a binging session

... and i don't expect anybody to see it my way, anyway - i actually know a woman who insists spock's brain is the best trek episode ever (which is obviously nuts)

 

I like The Empath.

 

That's not only controversial to some in our fanbase but I'll go one better. I adore it.

It has a truly beautiful soundtrack, Kathryn Hays turns in a wonderful physical performance as Gem and the Vians are two of the more interesting aliens in Season 3, both in motivations and makeup.

 

Yeah I know, I just don't understand why some people feel the need to construct one.

 

i still don't like it but i'll try again

 

I've never been attached to the name "Terran," but I do kinda wish it was common to refer to the Moon as Luna. My brain might be weird here, but if travel to and from the Moon becomes commonplace, "He's going to Luna" sounds better in that context than "He's going to the Moon." "Going to the Moon" sounds momentous; "going to Luna" sounds like a normal activity.

Author Robert J. Sawyer once made the argument on his Facebook that for all its faults, it was season three of TOS that was the most overtly utopian in its depiction of the Federation and that really set the ST trope of the UFP as a progressive future state.

 

I disagree here, at least as far as the humans of Star Trek's Earth would use it. "The Moon" sounds exactly like the kind of local colloquialism for a nearby place. Like for example people living along the shoreline referring to a single, close-by island simply as "the Island", even though it has a proper name.
So for the inhabitants of Earth I would see calling Luna "the Moon" in everyday conversation would seem very natural to me, and something visitors might find a quaint habit of the locals.
like:
Local: "Do you want to come along to the Moon?"
Visitor: "Which one?"
Local: "Buddy, there's only one moon we call 'the Moon' around here."

The Lunarians on the other hands might prefer to call it Luna, and in the wider Federation it would probably also be called Luna, or Earth's Moon.

 

I agree. I live in New Jersey, and folks here refer to New York City as just "the city." Similarly, the Jersey Shore is simply "the shore."

Plus, casual viewers might not all realize that "Luna" means Earth's moon. Why confuse people if you don't have to?

 

Since Earth doesn't have more than one moon, it makes sense to call it "The Moon".

If we had more than one Moon, there might be a need to call the moon by their appropriate names.

When you talk about Jupiter's Moons, you need to be more specific.

Jupiter has 80 moons.

4x significantly large ones, and many smaller ones.

 

And colonists on the Moon might call themselves by the colony they live in rather than one uniform moniker.

 

That's fair -- mileage will vary here. I just feel like "Luna" sounds like a place but "the Moon" sounds like a thing.

Ironically, DS9's "Valiant" episode established the opposite -- Jake remarks that it is incredibly common for people from Earth to call it Luna, but the actual residents of Luna still call it "the Moon" as a leftover anachronism from the first lunar settlers.

 

Yes. Yes, I did.

I think the problem is that English (and, I'm sure, other languages) has no good word for this.

 

TOS Season 3 may be the weakest, but episode for episode I still enjoy it more than any other Season from any other Star Trek show. Burman Trek, Streaming Trek… I love em both but I’d still rather watch Season 3 of TOS.

 

Well, to be fair, 10-year-old Lord Garth wouldn't have been that interested in going to see License to Kill. So the next opening took six years.

 

my personal head canon on this is that the Universal Translator is being equally provincial with every species, so that “humanoid” translates to “Klingon shaped” or “Ferengi-esque” to the ears of those species.

 

Yup.

Only as a grownup did I really notice the diff in quality. As a kid I disliked the ones with Rand, not because of her, but they seemed solwer, duller. Now I like that thoughtfulness at times, and the wider role of the ancillary crew. My mileage has varied, but TOS os quantum above every thing else for me.