What are your controversial Star Trek opinions?

Holy Prophets, that episode was utterly atrocious. It was weeks before I could stomach another episode of LD.

Regarding Seven, once she got out of that ridiculous silver suit I didn’t think her catsuit was too many degrees worse than what Troi, Kira or T’Pol wore.

In fact, I have more of an issue with Kira’s catsuit (season 4 onward) because it was kind of insulting for a military commander to be wobbling about in seven inch heels with a spray on suit. Ditto T’Pol. And I don’t really know why a counsellor would have her cleavage on display—always seemed a bit inappropriate?

Berman had such a fetish for catsuits, he should be made to wear one as punishment.

 

T'Pol's Season 1 and 2 catsuit.

Ugh.

 

Rick Berman was so much worse than Gene Roddenberry. Rick Berman was a slickster who could get away with a lot more nonsense because he knew how to play studio politics so much better but didn't have the same raw creative talent.

What I like about Alex Kurtzman is that he doesn't appear to have the same hang-ups as Roddenberry or Berman, his Star Trek series have true gender equality, and he's not afraid to make each series different. Not "the same but different" (like Rick Berman did) but actually different.

 

T’Pol and 7 both had actual growth and arcs. You could argue the two best in Trek. Jeri Ryan was a really good actress, too, which I don’t think you woulda predicted from her prior resume (pageant winner, model, and politician’s wife, iirc though none of those is bad, of course!). Tom and B’ellana grew, as a real couple too. But I’m fairly pro VOY as people go here, too.

Edit: thinking catsuits, boy Kira really got fleshed out as a person in DS9 too. Catsuits intended as eye candy, but the actresses and writers parlayed the characters into people.

 

As far as female characters, unquestionably Kira and Seven had the most growth.

 

He certainly went in some new directions... the far future with Discovery, Trek noir with Picard, craziness with LD, kid's shows with Prodigy, and a touch of the familiar with SNW.

At least Kira was wearing what the other Bajoran officers were wearing, and it looked like clothing rather than spray paint.

 

Catsuits in Star Trek...ugh.

Yes, I know, about Theiss and his, um, thesis, on how to do female costumes, but it's one aspect of Trek's efforts to create a more positive vision, yet clothing struggles in that way.

 

I agree that Kira's cat suit was the most incongruous with her character as resistance fighter.

It does seem like Berman took Roddenberry’s cheesy taste in women’s costumes a step further. I read that Jeri Ryan passed out while filming “Revulsion” --then they replaced the silver suit with a less restrictive brown one.
Also saw this from Ryan on a Twitter account a couple years ago…
“Just to be clear, the corset had nothing to do with my needing oxygen — that was the full-Borg rubber suit, which initially pressed on my carotid artery. While it wasn’t exactly comfortable, let’s not perpetuate that exaggeration….As soon as I spoke up and explained it, they sliced the neck in several places and problem solved.”

 

That's how Seven was introduced--her intent to be a sexed-up magnet for viewers on a dry, lifeless series. Her popularity and ancillary marketing was rooted in a sexualized image despite cliams made about the character's personality. Its quite the stretch to believe that the idea of adding Seven to PIC had nothing to do with wanting to capitalize on her popularity which--again--was rooted in a sexualized image. Obviously, a ST series in this era would not put her in another catsuit, but that image is (arguably) the most lasting legacy of a consciously shelved chapter of ST to many fans.

 

Despite the catsuit, Seven is remembered far more for the character, not the outfit. PICARD capitalizes on her character, completely. It's one of the few things PICARD gets totally right.

The only thing the outfit is remembered for is in negative ways.

 

Because the writers did with Seven what they refused to do with Harry, Chakotay, or (beyond repeated Klingon angst plots) B'Elanna: they took her somewhere.

 

Really? I liked return of peanuthamper. I hate her, but they did have me going that she might be redeemed there. I mean, I've liked nearly all TLD episodes, even the first two.

The weird bird-robot copulation was more mind-loaidng than a turnoff.

 

Fucking awful. The only Trek episode I’ve ever turned off before finishing.

 

For me that's "23:59" from Voyager.

 

"11:59". (I get you were using military time, though.) It is a very boring episode.

 

Yeah, the return of Peanut Hamper was a terrible episode. Easily the worst of Lower Decks.

 

I can't stand Lower Decks.

 

Totally Ok. I like it, but then, I like to write parody fanfiction in the fandoms I'm participating in. This one included.

 

True, but if Jery Ryan had been a mediocre actress, it still wouldn't have amounted to much in the collective Trek memory. Most 7 of 9 scripts weren't that stellar or original in themselves, but she really sold those episodes.