What are your controversial Star Trek opinions?

[Shawnster]

A little off topic {ok, pretty much off topic) is this YouTube video about old Atari 2600 game registry numbers.

I share this because it provides evidence the numbers started out with a certain logic in mind but, over a few short years, the logic was abandoned. At the beginning the registry numbers were grouped sort of by category. All the combat style games in a certain sequence, sports in another sequence, etc... Then you can see how the sequences devolve into random order.

So, the ship registery numbers in Starfleet could have a similar history.

 

[Forbin]

Also look at the way the US military abandoned the sequential numbering of aircraft types for no particular reason. Since they started the joint service renumbering system in the 60s, we were doing fine up to the F-22 and YF-23, but then (for reasons beyond comprehension) the Joint Strike Fighter program contestants were assigned X-numbers, and when the X-35 was chosen to be the next fighter, they decided to call it the F-35 instead of (I guess F-24 would have been next). They restarted numbering bombers with the B-1, and so the B-2 followed naturally, and the B-2's successor will be the... B-21, because they thought it would be cool to point out it's the 21st century.

 

[Citiprime]

If anyone has ever taken a college organic chemistry class, you'll have to suffer through a section on nomenclature, and there are places where the nomenclature scheme falls apart.

For official uses, there are agreed upon IUPAC rules for naming chemical compounds and molecules.

However... there's also common names that sometimes get grandfathered in, compounds where the IUPAC naming system becomes too laborious (e.g., the protein Titin has an IUPAC name which "starts methionyl... and ends ...isoleucine, containing 189,819 letters"), or there are cases where different cultures disagree on spelling and pronunciation.

For example, is it transparent aluminum (a-loom-i-num) or transparent aluminium (al-i-min-yum)?

Under the IUPAC rules, it's the latter not the former, and all of us speaking American English say and spell it wrong.

 

[Macintosh]

e.g., the protein Titin has an IUPAC name which "starts methionyl... and ends ...isoleucine, containing 189,819 letters"

Here's the full version if anyone's interested! Back when I was studying biochemistry I once tried to read it out loud just so I could say I had, but the first page alone took about five minutes and then I gave up.

 

[FormerLurker]

For example, is it transparent aluminum (a-loom-i-num) or transparent aluminium (al-i-min-yum)?

Oh, most of those guys pronounce it al-yu-min-ee-um.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

"Aluminium" is a UK thing. Americans don't prnounce it like that. Over here it's always "Aluminum."

Kind of like the word "billion" meaning different things. In the UK it's a million million, in the US it's a thousand million. Which still confuses the hell out of me.

Kurtwood Smith is the best Federation president, yes.

Robert Ellenstein would like a word.

srsly, Hiram Roth is MY favorite prez. Only thing that would change my mind is if Rayner from DSC wins an election.

Seriously. Rayner. What a guy.

 

[Macintosh]

"Aluminium" is a UK thing. Americans don't prnounce it like that. Over here it's always "Aluminum."

The American Chemical Society didn't officially adopt aluminum over aluminium until 1925, and Merriam-Webster still listed aluminium in use in the US in the 1930s. And it's not just a British thing, it's a "anyone who speaks English outside of North America" thing.

Kind of like the word "billion" meaning different things. In the UK it's a million million, in the US it's a thousand million. Which still confuses the hell out of me.

Long scale numbers were officially abandoned in the UK in 1974.

 

[BK613]

Robert Ellenstein would like a word.

Ellenstein's Prez demoted Kirk and gave him a POS starship even the Miracle Worker had trouble fixing.
Smith's Prez led the negotiating efforts to forge a peace treaty with the Klingons while looking cool and alien as he did it.

 

[Lord Garth]

I feel like a hipster for saying this, but... I now think TMP is my favorite Star Trek movie. As in actually my favorite Star Trek movie.

TWOK is the very close runner-up. After that is still TVH and FC.

 

[Prometheus59650]

My controversial opinion:

Picard, Season 3 was absolutely terrible.

 

[cooleddie74]

I love TMP. It's the closest to pure science fiction any Trek film's ever gotten and the only one that feels genuinely mysterious, tense and eerie and challenges the audience to contemplate the wider nature of the universe. Other Trek movies are more fun and engaging on an emotional level but TMP remains peak cinematic Star Trek in the terms of bold science fiction storytelling.

 

[Lord Garth]

My controversial opinion:

Picard, Season 3 was absolutely terrible.

That's not controversial on TrekBBS.

When I say it's my favorite season of New Trek, that's the controversial opinion here.

I rank the live-action serialized seasons this way:
PIC Season 3
PIC Season 1
DSC Season 1
DSC Season 4
DSC Season 2
DSC Season 3
PIC Season 2

I'm not including DSC Season 5 until it's done. Normally I have some sort of feel for where I'll place a season by this point, but DSC S5 is keeping me on my toes. I mean that in a good way, but I can't even hazard a guess (in this case) until I have a complete picture. I'm not going to do spoilers.

EDIT: After thinking about it, while it's still very close, I'm breaking the tie. I'm putting DSC Season 1 over DSC Season 4.

 

[Mage]

I love TMP. It's the closest to pure science fiction any Trek film's ever gotten and the only one that feels genuinely mysterious, tense and eerie and challenges the audience to contemplate the wider nature of the universe. Other Trek movies are more fun and engaging on an emotional level but TMP remains peak cinematic Star Trek in the terms of bold science fiction storytelling.

I agree.

 

[FredH]

I love TMP. It's the closest to pure science fiction any Trek film's ever gotten and the only one that feels genuinely mysterious, tense and eerie and challenges the audience to contemplate the wider nature of the universe. Other Trek movies are more fun and engaging on an emotional level but TMP remains peak cinematic Star Trek in the terms of bold science fiction storytelling.

I’m quite happy to have lived to see the day when this stopped being such an incredibly rare viewpoint. For a good twenty years at least, it was virtually de rigeur for TMP to be universally dumped on — but I remember someone at a Creation con (I want to say Allan Asherman?) saying to a crowd (which laughed in response) that the day would come when Star Trek: The Motion Picture would be revered, and happily he was right.

 

[at Quark's]

I don't mind Neelix at all as a character, which may be controversial. He's a magnificently flawed character - petty, thin-skinned, insecure as all hell, papering over a lifetime worth of trauma and existential dread. He has the sort of complexity that other Trek characters dream of.

The only issue with Neelix is that, for some reason, the EPs thought he was funny, when, of course, he was not. His relationship with Kes was incredibly ill-thought-out, though. It seems like it was created for the pilot, and then the writers realized after that they fucked up tremendously by having this creepy middle-aged dude who was "dating" a two-year old, and walked it right back. Like, they had separate quarters on the ship, and Elogium seemed to strongly infer they had never boned. There was very little sign they has anything beyond a platonic relationship, other than Neelix's jealousy regarding Tom Paris.

I still think Neelix could have been one of the best Voyager characters. He had great ingredients such as a 'traumatized' character traits and a tragic past. If only we would have gotten more episodes such as Jetrel or Fair Trade. Instead, they choose to use him mostly for 'comedic relief'.

As for Neelix - Kes, I view that as the relationship of a 30-50 year old with a 20 year old. Somewhat creepy and ill-advised perhaps, but she was still a consenting adult (even if only barely). The fact they had also thought up her species lived only around 10 years and she was only 2 which makes it feel more wrong is just an unfortunate coincidence in that regard as far as I'm concerned.

 

[1001001]

I love TMP.

 

[HotRod]

TMP is the only film from the first 10 films that actually feels like a big budget movie.

 

[Tallguy]

Ellenstein's Prez demoted Kirk

It was the subplot of two previous movies the Kirk HATED being an Admiral. I don't think he's sorry. Not one damn bit.

and gave him a POS starship even the Miracle Worker had trouble fixing.

That's a Star Trek V problem not a President Bad Guy From North by Northwest problem.

 

[SCE2Aux]

TMP is best MP!

 

[eschaton]

I have...mixed...feelings regarding Picard Season 3, because I think it was very effective at doing what it set out to do. I just hate what it was effective at doing, which was basically taking a big old steaming dump on everything in the first two seasons, good or bad.