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What are your controversial Star Trek opinions?

It's in character of Kirk and Scotty because of their pride of the Enterprise. That's what I meant by past behavior. Scotty always was in love with the Enterprise, and Kirk said many times how much he adores her.

It's another reason why her destruction in STIII packs such a serious punch.
But, in an emergency?
 
Because, as much as lots of people try to equate the two (I have for a number of years) they are not equal. One is largely fantasy but in space, while the other about our humanity specifically. It still is a fantasy but has more direct references to our current culture. Equating the two is common but not fully accurate.

The movies starting with TWOK were more "Hornblower/age of sail in space," if anything, especially as Meyer played up the nautical aspects. These are movies about a regimented naval government service in space, while Star Wars is more about ragtag underdogs, rebels, smugglers, and rogues. Or, as someone once said, "Star Wars is about fighting the man. Star Trek is about being the man."

Kor
 
It's been said, but the Enterprise was still preparing to leave at that point anyway.

I'm reminded of the dog that won't let go of the bone. ;)
I am aware of how stubborn I am on this point, largely because it impacts how I few these characters. I don't find it in line with TOS as others do, but I will leave it at that.
 
…Just as when the Enterprise enters V'ger's cloud, the film simply indulges in spectacle, instead of advancing the story efficiently and effectively.

It is a spectacle. Trek’s answer to the nine-year-old 2001. It is not an efficient-story movie.

Kirk’s gonna defeat the scary thing. I don’t need that too developed. The danger-plot is a necessary evil to allow a movie of spectacle and about character development to happen. Kirk needs to grow back into a captain, Spock needs to learn how to be undivided (whole, in-dividuated). Along the way is unapologetic spectacle. Like those loooong Vger sequences. Ya had to see it on the big screen, perhaps. After years of no Trek and no Star Wars yet.
 
I am aware of how stubborn I am on this point, largely because it impacts how I few these characters. I don't find it in line with TOS as others do, but I will leave it at that.

For me, that's one huge problem with TMP. It doesn't seem like TOS at all. Everyone seems out of character, it's way too slow....TOS could be weird or silly, but I don't remember ever being bored out of my mind.

Movies 2-6 I adore. Taken as a whole, I probably like those 5 films better than the series.

But TMP just felt...off...in so many ways.
 
This. While Star Trek's stance on physics often comes in for scrutiny, it seems happy putting any old biological or medical nonsense out there unchallenged. As a biologist I often find myself wincing. Bashir's early line "the DNA is breaking down into complex protein fragments" still haunts me to this day...

Try computer science, especially (but not solely - rewatched DS9: The Forsaken yesterday, and that was a load of nonsense) in the TOS era.
To be fair, though, that's not only Trek, it's all of TV except Mr. Robot.
 
For me, that's one huge problem with TMP. It doesn't seem like TOS at all. Everyone seems out of character, it's way too slow....TOS could be weird or silly, but I don't remember ever being bored out of my mind.

Movies 2-6 I adore. Taken as a whole, I probably like those 5 films better than the series.

But TMP just felt...off...in so many ways.
It was The Andromeda Strain on a starship. Robert Wise might not have been the best choice to get the band back together.
 
She had a couple of good moments, but was mostly offering platitudes and freshman level insights. It would have been nice if they had portrayed her as more skilled and better trained.

Quite honestly, I find the whole attitude towards psychology to be very retrograde in Star Trek.

My basic problem is this: In the Trekverse, they can fix almost anything that is wrong with the body by just flashing a light over it for a little bit. Psychological disorders are ultimately rooted in the brain (if you hold to materialism). The same technology which can be used to instantly cure broken bones and the like should also be very good at curing depression, anxiety, and various traumas quickly. Yet we don't even see people taking routine medications for mental ailments.

Now, I understand this from a dramatic perspective. Depicting counseling on TV allows characters to talk about their feelings, which gives us insight into the characters. But it does sort of cause me to lose suspension of disbelief.
 
Quite honestly, I find the whole attitude towards psychology to be very retrograde in Star Trek.

My basic problem is this: In the Trekverse, they can fix almost anything that is wrong with the body by just flashing a light over it for a little bit. Psychological disorders are ultimately rooted in the brain (if you hold to materialism). The same technology which can be used to instantly cure broken bones and the like should also be very good at curing depression, anxiety, and various traumas quickly. Yet we don't even see people taking routine medications for mental ailments.

Now, I understand this from a dramatic perspective. Depicting counseling on TV allows characters to talk about their feelings, which gives us insight into the characters. But it does sort of cause me to lose suspension of disbelief.

Ironically, I thought Troi's best turn as a true councilor was in the VOY episode "Life Line."
 
No matter what profession you are in, chances are if you see it depicted in TV and movies they will get lots of stuff completely wrong. General audiences won't know the difference, but it can be rather annoying to those who are in the know. It's the same when a story is set in a particular city but isn't actually shot there. Yeah, let's just throw in a big backdrop of a recognizable building that wouldn't actually even be visible from the location where the characters are supposed to be in that scene, not to mention that nothing at all in that location looks anything the way it looks in real life! :scream:

Kor
 
Quite honestly, I find the whole attitude towards psychology to be very retrograde in Star Trek.

My basic problem is this: In the Trekverse, they can fix almost anything that is wrong with the body by just flashing a light over it for a little bit. Psychological disorders are ultimately rooted in the brain (if you hold to materialism). The same technology which can be used to instantly cure broken bones and the like should also be very good at curing depression, anxiety, and various traumas quickly. Yet we don't even see people taking routine medications for mental ailments.

Devil's advocate/justification: knowledge does not necessarily advance at the same rate in every field.
Maybe they could indeed cure the brain anomaly that caused the mental illness, but don't know how to map X illness to Y clusters(s) of neurons.
There's a quote about this (author uncertain): if the human brain were so simple that we could understand it, we would be so simple that we couldn't". Bit of a depressing notion, the idea that we might never fully understand the inner workings of the brain, but a definite possibility.

Plus, as a mentally ill person, I'm not sure I'd want that operation. As much as my mental illness caused (and still causes) me a host of problems, I'm not sure I'd trust that curing it wouldn't just alter who I fundamentally am.


No matter what profession you are in, chances are if you see it depicted in TV and movies they will get lots of stuff completely wrong. General audiences won't know the difference, but it can be rather annoying to those who are in the know.

Yes, obviously, but some are less poorly portrayed than others. With CS, it's like having cop movies where the cops are armed with salt shakers. Or mechanics that are so good at fixing cars they can drive sitting on the roof!
In the worst cases, it's not even a question of profession, sometimes it's just a question of having used a computer. Anyone who has used a computer (or even a typewriter) should know that two people on a keyboard makes no sense... the NCIS writers apparently don't. I wonder on what they type their scripts. Maybe they're all manuscript (even then: imagine 2 people writing side-by-side on the same page).
 
The fundamental problem with TMP, in my view, is just that so much of the movie boils down to the characters gaping at the viewscreen but not doing anything. Fix that problem and the film would be immensely improved

The movies starting with TWOK were more "Hornblower/age of sail in space," if anything, especially as Meyer played up the nautical aspects. These are movies about a regimented naval government service in space, while Star Wars is more about ragtag underdogs, rebels, smugglers, and rogues. Or, as someone once said, "Star Wars is about fighting the man. Star Trek is about being the man."

I would put it this way: "Star Wars at its best is about tearing down oppressive structures of power. Star Trek at its best is about building up emancipatory institutions."
 
From the perspective of the viewer, the Enterprise flyby in TMP can seem to go on for an inordinately long amount of time. But in-universe there was a ton of preparations and stuff going on aboard a starship that size involving so many systems before the ship could launch. So that would make a five-minute flyby perfectly reasonable. Could Kirk have gotten significantly more work done if the shuttle docked four minutes earlier?

Kor
 
In Space Seed, when Khan puts a knife to McCoy's throat, McCoy tells Khan exactly the best way to do it (like a Boss).
My opinion is that, by telling Khan how to do that, McCoy told Khan exactly how to kill the Scientists (and one Cook) at the Regula 1 station in The Wrath of Khan.
 
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