When Trek insults our intelligence

[F. King Daniel]

We're all here because we love Star Trek, but the people behind Trek do treat us like idiots sometimes and it's frustrating.

Like Romulans sprouting brow ridges in Next Gen to differentiate them from Vulcans. Like EVERY Romulan having a bowl cut and shoulder pads up to and including the guy in the soup kitchen on Romulus. Like T'Pol, native of a desert planet, wearing less than her human crewmates. Like Spock screaming "Khaaaan!" because the film had Khan in it and they thought we'd like that. Like the powers-that-be insisting Disco is the same world as TOS despite the obvious changes to visuals and continuity (although lets debate that one in the Disco forum where several threads covering it) or like the day being saved by a teenage boy because a crew of highly trained Starfleet officers apparently aren't up to the task.

When else has Trek made you feel like your intelligence is being insulted?

 

[johnnybear]

Discovery is my main one! The technology on board the Discovery is far in advance of TOS, TNG and DS9! Yet it's supposed to be set before TOS??It starts with a war between the Federation and the Klingons which has never been mentioned or established anywhere before Errand of Mercy! The mission into the Mirror Universe a decade before Kirk's accidental transporter mishap! I know you've mentioned we should leave it in the DSC forum but I really think it fits your question, King Dan!
JB

 

[fireproof78]

Voyager typically did it for me, with all the technobabble. "Subspace torque" "intoferometric pulse" and the like. As well as portrayal of Native Americans as a rather large, and ubiquitous culture, with Chakotay cribbing from different tribes. Never mind the aliens who apparently granted increased mental powers to backwards tribals.

 

[Infern0]

Abrahms movies for me.

I know its a controversial position to take but here goes.... again

Its not a reboot, it's a divergent timeline which is supposedly only what? 25 years from the divergent point.

Yet I'm supposed to buy that starfleet has in just 25 years "militarized" due to the naradas attack resulting in the connie being a dreadnaught that's bigger than a galaxy class ship.

Jeez in 80 years when we meet the dominion thats just gonna be a curbstomp in our favour when our super star destroyer sized oddesy goes through the wormhole and their ships havent changed at all.

There was NO need to upscale the ships whatsoever, the only time you'd even know was in their engineering dept which looked rubbish.

I forgive it though cos its just a big dumb action movie

 

[The Wormhole]

The Abrams movies and Disco are both the result of a desire to reinvent Star Trek without breaking away from the Prime Universe Security Blanket. Trek XI was a perfect opportunity to relaunch Star Trek as something reinvented, but instead of doing something new, they made it a branch of the Prime Universe that allows for Leonard Nimoy to pop in for visits.

Disco, meanwhile is for all intents and purposes a reboot but for some reason everyone says its Prime Universe, and the former showrunners even limited themselves selectively to Prime Universe rules, like can't show the Romulans because of Balance of Terror while otherwise blatantly ignoring others, like everything concerning the Klingons in season 1. Though, I'm honestly not sure if that constitutes insulting the audience or is just a by-product of the very shoddy communications that go on behind the scenes.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Discovery is my main one! The technology on board the Discovery is far in advance of TOS, TNG and DS9! Yet it's supposed to be set before TOS??It starts with a war between the Federation and the Klingons which has never been mentioned or established anywhere before Errand of Mercy! The mission into the Mirror Universe a decade before Kirk's accidental transporter mishap! I know you've mentioned we should leave it in the DSC forum but I really think it fits your question, King Dan!
JB

If you think those things "insult your intelligence", the problem probably isn't with the show.

 

[1001001]

What a disappointing, negative thread.

There are other forums filled with threads tearing down Discovery and JJ Trek from every angle possible.

How dare they produce new Trek that I don't like! Does anyone really think that's "insulting our intelligence"? Well, I call BS on that.

Whether you like DISCO or JJ or whatever, I guarantee you no one behind the scenes is creating this stuff and thinking to themselves "Those idiot nerds won't even realize how cleverly we've insulted them. Brilliant!" Every single person involved is trying to make the best Star Trek they can. Why wouldn't they? What possible motive would there be to spend multi-millions on "insulting our intelligence"?

The problem is the fans who nitpick the ever-loving shit out of every fucking little thing like it's life-or-death, instead of just going along for the ride. Or just not hate-watching a show they loathe and then posting their nerd rage over fucking head ridges and subtitles.

We have met the enemy, and they are us.

 

[The Old Mixer]

I don't mind JJTrek or Discotrek reinventing things...but they should be honest and just call it a reimagining.

Also, generally offscreen information, even from the showmakers, isn't considered "canon"...so why do fans take the word of Discovery's producers that it it takes place in the Prime Universe?

 

[Vger23]

What a disappointing, negative thread.

There are other forums filled with threads tearing down Discovery and JJ Trek from every angle possible.

How dare they produce new Trek that I don't like! Does anyone really think that's "insulting our intelligence"? Well, I call BS on that.

Whether you like DISCO or JJ or whatever, I guarantee you no one behind the scenes is creating this stuff and thinking to themselves "Those idiot nerds won't even realize how cleverly we've insulted them. Brilliant!" Every single person involved is trying to make the best Star Trek they can. Why wouldn't they? What possible motive would there be to spend multi-millions on "insulting our intelligence"?

The problem is the fans who nitpick the ever-loving shit out of every fucking little thing like it's life-or-death, instead of just going along for the ride. Or just not hate-watching a show they loathe and then posting their nerd rage over fucking head ridges and subtitles.

We have met the enemy, and they are us.

Yes.

 

[The Wormhole]

Also, generally offscreen information, even from the showmakers, isn't considered "canon"...so why do fans take the word of Discovery's producers that it it takes place in the Prime Universe?

Disco more or less gets by on tweets from behind the scenes people explaining everything, and in some cases telling us to ignore something on screen. Like the clearly readable on-screen computer graphic listing Stamets as the chief engineer quickly had one of the producers tweeting at us that was a mistake we should ignore.

 

[Vger23]

Besides, let's be honest here. A person has to allow themselves to feel personally insulted by a work of fiction. That's a construct in your own mind, not something that was purposefully done to you by someone else. You're giving the thought credibility and therefore reality to that construct.

It's internally created, not externally. We allow ourselves to be enraged insulted by meaningless bullshit, then we take it out on the production team instead of on ourselves for being miserable, nitpicky, perfectionist nerds!

 

[Nerys Myk]

I don't mind JJTrek or Discotrek reinventing things...but they should be honest and just call it a reimagining.

Didn't they use that word in describing their approach? Though it should be obvious that any modern show based on a 50 year old franchise will involve some reimagining. If you want "Fidelity" to to past, there are a lot of fan films that do that.

Also, generally offscreen information, even from the showmakers, isn't considered "canon"...so why do fans take the word of Discovery's producers that it it takes place in the Prime Universe?

Canon is what ever they say it is. The rules are what ever they say they are. The ultimate authority lies with them, not us.

 

[fireproof78]

What a disappointing, negative thread.

There are other forums filled with threads tearing down Discovery and JJ Trek from every angle possible.

How dare they produce new Trek that I don't like! Does anyone really think that's "insulting our intelligence"? Well, I call BS on that.

Whether you like DISCO or JJ or whatever, I guarantee you no one behind the scenes is creating this stuff and thinking to themselves "Those idiot nerds won't even realize how cleverly we've insulted them. Brilliant!" Every single person involved is trying to make the best Star Trek they can. Why wouldn't they? What possible motive would there be to spend multi-millions on "insulting our intelligence"?

The problem is the fans who nitpick the ever-loving shit out of every fucking little thing like it's life-or-death, instead of just going along for the ride. Or just not hate-watching a show they loathe and then posting their nerd rage over fucking head ridges and subtitles.

We have met the enemy, and they are us.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Canon is what ever they say it is. The rules are what ever they say they are. The ultimate authority lies with them, not us.

They have authority over what gets made. They have no authority over what we choose to accept or disregard. "Canon" has become almost meaningless to me as franchises continue to be run into the ground by later generations of creators. But I still don't get why whatever the current producers say offscreen is treated as unquestionable, while things that Roddenberry himself said aren't.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

None of these actually constitute insulting our intelligence. Ooh, a show produced 50 years later doesn't have visual continuity, call the cops! Sooo insulting.

All the over the top sexualization of T'Pol is less insulting to our intelligence than it is to our motives for watching. It doesn't imply we're dumb, it implies we care more about tight clothing than tight storytelling. It insults something, but not our intelligence. Smart people are libidinous all the time.

 

[Butters]

When did Trek insult my intelligence?

Every episode that was resolved in the last 2 minutes with a technowaffle solution. Voyager did it all the time.

The odds are against us and the situation is grim? There’s an app for that.

Every time they raised the stakes so impossibly high and then used the reset button. Voyager did that all the time.

Can’t say as I’m overly arsed about Romulan foreheads or shoulder pads, but if we do get more mature content in Trek, I’d like to see a nude Romulan, just to show that it ain’t padding.

 

[fireproof78]

They have authority over what gets made. They have no authority over what we choose to accept or disregard. "Canon" has become almost meaningless to me as franchises continue to be run into the ground by later generations of creators. But I still don't get why whatever the current producers say offscreen is treated as unquestionable, while things that Roddenberry himself said aren't.

Unfortunately, it's not rational. Hatred and anger don't require consistency.

Can’t say as I’m overly arsed about Romulan foreheads or shoulder pads, but if we do get more mature content in Trek, I’d like to see a nude Romulan, just to show that it ain’t padding.

It's Star Trek. It's all padding

 

[Nerys Myk]

They have authority over what gets made. They have no authority over what we choose to accept or disregard. "Canon" has become almost meaningless to me as franchises continue to be run into the ground by later generations of creators. But I still don't get why whatever the current producers say offscreen is treated as unquestionable, while things that Roddenberry himself said aren't.

What we accept isn't about canon. It's just what we like.
When Roddenberry was in charge, canon was what he said it was. And even he changed his mind. He was willing to decanonize TOS at one point.
When the next PTB arrive they get to decide what' canon and some of DISCO might be ignored.

 

[The Old Mixer]

My point is...we don't have to care what's considered "canon".

 

[fireproof78]

My point is...we don't have to care what's considered "canon".

No, we really don't. Art should be engaged on an individual level and enjoyed, not condemned, for its differences.