Whose morals seemed more natural?

[John200]

As an example I think the Original Series crew came off as moral people who where not ashamed of making mistakes.

But in some cases the Next Generation crew sometimes came off like they were reading from a Politically Correct handbook.

 

[Anwar]

I never really saw a difference between the two, really. Maybe it was because in TOS it was all focused mainly on the trinity and they were more archetypes than real characters, while in TNG we saw the whole crew more.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

I would say that the Original cast, particularly Captain Kirk, seemed a lot more confident. Even when faced with very difficult decisions, they at least seemed to take solace in the fact that they were always trying their best. I suppose, if you always give your best effort, you needn't fear failure because any failure will only result from things you were never able to control in the first place.

OTOH, the Next Generation crew seemed more self-conscious, more afraid of making mistakes. Perhaps it's because the stakes for them often felt more removed. Without the constant spectre of Cold War with the Klingons, it rarely felt like anything the crew did or didn't do would really affect anyone that we cared about. Even the ship & crew rarely seemed to be in any real danger because it felt less like a functional military vessel and more like an omnipotent space hotel.

 

[TheQman]

TOS was definately more natural and this is comming from a TNG fan.

By TNG they really were probably writing more PC scripts.

 

[FormerLurker]

Oh, the TNG scripts were far more PC. Commentary from the characters about sexism, racism, and the like that ostensibly would no longer be of concern. Even the TNG movies got into the act, if but for one of the better jokes in Insurrection.

 

[Admiral Shran]

As someone who prefers TNG over TOS, I have to say that TOS did seem more natural. And, TNG was at times so PC that it was rather off-putting.

 

[Arpy]

The world changed - not just Star Trek.

We made a lot of mistakes, recognized them, and now tread more carefully. I think that's a good thing. I think that if we treaded even more so, we wouldn't have gone into Iraq, or let Afghanistan or our economy deteriorate so.

I agree the political correctness could at times be off-putting, but I think that's because they were new at it and weren't sure how to portray it naturally.