Why the hate for Alex Kurtzman?

[TRON JA307020]

None of that is dumbing down.

Star Trek always wanted to appeal to the masses. It's not highbrow entertainment. Its core is action/adventure with something to say.

Crew members split into A and B stories is a hallmark of Berman Trek. It's not "fractured stories".

DISCO has its action set pieces, so did all the other shows. They're a little more dynamic because that's what the new SFX tech allows. But the characters still do their monologs and problem solving like the other shows did.

Its more like star wars now. Thats what abrams stsrted and it continued with std. The phaser beam as we knew it is long gone. At least snw has brought back some of the classic star trek story telling. Yet it still wants to be more action like star wars or more edgy like the alien franchise. It just cant be star trek.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Its more like star wars now. Thats what abrams stsrted and it continued with std. The phaser beam as we knew it is long gone. At least snw has brought back some of the classic star trek story telling. Yet it still wants to be more action like star wars or more edgy like the alien franchise. It just cant be star trek.

Repeating it doesn't change the fact that "Star Wars" SFX elements do not dumb down anything. The SFX aren't "dumb" or "smart". They're just SFX.

 

[TRON JA307020]

Repeating it doesn't change the fact that "Star Wars" SFX elements do not dumb down anything. The SFX aren't "dumb" or "smart". They're just SFX.

Star trek became more like star wars. So yeah it was dumbed down.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Star trek became more like star wars. So yeah it was dumbed down.

By using similar SFX? No. Find a better example.

 

[Sketcher]

Pretty sure Wrath of Khan, Voyager, and First Contact-Nemesis had blaster bolt phaser effects...if we're realllllly gonna make that a big deal.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

They even changed phasers to look like star wars blaster bolts

For "Small Arms" that people use to shoot at each other, that few seconds of holding still for the phaser beam to connect could get you killed.

Phaser Bolts actually makes ALOT more sense in terms of how you want to fight, it's similar in concept to firing modern day "Tracer Rounds".

The only time that a continuous beam that fires at other people on the ground is from Automated Turrets and Weapon Emplacements on Vehicles/Vessels.

You generally want to "Shoot & Scoot/Hide behind cover" as much as you can.

Sitting there waiting for the Beam to end is more likely to get you killed in a Fire-Fight.

So in that aspect, I'm happy that they changed it.

There's a time/place for each type of Energy Projectile to be used.

But continuous Beams shouldn't be for hand held weapons that a person needs to fire in a active fire-fight where the enemy is shooting back at you.
That's actually a VERY BAD idea from a logical Point of View.

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

According to my 2 minutes of research, phaser beams tend to take 3 frames to cross the screen and phaser bolts take 2 frames. And the sparks start flying out of the bad guy the instant it connects either way.

 

[Will_Carter]

Technobabble was a whole level of dumb all on its own.

Cue 90's interviews about kate mulgrew complaining half her liens were in 'japanese' babble.

Edit
technobabble existed often in TOS.

To be perfectly blunt? It feels like you're wanting to pick a fight either for the sake of being a contrarian, or you've pinned your entire identity and the concept of 'smart' to a specific era that you feel current trek does not fit. Worse still, there are a variety of valid arguments to put forward and you choose none of them.


Signed:
Guy that hated STD until they ditched the Control arc in favor of moving to the 31st century where it actually felt like it wasn't trying to rewrite history* and instead was trying to be its own thing.

*Strange New Worlds, the one often cited as 'going back to what trek is,' and is an honest favorite of mine, is all about either retcons, explaining retcons, or literally standing on the shoulders of what was in the form of telling the story of Pike's captaincy.

 

[Campe]

Im sorry, and I'm not trying to start a fight, but oftentimes, technobabble was a convenient Deus ex machina for getting the characters out of situations. Maybe dumb isn’t the right word, but a convenient plot device is more apropos.

 

[The Wormhole]

Cue 90's interviews about kate mulgrew complaining half her liens were in 'japanese' babble.

I liked the time back in the late 2000s where Brannon Braga admitted that when it came to writing the technobabble, he had absolutely no idea if the things he wrote even made any sense.

 

[Turtletrekker]

I read that the writers just wrote "tech tech tech tech" in the scripts and let the science advisors fill in the blanks.blanks.

 

[Firebird]

I read that the writers just wrote "tech tech tech tech" in the scripts and let the science advisors fill in the blanks.blanks.

Yup, some of the early draft scripts I’ve got for TNG would have lines line:

DATA
I have a theory that the [TECH] properties of the [TECH] particles might be the potential cause.

Hence how it became known to the writers as “TECH the TECH.”

 

[fireproof78]

Its more like star wars now. Thats what abrams stsrted and it continued with std. The phaser beam as we knew it is long gone. At least snw has brought back some of the classic star trek story telling. Yet it still wants to be more action like star wars or more edgy like the alien franchise. It just cant be star trek.

It's always been action adventure show.

That's not dumbing down.

 

[Will_Carter]

Im sorry, and I'm not trying to start a fight, but oftentimes, technobabble was a convenient Deus ex machina for getting the characters out of situations. Maybe dumb isn’t the right word, but a convenient plot device is more apropos.

You aren't wrong. Both a handwave to explain the 'science we don't understand' problem, and then the solution to said problem.

 

[Citiprime]

Im sorry, and I'm not trying to start a fight, but oftentimes, technobabble was a convenient Deus ex machina for getting the characters out of situations. Maybe dumb isn’t the right word, but a convenient plot device is more apropos.

One of people's problem with SNW's "Subspace Rhapsody" was how detached the musical aspect was from any believability. The technobabble allows the audience to suspend disbelief by giving some sciency-mumbo-jumbo that acknowledges a certain degree realism, but saying this anomaly or technology breaks it (e.g., the Heisenberg Compensators in the Transporters).

I think that's true for everything in Star Trek for certain aspects of the audience. The more grounded things are in rules and limitations the more believable it becomes within the story. I mean a huge theme of Star Trek from the beginning has been a group of people venturing out into the unknown and making the "strange" a discovery that's grounded in a scientific reality. Because if it's just random odd shit that just happens because the plot needs it to happen, without any foundation within the story, then Star Trek veers more into fantasy.

It's always been action adventure show.

That's not dumbing down.

That's been part of what it is.

But if you go through some of what's considered the best episodes of this franchise, it's NOT always action adventure. TNG's "Measure of a Man" is not an action adventure story. It's a bunch of people trying to make sense of the human concept of individual rights within a science fiction setting. "The Inner Light" is not an action adventure episode either.

Those episodes intelligently and thoughtfully deal with complicated topics.

 

[Birb-of-Prey]

Though I cringed a little a couple times during the episode, I don’t think "Subspace Rhapsody" was much wackier in concept than some of the weirder episodes of TOS.

 

[Nerys Myk]

One of people's problem with SNW's "Subspace Rhapsody" was how detached the musical aspect was from any believability. The technobabble allows the audience to suspend disbelief by giving some sciency-mumbo-jumbo that acknowledges a certain degree realism, but saying this anomaly or technology breaks it (e.g., the Heisenberg Compensators in the Transporters).

It's an anomaly from a "subspace fold" that impacted people's behavior beacuse " the song created a resonant frequency and dislodged something from the fold, a quantum uncertainty field." and "an area of space where quantum uncertainties collapse so rapidly and randomly that new realities are created. In one such reality, people sing uncontrollably." Is that not babblely enough? Or their first attempt to solve the problem?

"Zippers work both ways. Could we use it to close the improbability field back inside the fold?"

"Potentially. If we combined shield harmonics with the Heisenberg compensator."

"You would have to connect both to the deflector array and generate a beam."

Or their final solution

"Look. It's a pattern. Every time someone sings, the state of quantum improbability
in the field spikes. It's almost imperceptible, but it's there. So I ran the simulations, and if we can get this spike to giga electronvolts..."

"It would shatter the field. You found the improbability breaking event."

Standard Trek problem solving.

 

[1001001]

As a one time thing, I thought Subspace Rhapsody was good fun.

 

[JLA]

As a one time thing, I thought Subspace Rhapsody was good fun.

I wasn't in the mood for it. Some day it may be my favourite episode.

 

[Dukhat]

As a one time thing, I thought Subspace Rhapsody was good fun.

I thought it was rather silly, but I didn't think it was the end of Trek as we know it.