usernamefactory @ usernamefactory @lemmy.ca

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2 yr. ago

The Daddykins to someone’s Ronny as it were.

Nice patch, nice pennant. I hope they’re planning some solid merch for this. Even if the show turns out to be a disappointment, I’d be happy to buy some Starfleet Academy gear.

Season 4 has been confirmed as well. It's true that there was a longer gap between seasons 2 and 3, but that's when the Hollywood strikes fell, so it's not surprising.

TNG did try to address social justice issues, but agreed it did so in a way that was extremely of its time. The Outcast is a great go-to example of that. It's basically an anti-conversion therapy parable, so definitely progressive for its time, but in the process it portrays non-binary gender expression as literally alien to the Enterprise crew.

Agreed - there are different flavours of optimism. TNG presented a promise that one day, humanity will overcome the petty squabbles and bad ideologies it's mired in today. There's a place for that, but I think there's more appetite today for a focus on how we'll achieve that future - that we can and will fight for it.

Honestly, if I were pitching a concept to attract some fresh attention, I'd go with a "Star Trek: WW3" series. Set it around 2240 to 2250, feature Khan as a big bad, maybe sprinkle in some E.T. interference a la "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" to keep that essential sci-fi flavour. You could also mine the Reeves-Stevens novel "Federation" for some inspiration. The point would be to make it feel contemporary and topical, but ultimately show that when that tipping point into Star Trek's future arrives, we'll be able to tip in the right direction.

I think there's definitely room for different tones and ideas, as long as we also have SNW to keep that classic Trek approach alive.

IDCLIP

I hardly even know ‘er!

You forget the option of puppetry! The best aliens have always been puppets.

Honestly, I think this has more consistently been Star Trek’s approach. Early TNG was the exception. It really pushed for an "evolved humanity" model for Star Trek, where something has fundamentally shifted in our collected psychology. Examples like Dr. Crusher speaking like its remarkable that people used to fear death, or Picard dismissing religion as childish superstition come to mind as particularly strong hints that we've changed a lot.

But later Trek pushes against this: DS9 with it's murky way arc, Voyager with episodes like Equinox and Scorpion, and even late TNG with Pegasus and Journey's End. They are all more likely to see the "evolved human" as something to be tested by the story, with the drama coming from the possibility that it might fail that test.

And I think this is for the best. If humanity is too evolved and too perfect, the series can feel a bit heavy on U.S. exceptionalism - with the very American coded Starfleet going around to other worlds to fix and moralize about other peoples' problems, but never needing to self-reflect or improve on themselves. I think a healthy balance is needed to actually model the qualities that allowed humanity to improve in the first place (and that we really need to see more of in the world now).

Lawful evil. If I'm just reading through a book and can't remember where I left off, it's probably not a book worth coming back to. Bookmarks are exclusively for passages I want to come back to after I've finished the book - in those cases it's usually just a scrap of paper.

Can I see it?

The Orville was never funny, and it got much better when it stopped trying to be. Star Trek has a pretty good track record with humour. Especially where Newsome is concerned.

Huh, I thought I’d heard Netflix cancelled it, but according to everything I see on Google they just haven’t announced anything one way or the other. It’s been long enough that I wouldn’t hold my breath, though.

Sure, I’d understand your sentiment more when all those shows were being announced, rather than after they’ve all been canned. Right now we’re looking at ten episodes plus the Section 31 special in the coming year, which doesn’t seem like over doing it to me. But I was raised on seasons of twenty-plus episodes, so maybe I’m spoiled.

They've cancelled Discovery, Prodigy, Picard, Lower Decks, and you're worried they're going to over-do it? If they do it much less, there wont be any Trek left!

Yup. We also laughed at Shatner’s get a life sketch, and dozens of gags from Futurama and Family Guy.

The ways humans engage with their personal fascinations are often inherently ridiculous, and everybody ought to be able to laugh at that.

Hot take: it’s a great movie, but not a great Star Trek movie. Too militaristic, gives you the impression that Starfleet is at odds with scientists instead of made up of scientists.

Obviously, though, to each their own.

I like helping people, but not with what I do for my day job. Ask me to shovel your driveway or help you move or proofread your emails or anything but more of what I’ve already spent all day doing.

No, no, he's just a little elf prince. Never worked out a day in his life, no sir. Probably a vegetarian.

Yeah, definitely not. Picard and Discovery were very serialised, as were the later seasons of DS9, but outside of those you can pretty much dip your toe in to almost any episode and not worry about getting sucked into a whole arc. It's probably best to keep a low-commitment mindset and skip around a bit until something really works for you.