Mine is that Discovery should have been a series taking place in the Picard era.
Keiko wasn’t that bad of a character. She wasn’t a great character, but the biggest problem was that her actress, Rosalind Chao, had very poor chemistry with Colm Meaney, who in turn had great chemistry primarily with Alexander Siddig, and also with several other actors. This wasn’t a problem when she was cast in “Data’s Day” as the bride to be with nervous bride energy, if anything that’s an asset in such a short time frame. But then expecting that to work in what is supposed to be a long-term marriage is what led to perception of her being all MIIIIIILES all the time.
Now, I don’t know that mid to late 90s Star Trek producers would have been on board, but they should have written an amicable divorce plot for the O’Briens. Miles and Keiko clearly grew apart from each other over the course of the show. Between her extended trips to Bajor and the way she all but threw Miles at Kira, they were already about 85% of the way there anyway. A divorce would have been a great way to resolve that issue, and use Star Trek as it was always intended: to explore real life issues in a scifi universe.
Wow that is hot.
They need to actually give a full look into the economics of the federation. Yeah, it’s space communism. But I want more specifics.
There’s a recent episode in Lower Decks where they liberate a planet from capitalism… by essentially taking all the “worthless” gold and jewels and giving it to Space Pirate Royalty to broker a peace deal between them and the Federation.
I don’t doubt that the majority of the occupants of said planet are now happier not having to grind for capital…, but apparently having capital is still an immensely useful resource that the Federation is happy to, uh, quietly commandeer in lieu of payment for its, uh, services to the planet(?)
I still need to catch up on the latest season(s?) of lower decks. And given the fact that lower decks is a comedy, and borderline non-canon, I’d take that with a giant grain of salt.
Energy-to-(organic)matter conversion + futuristic power generators makes feeding your population a triviality. That simplifies just about any economic system, which takes a lot of the complicated stuff out of government and class hierarchies.
But Star Trek is a fictional utopia, much like Communism.
In reality, corruption would still mess up government in a “real world” Star Trek. I’m a casual Trekkie, but I don’t recall much detail about the Federation’s or Earth’s government structure. Do people still vote? Is it a benevolent military dictatorship? Who knows? And who cares? It’s not really relevant to the themes of the shows.
Star Trek is founded on liberal ideas popular in the mid-20th century that humanity could achieve unity and peace if it just cast aside superficial differences like race and gender, allowing us to focus on exploring the universe once we’d gotten over fighting each other. That’s the very core of the entire franchise and I’m fine leaving it that way, unscrutinized, since it clearly doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. It’s like how the force is best left a mystical property of the universe in Star Wars, rather than science-ized with medichlorians.
That simplifies just about any economic system, which takes a lot of the complicated stuff out of government and class hierarchies.
Right, but they very clearly don’t get all of their food out of a replicator, nor do they use the holodeck for things like hair cuts. There is still people who serve as cooks, waitresses, barbers, etc despite the technology being there to not need those jobs.
And that’s what I want explored in more depth.
I’m a casual Trekkie, but I don’t recall much detail about the Federation’s or Earth’s government structure. Do people still vote? Is it a benevolent military dictatorship? Who knows? And who cares?
I’ve been dipping my toe in the books. At least in the first book for PIC, The Last Best Hope, they very clearly still have political struggles for power, corruption, tribalism, and voting. It ain’t a dictatorship, but the goals and views of the government leaders aren’t wholey benevolent.
A particularly good example was the Federation council member Olivia Quest. She’s a rep from a border planet, whos been facing some issues with the romulan star going supernova, and all the immigrants that are mayhaps being sent their way. So she raises a big stink over any and all help towards the romulans. It’s self serving, selfish, and tribalism, but she was voted in and she wasn’t alone.
All of this is very familiar to real life. But it’s the exact kind of details I want, but on one of the shows. They made it interesting in the books, they could just as easily make it interesting in the show.
That’s the very core of the entire franchise and I’m fine leaving it that way, unscrutinized, since it clearly doesn’t hold up to scrutiny.
Maybe the tech of replicators/transporters/holodecks should be left unscrutinized, because ultimately it relies on technobable for it to be compatible with a suspension of disbelief. But I don’t think the same goes for the societal structures of the federation. It worked in the Last Best Hope, I think it could work on the screen.
The Wrath of Khan ruined Khan’s character.
Khan was introduced in the episode Space Seed, where his crew of genetically-enhanced tyrants are discovered hibernating on a ship, having been kicked off Earth centuries before. It’s a wonderful episode about opposing moral perspectives, and we get the positive and negative views on both.
You could say it’s about slave/herd morality versus master/strength morality, or you could say it’s about compassionate humanism vs tyrannical domination. Both these perspectives are given their space in the episode.
Khan talks about how they were actually persecuted for their reproductive schemes, how that’s an infringement on their freedom. That makes him somewhat sympathetic, but at the same time he accepts nobody’s rules except his own.
The most interesting part is how the crew of the Enterprise are actually enamoured with the strength, charisma, and freedom of the tyrants. The final scene (after they defeat Khan) show the crew almost lamenting how they can’t do the kind of tyranny that Khan does. They want it, they kind of respect it, but they acknowledge the importance of equality and rule of law, so they almost-grudgingly agree that they did the right thing by defeating him.
When they defeat Khan they exile his crew once again to a harsh planet.
Ultimately the episode demonstrates why fascism will always be alluring to men and women, and also why it’s important to make sure that it doesn’t take over.
Then we get The Wrath of Khan. Khan is no longer charismatic. There’s no philosophical discussion. Just a revenge story. And this is somehow the version of Khan we remember!
You could argue that Khan’s vengeful turn is what happens when the spirit of freedom is crushed and ostracized. That would make a good arc, and a good psychological study. But none of that is discussed. He’s just a bitter, resentful loser who will stop at nothing to hurt Kirk. Khan as a character is ruined, and the story isn’t even ten percent as good as the episode where he was introduced.
Edit: I had the name of the episode wrong.
This is such an interesting take, because I have such a different one!
I maintain that, in his anger, in his vengeance, he was right. Being exiled to Ceti Alpha 5, when no one knew that Ceti Alpha 6 had exploded years ago and destroyed the habitability of Ceti Alpha 5 (oh my God, no one thought to check on the marooned Khan and his people in fifteen years?) means that he was a victim. And there was no justice.
I still thought of Khan and his people as charismatic and strong and intelligent- but victimized by Kirk, they were correct to seek revenge. What was done to them was not justice. It was cruel and unusual punishment. I also found it a testament to their strength that they survived for 14-and-a-half years on that hellhole.
Loved your comments. Love the different perspective!
I’m not necessarily saying he was wrong (although his mission is a race to the bottom). And yeah, the victimization could explain his deterioration from a great man to a warped vengeance-seeking psycho. But as a character there was nothing interesting going on there. He’s just a generic Bad Guy, for the plot.
But I like your points. It’s nice to see some Khan appreciation!
As much as it is fun to revisit legacy characters and settings, they need to do a complete break, TNG style, and set a show somewhere where we can have new adventures with new characters. Lower Decks is somehow the closest to doing this and it’s a member berry show. The constant revisiting (and retconning) is slowly suffocating the franchise.
Yeah, somewhere in the 26th century when time travel is the final frontier would be cool. An entire ship of historians infiltrating alien history.
Could be a combination of Loki and Dr Who.
Lower Decks deserves 7 seasons x23 episodes per season, with better quality animation for the space-based visuals
Picard should have died in season 1 of PIC and the rest of the seasons should have concentrated on the new crew gallivanting across the galaxy in their newly christened ship, “The Picard”.
SNW should never have killed off Hemmer.
Cumberbatch was miscast as Khan.
Totally agree about Cumberbatch.
Cumberbatch should have been Gary Mitchell. He’s got the right vibe for a man losing touch with his humanity as he’s consumed by his godlike abilities, and a movie expanding on Mitchell would cover more new and interesting ground than plagiarizing Wrath of Khan.
Jeffrey Combs is awesome. That is all.
That take is hot as an Andorian winter, pink skin.
Shran is one of my favorite recurring characters in any series. So is weyoun.
Do…people not share our opinion?
not sure if that’s a hot take…
The entire franchise should be handed over to Simon Pegg.
He has the most thoughtful understanding of what Star Trek is suppose to be since Ronald Moore, Jeri Taylor, and Ira Steven Behr.
would like to read more about this. I know he’s a fan, but I’m just cringing at the idea of the Cornetto trilogy expanding into Delta Quadrant…
Vulcans are a completely unbelievable race. There is absolutely no logic to being so diafainful to other races yet it’s pretty much universal amongst Vulcans.
I don’t know, I actually like the whole flawed idea of vulcan logic. Throughout the different shows we come to understand that ‘vulcan logic’ isn’t some weird alien “their brains work differently” thing. They used to be violent and emotional, and they came up with a social system that helped solve that, and ushered in an age if peace and progress.
But “logic” isn’t a meaningful method to live a life, it’s a very specific tool for certain types of problems. Even our primitive earth philopshers have identified many problems with thinking that we could live life purely logically, as Hume puts it "Reason Is and Ought Only to Be the Slave of the Passions”.
So we’re not seeing a bunch of transcendent android minds, we’re seeing the equivalent of a bunch of recovering alcoholics clinging desperately to a worldview that they cannot question, but that is itself “illogical”. So their disdain for other races is partly a consequence of their general directness and not holding back criticism, but also an anxious defence mechanism of people who know that even their indoctrinating school system and constant peer pressure might not be enough if Vulcans feel like it’s okay to like humans or whomever, because that’s only one step away from “well, if they’re doing okay why can’t I fall in love and cry and laugh!” and that way lies bloody civil war and a return to barbarism.
Which is why Old Man Spock is the best vulcan. As he said, “Logic is the beginning of wisdom, not the end.” In his old age, he learned to understand and value the role emotion plays in our lives and how logic is best when it works together with emotion. That T’Lyn seems to have learned this from him specifically and is going down the same route makes me really happy.
A culture behaving illogically is the most realistic thing in the world.
So much of the Vulcan culture is just exhausting.
Rewatching The Search for Spock… there is an insane amount of religion in Vulcan culture.
The Vulcans do a lot of ritualistic and mystical stuff but the difference is the shit they do seems to actually work.
We first see planet Vulcan during Amok Time. Spock pops the one stiffy he’s allowed every decade so they rush him home to get laid only for his wife to invoke her right to a cucking ceremony.
Next time we visit Vulcan, they’re inches away from awarding Spock the medal for Most Dead Inside but he’s disqualified at the last minute.
The Search For Spock is entirely about reuniting Spock’s soul with his dead and resurrected body. Mind you, Spock died of radiation sickness from fisting a warp core in the previous movie. His torpedo casket miraculously soft-landed on the Genesis planet, and existing there as a corpse resurrected and quickly aged his body but kind of as a caveman, no education or socializing. He had copied his mind into McCoy. So they go get his body, and bring his living yet blank body and the guy his mind is in to Vulcan. Sarek then asks T’Pau to do the brain FTP ritual. She replies “What you ask hasn’t been done since ages past and then only in legend.” It’s played as if Sarek is just now springing this on her, like he didn’t call her up at the start of this going “Hey they’re gonna go get my son’s body, can you do the brain FTP ritual for him?” He puts T’Pau on the spot and yet they’ve got the two slabs and the gong there all ready and she nails it on the first try.
BREAKING NEWS: I was making a joke about it being the File Transfer Protocol ritual but in re-watching that scene they call it the Fal-Tor-Pan ritual so it canonically IS the FTP ritual and now I’m going to bed because my day won’t get better than that.
To recap: They have a ritual for “Here’s his blank but living body and a guy with his mind in him, could you fix this?” just ready to go. This scenario has come up at least once before in Vulcan history so it’s still in their high priestess training manual.
And it WORKS. They’re not a bunch of superstitious faith healers they produce demonstrable results. It involves robes and gongs and magic words and priestesses standing around but it’s all real (in-universe). How much of it is for the sake of ceremony and how much is science is up for debate but they get it done.
“Spock’s Brain” has been memed as the worst episode ever, one of the ones we pretend doesn’t exist.
My hot take is that it’s not actually that bad. It’s not a top tier episode, but it’s perfectly serviceable. The worst actual thing in the episode is the sound effect used for the medical device to keep brainless Spock alive. I’ll grant that. Otherwise, the central conflict is average Trek stuff. The scene where McCoy gets an ancient medical database downloaded into his brain is actually really neat.
I am convinced the legacy of an especially bad reputation of this episode is because it appeared on a few “Worst Episode” lists because of the personal taste of the authors and very few people actually watch TOS for themselves, but instead absorb it through articles. So it just became accepted that the episode was outlandishly bad.
My hot take is that the dominion war was hot garbage. Just episode after episode of the least fun parts of trek for me. It has some stand out episodes, but it drags and I basically stop rewatches in the late seasons. I also think Sisko’s ending sucks, he should have stayed with Jake. Lastly, the prophets were way better before they introduced Pah-Wraiths and made them way more mystical.
It think the Dominion war works but as a framework for some of the more complicated choices the characters need to make. It also give us a chance for decisions to not play out in an hour episode.
It gave us the most interesting human klingon stories since TOS. Allies with different views and where the klingon perspective has more value.
I agree the actual battle scenes and episodes are usually week.
I also agree Sisko and the wraith / prophets stuff was terrible though. Though I always hated the prophet stories not just the end. I would have loved to see a better ending to Dukat and Winn than blasted with space magic.
Star Trek just isn’t good at big wars. Single battles where “Oh shit there’s a borg cube coming” can be tense and exciting but I’m way more into the ethical dilemma or space mystery mind screw episodes.
I think that’s the main problem with Enterprise. Someone fresh out of Voyager’s writing room said the phrase “temporal cold war” without thinking about what those words meant first, and then they said “Fuck it, let’s go full Starship Troopers.”
Porgs > Baby Yoda
Moopsy > both
I love that famous quote from Teal’c, “Get off your encountersuited butts and Remember the Cant!”
The Tholians are the scariest alien race in the series.
More exposition! Explain yourself.
For me, the Borg were boring until First Contact, where they became scary. Invasive. Not just lumbering Frankenstein’s monsters with good shields.
But I want to hear more about your thoughts on the Tholians.
The Borg came about when I was very young, so they were incredibly scary to me.
I recall the Tholians from a Game Boy game I had, but they were no big deal. It was when they were featured on Enterprise that they became scary to me. They’re so different and we don’t know a whole lot about them (I haven’t seen any Trek after Enterprise, no spoilers please). That’s what makes them scary to me.
That’s because Tholians originally came from ST:TOS, and TOS had a relatively large number of non-Sapien races. TNG made bumpy-foreheads a standard, and later retconned it into the universe with the Progenitor storyline - probably as a cost-saving measure - but TOS was full of truly alien races which looked nothing like humans. Most were one-off encounters, and the recurring aliens tended to be humanoid: Klingons, Romulans, Vulcans. Cost, a recognition that viewers were going to struggle with identifying with non-humanoid body plans, and probably realizing that fleshing out a truly alien psychology was a lot of hard work; easier when the Enterprise has only a brief, single-episode encounter with a race.
TNG, and later series, went hard-core on the bumpy foreheads, and most of the few non-humanoid aliens were some sort of nebula or energy creature - far cheaper to render. At one point I hoped that with how much of new series were CGI, and his cheap it had become, that new series would ditch the Proginator-dominated interactions and re-introduced alien aliens. Lower Decks did, a bit, and The Orville (ST-adjacent) did a little better than the usual live-action ST. Bab5 was still mostly humanoid, although two major, recurring species were very inhuman.
Anyway, TOS did a commendable job of populating the universe with really alien aliens, and did so long before CGI. It’s one reason why I think TOS is still the best ST.
Bab5 was still mostly humanoid, although two major, recurring species were very inhuman.
B5 also had almost no budget. A lot of the sets are TOS quality despite being made in the '90s.
TNG is boring as hell, genuinely, and a complete abandonment of the space opera formula that gave TOS its charm. The entire TNG cast is dull and equally as robotic as Data, who gets far too much emphasis every episode. It’s exhausting and repetitive to constantly show Data making the same head and eyebrow movements, demonstrating emotions like irritation while everybody pretends he doesn’t have emotions, and everybody prefacing every sentence with “Captain…” Frankly I think TNG was written to appeal exclusively to nerds who get off on watching people do things robotically. The only interesting character is Q because everybody else’s dead performance makes him look like a superstar.
Star Trek should not be as expansive as it is, because the sheer volume discourages new viewers from engaging with it more than casually. It’s the same problem as one piece.
New IP pls
Oof.
