I fucking loathe the series for introducing “Frieza” (the half mecha character), and IMMEDIATELY killing her off. Finally a somewhat interesting character, and they get fucking rid of her. Pisses me the fuck off
I dislike it because of “shit wrapped in shiny”, and the black lead woman only capable of doing one expression of emotion: You put it up my ass! But wait! maybe I like it?
That episode very directly mocks the whole concept of racism in a way everybody will understand and without pointing fingers. It’s ridiculous, why do they care so much which sides the colors are on, come on! Oh, wait…
That’s what Star Trek does best: Examine problems we have through the lens of weird aliens. The audience can then make the connection to the real world.
Writing in the new shows doesn’t really do that as much, partially because they don’t really do alien of the week type episodes anymore (disclaimer: I haven’t seen SNW). So my impression is that they instead more or less directly and somewhat clumsily talk about current-day issues without the extra layer, which also diminishes the positive future aspect Star Trek is supposed to show. Especially Picard felt really off for me because of that.
The claim was that Discovery was too in-your-face about this stuff. I don’t think you can get more in-your-face than that without Kirk turning to the camera and saying, “get it? GET IT?!”
I’d say making an obvious analogy is being less in-your-face than transplanting one of today’s problems onto the Federation’s future society. The layer of fiction is what makes it effective IMO.
Nobody will feel called out by the ridiculously hate-filled half-black half-white aliens, but if one group was black and the other was white it would be a different story. Making them green and purple would also be less effective because people could just map those to human skin tones. That, I think, is what people would find in-your-face. Doing it the way they did on TOS (aliens of the week that literally look the same except mirrored, no clear good/bad side - it’s racism, but not as we know it) puts the ridiculousness of the concept itself front and center, not how the story could be a direct translation of our current issues. And it allows the protagonists to react accordingly as well.
The black-and-white aliens aren’t a subtle analogy but I think it’s smarter than people give it credit for.
I agree that allegory can be effective in ways that tackling issues head on isn’t, but the opposite is equally true. I don’t think addressing real world issues in a very direct way like DS9 did with Benny Russell or the Bell Riots made it a worse show in any way.
Regardless, as far as I can see, Discovery never went the “Benny Russel” route. They operated more like TOS did - they presented a diverse crew working together while addressing issues like fascism, isolationism, and climate collapse allegorically.
Then you’re using a meaning of “in-your-face” that I’ve never seen before because I don’t know how much harder they could have shoved a “racism is bad” message at the audience.
As in, one way is within the story, keeping the Federation utopian (as you’d expect when you watch a Star Trek show), the other not so much. But I’m mostly talking about Picard here, don’t remember too much about Discovery to be honest.
Even then, Trek hasn’t really pushed the boundaries for a good long time. When it hit it big by TNG/TOS Syndication, it ended up being the cash cow, and thus not worth risking for such controversial things.
At most, it’s just been nudging the norm, but the kind of radical shove that TOS had, and nearly got it pulled off the air twice is basically nowhere to be found.
At most, we got one or two token characters or plots, but a lot of it is mostly the norm, or just a little ahead of it.
Compare it to something less established and free to take on more risk, like the Orville. Since it doesn’t have the big brand that networks want to keep reaping without sowing, it gets a lot of flexibility Trek doesn’t really have any more.
Yeah, really. There wasn’t much enlightened future stuff going on and they pointlessly killed (and then returned, but still) one of the gay guys for shock value(?). It’s just so poorly written that neither that nor any of the empowerment messages landed for me.
Yeah… exactly. Although after all that I only fully gave up on the show when they jumped forward in time to a depressing future in which the Federation had dissolved. Like, way to completely and utterly miss the point of the setting. I’m gonna go cry into my earl grey now.
I was totally on board with that premise, thinking they might basically do their version of Andromeda mixed with late-season Enterprise. But then the actual plot happened.
I thought it was because they’d received enough backlash from yet another TOS era setting/characters which contradicts canon and finally listened to advance the story into post-NEM territory. Instead they went to ludicrous speed and completely overshot everything.
I was more annoyed at the klingon subtitle style/font being difficult to read quickly. Each one talking like a kid who just shoved a whole pack of Big League Chew in their mouth from all the prosthetics also bothered me.
You know, you just reminded me of the episode of Enterprise where the Ferrengi took over the ship. And I was surprised how much I enjoyed (most of) it, and thought the first act where they didn’t bother giving the Ferrengi subtitlea, everything was communicated without the benefit of dialog.
I’m sure everyone else hated it, especially because of some of the weak plot points and how there wasn’t supposed to be any contact with the Ferrengi for 200 years and because everyone hates Enterprise.
especially because of some of the weak plot points and how there wasn’t supposed to be any contact with the Ferrengi for 200 years
What got me was that Ferengi, when originally introduced, were practically completely unknown to federation despite rumor and conjecture. Yet by the time DS9 premiered they’re long established in alpha quadrant economics
You hated Discovery because it was too woke.
I hated Discovery because it wasn’t woke enough.
We are not the same.
I hated Discovery because it was written like a chorus of monkeys with typewriters and not a single one of them got close to Hamlet.
At least they got the “travel the galaxy on shrooms” part correctly.
Picard: “We work to better ourselves and the rest of humanity”
Tilly: “I went to Elon Musk junior high school”
I’m just going to pretend it’s one of his descendants with the same name who actually managed to do some good
His descendants will most likely change their name.
Coulld alse be named similar to a area near me, the Native Tribes never named it so its named after a random Bandit who got murdered there.
I hated it because half of the characters annoyed me and the other half didn’t have enough screen time
I fucking loathe the series for introducing “Frieza” (the half mecha character), and IMMEDIATELY killing her off. Finally a somewhat interesting character, and they get fucking rid of her. Pisses me the fuck off
I hated discovery because of spore drives and logic extremists.
I dislike it because of “shit wrapped in shiny”, and the black lead woman only capable of doing one expression of emotion: You put it up my ass! But wait! maybe I like it?
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I have only one response to you:
That episode very directly mocks the whole concept of racism in a way everybody will understand and without pointing fingers. It’s ridiculous, why do they care so much which sides the colors are on, come on! Oh, wait…
That’s what Star Trek does best: Examine problems we have through the lens of weird aliens. The audience can then make the connection to the real world.
Writing in the new shows doesn’t really do that as much, partially because they don’t really do alien of the week type episodes anymore (disclaimer: I haven’t seen SNW). So my impression is that they instead more or less directly and somewhat clumsily talk about current-day issues without the extra layer, which also diminishes the positive future aspect Star Trek is supposed to show. Especially Picard felt really off for me because of that.
The claim was that Discovery was too in-your-face about this stuff. I don’t think you can get more in-your-face than that without Kirk turning to the camera and saying, “get it? GET IT?!”
I’d say making an obvious analogy is being less in-your-face than transplanting one of today’s problems onto the Federation’s future society. The layer of fiction is what makes it effective IMO.
Nobody will feel called out by the ridiculously hate-filled half-black half-white aliens, but if one group was black and the other was white it would be a different story. Making them green and purple would also be less effective because people could just map those to human skin tones. That, I think, is what people would find in-your-face. Doing it the way they did on TOS (aliens of the week that literally look the same except mirrored, no clear good/bad side - it’s racism, but not as we know it) puts the ridiculousness of the concept itself front and center, not how the story could be a direct translation of our current issues. And it allows the protagonists to react accordingly as well.
The black-and-white aliens aren’t a subtle analogy but I think it’s smarter than people give it credit for.
I agree that allegory can be effective in ways that tackling issues head on isn’t, but the opposite is equally true. I don’t think addressing real world issues in a very direct way like DS9 did with Benny Russell or the Bell Riots made it a worse show in any way.
Regardless, as far as I can see, Discovery never went the “Benny Russel” route. They operated more like TOS did - they presented a diverse crew working together while addressing issues like fascism, isolationism, and climate collapse allegorically.
Then you’re using a meaning of “in-your-face” that I’ve never seen before because I don’t know how much harder they could have shoved a “racism is bad” message at the audience.
As in, one way is within the story, keeping the Federation utopian (as you’d expect when you watch a Star Trek show), the other not so much. But I’m mostly talking about Picard here, don’t remember too much about Discovery to be honest.
Edit: Of course there was no response. Because there are no examples. It’s just a dog whistle for bigots.
What?
Even then, Trek hasn’t really pushed the boundaries for a good long time. When it hit it big by TNG/TOS Syndication, it ended up being the cash cow, and thus not worth risking for such controversial things.
At most, it’s just been nudging the norm, but the kind of radical shove that TOS had, and nearly got it pulled off the air twice is basically nowhere to be found.
At most, we got one or two token characters or plots, but a lot of it is mostly the norm, or just a little ahead of it.
Compare it to something less established and free to take on more risk, like the Orville. Since it doesn’t have the big brand that networks want to keep reaping without sowing, it gets a lot of flexibility Trek doesn’t really have any more.
You’re not wrong but compared to this era of fascism and education shunning TNG is pretty damn good still.
Yeah, really. There wasn’t much enlightened future stuff going on and they pointlessly killed (and then returned, but still) one of the gay guys for shock value(?). It’s just so poorly written that neither that nor any of the empowerment messages landed for me.
Yeah… exactly. Although after all that I only fully gave up on the show when they jumped forward in time to a depressing future in which the Federation had dissolved. Like, way to completely and utterly miss the point of the setting. I’m gonna go cry into my earl grey now.
I was totally on board with that premise, thinking they might basically do their version of Andromeda mixed with late-season Enterprise. But then the actual plot happened.
Everything after the time jump felt like they were going off whatever Gene’s notes ended up becoming Andromeda.
I thought it was because they’d received enough backlash from yet another TOS era setting/characters which contradicts canon and finally listened to advance the story into post-NEM territory. Instead they went to ludicrous speed and completely overshot everything.
I was more annoyed at the klingon subtitle style/font being difficult to read quickly. Each one talking like a kid who just shoved a whole pack of Big League Chew in their mouth from all the prosthetics also bothered me.
Even worse than how bad the Ferengi were with that
You know, you just reminded me of the episode of Enterprise where the Ferrengi took over the ship. And I was surprised how much I enjoyed (most of) it, and thought the first act where they didn’t bother giving the Ferrengi subtitlea, everything was communicated without the benefit of dialog.
I’m sure everyone else hated it, especially because of some of the weak plot points and how there wasn’t supposed to be any contact with the Ferrengi for 200 years and because everyone hates Enterprise.
On the other hand, it had Jeffrey Combs.
What got me was that Ferengi, when originally introduced, were practically completely unknown to federation despite rumor and conjecture. Yet by the time DS9 premiered they’re long established in alpha quadrant economics
I’d say pretty much all of season 1 should be considered non-canon, or at least, you know, super flexible. Even more than other Trek continuity.
I loved Discovery
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