So I do like Star Trek a lot, especially TNG, DS9, and Below Decks. Voyager and TOS are fine. Space socialism is pretty good and I can’t get enough of it. There are a few common tropes that irk me. tho.

  1. Baseball is cracker Amerikkkan nonsense - You telling me that all these different species and planets get together to chill, and the vibe they’re gonna channel is Ohio?? Football (soccer) or some version of hockey make a lot more sense, you can pick up and start playing immediately. I can’t imagine Worf wanting to learn all those pointless rules about balls and strikezones and fowls. Sisko is arguably the best captain of any series, and I really get pulled out of an episode every time he drops some awful baseball trivia. It’s only slightly better than Nascar. I actually know one Scottish person who really likes baseball, and he’s literally the worst person I know.

  2. The tribunal - It’s so damn common. It seems like every season there’s got to be a court-martial, hearing, or appeal against a Starfleet decision. I guess Law and Order is big there. It’s probably a minor critique, but it does reinforce the ideology that Western courtrooms are fair.

  3. Kirk is a sex pest - This has been said to death, but leave your subordinates alone.

  4. Poker in TNG - Poker has to be the worst form of entertainment, and I genuinely like maths. I blame TNG for reigniting the poker craze of the 90s and ruining all my guy friends’ personalities.

  • JohnBrownNote [comrade/them, des/pair]@hexbear.netEnglish
    4·
    8 months ago

    , the homophobia

    what homophobia? queer stuff is underrepresented on-screen outside of dax-stoked and the riker episode with the anti-gender fascist planet but if we’re calling that the show’s homophobia then the term is so broad it’s not useful to me.

    • someone [comrade/them, they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
      7·
      8 months ago

      I was thinking about the TNG episode “The Host”. Crusher has a romance with the Trill symbiont being transported inside Riker. The scene where Crusher looks disgusted at her lover now being in a female body has always disappointed me. It’s fine if Crusher’s not into women, but they could have written and played that scene much better.

      • JohnBrownNote [comrade/them, des/pair]@hexbear.netEnglish
        5·
        8 months ago

        the writing seems ok to me? especially for 1991

        i’m shit at social cues and haven’t watched the remasters so i’ll believe you if Crusher’s face was doing disgust rather than sadness/emotional exhaustion after Odan’s “death” and the period of time where the symbiont was in riker’s body which she didn’t take that very well either as discussed with Troi earlier.

        CRUSHER: The operation to implant Odan into the new host was completed at nineteen hundred hours and appears to have been successful. There were no difficulties in assimilation.

        KAREEL: Doctor Beverly, could we talk for a moment?

        CRUSHER: You should be sleeping. You need to rest.

        KAREEL: I’ve never felt better, except once or twice. My poor Beverly. This has been so hard for you. I want to thank you for your caring, for your standing by me.

        CRUSHER: I congratulate you. You averted a war that would have cost many lives.

        KAREEL: Yes. It seems as though everything has turned out for the best. And yes, I am still Odan, and I still love you. I cannot imagine that ever changing.

        CRUSHER: I am glad that you’re all right.

        KAREEL: Is there to be nothing more?

        CRUSHER: Perhaps it is a human failing, but we are not accustomed to these kinds of changes. I can’t keep up. How long will you have this host? What would the next one be? I can’t live with that kind of uncertainty. Perhaps, someday, our ability to love won’t be so limited.

        KAREEL: I understand.

        CRUSHER: Odan, I do love you. Please remember that.

        (Kareel takes Beverly’s hand and kisses her wrist)

        KAREEL: I will never forget you.

        http://www.chakoteya.net/NextGen/197.htm