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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
Kirk is a sex pest - This has been said to death, but leave your subordinates alone.
-
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.
Baseball is only cool when played in Cuba and maybe like 3 other Central American countries. It is sad to see Cuban teenagers trying to make it into the US professional league in order to life themself out of poverty. That’s gotta be one draw for them, tho.
It’s also just a game that’s pretty fun to play even if your skill level is low and doesn’t require much land or very expensive equipment. It’s popular for the same reasons soccer is. Also yeah it was invented by kkkolonizers, but like, poor urban working class kkkolonizers in industrial East Coast cities, a lot of whom were immigrant who didn’t really count as “proper-white” back when it was invented.