I have to wonder if, despite Great Man theory being garbage, it wasn't just thanks to Roddenberry. A lot of the 90s Trek made after his death (later seasons of TNG, DS9) were better than anything he was directly involved with, but still... he set the tone and the basic parameters for the 24th-century series with early TNG, and I don't think the producers went against that until the later movies at the earliest. Even DS9, the "darker" Trek, was still very clearly about people from a utopian society trying to hold on to their values in a more troubled galaxy.
Fun take: DS9 was made in spite of Rodenberry’s original vision for Star Trek. Roddenberry planted the seeds and his death actually allowed the workers to build from the core that had been established.
Attempts to “stay true” to Roddenberry resulted in Rick Berman fucking around and finding out on repeat with Voyager. Berman obsessed over the letter and not the spirit of Roddenberry and managed to almost kill Star Trek altogether.
my guess is the writers were still in a cold war mindset, but as science and reason oriented people (cuz they write for a utopian sci-fi show), they believed technology would advance us past the cap/com dichotomy we still find ourselves in
Lol no. Roddenberry told them too when he was high off his own farts and prescription lain killers and they continued to be forced to comply from the top down for better or worse and to different extents, like DS9 had less suit oversight cause they were micromanaging Voyager.
I am fine with voyager being the sacrificial dogshit it is because it distracted Rick Berman enough he shut the fuck up and let Ira Behr and the rest of that team make good art.
I am not fine, however, with the amount of abuse everyone involved with Voyager took from Berman. That guy is a fucking monster.
Lower Decks is pretty great and worth watching. I haven’t dug into Discovery yet, I was giving it a couple seasons to find its footing and haven’t circled back to see if it did.
What I’ve seen of Picard struck me as being more comprable to the fall of the USSR to revisionism and corruption. That’s an interesting concept to play with, although I doubt they really approached it with a leftist lens.
This essay made me want to sit down and watch through Picard, however, it sounds fun and I’m the type of person who can watch a sequel without it ruining previous parts of series for me.
I'm through S1 of Discovery and I'm conflicted. One hand, I ripped through the season pretty quick as I found myself wanting to watch the next ep pretty soon after finishing the last one. It's visually stunning and the acting is pretty good.
OTOH... much like you're talking about with Picard, it lacks much optimism. It doesn't "feel" like Trek. Characters other than one or two are pretty shallow and uninteresting.
So I guess I'd say it's decent for a sci-fi show, I just wouldn't really consider it much as "Star Trek", if that makes sense.
Lower Decks has the same advantage as stuff like obscure Star Wars novels have, where the money grubbing Eye of Sauron isn't too focused on them so they can wander off and do interesting shit.
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Liberalism is the air we breath sadly. I find it easy, if correct, to just blame the writers for being libs.
It's more interesting to wonder why TNG could be made in the 90s and isn't being made today, at least to me.
I have to wonder if, despite Great Man theory being garbage, it wasn't just thanks to Roddenberry. A lot of the 90s Trek made after his death (later seasons of TNG, DS9) were better than anything he was directly involved with, but still... he set the tone and the basic parameters for the 24th-century series with early TNG, and I don't think the producers went against that until the later movies at the earliest. Even DS9, the "darker" Trek, was still very clearly about people from a utopian society trying to hold on to their values in a more troubled galaxy.
Fun take: DS9 was made in spite of Rodenberry’s original vision for Star Trek. Roddenberry planted the seeds and his death actually allowed the workers to build from the core that had been established.
Attempts to “stay true” to Roddenberry resulted in Rick Berman fucking around and finding out on repeat with Voyager. Berman obsessed over the letter and not the spirit of Roddenberry and managed to almost kill Star Trek altogether.
my guess is the writers were still in a cold war mindset, but as science and reason oriented people (cuz they write for a utopian sci-fi show), they believed technology would advance us past the cap/com dichotomy we still find ourselves in
Lol no. Roddenberry told them too when he was high off his own farts and prescription lain killers and they continued to be forced to comply from the top down for better or worse and to different extents, like DS9 had less suit oversight cause they were micromanaging Voyager.
I am fine with voyager being the sacrificial dogshit it is because it distracted Rick Berman enough he shut the fuck up and let Ira Behr and the rest of that team make good art.
I am not fine, however, with the amount of abuse everyone involved with Voyager took from Berman. That guy is a fucking monster.
Lower Decks is pretty great and worth watching. I haven’t dug into Discovery yet, I was giving it a couple seasons to find its footing and haven’t circled back to see if it did.
What I’ve seen of Picard struck me as being more comprable to the fall of the USSR to revisionism and corruption. That’s an interesting concept to play with, although I doubt they really approached it with a leftist lens.
This essay made me want to sit down and watch through Picard, however, it sounds fun and I’m the type of person who can watch a sequel without it ruining previous parts of series for me.
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I'm through S1 of Discovery and I'm conflicted. One hand, I ripped through the season pretty quick as I found myself wanting to watch the next ep pretty soon after finishing the last one. It's visually stunning and the acting is pretty good.
OTOH... much like you're talking about with Picard, it lacks much optimism. It doesn't "feel" like Trek. Characters other than one or two are pretty shallow and uninteresting.
So I guess I'd say it's decent for a sci-fi show, I just wouldn't really consider it much as "Star Trek", if that makes sense.
Lower Decks has the same advantage as stuff like obscure Star Wars novels have, where the money grubbing Eye of Sauron isn't too focused on them so they can wander off and do interesting shit.
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