PATREON EXCLUSIVE - Why Star Trek Needs Sci-Fi, but Not in Every Episode | Star Trek Journey 183
Added 2024-08-23 12:05:01 +0000 UTC
Comments
this episode had to happen to not just move on post BOBW
Scarpad’s Domain
2024-08-30 00:21:18 +0000 UTCtrouble is it has to be a balance. Why i'm not a fan of Trek past 2009, because it became all about looking internally and it lost its abiity for Science Fiction and looking Outward.
Scarpad’s Domain
2024-08-30 00:20:27 +0000 UTCYes, Quantum Leap does get better as it goes. You quit too soon.
David Brown
2024-08-26 02:41:52 +0000 UTCI agree with Ken on this. Emotions are earned through the plot and should be in addition to everything else the story brings. Pat Stew crying can elevate a moment in a story if it is needed. But the sheer fact that he cries is not impressive in and of itself and it certainly is not a barometer of acting ability or of a story's worth or relevance. Emotions have to accompany something, not just be present. Otherwise, watch daytime Soap Operas and be done with it. Star Trek is science fiction first and foremost. To pretend, or even wish, it was anything else just means you aren't interested in what it offers but what you would rather be watching at that moment. Don't try and alter the recipe. Eat what you are given or find another meal you would enjoy better.
StonyD
2024-08-25 13:22:20 +0000 UTCThis is a fair perspective, and what I'm about to say is not an attempt to invalidate it. Given you guys' stated preferences, I'd dig your expansion into non-Sci Fi content. Sci Fi, especially (and I love Star Trek!) sort of dated network TV SciFi, tends not to be the best possible venue for deep character development. When I hear the kinds of stories you're into, I think "Man, Star Trek rocks, but why aren't we watching, like, The Wire on this channel?"
Dor
2024-08-24 18:15:56 +0000 UTCI haven't been very active in the community lately but I have to say I love this addition to your programming
Captain Proton
2024-08-24 14:18:49 +0000 UTCThis is the most well spoken I’ve seen Alex. I like it!
Brian Moore
2024-08-24 04:27:39 +0000 UTCStar Trek doesn't need Science Fiction; It IS Science Fiction.
Michael Metrick
2024-08-24 02:37:00 +0000 UTCDamn straight
AzoriusMage
2024-08-23 23:17:20 +0000 UTCThe Wire is fucking top tier.
Clyde Frog
2024-08-23 23:13:27 +0000 UTCI think TOS was too melodramatic most of the time. A show about a starship captain in an imagined future isn't nearly as appealing to me as a show about a starship crew in a future universe. And yet I still cannot do BSG.
Jovet
2024-08-23 23:11:59 +0000 UTCI agree with your point, Alex. This episode is exactly what the show needed after the enormous things that just went down. This isn't my favorite episode, but it's a perfect tangent to compliment the Borg threat. My favorite episode is very sci-fi, and I still predict many, many tears. From both of you.
Jovet
2024-08-23 23:01:02 +0000 UTCNo shit
AzoriusMage
2024-08-23 22:44:47 +0000 UTCCounterpoint: I do not look at my screen to see the same things I can see out the window. I can see war and suffering out the window anytime. Good Trek for me are what many call the bad episodes, Lazarus or Vger and the mystery of what is going on and why are they here. When it turns out we've arrived at yet another planet with a Vietnam war playing out it just gets annoying.
Alan Thompson
2024-08-23 20:52:58 +0000 UTCSo the most famous and beloved detective in TV history to my knowledge is Columbo. The show never was a mystery it was always about the character and the actor who played him fleshing him out, characterization for want of a better term. In the 30 years Peter Falk played Columbo there was a crime in every single episode. To go to Trek, ST had two choices to show Spock loved Kirk as his best friend. They could have gone the simple, heavy handed way and had a self indulgent monologue on a random day about nothing where he narrated his feelings with accompanying tears, or they could have Spock think he killed Kirk and when he sees him alive loses all control and give us "an emotional scene that would have brought the house down". Everyone has their own taste, I know which one I'd call the superior writing
Ken R
2024-08-23 20:38:32 +0000 UTCI certainly can't speak for the guy as I don't know him. But I believe what he's trying to say is that the setting doesn't have to or need to force the plot to be about a wormhole threatening to suck in the ship, or some other sci-fi element. It's already set on a spaceship so it is sci-fi even if the show is about a character or interpersonal relationship. Same with a crime show, not every episode has to be about a crime as it can be about the characters and their lives while not solving a crime every now and then.
s0rd3z
2024-08-23 19:58:57 +0000 UTCWow glad I wasn't one of your kids when I cut my knee
AzoriusMage
2024-08-23 17:27:27 +0000 UTCI think the real point is the Sci-Fi does not have to be central to everything. The Wire, Game of Thrones, BSG etc are all great in spite of the Crime, Fantasy ( and Incest!) or Sci-Fi respectively. They are great because of the characters you care about and a story that keeps you interested just like Trek.
AzoriusMage
2024-08-23 17:26:36 +0000 UTCI don't agree a crime show can exist without a crime. I disagree with this entire premise. Alex, I wish he posted here to explain further, has this fixation on seeing grief and people crying. Crying to me is a gimmick, it's "Terms Of Endearment" writing with a side of Bette Midler singing in "Beaches". It's fine but no more meaningful than laughing. Also, if TOS followed this advice it would have been canceled immediately--if it got on the air at all-- and we would not be on this forum right now. Story is everything, nothing can exist outside the story. You want good characterization but it has to come within the story, not instead of the story.
Ken R
2024-08-23 16:26:50 +0000 UTCits perhaps weird because i do enjoy the soap opera aspect of star trek such as this episode Family and I really hate soap operas in general
Narnman
2024-08-23 14:56:36 +0000 UTCTo me that is what I liked most from TNG was the character development. I loved that they were able to balance the Sci-Fi elements and the drama behind the characters. I am such a fan of character building, maybe because I love to write, that a show will lose my interest if it lacks that. Also all the characters got equal development, From Picard to Wesley yes even Wesley. I was so happy that (maybe a minor spoiler) this continues on into DS9.
Shatner's Toupee
2024-08-23 14:02:57 +0000 UTCWhen I was ten and this premiered I wanted cool aliens and space battles. As one gets older you realize I am not rewatching these over and over for 30+ years for those elements. It's the characters and the character development that has kept me coming back.
s0rd3z
2024-08-23 13:39:05 +0000 UTCScience Fiction is similar to the competition element of pro wrestling or the hospital in every medical drama. It's merely the structure on which you paint your story. A star exploding is no different from the dying patient, the crazed serial killer, or the repressive Mr. McMahon owner in that these things exist to give the hero(s) some obstacle to overcome.
Jeffrey P
2024-08-23 13:23:09 +0000 UTCGood points, guys. Sci fi is a palate which you can use to paint whatever story you want. I don't see it as a type of story in and of itself. Same thing could be said and done with westerns. Medieval fantasy. You name it. Good stories are good stories, regardless of the setting and trappings.
Collin Freeman
2024-08-23 13:09:38 +0000 UTCWell said, Steven
Collin Freeman
2024-08-23 12:59:20 +0000 UTCScience Fiction is in every episode of Star Trek. 1. It's set in the future with FTL starships. That's in the core conceit. 2. Even in episodes like "Family," we're still featuring alien, non-human, characters. (Worf and Guinan.) 3. The clash between Picard is tradition versus progress, and it is showcased predominately with technology. The shot of the vineyard with the future city in the backdrop is exhibit A. 4. Picard is torn between two science fiction jobs. Starship captain, or helping build a city under water. Star Trek is always like this. Human stories with science fiction accents. Whether the science fiction is overt and in your face, or not. That is always what Star Trek has done, from the beginning. The best stories showcase a human drama with a science fiction twist.
Steven Johnson
2024-08-23 12:22:29 +0000 UTC
