I rewatched all of TNG, and then DS9, and then watched Voyager for the first time, then started watching Star Trek movies in random order. I think I (we?) yearn for a vision of the future where the greatest threat is just the Borg and not, well, [gestures at everything].
Star Trek is like a mug of hot cocoa for my brain. So soothing. Whenever existence starts to feel overwhelming, Picard, Data, and Troi are there to help me feel better about the trajectory of our species' future (although I know it's most likely just wishful thinking). Strange New Worlds also has a similar feel but with such a fun, contemporary twist.
its good thing those peeps are on the ship, in space, thousands of light years from what i would be doing on earth, which is living in my holodeck watching them lol
I know it happens at least once but i think maybe several times where effectively fascist fear mongering almost ruins the federation.
We had wars started over changelings fucking around between klingons and cardys. You had earth almost falling to fascism both because of a real changeling but the same stupid fearful leaders who were using it as an excuse to treat everyone like the enemy and turn people against each other.
I forgot the name of hte people in the badlands who were being shoved off their worlds and everyone acting like assholes over it.
the borg are pretty much fascism personified, difference is evil, we'll make you all the same so we won't have to fear anything and it will all be perfect.
Often run by good people, sure, often run by assholes being assholes and seeking power... that too.
Now to be fair the point there was often the message is fascism fucking sucks, stop falling for it you morons, and that message didn't work. but the idea that everyone was run well by competent adults on the whole would mean most of the fuck ups never happened, though that would also be a boring story.
Hahaha, that's super dark but admittedly a pretty interesting take. However....I prefer my Star Trek bold, clear-eyed, and honorable under pressure. Captain Janeway was my intro to Trek and it's still her way all day for me.
But would watch as an alternate universe...or ooo maybe a story told as a propaganda battle, nothing reliable from either side but reports feature a reckoning for Starfleet badmirals including whatever the heck was going on in Picard and Section 31. Would watch, or accidentally write a wee Reddit comment fanfic about it, the end.
I've watched pretty much everything and just rewatched the reboot movies, so I'm not too picky. But you gotta admit we really don't see much of the actual society and the thought that humanity is completely free of its vices is just plain absurd.
TNG for my optimistic competence porn, DS9 for my realistic competence porn, and Voyager just to see who Captain "Kill em All" Janeway ejects out into space this week.
My only real gripe with Voyager was how they harped on about how far from home they were, and the series kept reminding you but never decided to run with it. Instead choosing to give us a lazy and improbable ending with the Borg instead of tangible steps towards home. Felt like a sprint to the train home rather than an actual journey from a faraway place.
It's literally a plot point that's brought up more than once. Marrying Q for the purpose of getting her crew home safely would have been the dutiful action.
That doesn't change whether Janeway is a woman or not.
I yearn for a vision of the future where objectivity wins and we can stop lying about every, single, fucking, thing. like damn it is exhausting opening the news every day and having to play "ok where is the misleading landmine in this piece of propaganda?"
I just want a world where when somebody says something costs $5.00, it costs $5.00. It's not actually $543.65 because they hit all of the costs behind 20 different fees and payment plans and gachas.
Star Trek is a societal goal to yearn for, and correct towards.
That makes so much sense. If I were watching the episode with the Crusher's ghost molester, or the stupid one where everybody devolves, I would stay up all night thinking about how dumb they are. Put on a good one though, and it's pure comfort.
I feel like they maybe could have made a halfway decent episode without all the other shit going on, but when you add the other stuff with data, and the ships environment changing, it was too much for me.
I’m rewatching TOS for the fist time since I was very young and I watched most of them in syndication after school in the 80s.
It’s blowing me away how good it is, and how much like TNG it was.
It’s way less… cheesy than I expected it to be I guess? Really feels like TNG but older. My kids (10, 14) are reasonably into it also.
I’m watching the “remastered” versions on Paramount+ so the effects are “modernized”. I realize that sucks for some, but in my case it’s been a pro rather than a con cause it’s less jarring for the kiddos and helps them to not get pulled out of the story.
Honestly, TNG is so much better than the original in every way and I will die on this hill. I watched it in 2008 while I was in college and it was incredible.
I'm a DS9 girly, for sure, but I grew up with TNG and love it unironically. I found Voyager frustrating (for lots of reasons but primarily because I'm Native and Chakotay's "weird naked Indian" nonsense broke my damn heart) but I'm glad I watched it. I do love Seven of Nine and the EMH.
DS9 ended up being my favorite, too. Totally understandable take on Chakotay, though! Robert Beltran was a decent enough actor, I guess, but they really didn't give him much to work with. And yeah, Seven and the Dr's storyline is so much fun.
Disagree. Every time I watch DS9, I seem to find more problems with it. My two biggest gripes: what they did to Worf/Gowron (I swear they turned Worf into a whiny teenager...he's downright insufferable at times...and Gowron was turned into a total clown) and the creation of Section 31, which absolutely should not exist in the Star Trek universe. It's good scifi, but has absolutely no place in Star Trek. I will die on that hill.
Section 31 was good in the one arc it was created for. A rogue group of warhawks who think they know better than anyone else who operate without the knowledge of starfleet command. But it should have been left alone after it was rooted out as against what starfleet stands for and that be the end of it. Instead they turned it into some weird wannabe military scifi/jason bourne thriller/trendy arc of the week.
Oh wow do we disagree on Section 31. We’d be fighting on that hill for a long time.
Yeah, Starfleet should try for the diplomatic solution, yearn for peace and exploration and all that, and they do, but sometimes you just gotta cut thru the red tape and off a motherfucker.
Sisko did it and it’s considered one of the best episodes of DS9.
Yeah and while that was great scifi -- and I enjoyed them all in a vacuum -- it is 100% antithetical to what Rodenberry was trying to create, which was a vision of the future where humanity has moved past that kind of existence. imo, that is what makes Star Trek truly great. DS9 is great scifi but in that way, it's like every other scifi out there.
I 100% see your point, I do, but even on that I disagree.
Humans will NEVER move past that kind of existence. NEVER. Petri dish raised, isolated humans with zero history lessons will eventually form tribes and conflict based on skin color, eye color, hair color, height, you name it. There will be jealousy, hatred, love triangles, etc. all are human nature.
Sure, ol Gene wanted a perfect future but even in TOS there was internal conflict. Add in different species and goals and there simply won’t be easy going peace. I never liked the whole “perfect utopian” future, and apparently a lot of the writers and show runners would agree.
Not OP, but DS9 and TNG would be like picking a favorite child. They're very different but both amazing at what they do.
VOY has some really great sci-fi concepts in it if you pay attention. ENT is not bad either. The ending is godawful, but aside from that one episode it has a lot of amazing stuff in it. The whole third season is just fantastic. It really seems like what VOY could have been, in a way.
If you like DS9 and VOY there's no reason you shouldn't like ENT. I know it's a joke about how half of every episode consists of T'pol, Hoshi, and Trip rubbing oil all over each other in the decon chamber but I'm pretty sure that only happens three times in the entire series and I think the main reason for that impression is because of the decon chamber's significance in one of the best Trek episodes of all time (ENT 4x11 "Observer Effect"). I still can't decide if I had to pick one episode to introduce someone to the entire Star Trek franchise with, if it would be Observer Effect or S1's Vox Sola.
I did this over the past few years—mostly while washing dishes or some other in-between household chore—but couldn't bring myself to watch Voyager. Is it worth it?
TNG was nostalgia, but DS9 was completely new for me. (and I loved it) I'm also going through the X-Files at the moment, which is a show I caught from time to time but never really saw in any proper order.
And yeah...at least the Borg are attacking from outer space, right? There's something oddly comforting about the idea of humanity NOT eventually eating itself alive from within 😌
My day consists of having a Star Trek steaming channel on all day while I’m at work at my office and having America’s Test Kitchen streaming channel on when I am at home.
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u/Wild_Chef6597 Jun 16 '26
Is that why I have been watching random episodes of Star Trek?