It wasn’t really always like this, in modern Trek they don’t have any ideals to aspire to, they just do what they have to. In DS9 you had Captain Sisko breaking his back trying to convince himself that letting Garak kill a Romulan diplomat to get them on the alpha quadrant’s side was worth it.
Comment on Are We All Too Cynical for Star Trek?
ValueSubtracted@startrek.website 9 months ago
This is not to say that the ’90s shows never delved into the complexity and nuance of this ethos—indeed, playing at the edges of their internal morality was how they derived much of their interest…Things are different in modern Trek.
If you have to include a variation of “sure, it was always like this, but it’s different now,” it’s time to go back to the drawing board with your thinkpiece.
c0mbatbag3l@lemmy.world 9 months ago
ValueSubtracted@startrek.website 9 months ago
in modern Trek they don’t have any ideals to aspire to
I disagree strongly with this, and can’t see how anyone could watch the shows and draw that conclusion.
c0mbatbag3l@lemmy.world 9 months ago
It’s easy, go and watch the way Picard deals with Barcley and then go watch discovery and see how their COs deal with problem crew members.
Modern Star Trek is written by adult children and you can fucking tell.
PlainSimpleGarak@lemm.ee 9 months ago
While I overall like SNW (like, not love), Pike seems more interested in being a friend to his crew (at least the senior officers) rather than being an effective leader who demands nothing but the best from his crew. Picard and Janeway were great at this. They were friendly enough with their crew, but maintained enough professional distance to not get too chummy. Sisko less so, but he knew how to walk the line between friend and commanding officer.
The_Picard_Maneuver@startrek.website 9 months ago
I’ve admittedly still only watched up through the 90s, but I’d definitely say that DS9 depicted a significantly more “morally gray” version of Starfleet than TOS or TNG.
I think the point the author is making is that the extent to which this idea gets explored is reflective of our society’s growing mistrust of institutions IRL, rather than suggesting the theme has never been explored.
ValueSubtracted@startrek.website 9 months ago
The_Picard_Maneuver@startrek.website 9 months ago
I’d argue that the theme is less about following orders and more We are all individually flawed and are at our best when we follow our shared values - which is represented by both Starfleet and the utopian setting as a whole.
I can see the argument (for fiction and real life), that as we trust institutions less, our focus becomes more on individual judgement rather than collectivist ideas. It also tracks for me that as this occurs in real life, our media would reflect individualism more and more.
ValueSubtracted@startrek.website 9 months ago
Sure, and if the core of the article is “today’s values are somewhat different than those of the 90s”…yes, they are, just as the values of the 90s were different from those of the 60s. I think there’s an interesting academic discussion to be had in there, but I don’t think this article is it.
Ferk@kbin.social 9 months ago
Were the earlier series not focused on shared values too?
Kirk has usually been given the reputation of being a rule-breaker, often ignoring Starfleet rules when they are in conflict with his values.