Comment on Interview: Alex Kurtzman on Section 31 and the "evolution" of Star Trek
ValueSubtracted@startrek.website 4 days agoThis is pretty thoughtful, and I get where you’re coming from.
I do, however, think that the newer shows are frequently aspirational…but the focus has shifted toward doing the right thing in an environment that makes it difficult. There’s a lot more emphasis on struggle, in a way that hasn’t really been explored outside of DS9, and perhaps certain parts of ENT. That works for me, as I think it’s the more salient message for the times we live in: there are always going to be struggles, the greatest dangers often come from within, and doing the right thing can be incredibly hard.
we rarely ever get any breathing room downtime with the characters!
I definitely get this - it’s unfortunately something we’re going to have to learn to live with, because I don’t see longer seasons coming back any time soon (and honestly, they come with their own sets of drawbacks).
usernamefactory@lemmy.ca 3 days ago
Honestly, I think this has more consistently been Star Trek’s approach. Early TNG was the exception. It really pushed for an “evolved humanity” model for Star Trek, where something has fundamentally shifted in our collected psychology. Examples like Dr. Crusher speaking like its remarkable that people used to fear death, or Picard dismissing religion as childish superstition come to mind as particularly strong hints that we’ve changed a lot.
But later Trek pushes against this: DS9 with it’s murky way arc, Voyager with episodes like Equinox and Scorpion, and even late TNG with Pegasus and Journey’s End. They are all more likely to see the “evolved human” as something to be tested by the story, with the drama coming from the possibility that it might fail that test.
And I think this is for the best. If humanity is too evolved and too perfect, the series can feel a bit heavy on U.S. exceptionalism - with the very American coded Starfleet going around to other worlds to fix and moralize about other peoples’ problems, but never needing to self-reflect or improve on themselves. I think a healthy balance is needed to actually model the qualities that allowed humanity to improve in the first place (and that we really need to see more of in the world now).
MalikMuaddibSoong@startrek.website 3 days ago
There are a few PTSD episodes that at least try : Picard at the chateau and Archer on shore leave after the Xindi adventure.
I feel these are the best episodes where a character realizes they have changed and not for the better, but I wish there were more.
Maybe trek is sleeping on the post-adventure recontextualization power of a shore leave coda?