• FortifiedAttack [he/him]
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    5311 days ago

    They didn’t care because being a Star Trek fan meant being a weird, fat loser nerd 20 years ago.

    Now the wine-clinking neoliberals are pretending to always have thought it a progressive masterpiece, when in reality, they thought it was entertainment for freaks.

    • UlyssesT [he/him]
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      11 days ago

      And now the wine-clinking liberals are giddy for more Section 31/Terran Empire apologism and dismantling the Federation one “prestige tv” treatment at a time.

      DS9 challenged the Federation’s integrity and principles. The current Kurtzman-era hacks don’t even care what those principles actually were.

      EDIT: Adding this extra bit from further down for clarification of where I stand on current Trek shows.

      Lower Decks, Prodigy, and (to some extent) SNW are good in spite of Kurtzman’s presence. He’s constantly pushing for his precious Section 31 project and anything he gets more direct control over becomes smeared with P R E S T I G E T V misery-for-misery’s-sake, cheap sloppy sensationalism, and contrarianism against Trek’s founding themes, which has hurt Trek long enough.

        • UlyssesT [he/him]
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          11 days ago

          I propose UlyssesT controls all sci-fi treat writing in Hollywood

          blob-no

          You have any idea how bored I would be if absolutely everything that was ever churned out of the genre was directly by my say-so? I want to be surprised, even challenged with my entertainment. It’d be kind of fucked up if I only read my own stories, after all. That’s exactly why I’m basically grieving for Trek’s squandered potential while the Kurtzman-era hacks continue to smear their shit all over it.

          Lower Decks, Prodigy, and (to some extent) SNW are good in spite of Kurtzman’s presence. He’s constantly pushing for his precious Section 31 project and anything he gets more direct control over becomes smeared with P R E S T I G E T V misery-for-misery’s-sake, cheap sloppy sensationalism, and contrarianism against Trek’s founding themes, which has hurt Trek long enough.

      • buckykat [none/use name]
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        711 days ago

        Your brush is a bit overbroad. The hacks currently dismantling the integrity and principles of the Federation are only running some of the current era Trek shows. Lower Decks is the best showcase of Federation values there’s ever been.

        • UlyssesT [he/him]
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          411 days ago

          I’ll quote what I already said in another reply chain.

          Lower Decks, Prodigy, and (to some extent) SNW are good in spite of Kurtzman’s presence. He’s constantly pushing for his precious Section 31 project and anything he gets more direct control over becomes smeared with P R E S T I G E T V misery-for-misery’s-sake, cheap sloppy sensationalism, and contrarianism against Trek’s founding themes, which has hurt Trek long enough.

          • buckykat [none/use name]
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            511 days ago

            First of all, death to the traitor Kurtzman of course. But just like the hated Rick Berman before him, I don’t think he can really ruin Trek as a whole.

            • UlyssesT [he/him]
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              11 days ago

              just like the hated Rick Berman before him

              The tacticool-fantasizing misanthropic edgelord that sex pested dax-stoked right out of the show because she wouldn’t fuck him? That guy? I may have gotten names mixed up.

              I don’t think he can really ruin Trek as a whole.

              He’s certainly trying his best and no one seems willing, if able, to dethrone him.

              • buckykat [none/use name]
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                711 days ago

                Yes that’s the guy. He also created gold pressed latinum because he refused to believe or understand the concept of a post-scarcity post-capitalism economy. Which is why I especially appreciated Boimler extremely obviously not giving a shit about latinum during the Cerritos’ visit to DS9.

                • UlyssesT [he/him]
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                  811 days ago

                  Lower Decks is the flagship of Trek in the present day, far as I’m concerned. Comedy, sure, but like good comedy, it speaks truth to power (including the hacks like Berman and Kurtzman). There was even a subtle jab once where a Mariner rant about asshole leadership coincided with Kurtzman’s opening credit showing up.

  • The premise is literally fully automated luxury gay space communism… Like, Roddenberry was def on a watch list. And from what I understand the studio had to tamp down a lot of what he wanted to do.

  • newmou [he/him]
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    3111 days ago

    I read this and I was like damn what’s a Black Flag Officer that sounds awesome

  • Vampire [any]
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    2311 days ago

    “Representation matters” - does it tho? Putting oppressed minorities in media while oppressing them is tokenism

    • robot_dog_with_gun [they/them]
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      2311 days ago

      a bunch of people were inspired to do a bunch of things because of star trek, and you’re profoundly ignorant if you think the inclusion of minoritized or demonized people in the optimistic future of original series and tng era was irrelevant.

      hell, Dr. King personally asked Nichelle Nichols not to quit the show. Trek did it (mostly) right, don’t lump it in with a tom clancy movie’s black president.

      • tmyakal
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        1010 days ago

        Whoopi Goldberg has that anecdote she loves to tell of being a little girl, seeing Nichelle Nichols on TV, and Whoopi starts running around the house, screaming, “Mommy! Mommy! There’s a black lady on TV and she’s not a maid!”

    • WalrusDragonOnABike [they/them]
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      2111 days ago

      I don’t think celebrating diversity genuinely is tokenism personally. If you have a respectable character being cool who is some underrepresented minority, it can be inspiring.

      If you are doing things like rainbow military recruitment or you are Fox hosting specifically transphobic trans women or extreme rightwing black people to try to pretend you don’t have a problem with racism or transphobia or a company just trying to meet some quotas to avoid being sued, then it would be tokenism imo.

      Anyways, I do personally think representation is important. Moreso in real life, but media is a place people look to for similar inspiration. Sometimes little things can mean a lot for some people.

    • CarbonScored [any]
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      2011 days ago

      Yes, of course it does???

      Putting minorities in media and showing them as respectable equals is not tokenism, and is doubly important to do when real life doesn’t reflect that. Rodenberry did not have the power to fucking solve racial oppression, he incorporated all nationalities to showcase the importance and futurism of not being a racist fuck.

  • Tripbin [none/use name]
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    1811 days ago

    Off topic a bit but are there any openly leftist trek actors? I know a lot support dems but is Janeway riding with AOC the furthest they go?

    • Mardoniush [she/her]
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      11 days ago

      Quark is more than a hero, he’s a union man.

      Stewart is a squishy lib socialist

      Nimoy was investigated by HUAAC for support of McGovern.

      Colm Meany believes strongly that 26+6=1

    • Crowtee_Robot [he/him]
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      710 days ago

      Wallace Shawn played Grand Nagus Zek on DS9 and he’s literally a socialist, but beyond that the best you can hope for with Trek actors these days is having good takes about Palestine. Some do, but most don’t.