Star Trek is the worst.

[Blackrook]

When I was a kid I liked Star Trek. But really, when you think about it, Star Trek is one of the worst television shows in history. The reason it survives is because it's science fiction, and the standards for science fiction is very low.

 

[Otis Mayfield]

Perchance I'm being trolled?

 

[fncceo]

"Star Trek", the original series, was ... but the standards of the day ... cutting edge television.

It was innovative, controversial, and provocative.

Yes, it was over dramatized (we're looking at you, Shatner). Many of the scripts were simplistic and overly preachy. Yes, the fight choreography was hilarious and, yes, even the music was terrible.

Only about 1/3 of the original series episodes can we watched today without being considered satire.

But ... viewed against everything else on TV in 1966 ... it was a phenomenon and REALLY GOOD TV.

However, what is most important about "Star Trek" wasn't the dated episodes, but the inspiration it brought to millions of fans that, just perhaps, the future could be a little better, a little more civilized, and a little more exciting than it is today.

It was the last Science Fiction franchise with a vision of an optimistic future, before we decided that all science fiction had to be dystopic.

 

[JGalt]

When I was a kid I liked Star Trek. But really, when you think about it, Star Trek is one of the worst television shows in history. The reason it survives is because it's science fiction, and the standards for science fiction is very low.

Keep talking like that and you'll be one of those chosen to wear the dreaded red tunic.

I just got done watching the first new Star Trek movie and damned if the guy in red didn't die too.

 

[Lastamender]

"Star Trek", the original series, was ... but the standards of the day ... cutting edge television.

It was innovative, controversial, and provocative.

Yes, it was over dramatized (we're looking at you, Shatner). Many of the scripts were simplistic and overly preachy. Yes, the fight choreography was hilarious and, yes, even the music was terrible.

Only about 1/3 of the original series episodes can we watched today without being considered satire.

But ... viewed against everything else on TV in 1966 ... it was a phenomenon and REALLY GOOD TV.

However, what is most important about "Star Trek" wasn't the dated episodes, but the inspiration it brought to millions of fans that, just perhaps, the future could be a little better, a little more civilized, and a little more exciting than it is today.

It was the last Science Fiction franchise with a vision of an optimistic future, before we decided that all science fiction had to be dystopic.

Star Trek was a space western where the good guys always won. Its' popularity relied heavily on that well tested vehicle. I was a kid, I loved it.

 

[hjmick]

...the standards for science fiction is very low.

You don't know science fiction... wait... you don't read books, do you...

 

[Blackrook]

The problem with Star Trek is that the script is written by stupid people who know nothing about science, and don't bother to show respect towards science.

Also, the characters are stiff and boring, except in the original show.

 

[Otis Mayfield]

The idea that a society will develop where everyone's needs are met and people want for nothing. Not only that, but they have fulfilling lives.

That's interesting.

 

[progressive hunter]

When I was a kid I liked Star Trek. But really, when you think about it, Star Trek is one of the worst television shows in history. The reason it survives is because it's science fiction, and the standards for science fiction is very low.

it would help if you explained??

 

[fncceo]

Star Trek was a space western where the good guys always won. Its' popularity relied heavily on that well tested vehicle. I was a kid, I loved it.

In fact, the premise of a "space western" is precisely how Roddenberry sold the show to Desilu Productions. He pitched it as "Wagon Train to The Stars".

And yes, the "good guys" almost always won in the end. It wouldn't make much sense to have an episodic TV series where they didn't win.

However, one of the best episodes of the series, and most enduring, "City on the Edge of Tomorrow", written by the incomparable scifi writer Harlan Ellison, ended with Kirk saving the crew but losing someone very special to him. Very unusual for sixties TV ... when the most popular shows on TV were "Batman" and reruns of "I Love Lucy".

 

[fncceo]

The idea that a society will develop where everyone's needs are met and people want for nothing. Not only that, but they have fulfilling lives.

That's interesting.

Actually, they never really fleshed that out as a concept on the original series. As the extended "Star Trek" universe unfolded, a lot of holes started showing through idea of a utopian galaxy where everyone lives to their fullest potential.

It turned out that Star Fleet was in fact, a very elitist organization with monopolistic controls on technology and much of the non-Star Fleet world was still just as grubbing for precious commodities and dependent on capitalism as we are today.

Even in a TV show, no one could come up with a way to make the concept of a society not based on wealth acquisition a workable idea.

 

[Otis Mayfield]

Actually, they never really fleshed that out as a concept on the original series. As the extended "Star Trek" universe unfolded, a lot of holes started showing through idea of a utopian galaxy where everyone lives to their fullest potential.

It turned out that Star Fleet was in fact, a very elitist organization with monopolistic controls on technology and much of the non-Star Fleet world was still just as grubbing for precious commodities and dependent on capitalism as we are today.

Even in a TV show, no one could come up with a way to make the concept of a society not based on wealth acquisition a workable idea.

It worked through automation and free power.

 

[miketx]

 

[JohnDB]

Original Star Trek is miles better than TNG DS9 or even Voyager...

More themes included in every episode that were fresh and contemporary... even ahead of the headlines. They definitely had issues in translating them to the screen...but they were ahead of their time in so many ways when new.

 

[toobfreak]

The problem with Star Trek is that the script is written by stupid people who know nothing about science, and don't bother to show respect towards science.

Idiot, the original series was researched in every way at every level with the Rand Corporation to determine scientific plausibility, and the Enterprise was even designed by a Naval engineer. Star Trek has been approached by many companies from people trying to figure out how to make their doors open as fast to a lawsuit claiming the idea for the medical beds came from secret research they were doing.

 

[mudwhistle]

When I was a kid I liked Star Trek. But really, when you think about it, Star Trek is one of the worst television shows in history. The reason it survives is because it's science fiction, and the standards for science fiction is very low.

Maybe so.....but Mr Spock was cool as fuck.

 

[Uncensored2008]

The problem with Star Trek is that the script is written by stupid people who know nothing about science, and don't bother to show respect towards science.

Also, the characters are stiff and boring, except in the original show.

Quite the opposite,

Star Trek was one of the only SciFi shows that did follow the science - actual physics. Rodenberry demanded that everything on the show be plausible according to actual physicists.

It can't all be airplanes in space.

 

[fncceo]

It worked through automation and free power.

The thing is ... it didn't.

In the later spin-offs of the show, it turned out that Star Fleet withheld vital technologies, such as replicators, and warp drive from segments of their society.

The wars of the "Star Trek" universe (even those between Federation members) were still over land (in the form of habitable planets) and resources, this would only be the case if resources and land were limited commodities.

Even in Star Fleet, there was a hierarchy not based on merit or potential, but on the ability to social ingratiate yourself with other Star Fleet officers.

A semi-recurring character, Reg Barkley, on "Next Generation" turned out to be a brilliant engineer but socially awkward, which doomed him forever to the lowest ranks of the Star Fleet officer class.

No, even when writers are allowed to create their fictional universe from scratch, they cannot make the utopia work.

 

[Batcat]

You don't know science fiction... wait... you don't read books, do you...

Science fiction novels are often great but SF movies and TV programs often are disappointing.

 

[WinterBorn]

Star Trek was cutting edge at the time. Not only was it breaking new ground for science fiction, each episode was a mini morality play. And it touched on the controversial subjects of the day in ways no other tv series could do.