<![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi? - io9 Comments]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi? - io9 Comments]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> Easy:
A complete and utter failure of all basic design in space age technology.

1) People dieing from lack of seatbelts.
2) Running lethal amounts of energy through what amounts to a keyboard.
3) Running any danger amount of anything near the bridge and other command centers. (Coolant through engineering etc...)
4) Not simply installing a rudimentary roll cage above all control stations to prevent falling beams from crushing somewhat key personel.
5) Not installing remote control phasers in walls to automatically stop intruders.
6) Not providing Week+ auxillary air supplies throughout the ship in case of a fire/depressurization.

The list goes on and on. Not on scientific gaffs like "Our life support has failed we'll suffacate in a few minutes inside of our Superdome full of air. But the lack of primitive and simple countermeasures that should have been obvious after the first voyage of the enterprise.

im.thatoneguy

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> @KemaChoinach: Almost all of your examples of 20th century culture are in fact from the 19th century. Not that your point isn't valid, but Sherlock Holmes? No. Dixon Hill, yes.

femto

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> @KemaChoinach: Unlike the other pop-culture references, what makes you think that a sport wouldn't be able to last? Among the other things, baseball is the only one plausibly logical to still be as popular.

cde

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> And giant space ships having a manual steering mechanism of an Atari Joystick...

cde

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> Worst thing? Cell Phones. And bad drivers.

cde

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> @Seth L: The walls thing. It's because the entire room is producing a hologram/forcefield. Even the floor. You would be standing on a invisible treadmill. You move and the entire forcefield compensates by moving in the same direction.

cde

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> @KemaChoinach: You forgot the "two things you know" formula, where you refer to two things we've heard of and one that's made up:

"Oh, yes, I have read your Earth poetry, your Keats, your Shakespearse, your Viltroid Davilox of the twenty-second century..."

edosan

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> Where's the poll option for 'Allowed Berman and Braga to continue their writing careers'?

Sian

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> The worst thing that the Star Trek franchise brought to sci-fi was Roddenberry's smarmy "in the future we don't have money or disease or unemployment and nobody is ever sad" philosophy. The franchise finally got out of that mindset during Deep Space Nine, but I couldn't stand most of Next Generation because of that.

edosan

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> If there was ever a need for a checkbox poll, this would be it.

Gev

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> By the way, just because ST can use a bit too much babble, doesn't mean I don't think the Trek Universe is great. I was raised on it; Spock was the father I wish I had.

Jeff-Minor

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> The most hateful/implausible thing? There was always SOMEONE in any given series who was fascinated with 20th century culture. For all its blaring on about Bajorans and Klingons and Vulcans, oh my!, whenever you had an earth culture reference, somehow it nearly always wound up being something from the 20th century. Old west town? Classic ST - check. Sherlock Homes? TNG - check. 20th Century baseball? DS9 - check. 50's pulp culture? Voyager - check. (I honestly didn't watch enough Enterprise to see if this was followed up with in that series, but if you REALLY need an example, you have the 'Through a Mirror, Darkly' episode where you had Trek referencing itself (Classic ST) and its 20th Century production values.

Sure, every now and again you'd have some glancing reference to the culture of other civilizations, but generally that involved some member of the production staff bashing his fists on a synthesizer and they'd call it "Klingon music", but for every round of 'alien' sports they'd play on the holodeck, you had twelve episodes in a french bar, or irish pub (glares hatefully at Voyager.) They couldn't even diversify their anthro-centrism into periods of time later than the 20th century - what happened, did people in the future just decide that television and movies weren't going to get any better after the 1990's and stop watching anything new? For all the tens of thousands of rabid drooling fans out there, you would think that someone on the production staff could have brought one of them in as an intern to design a 23rd century pop song, or a 22nd century movie at least. And I KNOW there are tons of people who live the 'Klingon' lifestyle who could have given them more than they wanted for culture from that race.

Yet another example, like the 'reset button' of how typically lazy the Trek writers have been over the years.

KemaChoinach

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> The worst thing brought to SciFi by Star Trek would be the horrendously bad acting by Shatner, and other bad acting and bad script writing for it's actors to say and do within lots of its episodes no matter the series ; along with the naive idea of a totally socialist & communistic society's economy that can get along without any need for money as work or good compensation. All the constant explanations of ideas and procedures that everyone should already know anyway because after all everyone has already went to StarFleet Academy? Capitalist societies=(Ferengi )? ?? Non-wirelessly networked android on a super-advanced technoloy starship???
Very good question there raised earlier in this blog by someone else. Worst technical thing: the computer that everybody just instinctively knows how to work and emits various sounds and lights,so Pushing this and that button & it works great, except there's NO FREAKING labels on ANY OF IT!!!. whatever..~
One last thing, in favor of it though besides the inspiring of generations of scientists and engineers, the development of non-invasive medical exploratory technology (MRI& NMR, Ultrasonic Imaging Scans), personal portable wireless handheld communications devices (Hmm, what were they called again? Oh yeah,.. cellphones/smartphones.) One VERY final thing: greatest portable device created by the series was the TriCorder to tell a person able to read its screens anything a person wants to know about whatever, through its 200+ ultra mini-sensors and wireless connectivity to each other and a data dump feature to the starship's computer storage banks.

IronManMn1

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> @Counterglow:
"Grayson". Amanda Grayson was Spock's human mother's name.

Oh darn, I read it anyway and did not spare myself the grief! Oh well, at least your comment was humorous.

:)

geekzilla

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> My vote: "nothing".
I have to go on record as opining that Star Trek, especially TOS, was a HUGE force in influencing what we call SciFi today, especially for TV. Good, bad, whatever, it is what it is, because of Star Trek. One more thing - DON'T mess with Shatner.
You can't. mess. with. William Shatner. HE is legend.
Live long and prosper.

geekzilla

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?

this thread.
some comments are pure gold, some are funny as hell... but 98% its pure fanboy/antifanby BS.

now if you excuse me, i´ll go to the replicator for some tea.

Erzengel

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> I see not cites for Slash Fiction, and, by some extensions, all fan fiction.

I mean, really that a flying modern office is somehow classified "science fiction" in anything but style is, to me, the great ill.

Slatz_Grobnik

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> @codydog: Oh no you di'int!!!! I'll have know that Patrick Stewart is one of the greatest (and consistently below radar) actors of our time. I began to watch TNG because of him. Every crisp word he spoke was a neatly wrapped package that conveyed meaning and context all handed on a platter of excellent delivery. I wanted to sound exactly like him. Instead, I come across like the english language and I parted ways, harshly, about 9th grade. Maybe 7th.
My bro watched TNG cos Stewart looked like Proffesor X from his fave cartoon. He was 8.

The worst thing? "Fully Functional" Data. *gagging*. If Data had been hot, that might have been alright, but Brent Spiner?

twreckx

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> @Antho:

See
[www.salon.com]
[www.davidbrin.com]

David Brin rox!

@Io9 techies - Nice Autolinker-shrinker!

Dug

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> Star Trek. Star Wars. Dr Who.

The worst thing about all of them are the idiotic pulp novels that take up so much usable shelf space at the bookstore. This blog has pointed me to what looks like so many cool books, but can I but them locally? Nope. But I can buy lots of books about Sulu's little phaser that could, or Princess Leah and the heaving gold bikini.

Grrr.

Dug

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> Is io9 supposed to make me full of bitterness and self-loathe for being a fan of any sci-fi series?

Lizfu

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> If you know Spock's mother's maiden name, spare yourself some grief and read no further.

My choice is a combo: Trekkies, and the associated idea that those responsible for any science fiction series should tie the hands of its creative people to pay even one iota of attention to no-life, consistency-obsessed junior-grade bean counters who can't understand that they aren't talented enough to produce anything even vaguely deserving of publication in any medium.

The combination has been fatal to more than one series, and it came into full flower during the reign of that most loathsome of tyrants, the Star Trek Fanatic.

Counterglow

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> @Benjo: because nose makeup is inexpensive.

victheremin

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> Yes, third that antho praise. Star Wars, despite any virtures, was always meant to be moronic. Star Trek usually at least aspired to tell intelligent stories.

victheremin

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> @antho: "Klingons start out as the big bad, and by the end of DS9 they are staunch allies."

A Good point which also happens to point out one of Star Trek's other major conceptual failings - no alien is, in the end, truly alien. You start out with some weirdly alien being and in the end they're you're best friend. Klingons, Vulcans, even the Borg aren't that different to humans when you deporgram them and put them in body hugging unitards.

Granted, the idea of being "alien" in the ST cosmology is just an excuse to take a certain human quality to an extreme [logical aliens, emotional aliens etc] for dramatic purposes, but they seldom explored what it meant for humans to encounter alien ethics and see what happens. They did it occasionally, with an STNG ep with the homosexual aliens [but blanched at the last second at having Riker go gay], the one where Worf wouldn't donate his organs to save someone and those eps where the Vulcans get Alzheimers. But in the end, they always turn out to be more human than weirdly, implacably alien.

Could I just also say that hey, I accept that Star Trek was there to inspire scientists to strive for new inventions and excellence and blah blah blah but I am still waiting for my replicator so I don't have to drive my car to the shops to buy milk.

tezby

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> @Garrison Dean: Yeah, we started pulling down the 'Borg Spheres' (some sort of green drink with vodka) and got pretty drunk. Weren't even all that expensive...
I was actually pretty suprised how packed the Experience was for a weekday in January - I'm pretty sure half the people at the Hilton were there specifically for the Trek thing.

PVIII

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> Second that golf clap for antho.

PVIII

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> @antho: Awesome post. Well-said.
*golf clap*

MrJellytree

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> You forget to add "easy morality" as an option.

prom77

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> Ironic picture to start off this post - that scene represents the best thing Star Trek did for sci-fi: it popularized the notion that sci-fi can address real-world issues that affect the average joe - in this case, Cold War hysteria dooming us all.

Compare the two big sci-fi franchises: Star Trek and Star Wars.

Star Trek:
Cycles of hatred are often counter-productive. Klingons start out as the big bad, and by the end of DS9 they are staunch allies.

Star Wars:
Cycles of hatred are an inescapable law of the universe - there will always be one Sith who survives to come back and kill all Jedi but one who survives to... etc. In fact, all major galactic history is structure by an elite group of magicians' neverending civil war.

Star Trek:
Anyone can play a role in important events, provided they have the education and determination.

Star Wars:
If you are not born with magic powers you are a nobody and play a minor role at best.

Star Trek:
War is hell.

Star Wars:
War is cool and romantic, especially if it involves lightsaber duels against postcard-pretty backdrops.

Star Trek:
Bad guys usually have redeeming qualities and good guys have their bad qualities. There are both good and bad guys in each faction.

Star Wars:
Two camps: 'light side' and 'dark side'. You are either one or the other, and once you are one side you instantly become enemies with the other - regardless of any other groups you belong to.

Star Trek:
Problems can be solved through science.

Star Wars:
Science? What is that? All technology is frozen in place - lightsabers are always and forever the ultimate weapons.

Which series should we be complaining about, again?

antho

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> Definitely the head acne. Or, in the case of the Bajoran's, a slightly wrinkled nose. I'm just not sure how a race from the other side of the galaxy is just in need of rhinoplasty in order to be humans.

Benjo

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> @PriorMarcus: I'll try to avoid having a memory from now on. Where's the reset button?

Tim Faulkner

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> @Tim Faulkner: You know, your not doing yourself any favours by trying to argue with a guy that is voicing his opinion by jumping around trying to find a post of his to call out. It's pretty easy to invalidate your point after that.

If someone thinks this BLOG is getting repetitive and they decide to voice it in a reasonable manor, let them, besides, it was Anna that threw the first punch here and invited a rebuttal.

That said I quiet enjoy these post, because they are nothing more but fluffy opinion pieces, and that's how I take them. I'm not the biggest fan of Star Trek, and it used a lot of these devices to it's disservice, but a lot of other shows have put them to good use, for that reason I voted none.

I loved the Forerunners/Ancients so if suffering through Q (who I actually rather enjoyed) is the first step towards seeing them realised in following science fiction, then I'm happy to have him.

A similar argument, I believe, could be made about most of these options.

PriorMarcus

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> Worst thing in Star Trek? Well,
Consistently Thought provoking?
Episodic nature meaning that no matter when an episode is re-watched it tells a complete story?
Well developed characters and, barring a small number of exceptions, excellent writing?
Patrick Stewart?
Wow, I really don't know what to choose

paradox

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> I've been trying to decide which of the choices is the worst thing when it struck me. All of them have one thing in common; lazy writing. The reset button, technobabble, god-like beings, all are simply an easy out after you've written yourself into a courner. I know, I know Star Trek didn't invent lazy writers, its just they made it way too painfully obvious.

Oh, and hey, what do you mean Star Trek racist???!!!!!
Star Trek was the favorite tv show of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King! True story.

Humanist, maybe...

IchabodCrane

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> The reset button is the only thing on that list that I'd consider bad. I happen to really like the holodeck stories, at least the ones from TNG. I thought those were fun episodes. I have no problem with anything else that you listed.

Sharpless

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> @EBone: that's hitting the nail on the head. They just had an NPR segment on the Spanish movies they made after midnight on the Dracula set in the 1930's. And Abott and Costello meet whoever is on sound stage 5.

The old serials were famous for reusing actors and props until some people had no idea what movie they were in. "Quick! Hit somebody!

That rocket back pack from "Lost Planet Airmen" was in more movies than Buster Crabbe.

Which leads to the conclusion that Star Trek/Wars are the equivalent of old B Movie Serials, which is what George Lucas said in the first place.

codydog

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> The reset button really drives me crazy because it's one of those things that totally throws off the whole temporary suspense of disbelief that allows me to enjoy SF. I don't know why. I can deal with physics-defying spacecraft, giant bugs and random Chinese cursing but the reset button goes just a little too far and wrecks it for me. It s only excusable in Dr. Who.

E0157H7

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> I'm waiting for my favorite concept to be made into a trek series.

Star Trek: Bureau of Temporal Affairs

They can set it aboard the 29th century, Wells Class Timeship, USS Relativity.

That way the corny time shtick reset button can be used in every episode with unabashed fervor.

Dillenger69

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> @tetracycloide: But then would we have South Park to mock it so?

92BuickLeSabre

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> i'm going to have to go with the worst thing star trek brought to scifi was:

"Aesop's Fable.
Every fucking episode ends with some moronic and overly simplistic moral lesson."

tetracycloide

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> @draconismoi: I don't believe I ever said Trek WAS the better and brighter future, just that it inspired people. Whether or not these inspired people ever had any real effect on society is debatable.
As for the sexism and the... well it was the mid 60s, written by a guy who wrote cop shows and westerns in the 50s. besides that was corrected to an extent in later incarnations. So pick your targets where you will.
The racism comment is totally off base. Never have I seen a more diverse cast of characters in a TV show. More people of color and women characters have held positions of authority and respect than on any other TV show I can remember.
As for alien species, only in the Rick Berman years was the human first attitude really put into play. For example, if you read the early Trek history/backstory, Zephram Cochran, the inventor of warp drive, was from Alpha Centurii. it took Mr. Rick "Fucktard" Berman to make him a human drunk.

BBanzai

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> @PVIII: no not at all. Me and my buds, not even huge Trek fans shelled out the extra bucks to get the bridge photoswhich was worth it. Maybe I'll scan them in ansd send it to Annalee, they are pretty phenomenal due to how out of our minds we where when we got there. We were drunk (et al), we finished a couple big Scorpion bowls at Quarks, irritated a Klingon, and I'll be damned if their teleportation effect doesn't work like a charm.

Grrsn Dn

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> @Garrison Dean: I loved me the Dominion Wars storylines, what with the repeated massive space battles and all.

Frozen-Tex

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> @BBanzai: I find it hard to credit any incarnation of ST as a 'better and brighter' future with it's constant undercurrent of racism, sexism and all around androcentrism. It may have inspired generations of scientists to dream of freaking awesome technological advancements, but it didn't do much of anything to inspire real social equality.

That's why I love the more dytopic SF shows....they actually wrestle with the evolution of human society - without just saying it's perfect, still denigrating women and shafting all the racism onto so-called 'alien' species.

As for which the most evil ST plot device? Gah! It's a tough call. The reset button was damn lazy and infuriating from a specific storyline perspective. But the bumpy forehead business was equally lazy and damn infuriating from a critical analysis perspective.

The first time I watch an episode, it's the former, but once I go back and watch them again for academic purposes, it's definitely the latter

draconismoi

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> There are a lot of bad things about Star Trek, but the question doesn't seem to be "where did Star Trek screw up the most" but instead "Where was Star Trek the worst influence on science fiction?" And I don't think Star Trek was really a bad influence on science fiction.

If you're a sci-fi writer and you don't have enough sense to be more influenced by the likes of "City on the Edge of Forever" then you are by the likes of "Spock's Brain", anything you would have come up with without the influence of Star Trek would have been much worse.

grenacia

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> @gods-n-clods: Hm, is it lame that I actually enjoyed Star Trek: The Experience in Vegas? (I promise it wasn't the only thing I did)

PVIII

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> @Macloserboy: Aww, I <3 you more than James T Kirk.

Tim Faulkner

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> The fact that they made sure that at the end of every episode, things were back to they way they were at the beginning of the episode. The worst case was with Voyager, eleventybajillion miles from a Federation repair shop, and the ship looked exactly the same for the entire series. At least in Enterprise the ship looked like it had gotten the crap kicked out of it.

daveNYC

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> May I present, Star Trek: The Tour (and don't forget the Ticketmaster "convenience" charge!)

gods-n-clods

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> I'd love to talk about the issue, but I need to go to the auxcilary control room to patch into a plasma conduit so I can remodulate the forward deflector array so that it will emit a tachyon burst into the spacetime rift that our out-of-ballance warp field created. Oops!

Jeff-Minor

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> Ogre!!

seriously, the babble. the only one to get the babble level right is buckaroo bonzai.

X: The Eliminator

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> Im not going to even get into this one. I am not even the biggest fan of Trek beyond TOS and Enterprise and even at that Im somewhat offended how stupid the moderators on this board are compared to the other gawker sites.

Falconfire

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> Technobabble is the worst. It's lazy writing used to cover plot holes, usually to explain all the other evils, from reset buttons to why the aliens all look like us but with bumpy foreheads.

Gyrus

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> Where do I vote for "obsessive fandom?"

Dr. Spaceman, Esq.

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> @Gopherit: I'm guessing an uber-geek's fantasy life is already quite ripe with "choices", Star Trek or no.

Tiger_Tanaka

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> @Tim Faulkner: Like I said, dweeb.

Macloserboy

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> universal translator

jms18

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> @Frozen-Tex: wow, that is comprehensive if not a little (lot) biased. I have always wondered how there are conservative fans of a show that more or less exists in a socialist utopia. Now I know. They get pissed off and grit their teeth through the free love and wait for a massive Borg battle.

Grrsn Dn

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> I agree with the original statement: the reset button. None of the rest of it is evil, per se; it's just easily abused, and Star Trek abused it. A lot.

UncleMikey

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> @choinski: The reason to have a gangster planet or a Roman planet was MONEY. Those sets were standing on the Desilu / Paramount studios lot. It was cheap to use them instead of building new sets.

Producers to writers: "We have sets for 1920s Earth, Roman times, and 1930s New York City. Go write some episodes around them so we can film the episodes cheaply.

EBone

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> @Macloserboy: You're welcome. And thanks for permission to post -- oh wait, you revoked it?

Tim Faulkner

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> Holodeck... specifically anything with Janeway and a Holodeck... or Ryker and his...um... self love on the Holodeck... and not a wet nap in site... that can't be sanitary...

btgoss

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> Voltaire (the musician) must be loving this post, considering he performs a hilarious song titled "The USS Make Shit Up."

JosephFinn

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> @Tim Faulkner: When I do it every. freaking day, you can say something. And that self-interested character is the freaking hero we're supposed be rooting flaw. It's not like I was complaining about seeing the boom mike. And thank you for being dweeb enough to drag a totally separate conversation over here.

Macloserboy

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> I love my Trek, but the technobabble sometimes went a bit too far for my tastes. Futurama said it best.

Fry: Usually in the show, they come up with a complicated plan and explained it with a simple analogy.
Leela: Hmmm... If we could reconfigure the ship's engines to Melllvar's frequency, we could disrupt his matter.
Bender: Like blowing too much air in a balloon!
Fry: Of course! It's all so simple!

El Zilcho!

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> @Seth L: A nice write-up on Star Trek economics here:

[stardestroyer.net]

Frozen-Tex

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> You nailed it in the picture at the top of the article. It was the PAINFUL need to end almost every episode with a knee-slapping laugh between the main charcaters on the bridge.

What, an entire civilzation was wiped out in the first half of the episode by the planet killer? "Spock, I think you're human after all!" and hearty guffaws all around.

Three security officers were vaporized by Nomad, along with an entire star system. How does the ending go? "Wow, Nomad was like a son to me - my son the doctor!" Ha ha ha.

An entire civilization has been contaminated and turned out like 1920s gangsters, complete with violent street bloodshed as a regular daily event. "Hey, they may want a piece of OUR action in a few years." That's a real gut buster, Cap'n.

Roddenberry continued that tradition with the first season of TNG, but the writers wisely gave it up by midway through the second season of TNG.

EBone

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> @Seth L: You hit the nail on the head for me. I love star trek to death, but I still can't figure out how an officer can afford a vacation to Riza or play at the Dabo tables if there's no money? Who wants to be in the military for free? How do you retire, how do you pay at the Sisko's restaurant in New Orleans. That stuff has always bugged me.

able-x

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> @Seth L: The UFP is a socialist collective.

Frozen-Tex

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> Easily the worst thing that Star Trek brought to Sci-Fi (and the world) was Shatner.

BloggyMcBlogBlog

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> @Macloserboy: Hahaah. That's actually pretty nice.

Annalee Newitz

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> I want to stay out of this one, because I can't articulate how much it annoys me that the technology they posess from TNG onward is so ultra-powerful that it would take massive reserves of energy to actually do any of those things (holodeks, replicators).

Plus the holodeck still doesn't make sense.

Someone tried to explain why people don't run into walls in the Holodeck and, no, it still doesn't make sense.

Plus, how does the federation's economy work when there's no money?

Seth L

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> @Garrison Dean You just made baby Sybok cry.

Matt S.

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> Those shirts. Those gawd-awful shirts.

92BuickLeSabre

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> That was my buddy Ogre's suggestion, not mine. I don't want a fight.

Grrsn Dn

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> @Ryan H: I'm telling you, Kirk (and later Riker) getting all of that inter-galactic strange struck a chord amongst the undersexed fan-nerds. Don't get between a geek and that geek's fantasy life.

Gopherit

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> @Garrison Dean: You got that right. That and the complete and total lack of acting talent by any character, with the possible exception of the tribbles.

codydog

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]>

Neeerrrrds!

Grrsn Dn

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> @SeeingI: Silly me, didn't know Obama wasn't made of flesh, you know, like Hillary. Isn't this on the wrong Gawker page?

Gopherit

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> I just wanted to say how edgy and "controversial" it makes this site to bag on Star Trek all the time.

Don't you people have a list of Top Seven Sci-Fi Underpant Designs to be polishing up or something?

Matt S.

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> The worst thing that Star Trek brought to science fiction is the idea/celebration of a rabid fandom. Not enthusiastic, not active, not supportive or large. Rabid. As far as I can tell, Star Trek was the first show to attract a movement whose passion has previously been reserved for religion and select sports teams.

This paved the way for everything that has given SciFi a bad as Genre fiction. No one complains about cop show fans or mystery fans, or even about soap opera fans. SciFi fans?

Ryan H

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> @Gopherit: Green, blue, OR flesh-colored? You racist piece of shit. You make baby Obama cry.

SeeingI

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> What's the worst thing? Let's see...
1) It took Science fiction from the fringes of societal culture into the mainstream.

2) Inspired a generation of scientists, academics and philosophers to accomplish and dream of better and brighter futures.

3) Gave work and careers to countless writers, actors, artists, technicians and the myriad of people who support them in all science fiction endeavors.

4) Gave a reason to exist to whole crops of snarky, cynical, elitist know-it-alls that pop up every so often, who think that anything so mainstream couldn't possibly hold any value whatsoever.

That last one is not only directed at you guys, if it wasn't at the present time written in blog, it would be written in some moronic fanzine from 20 or 30 years ago (Trust me I've got more than a few).

End of Line

BBanzai

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> i love everything and everyone in the S.T. universe... stick that in your pipe..

designguybrown

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> @Macloserboy: Likewise, doesn't that mean your whinging about a self-interested character in Gattaca make that it's greatest flaw?

Tim Faulkner

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> @t3knomanser: There's an easier way to create an AI: just spill champagne on your mid-80s model home computer.

What? You never saw "Electric Dreams"?

Frozen-Tex

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> @PVIII:
Agreed.

The number of malfunctions that thing had would have freaked out any quality engineer (they had quality engineers in ST:TNG?) If my DVD player had the same kind of problems, I would have taken an axe to it.

Unless the holodeck SW was made by MS then I'd understand, but I'd still take an axe to it no matter how many times Riker cries about his "sexy funtime" programs.

@Macloserboy:
Being a former Trekkie myself, my problem isn't Star Trek itself. It's the fact that a vocal portion of the fan boys only see ST as the be all and end all of SF (which is my major pet peeve about any show fan base, but more so with Trek fans. I'd say the same thing about B5 and Dr Who fans if they did the same damned thing.)

ManchuCandidate

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> I would say the holodeck because it took all the adventure out of TNG -- why explore strange new worlds when you can just go play on the holodeck?

So all that training and hard work to get on this fantastic exploration starship and all you want to do is play video games? Also, the command staff has hours and hours to kill on these things? It was a lazy idea that kept the show writers from exploring what life might really be like in such circumstances.

The idea worked much better on DS9 where there was a commercial reason for holodecks to exist and where life stuck on a space station really would get a bit monotonous.

JennaW

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> Worst Thing? The idea that all televised science fiction had to be written and acted like this: two (or more) people stand around and politely take turns speaking words that normal people would not, in ways they would not, almost as if they're performing a monologue for the back row.

Mentally swap the casts of Star Trek: Voyager and Battlestar Galactica, and you'll see what I mean. Makes a fun drinking game, too.

Rus

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> While I'm as irritated by the deus ex machina technobabble as the next person, at least TOS did a decent job at social commentary - I know, most of those efforts seem cheesy now, but it was (comparatively) really well done for the time. If you ask me, Star Wars has done more damage to SF than Trek ever did, by ensuring that SF is seen (by people that don't read it) as merely mindless escapism with a lot of whiz-bang effects and no relevance to the real world.

fheywood

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> Trekkies.

AmishJohn

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> @PVIII: Well, there were a few that dealt with people and their relationship with the holodeck (or their relationship with the holodeck). That was interesting.

The worst holodeck thing ever was Moriarty. Apparently, all an AI researcher needs to do to create a human-like AI is demand that his computer create a challenge for Data.

WHAT? Centuries of effort on AI and that is all it takes?

t3knomanser

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> @Frozen-Tex: Yes, technobabble was not necessarily bad because of the damage done to the english language, as much as the consequence free nature of it's accompanying super-fix. They were constantly re-calibrating this or that, with no long term damge to either this, or that. That upsets me.

Oxfordian

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> @joemono: Oops. You beat me.

Macloserboy

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> One good thing about the Holodeck/Alternate Universe/Reset Button: It replaced the Original Series penchant to create entire planets where a Holodeck was the (ahem) 'Logical' option. Remember Gangster planet? Roman planet? Nazi planet? Or the need to have an identical Earth for no other reason than to see what a planet was like run by post apolcalyptic Children?

choinski

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> @Annalee Newitz: I'd say you people constantly whining about Star Trek is the worst thing Star Trek brought to science fiction.

That's as nice as it gets.

Macloserboy

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> Shows how much emotional investment I have in ST:TNG

I meant to say

Technobabble + WESLEY Crusher + miraculous save = Damn, you Star Trek

victheremin

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> What about convincing a generation of uber-geeks that sex with a female-like creature, be she green, blue, or flesh-colored, was not outside the realm of possibility for an officer in the Federation of Planets?

Gopherit

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> The most hateful thing I've found in the trek universe is the "Warp Core is Overloading and We Can't Eject It" crap. I would say the Federation should sue its starship manufacturers for fraud, but I recently saw an episode of Voyager that had an alien waste hauler that couldn't eject it's warp core! GAA! Is there something about the physics of a universe that allows faster than light travel that also prevents the design of reliable safety features?

As a side note how about a "STARFLEET LEGAL" series? Imagine the depths of legal jargon that could be generated!

EGN

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> to follow up on my Star Trek V point, this in turn unleashed "William Shatner: Director" on to this world.

Midwesterner in NYC

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> Technobabble + Will Crusher + miraculous save = Damn, you Star Trek

victheremin

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> @zerofritz: Yeah, "ST:E" didn't end that long ago... or is that supposed to be some kinda dig against it? I liked "Enterprise"!

Anyway, I think technobabble was bad when it was used to solve a problem, as in inventing something new just for storyline-convenience's sake.

Frozen-Tex

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> The worst thing Trek ever did was give you guys a reason to post over and over and over and over again about how you don't like it. We got it! Move on.

joemono

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> I can not believe Sybok is not an option. Or for that matter "anything from Star Trek V: The Final Frontier"

Midwesterner in NYC

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> the technobabble choice got me in trouble for an eruption of laughter at work. funniest thing i've read all day. and i'll have to go with the forehead acne - it definitely let the costume designers get lazy.

iomegaman5

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> God I hated the Holodeck. Hard to think of a good story that utilized that POS idea (DaVinci - ugh!, Robin Hood? Kill me). I guess the only one I didn't mind was when the sentient life-form hijacked the Holodeck (TNG, S7), but even that one was just ugh.

Did finally warm to Vic Fontaine though...and 'It's Only a Paper Moon'(?) was a great episode.

PVIII

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> Eh, Trek is sort of like the pop music of sci-fi. It's like asking, "What's the worst thing the Spice Girls did to rock and roll?"

Ed Grabianowski

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> The only bad thing about Star Trek is that the lack of a TV show or movies for

Great, you've gone and made Scott Bakula cry again.

zerofritz

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> SuperFans... thats my pick.

Grrsn Dn

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> No aliens that were actually "alien". But I guess you can cram that into #2.

But I'm really pissy this morning so I'm not gonna pick it.

Plague

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> Since the only option available that Star Trek did actually originate is the holodeck (and I'm not even sure of that), I guess... the holodeck?

Tim Faulkner

]]> <![CDATA[What's Really The Worst Thing Trek Brought To Scifi?]]> I am officially scared to read the comments on this post. Be merciful, Macloserboy!

Annalee Newitz

]]>