Do you watch Star Trek?

[tmbrwulf]

One thing I heard on some program or news, or perhaps I read it off the internet...

Apparently the one thing most in common with pedophiles is that they love Star Trek. Not to say all those into Star Trek are pedophiles, but according to the powers that be, pedophiles seem to love Star Trek.

Do you have a love of Star Trek? While there may be some outliers, if it is true, why do you suppose we child lovers also enjoy Trek?

[on the rocks]

I have never heard that before.
And I've been into Trek almost as long as I've been into children.

That sounds to me like something a Star Trek hater made up out of nowhere and spewed onto the internet thinking he was being clever or edgy.

If this evolves into an actual conversation about Trek in general, I'm in.  Because it's everywhere these days.  Streaming services have been a tremendous boon to good scifi.  And with that asshole Moonves out of the way, we can finally get some good shit out of Paramount.  That was the best MeToo thing to ever happen.  In terms of how it affected what I care about in entertainment, that guy hitting the bricks was way better than getting Cosby or Weinstien. He stood in the way of new Star Trek for over a decade.

[DropsOfJupiter]

I watch Below Decks. Because it is great. I used to watch Discovery but every single season would end with the exact same moral problem cliffhanger with one character and I found it to be dumb.

[ijp]

I've also never heard that. I got into Star Trek long after being interested in kids. It's not a stretch that people who are routinely put to the sidelines might envy a society that's accepting. Or maybe it's the holodecks

Star Trek paints a world that I genuinely want to be a part of. I can't think of a concept that's more hopeful about the future. I think that the rules and ethics of the federation are a model. The Ferengi and the Klingon have such extremely different cultures than humans, and even though it leads to conflict, they bend over backwards to understand and live with each other.

I've only watched, and will only watch The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine though. Everything else I've tried to watch didn't work for me. In particular the newer movies and series are borderline offensive. They turned a hopeful future society, and a world that was built primarily on exploring the depths of space, and made it into a dystopian action fest. They turned Picard from a calm calculating diplomat that would be visibly pained by having to resort to violence, into an action hero that shoots people without remorse .

And with that asshole Moonves out of the way, we can finally get some good shit out of Paramount.

Respectfully, I think Paramount has handled trek worse than Disney has handled star wars. I don't think Moonves was the problem. It was and still is Alex Kurtzman. They're very much just milking the series on name recognition with-or-without the sex pest.

I watch Below Decks. Because it is great. I used to watch Discovery but every single season would end with the exact same moral problem cliffhanger with one character and I found it to be dumb.

It's much slower, and isn't a space laser CG action fest, but I strongly recommend going into TNG, starting at season 3, and only going back to 1 and 2 after you finish the rest (season 1 is terrible and season 2 was a victim of a writer's strike).

[LikelyHuman]

I've only watched, and will only watch The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine though. Everything else I've tried to watch didn't work for me. In particular the newer movies and series are borderline offensive. They turned a hopeful future society, and a world that was built primarily on exploring the depths of space, and made it into a dystopian action fest.

I've noticed a lot of people making this observation in regards to the newer stuff, and it always makes me wonder how bad it really got because I always felt like Deep Space Nine was the dystopian turn in the series. I could never get into it as much as the other series and always thought the two after it were much better. There are a lot of episodes of it that I still like, but I can't really dedicate myself to watching it in continuity with the whole Dominion war story arc.

I have always liked Star Trek too. I grew up on it. I have never heard of this idea that pedos like Star Trek. Though I think it's funny because there's a lot of relationships and stories within Trek that kind of broach the subject. For example, on Voyager, there's a character called Neelix who has a relationship with a 3-year old alien; except her species only lives 7 years, so at that point she's fully matured. Consequently, I guess there's now a bit of a meme of Neelix being a pedophile. Then there was an episode of The Next Generation where several of the characters got turned back into kids, and one of them was married and her husband was visibly uncomfortable being married to a now 11 year old. At one point she asks, "What if I stay like this? Is our marriage over?" *raises eyebrow*

I don't really watch many of the new ones either though. I gave Discovery and Picard a try, and they just weren't for me. I don't really like that Discovery seems to be mainly about Michael Burnam, for one thing. Then on top of that, I don't really like the format where each episode is the next installment in a wider story. I enjoy the self-contained episodes more. I have given Strange New Worlds a try and it seems to follow that format a little more, so I have been enjoying it more than others.

[LuvPWomen]

I've never heard of a special connection between pedophiles and Star Trek. I'm curious, where do you have that information from?

That being said I love Star Trek

[Driver247]

I have been a Star Trek fan ever since the original series came out in the 1960's. Actually I think watching Star Trek and Mr. Spock helped form my way of thinking. It helped me to think logically instead of emotionally and to learn to control my emotions instead my emotions controlling me. I have also tried to teach my kids and grandkids that logic.     

[BiPeadl]

Not sure about that statistic but, I do love Star Trek, although, I have only watched the three latest ones.

[on the rocks]

If you're disappointed by Disco and Picard so far, definitely give Strange New Worlds a try.  That's much more a Star Trek series that the other two.  They've been listening to fan feedback over there at Trek HQ, and are applying what they've learned to that show.
Also this next season of Picard is basically gonna be season 8 of TNG, so I'm on board.  As long as it isn't a series of member berries loosely strung together, it has promise.

My biggest problem with Disco is how every episode seems to grind to a halt at some point so everyone can talk about their feelings like it's some fucking CW high school drama. Get on with it already, I don't need to see another character blubbering about their fucking trauma or whatever.  To quote The Simpsons, "When are they going to get to the fireworks factory!!"  You can do that a little bit with one or two characters, but when it's basically everyone in therapy that's just boring.

I also think it was unnecessary to break canon and make Burnam into Spock's adopted sibling.  That really seemed shoe-horned in.
Disco also suffers from excessive catastrophism.  Every season's arc is about something that'll destroy the entire universe or whatever.  They've abused the high stakes well so thoroughly that we're numb to it.  And when you haven't put the time into world building and fleshing out the bridge crew, it's harder to care if that world might get destroyed.  Disco suffers from Marvelism in that way.

Lower Decks has figured out a better balance between the alien-of-the-week model that made the franchise work and the sprinkles of nostalgia as little gifts to hardcore fans.  And they've done a way better job at fleshing out their main characters than Disco or even Picard (where we are already intimately familiar with two main characters before the first episode ever drops).  I feel way more invested in Boimler, Mariner, Tendy and Rutherford than I do Burnam or Rafi or Suru.  LD has every potential to outlast all the other series out there, I dare say.  It's cheaper to make, it's fun to watch, and it gets the franchise better because it's not so bloody serious all the time.

Also, Disco fucked up the Klingons and I'm annoyed by that.  Like physically; they look they were made by someone who only had a written description to go off of.

[DropsOfJupiter]

Lower Decks has figured out a better balance between the alien-of-the-week model that made the franchise work and the sprinkles of nostalgia as little gifts to hardcore fans.  And they've done a way better job at fleshing out their main characters than Disco or even Picard (where we are already intimately familiar with two main characters before the first episode ever drops).  I feel way more invested in Boimler, Mariner, Tendy and Rutherford than I do Burnam or Rafi or Suru.  LD has every potential to outlast all the other series out there, I dare say.  It's cheaper to make, it's fun to watch, and it gets the franchise better because it's not so bloody serious all the time.

Also Mariner is cute. Just saying.

I was required to watch a lot of TNG when I was younger. Some of it was ok, some was pretty good, some was bleh. I liked one of the movies best. First Contact, I think. The one with all the borg. Also their uniforms looked the prettiest in that one so it was even better.

[TooLittleTime]

I have liked to varying degrees all of the series. In general I have liked the movies better. I prefer Hard Sci-Fi, so things like Q bug me. I do like the occasional reverse time jump. Compared to some series over time the writing is pretty uneven (admittedly we are talking hundreds of episodes so understandable). I like DS9 the best for the overall story arc, and I liked it when any of the series had multiple episode arc's. I don't mind monster of the week but great episodes in this style are not always common.

I really liked Picard until [SPOILER] he became an android and the Q BS. Still watch all though.

I have over the years teased and trapped my hard core conservative sci-fi loving friends around the early series by posing the question: "Would you want to live in the Star Trek universe?" The uniform answer is yes, them thinking about exploring alien worlds aspect. But when I point out the Star Trek worlds (at least early series) were completely driven by socialism at it's finest, well, lol.

[on the rocks]

Mariner's pretty fine, but I tilt toward Tendy a little more myself.  She has an almost child-like naivety at times that I find endearing (for some reason )

First Contact is rightly regarded as the best TNG movie.  The Borg were solid bad guys, a genuine menace that checked Starfleet's socialist utopia privilege.
Early TNG was quite shakey; almost corny at times.  Too much Wesley and too many cheesy plastic rock sets.  And don't get me started on their anti-drug propaganda episodes.  But they landed on their feet and eventually created the best episodes of science fiction television ever made.

DS9 and the Dominion War arc really set a good standard for how to advance a broader story, but still have stand alone episodes along the way; something completely absent from Disco or Picard.  Plus I always like me a little Molly O'Brian.

I'm with you on the android thing, TooLittleTime.  Really didn't seem necessary at all and it totally undercut the ending.  Hey, we killed off this iconic character... just kidding!!  And afterward, it's barely ever mentioned again and adds nothing to the character so what was the fucking point?  We'd be in the same place if that never happened, so why bother?  Dumb move.
I do like Seven of Nine's look in Picard, though.  She's always been kind of badass, but it comes through a lot more without that silly catsuit they squeezed her into on Voyager.  (Yes, we get it; Jeri Ryan has really nice tits.)

[on the rocks]

I'm going to double post to note my appreciation of Naomi Wildman on Voyager.  That was a much better use of a child in a Star Trek series than previous attempts with Wesley Crusher or Jake Sisko.  First of all, they started them too old for my taste.  Then with Wesley, they made him an annoying know-it-all.  They did a little better with Jake giving him his own path early on and the friendship with Nog certainly worked well.  He just physically grew up too fast.  By season 3, he's taller than his dad and that seemed to quickly turn Jake into more of a peer to his father than his son in some ways.  And for losing his mother at such a young age, Jake is remarkably well put together; more so than Captain Sisko about that loss.  Shouldn't that have been more traumatizing for a little boy than a Starfleet officer?

Naomi Wildman, they used her just right on Voyager, I feel.  They use her as a way for Neelix to pivot from being romantically protective of Kess to being paternally engaged with Naomi after they wrote Kess out of the show.  The dynamic that developed between Naomi and Seven was cool; clearly the girl looks up to Seven more than Captain Janeway.  I'm sure I'm not the only one who had a passing thought of 'shipping Naomi and Seven in a delicious age-gap lesbian relationship.  Those Borg nanoprobes would have no trouble finding the g-spot!

There is one thing that has always bothered me about Naomi though when it comes to her little forehead spikes.  How the hell does that work during childbirth?  They never addressed that in Voyager, but it really seems like Naomi would have given her mom an episiotome on the way out.

[bdwttr13]

Yeah, definitely a fan, and way behind on all the stuff post-Enterprise. Got hooked on TNG, especially with all the kids wearing tight, one piece costumes, showing bulges up front but never any underwear lines...  always wondered if any of them were diapered under their costumes...

[LikelyHuman]

There is one thing that has always bothered me about Naomi though when it comes to her little forehead spikes.  How the hell does that work during childbirth?  They never addressed that in Voyager, but it really seems like Naomi would have given her mom an episiotome on the way out.

Actually I could swear they addressed this at one point. I might just be imagining it, but I don't think so because I can pretty vividly remember the doctor saying something about "kretarian" biology in specific reference to the horns. I'm surprised I can't remember specifically since I probably re-watch Voyager more than any of the series. I think there's probably an equal amount of me imagining that they addressed this though.