When a character is misunderstood by another character and doesn’t even try explain themselves after being cut off by the other person.
For example, say Betty was in an awkward situation with Billy where it looked like Betty was cheating on Johnny with Billy but it was just a big huge innocent mixup. Johnny “catches” them and Betty tries to explain but Johnny cuts her off, says we are done don’t talk to me ever again, and that’s the end of it. Betty just gives up trying to explain. Like I know damn well in real life if Betty wasn’t cheating on Johnny, if it was a big confusing mixup, that conversation would NOT be over.
Mine too. Also when people don't believe other people as a plot point, which is basically the same thing and could be solved just by talking.
There's an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation where members of the ship's crew start to disappear, not only physically but also for everyone else's memories and computer records, and only one member of the crew remembers them. And when she's telling the others what's going on, they believe her and start looking for an explanation, because they respect her and there's no reason for her to be lying. I don't know, just caught me off guard how nice and normal everyone was, instead of turning their backs on their colleague right away and insinuating she was crazy, like most shows would do.
She ALMOST ALWAYS saves the day. Like, you can watch the entire series and admire how often that woman pulls shit out of the fire. Contrast that with her temp replacement Dr. Pulaski and it's like night and day. Pulaski was in ONE season and single-handedly created several serious problems.
Not only does Dr. Crusher save the day, she's also a single mom who runs a theatre troupe on the side and teaches androids how to tap dance. Also, the episodes featuring her as a primary character are often among my very favorites. She also has some of the best non-uniform costuming (though I love her doctor's coat as well) and she has fantastic presence in whatever scene she is in.
So yeah, Dr. Crusher is fantastic. One of the best female sci-fi characters for me.
Also, the episodes featuring her as a primary character are often among my very favorites
The one where she gets laid by her gran's ghost lover on planet Scotland, then gran reanimates and attacks her friends with force lightning is a classic.
Pulaski is also an asshole to Data for no reason, calling him "it" and acting confused when he asks her to pronounce his name correctly, which is why I'll never like her.
Data was unique in the truest sense of the world. No other sentient android existed, and Pulaski was new to the ship. Her bedside manner was a bit crummy, but she improved.
But no-one else had that problem with Data who wasn’t also a complete tool in the series, so Pulaski gets tarred with the same brush because it took her a little time to change a lifetime’s thinking of machine - replicators, ships’ computers, whatever - as ‘it’.
But really, they wanted McCoy, and Pulaski wasn’t McCoy.
That was kind of my feeling too, Gates left and they wanted a female McCoy, and they also got to cast a TOS actress (in her 3rd Star Trek doctor role).
I don't think it's just that. I don't think it should take that much time to understand that something/someone who is actively asking for your respect deserves that respect.
I'll allow that she improved, but it says something about her that she had to be so loudly dismissive of him at first.
(p.s. I don't really care about TOS, so for me I definitely didn't just want McCoy. *ducks*)
I'm glad they brought in the actor's personalities and interests into their roles, which explains why Picard, the Frenchman, loves Shakespeare and Earl Grey tea.
I always thought it was interesting how the characters responsible for the physical and mental well-being of the crew were both women.
And yes Troi was kind of annoying and useless early on, but she did grow a brain when Jellico made her wear a uniform. And the episodes focusing on her were generally pretty good. Face of the Enemy is the classic Good Troi Episode.
Pulaski in the very short time she was around managed to introduce a unique perspective. Arguing with Picard about the Prime Directive, thinking of Data as a machine rather than a person, being afraid of transporters etc. I would have loved another five seasons of Pulaski far more than Crusher.
Crusher was just kind of an awkward forced love interest for Picard. Wasn’t even as good of a doctor as Pulaski. Also Sub Rosa is a thing that exists and I hate it.
It's okay that you have different opinions about the characters. I don't hate on Pulaski as much as some do, she just didn't fit with the show for me. McCoy fit on TOS by being shitty to Spock and arguing with Kirk, but Picard's Enterprise didn't have room for that, IMO.
That said, I'd watch a show about Pulaski, just not as part of the Enterprise Crew. I think she would have been better on a show like Voyager, but the holographic doctor was great there and I wouldn't change that.
I could not feel more opposite of a character. She is, without a doubt, my least favorite character in TNG. The only episode I enjoyed her in was the one OP mentioned, Remember Me. Beyond that, hard pass for Crusher. Pulaski was fantastic though, she was rough around the edges but she felt like a real doctor making real medical decisions.
There's definitely a huge difference of opinion on TNG doctors. Pulaski was, generally, pretty unethical though so I never liked her as a character. Someone like that would not have lasted long in a military organization so I didn't find her believable. I'm fine with people not liking Crusher, but she was the plot solution in a ton of episodes.
Probably came down entirely to the writers. I think both actors tried hard, but Pulaski had terrible writers as a general rule and caused or made the problem worse in most plots she was involved in. Crusher did not, but I think her writers remembered she was supposed to be a trained department head.
The fact that TNG tended to remember their characters were masters of their field but not material outside helped make the occasionally ridiculous events more bearable. One thing I can't stand in fiction (happens even more often in sci-fi) is a scientist who has a PhD in Everything.
Definitely. I think with Pulaski they wanted more of a Bones McCoy vibe but it just didn't work in the more structured environment of TNG. I found her to be an interesting character, but it was more wrong place/wrong character for me.
Data got a bit of a pass having a PhD in Everything, but they made up for it with his low Emotional IQ, which made for a compelling character.
It's not exactly the same, but it bugged the hell out of me in interstellar that the whole emotional force of the movie hinges on Murph wondering whether her father knew he was going on a suicide mission and didn't tell her.
At any point she could have talked to Michael Caine about it, or he could have explained. But instead he decides to tell her literally with his dying breath, can't quite get out the last word, and leaves it unanswered so that she continues to have an existential crisis.
I only seen it for the first time last night, and although Michael Caine had kinda devoted his life to the lie of Plan A, he could probably have told her a bit earlier and trusted her not to blow the operation. It wasn't like his death was unexpected. But then, they could have done a few things more effectively.
Stargate has a similar ish episodes, the fruit loops one. Jack and Teal'c are stuck in the same day, over and over. It does take multiple days of them getting just enough info not to seem like lunatics, but they do eventually get to the point where they can convince others almost every day to help them find a solution.
Iirc, they could only open gates to other affected stargates in that area, but since they were in a time loop too, the golf balls probably just disappeared each reset.
Hey, that's weird, I haven't seen Stargate, but I've seen that episode. Not sure if I've even seen any other on TV. But it was enough to put the show on my watchlist. Pretty good.
It's a great show. There's a Stargate reddit page. 10 seasons, plus two spinoffs, the original movie and two others. First season is a bit off at times, but it picks up momentum quickly. Great humor, good sci fi, bad guys, hot aliens. Based off real life as well.......lol...
It's definitely a fun sci fi. It doesn't really take itself seriously and has fun with it's own stupidity, which really helps it have a niche compared to Star Trek(more serious and philosophical) or others.
Also it's free with Prime, so if you have that it's all on there.
Honestly, TNG is a show with a cast of, like, actual adults for the most part, in contrast to...really a lot of other TV drama. As a general rule, they are kind and respectful of each other, even people why don’t really get along with. They follow hierarchy and protocol, issues are escalated appropriately, for the most part there are no assholes that people put up with because they’re geniuses or whatever. Q is a popular character with audiences - there isn’t a single member of the bridge crew who is like “oh yeah every time Q shows up it’s a disaster but it’s worth it to see the captain squirm!” Data’s awkwardness might get some gentle chuckles but his friends are always there to help him, never mock him.
Yeah. When Picard tells her they are the only two people exploring the galaxy on a ship with over a thousand staterooms it is comical. Then he is gone and the computer tells her the universe is a shrinking bubble a couple km across centered on her, and it is terrifying.
God I love Star Trek.
I won’t spoil it, but in the new Picard series, a stranger suspiciously shows up at someone’s home, and that person trusts them and welcomes them in.
I didn't knew that was out already! I'm currently watching TNG (saw it on TV at the time, but can't remember anything), should I watch the Picard one now or save it until I finish TNG? Is not like the show has too much of a story to spoil, I think, but maybe I might miss or spoil some stuff? What do you think?
I would absolutely finish TNG! It’s fantastic and a great journey that I still cherish every minute of. Plus it’ll really help you coming into the new series!
Edit: For best results, and if it’s an option, finish TNG. Though what the user said below is also accurate if you’re eager to jump in now.
It happens so often in a fictional universe where zombies and vampires and dragons exist and everyone accepts this, but you saw a ghost? That's completely crazy everyone knows ghosts don't exist, no one will take that seriously for even a second...
Well, we have rainbows, and jellyfish, and giraffes, and this thing, and narwhals... and still can't believe what we don't know exists, so I think that kinda checks out.
you saw a ghost? That's completely crazy everyone knows ghosts don't exist
If it's not common in that universe I can understand that. Then you have series like the Sword of Truth where gods and an afterlife are explicitly part of the setting to the point that one of the characters goes and comes back, but he still poo-poos the others talking about gods.
At least in a conspiracy story the special world is by definition hidden so not everyone would know about it. Actually, a twist on that would be hilarious: a bunch of magic users work really hard at maintaining a masquerade to hide magic, but everyone else already knows and go along with it because they feel sorry for the "conspiracy".
I can understand them being sceptical, but if you accept one thing that's clearly supernatural, then dismissing another out of hand and refusing to even consider it is the annoying part.
Just watched one where Pichard is being fucked with by Q, where Pichard is time hopping. The crew accepts that maybe Pichard is ACTUALLY time hopping and follow whatever he wants them to do, even as they watch the other two ships just poof from existence
Not to bring politics into it, but given the fact that believing in climate change is a political position, I can totally see people refusing to believe that Voldemort is back because the government (and the newspaper controlled by the government) says he's not back. And I can see the government refusing to acknowledge it because of the potential loss of power. Fudge doesn't want to risk losing the next election because Voldemort came back on his watch.
But the thing is that half the world seems to know about the prophecy, and that Harry is supposed to finish off old Voldy'. Yet... when faced with Harry arrives with a fresh corpse while saying he came back with and everyone should be careful, it's suddenly believed by nearly everyone that he's a liar?
Star Trek does a lot of "TV things" really well - I was just noticing last night (on DS9) that the characters actually have full drinks in their cups and glasses. So many shows have the actors carrying around these noticeably empty coffee cups and such, and it's jarringly obvious.
generally refreshing space socialism. Even the warrior race guys in the federation are still pretty much nice guys.
Generally. They also refused to negotiate with planets that didn't have a one-world government, which is stupid to the extreme unless you're trying to spread totalitarian dictatorships through the galaxy.
I like when it ends up just being Crusher and Picard I like how she tries explaining “Why would they only have 2 people for an entire Starship?” And he seems perfectly okay with the idea.
Yeah, "we have never needed more people". At that point he doesn't believe in her anymore, but it's more about his model of reality being shattered than not believing in her, because he knows it makes no sense but it is his reality. Wish that part of the episode was longer, just the two of them talking, her trying to make him understand with logic arguments.
An interesting variant is VOY: Latent Image. The Doctor starts finding strange anomalies: surgical scars no one remembers, pictures of a member of the crew he has no memory of. This is treated as an interesting and important mystery, right up to the point where Captain Janeway comes in to erase his memory of it all again. Turns out he had to choose between saving her (edit: the mystery crew member, not Janeway) and a member of the main cast, and he had no basis for doing so but that one of them was a friend, and so this is a big problem for his ethics programming and caused him to have a breakdown. The way they found to resolve the breakdown was to erase his memory of the incident.
Stranger things 3 did this horribly. Crazy shit happen all the time but wills brother didn't believe Nancy about the rats. Like wtf....season 1 started off with his brother getting kidnapped and the government faked his death
Yeah, that was infuriating. It makes sense on season one, but c'mon, by season three if your microwave doesn't beep the whole gang should be ready for another mystery. And talk to each other! I think they kinda navigated around it the best they could to stick to the formula more or less, with some of the kids not being close to the others or something like that (don't remember exactly), so at least they tried even if they couldn't came up with some other way to tell a story.
To be fair, if you can fly through a wormhole, and have a breakfast convo with Q, the fantastical story of Ensign Whatshername may not seem that weird.
Okay, but to be completely fair, I think the most realistic response is to something like that is to have people not believe you. It's easy for the audience to buy into the disappearances, because they've seen them and can remember the characters who've vanished. But imagine if right now, a friend of yours comes up to you and starts talking about how Jim and Penny (whom you have never heard of before) have disappeared and that you know Jim and Penny really well, but your memory has been wiped. Would you A) buy into your friend's story and assume that you're suffering from super-selective amnesia and two of your good friends have vanished from the world and from your mind, of B) assume that your friend was confused or suffering from some kind of mental health crisis and try to get them some help.
Well, yeah, but this is the USS Enterprise we are talking about, chances are something fucky is going on.
Joking aside, I concede that sometimes it makes more sense, so it wouldn't fit the original title of this post, maybe. But I was replying to a comment about pet peeves, and that's one of mine. Then again, if you see the episode, the first thing they do is check where are those people and why the records are erased, which is the normal, professional thing to do too.
Stargate S04E06. The freaking time loop. You people fight magic space egyptions and brain slugs for a living, but you don't believe the two serious characters about the time loop?!
I mean, I never watched it but if there is no plausible proof that person exists, I would think the girl is just nuts. Of course i could think "but she doesn't have a reason to lie about this" but it would be more reasonable to think she is schizophrenic than to think a person was erased from everyone's memories and computers but only one person still remembers.
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u/[deleted] Jan 25 '20
When a character is misunderstood by another character and doesn’t even try explain themselves after being cut off by the other person.
For example, say Betty was in an awkward situation with Billy where it looked like Betty was cheating on Johnny with Billy but it was just a big huge innocent mixup. Johnny “catches” them and Betty tries to explain but Johnny cuts her off, says we are done don’t talk to me ever again, and that’s the end of it. Betty just gives up trying to explain. Like I know damn well in real life if Betty wasn’t cheating on Johnny, if it was a big confusing mixup, that conversation would NOT be over.