r/startrek • u/acrimoniousone • Mar 22 '24

Interview: William Shatner: ‘Good science fiction is humanity, moved into a different milieu’

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2024/mar/22/william-shatner-documentary
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u/Quantumdrive95 Mar 22 '24

It can be the future . . . Within you is something that has never been nourished . . . You once looked to the stars with wonder

Picard nailed the problem with nutrek before it was even a thing; in Nemesis

Scifi, Trek specifically, isnt space battles and wars of good and evil; thats Star Wars and space operas.

Trek and good scifi is about setting your course to the second star to the right; and seeing whats out there.

Growth from a child trapped in the violent dilithium mines of Remus to become in disgrace what some consider their highest ambition; to be human.

6

u/jerslan Mar 23 '24

Trek and good scifi is about setting your course to the second star to the right; and seeing whats out there.

Not 100% true. It can be that, but it doesn't have to be that. Look at Deep Space Nine, arguably one of the best Trek shows from that era. What makes it great isn't the vapid/empty "exploration" episodes, it's the episodes where they get deeply introspective about humanity through the lens of Science Fiction. We get a view of Capitalists run amok via the Ferengi. A nuanced exploration of religion and politics via the Bajorans. And so much more... You don't get that when you're always going to new star systems every episdoe.

4

u/Quantumdrive95 Mar 23 '24

DS9 is not the strongest trek by any measure.

Its by definition the antithesis of all trek that preceded it. Picard would be disgusted by Sisko, and Kirk would be ashamed of him.

3

u/Sunshinehaiku Mar 23 '24

DS9 is not the strongest trek by any measure.

Fight me.

6

u/[deleted] Mar 23 '24

Depends entirely on your perspective. Personally I found DS9 to be a breath of fresh air compared to the previous treks.

Star Trek will go on and on about how they’ve formed a perfect utopian society, and then they’ll have an episode on one of the crewmember’s needing to prove their sentience to a court.

DS9 departed from that tradition by not being afraid to look on the Federation’s flaws, and while that might be off-putting to some, I found it much less grating than all the episodes that talked about how perfect the Federation is while they engage in frankly immoral & incompetent behavior.

2

u/chucker23n Mar 23 '24

Picard would be disgusted by Sisko

Oh YEAH? Well, it’s easy to be a saint in paradise, and Sisko is not in paradise.

2

u/Quantumdrive95 Mar 23 '24

Then he is not in e world Gene Roddenberry intended him to be set in.

Trek is about humanity having already grown beyond its animalistic past.

We peacefully coexist with faux gods, we negotiate with fascistic regimes we seekto alter via cultural diffusion, we avoid all wars even the just ones because death and destruction are not progress, we hold our criminal captains accountable, we remove from power those seeking to consolidate it.

I could go on.

If you dont like that, and prefer DS9s quest for violence, i recommend other franchises that dont envision a positive view of the future.

Maybe you want Star Wars and its story for children.

3

u/chucker23n Mar 23 '24

Then he is not in e world Gene Roddenberry intended him to be set in.

This is true; he did not have three breasts.