I don’t know about you, but I cried during some of the songs. DS9 just started feeling like home, like these characters were my genuine friends. I loved just seeing them thrive and immersing myself in this world. For all that matters, I’d watch nine seasons of DS9: Operating Normally if it existed.
It might not have driven some kind of plot, but I am here because this universe is my happy place. I don’t care about some suspenseful plot.
I’d love to see a community dedicated to sharing fan work, like cosplay, fanfiction or fanart. Right now, quark’s seems too off topic for that, DI and Risa are obviously not the right place, and the main Trek community seems to be focused on serious discussion about the shows.
I hate about that word that the Federation clearly is not “post scarcity”; or if they are, they’re not “post logistics”, if that makes sense. Federation citizens like in the DMZ constantly suffer from poverty and war.
It’s just the utter cynicism with which the writers treat the Star Trek universe and humanity as a whole now.
90s Trek, even DS9, believed thoroughly that a better version of humanity can be possible. They despite that did not sweep issues like racism or sexism under the rug but instead were incredibly progressive and made very political episodes by projecting current humanity’s issues on alien societies (or individual movements within the Federation) and portraying the in-universe humanity as a positive counterexample.
Like the Ferengi, who are espousing a very exaggerated version of capitalist greed, serving as the viewer’s mirror image of today’s humanity, contrasted with the (better) ideals of the Federation. Or the countless metaphors for various ideologies, issues and systems in the show, from Let This Be Your Last Battlefield to Section 31 as an evil CIA equivalent. Even the incredibly healthy father-son relationship between Ben and Jake, or the almost-poly triad between Keiko, Nerys and Miles showcasing how family relations SHOULD go; or the constant trans-shading of Dax. All of these were portraying the Federation as a positive example while commenting on these issues from their lens projected onto alien species.
Modern Trek on the other hand seems hellbent on making the Federation have the exact same issues, culture and opinions that we do today. Ben and Jake would probably hate each other and Ben would be a stand-in for abusive parents while Jake is the oppressed minor with anxiety issues. A valid story to tell, but why is this our protagonists then? Why would transphobia, racism or sexism be an issue in the Federation utopia? Why do we need strong women clapping back at toxic masculinity, if the latter should not exist anymore? Why does the Federation strive for a regime change on Qo’noS as if it was a comically evil CIA? Why is there apparently evil clickbait media conglomerates like the Federation News Network with only thinly veiled differences to real-life CNN? Why in God’s name is Trump supposed to be the ultimate evil causing WWIII? Why is Elon Musk a scientific hero in this “socialist utopia”, or even relevant? Why do we gleefully murder alien races now just because they are “evil”? Why is humanity still swearing and cussing and suffering from very 21-st century coded anxiety issues, wearing the same clothes and using the same slang born from a capitalist society? I am not saying to make no episodes about social issues - by all means, please do! A lot of them! Make them explicit, too! Just make the Federation the good, socialist utopia, because the entire message otherwise becomes “humanity will always be bigoted and exactly like we are today”.
As a progressive non-binary Marxist (lol), I feel like DS9 was a hundred times more progressive and anti-capitalist than any of the new trek shows ever could be, despite them priding themselves on it.
Although I agree that the Federation should be conceptualized as a socialist state, I can’t help but think that the writers just threw it in there as a hip buzzword to engage Gen Z and make for a great marketing clip, even though they themselves probably think that “socialist” means “government welfare and being against discrimination of minorities”. The writing of the newer Trek series constantly contradicts the idea that the Federation has a moral high ground, let alone is an actually socialist society, or that there is any kind of political, let alone revolutionary ideal in the writing room other than “yass diversity”.