Two episodes before we shot Hugh’s death [scene], they called me in. They were kind of cagey about it. They said, “Listen, this is Star Trek. Nobody really dies.”
The focus on drama over logic completely shallows out the allegory until it’s JUST a gay couple being contemporarily gay on screen
Yeah. That’s my point.
Maybe there is no allegory.
Maybe it’s just a gay couple on screen.
Like Nichelle as Uhura was just a black woman in an elevated position on screen.
No message. Just simple representation.
Why is that such a problem?
Because if you ask people in the community, many will tell you they’re kinda sick of the gay experience only be represented in a negative light, always a struggle, always a message, as opposed to just them simply and comfortably existing.
So, putting a gay couple on screen and just having it be a normal aspect of who they are (to be clear: the nature of their relationship was never a plot point on the show) is “blandly doing the cultural issues”?
Was casually putting Uhura, a black woman, on the bridge of a starship on a show airing in the 1960s, without ever calling attention to her race, also “blandly doing the cultural issues”?
The show has one non-binary character and a gay couple and suddenly they’re relying on “cultural hot topics”.
Please.
Disco had a lot of flaws, and most of them were the same flaws we saw in Picard: the writers just couldn’t write full season plot arcs that were satisfying and believable. This is made worse because each season had to raise the stakes, to the point where it just got kinda exhausting. Meanwhile the show just took itself way too seriously, without really earning my emotional investment.
Honestly the franchise is all over the place on this topic. Go back and watch S02E08 of ST:TNG, Unnatural Selection. No one getting arrested for genetic engineering there. My head canon is that by the time TNG is going genetic engineering has gone from truly taboo to just discouraged/not well accepted.
That’s actually why can rewatch TOS endlessly but TNG only occasionally. TOS is that light popcorn fare that’s entertaining but you don’t take very seriously. TNG is serious sci-fi that challenges the audience often with very difficult subject matter. The latter is objectively the better show but if I’m looking for something to throw on for casual fun, for me it’s TOS all the way.
Since we’re talking comfort food and not best of/favourites:
TOS: The Immunity Syndrome.
I have no idea why. Seriously. It’s inexplicable. There are lots of better episodes (Balance of Terror, The Menagerie, The City on the Edge of Forever just to name a few), but something about The Immunity Syndrome makes for perfect chill out/nap TV for me…
