[Shotimes] (no subject)

[Hartberger, Jason M. ATAN]

I suppose, based on the fact that I still remember all of this from memory,
that I still am a trekkie. I guess I can't really deny it, I still do love
the show. But after Deep Space 9, and really during it, the show... I don't
know, lost its direction. I'm not really sure I can put a finger on it, but
somewhere in there, making a buck and producing gee-whiz special effects
became more important than having a good, solid story. In voyager,
Okudagrams and special effects and making people go "wow, that's cool"
became more important than touching on those issues that affected society.
In its defense, though, I suppose the issues affecting society were more
clearly defined back in the 60s and 70s. Racism was one of the biggest ones,
and that's why Uhura was such a groundbreaking role and character. Pavel
Chekov's inclusion in the series in Season 3 really hammered on the Cold War
and america's distrust of anything and everything Russian. Star Trek was a
middle ground, something we could all identify with, something that showed
that humans as a race could be better than what we were then, a race without
strife, without war, a unified people that thought, acted, cried, rejoiced,
empathised, and loved as one. Today's issues, while just as pressing, are
harder to delineate in a black-and-white fashion. The world in the late 90s
was a strange one, where the social problems were mostly geo-political. The
cold war was over, and racism, by and large, had been solved, if not
completely cured. For the most part, in this country, at least, black people
and white people were finally thought of as one person, human. The isues
affecting us then were more complex, as befitting a more technologically
complex society. The dot-com boom/bust was happening about that time. Issues
moved from the national to the global arena, and we had problems like Iraq
invading Kuwait, we had the beginnings of what we now know as "global
terrorism" in our ethos. Enemies of this country stopped being other
countries - Japan, Germany, Russia, and started becoming ethereal forms that
we as a country couldn't fight, couldn't stop. We started being more afraid
not of what was out there but what wasn't out there. 

All of this made the show very difficult to write for. The relatively new
concept of a Female Captain, in Capt. Janeway, tried to further the
revolutionary lines of the show, but the effort was weak , and in my
opinion, badly written. The writers, without the direction of Gene, didn't
really know how to write for a female lead, and they didn't really figure it
out until alost the last season. While Gene did an awesome job of
introducing new races and species into the cast and still keeping it
realistic, I feel that Voyager took it a little far. We have a white female
captain, a black vulcan science officer, an american-indian first officer,
an asian ensign whose role I don't really remember, though I remember his
name, Harry Kim; a holographic (and way too whiny) surgeon, a
god-only-knows-what for a cook... it all seems to me like the whole show was
one big minority extravaganza. I'm not saying this is a bad thing, but it
wasn't the direction Roddenberry was really going for. Yes, a few of his
episodes were way too heavy-handed, but he was trying to shed light on our
issues, not bludgeon them to death.

Another reason I grew out of it is a lot more mundane... I simply don't have
the time to watch it and be a part of it! Being in the navy is truly a 24/7
job, one where you can be called out of your rack at ANY TIME for what seems
to be damn near ANY REASON....

As stated above, I haven't really had the time or the resourses to watch
Enterprise, but what little of it that I managed to see really impressed me.
It seemed to finally go back(ula? sorry... couldn't resist) to the roots of
Star Trekdom, instead of trying to branch out and be as bizarre as possible.

I suppose I can't really say that the shows just all of a sudden started
sucking, but I am saying that the show has strayed from Roddenberry's
original vision, and I don't think for the better. Enterprise may yet prove
me wrong, but for now... we'll just have to see.

As for being worried about people thinking I'm weird, all I'm going to say
is that I wear bell-bottoms for a living, and enjoy it greatly. I'm weird.
I'm just not weird enough to dress up like a klingon for my wedding. On the
other hand, however, if I was weird enough that I wanted to dress like a
klingon for a wedding and found somebody else willing to do the same, I'd go
for it! More power to 'em. I just feel sorry for their kids. puq 'IQ!
(translated: poor children!)

Sorry for the unbelievably long post... when you got something to say, you
got something to say.

ATAN Hartberger, USN (and original author of the 1,312 word long email...
seriously, who voluntarily writes anything that long?)
USS Theodore Roosevelt CVN-71

94 red ATX 103xxx miles (its name is annabelle)