So I do like Star Trek a lot, especially TNG, DS9, and Below Decks. Voyager and TOS are fine. Space socialism is pretty good and I can't get enough of it. There are a few common tropes that irk me. tho.
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Baseball is cracker Amerikkkan nonsense - You telling me that all these different species and planets get together to chill, and the vibe they're gonna channel is Ohio?? Football (soccer) or some version of hockey make a lot more sense, you can pick up and start playing immediately. I can't imagine Worf wanting to learn all those pointless rules about balls and strikezones and fowls. Sisko is arguably the best captain of any series, and I really get pulled out of an episode every time he drops some awful baseball trivia. It's only slightly better than Nascar. I actually know one Scottish person who really likes baseball, and he's literally the worst person I know.
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The tribunal - It's so damn common. It seems like every season there's got to be a court-martial, hearing, or appeal against a Starfleet decision. I guess Law and Order is big there. It's probably a minor critique, but it does reinforce the ideology that Western courtrooms are fair.
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Kirk is a sex pest - This has been said to death, but leave your subordinates alone.
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Poker in TNG - Poker has to be the worst form of entertainment, and I genuinely like maths. I blame TNG for reigniting the poker craze of the 90s and ruining all my guy friends' personalities.
Yeah two big ones:
Starting with DS9 and then up to the present, the show leans waaaaaay too heavily on nostalgia and fans love of familiar characters. TNG is largely free of this other than that one Scotty episode. But in DS9, they just keep bringing back characters like Q, Lwaxana, etc. Maybe not the biggest deal when it’s just an episode or two but then they decided to bring back Worf for the last 4 seasons. He doesn’t really serve a point other than “hey, you all love Worf, right?” I really feel like all Worf did was steal the limelight from Sisko / Avery Brooks. After that it’s obvious how they do this in Nu Trek - I mean “Picard” is an entire show that runs on nostalgia. SNW literally brings back the Enterprise. “Discovery” I guess tried to not do this until they felt we needed more Spock.
The reason why it bugs me so much is I really think it stops the franchise from growing and changing in positive ways, the way overdosing on nostalgia tends to do for people. For example, the show runners originally wanted Ro Laren to be in the role played by Nana Visitor because hey, viewers know her from TNG. The actress who plays Ro didn’t want to do it so they hired Nana Visitor; and I don’t think any of us can imagine DS9 without her. But she never would have been hired if the producers had their first, nostalgic choice.
And other the first DS9 one, I despise mirror universe episodes. The first one in DS9 is great because it’s just a silly way for the actors to be able to let loose and play against type. But then they decided to make it a recurring theme, and then the novelty wears off fast. And then I actually stopped watching Discovery when they made the mirror universe a major plot point. Again, it’s just so silly and ridiculous but the way Discovery tries to play it straight and serious just doesn’t work for me.
Edit: I also wanted to add that I really hated the forced Odo/Kira romance. They spent years working together without a hint of romantic interest until the writers decided they needed to pair off someone. No chemistry and kind of an odd pairing. And why not just let Odo be ace, you know?
Discovery totally takes itself too seriously and forgets that ultimately Star Trek was always kind of silly and was the better for it.
Discovery takes itself too seriously and at the same time wants us to treat the mirror universe seriously.