https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/im-gonna-start-dating-her-even-harder
Alternate version for Picard S3 fans:
the NU-MOVIES style of CINEMA, making dark scenes to hide the fact the props are so bad in the show and the poor writing.
Props have gotten bad because all of the skilled prop masters have left the industry. So much is CGI now, it's become gig work and nobody wants to pay the rates these guys command.
Though to be fair, higher resolutions have made what used to be decent props into shitty looking ones, so the bar is higher these days, too.
9/11 killed the optimistic sci-fi. American culture was deeply wounded. It went emo. It wasn't a phase.
They're too scared to be happy.
SGA, Lower decks and the orville beg to fucking differ
Game of thrones is when I really noticed that almost everything became dreary and pessimistic. It's gotten to the point where apparently kids these days can't get on board with concept of the good guys even existing because every show both-sides all the characters.
Media like LOTR where the villains are unabashedly bad and the good guys are genuinely good will slowly die out. We lost the little bit of moral compass we had. Sometimes I wonder if Hollywood did it deliberately.
The old guard of Hollywood were a bunch of people who had absolutely no problem with saying people that act like Nazis are bad. Those people are gone or nearing retirement/irrelevant. Also, writing is now done by committee so it never has any over-arching narrative, it's just a bunch of different writers trying to be noticed instead of creating a good plot.
Uh, well i think it's always about winning over some great trouble. I wouldn't say Star wars is all happy and sunshine and that was before 9/11.
All of nu-trek seems to have lost the hope of a post-scarcity utopian society.
We have plenty of gritty dystopian stories. Star Trek lost what made it special
To be fair, the post-scarcity utopia was most present in TNG. TOS was more focused on the cosmic horror encountered in deeps space, and far less idealistic. DS9 really dove into how much that utopia would comprise when faced with an existential threat, while ENT tried to show how a flawed society would strive reach that utopia.
The difference is that everything after TNG was responding to that utopia, either by affirming it or challenging it, while New Trek just...forgot it was a thing. I remember watching season 1 of Picard, and Raffi is living in trailer in the desert because Admiral Picard ruined her career and thinking, "Wait, why are you poor? You guys don't even use money anymore."
I think it all comes down to capitalists own the star trek franchise and post-scarcity is a scenario that really challenges the core ideas of capitalism, especially when they show this advanced utopia, even if it was a bit frayed at the edges and some had a hard time relating to the idea that the crew of the various Enterprises were pretty much all doing it as a hobby rather than a job (albeit with military-level organization).
Well DS9 did the whole "section 31 exists this shit is a violation we do not do this" and nu!trek explicitly keeps going to that well as protagonists so yeah, there's a big difference there
Damn, that is the most perfect distillation of the problem I've ever heard.
A lot of nu!trek keeps cherry picking DS9 plot points and using them in the stupidest fucking ways imaginable.
All of them still felt more optimistic than nu Trek. And purely stylistically they were filmed in a very different way that felt comforting whereas these new shows want to be as grimdark as possible
Yeah, their was far too much spent on style and too little on substance. Everything is highly cinematic, and they clearly spent tens of millions of dollars per episode, so they feel they have to make, "epic," stories that reflect that scale. The thing is, that's never what made Trek great. Chain of Command said more about war with a cheap set and four spotlights than all of season one of Discovery said on a $100 million budget.
I always assumed that she was living in a trailer in the desert to get away from people, and just dug the isolated vibe of it... It didn't seem like it was awful or nuthin. Maybe trailers are nicer in the future lol
Well, she also says something to the extent of, "we don't all have a family vineyard to live on." The implication definitely seemed to be that PIcard was a, "have," and she was a, "have-not," which seemed very antithetical to the universe established in Old Trek.
TOS is inconsistent about it, talking about "credits to donuts" and the like. TNG gets into it more and applies only to people on Earth as far as I remember. Resources outside still need to be bargained for or paid with latinum. Still doesn't explain why he maintains the family estate and Raffi's in a trailer.
I only remember latinum from DS9. I remember Riker/Picard offering outside civilizations federation credits a few times, but they were vague about how those were used. I know Earth is the only explicitly post-currency civilization, but it's hard to imagine any civilization with replicators and energy abundance still being capitalist. It could be that federation credits are just sort of an IOU for non-Federation groups.
I imagine the Picards are sorta like stewards of a historical landmark. Like, their family has been making wine for generations, so they let them continue doing that, but if they every run out of Picards that want to grow grapes the government would relocate them so another wine expert could take over. That's basically the head cannon I came up with, but I wasn't even thinking about it until Picard made it an issue.
That’s honestly why I like The Orville so much. It really captures the hope part.
The Orville is the best Nu-Trek.
Many of the best TNG episodes feature the darkness creeping back in, with Picard acting as the guardian of the light they have worked so hard to create. The big example I have in mind is Drumhead. Picard recognizes fascism for what it is and immediately moves to counter it, delivering one of the best speeches of the franchise.
This wasn't a show that shied away from dark subject matter; there were multiple murder investigations, an entire two-parter about Picard being tortured at the hands of space nazis, two separate episodes about ordering crew members to their deaths...this show could handle weighty subjects, subjects weightier than "this character is being mean to that character." And it could do it with the fucking lights on.
"Marketing Division says this script is what's hot. Reproduce it in as many different skins as possible while appropriating all the major franchises you can get your grubby hands on."
Counterpoint: Lower Decks and Prodigy.
I've had trouble watching all the latest Star Treks SAVE FOR ONE.
Lower Decks is fucking amazing. It captures the vibe perfectly while also adding genuine comedy.
They did what Seth failed so miserably at, and they animated it of all things (and then UNANIMATED it for one episode.)
SNW started off well but now it's primarily just shitposting. Ugh.
I feel this so much.
It was great when there was the occasional oddball episode, but the main focus was on the story.
But this last season has been absolutely nothing except weird comedy episodes, every single week.
Made SNW go from one of my most-liked Trek outings to among the worst.
Perhaps I should rewatch Season 1 to recover.
I've been doing a trekculture binge (building a mass of servers for work, good background) and Sean really nailed it when he said that s1-2 and 3-4 feel like entirely different shows - and that SNW has no real identity of its own
I'll never watch it.
Picard, like Shymalan's Avatar and Game of Thrones Season 8, is best viewed through savage YouTube takedowns.
And it doesn´t bother me that Picard is dark and moody. In fact, the cheery optimism of TNG is my least favorite thing about that series and the grittier DS9 shows that Star Trek can get legitimately dark. My complaint about Picard is that it is multidimensionally stupid.
Watched Angela Collier's video and wouldn't so much as pay for the time and electricity to watch an episode of this show.
i like how they drop the borg alliance in the 3rd season, and gave us some nonsense, like changelings, and a "borg that was supposed be dead at the end of Voy endgame"
Its like we're not allowed to have stories with hopes or dreams, only hurt and suffering.
as a dc comics fan, i have no problem with dark and moody. i just think the newer trek has a writing problem. there might be a few good episodes, but so much just feels like mediocre fan fiction. i think trek peaked with ds9 and with paramount's new leadership i don't think that's likely to change.
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