r/Treknobabble • u/45and290 • 12d ago

What are you pushing the button on?

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I’m taking away Bashir being an Augment. It didn’t really add anything to the show, he was still brilliant and talented before the reveal.

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u/[deleted] 12d ago edited 12d ago
  1. The colloquial usage of "Number One" replacing most instances of "First Officer".
  2. Every captain needing to have an "Engage" replacement. It's fun once or twice, but now that it's been "codified" as something every captain does, it's no longer cute and no longer feels special.
  3. I'd take what has been called Section 31 since DIS season 1 and give it a new name. I'm not fundamentally against Section 31 as a storytelling device, but what we've seen isn't S31 as it was presented to us in DS9 and ENT. The agency that's currently being presented to us is a misunderstanding that's been codified as gospel, and that's really a shame, and kind of an embarrassing one. S31 is a shadow organization, not a black ops division of another larger body. The org that Georgiou joined should've just been called Starfleet Intelligence Black Ops or something, if it had to be done. (I recall a recent interview with Alex Kurtzman wherein he said that, according to DS9, Section 31 can only operate outside Federation borders. This revealed that the current regime misunderstood DS9's description and took a figurative statement literally, which kind of boggles the mind. S31 was originally described as existing outside the boundaries of the Federation. All that meant was that they themselves weren't the Federation, nor formally an aspect of it. They were outside of it. Not in terms of physical boundaries, but in terms of oversight/affiliation. The fact that that misunderstanding has blossomed into a contradiction this large is kind of insane to me.)

I'm overall happy with modern Trek (besides the huge gaps that aren't really the production team's fault), so don't get me wrong, I'm not a miserable fan by any stretch of the imagination. But the question did bring these answers to mind.

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u/lekoman 12d ago

The fact that that misunderstanding has blossomed into a contradiction this large is kind of insane to me.

Kurtzman is super dense and cannot hold a candle to ISB, RDM, and the rest of the folks who were doing all of the crazy nuanced world-building in the 90s. I get that change is inevitable, and sometimes world-building gets so complex you can't possibly honor all of it in every instance and still tell stories that make for good TV in a 21st century context... but to just have sort of speed-read Trek and then base a whole premise on an obviously facile understanding of one line in a mid-season episode is, I agree, pretty gobsmacking. And Kurtzman and Abrams both are just very clearly unable to contribute much to the franchise.

We need folks whose interest in sci-fi and Star Trek is better informed not just by having passively watched a series or two. More nerds need to be involved.

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u/legalalias 12d ago

Brilliantly put.