So, I was thinking about Star Trek and conformity....

[conuly]

And in my thoughts, I was rantling-ing about how we keep getting these characters who are not-human, and how a big part of their development is showing them how they really want to be human. Human, of course, means NT.

And then I was thinking about how this push for normality goes beyond mental normality. Geordie's visor makes him able to see differently from other people. In some cases, this is an advantage - he can see things we can't. And yet, consistently, his big wish is to see normally. Why? Because that's better?

I can forgive Star Trek for a lot of things, like the idiotic Universal Translators (not possible, as near as I can see) and the fact that aliens all look human and have human facial expressions (cheaper, easier, kinder on the actors) and the fact that Earth culture = American culture (tell me why Picard quotes a lot of Shakespeare, but not much Moliere. I often wonder how different Star Trek would be if it had been done somewhere else) and the anti-religion bent (hey, I'm an agnostic, I'm not whining) but... this is starting to irritate me.

I don't want to re-invent the wheel here, so I went to google to see what has already been said. And can you believe that I didn't find anything? Clearly, I'm using the wrong search criteria. I cannot possibly be the only person who's wondered along these lines.

If I decide I am, expect a mild, and probably less-well-educated-than-it-should-be rant soon.

Comments

[ladyshrew.livejournal.com]

It bothers me too, but I figure 1) it's television, so they have to go with what's popular, 2) it's television, so they have to go with what's cheaper, and 3) some of these things have become so standard that if you want something else, you might just as well invent a new universe.

Hence... Firefly! :-D

Err, not really, but... really, ST has its own world that is clearly American. If we want something else, we should really be looking at other sci-fi or perhaps inventing our own.

[lakidaa.livejournal.com]

Try Stardestroyer.net.

Theres some things to click through, and it's mostly Star Wars vs. Star Trek (with science!), but there are good essay/articles.

click on the top link (I want YOU for the Galactic Empire) on the front page, then on essays.

[leora.livejournal.com]

They mention several times that Geordi's visor causes him constant physical pain - and that is part of why he wants working eyes. Also, he is curious about what normal sight is like. Although when he is offered/given functioning eyes by Riker while Riker is being asked to join the Q Continuum, he turns them down and continues to use his visor.

[conuly]

Yes, and eventually they get him into a set of less painful eyes. Yay for him. I've seen no evidence that he's stopped complaining about his sight.

As for the Riker thing, turning down a gift from a friend because this is the only way to help said friend, that doesn't count.

[rainbow-goddess.livejournal.com]

the anti-religion bent

My brother stopped watching Deep Space Nine because he thought it was too religious. He said they were pushing the Bajoran religion too much and it was just a well-disguised New-Age mentality.

[conuly]

And DS9 is one of my favorite series.

I haven't seen the Bajoran religion as being very new-age-mentality-y, but I might've missed something. It *is* a big part of the series, but I always figure it makes a nice change from seeing advanced groups with no religion and seeing people who do have religion being consistently described as illogical and/or primitive.

And in general, when a group has some sort of religious dogma, it's always to hone in on how we are much more civilised now. Yes, religion has been responsible for a lot of bad things, but why every religious mention among a somewhat advanced civilisation is teh evil, I don't know. Religion makes them homophobic. Religion makes them racist. Religion makes them likely to kill one another or themselves. Never religion makes them kind, charitable, and inordinately fond of beetles.

Hm. It's been a while since I've watched any Star Trek, actually. I need to remedy that soon, watch some re-runs.

[rainbow-goddess.livejournal.com]

To my brother, anything that isn't Christian fundie-ism is "too religious" or "too New-Agey" for his liking.

[conuly]

But... isn't Christian... I mean... Oh dear god.

[sporks5000.livejournal.com]

I've wondered about all of those things and I'm not much of a Star Trek fan. I think it's that they're just so glaringly obvious that there's little point in pointing them out.

[scottrossi.livejournal.com]

one quick question ... wtf is NT? call me backward but that is one abbreviation i havent seen yet. i imagine it is "normal" something right ...

[conuly]

Neurotypical. (This is why we need a FA.. oh hell, I was going to do that)

That can either mean non-autistic (the original, but somewhat limited sense) or literally typical - non-autistic, non-bipolar, non-schizophrenic (this can muddy the waters when talking about autism).

Normal has too many unfortunate connotations.

[brownkitty.livejournal.com]

Would "baseline" work as a reference term?

[azarias.livejournal.com]

Wrath of Kahn: The best compliment Kirk can come up with for his best friend, who vocally prefered Vulcan culture to human culture and consistently decided to embrace that part of his heritage rather than the other, is "Of all the being I've met, he was the most human."

Undiscovered Country: The Klingons, particularly Azetbur, actually vocalize discontent at the human-centric outlook of the Federation as one of the reasons they aren't exactly thrilled to take aid or alliance. The scene is played for laughs.

There's a definite edge of -- I'm not quite sure I'd call it racism, exactly, but definitely a kind of imperialism -- to the Trek humans. They're benevolent about it, but they're definitely convinced that their culture is the right one. It's a species-wide character flaw that would have been interesting to play with. I Roddenberry may have been leaning that way toward the end of his career, but, well, he's dead.

[ladyshrew.livejournal.com]

It bothers me too, but I figure 1) it's television, so they have to go with what's popular, 2) it's television, so they have to go with what's cheaper, and 3) some of these things have become so standard that if you want something else, you might just as well invent a new universe.

Hence... Firefly! :-D

Err, not really, but... really, ST has its own world that is clearly American. If we want something else, we should really be looking at other sci-fi or perhaps inventing our own.

[lakidaa.livejournal.com]

Try Stardestroyer.net.

Theres some things to click through, and it's mostly Star Wars vs. Star Trek (with science!), but there are good essay/articles.

click on the top link (I want YOU for the Galactic Empire) on the front page, then on essays.

[leora.livejournal.com]

They mention several times that Geordi's visor causes him constant physical pain - and that is part of why he wants working eyes. Also, he is curious about what normal sight is like. Although when he is offered/given functioning eyes by Riker while Riker is being asked to join the Q Continuum, he turns them down and continues to use his visor.

[conuly]

Yes, and eventually they get him into a set of less painful eyes. Yay for him. I've seen no evidence that he's stopped complaining about his sight.

As for the Riker thing, turning down a gift from a friend because this is the only way to help said friend, that doesn't count.

[rainbow-goddess.livejournal.com]

the anti-religion bent

My brother stopped watching Deep Space Nine because he thought it was too religious. He said they were pushing the Bajoran religion too much and it was just a well-disguised New-Age mentality.

[conuly]

And DS9 is one of my favorite series.

I haven't seen the Bajoran religion as being very new-age-mentality-y, but I might've missed something. It *is* a big part of the series, but I always figure it makes a nice change from seeing advanced groups with no religion and seeing people who do have religion being consistently described as illogical and/or primitive.

And in general, when a group has some sort of religious dogma, it's always to hone in on how we are much more civilised now. Yes, religion has been responsible for a lot of bad things, but why every religious mention among a somewhat advanced civilisation is teh evil, I don't know. Religion makes them homophobic. Religion makes them racist. Religion makes them likely to kill one another or themselves. Never religion makes them kind, charitable, and inordinately fond of beetles.

Hm. It's been a while since I've watched any Star Trek, actually. I need to remedy that soon, watch some re-runs.

[rainbow-goddess.livejournal.com]

To my brother, anything that isn't Christian fundie-ism is "too religious" or "too New-Agey" for his liking.

[conuly]

But... isn't Christian... I mean... Oh dear god.

[sporks5000.livejournal.com]

I've wondered about all of those things and I'm not much of a Star Trek fan. I think it's that they're just so glaringly obvious that there's little point in pointing them out.

[scottrossi.livejournal.com]

one quick question ... wtf is NT? call me backward but that is one abbreviation i havent seen yet. i imagine it is "normal" something right ...

[conuly]

Neurotypical. (This is why we need a FA.. oh hell, I was going to do that)

That can either mean non-autistic (the original, but somewhat limited sense) or literally typical - non-autistic, non-bipolar, non-schizophrenic (this can muddy the waters when talking about autism).

Normal has too many unfortunate connotations.

[brownkitty.livejournal.com]

Would "baseline" work as a reference term?

[azarias.livejournal.com]

Wrath of Kahn: The best compliment Kirk can come up with for his best friend, who vocally prefered Vulcan culture to human culture and consistently decided to embrace that part of his heritage rather than the other, is "Of all the being I've met, he was the most human."

Undiscovered Country: The Klingons, particularly Azetbur, actually vocalize discontent at the human-centric outlook of the Federation as one of the reasons they aren't exactly thrilled to take aid or alliance. The scene is played for laughs.

There's a definite edge of -- I'm not quite sure I'd call it racism, exactly, but definitely a kind of imperialism -- to the Trek humans. They're benevolent about it, but they're definitely convinced that their culture is the right one. It's a species-wide character flaw that would have been interesting to play with. I Roddenberry may have been leaning that way toward the end of his career, but, well, he's dead.