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.