Icon by @ThatSpookyAgent. Call me Tir or Julian. 37. He/They. Queer. Twitter: @tirlaeyn. ao3: tirlaeyn. 18+ Only. Star Trek. The X-Files. Sandman. IwtV. OMFD. Definitionless in this Strict Atmosphere.
Star Trek and the fandom has gotten so fixated on the whole “post-scarcity” thing that they forget that that only covers the bottom layers of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Acceptance and social standing is also very important to a person’s well-being. If you have a society where people are told pretty much from birth that a person’s job, their goal in life is to better themselves, you can damn well sure that people are going to be judged on how much they’ve “bettered themselves”. And in the absence of capital capital, social capital becomes the only capital. People with power and influence will use that power and influence to ensure that their kids get into the best schools, have the best teachers, and get the best opportunities to show just how much they’ve “bettered themselves”. In such a society, having a learning disability would be like having a physical disability in Klingon society.
And such issues would be inevitable in a society like the Federation; people (or societies) who believe themselves to be superior tend to be blind to their own flaws. Star Trek characters aren’t exactly shy about talking about how great the Federation is. There’s a lot of talk about individuals needing to “better themselves”, but Federation society as a whole also needs to better itself, and that begins by admitting to its own flaws.
Star Trek is a show about how to trick some 1920s gangsters into instituting communism. Star Trek is a show about bisexuality. Star Trek is a show about learning to deal with the fact that you replaced your alternate dimension self and everyone you actually knew is dead and you’re surrounded by exact copies. Star Trek is a show about space whales. Star Trek is a show about fucking your subordinate in lizard form. Star Trek is a show
Jake: You know what Star Wars and Cardassia have in common? Daddy Issues.
Ziyal: I feel like we aren’t talking about the concept of filial piety in the broader sense of cardassian nationalism, and not just its relation to weird wizard religions!! Darth Vader is the hero of the prequels because of his relationship with Palpatine!
Rugal: But that filial piety in Star Wars is only a weakness for the Empire later! It can’t be a one to one relationship to the repetitive epic in the Never-Ending Sacrifice, even as it still follows seven generations of one family, because the state itself doesn’t last long enough.
Space Youtube has so many possibilities for teenagers in space to do some real cross cultural research
Star Trek matte paintings, by Syd Dutton. Romulus; the First City of the Klingon Empire; Ocampa Underground City; Cardassia Prime; and Gagarin IV. All except the third one (Voyager) are from TNG/DS9. (Matte paintings were often re-used across the different series.)
star trek is great bc sometimes it’s like “this alien culture is a transparent but hopeful allegory for race relations in the united states” and sometimes it’s like “wouldn’t it be fucked up if an alien sucked all the salt out of you“ and sometimes it’s like “this story is a nuanced examination of traditional gender roles through the lens of a far flung future society” and sometimes it’s like “these aliens based their entire social structure on an old book about 1930s mobsters”
Trekkies are insane (affectionate) we’re just like, hm I think I’m gonna try to estimate a detailed map of the positions of different planetary systems in the galaxy based on coordinates the writers picked by complete random for throwaway lines. For fun :-)
We also do this with the timeline. Like the stardates mean nothing and we know this we just do it anyway
Actually I am taking suggestions about what a possible Star Trek theme park would look like. I have no idea about rides but I know they would make and absolutely KILLING with a quarks bar replica or a shopping area that looks like the promenade. Ooh also they could split the park into quadrants and break it up like that like tos and tng get the alpha quadrant voyager obviously gets the delta quadrant and idk we’ll throw enterprise in there with them and ds9 gets the gamma quadrant with I guess discovery? and the bad guys the Klingons the romulans the whathaveyous are in the beta quadrant
