Good-Riddance to Star Trek

It’s about time STAR TREK was cancelled, or so says bestselling science fiction author Orson Scott Card in the Los Angeles Times. He was no fan of the original series, either.

The original "Star Trek," created by Gene Roddenberry, was, with a few
exceptions, bad in every way that a science fiction television show
could be bad.

Yikes, is he in for it from "The Fen. " And he takes a shot at them, too.

And then the madness really got underway. They started making
costumes and wearing pointy ears. They wrote messages in Klingon, they
wrote their own stories about the characters, filling in what was left
out — including, in one truly specialized subgenre, the "Kirk-Spock"
stories in which their relationship was not as platonic and emotionless
as the TV show depicted it.

He’s certainly one author who isn’t afraid to express a controversial opinion that could, uh,  alienate his readers.

4 thoughts on “Good-Riddance to Star Trek”

  1. I’m lighting a candle for him even as I type this. Tricky business that, but the wax on the keyboard is well worth it.
    Cleansing breath. Thanks for posting this up, Lee.

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  2. The original series was generally poorly written and cheesy beyond belief — which is not to say it wasn’t entertaining. I do find them very hard to watch now, though.
    I thought The Next Generation was the best of the bunch, generally well done if overly earnest at times. At least the first few seasons were good. Once Brannon Braga and that other dude took over, it was downhill from there.
    The other series were all shit.

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  3. I didn’t like the original series because it appeared to me, particularly towards the end, to be hammering home a moral rather than telling an entertaining story. That got frankly annoying.
    It was for that reason, also, that I never much cared for “Next Generation” – that seemed to me to be ‘a moral a week’ and desperately circular. Things that happened one week had been forgotten the next, the characters and the series weren’t moving forward.
    The series which worked best (that I saw) was “Deep Space Nine” – it was harder edged and grittier than the other series of ST I’d seen, and the morals were less clearcut in themselves and viewers weren’t being told what to think. That created a more interesting background and set of characters.
    I didn’t watch any series after DS9 (I stopped watching TV at all before the next series started and only caught up with DS9 through videos) so I’ve no idea if ST improved or went downhill after that.

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  4. I’d like to point out for the benefit of the author of this piece that Star Trek will never be totally gone. I can understand that it doesn’t interest you like it interests us Trekkies, but there’s no need to talk so evilly about it. Your opinion is your opinion, but at least provide facts supporting your side. Otherwise, it’s just a load of complaining and meaningless drivel. Also, you should provide the other side and counter it to best support your points. And thirdly, you should be professional not using foul language (by that I mean language that insults Trekkies) to make your point. And fourthly, fanfiction from Trekkie fan writers has nothing to do with the show. That’s us trying to put in our 2 cents. It sounds as though you’ve based your opinion of Trek on the fanfiction on the net. You shouldn’t do that. There are some Trekkie fans out there who aren’t writers, but their fanfiction is to entertain themselves and others who like their work. I support so many writers who do Trekkie fiction. I’m one of them. I try to make it as true to the show as possible, but even I can’t make it exactly like the writers on the show.
    “The original “Star Trek,” created by Gene Roddenberry, was, with a few exceptions, bad in every way that a science fiction television show could be bad.”
    Okay, I can sort of agree with that. The actors weren’t as good until the movies and by today’s standards, the props and backgrounds are primitive. But you if can look beyond that, you’ll see the message that Gene Roddenberry was trying share. I mean, look at the show. Back when it was first started, the odds of seeing a woman in a man’s job were zilch. Also, there were people from all different countries on that show. Chekov was from Russia, there was a black woman at the comm, Leonard Nimroy, who played Spock…he couldn’t have been completely American, at least not by the look of him. Scotty…he was obviously from Scotland. In the diversity of this crew, Roddenberry was attempting to create a vision of the future in which all of Earth, all races of Earth, would be united and that women would one day hold equal or nearly equal status with men.
    If you look at today’s world, Roddenberry’s vision has come true with a few exceptions (i.e. those who are still very racist and chauvinist). Also, take for example your cell phone. That comes from Trek technology. Portable cell phones were inspired by the communicators the crew carried on away missions. And your computer…the one that you used to post your opinionated view. That was also inspired by Trek technology. My point is that this show that you’re insulting has lead to a lot of today’s greater accomplishments. Don’t diss Trek unless you want to diss the technology you use everyday.

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