On my mind

Jan 28, 2013 05:32

My new favorite video game lately is an independent game called "Journey." It's an adventure-puzzle game and it's pretty simple but I find it very compelling because I think it has a lot going on for it. I've been working on my analysis of the game because that'll help me work out what I think the game is about but what started as just a few paragraphs has turned into (so far) a page and a half single-spaced. I just find the more I write that more I think and the more I think the more I write. For a game with no dialogue and is told only through sound and visuals, it's kind of complex as far as figuring out what is going on. I'm particularly interested in the ending. However, while working on this, some other things that have been on my mind: Star Trek.

I enjoy Star Trek, but I wouldn't consider myself a Trekkie. I don't go to cons that have cast members as guests and I don't feel like ever doing a Star Trek cosplay, but if the shows on I'll watch. So Bart lent me DS9 and while I kind of watched it when I was growing up, I don't remember a whole lot of what was going on. I've gotten through season 1 and I'm halfway through season 2 and while I've enjoyed them so far, I can't say a whole lot because it's Star Trek. If you've seen one episode then you're familiar with the style. However, DS9 also reminds me of reasons why I probably never got into Star Trek. I know how ironic this is going to sound but I never liked how Human and Earth-centric it is. I'm going to use DS9 because that's my latest point of reference.

One thing that bothers me about the show is how easy cross species breeding happens. Star Trek makes it look like if you have one sexual encounter with an alien, you could have a half-something, half-something child. If we look at planet Earth's biology, this is not as easy as Star Trek makes it look. With Lonesome George (RIP), they tried breeding him with the most genetically compatible female tortoise and while there were a few eggs laid, none of them hatched. There are even some animals on Earth that have a hard time breeding with their own species so what makes the writers of Star Trek think that two completely different sentient organisms that have evolved differently to adapt to their planet's climate are genetically compatible to make a baby?

Another problem: the assumption that all other planets have a 24-hour cycle. I remember in an episode of DS9 S1 with the Tosk, while O'Brian is showing Tosk around, he asks about sleep and Tosk replies he only needs like 17 minutes a day. O'Brian replies he needs 8 hours. Later on Tosk says how can O'Brian sleep a full 1/3 of his rotation. I might just be nitpicking because this is ONE example and they haven't talked about day cycles yet for other species, but I remembered that.

Another problem: all planets have just one climate. So I just finished an episode in S2 entitled "Sanctuary" in which the crew encounter refugees from the Gamma quadrant. They find them a new planet to resettle on and they talk about how it has a temperate climate good for growing things, plenty of water, etc. Once again, you look at Earth and not all of Earth is one climate. Some places are really hot and some places are really cold. Also what bothered me about that episode is calling a geographical location the Bajor the "Northwest Peninsula." ...that's not a place, that's a general term for a land mass. Once again, looking at Earth, ask where THE Northwest Peninsula is and I think people would give you a look of like "which peninsula? There are lots of them." I find it unlikely as far as geology goes that there's only ONE Northwest Peninsula on ALL the continents of Bajor and with such a generalized name, EVERYONE knows where that is.

Another problem I've always had with Star Trek: all aliens have one culture. Once again, looking at Earth, we all don't share the same religion, clothing, values, or celebrations. In the Star Trek universe however, ALL Bajorans share the same religion and they dress relatively the same. ALL Ferengi are greedy and underhanded. It's like aliens on Star Trek are stereotypes and caricatures while humans on can show the full range of culture. For example, Keiko O'Brian is Japanese so they put her in Japanese clothes sometimes. Chakotay is Native American so they have him do Native American things sometimes. You don't see that kind of cultural diversity even among alien species and I have a hard time believing that every member of an alien species all thinks the same. Also, why do all aliens look the same (like there aren't any dark-skinned Bajorans?); not all humans look the same. Perhaps the only time you do see differences is politically,

Another problem: going back to the whole evolution/adaptation thing, I'm actually bothered by how many humanoid aliens there are walking around. They all seem to have skin or scales; I haven't seen any aliens with fur or feathers. Or maybe even an exoskeleton.

Also the episode in S2 "Melora" bothered me. They establish she grew up in a low gravity planet (or zero G I can't remember) but if it was at least a low G planet, than the scene with her floating around with Bashir MAKES NO SENSE. The moon has gravity and you can't float on the moon! Also, her bone structure would be so brittle, she may not be able to handle the gravity that humans are adapted to and her physiology might be tall and slender.

Ok, I'm seriously nerd-raging at Star Trek's science, cultural diversity, geography, and planet exploration but I'm also being very nit-picky. I usually can overlook these things. But I guess people don't watch the show for the science; they watch it for the story and the characters, which has always been the most interesting part of the series or at least the most interesting part to me. I'm not sure if this was so much the case in the original series or TNG, but in DS9 each episode is centered around one of the main cast members. I also understand the creators have to make the show exotic and accessible at the same time so they use shorthand and tropes to communicate information to the audience without going into big, long exposition. It would also probably really bog-down the writers to develop culturally distinct ethnicities even among alien species, so they simplify it dramatically to establish all Bajorans are spiritual, all Vulcans are very logical, etc. As far as alien designs, that's probably a constraint of the budget and the make-up and costume department. CGI wasn't all that great either so having CGI aliens wandering around might look kind of cheesy if they didn't blend seamlessly into the scene.

But one more thing about my problems with Star Trek- I guess I never liked how... simple the series was. I never felt like the characters, while interesting, were rounded people. Also, things never carried over from episode to episode. Like one week someone has their body taken over by an alien and after the problem is solved, no one mentions it ever again. Now I understand having such an episodic show makes it very accessible to people because then the average person can just sit down, watch an episode and understand what was going on without a whole lot of backstory but to me, that takes some of the realism away. Yeah! That's it- I never felt Star Trek was very realistic! The characters always felt more like puddy to me than real people in that they were molded to fit whatever plot role was needed for the episode. I mean, that is part of it's charm and I like it for it's simplicity in showing a future where space travle is normal, but that's also why I've never been a fanatic of Star Trek.

So overall, I enjoy Star Trek and I will finish watching DS9... but I'm not going to cosplay as Kira Nerys anytime soon (though I do think Trill makeup would be fun to try out).
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