Humans > ...wait, what?
My fannishness tends towards "I enjoy watching this thing, but I also have problems with it that in a perverse way add to the enjoyment by giving me something to think about."So here is my tl;dr about how much I DETEST AND LOATHE Trek's "character who learns to be human" thing.
Basically, they get a character and then the rest of the cast heap scorn or amusement upon them for not being human, which probably deserves the capital here so Human it is. (I think it just about gets away with it with Odo, because he's got it going more than one way. He'd like to better understand the "solids" but he also wants to know about his own people. That and the people around him aren't actively making fun of him.)
I do find Old Skool Trek pretty much unwatchable for various reasons, one of which is the "let's make fun of Spock for being an alien." That this carries over into the rest of the franchise is pretty much pure fail. It's another element, perhaps the most obvious one, of Trek's "lovely" habit of erasing racism among Humans and then making what are basically racist jokes about fictional aliens. I just don't get how no one in the entire history of the thing has ever stopped to think "hang on, isn't that a bit shady?" It accidentally proves that the instinct is still there and that people aren't that enlightened and wonderful in The Future.
Then you get Enterprise which goes out of its way to make it okay to hate the Vulcans. That this seems to be partly based on jealousy makes you wonder about the writers. Do they have some sort of problem themselves with the idea of a more advanced and progressive species of alien? And as is tradition, the one advantage the Humans have is emotions, so the Vulcans have to get picked on or pitied for having decided not to have any.
Naturally I hate Data the most. No, he's not Human. He's not alive. That's just the way he is. He doesn't need to somehow grow emotions, he needs everyone else to let him accept that he is what he is. Data needs to learn about humour? Why? He's never going to find anything funny himself, and it wouldn't be hard for him to just memorise some jokes and the timing that goes with them. "I have to learn about this thing that will never do anything for me, so that I can fit in with these other people." Which I suppose would be a fine display of attempting to get on with another culture if it wasn't in the context of him trying to be more like the oppressors... err, I mean, the people he's with. It's a bit like if Bev Crusher had to learn to make jokes about tits to fit in with a male workplace -- the problem is other people.
They sort of do it with Worf as well. Evidence suggests that Worf is just a repressed and uptight person. That's fine! Lots of people are like that! DS9 even gives him some backstory to explain it, but that's still just him being him.
At least Seven of Nine has the excuse of actually being Human to start with, and coming in with no idea how to interact with people she's not in a hive mind with. But that's what makes her interesting, she'd lost all that interestingness if she was just like everyone else.
"Humanity is great!" is fair enough, cos who else is watching it, but "Humanity is so great that everyone should want to be one" is a bit much. And as it goes on it develops these other cultures to be interesting and valid and stuff, yet it still does it. Usually they're at their worst with unique forms of life, things that aren't actually alive in the biological sense. Ones that have no obvious reason for wanting to be like everyone else other than an apparent failure to think of themselves as a valid form of sentience. Which isn't really helped by everyone else encouraging them in this line of thought.
At least the Borg are honest about forcibly assimilating you. You know where you stand with them, which is probably in a Borg regeneration unit with a bit of metal in your eye.
Maybe I don't love humanity enough? I'm just always horribly aware that this stuff seems a wee bit shady. It doesn't help that I want Data to die in a fire, because this stuff is his only plotline. "I am so angsty about not having the ability to angst!"
Yes, I hate a central idea of the whole thing. OH WELL.
Basically, they get a character and then the rest of the cast heap scorn or amusement upon them for not being human, which probably deserves the capital here so Human it is. (I think it just about gets away with it with Odo, because he's got it going more than one way. He'd like to better understand the "solids" but he also wants to know about his own people. That and the people around him aren't actively making fun of him.)
I do find Old Skool Trek pretty much unwatchable for various reasons, one of which is the "let's make fun of Spock for being an alien." That this carries over into the rest of the franchise is pretty much pure fail. It's another element, perhaps the most obvious one, of Trek's "lovely" habit of erasing racism among Humans and then making what are basically racist jokes about fictional aliens. I just don't get how no one in the entire history of the thing has ever stopped to think "hang on, isn't that a bit shady?" It accidentally proves that the instinct is still there and that people aren't that enlightened and wonderful in The Future.
Then you get Enterprise which goes out of its way to make it okay to hate the Vulcans. That this seems to be partly based on jealousy makes you wonder about the writers. Do they have some sort of problem themselves with the idea of a more advanced and progressive species of alien? And as is tradition, the one advantage the Humans have is emotions, so the Vulcans have to get picked on or pitied for having decided not to have any.
Naturally I hate Data the most. No, he's not Human. He's not alive. That's just the way he is. He doesn't need to somehow grow emotions, he needs everyone else to let him accept that he is what he is. Data needs to learn about humour? Why? He's never going to find anything funny himself, and it wouldn't be hard for him to just memorise some jokes and the timing that goes with them. "I have to learn about this thing that will never do anything for me, so that I can fit in with these other people." Which I suppose would be a fine display of attempting to get on with another culture if it wasn't in the context of him trying to be more like the oppressors... err, I mean, the people he's with. It's a bit like if Bev Crusher had to learn to make jokes about tits to fit in with a male workplace -- the problem is other people.
They sort of do it with Worf as well. Evidence suggests that Worf is just a repressed and uptight person. That's fine! Lots of people are like that! DS9 even gives him some backstory to explain it, but that's still just him being him.
At least Seven of Nine has the excuse of actually being Human to start with, and coming in with no idea how to interact with people she's not in a hive mind with. But that's what makes her interesting, she'd lost all that interestingness if she was just like everyone else.
"Humanity is great!" is fair enough, cos who else is watching it, but "Humanity is so great that everyone should want to be one" is a bit much. And as it goes on it develops these other cultures to be interesting and valid and stuff, yet it still does it. Usually they're at their worst with unique forms of life, things that aren't actually alive in the biological sense. Ones that have no obvious reason for wanting to be like everyone else other than an apparent failure to think of themselves as a valid form of sentience. Which isn't really helped by everyone else encouraging them in this line of thought.
At least the Borg are honest about forcibly assimilating you. You know where you stand with them, which is probably in a Borg regeneration unit with a bit of metal in your eye.
Maybe I don't love humanity enough? I'm just always horribly aware that this stuff seems a wee bit shady. It doesn't help that I want Data to die in a fire, because this stuff is his only plotline. "I am so angsty about not having the ability to angst!"
Yes, I hate a central idea of the whole thing. OH WELL.