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Dear Lemmy, why Star Trek??
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this post was submitted on 18 Dec 2023
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Asklemmy
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Star Trek is basically the most popular nerd IP that hasn't been successfully brought into the mainstream, and is known for being progressive.
Wat?
For real. It's been at least top 3, and arguably top 2, for scifi my entire life.
Star Trek has been at the top for nearly 60 years. In the US at least, you can turn over a rock anywhere and find a Star Trek fan.
I get what they're saying.
Star Trek is still nerd niche compared to Star Wars or MCU.
Sure but what a way to use the word "mainstream"
I think it fits. Perhaps in Europe the fan base is less large. Star Wars, Harry Potter, and even Dune are what people around me are into. Though it's mainly (only) just Star Wars.
How do you define mainstream? Sure it has to vary with demographics etc. But if you ask any random person, "have you ever heard about Star Trek?" , you will get a yes for an answer in too many cases, even if they've never watched it. Show them images of the characters and they'll likely go "aahhh yes those". Compare that to something more obscure like "have you ever heard about Aeon Flux?" and you'll probably get weird looks even though there are comics, a movie and an animated series of it. Star Trek may not be as popular as other franchises, but it is mainstream imo.
Yeah, IDK. As a huge Trekkie, I’ve been nothing but pleased that Trek forced its way into the mainstream without changing its progressive this-is-for-everyone values.
im not a trek fan but i hear that a lot dont like how it became more action oriented than it should be. is that a true criticism?
Star Trek has always been more about diplomacy than violence.
It is a trek between the stars, not a war.
That said, it contains action, but it wasn't the main selling point.
Very much so, yes. That's what turned me off of Picard, for instance (and the whole "Earth is back to being a shithole after a single android attack" thing).
The very obvious subtext of every good Star Trek episode and plot is that just talking things through is a good way to solve most problems. Newer writers don't seem to have gotten the memo, and instead try to cram as much generic hollywood garbage as they can into the series.
That's only an issue with some of the new trek series, not the classic ones from last century. I'm not really concerned with paying attention to the new ones at all.
yes.
nuTrek (the Abrams movies) and Picard S1 were way more action than I was expecting and it made me like them a lot less than other properties. However, the vast majority of Trek is not action-oriented at all and is more about traditional science-fiction stories — providing an abstraction of real-world issues and approaching them through a philosophical lens with spaceships, alien races, and esoteric concepts as allegory.
That was pretty true for a long time but it's changing as of the last decade or so
I fucking love Star Trek and have since I was a kid 20+ years ago
I guess I mean this in a relative way.
I can talk about Star Wars and basically everyone I know has a lot of context. Most people have watched a good amount of it. Even people who are explicitly not nerds know about it. Same with most comic stuff.
Meanwhile Star Trek is still a lot more niche. People know the bare basics of what it is, but that's about it. With the exception of my SO, I've met a grand total of two people who watch it.
Also if someone knows a lot about Star Wars or Marvel they don't necessarily know a lot about other nerd IPs. Meanwhile the people who knew about Star Trek also knew about shit like Farscape, Dark Matter, and other IP that just gets confused looks from most people.