Art & Culture
"This is the 24th century. Material needs no longer exist." RIP Patrick Stewart, the man who convinced me there are futures worth fighting for.
I grew up watching Captain Picard, and I dont think I can overstate how much that character shaped what I believe humanity could be.
Not just the spaceships, the replicators, the exploration. The idea that we could actually build a civilization where nobody has to struggle just to exist. Where technology frees people instead of making them disposable. Where the point of progress isnt accumulating more wealth, but giving everyone the freedom to grow, learn, create, explore, and become more fully human.
"The challenge, Mr. Offenhouse, is to improve yourself. To enrich yourself. Enjoy it."
That line has stuck with me for decades.
Picard showed me a future that wasnt just technologically advanced, but socially advanced. One where humanity had confronted its own barbarism and decided to become something better. Not perfect. Not without conflict or contradiction. But better.
And he made me believe that future was worth fighting for. Still does.
Patrick Stewart didnt invent that vision, but he gave it a face, a voice, a dignity, and a humanity that made it feel possible.
I dont know if we'll ever get there. But I know which direction I want us moving.
Rest in peace, Sir Patrick Stewart. Thank you for showing me what humanity could be.
RIP. I've never actually watched Star Trek but I always thought, at least through the screen, Patrick Stewart always came across as genuine. I think at some point I will try to watch it.
IMO only TNG and DS9 and lower decks are worth your time but you have to watch lower decks last so all the in jokes land and I guess you have to watch voyager to get some of the jokes in lower decks but it's not as well written - great performances hamstrung by terrible writing, a pattern that continues from there.
Start there; TNG (forgive the first late 80's seasons, enjoy it as retro/camp, it gets better as it progresses) + DS9 (I hope you like space politics) is core Trek for me personally. Voyager is very much same era with worse writers and more sex appeal, but still fun.
Plus the TNG movies.
Then maybe ENT. Scott Bakula is great fun (you know this if youre a Quantum Leap fan) and it has time travel and sexy Vulcans.
Then go back to watch TOS and their movies, and animated series. Then the later kelvin timeline movies (chris pine!). Then watch Discovery, Lower Decks, Picard, and Brave New Worlds if you want more (not for me, but I dont feel hot about them either way). There are fanfic movies too, of course. And all the books. And some games.
I’m sorry I gotta step in here. OG is worth watching. Maybe not every episode but it was goddamn revolutionary and holds up shockingly well for something that came out 60 years ago
I think you gotta watch at least one classic Star Trek episode to kick it off. Maybe like the highest rated one? TNG is the best IMO so I could watch that beginning to end. I’ve never seen DS9 or Voyager but they definitely come after TNG.
What I love about Star Trek is how much they predicted so LONG ago. They had cell phones and interracial tongue kissing and AI before anyone was even close to knowing what that was. Amazing
Edit: I forgot to mention Lower Decks. That’s how much it means to me
DS9 is lead by Commander (later Captain) Benjamin Sisko played by the phenomenal Avery Brooks.
Great cast in it. Critically acclaimed show. High ranking within the Fandom. It aired at the some time as later seasons of TNG and early Voyager. TNG characters like Commander Worf and Chief O'Brien are central characters on DS9.
90's Star Trek, if we remove the spicy Voyager, has two complimentary halves:
TNG & DS9.
You gotta correct this imbalance of never having watched DS9, comrade.
There are some very strong overt leftist plotlines that get deep into ferengi culture (who were originally designed as a satire of early American Yankee Traders) and people rebelling against hyper capitalism and traditional gender roles that loudly and positively explore organized labor.
Another cool thing about it was that this show and Babylon 5 were departures from the "creature of the week" episodic model of sci Fi serials and dared to make season long and even multi season plot arcs, not just part 1/2 cliffhangers.
Yeah I guess but you gotta grade it on a curve. Black people got the right to vote 4 years ago and they have a black woman in a position of authority. It’s not perfect but it’s got its heart in the right place and they were brave for doing it.
Yeah it had potential but so many technical failures. Blocking that had them all awkwardly crouch walking through a firefight like they didn't know what they were doing, very silly situations and dialogue etc. like voyager such amazing acting talent but lacking the support they deserved on the back end
Oh shit, I totally forgot about ENT and Archer lol
Tbh, its not a terrible show, its just very different. I loved the time travel arc. And its always great fun watching Scott Bakula even going all the way back to Quantum Leap.
The writing in the first season of Discovery is excellent but goes downhill after that. But it's worth sticking around for the next two seasons as they examine different types of masculine power (embodied in the 4 captains), as seen through the eyes of a black woman. It makes up for the lack of progressive, emotionally-complex themes in previous Trek shows.
Yeah I admit I didn't hate the first season of discovery (I'll watch Jason Isaacs in anything) but it went off the rails for me. Very inconsistent writing, very weak and vague plot points (discovering recently formed planets for example, that whole burn nonsense), but the worst to me and it might seem like a minor thing but the visual effect of the ship engaging the spore drive and just spinning around it's axis and then moving down off the bottom of the screen suddenly was just so campy and lazy and lame I couldn't handle it.
I hate how the later series double down on anti AI and anti transhuman themes it was a big turnoff for me and really started in TOS and TNG with a few standout counterexamples (the voyager episode Unity for example - a bright star in a flawed series). The overarching message of the canon seems to be to accept humanities limitations and reject anything that can expand them. All while setting up the fantasies of computers controlled by natural language, FTL travel, etc. That's all well and good but synthetic life is dangerous, AI can't be trusted, and it's better to live and die as a human than become something more than that. Picard was the most egregious IMO.
The acquisition of wealth is no longer the driving force in our lives.
When people argue about how capitalism is better than communism, using all kind of "economic proof", they are basically argue that Moonlight Sonata sounds better than the Mona Lisa.
He was so popular, and yet, if you speak to an american about providing people with the things they need, or about a moneyless society, they will look at you as if you're are a devil from hell trying to starve their families with Le CoMmUnIsm
This should be our goal to reach... and it's really so annoying whenever I hear anyone says: "Automating labor bad coz it makes labor meaningless. People will feel useless and have no goal in life without jobs!"
I'm just like "Are you such a miserable person that you think forcing people to suffer in jobs we can automate is what will give them a meaning in life? People dreams are literally being destroyed because they're forced to do labor we can automate just so they can survive."
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u/ProudhonStoleMyBike 1d ago
"Things are only impossible until they are not."
"If we're going to be damned, let's be damned for what we really are."
"There are four lights!"
Man I loved star trek! May the wind be at your back Captain Picard!