So I do like Star Trek a lot, especially TNG, DS9, and Below Decks. Voyager and TOS are fine. Space socialism is pretty good and I can't get enough of it. There are a few common tropes that irk me. tho.

  1. Baseball is cracker Amerikkkan nonsense - You telling me that all these different species and planets get together to chill, and the vibe they're gonna channel is Ohio?? Football (soccer) or some version of hockey make a lot more sense, you can pick up and start playing immediately. I can't imagine Worf wanting to learn all those pointless rules about balls and strikezones and fowls. Sisko is arguably the best captain of any series, and I really get pulled out of an episode every time he drops some awful baseball trivia. It's only slightly better than Nascar. I actually know one Scottish person who really likes baseball, and he's literally the worst person I know.

  2. The tribunal - It's so damn common. It seems like every season there's got to be a court-martial, hearing, or appeal against a Starfleet decision. I guess Law and Order is big there. It's probably a minor critique, but it does reinforce the ideology that Western courtrooms are fair.

  3. Kirk is a sex pest - This has been said to death, but leave your subordinates alone.

  4. Poker in TNG - Poker has to be the worst form of entertainment, and I genuinely like maths. I blame TNG for reigniting the poker craze of the 90s and ruining all my guy friends' personalities.

  • Vampire [any]
    ·
    4 months ago

    Baseball is popular in a lot of countries, e.g. Cuba, Japan

    • ButtBidet [he/him]
      ·
      4 months ago

      Amerikkkan colonies, past and present.

      Edit: Sorry to beat the anti-baseball drum. But I saw the Colin Kaepernick documentary some time ago, and his feelings on baseball rubbed off on me a bit.

      • Vampire [any]
        ·
        4 months ago

        Soccer is arguably English (I've seen one historian claim it's Dutch)

        • Great_Leader_Is_Dead
          ·
          4 months ago

          Ironically, lacrosse is an American Indian sport but nowadays it's mostly played by preppy white future CIA agents.

        • ButtBidet [he/him]
          ·
          4 months ago

          For the record I really don't like football (soccer), and even more than that I hate the fans that I interact with near daily. I just thing that baseball is super goofy.

          • Vampire [any]
            ·
            4 months ago

            It would be nice if there was some culturally neutral international sport, but soccer is the de facto world game same way as English is the world language.

            • ButtBidet [he/him]
              ·
              4 months ago

              I feel like the two are footie and basketball. I feel like you can go anywhere and find a game and people to play with. It does suck that EPL and European leagues have made football so fucking gross and unappealing, but such is capitalism.

              I am very anti-football, but I do want to suggest to the young Americans to get into it a bit. When traveling, I've had so many random non-English speaking strangers invite me to a game. It was really rad having village kids in Vietnam spontaneously invite me into their game last year, even tho I am shit.