this post was submitted on 18 Dec 2023
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Asklemmy

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Every single large server in this federation has at least one Star Trek community. There is even an entire server dedicated to Star Trek.

Not only that, these communities are some of the most active I've ever seen. There is no other franchise I know of that dominates the federation as much as Star Trek does.

So, what's the correlation with Lemmy and Star Trek? Why not other sci-fi series? Please, are there any connections?? Is this all coincidental?

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[โ€“] [email protected] 147 points 1 year ago (3 children)

The Star Trek community has been going strong for nearly 60 years for a reason - Star Trek rocks.

When it started in the 60s (and continued especially strong with TNG in the 80s), it was unique in depicting a hopeful look at how things could be rather than a reflection of how things are, differing from how most shows do social commentary. It's refreshing.

Star Trek is attractive to people who want to see a world where people work together toward great things in a post-scarcity utopia, with current day conversations of race, nationality, sex, gender, etc. being so far in the rear-view mirror that they're non-issues. Plus cool technology. I think that appeals to the Lemmy crowd.

[โ€“] [email protected] 39 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Another key point I feel is often overlooked about Star Trek is the "Gulliver's Travels" component of (at least pre-Kelvin) Star Trek. Every show, every race was secretly a fun-house-like caricature of humanity's worst traits, with the humans of the show demonstrating growth past that point. You laugh at or shirk away from them, but really it's modern humanity that is being depicted (Ferengi as capitalists, Klingons as warmongers, Romulans as subversives, etc.) And then we see what we could be, the hope that you talked about, in future humanity

[โ€“] [email protected] 34 points 1 year ago (4 children)

It seems like such a creative way to do social commentary. We get to see our present failings in aliens, and then contrast it with how the crew (future humanity) carries themselves. Sometimes it's very clunky and heavy handed (like that TOS episode with the half-white/half-black aliens), but it's still good. My favorites are every time Picard monologues about their values to an alien race in TNG.

Even if you already share the values, it's fascinating to hear them laid out so clearly.

[โ€“] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago

It helps that Stewart is such a fantastic monologist. It's like hearing something complex about biology or ecology from David Attenborough. They both have such an effortless ability to communicate difficult subjects.

[โ€“] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

Picard monologues are in fact what I appreciate most in TNG!

[โ€“] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Do you include Wesley as an alien in that instance? Because that monologue is solid.

[โ€“] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm going to say yes. Every teenager is an alien.

[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago
[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Shut up, Wesley

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I really love it when it's especially heavy handed. That's my shit.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

That's my shit

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

That's very interesting. I think you've sold me on watching the show.

[โ€“] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The original series is very 1960s and I wouldn't recommend for a jumping in point. I'd go with next Gen for that, it's the quintessential trek more so than the original having had 3 spinoffs in the 90s and defining most of the canon. Here's the issue though, the first 2 seasons of tng really suck. Like maybe the worst 2 seasons of the whole franchise. I'd check out some best of lists for those seasons and maybe sprinkle a couple random ones in, they did 26 hour long episodes per season and there are some amazing clunkers there, bad episodes are part of trek and you've gotta learn to enjoy them, but those first 2 seasons are rough.

[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

But if you hang in there, you get rewarded with a Riker's Beard

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Don't tell him about that Lower Decks episode.

[โ€“] [email protected] 33 points 1 year ago (1 children)

To me, Trek is a mash of three great communities, each nerdy in their own way:

  • Science-fiction, specifically optimistic mid-century science fiction.
  • Theatre / Drama
  • Revolutionary Socialism

This article scratches the surface of it.

[โ€“] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Thank you for the article. I'll need to look more into this in the future.

[โ€“] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

I think you personally posting more than the other Lemmings combined might have something to do with it...