I would like to ask you, what kind of realtionships you like in Star Trek. Of all types. I specifically don;t mean any particular relationships, (whatever romantic, platonic or whatever), but types of them. Like, for example, I like the idea of human male / Vulcan female romantic relationship and I think it don't appear evnought, both in canon (I only know of that one couple in TNg: Suspictions and "not really relationship" between Trip and T'Pol in ENT) and non - canon. Or relationships (of any kind, romatnic or platonic) betyween two science - oriented people like Jadzia Dax and Julian Bashir or Tendi and Rutherford. But what do you think? What types of relationships do you like?
What kind of relationships (of all types) you like in Star Trek?
- Thread starter BohandiAnsoid
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Different characters working together to resolve the problem and/or villain of the week. Ro and Barclay quickly come to mind.
For romantic stuff? Unrequited, tragedy, one-off or one-episode stuff, not a show revolving around their bedroom antics when there's a whole galaxy to explore. The one with Miramannee and Kirk is one of the stronger ones due to a conclusion that was not expected in 1969, and the actors had the screen chemistry to make it feel authentic - something Trek too often fails at in standalones, meaning that multiple episodes dedicated to their coupling would be pretty lame as the audience sits there counting down the minutes until the grand breakup episode, just like how we were taught to do in DS9's "Let He Who is Without Sin" and in the most patronizing and laughably bad way imaginable. (The other subplot, the one with actual plot meat, was chucked to the side in favor of planet snu-snu there...)
The show can and has done both successfully before, but without the good writing to really work with the characters and tropes it's pointless at best. IMHO anyway, some people would want to see a 36-episode spinoff revolving solely Spock and the Horta in a really hot relationship and getting it on. But any old fan can cobble up tripe.
For romantic stuff? Unrequited, tragedy, one-off or one-episode stuff, not a show revolving around their bedroom antics when there's a whole galaxy to explore. The one with Miramannee and Kirk is one of the stronger ones due to a conclusion that was not expected in 1969, and the actors had the screen chemistry to make it feel authentic - something Trek too often fails at in standalones, meaning that multiple episodes dedicated to their coupling would be pretty lame as the audience sits there counting down the minutes until the grand breakup episode, just like how we were taught to do in DS9's "Let He Who is Without Sin" and in the most patronizing and laughably bad way imaginable. (The other subplot, the one with actual plot meat, was chucked to the side in favor of planet snu-snu there...)
The show can and has done both successfully before, but without the good writing to really work with the characters and tropes it's pointless at best. IMHO anyway, some people would want to see a 36-episode spinoff revolving solely Spock and the Horta in a really hot relationship and getting it on. But any old fan can cobble up tripe.
Relationships that work, whether it's for one episode, a season, or forever. Trek's been notoriously bad with those. Granted, Starfleet life isn't really conducive to functional family relationships, which is why most Starfleet officers and crew don't have kids. I've always felt sorry for Geordi who was (it's at least implied) shuttled from one parent to the other while he was growing up and they were on assignment. No wonder he has such problems with relationships himself!
Neither Keiko nor O'Brien are among my favorite characters, but their marriage worked for me. They had fights and misunderstandings but there was also love and a genuine will by both to get past whatever it was.
We haven't seen much of it, but Riker and Troi seem to have worked out their issues and are happy together post-Nemesis.
Neither Keiko nor O'Brien are among my favorite characters, but their marriage worked for me. They had fights and misunderstandings but there was also love and a genuine will by both to get past whatever it was.
We haven't seen much of it, but Riker and Troi seem to have worked out their issues and are happy together post-Nemesis.
^^this
IMHO, TNG deserves kudos for at least trying the "whole families in space" idea, setting it up in the premiere episode and using the trope only occasionally. New ideas have to be tried to see if they work, aka "Throw everything at the wall and see if it sticks", which season 1 of a new show regarding a show that could never be "remade" (the term of the time, even though it was involving a sequel placed 80 years in the future and not an actual reboot). And, yep, season 1 TNG could be surprisingly tactless at times, and usually in the more reviled stories ("Justice", et al), regardless of any good ideas they were also trying to play with ("prime directive and the limitations therein" regarding that story).
But, even in TNG's latter half where it had the highest ratings, it still fumbled with the "focus on the kids" trope too often. I was too old to appreciate the lessons taught to kiddies in "Hero Worship" for example, even if it's a partial retread of "The Bonding" (a story that oddly holds up despite it also being kid-centric, IMHO, because all art - regardless of venue, whether business and/or hobby and/or other - is still invariably and inevitably subjective. That condition also seems interestingly inveterate.)
Or did it fumble? How many adults can really sit through a show aimed solely at 10-year-old kids without it throwing out a proverbial bone*? Or kids as they become adults revisiting and all of a sudden finding it "beneath them", "hokey", "stupid", other pejoratives ending in "d" or "y", etc, because it didn't have anything else in the story to keep it engaging as an adult? That's one definition of "family friendly", LOL!
* "kids show" is too glossy and glossover a term to describe shows; many that were never just kid shows get called that as well, erroneously so/ Or a bizarre mishmash of kid stuff with kid-inappropriate stuff, for which I could argue a handful of shows across the last five decades could be all over the proverbial map in that regard (and to varying extents), but before I digress...
Now I say all that as an occasional fan of the contentious-between-fans story "Imaginary Friend" as well, as that mixes the old Trek trope of "alien fritter appears in the form of a person to learn more about humanity, misunderstands, and now wants to destroy 'em all as a result". If I were a parent, that would be an episode I'd have no qualms letting the kid(s) watch and I don't find it jarring enough to go wash dishes while letting them have 47 minutes of gawk-time. If they tried rewatching it 25 years later, their reactions might be interesting.
Great point. It's possible. Or he may have been socially isolated, or he was a "late bloomer", or had a disability (e.g. Autism, et al). It's all left open to interpretation, which isn't always a bad thing.
Great point. They weren't the most frequently shown, and were put into a lot of sci-fi situations, but the acting and scripting definitely felt authentic. DS9 definitely found a terrific balance for them and the actors had great chemistry.
"Well written" should go without saying, but you answered the question yourself in your topic title-- "all types". That's what "IDIC" is, "infinite diversity in infinite combinations".
The Kirk/McCoy/Spock relationship and how it evolved through the series and movies.
Also I like the very strange, unconventional relationships like those of Cochrane and the Companion, or Miranda and Kollos. They truly show the expansion of mind and horizons as envisioned in the future.
Also I like the very strange, unconventional relationships like those of Cochrane and the Companion, or Miranda and Kollos. They truly show the expansion of mind and horizons as envisioned in the future.
Bad ones. The kind Lady Gaga would sing about.
Good relationships too. I like when Star Trek goes deeply into what makes a relationship of any type work or not. Ezra-Worf intrigued me for how it explored lingering feelings and the inability to move on. The dissolution of Chapelle-Spock was terrible, and overall it delivers little depth.
Good relationships too. I like when Star Trek goes deeply into what makes a relationship of any type work or not. Ezra-Worf intrigued me for how it explored lingering feelings and the inability to move on. The dissolution of Chapelle-Spock was terrible, and overall it delivers little depth.
Season 3 seemed to dump a bucket of piss on their happiness retroactively, but hopefully it's better going forward from there.
I want to see Mariner fall in love with Captain Ransom and genuinely become a real couple along with all the complications that entails since he's her commanding officer and they've known each other for quite a while.
There's so much low key sexual tension between the two. The room for Mariner to grow up & mature while being in a proper relationship could be pretty amazing.
There's so much low key sexual tension between the two. The room for Mariner to grow up & mature while being in a proper relationship could be pretty amazing.
A lot of Trek's romances were uneven. Kira/Shakaar and Bashir/Ezri were boring. 7/Chakotay was pointless. Worf/Deanna was misguided. And Garak/Ziyal seemed like what it probably was: a frantic effort to distance Garak's character from his not-very-platonic interest in Bashir.
But it had some great bromance-type friendships: Kirk/Spock, Data/Geordi, Jake/Nog, Bashir/O'Brien, and Harry/Tom as examples.
But it had some great bromance-type friendships: Kirk/Spock, Data/Geordi, Jake/Nog, Bashir/O'Brien, and Harry/Tom as examples.
Agreed. Garak/Ziyal I didn't really see as a romance, though. She clearly wanted to see that not all Cardassian men were as horrible as her father. He'd been exiled from Cardassia for a while with no prospects of returning and wanted to connect with the only other (half-)Cardassian on DS9. Any romance between those two would've been creepier than Neelix/Kes! (there's a long discussion on that in the Voyager forum).
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