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PaperclipPerfector  4d ago (text post)   1771 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for December 5, 2025

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Gene Roddenberry passing away early in TNG is probably the best thing to happen to the show. He never would have let the Federation get so dark...

Unfortunately it's a double-edged sword. If you listen to the writers talk about TNG, it's clear that TNG was good in spite of him and not because of him. Some of the best stories (e.g. Picard's story in "Family" in S4) they did were shot down by Roddenberry because "people in the future wouldn't act that way", and the other producers had to fight with him to get the stories approved. But on the other hand, stuff in DS9 was already getting dark enough that the writers were seriously risking the setting not working as a positive vision of the future any more. And when you get to nu-Trek, that is completely gone, with the Federation being outright villains in Picard. So while Roddenberry could be unreasonable about his vision at times, it turns out that having someone like that at the helm was important to make sure that the writers didn't just completely disregard the fact that Star Trek is supposed to be an optimistic future, not just today's problems but 300 years from now.

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