Writer's Block: The Final Frontier

[fajrdrako]

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Hmm.

Truth is, I don't currently care about Star Trek in the least. My interest flagged after Star Trek: The Next Generation because Sisko was a bore, the lovely Kira merely brought us into Bajoran religous politics, I couldn't stand the Ferengi, and Chakotay was the disappointment of the century - the rebel who was more meekly conformist than Starfleet itself. Where were the Picards of yesteryear?

But I discovered slash through Star Trek, back when K/S was all there was, and I loved it. Anyone else remember Cheap Thrills? Thrust? But that was years and several fandoms ago, and slash has come a long way, and you can't (quite) go home again.

And... time for a confession... though I thought I couldn't care less about Star Trek, when I saw a picture of the new young Kirk and Spock on the cover of Entertainment Weekly, I felt a bit of a thrill.

My recipe for a good Star Trek:

1. Two, maybe three at most, strong central viewpoint characters.
   
2. Put in sense of real science fiction - a sense of wonder, innovation, discovery, exploration. A sense of newness. Not just a future that feels like the past.
   
3. Be socially progressive rather than conservative.
   
4. Be imaginative, but keep the characters' psychology realistic.
   

Comments

[bright-lilim.livejournal.com]

"Be socially progressive rather than conservative. "

On prime time US tv? Not gonna happen.

I liked Jadzia Dax very much. She was intelligent, competent, and able to hold her own against Klingons and yet feminine. That's very rare in TV in general. Bashier was also very cute.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

"Be socially progressive rather than conservative. "

On prime time US tv? Not gonna happen.

Why not? Is US culture so far gone you have no hope? The original Star Trek was socially progressive - at least in a mild way - and the later versions never moved beyond that, which means they became retrograde.

But things change all the time. The odds are against it, I agree, but if advertisers suddenly got the idea that a socially progressive show would earn them money and get high ratings, they'd be falling all over each other do it.

I see strong statements in other forms of American popular entertainment. It can happen in TV too, and I'd applaude.

A society that has become very conservative can change in the other direction. Cycles. It happens all the time - more often than the contrary. Nothing stays the same for long.

[bright-lilim.livejournal.com]

"Is US culture so far gone you have no hope?"

I should have said prime time TV in any country. But the vast majority of what I watch comes from US.

"but if advertisers suddenly got the idea"

Erm. Relying on advertisers to wise up is a really bad idea. It just isn't going to happen. Same with the TV and movie exces. After all, on TV they are canceling shows which have "too many" female viewers (because apparently women don't have money or aren't allowed to decide what to do with their money??) and on the movie front they don't advertise or give good scripts to movies which are thought to gather a lot of female viewers.

Only way for things to change is for a lot of these people to lose their influence at the same time.

You're clearly more optimistic than I am.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

We seem to be at a time when culturally the US producers are on an anti-woman path: no movies featuring women, or for women, or about women, and TV is slanted elsewhere, too. Driving us back to reading and writing, are they?

You are probably right that the people who are currently making the decisions are entrenched. But they will go - everyone does - and in Hollywood, what wins is what makes money. If they see something progressive or controversial making money, they'll jump on it till it's a fad. Then pass on to the next.

I'm partly optimistic, partly simply learning from what I've seen, partly believing in the power of greed. The things that look the most unchangeable are sometimes the things that come and go most quickly.

I don't find Canadian TV very conservative, at least, not in the way US TV is. Our 'mainstream' is things like "Little Mosque on the Prairie", an inoffensive sitcom about Canadian Muslims, and I don't think that's the kind of thing as mainstream US TV producers would want or care about. But I heard they were doing - or thinking of doing - an American TV version of the same thing. Because they saw how successful it was in Canada - in other words, they thought it would make money.

[bright-lilim.livejournal.com]

I don't know if you read the feminist site Hathor Legacy but I read it and find the articles both fascinating and depressing. Here are a couple of articles that might show why I'm highly skeptical about greed overcoming, well, egotism and principles (this time the principle that women don't matter):

http://thehathorlegacy.com/nobody-knows-anything-but-dont-tell-the-financiers/
http://thehathorlegacy.com/why-women-cant-vote-with-their-dollars-in-film-and-tv/
http://thehathorlegacy.com/women-dont-go-see-movies/
http://thehathorlegacy.com/but-we-know-you-dont-exist-we-have-demographics-to-prove-it/

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Thanks - interesting links!

I kind of resent the notion that the reasoning of the blogger that if I don't like Star Wars it's because I'm too fluffy to understand it. I don't like (most of) Star Wars and it isn't because it was over my head.

Moreover, I like love stories - a lot - it's just not all that I like. Male characters get romances and still have lives and adventures and good stories. In many movies, women just get romances. If that. But on the whole I don't care what gender the characters are in the movies I see - I do like interesting plots and interesting characters.

And I would be the first to agree that there aren't a lot of interesting characters in movies, though I would argue that Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman was one of them.

This is maybe because I'm going to fewer movies than I used to. Fewer of them appeal.

But of course the problems are with bad scripts, they are with the sexist attitudes on the part of the movie-makers.

The 'non-recurring phenomenon' was an interesting assessment. Not surprising, but frustrating. A phenomenon can't recur if it isn't given a chance. And they don't call, say, The Matrix I or Lord of the Rings a non-recurring phenomenon.

This may look entrenched and it may be. (I could say something about politics here, but I won't.) But things change all the time, and resignation and acceptance are not the answers.

Is it that studios assume a female-led movie won’t make it, or that they don’t want them to succeed?

They have admitted to the former; the latter is probably the case. Why should they look for competition? Or a change their way of thinking to change a status quo that suits them fine? Unless they have incentive to reconsider their prejudices, they won't.

But a prejudice is only as strong as the individual who holds it, and Hollywood is like a square-dance with people changing around.

This all reminds me of the recurring subject of "why more women don't read comic books". Some of the reasoning is the same, though women have been, IMHO, on the whole, much better used in comics than in movies.

[star-momma.livejournal.com]

As far as I'm concerned, the whole of DS9 was worth it (I'll say here and now that I liked it over, all, but even if you didn't...) for Bashir and Garak's fascinating friendship :)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I had a crush on both Kira and Bashir but I gave up on the show long before Bashir and Garak had a friendship. Just recently, Tasia held a video-party and I got to see the Garak episodes. Loved them! If I'd seen them when the show was aired, I might have become a fan and started watching again.

[star-momma.livejournal.com]

Completely understandable. DS9 had trouble finding it's footing the first season or two. Once they realized they didn't need to copy Next Gen and took on a more adult tone, moved away from the cheesier stuff, it grew by leaps and bounds. The last couple of seasons were far and away my favorite.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I should at some point make a point of watching the later seasons of ST: DS9. At the time, I was so annoyed (and disappointed) with the first two (?) seasons that I wasn't interested. Looking back... well, there were some great characters and some episodes I remember with pleasure. Disappointed as I was by Sisko - a waste of a good and gorgeous actor, IMHO - I loved his mirror universe counterpart.

[star-momma.livejournal.com]

Disappointed as I was by Sisko - a waste of a good and gorgeous actor, IMHO - I loved his mirror universe counterpart.

Agreed. I think that Avery Brooks could have done MUCH more with the role if given the chance. They were far too controlled with him. I can't help thinking there was hesitance on their part to let the first prominent black commander in ST look silly, but letting him be more relaxed and human at times would have made him far more interesting. I think the most personality he showed was in "Trials and Tribbleations."

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Avery Brooks is wonderful (did you see him as Spenser's Hawk?) and it seemed such as waste of him in DS9 that it was a large part of my frustration. Sisko had virtually no personality, no plot - nothing that interested me, anyway.

I don't think I saw "Trials and Tribbleations". Good title.

[star-momma.livejournal.com]

I don't think I saw "Trials and Tribbleations". Good title.

It melds the DS9 crew (some of them) with the original series ep "The Trouble with Tribbles." By all rights it should have been too cheesy to work, but it was surprisingly engaging and poked a lot of fun at ST's constant use of time travel plots.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Okay, I'll look for it.

[txvoodoo.livejournal.com]

I think DS9 works really well as a WHOLE, rather than just episodic. When I see it via the DVDs, I enjoy it so much

[star-momma.livejournal.com]

Agreed. Especially through the last few seasons, it's a really strong package. One of these days I hope to actually own the whole of it on DVD :)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I would like to see some of the better seasons, but I have no desire to see most of the episodes that I did see over again. Those few exceptions are notable, though. I would like to see them again.

I'd like to see something with Ezri Dax, who looks gorgeous. I've only seen still photos of her.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Bodes well for future viewing.

[txvoodoo.livejournal.com]

I was initially bored by Deep Space 9, but eventually it ended up being my favorite of the 4 post Original series.

I'm very excited about the new one, much to my surprise.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I was initially bored by Deep Space 9, but eventually it ended up being my favorite of the 4 post Original series.

Perhaps I should have persisted - but I was just so turned off by the first two seasons. Or whatever it was I saw. It's a surprise I ever watched any Star Trek again.

I'm not - yet - excited about the new one. But I've gone from an attitude of "I don't even want to hear about it" to a touch of visceral thrill - which will probably prevail. Especially if it's good.

[duncanmac.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed the original series from the Sixties, but Next Generation did not appeal to me nearly as much, and I gave up on all the follow-on series.

Will the "re-booted" movie work? Maybe ... but my interests have gone in different directions. I feel very unimpressed by most media-based SF these days; I have yet to catch up on some of the exceptions, such as Firefly (though I did enjoy the movie Serenity).

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed the original series from the Sixties, but Next Generation did not appeal to me nearly as much, and I gave up on all the follow-on series.

I watched all of ST:TNG because I liked some of the characters, especially Picard. And there wasn't much I hated; I even learned to tolerate Counsellor Troi. I thought a lot of the stories were lame, but the good ones, though in a minority, were well worth watching. Did you ever see "Darmok"? I think you'd appreciate it - it's about language. They find a language that the Universal Translator can't do a think to translate.

I feel very unimpressed by most media-based SF these days

Really? I think it's good, maybe for the first time ever. I especially think Battlestar Galactica is excellent. Obviously I currently love Doctor Who and Torchwood. I liked Century City and Firefly very much. I liked hwat I saw of Farscape. Which ones don't you like? I don't like the Stargates particularly, but I think the quality of SF TV is increasing by leaps and bounds.

I would have thought you would have liked Babylon 5. I'm less of a fan of it than most of my friends, but it had it good points.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

P.S. I loved Firefly very much; Serenity not so much. I didn't think it had the strengths of the TV show. To much action, not enough interaction.