#starfleet — Public Fediverse posts

Just read a review about #StarfleetAcademy and I have some notes.

So, for background, I came out of the womb watching Star Trek. I have lived my life wanting to be a member of #Starfleet. Learning to embrace the flaws of humanity and grow from them. Learning that Picard was an irrational young man who got himself stabbed through the heart in a bar fight, Kirk cheated his way through the Kobayashi Maru to refuse the possibility of a no-win scenario, Sisko committed literal War Crimes, Janeway would drag her crew through every nebula for coffee, and learning that imperfection is a fact of the world around us. ("It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not weakness; that is life")

Hell, Enterprise was literally written to show the imperfections of an Early pre-Starfleet.

These reviews seem to forget that all of this is part of the core ethos that #StarTrek was and is remaining to be. Oh but how hard I wished for a show like Academy as a teenager. A show that gave us glimpses into the imperfect nature of the teenagers and young adults that will, I am sure, grow into the captains and officers they need to be. It's full of modern language that youth can understand. It shows us a returning captain willing to shed the decorum of rank to be a strong educator and mentor to a group of young adults whose lives were characterized by destruction and loss. ("They're little warp cores, do you want to say something about it?!")

Yes, it watches like a CW teen drama set in the Star Trek universe: It was designed to. It's for awkward young adults to learn that it is OK to be awkward young adults. It confronts themes that shouldn't still be bothering you in your thirties: And that's OK, not all Star Trek has to be for everyone. Prodigy was for kids, Academy and Lower Decks target an older youth demographic, and SNW exists for all the cranky old Star Trek fans who can't deal with anything other than Alien of the Week serials.

These reviews read like people who want a show about the War College, grinding every unique trait out of everyone who comes into the Academy. A show that teaches the younger audience to fight battles, not end wars. Instead, the show reminds them to serve each other, keep an empathetic mind, and start the day off on the right foot. Lessons many of these reviewers could take the time to learn. It is OK to lead, and to be led, by empathy and hope.

These lessons are not hidden deep in the show, they are stated in the open for an audience much younger than most of these reviewers. It is a true shame that it has to be stated again.

Ultimately, and I guess TL;DR:

If you are a grown adult writing reviews about Academy, complaining about how you can't identify with a group of teenagers onscreen I have news for you: YOU PROBABLY SHOULDN'T BE. Look for identification in Holly Hunter's laissez faire attitude toward the world. Take less seriously, and just enjoy what you have... Or don't.

But let other people enjoy things.

#LLAP