# One question about Star Trek the new movie **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 12, 2009, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-question-about-star-trek-the-new-movie/496178 "2009-05-12T16:25:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2009, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-question-about-star-trek-the-new-movie/496178/41 "2009-05-13T14:41:19Z")
And it’s Roddenberry. ---
**Author:** ![Annie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/858c86/32.png) [@Annie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2009, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-question-about-star-trek-the-new-movie/496178/42 "2009-05-13T14:41:53Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > That’s more spoilers! Are you punishing me for ripping on Star Trek? Sorry, no, I was not actually paying attention to your opinion. Chalk it up to ignorance, not malice ---
**Author:** ![Annie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/858c86/32.png) [@Annie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2009, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-question-about-star-trek-the-new-movie/496178/43 "2009-05-13T14:44:25Z")
> [@Uzi](#): > > Frak. I hate ‘frak’. The whole damn show is in English except the frakking swear words. Unbelievably stupid. Try _Southland_ sometime-they just beep out the fucks. Exercise for the viewer which annoys more ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2009, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-question-about-star-trek-the-new-movie/496178/44 "2009-05-13T15:00:05Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > Worf! His name is **Worf**!! > > For pity’s sake, you don’t moor boats to him. Thanks, I knew it didn’t look right, but couldn’t seem to fix it. Didn’t Picard and #1 have a running battle about this? (i.e. whether Picard would go into dangerous situations) ---
**Author:** ![Uzi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/91b2a8/32.png) [@Uzi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uzi)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2009, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-question-about-star-trek-the-new-movie/496178/45 "2009-05-13T15:16:59Z")
> [@mlees](#): > > generally, it seems the show treated these other culture’s beliefs with some respect. (Nothing that I recall got ridiculed.) Nothing was ridiculed as such, but Sisko knew that the Bajoran’s religion was based upon worshiping aliens, not gods. And there was more evidence that they were aliens than say Q who pretty much had godlike powers. ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2009, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-question-about-star-trek-the-new-movie/496178/46 "2009-05-13T16:01:11Z")
> [@Uzi](#): > > I don’t think I understand you comment, but I imagine the Muslims are with the Christians - Ideologies left in the past or out colonizing some obscure planet where they can live out their religious dreams and not embarrass the rest of humanity in the eyes of the other races in the federation. > Of course, we only really see the elite scientists and technicians of the Federation. It could be that they are reflecting the same ratio of religiosity as exists today between scientists and others. From the episode “Who Mourns for Adonis?”: > [@Kirk](#): > > Mankind has no need of gods – we find the one quite sufficient. Looks like not only is he a monotheist, he thinks everyone else is too. My take on the captain, the first officer, and the ship’s surgeon placing themselves directly into harm’s way every week was not that this was the typical way of doing things. This was an extraordinary captain and crew that did things their own way. Star Fleet didn’t always approve, but they had to admit it produced results. And that’s why we weren’t following the adventures of the USS Constitution, where everything was done by the book and things were a lot less interesting. The fact that later series more or less followed the same pattern is not the fault of the original series. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2009, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-question-about-star-trek-the-new-movie/496178/47 "2009-05-13T16:46:07Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Well, according to Roddenbury, organized religion didn’t survive the unification of humanity. I prefer to think that religion is just a non-issue to most humans, or at least to the plot of any episode. That just means the liberal-hippy religion won. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2009, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-question-about-star-trek-the-new-movie/496178/48 "2009-05-13T16:47:10Z")
> [@Annie](#): > > Sorry, no, I was not actually paying attention to your opinion. Chalk it up to ignorance, not malice Heh ok, well in the OP there is a request for no spoilers. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2009, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-question-about-star-trek-the-new-movie/496178/49 "2009-05-13T16:49:43Z")
Well I think the original series had a limited cast because of format and budget issues. TNG and DS9 could have done more with what they had but they didn’t. I would’ve liked to see more nuanced character relationships, but I’ve also read the Jungian/Campbellian analyses of Star Trek and understand that each character represents a fundamental role in the human psyche and that’s why it works. ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2009, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-question-about-star-trek-the-new-movie/496178/50 "2009-05-13T16:52:33Z")
> [@TWDuke](#): > > Looks like not only is he a monotheist, he thinks everyone else is too. He wasn’t talking about himself? ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2009, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-question-about-star-trek-the-new-movie/496178/51 "2009-05-13T20:04:41Z")
> [@Grumman](#): > > He wasn’t talking about himself? ‘mankind’ and ‘we’ ---
**Author:** ![Billdo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/billdo/32/315_2.png) [@Billdo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Billdo)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2009, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-question-about-star-trek-the-new-movie/496178/52 "2009-05-13T20:26:12Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > No, the XO wouldn’t go, the trained experts whose role is centered around that would. Wait one minute here. Isn’t the Enterprise’s five year mission “to boldly go where no man has gone before”? I would presume that, in sending the ship off on that mission, they would staff the ship with officers who all are trained experts in exploration and contact with new species. Certainly Spock as Science Officer/Executive Officer would be the right officer to lead an expedition, and subsequent XOs would presumably have the training and background to lead such missions. ---
**Author:** ![Damfino](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Damfino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damfino)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2009, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-question-about-star-trek-the-new-movie/496178/53 "2009-05-13T20:52:07Z")
Even when I was watching TOS, this jarred with me. Why send your most valuable assets on a reconnaissance? I rationalised it this way: transporters give you instantaneous access to and egress from a foreign environment, It just takes these top officers a few seconds to assess the situation, after which they may retreat and call on th redshirts. Redshirts haVe a patchy record ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2009, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-question-about-star-trek-the-new-movie/496178/54 "2009-05-13T20:57:41Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > ‘mankind’ and ‘we’ I took Grumman’s question as implying that Kirk was referring to himself as “the one,” which made me laugh out loud. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2009, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-question-about-star-trek-the-new-movie/496178/55 "2009-05-13T21:50:40Z")
I’m long since over the fact that the Star Fleet security officers are useless and that Starfleet doesn’t have marines because they aren’t “military”(Seriously, they keep trying to claim that, regardless of how heavy their weapons are or the military based command structure). And I’m almost over the fact there is no acklowdgement of enlisted people in starfleet(except for one chief, who is probably an officer with an enlisted title in starfleet). That is, if they exist at all. But then again, that seems to be how hollywood treats the Navy in General. Any given ship will have: A bunch of officers who the audience gets to know and care about, a bunch of random junior enlisted guys and one chief(The Sand Pebbles has been the only movie I’ve seen where the Enlisted guys are actually the focus of the movie and get due credit). But they are still pulling the old “Only ship in the Quadrant” crap from EVERY OTHER MOVIE before this. Apparently the entire fleet is away in one system for…something, so they have to pull all the midshipmen with no experience from the academy to assign them to random ships and deal with the enemy threat. Okay, there were 6 ships this time, but apparently all understaffed. And when those got destroyed at Vulcan, Earth was apparently defenseless, considering only the enterprise could save earth. ---
**Author:** ![Uzi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/91b2a8/32.png) [@Uzi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uzi)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2009, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-question-about-star-trek-the-new-movie/496178/56 "2009-05-13T22:53:13Z")
> [@HPL](#): > > And when those got destroyed at Vulcan, Earth was apparently defenseless, considering only the enterprise could save earth. This bothered me, too. Where are the orbiting gun platforms? I’d have guns big enough to blow a hole through the moon protecting Earth, plus other assorted gadgets of such a nasty nature that invaders wouldn’t have time to know they no longer exist after you activated it. Death Star like shit capable of continuous fire. I mean really, it is your home planet, after all. But, it seems that none of the different universes are into static defenses much. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2009, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-question-about-star-trek-the-new-movie/496178/57 "2009-05-13T23:09:30Z")
> [@Uzi](#): > > But, it seems that none of the different universes are into static defenses much. Seems like they’re just taking their cue from real life: where are the United States’ massive, attack-by-sea-fighting-off static defenses? ---
**Author:** ![Uzi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/91b2a8/32.png) [@Uzi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uzi)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2009, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-question-about-star-trek-the-new-movie/496178/58 "2009-05-13T23:38:08Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > Seems like they’re just taking their cue from real life: where are the United States’ massive, attack-by-sea-fighting-off static defenses? It’s called ‘distance’. In the SF universes, distance isn’t a problem anymore. The static defenses that ring a planet should be enough, though, to prevent any random comparable enemy from expending its expensive space fleet to defeat them. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2009, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-question-about-star-trek-the-new-movie/496178/59 "2009-05-14T00:30:14Z")
> [@Damfino](#): > > Even when I was watching TOS, this jarred with me. Why send your most valuable assets on a reconnaissance? I rationalised it this way: transporters give you instantaneous access to and egress from a foreign environment, It just takes these top officers a few seconds to assess the situation, after which they may retreat and call on th redshirts. Redshirts haVe a patchy record I still say they should just ditch the redshirts and have starfleet train some marines. You know, for away missions and recon, and who aren’t totally useless at guarding any prisoners or providing security. But since the federation is a utopia, Starfleet has abandoned anything resembling competent military tactics. Or as Dark Helmet would say: “That is why Evil will always Triumph, because good is dumb” ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2009, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-question-about-star-trek-the-new-movie/496178/60 "2009-05-14T00:35:30Z")
> [@Uzi](#): > > This bothered me, too. Where are the orbiting gun platforms? I’d have guns big enough to blow a hole through the moon protecting Earth, plus other assorted gadgets of such a nasty nature that invaders wouldn’t have time to know they no longer exist after you activated it. Death Star like shit capable of continuous fire. I mean really, it is your home planet, after all. > But, it seems that none of the different universes are into static defenses much. Or just have a couple ships assigned to patrol the most important systems. Like Earth. Or local defense forces, some kind of equivalent of the Air National Guard(Air force units usually stationed at major airports). At least something so that the enemy isn’t completely free to do whatever the hell they want if they catch the fleet away from home(which seems to be all the time). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-question-about-star-trek-the-new-movie/496178.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-question-about-star-trek-the-new-movie/496178.md?page=4)