# We really need a new "Star Trek" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 1, 2014, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-really-need-a-new-star-trek/677643 "2014-01-01T16:34:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-really-need-a-new-star-trek/677643/81 "2014-01-03T18:12:56Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > So _that_ explains why J.K. Rowling is back on the dole again! No one ever buys her books or watches the movies that inspired them, the poor thing. Sorry, I was too subtle. Harry does not have a dark past, not really. And people still like him. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-really-need-a-new-star-trek/677643/82 "2014-01-03T18:16:59Z")
> [@NoClueBoy](#): > > _ **Q!** _. Should Spock Prime give STU 2 a heads up about him? ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-really-need-a-new-star-trek/677643/83 "2014-01-03T18:39:10Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > The boringness of ST-TNG comes from everything working too well, their over the top technical superiority, and that they are well past the point of going where no one has gone before - with a few exceptions they are in an already explored region of space. > > Earth was just as utopian in ST-TOS, but the original Enterprise was always operating right at its limit. And they weren’t so damn smug. Q is basically right. Good point. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-really-need-a-new-star-trek/677643/84 "2014-01-03T18:41:54Z")
Iain Banks’ culture universe is THE answer here. Dismissing it as a utopia is dumb – as anyone who has ever read the novels know, they are NOTHING but conflict, mostly by setting the stories outside Culture proper in lesser civilizations where people are still engaging in nasty practices like war and genocide. The Culture has the Special Circumstances wing to encourage such civilizations to move toward more enlightened ways, which often involve lots of fighting, spying, derring-do and so forth. Still, all that fighting is within the background of a huge interstellar civilization that is as powerful or more powerful than its enemies, so the overall tone is hopeful and light despite all the conflict, and rest assured, Banks is willing to literally put his characters through hell ( see: “Surface Detail”). This framework holds INFINITE possibilities for exciting stories, hell Special Circumstances alone holds infinite possibilities. All the other suggestions come in a VERY distant third. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-really-need-a-new-star-trek/677643/85 "2014-01-03T19:34:13Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Should Spock Prime give STU 2 a heads up about him? It would seem the logical course. ---
**Author:** ![Atomic\_Alex](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atomic_alex/32/175_2.png) [@Atomic\_Alex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atomic_Alex)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2014, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-really-need-a-new-star-trek/677643/86 "2014-01-03T23:05:57Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > Iain Banks’ culture universe is THE answer here. Dismissing it as a utopia is dumb – as anyone who has ever read the novels know, they are NOTHING but conflict, mostly by setting the stories outside Culture proper in lesser civilizations where people are still engaging in nasty practices like war and genocide. The Culture has the Special Circumstances wing to encourage such civilizations to move toward more enlightened ways, which often involve lots of fighting, spying, derring-do and so forth. > > Still, all that fighting is within the background of a huge interstellar civilization that is as powerful or more powerful than its enemies, so the overall tone is hopeful and light despite all the conflict, and rest assured, Banks is willing to literally put his characters through hell ( see: “Surface Detail”). > > This framework holds INFINITE possibilities for exciting stories, hell Special Circumstances alone holds infinite possibilities. > > All the other suggestions come in a VERY distant third. Its just a pity that Bank’s himself stated in an interview that he hoped nobody would continue The Culture story universe after his demise. I hope thats one wish people don’t hold to closely to. Though I think that with his last couple of Culture books things were getting too formulaic. Surface Detail was better in that respect but the consequences of virtual reality tech soured me on the Culture universe quite a bit, though its depiction is perfectly logical given the tech depicted. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-really-need-a-new-star-trek/677643.md?page=4)