Hello, I would like to complain that filling out a form to complain is exactly the kind of thing that Gene Roddenberry would be against so I refuse to do it. /s
I have a problem with the Kelvin timeline. Specifically how they depicted the Kobayashi Maru sequence. No, I don't care if Spock programmed it. My issue is that Kirk's behavior stank. He straight up cheated, but even worse, he was smug about it. That didn't show leadership potential at all. That was conduct unbecoming of an officer.
I'd always had it in my head that Kirk simply disagreed with the test philosophically. It's a simple scene to set up. Kobayashi Maru tests officers to see how they deal with a losing path in a simulation of a deterministic universe, but especially to reveal the quality of their character. But Kirk doesn't believe in fate. He believes in a quantum universe, where infinite possibilities spring from the vacuum every instant. In my mind, Kirk wouldn't simply reprogram the hostile ships' shields to drop at an exact moment, then just line up his shots. That's still determinism! Instead he would subtly reprogram the simulation to account for random chance, and depend upon his skill to beat the odds against whatever the scenario might throw at him. Examining his changes to the code would reveal not a spoiled rotten, cheating, nepotism brat, but a confident leader with a fundamental difference in personal philosophy for approaching the Universe, and furthermore, who simultaneously argued that the Kobayashi Maru was a flawed exercise, while generously offering a patch to improve it. That's captain material.
That scene would have made me lose all respect for Kirk if I regarded it as canon, so I can't. I would never follow a man like that into the unknown, no matter his supposed tactical brilliance. No disrespect to any of the actors. It's just bad writing. Beyond that, I've got no problem with Kelvin beyond minor quibbles.
Another way to look at it though, is Kirk wanted to draw attention to the ridiculousness of the test. He was making a bold statement that his intention wasn't to "cheat" but to show the test was stupid by rubbing it in their faces. He was saying if you're going to fix it so I can't win, I'm going to fix it so no one can lose.
I have my issues with the Kelvin timeline. And to be honest I think the writing could have been better in that scene. But I would prefer they replace the ending of movie two. The reactor sacrifice thing went away past just a nod to previous movies into lazy writing. And the blood thing created SO many future plot holes...
This is how I see it. Reprogramming the test was a protest, and protests should be loud and obvious. A subtle change that made the test just barely passable would have just looked like academic dishonesty.
The Kobayashi Maru sequence is a perfect summation of everything wrong with Kelvin Kirk. He's basically a fratboy. He just lies and cheats his way through problems by the seat of his pants with no forethought or consideration. Actual TOS Kirk is an incredibly smart, educated and thoughtful leader who constantly questions his own beliefs and motivations. He understands the burden and the cost of leadership, and always strives to meet that burden, and he truly believes in the Federations mission to be build a better world for all.
This is why I love Strange New Worlds. SMW Chris Pike is, genuinely, the best version of Kirk in any Star Trek. Smart, thoughtful, emotionally intelligent, cares deeply about his crew, but also funny and likable. And, when need be, kind of a badass.
Klingon continuity is the only thing on here that can get me riled.
Faith of the Heart is... whatever. What Janeway did to Tuvix, I definitely wish didn't happen that way, but I can get over it.
But dammit stop fucking up Klingons, please. TOS gets a pass (and Enterprise, whatever its other problems, retconned a continuity fix for that.) But every Klingon fuckup after that is inexcusable. (Some more inexcusable than others.)
(Sorry. Sorry. I'll go take ten deep slow breaths now.)
DIS season 1 is the worst Klingon continuity issue, but the Chris Pine Star Trek movie Klingons weren't like other Klingons either. Enough so that the fanbase had to start speculating as to how to resolve that inconsistency.
It stopped being sci-fi and started being fantasy when they started with magical tardigrades and "time bugs". The rest plays like a space marines series.
Edit: also the spark and flame throwers on the bridge make it look like GWAR concert.
Thankfully TOS never did any fantasy stuff like galactic barriers, Trelane, massive green hands in space, or Abraham Lincoln. That wouldn't have been true to Gene's vision.
I'm not a fan of Disco either, but tardigrades and time bugs are really low on my list of complaints. Star Trek did lots of even whackier stuff over the last 60 years (or did everyone forget the "Fun with DNA" episodes of the 90s?). In fact, that time bug episode was probably the best 32nd century Disco episode. Which is a low bar, but anyway.
I guess my issues with stuff like the tardigrade, time bug, spore drive, etc. is that it's just taking something from earth and putting it in space and saying it's the "space version". It's so lazy and stupid. At least TOS usually had some interesting reasoning behind why these things were happening or they were different enough from anything on earth that at least they felt novel and innovative.
what about the special needs holograms that fail if you blink at them in the wrong way. What the hell was that about?
This is what happens when a stupid person tries to write a clever character. There's no actual intelligence it's all just stupid magic loopholes that our character knows for some random reason that makes no actual logical sense.
This also grinds my gears, especially after so many officers die during the course of the series. So many junior officer ranks are time-defined promotions (in real life) and even if they weren't time based, slots opened up due to all the people dying.
I love to rag on Neelix, not least because I think Ethan Philips has been criminally underused ever since VOY ended. (Put him through a freak worm hole already!) But even so... Dang. Got his own checkbox. His cooking can't have been that bad...
Tangent, but I had a generally positive opinion of John de Lancie based on his work in Trek and Days of Our Lives (I am so old) and various interviews I'd seen over the years until I saw Jenny Nicholson's video about the last Bronycon. De Lancie had some involvement in a film about the Brony phenomenon and she was in a green room with him a few times. Apparently he was pretty rude and showed contempt for his fans. 🙁
Disclaimer: Not a Brony myself but Jenny Nicholson can make anything interesting.
De Lancie invited the local bronies in my area to attend an opera he was narrating. I attended and he came and hung out with the bronies afterwards, saying he wanted to thank us for sharing our thing with him by sharing his thing with us. He stayed late after, signing autographs and chatting with people, for so long that I think he may actually have missed his flight. He was a super sweetheart. Maybe he needs to vent about the nasty fans behind closed doors sometimes, but I can't begrudge anyone that. I recognize that it's only one data point, but he made the effort to do something nice for us on his own initiative, was incredibly generous with his time, and was kind to me, personally. I will always appreciate that.
EDIT: Also, it was a free event so it's not like he was trying to sell tickets or anything, and there were less than a dozen of us so I doubt it was a self-serving PR move.
Most Q episodes are hit or miss and almost all of TNG season 1 is bad but I still think episode 1 with Q putting Picard on trial is a perfect introduction to TNG.
I dislike everything that isn't Voyager because not enough Neelix. Also, I'm going to look over the comic sans because of the far greater sin of using Papyrus.