Quote:
Originally Posted by EricJ
TNG tried introducing the Ferengi as a greedy pirate-like enemy midways through the series, which, they later realized, turned out to be just plain silly:
In a technology where replicators are common, the commerce system has practically disappeared, and the Root of All Evil with it, to the point that good ol' fashioned greed just didn't have the pull it used to...Why should they be threatened by an enemy looking for gold, when you could download it with a few buttons and send them on their way?
Some might seem frustrated by a change, but it at least narrowed man's evils down to just fear, prejudice, weakness and war-pride. And the Roddenberry series hadn't escaped THAT.
(The Ferengi didn't catch on until DS9, where they could operate on the fringes outside of nice utopian Federation trade, and satirize our own innate dreams of swindling a buck the easy way.
As they humorously point out in one episode: "You hate us, because we represent what you used to be...Only WE do it better.")
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Yes, the various alien species were evil when need be, but humanity--the population of Earth--was one big happy family, and that's something I just can't buy (particularly in a piece of fiction that's trying to make a point). Hell, Roddenberry himself is a good example of what's wrong (and likely always will be wrong) with humanity, what with all his lying, stealing, and infidelities. He couldn't overcome human nature, and to think that we can do so en masse is a pipe dream of the highest order.
I think Roddenberry's decision to make Starfleet a collection of spotless Boy Scouts robbed the show of quite a bit of drama. If the characters are going to make the journey from A to A, what's the point? And a lot of illogical plotting was required to make sure no one ever stepped out of line. Look at all the revisions made to "The City on the Edge of Forever." There's tension in the version where the lieutenant is the one who jumps back in time, but Ellison is absolutely right when he says it's stupid for McCoy to accidentally inject himself and go nuts.