entertainment

‘Star Trek’, swear words and TV characters’ changing mores

11 Comments
By TED ANTHONY

The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.

© Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

11 Comments
Login to comment

“Totally out of character,” said one post, reflecting many others. Some complained that it cheapened the utopia that Gene Roddenberry envisioned, that humans wouldn’t be swearing like that four centuries from now, that someone as polished as Picard wouldn’t need such language.

“Part of Star Trek’s appeal is the articulate way characters speak. Resorting to gutter language feels like a step backward since Star Trek’s characters are meant to be better than this,” John Orquiola wrote for the website Screen Rant on Sunday.

This isn't the STAR TREK franchise that Gene Rodenberry made. And isn't this on Netflix anyway? This isn't on network TV. And for the record I remember the use of a few swear words in the STAR TREK mo9tion pictures. Dr. McCoy used the 'GD' word and Kirk gave that famous line, 'Klingon bastard, you murdered my son! Ohhh, Klingon bastard, you murdered my son!' in STAR TREK 3.

Either way, I gave up on it all in the 21st century because it has strayed from the original vision altogether, starting with 'Voyager'. That was a dud. Now it's mostly a soap opera in space.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

"Oh dash it all... the gosh-darned Titan is going to explode... whatever are we to do?"

Star Trek has always been a product of its time, and the language sometimes verges on the silly as the writers went out of their way not to offend anyone. The swearing doesn't bother me - Picard's world isn't a utopia... it's never been a utopia.

Death penalties for mutiny and visiting Talos IV, for example... not exactly life affirming.

Roddenberry wasn't really a visionary, by the way - he just turned Forbidden Planet into a TV series ^_

-4 ( +0 / -4 )

Sad to see the spotlight on Picard's profanity rather than the story. Having to rely on Picard swearing for "powerful" moments, lets down the effort on bringing a engaging event in Picards later years to the screen. It was not "modern" and in my opinion, not needed for the story. Change for the sake of change and nothing else.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

It's a failure of creative writing. Pure and simple.

If the same character, after literally decades of far-dicier service, never had to once sink to the profane of profanity (in fact, more often than not, the Picard character has long been celebrated for being elevated in his self-control and sense of decorum when under fire), then this just seems like a let-down - an anachronism smeared on to a once noble character.

Of course, we do live in a time when tearing down and belittling soaring pieces of culture and history, dumbing down music and literature to its crassest form, and critiquing everything and anything under the sun until they become banal and mundane, is now the norm, so what did we expect from a show that in reality is no more than a shell of what previous generations of writers and show-runners brought us from the Star Trek universe?

3 ( +5 / -2 )

Kind of on the fence on this one. It's true that TOS shocked people with some of their diction and storylines back in the 60's but the use of the F-word in particular from Jean Luc sounds out of place as he never uttered them before. Other characters in Picard have swore but not him...until now. I'd prefer that ST avoid modern cuss words as it brings the show to close to home for me. I prefer it when 'their world' is different from ours and not the same as ours.

6 ( +7 / -1 )

I can imagine a crew cooked up on a ship facing mortal danger on a regular basis might resort to the odd profanity.

I spent a bit of time on my dad’s ship when it was in dock and the air turned blue over a game of poker.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

It takes brains not having to cuss to strongly communicate.

3 ( +6 / -3 )

I'm not a fan of the swearing in 'Star Trek'. It's generally unnecessary, abuses the tradition, and cheapens the brand. And I'm not exactly a puritan or prude. It just feels wrong. Like special effects and visceral violence, it's usually a sign of creative laziness. The replacement of art with eye candy and shock value.

'Picard' got very mixed reviews when it came out, which is unusual for any ST series. I have s1 on DVD but haven't watched it yet.

The overreliance on violence, sex and swearing in Western TV may be one reason why folk turn to Kdrama. The finale of 'Endeavour' last week felt like the end of an era. There is no longer a drama series on British TV that I'm particularly interested in watching or await the next series of. The storylines and characters are just unappealing, sometimes to the point where watching it feels like a form of emotional abuse (something that might also be said of the news). I'll stick with kdrama and box sets of drama from the 70s, 80s and early 90s.

Velma has been appearing in (often very enjoyable) erotic fan art online for decades, but there's no reason to insert that into the actual TV series. That just feels wrong - like the character is being abused by the current writing team. If you inherit a character, you inherit an artistic tradition and a responsibility. If you aren't up to that, create a new character in a new drama.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

The showrunner for “Star Trek: Picard ” this season, Terry Matalas, said the F-word from Picard wasn’t scripted but was a choice by Stewart in the moment. The result, Matalas said, was “so real.”

Given Patrick Stewart's acting chops and experience with Star Trek and this character, I trust his judgement on this.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

Orlik, Roddenberry was a genius in story telling and far ahead of his time. Swearing in the series just seems crass, maybe more relatable to many but as an idealized future, just somewhat lazy.

8 ( +9 / -1 )

I read a few years back that Quentin Tarantino wanted to direct a rated-R Star Trek movie. I have no problem with a rated-R Star Trek per se, but I have a huge problem with Quentin Tarantino directing anything Star Trek.

2 ( +5 / -3 )

Login to leave a comment

Facebook users

Use your Facebook account to login or register with JapanToday. By doing so, you will also receive an email inviting you to receive our news alerts.

Facebook Connect

Login with your JapanToday account

User registration

Articles, Offers & Useful Resources

A mix of what's trending on our other sites