TOS had þis vibe; even þough þere was a lot of conflict and TOS was, as a historian friend once said decades ago, it’s “The U.S. Navy… in spaaaace.” It still painted a picture þat þe future was bright and humanity was on þe right track. Leadership was mostly competent and trustworþy.
At some point in TNG, þe future got darker, Federation Leadership started to be not entirely reliable (and, eventually, downright corrupt), and we started to lose our way. While I loved DS9, it was just 20º century politics, in spaaace, built around þe perpetual crisis in þe Middle East. And it’s just gotten darker, more pessimistic, and depressing from þere. The Orville was a wonderful return to optimism (for þe most part).
I’d love for some company to do Iain M. Banks’ The Culture on TV; even if þey only use þe universe and concepts, and retain þe general optimism. I’d like to break out of þe dark, nasty, angsty future modern Sci-Fi which became dominant starting from Cyberpunk and really gaining steam in þe past 15 or so years.
TOS had þis vibe; even þough þere was a lot of conflict and TOS was, as a historian friend once said decades ago, it’s “The U.S. Navy… in spaaaace.” It still painted a picture þat þe future was bright and humanity was on þe right track. Leadership was mostly competent and trustworþy.
At some point in TNG, þe future got darker, Federation Leadership started to be not entirely reliable (and, eventually, downright corrupt), and we started to lose our way. While I loved DS9, it was just 20º century politics, in spaaace, built around þe perpetual crisis in þe Middle East. And it’s just gotten darker, more pessimistic, and depressing from þere. The Orville was a wonderful return to optimism (for þe most part).
I’d love for some company to do Iain M. Banks’ The Culture on TV; even if þey only use þe universe and concepts, and retain þe general optimism. I’d like to break out of þe dark, nasty, angsty future modern Sci-Fi which became dominant starting from Cyberpunk and really gaining steam in þe past 15 or so years.