An Open Tumblr Letter To Younger Fans, From A 77-year-old TOS Fangirl

Star Trek is a show about how to trick some 1920s gangsters into instituting communism. Star Trek is a show about bisexuality. Star Trek is a show about learning to deal with the fact that you replaced your alternate dimension self and everyone you actually knew is dead and you're surrounded by exact copies. Star Trek is a show about space whales. Star Trek is a show about fucking your subordinate in lizard form. Star Trek is a show

confessions in ten forward

the way Spock keeps glancing at McCoy and Christine just proves to me that in private he does show his emotions and that includes when he and Jim are alone

i wish we could see Jim’s reaction to Spock’s little outburst

my question is why did tom never create a holodeck arcade?? or like... bowling alley?? that seems so him??? can you imagine that... seven tries bowling and literally can ONLY get strikes. and tom is like tch yeah of course i can do that! but he literally cannot hit a single pin... but then for whatever reason he can play skeeball like NOBODY’S business.

an arcade date with b’elanna where he secretly replicates whatever she buys with her tickets?? and brings it to her the next day??? also obviously weekly ddr competitions. janeway is the leading champion there, but tuvok’s been known to “bust a move.”

harry would probably be really good at like, claw machine games? he strikes me as a claw machine game kid. also like pacman. b’elanna really likes those games where you sit inside a little dark booth and shoot things. TOM PLAYS THOSE MOTORCYCLE RACE GAMES... but chakotay somehow beats him EVERY time. but that’s okay because chakotay’s usually following janeway around and playing 2p games with her.

seven can and will DESTROY you at any kind of fighter game, but generally chooses to stand behind people and watch what they’re doing instead. neelix is running around making sure everyone’s having a good time (and occasionally jumping in to play ddr) and the doctor, KNOWN to be extremely competitive and has a need to be the best, is uncharacteristically sitting at the bar drinking some fancy fizzy drink the whole time. except for when HE decides to get in on the ddr, and puts the captain to shame in a single game. although if there’s any kind of golf game, he’s there.

and lastly, naturally, bumper cars. tuvok wants nothing to do with it, but neelix begs him to join. tom and b’elanna are menaces they WILL bump into you and they WILL send you spinning into oblivion. janeway chases tuvok specifically, tuvok wishes he was not present. neelix is just roaming having a good time. the doctor is trying to pose as much of a threat as tom and b’elanna, and eventually surpasses them to become Bumper Car King. harry and chakotay just kinda spin around and are happy to be there. thank you for coming to my ted talk

The fact that there’s a third guy with them makes even more obvious that Kirk and Spock are staying so unnecessarily close to each other lol

[s1 e18 - Arena]

Lower Decks gets it:

“I’m sorry, I’ve gotta be honest, I didn’t join Starfleet to get in phaser fights. I signed up to explore, to be out in space making new discoveries, and peaceful, diplomatic solutions. That’s boldly going. And you know what? I’d love to be in a string quartet. I loved that when Riker was on the Enterprise he was out there jamming on the trombone, and catching love disease, and acting in plays, and meeting his identical transporter clone Thomas. That stuff may not seem as cool as what you guys do, but it’s Starfleet. All the way.”

-Boimler in Kayshon, His Eyes Open

Thinking of Deep Space Nine as "the Dark Star Trek" without digging into what made Deep Space Nine work is so reductive. Like when people discuss Star Trek being "dark" now people bring up "DS9 was Dark and you loved that! Trekkies would hate it now!"

Deep Space Nine didn't work bc it was Dark and it wasn't Dark out of nowhere. Deep Space Nine is intimately tied to TNG in a way no other series is with another (Voyager could've been just as rooted in DS9, but. Y'know. Wasn't). Not only in characters, but that the show is so devoted to exploring deep cuts from TNG: the Bajorans, but also the Ferengi, long dismissed as failed villains, and the Trill, one-off aliens-of-the-week who DS9's writers turned into one of Trek's major species. The central thesis of DS9 isn't that the Trek Universe Is Fucked Up Actually. It's that things get more messy and complicated when Starfleet has to stick around and not dash off to another planet at the end of the episode

DS9 is darker than other Treks, yes, but DS9 is also the warmest, with the most grounded, human characters, not in spite of the fact that two-thirds of the cast are aliens but because of it. The writers treat alien characters as not representatives, but individuals. They treat everyone as individuals, with foibles and flaws, not as perfect, straitlaced future people. DS9's dark episodes are darker than other Treks, but also it's more willing to get silly and emotional. Only DS9 could do the "Sisko confesses to a conspiracy to get the Romulans in the war" episode, but also only DS9 could do the "a holographic lounge singer tries to get Odo and Kira together" episode right after it. Boiling the entire series down to "Deep Space Nine was the Dark Star Trek! Grimdark!" is...just not it

one of the reasons I love the apple is because when spock and chekov fight you can absolutely tell it’s fake

kiss