Liking Star Trek

Some people don't. I don't like a lot of it. I don't even like Star Trek as SF. I do like it as entertainment. People talk as if Star Trek is a monolithic thing, it isn't. More gallingly, people talk about SF as if it's a monolithic thing, and seem to operate with the attitude that if something does not compare favourably to other works of science fiction then it is invalid. There are great many problems with Star Trek in all of its incarnations, and in some there are even few redeeming features. On the subject, to trot out a hobby horse, the music in the Braga/Berman Trek from the last fifteen years is so terrible it makes me physically uncomfortable and ruins every second. For years Star Trek was a purveyor of the safest, most bloodless adventure narratives on television. In canon, the deep structural problems of storytelling related to how the Federation economy works is an issue to be sure; waving a hand that large requires a galactic arm. What does remain however is that Christopher Lloyd made a blinding Klingon, Doctor McCoy is the most charismatic man on television, and I'm in love with Mr. Spock.

The less said of the Usurper Kirk the better.