Poll of the Week: Pre-Warp Nostalgia

[Laria Herren]

In Star Trek, the characters often reference art from their respective cultures. This could be as simple as a passing reference to a novel or something as complex as playing out scenes from a play on the holodeck. Data was a fan of Sherlock Holmes. Worf was known for being well-versed in all things related to Klingon culture. Multiple members of the Enterprise-D senior staff played parts in classic plays from Earth during their down time. Star Trek is full of references to classical music, Shakespeare, and literature. However, one aspect of culture seen much less frequently is the modern-day literature, art, and music of the Federation.

Whether it be Worf’s Klingon opera or Data and Picard playing out a scene from Henry V, most of the culture from the Federation that we see is historical and not current. With art from Earth it makes sense for producers to reference well-known classics like Shakespeare. But even when dealing with alien art we always seem to see art from that world’s distant past. While a few episodes do give us glimpses into the bestselling holonovels and popular culture of the 24th century, it seems that most people are content to stick with the classics from centuries ago. What do you think about the lack of modern culture in the Star Trek universe? Is it just a trick to limit production costs or a major missed opportunity for worldbuilding? Cast your vote and let us know what you think!

[Maddi Hyden]

I feel like Star Trek was meant to show the diversity of all the different cultures in some way or another all of the races in the show point back to a way the human race was at one point or time and still are. The shows diversity brought many people in to the show! I know it was the diversity that caught my eye! I think it’s the diversity that helps define the show for what it is.

[Kalia Qinn]

Yeah, this is one of those things that always bugged me a bit, or at least it did once I was old enough to view these kinds of thing with a bit more of an analytical eye.

It makes sense from a production and writing standpoint, but it results in what feels like a lack of depth to the world.  Think of your friends and family.  How many are fans of 17th and 18th century culture?  Sure, we have more disposable income with leads to more popular culture items to consume than they did 300-400 years ago, but as we move towards a post scarcity culture, and then add in countless other cultures producing art and media, the vast majority of people have to simply be fans of 24th century media and art.

I think it does come down to an ease of writing, especially for us.  When you're trying to put out a post as it approaches midnight, and you want to drop in a cultural reference for flavor, it's just easier and quicker to make it something from our own time period instead of coming up with something out of thin air.

This actually leads me to an idea.  @FltAdml. Wolf if someone were inclined to work up some kind of list of various pieces of media for players to reference and expand on, as a way to bring in 24th century culture and media, would there be an existing venue for this?  Would it just be a wiki project, or is there a "world building" group that handles the background world to keep everything consistent?

~Patrick

[Jordan aka FltAdmlWolf]

4 hours ago, Delan Han said:

This actually leads me to an idea.  @FltAdml. Wolf if someone were inclined to work up some kind of list of various pieces of media for players to reference and expand on, as a way to bring in 24th century culture and media, would there be an existing venue for this?  Would it just be a wiki project, or is there a "world building" group that handles the background world to keep everything consistent?

That would go in the Memory 118 area, which is linked from the left-hand navigation on the wiki: https://wiki.starbase118.net/wiki/index.php?title=Memory_118_Guide

[Kalia Qinn]

Is there any coordination of the world building to provide a common direction and to prevent contradictions?  Does the Wiki team handle this or do they just handle the technical aspects of the wiki?

~Patrick

[Jordan aka FltAdmlWolf]

1 hour ago, Delan Han said:

Is there any coordination of the world building to provide a common direction and to prevent contradictions?  Does the Wiki team handle this or do they just handle the technical aspects of the wiki?

~Patrick

No coordination. We handle that on a case by case basis.