Calling all Star Trek Fans - Gutter Talk
It seems it is absolutely necessary nowadays that every movie and every TV show has some profanity in it. Makes them more "realistic" or just pandering to a crowd that gets off on profanity?
Let's consider this about where Star Trek has gone:
Patrick Stewart “Deeply Shocked” By Profanity In ‘Star Trek: Picard’
One of the more controversial elements of the first season of Star Trek: Picard was the use of profanity on the show. And it turns out that the star felt the same way, at first. Stewart recalls his initial reaction to the swearing to TV Guide:
I think that Picard had actually taken an active decision not to abuse language that would be unpleasant for people to hear whether it is abusive or offensive in some way, and he stuck to it. Even if he wanted to say, “Damn, blast,” or whatever, he would, for the most part, manage to deny himself that pleasure. When I came across the first swear word in the first script, I can honestly tell you, I was deeply shocked.
I grew up on the original Star Trek, graduated to the sequels like Next Generation and Voyager, and the tone of the show was supposed to be about how mankind had evolved, no longer self possessed, but striving for adventure, discovery and exploration. There was one episode early on in the original series where Kirk did say "If it makes you feel better, Engineer, that's one jackass we're going to see skinned."
Yet now:
‘Star Trek’, swear words and TV characters’ changing mores
For nearly four decades, Jean-Luc Picard of “Star Trek” has largely been presented as genteel, erudite and — at times — quite buttoned up. Yes, he loses his temper. Yes, he was reckless as a callow cadet many years ago. Yes, he occasionally gets his hands dirty or falls apart.
But the Enterprise captain-turned-admiral stepped into a different place in last week’s episode of the streaming drama “Star Trek: Picard.” Now, he’s someone who — to the shock of some and the delight of others — has uttered a profanity that never would have come from his mouth in the 1990s: “Ten f—-ing grueling hours,” Patrick Stewart’s character says at one point during an intense conversation in which he expects everyone will die shortly.
“‘Star Trek’ was G-rated when it first came out. ‘The Next Generation’ was clean-cut and optimistic. What we’re seeing now with ‘Picard’ is a little bit more of the grit,” says Shilpa Davé, a media studies scholar at the University of Virginia and a longtime “Trek” fan.
Over the weekend, “Star Trek” Twitter reflected that tension.
“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.
If you feel inclined, expand on this phenomenon. Is the use of certain language now so much part of our lexicon that TV shows that used to be for general audiences now being geared for more adult audiences (or is there a belief out there that even kids have heard it all by now so what is the big deal?)
And if you are a Trekkie, is this no biggy or does the change of language bother you as well?
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