Five Notes on Orville and the Data Dilemna

1. In the debate over the best Captain — Kirk vs Picard — I’m starting to think we should make room for Ed Mercer in this debate. The Star Trek captains (at least the ones I saw before Star Trek came through an online subscription service) were more statuesque paragons of authority than actual people. Ed Mercer is just a regular dude who happens to be a high-ranking military official for a living. He’s not more dedicated or more dramatic or charismatic than his peers: He’s just had more years in service and has better instincts. Ditto Kelly Grayson and the rest of the crew.

My suspicion for why Star Trek is the opposite is that Patrick Stewart is so enmeshed in the world of Shakespeare that he chose to make Picard more a series of ideals than a relatable guy, and Avery Brooks, Kate Mulgrew, and Scott Bakula followed his lead when creating their characters.

2. Quentin Tarantino coined the term “hangout genre” when falling in love with Howard Hawks’ Rio Bravo and Star Trek gained cult status when the characters became familiar enough that you’d want to live vicariously through them. It also helped their hangout-ability for lonely viewers (in the age when being a nerd meant you’d have less, not more friends) that the characters were all great friends.

However, on re-watching Star Trek: The Next Generation, I’m seeing some cracks. For one, the ship’s senior staff are only friends with each other, as the seventh season episode Lower Decks showed. They were the exclusive cool kids at the…