Nothing noteworthy about 18, except voting and easier job hunts (technically, but I had to change cities to find work still, so YMMV). 21 was boring too.

But a week from now you’ll be 40.

Don’t be one of those who at 40 realizes they should have been investing 20% of their income and utilizing their employers 401k match, or taking better care of their health.

The time goes by real fast. Faster than as a teen.

Or at least it tends to seem that way.

Enjoy your 18th today.

Plan for you 60th tomorrow.

Don’t wait.

I prefer to refer to it as V’Ger, but you do you.

But our youths are supposed to be in training to be functional non-youths. So much YA BS just revels in and normalizes silly immature nonsense because it creates drama. There’s no reason these characters can’t be strong role models that make less ridiculous decisions.

Like the weird drama between the complete stranger boy & girl who just met and spent the afternoon together. Being all ‘OMG you lied to me by not immediately telling me you had a long history of hardship and trauma that your still trying to resolve, which naturally influences your choices’.

That whole bit was just drama for the sake of drama, and horribly unrealistic and dysfunctional. She’s not just an empath, she’s a super empath! Who is apparently also extremely immature and horrifically unfamiliar with basic emotion or behavior or relationships or…

But then her dad is also a bit of a short-sighted dick.

Then there’s the fighting between ‘schools’…

Most of the time they act like a bunch of 5 year olds.

Then they also have moments where they seem so deep and emotionally mature.

There’s very little consistency to their characters.

And they are in Star Fleet Academy. It’s a college for the members of a galaxy spanning humanitarian program, not an elementary school. And it has understandably very militant rules about decorum and conduct, as it’s members are working to master skills needed to successfully explore space and navigate complex interactions with a wide variety of very different species.

I know, sure, young people tend to make more mistakes, but some of the random stuff they just drop in out of nowhere to create drama when it’s not needed, probably just to meet a formula regarding content type per minute of showtime, it’s just disappointing.

It doesn’t add to the story, and it’s even often discarded by the characters by the next scene and never referenced again.

The kinda TV that stuck with me, even as a kid, was more mature and more meaningful. Episode after episode they taught morals, gave examples of strong healthy character traits, showed cooperation and problem solving and leadership, gave viewers heros to look up to, even if they were just kids still themselves.

There wasn’t drama unless it added to the story, created opportunities to expand on, or build from, to enhance the intellectual experience, not just give viewers a cheap and fleeting emotional rollercoaster ride.

I mean, do we want our kids getting caught in unhealthy relationship cycles with others, or their own emotions?

Of course, personally, if I wasn’t watching Trek as a kid I was watching PBS Specials, Discover (before it became trash), old Sherlock Homes DVDs borrowed from the library, or reading non-fiction books and magazines, or actually building or crafting things in the real world. So, I dunno, maybe I just never was the target audience for these show runners.

There will always be disasters, and suffering, and unfortunate events, and there certainly have been throughout Star Trek, but I too would prefer we had more protopian sci-fi.

I think SFA is actually trying to be more light and positive and less serious and dramatic, vs Disco for example. SNW seemed to make that intentional shift as well. And I think that’s also why other ST properties like Lower Decks and Prodigy are so highly rated.

SFA started out pretty dark, and I immediately went ‘yuck’… But again, I think they are working their way towards something better. Reopening the Academy is kind of a reboot for the Federation, so it’ll probably be getting better still.

I wonder what kind of insight Karim has into this, that he can share?

SC plays my favorite SFA character… I played a game with my SO to see if she could spot him on the show. She cheated by accidentally seeing him in the credits after the first few episodes. Was fun while it lasted though.

I hope the man gets to your question too, to tell the story himself, but just in case he doesn’t, after the AMA, you can search the web about him and his character and Worf or Dorn. There are articles that briefly talk about the two of them touching base on the subject of portraying Klingons on Star Trek.

But, again, I’d wait till the AMA is over. It’ll likely be more meaningful hearing it direct from the source.

They’re both a bit stranger in a strange land.

That’s a nice catch.