When ‘Star Trek’ became too violent...

I’ve been a life long fan of the Star Trek franchise, and for the most part I’ve been enjoying ‘Star Trek: Picard’. However the very violent opening torture scene for episode 5 has me concerned about the dark trajectory the franchise seems to be going under the leadership of Alex Kurtzman. In my humble opinion ‘Saw’ movie violence has no place in Star Trek; save that for horror movies/tv. 

Also the profanity is also very un-Trek. Profanity was used on rare occasions in Trek such as the original crew saying things like “Double dumb ass on you” in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Or Data saying “Oh shit!” in Star Trek: Generations. But in Kurtzman Trek they have the head of Starfleet Command swearing at Picard...???

I realize Star Trek’s Discovery & Picard air on CBS All Access where violence and profanity are allowed but just because you can torture or swear on your show doesn’t mean you should, especially on STAR TREK!!!

To be fair there has been violence depicted on previous iterations of Trek as seen here:

However those were rare examples and every one of those scenes were not as violent or evil as that opening torture scene on episode 5 of Star Trek: Picard. 

Star Trek should be a positive vision of the future, not a depressing dystopia where torture and profanity are common. In all honesty I believe the violence and profanity in modern Trek are a byproduct of an even bigger problem: lazy writers. 

I will be discussing this in more detail on the next episode of The Pop Culture Pub Podcast, which should be released Tuesday March 3rd. 

Stay Tuned.