#did we learn nothing from the xenophobic ent 9/11 fiasco

[sirellas]

one of my biggest issues with new trek is that it keeps trying to make every season of every new show have such a monumental scale that it circles right back around to being irrelevant. there's always a huge evil plot to destroy everything in the universe slash starfleet (and the assumption that starfleet and the federation IS everything ((and that everyone should want to join)) is a whole other debate) and our rag-tag crew of misfits has to save the poor defenseless federation against all odds etc etc..... like i get it, big stakes = big action = big emotion. but it's too big. it's lazy. when "everything" is on the line, characters don't have to justify why they're risking their lives because, duh, it's obvious, they're doing it because they have to etc etc. there's literally no believable alternative in the narrative.

whereas a smaller scale issue (i.e. voyager stuck in the DQ, dealing with the cardassian occupation of bajor, and so on; still big problems to solve! but they don't affect the entire fabric of society) has moral gray areas and also specific goals the main characters should achieve other than just "save everyone in the universe". the characters could and did question their own motives and actions because there wasn't one right answer! the shows were about thinking about what the right answer was!!! how am i supposed to believe that the real treasure was the friends we made along the way if i don't care about the ""way"" in the first place????