I love some Star Trek: TNG.

But.

Picard’s extremely anthropocentric worldview and frequent speeches on the endless potential and greatness of Humanity get a little annoying to me.

I find it strange that in a universe of so many sapient species, Picard seems so uniquely fixated on humans.

I also wish some Star Trek episodes dealt with humans who didn’t want to be human. The closest we get is Data, being an android who wants to be human, but that just reinforces the human-centric worldview of the show rather than challenge it.

I also feel like every non-human but still humanoid species in Trek is treated as “Humans but worse.”

Klingons are humans but more violent and more tradition focused, which the show treats as being slightly inferior.

Ferengi are obviously greedy and self centered and therefore worse.

Vulcans are haughty and therefore worse.

Romulans and Cardassians are imperialistic and therefore worse.

The Borg are inscrutable and destructive and therefore worse.

The Q are humans but powerful and unable to control their whims, so therefore worse.

It’s like each alien species in Trek is just humans with something we don’t like about them exaggerated to the extreme. It’s done in a way to explore human morality, of course, but the end result is never entirely kind to the nonhuman species. But look at Worf you might say! Wel, he was raised by humans which took the edge off his Klingon tendencies, which again feeds into the point that the human-middle-ground in the show is treated as superior.

It’s a holdover from a less realized Original Series which was more threat of the week than TNG tried to be, I think. But it hampers the show’s ability to consider the differences between people and treat multiple viewpoints as being potentially equal or moral.

@ziphi Vulcans have always weirded me out for this reason. They attempt to present as the "high elves" of the star trek universe but it seems every time they appear, the plot goes out of its way to show us why that's bad.

I honestly think they only retconned the Caitians in to make up for these problems because they're kinda just humans with a different look.

@ziphi god i've always felt this thank you for putting it to words

@ziphi another thing i'd always felt was annoying was that episode where picard and like a handful of other captians of different species race to find like. something something ancient society, and they all get there at the same time and the hologram is like "if you got here to see this it means we're gone and that you're ["good" in a way that only really described picard] and also a humanoid biped." and like ONE!! it's annoying (as you said) that only the human was ""good,"" and two (this is my more original thought,) it's rather annoying that i guess in the star trek universe, there's just something about the humanoid form that gives human-or-greater-intelligence, and anything that isn't humanoid will never be that 'intelligent' unless it evolves to be humanoid. like, what???? i know it's just an explanation for why all major star trek characters are just "human with makeup," but also, come on that's weird!!!! like the human form is nice enough and it compliments the human mind well, but i don't personally see anything that could stop something shaped like a beetle from being able to evolve into a species that's 'intelligent' and also still shaped like a beetle

@shroomie I don't recall the exact episode, but I think I've found it and am going to rewatch it now for some thoughts.

As I recall, all the humanoid species in Star Trek were seeded by an ancient Progenitor race of humanoids. Easy costume and makeup of course, but that definitely led to some limitations in the show.

I criticize the show because I like it, but still I wish it could have explored what non-human intelligence might look like more than it did. Though I do hear newer Trek shows have a Cetacean Ops involved. And as a fan of whales and dolphins, I'm happy for that.

@ziphi i love star trek too. here's to hoping it doesn't become a zombie franchise