• CyberEgg@discuss.tchncs.de
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    2 days ago

    Lower Decks relies a little too much on nostalgia and the supposed parody of older shows, and the parody often comes off as memberberries.

    • HurricaneLiz@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      “Memberberries” 😂 What’s that mean? I don’t want to search it bc I’d rather hear from someone who actually uses this new word I’ve never heard 💜

      • CyberEgg@discuss.tchncs.de
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        1 day ago

        It’s from a Southpark epidode called “Member Berries” where they are sentient, talking berries constantly reminding people of glory past by asking “Member? Member X?”
        Usually, they are remembering pop culture icons (mostly the OT Star Wars) but also political/societal things like Ronald Reagan, when “marriage was only between men and women” or “when there were no mexicans.”
        By their behaviour they are constantly evoking nostalgia and because of that they’ve kinda become their own pop culture icon as a meme to describe nostalgia bait in pop culture media

        It’s a good Southpark episode, I recommend giving it a watch.

        Also: Memberberries supercut

    • Encrypt-Keeper@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Lower Decks is like a love letter to Star Trek and manages to be good Trek on its own. But yeah it is derivative and nostalgic as part of its blueprint . You need the context of the existing shows for it to be as good as it is, but I can’t really discount it for that.

      • CyberEgg@discuss.tchncs.de
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        2 days ago

        and manages to be good Trek on its own.

        No, I don’t actually think that. While there are some gags that work on their own (like the play on prejudice with the Ferengi), there are so many more “remember that thing from TOS, TNG, TAS, etc? Here, have it again!” (like that giant spock skeleton or the Landru-episode or when Rutherford builds a Delta Flyer). And I don’t quite like that.

        Contrast that with Prodigy (why does that one get to be forgotten so often though? It is really good). Janeway returns as an Emergency Command Hologram, which is a callback both to Janeway and Voyager in general and to the episode about The Doctor, when he wanted to exoand his role and als become an ECH. But they told new stories with the Janeway ECH and made her a new character of her own. Same with Chakotay, who appears later as himself (not a hologramnor some other form of copy). The same character, but new story and developement (both Janeway and Chakotay get more character developement here then in all of Voyager). Then they got Wesley Crusher back, but instead of just rehashing the annoying teenager they explore his Traveler role.
        Instead of pointing at things from past shows saying “See, you liked that, didn’t you? We got that here, too!”, Prodigy expanded these characters and explored new stories. And it did that well.
        Lower Decks did that, too, sometimes. Sometimes LD did make fun of older trek, saying how dumb something was, ok. But mostly the references were mere easter eggs that were there for nostalgia bait.

        • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          Then they got Wesley Crusher back, but instead of just rehashing the annoying teenager they explore his Traveler role.

          Which was itself memberberries. He uses Gary Seven’s office ferchrissakes.

        • teslekova@sh.itjust.works
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          2 days ago

          Lower Decks actually added to the Star Trek universe in real ways. The whole idea of Second Contact vessels, Klingon non-noble culture, Ferengi TV, the Ferengi joining the Federation, Orion culture, etc. It wasn’t only references or derivative at all.

          • CyberEgg@discuss.tchncs.de
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            2 days ago

            I didn’t say it added nothing. I explicitely said there is good stuff. What I do say though is that there is too much memberberries and too little new stuff.

            • teslekova@sh.itjust.works
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              2 days ago

              It’s a fair criticism. I am just more tolerant of the nostalgia bait, I guess, so it’s difficult for me to see how much it would put many other people off.

              • CyberEgg@discuss.tchncs.de
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                2 days ago

                I mean, you enjoy what you enjoy. As long as it’s not Star Wars Movies outside the OT + Rogue One, I won’t judge.
                I also realize that I probably watch movies and shows much more critically than others and I am quickly annoyed by repetitiveness and overused patterns and tropes.