History YMMV / StarTrek

*** The [[UsefulNotes/CanadianMultichannelNetworks Canadian multichannel network]] SPACE, which began transmitting in 1997, is often facetiously called "the ''Star Trek'' channel" for its incessant reruns of all the shows, despite the lack of any "[=CanCon=]" quota which might otherwise explain its ubiquity.[[note]]To make a ''very'' long story short, "[=CanCon=]" rules require all broadcast networks and cable channels to air a percentage of shows on their schedule which involve Canadians in their production - whether the show itself is produced in Canada, is written by Canadians, or stars Canadians. ''Series/StargateSG1'', produced in Vancouver and co-starring Canadians Creator/MichaelShanks and Creator/AmandaTapping, fulfills these requirements in spades, which is one reason it is ''also'' ubiquitous on the channel.[[/note]] This continues to the present day (the channel has since been rebranded as "CTV Sci-Fi").

** The spinoff series tend to grant focus and development to all, or most, of the regular characters. In particular, the Berman era of ''Trek'' tended to have the main plot of each episode give focus to one, or perhaps two characters, or have the A-plot focus on one, and the B-plot on another. When the newer series, particularly ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'' and ''Series/StarTrekPicard'', started focusing primarily on one character, with the supporting cast mostly there to support that character's story, there were complaints from fans about changing the longterm structure of giving development to all characters. The fact is that the Original Series largely focused on just Kirk and Spock, with Kirk edging out Spock overall, while McCoy was a tertiary focus and mostly was there to be the voice of down-to-earth wisdom for both stars. The other characters hardly ever got any focus or development beyond their thumbnail personalities and Sulu and Uhura didn't even get ''first names'' for several decades.

* [[YMMV/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineRelaunch Deep Space Nine Relaunch]]

** YMMV/TerokNor
* [[YMMV/StarTrekATimeTo A Time To...]]
* [[YMMV/StarTrekVulcansSoul Vulcan's Soul]]
* [[YMMV/StarTrekTitan Titan]]
* [[YMMV/StarTrekDestiny Destiny]]

* [[YMMV/StarTrekOnline Online]]

* [[YMMV/StarTrekTheLostEra The Lost Era]]''

* [[YMMV/StarTrekNewFrontier New Frontier]]

** [[YMMV/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineAStitchInTime A Stitch in Time]]
* [[YMMV/StarTrekTheLostEra The Lost Era]]

** The existence of a Security Chief as a main character began with TNG. Only once in TOS did an episode feature a Chief of Security (Giotto in "The Devil in the Dark"), and it was one of many shipboard roles that showed up once for plot-relevant reasons and then never appeared again (like Ship's Historian in "Space Seed" or Astrobiologist in "Return to Tomorrow"). Since TNG, no bridge crew is complete without a Chief of Security.

* MemeticMutation: : A LongRunner like ''Trek'' has spawned more than a few. "[[CatchPhrase To boldly X where no one has Y'ed before]]", ResistanceIsFutile, [[GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe green chicks]], [[{{Facepalm}} Picard's facepalm]], and '''[[Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan KHAAAAAAN!]]''' are some of the more memorable.

* AmericansHateTingle: While not universal, the whole franchise is more popular in the English-speaking world than outside of it, possibly because it deals with very complex topics, [[ValuesDissonance some of them are taboo outside the U.S.]] The best example of this is South Korea, when not only the franchise is unpopular, the [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries very original series]] was banned there because a character of Japanese origin appears there (Hikaru Sulu). The franchise [[https://injapan.gaijinpot.com/play/arts-entertainment/2010/03/17/star-trek-in-japan/ isn't all that popular in Japan, either]].

** While not exactly unpopular, the franchise isn't exactly hot in Latin America, despise [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries the]] [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration two first series]] are the very well known series of the franchise there, partly because of [[SugarWiki/SuperlativeDubbing excellent voice acting of both series]]. The only exception on this rule is Spock, who is the most popular character of the whole franchise in Latin America, even more than Kirk.

* {{Fanon}}: Given the PlanetOfHats treatment that the various alien races get, fans like to speculate on what they perceive the ''human'' hat as being. One widely-circulated Tumblr post opined that it's more or less a proclivity for the ZanyScheme--e.g. humans not being content to simply ''copy'' Romulan cloaking technology, but to engineer a version that could ''also'' fly through solid matter at the same time, and Picard defeating highly-adapted Borg on the ''Enterprise-E'' by trapping them in a PrivateDetective holonovel, shutting off the safety, and slaughtering them with HardLight bullets.

* NewerThanTheyThink: Casual fans often assume that elements of the setting that were introduced in the movies or later series were present in the Original Series. Usually, it's reasonable to assume that these are changes that happened to Federation society over time, but fans tend to assume they were always present. One of the most notable is the idea that the Federation is a moneyless society. The first mention of this is as a throwaway joke in ''[[Film/StarTrekIVTheVoyageHome Star Trek IV.]]'' There's no evidence of it in the Original Series, and several episodes (Mudd's Women, The Trouble With Tribbles, The Devil In the Dark) would make no sense or at least have gaping plot holes if this were true.

* IdiotPlot: Has [[IdiotPlot/StarTrek its own page]].

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation:

* MarySuetopia: Roddenberry's vision for Trek, but especially the first season of ''Star Trek: The Next Generation''.

* FandomRivalry: Famously, with ''Franchise/StarWars'', pretty much from the moment the latter debuted. Both are similar in name, popularity and influence, while frequently differing wildly in tone, making comparisons almost inevitable; each franchise also frequently [[PopularityPolynomial resurges in popularity]] around the same time the other [[DorkAge reaches a period of decline]], leading to perceptions that the one has stolen the other's thunder. Although an official crossover has never happened (yet), entire fandom sub-groups such as Website/StarDestroyerDotNet have been dedicated to exploring the possibilities of the two universes colliding, as have numerous fanfiction, and the eternal battle between fans has been explored in media like ''{{Film/Fanboys}}''. All that being said, the two have influenced each other quite a bit (again, pretty much from the start- George Lucas has admitted to enjoying ''Trek'' when it began, and the huge success of ''Wars'' led directly to the series' return in the form of ''[[Film/StarTrekTheMotionPicture The Motion Picture]]''), frequently pay tribute to each other, and there are certainly plenty of those who are big fans of both, making it - if not precisely FriendlyFandoms ([[SeriousBusiness never!]]) - perhaps something closer to a WorthyOpponent.

* UnfortunateImplications:
** Heterosexuality is virtually universal. Exceptions to this are rare and ''always'' involve alien species in some way. Even bodiless EnergyBeings seem to have gender identities and are depicted as heterosexual. [[AFormYouAreComfortableWith Q]] jokes about appearing to Picard as a woman, but never does so (although he appears in nonhuman forms several times). He also has a long-term (billion year) Q "girlfriend", with whom he has a son -- a stereotypical heterosexual horny teenager that is obsessed with females even from the "lesser" species. While InterspeciesRomance is quite common to the point of being expected, any deviation from heterosexuality is definitively explained by BizarreAlienBiology. The only episodes which depict ordinary humanoid characters being other than straight in an ordinary way are those set in the MirrorUniverse whose whole set-up is "evil is dominant" (and the depictions often tend to shallow GirlOnGirlIsHot pseudo-lesbian fluff to titillate fanboys). Arguably, stuff like this was done to get past the censors, where they could get away with showing gay stuff as long as aliens are involved and not humans (Gene Roddenberry always wanted to show gay humans, but was always thwarted [[ExecutiveMeddling for obvious reasons]]). This topic has been much discussed, including on the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexuality_in_Star_Trek#LGBT_in_Star_Trek Other Wiki]], Star Trek's own [[http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Sexuality Memory Alpha]], as well as [[http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/inconsistencies/homosexuality.htm other essays]] and [[http://www.wired.com/2013/05/star-trek-lgbt-gay-characters/ articles]]. This was finally averted in ''Film/StarTrekBeyond'' where it's revealed that in this timeline, Sulu is gay and has both a husband and a daughter[[note]]Although that one has its own problems, in that the writers said they did it out of homage to noted gay icon Creator/GeorgeTakei, as he and Roddenberry discussed the matter and Takei agreed to play the character as straight[[/note]] and averted more definitively in ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'' where astromycologist Lt. Paul Stamets and ship's physician Dr. Hugh Culber are in a relationship with each other.
** Website/StarDestroyerDotNet has [[http://www.stardestroyer.net/Empire/Database/Query-ST.php?Series=&Category=Culture&EpName=&Keywords=&Quotes=&Analysis=&Submit=Submit four pages in its database about Federation culture]]... this trope dominates the comments, mostly in regards to the Federation's nebulous economics and highly conformist society. Debates about both topics are extremely common in fandom, not least because the various series are ''extremely'' vague about how the post-monetary economy works (not helped by the fact that there ''are'' frequent references to Federation characters buying things, which is inconsistent with other episodes where they claim not to have money) and because of the apparent lack of any contemporary pop culture (almost every character is a history buff with a preference for mid-20th Century or earlier subject matter). Site creator Mike Wong also wrote an [[http://www.stardestroyer.net/Empire/Essays/Racism.html essay]] that makes hay out of the '90s series' reliance on the PlanetOfHats and the recurring trope that {{Half Human Hybrid}}s are trapped between two cultures, arguing that it reinforces racial stereotyping and [[MalignedMixedMarriage negative attitudes to interracial relationships]].