Star Trek Mania

[klem]

You can find anything and everything while surfing the net.What I found was this:In 2015 a rich Chinese man is building his company's headquarters in the image of the star trek ship (160 million dollars) and I thought to myself that you should never let wealth unite with megalomania because from this relationship you never know what to expect,but in this particular case I loved it because I love star trek since forever. However regarding the town of Vulcan in Canada I don't know how the story of the construction of the USS Enterprise ended because it was in 2014.

 

[Orionblamblam]

you should never let wealth unite with megalomania

Well, what do you expect to get when you unite megalomania with poverty? Instead of "neato wow" stories of amazing advancements in things like space flight that get plastered across the entire planet and inspire millions, you get local news stories of crimes that ruin a family or two and send someone to the hoosegow for decades.

 

[klem]

you should never let wealth unite with megalomania

Well, what do you expect to get when you unite megalomania with poverty? Instead of "neato wow" stories of amazing advancements in things like space flight that get plastered across the entire planet and inspire millions, you get local news stories of crimes that ruin a family or two and send someone to the hoosegow for decades.

Certainly everything is relative and no world is totally perfect. It is when we no longer know how to receive what is offered to us that it is time to leave and look for the best for Man, even at the ends of the galaxy.

 

[publiusr]

Too poor for TOMY?

Get Corgi

View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KX30yj5Rxds

 

[kocovgoce]

I wonder when Vulcans developed warp drive? Is it 1950 in Earth years?

 

[Orionblamblam]

I wonder when Vulcans developed warp drive? Is it 1950 in Earth years?

Several thousand years earlier:
1) A small warp driven scout was on Earth in the 50's, in time for one of the crew to become a fan of I Love Lucy.
2) A warlike sect was driven off Vulcan by Surak's side thousands of years ago, fled many light years and became the Romulans

 

[Justo Miranda]

I wonder when Vulcans developed warp drive? Is it 1950 in Earth years?

In the Star Trek Enterprise series, episode "Carbon Creek", a reconnaissance ship manned by T'pol's great-great-grandmother, monitors the launch of Sputnik.

 

[Stargazer]

I consider myself a moderate Trekkie, not indulging in all kinds of products, figurines, items, and so forth. My main interest is the series themselves, the characters, the stories behind filming.
THEN comes the technology, the ships, etc., which to me is secondary and only accessory to the storytelling.
I'm currently catching up with every series in order of broadcast, catching up along the way with series and episodes I'd missed... Last year I binged all 7 seasons of TNG in 4 months and all 7 seasons of DS9 in about the same amount of time. Currently I'm halfway through the 5th season of Voyager, and next will be Enterprise, which I NEVER watched.

My question for all the Trekkies out here: which series is your favorite and why?

As far as I'm concerned (and judging only from the core original series: TOS, TNG, DS9 and Voyager), my favorite is DS9. It's funny because back in the 90s it was my least favorite of all... I found it had a slower pace, was mostly set in a farout outpost dealing with trivial everyday questions (bar customers, tailor gossips, religious rituals, etc.) as opposed to the other series which were about exploration, boldly going where no-one had gone before, and all that jazz. Undoubtedly the result of getting older and maturing, I now consider DS9 to be the pinnacle of the Star Trek concept:

1. Instead of just showing us the occasional interaction between races, it displayed what life in a multiracial universe could be like and the issues at stake.
2. It didn't simply tell adventures and show action sequences; it delved deep into the psychology of every character, and showed individual that evolved and changed throughout. Although that is also true of the other series (except maybe for TOS, but those were different times), I think DS9 allows us to get more intimate with every character and to get to learn to know them in depth.
3. It offered an unrivaled cast of actors, able to express a wide palette of emotions. The acting is amazing throughout, there are no weak characters, they are all very believable and complex.
4. We get to love characters we initially hated, because we get to see their complexity and understand their paradoxes — which shows that we, too, evolve along with the series.

I'd like to hear YOUR arguments to defend what is YOUR favorite series. It can be one of the four ones I mentioned, or it can be one of the newer ones (although I'll readily admit I'm not too keen on watching them for now). The only thing I do NOT want is spoilers! ("I love it because so-and-so gets into this-or-that situation"). So please stick to the overall qualities of the series!

 

[VishnuOsiris]

I'd like to hear YOUR arguments to defend what is YOUR favorite series. It can be one of the four ones I mentioned, or it can be one of the newer ones (although I'll readily admit I'm not too keen on watching them for now). The only thing I do NOT want is spoilers! ("I love it because so-and-so gets into this-or-that situation"). So please stick to the overall qualities of the series!

I am a very casual fan, so I don't have an 'argument' per se. I was drawn more to Voyager and DS9, because I'm a military-geek. I enjoyed the "fish out of water" story of Voyager, [as they must evade the Borg], and DS9 is the "remote outpost under threat" scenario I was looking for in the series. I like when the big weapons go, "BLAM, BLAM!" I'm very warlike and Romulan, I suppose.

 

[uk 75]

As with Dr Who and James Bond I suspect many people tend to prefer the version they grew up with.
Not being a Sci Fi fan but enjoying 1960s simpler and shorter TV the original version is the only one I watch again.

 

[Stargazer]

As with Dr Who and James Bond I suspect many people tend to prefer the version they grew up with.
Not being a Sci Fi fan but enjoying 1960s simpler and shorter TV the original version is the only one I watch again.

Sometimes, but not necessarily so. I grew up with Roger Moore's Bond, and despite the fact I find his version enjoyable and love to watch his movies again, to me he is far from being my favorite Bond. I consider Sean Connery or Timothy Dalton were closer to the spirit of the character.

 

[Justo Miranda]

Multiculturalism, multilateralism, mel pot, psychology, sociology, bad sets, lousy exteriors, too many dialogues, not enough action, a poorly designed ship of which you can see nothing but a control room and corridor, an alien with bipolar disorder and a doctor who only intervenes in the series to crouch next to a guy who is on the floor and say: "Jim, is dead".

 

[VishnuOsiris]

[Re: Scotty in Hell]

This was an unexpected twist.

an alien with bipolar disorder

Who dis?

 

[southwestforests]

My question for all the Trekkies out here: which series is your favorite and why?

Given my health has dramatically reduced how much TV and Cinema I can watch, currently None, it is unclear whether I would count as a true Trekkie.

I do have several books about Star Trek art & props & costumes.
And have read some ST novels.

Used to have a lot of stuff for the Star Fleet Battles board and miniatures game by Task Force Games & some things by FASA for their Starfleet Tactical Simulator board and miniatures game until further health decline ended even doing that & I sold it all.
SFB is set in the TOS era.
FASA is set in TMP movie era.

Have through the decades built Star Trek model kits.

And, actually, I did watch some of TOS, TNG, and scattered bits of DS9, Voyager, Enterprise, a very few bits of TAS.
Did see the first few cinema movies.
Am aware that Discovery and Strange New Worlds exist, but have not and will not be watching any of them.

As for a favorite?
Hmm ...
Dunno.

TOS was first I saw as a child in the 60s and 70s.
TOS is the era of the SFB board game.
When I drew a lot of pictures in a previous century, TOS was the era I drew. (health decline has even messed with drawing)

Guess I primarily accept each version for what it is.
After all, each version is what the creators wanted to create and is the story they want to tell.
Or at least can get funding for.
And those are their stories, not mine.
Perhaps some do appeal more and some less, but right here right now I have no sense of that.
There is only a sense that they are, and they are each their own thing.

As it happens, way back in 8th grade in the 1970s I did get inspired by a line in a book of ST short stories, "The ship was beautiful," in school library & start writing my own non-Star Trek stories.

Thinking about it ...
I seem to be ...
more of a ...
Are the ships and costumes and props and settings cool? Or at least interesting?
type of "fan" person.

 

[southwestforests]

Well, what do you expect to get when you unite megalomania with poverty?

Okay, but what happens when you unite megalomania with poetry?

(Vogons? Oh, different franchise, sorry)

 

[VishnuOsiris]

Well, what do you expect to get when you unite megalomania with poverty?

Messiah or God-complex personalities emerge from the charismatic. Perhaps, not dissimilar from those born to great wealth and feel they are called to a Higher purpose. Someone inevitably tries to take over the world.

 

[Orionblamblam]

Okay, but what happens when you unite megalomania with poetry?

(Vogons? Oh, different franchise, sorry)

You get most poets ever.

 

[Hanse]

Several thousand years earlier:
1) A small warp driven scout was on Earth in the 50's, in time for one of the crew to become a fan of I Love Lucy.
2) A warlike sect was driven off Vulcan by Surak's side thousands of years ago, fled many light years and became the Romulans

Damn shame this never happened:

Find Out How Las Vegas Almost Saw A Full Scale USS Enterprise Attraction

In 1998 Star Trek: The Experience opened at the Las Vegas Hilton, but did you know it was actually the "Plan B" after a much more ambitious vision was considered in 1992. This "The Starship Enterprise" attraction would have built a full-scale Enterprise ship in Downtown Las Vegas. Now the...

trekmovie.com

 

[kocovgoce]

For me, the most popular series is DS9 Voyager. Why Voyager because they were alone in that entire Delta Quadrant, which is not a peaceful place.
I've watched the episode where T-Paul tells the story of her grandmother's trip to Earth in 1957 and how she changed the history of the Earth by selling velcro type and the money he will give to the family he will meet on earth.

Because there was an episode of DS9 where Quark returns to Earth in 1947 and mentions something about selling his ship to the Ferengi Federation and the Ferengi getting warp drive before the Vulcans, and it's 1947.

Thank you for the answers about when the Vulcans developed warp drive.

 

[UpForce]

Star Trek is an interesting franchise, not least because it describes a kind of a utopia but necessarily always falls short since its imagining and telling is a most human endeavor. That tension, when tended to consciously and benignly, partly carries it forward. Some aspects of it are just naturally degrading - it plays on an ephemeral aesthetic but has steadily been losing itself in the complexity added by every new series and movie (and I'm not a stickler for every minute detail adhering to that).

To at least partly answer your inquiry, Stargazer, I have to like the idea of "Lower Decks" best if only because I imagined a similar series somewhat before it was announced - the parallels really were uncanny. Too bad Star Trek doesn't translate to 2D animation well, if at all. Furthermore I would've liked it to be really slow-paced and contemplative, just developing the particular ambiance of the thing. If you're just about to embark on Enterprise, it has its exhilarating moments though the overall look and layout of NX-01 (? ... and the ships do have their own character) had a mildly distracting, out of place effect on me. See above about fallible telling of utopias. Writing of which, DS9 is enjoyable but got a little too liberal with a self-conscious playing with what is utopic with Star Trek in the first place. A little too obvious as a narrative path, perhaps.

Story comes first, at least here, on that I think we can agree.

 

[southwestforests]

Find Out How Las Vegas Almost Saw A Full Scale USS Enterprise Attraction

In 1998 Star Trek: The Experience opened at the Las Vegas Hilton, but did you know it was actually the "Plan B" after a much more ambitious vision was considered in 1992. This "The Starship Enterprise" attraction would have built a full-scale Enterprise ship in Downtown Las Vegas. Now the...

trekmovie.com

As cool as it would have been to build that next to Cape Canaveral, probably a lot more sensible to build it in Nevada's weather instead of Florida's.

 

[Orionblamblam]

As cool as it would have been to build that next to Cape Canaveral, probably a lot more sensible to build it in Nevada's weather instead of Florida's.

Iowa, or nowhere.

 

[Orionblamblam]

My question for all the Trekkies out here: which series is your favorite and why?

Tossup between TOS and DS9. TOS is obviously the classic, and nobody has managed to come close to the characters of Kirk and Spock. DS9 cribbed the Babylon 5 format and was all the better for it.

Both of those shows also showed that the Star Trek universe was not the socialist utopia many "fans" claim it is, but is instead much more of a conservative paradise. Meritocracy, the profit motive, western cultural supremacy, gun rights, hard science over "other ways of knowing," all the good stuff is on *massive* display. Freakin' COLONIZERS *everywhere.* Federation society only really cracks when Big Government authoritarians try to take over. Heck, one of the movies is *all* abut the evils of eminent domain and the importance of recognizing private property rights.

Plus: in Star Trek TOS and DS9, humans are space wizards. Idiot space wizards, but with plot armor the likes of which the rest of the galaxy has never beheld.

 

[southwestforests]

Iowa, or nowhere.

I live in Missouri, on south edge of Iowa, it is spring tornado season here & these 2 states average about 8 tornadoes each in April, Nevada averages 0 per year, while Iowa goes on to average 12 in May and 13 in June.

SPC Average Number of Tornadoes per State by Month

While Iowa fits the fiction, there are not yet any structural integrity fields here in real 21st century life & in the interests of attraction survivability Nevada is real-life smarter than Iowa.

And then there's winter, Las Vegas averages rather less snow than Iowa,
Las Vegas annual average snowfall is around 0.3 inch, 7.62mm, & Iowa averages 18 to 45 inches, 457mm to 1143mm, annual snowfall,
and the weight of snow accumulation on top of that vast expanse of saucer is gonna be an issue,
especially when it is that heavy wet snow.

Let's see, TMP enterprise saucer seems to have a diameter of 142 meters, therefore radius of 71 meters.
pi r squared = saucer surface area of 15836 sq m.

Let's see, Google says heavy wet snow can weigh 320 to 800 kg per cubic meter.

Let's use a 5 inch snowfall, 5x25.4 = 127mm snowfall.
That's about 12.7% of the depth of a cubic meter.
So, that 5 inch, 127mm, snowfall of heavy wet snow could weigh 12.7% x 600kg per cubic meter = 76.2 kg per sqm.

So, 76.2 kg per sqm x 15836 sqm saucer upper surface area =
Snowfall weight of 1,206,703 kg on to of saucer.
or
1206 metric tons

or, for us imperial holdouts,
that's 2,660,324 lbs of snow on the saucer top.
or
1330 tons of 2000 lbs

Build it in Nevada, not in Florida where you have hurricanes & not in iowa where you could have a million kilograms of snow land on the saucer..

 

[uk 75]

The "political" aspect of Star Trek was discussed at length in an amicable thread which was wide ranging and covered it well.

https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/world-government-1990.32431/

Star Trek was and is a pretty good reflection of its US homeland. Other countries get only cameo roles.

 

[Orionblamblam]

While Iowa fits the fiction, there are not yet any structural integrity fields here in real 21st century

That only bolsters my case. A proper deflector shield and a structural integrity field are devices in extreme need of developing. A program to build a full-scale Enterprise in twister country would *demand* such technologies. Now thanks to the good work being done by Musk and DOGE and such, the funds needed for those crash programs should be freed up soon. We should have them available by the time the environmental impact statements for the terawatt-class phaser testing ground in the former city of Detroit are finalized. And after Las Vegas is used for photon torpedo testing, building the Enterprise in the radioactive ruins there is just silly.

 

[Orionblamblam]

The "political" aspect of Star Trek was discussed at length in an amicable thread which was wide ranging and covered it well.

Meh, that mostly covered the "World Government" of Star Trek, and the virtual complete lack of any actual description of such.

But Star Trek and politics go further than that. There are those, like Picard, who claim that humanity no longer seeks to acquire wealth. He says this from his palatial family estate, mansion and vineyard, where he has an army of servants to assist him in producing his own family-named brand of wine. At the same time you see his own crew gamble (implying some means of payment) and other humans owning private starships and making bank carrying cargo and passengers. Picard is the very model of the "limousine liberal" in that he is a scion of extreme wealth and privilege, but doesn't recognize it, and lives in a different word from most other people but doesn't understand that.

People who don't understand Star Trek, Trekkies and Trekkers see discussions such as this and get confused and annoyed, little understanding that discussions of lore and canon and arguments about this and that are WHY so many of us love Star Trek. Trek fans are unlike non-fans in much the same way Americans are unlike non-Americans: we *love* to argue this stuff. We love to dig into the minutia of characters, plot, lore and tech.

Similar to be said for fans of W40K, Tolkein, Star Wars, even those poor downtrodden and pitiable Whovians.

 

[martinbayer]

Multiculturalism, multilateralism, mel pot, psychology, sociology, bad sets, lousy exteriors, too many dialogues, not enough action, a poorly designed ship of which you can see nothing but a control room and corridor, an alien with bipolar disorder and a doctor who only intervenes in the series to crouch next to a guy who is on the floor and say: "Jim, is dead".

The *actual* line is "He’s dead, Jim", but by now I really don't expect you anymore to get any of your socalled *facts* straight anyway...

 

[uk 75]

Dr Who which first appeared just before my 8th birthday is very much the antithesis of Star Trek
In good BBC tradition it was originally intended as an "educational" programme with no "bug eyed monsters".
Unfortunately for its producers the British public prefered meeting Daleks to Kublai Khan or Nero (featured in early episodes).
Although supposed to be non human the first three Doctors were very English characters.
Dr Who is generally regarded as Liberal-Left in its politics (much like the BBC) while the Gerry Anderson shows were on the independebt comnercial ITV channel

 

[Orionblamblam]

The *actual* line is "He’s dead, Jim",

Justo hails from a land of non-English. Perhaps that's how it's translated into foreignese.

 

[martinbayer]

Justo hails from a land of non-English. Perhaps that's how it's translated into foreignese.

I hail from a land of non-English as well. Perhaps people like me should strive to become fully conversant in today's lingua franca in this forum...

 

[Dilandu]

But Star Trek and politics go further than that. There are those, like Picard, who claim that humanity no longer seeks to acquire wealth.

Basically what he means is that humanity is not anymore interested much in material wealth (which, in the era of replicators and dirt-cheap energy and basic resources is mostly meaningless anyway) ahd the criteria for self-satisfacion moved toward the concepts of self-improvement and common benefits. There is apparently still a market for unique things, that either could not be relpicated - like ideas, artistic concepts, customized things - and for things that could be replicated, but it would require far too many energy and computing capability to replicate it properly (if I recall correctly, it was explanation for Picard vine buisness; while "generic vine" could be replicated, the average replicator is not accurate enough to fine-tune the specific taste of high-quality marks)

 

[Dilandu]

hail from a land of non-English. Perhaps people like me should strive to become fully conversant in today's lingua franca in this forum

Он мёртв, Джим.

 

[Orionblamblam]

I hail from a land of non-English as well. Perhaps people like me should strive to become fully conversant in today's lingua franca in this forum.

It's one thing to be fully conversant in a particular language, it's another to be cognizant of the *alternative* language versions of multiple movies/TV shows. Especially if you grew up with/still watch something in a dubbed version.

Plus, most people are only barely aware of a *lot* of franchises...

 

[Orionblamblam]

I don't do Cyrillic, but I can do either German or English, or even French, in a pinch. Please, repost your statement in one of those alternatives.

Ḣ̷̙̘̹͎̲̮̰̥͔̱̄̀̃͌̋̀̑͘ͅǫ̷̰̜̯͓̖̪̱̖̥̦̻͈͋̊́̉̋̋̏̈́̀̉̒͛͝w̵͖͕̹͍̜̣̓̆͒̏̑̐̔͐̔̏́̒͑̚ ̶̝̩̲̬̺̖̹̮̋̈͆́̎̽̊̉͗ǎ̸͇͙͕͇͒̔́͐͂̔͂͊b̶̛̰̗̘̟̠̟͗̈́̋͊̀̈̋̉́o̸̰̯̝͐͊͑̒ǘ̷̢̡̩͓̣͇̣̮̜t̵̛̪͈̫̦̳͕͙̠̖͕̿̍̈́͗̓͒̔̀̎̄̚͘͝͝ ̷̨̩͇̰̝̩̈͑͛̎̆̂̍̽̈́b̸̡̨̜̪͍̩̪̬̮̟͙̮̓́͊̊̄̎̈͝à̴͎̗̖̻̒̈́͋̾̂̿̈́̕d̷̨̘̺̣̝̺͉̟͖̝̖͙̞͗͗͘̕͠͠ͅ ̶̢̫̪͈̤̞̻̄̓̑̌̒͗̉̔͘E̵̡̛̳̜͙̬̜̯͔̓͛͌̎͒̃͘͝n̷̳̟̈́͑͋͌́͘͝ͅͅg̶̹̗͈̎̎̌͆̉̃l̸̢̹̙̟̺̹̲̩̘̈́͒̏͘͠î̸̓̄̐͘͝ͅs̷͚͚̻̣̭͓̝̯̓͑̽̈̎̀̅͑̈́̾͊͝h̴̤̰̬̎̀̊̑̐͑͋͊͝͠͝͝͠?̸͕̜̹̆̔͋͗̊͛̊͗͝͝

 

[shin_getter]

I am not sure if anyone have really rationalize the technology in trek. It seems like with ftl, time travel, artificial intelligence (just ask holodecks), perfect replication of humans and few clear bottlenecks, the tech level really enable a reformat of the galaxy by any faction that put serious effort into it.

Of course, a number of god like factions can stop that. If one think about it in those terms, the story is ultimately about how to applease the gods or at least figure out how to avoid interference.

 

[T. A. Gardner]

You can find anything and everything while surfing the net.What I found was this:In 2015 a rich Chinese man is building his company's headquarters in the image of the star trek ship (160 million dollars) and I thought to myself that you should never let wealth unite with megalomania because from this relationship you never know what to expect,but in this particular case I loved it because I love star trek since forever. However regarding the town of Vulcan in Canada I don't know how the story of the construction of the USS Enterprise ended because it was in 2014.

The equation here is: Geek + Money = Star Trek building

This is explained here

 

[shin_getter]

Basically what he means is that humanity is not anymore interested much in material wealth (which, in the era of replicators and dirt-cheap energy and basic resources is mostly meaningless anyway) ahd the criteria for self-satisfacion moved toward the concepts of self-improvement and common benefits.

We've just seen what post-material wealth behaves like, and it appears that trolling the libs and pretending to be good at path of exile becomes important activities. (aside from planning to take over other planets, but that is classical)

Someone should make a "trek setting but the people are actually people" and seriously imagine how the zero sum status competition would work in that environment. (and one needs to work fast, history IS moving) The late 20th century middleclass sensibility is just absurd in that setting when there is no reason why it'd be status climbing in this environment.

Frankly part of me wonder if student societies, in which the participants are supported and do not need to worry about production and cooperation, makes sense as a model of "post-work" societies. Only the human can have authentic passionate rage needed for activitism! (or they can play sports or something)

 

[martinbayer]

Ḣ̷̙̘̹͎̲̮̰̥͔̱̄̀̃͌̋̀̑͘ͅǫ̷̰̜̯͓̖̪̱̖̥̦̻͈͋̊́̉̋̋̏̈́̀̉̒͛͝w̵͖͕̹͍̜̣̓̆͒̏̑̐̔͐̔̏́̒͑̚ ̶̝̩̲̬̺̖̹̮̋̈͆́̎̽̊̉͗ǎ̸͇͙͕͇͒̔́͐͂̔͂͊b̶̛̰̗̘̟̠̟͗̈́̋͊̀̈̋̉́o̸̰̯̝͐͊͑̒ǘ̷̢̡̩͓̣͇̣̮̜t̵̛̪͈̫̦̳͕͙̠̖͕̿̍̈́͗̓͒̔̀̎̄̚͘͝͝ ̷̨̩͇̰̝̩̈͑͛̎̆̂̍̽̈́b̸̡̨̜̪͍̩̪̬̮̟͙̮̓́͊̊̄̎̈͝à̴͎̗̖̻̒̈́͋̾̂̿̈́̕d̷̨̘̺̣̝̺͉̟͖̝̖͙̞͗͗͘̕͠͠ͅ ̶̢̫̪͈̤̞̻̄̓̑̌̒͗̉̔͘E̵̡̛̳̜͙̬̜̯͔̓͛͌̎͒̃͘͝n̷̳̟̈́͑͋͌́͘͝ͅͅg̶̹̗͈̎̎̌͆̉̃l̸̢̹̙̟̺̹̲̩̘̈́͒̏͘͠î̸̓̄̐͘͝ͅs̷͚͚̻̣̭͓̝̯̓͑̽̈̎̀̅͑̈́̾͊͝h̴̤̰̬̎̀̊̑̐͑͋͊͝͠͝͝͠?̸͕̜̹̆̔͋͗̊͛̊͗͝͝

Well hello Scott, I only see literal Krickelkrakel in your message above and honestly cannot make out any cogent argument at all, let alone a cohesive one, in your post. I obviously don't know whatever substance you may have partaken of while crafting this particular... whatever that is, but I would urgently recommend to seek professional mental help at your earliest convenience. All my best wishes, Martin.

 

[uk 75]

Meanwhile back to the differences between the series.
The stars are of course the Enterprise and similar starships.
Nothing has been able to recreate the shock of the first Enterprise when it appeared on TV screens. It looked clean and white (on Black and White TV in my home when it first appeared) with a dramatic but understandable shape.
Attempts to re-design the original have all left me not very wowed.
Alien ships have a hard job competing. Geometric shapes seem popular Spheres (Balok) Squares (Borg) Triangles (Tholian).
Alien life forms are less interesting than those in low budget Dr Who. The Daleks would make short work of Starfleet. Cybermen were wearing plumbing items outside their bodies many years before the Borg.
Short skirts are a recurring feature in Who and Trek. Not perhaps surprising as men are the main audience. I no longer watch TV being slightly deaf but have we had a Transgender Starfleet Captain yet?