Manny Coto, who won an Outstanding Drama Series Emmy for 24, worked on its sequel series, co-created Fox’s AI drama neXt and was an EP on Dexter, Star Trek: Enterprise, American Horror Story …
  • Prouvaire@kbin.social
    10·
    1 year ago

    ENT was basically watered down TNG for its first two seasons. Some of the time it was good (eg “Carbon Creek”), some of the time it was bad (eg “Precious Cargo”), but most of the time it was stultifyingly mediocre. Season 3 tried something different, but it was only in season 4 that ENT found its true voice.

    And it was Manny Coto who was responsible for the upswing in quality. I’m generally skeptical of prequels, but at least Coto fully bought into the premise of ENT being a prequel show, and showed us how various aspects of Trek lore came to be. I think his stint running that final season may have been his best work.

  • astronaut_sloth@mander.xyzEnglish
    8·
    1 year ago

    Wow. That’s really sad. He was responsible for the best of Enterprise. Everything I read about him was that he was a good, stand-up guy who had a true love for Star Trek. He’ll definitely be missed.

  • tukarrs@startrek.websiteEnglish
    103·
    1 year ago

    I’ve enjoyed what I’ve watched from him. It’s just so strange that someone who claimed to be a lifelong Trek fan could be a conservative Trump supporter.

    • Prouvaire@kbin.social
      10·
      1 year ago

      As someone who used to hang around TrekBBS back in the day, there are actually many conservative and libertarian Star Trek fans.

      It always baffled me also, but I think many of them were/are TOS fans. Kirk’s swashbuckling, individualistic, break-the-rules, throw-a-roundhouse-when-you-need-to style disguised Roddenberry’s socialist utopia that existed in the more civilised parts of the Federation. Certainly more so than adventures of the tea-sipping, conference-chairing, “I think I’ll surrender in my very first appearance” Frenchman who followed him.

      • theinspectorst@kbin.social
        2·
        1 year ago

        I can definitely see how a genuine libertarian could be a Trek fan.

        The politics of Star Trek is all about individual dignity and fulfillment in a post-scarcity society. A lot of people try to call it socialist (as Pelia mockingly did in the most recent SNW episode) but the circumstances mean it’s not any form of socialism anyone’s encountered in real life on Earth, such as in the 20th century. After unfathomable levels of technological advancement eradicates the problem of scarcity, there’s neither the need for a big state nor a market to allocate scarce resources - what we know as socialism and capitalism wouldn’t be meaningful concepts. What we see instead is people doing what they do (joining Starfleet, undertaking research, conducting journalism, opening restaurants) out of a sense of personal fulfillment, and with neither a state nor a society nor a need to pay the bills particularly forcing them to do anything. They’re free to live their lives as they see fit - infinite diversity in infinite combinations. I can see how a libertarian could look at that and call it their personal utopia.

        I struggle much more with how a conservative could embrace Star Trek. So much of conservative politics is about the primacy of the norms of the collective over the rights and dignity of the individual - whether that’s in moderate forms (e.g. wanting to manage the pace of social progress so as not to offend the sensibilities of the majority, wanting immigrants to integrate into host societies) or more aggressive forms (outright hostility to immigrants, denying the rights of women and minorities, denying the existence of LGBTQ people).

        I guess what I’m saying is that once you remove economics from the problem of politics (as Star Trek has hand waved away via technology) then what’s left of libertarianism looks a lot like Star Trek, whereas what’s left of conservativism looks very different.

    • John R@universeodon.com
      3·
      1 year ago

      @tukarrs @ValueSubtracted
      I think a lot of people vote Republican because of where they live. It’s what they are taught. Same reasons why they use inches and speak English. I’m guilty of all those things in the past. I never really thought about it. I have always loved Star Trek. It never occurred to me until about 2016 that none of the good guys in that universe are Republicans. Donny opened my eyes to what the Republicans are all about. I’ll never go back.