Thoughts? Comments? Memes?
2026 hasn’t started yet. So we will have to wait and see.
From an older thread regarding this topic:
If you think about it, that episode wasn’t much better than the ‘planet of violent black people’ episode in terms of basic stereotyping and bigotry. I’m betting Colm Meany wasn’t especially happy about it.
Wasn’t there a rumor that Rumpelstiltskin from If Wishes Were Horses was supposed to be a leprechaun but Meany put his foot down on that?
That’s what Memory Alpha says:
Rumpelstiltskin was originally written as a leprechaun but was changed when Colm Meaney objected, claiming that this was an offensive stereotype against Irish people. According to Meaney, “Using caricatures or cliches of any nation is not something Star Trek is or should be into.” (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion (p. 55))
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/If_Wishes_Were_Horses_(episode)
I’m guessing Meany didn’t have the clout and/or the job security on TNG to make that objection.
At least he finally got a say in the matter.
Too bad O’Brien seems to have paid for it from there on out, though.
As offensive as that episode was about Irish stereotypes, that scene where Worf gives the guy complaining about the booze quality some Klingon drink, and it knocks him silly and he announces, “Now that’s what I call a wee drop of the creature!” is just absolute gold.
It would have been pretty easy to do that with some non-stereotype guy whose culture was all about drinking. Didn’t they mine that particular stereotype of ‘these are a real people who love to get drunk’ with Scotty already?
The thing Trek didn’t get right was that it was terrorism that brought it about.
In the end it was far more Trek, everyone got round a table and had some hard conversations and then democracy was enacted.
