Does Star Trek Suffer From Age-ism

[Theunicornhunter 2]

Kirk was a fairly young captain compared to sucessors. The result was that he had older officers with more experience - not that he necessarily relied on them but they did add some dimension to the crew. In fact I was just thinking that Dr. McCoy was sort of reminiscent of the doctor in "Mr. Roberts" - (another movie to recommend. ) He was sort of a voice of wisdom and experience.

 

TNG and forward the captains have been the oldest (humans) and the ones with the longest Star Fleet service record. Sisko had Dax but even at that the host was young.

 

Do you think the shows miss something by not having more variety in the crews ages? Although realistically I wonder if there will be a mandatory retirement date for space travelers (John Glenn notwithstanding) just as there is now for airline pilots.

 

What are your thoughts?

[Captain Bolivar 0]

I don't think it has to do with age.. I think it mostly has to do with sex appeal. All of the characters on ENT are young and attractive, except for the Captain being a little older. I think they were hoping this would get more viewers.

[Theunicornhunter 2]

All of the characters on ENT are young and attractive, except for the Captain being a little older. 

That's what age-ism is - going for the young. I am sure you're right on why they do it. From my perspective, Archer could write a book on sex appeal. :)

[roguedawg 0]

I always thought the young ages of some of the commanding officers like James Kirk and in TNG Tryla Scott was dumb.I don't care how well you did in the Academy or on an early voyage as a junior officer,you need more experience to command.Kirk got lucky.I wouldn't want to serve under a commanding officer who was still in his or her 20's.That goes for the 20-something Picard who took command of the Stargazer,too.

[Lakia 0]

I agree that the captians should have alot of experience to be in command of a ship so should be quite old.

 

All of the characters on ENT are young and attractive

 

Ummm, what about Dr.Phlox? He's almost as ugly as Neelix.