(ST Ent) Why so much hate for the Temporal Cold War?

[clearspira]

The Vulcans were right to restrict access to warp travel from humanity. Advanced technology requires wisdom to use; attaining it too quickly never ends well. Look at the atom bomb. Look at the internet. Look at fossil fuels.

Archer bitched and bitched and bitched... often proving the Vulcans right in the process. They were rightly concerned about giving warp 7 to a warp 1 race that had just emerged from a nuclear war fought using augmented super soldiers.
It can be argued that SOME Vulcans are racist towards humans (the T'Pol breadstick thing is the stuff of legends) but then SOME humans are racist towards Vulcans. Like Archer. And Trip. And Bones. And that guy from Balance of Terror.

[McAvoy]

So yeah, I am a big fan of Star Trek Enterprise and one thing I have heard even from fans of the show is they complain a lot about the Temporal Cold War. I don't get it, I don't remember it being that bad, but it seems to get a lot of bad press. Why?

Without reading the previous posts, the Temporal Cold War wasn't something the producers and writers wanted originally. The higher ups wanted it. Maybe some way for Archer and his crew to connect to the other series in some way.

Fans don't like it for the obvious reason. It was not needed at all. Explore that 22nd century, it's a prequel after all. Explore on the interactions between what would be the member races of the Federation.

And let's be honest, this should have been a lead up of the Earth Romulan War with the ending being the formation of the Federation. That's what it really should have been.

[CharlesPhipps]

Actually, TOS is very clear the Vulcans are racist as fuck against humans

Is it? We don't get a lot of Vulcans in TOS outside of Babel and Amok Time, and certainly in the latter they are pretty courteous. Especially given the crew is wading into something so taboo that Vulcans barely even talk about among themselves. T'Pau goes out of her way at least twice to bail Kirk out, in the fight and in squaring things with Starfleet. Neither that she really needs to do. She does it out of fairness. Even in the movies we really only see them at the end of III and the start of IV, and neither time are they rude and certainly by the start of IV we see that Vulcan has been spending a bit of political capital in keeping Kirk and co. safe.

Amanda says that Spock got bullied a huge amount by his fellow Vulcans.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Another one of those breakdowns in collective vs individual concept. And it's kind of politically complicated, as clearspira's noting.

There's racism in the Vulcan culture, as evident by Spock's treatment as a human. This is ugly duckling territory and has very important things to say as the adam and eve precept to sin of man. Vulcans after all live in human's ancient past and they're not willing to find themselves back at square 1 with what they remember about the Romulans. And then there's racism in the human culture, which goes without saying.

When we include power as a part of race though, there's obviously the warp drive capability that the vulcans hang over earth's head. But that's not really an exploitation factor, at least not in the deveined spirit that Star Trek tries to examine. Humans have no power over the Vulcans whatsoever, and that seems to be a relevant concern when they recognize that we're embracing the same crusado spirit that they've encountered with the Klingons.

Not really sure yet how the Andorians factor into this.

[CrypticMirror]

Actually, TOS is very clear the Vulcans are racist as fuck against humans

Is it? We don't get a lot of Vulcans in TOS outside of Babel and Amok Time, and certainly in the latter they are pretty courteous. Especially given the crew is wading into something so taboo that Vulcans barely even talk about among themselves. T'Pau goes out of her way at least twice to bail Kirk out, in the fight and in squaring things with Starfleet. Neither that she really needs to do. She does it out of fairness. Even in the movies we really only see them at the end of III and the start of IV, and neither time are they rude and certainly by the start of IV we see that Vulcan has been spending a bit of political capital in keeping Kirk and co. safe.

Amanda says that Spock got bullied a huge amount by his fellow Vulcans.

Kids bully kids, I'm shocked.

[CharlesPhipps]

and kids are racist if they're bullying over race.

They usually get it from their parents.

[CrypticMirror]

Kids will bully over hair partings and the way another kid sneezes. That is why we don't judge people as adults over how they act as kids.

[clearspira]

As CrypticMirror said, kids will bully you about ANYTHING. Spock was the only mixed race person in the school. Therefore he got bullied for that.
If he was full Vulcan but had a wart on his cheek he would have been bullied for that. Difference of course is that no one would have accused the other kids of being wartist.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

I don't think we really judge cultures based on how the bullies in schools act.

[CrypticMirror]

Really, before ENT the only time we saw a Vulcan be outright racist as a whole was in DS9's Take Me Out to the Holodeck. Yeah, we saw Vulcans act puzzled by humans, and disconcerted by humans, and make jokes with humans about cultural differences, but before TMOttH I don't recall outright racism. ICBWOC.

In fact, thanks to McCoy, I remember humans being racist towards Vulcans more than anything else. Kirk should really not have let those two act like that in public, or even in private while in uniform either, but product of its time. I guess.