"Strawberry Shortcake Goes to Space"

TV Cat Valente notices a few omissions in the Star Trek universe:

"Like many, I've been slowly rewatching Deep Space Nine ever since it popped up on Netflix. It's been fascinating. On the one hand: Oh 90s! YOU WERE THE BEST! With your adorable WE ARE SO DARK plots that seem like Strawberry Shortcake Goes to Space by today's standards. On the other, in many ways 2012 has already overtaken DS9 as The Future goes, barring, of course, space travel and replicators. Culturally, though, we've zoomed right past the 24th century by the second decade of the 21st.

I've been struck particularly by two things missing from the DS9 universe--one unpredictable in the 1993-99 span of the series, and one predictable but unattractive from the creators' standpoint.

"Nobody uses social media, and nobody wastes time."

On the second point, one of the more marvellous elements of Doctor Who is that despite the fact the Doctor and his companions have a time machine and could go live in any period in history, they still spend a surprising amount of time in the TARDIS, still call it their home. In classic episodes, much time was spent playing chess or more bizarrely eating sandwiches when the best chefs are always just on the threshold [via].