Mar 27, 2023 3 min read

The 1979 sci-fi movie “Aliens” had a great marketing tagline: “In space, no one can hear you scream.” Forty-four years later it turns out that in space, no one should hear you swear.

Or at least that’s what many Trekkies think.

Since its TV premier in 1966, “Star Trek” fans have viewed the show as taking place at a time when an ennobled mankind has rid its vocabulary of curse words, even in circumstance most dire. So in 1967 when Capt. James T. Kirk proclaimed “Let’s get the hell out of here!” at the end of the episode “City on the Edge of Forever,” heads turned. No one swore on TV in 1966. No one.

Through multiple “Star Trek” movies and series spinoffs, most of its characters, whether human or alien, never swore, despite the occasional “Dammit, Jim!” from Dr. Leonard McCoy.

But all that changed on March 9 of this year in the “No-Win Scenario” episode of “Star Trek: Picard,” a series now in its final season on Paramount+. In that episode, Admiral Jean-Luc Picard uses a variation of what has come to be called “The F-Bomb.” Trekkies and even casual fans took to social media to express horror that Picard, long viewed as an erudite bastion of self-control, would allow himself to stoop to such levels. Phrases on stun!

But I have a couple of suggestions as to why Picard finally showed himself to be more human than many Trekkies would like him to be.

First, Picard is the interstellar version of a sailor, a mariner navigating through space. It may be stereotyping, but throughout history sailors have been depicted as foul-mouthed. In fact, someone once told me that he was sure that even Jesus swore, because “he hung out with sailors.”

• “I’m not sure what translation of the Bible you’re reading,” I told him, “but I don’t think that the Sermon on the Mount would not have been more effective had Jesus sprinkled it with a few off-color metaphors and similes.” (“Yar, me hearties! Blessed be the %%5E$@! peacemakers …

“Second, this particular episode of “Star Trek: Picard” takes place when (minor spoiler alert) the crew fully expects to die within hours as their powerless starship sinks into a gravity well. Even so, Picard uses the word while reminiscing about another time he found himself in dire straits. But even had he cursed as an immediate reaction to impending death, what was he supposed to say? “Oh, my goodness gracious!”?

Third – and perhaps most important – it’s science-fiction, people! Rules are being bent to the point of structural failure. You believe that interstellar travel at several times the speed of light, wormholes and cloning all are possible. Diverse sentient humanoid and non-humanoid lifeforms have been discovered by Picard, his predecessors and myriad other starship crews.

Moreover, you believe that, far into the future, lust, gluttony, greed, laziness, wrath, envy and pride all still characterize not only humans but the lifeforms they encounter. So why are you being so Vulcan-like in thinking it illogical that Picard would use profanity occasionally?

What a bland future you envision!

I find it far less depressing to hear Picard swear than to discover that even after centuries have passed – and even where no one has gone before – xenophobia, murder, genocide and racial hatred all remain typical.

If that’s true, I guess the new worlds encountered by the starship Enterprise aren’t all that strange after all.