I Honestly Can’t Believe Stranger Things Season 5 Ignored The Most Important Geek Event Of 1987
The Hawkins kids were the next generation, so why didn't they talk about The Next Generation?
The teenagers of the fictional town of Hawkins in Stranger Things have now come of age. Spanning 1983 in Season 1 to 1987 through 1989 in Season 5, Stranger Things has reimagined a very nostalgic decade with an abundance of pop culture Easter eggs. And, as the kids conclude their final round of playing Dungeons & Dragons — which really did jump to the mainstream in 1983 — it seems that Stranger Things has covered all of its bases when it comes to late ‘80s nostalgia. Hell, there was even a reference to 1989’s Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in the series finale.
And yet, for all of its posturing about being a show about geeky kids who love geeky things, Stranger Things Season 5 pretty much ignored the biggest sea change in geek culture in 1987, which would have become an even bigger deal in 1989: The beginning of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Here’s why I, a Star Trek partisan who was also an actual child in 1987, am alarmed by the TNG erasure in the lives of supposedly nerdy kids in the late 1980s. Mild spoilers ahead for Stranger Things Season 5.
Stranger Things Season 5 begins on November 3, 1987, and right away, during a breakfast scene, there’s already a missed opportunity for some geeky realism. There’s no cereal served in this breakfast moment, but had there been a box of Cheerios on that table, it would have prominently featured Star Trek: The Next Generation. And that’s because in 1987, TNG had stickers inside of cereal boxes, and the ability for young fans to send away for a poster that was a replica of the painting that Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) had in his Ready Room. General Mills started rolling out this promotion on September 15, 1987. I have fact-checked this, but I also remember it very well because I was one of the kids who sent away for the poster, and actually received two. (I was six years old in 1987, so a little younger than Holly Wheeler in Season 5, depending on how you think about the retcon of her age.)
The Star Trek: The Next Generation Cheerios box in 1987.
Okay, so who cares? I’m being picky, the Stranger Things kids don’t have Cheerios in this scene at all, so what’s the big deal? Well, this was just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the omnipresence of The Next Generation in mainstream pop culture in late 1987. The show debuted on September 28, 1987, with a two-hour episode all about a space god deciding if humanity was worth saving. Feels very Stranger Things-ish, right? Are you really telling me neither Dustin nor Robin have opinions about this?
Speaking of Robin, in Season 4, she had a Star Trek-ish shirt which read: “Beam Me Up. This Place Sucks,” with sort of retro 1950s UFO thing. This is Stranger Things’ Star Trek erasure at its worst: It’s a Star Trek reference, but with no Star Trek imagery or name. The most common version of this kind of thing from the late 80s was shirts that read “Beam me up, Scotty, there’s no intelligent life here.” (eBay proof here.) There was at least one close version of this shirt from the 80s, which had the Enterprise on it and the phrase “Beam me up, Scotty, this planet sucks.” (eBay proof here.) The Scotty bit is important!
Robin’s faux Star Trek shirt in Stranger Things Season 4 versus the real thing.
I know this is again, very hair-splitting, but I simply cannot imagine/remember any Star Trek merch, fanmade or not, that wouldn’t have had the name “Scotty” in there. That’s the whole part of the reference, right? (Again, more eBay proof here, and here.) Could the Duffers not buy stuff on eBay? Why not just have the shirt say “Scotty?” Feels like an insult to Scotty! (And yes, I know that exact phrase has never been spoken on Star Trek. That’s not the point.)
Why freak out about this? I’m being really silly, right? Yes. Yes I am. But, historically, Stranger Things has gone out of its way to make period-specific geek references. Like, this is the reason so many people of my generation lost their minds about Stranger Things in 2016. The Star Wars toys in Season 1 were super accurate, and in Season 2, the kids all had really (like really) accurate Ghostbusters Halloween costumes, like right after the movie came out. And again, that “red box” for Dungeons & Dragons from 1983 was the real deal, and the moment that D&D had simplified and repackaged its brand for the masses. All of that stuff is pretty much perfect.
So, if you’re making an argument to me that Hawkins is a small town, or if by Season 5, they’re cut off from the outside world, like, come on. These kids are listening to Kate Bush, and The Last Crusade is referenced in the final episode. You can’t tell me that an ideal version of Lucas, Dustin, or Will didn’t have strong opinions about the biggest topic in geek culture in the late 1980s: Kirk versus Picard!
On top of this, The Next Generation also starred Wil Wheaton, who, at the time, in addition to LeVar Burton, were the two most well-known actors in the cast; Wheaton because of Stand By Me, and Burton because of Roots and Reading Rainbow. Stand By Me is basically the original Stranger Things, so again, wouldn’t the kids be big fans of Wil Wheaton? Would they not have watched Reading Rainbow at all? (I’m also not the only person on the internet to have noticed this omission.)
Let’s go watch The Next Generation, said nobody in this scene.
I understand that by Season 5, the Stranger Things gang has bigger fish to fry than staying updated on the latest pop culture. That’s valid. But that’s really the only way to handwave away the utter lack of any TNG references in Season 5, specifically the coda at the end of the finale. By 1989, TNG was beginning Season 3, which was the start of a golden age of Star Trek, and hey, maybe just as relevant to the kids as anything in The Last Crusade.
The lack of reference to The Next Generation in Stranger Things Season 5 doesn’t feel malicious. I get it. It’s easier to reference Indiana Jones and Star Wars. That’s totally fine. And yet, this still seems like a missed opportunity. The kids of Hawkins, in their story, were becoming a kind of next generation, and it feels like, in some world, they would have loved The Next Generation. And, in my headcanon, they do.
