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.
