This would be funny if it wasn't for the fact this is just the kind of thing they would do. We really have to stop giving them ideas with our sarcastic remarks that they think we want.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
- Thread starter Noeland
- Start date
Well, that, and the fact that Michael Chabon admitted that they do things literally just to upset us critical fans.
It’s all moot, at this point. Dead franchise. These discussions are just a post-mortem, which we can hopefully learn from. The hardcore fans have either drifted away and/or are aging out, and none of these new iterations have hooked new generations of fans. They’ve turned a niche product into a niche OF a niche product. They can keep throwing terrible shows at the wall and patting themselves on the back for employing corporate-drone buzzwords like Diversity and Inclusion (tm), but most normal people out in the world don’t even know or care that these shows exist, and there’s no merchandise to speak of. At least not out in the real world. And, for the first time, I recently went to a Hobby Lobby, and saw no STAR TREK model kits whatsoever. I’m sure that even sales for the previous shows’ merchandise are slowly bleeding off. These are not signs of a healthy franchise, nor are articles from sites like Den of Geek and awards from GLAAD.
To again raise the comparison, Disney’s disastrous stewardship of STAR WARS created years of unremitting hostility with the core fanbase, but I knew it would cool off not too long after the release of the last film, as hardcore fans grew disillusioned and apathetic, and activist fake-fans on Twitter would get tired of mindlessly defending the films and move on to some other franchise or cause.
STAR TREK doesn’t even have that level of engagement, because most of the smartest and loyalest fans jumped ship a long time ago. I managed to acquire a free ticket to the 2009 film (because voting with your wallet is important, and I already had serious reservations), and came out feeling like the victim of a violent crime. I saw the two subsequent films when they came to free TV, and then only to have an informed opinion in bashing them. I watched the first half of the prequel to the pilot for STD which aired on CBS—despite serious reservations—and was done after that. Literally nothing I’ve seen since then in the form of clips or reviews has encouraged me to watch anything else. But I still morbidly follow news and reviews because “know thy enemy”, and all that jazz. Even just from watching isolated clips, I’ve almost pulled muscles from cringing so hard. It’s much more therapeutic and entertaining to watch Major Grin and other YouTube luminaries ruthlessly mock and dissect these terrible shows.
The first Abrams reboot film, like THE FARCE AWAKENS after it, was fool’s gold, and made a ton of money because it was a fast, dumb, action-packed crowd-pleaser. But the rebooted films quickly proved to have no legs. By the time we got to CBS’ failed shows on its failed streaming service, the civilians had already lost interest after the rebooted films had petered out, and hardcore fans certainly wouldn’t want to deal with a paywall just to watch their favorite franchise get dumped on even more.
And, as with STAR WARS, they’ve already burned through all of the goodwill and nostalgia regarding the original and most popular iterations of the franchise, and are now moving through the subsequent, less popular iterations to strip-mine. The Disney movies began with a meta mockery of the prequels (“This will begin to make things right”), but now they’re desperately mining the prequel/THE CLONE WARS era for nostalgia-bait. Just as CBS/Paramount continues to exploit TOS, but is now moving on to TNG and VOYAGER characters and concepts, with rumors of DS9 being next.
When we discuss this sorry state of affairs, a friend of mine often quotes Bill Pullman’s line as President Whitmore in INDEPENDENCE DAY—“They’re like locusts”. They consume and destroy, then move on to the next thing to consume and destroy. Just as the Destroyer of Worlds, Abrams, went through STAR TREK, then STAR WARS, and now has gotten his hooks into DC. Not that they needed any help from him to destroy their own franchise, of course.
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NakedMoleRat
Legendary Member
I would like to walk away like others have but I guess I just keep holding on like a recently dumped boyfriend, sitting by the phone hoping she’ll call and things will go back to how they used to be.
kalkamel
Master Member
Or in my case, its like driving past a horrific car accident. You want to look away to avoid seeing the broken bodies and blood, but at the same time you WANT to look, to see the broken bodies and blood.
This pretty much covers Nu-Trek, for me…
The analogy I’ve come to employ is that it’s like getting a divorce, and, even though you’ve moved on, watching from afar as your ex becomes a crack whore on skid row is still painful. Me, I’m having a great time watching and reading old stuff that I actually enjoy. They can’t take the real thing away from me, and I’m happy to watch the twisted and evil thing it’s become burn to the ground.
But those who stick around end up getting hurt again and again by toxic behavior. And this ex doesn’t even mouth platitudes about how they’ve changed, and how it’ll be different from now on. They’re more than happy to insult you both before and after they beat you to a pulp.
My one concern is that of legacy, because they’re doing their level best to destroy that which has come before, and are slowly poisoning it for future generations. STAR TREK will no longer be handed down from generation to generation, as it should be. It’s beginning to fade into the mists of history, and will become akin to Tarzan, the Shadow, or Flash Gordon—old properties past their time with a small fanbase and the occasional so-so reboot. Although it could be argued that STAR TREK won’t even make it that far, considering just how radioactive and toxic the franchise is becoming. It may very well be that no one will want to reboot it, 20 years down the line.
It had a good run. Appreciate the memories.
NakedMoleRat
Legendary Member
I just realized that the android girl is not on the show this year! Wow, I guess I’m really not that invested in it.
NakedMoleRat
Legendary Member
Wrong thread.
I can't give up. I did once before and I didn't like it. I've talked about it on here sometime previously... I drifted away, but the good stuff kept me, and I'm not ageing out, and neither are my folks. They're both in their 70s, first-generation Trekkies, were part of the letter-writing campaign when they were in college. I'm second-generation, grew up with it on in reruns every week literally my entire life. Some episodes engaged young me more than others, but more and more caught my interest as time went on, because developing neurostructure. The first episodes I bought on VHS were "A Piece of the Action", "Day of the Dove", "The Immunity Syndrome", and "Dagger of the Mind". Because by 10-11 I was dancing on the edge of Trekkiedom, myself, and had discovered the episodes as originally aired were longer than what was on in reruns, because of ad creep. My first ardent fandom was Star Wars, second was Transformers, and I hadn't met Warhammer yet, but Star Trek was like the girl who lived next door who was always just "there" until one day you realized she was a stone fox.
Star Trek IV was the one that did it. Not so much for the plot, which was enjoyable enough... But a combination of right age (12), right real-world connection (the filmmakers dedicated it to the Challenger crew, and I was a space nut my whole conscious life -- still pissed I missed all the good stuff), and then, because of the way my brain works, the perfect juxtaposition of sound and visual to make something click. The finale had done a good job of engaging me...
The music and its evoking of the TOS theme for the first time in any of the films, more ships and the lovely Excelsior, the feels of Kirk getting his (an) Enterprise back, all of the subliminal (at the time) impact of the reversed bridge color scheme, the brand-new Okudagrams replacing the ill-fitting displays and blinky-lights and switches controls, the presence of the TOS "bridge noise", the wry humor of the dialogue...
So I was primed, and then this bit of the end titles knocked me over the edge. Just watch about ten seconds from the start point:
I learned sometime in or after high school that I have a thing for good transitions in music. This one was okay, but just happened to be set over those two clips from the film. Something about that was a perfect storm and I was off the cliff into hardcore Trekkie-dom.
Then I saw my first ad for TNG the next summer:
Mind. Blown.
Shortly after, I got Star Trek IV on VHS (remember when it was almost a year before a film was available on home-video?), and it included this promo:
From then, in the fall of '87, on until sometime after Voyager's finale, Star Trek was effortless. I was writing (very bad, at first) fanfiction that evolved into campaigns for FASA's RPG and, later, pretty solid scripts), drawing (maybe one starship design in ten that I deemed worthy of developing further, but my big four I stand by to this day), sewing (first solo full-on project was the TNG first-season uniform starting late in season one and going into the summer -- the correct jumbo spandex -- dull side out -- invisible zipper, piping, commbadge from Lincoln Enterprises, etc.), and model-building (Star Wars took a back seat for a few years) Star Trek. It was all effortless. By the end of TNG, the internet was juuuuuust beginning to be a thing. First in AOL chatrooms, and then on USEnet (rec.arts.startrek.tech), I delved ever deeper. Discussions about the wreck-bashes at Wolf 359 and Qualor II, determining plausible science and theoretical models for things, this bit of behind-the-scenes minutia or that bit of clarification on '70s lore or these pictures and insights from staff (Rick Sternbach, Michael Okuda, and David Stipe were frequently on there, and much discussion was had -- I ended up with Sternbach and Okuda's e-mail addies and phone numbers and tried very hard not to abuse that privilege).
So yeah, I felt Star Trek on every one of my nerve endings and, like a spider in her web, I could feel one or two, and then more and more strand vibrating with "off-ness" as Voyager and Enterprise strayed further and further from "good Trek". But I found solace in the DS9 "Relaunch" novels (starting, actually, with the last numbered novel, "A Stitch In Time", by and about Garak -- no, seriously, Andrew Robinson wrote it and 1) he's good and 2) he had had seven years immersed in the character and conversations about him with the writers and producers and gets him better than anyone and it shows). Through that there were the models and the uniforms and the props and the research and the evolving writing/scripts and starship designs. I am not easily dissuaded.
After Trek09, I did not read, draw, or do anything Star Trek for almost five years, it soured me that much. I had to fight my way back and re-engage with the good stuff from the before-time. And, since then, I have rekindled all my delving into the TOS, TNG, DS9, and early Voyager stuff that is as much a part of my mental make-up as my school years.
And that last is one of the most dismaying things... I have talked to several first-generation Trekkies, who grew up with it, who stuck with it through TNG and beyond, who love it and know the universe... who also love JJ-Trek, Discovery, and Picard, and I just do not understand HOW. It's no slight on them -- it just baffles me. They are not objectively good storytelling, they are not subjectively good Star Trek, they break the lore and the spirit of Trek left and right... How can people who get Star Trek think these are good Star Trek?
I have a friend (young-ish -- just over 30) whose introduction to Star Trek was the '09 film. Her mom had watched it when she was younger, but she didn't really notice or pay attention to it. She loves the JJ trilogy, and looked for more, was surprised to discover just how much there was, landed on TNG next, and seriously loves that. Way more. We've done some curated delves back into TOS, and she's appreciating it on both the superficial and contextual levels, even if she can recognize the generation gap between '60s production standards and modern expectations. But she and her mom also like Disco and Picard. We agree to disagree. *lol* I don't understand it.
I cannot, not while I draw breath, give up entirely. I keep hoping maybe Rod will find a way to take the intellectual property rights back and bring aboard producers and writers who get Trek, and we can maybe put this extended moment of anti-Trek behind us. Maybe even some "what might have been" efforts -- taking the better ideas from Enterprise, the JJ films, Discovery, Picard, Lower Decks, Short Treks... and tweaking them into good Trek, with aspirational characters, internal continuity, and solid science.
Maybe.
We'll see.
Until then, I have my ship models; my Majestic class deck plans; my rework of the TOS and TMP Enterprises (and every design derived from them), Excelsior, and Enterprise-D; my essays and scripts, which I'm agonizingly reconstructing from memory after hard drive failure; and a whole new generation of uniforms and props, now that there's more reference and inside info, and my skills have improved (and I won't outgrow the shoulders this time *headdesk*). Need to go through the novels again, too, and figure out what to keep.
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I can't give up. I did once before and I didn't like it. I've talked about it on here sometime previously... I drifted away, but the good stuff kept me, and I'm not ageing out, and neither are my folks. They're both in their 70s, first-generation Trekkies, were part of the letter-writing campaign when they were in college. I'm second-generation, grew up with it on in reruns every week literally my entire life. Some episodes engages young me more than others, but more and more caught my interest as time went on, because developing neurostructure. The first episodes I bought on VHS were "A Piece of the Action", "Day of the Dove", "The Immunity Syndrome", and "Dagger of the Mind". Because by 10-11 I was dancing on the edge of Trekkiedom, myself, and had discovered the episodes as originally aired were longer than what was on in reruns, because of ad creep. My first ardent fandom was Star Wars, second was Transformers, and I hadn't met Warhammer yet, but Star Trek was like the girl who lived next door who was always just "there" until one day you realized she was a stone fox.
Star Trek IV was the one that did it. Not so much for the plot, which was enjoyable enough... But a combination of right age (12), right real-world connection (the filmmakers dedicated it to the Challenger crew, and I was a space nut my whole conscious life -- still pissed I missed all the good stuff), and then, because of the way my brain works, the perfect juxtaposition of sound and visual to make something click. The finale had done a good job of engaging me...
The music and its evoking of the TOS theme for the first time in any of the films, more ships and the lovely Excelsior, the feels of Kirk getting his (an) Enterprise back, all of the subliminal (at the time) impact of the reversed bridge color scheme, the brand-new Okudagrams replacing the ill-fitting displays and blinky-lights and switches controls, the presence of the TOS "bridge noise", the wry humor of the dialogue...
So I was primed, and then this bit of the end titles knocked me over the edge. Just watch about ten seconds from the start point:
I learned sometime in or after high school that I have a thing for good transitions in music. This one was okay, but just happened to be set over those two clips from the film. Something about that was a perfect storm and I was off the cliff into hardcore Trekkie-dom.
Then I saw my first ad for TNG the next summer:
Mind. Blown.
Shortly after, I got Star Trek IV on VHS (remember when it was almost a year before a film was available on home-video?), and it included this promo:
From then, in the fall of '87, on until sometime after Voyager's finale, Star Trek was effortless. I was writing (very bad, at first) fanfiction that evolved into campaigns for FASA's RPG and, later, pretty solid scripts), drawing (maybe one starship design in ten that I deemed worthy of developing further, but my big four I stand by to this day), sewing (first solo full-on project was the TNG first-season uniform starting late in season one and going into the summer -- the correct jumbo spandex -- dull side out -- invisible zipper, piping, commbadge from Lincoln Enterprises, etc.), and model-building (Star Wars took a back seat for a few years) Star Trek. It was all effortless. By the end of TNG, the internet was juuuuuust beginning to be a thing. First in AOL chatrooms, and then on USEnet (rec.arts.startrek.tech), I delved ever deeper. Discussions about the wreck-bashes at Wolf 359 and Qualor II, determining plausible science and theoretical models for things, this bit of behind-the-scenes minutia or that bit of clarification on '70s lore or these pictures and insights from staff (Rick Sternbach, Michael Okuda, and David Stipe were frequently on there, and much discussion was had -- I ended up with Sternbach and Okuda's e-mail addies and phone numbers and tried very hard not to abuse that privilege).
So yeah, I felt Star Trek on every one of my nerve endings and, like a spider in her web, I could feel one or two, and then more and more strand vibrating with "off-ness" as Voyager and Enterprise strayed further and further from "good Trek". But I found solace in the DS9 "Relaunch" novels (starting, actually, with the last numbered novel, "A Stitch In Time", by and about Garak -- no, seriously, Andrew Robinson wrote it and 1) he's good and 2) he had had seven years immersed in the character and conversations about him with the writers and producers and gets him better than anyone and it shows). Through that there were the models and the uniforms and the props and the research and the evolving writing/scripts and starship designs. I am not easily dissuaded.
After Trek09, I did not read, draw, or do anything Star Trek for almost five years, it soured me that much. I had to fight my way back and re-engage with the good stuff from the before-time. And, since then, I have rekindled all my delving into the TOS, TNG, DS9, and early Voyager stuff that is as much a part of my mental make-up as my school years.
And that last is one of the most dismaying things... I have talked to several first-generation Trekkies, who grew up with it, who stuck with it through TNG and beyond, who love it and know the universe... who also love JJ-Trek, Discovery, and Picard, and I just do not understand HOW. It's no slight on them -- it just baffles me. They are not objectively good storytelling, they are not subjectively good Star Trek, they break the lore and the spirit of Trek left and right... How can people who get Star Trek think these are good Star Trek?
I have a friend (young-ish -- just over 30) whose introduction to Star Trek was the '09 film. Her mom had watched it when she was younger, but she didn't really notice or pay attention to it. She loves the JJ trilogy, and looked for more, was surprised to discover just how much there was, landed on TNG next, and seriously loves that. Way more. We've done some curated delves back into TOS, and she's appreciating it on both the superficial and contextual levels, even if she can recognize the generation gap between '60s production standards and modern expectations. But she and her mom also like Disco and Picard. We agree to disagree. *lol* I don't understand it.
I cannot, not while I draw breath, give up entirely. I keep hoping maybe Rod will find a way to take the intellectual property rights back and bring aboard producers and writers who get Trek, and we can maybe put this extended moment of anti-Trek behind us. Maybe even some "what might have been" efforts -- taking the better ideas from Enterprise, the JJ films, Discovery, Picard, Lower Decks, Short Treks... and tweaking them into good Trek, with aspirational characters, internal continuity, and solid science.
Maybe.
We'll see.
Until then, I have my ship models; my Majestic class deck plans; my rework of the TOS and TMP Enterprises (and every design derived from them), Excelsior, and Enterprise-D; my essays and scripts, which I'm agonizingly reconstructing from memory after hard drive failure; and a whole new generation of uniforms and props, now that there's more reference and inside info, and my skills have improved (and I won't outgrow the shoulders this time *headdesk*). Need to go through the novels again, too, and figure out what to keep.
Thank you for this personal insight.
Personally, I suspect that older folks—who are less full of the passion of youth—tend to sit back and take a “Eh, whatever” stance, rather than preparing to go to war the way younger folks do.
Me, I still have the STAR TREK I love. Still building props and models, still watching the shows and thinking about them, still reading books. There are literally decades’ worth of material to explore, or to re-examine. Setting aside the fact that it’s now (like in the olden days) embarrassing to say you’re a TREK fan (because of the current state of the franchise), my main concern is that pesky concept of legacy. I’d have less of a problem if they just pumped out their own shows and movies which lived or died on their own merits (or lack thereof). However, they’re gleefully strip-mining and rewriting the past, and tearing down the older iterations. That’s what drives me nuts. It’s also why I have no guilt or regrets in quitting.
To his absolute credit, Roddenberry was adamant that early TNG stay away from revisiting TOS concepts, characters, species, and planets. With very few exceptions, the first few seasons adhered to that (to the point that it was a fight just to have Spock’s name spoken aloud in “Sarek”), and TNG was allowed to develop its own identity without constantly referring back to its predecessor.
Flash-forward to now, and it’s an endless parade of references and cameos and retcons of old material. And what new material they’ve developed is abysmal. Nostalgia is the only crutch they have. Pure creatively bankruptcy and cannibalism.
So, no, I have absolutely no regret at having quit the franchise years ago. Really, I haven’t quit at all, since TOS (and, to a lesser extent, the later iterations) still play a daily role in my life and hobby-time. And I’m having a great time. If anything, quitting is an affirmation of my love for the franchise, and an affirmation of everything it once stood for. Instead of being an addict, I’m showing my love by supporting the real thing, and rejecting any and all of this modern dreck which they laughably call “canon” and “groundbreaking”. They don’t get to take it away from me, or to poison my love for it. They don’t get to win.
NakedMoleRat
Legendary Member
I look at it this way for my own personal head cannon. Everything from 2009, including all of the TV shows that are currently on, or part of the JJ Abrams rebooted universe.
TOS through ENT are all part of the ‘real’ unaltered timeline and still exist in their form.
All the new stuff is a branch created by some ticked off Romulan minors with a drilling ship.
TOS through ENT are all part of the ‘real’ unaltered timeline and still exist in their form.
All the new stuff is a branch created by some ticked off Romulan minors with a drilling ship.
Seriously. Man, if JJ and company had come up with "The Burn" back in the mid-'00s and presented that film, the two that came after, and Discovery as the survivors of this cataclysm that destroyed warp travel trying to find out what happened and restore former glory -- sort of like Renaissance scholars rediscovering Classical civilization and beginning to noodle over why and how it failed -- that'd be compelling. I personally was hopeful when the last season of Discovery started, and treated it like it started in that time period and the first couple seasons hadn't happened. But then they dropped that ball, too.
I'm curious if that pronouncement came before or after "The Naked Now"...
And they too often don't even get those right -- even before JJ. The thing with the Klingons' foreheads, the hideous continuity breach that is Voyager's "Flashback", failure to do their homework -- lore-wise -- with "Future's End"... *sigh*
That. They just put Uhura and Sulu on the bridge in "The Corbomite Maneuver". They didn't do a publicity piece in Variety pointing out how they had a Negro and Oriental (in the language of the time) on the command crew and look how inclusive we are. They just did it. Same over in Star Wars when they cast Billy Dee as Lando. It wasn't written to be a "black" part -- he was just the actor who best fit the character. If you do the thing well, you don't have to call attention to it. People will just notice. If you feel you have to call attention to it, you obviously don't believe in the strength of what you're doing. It's like explaining a joke. Even if it was a good joke, explaining it undermines it, makes it less funny -- worst case, kills the joke and makes it not enjoyable any more.
I'm mostly with you. Enterprise is an alternate universe split off by Our Heroes meddling in First Contact. Cochrane's no dummy, even when drunk. From the tools and techniques the Enterprise crew were using to his glimpse of the ship through his telescope, he picked up enough engineering insight to let him get ahead of where he was originally. This is why the Vulcans were trying to hold us back. This is why NX-01 was named Enterprise, instead of Dauntless, as in the unaltered timeline. This is why that ship had technology eighty years ahead of its time. We ran into the Klingons about sixty years early thanks to the Temporal Cold War, and oh my god I wish they'd leave time travel out.
This, then, paves the way for Trek09. The timeline was already different prior to Nero's ship coming through the time rift. The Kelvin is substantially bigger than original-timeline ships of the era. Its registry makes no sense in any established scheme. Kirk is two years older, and also still has an older brother, so he didn't just take Sam's place. The Klingons are wildly different from TOS Klingons, and the Augment project makes as much sense as anything for that. And that Enterprise is, again, about eighty years ahead of its time. And a model of the Enterprise from Enterprise is on Admiral Marcus' credenza in Into Darkness.
From Enterprise on has all been an alternate timeline... Up until Discovery and Picard introduced two new alternate timelines. *sigh* It's like DC's movies and TV series. Each standalone in its own isolated continuity. Except where they sloppily cross over.
NakedMoleRat
Legendary Member
Man, that was a perfect analysis of it. I hadn’t dived that deeply myself. I’ve mostly forgotten Enterprise.
So, basically TOS, TNG, VOY never existed as we knew it now. The whole bloody thing has been altered.
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These days the only thing to look forward to is the upcoming Voyager documentary(and the Enterprise one they will tackle after). And possibly a few great Trek podcasts.
Seriously. Man, if JJ and company had come up with "The Burn" back in the mid-'00s and presented that film, the two that came after, and Discovery as the survivors of this cataclysm that destroyed warp travel trying to find out what happened and restore former glory -- sort of like Renaissance scholars rediscovering Classical civilization and beginning to noodle over why and how it failed -- that'd be compelling. I personally was hopeful when the last season of Discovery started, and treated it like it started in that time period and the first couple seasons hadn't happened. But then they dropped that ball, too.
I'm curious if that pronouncement came before or after "The Naked Now"...
And they too often don't even get those right -- even before JJ. The thing with the Klingons' foreheads, the hideous continuity breach that is Voyager's "Flashback", failure to do their homework -- lore-wise -- with "Future's End"... *sigh*
That. They just put Uhura and Sulu on the bridge in "The Corbomite Maneuver". They didn't do a publicity piece in Variety pointing out how they had a Negro and Oriental (in the language of the time) on the command crew and look how inclusive we are. They just did it. Same over in Star Wars when they cast Billy Dee as Lando. It wasn't written to be a "black" part -- he was just the actor who best fit the character. If you do the thing well, you don't have to call attention to it. People will just notice. If you feel you have to call attention to it, you obviously don't believe in the strength of what you're doing. It's like explaining a joke. Even if it was a good joke, explaining it undermines it, makes it less funny -- worst case, kills the joke and makes it not enjoyable any more.
I'm mostly with you. Enterprise is an alternate universe split off by Our Heroes meddling in First Contact. Cochrane's no dummy, even when drunk. From the tools and techniques the Enterprise crew were using to his glimpse of the ship through his telescope, he picked up enough engineering insight to let him get ahead of where he was originally. This is why the Vulcans were trying to hold us back. This is why NX-01 was named Enterprise, instead of Dauntless, as in the unaltered timeline. This is why that ship had technology eighty years ahead of its time. We ran into the Klingons about sixty years early thanks to the Temporal Cold War, and oh my god I wish they'd leave time travel out.
This, then, paves the way for Trek09. The timeline was already different prior to Nero's ship coming through the time rift. The Kelvin is substantially bigger than original-timeline ships of the era. Its registry makes no sense in any established scheme. Kirk is two years older, and also still has an older brother, so he didn't just take Sam's place. The Klingons are wildly different from TOS Klingons, and the Augment project makes as much sense as anything for that. And that Enterprise is, again, about eighty years ahead of its time. And a model of the Enterprise from Enterprise is on Admiral Marcus' credenza in Into Darkness.
From Enterprise on has all been an alternate timeline... Up until Discovery and Picard introduced two new alternate timelines. *sigh* It's like DC's movies and TV series. Each standalone in its own isolated continuity. Except where they sloppily cross over.
Yes, McCoy’s TNG pilot cameo and “The Naked Now” were the most notable exceptions, of course. Those aside, TNG was given a chance to find its own voice and step out from the shadow of its legendary predecessor by not constantly depending on TOS characters and concepts.
And, yes, TOS got a lot of press for its ahead-of-the-curve casting and whatnot, but the cast and crew were never patting themselves on the back or shouting from the rooftops like the demented children who are now running the franchise into the ground do. One of the best things about TOS is just how matter of fact both the society and the technology of the future were presented. We didn’t get any kind of proper explanation for how the transporter worked until the third-to-last episode of the entire series, and the races of the characters were never made an issue. Uhura was just there. And she was intelligent, dignified, and gorgeous. Of course, today’s showrunners would call her treatment “problematic” because her scenes didn’t pass the Bechdel Test, and because she was forced to wear a miniskirt by that oppressive patriarchy running the show. Except that she wasn’t, because female crew in the pilots wore slacks, just like the men, and the miniskirts were suggested by Nichelle Nichols and Grace Lee Whitney.
To say nothing of T’Pau, and all the other women in positions of respect and authority throughout TOS. Doctors, lawyers, and scientists who could go toe-to-toe with Jim Kirk and his machismo. Or the colorblind casting of great characters like Dr. Richard Daystrom. TOS presented things how they should be, as a meritocracy, instead of praising and rewarding people for their identity markers instead of their deeds.
As a kid, I just loved the characters, and didn’t care what they looked like. Which is how it should be. Flash-forward to now, with a bunch of Strong, Diverse Whamen running the grim and nihilistic STD universe and putting toxic white men in their place, and I find myself asking who the real racists and sexists are. To say nothing of politician Stacey Abrams appearing as the President of United Earth, which I’m sure was casting done for the sake of good storytelling and employing the best person for the role, and not in any way as political propaganda. No, sir.
And, of course, Spock, one of the most beloved fictional characters of all time, was the product of an interspecies romance, and is a character anyone can “see themselves” in, due to his compelling inner struggle. So then they go and make him dyslexic and reveal Mikey Spock to be the reason he that became the awesome character we all know and love.
It’s like a bad game of Jenga. Keep stacking pieces on top of what’s already there, and the whole thing collapses. I was looking forward to reading the much-delayed AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MR. SPOCK book, which was doubtless delayed for three years because it needed to be massaged to fit in with CBS/Paramount’s current delusion of canon. Author David A. Goodman was replaced with another author (perhaps because he didn’t want to play ball by rewriting his TOS-centric book), and now the book specifically examines Spock’s childhood with his adopted sister, Mikey Spock. And they lose a sale from me, as a result.
Some version of TOS, TAS, TMS, TNG, DS9, and VOY existed, but lie on the couch upside down, hyperventilate, close one eye, and squint with the other to get a sense of how distorted what might come out the other end of their "interpretation" of established fact.
Also deliberate. Gene wanted to treat it like the setting were as established and known and not needing explanation as a western or police procedural. The function of various things would become obvious from use.
To the point that Nichelle got a skirted version of the movie uniform for TFF and TUC, because of her personal preference.
To once again point out the hypocrisy of Abrams (the guy who turned a defecting Stormtrooper—an interesting idea full of potential—into a comedy-relief janitor sidekick who could be considered a racist stereotype), 2009 Uhura throws around $10 words like “xenolinguistics” to make her seem like an intelligent professional, but, at the end of the day, is there mainly to strip down to her underwear and be ogled by fratboy NuKirk, and to be NuSpock’s girlfriend.
Whereas, with the real Uhura, we saw her belly button in “Mirror, Mirror”, and her nude fan dance in TFF (when she was in her 50s, no less). The character was never there just to be eye candy, or to replace McCoy in the Holy Trinity to add more female “representation” to the franchise.
What I really don't understand is Paramount has to know that the majority of Star Trek fans are really unhappy with the current crop of Star Trek offerings. They each have moments that are good, and are decent Sci-Fi in general, but not Good Star Trek. Strange New Worlds "Seemed to have" taken the fans complaints to heart and went back to a more episodic format and seemed to have listened that we liked the Anson Mount take on Pike... but then they went and added a heaping pile of Dung to it... I "WAS" really excited for Strange New Worlds... now Not so much. I will likely watch it in hopes that my fears are not realized, but just looking at the character list for the cast and I am cringing. Star Trek always had Social agendas in it - but they were cleverly hidden in such a way you didn't realize it because it was cooked into a great story about something else... Why is that simple formula so difficult to grasp???
I do Understand that Bad Robot has a ridiculously contract and that Paramount is tied to them, but no star trek is better than bad start trek... all you're doing is nuking what's left of the franchise... why don't they stop throwing good money after bad... I don't get it.
Jedi Dade
I do Understand that Bad Robot has a ridiculously contract and that Paramount is tied to them, but no star trek is better than bad start trek... all you're doing is nuking what's left of the franchise... why don't they stop throwing good money after bad... I don't get it.
Jedi Dade
I couldn't get excited about SNW because it was the same ship and uniforms and other accoutrements as its appearance in Discovery. They would have to take a page from the fan-productions and put them in an updated recreation of the "Cage" sets and some better-tailored versions of those uniforms, and use one of the digital assets of the TOS Enterprise. Which they won't/can't. It's just another AU.
