Star Trek Social Club

Nowadays, especially nowadays, I'm just grateful that the optimistic spirit/energy of star trek is having a next next generation of its own. I'm here for it. Mostly (sorry disco).

Star Trek is great. It's always been great. The problems with it are, in part, manufactured for engagement.

It has bad episodes, and some series are worse than others, but it's something we need.

It dreams of a better future and each series touches on the problems of our modern age in a way that is inclusive.

As some people age, they out pace the societal inequalities that star trek advocates for and they get angry at it. We haven't solved the problems of TOS or TNG, but we've muted them somewhat.

If I have one legitimate complaint for Star Trek it isn't that it's 'woke.'

My complaint is that it is more often starting to suffocate under the weight of its own history and lore. Most new content will somehow reference the old content at least once.

Discovery did great stuff with the Trill and non-binary stuff that just...made sense. In general Discovery was really good in it's last few seasons. I like Starfleet Academy too. I think it exists in the franchise and in the present world well. It's a meta narrative about figuring out what Starfleet will be going forward. I haven't watched a Star Trek show that i didn't find something of value in.

Searching on YouTube you would think it's the worst show ever. (It's not, but I don't think it will get the standard three seasons to figure out it's formula)

All of this is just context for my answer to the question.

As a Star Trek fan and an Ally I do think it's time to let it rest. Maybe not forever but for now.

We need it's hope but we also need something that isn't clinging to the past (again why I really like Starfleet Academy because in some episodes it discusses this in meta narrative)

When you constantly have writers catering to the shows history, producers sabatoging production, and agitators stirring the pot for any number of reasons then it's time to let it rest.

I want a future star trek that isn't called star trek. I want a show that is loud in it's statements of social justice but chooses it's moments to scream them so it can actually touch the hearts and minds of the people watching it. Star Trek is for everyone. That can't change.

We do still get that, but with it is always the weight of the franchise's history.

I hate The Burn(more accurately i hate the cause of the burn), just like in doctor who I hate The Timeless Child.

I also understand that these writing decisions are often made as a way to try to keep the franchise fresh. A new series wouldn't have the baggage of having to navigate history and could tell the same kinds of stories.

We have to accept that Star Trek is almost like scifi's version of the Simpsons. It's done everything. If it continues then it may continue like The Simspons. That is to say stale. Relevant only by way of the fact that it is making references to current events and it's own history.

I don't want that for Star Trek.

P.s. Burnham was a good captain.

I would start by suggesting we look at fewer youtubers and their views on the subject. I'm tired of dumb facial expressions on thumbnails and exaggerated video titles that do not aim for calm, measured critique but to please the algorithm. And the algorithm likes controversy. So this linked video may be the outlier - I wouldn't know because I refuse to click through. These video links are more often than not efforts to increase views and thus nudge the video up in the ranking.

Is the death of the franchise nigh? Maybe. It wouldn't be its first. We have had deaths after TOS S3 and ENT S4/Nemesis. There was stuff in print or in games but nothing on screen until Star Wars became a success and the arrival of the binge streaming age/Star Wars again respectively. We may be on the verge of another lull. We are very dedicated fans of a franchise that needs to be bigger to be financially viable long term. But we are a big enough chunk of the market that executives will be tempted to bring it back.

Can Star Trek tell more stories? Sure it can. It depends on the writers. I was personally disappointed with the stories Disco and PIC told. They thought Star Trek storytelling needs to be Breaking Bad's mixed with Game of Thrones's and that equalled universe destroying threats that need to be fought every season. For SNW they learned that you can have a season long plot but you want to be more episodic. Academy is like that as well. There is a lot of fan service in them by design and references only a subset of viewers will catch. But I don't think that makes the shows less good or accessible to new audiences. And Marvel has established the easter-eggification of storytelling in modern franchises so a lot of viewers will want that.

Many scripts that became Star Trek stories were just sci-fi ideas that were then molded around the universe. There are still good sci-fi story ideas out there that can be told.

My fear is that we are at a ENT S3 point in time. It's a good season but not enough people are watching. Same with SNW or Academy. That's partially pissed off fans but also people not paying Paramount to watch it for reasons unrelated to the fandom. And the maneuvering around the Warner deal makes me fearful that all new projects will be shelved very soon for lack of funding and projected economic success. If the third lull is upon us, it's for economic reasons, not the lack of stories to be told.

I "let go" of Star Trek a while ago. The majority of the new shows just aren't for me and I've come to terms with that. The shows that made me fall in love with Star Trek are still there, I go back and watch them from time to time.

I love the hell out of SNW, but I agree that as a TOS prequel it’s limited in its ability to move the franchise forward.

Thankfully, Starfleet Academy has turned out to be really, really good. I just hope it survives and secures a strong enough following.

You cant have corporations producing stories about the struggles of today because they are the root cause of most of our troubles. We're not getting deep introspective episodes with great plots that relate to today because its so glaring a problem that they cannot paint themselves in any other way when examining it.

i dont think the franchise will run out of new stories. its about infanite possibilities and hope, there will always be room for more of that. i do think a lot of trek fans miss that not all trek shows are aimed at all of trek fans. tng and ds9 had wildy different vibes. theres peace between those fandoms now, mostely, but people thought ds9 ruined trek. people though voyager and discovery ruined it. personally i think one of the coolest things about trek is that it will run different shows with their own tone. discovery made a lot of people feel connected to trek in a way older trek never could. new worlds i still havent started because episodic isnt my favorite. and picard was hard for me to finish because the fan service was from tng which is my least favorite trek.

give me ds9, voyager and discover on repeat. someone else in here is gonna be a dire hard enterprise fan. its a universe built on exploring differences, makes sence it'll do that in different ways for different audiances too right? if you're not feeling the current in production trek its a great chance to binge some old trek.

I think they've managed to strike a balance with the new shows so far - each one of them feels unique enough that I don't necessarily feel any fatigue.

New star trek is basically just marvel/disney coded slop. A few good bits here and there but nothing all that worth watching imo.

I really hope they do something better than quip filled star trek flavored comedy sometime soon.

We had an amazing universe of novels Paramount needed to end so they could complain that we didn't like what they shoveled at us.