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Public perception of Star Trek?

dahj

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Regardless of how one feels about the trailer, its intended message can be summed up with:

"Hey, Star Trek is Fun! NOT Boring, FUN! Look: Excitement, Fun, Coolness, Totes Legit NOT Boring!"

But is "boring" really still the perception of the general public when it comes to ST? I thought the 2009 reboot did away with that rather successfully. Does the studio think STID regressed that opinion? Did it?
 
Regardless of how one feels about the trailer, its intended message can be summed up with:

"Hey, Star Trek is Fun! NOT Boring, FUN! Look: Excitement, Fun, Coolness, Totes Legit NOT Boring!"

But is "boring" really still the perception of the general public when it comes to ST? I thought the 2009 reboot did away with that rather successfully. Does the studio think STID regressed that opinion? Did it?

These companies do market research on everything. Apparently, Star Trek still hasn't shaken some of its stigma's with general audiences.
 
If asked about seeing, say, one of the Avengers movies, few folks would say yes or no with "I'm/I'm not a comic book fan" - but people will still dismiss a Trek movie with "I'm not a trekkie."

To those uninterested, Trek still seems a niche product aimed at Sheldons.
 
Really? I mean, I'm not a fan of the new trailer, and so far I've loved one of the new films and was turned off by the other. BUT, it seems to be enormously clear to me that nuTrek has been an enormous success from a general audience perspective, and it seems to me (even though, again, I didn't like it) that the new trailer is clearly aimed at reaching general audiences, and I bet it does. To me, it seems like they have their act together when it comes to general audience reach. That's just my sense though without sticking my nose in a bunch of numbers, which I'm sure you guys know more about than me. It's just a surprising notion that after the first 2 nuTrek films, the blockbuster casting, and that recent trailer, it's surprising that there would be a stiff/geeky(in a bad way) stigma attached to the series for non-traditional fans (the masses) moving forward.

And even if they haven't achieved that, strictly from a general audiences perspective, it must be an inarguable point that they've made HUGE strides in that direction over the past 6 years.
 
The "nu" movies aren't making a lasting impression. The general audience saw them and then promptly forgot about them.

That's my experience anyway.

So yeah, Star Trek is still boring.
 
The "nu" movies aren't making a lasting impression. The general audience saw them and then promptly forgot about them.

That's my experience anyway.

So yeah, Star Trek is still boring.

They made enough of an impression that CBS decided to make a new TV series. And that's really all that matters.
 
Trek rarely comes up when I'm in public
In public, I sometime have people glance at my tablet while I'm on this site and ask if I'm a trekkie, occasionally leading to interesting conversations. Seattle seems to have a higher trekkie population ratio than most cities.

Does the studio think STID regressed that opinion? Did it?
Isn't Star Trek Beyond supposedly intended to be more of a sequel to the first Abrams movie, and not (particularly) a sequel to Darkness?
 
The "nu" movies aren't making a lasting impression. The general audience saw them and then promptly forgot about them.

How many movies make a lasting impression if one isn't a fan of that particular property? I've seen a couple of Iron Man movies, both Captain America movies and both Avengers movies and couldn't tell you what any of them were about.

I could give you a detailed analysis of "Code of Honor" off of the top of my head.
 
^^
Marvel releases films at a rate of 2 per year, so a lasting impression isn't that important to them as long as people remember they had fun 6 months ago.

When the gaps are 3-4 years between films, something has to stick to bring people back.
 
This is entirely subjective to my own experiences in the South of Essex in the UK, but out of my friendship group who are decidedly not "Trekkies" whom may have only seen a handful of episodes or other movies randomly, the general consensus is Trek '09 was a fun movie, and Into Darkness was a confusing mess.

I've only ever met one person who became a fan of Trek in general after their first experience was the '09 movie.

If you extrapolate out, I think that's pretty much the general consensus. They're exciting flashes in the pan with little staying power.

RE: The new TV series, I think this is an attempt at staying power. CBS would be crazy to not want an engaged fan base on the level of Game of Thrones or Walking Dead buying Trek branded Funko pops and other tat. To do that, the show will need a level of maturity beyond that of the movies, but also enough action and drama that surpasses that of any of the previous series. It'll be a balance of the two extremes. If played right, it could be a success of that caliber but it will be a difficult trick to pull off. In my experience though, again, TV shows grab interest and generate discussion more than the very best movies (Seriously, Star Wars TFA might be the only one I can remember since Dark Knight) do. If Trek wants to change its image, it has too on the small screen.
 
The "nu" movies aren't making a lasting impression. The general audience saw them and then promptly forgot about them.

How many movies make a lasting impression if one isn't a fan of that particular property? I've seen a couple of Iron Man movies, both Captain America movies and both Avengers movies and couldn't tell you what any of them were about.

I could give you a detailed analysis of "Code of Honor" off of the top of my head.

I don't think the Marvel properties have a 50 year old reputation for boredom. Star Trek is trying to reverse its reputation. Much harder than just maintaining it.
 
I can't say Star Trek is something that comes up outside of my genre/sci-fi/Trek friends and associates. I don't know if its something that the "average" person is talking about or even anticipating.

Within the US Into Darkness did make less money than Trek '09, so it would seem that the goodwill that Trek '09 engendered faded somewhat in the US, though conversely it did well overseas. I would like to believe that Trek '09 did make Trek cool again and had some 'average' people talking about it or at least liking that singular film if not "Trek" as a franchise. But the opening was there.

However I think TPTB dropped the ball. I think they should've followed it with a cartoon tied to the film (Starfleet Academy perhaps? Like the recent new comic book series), to rope in the kids and to actually sell more merchandise. Also novels to keep the Trek fans and those Trek curious involved. At least we did get some YA novels and comics, but I think more should've been done. Make a better video game, or perhaps a series of Trek video games for the gamers. And release the Trek '09 sequel two years earlier than they did instead of letting some of the interest wane.

I also don't think TPTB have made as much of a deal about the anniversaries that have come up (25th for TNG, 20th for DS9, 20th for VOY) and even the 50th anniversary. This should be a big deal that TPTB should be promoting and hyping up.
 
Well, boring may best describe how many 'civilians' consider Star Trek.

I still have people say to me that they can't watch it as they saw the TMP once and decided it represented all Star Trek.

:wtf:
 
^^
Marvel releases films at a rate of 2 per year, so a lasting impression isn't that important to them as long as people remember they had fun 6 months ago.

When the gaps are 3-4 years between films, something has to stick to bring people back.

IIRC Paramount was actually pretty upset at how long the time was between movies for exactly that reason. It's hard to keep building.

As for the message thing? Ehh I'm not so sure about that. I think it's less about making it look fun, and more about continuing to build an audience. It's a single trailer so it's really hard to read a lot into the situation, but at the moment I don't think Star Trek really exists in this cloistered off area that people thing is just for total geeks.

It's a part of the wider sci-fi craze we have now, and arguably played a role in ushering it in. There's probably still a sense that Trek is boring, and super technical that's helped along by terrible half hour comedies. But in general, I think reinvention has been a success, it's been the timing that's been the issue with keeping it in circulation. You don't have Gene going around to conventions building a mythos, or at least two different shows on this time around. You've got to do something to keep it in circulation though, which is where I think the ball has been dropped massively before now with all the secrecy they had making STiD. NuTrek is fun. NuTrek has action. So why wouldn't you create a trailer that has fun and action in it? You just got off a nostalgia heavy entry, so leaning harder on nostalgia probably isn't the way you want to go with it. At least not nostalgia for older Trek, it's pretty clear that they're wanting to remind people of 2009.

Undoubtedly they're going to make mistakes along the way, just like STiD did with the whole Khan thing. But I think the mistakes are coming from right intentions this time. Could they have done just another Star Trek trailer with a nice little orchestral theme? Of course.

And no one would have cared.

It would have been just another Star Trek trailer, indistinguishable even from 2009 and Into Darkness. At least here they're attempting things that are different for the franchise. Sure they might misfire in the minds of some fans, but at least they're trying something different, and getting a lot of attention that probably would've been impossible to get otherwise so close to the release of TFA. The important thing isn't to reinvent Trek in the minds of the public again at this point. It's to build on what's already come before in the new entries without trying to lean on older Trek, recapture some of 2009's excitement, and keep news of Star Trek Beyond in circulation.

In my opinion :)
 
I'm just finishing up watching Trek 2009 on FX - I'm reminded that the notion that any of the oldTrek movies other than the first - which is far from my favorite - represent some level of craft or intelligence that the producers of NuTrek ought to aspire to is frankly pretty laughable.
 
Public perceptions of Star Trek are perfectly normal. Star Trek is a TV series / movie franchise they either watch or not when it is available.

It's their perceptions of us which, for some unknown reasons, is skewed. :whistle:
 
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