I made the observation a few years ago that Star Trek started out as the Twilight Zone, but ended up as Lord of the Rings.
Star Trek with TOS was intended as a framework structure which would allow essentially any science fiction story to be told. TOS could almost be seen as a pseudo-anthology show, but having a stable core cast who recurred from week to week. These characters had stable personality traits, and developed their own quirks of dialogue and interaction, but generally speaking the plots were not informed by the characters, with Kirk for example standing in for any potential other heroic captain - because the purpose was to examine one science fiction scenario after another onscreen, not to tell us anything deep about the characters in question (usually).
As Trek grew in popularity however, it grew more self-referential. Much of this came out of the demands of fandom, who wanted more information about races like the Klingons and Romulans than existed onscreen. The expansion of canonical lore began as early as TAS, with many episodes focusing on expansion of existing lore - looking at Spock's childhood, visiting the Shore Leave planet, seeing Mudd and the Tribbles again, etc. TMP attempted to go somewhere new (even if the plot was a retread of a TOS episode), but TWOK reveled in being an expansion of existing lore, and was a smash success.
In the Berman era, Trek seemed like it continually attempted to set up new settings, but ultimately found that deepening of existing lore was popular. TNG attempted to largely go its own way in the first two seasons, but ultimately fell on the Romulans most often as recurring antagonists and did a lot with the Klingons, with the most well regarded movie (First Contact) clearly the most fankwanky movie in all of Trek. DS9 was a series which - save for the Dominion - was all about deepening lore already established in TOS and TNG (Bajorans, Cardassians, Ferengi, Klingons, etc). Voyager traveled to the Delta Quadrant, but was telling the same sort of stories as TNG, and really only found some measure of success once it brought the Borg in. Enterprise attempted to take the setting back in time, but was not well regarded until the fanwakny fourth season.
Kurtzman Trek is still too new to tell, but it feels like the same dynamic is manifesting itself, where initial attempts to do something new have floundered, with the series increasingly playing it more and more safe. The decision to have a Pike series which will apparently be mostly episodic is the strongest hint of this yet.
People often claim to say they want "strange new worlds" in Star Trek, but in practice the bulk of what's popular in a given new series is what is most directly referential to what came before. This could, admittedly, come down to the constraints of storytelling the Trekverse already has. VOY and ENT really struggled with creative original stories - despite a new setting in space and time - because every first contact scenario with a generic "planet of hats" humanoid alien race which is over in a week will just start to feel the same as time goes on.
Regardless, I'm curious what's more important for you guys. Do you think Trek is better as a framework to examine different sorts of stories? Or do you prefer finding out more about the already established universe? Hell, maybe it's something else entirely - like you're one of those nerds who cares about the ships or something. I'm all ears.
Star Trek with TOS was intended as a framework structure which would allow essentially any science fiction story to be told. TOS could almost be seen as a pseudo-anthology show, but having a stable core cast who recurred from week to week. These characters had stable personality traits, and developed their own quirks of dialogue and interaction, but generally speaking the plots were not informed by the characters, with Kirk for example standing in for any potential other heroic captain - because the purpose was to examine one science fiction scenario after another onscreen, not to tell us anything deep about the characters in question (usually).
As Trek grew in popularity however, it grew more self-referential. Much of this came out of the demands of fandom, who wanted more information about races like the Klingons and Romulans than existed onscreen. The expansion of canonical lore began as early as TAS, with many episodes focusing on expansion of existing lore - looking at Spock's childhood, visiting the Shore Leave planet, seeing Mudd and the Tribbles again, etc. TMP attempted to go somewhere new (even if the plot was a retread of a TOS episode), but TWOK reveled in being an expansion of existing lore, and was a smash success.
In the Berman era, Trek seemed like it continually attempted to set up new settings, but ultimately found that deepening of existing lore was popular. TNG attempted to largely go its own way in the first two seasons, but ultimately fell on the Romulans most often as recurring antagonists and did a lot with the Klingons, with the most well regarded movie (First Contact) clearly the most fankwanky movie in all of Trek. DS9 was a series which - save for the Dominion - was all about deepening lore already established in TOS and TNG (Bajorans, Cardassians, Ferengi, Klingons, etc). Voyager traveled to the Delta Quadrant, but was telling the same sort of stories as TNG, and really only found some measure of success once it brought the Borg in. Enterprise attempted to take the setting back in time, but was not well regarded until the fanwakny fourth season.
Kurtzman Trek is still too new to tell, but it feels like the same dynamic is manifesting itself, where initial attempts to do something new have floundered, with the series increasingly playing it more and more safe. The decision to have a Pike series which will apparently be mostly episodic is the strongest hint of this yet.
People often claim to say they want "strange new worlds" in Star Trek, but in practice the bulk of what's popular in a given new series is what is most directly referential to what came before. This could, admittedly, come down to the constraints of storytelling the Trekverse already has. VOY and ENT really struggled with creative original stories - despite a new setting in space and time - because every first contact scenario with a generic "planet of hats" humanoid alien race which is over in a week will just start to feel the same as time goes on.
Regardless, I'm curious what's more important for you guys. Do you think Trek is better as a framework to examine different sorts of stories? Or do you prefer finding out more about the already established universe? Hell, maybe it's something else entirely - like you're one of those nerds who cares about the ships or something. I'm all ears.
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