Could Star Trek be Re-rebooted?

[Dukhat]

KT happened, but current TPTB were too scared to go that route with DSC and made DSC the Prime Timeline.
That's where they messed up, having a knee jerk reaction to Beyond flopping.
Imagine if Marvel pivoted away after Iron Man 2 didn't live up to expectations.

No, that was not the reason. CBS and Paramount were split at the time, and CBS did not want their TV viewing audience to think that their new show had anything to do with the KT because that was Paramount's sandbox to play in.

Now with that said, DSC's visual style sure did look a lot like the KT, despite CBS's want to keep them separate. And what DSC absolutely did not look like was a prequel set ten years before TOS, which further added to the confusion that CBS was trying to avoid.

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

I still have an affinity for J Michael Stracynski’s Star Trek: Reboot the Universe pitch he came up with 20 years ago. Strip the whole thing down to the essential elements of the original “magnificent seven,” the Enterprise, and start the whole concept over from zero and make a new canon of stories and worlds.

I can think of all kinds of arguments for why I wouldn't want, but the main one in my head right now is that what we have is amazing. Star Trek has been running with a more or less consistent universe for 59 years. Episodes are still referencing things that happened way back in the first season of the first show.

Doctor Who is similar, but due to time travel weirdness no one watching knows what the hell actually still happened anymore, or even if humans should be aware of aliens or not. Stargate was doing really well, but it only really lasted 14 years. Marvel and DC have got comic universes stretching back to the '40s, but because the characters can't really age they're continually rewriting their past. The James Bond movies got semi-rebooted with each new lead actor until getting properly reset with Daniel Craig. There's Alien, but that's a bit of a mess. There are also video games of course, but that's a young medium.

I suppose Star Wars is the closest thing to Star Trek, as everyone's currently raving about a television series all about how the Death Star got built (the one in the first movie from 1977).

The point I'm making is there are very few ongoing stories with world building on the level of Star Trek and the ones we have are worth protecting. Anyone can make a space show about scientists going around helping planets, especially if they're Seth MacFarlane, but the Star Trek universe is something incredibly rare and special in our world. The history isn't a ball and chain around its ankle, it's a selling point. The events you're watching in an episode can still matter in stories made 20 years later.

And I don't see its length as a problem, especially when we're lucky to get 10 new episodes a year. The longer it goes on, the better technology exists for writers to keep track of it all. We have Memory Alpha and ChatGPT and folks on BlueSky documenting the changes made to Picard's fish tank in every episode. It doesn't need a reset, it needs enthusiastic writers who get the vibe and want to go explore some new worlds instead of retreading old ground. Make up a planet, show us what's there.

 

[fireproof78]

The point I'm making is there are very few ongoing stories with world building on the level of Star Trek and the ones we have are worth protecting.

So if you reboot it's not protected?

 

[Firebird]

The point I'm making is there are very few ongoing stories with world building on the level of Star Trek and the ones we have are worth protecting.

How would the creation of a new continuity affect the other existing shows one iota?

Other franchises like Gundam move from universe to universe all the time and nothing has affected the original UC timeline.

It’s a TV show, not some endangered species or rare document without copies.

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

If it stops living, it's dead.

 

[Firebird]

If it stops living, it's dead.

What does that have to do with “protecting” it?

A new continuity doesn’t kill anything that came before. It’s still there if anyone should choose to revisit it.

 

[Shawnster]

A new continuity doesn’t kill anything that came before. It’s still there if anyone should choose to revisit it.

Guuss it depends on what one considers living vs. dead. Living implies growing, thriving. If a new continuity means the old continuity stops growing, then one could consider it dead.

The 1960s Batman series is dead. Nothing new is being produced in that continuity. The old episodes can be watched today, but that doesn't make that particular series alive.

 

[Nerys Myk]

The 1960s Batman series is dead. Nothing new is being produced in that continuity. The old episodes can be watched today, but that doesn't make that particular series alive.

​

They've done a few minis set in that continuity. Also ones for Batman '89, Superman '78 and Wonder Woman '77.

 

[The Wormhole]

Honestly, I think Star Trek needed longer off air before it was rebooted. Like Dr Who, which was off air for 16 years before it was successfully rebooted. Trek needs to be allowed to fade away for a long time until nostalgia sets in and the audience out there has interest in something new.

Technically Doctor Who was only off the air for nine years, taking the 1996 telemovie into account. But regardless, the length of time something is off the air is immaterial to whether a reboot will be successful or not.

I think they need to start from scratch and get away from the fantasy nonsense and back to harder Sci-Fi ideas.

Star Trek has never been hard sci-fi. The modern era is hardly the first to lean into "fantasy nonsense."

I also wish they'd push the scientists in space angle and show a crew working together to solve problems.

I mean, all the new shows do show their crews working together to solve problems anyway.

And I think that the humans should be shown as more evolved, like they were in TNG.

BORING

Doctor Who is similar, but due to time travel weirdness no one watching knows what the hell actually still happened anymore, or even if humans should be aware of aliens or not.

The most recent episode of Doctor Who addressed that one, and it had nothing to do with time travel wonkiness.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I mean, all the new shows do show their crews working together to solve problems anyway.

And with science!!!!

 

[Nerys Myk]

Sorry I meant...

 

[The Wormhole]

And with science!!!!

And the Power of Math.

 

[Firebird]

View attachment 46419​

They've done a few minis set in that continuity. Also ones for Batman '89, Superman '78 and Wonder Woman '77.

For a while, Kevin Smith and Ralph Garman were keeping the Batman ‘66 flame burning strong.

 

[fireproof78]

What does that have to do with “protecting” it?

A new continuity doesn’t kill anything that came before. It’s still there if anyone should choose to revisit it.

Exactly. So no new content is added; that's bad? I guess all those old popular films I watch are dead. That recent DVD I got of my favorite film from my childhood is dead too; pointless.

It is so strange to me because I look at stories as something to go enjoy and experience, not protect or worry over being living or dead.

I guess Godfather is dead. A shame.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

You can always relive old stories by noticing new things you never saw before, or seeing them in light of new life experiences - you're not the same as you were when you first saw it. You see more, because you're older, have changed some opinions, or are more educated, have become an adult, a parent, etc.

You can keep what you want and ignore what you don't in fiction.

 

[MarcKle1964]

Sometimes a reboot is better. The first adaptation of 'The Maltese Falcon' was filmed in Pre-Hays Code 1931 and is well worth the watch. Yet the one everyone remembers was the remake. The watching of the earlier one doesn't hinder my enjoyment of the one Bogart was in 9 years later.

 

[Shawnster]

Exactly. So no new content is added; that's bad? I guess all those old popular films I watch are dead. That recent DVD I got of my favorite film from my childhood is dead too; pointless.

It is so strange to me because I look at stories as something to go enjoy and experience, not protect or worry over being living or dead.

I guess Godfather is dead. A shame.

By this logic, nobody should ever get upset when their favorite band breaks up. After all, they can always go back and listen to the albums already released.

All those TOS fans should have been content and never wrote all those letters to save Trek. Likewise, those Firefly fans are a bunch of whining babies for clamoring for more seasons.

Buncha babies.

 

[fireproof78]

By this logic, nobody should ever get upset when their favorite band breaks up. After all, they can always go back and listen to the albums already released.

All those TOS fans should have been content and never wrote all those letters to save Trek. Likewise, those Firefly fans are a bunch of whining babies for clamoring for more seasons.

Buncha babies.

Agreed, yes.



ETA: alright, tongue in cheek moment aside, there is a huge leap of logic to calling people "babies" for missing a series and declaring it "dead" as though no one can ever enjoy it again.

Absurdist claim is absurd.