Early Criticism: What’s Unfounded and What Isn’t

[Nerys Myk]

Could be done with other tasks.

It's relatable.

 

[fireproof78]

Could be done with other tasks.

Uniformity and responsibility train unit cohesion.

 

[Detached Nacelle]

And the bulk of this discussion is generated by the show's primary demographic, which - coincidentally - is the same demographic that dominates every single other Trek product: 40+ males.

As someone half a decade away from 40, I think it would be fair to say there's a sizable portion of the fanbase in the 30-40 range, those of us who had childhoods during the Berman era. Nepo fans mostly.

Teens and twenties in this day and age seem harder to court. Outside I guess children of Berman era babies who are now growing up with the Kurzman era.

 

[CT_Phipps]

That's not really true with what was shown on screen for that one though, because Ake could have said "take out their weapons and engines".

It's also killing the entire crew when I'm not sure if the other crew had killed anyone.

 

[Fateor]

It's also killing the entire crew when I'm not sure if the other crew had killed anyone.

They didn't, the Doctor very specifically reported no causalities.

 

[firehawk12]

They didn't, the Doctor very specifically reported no causalities.

Yeah they probably didn't want to start the pilot episode with some dead kids. lol

It reminds me a bit of this scene:

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Here the writers need to make sure the "bad guys" execute one of their own -but not even an innocent guy-, just to make clear to the viewers they are actually bad guys.
Because up to this point, they are just the legitimate security force on this planet, and our "heroes" just kill them all next scene. Even though they actually didn't DO anything evil until this point - only having Booker at gunpoint, who, well, broke their laws in this moment.

Of course later we find out they were all part of the evil syndicate and thus deserves to die (??). But in this introductory moment? Quite dubious.
Which, your know, I'm even somewhat fine in dumb action schlock. Heroes kill tons of mooks. Whatever.
But then please don't have a speech afterwards about the sanctity of life and how morally upstanding we have to be.

If anything, if it was one of the War College ships that did that, at least it'd be understandable as a way to differentiate the new Starfleet philosophy to the current "kill first, ask questions" later philosophy that caused Ake to resign in the first place.

I mean in the grand scheme of things it really doesn't matter, but it's so easy to solve this problem so that some audience members don't feel tonal whiplash even if they can fill in the gaps themselves. I've watched Taken and John Wick and whatever and I have no problem with action heroes who murder dozens of guys without a second thought. But I don't think that's what the writers are going for with Ake.

 

[Firebird]

And the bulk of this discussion is generated by the show's primary demographic, which - coincidentally - is the same demographic that dominates every single other Trek product: 40+ males.

I just have to laugh every time someone tries to erase Star Trek's historically significant and considerable female fan base this way.

 

[Uncle Sock]

3. “Starfleet is supposed to be the best of the best. Cadets should be more mature. This doesn’t feel like a realistic military academy or match what we’ve seen before.”

This is a post-Burn Starfleet Academy. This is ground zero. It makes sense that recruitment would have more of a “space orphans” vibe at this stage. Starfleet is unrefined, raw, and immature at this point in its rebuilding process, and that actually tracks.

That’s actually something I started wondering about when I watched episode 3. Aside from the very 21st-century language, these characters could absolutely be the cadet versions of TNG characters. Picard himself said he was a bit of a “rascal” back in the day (pun intended). And I can even imagine Riker having been something like Darem Reymi—a bit of a hotshot.

Maturity comes with age, and most cadets enter Starfleet Academy around 18. I definitely didn’t have my current level of maturity or emotional intelligence at that age. The foundation was there, sure, but it took me almost 30 years to become who I am now. From that perspective, the Starfleet Academy characters feel completely believable to me.

The only thing that really bothers me is how they talk and carry themselves—it feels very 2025. All the “bro,” “get laid,” and similar expressions. Sure, fashion cycles back every few decades, so maybe language does too—even after a thousand years. Still, the biggest contradiction for me is that the show is supposedly set in the 32nd century, yet the characters speak and behave like modern-day people. Other than that, though, I think the characters work just fine.

 

[Rahul]

I am noticing there's a trend amongst Trek fandom to rage against our heroes killing characters, even though the decision to kill is one based on a legitimate necessity of self defense or at least a rational reaction to the situation as seen from their perspective.
"Oh my god! Ake killed the space pirates! You bastard!"
"Oh my god! La'an killed Ortegas's Gorn friend! You bastard!"
"Oh my god! Burnham killed Osyraa and destroyed her ship! You bastard!"
"Oh my god! Burnham killed T'Kuvma! You bastard!"
But really, there was no real alternative in any of these situations.

Tbh it's not just Star Trek. And yes, shooting badguys has always been done, John Wayne killed a ton of Indians. But post 9-11 there has been a massive shift, a LOT of American media has now become morally rotten to the core.

It starts out with legitimately good shows like '24', where the heroes have to commit drastic acts to stop absolute evil plots, like torturing terrorists to save thousands. Brutal, but appropriate.
But then less good shows copy the same acts, in way less appropriate contexts - and suddenly you have Hawaii-Five-0 members murdering low-level street thugs on the street execution style.

Back in the 80s it was a big thing that 'Dirty Harry' brought in gangsters cold. But if you watch these movies today - he's a straight up paragon of virtue compared to now - only shooting the moment the criminals themmself grab their guns. 'Make my day'.

The respect for life seems to have drastically decreased in general over the pond, and the gun become a solution to be applied in all situations. Do one mistake, don't comply immediately, grow up poor - deserve get shot.

 

[Rahul]

Is the younger audience in the room with us now?

There's a deluge of toxic positivity defending against the usual anti-woke brigade, which ends up creating far more energy and attention this dumb show deserves.

And the bulk of this discussion is generated by the show's primary demographic, which - coincidentally - is the same demographic that dominates every single other Trek product: 40+ males.

Anyway, I'm sure there's plenty of fair criticism to level at SFA. All I can add is it took me three attempts to watch the pilot, and I still didn't make it to "origami chicken" before tapping out.

I mean are you telling me it's marketed at 40 year olds?

On this one I actually don't blame either the producers, the audience, or marketing.

The core audience for Trek IS middle-aged nerdy men. The producers do want to expand that - and that's the right decision! They just weren't that successful with it - the show didn't register much outside the core fanbase.

But it's very hard to predict success - e.g. 'Wednesday' - the core fanbase of the 'Addams Family' are ALSO middle aged white men. But that show immediately attracted a lot of young, female audience as well. My guess is SFA was hoping for something similar, but just didn't reach exactly the right magic & then pivoted back to their core audience in their last marketing push.

 

[Fateor]

On this one I actually don't blame either the producers, the audience, or marketing.

The core audience for Trek IS middle-aged nerdy men. The producers do want to expand that - and that's the right decision! They just weren't that successful with it - the show didn't register much outside the core fanbase.

But it's very hard to predict success - e.g. 'Wednesday' - the core fanbase of the 'Addams Family' are ALSO middle aged white men. But that show immediately attracted a lot of young, female audience as well. My guess is SFA was hoping for something similar, but just didn't reach exactly the right magic & then pivoted back to their core audience in their last marketing push.

The problem with that is that Star Trek attracts new fans by being that show people put reruns of on on the background.

And you dont really do that with streaming.