News Season 2 will be the last (show cancelled)

[Ceridwen]

Paramount need to pander to the Red Hat Brigade.

Maybe I'm being naive, but I genuinely don't think that's what's happening here. It's just the nature of a corporation having a new boss; they're going to want to take credit for any on-going successes, so everything has to be new. I've lost track of the number of "bold" new directions I've experienced in almost ten years at my workplace.

Now, if we come back from however long this ends up taking and the new series looks like Enterprise (which I enjoy well enough, but it is incredibly regressive) then I will have been wrong.

 

[Mudd]

Maybe I'm being naive, but I genuinely don't think that's what's happening here. It's just the nature of a corporation having a new boss; they're going to want to take credit for any on-going successes, so everything has to be new. I've lost track of the number of "bold" new directions I've experienced in almost ten years at my workplace.

Very much so.

 

[Detached Nacelle]

Maybe I'm being naive, but I genuinely don't think that's what's happening here. It's just the nature of a corporation having a new boss; they're going to want to take credit for any on-going successes, so everything has to be new. I've lost track of the number of "bold" new directions I've experienced in almost ten years at my workplace.

I would agree it is very much them wanting to clean house and start fresh with their new regime. But we shouldn't ignore Ellison's eagerness to cowtow to the fascists for his own benefit, his incarnation of Star Trek could easily fall victim to it and even if it doesn't and the world starts to return to normal in 2028 it shouldn't be forgotten either. He deserves to be punished in the only way that we have power to do, by not engaging.

 

[The Wormhole]

Me, I look forward to the next iteration of Trek.

When the people who loathe Kurtzman's shows and cheer their failure will discover that the new bosses don't care what they think Star Trek should be, either.

I am so going to love it when That Crowd begins referring to Kurtzman as the guy who got it right and the new studio suits should be paying attention to what he did. Just like people who vilified and demonized Brannon Braga twenty years ago now think he's one of the franchise's greats.

 

[Ceridwen]

I would agree it is very much them wanting to clean house and start fresh with their new regime. But we shouldn't ignore Ellison's eagerness to cowtow to the fascists for his own benefit, his incarnation of Star Trek could easily fall victim to it and even if it doesn't and the world starts to return to normal in 2028 it shouldn't be forgotten either. He deserves to be punished in the only way that we have power to do, by not engaging.

This may not be the forum for this discussion; if I'm overstepping I apologize. But is there a media conglomerate one can engage with right now, by that metric? People in this thread and others have hoped for Star Trek to be moved to Apple, to Amazon, but they've all kissed the ring.

This isn't meant to be antagonistic, more just my own pessimism coming through, sorry.

 

[valkyrie013]

Well, don't really have to include politics or whichever "Side" someone is on.

So questions, was it canceled because the new management wants to take it a different direction, or start of fresh? Quite possible. If it was doing gang busters, they probably would leave it alone, it floundering in ratings? Yeah. quite possible.

Ratings in general, from what is "known" it isnt really knocking any boots off in that regard. some places say 2 million watchers, which is less than SNW. If it had a more positive viewer score, like if it was well regarded, but the numbers don't quite get there then maybe, but it has been panned by alot of people.

Also.
You can not like a show, and not be a "Red hat" or "Woke" or stuff like that.
I honestly gave it a try, watched all episodes. It was better than what the naysayers have said, but it wasn't that good either, maybe 4-5 episodes were good rest were Meh to Oh crap thats bad.
For me the writing was just sub standard, I've seen some takes like "there just writing what they know" or the old writers were more subtle, or any of dozens of things.

But it comes down to numbers. If it was a good show, with compelling characters and good writing. People would have shown up to watch it. We all like good TV.

For me it wasn't the Klingon in a skirt, or vomiting glitter, it was just.. What the hell is going on? Why do ALL the characters have parent problems, why does the Admiral's daughter HAVE to be captain? It was just a mess.

 

[Detached Nacelle]

This may not be the forum for this discussion; if I'm overstepping I apologize. But is there a media conglomerate one can engage with right now, by that metric? People in this thread and others have hoped for Star Trek to be moved to Apple, to Amazon, but they've all kissed the ring.

This isn't meant to be antagonistic, more just my own pessimism coming through, sorry.

It's a great era for alternative watching websites

 

[The Wormhole]

Why do ALL the characters have parent problems,

I mean, a majority of characters in a show having parent problems is hardly unique to SFA in Star Trek, or television in general.

Hell, everyone in the TNG cast has at least one dead parent.

 

[eschaton]

Went back and checked. The Vulcan Hello review thread on this very site had 400 participants. The season finale of SFA had 120 votes. So we're talking about a decline of 70% in terms of participation on Trek BBS alone since the start of Kurtzman Trek.

 

[valkyrie013]

I mean, a majority of characters in a show having parent problems is hardly unique to SFA in Star Trek, or television in general.

Hell, everyone in the TNG cast has at least one dead parent.

You say that like its a good thing?? its a tired trope, in a long line of tired tropes Trek has been using lately. Another example of a Missing parent.. Kirk.. now Picard.. Or Deanna losing ANOTHER child. just stop with the overused worthless tropes.

I remember a story about Titanic, Leonardo wanted Jack to have a "problem" like a lisp or a limp or something Cameron said absolutely not, thats a crutch. Thats a 100% true.

 

[Danja]

You say that like its a good thing?? its a tired trope, in a long line of tired tropes Trek has been using lately. Another example of a Missing parent.. Kirk.. now Picard.. Or Deanna losing ANOTHER child.

Missing parents are a Disney staple.

 

[eschaton]

You say that like its a good thing?? its a tired trope, in a long line of tired tropes Trek has been using lately. Another example of a Missing parent.. Kirk.. now Picard.. Or Deanna losing ANOTHER child. just stop with the overused worthless tropes.

I remember a story about Titanic, Leonardo wanted Jack to have a "problem" like a lisp or a limp or something Cameron said absolutely not, thats a crutch. Thats a 100% true.

One of the key things I try to remember in my own writing is what a character does is more important than what happens to a character prior to the narrative.

Trauma can help build empathy for a protagonist, but it's not a replacement for drama.

 

[Danja]

But we shouldn't ignore Ellison's eagerness to cowtow to the fascists for his own benefit, his incarnation of Star Trek could easily fall victim to it and even if it doesn't and the world starts to return to normal in 2028 it shouldn't be forgotten either.

The MAGAs are going to be tuning into Taylor Sheridan more than Trek.

 

[Quantum21]

https://variety.com/2026/tv/news/star-trek-starfleet-academy-canceled-season-2-1236696816/

Well The franchise is moving on to the next phase as most of us expected. This ownership group is keen to end a chapter before starting the next one.

I see David Ellison the wannabe movie mogul making lots of Trek movies. The series may have a short lull but they need to fill space for the 220 million subscribers of the new streaming service too, so that won't last long.

Will the sensibility remain? Stay tuned.

 

[Michael]

Went back and checked. The Vulcan Hello review thread on this very site had 400 participants. The season finale of SFA had 120 votes. So we're talking about a decline of 70% in terms of participation on Trek BBS alone since the start of Kurtzman Trek.

That’s a bit of an apples to oranges comparison, though. If you want to look at premieres, we have 400 poll participants for “The Vulcan Hello” versus 192 for “Kids These Days”. Or if you want to look at first season finales, it’s 340 on “Will You Take My Hand?” versus 121 on “Rubincon”. But what you need to take into account is that these polls for Discovery have existed for almost ten years (!) at this point, the poll for Starfleet Academy are two months and two weeks old respectively. Plus, one was the first streaming Trek show that's coming out after years of no Trek on television (internationally showing on Netflix, which many people already subscribed to anyway) versus the last in a line of ten years worth of Trek shows streaming on a platform with limited reach.

 

[Danja]

I see David Ellison the wannabe movie mogul making lots of Trek movies. The series may have a short lull but they need to fill space for the 220 million subscribers of the new streaming service too, so that won't last long.

Trek is not Marvel. It will never BE Marvel.

A lot of the recent MCU films have been underperforming at the box office (the last MCU film to gross over $1 billion was Deadpool & Wolverine in 2024).

 

[Mudd]

Establishing trauma is one technique for illuminating what a character's wrong or limiting belief or behavior is - the thing they have to overcome to achieve their objective.

Sometimes people telling stories get more wrapped up in the narrative of the trauma for its own sake than is useful. Start the story at the beginning of the story. Past wounds come into play through the present act of the character remembering them, and derive their significance from why they're remembered and whatever actions they motivate.*

A character like Braka is, arguably, someone who fails to overcome the straitjacket of his traumatic childhood. Giamatti creates empathy for him by playing him as sincere on some level rather than only as a moustache-twirler seeking revenge. He clings to the wrong lesson that he learned, to the bitter end - and so he fails.

*Yes, these are generalizations rather than universal truths. IMO they're a good place to start.

 

[valkyrie013]

But all of them with parent problems? that's just lazy. Could have had someone like Travis Meryweather, have a person, with both parents, but he or she lived on a ship for most of there life going sublight between systems during the burn, or Someone that grew up on a planet that was cut off until the discovery showed up bringing dilithium, and they joined to get away from the gangs etc. The burn gives a whole litiney of stories to tell

There are a TON of different ideas for "trauma" that doesn't involve parent issues.

 

[eschaton]

That’s a bit of an apples to oranges comparison, though. If you want to look at premieres, we have 400 poll participants for “The Vulcan Hello” versus 192 for “Kids These Days”. Or if you want to look at first season finales, it’s 340 on “Will You Take My Hand?” versus 121 on “Rubincon”. But what you need to take into account is that these polls for Discovery have existed for almost ten years (!) at this point, the poll for Starfleet Academy are two months and two weeks old respectively. Plus, one was the first streaming Trek show that's coming out after years of no Trek on television (internationally showing on Netflix, which many people already subscribed to anyway) versus the last in a line of ten years worth of Trek shows streaming on a platform with limited reach.

I admit some of those might be a factor. Like, the poll thread being up for a decade means some people may have popped in to review quite late (though once it drops off the front page, finding a review thread without a dedicated search is a bit hard).

As for the point about season premiers having a higher review count than finales - that's kind of my point, here. It's pretty normal for some people to drift out of shows because they don't find them to be their jam. But once someone walks away from one show mid-season, it's unlikely they're going to be coming back for another. There are explicitly people on this very forum who have said they weren't watching SFA, for example, because they didn't like Discovery (or the 32nd century incarnation thereof) and decided the show wasn't for them. So in a sense, Discovery alienated those potential fans from trying out SFA, without bringing someone new in.

Fair or unfair, DIS Season 1 was almost certainly the apex of viewership for Kurtzman Trek. Which makes Season 1's stumbles sad, because both the show and modern Trek in general improved with iteration, yet a lot of people checked out, and didn't check back in. Again, though, Trek isn't unique when it comes to this - enough mediocre stuff has come out of the MCU and Star Wars in recent years that lots of people are overlooking the good stuff there as well. This is why extended universe franchises are such a dicey endeavor.

 

[Michael]

What parental problems do Ake, Lura Thok, Jett Reno, the Doctor, Kelrec, Ocam, Tilly, Kyle, B’Avi, Dzolo or Vance have on the show?