Re: Is A New Star Trek TV Series Doomed Even More Because of Star Trek
Fine... if anything there is a much stronger case to base a new series from something that has proven to be a strong financial and critical success than from a version of the franchise who has seen constantly diminishing results for the past 20 years such as declining ratings, financial failures, and increasing criticism.
Anything else?
Didn't think so.
Absolutely Right(TM)
The few folks who disliked Abrams's movie can make excuses, stick their fingers in their ears and hum Real Loud as much as they like - none of that has any impact on the fact that this movie is now the axis on which the Trek Franchise will revolve for a decade or more.
With a single successful move, Paramount has overcome their corporate anxiety over the response of Trek's hard core fan base to revision and "reimagining."
No future television producer is going to feel themselves beholden to pre-Abrams
Star Trek in terms of deciding how to handle continuity issues with previous shows and movies, and they will be encouraged - if not required - by the people running the studio to rethink
everything about Trek based on contemporary tastes, styles and the demands of the market when the show is made. They'll pick and choose the aspects of Trek that they find useful, and change the rest.
If CBS decides to make another Trek series, the first guy they'll try to make a deal with will be Abrams - in which case, they're just getting in line along with just about every studio and network in L.A.
See, I agree w/ you. I just don’t think it is a good thing.
Most of us could talk about the quality of the reboot all day (and likely have a hundred different opinions on it), but the fact is JJA proved w/o a doubt that Star Trek COULD be profitable again. To my thinking that all but guarantees a new TV series out of CBS (probably set to release in tandem w/ whatever the “last” JJA Trek movie will be—most people assume 3). And you know what—I think I hate that thought.
So before I go any further—full disclosure. I wasn’t a fan of The Reboot.
And it’s not that I didn’t like it! I liked it a lot actually; It was fun and fast paced and exciting and I probably thought it was the best “space opera” sci-fi (if you can call it that) to come out in a few years. I own the Blue Ray! But it wasn’t Star Trek. Maybe I say that because I am the age where my first exposure to Trek was late TNG and the DS9/Voyager years, but I’ve seen TOS. I even LIKE TOS, for the most part anyway. And this movie just doesn’t fit into the Trek universe, no matter how many phasers and photon torpedoes and Romulans were written into it. To my mind (and I realize that many disagree) this movie was exactly what the studio wanted it to be: a summer blockbuster. A pretty, shiny, loud, explosion filled, sword-fighting movie-theater big-gulp of awesome—The Star Wars prequels, but w/o George Lucas throwing up CGI aliens and poorly thought out retcons all over it. And you know what—that’s enjoyable. But it isn’t Star Trek.
I know how I sound. I know I’m being sentimental. I admit it freely and part of me is kind of weirded out by it ‘cause I am usually the one saying “move on, it was cool while it lasted but times—and audiences—change and that old stuff doesn’t resonate like this new stuff does—sorry, but it’s true!” But here’s the thing (and I will actually get back to how this pertains to a possible future TV series), I don’t want to move on. And I (and everyone who feels similarly, even though I admit it is probably a small minority of the fanbase) is kind of SOL on that count.
They’ll make another TV series because assuming the next Star Trek movie is a success they will have effectively and profitably rebranded Star Trek for the current generation—but I liked the old brand. I liked the intellectual, big-idea science fiction that has been synonymous w/ trek since its inception. And that isn’t Trek XI. And make no mistake; any series WILL be set in the Trek XI universe. And they will necessarily erase the 24 seasons of television, and cannon history, (assuming the ENT cannon is still intact) that preceded it.
Sisko, Picard, Janeway, Far Point, the Caretaker, the Dominion War, the liberation and reconstruction of Bajor, Wolf-359, the Maquis rebellion, Species 8472 and the consequences of their war w/ the Borg. All gone. And I’m kind of not okay w/ it.
And you know what the worst part is? I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I will still watch it, because I can be a fanboy sometimes and fans (myself most defiantly included) will do a lot of not-so-smart things for the objects of our interest. I’ll watch it and I’ll enjoy it, but I have a sinking feeling that Star Trek (the Star Trek I grew up w/ and loved) is dead. And that’s sad.
