Do people under 40 care about Star Trek?

[ELCHawk]

I am turning 50 this November. Grew up watching TNG and then continued watching DS9 and Voyager.

My wife's parents grew up with TOS. Sadly, that generation is getting older and older.

The Trekkies I personally know are all around my age or older. When I think of co-workers in 30's or 20's none of them know anything about Star Trek.

I know Pauramount is trying to get younger viewers. Prodigy was an amazing show but it mainly seemed to be watched by people like me. Section 31 tried to get people in 20's and 30's but that movie sucked and wasn't real Trek. Now they are trying to get the young adult audience with Academy. That was a show I was nervous about at first, but am excited about now. But Paramount dont care about 50 year olds like me.

Just worried about future of Star Trek.

 

[James Cole]

What they really needed to do was have a four quadrant show that Millennial and Gen X fans could watch with their older children.

Instead you had the fragmented pie -- "different flavors of Star Trek" since we can't please everyone model that hyperfragmented the existing audience despite sky high budgets -- and, behind a paywall.

Just how many own goals will the Kurtzman era have in retrospect? Granted, not all can be laid at the feet of Kurtzman himself.

 

[Guy Gardener]

My wife is 35.

10 years ago, she ate Voyager right up. Girl power!

Adored DS9.

Mentally vomited half way through season one of TNG and refused to continue.

Thought the Enterprise Pilot was terrible.

Did a little Discovery but lost interest.

Prodigy is for babies.

Doesn't want to commit to Strange New Worlds, because she's over Trek.

 

[StarCruiser]

No - it needs to be a "back to basics" deep space action-adventure (mix of natural humor and occasional romance, mystery etc.) with a message.

It should, at least; start on TV with streaming optional without ads. Should be primarily episodic with occasional 2 or 3 part stories (if you have a really good story to tell...) and should NOT appear to be a parody of Star Trek. Take it seriously.

Don't be afraid to incorporate stories from outside of a limited writing team and treat the characters as professionals on a potentially dangerous journey. Limit feedback from HQ - depending on range - they are on their own, for the most part.

Try to be at least semi-hard science fiction. No dependency on 'Treknobabble', have a consistent foundation for the tech but, don't spend time trying to explain that. The Treknophiles can look up what this or that is, and how it works on the Internet.

 

[The Wormhole]

I first began noticing the fact that Trek's fandom is getting older in 2016 when I saw Beyond in theatres. That theatre was filled with literal senior citizens making complaints about the theatre being too big, having to walk up stairs to get to their seats, the sound being too loud and so on. I was 31 at the time and I am pretty sure I was the youngest in that theatre.

The damnedest thin was, Trek XI was a hit among the younger demographic in 2009. When I saw that in theatres, the theatre was filled with teenagers and people in their twenties. If Paramount had struck while the iron was hot Star Trek could have been one of the leading movie franchises of the 2010s, maybe even holding its own against the MCU or Disney's Star Wars with a burgeoning fandom of people under 40. Paramount instead squandered that golden opportunity and here we are now.

 

[fireproof78]

Just worried about future of Star Trek.

I'm not.

Young people still get in to Star Trek. It just looks different than for older people.

 

[Quinton]

I'm in my thirties, so yeah.

I get it, though. Even in childhood, most of my friends weren't interested. I grew up on the Berman era, but it was like pulling teeth getting peers to watch along with me. In early adulthood, I started amassing new fans, but there aren't a ton of us, to be sure.

 

[Mudd]

The evidence is: Not much, no.

 

[Timofnine]

Star Trek is a product of its time.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Going by what I see on YouTube, a lot of younger folk are doing Star Trek reactions. Gallifrey gals, warp reactor, Sesskasays (on her patreon), Jen Murray, Popcorn in Bed...

 

[FredH]

While I’ve loved Trek for my whole life, I’m perfectly okay with the fact that all things end eventually. I don’t expect the franchise to disappear for the final time for a long time to come — but in a world where it’s not 1968 and it’s not the only thing on TV espousing its values, I don’t see it as something to “worry” about, were it to happen, as sometime it must. Sure, I’d be sad, but at some point all things pass into history. That includes any and all franchises.

(Of course, I say that as someone with nothing invested in it but emotions. Anybody deriving livelihood from it has every understandable right to worry about it!)

 

[Timofnine]

While I’ve loved Trek for my whole life, I’m perfectly okay with the fact that all things end eventually. I don’t expect the franchise to disappear for the final time for a long time to come — but in a world where it’s not 1968 and it’s not the only thing on TV espousing its values, I don’t see it as something to “worry” about, were it to happen, as sometime it must. Sure, I’d be sad, but at some point all things pass into history. That includes any and all franchises.

(Of course, I say that as someone with nothing invested in it but emotions. Anybody deriving livelihood from it has every understandable right to worry about it!)

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[Quinton]

Star Trek is a product of its time.

Sure, and it's deep into a current run of new content. Which means it's a product of this time as well, right?

Like I said earlier, it doesn't seem (anecdotally, obviously) like there are a ton of younger fans out there. But there are some. I've spoken with them. I just had a difficult time finding them in childhood, in the 1990s-2000s, and I do believe that to be broadly reflective of relative lack of interest. Exceptions abound, though.

Going by what I see on YouTube, a lot of younger folk are doing Star Trek reactions. Gallifrey gals, warp reactor, Sesskasays (on her patreon), Jen Murray, Popcorn in Bed...

That's cool. Very neat to read. I don't do YouTube, so I had no idea.

 

[fireproof78]

Star Trek is a product of its time.

So...this decade?



It's funny that this question pops up as I was watching a wonderful younger lady (no I don't know her age and I don't guess lady's ages) watching the Kelvin films and loving it.

The potential is always there. The first Trek show I watched was TOS even though it was twenty years removed from me.

Going by what I see on YouTube, a lot of younger folk are doing Star Trek reactions. Gallifrey gals, warp reactor, Sesskasays (on her patreon), Jen Murray, Popcorn in Bed...

Yes, indeed.

Do fans talk up Star Trek? Do they share their love for it? The number of examples or funny moments I share can help people find a passion for the franchise.

Are we being the people who got us in to Star Trek when we were younger?

 

[Victoria]

Do people under 40 watch Star Trek? Yes. My children do and they have friends that do.

Do people under 40 care about Star Trek? Probably not in the way we do. One issue is that Star Trek doesn't stand out from other modern offerings. People watch it in the same way they watch multiple other shows - and regard them all in the same way - something to pass the time but nothing special.

 

[TheAdmiralty]

I'm 33. Plenty of Millennial Star Trek fans who grew up when TNG reruns were ubiquitous on cable in the 2000's. For all their flaws the JJ movies brought in a lot of younger fans as well who went out and checked out the older stuff.

Does seem like there's been a drop off with Zoomers since Paramount has basically treated it like a streaming asset since Beyond underperformed at the BO.

 

[Firebird]

I'm turning 37 later this year, and I think it's fairly obvious I care at least a smidgen about Trek. Definitely not as much as my friends and peers do, but I've made peace with that in my 30+ years of fandom.

I am seeing young fans pop up over on Bluesky and elsewhere. I think trying to gauge the age of the fandom on the BBS is not going to generate accurate results since message boards aren't something Gen Z and younger seem to frequent.

 

[Lord Garth]

Thoughts about specific series and movies aside, the biggest mistakes CBS/Paramount/Whoever made were not coming out with the Kelvin Films more frequently and not keeping the old Star Trek series on Netflix and releasing new Star Trek series there. Sticking with Netflix would've been the path of least resistance. CBS All Access, Paramount+, it might be picking up some steam now (and not because of Star Trek) but for the longest time it was, "CBS All Access? What's that?"

There are YouTube Reactors, I watch some of them myself, and there's family introducing their kids to Star Trek, and those seem to be ways to get new fans... but it's not on the same level that it would've been with more frequent movies and new series that were more easily accessible.

 

[BillJ]

Tricky question. Do they care about it the way the first couple of generations of fans did? Probably not. There’s a lot more of it now vs. then, plus entertainment feels far more disposable now.

 

[fireproof78]

Tricky question. Do they care about it the way the first couple of generations of fans did? Probably not. There’s a lot more of it now vs. then, plus entertainment feels far more disposable now.

Entertainment is far more spread out now. Entertainment isn't disposable; it's too much. People move on because entertainment and keeping up takes more time.

It's absurd.