I largely stick with things that I already have long-term investment in -- such as Star Trek, Star Wars, Doctor Who and Marvel -- because there's just too much new content out there to even know where to begin with it.
Do people under 40 care about Star Trek?
- Thread starter ELCHawk
- Start date
I've started going the other way, looking for things that I've had little or no connection to. No wrong way to do it, just a lot of the franchise stuff has become repetitive to me.
Go on Tumblr, there are loads.
But apparently not enough, but whatever.
But apparently not enough, but whatever.
During awards season in LA, it frequently happens when I see For Your Consideration billboards for shows that I've literally never heard of before. There's such a glut of programming combined with the Netflix model of barely advertising outside of a month before a premiere that it's just impossible to keep up.
Most people stream these days. The audience that actually tunes in for over the air scheduled broadcasts are shrinking really fast. If they actually tried putting a new Star Trek series on a terrestrial network like CBS it wouldn’t survive 13 episodes. There’s a good reason terrestrial network programming these days has become a cesspool for cheap medical dramas and procedurals: the audience moved to streaming, especially younger demographics. I know people in their 20s who hate the idea of trying to catch a show on a forced schedule littered with ads. Doesn’t matter if it’s free, they rather pay for on demand content commercial free.
I'm 52. TNG came out when I was a freshman in high school, and as a kid I enjoyed reruns of TOS and the TOS movies when they came out. TNG was still on the air when I joined the military. So for me, Trek had a fundamental part of my growing up. I simympath8ze with this topic; it is difficult seeing it have a similar impact on today's generation.
I grew up with Trek and Wars, so they are both what I love. One look and listen at my website will give that away!
I know there are kids today that love Trek; I have a teen relative that does. But even she admits that other kids her age don't see the appeal of it. All the more reason for fan sites like this one and mine to keep going!
I grew up with Trek and Wars, so they are both what I love. One look and listen at my website will give that away!
I know there are kids today that love Trek; I have a teen relative that does. But even she admits that other kids her age don't see the appeal of it. All the more reason for fan sites like this one and mine to keep going!
At the risk of invoking fire hose memes and coin jar tithes, you want to see how Star Trek would last on a terrestrial network in modern times, just look at The Orville, which is probably the most Star Trek like show to air on a network in the past decade. Even with the benefit of an executive producer who had pull with that particular network, it only lasted two seasons of a dozen episodes each. There's absolutely no reason to expect Star Trek to do any better.
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Shining Girls (Time travel)
Dark Matter (Parallel Worlds)
Evil (Very pretty Science Girl refuting an incredibly literal biblical apocalypse that is actually happening.)
You're welcome.
Good point. GHOSTS is a sitcom but it’s the closest thing I can look for anything with sci-fi/fantasy on CBS. The CW would have been the likely network to air Trek when CBS still had a large stake in it before Nexstar, but with the cancellation of SUPERMAN & LOIS there’s no longer a genre series on that network.
I do agree with whoever said above that putting Trek on Netflix would help widen the audience, because that’s absolutely what happened in the 2010s seeing an influx of new fans based off those old shows. CBS/Paramount already license their other shows to Netflix for a good reason. What I would do is do what AMC does and license all the Trek shows to Netflix, except for new seasons. Viewers could watch seasons 1-2 of SNW, but if they want to watch the new episodes they’d have to go to Paramount+. That’s been working very well for AMC as that’s how BREAKING BAD gained its audience, and they continue to do it for the recent shows like INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE.
At the palindromic age of 33 I can safely say yes is the answer to your question.
Into Darkness got delayed due to some production issues if I recall. Agree there was a lot of lost momentum in that four years. There was a brief Star Trek mania for a couple years after Star Trek 09 came out, lots of people going in TOS uniforms for Halloween, stuff like "beam me up Scotty" and "live long and prosper" becoming casually used catchphrases again, exc. Probably the biggest pop culture footprint Trek had since TNG was on. But by the time Into Darkness came out it had faded and even that was viewed as an underperformer but not a flop by Paramount.
Yes, because the writers couldn't make up their mind. They lost Benecio del Toro because of the delays.
What was this delay? All this time my impression was that the studio simply wanted Abrams to do the second film, but he was already committed to doing SUPER 8.
That said, would having it come out sooner in 2011 or 2012 make a difference? Maybe. That depends on a lot of factors. It picks up the momentum but it would also need to be a really good sequel on the level of EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, THE DARK KNIGHT, or hell WRATH OF KHAN to really solidify the Kelvin films. Instead we got INTO DARKNESS.
In the case of BEYOND that seemed to be pure negligence in marketing. I just rewatched the Kelvin films with two roommates of mine who were shocked that a third film actually existed. It was completely out of their radar, unlike the first two.
That said, would having it come out sooner in 2011 or 2012 make a difference? Maybe. That depends on a lot of factors. It picks up the momentum but it would also need to be a really good sequel on the level of EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, THE DARK KNIGHT, or hell WRATH OF KHAN to really solidify the Kelvin films. Instead we got INTO DARKNESS.
In the case of BEYOND that seemed to be pure negligence in marketing. I just rewatched the Kelvin films with two roommates of mine who were shocked that a third film actually existed. It was completely out of their radar, unlike the first two.
Orci and Lindelof spent an entire year arguing over whether or not to use Khan, resulting in an entire year of no actual writing, thus the movie's release was postponed.
If they had a script ready on time I wonder who would have ultimately directed. I wish Brad Bird had gotten a Kelvin Trek film (wouldn’t have been available for Kelvin 2 anyway).
I think the number of people interested in Trek SHARPLY diminishes by generation.
I’m in my mid 40’s and I think there are a lot of us, and maybe people in mid thirties onward, who grew up with Berman Trek and the tale end of the TOS movies. Trek was ubiquitous in the 90’s and had a limited but definite cultural currency.
I suspect for people younger than their 30’s it may have been a different story. There may be quite a few who became fans from the Abrams movie trilogy, but I’m genuinely not sure how many people were converted to diehard fans by those films. I had the shocking realisation not long ago that in four years time the first of those will be twenty years old. How can that be?
As for those younger than 20…sadly, I don’t think there will be many Trek fans at all unless they grew up with it courtesy of their parents. By all accounts, a lot of kids aren’t really into TV at all now, preferring TikTok and YouTube shorts.
Based on purely anecdotal evidence, I don’t think the recent productions have managed to bring too many new fans into the fold. After Discovery’s frosty reception I think they were too busy just trying to keep existing fans happy. And it seems experiments like Section 31, clearly designed to make Trek COOL again (if, in fact, it ever was) fell flat on their face.
It’s a bit depressing really.
I’m in my mid 40’s and I think there are a lot of us, and maybe people in mid thirties onward, who grew up with Berman Trek and the tale end of the TOS movies. Trek was ubiquitous in the 90’s and had a limited but definite cultural currency.
I suspect for people younger than their 30’s it may have been a different story. There may be quite a few who became fans from the Abrams movie trilogy, but I’m genuinely not sure how many people were converted to diehard fans by those films. I had the shocking realisation not long ago that in four years time the first of those will be twenty years old. How can that be?
As for those younger than 20…sadly, I don’t think there will be many Trek fans at all unless they grew up with it courtesy of their parents. By all accounts, a lot of kids aren’t really into TV at all now, preferring TikTok and YouTube shorts.
Based on purely anecdotal evidence, I don’t think the recent productions have managed to bring too many new fans into the fold. After Discovery’s frosty reception I think they were too busy just trying to keep existing fans happy. And it seems experiments like Section 31, clearly designed to make Trek COOL again (if, in fact, it ever was) fell flat on their face.
It’s a bit depressing really.
Is the only way to make new fans with new productions?
That’s a good question. I do know this, a lot of younger people today won’t watch older material. They don’t watch old films or TV. They won’t even listen to older music unless a particular song happens to blow up on social media. i was never like that as a kid; I would watch older material and happily watched TOS even though it looked very dated by the 90’s. Based on what I’ve seen and hear from others, I think that would be rare now. It’s very much about what is current and what is viral.
Interesting.
Perhaps anecdotal, but being around my teens and their friends I have a different perspective. The teens are far more interested in a mix of things, and get in to older media as newer. There's a growing appreciation for things like vinyl records, or older shows that creates a different attitude.
I also think that current fans could try to engage newer audiences too by appealing to those trends rather than waiting for audiences to discover Trek like it was found in the past.
Why are you only bringing up DISCO and S31? Did you know there were other shows that not only energized the fan base but brought in new fans like LOWER DECKS and STRANGE NEW WORLDS? In fact, the latter already cracked the top ten most watched shows during S2 on the Nielsen streaming rankings. That ain’t nothing.
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