Do people under 40 care about Star Trek?

[Daddy Todd]

By the third season when the show moved to Hulu, the humor was scaled back a lot and was more in line with being the kind of show Seth MacFarlane always wanted it to be.

That’s great to hear, but I gave up on it midway through the first season. I’m glad for Seth that he eventually got to do the show the way he wanted to, but I was probably engrossed by The Expanse by that point, and not inclined to give it a second chance.

Maybe if the internet voices telling me how AWESOME the Hulu season was didn’t feel like the same internet voices that had been telling me how AWESOME the first season was, I might have given it a chance.

 

[fireproof78]

That’s great to hear, but I gave up on it midway through the first season. I’m glad for Seth that he eventually got to do the show the way he wanted to, but I was probably engrossed by The Expanse by that point, and not inclined to give it a second chance.

Maybe if the internet voices telling me how AWESOME the Hulu season was didn’t feel like the same internet voices that had been telling me how AWESOME the first season was, I might have given it a chance.

I think the biggest drawback was how the captain was presented. Between that and season 2's mean spiritedness at times and I was not inclined towards the third season.

 

[V'Lias]

I'm well under 40 still, and I got into Trek through TOS and DS9. I would consider myself a fairly big fan, at least enough to have a Trek wall in my home office! I got my spouse into some of the shows (primary through DS9), and we watch it together fairly frequently.

All that being said, I don't think I would have gotten into the franchise if my first introduction had been the modern shows. Maybe SNW, but it's difficult to say for sure. I'm guessing I'm an outlier in my age group though, as I don't feel my tastes in movies, shows, and music is limited by era like many around me.

 

[kirk55555]

I'm 34 and have loved Star Trek since I was a kid. I may not like every single show or movie but its still my favorite franchise, sci fi or otherwise.

 

[BillJ]

The Orville's humor is primarily in the first season and was forced in there by Fox, who basically wanted the show to be Family Guy in space. By the third season when the show moved to Hulu, the humor was scaled back a lot and was more in line with being the kind of show Seth MacFarlane always wanted it to be.

Once they started stripping away the humor, I lost interest. Might as well just watch TNG.

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

They don't make TNG anymore though.

 

[BillJ]

They don't make TNG anymore though.

I have all 178 episodes available in a couple of formats.

 

[Steve Roby]

They don't seem to be making The Orville, either.

 

[The Wormhole]

There is a fourth season supposedly in production, though it has been awhile since there've been any updates on that.

 

[Turtletrekker]

....

There is a fourth season supposedly in production, though it has been awhile since there've been any updates on that.

That "announcement" seemed suspect to me from start, but I didn't want to rain on anyone's parade.

 

[Daedalus]

Once they started stripping away the humor, I lost interest. Might as well just watch TNG.

Same. S3 was a big downer for me, in that regard.

 

[TheAdmiralty]

Once they started stripping away the humor, I lost interest. Might as well just watch TNG.

A shame because while I love TNG, it takes itself so seriously it would be ripe for some kind of brutal parody where everyone acts like they do on TNG, a self righteous captain like Picard, but the plots are ridiculous.

I guess that's basically what Sub Rosa was and it ends up being extremely funny albeit not on purpose so that proves the point.

 

[I am not Spock]

42 and been watching Trek since the last season of TNG in 94 when i was 12.

Trek was everywhere when i was growing up. DS9, VOY, ENT, the TNG movies.

That was perhaps not so much the case for Gen Z people. Trek took a big hiatus on television. I think it might be hard to get into Trek if you didn't grow up with it. It's a major time commitment . There's so many shows and episodes.
Compared to Star Wars , which you can just watch the movies and be satisfied with that. The TV series attached to the brand are optional, imo.

My younger brother likes the new streaming Trek shows, but is reluctant to watch the old stuff. A whole generation is not keen on watching older shows, especially ones with long seasons (with lots of filler episodes ).

There's also a lot more competition now. When i was growing up, if you wanted sci fi tv , there was Trek and there wasn't a lot else like it. Babylon 5, X Files, Buffy , etc.

Nowadays , there are a lot of entertainment options. Trek is just one amongst many shows, for a lot of viewers these days. Whereas for us, it was a lifestyle

 

[FederationHistorian]

I’m under 40.

There are young people that are interested in Star Trek. However, if its not on Netflix or Disney+, or its not an anime, it’s not in the consciousness of young people. And its totally on Paramount to be licensing their new shows out to these services to attract a broader audience.

A few years ago, I did good will promoting DIS (S2 being better than S1) and PIC (S1), as well as The Orville. These shows either did not catch on with them. Or as in the case of PIC, they were likely turned off by S2 (not that I blame them lol). Though The Orville seems to have received nothing but positivity from everyone.

Also remember that it takes forever for these streaming shows to be produced and air. If its not a major hit or has a cult following, it gets forgotten about. There are too many services and too many shows getting cancelled before their time that its hard to keep up with it all.

 

[Jim Johnson]

It's a small datapoint, but there are a lot of under-40s playing the Star Trek Adventures RPG. Not all of them are huge into the franchise, but familiar enough to play and enjoy the game.

Hopefully STA and other Trek projects will continue to bring in new generations of fans.

 

[Uxi]

My oldest son will come around when TOS or Deep Space Nine are on (especially for battle scenes) is on but otherwise none of my kids seem to watch when I have H&I on. Nor do they read my TOS Pocket Books on the shelf. My younger son has gone through the old DC comics, though.

 

[DEWLine]

In my experience?

Yes. People under 40 are regularly joining our fandom.

 

[Quinton]

Just got another three of my fellow under-forties to start watching Strange New Worlds. It's their first Trek. I gave them just enough Discovery-related info so they wouldn't feel remotely lost by the show's series premiere. They've had enough cultural osmosis to know who the heck Spock was, so that part was easy.

 

[Cicero]

Sometimes I'm at a certain local craft brewery/restaurant and, if the owners aren't around, I'm sometimes the oldest person there by a good 30 or 35 years. On the bar stereo, there's Devo, the Clash, Joy Division, the Smiths, the Cure... bands I listened to forty years ago. I didn't spend a lot of time listening to the Andrews Sisters when I was in my 20s. But the Internet has changed the availability of everything and that's changed how young people experience pop culture compared to how I did.

As a millennial, I actually did listen to the Andrews Sisters in my teens and twenties. My sister was into Civil War patriotic songs (her favorite was Union Dixie).

Old radio shows were a major part of my middle school and high school experience (Richard Diamond, Boston Blackie, Suspense, Escape!, The Clock, X Minus One, Bold Venture, Box Thirteen, Sam Spade, The Damon Runyon Theater, The Life of Reilly, etc.).

We benefitted from that kind of cultural archaeology becoming available, but my younger relatives frequently don't have the macro culture context that we took for granted.