Have you ever given up on a Trek series? If so, what was the last straw for you?
- Thread starter JonnyQuest037
- Start date
Yeah, I’m up and down with DSC, but Season 4 is really good.
DISCO season 4 had the best idea overall for a season, and it started and ended pretty good. (It's the only season finale where they actually stuck the landing.) But the season as a whole was poorly done because they stretched out an arc that's really only 5 or 6 episodes into 13. It was a slog to get through with all the meandering in the middle.
I gave up on ENT early on. I watched all ST all the way through VOY. ENT came along and I watched the premiere, and, IIRC, the first episode and then just dropped it.
I had some initial misgivings about the show. First, I didn't like Berman and Braga inserting another starship Enterprise into the original's lineage. That was an immediate gripe I had. In TMP, the previous ships named Enterprise were shown. There was one other starship there, the ring ship designed by original Enterprise designer Matt Jefferies. Why didn't they just use that? Because it didn't look enough like the original Enterprise? Well, maybe that would have helped the show, visually differentiating it from TOS. Of course, you could argue that the other way, but, again, another ship by the guy who made the perfect original? Why not use that instead of adapting the Akira design from FC?
The other thing I didn't care for was just the whole feel of the series. I was hoping there would be a tonal change in the show. There was an opportunity, I thought, to really shake thing up, making a show that was more in line with the aesthetic and feel of TOS. From what I saw, the changes were largely superficial. It felt like the TNG formula all over again. I love TNG. To me, TOS, TNG, and DS9 are the best of the lot. But VOY seemed, in the end, like TNG all over again. VOY had a great premise that could've made it really different and Berman and Braga, perhaps under pressure from Paramount, didn't go all the way with it. They didn't exploit the mixed crew element or the lack of SF support elements of Voyager fully at all and it showed. Ronald Moore's interviews made that plain.
From what I saw, it just didn't look like ENT was exploiting its premise either. I felt like I was watching TNG for the third time. Other people who worked on the show said that there was no change on how they were telling the ENT stories from the TNG stories. They were sticking to what worked before on their most successful iteration. All the changes felt just superficial. You could've had the same characters set in the time of TNG, DS9, and VOY.
I had some initial misgivings about the show. First, I didn't like Berman and Braga inserting another starship Enterprise into the original's lineage. That was an immediate gripe I had. In TMP, the previous ships named Enterprise were shown. There was one other starship there, the ring ship designed by original Enterprise designer Matt Jefferies. Why didn't they just use that? Because it didn't look enough like the original Enterprise? Well, maybe that would have helped the show, visually differentiating it from TOS. Of course, you could argue that the other way, but, again, another ship by the guy who made the perfect original? Why not use that instead of adapting the Akira design from FC?
The other thing I didn't care for was just the whole feel of the series. I was hoping there would be a tonal change in the show. There was an opportunity, I thought, to really shake thing up, making a show that was more in line with the aesthetic and feel of TOS. From what I saw, the changes were largely superficial. It felt like the TNG formula all over again. I love TNG. To me, TOS, TNG, and DS9 are the best of the lot. But VOY seemed, in the end, like TNG all over again. VOY had a great premise that could've made it really different and Berman and Braga, perhaps under pressure from Paramount, didn't go all the way with it. They didn't exploit the mixed crew element or the lack of SF support elements of Voyager fully at all and it showed. Ronald Moore's interviews made that plain.
From what I saw, it just didn't look like ENT was exploiting its premise either. I felt like I was watching TNG for the third time. Other people who worked on the show said that there was no change on how they were telling the ENT stories from the TNG stories. They were sticking to what worked before on their most successful iteration. All the changes felt just superficial. You could've had the same characters set in the time of TNG, DS9, and VOY.
That was me with Lower Decks and Prodigy. I probably wouldn't have left the boards, but there are times when I don't post much here, maybe go a week or 2 and only have like 5 posts. Lower Decks was new mainly because it was an animated series in the vain of something like South Park or Family guy. I don't watch any of those anymore, but I was curious what a new Star Trek animated series would be like, and over the years it's become my second favorite of the new Trek shows, behind Prodigy. Prodigy came out at the right time for me mainly because I had just gotten done watching The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels and I was really excited for Both Shows. I always give a new trek series a chance, and there was something fresh and unique about the show, despite starting slowly, and it just bums me out how it was treated.
I am giving some thought of starting a Prodigy rewatch and seeing if it still holds up with Lower Decks, which I just rewatched. I just wish both of the shows were still producing new episodes because there was still a lot of story to tell, especially with how Prodigy ended.
I was good with not knowing!
Last 3rd is about him post Disco Duck. 'Dis-Gorilla' was so bad that I never heard it. What's Happening once had The Doobie Brothers on it.
Last edited:
Many of the later ones as well.
That's the thing. All of the Trek series I gave up on were series that have been described in terms of "a slog", "rough", "It got better by Season 4" and suchlike in just the past dozen pages. I've got too much going on to force myself to watch poorly written or repetitive SF when there's really good SF (or F) playing on another channel. For example, during the period when Enterprise was broadcast, Stargate, X-Files, Buffy, Battlestar Galactica, rebooted Dr Who, Smallville and more were on.
ENT, VOY & DIS needed to step up their game. Star Trek wasn't the only game in town anymore.
ENT, VOY & DIS needed to step up their game. Star Trek wasn't the only game in town anymore.
...TBF, for many, the first two seasons of both TNG and DS9 were suboptimal as well. For those of us who watched them when they were released, there was no guarantee that they'd achieve the heights that they would later reach.
In this day and age, both series would have been canceled long before they had the chance to find their legs.
In this day and age, both series would have been canceled long before they had the chance to find their legs.
Hmmm...imo Enterprise was worlds better than DISCO.
Horses for courses I suppose. I like ENT, but I think DSC is a much braver show and (especially from Season 3 onwards) prefer it overall.
The characters in ENT are quite a dull bag of also-rans. Not that there aren’t some excellent actors, but Phlox excepted, they all feel a bit ‘been there, done that’.
Sad but true, but I can list five sci-fi shows presently going that are head and shoulders above the latest batches of Star Trek.
The characters in ENT are quite a dull bag of also-rans. Not that there aren’t some excellent actors, but Phlox excepted, they all feel a bit ‘been there, done that’.
Sad but true, but I can list five sci-fi shows presently going that are head and shoulders above the latest batches of Star Trek.
Phlox was the most interesting character on ENT, I enjoyed the episode where he sent a communication home with the experiences he'd recently had.
So can I. P+ is fighting a losing battle for our eyeballs. Recent shenanigans have convinced me to cancel after SNW ends.
Yeah, I certainly don't have the patience anymore to watch one or more mediocre seasons waiting for a show to get good. Hook me from the start or GTFO.
Oh, sure, they definitely would have been cancelled. Alluding to my previous point, when it premiered, TNG was the 600 pound gorilla of SF syndication. There were shows that came and went like the new Twilight Zone and Friday The 13th (sort of a pre-Warehouse 13), but TNG was the only SF in syndication in my tiny market. A look at the major network programing for September 1987 shows absolutely no SF.
1987–88 United States network television schedule - Wikipedia
TNG was the only thing to watch besides Elvira, so we slogged thru the first two seasons hoping for more. It would start after the 10pm news ended.
Last edited:
Would they, though? Yes, TNG season 1 had some definite quality issues, but what is looked at is ratings. I believe TNG had pretty good ratings even during the first season. I feel like it would have gotten the renewal.
I watched old Trek all thru Enterprise . Never missed an episode. OTOH the only NU Trek that I DIDNT give up on is SNW. Section 31 was just a pure abomination and everyone involved should never be allowed in a Trek writing room again.Seeing this clip from the VOY episode "Flashback" again on the BBS today reminded me that it played a big part in me giving up on watching VOY regularly:
The scripting of the scene STILL bugs the hell out of me. The "Of course, the whole bunch of them would be booted out of Starfleet today" line is SO condescending and smug, and a pretty disrespectful thing to put into an episode celebrating the 30th Anniversary of Trek.
That, and me not liking the Sulu episode in general, made me realize that I wasn't really enjoying VOY very much and was mainly watching it because it had the words "Star Trek" in the title. I finally decided that two words being in the title was a pretty silly reason to watch a show I wasn't enjoying, so I stopped cold turkey.
(Later on, I went back and saw a lot of the VOY episodes I missed when they were airing late nights on H&I, and the show massively improved after Seven of Nine came on. So while VOY has definitely grown on me, but it's still not one of my favorites.)
So I started thinking about the other times I've gotten a bit fed up with Trek in the past & stopped watching:
I gave up on ENT somewhere in S3 as I just didn't find the 9/1 metaphor Xindi arc very interesting, or at the very least, not what I was looking for on a Trek series. But I soon came back for the more TOS-prequel-y S4, as that was more what I wanted from the show. So it was more a five-minute retirement than anything.
More recently, I decided to quit watching DSC at the end of S2. I found that both seasons 1 and 2 started out pretty strongly and had really disappointing endings, so the leap to the future of the 32nd Century seemed like a good jumping off point. Maybe I'll eventually come back to it.
And honestly, this 3rd season of SNW has been trying my patience. I just watched "Terrarium," the 9th episode of the season as I write this, and it's been lots of disappointing episodes with no really great ones (IMO). I'll probably stick it out until the very end of the series, though, since there's only 17 episodes left now.
What about you folks? Have you had a last straw with any Star Trek series that got you to stop watching?
(To clarify: I'm not looking for an encyclopedic litany of everything you've ever hated about any ST series here. That will become very dull to read very quickly. More some little thing that made you say, "...Yeah, I think I'm done here." I think that is much more interesting. And if you're discussing recent episodes of SNW, please remember to use SPOILER code!)
You would be correct. If memory serves TNG was holding around ten million viewers in S1 which even back then was more than strong enough to get a second season. At the time it was the only real science fiction show available and effects were considered top notch.
Fair enough. To each their own.
Part of my problem with ENT is that there was this gaping chasm between the hype and the reality. We were told going in that ENT was going to be this fresh new take on Trek: faster, edgier, rougher around the edges, getting back to the adventurous "Final Frontier" spirit of the Original Series.
But the actual show, although well-produced and acted, was pretty much just TNG with the deck chairs rearranged. It was standard-issue, Berman-era Trek that was paced and filmed just like the TNG, VOYAGER, etc. Complete with a funny Ferengi episode in the very first season.
Don't get me wrong. I love "Little Green Men" and "House of Quark," and have written some funny Ferengi stuff myself, but when your supposedly bold new take on Star Trek starts going to same old wells almost immediately . . . well, that's when you realize that this is just business-as-usual with slightly different technobabble. It was Star Trek as comfort food.
Meanwhile, DISCO had our lead character stage a mutiny in the very episode. I loved that!
YMMV.
Similar threads
