Is it time to put Star Trek to rest?

[Firebird]

S31 was absolute targ shite, and even it wasn't completely doom and gloom.

Almost as if optimism is directly baked into Star Trek’s very essence, no matter who takes a crack at making it.

 

[cooleddie74]

I mean, Space Hitler saves the day and answers to a holographic Jamie Lee Curtis, but the movie has an upbeat ending.

 

[Lynx]

Watch ENT. You might surprise yourself and like it. A lot. It's not the bottom of the Berman and Braga barrel.

I'm still not seeing how any of the modern Star Trek series could really be described as "doom and gloom." Sure, Discovery and Picard both explored some darker themes, but they ultimately ended on hopeful, optimistic notes.

Beyond those two, I don't see how anyone could argue that Lower Decks, Prodigy, Starfleet Academy, or Strange New Worlds are particularly dark. If anything, those shows lean heavily into the optimism that's always been at the heart of Star Trek.

Why is it impossible when it's already happened?

Enterprise admittedly started a little too slow and played things a bit too safe. The first two seasons certainly have some good, even great, episodes, but overall they feel a little watered down. That changed with Season 3.

The Xindi arc is, in my opinion, the best example of serialized storytelling in Star Trek. Yes, it's darker than what came before, but it also contains some of the franchise's strongest character work and most intense dramatic moments. It accomplished something that I don't think any of Trek's other attempts at season long storytelling, including the much vaunted DS9, have quite managed to replicate.

Then they followed it up with Season 4, which took a different approach. Instead of one long arc, it told a series of tightly connected mini-arcs that expanded the lore of the founding Federation and are still widely regarded as some of the strongest storytelling Enterprise ever produced.

So no, I don't think it's impossible for Star Trek to reach those heights again. The franchise has already shown it can.

Agreed.

Picard had it's moments, but Discovery was almost goofy in its optimism.

Lower Decks and Strange New Worlds...doom and gloom?

Hardly.

*Watches Strange New Worlds
Done.


Exactly. There's no doom or gloom in Star Trek. There's hardship and pain and death but that's not anything unusual in Star Trek. That is life and Star Trek does well when it doesn't shy away from the realities of life.

S31 was absolute targ shite, and even it wasn't completely doom and gloom.

My mistake!

This time I focused too much on the doom and gloom factor instead of other aspects I find negative.

I didn't find ENT "doom and gloom". I just didn't like the scenario and the characters.

The same for DSC.

But I did find PIC a bit too dark compared with TNG. Not to mention that the once so good characters had became bland and boring.

With that said or in this case written, I still hope that Star Trek could come up with something that would make it popular again and that without becoming like too many of the series and movies from the 2020s.

Look at NCIS which became so popular despite being a series which takes place in our "Gray Universe". Why?

Because it had great storytelling, likeable characters and a bit of humor here and there too.
It's still popular and as I see it watchable, despite the fact that almost all of the original main characters are gone.

Now something like that is what Star Trek needs now.

 

[fireproof78]

If humanity is to grow, awareness of the possibilities, even from our worse impulses, is a part of the process. We are killers but we're not going to kill today.

The utopic vision starts to sound extremely myopic and exclusionary of 21st century humans.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Watch ENT. You might surprise yourself and like it. A lot. It's not the bottom of the Berman and Braga barrel.

We have Voyager for that.

 

[cooleddie74]

ENT has some stretches of tedium and mediocre episodes, but at least it didn't forget its original premise before the end of Season 1.

 

[fireproof78]

ENT has some stretches of tedium and mediocre episodes, but at least it didn't forget its original premise before the end of Season 1.

You don't understand! No one wanted to watch ongoing arguments between the crew despite their differences! Arguing is grimdark!



Tongue in cheek in case not apparent.


Voyager had the best idea for showing mutual differences and building collaborative problem solving. Instead, it pulls a a Picard and declares all issues resolved in the shortest way possible.

 

[cooleddie74]

It was a long road.

 

[1001001]

We have Voyager for that.

 

[The Wormhole]

Trek is better served on network TV.

Two of the three Star Trek shows that aired on network television were cancelled. Moot point, in modern times a Trek series almost certainly wouldn't get the greenlight on a network, and if it did, it would still only be getting ten episodes a season, maybe twelve. At the risk of invoking coin jar tithes and fire hose memes, The Orville is what Star Trek would look like were it to air on a network today.

 

[cooleddie74]

And TOS, the most legendary and important Trek series of all, had the shortest run of those three network shows. Even ENT, languishing on UPN in the early-to-mid 2000s, got 18 more episodes and one more season than NBC permitted TOS.