It recently occured to me that while TNG and the spinoffs aired, and for a while after, they were referred to as "Modern Era TREK". With DISCOVERY only a month away, and if all goes well maybe more series, can we really call TNG, which celebrates its 30th anniversary next month, part of the modern era anymore? I take note mainly because of the gap in years between ENTERPRISE and DISCOVERY, and the larger gap between the original and TNG. If we call DISCOVERY onward "Modern Era TREK", what do we call TNG, DS9, VGR, and ENT?
I stopped calling TNG-era Trek "modern Trek" about the time that the first Abrams film came out. TNG-era Trek was no longer the current / most recent era at that point.
From a historical sense, Trek is all "modern-era." Television itself is a modern phenomenon that had no place in the premodern world before industrialization and the proliferation of mass-produced consumer products and popular culture. Kor
TNG, DS9, VGR and ENT are, collectively, "The Spinoffs" Because they are spinoffs of the original Star Trek TV series, which first aired in the 1960s. Discovery is also a spinoff, but because it is the newest of the series, it is considered to be "the current trek" or "modern trek" or just "discovery."
I tend to refer to TNG and its spawn as "latter-day Trek" to distinguish them from The Original Series, although I suppose that label is indeed getting obsolete. Maybe we should take a leaf from the comics? Golden Age Trek: TOS Silver Age Trek: TNG, DS9, VOY, ENT Bronze Age Trek: the reboot movies, DISC.
I think I've always called any current version of Trek as just being the current version and all previous versions by name or abbreviation. I'm more inclined to group them by their timeframe or era: TOS-era: TOS, TAS, the first six movies (and now DIS). TNG-era: TNG, DS9, VOY, and the TNG movies. ENT-era: self explanatory. Kelvin Timeline: ditto.
When Enterprise ended in 2005, it really was quite silly that something from 1987 was still considered part of the "modern era" of the franchise.
Well ..could this be the "All Access Era" ...or "streaming era" sort of thing. I keep calling the "Berman age" to TNG, DS9, VOY and ENT. So, we have "the classic movies" and "the Kelvin Movies".
Depends on how old you are. I still consider BACK TO THE FUTURE and THE TERMINATOR "modern" movies, as opposed to, say, THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL or FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLFMAN. Anything after STAR WARS is "modern" to me, with LOGAN'S RUN being right on the cusp!
I call it '90s Trek. Even though it technically started in 1987 and ended in 2005, it gets the point across.
For me TOS and (some) derived movies will always be Classic Trek. All else is "Modern" to me. For me Classic is more about the atmosphere and the wonder which I don't feel any Trek since has (for me) satisfactorily recaptured. Lightning doesn't strike twice.
You can actually back that up, it seems, since the stylistic shift in visual effects and cinematography of ST09 were the first real departure from the Spinoff Series. There are probably quantifiable differences in narrative structure, tone, style and set design between the TNG films and the 09 film, and from what I can tell those differences are likely to appear again in Discovery.