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Old Star Trek fans: don't you sometimes get happy just because there are new series?

You're not understanding it because you're overthinking it. Normie Across the Street might've watched TOS or TNG, and they might've seen the movies. But they don't care about Star Trek shows that aren't TOS or TNG. So they're not going to care if CBS aired Discovery. They didn't watch.

I'm sure they're aware of further shows being made, even if not by name. But they don't care about those shows any more than they cared about DS9, VOY, or ENT. They'll go watch a reboot Star Trek movie, but they're not going to get a subscription to watch "all those Star Trek shows!" They ignore them. It doesn't matter if there's one new Star Trek or 100 new Star Trek shows. They don't care. They're not interested. So it makes no difference to them how many new Star Trek shows there are.

It makes a difference to us if there's one new Star Trek show or 100 because we'll watch or at least we'll weigh if we watch. Normie Across the Street isn't going to do that. It's "out of sight, out of mind" for Normie.

But those people weren't going to watch Star Trek anyway, no matter if the new shows were brilliant or utter crap. I thought the discussion was about Star Trek fans being happy or unhappy with new shows. :shrug:
 
But those people weren't going to watch Star Trek anyway, no matter if the new shows were brilliant or utter crap. I thought the discussion was about Star Trek fans being happy or unhappy with new shows. :shrug:
It is, but there was a drift. I was saying the franchise was oversaturated and not oversatured at the same time, then it went from there... which is how we got to here. ;)
 
I meant more at the same time. Trek was a fairly serious universe, where the absurd could happen. Now, Trek is more humorous where the absurd could happen.
I just felt it was both. Mileage will vary.

*Insert Picard's bow to the absurd quote here*

They picked and chose for me. TAS was considered non-canon, I didn't have to handle Lucifer.
It was canon for me as a youngster and is canon now. Now sure why I'd exclude it now, especially given TNGs thought is the basis of reality episode.
 
I remember the post-Enterprise dark times, when it seemed like there was no room for Star Trek in the 21st century (in fact, I think it seemed that way even DURING Enterprise). Now I feel like I'm living in a golden age.

Instead I see a lot of people criticizing: "Oh no, they made the wrong period to make the new series", "The choice of the actor who will play the fourth extra on the bridge was a disaster", "Ha ha! But have you seen how they made the new warp nacelles? Do they take us for idiots???"

I, on the other hand, am simply happy to know that every now and then I will see a new episode that will take me to the stars. But am I the only one? Too naive and not savvy enough to "really" understand what is needed in a new Star Trek series?

I can't like this enough.

Everything is cyclical, eventually there won't be any new Trek again and, oddly, some Star Trek "fans" will finally be happy since the new stuff will stop hurting them or something. I dunno, it makes no sense to me, but whatever.

Until then, I'm loving this renaissance. Can't wait for more. And if I don't like it? Hopefully someone else will to justify it continuing. But I'll still be excited to try.
 
The problem I have...
Wow! You may have articulated exactly how I feel. Thanks.

My feelings on new series excitement have been affected by both time and Star Wars...

TNG, DS9, VOY, ENT... with each series after DS9 the quality dropped, in my opinion. VOY refused to work within their setting constraint and story quality wasn't where I wanted. Still, VOY has a soft spot in my heart and VOY is a guilty pleasure. ENT was a prequel, I was confident ENT would willy nilly disregard established continuity for sake of a mediocre story and they did. The stories were mostly bad until the last season and the final season was too many continuity nods in too close a time period.

Meanwhile the movies in the TNG era likewise declined in my opinion, despite INS being my favorite of the bunch.

At this time Star Wars makes a resurgence. I didn't care for the prequel trilogy. I thought maybe I was just turning into a crotchety old man at 30.

The novels were hit and miss. I used to read each one. I was disappointed by the quality of the authors (none of which are members here). A couple of authors I really disliked kept getting more and more novels published. The Star Wars universe shrank and suffered from small galaxy syndrome. Meanwhile in the Star Trek novelverse nothing ever mattered. All the toys were put back at the end of every story. There were no consequence. So, I stopped reading Star Wars and Trek novels.

I thought Star Trek 2009 was a great parody of Star Trek, but not my cuppa. Into Darkness was another tired attempt to capture the lightning of TWOK and was disappointing. I like BEY the best of the bunch.

So, by 2017 I had about 20 years of slowly growing disappointment over new Trek and new Star Wars. Maybe I was just a bitter old man stuck in the past.

But, then, Star Wars came through for me. I love Rogue 1, Solo, Mandalorian, and most of animated Star Wars. I'm not a crotchety old man that hates everything made after 1997.

Soi had high hopes for DISCO and modern Trek. My hopes were dashed, though. DISCO is yet another prequel that willy nilly ignores continuity for sake of a mediocre story. When it finally jumped to where it should have been set to begin with, the stories really didn't become more compelling. Ditto with PIC.

I love SNW but it leans too heavily on legacy characters or characters with nostalgic ties.

Modern streaming Trek doesn't tell engaging, compelling stories within their much too short of seasons. This isn't the format fault. Handmaids Tale, For All Mankind, Foundation, Westworld, Bel Air, The Morning Show... these series all seem to be able to tell much better, tighter, and more compelling stories in the same manner and format that modern Trek is made in. If Trek could pull this off, I'd be more excited.

I just haven't seen enough compelling Trek to get me excited about what might come next.
 
Until then, I'm loving this renaissance. Can't wait for more. And if I don't like it? Hopefully someone else will to justify it continuing. But I'll still be excited to try.
This. Exactly this.

I do not care if the Trek is or is not for me. Half of it rarely is. More Trek shows an interest in the franchise that I think benefits it's Future. I'm more excited for fans getting in to it than my personal enjoyment.

It's not just about me.
 
I tuned out of Enterprise somewhere after season 2 ended, and only came back for These Are The Voyages. Love it or hate it, that was the END OF STAR TREK for a VERY long time (or at least it felt like it to a kid who was aged 16-20 during the dark ages of the Trek-less mid-2000s). I actually cried when TATV ended, and I cried again watching an early 40th anniversary tribute made a year later, because it was so emotionally devastating to me that Star Trek was seemingly gone. It had, for good or ill, been a constant my entire life, and I was just becoming a diehard trekkie. It didn't seem fair that it was over for what felt like for good.

Then Cloverfield had the teaser in 2008 that said UNDER CONSTRUCTION. And I've been happy, and aware of just how lucky all Trekkies are to have this much new content on a fairly constant timeframe, ever since. Will we ever probably have another "Dark Ages" without any new Star Trek in sight? Sadly, I'm sure of it. But I certainly hope not.
 
I feel like I am too much of a completist to miss anything Star Trek related on TV or in the theater. I'm excited for the final season of Lower Decks and hopefully more Prodigy, but I will watch the other things. The last time I didn't watch a season when it was airing was ENT season 4, and then I ended up watching all of it anyway. I'm not looking forward to Section 31 but I know the completist nature in me will watch it anyway.

I think right now I'm more excited for Trek on the big screen than streaming. I miss going to the theater with like minded people for a new Star Trek film. It's been 8 years.
 
Old Star Trek fans: don't you sometimes get happy just because there are new series?

Who are you calling old?

But no, not really. There are several of the new ones that, after giving them a fair chance, just didn't appeal to me. I don't go online and bitch and moan, I just don't watch the ones I don't like. When there are ones I do like, I don't go online and jump up and down about the best Trek in decades. I just watch what I like and I don't watch what I don't like.

And that's the way it is. :techman:
 
I'm only 45, so maybe not an 'old' fan. I'm a proper weirdo when it comes to Star Trek. I was so obsessed in the 90's, I watched the episodes over and over, knew the trivia. Wore the costumes, went to the Cons.

Honestly, I struggle with the new stuff. I quite liked ST09 and STID. I even liked the first few episodes of DSC.

But Star Trek is now parody. I just couldn't keep hate watching DSC and stopped after season 3. LDS is only good when there's no jokes, a bit like The Orville. Picard, SNW, they're just fan service or pure cringe like that awful musical, or the entirety of PIC season 2. S31 movie isn't my Star Trek I don't think, so unless reviews are stellar,.its just not worth watching.

At this point, I live in the past with the old stuff, hoping for a DS9 and VOY remaster. It will happen one day.

Star Trek isn't what it was. Outside of the Trek faithful, the general public don't even know about the new shows. There's no cultural zeitgeist or awareness. The shows are polarising. They've moved away from what made Star Trek unique.

If people are loving the current output, then I'm happy for them. May your way be as pleasant.
 
Do people talk to people about the Trek they like? Cause that's how you help make the general public aware. It's not a passive process.

I might not memorize trivia but I definitely go to cons and look at costuming and talk about what I like.

Feels like fans are often their own worst enemy, waiting for the halcyon days of Trek glory to return while actively decrying new efforts to make Trek in the 2020s (just like it was made in the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s)

Why would people join a group that's constantly saying the good old days of the franchise are way better so don't bother?
 
I'm glad Star Trek came back after 2005 when it seemed like there would never be a new Star Trek production ever again (well maybe not until I was very old). The Prime Star Trek Universe seemed like a dead universe until 2016. Did I like everything that came out? No, not really. But I was glad Star Trek was back. If there is something to be said about it now, is that there may be a silver lining to the slowdown in Trek productions in that they can focus on quality over quantity, and look at what has worked in the past and the present and apply it to new projects. And maybe add more episodes of SNW to each season, or don't make me feel the show will get the kibosh after 5 seasons.
 
Old Star Trek fans: don't you sometimes get happy just because there are new series?

But am I the only one? Too naive and not savvy enough to "really" understand what is needed in a new Star Trek series?

Every entertainment franchise suffers from running far too long beyond its core creative value, to the point where inferior entries, a lack of talent and misguided motivations behind certain productions greatly outnumber any worthy and/or classic productions. Star Trek is a textbook example of that syndrome, so it would be rather difficult to just be happy this franchise is subject to things churned out that are in no way the best representation of the franchise. Existing just to exist (the "more, more, more" notion) is why man a long-running franchise collapse into overproduced rubble.

I just don't find the new shows interesting enough for me to be willing to spend any money to watch them.

Just don't care enough to bother.

Yep.


It is a good show. Underrated by fandom.

TAS is the most genuine spin-off to capture the heart of ST since--obviously--TOS.
 
Star Trek is a textbook example of that syndrome, so it would be rather difficult to just be happy this franchise is subject to things churned out that are in no way the best representation of the franchise.

Exactly this. Is Tawny's pet comedy project going to be the best representation of the franchise? Would it be the show that I would choose for someone who has never heard of Star Trek to begin with, in an effort to get them interested in Star Trek in general? (And before anyone pipes in with the inevitable 'but how can you judge a show that hasn't been made yet' line of thinking...yeah, I can judge it, thank you very much. Why? Because Star Trek isn't a sitcom. And the people trying to make it one have, in my opinion, misguided motivations, as you correctly point out.
 
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