Okay. And that's fine. But I wasn't speaking about the show from the eye of a rose-colored revisionist either. I've been around long enough to see legends and myths be created and later dispelled. I've cringed at the ever-expanding MLK story, heard the salacious stories that took place on set, etc.
But as far as the 'myths' of Star Trek go, I didn't have access to most of them as a young fan. I was only able to watch TOS on syndication, if I could manage to catch it on TV due to the competing interests of other family members regarding the only TV set in the house. And I didn't have the Internet or even a newsletter to keep me up on all the mythmaking.
What I did have were James Blish's (and his wife's) excellent short-form novelizations of the episodes, which I read many, many times. They captured the spirit of the show very well, and were well-written rather than being a transcript of the episode. It strikes me that this format of storytelling will never exist again - in a world of on-demand video, who would bother to read a novelization of a TV how episode? But back then, home video wasn't yet a thing, and there was a demand for the Star Trek stories!
Anyway, what I'm trying to say here is that I, and my fellow geeky youngsters, had these thoughts about Star Trek (regarding its quality and what it meant to us) firsthand, immune from any overblown legends about its supposed historical landmark status. The 'legendary' revisionism stuff came later. To me, Star Trek was the show that sparked my interest in science and philosophy, and helped me appreciate certain principles, such as valuing intelligence and diplomacy over brutism and ignorance.
Maybe I'm out of touch with today's youth, but I don't see these new films having that sort of inspirational effect on youngsters. Sure, they're 'fun' and 'watchable', but to me, there's something to be said about the fact that it seems that every defense of these movies made on this board seems to boil down to how much money they've made - which is perversely contrary to the ethos that the franchise itself always seemed to project - and tends to steer away from any coherent discussion of content. If I never hear anyone mention how much money they've made, it'll be too soon. I know bringing up Transformers is low-hanging fruit, but three of the Transformers films occupy spots in the list of top fifty highest grossing films of all time. There isn't a single Star Trek film on that list.
I guess what bugs me the most is that the brigade of people here - who appear only to post in defense of these films and argue with any and all criticism - are stifling any meaningful discussion about what the flaws are and how the franchise could be improved. I only drop by here every few months these days (usually when there's new Trek news), but when I come back, I always see the same thing - someone new to the forum joins, and starts/joins a thread and posts about how (s)he didn't like the new films, and is immediately pounced upon by the same five or six posters who have been repeating the same mantras since 2009 and somehow managed to never get tired of hearing themselves say the same thing over and over again. Then it gets heated, because they won't just drop the issue, and people start insulting each other, and M'Sharak has to start warning people off. I don't know how these brigadiers find the time to post thousands of posts over five years essentially parroting themselves for the sole purpose of establishing an assertive opinion, but it's a little bizarre in that it goes beyond anything I've seen in fan communities.
If these movies are so excellent and successful in their own right, why do they require such a constant, passionate defense?
Anyway, to press on the attack, as it were, I just don't feel any magic or imagination coming from this franchise anymore. It was a huge universe of possibilities, where anything could happen, and the fandom would explore the Trek universe and discuss what-if's and use their imagination to speculate the ins and outs of the lore as it grew larger and larger. And they still do, if you visit any of the 'classic Trek' sections of the board. But Paramount/JJ/Orci/whomever have decided to cast off nearly 50 years of rich world-building and start over, only to introduce exaggerated versions of characters that were once flushed-out, and create watered-down rehashed versions of stories that were much better the first time.
Star Trek was dead after Nemesis/Enterprise, and it *did* need a change, but I think a reboot was the wrong way to do it. Let's compare it to another long-running beloved sci-fi franchise: Doctor Who, which celebrated its 50th anniversary last year. The 50th Anniversary special of a British sci-fi show sold out at midnight showings in theaters across the United States, with virtually zero advertising in the US outside of the Internet and BBC America. They did it again for the season premiere this fall. I've never heard of TV shows being shown in movie theaters nationwide before! And this is a pretty low-budget show for its scope, funded by Britain's taxpayers.
Meanwhile, Paramount still seems to be scrambling around trying to put together some sort of production before the 50th anniversary opportunity is lost. But can you create a movie that serves as a 50th anniversary celebration when you've rebooted it and destroyed all connections to all the decades that preceded it?
Doctor Who was a show that had 'died' as ignobly as Trek did, and had to be revitalized. But they didn't 'reboot' it; they modernized it, yet pushed it forward while respecting the decades of world-building behind it.
Most importantly, they got the spirit of the show right. While modern Trek is all about revenge and space battles, Doctor Who really captures that 'can-do', 'humanistic', 'explorer' feeling I used to get out of Star Trek. The show evolved but stayed true to its roots. Star Trek was never meant to be a 'summer blockbuster' franchise. Star Trek used to be that show that had a passionate fanbase that wasn't a result of a studio trying to pander to a 'general audience'. Now, Doctor Who fans are the new Trekkies. Kids are playing with toy sonic screwdrivers, not tricorders.
NuTrek has failed to birth a new generation of Trekkies. Toys aren't selling, and nobody's really talking about the films outside of the pre-established fandom. I don't know what kid would want to fantasize about that universe anyway, it's pretty grim and there aren't really any admirable heroes to look up to. The fact that the storyline was resolved by having Spock - arguably the only true pacifist in classic Star Trek - physically beat the shit out of Khan to save the day pretty much serves as an example of everything that's wrong with NuTrek.
Oh dear, and now I'm rambling again.
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