Starfleet Academy Official Trailer

[eschaton]

I guess I want more normies to like Star Trek.

I don't think it's a bad intention by the showrunners, but I disagree with the idea that characters need to be like a normie for a normie to identify with them.

I mean, medical, legal, and police procedurals are perennially popular among general TV audiences, despite most people not being able to relate to those professions - and the first two involving advanced degrees and pretty brainy characters.

But television writing overall has been in decline recently. I only have to look at shows produced even five years ago, and they were better in general.

And I've had to go back to watching independent films to find anything new. A decade plus of MCU has really hurt cinema. I can't even find any good comedies anymore.

It's the "slopification" of filmed media. Younger viewers are used to second screen viewing, and TV now has to compete with things like Youtube and even brainrot shorts. More fractured viewing audiences mean the whole industry is contracting down over time, leading to a squeeze everywhere (including on writing).

They don't have to be nerds, but they should be the "best of the best".

Like, even Locarno as bad as he was, was so smart and charismatic that he was capable of becoming a serious threat.

Yeah, that's the other aspect of this. They really should all be supergeniuses, regardless of whether or not they're socially awkward.

I mean, I guess I can excuse it a bit because admission standards dropped a bit due to just being reformed. But the trailer certainly makes it look like Caleb (who was - what - a street kid for 15 years) is just waved into Starfleet Academy because Ake said so. Which is really, really fucked up and goes against the sort of strict meritocracy it's always been portrayed as, as nepotism isn't supposed to mean anything in the utopian future.

I don’t disagree. But your original claim was that Quasi “never used their special powers once in the movie”, which is not true.

OK, I guess I didn't really express myself well. But as a writer myself, it really bothers me when a story establishes "powers" for a character, but then doesn't actually commit to letting them use the powers for problem solving, just treating them like an ordinary character whenever it's convenient.

Frankly, the later seasons of DIS did this too, when they just sort of stopped referencing Adira being joined and having the knowledge of dozens of lifetimes, letting them become a generic (and more boring) young person.

I think it's more about them feeling like Gen Z kids in space. They likely will be written using all the modern Gen Z slang as well because modern Trek feels like they think that if they write characters with any level of earnestness and even acknowledges that the show is set in the future and not 2025 with more fancy tech then young people won't watch.

I know it wasn't explicitly meant for young people, but Lower Decks was a show where the characters were incredibly earnest about being huge nerds who loved all the nerd shit in Starfleet.

I'd also say that Prodigy did this with some characters, like Rokk-Tahk.

 

[Campe]

I'll admit, the trailer did not give me major excitement or interest.

But I'm still going to give the series a fair chance.

 

[Char Kais]

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Watching this trailer is like experiencing Bij.

 

[fireproof78]

but I disagree with the idea that characters need to be like a normie for a normie to identify with them.

Well, I don't think so either but it has the possibility of showing what the Academy might be like. That regardless of background, they still can join.

Starfleet has always had mixed results with candidates. We don't always see the best of the best, and even nepotism at times. We see a huge mix of candidates.

 

[Rahul]

I'll admit, the trailer did not give me major excitement or interest.

But I'm still going to give the series a fair chance.

See, in contrast, I'll be giving this show an UNFAIR chance

Because based on the trailer alone I probably wouldn't watch it. But because of the Star Trek logo & having watched the previous Trek series(es), I'm going to give this a chance as well.
Meaning there's a high chance I won't really like it & complain about it here. But OTOH this show has one viewer more built in grub the get-go, that will watch at least the first full season, compared to any other, no-name sci-fi show.

 

[Yistaan]

• Darem's just presented as a spoiled rich kid.

All of these are very surface observations. However, in general it feels like these characters were constructed to be relatable to normies, not relatable to nerds. Since Trekkies are nerds, seeing the Academy full of normies might feel off-putting on a very visceral level.

I think the character types in Prodigy were probably definitely more nerd oriented.

I can't remember if Discovery ever mentioned the Burn's impact on the Federation's no-money society. I imagine that with the Fed in ruins everyone's just scrambling for latinum (more or less what we see Book doing). Earth seceded before rejoining--did they also fall back on a money society?

I think a lot of this depends on whether replicators were dependent on dilithium or not, something I'm not sure was ever established. Although Vance's claim to Osyraa that his apple was replicated from reconstituted waste matter seems to indicate replicators weren't dependent on dilithium. After all, Picard established through Raffi that the Fed's no-money, no-povery society was basically a bare minimum guarantee of a trailer home for shelter and a replicator for food and clothing.

 

[Fateor]

Yeah, that's the other aspect of this. They really should all be supergeniuses, regardless of whether or not they're socially awkward.

I mean, I guess I can excuse it a bit because admission standards dropped a bit due to just being reformed. But the trailer certainly makes it look like Caleb (who was - what - a street kid for 15 years) is just waved into Starfleet Academy because Ake said so. Which is really, really fucked up and goes against the sort of strict meritocracy it's always been portrayed as, as nepotism isn't supposed to mean anything in the utopian future.

Eh... No... We see time and again that Nepotism was alive and well in Starfleet in the 24th/25th century.

Hell, Mariner was practically the poster girl for it.