STP S3 writer/producer replies to negative reviews about "fan service"

Can't link to Twitter easily here, so a copy and paste from Christopher Monfette's thread:

As someone who's been burned by DISCOVERY and early PICARD, this sounds like an awesome mission statement.

 

I just want to see the fucking show first. By the time it actually premieres, everyone will have already seen it and we'll be on the next episode. I know I'm in a minority, but when the writers are already talking about negative reviews and the show hasn't officially been released yet, I'm getting pissed off. It really is feeling like being on the outside looking in.

 

FWIW, out of the 20+ reviews I've read, only three have been negative. And I guess I can kind of identify with being on the outside looking in, as Robert Meyer Burnett saw season 3 way back in July 2022 and have been listening to small drips of information even since. But, it is a sign the season is that good. I'd rather have it come out a year after production and be great than come out during filming and be bad. Streaming shows just aren't produced in real time like broadcast shows, so there is a hangover.

SNW season 2 has been in the can for probably almost as long and it's not exactly like that's being leaked out to win over critics...

 

I just don't like how this premiere is being handled right now. I almost wish they did what Orphan Black did, and premiered the first episode to theaters around the country and allowed more fans to see it together. Right now it's just the select few who either got screeners or went to LA and it's all over social media and sites like this.

 

I completely agree. If you don't want anything from Trek in your Trek, maybe it's not your Trek

 

Same here. It feels are the reactions are just pointed at people and mocking them for not seeing it.

As for fan service it is all in how it is handled. It must serve a purpose, it must serve the story, and it must engage me as a person who has enjoyed a variety in my Trek. Don't put stuff in there for the sake of "fan service" or love notes. I don't want the producers to "love me." I want them to tell me a damn good story!

 

There's no way a Next Gen reunion series is gonna be anything other than a fanwank explosion. But since all of Trek has been that since the Kurtzman era began (and Into Darkness, before that), I'm prepared for this to be the most extreme example yet.

 

How about you go back a couple decades earlier than that. Because fanwank has been a part of Trek since the TOS films and certainly was a part of TNG forward. Now as the canvas of Trek has enlarged so too does the amount of material that is referenced as the common history continues to expand and thus have a larger canvas to reference.

It's not exactly rocket science after all. Anyone who ponders it even slightly should be capable of understanding that.

 

I wish that I could fit this Monfette quote in my sig

 

Good frosting.

 

Along the way we've shifted from "fan service should not be a substitute for good writing" to "NO fan service!!"

I'm all for "fan service", I just hate lazy catch-phrase style bullshit.

 

I as a fan do appreciate service

The way they show 'eastereggs', objects or names from previous episodes, is nice and not distracting, not interfering, and if you recognize them you can appreciate them, and if you don't recognize them, it doesn't matter.

 

Much better than fan baiting, where they intentionally piss the hardcore fanbase off to generate online reaction buzz...

 

So, not a fan of Lower Decks, then?

 

Well, I am a fan and I for one would like servicing.

Anyone who is not a fan would not know that it is fan servicing as they would have never seen the characters, places or ships being used before so it makes no difference to them.

A returning character to a new viewer is a new character from their perspective regardless, but a ‘gift’ for the fans if delivered properly and with purpose within the story.

It is all about how past characters and lore are written in to a current/future series. If any such inclusion of legacy material or characters is superfluous and just for the sake of including them on a whim, then it is bad writing. But if the inclusion makes sense with there being a purpose and well written story behind a returning character, then great; their inclusion serves the plot and story. It would however make no difference whatsoever to a none fan, they either don’t care either way and more than likely do not even realise which characters are returning or not. For all casual viewers know, Captain Shaw of the Titan is a returning character. We all know that Shaw is not a returning character, but new viewers will not have a clue either way. New viewers might even think that Deanna Troi is a new character if they have never seen TNG before.

I’m looking forward to some fan servicing later this week.

 

My appreciation for fan service is pretty high. I love when modern episodes or movies refer back to characters, events or even designs from past Trek. I don't know why people would feel offended by it. It doesn't make or break a show either way.

Frankly, easter eggs and "fan service" are the only things keeping me watching LD. So, it's good for something, because it turns a show I'd otherwise not care at all about into something I find relatively watchable most of the time.

I think some of my all-time favorite episodes are ones that were fan-service / memberberry outings:

Flashback
Trials and Tribbleations
Relics
Lethe
If Memory Serves
Nepenthe

 

Fan service just strikes me as lazy way to get street cred. I don't want to be pandered too. I want something well done. If it's well done, builds upon shared history, and engages with the characters based on shared history then, to me, it's not fan service. It's good storytelling.

The way fan service gets bandied about nowadays strikes me as being like having Darth Vader in the Empire Strikes Back was fan service.