1966: Star Trek debuts to scoffs from critics, and tepid reaction from viewers. After nearly getting cancelled twice due to low ratings, and saved at least once by a write-in campaign, it's finally killed by NBC, and ascribed to the ash-heap of history...whereupon it becomes probably the largest, most far-reaching, most continually-relevant TV phenomenon and cultural touchstone of all time, or at least in the top five.
2017: Pretty much anyone, whether or not they've ever seen an episode, knows who Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock are, and can probably quote you the intro "Space...the final frontier...", etc. The USS Enterprise is one of the most instantly recognizable ships everywhere and even if people aren't fans of it, they know better than to insult it. It has earned its place in history and will never be forgotten.
1987: Star Trek: The Next Generation is immediately declared a failure by fans, before even one episode has aired. Most news coverage is about how fans are furious about this new series, and the sheer hubris of assuming they would watch such an abomination simply because it has the words "Star Trek" in its title. How ridiculous to think they could watch a show with an older British actor in the lead, no Vulcans in sight, a Klingon as a member of Starfleet (what??) and accept this as anything resembling Star Trek. There's only one real Star Trek, and that is Star Trek, not this offensive rip-off.
2017: TNG, as it's become universally known, has gone down in history as a series that has done the impossible; capture lightning in a bottle twice. A spin-off every bit as good as its predecessor, possibly improving upon it in some areas? That doesn't happen. But it has. TNG is widely considered a worthy follow-up to the classic series, and to this day debates about which captain is the better of the two, Kirk or Picard, rage across the fandom. While there might be a few who dislike it, they are probably cancelled out by the few who thing TOS is old-fashioned and silly-looking. Largely, TNG is considered every bit as good as TOS.
1993: Fans are raging across Usenet and fanzines and anywhere else they can be heard about the abomination known as Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Let us count the offenses: it's not set on the Enterprise, hell, it's not set on a starship at all, meaning there won't be any "boldly going" or "exploring strange new worlds", it's mostly about some planet we barely know and don't care about, and the station isn't even a Federation starbase, it wasn't created by Gene Roddenberry, nor was he even consulted about it, and it's just so dark and edgy-looking. Clearly, this is not real Star Trek and in no way should it be supported by fans.
2017: While this series has not been as firmly embraced by fans as TNG was, it has largely been considered to have earned its place in the franchise, and you'll find few fans indeed who declare that this series isn't "canon" or that refused to watch it. There's even a strain of fandom who considers this one to be the best series of them all. In fact, while it was possible to run into many detractors while the show was on, you find very few still around.
1995: Star Trek: Voyager debuts to critics asking "why?" and fans going "huh." Because it's a network series, in fact, a series attempting to the the flagship series for a brand new network, it is heavily advertised, much more so than its predecessor (DS9) got from the beginning or is getting now (it's still running). There are some fans who aren't excited (mostly because they aren't crazy about this "Lost in Space as Star Trek" idea) but at this point there have been three shows already, and most of the taboos of Trek have already been broken, so most tune in. But now there's this thing called the Internet, which means that season after season we can see what fans think in real time, and for seven seasons most viewers can't stop talking about how bad it is, the wasted potential, the same-old, same-old, the static characters, the feeling that it's all been done before, playing it safe, taking no risks. Brannon Braga's name becomes a near swear-word among fans.
2017: While Voyager still has its haters, it also has nearly as many fans. It's not in any way taboo to bring it up in a fan message board, and posting negatively about it will probably get you quite a few angry, or at least disagreeing, responses. While it's rare to find someone who calls it their absolute favorite, there are very many who prefer it to DS9, and criticizing any of the actors' performances from it is not a good idea. The average attitude toward Voyager now is that it's absolutely a worthy part of the franchise.
2001: Well before the debut of Star Trek: Enterprise (or, just Enterprise, as it's initially called), fans have already written it off. Media barely even covers it. Fans tune into the pilot mostly to catch all the ways it violates canon and proves that Brannon Braga is a horrible writer who no longer cares about Star Trek and is just trying to ensure he has a job. For that matter, co-creator Rick Berman has gone, in fans' esteem, from the man who single-handedly kept the franchise going strong after Roddenberry's death to the man who has run it into the ground. Again, there are complaints that it's just doing the same thing all over again and taking no risks, but the louder complaint is that it's screwing around with canon too much and not good enough, writing- and acting-wise to justify it. This time, the threats of not watching it actually happen, and after four seasons, each one dropping in ratings, it becomes the first series since the original to be cancelled.
2017: Again, as with Voyager, you're still going to run into people who are ready to unload on this series, calling it "not canon" and writing it off. However, you'll find that a surprisingly large amount of fans are admitting that with the passage of time, the series has grown on them, or that they realized they were too hard on it at the beginning. It's not usually listed as the absolute favorite of anyone, but even some of the more aggressive "fan haters" who despise the Trek offerings we've gotten since will still call Enterprise a good enough show to be considered an official part of the franchise. In another ten years, it might even have people praising it like they do Voyager today.
2017: Star Trek: Discovery has quite a few fans, and a smaller but much more vocal fan-hate group that despises more mucking about with canon, wrong Klingons, wrong tech, Spock never had a sister, it's too dark, lens flares, f-bombs and I'm not paying for this. Every single Star Trek series before this one was better. Even the ones we all hated back then.
2037: Who knows?
(Cue people who take issue with everything about my analysis)
2017: Pretty much anyone, whether or not they've ever seen an episode, knows who Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock are, and can probably quote you the intro "Space...the final frontier...", etc. The USS Enterprise is one of the most instantly recognizable ships everywhere and even if people aren't fans of it, they know better than to insult it. It has earned its place in history and will never be forgotten.
1987: Star Trek: The Next Generation is immediately declared a failure by fans, before even one episode has aired. Most news coverage is about how fans are furious about this new series, and the sheer hubris of assuming they would watch such an abomination simply because it has the words "Star Trek" in its title. How ridiculous to think they could watch a show with an older British actor in the lead, no Vulcans in sight, a Klingon as a member of Starfleet (what??) and accept this as anything resembling Star Trek. There's only one real Star Trek, and that is Star Trek, not this offensive rip-off.
2017: TNG, as it's become universally known, has gone down in history as a series that has done the impossible; capture lightning in a bottle twice. A spin-off every bit as good as its predecessor, possibly improving upon it in some areas? That doesn't happen. But it has. TNG is widely considered a worthy follow-up to the classic series, and to this day debates about which captain is the better of the two, Kirk or Picard, rage across the fandom. While there might be a few who dislike it, they are probably cancelled out by the few who thing TOS is old-fashioned and silly-looking. Largely, TNG is considered every bit as good as TOS.
1993: Fans are raging across Usenet and fanzines and anywhere else they can be heard about the abomination known as Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Let us count the offenses: it's not set on the Enterprise, hell, it's not set on a starship at all, meaning there won't be any "boldly going" or "exploring strange new worlds", it's mostly about some planet we barely know and don't care about, and the station isn't even a Federation starbase, it wasn't created by Gene Roddenberry, nor was he even consulted about it, and it's just so dark and edgy-looking. Clearly, this is not real Star Trek and in no way should it be supported by fans.
2017: While this series has not been as firmly embraced by fans as TNG was, it has largely been considered to have earned its place in the franchise, and you'll find few fans indeed who declare that this series isn't "canon" or that refused to watch it. There's even a strain of fandom who considers this one to be the best series of them all. In fact, while it was possible to run into many detractors while the show was on, you find very few still around.
1995: Star Trek: Voyager debuts to critics asking "why?" and fans going "huh." Because it's a network series, in fact, a series attempting to the the flagship series for a brand new network, it is heavily advertised, much more so than its predecessor (DS9) got from the beginning or is getting now (it's still running). There are some fans who aren't excited (mostly because they aren't crazy about this "Lost in Space as Star Trek" idea) but at this point there have been three shows already, and most of the taboos of Trek have already been broken, so most tune in. But now there's this thing called the Internet, which means that season after season we can see what fans think in real time, and for seven seasons most viewers can't stop talking about how bad it is, the wasted potential, the same-old, same-old, the static characters, the feeling that it's all been done before, playing it safe, taking no risks. Brannon Braga's name becomes a near swear-word among fans.
2017: While Voyager still has its haters, it also has nearly as many fans. It's not in any way taboo to bring it up in a fan message board, and posting negatively about it will probably get you quite a few angry, or at least disagreeing, responses. While it's rare to find someone who calls it their absolute favorite, there are very many who prefer it to DS9, and criticizing any of the actors' performances from it is not a good idea. The average attitude toward Voyager now is that it's absolutely a worthy part of the franchise.
2001: Well before the debut of Star Trek: Enterprise (or, just Enterprise, as it's initially called), fans have already written it off. Media barely even covers it. Fans tune into the pilot mostly to catch all the ways it violates canon and proves that Brannon Braga is a horrible writer who no longer cares about Star Trek and is just trying to ensure he has a job. For that matter, co-creator Rick Berman has gone, in fans' esteem, from the man who single-handedly kept the franchise going strong after Roddenberry's death to the man who has run it into the ground. Again, there are complaints that it's just doing the same thing all over again and taking no risks, but the louder complaint is that it's screwing around with canon too much and not good enough, writing- and acting-wise to justify it. This time, the threats of not watching it actually happen, and after four seasons, each one dropping in ratings, it becomes the first series since the original to be cancelled.
2017: Again, as with Voyager, you're still going to run into people who are ready to unload on this series, calling it "not canon" and writing it off. However, you'll find that a surprisingly large amount of fans are admitting that with the passage of time, the series has grown on them, or that they realized they were too hard on it at the beginning. It's not usually listed as the absolute favorite of anyone, but even some of the more aggressive "fan haters" who despise the Trek offerings we've gotten since will still call Enterprise a good enough show to be considered an official part of the franchise. In another ten years, it might even have people praising it like they do Voyager today.
2017: Star Trek: Discovery has quite a few fans, and a smaller but much more vocal fan-hate group that despises more mucking about with canon, wrong Klingons, wrong tech, Spock never had a sister, it's too dark, lens flares, f-bombs and I'm not paying for this. Every single Star Trek series before this one was better. Even the ones we all hated back then.
2037: Who knows?
(Cue people who take issue with everything about my analysis)
