What are your realistic expectations for Strange New Worlds

[Vger23]

I fully expect that the internet will be full of people telling us how awful Strange New Worlds is. How it's already been cancelled and how it's full of woke snowflakes who are useless. Even if it's the best TV show in history (which it probably won't be) because that gets people to read their page/blog/post/whatever.
Will it be as good as the best Trek that went before? Not all episodes certainly. However I doubt it'll have anything as bad as "Spocks Brain" or the entire first season of TNG. But there's so much Sci-fi and other great TV out there now (including old shows we can watch whenever we like) that it's difficult to stand out from the crowd. With ten episodes a season there will be less filler than the old series, but less opportunity to do something different and quiet, like "The Inner Light".
Hopefully it will capture some of the old magic, but in a contemporary way, I would like to return to a more episodic format that doesn't dial every threat up to eleven and mean the entire galaxy needs saving all the time.
I do worry that there are too many characters we know the fates of, meaning any threat to them is meaningless. We already had Spock, Pike and the Enterprise who we know what happens to. Now we have Uhura, Chapel and M'Benga. It limits the potential for drama.

Stuart

I like TNG S1 and "Spock's Brain...."

Well, don't look at me. I'm way to irrational this time around


Which is fine. That doesn't make TNG top shelf, much less Star Trek as a franchise as top tier entertainment. Expecting "Cause and Effect" from every show is unrealistic, at best. TNG is gone and will not be remade. That's for the better, I think.

For every "Cause and Effect" or even "Best of Both Worlds," there are 3 or 4 examples of dull, uninspired, tepid crap
Aquiel
Manhunt
Outrageous Okona
Man of the People

TNG was good. It had some brilliant episodes. But it was mostly mundane, average TV in a science fiction setting. I like it, but I don't consider it top shelf by any stretch. It's not even in my top 3 Star Trek series.

 

[The Wormhole]

TNG is alright as comfort food. I can put on any random episode and enjoy myself for 45 minutes. But the instant I try to binge even just one season, even a good season like season 3, the show's flaws become very evident. And, honestly, it's a very flawed show, really.

 

[Ron M]

I'm cautiously optimistic and willing to give it a fair shot (even though I didn't last more than a single season with Discovery, Picard, or Lower Decks).

I'm hoping the episodic format will work well. Back in the days of epsiodic TV--as others above have noted--every season would typically have some great episodes, some average ones, and a few bad ones. If an episode was bad, you could always hope that next week's would be better, and it usually was. One problem with serialized TV is that now entire seasons can be bad or good, and you have to wait up to a year to see if things will turn around.

I also hope they make it somewhat family-friendly, reining in a bit of the language and violence we've seen on other current Trek shows. There are quite a few old TOS/TNG episodes I can feel comfortable watching with my kids; these days, with streaming TV, it seems like everything is either G-rated or PG-13+, with nothing in between.

 

[ananta]

TNG is alright as comfort food. I can put on any random episode and enjoy myself for 45 minutes. But the instant I try to binge even just one season, even a good season like season 3, the show's flaws become very evident. And, honestly, it's a very flawed show, really.

I’ll always love it for what it is, but I feel TNG hasn’t dated that well. It peaked quite early with “Best of Both Worlds” and nothing terribly exciting really happened for most of the rest of the run. The lack of longer term arcs and narrative drive—and the fact the characters never really grow or change very much—makes it feel a little purposeless and less than the sum of its parts. The last couple of seasons are a real slog to get through. I genuinely don’t think I could watch the entire seventh season again. On the other hand, I find the first couple of seasons a guilty pleasure because they had a certain feel and quality that felt fresh and exciting (maybe the fact the music was good back then helped).

 

[The Wormhole]

I find the first couple of seasons a guilty pleasure because they had a certain feel and quality that felt fresh and exciting (maybe the fact the music was good back then helped).

Definitely, these days I find I actually gravitate more towards the first two seasons of TNG mostly because I haven't watched those episodes nearly as often as I have seasons 3-7. And there is a certain charm to those episodes along with a sense that they were willing to try anything back then. That's still there in the third season, though I find in the fourth season it got into a bit of a rut it never really broke free from.

 

[Oddish]

The lack of longer term arcs and narrative drive—and the fact the characters never really grow or change very much—makes it feel a little purposeless and less than the sum of its parts.

That's kind of how TV was at that time. DS9, with its heavier serialization, was ahead of its time. I think that may be one reason why it and Enterprise are better regarded today than they were when they were actually airing: daek, edgy, serialized TV is the norm these days.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I don't even remember which one Cause and Effect was. I'll probably look it up at MA to refresh my memory. All Good Things was alright. Clever piece of writing with the use of the setting of the pilot.
Okay, Cause and Effect was the Groundhogs Day episode. DISCO actually did that trope better in Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

My expectation is that I'll find the writing to be worse than Lower Decks, I'll be put off by both the amount of references to Classic Trek and how much it strays from the lore at times, and it'll eventually include some fantasy element that'll annoy me.

I expect that the music will be great, the visuals will be technically fantastic but not quite as appealing as Berman-era Trek or the Kelvin movies, and I'll like most of the actors and their characters. I expect that I'll find it to be fast paced enough that I don't dwell on the flaws, and that overall I'll enjoy it at least as much as earlier series. Though maybe for different reasons.

 

[The Wormhole]

Okay, Cause and Effect was the Groundhogs Day episode. DISCO actually did that trope better in Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad

I give Cause and Effect some leeway since it actually predated Groundhog Day and therefore time loop episodes weren't as much of a trope at the time as they became post-Groundhog Day.

 

[ichab]

I'm expecting an entertaining show that hooks me enough to want to tune in and watch the next week. I haven't felt that in a Star Trek series since Enterprise. The trailers did their job on me because I'm actually interested in tuning in on day one. What happens after that...we'll see.

Also, you can't compare a movie like Interstellar with an episode of TNG, as they are two completely different mediums with different sets of rules. I will say that I was more entertained while watching Wrath of Khan, The Undiscovered Country and First Contact than I was Interstellar. Interstellar was an interesting experience and I appreciate Nolan for trying to be authentic to science, but it's not something I care to sit through again.

 

[Mudd]

TNG was the only modern Trek show i gave a damn about for very long. It revived Trek on TV and recreated it, and made it a much bigger and longer-lived phenomenon than it would have been if the studio had just kept trying to exploit the aging original cast.

The shows that followed just varied TNG's formula and style a little and scribbled in the margins. I know some Trekkies were terribly impressed with DS9. Meh.

 

[Mudd]

yes you can agree to disagree, however objective writing content

No such thing.

I don't even think interstellar is as good as all good things and while space odyssey was excellent, I would put yesterday enterprise on its level.

Utter nonsense.

if you are going to call 2002 and interstellar a masterpiece, than in consistency TNG and even DS9 would be just that too.

Ha-ha Nope.

 

[Jack Wolfe]

I'm hoping for a show that hews close enough to TOS to be fun and thoughtful without getting cheesy or burying itself in nostalgia. I want an entertaining Trek show, nothing more, nothing less.

 

[Paul755]

Based on the trailers I expect that I will like it and be very entertained. But I also expect to be constantly distracted by the break in visual continuity. I’m not expecting to like the hoops they are gonna jump through to explain Kahn’s descendant either.

Okay, Cause and Effect was the Groundhogs Day episode. DISCO actually did that trope better in Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad

ehhh…did it though?

 

[fireproof78]

ehhh…did it though?

One I remember; the one I don't.

So, yes for me.

 

[Richard S. Ta]

ehhh…did it though?

For me, absolutely yes.

 

[valden]

Based on the trailers I expect that I will like it and be very entertained. But I also expect to be constantly distracted by the break in visual continuity. I’m not expecting to like the hoops they are gonna jump through to explain Kahn’s descendant either.



ehhh…did it though?

if it did I would have remembered, honestly i do remember a cause and effect kind of episode in season 1 discovery with harry mudd, it was a cool episode but had none of the mystery and intriguing story telling of cause and effect.

LOL at the quest of seeing a comparison between both, it aint even close. Cause and Effect was a masterpiece.

 

[StarMan]

My hopes are feverishly high this will finally be the Trek I've been waiting for and that 22+ years of patience post-DS9 will finally pay off. However, if my lofty expectations are dashed I expect to be bitterly disappointed, but will nonetheless continue to watch on a weekly basis and provide a thorough, unsolicited 50-point commentary on each episode's failings for those under the misguided notion they enjoy it (charts, diagrams & screenshots will be included).

 

[Richard S. Ta]

if it did I would have remembered, honestly i do remember a cause and effect kind of episode in season 1 discovery with harry mudd, it was a cool episode but had none of the mystery and intriguing story telling of cause and effect.

LOL at the quest of seeing a comparison between both, it aint even close. Cause and Effect was a masterpiece.

Because we can surely trust you to bring an unbiased, objective opinion to the table...

 

[DaveyNY]

It has 'STAR TREK' in the title of the show.

After almost 56 years of being a Trek Fan, I suspect I'm going to enjoy it immensely.