I watched a video with Ryan George and a host discussing why Star Wars has become stale and passe (they exempted "Andor").*
It occurred to me that much of what they said applies well to Trek.
In essence, "Why do we care what happens?"
If Star Trek has any long-term future in movies and TV, it'll be because new viewers watch new content and are excited by what they see in the first hour, as they watch it.
They have to get emotionally invested in the actions and feelings of the characters they see in front of them, and care about what's happening to them right now.
"What ten classic episodes would you show a new viewer to get them into Trek?" is the wrong question. It doesn't matter.**
IMO, SNW - and to a much lesser extent, SFA - comes closer to meeting that standard than most post-80s Trek content, which relies heavily on engagement with the specifics of the fictional milieu and its history.
The entire franchise was built on a foundation of one-hour stand-alone stories, usually with immediate high stakes.
And they changed whatever they had to, made up whatever worked and threw out what didn't, as they went along.
Somewhere after BOBW, "B" story became "A" story, and eventually "A" stories were consigned to Lego blocks building multi-episode and season-long arcs.
Characters were static or evolved glacially.
I mean, I'm down for a ten-episode season-long arc if an apparently main character is killed without warning in the first hour and the others have to resolve that.
If It's Done Well.***
But that's not how most Trek meta-plots work.
They're built instead on ticking clocks and "we'll figure out the plot later" stories with promises that "Something big and bad will happen...eventually."
And as we go along, viewers are asked to give time to a taciturn middle-aged half-human/half-beardo ruminate over his career and the trauma of seeing a Space Navy ship blow up in his youth.
*Weird, for me. Other than Feral Historian, most everyone who chatters about Trek on YouTube are annoying bloviators looking for some pennies...
** Someone will recite an anecdote about getting a roommate or partner or panhandler onto Trek by showing them some fan favorite DS9 ep. Cool story.
***Trademark 2003-ish, Samuel T. Cogley.
It occurred to me that much of what they said applies well to Trek.
In essence, "Why do we care what happens?"
If Star Trek has any long-term future in movies and TV, it'll be because new viewers watch new content and are excited by what they see in the first hour, as they watch it.
They have to get emotionally invested in the actions and feelings of the characters they see in front of them, and care about what's happening to them right now.
"What ten classic episodes would you show a new viewer to get them into Trek?" is the wrong question. It doesn't matter.**
IMO, SNW - and to a much lesser extent, SFA - comes closer to meeting that standard than most post-80s Trek content, which relies heavily on engagement with the specifics of the fictional milieu and its history.
The entire franchise was built on a foundation of one-hour stand-alone stories, usually with immediate high stakes.
And they changed whatever they had to, made up whatever worked and threw out what didn't, as they went along.
Somewhere after BOBW, "B" story became "A" story, and eventually "A" stories were consigned to Lego blocks building multi-episode and season-long arcs.
Characters were static or evolved glacially.
I mean, I'm down for a ten-episode season-long arc if an apparently main character is killed without warning in the first hour and the others have to resolve that.
If It's Done Well.***
But that's not how most Trek meta-plots work.
They're built instead on ticking clocks and "we'll figure out the plot later" stories with promises that "Something big and bad will happen...eventually."
And as we go along, viewers are asked to give time to a taciturn middle-aged half-human/half-beardo ruminate over his career and the trauma of seeing a Space Navy ship blow up in his youth.
*Weird, for me. Other than Feral Historian, most everyone who chatters about Trek on YouTube are annoying bloviators looking for some pennies...
** Someone will recite an anecdote about getting a roommate or partner or panhandler onto Trek by showing them some fan favorite DS9 ep. Cool story.
***Trademark 2003-ish, Samuel T. Cogley.
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