- a positive vision of the future for humanity (not a dystopian future)
- To quote Gene Roddenberry: “In the future there will be no hunger, there will be no greed and every child will know how to read”. (Greed is seen by others like the Feringi, the Orion Syndicate, etc)
- Star Trek needs to be a show the whole family can watch together. It might even generate some insightful family discussions.
- Violence can be referenced but not seen. Certainly no murder or violent acts will be undertaken by Starfleet officers.
- Profanity is in the past. Humanity (particularly Starfleet officers) speak with respect, even when in disagreement
- There is alway a fundamental respect for all life.
- “To explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no one has gone before”
- Try to respect and work with established continuity
Some of my issues with Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Picard is that Alex Kurtzman and company tend to ignore the fundamentals of Star Trek listed above.
My main issues with modern Star Trek are:
- It’s too dark. The entire look of modern Trek is poorly lit, dark and brooding. DS9 wasn’t even this dark and it had previously been known as the ‘dark’ Trek.
- Children cannot and should not watch modern Star Trek. It is unwatchable for children due to the profanity, violence and sexual innuendos (brother-sister duo Narek and Narissa. The sexual tension was very implied. I actually thought they were going to kiss on the STP finale). Trek used to be a family show, now the lowest rating might be 13+.
- Countless lense flares. Why do we need so many lense flares? I guess they think it gives the show a cinematic feel...I just find them annoying to see
- the unnecessary use of profanity. Trek never needed it’s characters to be dropping f-bombs or ‘shit’ or ‘asshole’ in their lines. (Yes Data did say “oh shit” in ST:Generations and Kirk said “Double damn ass on you” in ST4. Those were rare exceptions done for comedic effect. They were not the norm)
- Violence. The opening scene of episode 5 of STP was more like a scene from a “Saw” movie than that of a Star Trek production. It was done for shock & awe, a cheap gimmick not the standard in past Trek. (Again there were a few very rare exceptions like Commander Remicks death scene in the TNG episode ‘Conspiracy’).
- Ignoring continuity established in previous Star Trek shows (Data had a human brother? Spock had a human foster sister? Why do Klingons look like orcs from ‘Lord of the Rings’?)
- Ignoring their own continuity, sometimes between episodes. (In STP Agnes straight up murders Bruce Maddox, she is later told by Picard she will be arrested yet by the end of the season she’s NOT arrested. Another example: STP Ep9 they establish that androids can always tell when someone is lying. Agnes passes the lie test, but then in Ep10 it turns out she WAS lying after all ...?? Also the ‘Zhat Vash’ was a super secret romulan sect of the Tal’Shiar no one heard about as established in STP ep2. But by the end of season one it seems everyone knows about them...)
- New Trek seems to be borrowing concepts from other established sci-fi franchises. Examples: tardigrades, flesh and blood synthetics (Battlestar Galactica), a distant future where a single starship needs to rebuild a Federation-like organization (Andromeda), space Vegas (STP Ep5: Blade Runner), etc.
- Unrealistic science/technobabble (Rick Sternbach’s technobabble lines from TNG/DS9/VOY, which were based on real life power engineering, have now been replaced with lines like “Crypto Kung Fu” in STP)
- MacGuffins to help get characters out of situations (time crystals, tardigrades/spore drive, a device that can fix or do anything with the power of imagination...)
- Mary Sue characters (Michael Burnham is a Mary Sue. She literally committed mutiny on DSC’s first episode which started a war with the Klingons and got her Captain killed & eaten, not to mention thousands of others killed. Then at the end of the season she is awarded a medal and her Starfleet commission is reinstated. She literally can do anything and all is forgiven)
- Bad writing. Star Trek used to be a show where each episode had a beginning, middle, climax and conclusion; with the exception of the occasional 2-part episode. Even DS9 with its long story arcs still followed this format while at the same time having their over arching storylines. Modern Trek has episodes with no conclusion, long drawn out narratives and long storylines that flow at a snails pace or jarringly fast. Example: on season 1 of STP it took Admiral Picard until the end of episode 3 to actually embark on his mission. Then everything was hurriedly concluded in the last 2 episodes. And as a result of a hurried conclusion certain plot points were missed such as: Seven and Raffi getting romantic? Agnes has gotten away with murder? Why was the Data consciousness reveal not revealed prior to the end of the final episode? Rios tried to blow up Soji with a bomb but all is forgiven? Why would Starfleet end the ban on synths after they literally tried to end all humanoid life in the galaxy? Also if these all powerful ancient synths were summoned wouldn’t they still come anyway despite Soji destroying the portal transmitter? (I could go on but I’ll stop here)
To be clear my issues with modern Star Trek DO NOT include the following:
- Gay characters. I fully support the LGBT community and I applaud modern Trek for having gay characters on the shows. This is something Gene Roddenberry wanted to do with TOS and TNG but was denied by the higher ups at the time.
- Diversity. Star Trek has always been diverse but for some reason Modern Star Trek defenders (Drekkies) claim that anyone who doesn’t like their DSC or STP hate diversity. It’s always been there folks, it’s always made Star Trek special and I applaud modern Trek for continuing this tradition.
But I think another huge problem with modern Star Trek is how it’s delivered. DSC & STP are available for viewing if you pay for CBS All Access (thankfully Star Trek is still free on tv in Canada. But I do pay a satellite bill so it’s not completely free). With new Trek they want more subscribers for CBS All Access so they need to create buzz to attract new viewers whom would not buy into this just for Star Trek; they need previously non-Star Trek fans to subscribe. So what better way to attract new or ‘modern’ viewers than creating some buzz:
“They say ‘fuck’ on Star Trek now!”
“They literally ripped a guys eye out of his head! He was screaming and everything! It’s like watching’Saw’!”
“Klingons look like orcs now! Scary as hell!”
So they are trying to create buzz to create interest and in turn create new customers for their streaming platform. Problem is by ignoring the fundamentals of what makes Star Trek so special they are alienating a large number of their previous fan base. So in an effort to attract new customers they are losing customers. But are they attracting enough new viewers to make losing established fans a viable business practice? It doesn’t seem so in my view, established Trek fans are checking out and not as many checking in.
Bottom line is this: I’m not against trying new things with Star Trek, but if it’s too radically different from previous Trek you are going to divide the fan base. And that’s what is happening now and it’s not good. Fans are fighting, “new” viewers are not coming to new Trek in great numbers and Star Trek is suffering as a result.
Star Trek had a winning formula which is why it previously lasted 28 television seasons (TOS/TNG/DS9/VOY/ENT).
If it’s not broken don’t fix it!
And in a world filled with fighting, disease, hopelessness and so on; we could use a little ‘positive vision of the future’ to aspire to.
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