Reality Check on future Trek

[perigee]

I've finally come to the cold conclusion that I - and a lot of us - have to come to terms with the very real possibility that from here on out we will have to live with a redefined Trek. Not just in movies, but in TV as well.

Call it what you will - betrayal or the parade has passed us by - but this new, morphed form of Trek is undeniably now the most successful version of the franchise with buy-in from the general public and a large majority of old-school fans.

There's been a lot of talk and hope in here about some weird stuff; "Dominion Wars" series, etc. and so on - heck, I barely know Dominion War junk, and I'm pretty hard core from the TOS/Gen stuff - there's just no way that any of that arcane stuff is going to be played out for money in this new environment. TOS and TNG are probably wholly scotched as well.

It's life, Jim, but not as we know it.

The thing is, a whole bunch of people here are holding onto that straw that somehow the old days are going to come back again, and it seems to me that viewpoint is just going to prolong the separation pain. Thus the poll - beyond your Wants, what are your Beliefs? And can you deal with the concept that Trek may now be, ongoing, a wholly different animal?

 

[Admiral2]

I have no trouble with Trek being a whole new animal. I just didn't want it to be a schizophrenic baboon with ADHD.

The obvious answer here is old Trek is gone.

 

[Lindley]

The books will continue, and as they've been generally stronger than the televised entries for a while now, I figure that's enough.

I'm very curious what they'll do with this new take on it though, too.

 

[perigee]

I'm very curious what they'll do with this new take on it though, too.

Yeah - it's a little spooky like. An all-action format is probably going to be as gruesome as the all-yammer version of recent years past. Tele-wise, even '24' is wearing out its welcome fast, and that's probably our best-possible expectation for a revival TV show at this point...

Still. There are always possibilities. I hope.

 

[Mr. B]

I would love to see "old Trek" again but I don't see it happening... all that's left is the NuCrap we have now and its inevitable cash-in sequels. We just got a taste of how Orci and Kurtzman do sequels.

 

[BrownShatner]

Realistically, the window for a TNG or DS9 spinoff passed a decade ago. While those shows did reasonably well ratings-wise, the average viewer from 1997 has no current memory of Section 31, the Dominion Wars, or most of the other "arcane" plot points discussed here. That kind of material is certainly better for books.

I also believe there has been a change in zeitgeist which makes the superficial perfection and utopianism of "old-style" TNG-era Trek unappealing to the modern audience. (Much like how you couldn't have a TOS-style show on in the 1980s and 90s.) Even in the later iterations of DS9/VOY/ENT, you could tell they were trying to make the series more 'edgy' and relevant to the modern viewer, and not usually succeeding.

(And it's odd calling Berman Trek "old-style". Real old-style Trek is TOS, dammit.)

 

[Bill Morris]

I've finally come to the cold conclusion that I - and a lot of us - have to come to terms with the very real possibility that from here on out we will have to live with a redefined Trek. Not just in movies, but in TV as well.

I don't have to live with it. I haven't seen the movie and don't intent to. Trek that looks anything like those trailers I don't need. I'll just continue to watch the old Trek over and over again.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

...from here on out we will have to live with a redefined Trek. Not just in movies, but in TV as well.

Call it what you will - betrayal or the parade has passed us by - but this new, morphed form of Trek is undeniably now the most successful version of the franchise with buy-in from the general public and a large majority of old-school fans.

This is the plain truth, well-stated.

Tele-wise, even '24' is wearing out its welcome fast, and that's probably our best-possible expectation for a revival TV show at this point...

Well, now, "24" has been going on for seven or eight years so that's hardly "wearing out its welcome fast." For a new Star Trek series to be successful for as long as that, using the kind of action format you're assuming, would really be a stunning success at this point.

After a decade or so Trek will probably have to be "redefined" again, somewhat, anyway.

 

[Cheapjack]

I think it is written into it, that it may change a bit over the years, and go back a bit more to the intention of the original series, the characters will 'mature' - Kirk will be less of a 'fifteen year old in a 25 year old's body' etc. But it will be different.

 

[Cheapjack]

I don't think it will be just one car crash after another, though. The characters are too stimulating.

 

[NIUPonyBoy]

Old Trek is dead I fear.

 

[perigee]

Well, now, "24" has been going on for seven or eight years so that's hardly "wearing out its welcome fast." For a new Star Trek series to be successful for as long as that, using the kind of action format you're assuming, would really be a stunning success at this point.

After a decade or so Trek will probably have to be "redefined" again, somewhat, anyway.

Heyya, Dennis;

My thinking on 24 is a little... tweaked. The first seasons, for example, attempted to tell a story "in real time." It was a little cheat-y, but I liked it. This season, however, had more things happen in 24 hours than could reasonably be expected in a James Bond week. It's like that "Cranked" movie - they have to keep zapping the thing with a constant stream of adrenaline to keep it pumping along. My concern is that, instead of getting that old "24" tension, we'd end up with the latest incarnation. I'm getting old, and that much wham-bang in an hour makes me want to take a nap. ~grin~

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Well, the point remains - the show's been going on for quite some years now, and if it took a Trek series as long to "wear out its welcome" as it's apparently taken "24" then Trek would be successful on TV far beyond the expectations that anyone at the studio had as recently as 2006.

 

[Hober Mallow]

The thing is, a whole bunch of people here are holding onto that straw that somehow the old days are going to come back again...

The old days are back again. Kirk and Spock are back. All that other Berman-Trek stuff can go shuffle off this mortal coil.

I think the reality check is this: many of you aren't Star Trek fans, you're Berman-Universe fans. For Star Trek fans, things are looking up. Whether you liked the new movie or not, it was closer to being real Star Trek just for featuring Kirk and Spock than any of the "spinoffs."

If when you think of Star Trek, you think of a specific continuity developed with TNG, DS9, Voyager, and Enterprise -- if you call TNG/DS9/Voy/Ent "old Trek" -- I'm afraid that's all over and done with. Thank God.

 

[Captain_Rogers]

I think the reality check is this: many of you aren't Star Trek fans, you're Berman-Universe fans.

This is a sentiment I couldn't agree with more.

For years I've watched the Berman/Braga apologists use every convolution of logic imaginable to justify the crap that was put out.

I'm quite happy to see it washed away. In fact, leaving the theater opening night, right after thinking "WOW" I thought "20 years of turds just got roto rootered"

 

[Admiral Janitor]

Not all of us thought it (Berman era Trek) was crap.

 

[BrownShatner]

Not all of us thought it (Berman era Trek) was crap.

Regardless what any of us think about Berman Trek, I think we can all agree that it was enormously successful with something like 22 television seasons, 4 motion pictures, and a whole lot of profitable reruns.

However, everything comes to an end, and Berman Trek isn't coming back.

 

[Captain_Rogers]

Regardless what any of us think about Berman Trek, I think we can all agree that it was enormously successful with something like 22 television seasons, 4 motion pictures, and a whole lot of profitable reruns.

Enormously successful?

In what alternate reality? it's had a consistently shrinking audience year after year with increasingly diminishing returns with each successive film.

That isn't success, it's called swirling the bowl.

 

[Skywalker]

It's dead, Jim.

 

[MichaelDornFan]

I personally would prefer the prime universe for any future TV show, but I realize that's unlikely and would be happy with whatever.

The thing is, a whole bunch of people here are holding onto that straw that somehow the old days are going to come back again...

The old days are back again. Kirk and Spock are back. All that other Berman-Trek stuff can go shuffle off this mortal coil.

I think the reality check is this: many of you aren't Star Trek fans, you're Berman-Universe fans. For Star Trek fans, things are looking up. Whether you liked the new movie or not, it was closer to being real Star Trek just for featuring Kirk and Spock than any of the "spinoffs."

If when you think of Star Trek, you think of a specific continuity developed with TNG, DS9, Voyager, and Enterprise -- if you call TNG/DS9/Voy/Ent "old Trek" -- I'm afraid that's all over and done with. Thank God.

If a TV show were made and set in the universe established by the 2009 movie, I doubt it would be about Kirk and Spock.

Perhaps a new show could be set 100 years after Berman-era Trek and leave it ambiguous as to which universe it is.