Pathetic.
I mean, I guess. But Star Trek has widened to the point that simply knowing someone is a Star Trek fan doesn’t tell you that much about their taste. Star Trek used to be a franchise, wherein all of its products were like planets orbiting a central idea and tone. But now, Star Trek has expanded into a genre, each product becoming a franchise of its own, in some cases having barely any connection to the brand.
At this point bearing the name “Star Trek” doesn’t really tell you what kind of viewing experience you’re in for. Maybe it’s a fun cartoon! Or maybe you’ll see a guy get his eyeball ripped out in graphic detail! Now, asking someone if they like Star Trek is like asking someone if they like Rock n’ Roll.
At this point, anyone trying to sell a script to Paramount is going to get asked, “Could we make your new thing into a Star Trek? It’s just that we’d be a lot more comfortable if we could tie it to a recognizable brand.” I can’t blame them. But I don’t have to like it, either. </rant>
First of all, thank you for your thoughtful and well-written response. I think this is accurate. Also, have you seen Star Trek: CSI yet?
Now that you mention it, a buddy-cop show about a Vulcan and their loose-cannon partner could be interesting… brb, emailing Paramount…
Admittedly, I would watch that, and it wouldn’t be the worst Star Trek by a long shot.
Did you make those yourself? Pretty good.
Unfortunately, no. It’s AI. I did write the prompts for whatever that’s worth.
This is well put! Thank you for putting it into writing.
I don’t like nutrek. I like old trek.
I watched section 31, and man… I really don’t like nutrek.
Haha this Wikipedia description:
Star Trek: Section 31 was released on Paramount+ on January 24, 2025. It received mostly negative reviews from critics and was considered by some to be the worst entry in the Star Trek franchise.
Was it really that bad? I loved SNW and Discovery got a bit wacky for me at times but I still enjoyed it. I also love Michelle Yeoh so it’s a bummer to hear it didn’t turn out well.
got… a bit… whacky?
The entire show makes more sense if you assumed the crew was tripping balls on the magic space shrooms.
Have you watch TOS and try to actually watch it without the lense of nostalgia? The episodic format makes it easier to focus on the absolute classics and ignore some of the worst episodes of Star Trek ever, but the average quality is not above modern Star Trek shows.
I agree.
If we’re talking the 90s-era though I think it changes completely. And those would be better to use as a reference. It’s also what a lot of people mean these days when they say Oldtrek.
TOS’ quality drops off in the third season, but those first two years are almost all bangers. TNG era shows have a similar ratio, it’s just reversed: they struggle at the start, and pick up as they go.
Yes.
I like TOS. My favorite is DS9, followed closely by TNG (even if I find half the characters annoying… but I find most of them annoying because that’s their characterization. Ryker is a womanizer chasing skirts. But he’s a well written one, for the most part.)
None of them are perfect and I never said they were.
Nutrek (post abramsverse for me,) has focused more on glitz than substance. Doesn’t change that in my opinion, DIS makes more sense if you assume they’re tripping balls rather than actually going anywhere.
It felt rather more like they tried to hamfist a fucked up and ill fated love affair between two people with equally hamfisted backgrounds, without any real regard for the trek canon, and especially already-established characters.
Their response to the early criticisms weren’t to actually improve the writing, but rather jump forward so far out of established canon they could continue to write poorly, and left Tyler behind to resolve that mistake.
What substance is there on “Spock’s Brain”, “Turnabout Intruder” or “The Way to Eden”?
And what established canon? TOS is all over the place too, from the laws and organisation of the federation to the nature of Vulcans.
/sigh.
Virtually every show in existence has dud episodes. Even the greatest shows ever made. They happen. What’s your point?
I get that you liked it. That’s fair. You can like things and disagree with me. Thats totally cool (not that you need my permission or anything.)
As for “the canon”, you know that every show and movie made before DIS is canon, right? Not just TOS, but the motion picture, tng, ent, ds9, voyager. And now DIS is also sadly part of that canon (though I suspect they’re going to just memory hole it… Klingons are back to normal in SNW, for example.)
That’s how that works. When you come into a franchise that’s as heavily established as Trek, with as dedicated a fan base, you have to at least respect existing canon, and make sure any retcons to it make sense or expand on something without totally trashing things.
Costume designers, for example, come in a decide that, no, Klingons, really need to be *completely reworked into an unrecognizable species that stands a few feet taller, has giant, bald-lizard heads and we’re gaudy, pokey armor…. Is just gonna piss off a lot of existing fans. (Only fan base more, uh, passionate is Star Wars. They’re savages.)
It’s one of the worst things I’ve ever watched. I have zero idea who it was made for.
It’s like a poorly-written RPG campaign got made into a movie. Every single character is fucking ridiculous, the plot is awful, and I questioned why I was watching the whole time.
Was it really that bad?
So far, everyone I know who professes that everything made by Kurtzman is great Star Trek thinks Section 31 is terrible.
Apparently it’s pretty bad.
Section 31 suffers from the same problem as the Kelvinverse movies and adds the problem that there’s no more material to flesh out the characters except Georgiou. It’s entertaining for the most part, but the plot is a mess and makes it hard to care about any of the characters. I think this is due in great part to it being initially written to be a mini series but then they randomly dropped most of the scenes to make it a single movie.
It isn’t worth watching for free, imo
Ruff
Trek is Trek. You are valid.
