Comment on Is Star Trek Discovery that bad?
Ensign_Moe@startrek.website 4 weeks agoI am one of those older traditional Trekkers you mentioned (btw our generation prefers “trekkies”) and I actually enjoyed Discovery a lot. It’s definitely not one of my favorite Trek series though because of 2 things:
- It’s Trek in name only. You said it’s totally disconnect from the other shows and you’re right. But it’s more than that. It feels like they had a generic space/action show and decided to increase the viewership by naming one of the characters Spock and giving a few nods to the Trek franchise. Again: I liked it. I thought it was a really good generic space/action romp. But all other Trek shows have a particularly different view of humanity and history, a core innocence that’s put to extreme tests again and again, while the characters in Discovery couldn’t care less about that stuff.
- It is completely detached, plotwise from all other Trek (which you already mentioned). In a way that’s actually great because of my point #1. Because of that detachment I can look back on it with greater fondness, like the way you might have a particular circle of friend that you like even more because they never met your mom.
- There. Is one HUGE exception to #1 and #2 above, and that’s the appearance of our good friend Mr. Kirk’s predecessor. There a couple of episodes that have me the biggest chills from the old days, and if you saw the show (and you’re of a certain age) then you know exactly which ones I’m talking about.
cerebralhawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 weeks ago
I’ve never heard of Trekkies as a generational term. I’ve always understood that Trekkers were people who enjoyed the show as a show (they’re on the Trek) whereas Trekkies enjoy the show as part of the show (they’re in the Trek). Like they believe Trek is real, or it’s our actual future, and that Klingons and Vulcans are out there somewhere. Gene Roddenberry preferred this term because the show is about hope, that things will get better to where the show is, and that when things are bad on the show, hope that they will be better or that it will all work out in the end. But me? I just like it as a show. It’s not “real” to me.
Though, I suppose everyone’s relationship with Star Trek (or, any other franchise) is unique and personal to them and you can’t just divide the fans into two categories. Still, that is what I always understood the difference between the two types was, as we are a franchise that has two names for its fans.
Regarding what you said about them having a generic space show and naming it Star Trek. That has happened before. Deep Space Nine exists because the guy made Babylon 5 pitched it to Paramount and they ran him off and stole his idea. Yes, Deep Space Nine is awesome and we love it, but it would not exist if not for Babylon 5, which we should all be thankful we also got. To this day no one who wasn’t involved knows exactly how much DS9 took from B5, but DS9 was not originally Star Trek, and it was widely criticised for not being Star Trek being that they were not exploring and that they were on a space station. I imagine a lot of episodes of TV started out as something else, some unconnected idea that was shoehorned into that show in the writers room. So while I don’t doubt that Discovery may have not been an original Trek idea, I do not care because neither was DS9 and I love DS9.
I’m not disagreeing with you, though, and I agree with some of your clarifications, particularly in point 1.
Ensign_Moe@startrek.website 4 weeks ago
Okay so apparently I’m a Trekk_er_ by the modern definition, which used to be called Trekk_ies_ back when carrying pagers around was still in the future.
About DS9, yes that link with Babylon 5 is well known in these parts. But Paramount converted it into an actual bona fide Trek show. The constant parade of aliens through their stationary setting made it feel more alien than the rest of the franchise, and their position at the edge of Federation space. But that’s what the show was metaphorically, too: on the edge of the franchise, on the border between Trek and non-Trek in a way that could be thoroughly enjoyed by both groups.
Discovery wasn’t on the border of the franchise in the same way. It was more like an infiltrator, like if they had just made Babylon 5 but with Starfleet uniforms.