STD questions?

[Yukaphile]

I'm wondering, is STD really doing anything new by setting this into yet another prequel era? I mean, this is such a rich backdrop to explore! You got entities like Trelane, the Organians, the Metrons, and you got forgotten Trek races like the First Federation, the Gorn, the Tholians... why not actually do something with them? Are they even doing that? How about the Doomsday Machine? Why have people coming over from the Mirror Universe when it shouldn't have even been discovered yet?

[Deledrius]

That's the problem when you pick a setting for reasons other than because you have a story that must take place in it. Enterprise shared this problem in many ways.

[Yukaphile]

I just read... they cover up Burnham's mutiny, expunging it from the record... and then remove all records of encounters with the Mirror Universe... what the hell? This is taking away from the pioneering aspect of TOS. It's... it's shoving them aside for an inferior prequel...

[Deledrius]

It's not very satisfying dramatically either, IMO. It's one of those situations where they try to have things both ways and end up doing neither very well. It's been discussed elsewhere already, but the show really doesn't need to be a prequel and in fact suffers for it. Maybe if they'd kept Fuller's original plan this would have worked, but the direction they took just means that it both doesn't fit and is constrained unnecessarily.

[Yukaphile]

Yeah, sounds that way. Also, 100th post, woo!

[GandALF]

[Fixer]

Who cares?

I assume the kind of nerds that have obsessed about the minutia of Star Trek on discussion boards and forums since the formation of the internet.

Those that lived through the great Kirk Vs. Picard flamewars, the Pale Moonlight contrition, the Neelix heresy, the Seven of Nine deification and the great Enterprise exodus.

You know, Star Trek fans.

[GandALF]

There's continuity glitches all over the place from TOS onward. Does Kirk work for UESPA or Starfleet?

They never have taken every last bit of canon ultra-seriously. It should be expected, otherwise you're just looking for things to get upset about.

[Zoinksberg]

Here is one that keeps me scratching my head: who is this show made for?

If it is made to try to revitalize the franchise and bring in new viewers then why would they put it where a casual person can't get to it without paying for a service? You put it on TV, or at least Netflix, and new people find it and see a totally different Trek. You bring in people who were previously not Trek fans and may even just be Discovery fans, but it expands the market for Trek. It might not speak to current Trek fans, but if it brings in more fans than it loses then it at least makes business sense, right?

But they didn't put it on TV. So it must have instead been designed to bring current Trek fans to their streaming service. That much has been confirmed by Moonves. So they create a show designed to sell subscriptions to the old guard of Trek fandom. A prequel/visual reboot. Exactly what everyone was clamoring for. Throw in some TOS sound effects and even those very few people who didn't want that will be happy, right?

They made a show for new fans to sell to old fans. Smart. Judging by the news on Season 2 production things just aren't getting any better. Star Trek is Kurtzman's franchise now. I'm sure Brannon Braga and George Lucas are both enjoying their sudden rise in opinion this past year.

[ChiggyvonRichthofen]

There's continuity glitches all over the place from TOS onward. Does Kirk work for UESPA or Starfleet?

They never have taken every last bit of canon ultra-seriously. It should be expected, otherwise you're just looking for things to get upset about.

There's levels to this stuff though. If a writer has to choose between telling a good story and following canon, then I certainly hope they tell a good story. Sometimes I do wish fans were a bit quicker to accept the real world explanation for things, whether it be the writers screwing up, being inconsistent, or just not having developed everything yet.

But sometimes the stories are poor and muddled or the writers just get lazy, and I don't think fans should just ignore every instance of that because "continuity errors happen." In the case of STD, it was obvious from the very beginning that there wasn't really a good story reason to visit that particular time period and that continuity gaffes could easily develop. They went there to do lazy fan service and cash in on the fact that the TOS era is still what gives you a chance to bring in general audiences and casual fans.

So when continuity errors do predictably arise and they take the easy way out and hit a reset button, should fans just shrug their shoulders? No, that's worth criticizing.

And from my perspective, I'm willing to give extra leeway to any Trek series that really does try to explore a new frontier. Cynical cash grabs, on the other hand, get a very short rope.