The New Scientist proclaims "Star Trek Renassiance"

[CharlesPhipps]

https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24732982-200-we-are-living-in-the-middle-of-a-fantastic-star-trek-renaissance/#ixzz6XPv8gLf9

THE very first episode of Star Trek, entitled The Man Trap, aired on 8 September 1966. Right from the start, all the key ingredients of Star Trek were there: an alien planet with air that was perfectly OK to breathe and strange lumps of rock on its surface that are good to hide behind in a firefight; very closely fitted colour-blocked uniforms; a key gang of ship’s officers, including the captain, the Vulcan and the ship’s doctor; and, of course, a really big spaceship, with that lift leading down from the bridge to the other decks.

There are a few things in that first show that have since disappeared, such as female crew members wearing skirts so short they barely covered their bottoms. But all the elements of Star Trek‘s success were present in that story about an alien that killed people because it was badly short of salt.

What no one working on the show back then could possibly have imagined is that 54 years later, and in a very different world, Star Trek would not only still be in production, but that it would be thriving and, indeed, multiplying. Whether or not this is a new golden age of Star Trek is for each fan to decide for themselves, but it is certainly an exciting period of renaissance.

My personal favourite of the crop of new series is Star Trek: Discovery, which kicked off in 2017. Discovery was the first new Star Trek TV series since Star Trek: Enterprise ended in 2005. It centres around science specialist Michael Burnham, played brilliantly by Sonequa Martin-Green. Burnham is largely sombre and angst-ridden, and yet you end up not only rooting for her but caring about her.

The rest of the show is rammed full of great ideas as well as other strong characters, including the fabulous Michelle Yeoh as Philippa Georgiou in a role that warps in very interesting ways as the show goes on. The second season came out late last year, and the third is due to be released this October, and if that happens, hurray!

Elsewhere in this renaissance is Star Trek: Picard, which was released in January, with Patrick Stewart reprising the role he played in Star Trek: The Next Generation (a hugely popular iteration of the franchise that ended in 1994). Picard is a slower show than Discovery and, in my view, is less successful as a piece of storytelling, but it isn’t without its pleasures. A second and third season are on their way.

Then there is Star Trek: Lower Decks, an adult animated series that is only available to watch in North America right now. I am informed by a US colleague that it is “being watched by all the cool people”.

These three are only one part of the new wave of Star Trek, though. So much more is coming, including, apparently, a live-action show based around Yeoh’s rumbustious character in Discovery that is tentatively titled Section 31.

All these new shows harness the very best modern effects and all the narrative tricks learned from the masters of binge-watchable TV, and the Star Trek franchise has definitely come a long way since The Man Trap.

But the latest shows remain, indubitably, Star Trek. At their heart, there is still a bunch of people in tight uniforms, on a big spaceship, visiting alien worlds and taking with them Star Trek‘s particular brand of tolerance and hope. What’s not to like about that?

[Link8909]

Absolutely, I like Star Trek Discovery, I think Star Trek Picard is fantastic, I'm really looking forward to being able to watch Star Trek Lower Decks, and I'm hyped for Star Trek Strange New Worlds, and it looks like things for the franchise are getting better and better.

A fantastic Star Trek renaissance is a very accurate way of describing the franchise now, and I'm so happy that we have Star Trek back after so long of absents.

[Worffan101]

This article isn't just propaganda, it's BAD propaganda that can't even mention specifics about why the shows it praises are good.

[CharlesPhipps]

This article isn't just propaganda, it's BAD propaganda that can't even mention specifics about why the shows it praises are good.

Perhaps because "I like it and think it's fun" is enough for normal people?

[Worffan101]

This article isn't just propaganda, it's BAD propaganda that can't even mention specifics about why the shows it praises are good.

Perhaps because "I like it and think it's fun" is enough for normal people?

WHAT do they like? WHY do they think it's fun?

I've been burned by too many shows with glowing but extremely vague reviews to ever believe anybody who says "I like it and think it's fun and it's popular!" If they can't point to anything specific, then I automatically suspect they're BSing me.

[GreyICE]

I too suspect that everyone who isn't me spends hours and hours watching media they don't actually like just to trick me.

No, that's definitely not paranoid schizophrenia, and if you keep telling me it is the people who plant cameras in my room at night will start targeting you.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

This article isn't just propaganda, it's BAD propaganda that can't even mention specifics about why the shows it praises are good.

Perhaps because "I like it and think it's fun" is enough for normal people?

WHAT do they like? WHY do they think it's fun?

I've been burned by too many shows with glowing but extremely vague reviews to ever believe anybody who says "I like it and think it's fun and it's popular!" If they can't point to anything specific, then I automatically suspect they're BSing me.

So you're saying that's one rotten tomato from you?

[Worffan101]

This article isn't just propaganda, it's BAD propaganda that can't even mention specifics about why the shows it praises are good.

Perhaps because "I like it and think it's fun" is enough for normal people?

WHAT do they like? WHY do they think it's fun?

I've been burned by too many shows with glowing but extremely vague reviews to ever believe anybody who says "I like it and think it's fun and it's popular!" If they can't point to anything specific, then I automatically suspect they're BSing me.

So you're saying that's one rotten tomato from you?

I'm saying that I want a whole freaking bucket of rotten tomatoes.

[CharlesPhipps]

This article isn't just propaganda, it's BAD propaganda that can't even mention specifics about why the shows it praises are good.

Perhaps because "I like it and think it's fun" is enough for normal people?

WHAT do they like? WHY do they think it's fun?

I've been burned by too many shows with glowing but extremely vague reviews to ever believe anybody who says "I like it and think it's fun and it's popular!" If they can't point to anything specific, then I automatically suspect they're BSing me.

I dunno, for me it's the fact that it's a modernized look at the classic TOS era of Star Trek. I like the characters, the relationships, and the compact serialized storytelling that links both this era with the modern TNS one. Yes, it has it's flaws like the fact Burnham is too overexposed and central to the plotlines versus a more ensemble piece but I don't dislike the character. I just like the other ones just as much. I also really enjoy a lot of the episodes with "Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad" and "New Eden" being among my favorite Star Trek episodes.

Oh and Ensign Tilly is awesome.

Season One review: http://unitedfederationofcharles.blogspot.com/2019/10/star-trek-discovery-season-one-review.html

Season Two review: https://unitedfederationofcharles.blogspot.com/2019/10/star-trek-discovery-season-two-review.html

[Worffan101]

This article isn't just propaganda, it's BAD propaganda that can't even mention specifics about why the shows it praises are good.

Perhaps because "I like it and think it's fun" is enough for normal people?

WHAT do they like? WHY do they think it's fun?

I've been burned by too many shows with glowing but extremely vague reviews to ever believe anybody who says "I like it and think it's fun and it's popular!" If they can't point to anything specific, then I automatically suspect they're BSing me.

I dunno, for me it's the fact that it's a modernized look at the classic TOS era of Star Trek. I like the characters, the relationships, and the compact serialized storytelling that links both this era with the modern TNS one. Yes, it has it's flaws like the fact Burnham is too overexposed and central to the plotlines versus a more ensemble piece but I don't dislike the character. I just like the other ones just as much. I also really enjoy a lot of the episodes with "Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad" and "New Eden" being among my favorite Star Trek episodes.

Oh and Ensign Tilly is awesome.

Season One review: http://unitedfederationofcharles.blogspot.com/2019/10/star-trek-discovery-season-one-review.html

Season Two review: https://unitedfederationofcharles.blogspot.com/2019/10/star-trek-discovery-season-two-review.html

I completely disagree on every possible level. I hate the visuals, the thinly-sketched cutouts they call characters, the plot-dependent relationships, the idiotic sprawling mess of a story that hares from random plot point to random plot point, I specifically despise both episodes that you mention, I find Ensign Tilly deeply personally insulting as a person with neurological disorders, I find Burnham a toxic racist who is blatantly and offensively shilled by an incompetent narrative overseen by an illiterate hack who only got a job because he's friends with another inexplicably powerful illiterate hack (namely JJ Abrams), and most of all I despise STD's themes of racism, illiberal nationalist faux-liberal cultural imperialism, violence, tokenism, the idea that unsupervised black-ops agencies with no accountability are not inherently evil and disastrous, and ripping off better media left and right.

I think that Discovery is the worst thing to happen to Star Trek since "A Night In Sickbay". I think that STD has irrevocably poisoned the Star Trek brand for decades to come, and is being artificially supported by a desperate network seeking to milk their one well-known brand for every cent they can get while their competitors are shaking dollar bills out of the proverbial money tree left and right. Even thinking about STD, much less watching it, makes me depressed and angry. It really is intellectual and moral poison to me.