Honestly, with them pushing shows that most fans keep disliking over shows that are widely loved, I think they’d rather sink than ever let that guy go.
They kinda did the same back then with Bearman.
Comment on "Section 31" early review round-up
tymon@lemm.ee 1 week ago
rogerebert.com/…/star-trek-section-31-movie-revie…
I’m finding God for a moment today to pray that this debacle finally and utterly strips Alex Kurtzman of whatever warlock-ass pact-magic power he must have ensorcelled around him
Star Trek either needs to go to Ron Moore and Jane Espensen, or it needs to go back into storage for a decade.
It can be so, so, so much better than all of this!
AlexisFR@jlai.lu 6 days ago
ValueSubtracted@startrek.website 1 week ago
I haven’t liked everything to some out of this era, but on balance I think Kurtzman has done a very good job with the franchise. One streaming movie that’s a bit of a dud (assuming I don’t like it when I actually see it) isn’t likely to change my opinion on that.
tymon@lemm.ee 1 week ago
I’m glad you’ve been able to enjoy it! For me, I feel like the franchise on the whole has fundamentally lost its way; Strange New Worlds, Lower Decks, and Prodigy have many virtues, but even when at their best, they’re still tacking against the wind.
ValueSubtracted@startrek.website 1 week ago
It’s interesting - I guess in my mind, the stuff SNW is doing is about as close to “traditional” Star Trek as it’s possible to get in the current landscape. What do you feel is missing?
tymon@lemm.ee 1 week ago
It’s a little tough to explain without sounding glib, but the gist is that the purpose of Star Trek, when functioning properly, is to not just be optimistic, but aspirational; it’s to show us a vision of a future in which we’ve surmounted the problems that face us today.
TNG has so far been the keenest example of this, moreso than TOS or any of the Treks that followed. DS9 may be my favorite Trek, but it’s also responsible for setting a precedent of darkness in the property that I don’t think subsequent showrunners have been capable of fully wielding, or even of fully understanding.
A major part of this, for me, is the nu-Trek focus on “optimism” over “aspiration.” Yeah, it might sound like arguing semantics at first, but I really don’t think it is. Regardless of the dictionary definition of those two words, we use them in specific ways in modern parlance.
I feel like most people understand optimism as a positive attitude, a glass-half-full outlook, or even just a sunny disposition. At best, it’s understood as personal traits adhering to a broadness of vision, generosity, and kindness. Yeah, these are good and virtuous characteristics; but they’re not really the same as something being aspirational.
A future we aspire to is a very different thing than a future containing positive people. There are positive, optimistic people all over the place in today’s world, and yet… just look around. We kind of live in hell!
I guess what I’m saying is that optimism is mostly an emotion, whereas aspiration is a goal.
Star Trek, when functioning as it should, is aspirational because it shows us what humanity and society could be like once we surmount the problems facing us today.
So I guess that this, for me, is the principal failing of Abrams and Kurtzman-era Trek; in this future, humanity still succumbs to the pains and pitfalls of present-day life in a way that suggests we won’t grow out of them. Sure, they contain positive, optimistic, kind, gentle, generous people, but society as a whole has simply iteratively progressed instead of having wholly transformed.
There are so many little specific cumulative examples I can give of this, but I know once I start listing them, I’ll forget to list ten more that are better. Maybe I’ll make that list someday when I have some time to kill; but for now, the biggest offender is the handling of Section 31 as an organization, and the subsequent reality of the movie.
Long answer woops!!
reddig33@lemmy.world 1 week ago
I’m still pissed they killed off Hemmer. And I refuse to watch the dancing/singing episode. 🙄
SNW is successful in spite of itself.
BowtiesAreCool@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Me personally, I’m so fucking sick of the same characters being portrayed for the last 60+ years