Comment on Alex Kurtzman On Starting Discussions With Paramount Skydance Over The Future Of Star Trek TV
ShaunKL@startrek.website 1 day agoIt’s okay to take a break. Come back if you feel the itch.
I took a big Star Trek break after PIC S1 and came back to the franchise appreciating more than ever before.
Paranoidfactoid@lemmy.world 1 day ago
OMG: Picard. I forgot about that show. I didn’t finish that one either.
I’ve liked Andor, Pluribus, and Severence. I honestly think the problem with Trek is Paramount execs. Kurtzman is just a symptom. He’s the figurehead to implement a policy of content by focus group. Never mind not knowing old trek or claims of pushing politics, the writers couldn’t write good material even if they wanted to because execs don’t care about that. They only want their target demographic.
usernamefactory@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
Well, I have a much rosier view of new Trek than yours, but I feel the need to thank you for listing some genuinely good modern sci-fi as alternatives. So often in these discussions I just see “they should do what The Orville did,” like a TNG Xerox is an interesting or even viable way to propagate the franchise.
Pluribus in particular did a great job interrogating a threat essentially shared with a classic Trek villain from a refreshingly new perspective. Good recommendation.
Paranoidfactoid@lemmy.world 1 day ago
For older stuff, I still think Farscape and the 2000s BSG remake still hold up too. I especially like the unreliable narrator thread in Farscape when Chriton had the brain implant. That was peak paranoia. Good stuff. The Expanse was good too.
I don’t think producers like JJ and Kurtzman are idiots. I think they have jobs. They know what their distributors want and give it to them. This is why they remain employed. They’re trusted by the money men. This, in contrast to actual geniuses like Terry Gilliam, David Lynch, John Carpenter, etc, who just want to make their visions come hell or high water.
For all I know, from a business standpoint Paramount execs might well be right. That is, chasing the youth market and hoping for a splash is the demo advertisers want. It’s their property, so good luck to them I guess.
I have a lot of respect for all the artists involved. The set and costume designers, vfx artists, grips and cinematography guys. They put a lot of work in and it visually shows. I hope they all get a good payday.
angrystego@lemmy.world 1 day ago
How about Lower Decks? I found them very satisfying.
Paranoidfactoid@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I’ve never even made it through a single episode of LD. Just not my bag of tea.
I grew up to reruns of TOS. Watched TNG as it aired. Saw bits of DS9 and Voyager as it aired. And genuinely liked and watched Enterprise as it aired (one of a few).
I did not like JJ’s NuTrek nor the post NuTrek TV shows. I really wanted to like Discovery, because I wanted serial Trek. I think episodic television is boring. But it didn’t work for me. Too many plot holes, tone swings, and internal contradictions. Never mind not respecting Trek cannon, it didn’t even respect its own plot setups.
Like NuTrek, it eschews coherence for flashy action in the moment. It’s like Luc Besson’s Du Look French film movement from the late 80s. All style, no substance.