Way to Insult Your Fanbase, Discovery
It’s little secret I’m not a fan of the new Star Trek movies, or their new series, Discovery (2017 – ) , and Picard (2019 – ). They’re dumb bland action that mimic the Star Wars aesthetic while abandoning everything that’s made the genuine Star Trek franchise majestic. Majestic? you might think dubiously. Yes. Because think about it: how many science fiction series and/or movies offer a positive interpretation of the future? The Terminator features machines becoming sentient and trying to wipe out human life. Alien boasts a cold, corporate future, and then a bunch of xenomorphs that wipe out humans for fun. The Matrix tells us the Earth was eviscerated…
A Look Back: Star Trek – The Motion Picture
Before looking back at Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), I have to go back even further for context. The original pilot for Star Trek: The Original Series (1966 – 69), “The Cage” didn’t sell because it was considered too cerebral. Out went Captain Christopher Pike (Jeffrey Hunter) as the commanding officer of the USS Enterprise 1701, and in came Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) for the new pilot as the series became a little more action-oriented. The struggles of The Original Series – including the letter-writing campaign that resurrected it after it had been axed following season two – have been well documented. But it lasted only one…