Production Begins For ‘Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’

Prodigy: Janeway, Chakotay, the Doctor, Voyager etc
Lower Decks: Literally only exists so that it can reference previous Trek every 10 seconds
Strange New Worlds: Kirk, Spock, Uhura etc
Picard: Shelby, Moriarty, Lore, Tuvok, the entire TNG crew, the Enterprise D, the Borg Queen etc etc etc

You’re blind if you think that modern Trek isn’t 100% based on nostalgia, references and legacy characters. This comment section pretty much proves the only reason people are looking forward to this show is because it has a classic character in it.

The reality is though legacy characters, when it was just TOS basically, was still part of the franchise. 

They showed up exactly three times during TNG (admittedly, not counting McCoy’s one-minute passing of the baton in “Encounter at Farpoint”): Sarek, Spock, and Scotty. (And Sarek was far from a series regular. He probably got more screen time in TNG than TOS itself.) Star Trek bingo this was not.

Sarek and Spock were also used organically and had grown considerably since their TOS days. Sarek effectively showed up with *dementia*. Spock had not been in Starfleet for decades and was perceived as a *defector*. The only appearance milked for nostalgia was Scotty’s, six seasons in, and even then, it was handled in a thoughtful and respectful way, in the context of a story about aging, not as fodder for commemorative plates (have those even existed since the 1990s, anyway?).

Some nostalgia was appropriate for PICARD, and I don’t deny that Picardo is one of Trek’s best actors, and I wouldn’t bet against him living up to that reputation here.

But it’s difficult to read his inclusion as anything other than the producers (1) becoming desperate to ensure that existing Trekkies tune in, and (2) lacking, for understandable reasons, any confidence that the latest iteration of NuTrek can stand on its own two feet. The TNG producers, by contrast, expressly said they went out of their way to avoid many TOS references until “Sarek,” exactly because they knew the series had to be its own thing.

Then there’s GENERATIONS, which resembled screenwriting-by-committee and remains mostly poorly received, flawed by Braga’s own admission, and one of the worst Trek movies. (“Thank God for Insurrection,” to paragraph what New Mexicans say about Mississippi.)

60 years old and has had millions of people watching since TOS started, nostalgia will always play a part in anything that old. It can’t be avoided.

This statement approaches an admission that the Trek franchise is in irreversible decline, a la GLORIA or 704 HAUSER.

I want a like button too

Because when Star Wars does it, it’s natural and in service to the story. The Enterprise-D showing up and kicking ass, is not.

And btw, Yoda was on screen for about 3 seconds in an entire series of new characters.

For one scene.

Not an entire series.

And obviously me as well. But it’s all great news to me. And if people need Picardo/the Doctor to get more excited about the show, fine. That’s obviously why he’s there and even better news its working.

I was very excited about SNW for example when we just knew about Pike, Spock and Una. But once I knew Uhura and Chapel were in it as well, I got even more excited (I didn’t care about M’Benga either way but really love him now). That’s how these things works. If people are angry at me because I had the gall to be excited to have Uhura and Chapel on the show, that’s not really my problem.

LOL it is funny the full circle the prequels have made in the fandom. Or even George Lucas himself. There are people out there, I know because I talked to them, that had no idea how much people hated the prequels back then.

And to be as accurate about this, the specific poster (and he’s been gone YEARS ago now and I highly doubt he even remembers me much less our conversation lol) was saying because the other spin offs like DS9, VOY and ENT didn’t reach the highs as TNG did then it was probably smart to just focus on the more popular shows. He wasn’t trying to ‘erase’ them, just making the point that these new shows (and this was when it was only Discovery at the time although Picard had been announced) should appeal to newer audiences and that they would probably never watch the older shows much so why confuse them with canon only us hardcore fans would know or care about?

So that’s a somewhat different argument. But my point then as it is now and has been proven, these shows are made for those fans who watched those spin offs first and foremost. Yes they want new fans but once Picard was announced, it made it very clear the audience was really the 90s fans. And for the record I’m not one of them lol. I’m a oldie whose been watching since the 70s so I’m not arguing it from my personal perspective at all. But I look at this stuff objectively and they are the ones carrying these modern shows today and so you want to appeal to them more because, yeah, money and viewer numbers. So the LAST thing you want to do is ignore those stories and characters they have known for 20+ years now.

And my argument back in 2019 has been proven to be more true even today. Because every show since Picard has been nothing but a nostalgia fest of the 90s shows and TOS (which most people in the 90s became big fans of too, including several of my friends who started with TNG and VOY. It wasn’t JUST about TNG, but that was the bigger focus because yeah it was actually made for that, sorry, generation).

But I also know there were definitely other fans like you mentioned who did want a ‘clean slate’ so to speak and to only focus on the Kelvin universe and characters. And I didn’t really disagree with that either if the aim was to reach new fans. I think that approach made the most sense because Star Trek is a very intimidating franchise to get into these days. It’s already the type of show that really asks you to pay attention to its stories in a way that Star Wars, DC or Marvel doesn’t. And yes, that’s part of the reason it’s always had trouble with the masses. And also yes, that’s why the Kelvin movies consisted of basically stopping an evil villain every movie with lots of explosions and action set pieces and very little else. But the TNG films had that rap as well from old fans.

So I never had any problems with the Kelvin movies or that universe being the gateway for the masses. It made sense from a marketing and viewer perspective. But like you, I never once believed you had to completely abandon the Prime universe either which is what others were in fact suggesting. But that was always a ridiculous idea because old fandom would want those characters and types of stories again. I assumed the Kelvin universe would actually expand and we get spin off movies, maybe 1-2 shows, etc as the Prime universe also got more shows and even movies again. In other words both universes would just grow and be their own separate things kind of like the DCEU and Arrowverse did.

But that wasn’t the case, the Prime universe is king again. But it has also been expanded in ways we have never seen before. I just can’t imagine the Berman era having shows like Lower Decks or shows in the 32nd century like Discovery and now SFA. I think these are all positive things regardless how people feel about them personally.

I do think in time we will get Legacy once the money and Paramount is just in a better place. But I also don’t have a problem with the 25th century comedy show. Maybe it will be bad but it’s good to see the franchise take chances.

So if you want to do something different but still want to keep those 90s fans in the loop pining for more 24th century Trek, bringing a character like the Doctor in SFA just makes perfect sense.

You mean Star Trek characters …