How to Save Star Trek: Break The Mold...
- Eric "Renderking" Fisk -
I've written
about this over and over again... I'm thought maybe I should have a
HTML file somewhere on The Fedora Chronicles server and just copy and
paste the link to what I've written and just paste the link and save
space on the Forum servers...
Whether it's a movie or another series, it's guaranteed to fall if
they're unable to capture the sense and wonder of space exploration and
adventure. Too often Star Trek has been a political soap opera with a
metaphorical message, and in the end there's a huge conflict with The
Enterprise against some other menacing star ship.
They need to be able to capture the vastness and the void of
interstellar space while at the same time highlight how unique and
special each inhabited world is...
With the Drake Equation... there may be hundreds of other inhabited
worlds out there, but with the billions of stars out there, only one in
a few million would have life. In the Star Trek universe, the galaxy
seems over-populated and stuffy. Again, no sense of vastness, no sense
of void, no sense of uniqueness in the other inhabited worlds... every
other world feels like an alien interpretation of Southern California.
Also, there's no controversy... the studio is so worried about doing
controversial subjects, not thought provoking questing and exploring
the possible answers because they're afraid of offending anyone one.
The few times that they have tackled huge issues such as "Is there a
God," the episode or movie turns into this lame middle of the road
stance and poorly done such as "ST-V: The Final Frontier."
Fact is, a controversial Star Trek film or series might actually do
very well with general audiences but would fail with the "hard core"
fans. Heck, I can't even ask a thought provoking "what if" question in
a forum with out people telling me to stop.
Paramount is in a "Catch," to revive the franchise, they have to break
it and blaze new territory. Fans want things to stay the way they are
while at the same time do something extraordinary. Leave the Star Trek
Universe "just the way it is..." but dam'n you - Do something
incredible. You can't have it both ways... To make breakfast you either
have to break some eggs or open the cereal box and take something out
of it. You can't just let everything be.
-Gimmicks-
Another problem with Star Trek is that the Studio and Executive
Producers think a gimmick is the cure for a failing show. Voyager
ratings are failing, lets get a female Borg in here with big tits in a
tight out-fit that's not Star Fleet Standard issue with extra long hair
and "Babewatch" the show... to make up for the fact that we have a
humorless female captain who lacks sensuality. (Not Kate Mulgrew's
fault... she was playing the character as it was written.)
Deep Space Nine's fault is that they had a Space Station which was
supposed to be a Star Ship in Reverse, The Galaxy came to them instead.
Show wasn't working so they threw in the gimmick of a kick-ass battle
wagon and brought back one of the TNG characters... Gimmicks don't save
the show, they signal to the audience that they don't have any new
ideas.
"Star Trek: Star Fleet Academy": Gimmick
"Star Trek: The Wrath of Hoshi" - Obvious Gimmick
"Star Trek: Semper Fi" - Gimmick
"Star Trek: Excelsior" - Classic Trek Gimmick.
Where's the story? Just Transplanting the show to another point in time
doesn't do anything, throwing another crew together with another angle
doesn't make the show better... it's fluff. What's the story? Why are
they doing what they're doing and where are they going? What's the ark
of the show?
It's going to take real genuine work to fix the franchise. It's the
kind of hard work that most people don't want to do. If the folks at
Paramount were smart, they would take what they've learned and start a
new Science Fiction franchise. Take Science Fiction Franchise back to
it's roots, back to "The Cage" and "Where No Man Has Gone Before..."
The nitty Gritty hard-core "Space - The Final Frontier..."
