https://youtu.be/Awn_qRWFFsI?si=9WtdqlvS99S8C1fo

Wait you’re telling me 60’s folk sensations Leo “Coolster”Nimoy and William “Big Guitar” Shatner were known for more than just their rocking tunes? I had no idea.

Show me a simpler time when pah wraithes and prophets ruled in the open, where an emissary rose up to overcome both with encantation and sacrifice.

TNG and ENT continuations would be epic on screen, audio drama might even find its niche.

I agree that SNW has to “jump the menagerie shark” at some point but if I’m being blatantly honest that seems like it would run the risk of dead ending any new directions — the payoff is going to be what exactly? ST09 v2 in 10 episode chunks once every three years? Better they made the Captain Worf show.

What IPs (film media, games, comics, books) would you consider high-nerd-density in 2025?

TOS came out in a near monolithic culture (four OTA stations—i.e. just the major networks) vs today where media is data-tailored to an individual’s niche preferences—making it ever harder to reach wide audience.

The chances that any new IP transcends a niche and becomes part of the greater cultural conversation are slimming… thus we’ve wound up with the “risk-adverse recostuming of classic Trek for the fandom era.” Paramount has a fiduciary obligation to shareholders.

New, new (which, to be fair, Discovery basically was closest to) is way risker than “giving the fans what they already love.”

It’s not unique to ST obviously — as audience bucks become scarcer there’s the constant draw towards popular media that is remake, reboot or based on previously published material.

How the TNG-era shows were both commercially successful and offer a meaningful exploration of social themes is sorta anomalous imo.

Icecoast > mudcoast.

Get it while the snow is shining!

The most authentic joy! So sweet it’s almost corny!

Also the BoBW Borg are kinda peak. The monolithic, alieness loses its grip with the introduction of Hugh, and to me there was more that could have been explored without all the movements towards “humanizing” them. Their mute, dronelike introduction is easily the most terrifying and awesome incarnation. But I agree that they should be shelved and new antagonist should be explored.

For me I think that the end of “Wrath of Khan” and subsequently “The Search for Spock” elevate Trek’s messaging in a way we haven’t seen before or after.

In WoK Spock’s sacrifice (needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one) emboldens the viewer to see the world through the eyes of profund courage. It’s the best Trek we ever got.

Whereas in TSfS the writers revel in the inverse. Kirk “cannot” ask the crew to join him (and McCoy) but they are each without hesitation willing to sacrifice their safety, careers, and freedom to reunite Spock’s soul to his body—a friend more than worth the trouble. The connection is so real and inimitable that the Kelvinverse retelling in Into Darkness feels stakeless and cheap.

I think that Trek can continue to convey these meaningful moments but it needs to come from new perspectives. The Borg were the perfect villains for their time. The WoK/TSfS arc makes so much sense in the context of a crew that had years of airtime to age together and mature before the audience.

Marketers love reboots because it gives them a built-in audience but it also puts a ceiling on the messaging. It smacks of cash-grab and leaves writers with a set of constraints that urge them away from good risk-taking and into the direction of stale expectations. I think there should be room for popcorn and purpose but lately the franchise seems mostly modeled after cartoons.

These are rad! I could see the kids that had these back in the day really getting a kick out of seeing their favorite show projected onto walls and ceilings. There are read-a-long records from the 70s that are also kinda fun artifacts from early Trek.

I think the ST:SFA show runners compared the dialogue to Buffy—not necessarily that SMG (or Whedon) were attached to the show.

Classically trained

The works of H. G. Wells are all out of copyright, so free redistribution is legal in most places. That’s why I chose the example.

Why pay for an eBook edition of H. G. Wells when you can read it online for free?

Latinum and dilithium crystals can’t be replicated.

I could see this reasoning.

Infinite diversity in infinite combinations — the Federation is about fostering peace without an expansionists agenda.

Sleek as they come. Now you need to design the next indie-cade classic and sell it to the (niche) masses.

This is not a generous reading but it does lend a plausibility to Rodenberry’s over-the-top utopianism. A pretty good in-universe answer.

There’s real practical reasons to withhold dangerous technologies.

The less believable episodes are where the crew is totally in disguise as a primitive society while at the same time working the tricorders and phasers in broad daylight to try and solve the mystery of Landrau.

Honestly that’s a great episode.

The Q Continum is god-like compared to the Federation, they interfere in the Borg conflict and nothing profoundly negative comes out of those interactions.

They even offer up their advanced technology when you consider that they try to adopt Riker into the continuum at one point.

Great design and execution. Hope you enjoy it.