Written by Chris Snellgrove | issued
Star Trek fans have always enjoyed the series’ technologically-enabled socialist utopia, so the series’ cancellation comes as no surprise. lower deck We’ve exposed capitalism’s biggest lie: If you build it, they will come. In other words, we spend our lives being taught that the only way to succeed is to use your talent and do a great job. For this Star Trek fan, lower deck was a nearly perfect show, but its cancellation revealed two bitter truths. It’s that greatness doesn’t equal profit, and that modern trekkers simply have no idea what they want.
Do fans want Star Trek: Lower Decks?
Paramount is understandably loath to discuss the numbers that motivated it to prematurely cancel Star Trek programming. discovery and lower deckboth unexpectedly had to make the fifth season their final season. Main assumptions about lower deck Despite being much cheaper to produce than shows like strange new worldwhich didn’t get enough viewers and didn’t bring in enough new subscribers to Paramount+. Paramount’s poor response to the NuTrek field is partially to blame, but I can’t help but wonder if my fellow fans don’t understand what they really want from this series. I can’t stay.
Star Trek characters like Michael Burnham love fairy tales like: alice in wonderlandSo I think it’s worth watching lower deck As for another children’s fable, goldilocks and the three bears. meanwhile discovery Although it did well, it initially turned off new fans because it focused too much on old lore and disrupted existing canon, from the Klingons to Spock’s tangled family tree. Simply put, as soon as possible discovery I was concentrating too much and stumbled familiar Characters and events rather than trying new things.
In comparison, Picard I had the opposite problem. Patrick Stewart himself reportedly wanted the show to avoid too many connections. next generationwhich is just one reason why the first two seasons were such a mess. For the first time after the failure of earlier seasons, Paramount and Stewart gave fans what they wanted, turning season 3 into a TNG reunion. But before that murderous final season, Picard‘s biggest mistake was keeping trying to do something perfectly. new Rather than focusing on what made that title character great in the first place.
The next major Star Trek series is lower deckand managed to find the Goldilocks balance that fans had been craving. Every season has been filled with hilarious callbacks to beloved characters, from Q to Harry Kim, and the show has always had great Easter eggs that older fans will appreciate (like the unnamed Spock 2 giant I almost spit out my drink when I saw that skeleton.) anime series character). At the same time, the show introduced surprising new characters like Boimler and Mariner, proving that… lower decklike Goldilocks’ favorite bed, was “just right” in that it allowed her to focus on the old and the new at the same time.
so many possibilities
Another thing this show did “just right” was that it found the sweet spot between delivering silly comedy and creating a murderous canon. each episode of lower deck While it also provided some light-hearted laughs, the show wasn’t afraid to make big changes to the canon (I especially liked the return of Nick Locarno). And the series finale ended with Starfleet having a stable wormhole into the multiverse. This is more or less an open invitation for any future Trek writer to absolutely want to go. wild It has all the potential for a fascinating story.
As a Star Trek fan who fell in love with the series during TNG’s first run, the word I associate most with it is “potential.” lower deck. The show lived up to its full potential and even lived up to its full potential, combining side-splitting comedy with an exciting story that pushed the limits of this series. Honestly, if Star Trek is about infinite variety in infinite combinations; lower deck Being the only NuTrek show, it deserves a permanent place on Stobokor (sorry, strange new world) to fully embrace this Vulcan ideal.
Unfortunately, the show’s premature cancellation suggests that fans either don’t understand the best that NuTrek has to offer, or worse, have no idea what they really want from this venerable series. means. It’s understandable to get excited about Star Wars not giving fans what they want, but the general assumption is that Disney executives (for whatever reason) are pushing back on their own brand, which is optimized for action figures. It ignores proven fan-favorite formulas in favor of cramming content. our throats.
But Star Trek is currently in a far worse position: a world where no one knows what they want from the series and fans have rejected it. lower deck It’s something the franchise is doomed to slowly die. With any luck, Paramount will bring back Mike McMahan’s pioneering show in some form to get our favorite sci-fi universe back on track. Otherwise, the words “Star Trek Into Darkness” wouldn’t just be used to describe the worst movie in the series. It will also accurately depict how the world of Gene Roddenberry will perish at the hands of careless executives who can’t stop the fandom from failing.
