Star Trek Releases New DS9 and Voyager Stories in the Worst Way Possible
By Chris Snellgrove | Published
Remember that old short story, “Monkey's Paws”? It's a horror tale with a classic twist: after a family receives the titular monkey mitten, they realize they can make wishes with it. Those wishes come true, but in even worse possible way. Like, if you ask for money, you will get it, but only when your child dies, and you get their life insurance. In any case, I had this story firmly in mind as I read about the latest Star Trek project, which is guaranteed to piss off every hater. Starfleet Academy.
Fans are getting the new Star Trek series we've been begging for, but not on Paramount+. Instead, they are online comics that will debut on WEBTOON, a platform for static comics. One of these comedies The starsa life story about a young man who leaves school aboard Deep Space Nine. One of the jokes is A remindera mature adult mystery about an amnesiac woman who awakens in a mysterious star. The most interesting thing about these comics is that they give a very official look at life after the Civil War. Unfortunately, this move is one that is guaranteed to annoy older fans while failing to bring younger fans into the fold.
Star Trek Goes… Straight?
If you grew up watching Star Trek: The Next Generation or even The Original SeriesYou probably have a simple question right now: what the heck's a webtoon? Webtoons themselves are straight comics designed to be read on your phone rather than a tablet or desktop monitor. Although often referred to as “episodes,” most webtoons are designed as static, moving panels rather than animated comics or other forms of animation. After all, WEBTOON is the name of the popular web platform that Paramount will use to launch it. The stars again A reminder.
As you can imagine, webtoons are generally aimed at a younger audience, and that's exactly what Paramount is aiming for with these new comics. The stars mostly coded for teenagers as it focuses on a young man (Leon) and his faithful canine companion as he tries to make friends and find love with a peer group that includes a Bajoran and a Changeling. It's designed as a Boy Romance comic, which means you can expect plenty of same-sex romance and casual dating passes with Leon and the boy of his dreams.
Star Trek Forgets All About It
By comparison, A reminder is a coming-of-age fantasy about an amnesiac woman who wakes up on a strange Federation ship with six other people and a holopilot who seems to be lying to her. Eventually, he meets a Vulcan who seems to know who he is, and this psychic alien gives our hero a device that allows him to see pieces of his past life. When it ends, he will need to solve old and new puzzles to fully unravel the mystery that his life has become.
On paper, these webtoons have a few things going for them. Paramount is throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks, and dropping new Star Trek stories on a hugely popular webtoon platform may benefit a relatively small audience. Starfleet Academy he couldn't. Also, canonizing these stories is a devilish way to get an older audience to read them. Obviously we won't get a Star Trek: Legacy series, like that The stars again A reminder it turned out to be the only real way to find out more about what happened in the 25th century after the end of the Power War and after Voyager returned home.
Can Star Trek Fans Live With It?
However, my inner cynic can't help but think that these webtoons will come from very young fans. Star Trek has had three animated series (gout if you count those horrible YouTube shorts), but none of them managed to win over a young fan base. Currently, Starfleet Academy it was designed from the ground up as a love-driven teen drama in space, but it didn't find the young audience it desperately wanted. If the cartoons are clever, they are not brightly colored again a glossy show full of hot characters wasn't enough to recruit young fans, I don't think a cheap webcomic with mobile game art design is really going to move the needle.
At least, while Starfleet Academy was hidden behind a streaming subscription, fans of all ages can check out these web comics for free. Stargazers: A Star Trek Story will release its first three episodes on the WEBTOON app for free on May 17. Meanwhile, Memoir: A Star Trek Story will be launched at the same location later this year. With no new Star Trek shows in production, this might be the closest we'll get to a new series in a good, long time, but maybe that's for the best.
After all, we old fans have spent decades looking for new stories to explore what happened after that Deep Space Nine again Voyager. If these jokes bomb, we might all learn a big lesson from “The Monkey's Paw”: be careful what you wish for!
