By Chris Snellgrove | Published
After years of trying to get this project off the ground, Paramount has finally confirmed that we will be getting a new Star Trek movie. The fandom is generally divided over this announcement. Some are excited that we will finally get Trek on the big screen again, and the fact that it will be written by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley (a duo that has written excellent. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves) is just icing on the cake. Some aren't exactly happy that we're saying goodbye to Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, and the rest of the Kelvinverse cast in favor of a new sequel.
That new continuity is actually what worries me the most about this upcoming film. It's surprising that Star Trek is getting its third, brand new timeline, which is going to make things weird for the general audience. But so far, Paramount has not commented on how this new movie will affect future Trek TV shows. As a lifelong fan of the franchise, I have some friendly advice for Paramount: unless the TV shows keep the continuity that started with Star Trek: The Original Seriesthis franchise is over.
Set your Phaser to “restart”
The franchise was first rebooted by JJ Abrams' Star Trek in 2009. At the time, Paramount worried that Star Trek's decades of tangled lore would be too much for the average moviegoer to keep up with. The solution was a time travel plot that ended up rebooting the universe, and this led to something of a creative compromise. The Trek films will take place in a new timeline known as the Kelvinverse. Meanwhile, future shows (incl Adoption, Strange New Worldsagain Picard) will take place in the same timeline as similar shows The Original Series, The Next Generationagain Voyager.
Now, ironically, Paramount finds itself in the exact same situation. Those Kelvinverse movies did a good job of reviving the franchise, but it was the better part of the two. decades since the first one came out. Fearing that audiences might have trouble keeping up with the lore of this new sequel, the powers that be have decided to reboot the franchise once again. While there is no firm release date or story details, we do know that the upcoming movie will be set in a different continuity from both the TV shows and the Kelvinverse films.
Sickening the Audience
What is not clear is what the future of Star Trek television looks like. By the numbers, NuTrek has failed: every single show except this one Picard (which was planned as a three-season show) ended up being canceled early. In addition, Starfleet AcademyThe streaming numbers were so poor (one unconfirmed report said it was only around 40,000 per episode) that the show was eventually canceled after one season. This, combined with Paramount's upcoming acquisition of Warner Bros., may tempt management to ditch everything that came before and plan future shows in the same way as the upcoming movie.
Despite NuTrek's many failings, this could be a huge mistake. If he is there one The thing that Star Trek fans are most passionate about is the continuation of the franchise. Old calculators get it endlessly it's interesting to see how the new episodes come back to others. For example, I mean Starfleet AcademyThe biggest haters really enjoyed the show's billing Deep Space NineCaptain Sisko. Likewise, AdoptionHarsh critics have generally been pleased that the entire final season was a follow-up to the plot Star Trek: The Next Generation Episode. Obviously, if the new iteration of Star Trek is to retain an army of older fans, it must continue to build on the continuity that began back in 1966 with. Star Trek: The Original Series. Done right, this would give Paramount the best of both worlds: new timeline movies to engage new fans and old timeline shows to retain old fans.
It's messed up, though, and the studio may abandon the franchise. What if audiences reject the latest movie, only after Paramount has planned several TV series around it? Keeping the timelines separate for movies and shows allows viewers to hedge their bets rather than going all in on one continuity. Also, an olive branch to legacy fans who form the core of fandom. Keep those fans happy, and you keep the franchise alive. Fire those fans, though, and it'll die a lot faster than that Starfleet Academy.
