Category: Star Trek Musings

I recently read an interview with Bob Picardo (he played Voyager’s Doctor in Star Trek Voyager and came back for the recent Starfleet Academy) who lamented the cancellation of Starfleet Academy, saying that it’s akin to tossing the baby with the bathwater. He brings up a very valid point that most people tend to overlook; that the first season is usually rough around the edges and it takes a show a good year or two before it eventually hits its stride.

There’s truth in that statement. People who watched TNG may recall that the show didn’t get good until the third season when they upgraded the uniforms and got a firm grip on who everyone was and what everyone was all about. TOS was all over the place in its first season, undecided on what to call their space patrol agency or how far into the future it took place in. Going beyond Trek, I can recall Home Improvement’s first season being something of a work in progress before the show got good.

Here’s the thing, though; not every show survives beyond its first season. People may recall that Firefly show that got a bit of fans, but was cancelled due to low viewership. And that was a good show from the getgo. And while it’s true that the first season is often the “rough draft” of a show, it still has to attract an audience. And if that audience isn’t buying into what you’re selling, no guarantee it moves beyond season 1. Now I cannot speak to the overall quality of Starfleet Academy because I haven’t seen it and honestly, don’t care to because it’s a teen drama thing that I wasn’t a fan of when I was the target audience for that kind of show and even less so nowadays. So I’m not in a position to tell you whether that show is good or not, nor can I tell whether it would eventually get better after a season or two. But if that show didn’t attract the numbers that would make it feasible to continue, then it wouldn’t surprise me that it’s getting axed. A show like that is expensive to make. It needs to make money.

Besides, the thing about the show getting better over time doesn’t exactly ring true all of the time. Strange New Worlds started off with a solid first season and subsequently got worse over time. The fact that it gets to finish its story next year is a blessing. Starfleet Academy doesn’t even get that much and that’s a unfortunate situation, regardless of how you feel about the show… unless you’re one of those people dancing over its open grave, then you’re having a luau.

Oh well… that was my random morning brain fart.

New review tomorrow. Feeling shit.

Yes, I know it was last week… but you know the deal; these things don’t get installed until Tuesday.

Continue reading “Six More Episodes…”

Days after I praised Strange New Worlds for providing me with some “good fucking Star Trek” in the form of Orders of Magnitude, we return to the Well of BIG SWINGS with Once La’An A Time, where the Enterprise goes to Fairy Tale land and instantly regrets it. Although if we’re going to be fair here, I didn’t really mind this. TOS had Shore Leave with its Easter Bunnys, robot knights, and stuff. TNG had QPid. How many holodeck episodes on Voyager? The Wild West planet in Enterprise?

It’s a silly episode in a series of silly episodes… and I wouldn’t mind these if there were more non-silly episodes to offset the silliness… but we’re all about big swings that the cast and crew are sorry/not sorry for… and honestly, neither are the viewers who abandoned this show as a result… which explains why they’re no longer in production. Still, I can’t hate this for no other reason than La’an gets a new friend… no spoilers beyond that tidbit.

And yes, Jimmy is here again… goddamn, he must be the only first officer in Starfleet who doesn’t stay at the starship where he’s the first officer of. Is this the point where Pike just goes “fuck it” and offers Kirk the captaincy right then and there? That way, we can remove all pretense of this being a Pike show and just jumpstart this Year One thing that’s never going to be its own series.

Only one episode remains on this journey of BIG SWINGS before the wait for the final season to roll around. The name of the episode in question? Tomorrow’s Enterprise. I have yet to see the previews for this thing, but I’d imagine that Jim Kirk will be around, won’t he? He’s like the Steve Urkel of this show; sooner or later, the whole show is going to be about him.

Oh wait…

It took us a while, but Strange New Worlds finally gave us compelling Star Trek last week with its “Orders Of Magnitude” episode.

The premise? James T. Kirk – alleged first officer of the USS Farragut – is back on the Enterprise for reasons and suddenly finds himself as temporary first officer to a badmiral who assumes command on a mission to wipe out a planet while Captain Pike and a handful of crew are on a planet responding to a distress call. Kirk, however, thinks that this mission is not on the up and up because Badmiral is badmouthing his dad for reasons that go unspoiled here and he ends up teaming with brother Sam to find out the truth while also preventing the Enterprise from doing something incredibly bad.

It’s a bit of a cliche plot within classic Star Trek, but fuck that. This episode’s big swing is that it’s going to be an episode of Star Trek. Something that has been severely and painfully lacking this season with maybe one or two exceptions at most, Orders Of Magnitude felt like vintage Trek fare with a new coat of paint. Now did we need this to be another Jim Kirk story when Sam Kirk was right there? No, not when Sam was and still is severely underutilized if we’re being honest – it seems like as soon as we had Jim Kirk cast, we didn’t need Sam anymore and that’s a shame because he’s the more interesting Kirk on this show.

I’ve long since given up on any pretense that this is anything but a TOS origin story… which is partly a lie because I’m thinking this whole exercise is an attempt to sell people on that Year One concept that the showrunners of this thing really, really, REALLY want to make… but I’m not sure who would want that, especially if the numbers for THIS show are fairly weak to the point where they’re not even getting a “full” final season. The really sad thing is that when these writers aren’t playing with themselves coming up with inane concepts such as puppet shows, musical episodes, or soap opera themed shows, they can pull off some decent – not great, but decent – Star Trek storytelling.  I go back and watch some of the earlier episodes… mostly the first season and there was some potential there that this could have been a great show. This was a favorite of mine, early on… but of course, we gotta have BIG SWINGS.

Well, look what happened there, right?

I should be a bit more positive on this post because it’s a good Star Trek show on a series that desperately needed more Star Trek in it, but good Star Trek wasn’t a once in a lifetime moment; it was a regular thing during a season for twenty-plus weeks. Now we’re lucky if we get one of those every two years… eh.

And for the record, no, I still have not watched Academy. Teen drama is not something I’m willing to put up with for the sake of “some” good Star Trek. This franchise has been around for sixty years. I’m not lowering standards of what makes for good, compelling television just because everyone else has.

Only two more episodes of this show before we can all it a season. I’m pretty sure there will be thoughts at the end of it all and then I can cancel my P+ sub. For the best, I suppose.

And for those Trekkies clamoring for a Star Trek: Legacy, our ol’ buddy and former Xbox head Don Mattrick has some sage advice for you folks.

“Buy an Xbox 360.”

Star Trek: Legacy was also available for Windows, but I can’t find that one… and I’m not sure if it’ll still work today given that it uses Games For Windows DRM that is never good.

In the meantime, go watch some old Trek to celebrate… and try to avoid tonight’s BIG SWING!