Category: Star Trek Musings

On The 31st Day… I Did Not Watch Section 31, But I Did Watch Golden Axe.

It is the 31st of October in the year of our lord 2026… and it’s the time-honoured tradition of my declaration of not having watched the Section 31 streaming motion picture starring Academy Award winner Michelle Yeoh.

And the tradition continues.

And really, on a week that saw the Star Trek family lose two of its esteemed members (Walter Koenig earlier this week and this past Thursday with the news of Sir Patrick Stewart’s passing – tribute eventually forthcoming), a little levity is what is needed here.

Just so we’re clear, I do have a banner ready and uploaded in the event that I do end up watching this thing… but I haven’t yet… despite the fact that I’ve had a month’s subscription to the Paramount+ service. I just ended up watching Strange New Worlds, old Star Trek, and that Golden Axe show that I didn’t know I wanted… and the reason that I didn’t know I wanted this is because I DIDN’T want this. I never really asked for it. Never really thought about it.

But now that I’ve seen it… I don’t particularly care for it. It’s got that early Lower Decks stench that initially turned me off on that series, but only got better when the characters became marginally more likeable and not completely one-note. I don’t know how you do a Golden Axe cartoon… honestly, I don’t know WHY you’d do a Golden Axe cartoon… but doing the cheap flash animation with meta jokes abound is probably not how I’d figure such a thing would go. I’m not expecting anything along the same caliber of Netflix’s Castlevania show, but this is far beneath that bar.

Seriously, I thought that BIG SWINGS was the other guy’s schtick.

Oh well… that was my brief blurb on Golden Axe’s cartoon debut, which I’ve included here in an effort to make this recurring Not Watching Section 31 bit more meaningful. Did it work? Probably not… but it’s the thought that counts… somewhat.

The Rock’s Egg And Russo’s Raw Deal

Famed author Timothy Zahn – best known for his critically acclaimed Thrawn trilogy of Star Wars books – will be writing a Star Trek comic called Roc’s Egg… which presumably has nothing to do with that egg that appeared on some WWE PLE to promote one of Dwayne’s movies… but is based on the Roc mythology of olden days.

Honestly, the fact that I can recall a really stupid backstage bit from an old, forgettable WWE PLE event is a testament to how much longevity the truly crappy angles in wrestling endure… which is why people try to chase that egg, as it were. At this point, you might as well let your AI programs book your shows because chances are they can do better than the old heads in charge of creative.

Which leads us to the Vince Russo/Nick Khan rumor talks… which apparently didn’t amount to much if you believe the rumor mills. (And even Russo himself has declared that there was nothing to talk about on that front… and you know that he’s going to tell you the GAWD’S. (slams desk) HONEST. (slams desk) TRUTH (slams desk). I’d add a “bro” in there, but that’s kinda pushing it.

So here’s the honest truth, bro… ah, there we are… and I can say this because it’s been months since I last touched a Netflix subscription and I can safely say that I have been more than content to leave that piece of business behind, what with all the price hikes for the little use I have for the service. WWE programming is almost entirely behind a paywall at this point – being an international customer not based in the United States, which has to be a nightmare to keep track of all those services. And when I read recaps for these shows or see the few clips online, it almost justifies my decision to moving away from this product. And if there is a show that is absolutely, positively worth watching, I have a friend who records these shows on DVD-R that I can ask to loan a copy for the purposes of musings on this here blog.

That, sadly, has been the extent of my wrestling viewing habits in 2026… aside from the Bound For Glory viewings and occasional Youtube clips.

So the possibility of Vince Russo – who had recently completed a year-long stint as creative head of the Juggalo promotion – rejoining WWE, however slim it may be, regardless of whether there is truth or not, has some people talking. Would it be an improvement over what they’ve currently got? I honestly don’t know. It depends on how much influence or involvement Russo would have. And considering how stale the product has been as of late, I don’t see why not. At some point, you have to come to the conclusion that what you’re doing is getting the job done and maybe bringing in a disruptor to shake things up considerable might be what WWE needs to freshen things up.

In 1997, Vince Russo was that disruptor. He broke away from the stale, cartoonish presentation that plagued the New Generation WWF and helped to plant the seeds for what would eventually become the Attitude Era.

In 2026, however? Not so much.

Here’s the reality; Vince Russo is 65 years old… and for those who are detail freaks, he is also a few months older than Jim Cornette, so Jimmy has a fair edge in outlasting Russo and achieving his one goal to piss on the man’s grave when that day comes. But the point being that Vince Russo is 65 years old. The last thing WWE needs right now is another old fart in creative trying to appeal to the young demo. Russo’s glory years were 30 years ago. He hadn’t achieved that same level of success since then and no, TNA hitting 2 million at its peak isn’t the same level; hell, it’s barely scratching WCW’s lowest numbers, which had about 2 to 2.5 million people watching at worst.

But the other key thing is that I don’t think Russo would last in this environment. Russo works best when he has someone who can take his ideas and tweak them to fit the overall picture. He needs someone who cares enough to put on the best product possible. That’s what he got in WWF and that’s presumably what he got in JCW during his year-long stint there. Russo’s stint in WCW had him in a corporate structure who wanted him to fix things, but really didn’t give enough of a fuck to give him parameters… and so where’s WCW now? And as far as TNA is concerned, he had several years of gainful employment and that’s about the best thing you can say about his run there.

I am not stating these things to knock Russo. Yeah, he’s had some pretty stupid ideas, but guess what? He wasn’t the only one and some of the stuff that he had a hand in bringing to fruition was what got me into this wrestling thing. But the other thing you have to take into account is that WWE tried to bring back Russo in 2002 and he lasted a couple days when he saw that he wouldn’t fit in the new creative structure led by Stephanie McMahon… and let me just say that the world was far worse off as a result, but that’s another story.

Cut to twenty-four years later. Would a much older Vince Russo last in a corporate structure that is overseen by TKO, who would insist on including certain things here and there? I’m sure things would go swimmingly for the short term… or maybe things would fall off the wayside and he’d be gone. Again, Russo left JCW, citing old age as a culprit. Does he want to go through that whole rigmarole with a structure where he is just another cog in a much larger, high maintenance machine? I don’t know. I just don’t see it happening.

All that having been said, would Russo’s return to WWE incite some folks to give it a shot?

Maybe…

Would I re-up to Netflix if it happened?

Nope.

Haven’t had a reason to do so up to this point. This won’t change that.

Anyway, back to Arcade’s Revenge.

I’m sick and tired of this game.

Later.

Pavel (Anton & Walter)

In 2016, actor Anton Yelchin – perhaps better known round these parts as the young actor who had portrayed Pavel Chekov in the Star Trek reboot movies (a.k.a. the Kelvin Timeline movies) lost his life in a freak car accident at the tender age of 27. It was a senseless end to what could have been a promising career for the young man.

Ten years later, Walter Koenig – best known for playing Pavel Chekov in the original Star Trek series and movies as well as Bester in Babylon 5 – would pass away a couple days ago at the ripe age of 90, thankfully to natural causes and nothing malicious. It marks the end of a long life of a man who played a bit role, but made the most of what he was given and parlayed that into a career of acting, writing, and all-around fan interacting that made him such a beloved individual. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends.

This is not to make light of anything, but I just find the timing to be eerily coincidental that we would lose one Chekov in 2016 and another in 2026. It’s one of those passive observations that just dawns on you when you’re reading the news of Walter’s passing and you go “Oh, wait. Anton died ten years ago.”

That’s a scary thought.

From what I recall, Anton’s parents sued the car manufacturers and eventually settled out of court, so they presumably got something out of it… but it didn’t get back their boy. And so you have this weird thing where the original Chekov would outlive his successor to the role, only to pass away (naturally) ten years later. I’m not sure whether I should call this a coincidence or some sick cosmic joke at play.

I may watch some vintage Trek later tonight. I’ll pull the DVDs out later.

Bathwater

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.

Dodged A Bullet

Source: https://bleedingcool.com/tv/rtd-moffat-tried-to-make-doctor-who-star-trek-crossover-a-reality/

So word broke that there were plans for a Doctor Who/Strange New Worlds crossover to happen… and then there weren’t. And I’m reading this thinking that maybe we dodged a bullet here.

Star Trek and Doctor Who did have a crossover event in the past in comic book form, back when both franchises were in better shape for the most part and back when the material was treated with a little more care and circumstance than it is these days. Strange New Worlds did have one character who made references to a certain Doctor one time or another and you’d even spot a certain Blue Police Box once or twice if you were eagle-eyed enough.

Under the right circumstances, such a crossover could have potential. But given that Doctor Who has its terrible run as of late and Strange New Worlds is more concerned about BIG SWINGS than any cohesive storytelling, rewarding poor products with a crossover of this magnitude might have appeased someone out there, but it would have been a mess of things.

Maybe someday, we’ll get that crossover when both franchises are in better shape. I’m not ruling out the possibility. I’m just ruling out the possibility of THESE versions getting the crossover.

“Get better writers and we’ll talk” is all I want to hear.

And Down The Drain We Go…

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…

Finally… Some Good Fucking Star Trek

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.

Star Trek Turns 60 Today… anyway.

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!