Starfleet Academy adds to franchise’s ongoing decline
I’m a lifelong Star Trek fan. I remember my dad watching it when I was growing up, and I’m just old enough to have either dim memories of him watching the original airings or catching early syndication. At any rate, I’ve been watching since the early series first put Gene Roddenberry’s secular science fiction vision on the small screen in several incarnations, and later in various cinematic versions.
But while I’m a fan of the franchise I also recognize that it is of varying quality, and in my view it has been in decline for many years. Beyond some of the films with the original series cast being hit or miss, I’ve gone on record previously critiquing the Star Trek 2.0 film reboot as an abandonment of elements of the franchise’s mythos that were important not only in terms of narrative, but also as an important facet embraced by the fan base. This seems to be the case, on steroids, with the new Starfleet Academy series, if the critical reviews are accurate. I’ve shared a video of one review above as an example, but there are others. I recognize that pop culture entertainment needs to be updated for its contemporary social context, but if the culture wars and political commitments are incorporated in so a way that they are accounted for at the expense of its credibility and narrative canon, that’s a problem. As a result, Star Trek will be seen as quickly moving from science fiction icon to unintentional comedy.
What do you think?
