Dr.Snufflebug Wed Jan 04, 2023 7:38 pm
Not a movie, but I must say I was pleasantly surprised by the "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" series (10 episodes) that aired this summer.
Always been a sci-fi buff, and while I prefer hardcore sci-fi, the lighthearted style of Star Trek (TOS, TNG, VOY, DS9... I guess ENT works too) is very entertaining to me. Much like how I loved the oftentimes even sillier Stargate series (SG-1, Atlantis)... That's before the Stargate people tried to make a serious, dramatic soap opera of it all with SG Universe... It had its moments, but that was mostly because of Robert Carlyle.
The recent Star Trek series "Discovery" followed the same pattern, had its moments but was ultimately quite annoying. Too much contrived personal drama, too much decidedly non-Trek-like atmosphere, characters act like children throwing hissy fits half the time. Too much "wokeness" forcibly injected into it all as well. Very tiring. Not to mention the timeline issues.
Universally panned by fans, too. Obviously. Kinda like how "Rings of Power" was thrashed by actual LotR fans, as it was plagued by the same defects.
Anyway, people were saying that "Strange New Worlds" had gone back to the classical recipe, including the episodic nature that I love in these types of series. I was skeptical at first but as the positive reviews by actual Trek fans started piling up I decided to give it a try.
And yep, it works. There is interpersonal drama of course, but it's not childish and "woke", thank god. It feels like actual Star Trek for once, a wee bit silly but fun and surprisingly clever.
Now they're working on the 2nd season, which I guess will air next summer. Not gonna spoil anything in case anyone's actually interested in it, but since it takes place shortly before TOS and several key characters have already shown up, I wonder if Pavel Chekov will pop up in the 2nd season, and what they'll do with that now that everything even remotely "Russian" is toxic.