“They’re leaning hard into the “will they/won’t they” of Chapel and Spock. I remain into it, although I always have to remind myself to not think about the original series.”
After the last season finale, I've become convinced that this show is at its worst when it tries to tie in with the original series. If this was a random Star Trek sh…
“They’re leaning hard into the “will they/won’t they” of Chapel and Spock. I remain into it, although I always have to remind myself to not think about the original series.”
After the last season finale, I've become convinced that this show is at its worst when it tries to tie in with the original series. If this was a random Star Trek ship with random Star Trek people on it (which, with characters like M'Benga and Chapel being so radically reimagined, it basically is), same cast, characters, and writers, I'm sure it'd be for the best. The writers and the audience would both be spared from worrying about how SNW turns into TOS and how that restricts them to pretty destructive outcomes for all the legacy characters they backfilled into having the same jobs as in TOS ten years earlier (I'm already nervous about Chapel mentioning this week about planning to go on an archeological expedition, presumably so she can meet her future-fiancée and the show can begin bouncing back and forth between tedious box-checking and annoying re-contextualization).
For a more mild example, look at Uhura. They put themselves in a situation where they could either fire an actor, or establish that she basically got an internship before graduation, and then stayed in the same position in the same place for the next thirty-five years.
Say what you will about the Kelvin Trilogy, but the alternate timeline hook was brilliant; it gave you a reason not to worry about these things. You could tell new stories, with the big name legacy characters, and not stress about how it fits together with TOS. Why these new shows didn't lift that is beyond me.
It's baffling to me how frequently the Trek decision-makers choose to set new things in the past. In a universe this expansive, it just seems like all-downside. Except you can have Spock, I guess.
“They’re leaning hard into the “will they/won’t they” of Chapel and Spock. I remain into it, although I always have to remind myself to not think about the original series.”
After the last season finale, I've become convinced that this show is at its worst when it tries to tie in with the original series. If this was a random Star Trek ship with random Star Trek people on it (which, with characters like M'Benga and Chapel being so radically reimagined, it basically is), same cast, characters, and writers, I'm sure it'd be for the best. The writers and the audience would both be spared from worrying about how SNW turns into TOS and how that restricts them to pretty destructive outcomes for all the legacy characters they backfilled into having the same jobs as in TOS ten years earlier (I'm already nervous about Chapel mentioning this week about planning to go on an archeological expedition, presumably so she can meet her future-fiancée and the show can begin bouncing back and forth between tedious box-checking and annoying re-contextualization).
For a more mild example, look at Uhura. They put themselves in a situation where they could either fire an actor, or establish that she basically got an internship before graduation, and then stayed in the same position in the same place for the next thirty-five years.
Say what you will about the Kelvin Trilogy, but the alternate timeline hook was brilliant; it gave you a reason not to worry about these things. You could tell new stories, with the big name legacy characters, and not stress about how it fits together with TOS. Why these new shows didn't lift that is beyond me.
It's baffling to me how frequently the Trek decision-makers choose to set new things in the past. In a universe this expansive, it just seems like all-downside. Except you can have Spock, I guess.