Saw Star Trek Into Darkness almost a month ago. At first viewing, it was a fun ride of a movie. But after a more thorough analysis, the movie had more holes in its plot than a damn colander. The first of the new ‘Abramsverse’ Star Trek films introduced the franchise to a whole new audience, with some training wheels from the original canon. The second film ends up relying on the very canon encumbrances they promised to shed. By the end the film at times felt like a retread of the renowned ‘Wrath of Khan.’
Over the past few months I’ve actually been watching the original Star Trek series on Netflix. Right now I’m at the famed ‘The City On the Edge of Forever’ episode near the end of Season 1. While the acting is cheesy and the effects are laughable, the show is very, very good. At the time, there was nothing else like Star Trek on TV. It broke lots of new ground, not just in showcasing different ethnicities on TV but also science fiction themes and tropes.
That is no longer the case with the big two sci-fi franchises, and its some that we’ve seen happen again as they release or revive certain franchises. Franchises that were once innovative and the forerunners of new ideas are now like the Titanic, too big to turn in a new direction. Think of it almost like why ‘Superman Returns’ failed so epically. The movie was so married to the past (The Christopher Reeves/Richard Donner films) that it had no identity of its own and ended being a waste of everyone’s time.
One of the biggest offenders would be the Star Trek franchise. Now while I’ve really liked what J.J. Abrams has done with the revamped Star Trek, it just goes back to the well with older characters. Even worse, they used Star Trek’s most iconic villain instead of making their own in this new alternate universe. Why not use one of the other 72 Augments in cryosleep? Better yet, why replicate most of the plot of The Wrath of Khan, even down to Spock yelling “KHAAAAAHHHN!”
Then we have Star Wars, which actually has it worse than Star Trek. Even in the new comics and books, they can’t seem to move fully past, well, the past. The stuff with the Old Republic? A lot of it is repetitive, echoes of the primary conflicts that occurred during the six films. The TV shows are even worse. Now there will be a new show called ‘Star Wars Rebels’. Granted the show takes place during the huge 19 year stretch between Episodes III and Episodes IV, but that still means it again does not move the franchise forward, strictly mining the past until the last nugget of gold is gone.
There’s a prevalent fear to innovate, which was what brought these franchises to the dance in the first place. Its unfortunate in this regards. As seeing a brand-new Star Trek series that moves the story forward instead of backwards (like a DS9 or Voyager) is what the doctor ordered. Even with Star Wars, I actually would enjoy seeing stories from that 19 year gap if it focused on a never-before-seen aspect of Star Wars. An awesome TV that dealt with the underbelly of the Star Trek Universe (smugglers, bounty hunters, and all all-around nasty people) was being developed only to be scrapped because George Lucas couldn’t grasp how to make Star Wars into a live-action TV show (Battlestar Galactic anyone? Firefly anyone. Any of the latter Star Trek shows anyone???) But I doubt that will ever see the light of day now that Disney owns Star Wars.
I know this sounds like a rant session, but I just wanted to point out a major concern I saw in some of these larger franchises that keep selling audiences the same product but call it new and improved each time.
Till next time.
Leave a Reply