Today I watched (heard) an old friend die. I love Star Trek. I love it almost as much as Star Wars, but it’s a different kind of love. For one, I’ve known Trek longer. My first memory was of the animated series in the early 70s, quickly followed by years of watching reruns of the original series. By the time the first movie came along, I was versed enough at nine years old to go see it at the old Capitol theater in town. I spent my adolescence and teens watching that original crew on the big screen even as a new generation took over on TV. I stuck with what is now called the Berman era for the first two of the four series that group of producers and writers was responsible for, but in my 30s and 40s, I kinda dropped out except for the films of The Next Generation cast. When Paramount announced reboots a few years ago, I looked forward to what might be coming. I could not have been more disappointed.
I watched the first episode of Star Trek: Discovery and said, “Nope”. I have numerous complaints about that series1, and they have continued onto Strange New Worlds. That brings us to this week’s episode, “Subspace Rhapsody”. If you haven’t heard or don’t know, it was a musical episode. That’s right, a musical. The plot is irrelevant, but suffice it to say the crew of the Enterprise involuntarily break into song to reveal their true feelings. I don’t know where to begin with how awful this is, but I’ll try.
First, the plot. The idea that some alien or technological presence forces members of Starfleet to act outside of their free will is not new. Every one of the five series from TOS through Enterprise has had at least one example of this. Wanna know the difference? Here’s one example: when Kirk and Uhura experienced this, TOS gave America the first interracial kiss on television. The producers knew stations in the south would not air the episode and protests would cause them and NBC serious problems. That’s courage. On SNW, we got…fanfic. The crew were forced to reveal their innermost feelings for each other. “What, she’s going away to camp for the summer?!” “Should I tell him how I feel when we work on our group project?” It was like Star Trek: High School Musical. There’s certainly nothing as impactful as the exploration of what happens when you are forced to become a traitor and kill thousands of your own people like Picard/Locutus. I have no problem with lighthearted episodes of Star Trek, but when you only have 10 episodes per season, is this how you want to spend them? Maybe that’s one of my problems with Nu Trek: overall there never seems to be anything of real consequence at stake.
Now for the songs. I have to start by telling you I don’t like musicals in general. I made it through 15 minutes of Hamilton. There are exceptions (Grease, Chicago, My Fair Lady), and some of my favorite songs come from musicals, but only those that don’t rely on the rest of the story to be great and can stand on their own. Speaking of those types of songs, one is the catalyst for this travesty. While trying to find a way to communicate with a new species, someone suggests trying music. That’s not a bad idea, we’ve sent music out into space for decades. However, the song Uhura chooses is “Anything Goes” from 1934. I’m supposed to believe that this young woman just immediately pulls up a 300 year old song that she loves? Let’s try this: play “Anything Goes’ ‘ for the crew of any current Naval vessel and find me two people who know that song when it’s only 90 years old. Also, she refers to “The Great American Songbook”, which isn’t even an official thing, casually. In previous incarnations of Trek, current nations on Earth are spoken about in the same way historians speak of Mesopotamia today. It’s not something everyone would recognize.
This episode is a great example of why I don’t consider Nu Trek to be real Trek. I have become convinced that Akiva Goldsman, Bryan Fuller, Alex Kurtzman, Jenny Lumet and the cadre of writers they hire either don’t know, don’t understand, or don’t like Star Trek; at least in the configurations that appeared in the past. I might understand it if these were people in their 20s or 30s who didn’t grow up with it, but that’s not the case. I have a theory that I also believe can be applied to Nu Trek and other franchises. Very talented and creative people have spent years coming up with stories and are looking for a place to tell them. Studios are looking to revive any IP they can find so they don’t have to pay people for new ideas. These two groups come together and writers, showrunners, and directors get to see their stories come to life, even if they don’t fit the history of that IP. I get you need to build a new audience of people who may not be familiar with the old stuff, but do you have to throw the baby out with the bathwater?2 (Go ahead, ask anyone under the age of forty to explain that reference. You won’t find anyone, but I bet someone on Pike’s Enterprise knows.)
I could go on, but you get the point. I’m not saying Strange New Worlds is a bad television series, or that it’s even a bad science fiction series, just don’t call it Star Trek.3
- Ed Whitfield is a gentleman who articulates all of this far better than I. I just found his site last month and if you’re interested in more details, go here to read: https://edwhitfield.wordpress.com/
- The most egregious example of this I have seen is Amazon Prime’s “adaption” of The Wheel of Time. I own all thirteen books, have read the entire series twice through and when I watched the first episode, I barely recognized the main characters.
- This all could have been avoided if the show runners had simply started a new timeline or alternate Trek universe with Discovery. But I suppose in order to destroy canon, one must become canon.
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