Star Trek: Discovery Trailer & Logo Revealed, Setting Speculation

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Edited by Robert Beach 

Over 11 years ago, Star Trek: Enterprise went off the air and ended the era of Trek on TV. Even though the franchise would be rescued from oblivion four years later with the J.J. Abrams reboot series, Star Trek as a sci-fi series of genuine renown, import, and intelligence wouldn’t reassert itself till this year.  

Thanks to a double barrel strategy, Star Trek has marked its 50^th anniversary with a major return to prominence thanks to a quality movie and an upcoming new TV show helmed by Hannibal show runner Bryan Fuller.  

Now, we’ve finally got a title and imagery. The first short teaser for the new series debuts the lead ship and gives some cryptic clues about the setting. So let’s dive into our first major look at Star Trek: Discovery. 

Week of Review - Star Trek Film Ranking

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This really doesn’t require any kind of a thesis at this point right?  I mean, at time of writing the Star Trek film franchise boasts a robust 13 movies and counting, spanning several decades, crews, directors, and quality.  In a weird way Star Trek has become a constant of the pop cultural landscape, always existing in one form or another throughout every decade.  

Though there have been dips and peaks in the franchise’s popularity it’s always had some standard barer in every decade from the original series in the ‘60s to the animated show in the ‘70s, the first six film series in the ‘80s, the triple threat of ‘90s TV shows with Next Generation, Deep Space 9, and Voyager, the 2000s Next Gen films and Enterprise, and then the revival series in the 2010s.  

It’s transcended from simply a franchise into an institution, to the point that the real test of quality for each new Star Trek film as become where it stacks up against the rest of the franchise.  As such, let’s rank all 13 of the Star Trek films (yes, I saw Star Trek Beyond at a midnight screening for this.)

Week of Review - Why I Love Voyager

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As I continue to celebrate Star Trek’s 50^th anniversary and the release of the new film, we come now to Star Trek: Voyager.  This is the series where most hardcore Trek fans consider the franchise to have stumbled, citing Voyager and Enterprise, along with the last 2 TNG films, as the collapse of the franchise in its final years before the reboot.  Personally I can’t say I agree with that. 

Certainly, the two final films of the TNG series are awful but having gone through all of Voyager and Enterprise they are not bad Star Trek, in fact I’d rank them well above Next Generation and, most pertinent to this conversation, I’d actually say Voyager is my favorite Star Trek show of the entire franchise.  Not necessarily the best, that’s probably still reserved for Deep Space 9 or the original series, but definitely the one I liked the most, the one I tend to revisit most often, and the big reason for that is, bizarrely, that everyone on the ship seems like horrible people. 

Week of Review - The Dominion War

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In 1993, Star Trek: The Next Generation had become so successful that the powers that be decided to produce a spin-off show.  The idea for the spin-off took awhile to coalesce, with the central concept of a Trek show set on a space station eventually manifesting after the network passed on a similar premise from J. Michael Straczynski entitled Babylon 5.  The resulting show was Star Trek: Deep Space 9 and it’s widely considered to be the best Star Trek show of all time.  The series was about the titular station Deep Space 9, a platform set-up over the backwater world of Bajor near the edge of Alpha Quadrant. 

The station was intended to watch over Bajor as it recovered from centuries of occupation, but in the first episode the station’s new command Ben Sisko discovers a stable wormhole nearby that leads across the galaxy.  Now, it’s up to Deep Space 9 to facilitate the political, exploratory, and military forces that pour between two sides of the galaxy.  All of that lead together into a 4 season long mega-arc that stands as the greatest Star Trek story ever told: the Dominion War.

Week of Review - In Defense of Star Trek The Animated Series

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Edited by Robert Beach

For day two of my celebration of Star Trek, I thought I’d focus on an obscure and somewhat forgotten chapter in Trek’s history. In 1969, Star Trek concluded its three-season run after budgetary restrictions and dwindling audience interest forced it off the air. Even though the show was a prestigious series in its time, garnering a lot of admiration from doctors and scientist, the ‘60s just wasn’t the age of genre shows on TV. That all changed in the ‘70s when TV took over as the outlet for disposable, high-concept viewing. 

While movies spent the ‘70s getting more challenging and more adult, TV doubled down on the stranger genre elements, giving us major series like Wonder Woman, 6 Million Dollar Man, and The Incredible Hulk as well as forgotten gems like Logan’s Run and the Planet of the Apes series. Seeking to capitalize on this trend, Star Trek creator Gene Rodenberry pushed for a new series, yet was met with some resistance due to the cost of creating sets and costumes. Given how much of this new genre television was aimed at younger audience, Rodenberry went to one of the biggest names in cheap, younger entertainment: Hanna-Barbera. Thus, Star Trek: the Animated Series was born. 

Star Trek Beyond Trailer

In case my various previous articles weren’t enough of an indicator I am a massive and unapologetic Star Trek fan.  I was first introduced to the franchise through the serviceable if not terribly great 2009 reboot movie but since then I’ve made my way through all the films, nearly all the shows (still not done with Enterprise,) Star Trek: Online, and several interesting EU novels.  However, being a fan is a double edged sword because it means I’ve developed a sense of what I want Star Trek to be, a definition informed more by my own personal likes and ideas about the various series rather than strict adherence to canon.  For instance, I think Star Trek should be driven by character drama and emotion above all else but that doesn’t change the fact the original series was predominately informed by setting up occasions for flights of insanity, wrestling, sword fights, and laser battles. 

So going into the trailer for Star Trek Beyond I’m more than a little hesitant to jump on the proclamations of whether this IS or ISN’T Star Trek.  After all, my own definitions of what Star Trek IS have changed significantly over my time as a fan so it’s not like there’s a hard and firm definition and at the same time the question of definition is ultimately secondary to the question of quality.  So, while I will talk about the Trekkiness of this trailer eventually for now my question is; is it any good, to which the answer is a resounding “not really.”

Questions About The New Star Trek Show

In case you hadn’t heard, CBS has finally pulled the trigger on a new Star Trek TV show with a premiere date slotted for 2017.  It’s a pretty major deal as this will be the first Star Trek show on the air in over 10 years since the end of Star Trek: Enterprise in 2005.  This also means the show will have to contend with the very odd place Star Trek has come to hold in the pop cultural pantheon after nearly a decade of disappointments like Enterprise and Nemesis before J.J. Abrams films slouched into a position of mild popularity.  

Personally I’m pretty excited, I’m a pretty huge Star Trek fan so the prospect of being able to watch new Star Trek in my life time is incredibly exciting and after CBS’ recent excellent handling of Supergirl my faith in that network has gone way, way up.  What’s more, now is the time for a new Star Trek show.  Star Trek was one of the first and most influential blendings of speculative fiction and space opera that embodied an incredibly pro-tech futurism and an infectious optimism that has been in far too short supply lately.  However, the announcement, which was basically just “we’re making a new Trek show,” has left everyone with a lot of questions that I’m going to go over here.