Recently there have been a lot of posts about the possible revival of Star Trek on television. Based on these rumours there have a been a number of proposals that have cropped up. One, which has been around for some time, is for something called Star Trek: Federation.
After reading the potential story-line I’ve become very apprehensive about it. Not that I wouldn’t give it a watch to see what it’s all about, but based on the description I’m not very optimistic.
Star Trek inspired a generation of scientists and astronauts because humanity was finally able to rise above the petty internal quarrels and follow a noble purpose. The response to the passing of Leonard Nimoy made this very clear. It was the best of humanity going forward with that noble purpose. These scientists were not inspired to make historic discoveries, breakthroughs, or press the limits of what we know by a bunch of broken, angry people that constantly “blowed stuff up.”
Just because you call it Star Trek, doesn’t make it Star Trek.
There are people who will disagree, but I think those people have missed the point. Go ahead and enjoy the reboot-alternate-timelines if you want, but understand they are not what they claim to be. Star Trek was an intellectual pursuit with a secondary focus on action, which undoubtedly would occur because outside forces would inevitably cause conflict.
That being said, I would love to see Star Trek on television again, but not some pseudo-wannabe that thinks it needs to completely change everything in order to be successful (a.k.a. be like everything else on television).
Change happens – and I totally get that – but this isn’t about “moving with the times.” This is about a fundamental shift in the premise of what made the show exceptional. And if you’re going to continue to do that…make your own show and stop calling it something it’s clearly not.
