This guy has a lot to say about Star Trek, and I largely agree. He hits on an important point about old and new Star Trek that can be applied broadly. Star Trek, however, illustrates it more poignantly because it has a considerable amount of history, as well as intelligence built into it. It also had a single man behind it for years and when he wasn’t in control, others that understood the vision were in control. Now, 12 years after the final episode of Enterprise, the market has changed and the vision has been forgotten. Why?
Hollywood ignorance and stupidity for one. Short-sighted marketing execs that believe the only way something like Star Trek to be a success on the level of today’s blockbusters is to dumb it down so it appeals to a broader base. They hire writers that are far less qualified to write for Star Trek and producers that don’t have the balls to defend the vision that was Roddenberry’s vision and put out these action packed, dumbed-down poor-excuse for a sci-fi movie with a thin veneer of a Star Trek movie (or show, in the case of Star Trek Discovery). Gone are the intelligent storylines and edgy social commentary, to be replaced with political correct diversity, and dumbed-down story elements with no true understanding of the source material.
Star Trek is not the only victim of this. While not as deeply based in science as Star Trek, Star Wars at least has some level of intelligence in it. Now that things have been passed to another, that intelligence is gone. Now we get Episode 7 and soon Episode 8, of which I have no hope for. It is bothersome to me that you can’t build an intelligent movie and still have a blockbuster on your hands. Can’t we have both?
I have no answers.