How Do You Unite the Star Trek fan base?/Is It Really Divided?

I know its been 30 years or so and back then there was no real internet, but judging by letters to various science fiction magazines there was no real opposition to TNG at least until after the first couple of seasons when a number of people decided it was boring.

Ummm...no.

I've come across far too many Trek fans at TBBS who have vivid memories of the hate at conventions to dismiss it as one or two disgruntled morons. Granted, there weren't message board where fans could spend all day taking the piss to kill enjoyment for others, but many of them did write letters to Paramount.

You still post at the TrekBBS?

What you figure has no bearing on it. I'm not even sure why you're trying to justify a writing error.

Ah yes, I'd completely forgotten Spock was completly lackadaisical in that sense.

He was always shrugging shoulders and giving out rough estimates, really, I don't know why they didn't recast him with Seth Rogan.

I don't think even fans should be so anal about such minor errors.

Now I say "minor errors". I don't consider Spock suddenly acquiring a never before seen or indicated brother (The Final Frontier) or a foster sister (Discovery) to be a "minor error".

Trying to discuss the Trek "fan base" as if it's a monolithic entity is stupid. It's as wide and varied as society itself.

Personally, I have no interest in prequels. I've never liked them, no matter the property. I find that there's never any real suspense, since you know how all the main characters are going to end up. You can fill in some blanks in terms of backstory, but I don't think you need an entire series devoted to that. Those things can be handled within a larger show via flashback episodes and the like.

At first you had a succession of Trek shows that pushed the timeline and narrative forward (TOS > TNG > DS9 > VOY). Big questions were left hanging (was Sisko ever going to return? Would Jake remain fatherless for the rest of his life? How did Seven adjust to life on Earth? How did Starfleet deal with the former Maqui crewmembers like Chakotay & Be'lanna who had distinguished themselves as Federation officers throughout the show?)

But rather than attempting to answer these questions via a new show that would again push the timeline and narrative forward, the PTB threw on the brakes and put the franchise in reverse. Believing the fans had grown tired of TNG-era Trek, they gave us Enterprise, a prequel that started rewriting Trek history, messing with continuity, and introducing gigantic historical events never before referenced (e.g. Xindi War).

Now comes Discovery, another Enterprise-esque prequel, again messing with continuity (Spock now has a never-before referenced half-sister? Wasn't Sybok bad enough?)

Nothing I've seen so far makes me excited for this show. And I've stated many times I will not pay for CBS All-Access just to watch Discovery.

I agree. Instead of Enterprise and Discovery, I would been much more interested in a show that explored a post-Nemesis timeframe, maybe even 100 years later.

Let's see some really new worlds, new tech, new species, new characters. Why revisit Klingons, Harry Mudd, Sarek, etc?

To me the only worthwhile "prequel" series would be a series about the Enterprise-B (Excelsior class ship) with an all new cast. Begin a couple of decades after the ship was launched in the beginning of "Generations" and decades before they transitioned to the Enterprise-C. You could have an entirely new captain and crew, several seasons of adventures with them and not infringing on the continuity of anything before or after.

IIRC the idea of a post Nemesis series was specifically vetoed by Rick Berman. I remember he said something to the effect "the ships can't go any faster, no more of the galaxy is left to be explored".

Which speaks volumes about Rick Berman's crushing idiocy.

Why do you think Discovery is in the prime universe because powers that be said so?

To be fair. Professor X > Kirk...

Warning to Christopher for reminding everyone that the X-Men / Star Trek crossovers exist.

^^Four wildly successful movies! LaForge is the new Spock!

What was that published in? It looks a lot like the format National Enquirer used.

No idea but it does look like it's a page from a tabloid-type publication.

The back of a Wendy's menu, maybe?

Which is sort of my point

The iron clad consistency, that so many Trek fans like to use as a cudgel, is mythical.

Oh, it gets much much worse.

Yeah, he seem to entirely forget the appeal of Trek, which wasn't the tech (although it did inspire many an engineer in the 1970s) but the stories it told.

OTOH, even Berman fought back against having a boy band of the fucking week on Enterprise, so he wasn't a complete drooling moron.

I saw that article earlier. Hilarious they think Burton is the New Spock!

And the picture..... they couldn't find a better picture of him?

The Trek fan base will probably NEVER be 100% united. It's hard to think of something ALL Trekkies agree on!

That was interesting ... I wonder if the explanation is as simple as the writer not knowing what they were talking about, and making stuff up ... or was there actually a time early in the series' development when Geordi was being thought of that way?

It seems unlikely since I'm pretty sure Data was intended as the "outsider commenting on the human condition" character from the beginning, but who knows?

I'm sure most of us would agree that there needs to be more nekkid boobies.

Fine.

That squares well with my vision of an all male Star Trek cast.

Only if you're a big fan of sausage.

Sausage is fine but I'm more of a bacon man. Or even better sliced salt pork.