It's Time For Star Trek To Break A 31-Year Streak

As what is arguably the greatest sci-fi franchise of all time, the ambitious and groundbreaking Star Trek has a lot to live up to. Each series in the Star Trek franchise timeline must have its own character and tone that separates it from the rest, while retaining the themes and innovation that made The Original Series such a success. Star Trek is, at its core, about exploration, and the early series' "planet of the week" format allowed the Enterprise's crew to do exactly that, exploring race, sexuality, social structure and other issues through the lens of sci-fi.

Considering it first aired in the 1960s, Star Trek: The Original Series has aged surprisingly well, but with the drastic improvements in CGI and social justice, it was inevitable that the franchise would expand. This has largely been exciting, with modern visuals reflecting the show's timeless ideas. However, the franchise has had a problem for the last 31 years, with even the upcoming Star Trek movies and TV shows continuing. Star Trek is expanding in every direction except forward.

Star Trek's original format has largely been left behind in favor of more complex narratives and experimental projects that are often successful, but do not capture the spirit of the earlier seasons, which were just as creative, albeit in a different way. Star Trek episodes have changed genre, introduced iconic one-off characters, and taken viewers to bizarre, fascinating, and often hilarious locations. However, the series since Star Trek: Voyager have been prequels, animations, spinoffs, and sequels, none of which have moved the timeline forward and reflected what made the show so groundbreaking in the first place.

It's Time For Star Trek To Make A Normal Star Trek Series For The First Time In Over 30 Years

Star Trek's earlier series proved that formulas do not have to be stale or repetitive, and the winning formula for the rapidly growing sci-fi series was clear. The series would follow a ship's crew, with each episode bringing a new adventure, dilemma, or location, as the season featured longer overarching character storylines. These were set in the "present" of the Star Trek universe, which kept the timeline moving forward. Changing this does not automatically lower the quality of a series, with the prequel Strange New Worlds getting a 94% Rotten Tomatoes score, but it is time for a change.

Where previous Star Trek series asked what each mission was, modern Star Trek explores different questions, like "what happened to Picard?" and "what is life like on the lower decks?" These are interesting, but the next new Star Trek series should return to the classic formula. The show's greatest strength was always its character writing, and the best episodes of Star Trek were often standalones that relied on character-driven storytelling rather than nostalgia. The right director, cast, and writers would prevent a classic approach from being predictable, bringing back the factors that made Star Trek the success it is now.

Star Trek: Discovery Realized Its Mistake Too Late

Star Trek: Discovery made the franchise better for its fresh take on the format, new aliens, and updated visual effects. That said, it polarized critics and audiences, with Rotten Tomatoes critics giving Discovery an 84% positive score and audiences rating it just 34% positive. This may be due to the show's drastic tone shift, which was originally a prequel, before jumping far into the future and moving closer to the earlier seasons' episodic style. Discovery should have been two different shows, with the prequel setting up The Original Series, and the time jump beginning a new series altogether.

Discovery could have been the return to the classic Star Trek style that the franchise needed, but it realized its mistake too late. The show was bogged down in worldbuilding and explanations while setting up The Original Series, which put many viewers off. By the time the shift happened, and the characters had an entire future to explore, many viewers had stopped watching. With Star Trek's core premise and most quotable line being "to boldly go where no one has gone before," the franchise must start taking its own advice and begin looking forward once more.