Will “Star Trek: Discovery” look to the future?
Star Trek: Discovery is making the voyage to where other crews have gone before: Television. It’s been 12 years since Star Trek: Enterprise ended thus leaving a weekly void in Star Trek fan’s calendar. In the meantime, we watched three successful blockbuster films be released which have reinvigorated a fan base and introduced Star Trek to a new generation. Now, It’s finally returning to audiences on CBS All-Access, Netflix, and CraveTV.
In the trailer for the show, we see a dark tone and the crew seemingly in dire straits. It’s akin to what we saw in J.J Abrams’ Star Trek, but with a feeling of more hopefulness. The characters split a lot of the trailer wandering or engaged in battle. “Sometimes when you are lost, you’re found” are spoken by the First Officer of the USS Shenzhou played by Sonequa Martin-Green of The Walking Dead fame. Set about a decade before The Original Series, Discovery begins in the midst of a war with the Klingons. The present that is shown is not bright, but the future might be.
Star Trek: The Original Series (TOS) once ventured into the great unknown. In a time where many firsts were happening TOS can account for many including having a multicultural cast, which was well ahead of its time, and the first interracial kiss on scripted television in the United States. Universal translators and personal communicators have also made their way into our lives after the concepts were first introduced in the show.
We can’t say the series is going to be as groundbreaking as it once was, the same way we can’t expect lightning to strike twice. It’s past can burden its future if they are held to the same unwritten rules (like no internal conflict) that once made the series great. There is a tremendous amount of nostalgia with producing and watching a series such as this. Fans are envious of people who will watch The Original Series with the same awe they once had. Expecting the same for this series would be too high a bar to clear.
The increased budget will hopefully not distract from what’s meaningful. Stories are at their best when they are about people or human emotions. TOS was ultimately optimistic about its future within the universe and the universe for those watching. Discovery should strive to be meaningful and relevant to the time in which it exists. The previous series used current events as inspiration as it created analogies on screen. Current problems could be reacted in futuristic situations using the same characters we already loved.
Discovery and its timely release in this political landscape will be tasked with interpreting the issues of today through their lens. Its responsibility will be making nuanced opinions into sources of conflict in which to play out on screen . TOS previously achieved this during a time of political discourse during the cold war and Vietnam.
Science fiction, like Star Trek, is at its best when it poses questions. It explores complex issues using characters who might or might not look like us with the understanding we can connect with them. Our capacity as humans to connect with other living creatures makes issues palpable. It’s why we can create entire worlds on screen and new inhabitants for those worlds to great effect.
This series shouldn’t feel like a reboot but rather supplemental. It should exist on its own, where new characters have the opportunity to explore new worlds, the same way TOS did. With nothing binding it to its past, Gene Roddenberry and the original cast set out with new worlds to discover and brand new stories to tell. It was a show that looked forward successfully, and because of that, we look back on it. And by choosing the name, Discovery, for the new series shouldn’t there be a feeling of exploration?
Discovery needs to be given a chance to stand out from its predecessors. It needs to boldly go where no series had gone before.
To finish, I want to use a conversation from the Futurama 4th Season episode “Where No Fan Has Gone Before” featuring the TOS cast reprising their roles. Fry, Bender, and Leela are about to embark on a journey to another planet find the tapes of The Original Series after they were forbidden from Earth.
Leela — “You can’t go to Omega 3. It’s forbidden. I forbid you.”
Fry — “But we have to. The world needs Star Trek to give people hope for the future.”
Leela — “But it’s set 800 years in the past.”
Bender — “Yeah, why is it so important you?”
Fry — “Because it… it taught me so much. Like, how you should accept people, whether they be black, white, Klingon or even female. But most importantly, when I had no friends, it made me feel like maybe I did.”
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