# I liked older Star Trek for these reasons. Will I like newer Trek? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted, movies, star-trek-paramount\ **Created:** [March 8, 2024, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-liked-older-star-trek-for-these-reasons-will-i-like-newer-trek/998592 "2024-03-08T02:05:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2024, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-liked-older-star-trek-for-these-reasons-will-i-like-newer-trek/998592/61 "2024-03-09T07:07:09Z")
> [@DWMarch](#): > > Short Short Treks were garbage and without question the worst thing ever to have the name Star Trek on it. “Worst Contact” was so disgusting I shut it off. We did not need any of those stories. Ooh, I forgot about Very Short Treks. “Worst Contact” was definitely garbage, as were most of the episodes of Very Short Treks. Most of them were like people who didn’t know Trek trying to do humor. They felt very mean spirited, and even anti-progressive. However, the last two were a lot better, IMHO, as they were written by actual Star Trek people. My favorite is the penultimate episode “[Holograms All the Way Down](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPCGkHjsK9M),” as it says something Trekkies have been saying for ever. But the final episode “[Walk, Don’t Run](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sHSDkxivvo)” is decent in that it actually celebrates animated Trek, which was **supposed** to be the whole point of these. And it ends with a Star Trek message. And a song I enjoyed. As canon, even those two would suck, but they fortunately are explicitly just comedy sketches. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2024, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-liked-older-star-trek-for-these-reasons-will-i-like-newer-trek/998592/62 "2024-03-09T15:03:21Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > My favorite is the penultimate episode “[Holograms All the Way Down](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPCGkHjsK9M),” as it says something Trekkies have been saying for ever. But the final episode “[Walk, Don’t Run](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sHSDkxivvo)” is decent I never even heard of this, but you are right - those were good. It’s OK that they aren’t canon - neither was SNL’s The Last Voyage of the Starship Enterprise, and it was good! ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2024, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-liked-older-star-trek-for-these-reasons-will-i-like-newer-trek/998592/63 "2024-03-09T16:50:14Z")
Thanks to this thread we watched Ep1 of SNW last night. We’ll be watching more. Thx! ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2024, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-liked-older-star-trek-for-these-reasons-will-i-like-newer-trek/998592/64 "2024-03-10T02:07:36Z")
By chance I just saw this article: > **[‘Picard’ Season 2 Was Rewritten After Paramount Deemed It “Too Star Trek,”...](https://trekmovie.com/2024/03/09/picard-season-2-was-rewritten-after-paramount-deemed-it-too-star-trek-says-ep/)** > > Terry Matalas also clears up some of the confusion around the Jurati Borg. > “We wrote nine episodes at one point and the network was like, ‘No, we don’t really understand this, it’s a bit too sci-fi, it’s a bit too in-Star Trek.’” ---
**Author:** ![zbuzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e19b73/32.png) [@zbuzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zbuzz)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2024, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-liked-older-star-trek-for-these-reasons-will-i-like-newer-trek/998592/65 "2024-03-10T03:05:31Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > [‘Picard’ Season 2 Was Rewritten After Paramount Deemed It “Too Star Trek,” Says EP – TrekMovie.com](https://trekmovie.com/2024/03/09/picard-season-2-was-rewritten-after-paramount-deemed-it-too-star-trek-says-ep/) JFC, that all read like a monkey humping a football. Terry Matalas: “A monkey humping a football? What a great idea for Picard Season 4!” ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2024, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-liked-older-star-trek-for-these-reasons-will-i-like-newer-trek/998592/66 "2024-03-10T17:13:33Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > By chance I just saw this article: > > [‘Picard’ Season 2 Was Rewritten After Paramount Deemed It “Too Star Trek,” Says EP – TrekMovie.com](https://trekmovie.com/2024/03/09/picard-season-2-was-rewritten-after-paramount-deemed-it-too-star-trek-says-ep/) > > > “We wrote nine episodes at one point and the network was like, ‘No, we don’t really understand this, it’s a bit too sci-fi, it’s a bit too in-Star Trek.’” That reminds me of a review I read in the newspaper of the Leonard Nimoy production of [Sherlock Holmes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherlock_Holmes_(play)) which complained that it was “too melodramatic”. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2024, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-liked-older-star-trek-for-these-reasons-will-i-like-newer-trek/998592/67 "2024-03-17T01:05:16Z")
Just saw an excellent description of Star Trek: Disco in an article: > Other “Star Trek” shows always featured staunch, stone-faced diplomats in ultra-professional workplace environments. The “Discovery” characters, in contrast, are teens at a slumber party, if the teens were over-dramatic theater kids and the slumber party was held after they all lost the one-act-play competition. The crew of the U.S.S. Discovery openly discuss their feelings at all times and perpetually need shoulders to cry on. The professionalism of “Star Trek: The Next Generation” is long behind us. If this sounds like something that you would like…you are not me. > **[Star Trek: Discovery's Final Season Was Given A Very Apt Nickname By Its...](https://www.slashfilm.com/1537872/star-trek-discovery-final-season-given-nickname-by-writers-sxsw/)** > > Star Trek: Discovery's fifth and final season will truly put the 'adventure' in Star Trek, according to its cast and crew. ---
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2024, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-liked-older-star-trek-for-these-reasons-will-i-like-newer-trek/998592/68 "2024-03-17T15:00:26Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > If this sounds like something that you would like…you are not me. It sounds like something I would not like. I like those staunch, stone-faced diplomats. Just because a character is a stone-faced diplomat doesn’t mean they can’t be interesting. DS9 is the perfect example. Sisko, Dax, Bashir, Odo, Kira, O’brien, Worf Mark II, even Quark and the various minor characters like Garak are all adults who don’t have any hang-ups about adulting. It’s just part of who they are. The only whiny kids are actual kids. TNG and TOS are also in the same boat, although the characters are a notch below DS9 on the interesting scale. IMHO that’s part of the charm of Star Trek. If I want over-dramatic teens, or even adults who still have hang-ups about adulting, Star Trek isn’t where I’m going to look. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2025, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-liked-older-star-trek-for-these-reasons-will-i-like-newer-trek/998592/69 "2025-07-03T12:28:46Z")
I have just watched the pilot episode of “Strange New Worlds”. This seems the perfect thread to write into. Will you like newer Trek? I’m 63 years old today. Attended some of THE earliest Star Trek conventions in Philly and South Jersey in the early 1970s. I do not dress up, I do not attend conventions as an adult. I cannot speak in Klingon. And yet it is no exaggeration to say that the fundamentals, the underpinnings of what Gene Roddenberry proposed have guided my moral compass my entire life. It is a good way to view the world. To view individual encounters and situations. I’m deeply flawed like all of us are, yet I do try. I try to be civil to all, to be empathetic and understanding. To try to see the good. Those are the nuanced layers of the best of Star Trek. “Strange New Worlds” will fill your belly nicely if Star Trek and what is truly stands for is what you’re hungry for. I sat with my young son in my lap and watched the pilot episode of “Next Generation”. Watched the saucer detach from the Engineering section below. Was suitably blown away by the newer tech and SPFX. But… that series maintained and expanded upon the best of Star Trek. Thus it succeeded. Other series that have run their course left me cold for various reasons. Both Deep Space 9 and Voyager were of little interest to me. We need to binge the latest season of Picard. Good writing. Genuine Star Trek. I’ve never had any interest in nit-picking over what is genuine, what is Canon, what is proper. Stick to the moral compass and let your imagination guide you. Thus, I’m happy to say that the J.J. Abrams re-boot Star Trek left me breathless with joy. It was a solid Star Trek. The next one, less so. The third re-boot was a mess for a variety of screenplay reasons. It’s not the third one that should have been made, but greedy is as greedy does. Find the clarity in the writing, in the characters, in the motivations behind dialogue and plot lines. If it feels like Star Trek, you’ll know it by the end of the episode and you’ll genuinely enjoy it. I very much enjoyed the pilot I literally finished watching 15 minutes ago. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds? Bring them on. LLAP, Cartooniverse ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2025, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-liked-older-star-trek-for-these-reasons-will-i-like-newer-trek/998592/70 "2025-07-03T15:06:33Z")
Since I last posted in here, I watched the whole series, and I have to add to the praise for Lower Decks. That is true trek! They put the _hope_ back in there! Mariner (maybe? Tendi?), paraphrased “I don’t want to shoot things. I want to science things!” And the last episode was as good as All Good Things… maybe better. It’s also funny as shit! ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2025, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-liked-older-star-trek-for-these-reasons-will-i-like-newer-trek/998592/71 "2025-07-03T15:15:53Z")
Agreed, SNW & Lower Decks really got Trek right. I watch all of Discovery, but it was barely Trek and a lot of dreck. ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2025, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-liked-older-star-trek-for-these-reasons-will-i-like-newer-trek/998592/72 "2025-07-03T15:42:16Z")
I liked _Star Trek: The Next Generation_ best—great storytelling, compelling characters, strong interpersonal dynamics, and just the right touch of humor. I also enjoyed _TOS_ for many of the same reasons. It was groundbreaking when it first aired and really set the standard for sci-fi television. The humor came with Shatner’s hammy acting (not unlike Adam West’s Batman). I gave the later _Star Trek_ series a fair shot, but none of them really pulled me in. That said, I enjoyed most of the movies, though a few leaned a bit too hard into melodrama. As mentioned upthread, I really liked _The Orville_ (on par with TNG)—it captured the spirit of _TNG_ while dialing the humor up to 11. Despite the jokes, the sci-fi storytelling stayed smart and well-crafted. McFarlane really nailed the balance. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2025, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-liked-older-star-trek-for-these-reasons-will-i-like-newer-trek/998592/73 "2025-07-04T19:32:42Z")
Can I butt in with a ST question? Which variant of the series had them interacting with a planet/ universe that had the design esthetic of the old Flash Gordon (or maybe Buck Rogers) serials? The costumes and space ships resembled those old serials. It’s been bugging me. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2025, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-liked-older-star-trek-for-these-reasons-will-i-like-newer-trek/998592/74 "2025-07-04T19:40:16Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > Which variant of the series had them interacting with a planet/ universe that had the design esthetic of the old Flash Gordon (or maybe Buck Rogers) serials? That sounds like the Voyager episode “[Bride of Chaotica!](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bride_of_Chaotica!)” – it largely took place on the ship’s holodeck. [![](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/proxy/DmDFpsBtCUW9chvrcS1T7aMqvnrwHbe6cSQ4P0xP7nsQbR3GbD2fndQ6m8hXpoLBapWj4fj1y3bj2myAHjyqr1h4) ](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/proxy/DmDFpsBtCUW9chvrcS1T7aMqvnrwHbe6cSQ4P0xP7nsQbR3GbD2fndQ6m8hXpoLBapWj4fj1y3bj2myAHjyqr1h4) ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2025, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-liked-older-star-trek-for-these-reasons-will-i-like-newer-trek/998592/75 "2025-07-04T22:02:34Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > Agreed, SNW & Lower Decks really got Trek right. > > I watch all of Discovery, but it was barely Trek and a lot of dreck. I watched the first two seasons of Discovery but was not impressed. I watched the first episode of season 3 and quit. As you said, barely Trek and a lot of dreck. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2025, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-liked-older-star-trek-for-these-reasons-will-i-like-newer-trek/998592/76 "2025-07-04T22:20:44Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > That sounds like the Voyager episode “[Bride of Chaotica!](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bride_of_Chaotica!)” – it largely took place on the ship’s holodeck. While that is the episode that features _The Adventures of Captain Proton_ the most, it first appears in the _Voyager_ episode “Night,” and is a somewhat key part of that one. It’s just the intro for “Thirty Days” to show it’s still there, and then gets like a fan nod in “Shattered” as it features interesting parts of different episodes. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-liked-older-star-trek-for-these-reasons-will-i-like-newer-trek/998592.md?page=3)