# So Start Trek Wouldn't Work as a TV show? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 15, 2016, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-start-trek-wouldnt-work-as-a-tv-show/772064 "2016-11-15T16:10:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2016, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-start-trek-wouldnt-work-as-a-tv-show/772064/21 "2016-11-16T17:20:10Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Star Trek would be much improved if they would remove two elements that, imho, have ruined the product. > > 1\> Time Travel. For some reason it became all about Time Travel and we get borked timelines out of it. Just please stop. Put this whole thing on the backburner and don’t touch it for a decade. > > 2\> Over-reliance on One Villain movies. The movies aren’t about issues while exploring or cultural parallels anymore. They’re about the fight to save the galaxy/federation from ONE FUCKING BADGUY. These aren’t Bond movies. I don’t want to go see another movie about Coolbadguyname and how Kirk/Picard/Whoever has to overcome him with the Enterprise taking a lot of damage or being destroyed (again) along the way. > You know what? Give me more non-human Federation members. Make them interesting, not one-notes. Give me alternate cultures for these aliens with real differences. If they want a new series, they can get a lot of plot mileage out of this sort of thing without being merely a villain of the week series. I’d add this — 3\> “Filling in the canon” or “The George Lucas Error” —Strangely enough, this is a problem that the current movie series has somewhat avoided, by explicitly calling it a different time line. One of the problems with _Enterprise_ was its impulse to hew to canon and “fill in” events that we knew happened or must have happened. This is one big reason why the Star Wars prequels were so tedious. Story should serve story, not canon. ---
**Author:** ![Lightray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightray/32/391_2.png) [@Lightray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightray)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2016, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-start-trek-wouldnt-work-as-a-tv-show/772064/22 "2016-11-17T17:03:24Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > 3\> “Filling in the canon” or “The George Lucas Error” —Strangely enough, this is a problem that the current movie series has somewhat avoided, by explicitly calling it a different time line. One of the problems with _Enterprise_ was its impulse to hew to canon and “fill in” events that we knew happened or must have happened. This is one big reason why the Star Wars prequels were so tedious. Story should serve story, not canon. I don’t think that is a problem at all. _Enterprise_ was notoriously poorly-received in its earlier seasons _because_ it kept avoiding known Trek canon. The Temporal Cold War and the Xindi stuff particularly annoyed critics. Once they started dealing with familiar Trek territory - Vulcan, the Andorians, mirror universe, a Gorn showing up, etc. - fans were much more receptive. Of course, by that point, the show had fallen out of favor that the rally was unable to save it. Likewise, _Star Wars: Rebels_ has been pretty good Star Wars material. And the two different _Clone Wars_ series were fairly good in their own ways. And all of those are “prequel” series. _Rogue One_ coming up is also a prequel, and looks promising. The problem in common for both _Enterprise_ and the Star Wars prequel trilogy is **bad writing**. People are more than happy to indulge in canon-spelunking expeditions if they’re enjoyable. No one is interested if said indulgence comes with mopey Anakin, Jar-Jar Binks, or snoozariffic Hoshi and Travis. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-start-trek-wouldnt-work-as-a-tv-show/772064.md?page=1)