Star Trek Is Holding Sci-Fi Back For Its Most Important Audience

I don’t see what there is to gain from Star Trek anymore as a sci-fi endeavor. Other than flashy streaming slop and some wonderful classic television whose spirit has been totally abandoned, I’m at a point where the future of whatever Star Trek is as a creative entity looks utterly meaningless to me. Its niche status exists only to keep an intellectual property alive for another potential generation of consumers. Any kind of uniqueness or special quality this idea once had has been diluted to such a degree that it qualifies as dust. Star Trek might as well get gobbled up by Disney at this point. It’s become that safe and bland.

But, okay! That happens with stories and their worlds. They can’t last forever (unless they become a religion, which is how corporations want you to feel about their brands). However, what’s bugging me about Star Trek is that its presence in pop culture means it can’t let go of a particular space (har har) in the fiction landscape. And I think that’s leading to a playing field that is being kept in check by Star Trek.

I don’t see an equivalent piece of sci-fi pop culture that is actively encouraging the kinds of values Star Trek espouses through its format of storytelling. That’s a problem.

The Next Generation Needs Their Own Star Trek

Star Trek was a fabulous Wagon Train riff that brought so many viewers into a sci-fi world of exploration and moral reaffirmation. Regardless of any particular show’s flaws, the series began with a desire to present a progressive future where racial and religious unity was an achievable goal and worth fighting for, and the franchise has always done its best to carry that particular torch.

The problem arises in that Star Trek was revolutionary sci-fi at the time of its initial reception. Thanks to becoming a brand, it has lost its efficacy as something radical. It’s part of the system now. It sold out. It’s not really Star Trek’s fault. That’s just the nature of art under capitalism over time. But what that means is that Star Trek doesn’t have the ability to make the inflection point it needs to: reaching the imaginations of younger audiences. Instead, young viewers deserve to get their own equivalent groundbreaking sci-fi series that encourages the spirit of what Star Trek should be about.

Star Trek Is Dead, Long Live Star Trek

And I’m sorry, I don’t know how possible that will be as long as Star Trek attempts to cling on (heh) to cultural relevancy when it’s far past its expiration date. If Star Trek was allowed to die, there could be a gap to be filled by an original idea that still scratches the itch Star Trek provided. I’m not going to pitch any original idea of my own, but I will say that a story about exploring the galaxy (no, the universe! No, the multiverse!) that acts as a conduit for highlighting the best possible potential in humanity is something I want for a younger generation.

They aren’t going to get that from this current iteration of the Star Trek franchise. It’s just not the sci-fi they need or deserve. Heck, if Star Trek went away for a while, it might be able to resurrect as something a new generation would want to be a part of. As it stands, Star Trek now looks like a grandpa trying to stay hip with the kids without breaking his hip. You ain’t gonna be able to dance on that thing much longer, old man.