How Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Betrays the Next Generation | The Backdrop

I think a story of a generation that has been unwilling to hand the reigns over to a younger generation after the federation has been ripped apart and the younger generation grew up in the union, er, federation where all their lives it has been in this weakened state, is a solid setting to reflect on today's political climate.

Not to say that Kurtzmann is aware of this, but I think the difficulty in adapting Star Trek to modern day isn't that younger audiences aren't being served nostalgia for a bygone age, they're being served nostalgia for an age that they never believe existed. It's less that times were better back in the day, it's that the people who are nostalgic for those days don't actually remember how bad they really were. There was massive relief post-Cold War because we just averted nuclear disaster but there was still massive racial inequality, CIA subversion of sovereign nations, and exploitation of the American peoples by the government and big business. To accurately adapt Star Trek for this new era, I think, would be to assert that the Federation was never any good.

The more I think about this Star Trek era and essays like yours that are in line with others penned also by you about media, specially franchises, in general the more I think they raise an interesting question about the cynicism so prevalent on screen during these times You can point to Ghostbusters being cynical, but you can't doubt the genuineness of its cynicism. The recent Ghostbusters (and most SW or ST) try to fake sincerity, which is something large media properties are somehow not allowed to do anymore. Others can blame the MCU all they want, but it didn't start there There's something in the air where "The Fellowship of the Ring" of 2026 would be tainted with irony, references to Tolkien's larger body of work, self-deflation, etc. As it stands, it's a good example of an extremely profitable property that allowed us that kindness and we need that

Fantastic essay. The essay on how modern fandom and writers have retrojected the latter day Roddenberry utopianism of The Motion Picture and The Next Generation onto the classic series is worthwhile on its own. I'd love to get a standalone video on that topic focusing on how DC Fontanta, Gene Coon and Michael Pillar defined a lot of Trek's plot elements that are popularly miss-attributed to Roddenberry.

Great essay as usual. I grew up with TNG. When I went back to watch TOS, it always seemed mean spirited to me. Your analysis makes alot of sense. Thanks.