Quarto
Unknown Enemy
Star Trek is something I ultimately couldn't care less about, so I'm neither optimistic nor pessimistic. On this particular note, however, you guys may want to consider what else those extra charges actually mean. For dedicated Star Trek fans, far from being a potential problem, this should be seen as a potentially great thing.
Star Trek is, in many ways, "yesterday". It's not a show that can be successful with a popular audience while sticking to its original formula. The show came into existence originally in a radically different time - a far more optimistic time in general, and far more enthusiastic about technology and space in particular. Even as late as the 1990s, this enthusiasm still persisted, and that's why as late as the 1990s, Star Trek shows did well, while remaining fairly faithful to the premise of the original. Today is a radically different world. Far from being enthusiastic about the future, many young people are actually pessimistic. People are not thinking about conquering the Moon and Mars, people are thinking about maybe, hopefully paying off their student loans by the time they retire. General attitudes are also a lot more egotistical - selfish, or at least self-centred. It's all about "you owe it to yourself", as so many advertising slogans tell us. It's a very hard audience to sell Star Trek to.
This is why - in my opinion - Enterprise was so different (and still didn't do so well). This is why the two new movies were so different (and, above all, why these movies attempted to "reboot" the franchise). This is why something like Battlestar Galactica, rewritten into a bizarre and oftentimes laughable social commentary on America's "culture wars" was successful.
But, here's the thing. People like you still exist - obviously
. There's a whole generation who grew up loving Star Trek. Indeed, two generations. There are grandparents out there now, who love Star Trek, having started with TOS. There are parents, too, who started with TNG. It's just that their children aren't necessarily into it - Enterprise didn't succeed. All this, I would argue, means that as long as Star Trek is being asked to compete for ratings on TV, where a sci-fi show naturally must compete for the young audience, it will either be written into something totally different in spirit to the Star Trek that you love, or it will quite simply crash and burn. But a streaming service! Hello, extra charges indeed! This allows the show to seek out that older audience, who may not have time to watch the show on TV at its regularly scheduled time, but for whom, spending a few dimes on being able to stream the episode any time they want is really no big deal at all. In that case, a more traditional Star Trek show has a far greater chance of being commercially viable - in the same way that a traditional space sim required Chris Roberts to take the crowdfunding route.The fact that they are taking that streaming route, therefore, to me would indicate that they want to try to appeal to that original audience, rather than appealing to the broadest possible audience. If this is the case (and of course, that's just my analysis of it), then you can look forward to something you will greatly enjoy indeed.
