I don’t think a universe in shambles is appealing to people whose universe is in shambles.
Just look at the success of Hail Mary Project based on its hopeful vision of the future. It’s popular because people miss feeling that way.
Maybe if Academy had some time to build the “we’re gonna unfuck the world” plotline it might have had more legs. Maybe that young cadet with pica would have been an admiral someday.
Sidenote: “The Burn” reminded me a lot of another Roddenberry universe: Andromeda. The idea of a ship hurled forward in time until well after the benevolent empire it served had fallen. Except with waaaaaaaay less Sorbo.
(Andromeda got really, really terrible after the first season but it would still be fun to see Rev Bem in the background of a Trek show.)
Yeah. Star Trek has always been a nice bit of utopic “the good guys can win by being the good guys” optimism. Even the shows that had episodes where the good guys tread into shady areas - Deep Space Nine, Voyager on occasion - still took care to have the characters recognize that they were treading in dangerous areas and pull back from them at the first opportunity.
The “burn” basically takes all of that and says “that good guy stuff all fell apart because a child screamed. Turns out the Federation’s members didn’t believe in the Federation as an ideal, just as a space superpower, and so didn’t bother putting it back together again once all the ships blew up.”
That makes for a good science fiction premise but not for a good Star Trek premise, IMO.
What if the US empire had to take a look inside and realize what it has been?
That’s actually a fascinating allegory the show refuses to commit to. It has subtle strokes - the war college vs the academy, for one. But never any real commitment. The war college never disbands.
I don’t think a universe in shambles is appealing to people whose universe is in shambles.
Just look at the success of Hail Mary Project based on its hopeful vision of the future. It’s popular because people miss feeling that way.
Maybe if Academy had some time to build the “we’re gonna unfuck the world” plotline it might have had more legs. Maybe that young cadet with pica would have been an admiral someday.
Sidenote: “The Burn” reminded me a lot of another Roddenberry universe: Andromeda. The idea of a ship hurled forward in time until well after the benevolent empire it served had fallen. Except with waaaaaaaay less Sorbo.
(Andromeda got really, really terrible after the first season but it would still be fun to see Rev Bem in the background of a Trek show.)
Yeah. Star Trek has always been a nice bit of utopic “the good guys can win by being the good guys” optimism. Even the shows that had episodes where the good guys tread into shady areas - Deep Space Nine, Voyager on occasion - still took care to have the characters recognize that they were treading in dangerous areas and pull back from them at the first opportunity.
The “burn” basically takes all of that and says “that good guy stuff all fell apart because a child screamed. Turns out the Federation’s members didn’t believe in the Federation as an ideal, just as a space superpower, and so didn’t bother putting it back together again once all the ships blew up.”
That makes for a good science fiction premise but not for a good Star Trek premise, IMO.
What if the US empire had to take a look inside and realize what it has been?
That’s actually a fascinating allegory the show refuses to commit to. It has subtle strokes - the war college vs the academy, for one. But never any real commitment. The war college never disbands.
Funny, that’s the most appealing thing about it for me. But it didn’t show much of what rebuilding looks like aside from diplomacy with one species.