How had new Treks been received in the past?

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sunnyside
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How had new Treks been received in the past?

Post by sunnyside »

While I had seen the odd TOS or TNG episode, my first Trek was Enterprise.

I've seen a lot of negativity towards new incarnations of Trek, but what I'm wondering is how previous new Treks were welcomed, and I'm thinking some of the folks here were around for that. Maybe even being interested in cons or early bbs type forums where you'd be discussing TNG with others, and then with an increasingly connected fanbase for each new one.
Last edited by sunnyside on Mon Mar 11, 2019 4:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: How had new Treks been received in the past?

Post by Graham Kennedy »

I remember when TNG came out, there was a fair bit of "it's not the original series so it sucks" going on. And people didn't generally like the Enterprise-D at first either. Initially people didn't like Picard very much - if you look back to the first season or two Picard is actually a fair bit more grumpy and unlikeable than he would be later, so there was that. It also didn't help that a couple of the early episodes were near as dammit direct remakes of original series episodes.

That mostly changed with Best of Both Worlds, which won a lot of people over.


Deep Space Nine wasn't that controversial or disliked, to my memory. A lot of people complained that it was a space station that didn't go anywhere, but they weren't big haters. The most distaste for the show came from Babylon 5 fans, because JMS pitched Babylon 5 as a series to the network a year or two before DS9 came along. They passed on it... then made a show that was, in many ways, very similar.

-Both set on a space station.
-Both stations have a 'portal' nearby that brings people and things to them.
-Both station commanders wind up as a religious figure.

Whether you buy that or not, a lot of B5 fans did and there was some animosity there. In fact that's why Majel Barret did a guest spot on B5, to try and bring the fans of both shows together a bit. Koenig's Bester helped there, too.


Voyager, I remember there was some discussion about having a female Captain, but honestly most fans I saw talking about it thought it was a great idea, or just flat didn't care. I don't remember ever seeing fans complain about a female Captain. I gather there was some reluctance from the network, though.


Now Enterprise caused trouble. A lot of fans complained that the ship was all wrong for the era (I was one complaining), it was too advanced, it mucked the timeline around too much, etc. People also complained about the "Temporal Cold War", which never really worked.


So there's generally been something to complain about in each new show. But it's never been anything close to what's gone on in the last couple of years.
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Re: How had new Treks been received in the past?

Post by McAvoy »

From what I remember TNG got flak for things that we recognize now. Picard being stiff and inflexible. Data being a ripoff of Spock. Recycled scripts etc.

DS9 was always considered a dark Trek. Still is.

Voyager had a lot going for it. But from what I have seen its a love or hate thing. Either you hate it or you love it and nothing in between.

Enterprise I think because it came out when the internet was much more mature received its most critical criticism compared to the other series.
Last edited by McAvoy on Fri Mar 15, 2019 8:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: How had new Treks been received in the past?

Post by IanKennedy »

I thought VOY was weak at the start, and then I saw "Jetrel" and was stunned. One of the best episodes of trek ever.
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