Pitfalls the Star Trek TV Reboot Needs To Remember to Avoid

The Star Trek reboot is exciting but there are things that each series has done that many deem wrong. Here’s a look at what we don’t want the reboot to do.

Each of the Star Trek series is well loved. People revisit them time and time again, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t things we’d like to change about them. Every show has a rough go of it in the beginning and Star Trek is no exception. So, going through each reboot of the show, it is clear to see what we don’t want the newest reboot to do.

With Star Trek: The Original Series, the main complaint is that it was too short. Mainly because it was ahead of the curve and also that the stories fell flat in comparison to later series. But one thing remains true: The characters were amazing. Travelling to distant galaxies with Captain Kirk and his team aboard the Starship Enterprise was what made that original series so legendary! Hopefully this will not happen to the new show.

From left, British actor Patrick Stewart (as Captain Jean-Luc Picard), British-American actress Marina Sirtis (as Counselor Deanna Troi), and American actors Brent Spiner (as Lieutenant Commander Data) and Jonathan Frakes (as Commander William T. Riker) in a scene from the final episode of the television series ‘Star Trak: The Next Generation,’ entitled ‘All Good Things…’, May 23, 1994. (Photo by CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images)

Now, Star Trek: The Next Generation is regarded as one of the best of the franchise. However, the first three seasons took a while to start up. The reboot will have no such luxury. (The Muppets reboot was dead by the third episode.) They were trying to be the original series rather than tackling their own feel of Star Trek and it took them a while to shake that. We need the reboot not to make this error.

With Deep Space Nine (my personal favorite of the Star Trek series), a lot of people have a problem with the fact that the crew did not get along. Part of Gene Roddenberry’s world was that a crew from all different walks of life could work together in harmony. Well, DS9 decided that they couldn’t and some members of the crew did not like each other. Still though, it has some of the best story-lines and truly holds up. If the reboot can walk that conflict line, it might have the chance to be the best of the series.

Kate Mulgrew (as Captain Kathryn Janeway) in a scene from an episode of the television series ‘Star Trek: Voyager’ (Photo by CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images)

With Voyager, it was like the show learned all the wrong lessons of fan complaints with DS9. Ronald D. Moore (who went on to create Battlestar Galatica) has famously complained that he signed on thinking the premise of a starship millions of light years from home, trying to scavenge their way back would be a darker, grittier version of the franchise. (This was before “dark and gritty” became the cliche they are today, so he was ahead of his time in this.) Instead he found himself straightjacketed into a very narrow vision fo the show, one with zero conflict allowed, and even less dark or gritty anything. The lesson to take from this? Listen to the creatives! Who knows what Voyager could have been if Moore had been allowed to even have a quarter of his vision?

By Enterprise, the franchise had become fatigued and the shows reflected that. They were hokie and they weren’t really given a chance. Like the reboot, they were also set much closer to our present. But the real crime? Suggesting the series finale (and perhaps the entire series itself) was all just a holographic simulation that was being watched by the TNG crew. It wasn’t quite full St. Elsewhere, but fans were disappointed nonetheless.

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Given A New Chance

But this new reboot has the chance to change everything. With a successful movie reboot, the TV show has it made. It has the ability to explore worlds like we know and love and come to expect with Star Trek. It can boldly go where no show has gone before (which isn’t technically true since 5 versions of Trek exist but you get the picture).

So this January, watch the newest of the Star Trek series. Embrace a world Roddenberry dreamed of. Reflect and see what we could be if we all worked together for a better cause and to explore space: the final frontier.