By Robert Gillis
Old Earth Date: February 2023
This Trekker is still having fun! I haven’t “cared” about Star Trek in a VERY long time — but I’m enjoying NuTrek.
Except for Star Trek: Discovery, whose most recent season I still need to watch, I am all caught up on current (stardate 2023) Star Trek. (Note: Not really interested in Star Trek Prodigy (yet))
I wrapped season 3 of Discovery early last year — I like, but do not love, Star Trek Discovery. Love Michael Burnham’s character who is (wait for it) fascinating and cast is uniformly VERY good; I’m just kinda sick of the Klingons and Mirror Universe. Season two was definitely more interesting and felt less like a re-tread. Still getting used to the jump to the 31st century in season 3 — but definitely makes for interesting stories. Good for one, but not repeated, viewings… (Like anyone has time for THAT these days)
Much better — I love the fun and episodic format in “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” (and the characters, new and old, are superb) and the show, at its heart, a joyous remake of the original series with all the good and very little of not-so-good. The actors are A+ and visually, it is stunning and VERY close to heart of “original” Trek. Looking forward to season two of this one!
I like, but do not love, Star Trek Picard. It’s just so… Melancholy. And Plodding. Despite the outstanding Patrick Stewart and great cast, it just feels so padded. They have 10 precious hours a season but could easily tell the story in half as many episodes and jettison the go-nowhere sub-plots and dribble. Both season 1 and season 2 could easily have been told more effectively in 5-6 episodes each. And the time travel aspect of season 2? Even this geek can’t get my head around it.
BEST BY FAR: The absolute cream of the crop and arguably the BEST Star Trek of the modern era is “Lower Decks.” It is absolutely JOYFUL and absolutely hilarious and the references to every other Star Trek are off the charts funny — and the characters incredibly likable. Yeah, it can be over the top but it’s got so much HEART and is so much fun it’s just a GREAT SHOW!
Bring on season three of Star Trek Picard this week, which features a reunion of the Next Generation cast — let’s see this so called “Final Adventure” of the beloved Next Gen cast — I love this cast and am hoping the season gives them the farewell movie they deserved but never got (“Nemesis”) and is a good story (and let’s have some fun people!).
And for now (2023.42), onto Discovery Season 4…