When Star Trek came back to television with Star Trek: The Next Generation, no one quite knew how long it would last. As fans of the original show and its 3 seasons, we were hopeful to see at least that many, but then the writer's strike hit season 2 production and all bets were off.
Somehow, they managed to survive bad scripts and a clip show that rounded out season 2 and went on to an amazing seven full seasons, 20+ episodes in each. Deep Space Nine and Voyager ran almost identical races, the only significant difference being Voyager's short first season.
Then came LONG drought of Trek on television. When Discovery was announced decades later, we Trek fans were thrilled. I think it's fair to say that most Trek fans weren't crushed when it only went five seasons of between 10 and 15 episodes.
Personally, I was crushed when Lower Decks only went 5 seasons of ten episodes each. That show is EASILY my favourite Trek since Deep Space Nine. An animated treasure and I truly hope they find a way to bring some of those characters into future projects.
Then came Strange New Worlds, spun out of Discovery and EXPLODING onto our televisions.
Back in the 90's, I kept screaming that instead of going forward in time (TNG, DS9, VOY) they should go BACK and make the Adventures of Captain Pike with THIS GUY:
While Ray Liotta can no longer pick up the mantle, Anson Mount's Christopher Pike is a very nice surprise and has entirely won me over. I don't even hate the recast Spock. Don't love him, but I don't hate him. Rebecca Romijn as Number One was inspired casting and won me over from the jump.
Happily and sadly, they've been renewed for a fifth and final season of only 6 episodes.
As much as it sucks that 5 seasons seems to be the new finish line for Trek shows, it's not entirely bad news. I've said for years that I'd rather have 8 strong episodes per season of pretty much any show, rather than 20 episodes that are all only mediocre. Why Hollywood can no longer sustain 20+ seasons of most shows is, in my opinion, not a question of not enough writers. I think they finally figured out that if they hire the best writers, get good stuff out of them and don't bother slotting in meh episodes written by committee, the output might be fewer hours but better quality and thus more profitable in the long term.
Or not. What do I know.
With a definite finish line in place the season after the one they're currently filming, they really should be able to stick the landing:
All I know is that I'll be glued to SNW for whatever they're gonna give us until they warp off our screens for the final time.
Now if they would just give Seven of Nine her spin off, I could write a companion article entitled "Will 7 Go 5?"
P.S. Obviously, if they do give Seven her spin off and it does go to five seasons, there would be a follow up to that, entitled: 7 of 9 To 5
2 comments:
There is talk (just rumors so far) of a 4th season of The Orville. So, there's that.
I would love that. The Orville is some of the best Trek since DS9 went off the air.
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