We’ve all seen the hype. Seemingly everyone who got to see the show early has been praising it non-stop. Finally TNG is back! The best Star Trek since Enterprise! Terry Matalas has saved Star Trek! Yayyyy!!!!
Ok, cool. The trailers are still dark and moody and aCkTiOn-pAcKeD!1 and Picard is still a dead robot and Raffi is still in it and… wait, is that Lore? Oh, ffs.
Anyway, for us peasants who have to wait another week to see ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶s̶e̶c̶o̶n̶d̶ ̶c̶o̶m̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶G̶e̶n̶e̶ ̶R̶o̶d̶d̶e̶n̶b̶e̶r̶r̶y̶’̶s̶ Terry Matalas’ work, here’s three things that I hope and pray will come true:
No mirror universe crap. Ever.
No “Confederation.” No fascist Starfleet that hates Romulan refugees. No murderous commodores or android genocides or anything else nuTrek has deemed “cool and edgy.” There’s a huge difference between a classic Badmiral antagonist who highlights the moral position of our beloved protagonists and literally making Starfleet the enemy. Stop it, nuTrek. That’s a bad nuTrek.
#JusticeForBev
It’s no secret to anyone with a passing familiarity with TNG that Picard and Dr. Crusher are star-crossed… friends? Well, there’s your first clue that the writers of STP had no idea what they’re doing. For season 3, they finally figured it out and brought in Bev. The pessimist in me that’s had 2 seasons of killing of fan-favorite characters — sometimes gruesomely, I can’t help but be somewhat apprehensive. Don’t you dare mess with the Dancing Doctor, Matalas. Don’t you dare.
Good starships!
After the S1 Inquiry Class fiasco, they improved a little with S2. Most notably, they brought in the Star Trek Online ship designers and had them add some quality to the show’s art department. Then they did even better and brought in renowned starship designer Bill Krause! Yay!! Unfortunately, the result was the Stargazer, which looks like a John Eaves interpretation of a scarab beetle.
For Season 3 we have a new hero ship, the USS Titan-A, a Constitution III class starship. Just typing that sentence made me cringe. Now, let’s take a look at this nonsense:
Gross.
The sad thing is that Bill Krause’s original design is beautiful! The TMP-era USS Shangri-La is awesome.
Anyway, given nuTrek’s track record, I’m not holding my breath on this one. Starships aren’t what make or break these shows, but hopefully it’ll be a positive part of the show for the first time in nuTrek history.