By Drew Dietsch
| Published
Modern Star Trek holds no interest for me anymore. I’ve talked about this already so I’m not going to rehash a whole bunch of those points. The only thing I want to focus on is the idea that Star Trek is no longer for adults. The various TV shows are all aiming to retain a younger generation of fans. That means a whole lot of pizazz and flashiness take precedence over smart stories and complex characters.
After the widespread success of Andor for Star Wars, I hope someone at Paramount is reconsidering making a Star Trek series that’s mature and difficult. There is clearly a large audience for this kind of material if Andor is any indication. So, why hasn’t Star Trek tried to make something in that vein?
If you want my opinion (why else are you reading this?), Star Trek needs to do something outside of the box for an adult audience. I think there is a very easy way to do this with a genre that is time-tested: Star Trek needs to make a legal thriller.
Make Star Trek Serious Again
One of the big issues for lapsed Star Trek fans like myself is that the older shows presented groups of military professionals acting like professionals. There was a cadence and tone to the crews of the USS Enterprise and the folks on Deep Space Nine that has been wholly abandoned by modern Star Trek. I’m not saying I’m averse to silliness in Star Trek — “Take Me Out to the Holosuite” is one of my favorite episodes — but there has been an overall shift towards flippant characters and wackiness with modern Star Trek.
A Star Trek legal thriller would offer a chance to return to a serious setting with professionals who need to display a certain level of stoicism in their job. It doesn’t mean the story being told can’t be entertaining, but a legal setting would offer a structure for Star Trek to present itself in the same tone as those classic shows.
And it’s not like there aren’t modern inspirations Star Trek could pull from for a legal thriller series.
Just Turn It Into Star Trek Instead
I came up with a pitch for a Star Trek legal thriller series after I watched two movies from last year: Conclave and Juror #2. These were both engaging and mature movies with complex characters and motivations that made me go, “This would be great if Star Trek did something like this.” I won’t go into my pitch (unless folks are interested, find me on social media) but suffice to say that it was nice to feel inspired by those two movies. I recommend them both to anyone but especially if you want to see how you could turn them into Star Trek stories for adults.
They offer compelling protagonists caught in systems of power that they have to navigate for their own survival. Instead of sloppo like Section 31, this would be a great way to delve into the stickier and even shadier parts of Starfleet. And most importantly, it wouldn’t have to downplay its drama, dialogue, or characters to pander to a supposed younger audience. It could tell an adult story for adults like Andor.
I don’t enjoy being done with modern Star Trek, so I hope something will come along that reminds me of the franchise’s golden era. A Star Trek legal thriller seems ripe for that chance.
