Modern Star Trek Fixes A Problem That Killed The Franchise 20 Years Ago

Although Star Trek is still recognizably one of the biggest sci-fi franchises in the world, there was a time when the saga was thrust into redundancy for over a decade before it was brought back and reworked for the modern era. Although there have been many Star Trek movies over the decades, it's the Star Trek TV shows that create the heart of the space opera's sprawling, generational narrative. So, because the franchise has such a storied history, it has understandably gone through many changes since its inception.

Star Trek can generally be split into two eras: the classic shows, and the modern ones. After Star Trek: The Original Series' cast began the story began in 1966, the franchise enjoyed an impressive spell of largely uninterrupted storytelling spanning many movies and TV shows. Unfortunately, Star Trek: Enterprise's season 4 finale was the last fans would see from the Star Trek TV shows for a long while when the Original Series prequel came to an end in 2005. Thankfully, Star Trek has now learned from the lesson that caused its long hiatus.

Many Of The Classic Star Trek Shows Were Too Similar

Star Trek: The Next Generation perfected a formula that lasted until Star Trek: Enterprise's finale

Star Trek: The Original Series was groundbreaking in its time, and Star Trek: The Next Generation refined the formula even further as the show's first live-action spinoff. However, after that, the next three shows started to become less and less distinct from the tweaked blueprint laid out by The Next Generation​​​​​​. Of course, there were differences, but few that were particularly notable when it came to separating most of the classic-era Star Trek TV shows. This resulted in a feeling of sameness and fatigue that led to the franchise as a whole becoming redundant by 2005's Star Trek: Enterprise finale.

There is an argument to be made for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine being a standout among these projects, as it introduced non-Starfleet personnel as part of the main cast and engaged in semi-serialized storytelling. Regardless, when held up against its other contemporaries like Star Trek: Voyager, Deep Space Nine's overall aesthetic and feel still wasn't all that unique. Even delving deep into the timeline's past with Star Trek: Enterprise wasn't quite enough to create a show that came across as a brand-new experience, and it remained that way until Star Trek: Discovery premiered in 2017.

Star Trek's Modern Era Has Experimented Far More With Various Formats

The iconic sci-fi franchise has now toyed with gritty spinoffs and lighthearted comedies

Star Trek: Discovery kickstarted the modern era of the Prime Universe after JJ Abrams' Kelvin Timeline movies. Discovery's drastic differences when compared to the franchise's classic era made many fans believe the show was also set in the Kelvin Timeline, but this was not the case. All five seasons of Star Trek: Discovery are strongly serialized, which was an approach that the advent of streaming services allowed the project to embrace while moving away from its predecessors' episodic format. It also made the divisive decision to have a main character rather than revolve around a traditional ensemble cast.