rooter get so passionate about howJJ Abramshas changedStar Trekbecause oftentimes Star Trek has exchange our lives in some way of life . Why is this franchise so life - transforming while others are not ?
seldom do you hear people saying that The Simpsons changed their lives , even though it is a long - running franchise . And you do n’t see people getting teared up as they remember the first meter they saw Terminator , even though that enfranchisement has n’t quit since the early 1980s . Why does Star Trek stay with people as a source of personal stirring ?
I ca n’t speak for everyone , but I will tender a personal confession . I grow up without a television set in my house , so I was never exposed to the original Star Trek serial except through the movies . Which I saw , and liked , but they did n’t deliver any person - stirring moments of revelation . But then I start out watching Star Trek : The Next Generation with a chemical group of champion right after college . It was the third season , when thing really got good on the show , and I was get in absolutely .
It was a sturdy time for me when I take up following the dangerous undertaking of Picard and crew . I had just begin a really difficult form of survey in graduate schoolhouse , and I was n’t trusted if it was the right thing to be doing with my life . I ’d always had a jolting relationship with my kinsperson , to put it mildly , and I ’d finally had the boldness to sound off them out of my life for good . So I was trying to deal with those giant questions in life-time , like “ Who am I ? ” and “ What is my quest ? ” Most especially , I was trying to find friend who would treat me better than my family had .
I guess I was look for models of residential area , and that ’s why Star Trek : The Next Generation lodged itself so deeply in my heart . I want to trust in a world where mass who were n’t family wish for each other , the way the Enterprise crew did . I wanted to believe that the future would bring me adventures that were n’t always just about smash up things up , but sometimes deal out with rather bookish topic like ethics and geopolitics . I ’m a little embarrassed to allow how closely I examine the demeanour of the crew and prove to imitate them in my raw biography as a adult . I loved how they were very professional and rational , despite their strong aroused ties . When they were upset , the answer was always “ do the body of work ” or “ solve the problem , ” not “ mope unceasingly . ” I ca n’t tell you how many fourth dimension I ’ve told myself “ do the work ” when all I wanted to do was watchword . And it ’s always helped me get through tough things .
I did find a few friends through Star Trek . One of my right supporter for many geezerhood was a major Trek rooter whom I meet the yr I discovered TNG . But it was n’t like I recover a fan residential district who became my new family . It was more that Star Trek aid me suppose how I require my friendships to be , and then I found those friends in the usual places : In school , at oeuvre , at my voluntary task , or randomly at a show .
Star Trek : TNGis the intellect I bribe my first television set . It ’s also the intellect I keep doing difficult things , even when the odds seem stack against me .
So yeah , I get it when masses gross out out over how Abrams changed Star Trek – he ’s messing with a story that helped them through difficulties , or just kept them from get too bored .
At the same time , I think we all know that stories exist in a specific metre and piazza . I ’m not sure that Star Trek : TNG would enamour my heart in the same elbow room if I were to see it now for the first time . And even if Abrams were to mangle my TNG canon the agency he did with the original series , I do n’t remember it would be life - smashing . Why ? Because there would always be the original TNG , the one I saw twenty years ago that changed my life . Even if Abrams or whomever decide that his Picard likes discotheque and Data should marry a gynoid .
The fact is , story are signify to be iterate . You may care them less in the retelling , or you may suddenly like them more ( hence the phenomenon of rebooted Battlestar Galactica ) . But nobody can take aside the stories that modify your living . Those are always going to be yours , unaffected , until the quad twist nibble your ganglion . They will keep urge you , and keep being meaningful . Hopefully , new stories will hail along that intend something to you later in life , or that goad you to natural action in a way you never expected .
I guess what I ’m taste to say is that there ’s a conflict between personal stories and public stories . Star Trek is a public account that belong to the world , for practiced or worse . ( OK rent ’s not get into a copyright discussion correctly now – you know what I think of . ) You ca n’t see what happens to a public story . You ca n’t stop thrash fable pervs like me from writing dirty stories about Spock , and you ca n’t stop nerds like JJ Abrams , Roberto Orci , and Alex Kurtzman from blowing up Vulcan .
But then there ’s your personal Star Trek , the story that count to you . For me , Star Trek : TNG is always going to be a personal story about finding community and solving problems even when it hurts . This , I think , is what power the fandom of Star Trek . It ’s a rich enough public fib that it can spawn gazillion of personal floor , all very real . Fandom is made in personal byways off the public tale , in the unusual little alleys the chronicle builds in its TV audience ’ minds .
And ultimately that ’s why I have no fear that Star Trek will get retold , often badly . What matters most is the personal story , which lives safely in my brain , far beyond the reach of Abrams and his reboot gang .
JJ AbramsMoviesStar TrekTelevision
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