Two completely unrelated thoughts
Nothing new to report on the baby front. We went swimming today and we’re just generally enjoying this whole three-day weekend jazz.
We watched the Star Trek: New Voyages episode World Enough And Time today. I’ll analyze it more thoroughly in a review for the site’s fan film section at a later date, but as nicely-made as it was, it made me realize something: I’m starting to feel like the world of Trek fan films is a momentous wasted opportunity. They’re produced well (hell, some of the production values easily rival the last episodes of the last TV series), acted earnestly, and they represent a fantastic group effort of will. However, they don’t say anything to me. I have yet to see one hit on a social issue like the original Star Trek did, and that’s really bugging me. These people have even fewer levels of censorship to deal with than Gene Roddenberry ever did: it’s just them and the ‘net and the audience. That cuts out so many layers of network bullshit that it just boggles the mind. But most of what we’re getting is just stuff that connects the dots between points of Star Trek continuity, without doing the one thing that has actually kept the original series on the map all these years. I’m aware that the next New Voyages will be a restructured version of David Gerrold’s never-produced AIDS/gay-themed TNG script Blood And Fire, but that’s a 20 year old script. I’m convinced that Roddenberry would be jazzed that the fans are making Trek now, but I’m also convinced that he’d be doing 30,000 RPM in his grave to see that no one’s touching big modern issues with it.
I find the fan films entertaining, but there’s just a nagging feeling of fandom-with-its-head-up-its-own-ass here. Star Trek broke ground and made people think in the 1960s. Have the fans forgotten, or just lost their nerve?… Read more
