Cultural Vandalism | The Ruin of Star Wars and Doctor Who

As I pointed out in my Is It Ethical to Recontextualize Star Trek Canon?, this is a dangerous road we are going down here.

IT IS UNETHICAL, there are proper moments for retcons, but doing so in the service of a political agenda is evil and dangerous.

There's no reason whatsoever to remove William Hartnell as the First Doctor. NONE beyond doing so in a "What if..." none canon violating dream experiment ratings grab. 

I said it before, and I will say it here. This is Stalinist in its bold revisionism of the past and should be soundly rejected by all true Geeks across all fandoms wherever it comes about.

Be it in Doctor Who, Star Trek, or Star Wars, and ever other place in-between.

When I say this. I want you to keep something in mind. I write almost exclusively female protagonists. But they are protagonists in their own right do not exist to rip down the history of male figures. Oh they are also usually (very) flawed. However, we won't talk about the profusion of Mary Sues just now.

For me this is about the preservation of history, as it existed. Spock never had an adopted sister but he does have a half-brother, yes even Gene Roddenberry was wrong to try to paper over Sybok and George Lucas was wrong to stop Han from shooting first. 

Is It Ethical to Recontextualize Star Trek Canon?

Let me state upfront. I have no problems with a hard reboot, that takes elements of existing Trek Canon, and remixes them. Provided its clear, that yes, its a reboot with a new creative force driving it.

The more I've had time to digest the matter, the more uneasy I've become with what Star Trek: Discovery is doing. It is not simply a clean reboot - Rather, it wants things both ways. To be original, or at least modern, while grafting itself onto existing canon and therefor forcing those who might have issues to shut up, and like it.


Like I said. When I watched both seasons, it became clear, there are really two different TV series here.

The body of Star Trek Canon is, everything from The Cage, all the way up to Star Trek: Nemesis. Anything that comes after, and is not pushing the time line forward is, at best supplemental.

The jury, of course remains seated, and hearing the case, where it comes to Star Trek: Picard. Is that simply pushing the time line forward, or will it also be supplemented by things Star Trek: Discovery adding new context to The Next Generation?

Artistically, in regards to pop culture, this is indeed highly disturbing. Rewriting history, by skewing a body of works historical context, with modern - Agenda, is almost Stalinist in its revisionism.

Would Gene Roddenberry, be OK with Michael Burnham, a HUMAN foster  sibling being grafted onto Spock's history? I'm not so sure... He was not even keen on Sybok, and let me state, Sybok, as a character makes more sense as a contrast to Spock, than Michael Burnham does from a story telling standpoint. It literally makes sense, Sarek would have had a pre-Amanda Grayson, purely Vulcan coupling, given what we know about Vulcan history and culture.

Is it ethical, to do this?

I'm not attacking here, I'm sincerely ASKING.

Is it?

Star Trek: Picard

I want to make it clear, there will be spoilers here.

I'll get this out of the way This is not Star Trek. Not too much about this enthuses me.

So what is this?

Apparently its a platform for Sir Patrick Stewart to preach at the world about Brexit and the election of President Trump. And does not do it very artful either which only makes watching it unfold more tedious.

Look, as an actor, I like Patrick Stewart. I could do without his blatant political commentary.


Do the producers of this show, know the United States is not StarFleet, and in reality is a sovereign nation without unlimited tech like replicators? Oh and the Romulan Star Empire is supposed to be a an EMPIRE which kind of implies a functioning military able to move people and resources around.

An empire does not fall just because of one planet being blow up. the Romulans are paranoids. They would never place all their eggs in one basket and, they would also have sufficient resources all by themselves to relocate their populace. Never mind the Vulcans would never abandon their brethren, even if the Federation (They keep talking about StarFleet) would ever act in such an out of characteristic manner. 

It does not even fit the nature of what the United Federation of Planets is. Its sort of a UN. Earth is sovereign entity within its body, yet is not the whole of the UFP, or StarFleet. Somewhere in recent Star Trek these related but not monolithic entities have become a mush.

An alliance of planets is not going to ever do, what Star Trek: Picard, tells us it did. There are a whole host of reasons this Romulans as refugees fails as story point and metaphor.   I blame Sir Patrick Stewart for this more than anyone else. When it comes to creative input where Star Trek stands he has a terrible track record.

Speaking of. Not only does this show seem to play loose with TNG, it also ironically enough rides over JJ Abrams 2009 Star Trek movie. The nova that blew up Romulus wasn't their own sun but another faraway star going nova.

Not here. The Romulan's own sun blew them up.

Do you know how stupid that is?

Oh and I guess Bruce Maddox is the big bad guy of the series. Did Patrick Stewart watch Measure of a Man? Yeah Maddox began as the heavy of the episode by by the end of it things were all kosher and he was on Team Data.

Making Bruce Maddox a terrorist for Synthetics rights, to "Own President Trump" is going to fall flat.

Huh?

Somehow they have managed to ruin Noonian Soong without even mentioning his name...

Its hard for me to cover just how badly they have handled Data and what Data actually is. The writers have no understanding of what a Soong-Type Android is, or what went into their construction.

We can now... Clone them. What?

Oh its like they don't get the joke of B4, and have forgotten all about Lore. Hint B4 was the prototype and Lore and Data were the perfected models - Each in their own turn. The writers don't seem to grasp this.

Why are they ripping off Battlestar Galactica and Blade Runner?

By the way. Does the Federations (They oddly only talk about StarFleet these days in Kurtzman Star Trek) novel ban on "synthetics" apply to holograms?

I am sure Robert Picardo's EMH is pleased he's been outlawed. Providing they are consistent about what it means to outlaw synthetics and this is just not some poorly thought out emotional manipulation on the part of those involved.

Speaking of off screen characters, who are poorly treated. Do you know, Dr. Beverly Crusher is dead?

Why? Why do that? Is Gates McFadden retired? If is OK. But still DON"T KILL A LEGACY CHARACTER OFF -- OFF SCREEN.

Enterprise-E, what's that? Guess Secret Hideout didn't licence it, even though it would have made more sense. However the D is more a memberberry.

They seem to forget all about the Enterprise-E while making indirect references to Star Trek: Nemesis, without outright doing so. And that is because who owns what and how the deal which was made between Bad Robot and CBS that got us to where we are today has been written.

The movies are owned by Paramount.

Did I mention, this is too contemporary? Not only in how it looks but in how people behave and talk. Its like Millennials glanced at a wiki entry for TNG and tried to recreate it without very many visual references or an understanding of what they were remaking.

My understanding is, this is all going to go off the rails by the 4th episode and CBS is bracing for the backlash. I don't need to even see that much, since all the signs are there for where this is going and I am sorry.

This is not Star Trek, though its dressed up in vague The Next Generation clothes to try to fool a few people. It will briefly succeed in fooling those people. Either because it affirms their political biases, or they've been caught up by nostalgia watching Patrick Stewart play a Picard-like figure for the first time in a long while.

Star Trek: Picard, is bland and is only going to go downhill from here.