By The “Star Trek” fandom can be divided into many things – Kirk vs. Picard, DS9 vs. everything else, Threshold vs. Sub Rosa vs. These Are the Voyages for worst-ever episode, etc.
One thing where there is some unity is with modern “Star Trek”. Whilst “Strange New Worlds,” “Lower Decks,” “Prodigy’ and the last season of “Picard” have been well-received and acclaimed, the first two seasons of “Picard” and the still going “Star Trek: Discovery” have had a far more mixed reception.
Indeed, poor ‘Discovery’ has become a bit of a punching bag in the fandom – often the target of haters not just of Trek in general but within Trek in much the same way the “Star Wars” sequel trilogy is in that fandom.
This hasn’t been lost on its cast members, especially leading actress Sonequa Martin-Green who is often the target of some of the bile spewed online. In a recent cruise panel via TrekMovie, she revealed one former “Star Trek” cast member helped them all out a lot with the initial blowback they got from fans:
“Remember y’all in the beginning when we had a lot of criticism, and people [were] coming for us for a lot of reasons. It made sense. We always said we understood where they were coming from.
And we had so much respect because those criticisms were coming from a place of love and loyalty and intelligence and intellect and all of that… But we were like [makes pained expression] ‘We’ve got so many people to prove and to ourselves too.
So Jonathan Frakes – one of our favorite directors – really shepherded us and took us under his wing. He welcomed us as a proxy for the rest of the franchise. And he was like, ‘No, no, no. Welcome. This is how it goes. They hated us too.’
They used to get letters like, ‘We don’t need you… why are you trying to get in the way of our Kirk and Spock?’ He said it took [TNG] like three seasons for them to finally take hold of us.
I remember how we were so comforted by that. I’m still grateful for him to this day because he was really kind of like a Papa Big Brother for us in the beginning.”
The show has been a reaction magnet from the get-go, the first season drawing controversy for violating established canon and kicking off with an ill-advised Klingon arc.
The show saw an improvement in sentiment in both its Mirror Universe-themed back half first season, and its second season introducing what would become some key ‘Strange New Worlds’ crew.
The third and fourth season jumped to the far future, but those runs have also proven divisive. Overall though, whether true or not, the series has become emblematic of the “Star Trek” era under executive producer Alex Kurtzman which some have a real problem with.
The fifth and final season of “Star Trek: Discovery” premieres April 4th on Paramount+.
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