Entertainment
Did Star Trek’s Best Series Secretly Doom The Franchise?
By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is considered the best show in the franchise by many fans, myself included. The show focused on extensive characterization, long-running arcs, and fairly dark plots, including the Dominion War story that dominated the last two seasons. Decades later, NuTrek shows like Discovery, Picard, and Starfleet Academy fizzled, leaving the frustrated fandom to ask a simple question: why can’t these newer shows be more like Deep Space Nine?
However, here’s a troubling fact: NuTrek sucked so much precisely because the creators were trying to make shows like DS9. Obviously, they didn’t do a very good job, mostly because executive producer Alex Kurtzman is a complete hack. But if you pound a few shots of Romulan Ale and squint, you can see that the architects of NuTrek went all-in on the idea of creating “darker” Star Trek shows in a failed attempt to recapture the magic of what made Deep Space Nine so special.
Star Trek Into Darkness
Deep Space Nine is considered the dark (if not the darkest) Star Trek show for many reasons. It doesn’t feature the squeaky-clean heroes of The Next Generation; instead, our heroes include a former terrorist (Kira), a former spy (Garak), and an angry widower who ends up becoming a reluctant Space Jesus (Sisko). His chief foe is basically Trek’s closest analog to Adolf Hitler (Gul Dukat). Even the relatively “normal” characters get dark backgrounds and plots. For example, fresh-faced medical prodigy Dr. Bashir is revealed to be a Khan-like augmented human. Affable everyman O’Brien, meanwhile, gets physically and mentally tortured at least once a season.
The show also used its Dominion War arc to test the boundaries of Star Trek’s endless idealism. Sisko becomes an accessory to a murder, but he never admits it because this act finally gets the Romulans to join the war. He also discovers that Starfleet has a secret wetworks division known as Section 31, which handles everything from assassinations to genocides. Odo gets so distracted by shapeshifter sex that he becomes a collaborator with monsters (again). Oh, and Worf murders Gowron (with Sisko’s blessing!) so he can install his buddy as Chancellor of the Klingon Empire.
NuTrek Is An Edgerlord’s Paradise
Obviously, DS9 had dark characters and storylines, but what does that have to do with NuTrek? In short, the entire Kurtzman era of this franchise has been filled with lame, edgelord attempts at making the franchise darker. The first season of Star Trek: Discovery, for example, centers on a mutineer who started a war as its main character. It’s a season where Klingons eat their dead foes and strip down to engage in sex that’s half play, half intimate assault. An evil Starfleet captain tortures a tardigrade before the good Starfleet captains one-up him with a plan to blow up an entire planet in an attempt to end a costly war.
Star Trek continued going (ahem) into darkness with other spinoffs. Picard inexplicably features a beloved Voyager B-lister getting tortured and murdered while Picard cozies up to a Romulan swordsman whose only solution to any problem is cutting someone’s head off. They’re fighting to save a Federation that is now cool with creating synthetic slaves. Later, Season 2 has our heroes fighting ICE, watching Q die, and discovering that a young Picard accidentally helped his mother unalive herself. Even the relatively lighthearted Starfleet Academy had the good guys put the entire Federation in danger because they meddled with and accidentally weaponized the most dangerous molecule in the galaxy.
It’s All About Testing Characters’ Morality
In retrospect, it’s clear that Alex Kurtzman and his writers thought they could recapture the old Deep Space Nine magic by throwing a bunch of grimdark characters into gritty situations and calling it a day. However, this didn’t work because DS9’s characters weren’t inherently dark; instead, they were good men and women forced to weigh their morals against the greater good. In the classic episode “In the Pale Moonlight,” Sisko isn’t compelling simply because he’s a morally murky character. No, what makes this episode fascinating is that he’s a good man forced to do bad things, with the fate of potentially billions of lives riding on his decision.
Similarly, Worf doesn’t kill Gowron because of petty vengeance or a haunted past. Instead, he weighs his cultural values as both a Klingon and a Starfleet officer, ultimately deciding it’s better to kill a tyrant than let him continue getting others killed. Even plain, simple Garak seems happy with his life as a tailor, and he’s only reluctantly drawn back into active spycraft because he realizes the best way to save his homeworld is to save it from the Cardassians who have sold its soul, one alliance at a time.
This obviously extends to the Dominion War arc as a whole. We see the toll the war has on good men and women: Nog becomes a wounded and disillusioned war veteran, and Rom nearly gets killed trying to save the Alpha Quadrant. Jadzia Dax does get killed fighting superpowered space Hitler, and Odo begins to question his loyalties. However, characters retain their morality throughout every ordeal. Bashir repeatedly refuses to join Section 31, and Odo saves the Changelings from that organization’s attempted genocide. Standing victorious on Cardassia, Captain Sisko and Admiral Ross refuse to toast their victory, instead choosing to mourn this utterly senseless and completely preventable loss of life.
NuTrek Made Its Worst Villain Into A Hero
Compare that to NuTrek, where the Klingon War hardens hearts and makes the wisest people lose their moral compass. Both Sarek and Starfleet are willing to blow up the Klingon homeworld and kill billions in order to end the war. Starfleet has suddenly decided to trust its war planning to Mirror Universe Georgiou, a woman who has terrorized the entire galaxy while murdering countless people. Later, she’s put in Section 31 (a DS9 invention NuTrek tried very hard to capitalize on) so the entire Federation can continue to benefit from her completely amoral advice. That’s because the Feds believed the same thing that Picard suddenly starts believing over a century later: violence is great as long as the ends justify the means.
This is basically the problem with NuTrek in a nutshell. We don’t get fully fleshed-out characters whose morality is tested by unthinkable scenarios. Instead, we get one-dimensional characters who are dark and compromised from the beginning. Michael Burnham is meant to be the embodiment of Starfleet ideals, but she comes to us as an angry, nearly broken mutineer who, in her guilt, saves an alternate universe’s most murderous monster from certain doom. Even formerly complex characters like Picard are made dumb, violent, and impulsive by writers who value blunt spectacle over elegant storytelling.
Star Trek Needs More Than Darkness
Alex Kurtzman tried to copy the Deep Space Nine formula for NuTrek, but, in typical fashion, he went about it in the stupidest possible way. It’s not enough to give us dark settings and plots; we need well-developed characters whose morality is an idealistic counterpart to the darkness around them. Stories needed to reinforce Star Trek’s hopeful ethos and reward audiences who never lost faith in the greatest sci-fi franchise of all time. Instead, what we got was a collection of dark characters, pointless action scenes, and endless violence, all wrapped up with another snoozeworthy Michael Burnham speech.
This is Kurtzman’s warped idea of what makes Star Trek so great. Is it any wonder that every one of his NuTrek shows has been a colossal failure?
Entertainment
Khloé Kardashian Says Daughter True Thompson Has an 'Elevated' Way of Wearing Her XO Blue Perfume
Like mother, like daughter! Khloé Kardashian’s new XO Blue perfume has already earned the approval of daughter True Thompson.
Ahead of the launch party in Malibu, California on June 16, The Kardashians star shared that Thompson, 8, is already taking after her in one unexpected way.
“She doesn’t wear fragrance on a daily basis, but she has the Squishmallows fragrance, which is so cute and age-appropriate, and then she has all of mine on her counter, and sometimes she sprays herself, and sometimes she doesn’t, but they’re into scents, these kids,” she explained during a virtual press day.
When Kardashian’s daughter does decide to borrow one of the reality television star’s favorites, she has her own way of doing things.
“I do let her use it, but it’s everything in moderation and she’s so great. She sprays her clothes and not herself, which I’m like, ‘Okay, elevated.’ I love when kids are smarter and more creative than we are. So, she doesn’t spray her body, which I’m fine with.”
It’s a far cry from Kardashian’s own spritzing habits growing up.
“When I was younger, it was Bath and Body Works. … I mean, we doused ourselves in the most potent of stuff.”
These days, though, Kardashian is chasing vacation vibes with her signature scent.
“XO Blue is very tropical, in my opinion. I think when you put it on, you immediately get this woody coconut. I feel very transported onto a beach with a piña colada. … It’s still something that you can wear, but I just love where it transports me to.”
And for the Khloé In Wonder Land podcast host, the appeal goes beyond an island getaway.
“I just want you to feel the sexiest at your core, and that doesn’t have to be this aesthetic thing.”
“For me, that’s all energetically. I just want you to feel just super sexy and feminine and that you can manhandle anyone and do whatever you want to do, and you’re just that girl. … You want to be in a summer dress or a tank top. It’s so silly that that’s how I feel when I’m wearing it, but I feel like the less clothes, the better.”
The Khloud founder is just as passionate about what goes into her body as what goes on it.
“I love peptides. I don’t know if that’s a secret. I feel like everyone takes a peptide. … I take injections, which I love, and they just make you feel good and you look good. … I’m also a big vitamin girl and just staying active. There’s not one thing that’s gonna make anything all better.”
RELATED CONTENT:
Entertainment
Set Phasers To Fun: The Year Of Star Trek Video Games Is Here
By Chris Snellgrove
| Updated
Star Trek has been entertaining sci-fi fans for 60 years through TV shows, movies, books, and comics. There’s only one entertainment sector where the franchise historically falters: video games. If we’re being honest, there have only ever been a handful of really good Star Trek games, and the best ones came out literally decades ago. Because of that, any Star Trek fans looking to lose themselves in a good video game would be forgiven for giving a Bones-like prognosis to the state of modern Trek titles: “it’s dead, Jim!”
However, all of that is changing. We already got Star Trek: Voyager—Across the Unknown, a game that puts us in command of Voyager as the crew tries to make it back home from the Delta Quadrant. Later this year, we’ll be getting a SimCity-style game (Star Trek: Outposts Unknown) as well as a digital, customizable card battler (Star Trek Warp). Next year, Star Trek: Shadow Frontier will put us in control of Ro Laren, with Michelle Forbes reprising her role from The Next Generation. So, what’s the deal with all these games? What are they about, and when can you play them? Keep scrolling to replicate answers to all these questions!
Finally, You Can Kill Tuvix Yourself
The first game to kick off the Star Trek video game renaissance is Star Trek: Voyager—Across the Unknown, and it takes the franchise where it has never gone before. You take control of Voyager after it is zapped into the Delta Quadrant, and like Captain Janeway, you must help everyone find their way back home to the Alpha Quadrant. Much of the game is spent managing finite resources and using your best judgment of which systems to prioritize. Speaking of judgment, you’ll have to make snap calls in several adventures (including recreations of iconic Voyager dilemmas, like whether to kill Tuvix) that can save the day or possibly get everyone killed.
The general consensus on Star Trek: Voyager—Across the Unknown (which is out now on console and PC) is that it’s good but not great. The most notable thing about it is arguably its sandbox nature and its emphasis on resource management. Historically, many Star Trek games have been shooters, real-time strategy games, and RPGs filled with bonkers puzzles. This was the first game to focus extensively on both resource management and narrative choices, making it arguably the best Starfleet captain simulation since the 2002 title Star Trek: Bridge Commander.
Two More To Beam Up
Surprisingly enough, we’re going to get two more Star Trek games this year. One of them is Star Trek: Outposts Unknown (which will be released for PC and console sometime this year). This game is designed like SimCity, but with a Trek twist. Basically, you are trying to build, maintain, and defend an outpost on a distant planet. That means exploring strange new worlds, gathering resources, and defending everyone from the planet’s most hostile creatures. While not exactly a cozy game, the Outposts Unknown demo (which is out on Steam) proved surprisingly relaxing, which may be good news for players who don’t like the intensity of games like StarCraft.
The other big Star Trek video game of 2026 is Star Trek Warp. This title is described as a “card battler” that lets players “choose characters from a huge roster of Star Trek legends, heroes, and villains, and deploy them at iconic locations like Ten-Forward and the Warp Core.” With seven virtual lanes to defend, this game is designed to keep you on your toes; the title also features both PvE and PvP modes. Overall, Warp sounds like the weird lovechild of League of Legends (what with the lane defense) and the old Star Trek Customizable Card Game. That might just help it appeal to both young fans and older fans.
A New Strategy And An Old Legend
The most exciting new Star Trek game won’t be coming out until next year. Star Trek: Shadow Frontier is a survival horror title where a Starfleet officer must survive on a mysterious planet. The twist? That officer is Ro Laren, who once left the Enterprise-D to join the Maquis before making her way back to Starfleet. Since her surprise appearance in Picard, fans have been wondering how she went from being a principled rebel to being a good, rule-abiding officer. Shadow Frontier may very well give us that explanation. If nothing else, it will give us something unique: a Silent Hill-type game set in the Star Trek universe.
So, what’s up with this sudden influx of Star Trek video games? The smart money is that Paramount is continuing to throw everything at the wall with this franchise to see what sticks. No Star Trek show is currently in development, and the only definitive thing on the horizon is a movie intended to give this universe its second huge reboot. Trek games (particularly those featuring characters like Ro Laren and Tuvok) are a way of appealing to older fans who like the IP and younger fans who just like gaming. By seeing what sells, Paramount can finally get to the bottom of a decades-old question: what the heck Star Trek fans actually want.
Entertainment
Star Wars Is Dying Because It Can’t Stop Copying Marvel
By Chris Snellgrove
| Updated
Lately, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about one of the coolest things from the Star Wars prequels: podracing! Even the biggest critics of The Phantom Menace readily admitted that the podracing scenes were some of the most thrilling moments ever captured on film. This high-speed racing in a galaxy far, far away was so popular that it led to multiple podracing video games. Now, another game is on the horizon: Star Wars: Galactic Racer. Releasing on October 6th, this game will feature a solo campaign mode as well as a variety of multiplayer modes that pit players against different races.
Between excitement for this game and social media users rediscovering the darkly hilarious story of racer Ratts Tyerell, it’s clear that excitement for podracing is greater than ever before. That excitement is so great that it seems like a no-brainer for Lucasfilm to create a Star Wars TV show about a plucky young racer trying to win big. Unfortunately, we’re never going to get this or countless other great show ideas for a simple, depressing reason: the MCU. You see, Star Wars authorities like Dave Filoni are obsessed with creating their own Marvel-style cinematic universe, meaning that any shows that don’t directly connect to other series or movies will never see the light of day.
The Mando Cinematic Universe
If you somehow don’t know (what, you didn’t feel a disturbance in the Force?), there’s a slowly growing mountain of exciting Star Wars projects that got canceled before they ever got off the ground. This includes things like Patty Jenkins’ Rogue Squadron movie, Guillermo del Toro’s Jabba the Hutt film, an untitled movie from Taika Waititi, and even an entire new trilogy from The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson. Some canceled projects were later transformed into TV shows for Disney+. This includes a solo Boba Fett movie and what was meant to be a solo Obi-Wan Kenobi trilogy. Interestingly, both TV shows featuring these characters underscore why Star Wars is doomed to fail.
You see, part of why The Book of Boba Fett sucked is that a huge chunk of its runtime was dedicated to other characters. Like, midway through its first and only season, this Boba Fett spinoff focuses on the Mandalorian and Grogu, with a bit of Ahsoka thrown in for good measure. Similarly, Obi-Wan Kenobi couldn’t simply focus on the wacky dessert misadventures of its titular character. Instead, Lucasfilm inexplicably threw in both Darth Vader and Princess Leia, which threatened to disrupt established Star Wars lore. Ahsoka is, of course, a live-action Rebels sequel with plenty of character overlap, and even The Acolyte features appearances by familiar names like Yoda, Ki-adi-Mundi, and even Darth Plagueis.
Let Me See That Thrawn
Why are potentially solid Star Wars shows getting clogged with characters that ultimately hurt the overall story? Simple: Dave Filoni wants this franchise to be more like the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Part of the MCU’s charm is that characters can pop into each other’s movies. Iron Man is in the first Spider-Man movie, Black Widow is in the second Captain America movie, and so on. Done well, this lays the groundwork for major team-ups, like The Avengers. For years, there have been rumors that Star Wars is trying to put its own interconnected characters in place to loosely adapt Timothy Zahn’s Heir to the Empire book into a show or film.
That sounds fine on paper; after all, Heir to the Empire is one of the best Star Wars books ever written. But it’s a book featuring characters that Disney likely won’t feature in their own adaptation, including all of the Original Trilogy’s primary heroes and fan-favorite new characters like Mara Jade. Even if we do eventually get an Heir to the Empire adaptation, it’s clear that it would have almost nothing in common with the book besides the presence of Thrawn. Adding some salt to the wound, the lack of any official updates means that this project is very likely dead.
No Heir, No Spare
If Filoni’s dream of creating an Heir to the Empire movie or series is over, then it means that we’ve had years of wasted Star Wars TV shows. Why bother using The Book of Boba Fett to set up more Mandalorian stuff? Why use The Mandalorian to set up Ashoka? Why try (and fail) to cause Ahsoka to set up Heir to the Empire? From the outside looking in, it seems like these shows were extensively tweaked to set up a project that we’ll never see. Episodes and entire series that could have been great ended up sucking, and for what? To set up yet another franchise project that ended up getting canceled.
Star Wars is dying because it can’t stop copying the MCU, which itself is on life support thanks to superhero fatigue. Just like that, two great franchises ruined themselves because they were too busy setting up the next big thing instead of giving fans what they really want: something original, for once!
‘AI-pilled’ firms spend $7,500 per employee each month on AI
Khloé Kardashian Says Daughter True Thompson Has an 'Elevated' Way of Wearing Her XO Blue Perfume
