By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
Since Starfleet Academy aired, I became increasingly aware of the full-throttle efforts among fans and even journalists to launder its reputation. Threads that criticized the show for bad writing and plotting were often disappeared from places like r/StarTrek, and many other Star Trek online spaces would block, ban, or otherwise censor anyone who said anything bad about the show. Eventually, the prevalent narrative became that SFA was the best thing since sliced bread and that anyone who didn’t like it was nothing more than a bigoted troll.
Starfleet Academy’s haters were arguably vindicated when the show was canceled because this was proof that not enough people were watching for Paramount to justify making more episodes. Still, the narrative continues that the only people who could dislike this Discovery spinoff are mindless haters. Recently, the best evidence of this came from an exclusive TrekMovie interview with Jonathan Frakes where they prompted him with a comment about online trolls. This led to an obligatory headline about Frakes calling out the trolls. However, the real headline should be his bombshell admission that SFA focused too much on spectacle and not enough on telling good stories.
Riker Vs. The Trolls
Jonathan Frakes’ primary purpose during the interview with TrekMovie was to promote the recent Trek Against Pancreatic Cancer event. Eventually, though, they began discussing the wider world of Star Trek. Frakes lamented the “unfortunate irony” that there are currently no new shows or movies in active production despite this being the 60th anniversary of the franchise. Eventually, they began discussing why people disliked Starfleet Academy, and the interviewer basically prompted him, claiming that the show’s biggest critics were people who hadn’t even watched it.
In response, Frakes said this was “unfortunate” and mentioned a conversation with Alex Kurtzman about the cancellation of Starfleet Academy. While the Star Trek actor and director didn’t give many details, he said that Kurtzman and SFA co-showrunner Noga Landau “couldn’t not mention as a factor, the trolls.” Based on his mild agreement with their extremely leading question, TrekMovie included in their headline how Frakes “Decries ‘Starfleet Academy’ ‘Trolls.’”
What They Don’t Want You To Know: Shoot To Thrill
What’s wrong with this headline, you ask? Earlier in that same interview, before he was prompted to talk about trolls, Frakes speculated about various reasons why “some people…either didn’t like or didn’t approve or didn’t support” Starfleet Academy. He noted that it could be because of “the changing of the guard at Paramount+ and CBS” before focusing on “the amount of money it costs.” He noted how “the level of the production has become this sort of ‘shoot to thrill’ cinematic phenomenon…when we did [Star Trek: The Next Generation] back in the ‘80s, we counted on storytelling and acting and the occasional camera move.”
He went on to say, “It’s a different beast now, and that beast is very expensive.” Now, Jonathan Frakes kept things light, but it really seems like he agrees with Starfleet Academy’s critics that the show is focusing more on expensive spectacle than on comparatively cheap “storytelling and acting.” Many in the fandom want a return to those halcyon days of episodic storytelling, and they’d gladly take a simpler, cheaper-looking show if it meant we could have shows that looked and felt like those in the Golden Age of Star Trek. Sadly, Alex Kurtzman focuses almost exclusively on expensive, cinematic effects, leaving the writing and characterizations to wither and rot.
How They Manufacture Consent
At any rate, this is a lesson in how fans and complicit media work together to manufacture consent. Previously, all critics of Starfleet Academy were dismissed as a minority of bigoted trolls who didn’t even watch the show. Now, the show is canceled because the “minority” was actually sharing a fairly mainstream opinion: the spinoff sucked because it was poorly made. As soon as Star Trek icon Jonathan Frakes brings up how SFA focused on spectacle rather than storytelling, an interviewer steers him to say something about trolls, all so they can run a headline about how he “decries trolls” rather than honestly criticizing a failed TV series.
Unfortunately, this mindset is how the modern Star Trek writers and producers have landed in their own no-win scenario. There’s too much pride (or, in NuTrek terms, “sheer f*cking hubris”) to admit that most traditional fans don’t like Starfleet Academy and most of NuTrek, so the creators blame their failures on trolls. But as Frakes has proven, the “trolls” are the mainstream audience, and they are leaving in droves because these new shoes are Star Trek in name only. At $10 million an episode, that’s a mistake producers literally cannot afford to keep making, and Trek’s temporary hiatus may become permanent unless we get what Frakes is calling for: genuine storytelling rather than empty effects.
