Member-only story
You Either Believe in Yourself or You Don’t: Star Trek Discovery, James T. Kirk, and the Power of Traditional Memory
The latest EW promotion for Star Trek Discovery included lots of focus on Anson Mount’s Captain Pike. Great, awesome, he’s a new major cast member — makes sense. As we’ve come to expect from this show, the problem is everything after that.
There is, of course, the headline: “STD team reveals how Spock, Captain Pike are different than ever before.” Groan.
Now, I’m of two minds here. They’re very clearly reacting to the tidal waves of negative response, reviews, and ratings. Which should be a good thing. Unlike what some STD fans think, Star Trek lives in symbiosis with its fandom. TOS season 3 exists largely because of the first-ever write-in campaign. TNG, DS9, VOY, and ENT all responded to fan reactions (granted, some better than others). It could even be argued that Star Trek is only a fifty-year-old franchise, and not just a three seasons worth of reruns on TV Land, because of the fans’ creation of conventions and convention culture, including cosplay.
