Highlights

  • Star Trek fans worry that the franchise is repeating the mistakes of Star Wars and Marvel by producing too much content.
  • Some fans desire quality over quantity and fear that an oversaturated Star Trek slate will lead to audience fatigue.
  • Fan fatigue may extend beyond the issue of quality and also be a result of multiple storylines happening simultaneously, making it difficult for viewers to keep up.

The Star Trek universe is expanding beyond its already broad reach with new series, new seasons, and even an upcoming theatrical release. However, some fans think the franchise isn't learning from the mistakes of Star Wars.

Star Trek is one of the most popular franchises in science fiction history, with nearly twenty titles and counting. There's no doubt about the impact and lasting power of the world and characters, even poor Wesley Crusher from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Currently, Star Trek has several ongoing series, including Strange New Worlds, Lower Decks, and Prodigy, and the upcoming projects include a Starfleet Academy series centered around young cadets and a Section 31 movie starring Michelle Yeoh from Everything Everywhere All At Once.

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However, fans are becoming concerned about the overly-stuffed Star Trek slate. A recent Reddit post by u/dearprudence463 suggested that the franchise needs even more TV shows, igniting a heated discussion in the comments. Many fans are concerned that too much content will cause Star Trek to suffer the same audience fatigue syndrome as other once-infallible franchises. "Unpopular Opinion: it needs less of everything. More isn't always better," said one fan. "See Star Wars. See Marvel. See any media corporation draining the life out of an IP."

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Many users in the comments agreed on their desire for quality over quantity, referencing the recent Disney business model of flooding the market with subpar shows and movies, which has proven disastrous for subsidiaries like Lucasfilm and Marvel Studios, as seen with The Marvels and its poor reception. "I feel like they’re starting to pull a Star Wars," said u/blackfyre686. "We don’t need any more pre-[Star Trek: The Original] series at this point." Meanwhile, others defended the Star Trek strategy, claiming more is fine if the series and film are good. "More is only a problem if the quality is lesser," declared one user, "but this hasn't been a problem for Star Trek. Lower Decks, SNW, and Prodigy are all amazing." Another commenter replied, "Yeah, the weird thing with modern trek is that the more shows they’ve had going at the same time the better the content has gotten lol." However, despite the defenders, most remained concerned.

Another user raised a possibly unconsidered factor in recent fan fatigue that goes beyond the quality/quantity debate: the idea of too many storylines happening simultaneously. "With so many universes nesting within each other, to miss something is to be confused about something else not far in the future," said u/nthelegend. "This is independent of the discussion of quality because people still only have so many hours a day to watch linear content and only the super fans are going to be able to dedicate nearly all of it to a single property."

This is an interesting point because it speaks to the issue of Marvel's MCU and other relentless sequels and franchises. Fan fatigue, in general, may not be due simply to a drop in quality but to the feeling that you must see everything to understand anything.

The Star Trek franchise is streaming on Paramount Plus.

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Source: dearprudence463/Reddit