The Post-Andor Disappointment of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
Until very recently, if I had to decide which pop sci-fi franchise was aiming more for an ‘adult’ audience, Star Trek would’ve come in ahead of Star Wars. But ‘Andor’ seems to have changed that…
This isn’t an evaluation of which franchise qualifies more as ‘science fiction’. On a spectrum that has The Wizard of Oz on one end and The Martian on the other, both franchises are fantasies posing as science fiction, using tropes and pseudoscience props appropriated from a previous century of written work described (and often self-described) as space opera. The question here is which of these franchises is producing content that touches themes more sophisticated than mere juvenile escapism, which is writing to an audience of adults.
In the aftermath of Andor’s masterful conclusion, it is difficult to see Star Trek: Strange New World’s season 3 premiere as not being a bit disappointing. It is probably not a fair comparison. Strange New Worlds never aimed to be more than a 21st century reboot of the original series, complete with its somewhat disjointed continuity – and on that level, it succeeds beautifully. But the original series of Star Trek was a frequent mirror and a frequent critique of its own late 60’s era, in much the same way that Andor’s unflinching examination of authoritarianism and corruption in a fictitious empire cannot help but be a commentary on the authoritarianism and corruption unfolding in real time around us. Later Star Trek series, most notably Ronald D. Moore’s Deep Space Nine, were frequently willing to hold up that same mirror. Frequent complaints from rightwing man-children that Star Trek has ‘gone woke’ merely reveal their own ignorance – it was always ‘woke’, in the best meaning of that misused epithet.
If the first two episodes of Strange New Worlds Season Three are anything to judge from, anyone expecting adult themes or social commentary may have to wait for a while. The first episode, “Hegemony, Part II” is exciting enough – but it concludes with a bit of technobabble science straight out of Next Generation. The second episode, “Wedding Bell Blues”, is a frothy piece of fan service that raises a fair number of canon/continuity issues without really saying much of anything, or making the audience any more vested in characters they can be forgiven for not really caring about in the first place.
Here as well, Andor is a hard act to follow. Just as much a prequel to Rogue One as Strange New Worlds is to almost all of Star Trek, the sacrifices made by the characters who continue past Andor are even more poignant for having viewed it. So far, Strange New Worlds has not managed to make its shared ensemble of characters any more real or any more impactful.
Given that Strange New Worlds has been pre-approved for one and a half final seasons, they might yet find a way to have a similar impact, or possibly some yet to be created property within the same sprawling franchise.
But I doubt it.
It was enough of a fluke that Star Wars current franchise owners at Disney permitted Andor to ever be made in the first place. Does anyone believe that the incoming management at Paramount is going to be any more friendly to challenging and adult speculative fiction? The people who fired Stephen Colbert aren’t interested in challenging anything.
Meanwhile, there continues to be other pop culture out there that both reads and writes at above the fifth grade level. And when I get bored with writing about tech… I’ll continue to write about that as well.
Cheers, All!
–MM
