I'm sorry but Very Short Treks is horrible

I don’t know who greenlit this supposed celebration of TAS, but the writing is cheap, lowbrow and cringey. It’s a total shame that the amazing animation and sound design are paired with this quality of writing. None of the three eps released so far impressed me.

I’m seriously shocked by the Youtube comments that found it funny. The latest one is literally supposed to be funny because it involves boogers. Paramount should be ashamed it spent money on this. Have they stopped for a moment to think if this is what TAS fans want? /rant

LtLiana ,
@LtLiana@startrek.website avatar

I just honestly recommend sticking to everything ENT and before these days, and if you want something new and exciting in the canon, I’d start reading the myriads of novels in the lit verse (although those are hit or miss).

All of these attempts at making Star Trek some kind of middle-of-the-road relatable mainstream-appeal quippy entertainment franchise is the exact opposite of what it should be in times like these. Star Trek in 2023 should be written, directed, produced and acted by a radically progressive counterculture to the right-wing swing across the world, attract major controversies and boycotts by conservatives and network executives to the point they wish they could blacklist actors for being commie sympathizers again. We need more Ira Steven Behr and Hans Beimler, and less JJ Abrams. We need more flawed, genuine working-class people like Bashir’s parents or Miles O’Brien, or General Martok or Damar, and less characters who are relatable to the upper-class yass-kween American writing rooms. We need an internationalist view on space politics again, not Elon Musk worship.

Instead, we get toilet humor, sanitized and Americanized versions of the future, and CIA apologism in the shape of a sympathetic Section 31 and the Federation engaging in regime changes. Not that golden age Trek was always better, but at least they tried. It’s just more of the same like DIS, PIC and SNW (Lower Decks is often fun though).

Amazed ,

I thought Discovery was like that somewhat. It could have been smarter though imo. Less cinematic.

I guess the days of slower paced episodes allowing for reasoning with silence here and there are gone.

CeruleanRuin ,

It’s very transparently not meant to appeal to existing Trek fans, not that it’s unenjoyable for all of them. It’s outreach.

jaelisp ,
@jaelisp@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

It very much feels like someone on the outside looking in and making jokes with their passing knowledge. In contrast to Lower Decks very much being injokes from people who love the series, it’s philosophy and all its tiny details. They should have just given it to writers on Lower Decks. This makes me cringe so much.

Anticorp ,

Have they stopped for a moment to think if this is what TAS fans want?

No.

ieightpi ,

Yeah they are pretty dumb. I’ve come to the conclusion that they were written by new writers, getting their feet wet…or something idk.

ValueSubtracted Mod , (edited )
@ValueSubtracted@startrek.website avatar

As an aside, I encourage everyone to check out the accompanying comics - they’re not exactly deep, but I’m finding them much more entertaining than the actual shorts - they’re basically a Star Trekkification of “Duck Amuck”.

Issue 1

Issue 2

Issue 3

Wooster ,
@Wooster@startrek.website avatar

I think 2 and 3 are the same link

ValueSubtracted Mod ,
@ValueSubtracted@startrek.website avatar

That was a test - you passed.

Uniquitous ,

It’s like Teen Titans Go all over again

jimternet ,

This week’s just felt designed to annoy us, what with getting the ranks wrong and all. Let alone the totally un-Trek message.

beefcat ,
@beefcat@lemmy.world avatar

i don’t think these are meant to have “Trek messages”, if anything the point is to lampoon them by taking various Trek tropes to comical extremes (Spock misunderstanding human emotions, cultural acceptance, etc.)

for ~3 minute shorts on YouTube, i think that is fine even if it is not everyone’s cup of tea.

Anticorp ,

It’s probably written by AI.

ValueSubtracted Mod ,
@ValueSubtracted@startrek.website avatar

I’ve seen some good reviews of the first couple - I think you have to be into a very specific type of Adult Swim-type humour that was in style about 15 years ago - but the only review I’ve seen of the latest one was not positive (and this was from a reviewer who quite enjoyed last week’s instalment).

But whatever, they’re ultimately inconsequential, having been described by Paramount from the very start as “promotional shorts”.

Corgana ,
@Corgana@startrek.website avatar

Yeah, so far I think they’re all a bit safer than the typical Adult-swim style humor of that era, with the possible exception of the guy’s intestines falling out in the second one. I get the impression sometimes that modern Trek is pushed by Paramount not to offend too much, and I kinda wish these shorts could have been truly ridiculous. For example, IMO the booger people joke could have been more impactful if they were either:

  • Doing something truly and shocklingly horrendous
  • Doing something so minor and inconsequential that Riker comes across as extremely petty

That said, it’s hard for me to get upset over a three minute web video not being hilarious enough or whatever. You could add them all up and it will still be less time that I spent watching “Code of Honor” so in that regard I have zero complaints.

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