Star Trek TV inventive head Alex Kurtzman stated it greatest when speaking about that universe’s method to catering to various kinds of followers: “Our greatest factor has actually been we don’t ever need our Star Trek reveals to really feel repetitive. We don’t need you to assume that by watching Discovery, you shouldn’t watch any of the opposite reveals since you’re getting every part from that one present. Every present is totally different,” Kurtzman continues. “So for us, it’s not about doing one present that pleases all people as a result of that’s the surefire technique to please no person. It’s extra about doing a bunch of various reveals that talk to particular sections of the demographic.”
Be Cautious With Nostalgia
Nonetheless, whereas Star Wars would do effectively to construct on the worlds of all three trilogies, it mustn’t merely deal with nostalgia. Sure, that does sound like a laughable suggestion from a Trek perspective, given the third season of Picard. Nonetheless, Picard labored as a result of it used nostalgia in precisely the identical approach that Star Wars followers rejected. When Luke Skywalker tosses the lightsaber initially of The Final Jedi, he appalled many older followers of the Authentic Trilogy.
And but, that’s similar to how Star Trek handled Jean-Luc Picard within the widely-acclaimed ultimate yr of his solo sequence. Whereas the primary two seasons leaned too laborious into tearing down the one-time paragon, the third season discovered the proper steadiness. On the USS Titan, Picard confirmed indicators of the management and knowledge that made him nice on The Subsequent Era, however he additionally confirmed maturity and a willingness to study. All through the third season, characters comparable to Geordi and Ro Laren aired affordable grievances with Picard. And by listening to them and admitting his faults, faults that when made TNG audiences cheer, Picard grows right into a extra attention-grabbing character.
It was a pitch-perfect send-off that additionally gave technique to the potential way forward for the franchise, with a brand new Enterprise christened and able to set off on a brand new voyage. And it did what the Sequel Trilogy hoped to do: successfully handed on the torch to a brand new era of Starfleet officers.
Distinction that remedy of Picard to one of many least controversial callbacks in current Star Wars historical past. When Rey and Finn board the Millennium Falcon in The Drive Awakens, they’re greeted by Han and Chewie, again to being the scoundrel smugglers they had been in Episode IV, zero development or change on show apart from their age. Certain, Han will later briefly apologize to Kylo Ren for his failures as a father, however that’s by no means expressed visually on display. And as good as it’s to see Harrison Ford name up the charisma that makes him nice, his older Han is a cypher, only one extra callback to the unique Star Wars in a film that performs like a canopy music.
If Star Wars intends to construct out its universe on the bones of the Skywalker Saga, then it must acknowledge that its in style characters need to develop and alter over time. Rian Johnson had the best method with Luke in The Final Jedi, whether or not sure followers warmed to the character’s new establishment or not. In fact Luke needed to change, develop, and embrace new classes, that’s how characters work, particularly when the mission was clearly to move the torch to the subsequent trio of heroes. It’s too unhealthy The Rise of Skywalker went again to taking part in the hits and embedding its subsequent era of heroes in a Star Wars story that had already been advised numerous instances earlier than.