If you were to ask Alex Kurtzman about the state of the Star Trek franchise, he would tell you that it's going strong. With three shows running simultaneously and about fifty more shows in the works, he would talk about how excited everybody is for what's to come. So excited in fact, that Discovery, Picard and Lower Decks are constantly breaking records. It's almost like we're having a second golden age of Trek and anyone who says differently are anti-SJWs who belong in the sad little corner of the fandom!

If you were to ask me though, I'd tell you that this nu-era-of-Trek is garbage and everybody hates it. Unfortunately, there wasn't a way to prove it though. Because these new shows stream on CBS All Access as well as Netflix or Amazon, they keep the view counts a secret. Once in a while, they'll put out articles touting the success of Discovery or Picard, backed by the likes of Parrot Analytics, but they never tell you exactly how many people watched their shows. So when Discovery got picked up for a second and then a third season, people naturally thought that it was a success and when the other shows started airing, it was easy to believe that a new golden age had begun. 

However, some of that veneer has begun to peel off. Recently, we learned through Google Trends that excitement for Star Trek has been dwindling since 2009. We've also have multiple clues that have led us to believe that Picard was not as well received as they would have you think. We also got news that CBS All Access will be rebranding themselves to Paramount+ next year, four years after they made Star Trek Discovery their flagship show. 

Then CBS released their Lower Decks trailer and it got ratio'd to the point where they turned off the like/dislikes as well as the comments. That must have been embarrassing. Gary Buechler once gave me this advice: Never let them see you sweat. This was the first time we saw them sweat.

On Sunday, October 4th 2020, a pre-recorded "Star Trek Universe" panel for New York Comic Con became active and set to premiere on October 8th. As soon as it went up, the dislikes started to go up.

By the next day it was up to 30. 

32 minutes later, the dislikes suddenly went down to 11, LMAO! We're assuming they have the power to reset the ratio. 

But it jumped back up to 32 in a matter of hours.

Then it kept going. By the next day, it was at 65. 

That night, it peaked at 205...

...before being cut down to 146.

The numbers went down slowly overnight from 205 all the way down to 25, LMAO! Who are they kidding? 

As of this writing, it's back up to 60.

It obvious that the ratio is being manipulated by either NYCC, CBS, or Secret Hideout. The fact that they have to cheat to manufacture a good image is hilarious! They either refuse to turn off the like/dislikes or think they're being smooth by quietly lowering the dislikes. A number of comments have also been deleted as well. 

Make no mistake, they're sweating. They know nuTrek is not popular, so they're curating comments and changing ratios to make it look like it is. The clues are everywhere. It's in the audience vs. the critic scores, it's in the tends we see, and it's even in the ratings.

But wait! Didn't I say that CBS All Access doesn't release their view counts? I did. However, Star Trek Discovery aired in Canada in 2017. The premiere episode brought an aggregate of 2.2 million while the second episode brought in 1.2 million. That's bad!

More recently, Star Trek Discovery has been airing on CBS television and the ratings are tanking, with the most recent episode bringing in 1.6 million viewers. For comparison, TNG's first season averaged about 10.4 million viewers per episode. 

When Picard aired earlier this year in Canada, episode one sat with a cold 1.8 million views, while the fifth episode dropped to 1.3 million views. That is half a million views lost in 5 episodes. 

You can't have a second golden age of Trek without... you know... THE GOLD! How pathetic for Secret Hideout and ViacommCBS to come up with such meager numbers and pretend it's a success. Enterprise was cancelled because it's last season averaged about 3 million viewers per episode. Discovery is one of the most expensive shows in television history, with each episode costing over $8 million to make, all for an audience of less than two million. ​

Update: Doomcock reported on this news and used my tweets and comments. 

Double update: 
The link to the panel now leads to what is called "Star Trek - Lower Decks & Star Trek - Discovery Cast Interview" and because of Doomcock's video, the like/dislikes ratio is back to normal. 

How the mighty have fallen...
I'm simply chronicling Discovery's ratings and comparing them to The Next Generation's ratings. I get Discovery has been out on streaming for three years, but for Star Trek, they should be getting larger numbers than this on television. Updated weekly with the current week underlined. Because Discovery only has 15 episodes in its first season, I've only included the first 15 episodes of TNG. Enjoy laughing with me!

*While STD is on CBS All Access, the premiere episode was aired on CBS television in 2017 where it received about 9.6 million views. 

I used to attend San Diego Comic Con in all it's glory, but recently have only taken advantage of the meet and greets or events outside of Comic Con. Last year, I took the trolley to downtown San Diego to specifically check out two things: The Orville Experience and The Jean-Luc Picard Pop-Up Museum. 

I went to the Orville Experience first because I had found it first. It was very interesting as it had props from the first two seasons of the Orville, including Ed Mercer's Kermit, the Zipper Jacket and the actual filming model of the Orville itself. It made me very excited at what they had in store next. 

​While there, I found a photographer who was wearing a DISCO t-shirt and politely asked him if he knew where the Picard Pop-Up Museum was and he gave me accurate directions. Upon entering, I was amazed at what they actually had inside the museum: Uniforms, the Ressikan  Flute, the Borg Queen's Skull... but it still didn't excite me for the upcoming Picard series. In fact, at the end of the exhibit was a drab looking outfit and a trailer. When Picard season one finally came out, it was an utter disappointment of course. 

Let's face it: Star Trek has kind of lost it's magic since the JJ/Alex era. The great writing that never truly took sides and made you think, the morality plays that made you wonder where you would stand if you were in the same situation... the intelligent aspect of Trek was demolished by the JJ films and have yet to return.

The Kelvin-verse chose to add tons more action in place of that intelligence, opening Trek to a whole new audience that was mostly anti-intellectual and surprisingly thin-skinned. Even the people involved in the Kelvin-verse admitted that Trek didn't make Avengers type of money.

​I can't help but to speculate over how long this anti-intellectual streak will continue. As I'm typing this, there is a new Trek show that will soon premiere called "Lower Decks". An animated Rick and Morty type of show that Roddenberry himself would despise. Yet it's happening because... I don't know. The trailer was so bad, they had to disable the comment and the likes/dislikes on their YouTube. 

Luckily, there are fans who still remember the better times when good acting and writing emerged from Trek. Shows like TNG and DS9 not only appropriately expanded the Trek universe, but in the process told very good stories that left lasting impacts on us for decades. 

The older fans want to have that experience again and share it with the newer ones. In pursuing that, some decided to create fan-films. Other fans decided to create virtual experiences of being on the Enterprise. For fans with money, they collect props or replicas that were featured on one of the shows or films. 

​Then you have Seth McFarland who created The Orville. Seth was meticulous when it came to details such as lighting, music, wardrobe and writing. Watching The Orville feels like watching a love letter to TNG. The great writing that never truly takes sides and makes you think, the morality plays that make you wonder where you would stand if you were in the same situation. If there was a "Trek crown" the Orville would be wearing it. 

How ambitious could fans get though? Is it possible to love the Trek world so much they try to world-build and expand the franchise? Could fans do a better job at making legitimate Star Trek than Alex Kurtzman? There is one fan that is willing to try. He actually wants to pitch his idea to ViacomCBS as a legitimate Star Trek show, course correcting the Trek franchise. Enter Star Trek: Project Legacy. 

​The person in charge, The Trek Ace, has been working on this project since 2017 and has taken charge of creating a show-bible, script and some ship designs. Ace understands that there are needs for both the older and newer Trek fans that have come aboard since 2009 and doesn't wish to disappoint either of them. He hopes moving forward into a new century and into a new quadrant will help unite the fans by creating a show that both sides would love.

​So what is this show going to be about? In Star Trek: Legacy, we go maximum warp into the 25th century, exploring a quadrant full of new technology, strange worlds, and the rising threat of the Breen! There will be a new ship and crew. It would be done in the more classic Trek style from TNG and DS9 and would expand on the classic Trek timeline. They will explore the gamma quadrant (though the alpha quadrant will still be in play) and would even feature some old friends. Garak could return in this one, because here he has a son who joined Starfleet in an attempt to get out from his father's shadow. What if the next Trek show had Garak return in all his glory, with DS9 quality writing? 

What if the next Trek show got the Klingons right? Remember when all those Borg were freed from Unimatrix Zero? What if the Ex-Borg stuff was better written and wasn't used as the background for some strange Romulan incest love triangle? What if they brought back older characters and wrote them the way they're supposed to be written? 

​And when I say "better written", here's an sample:

It's just a small snippet, but this feels a bit like back when Trek used to focus on exposition and good character development, rather than fast paced pew-pew and lens flares. 

​Why would somebody spend so much of their own personal time on such a lofty goal, you may ask yourself? It's all about hope. At the core of Trek was always an optimistic vision of the future. Ace understands the disappointment current Trek has caused. Some fans have lost all hope for the franchise. He wants to give them a new hope (I know, wrong franchise). If he can succeed in that, he could actually create a rare moment where the ENTIRE Trek fan base would be united under one show. 

The Trek Ace has been working hard on establishing the story, but could you imagine the possibilities if ViacomCBS decided to pick this up? You'd have something that could rival The Orville, or even take away it's crown! It would be a win-win for everybody. Ace gets to accomplish his dream, ViacomCBS could revive Star Trek in a more sustainable and lucrative way, and fans from both sides could enjoy quality Trek once again. 

You may also be asking yourself, why doesn't he just make a fan-film? It's simple really: He's not trying to make a fan-film. He's trying to make legitimate Star Trek and so is trying to go through the proper steps and channels. He's also afraid making a fan-film would be seen as a work around that would upset ViacomCBS. 

Of course, he can't do it alone. He needs help with concept designs and spreading the word. He knows he can't pitch this to ViacomCBS unless there is some excitement behind it. Along with the script and show-bible, Ace is also handling the "business" aspect of selling this pitch, so he's certainly pulling his weight, which is why I was excited to help him when he approached me about it. 

He's done some ship designs, but needs help from artists who could clean them up and provide concept designs for the sets and such.  ​If you would like to know more about "Project Legacy", or if you would like to help Ace out in some way, click here to go to the Project Legacy twitter page. Let's support good Trek projects!

What if we could bring back Star Trek in all it's glory?