I just don't get it. What is the freaking problem of those directors, trying to rewrite federation into some kind of dystopian tech fascism?
I was annoyed by the first Star Trek movie by JJ Abrams, with those police cops. I was alienated by those anti-android resentments in Picard. I stopped watching Discovery after the first episode, because the main protagonist was sent to some kind of labor prison for disobedience, where prisoners regularly die. I didn't think it could get any worse but just watching the first 10 minutes of Starfleet Academy makes me want to bury the whole franchise [edit: and stopped watching]. Some drumhead court-martial, lifelong prison sentence, violently separating a mother from her child and some goons beating up a prisoner. How in the hell is this the same federation of TNG, Voyager and DS9?
Star Trek is supposed to be the ONE fiction with a positive, utopian view on mankind and the future. I totally get the attraction of dystopian settings but for that I can read some Warhammer 40k novels. This really makes me furious.
Fortunately there is still Strange New Worlds.
Please spoiler me, when this bullshit in Starfleet Academy gets turned around in some twist, because otherwise I will just ignore the show.
It just feels wrong. It's like having superman act like homelander. Even if the message is "things shouldn't be this way", you are tarnishing a symbol of hope and optimism. People like Star Trek, especially these days, because it gives them hope of a better future, beyond the struggles and corruption of modern society; where justice isn't just an abstract concept that has to be fought for every day. Where competence and intelligence is rewarded, and corruption and prejudice is not tolerated.
To take that and twist it by going "actually the future is shitty and still full of fascism and it will always be an uphill battle" is just soul crushing.
Personally, I think the message of "things could be fine without struggle or setbacks" would go up like a lead balloon in the year 2026 (or really, any year since at least 2014, probably much earlier). I don't see anything inspirational or hopeful when it seems like pure fantasy.
Well, I get you. I'm personally the oposite though: I need pure fantasy to give me hope, to set the ideal to strive for.
I understand where you're coming from, but, to put it plainly, this show is not meant for you. Media reflects the times; Enterprise is the way it was because of 9/11. Academy is for the young people of today have grown up in and are facing an increasingly bleak and hostile future. They will have to fight for a better future, because the one that is being handed to them is a dumpster fire. A show that shows them a better future is attainable and models how to do it is what they need, not a fantasy that is unobtainable.
Well, yep, that's kind of what op is talking about. Star Trek used to scratch a certain itch for people like me in a way other media rarely did. There are people like me in younger generations as well. I feel like the approach you're talking about is not uncommon for other series/films, while the idealistic approach is super rare or non-existing now. Therefore I find it a pity.