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Fan artwork for television shows, especially ones that mix together different franchises, are always so uncool to me. Unless I'm the one making the artwork, then it's brilliant.
With that out of the way, this month I find myself in the happy confluence between two of my all-time favourite shows, Star Trek and The X Files. The context of each program excites my imagination: both are smart, inclusive shows with a lot of nostalgic appeal.
Emphasis on "nostalgic". Certainly aware that there is a large built-in audience who has watched decades of this programming, television producers also seek to give the viewers something new. The trouble is most everything new has already been done, and Star Trek and the X-Files have attempted to pursue new frontiers while remaining tethered to the concept that launched them in the first place.
Star Trek: Discovery has been entertaining, but it's not the Star Trek I want to see. Violent, often gory, definitely not a show I choose to share with my family, Discovery charts a dark, mean-spirited and morally ambiguous course through yet another interminable space war. The production values are far above any other Star Trek show, the look and sound of the series makes all the older Trek shows seem like stage plays by comparison. The acting is normally sharp and the writing makes frequent smart call-backs to various interesting and surprising story beats, so that later episodes for the most part seem to stand on the careful foundation laid down by earlier adventures. But: it's not Star Trek to me. It's some kind of militaristic soap opera where the characters find themselves trapped in relationship minefields as often as they are ensnared by science fiction munitions. And the characters themselves for me range from annoying to loathesome almost without exception. Yes, it's amusing to see what will happen next to the Discovery, but I also feel that Star Trek would be better off if the ship remained lost in space. I want to see a Star Trek episode where the ship and crew genuinely trek. I'm tired of fictional war stories, especially when I know the outcome.
The X-Files is the opposite side of the coin. Built into the X-Files is the greatest character duo on television since Kirk and Spock. Again, yes I find the new X-Files episodes entertaining, but it's not the X-Files I want to see. Confusing, indirect, the X-Files has become a show impossible to share with anyone outside of the fan base. Agents Mulder and Scully have become ciphers of themselves, having faced the same perils over and over again so many times. The dangers are all iterative but hew to the same truth: the world is doomed, alien intelligence may or may not save us, and only Mulder and/or Scully have the key to unlock all of the clues, if only Mulder and/or Scully were not mortally wounded in hospital and/or being protected by extra-terrestrial shadow agencies. Knowing that the narrative is hopelessly bound in knots, individual episodes often become flippant or experimental, sometimes with memorable results, sometimes not. Then there are episodes devoted entirely to exposition, forty-four solid minutes of Mulder and Scully telling the audience what has happened to date. X-Files hasn't really changed in that regard, not since the movies were released.
So, I find myself wishing for Star Trek: Discovery's production values and writing, with the strong morality and conviction of Mulder and Scully. I guess that's why I gave today's JSVB artwork the flavour from Forrest Gump: sophisticated computerized visuals coupled with geek nostalgia. The trouble is Forrest Gump for all of its virtues just isn't all that good of a film, at least not to me. There is a reason why sentimentality and high-tech storytelling don't mix: the harder you work the recreate the past the more you squander your future.
I certainly don't mind having good choices for entertainment on television, but I'm also ready to leave some of the shows I've loved in the past behind. I want to be a patron and not a demographic.
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