Let’s begin with a small thought experiment. It is Saturday evening and you notice a brand new “Star Trek” film in your Paramount+ homepage. You are not a hardcore fan however you loved “The Subsequent Era“, “The Wrath of Khan” and the JJ Abrams reboot. You are additionally drawn in by the very fact this interstellar model of “Mission: Unattainable” is headlined by Michelle Yeoh, who starred alongside James Bond in “Tomorrow By no means Dies”, just lately appeared in “Depraved”, and received herself an Oscar for “Every thing All over the place All at As soon as”. That is bought to be value a strive, proper?
MINOR SPOILERS FOR “STAR TREK: SECTION 31” AHEAD
“Star Trek: Part 31“‘s opening flashback introduces a younger lady (performed by Miku Martineau) who murders her household to show she’s worthy of main a sadistic entity referred to as the Terran Empire. Weirdly, nevertheless, she’s not the villain of the piece. As a substitute, she’s the youthful model of an antihero we meet — now performed by Yeoh — in a futuristic bar someplace outdoors Federation house. As a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it mission briefing explains, this lady’s identify is Philippa Georgiou.
It is one thing of a Catch-22 that, except you’d already seen “Star Trek: Discovery”, you would not know you wanted to. However should you had watched the present’s first three seasons, you’d remember that Georgiou dominated the Terran Empire within the parallel Mirror Universe (see additionally: Authentic Collection episode “Mirror, Mirror”). And that she escaped into the prime timeline (ref: “Discovery” season 1), earlier than following the remainder of the Discovery crew to the very distant way forward for the thirty second century (ref: “Discovery” season 2 episode “Such Candy Sorrow, Half 2” ).
You’d additionally know she was subsequently transported again into the previous (ref: Discovery season 3 episode “Terra Firma, Half 2“) by a sentient portal referred to as the Guardian of Without end (ref: Authentic Collection episode “The Metropolis on the Fringe of Tomorrow”). And that she had a quick stint working for the eponymous Part 31, Starfleet’s reply to the CIA or MI6, whose disregard for traditional Federation procedures is famous (refs: “Deep House 9”, “Enterprise”, “Star Trek into Darkness”, “Discovery”, “Decrease Decks”).
If all that was information to you, properly, you are sort of by yourself as a result of — except for establishing that she comes from a parallel dimension and did numerous unhealthy stuff — “Part 31” makes little effort to elucidate Georgiou’s backstory. And never even hardcore followers get to skip the background studying solely, as a result of the one clue given in regards to the movie’s place within the “Star Trek” timeline is the stardate, 1292.4. (Until you are already a Starfleet captain, you in all probability would not notice this equates to some many years earlier than “The Subsequent Era”. )
You do not technically have to know all this to observe “Part 31”. In any case, it feels extra like a giant, dumb ’90s motion film than your common day on the starship Enterprise, and shares minimal connective tissue with earlier “Trek”s. Even so, there isn’t any denying you are at an obstacle when you have no prior data of Georgiou’s backstory, and even the doubtful historical past of Part 31.
All of which raises some essential questions: how a lot ought to filmmakers assume their audiences know upfront? Ought to we simply settle for that doing our homework is now an integral a part of the franchise-viewing expertise?
Anytime you watch a sequel or a serialized TV present, it is assumed you have seen the earlier installment(s). No person would count on you to enter “The Empire Strikes Again” with out first experiencing “A New Hope”, for instance, whereas “The Return of the King” can be impenetrable should you hadn’t already learn/watched its Center-earth predecessors. Anybody leaping into “Sport of Thrones” within the fourth season is unlikely to final greater than 5 minutes.
However if you enter the realms of the mega-franchises, the sheer quantity of canon turns into overwhelming. Previous to “Part 31” there have been properly over 900 episodes of “Star Trek” TV, in addition to 13 films. The overwhelming majority of this content material is only a few faucets of a distant management away on Paramount+, however that does not imply everybody has the time — or the inclination — to work by means of key episodes, simply to fill in some gaps in a personality’s backstory. It is simpler to learn the related pages on the web “Trek” encyclopedia Reminiscence Alpha.
Lately “Trek”‘s increasing shared universe has additionally made a advantage of each present being totally different. It is now solely cheap to love, say, “Star Trek: Picard” however not “Decrease Decks”. Completism shouldn’t be — and shouldn’t be — important.
“Star Trek” shouldn’t be alone on this over-reliance on its huge canon. It was undoubtedly useful to know a bit in regards to the Excessive Republic period (beforehand portrayed in books and comics) earlier than diving into the short-lived “Star Wars” present “The Acolyte”. And, along with the standard “Star Wars” opening crawl, “Ahsoka” ought to have include a pre-credits advisory pointing viewers in direction of “The Clone Wars” and “Star Wars Rebels”. Anybody who watched these animated exhibits upfront had a lot better understanding of why discovering wannabe Jedi Ezra Bridger and Imperial Huge Dangerous Grand Admiral Thrawn was such a giant deal.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe, in the meantime, functioned brilliantly whereas the 23 films of the Infinity Saga had been constructing as much as the epic conclusion of “Avengers: Endgame”. However as TV exhibits and multiverses have turn into a part of an more and more advanced equation in Phases 4, 5, and past, you virtually really feel obliged to cowl your partitions in charts and diagrams simply to maintain up. The most recent installment “Captain America: Courageous New World” (in cinemas now) leans closely into the occasions of the second MCU film, 2008’s “The Unbelievable Hulk”, an outing {that a}) has little to do with Captain America; b) is over decade-and-a-half previous; and c) is broadly thought to be one of the forgettable entries within the canon.
None of those moans are meant to dismiss the significance of intelligent in-jokes and references to previous adventures. Such issues have lengthy been the bread and butter of the most important sci-fi franchises, and, for followers, there’s an plain thrill if you’re the one individual within the room who spots the hidden that means in a cameo or informal comment. However crucially it would not matter whether or not or not you knew that Turkana IV — a planet talked about on the finish of “Part 31” — is the homeworld of “The Subsequent Era”‘s Tasha Yar. It is pure fan service that has zero impression on the plot.
So whereas “Throughout the Spider-Verse” type footnotes or full-on glossaries (it labored for Frank Herbert’s unique “Dune” novel…) would in all probability be overkill, the massive stuff about character histories and the geopolitics of parallel universes deserves a correct on-screen rationalization — whether or not or not it has been referenced elsewhere within the franchise. As a result of if “Star Trek”, “Star Wars”, Marvel, and the remainder turn into solely reliant on completists, they will not have a lot of a future in any respect. And moreover, maintaining along with your favourite leisure should not really feel like work.
“Star Trek: Part 31” is on the market to stream now on Paramount+.
