Bad Press Not Letting Up
Star Trek Discovery has a problem.
It’s not a problem with the sets or the costumes. There are no issues behind the scenes, even though there may have been one late last year with Bryan Fuller. It’s not that the show will be airing on paid-for streaming services, such as CBS All Access (USA), Netflix (world), and CraveTV (Canada). For those that remember, Star Trek: The Original Series was a first in color. That meant upgrading to color televisions. It’s certainly not that the Klingons look different. It’s not going to fail because Discovery sticks to canon, or doesn’t stick to canon.
No, Star Trek Discovery is not doomed.
This revelation comes, of course, in contrast to so much of the media surrounding the upcoming series. If one is to keep up with all the buzz around the show (and we do), they’d probably think the whole thing is a mess. The amount of negative media towards the new Star Trek series is astounding. And the show hasn’t even aired yet. What’s sad is that most of the negative press isn’t even true nor accurate… an echo-chamber of headlines based on other headlines that were geared to bait and draw clicks.
Seriously. Everything from Star Trek fans making racist and other bigoted comments about the cast and characters, to Klingons being Trump supporters and the enemy, to the series being doomed before it even gets started because of being placed on CBS All Access. Bad press sells. Because of that some media have taken to stretching the truth as far as they can. Occasionally they flat out tell mistruths, be it purposefully or not.
No Reviews Before Premiere?
A few articles were written yesterday about the fact that CBS isn’t allowing any media to review the show before it premieres. That article was picked up again and again, being rewritten and regurgitated by each media outlet along the way. Take this ludicrous article posted yesterday on io9, for example. There’s more than a little spite in the words of the writer, who isn’t being given a chance to watch the premiere before the public. That’s right. It’s not that CBS isn’t allowing reviews – CBS simply isn’t allowing media to watch the premiere before the public.
The hyperbole is out of control!
Not looking good for #StarTrekDiscovery – no reviews allowed. Looks like this STD will burn.https://t.co/UTbK6z6sW3
— John Taloni (@JohnTaloni) September 15, 2017
It’s going to burn!
Glad to know this show is going to COMPLETELY SUCK. #StarTrekDiscoveryhttps://t.co/WAwOYtHZv9
— Nathanael Reyes (@NatReyes96) September 15, 2017
Glad to know?
There are literally dozens of these articles and hundreds, maybe even thousands, of these social media comments.
Anyone that’s paying attention would know CBS isn’t pre-premiering to stop bad reviews from being written. Star Trek fans are going to watch it and make up their own minds anyways. It’s obvious to even the layperson that the Star Trek Discovery showrunners have been extremely secretive about the series. More tight-lipped than any other tv show this writer has even seen. The show airs just nine days from now and there are still characters with actors that haven’t even been made public yet.
CBS is protecting their asset in hopes of avoiding spoilers until the last possible minute. They’ve managed to keep just about everything under wraps for well over a year now – why would they blow that just because some in the media want early access to the show?
Check out this great thread by David Mack, writer of the Star Trek: Discovery: Desperate Hours, the shows first tie-in book being released later this month. (Click the Tweet to check out the entire thread)
Every day I see clickbait blog articles predicting doom and gloom for @startrekcbs and I have to tell you, I'm sick of them. 1/13
— David Mack (@DavidAlanMack) September 15, 2017
We couldn’t have put it better. No CBS isn’t trying to hide a poorly-produced Star Trek: Discovery series at all. They’re trying to protect something that they think is great and of high value to the organization. Given the way the press has been acting around the series, we certainly don’t blame them for their decision.