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Fiscally, it makes complete sense. Literarily, not so much.

Within a few hours of CBS’ announcement that a new Star Trek series was in the works, fans of the fifty year old franchise had combed through every part of the press release looking for clues as to what the new show would be about. While Trekkers (don’t even think about using Trekkies) want to know everything about it, but despite the exhaustive search, no one is asking an existential question of much importance to the fandom: is a new Star Trek show necessary?

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In the past ten years, history has exceeded the basic underpinnings of the Star Trek canon, which stated that by 2015, we should all be covered in radioactive fallout; the horrors of a post-atomic war out of which the seeds of the Federation and Starfleet would rise.

Thanks to a few decades of flagging interest in space exploration, along with a variety of other trends and events ranging from technological development to political turmoil, Star Trek no longer depicts a possible future, but an outcome of an alternate history. It’s an important pivot to appreciate, as it brings Star Trek further away from Science Fiction and closer to Fantasy. Even though it takes place in the future, it’s the future of a different past, and instead of looking ahead, it looks backwards.