Most People Don’t Believe Star Trek: Discovery Fans Exist
Responses to our Twitter poll reveal that most people believe Star Trek Discovery fan accounts are fake.
Recently, it was announced that the upcoming Season 5 of the Paramount+ show Star Trek: Discovery (which is dropping sometime in 2024) would be its last. This led to many fan accounts expressing sadness at the prospect of no new Discovery episodes. However, we conducted a recent Twitter poll and discovered something shocking: most respondents believe that the majority of fan accounts gushing over the show are completely fake.
As of this writing, 17 percent of respondents said there were no fake fan accounts for Star Trek: Discovery. Meanwhile, 16 percent of respondents believe 20 percent of the fan accounts are fake. Shockingly, though, 20 percent of respondents believe half of the fan accounts are fake, and a whopping 47 percent of respondents believe that at least 80 percent of the fan accounts are fake.
These numbers reflect an interesting tension regarding Star Trek: Discovery reflected in the larger fan discussions online. For example, many give the show props for being the first new televised Star Trek since Enterprise went off the air, and they point out that we wouldn’t have such awesome newer shows such as Strange New Worlds and Lower Decks if not for the early success of Discovery. Harsher fans have pointed out, though, that the success of Strange New Worlds (which has returned to episodic storytelling, in stark contrast to the season-long mystery arcs on Discovery and Picard) has highlighted all of the ways that Discovery is starting to show its age.
If there really is a small legion of fake fan accounts for Star Trek: Discovery, it wouldn’t be that surprising. For example, there has been speculation on r/StarTrek for years that CBS astroturfs the platform and suppresses genuine criticism of new shows. When you think about it, creating a bunch of fan accounts on Twitter (which are likely just automated bots) would be far easier than actively moderating online fan communities such as Reddit for the better part of a decade.
Regardless of the possible fan accounts, many have been speculating why CBS is suddenly willing to let their flagship show go with such little fanfare. Discovery was not supposed to end with this season, and the actors had to go back to shoot additional scenes to give the series a proper ending. Some have speculated that actors’ contracts are expiring and that CBS doesn’t want to deal with salary negotiations, while others think that Strange New Worlds (with familiar characters like Pike, Spock, and the iconic starship Enterprise) is being set up to be the new flagship show and lure more subscribers to Paramount+.
Those wondering how many Star Trek: Discovery fan accounts are fake may want to monitor these accounts after the show ends to see if they gush about the new Trek shows or disappear into the digital aether. That might sound impossible, but not for the right person. After all, if Trek has taught us anything, it’s that you shouldn’t believe in the no-win scenario.
