Star Trek: Discovery Just Got Mocked By SNL
You seen the new Star Trek: DIscovery skit from SNL?
Saturday Night Live is known for lampooning noteworthy people and events. Given the fact that it tailors itself to a slightly more niche audience, the show Star Trek: Discovery seems a strange target for SNL. It runs the risk of soaring over the heads of those who do not watch the show. But regardless, the beloved sci-fi series is the latest pop culture trend to end up at the mercy of SNL’s jokes. The result is mixed but worth watching if only to get a healthy discussion going.
Sure, Star Trek is an incredibly popular sci-fi franchise. But Star Trek: Discovery is only a few years old and may not have a big enough fan base for SNL to joke about it and have most of its viewers get it. They will definitely pick up on the Star Trek part of it, but most of it may be too subtle or small for people who have not seen this particular spin-off. But the larger point of this particular sketch seems to be that people are ignoring larger problems and getting offended too easily. I have mixed feelings on that, and I don’t want pointed comedy such as this to cloud the fact that there are things out in the world that should offend us. There is more nuance to this discussion than the sketch lets on, and I fear that it may discourage people from addressing actual problems.
The only thing the sketch makes clear about Star Trek: Discovery is that SNL perceives it as an overly whiney, excessively dramatic entry in Gene Roddenberry’s beloved universe. The skit is far from ranking among the funniest skits SNL has ever done, but it seems to be more concerned with getting its message across than it does with making us laugh. But hey, anything with Kate McKinnon in it is worth watching, even if she is probably the most serious part of this particular skit. That is just a testament to her range, honestly.
The first season of Star Trek: Discovery premiered on September 24, 2017. The second and third seasons hit CBS All Access (now Paramount+) in 2018. The fourth season is forthcoming but no specific release date has been announced. The show is insanely popular among Trekkies, earning CBS All Access some serious money and encouraging the network to keep renewing it.
In addition to the upcoming fourth season of Star Trek: Discovery (which will hit Paramount+ later this year), there are a number of other exciting Star Trek projects that are either rumored to happen or have been straight-up confirmed. Among them is a possible Star Trek: Lower Decks movie, new episodes of the Patrick Stewart-led Star Trek: Picard, and more!
Since Alex Kurtzman took charge of the television arm of the Star Trek universe a few years back, there have been a number of seismic changes to the franchise that many fans have loved. Of course, there are those who do not enjoy the direction some of these shows are taking, but overall the response seems to be positive.
