To Reboot or Not to Reboot

Yesterday’s post, I addressed the return of Patrick Stewart as Jean Luc Picard in a new Star Trek TV series that will be shown on CBS’s streaming service which is also the home of Star Trek: Discovery. 

 

We don’t know what form this new series will take. I would hope it’s not just the Next Generation gang getting together for a new trek through the stars on whatever iteration of the Enterprise we’re up to now. As much as one may try to put Nemesis out of our memories, the Enterprise E is pretty well trashed by the end of the movie, maybe beyond any patch up job that can be done at McKinley Station.

 

OK, I am such a nerd.  McKinley Station is where the Enterprise D gets refurbished after the battle with the Borg in The Best of Both Worlds. And I did not look that information up somewhere; I referenced that from memory.

 

Anyway…

 

As I observed yesterday, I doubt Patrick Stewart would’ve signed up for just more of the same.  Yes, I want to see Dr. Beverly Crusher again and maybe see what Geordi LaForge is up to. I’ll be up for some cameos from Deep Space Nine and Voyager.

 

But what I want to see is Picard help move the Star Trek universe forward. 


Me, I would be OK with a series about Jean Luc Picard, Interstellar Archeologist.  (The only thing that ever tempted Picard away from the Captain's chair was archeology.) 

 

Recently word got around about a new Frasier series being shopped around. On Ken Levine’s blog, I broached the idea that 20 years after the Frasier left the air, Dr. Frasier Crane is older, perhaps struck with a debilitating injury or illness. My suggestion was he should have a stroke because Dr. Crane was always in some kind of apoplectic snit about something so him having a stroke would not be a total surprise. So Frasier Crane must now turn to the care and guidance of his son, Frederick. Yes, we’re doing a version of the original Frasier series where Frasier was the son who had to take care of his father. Having lived through that, Frasier would be loathed to live through it again but this time with the shoe on the other foot. Especially since Frederick is not quite the man his father was. I’m thinking happily married with kids. Frasier when he was Frederick’s age was busy screwing around with a mentally disturbed bar maid in Boston. Frederick has his life together which irks Frasier something awful. And thus the comedy ensues.

 

Yes, I want to see Niles and Daphne visit. What’s Roz up to? She’s a TV producer now so great! For C-SPAN so yeah, she could be doing better. But we can’t go back. People have aged and changed. But like Frasier Crane did when he spun off from Cheers to his own show, if he serves as point of familiarity to build towards something new, a new Frasier series could possibly work.

 

Coming back to CBS this fall is another show getting the revival treatment is Murphy Brown. My wife Andrea is looking forward to this one because she figures Murphy will be in prime form to kick Donald Trump’s ass. A much as I utterly despise the Cheeto hued Moron In Chief, I am less enamored with the idea of Murphy taking on Li'l Donnie. I'm sure it will be clever and witty with biting satire and brutally funny take downs. But it won't mean a thing other than to give Fox News pundits more to gripe about left wing media bias.


Back in the 1990s, both Murphy Brown the show and Murphy Brown the character were foils for stick in the mud conservative politics.  When Murphy got pregnant on the show, Vice President Dan Quayle took issue with the character glamorizing single motherhood. Quayle’s comments were written into the show where she confronted his misguided views. So we can expect real life and the world of Murphy Brown to intersect in interesting ways.  In the new show, Murphy’s son Avery has grown to be a pundit on a Fox News expy. So we can expect from that the comedy will ensue.

 

What we’ve looked at some far are shows where the original actors are revisiting their characters. Another kind of reboot is where a show revives the title and the premise but with all new actors starting over from scratch. A good example is Lost In Space. This makes sense as the original show was made back in the 1960s. (Point of reference, I never watched the original series nor the current one on Netflix. Andrea and I did see the Lost In Space movie that came out back in the 1990s with Matt Leblanc. What can I day? We were both big fans of Friends.) 

 

But there have been announced reboots of TV series of more recent vintage where it seems a little odd to start all over from scratch with a new cast. This fall, the CW will launch a new Charmed series which apparently has no connection to the original series that ran for 8 years. Holly Marie Combs has been particularly strident in her objections to this new series and the complete lack of involvement from the original cast.

 

Also apparently making the rounds is a reboot of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  I understand the reasoning for do a reboot; the original series was about the pairing of the horrors of high school with the horrors of vampire attacks. There has been no clear indication if this is a true reboot with everything starting at square one with a new Buffy and a new gang of friends who may or may not be Zander and Willow. Or if there is a connection to the original series picking up where the original group left off and a new Slayer rising up to lead the next generation?

 

I think one problem with this topic is the use of the word “reboot”. When we say “reboot”, are we talking about a revival of a show with the same premise with the same actors returning to their characters? Or are we talking about creating a “new show” around an existing title and premise but with new actors? And in that case, are those new actors taking over previously established characters or developing new characters? 

 

I think the word “reboot” should be reserved for the later scenario. When most or all of the original cast is returning, that’s more of a revival than a reboot. A reboot implies a reset to the start. 


Whether it's a reboot or a revival, I guess the key to looking backward is using that known quantity as a foundation to build something new. Looking back is OK if it provides a starting point for moving forward.