Yep, William Shatner and the Reeves-Stevenses wrote a whole series of adventures for a resurrected Kirk. It starts with The Ashes of Eden, which mostly takes place between VI and Generations, and kicks into gear with The Return. There’s a bunch more after that. I liked them as a kid.
“The Last Arship” “The LA Starship” “Thela’s Tarship”
Overwriting canon is fine, actually. TOS never had an issue with it, and PIC S1E10 gave Data a much better send-off by breaking canon from Nemesis and other Soong episodes. Gene Roddenberry’s assistant officially decanonized TAS, but better writers still acknowledge it.
The idea of “canon” in regard to fictional worlds is dubious anyway, especially ones developed across multiple writers and generations. I’m fine with stuffing Pike’s comment about women on the bridge into the dustbin of history, and not stressing about what decade the Eugenics Wars happened, and assuming PIC S3 doesn’t exist.
Prodigy does start a bit weak, much like TNG and Lower Decks did. The writers find their groove pretty quickly though, and the rest of the series is great!
SNW and Prodigy both fit the bill, in spite of your vague objection to the latter. Add Lower Decks and the better seasons of DIS (2, 4, 5) when the kids are a bit older.
The reason he asked about SNW is because SNW might actually not have the problems you’re describing. You mentioned two tropes of modern Trek - the galactic danger and Section 31 - but SNW doesn’t use those tropes. Did you misread his question?
As for the advancement of society (optimism vs aspiration) - TOS shows us a Federation that has moved beyond money and greed, sure. But war is still possible; Errand of Mercy established that there had recently been a war with the Klingons, decades before DIS and SNW portrayed it. The death penalty is still a possible punishment for Federation officers (maybe citizens too?) in The Menagerie. McCoy makes bigoted comments toward his ship’s first officer regularly. If anything, SNW shows a more advanced society than TOS did. (I can’t imagine SNW Pike expressing TOS Pike’s opinion about women on the bridge!) Surely it makes sense that SNW’s society should resemble TOS’s more than TNG’s.
But the bigger sense of advancement across the entire franchise is still here too. A key point in SNW S1E1 is that society has moved beyond partisan struggles and infighting - the ability to explore space and live in the stars is tied directly to this sense of social harmony which we still lack. This was also true in previous eras of Trek, and is exactly why warp travel is the criteria to be contacted by the Federation. SNW shows that these writers get it, and continue to get it.
He asked you about SNW, and you forgot to talk about SNW.
Of the previous Trek movies, we have:
A deliberately ponderous sci-fi epic
A submarine story fueled by revenge
A crew who risks everything to save one friend
A reunion special with a “save the whales” message front and center
An ego project with ambition
A political/spy thriller
A crossover for the fans
A zombie movie
A long episode of TNG
The second movie again but worse
A reboot with plot holes
A misunderstood action flick
A Fast & Furious movie
So how is this “not Trek” while all of those are Trek?
There are great episodes in the first two seasons. You have to search for them though. (Please don’t miss Measure of a Man)
It can’t be explained directly, by itself. They’re part of a bigger picture.
Straight men are attracted to women on the whole - legs, arms, waist, face, chest, back, it’s all good. Whatever force it is that makes us attracted to women, it’s not something that we chose or decided. We just do.
Since boobs are a sign of femininity, they’re attractive to us on exactly that level! They fit into our idea of what women look like.
It is available on F-Droid, if you add its repository. QR code here: https://gitlab.com/ironfox-oss/IronFox