Title. I like engaging with Trek content, but i haven’t watched most of the new content and would like to avoid spoilers, which seems difficult especially regarding SNW when subscribed here. Feels like there is half a dozen posts about it every day.
Is there a place for old Trek discussion or content, or alternatively a spoiler free one?
I think you’re going to have an issue in that the kind of people who come online to discuss a show are also the kind of people to consume all new entries ASAP after their release.
There’s no guarantee that it’s spoiler-free but www.trekbbs.com has separate boards for each series. Maybe that helps.
I totally understand your desire for a community that allows you to discuss classic trek without worrying that your enjoyment of new series will be lessened if you read spoilers. Reddit has a big enough user base to have separate subreddits for each series. Lemmy’s not there yet.
think there is a way to make any forum spoiler-avoidable, especially where very current episodes are at play. Sensible titles (e.g., including the episode discussed) would go a long way toward helping with this.
Lemmy also ostensibly supports spoiler tags
spoilers within
But not every client supports them. Hopefully as clients improve, support will be universal.
Getting people to use those where appropriate might also help.
I look forward to seeing how this and other trek communities develop, and I hope that your experience improves.
You could just watch the shows you don’t want to be spoiled on.
Since the age of streaming has made it very uncertain that shows are completed or even get a reasonable finale episode I prefer waiting until a series is complete before I start watching it. Nothing worse than getting invested in a show only to have it cancelled mid story arc. Also makes binge watching easier.
I get that. So…while you do you, a friend encouraged me to watch SNW, and I am glad I did. It is more episodic vs. a “Tune In Next Season!” cliffhanger that sucks when the show isn’t picked up again.
SNW is currently produced, genuinely worth watching (IMO), has a weekly release, and I don’t think there is any danger of a mid-season arc cancellation; it’s also fun to join a topical convo on “New Trek” as it happens. Once the season is done, it’s now Old Trek :)
You can binge and get caught up quickly. Sadly, seasons no longer have 20+ episodes, but I suppose that is what it is.
I’m a long time Trekkie; I wasn’t alive yet when TOS originally aired on TV, (I mean, that was the '60s – I’m old, but I’m not that old!) but I grew up watching it in syndication. I also watched TNG, DS9, Voyager and (ahem) most of Enterprise, back when these shows first aired on broadcast television. The notion of binge watching wasn’t even a thing, yet. That said… I’m somewhat in the same boat as you for some of the newer shows, simply because I haven’t taken the time to sit down and consume all of “NuTrek” quite yet, so I do get where you’re coming from. (The rest of “life” sometimes gets in the way of good entertainment, eh?)
But at some point you have to a acknowledge that you’re fighting a two-front war. You say that you don’t want to watch a series that is incomplete or at risk of an abrupt cancellation, which I certainly get… but at the same time, you say that you don’t want other people who have watched it to spoil it for you, while still having the option to discuss the shows you have watched with those same people. These are largely incompatible whims; you’re kind’a going to have to just choose a path and accept that there will occasionally be thorns in the bushes along that path, regardless of which one you choose.
That is to say, as I see it, you have three basic options:
- Either watch things according to your preferences at whatever pace suits you, and accept that the occasional spoiler is going to be inevitable,
- Or binge everything that’s ever been released as quickly as you can, and accept that you’re going to end up watching and investing in some shows that may not last as long as you’d like,
- Or simply pull out of the discussions as soon as you realize that a spoiler is coming… or maybe even isolate yourself from those discussions entirely, until such time as you’re comfortable with your level of Trek knowledge.
Some combination of those options is probably going to be more or less palatable to you. (Personally, I go through spurts of all three modes at different times.)
As an aside: shows being cancelled prematurely is by no means unique to the Age of Streaming. The original Star Trek series is a prime example… but more modern examples exist as well, including non-Trek franchises, like Firefly.
