In a moment that perfectly crystallizes our current cultural crossroads, bestselling author Andy Weir—the brilliant mind behind *The Martian* and *Project Hail Mary*—delivered a refreshingly blunt assessment of what Paramount+ has done to the Star Trek franchise: “Those shows are shit.”
This wasn’t mere artistic criticism. It was a declaration of independence from an entertainment industry that has abandoned the very values that made American storytelling the envy of the world.
Weir’s public rejection of modern Trek comes after Paramount declined his pitch for the franchise, apparently preferring their current formula of intersectional sermonizing over the kind of hard science fiction that made Weir a household name. The irony is delicious: Hollywood rejected the author whose work embodies everything the original Star Trek represented—scientific curiosity, problem-solving ingenuity, and an unshakeable faith in human potential.
Consider what Weir represents versus what Paramount has chosen. His novels celebrate the quintessentially American belief that any challenge can be overcome through intelligence, determination, and good old-fashioned elbow grease. Mark Watney doesn’t survive Mars by checking his privilege; he sciences the hell out of his problems. Grace, the protagonist of *Project Hail Mary*, doesn’t save humanity through diversity initiatives but through the kind of innovative thinking that built NASA and put Americans on the moon.
This is storytelling that honors the pioneering spirit that carved a civilization from wilderness and turned a collection of colonial outposts into the world’s beacon of freedom and innovation.
Meanwhile, Paramount’s “NuTrek” has transformed Gene Roddenberry’s optimistic vision of humanity’s future into a joyless exercise in contemporary political messaging. Where the original series showed diverse crews united by shared excellence and common purpose, the new iterations seem more interested in highlighting differences and grievances. Where Kirk and Picard embodied confident American leadership—decisive, principled, and inspiring—today’s Starfleet officers often appear paralyzed by self-doubt and committee-think.
The market has rendered its verdict with brutal efficiency. While Weir’s novels top bestseller lists and spawn major motion pictures, Paramount’s latest Trek offerings struggle to find audiences even among the franchise’s most devoted fans. YouTube videos of literal static have outperformed some episodes—a humbling reminder that American consumers still recognize authentic quality when they see it.
This cultural moment represents something larger than entertainment industry politics. It signals a growing confidence among America’s most talented creators to reject the sterile orthodoxies imposed by corporate gatekeepers who mistake ideology for inspiration. Weir’s willingness to speak plainly about quality—to call bad work “shit” in an age of euphemistic corporate speak—embodies the kind of straight talk our culture desperately needs.
The original Star Trek succeeded because it trusted American audiences to embrace a vision of the future where merit mattered more than identity, where exploration trumped introspection, and where humanity’s best angels—curiosity, courage, and compassion—guided us to the stars. These weren’t conservative or liberal values; they were American values, rooted in the revolutionary idea that individuals could transcend their circumstances through effort and excellence.
As Hollywood’s ideological capture becomes increasingly obvious, creators like Weir point toward a cultural renaissance built on timeless principles rather than trending hashtags. They remind us that America’s greatest stories have always celebrated the audacity to dream big, work hard, and reach for the impossible.
The future of American storytelling doesn’t belong to committee-driven content designed to check boxes. It belongs to the dreamers, the builders, and the problem-solvers who still believe in the radical American proposition that tomorrow can be better than today—if we’re bold enough to make it so.
