Opinions on Youtube/Patreon Trek Reactors

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Opinions on Youtube/Patreon Trek Reactors


Of late I have been watching a number of Youtubers/Patreon creators doing first time watch reactions to Star Trek episodes and movies.  Among them Jen Murray, RolyPolyOllie, Target Audience (Josh Singh and Alex Daniels), Court Reacts and bunnytailsREACTS.  There are many others.  It is great to see strong interest in the older Trek series as well as the franchise as a whole.  Jen Murray has watched all of TOS, TAS, TNG the first 7 movies and is currently watching DS9 season 4.  RolyPolyOllie has watched some episodes of TOS and TNG, all of the movies, all of DS9 and has recently started Voyager season 5.  Target Audience are watching the entre franchise in release order, they have finished all of TOS, TAS, TNG, the movies through Generations, DS9 seasons 1-3 and VOY season 1.  Court Reacts is currently enjoying TNG season 7 and DS9 season 2.  BunnytailsREACTS is currently in season 2 of TNG, after viewing all of TOS, TAS, and the first six movies.  In addition to the enjoyable nostalgic experience of seeing the episodes/movies as they aired in the 90's (the Trek I grew up on) it is fun to see the reactions and opinions of (mostly) younger people to these episodes and movies for the first time.  Seeing their reactions to classic moments like the death of Spock in Star Trek II, Picard turned into Locutus in TNGs "The Best of Both Worlds part 1" and the same episodes cliffhanger ending, Kirk and Picard's teamup and Kirk's death in Generations, and Worf joining the Dominion in DS9's season 4 opener "The Way of the Warrior" to name but a few.  Even if I (and/or many of the viewers) don't agree with the reactors opinions, the opinions are still valid and interesting.  For example, Alex from Target Audience was not a fan of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, widely considered one of the best movies of the franchise and one of my personal favorites.  To each their own.  

Most of the reactors repeatedly mention not wanting spoilers and wanting to go into watching episodes/movies blind for the sake of "the original watching experience".  While this is understandable, there are time when it gets taken too far.  For a current example, Jen Murray recently started DS9 season 4, the premiere of which features Worf (Michael Dorn) joining the cast.  She said multiple times prior to releasing the reaction that she didn't want spoilers.  Okay fine.  In the reaction she looked away/closed her eyes to not see the opening credits because "people told her that there was someone new in the credits this season".  Similarly Josh and Alex from Target Audience also wanted to avoid the "Worf spoiler" in DS9 season 4, but have posed on their patreon that it's not an issue because the labelling of their DVD set spoiled it for them.  Not wanting spoilers is one thing, but things like this wouldn't be spoilers anyway as back in the day when the shows first aired -spoiler alert- we knew ahead of time.  Everyone knew before "The Way of the Warrior" aired that Worf was coming to DS9/Dorn was joining the cast.  Trailers and promo ads existed.  Star Trek magazines like the official Star Trek Fan Clubs "Star Trek Communicator" magazine existed.  We knew.  It wasn't a spoiler for anyone.  It was used to hype up the series (for ratings).  Alex and Josh have often mentioned throughout their Star Trek journey that the credits spoil things.  Sometimes they do, but I don't think it's as much of an issues as they make it out to be.  Also, screen credits are by and large tied to the contracts the studios make with actors (also SAG rules).  As far as what's in the credits and whether or not it spoils something, that is for the most part out of the studios hands. 

I have only mentioned a few reactor content creators here, there are many others, some of whom have watched only certain series (old or new) or only the movies.  Many if not most of these reactors post on Patreon as well as Youtube (for those who wish to pay for additional content/uncut reactions/early access to reactions, etc.

Here are the youtube links for the reactors mentioned above:


Jen Murray


Court Reacts



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