'Star Trek: Starfleet Academy' Actor Robert Picardo Claims Negative Fan Reviews Are Created By Bots
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy actor Robert Picardo recently claimed many of the negative reviews for the show are due to “bots.”
Picardo’s claim in response to Fandom Pulse co-owner Jon Del Arroz sharing a YouTube video discussing an analysis that ChatGPT maybe have written a significant portion of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy.
Picardo responded to this writing, “What a coincidence! There's a lot of evidence that bots are creating your fan reviews of Starfleet Academy ! If both sides are AI controlled, how do we pick the truth?”
He then added, “Our 93% positive reviews from professional critics were not AI generated! How do you explain that?”
Del Arroz responded, “Because Nerdrotic, Critical Drinker, Tachyon Pulse, myself don't get listed as ‘professional critics’ because we're not pay to play access.”
Picardo then replied, “I don't think that's true, Jon. I think it's that sources like daily variety, The Hollywood reporter, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, people magazine etc. have been around longer. You may outlast them. But that hasn't happened yet.”
To be clear the critic score on Rotten Tomatoes currently sits at 88% not 93% and the Popcornmeter, which was previously called the Audience Score is at a rotten 43%.
As for Picardo’s question on why leftist access media outlets would give the show positive reviews, one need look no further than an admission from SyFy Wire’s Dany Roth. Back in 2019 as part of the outlet’s Who Won The Week podcast, Roth and his co-hosts, SyFy Wire’s Contributing Editor Karama Horne and SyFy Wire’s Editor-in-Chief Adam Swiderski discussed the recent changes to Rotten Tomatoes following backlash against Marvel’s Captain Marvel film.
Roth shared how access media works, “Here’s the actual reality. Here’s where we actually are in the industry if you want to talk about quote access media. Every single person that wants to have access to things early, that wants to get access to things so that traffic is drawn to their site will on occasion. Everybody at this podcast, everybody in our industry occasionally has to play softball, occasionally has to look the other way a little bit. Everybody has to do it. In the sense that I hated a movie, but I won’t say that I hated a movie. Or an actor behaved a sort of way, and you don’t want to put it out there that that happened.” Horne chimes in, “Right, because you might not get the next review.” Roth continues, “To some degree everybody in our industry that is part of this quote on quote access media has to decide which battles they want to pick. Which of the ones where my voice is the one that has to get said.”
On top of this, if one looks at the publications that Picardo cites. The Hollywood Reporter’s Angie Han even describes the show as “messy.” She writes, “You can, on the other hand, certainly blame the Paramount+ show itself for being messy. Created by Gaia Violo, the series is a hybrid of sci-fi spectacle and teen drama that’s admirable in its ambitions but shaky in its execution, at least in the first six hours (of 10) sent to critics.”
The Los Angeles Times’ Robert Lloyd also noted in his review, “Star Trek fans can be very particular, and this is something different from the different “Treks” some already don’t like.”
While Variety’s Aramide Tinubu praised the show, she even admitted, “It’s likely somewhat different from what long-time Trekkies are accustomed to, but perhaps that is the point.”
She then gave the game away by admitting her praise is conditional on the destructive ideologies the show presents, “To ensure the franchise lasts at least another 60 years, it must reflect our actual world. There must be space made for queer identifying, multi-heritage and mixed-race characters.”
It also does not appear that People nor The New York Times even did reviews of the show.
Finally, as a point of order, Picardo’s claim here mirrors what failed Star Wars director Rian Johnson attempted to do when he claimed that negative reviews of his The Last Jedi film stemmed from political trolling and Russian bots. The Star Wars franchise has been in significant decline ever since.
NEXT: The Hero With A Thousand Reruns — Why Modern Franchises Keep Reusing Characters
Robert Picardo is literally defending the access media. What a piece of shit.
Picardo's a shill.