How is Gossip Girl like Star Trek?

It's an easy answer: both are getting prequels. The CW has commissioned a new show about the young life of Gossip Girl matriarch Lily Rhoades (known in the show as Lily van der Woodsen, played by Kelly Rutherford) and will take place in Los Angeles in the 1980's. The May 11th Gossip Girl episode will serve as a backdoor pilot.

Admittedly, I'm not a fan of the Gossip Girl franchise, but this actually sounds like a good idea. It is taking the elements that make the franchise popular and adding a new, interesting twist by setting it into the past (a past that coincides with the childhoods of the parents of the kids that watch the show, making it a family affair).

The only tragedy of prequels is that you know what will happen to the characters. There is no way Lily Rhoades is going to end up dead in the prequel, as she has to be there for Gossip Girl. is she did die in the prequel, it would create a paradox and go into Star Trek territory.