Boldly going?
April 25, 2017 4:56 PM Subscribe
Boldly gone?
posted by otherchaz at 5:07 PM on April 25, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by otherchaz at 5:07 PM on April 25, 2017 [2 favorites]
ghuy'cha'!
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 5:12 PM on April 25, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 5:12 PM on April 25, 2017 [2 favorites]
According to this video (which admittedly is upfront about being a recap of industry rumors, not confirmed facts) the lukewarm response to the design of the ship and the clearly troubled status of the show means merchandisers are very reluctant to get on board with creating Discovery merchandise.
posted by Ian A.T. at 5:15 PM on April 25, 2017
posted by Ian A.T. at 5:15 PM on April 25, 2017
I don't know. This article defends Fuller to the utmost, and while I agree he said all the right things to make it sound like a great series, it also seems like he has to take responsibility for the timetable slipping. I mean, he was the showrunner, and he says the reason he left is because the network wanted the show on time. That hardly seems like CBS's fault. I don't know much about who's in charge now, but a change in showrunners is going to cause delays, on top of the delays Fuller was responsible for. So while CBS obviously doesn't understand the franchise, I'm not sure it's doomed to failure. I'll certainly watch it. And we should also keep in mind that Star Trek has always been half crap. From the micro-miniskirts and subservient women of the original to the endless retreads of later series, the bright shining vision has always been clouded by day-to-day mediocrity.
posted by rikschell at 5:15 PM on April 25, 2017 [9 favorites]
posted by rikschell at 5:15 PM on April 25, 2017 [9 favorites]
This article is the worst kind of clickbait. It offers no actual information. It wildly speculates based on incomplete information and/or the end results of decisions when she has no idea what led up to those decisions. It contains opinion about the delivery method. Oh, it's streaming? Yeah, like hundreds of TV shows these days.
I can't wait until the show is out and brilliant.
posted by Automocar at 5:17 PM on April 25, 2017 [3 favorites]
I can't wait until the show is out and brilliant.
posted by Automocar at 5:17 PM on April 25, 2017 [3 favorites]
I saw the mention of Harry Mudd and got a little excited, and then... Rainn Wilson?
If you're going to recast Harry Mudd, Mel Rodriguez or bust! Ever since I first saw him in Running Wilde I thought he would be great for Mudd.
posted by jason_steakums at 5:18 PM on April 25, 2017 [4 favorites]
If you're going to recast Harry Mudd, Mel Rodriguez or bust! Ever since I first saw him in Running Wilde I thought he would be great for Mudd.
posted by jason_steakums at 5:18 PM on April 25, 2017 [4 favorites]
"All hands abandon ship! Repeat, all hands abandon ship!"
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 5:19 PM on April 25, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 5:19 PM on April 25, 2017 [3 favorites]
Star Trek is beautiful and inspiring but I'm pretty happy with the great series we've had and don't expect anything more from the maltreated franchise. I don't think that we will ever see another sci-fi franchise with Star Trek's level of ambition, capacity to inspire and belief in humanity.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 5:20 PM on April 25, 2017 [7 favorites]
posted by Foci for Analysis at 5:20 PM on April 25, 2017 [7 favorites]
Star Trek Who Now?
posted by Going To Maine at 5:26 PM on April 25, 2017
posted by Going To Maine at 5:26 PM on April 25, 2017
"All hands abandon ship! Repeat, all hands abandon ship!"
I came here to post something like that. I'm more cynical though, so I was picturing this instead.
Personally, I'm good with them just letting Star Trek stand as it was. I despise JJTrek, and whomever is attached to Discovery, I'm kind of expecting them to screw it up. (Either it'll be beautiful and die too soon, or it'll suck and last for freaking ever, but I see no middle ground where it just has a decent, respectable run.)
posted by mordax at 5:28 PM on April 25, 2017 [2 favorites]
I came here to post something like that. I'm more cynical though, so I was picturing this instead.
Personally, I'm good with them just letting Star Trek stand as it was. I despise JJTrek, and whomever is attached to Discovery, I'm kind of expecting them to screw it up. (Either it'll be beautiful and die too soon, or it'll suck and last for freaking ever, but I see no middle ground where it just has a decent, respectable run.)
posted by mordax at 5:28 PM on April 25, 2017 [2 favorites]
I didn't realize All Access was a completely new production house and not just a platform for shows made by CBS Studios. This whole debacle makes way more sense now.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 5:30 PM on April 25, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 5:30 PM on April 25, 2017 [3 favorites]
Even if CBS isn't wholly to blame for the Star Trek Discovery issues it really feels like there are so many potential creators out there who would do something amazing with the franchise and CBS seems to really like to own it and control it more than they'd like to do anything interesting with it. Just a pretty thing to keep on the shelf, dusted off once in a while but never really used anymore.
posted by jason_steakums at 5:34 PM on April 25, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by jason_steakums at 5:34 PM on April 25, 2017 [4 favorites]
What's going on is that the upcoming WGA strike is going to set back production by another 40 days at the least. Depending on who's contract was negotiated before the strike ends, there will be some more creative shuffles in the showrunner department.
At this point, ST:D is like a mini-Heaven's Gate: too much time and prestige and marketing has been pushed into it to simply allow it to deflate like it should. When it eventually premieres, it'll sink ignominiously into CBS All Access while half the world downloads it off sharing sites, and someone from the "New Media" department will carry their stuff out in a box.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 5:37 PM on April 25, 2017 [10 favorites]
At this point, ST:D is like a mini-Heaven's Gate: too much time and prestige and marketing has been pushed into it to simply allow it to deflate like it should. When it eventually premieres, it'll sink ignominiously into CBS All Access while half the world downloads it off sharing sites, and someone from the "New Media" department will carry their stuff out in a box.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 5:37 PM on April 25, 2017 [10 favorites]
I didn't realize All Access was a completely new production house and not just a platform for shows made by CBS Studios. This whole debacle makes way more sense now.
It's not one. Discovery is being produced by CBS Television Studios.
posted by Automocar at 5:38 PM on April 25, 2017
It's not one. Discovery is being produced by CBS Television Studios.
posted by Automocar at 5:38 PM on April 25, 2017
it really feels like there are so many potential creators out there who would do something amazing with the franchise and CBS seems to really like to own it and control it more than they'd like to do anything interesting with it.
Literally all they had to do was give the Axanar guys a license to finish their work, and they would have had new content plus a jillion points of fandom goodwill.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 5:39 PM on April 25, 2017 [18 favorites]
Literally all they had to do was give the Axanar guys a license to finish their work, and they would have had new content plus a jillion points of fandom goodwill.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 5:39 PM on April 25, 2017 [18 favorites]
I do not know that Axanar guy exactly has fandom goodwill or a propensity for making things over running off with money.
posted by Artw at 5:41 PM on April 25, 2017 [10 favorites]
posted by Artw at 5:41 PM on April 25, 2017 [10 favorites]
Is this where we all share how we'd create a Star Trek series for the 21st century if we ran the Federation circus? Because I'd like to read all of your versions of that series.
posted by Joey Michaels at 5:44 PM on April 25, 2017 [7 favorites]
posted by Joey Michaels at 5:44 PM on April 25, 2017 [7 favorites]
I was mildly interested in the show when Fuller was involved but even then not enough to fork out for yet another streaming channel. Now, I'll wait until it shows up on Amazon Prime.
posted by octothorpe at 5:47 PM on April 25, 2017
posted by octothorpe at 5:47 PM on April 25, 2017
Bisexual space communists in a Banksian mold, obvs.
posted by Artw at 5:47 PM on April 25, 2017 [17 favorites]
posted by Artw at 5:47 PM on April 25, 2017 [17 favorites]
Star Trek: Vaporware?
posted by oneswellfoop at 5:49 PM on April 25, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by oneswellfoop at 5:49 PM on April 25, 2017 [3 favorites]
Lower Decks: The Series, from showrunner Whit Stillman
posted by Ian A.T. at 5:49 PM on April 25, 2017 [13 favorites]
posted by Ian A.T. at 5:49 PM on April 25, 2017 [13 favorites]
Is this where we all share how we'd create a Star Trek series for the 21st century if we ran the Federation circus? Because I'd like to read all of your versions of that series.
Ok so it starts out just like the JJ Abrams reboot but instead of Eric Bana coming through the wormhole it's just Avasarala and Bobbie from The Expanse and from there it pretty much writes itself
posted by jason_steakums at 5:54 PM on April 25, 2017 [15 favorites]
Ok so it starts out just like the JJ Abrams reboot but instead of Eric Bana coming through the wormhole it's just Avasarala and Bobbie from The Expanse and from there it pretty much writes itself
posted by jason_steakums at 5:54 PM on April 25, 2017 [15 favorites]
Is this where we all share how we'd create a Star Trek series for the 21st century if we ran the Federation circus? Because I'd like to read all of your versions of that series.
Star Trek: Malfunctioning Holodeck Repair Crew
Because the broken holodeck episodes were the best, right everyone? RIGHT?
Plus, it'd be super cheap to make because it would be shot entirely on the existing sets of CBS/Paramount properties.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 5:54 PM on April 25, 2017 [16 favorites]
Star Trek: Malfunctioning Holodeck Repair Crew
Because the broken holodeck episodes were the best, right everyone? RIGHT?
Plus, it'd be super cheap to make because it would be shot entirely on the existing sets of CBS/Paramount properties.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 5:54 PM on April 25, 2017 [16 favorites]
Okay, I'd do a show called Star Trek: Drydock 13 about a bunch of Federation mechanics getting up to hijinx as they fix the starships that are returning from missions.
Characters include:
Babs (General Manager) an elderly veteran mechanic who is a bit of a curmudgeon
Glen (XO) Bab's assistant and a fastidious and competent supervisor
Toohey (tech) engine specialist
Miso (tech) hull and frame specialist
Raeco (tech) systems engineer
Silv (tech) waste engineering
posted by valkane at 5:56 PM on April 25, 2017 [17 favorites]
Characters include:
Babs (General Manager) an elderly veteran mechanic who is a bit of a curmudgeon
Glen (XO) Bab's assistant and a fastidious and competent supervisor
Toohey (tech) engine specialist
Miso (tech) hull and frame specialist
Raeco (tech) systems engineer
Silv (tech) waste engineering
posted by valkane at 5:56 PM on April 25, 2017 [17 favorites]
Star Trek: Malfunctioning Holodeck Repair Crew
I hope they wear gloves.
posted by Artw at 5:57 PM on April 25, 2017 [12 favorites]
I hope they wear gloves.
posted by Artw at 5:57 PM on April 25, 2017 [12 favorites]
Is it too late to sell the whole thing back to Desilu?
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 6:00 PM on April 25, 2017 [9 favorites]
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 6:00 PM on April 25, 2017 [9 favorites]
Star Trek: The Adventures of Willard Decker
We follow Will as he sits in his San Francisco apartment watching StarFOX news and throwing Doritos at the screen whenever Kirk appears.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 6:01 PM on April 25, 2017 [11 favorites]
We follow Will as he sits in his San Francisco apartment watching StarFOX news and throwing Doritos at the screen whenever Kirk appears.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 6:01 PM on April 25, 2017 [11 favorites]
Star Trek'em Forever
posted by comealongpole at 6:01 PM on April 25, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by comealongpole at 6:01 PM on April 25, 2017 [2 favorites]
I don't understand why they insist on depicting the "past" of the Star Trek universe. It's a series about the future, set the new series in the a post-Voyager era. I want to see the future of the future, not the past of the future!
The Next Generation movies stank.
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 6:04 PM on April 25, 2017 [4 favorites]
The Next Generation movies stank.
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 6:04 PM on April 25, 2017 [4 favorites]
Star Trek: Malfunctioning Holodeck Repair Crew
Have you tried turning it off and back on again?
posted by nubs at 6:08 PM on April 25, 2017 [1 favorite]
Have you tried turning it off and back on again?
posted by nubs at 6:08 PM on April 25, 2017 [1 favorite]
The episode guest staring Frakes is horrifying.
posted by Artw at 6:09 PM on April 25, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by Artw at 6:09 PM on April 25, 2017 [6 favorites]
TBH all they have to do is have him striding out of one of the things past the crew just before the credits roll.
posted by Artw at 6:10 PM on April 25, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by Artw at 6:10 PM on April 25, 2017 [4 favorites]
Just do old man Quark jaunting around the galaxy doing crimes with a hapless protege
posted by jason_steakums at 6:10 PM on April 25, 2017 [22 favorites]
posted by jason_steakums at 6:10 PM on April 25, 2017 [22 favorites]
Are there episodes of TNG available where Ryker has been completely edited out?
Asking for me
posted by schadenfrau at 6:11 PM on April 25, 2017 [15 favorites]
Asking for me
posted by schadenfrau at 6:11 PM on April 25, 2017 [15 favorites]
I'd like to see a reverse of Voyager. Starfleet receives a strange coded message from deep space, and put together a special team for a very long term mission. Trouble is, there's hostile territory in between so they have to navigate around it, venturing into territory they've never visited before. Part of their mission is to make contact with those unknown civilizations, negotiate trespass and trade deals, and handle diplomacy. They have no idea what they are going to face, so they have linguists, historians, and diplomats plus a small military marine force at the ready.
There's a bit of conflict between the military and the civilian sides, competing interests of pushing forward and making connections, and a spectre of interference from the hostile society in between. It's a voyage of discovery into the unknown, with only a vague idea of an ultimate purpose.
posted by GhostintheMachine at 6:11 PM on April 25, 2017 [45 favorites]
There's a bit of conflict between the military and the civilian sides, competing interests of pushing forward and making connections, and a spectre of interference from the hostile society in between. It's a voyage of discovery into the unknown, with only a vague idea of an ultimate purpose.
posted by GhostintheMachine at 6:11 PM on April 25, 2017 [45 favorites]
That article was painful to read.
I hope CBS figures it out. I feel bad for Sonequa Martin-Green. She deserves better. Jumping from a show in a creative nosedive to a show that may not even take off must be disheartening.
posted by blackzinfandel at 6:12 PM on April 25, 2017 [2 favorites]
I hope CBS figures it out. I feel bad for Sonequa Martin-Green. She deserves better. Jumping from a show in a creative nosedive to a show that may not even take off must be disheartening.
posted by blackzinfandel at 6:12 PM on April 25, 2017 [2 favorites]
Star Trek: Malfunctioning Holodeck Repair Crew
"The Life and Times of a Holodeck Janitor"
(bonus: "The Life and Times of a Replicator Repairman")
posted by dhens at 6:15 PM on April 25, 2017 [5 favorites]
"The Life and Times of a Holodeck Janitor"
(bonus: "The Life and Times of a Replicator Repairman")
posted by dhens at 6:15 PM on April 25, 2017 [5 favorites]
I don't understand the value of paying for one CBS-only streaming service. Especially for just one show.
Honestly, I can't name a show they have on the air that I care about, other than some of the CW stuff. Probably I could only name two or three CBS shows, period. Without a serious value proposition, it's doomed.
posted by middleclasstool at 6:16 PM on April 25, 2017 [3 favorites]
Honestly, I can't name a show they have on the air that I care about, other than some of the CW stuff. Probably I could only name two or three CBS shows, period. Without a serious value proposition, it's doomed.
posted by middleclasstool at 6:16 PM on April 25, 2017 [3 favorites]
Isn't CBS like the stupidest network?
posted by valkane at 6:18 PM on April 25, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by valkane at 6:18 PM on April 25, 2017 [5 favorites]
Pity. I was so looking forward to the unique opportunity of seeing Doug Jones play a non-human character.
posted by Faint of Butt at 6:19 PM on April 25, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Faint of Butt at 6:19 PM on April 25, 2017 [1 favorite]
Okay, I'd do a show called Star Trek: Drydock 13
Yo dawg, I heard you like holodecks...
posted by otherchaz at 6:20 PM on April 25, 2017
Yo dawg, I heard you like holodecks...
posted by otherchaz at 6:20 PM on April 25, 2017
What about a Trek show where some ragtag crew of idealistic scientists with a busted old ship decide that Starfleet got too militaristic so they take it upon themselves to go around and do the cool exploration of the unknown stuff? I like Starfleet but Star Trek doesn't have to get stuck in that same old formula.
posted by jason_steakums at 6:21 PM on April 25, 2017 [16 favorites]
posted by jason_steakums at 6:21 PM on April 25, 2017 [16 favorites]
It can't be worse than that one episode of DS9 where Quark gets a bad shipment of mutton or whatever and O'Brien falls under suspicion of being a Cardassian sleeper agent and cannot. stop. farting. under questioning from Starfleet security. Like picture the camp fire scene from Blazing Saddles only for an entire episode. Really the low point of the franchise, imo.
posted by indubitable at 6:26 PM on April 25, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by indubitable at 6:26 PM on April 25, 2017 [6 favorites]
CBS All Access has been a terrible idea for quite some time. Scripted network television multi-platform is a solved problem. Your show is on its network timeslot, rebroadcast 2-10 times that week if on cable, available at no added charge to cable/satellite subscribers on demand, on your website and on your app, others can buy a la carte for $1.99 or some season price on iTunes etc. A subset also streams on Hulu. DVD release a few months after the season ends, show becomes available for subscription streaming on Netflix, Amazon Prime or Hulu a few months after that.
CBS All Access was an especially bad idea for Star Trek. There is little or nothing exclusive to CBS All Access a Star Trek viewer cares about. Unlike Showtime it's not offered as a package by cable or satellite. Total fail, especially given the new Star Trek could have SUPER-CHARGED subscriptions to Showtime, or 25-49 year old views for CBS (lowering the average age into the demo) or CW (raising the average age into the demo).
posted by MattD at 6:30 PM on April 25, 2017 [7 favorites]
CBS All Access was an especially bad idea for Star Trek. There is little or nothing exclusive to CBS All Access a Star Trek viewer cares about. Unlike Showtime it's not offered as a package by cable or satellite. Total fail, especially given the new Star Trek could have SUPER-CHARGED subscriptions to Showtime, or 25-49 year old views for CBS (lowering the average age into the demo) or CW (raising the average age into the demo).
posted by MattD at 6:30 PM on April 25, 2017 [7 favorites]
The CW already figured it out better than CBS ever could, they just stream new episodes on their app with no cable login or anything. I wish more channels would do this, it gets eyes on niche programming without a barrier to access (hint hint SyFy)
posted by jason_steakums at 6:36 PM on April 25, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by jason_steakums at 6:36 PM on April 25, 2017 [2 favorites]
First they said Michelle Yeoh was cast as the captain and I cheered out loud.
Then they said she's not really the captain, she's just in a recurring role, and I wanted to flip every table everywhere.
At this point it's hard for me to be upset about this show not going well 'cause if they managed to get Michelle Yeoh on board and then squander their opportunities to work with her I have zero sympathy for their woes.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 6:37 PM on April 25, 2017 [3 favorites]
Then they said she's not really the captain, she's just in a recurring role, and I wanted to flip every table everywhere.
At this point it's hard for me to be upset about this show not going well 'cause if they managed to get Michelle Yeoh on board and then squander their opportunities to work with her I have zero sympathy for their woes.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 6:37 PM on April 25, 2017 [3 favorites]
Star Trek: Breaking Vulcan
Follows the trials and tribulations of the first non-Vulcan students at the Vulcan Science Academy - a human, a Klingon, a Romulan, and a Ferengi.
posted by nubs at 6:38 PM on April 25, 2017 [3 favorites]
Follows the trials and tribulations of the first non-Vulcan students at the Vulcan Science Academy - a human, a Klingon, a Romulan, and a Ferengi.
posted by nubs at 6:38 PM on April 25, 2017 [3 favorites]
All these Discovery suggestions so far are sorely lacking in ships that are sentient and/or dragons. Space dragons!
We also need some in-depth exploration of postcolonial space westerns and more hologram crew members who can kill hostile aliens with their laser-hands.
posted by nicebookrack at 6:39 PM on April 25, 2017 [5 favorites]
We also need some in-depth exploration of postcolonial space westerns and more hologram crew members who can kill hostile aliens with their laser-hands.
posted by nicebookrack at 6:39 PM on April 25, 2017 [5 favorites]
It can't be worse than that one episode of DS9 where Quark gets a bad shipment of mutton or whatever ...
IDK, but I don't think it was worse than that episode of Voyager where Neelix tries to make a bundt cake, but doesn't know what a bundt cake is, so he keeps going around to different crew-members with various horrible objects, and keeps asking them, "Is this a bundt cake?" and they keep saying "NO!" and then Chakotay kills him, but it turns out it was all a dream that Tom Paris had after eating some of Neelix's mac and cheese.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 6:40 PM on April 25, 2017 [21 favorites]
IDK, but I don't think it was worse than that episode of Voyager where Neelix tries to make a bundt cake, but doesn't know what a bundt cake is, so he keeps going around to different crew-members with various horrible objects, and keeps asking them, "Is this a bundt cake?" and they keep saying "NO!" and then Chakotay kills him, but it turns out it was all a dream that Tom Paris had after eating some of Neelix's mac and cheese.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 6:40 PM on April 25, 2017 [21 favorites]
This one.
I want this Star Trek. No other will do.
posted by a power-tie-wearing she-capitalist at 6:47 PM on April 25, 2017 [62 favorites]
I want this Star Trek. No other will do.
posted by a power-tie-wearing she-capitalist at 6:47 PM on April 25, 2017 [62 favorites]
A series where Ryker controls the combat functions of the ship via some virtual trombone generated by holo deck, and a Borg villain who likewise accesses his cube via vibraphone. It's a kind of intergalactic bebop throw-down, jammer take all.
posted by newdaddy at 6:54 PM on April 25, 2017 [22 favorites]
posted by newdaddy at 6:54 PM on April 25, 2017 [22 favorites]
Star Trek: Malfunctioning Holodeck Repair Crew
...is my internal name for Westworld, pretty much.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 6:55 PM on April 25, 2017 [18 favorites]
...is my internal name for Westworld, pretty much.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 6:55 PM on April 25, 2017 [18 favorites]
Then they said she's not really the captain, she's just in a recurring role, and I wanted to flip every table everywhere.
She is the captain. It's just that the captain isn't the main character this time.
posted by Automocar at 6:56 PM on April 25, 2017 [1 favorite]
She is the captain. It's just that the captain isn't the main character this time.
posted by Automocar at 6:56 PM on April 25, 2017 [1 favorite]
I want a Star Trek short story series with Q in the Cryptkeeper role
posted by jason_steakums at 7:01 PM on April 25, 2017 [12 favorites]
posted by jason_steakums at 7:01 PM on April 25, 2017 [12 favorites]
I want this Star Trek. No other will do.
AWESOME
posted by mwhybark at 7:02 PM on April 25, 2017 [3 favorites]
AWESOME
posted by mwhybark at 7:02 PM on April 25, 2017 [3 favorites]
The episode guest staring Frakes is horrifying.
It's on CBS, so just wait until you see Ed Bradley show up as Sisko's distant relative.
posted by rhizome at 7:04 PM on April 25, 2017 [1 favorite]
It's on CBS, so just wait until you see Ed Bradley show up as Sisko's distant relative.
posted by rhizome at 7:04 PM on April 25, 2017 [1 favorite]
She is the captain. It's just that the captain isn't the main character this time.
At the start of each episode, she can grumpily tell everyone that they are loose cannons who don't play by the rules, demand they turn in their phasers and comm-badges in the middle of the episode and at the end admit that though they are loose cannons, they still get results, then freeze-frame on everyone laughing. What could be more 21st century than that?
posted by dannyboybell at 7:10 PM on April 25, 2017 [11 favorites]
At the start of each episode, she can grumpily tell everyone that they are loose cannons who don't play by the rules, demand they turn in their phasers and comm-badges in the middle of the episode and at the end admit that though they are loose cannons, they still get results, then freeze-frame on everyone laughing. What could be more 21st century than that?
posted by dannyboybell at 7:10 PM on April 25, 2017 [11 favorites]
Discovery will spend one season on CBS, then move to the CW, join the Flarrowverse, and re-enact that Legion of Super-Heroes crossover with a side of time-travel.
posted by nicebookrack at 7:17 PM on April 25, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by nicebookrack at 7:17 PM on April 25, 2017 [3 favorites]
Michelle Yeoh IS a ship's captain, but she isn't the captain of the main characters' ship. That captain is being played by Jason Isaacs.
posted by Ian A.T. at 7:24 PM on April 25, 2017
posted by Ian A.T. at 7:24 PM on April 25, 2017
CBS All Access has been a terrible idea for quite some time.
Indeed. It is being shot in Toronto, one of my oldest friends is a huge Star Trek fan, his son has been offered a spot in the production crew... and we cannot, er, access CBS All Access from this country. Great.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 7:30 PM on April 25, 2017 [2 favorites]
Indeed. It is being shot in Toronto, one of my oldest friends is a huge Star Trek fan, his son has been offered a spot in the production crew... and we cannot, er, access CBS All Access from this country. Great.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 7:30 PM on April 25, 2017 [2 favorites]
Somewhere I had an outline of the Star Trek show where there's a Federation team deeply embedded in a just-pre-Warp society as ethnographers, but then things start to go wrong. Of course contact with Starfleet Command is lost. I had one story arc firmly in mind, but I'm not sure how to make it a continuing series instead of a movie or a miniseries, though. Calling it Star Trek and keeping it to one solar system for a year seems like a stretch already.
posted by the antecedent of that pronoun at 7:30 PM on April 25, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by the antecedent of that pronoun at 7:30 PM on April 25, 2017 [1 favorite]
Yeah is captain of the Shenzhou, because Chinese captain, Chinese shipname, apparently.
posted by Artw at 7:38 PM on April 25, 2017
posted by Artw at 7:38 PM on April 25, 2017
The other thing I want is another show with a holographic Emergency Medical Program. She seldom shows up in the main show, but always gets a 90 second short at the end of each episode (or maybe randomly in the middle) to diagnose a random person or alien's disease, in the style of Dr. House in the free clinic. "Cardassian epidermis always becomes inflamed like this when it comes in contact with Ferengi reproductive sludge; no, I'm not judging you" "You have frostbite of the esophagus, Whust food undergoes an endothermic reaction with human saliva, I'll have to replicate you a new one", etc.
posted by the antecedent of that pronoun at 7:38 PM on April 25, 2017 [19 favorites]
posted by the antecedent of that pronoun at 7:38 PM on April 25, 2017 [19 favorites]
IIRC countries not getting it on All Access were to get it on Netflix, which people actually have.
posted by Artw at 7:38 PM on April 25, 2017
posted by Artw at 7:38 PM on April 25, 2017
Rumor mill time. When STD (seriously? I just did that acronym for the first time and did no one think this through?) was announced for production in Toronto, everyone here who was the least bit interested in making spacesuit costumes or star ship sets was already working on The Expanse. So instead of having an experienced team doing pre-production work, it was a bunch of kids straight out of design programs at the local colleges.
posted by thecjm at 7:40 PM on April 25, 2017 [9 favorites]
posted by thecjm at 7:40 PM on April 25, 2017 [9 favorites]
STAR TREK: FRONTIER
The Federation's expansion has pushed its borders up against the outer worlds of a newly discovered multi-species culture that centuries ago fragmented. This shattered empire is both a magnificent opportunity and a grave threat. The planet-breaking technologies of the lost empire are not wholly lost. But neither are its vast resources and scientific discoveries.
The USS Esperance finds itself forced into the role of peacemaker and lawbringer in a volatile sector of the region though the ship carries few arms and is staffed with more astrophysicists than diplomats. The worlds of the sector do not trust one another - with good reason - and the Esperance is the only hope to avoid war and re-establish trade.
As the crew forges alliances and tries to understand these other worlds and peoples, their successes are tempered by the knowledge that other alliances are forming, born from the fear of a vast "United Federation of Planets" that's nosing around with their obnoxious little ship.
At the center of it all is Commander Shih-Chien Ho, a man recently given temporary command of the Esperance when the ship's captain was relieved due to incompetence. Captain Bjorklund sits in the brig, a caged tiger, a source of great and terrible advice. The small crew of the Esperance find it hard to trust one another after Bjorklund's reign of terror, but they have to try. Too much depends upon them.
posted by Harvey Jerkwater at 7:49 PM on April 25, 2017 [24 favorites]
The Federation's expansion has pushed its borders up against the outer worlds of a newly discovered multi-species culture that centuries ago fragmented. This shattered empire is both a magnificent opportunity and a grave threat. The planet-breaking technologies of the lost empire are not wholly lost. But neither are its vast resources and scientific discoveries.
The USS Esperance finds itself forced into the role of peacemaker and lawbringer in a volatile sector of the region though the ship carries few arms and is staffed with more astrophysicists than diplomats. The worlds of the sector do not trust one another - with good reason - and the Esperance is the only hope to avoid war and re-establish trade.
As the crew forges alliances and tries to understand these other worlds and peoples, their successes are tempered by the knowledge that other alliances are forming, born from the fear of a vast "United Federation of Planets" that's nosing around with their obnoxious little ship.
At the center of it all is Commander Shih-Chien Ho, a man recently given temporary command of the Esperance when the ship's captain was relieved due to incompetence. Captain Bjorklund sits in the brig, a caged tiger, a source of great and terrible advice. The small crew of the Esperance find it hard to trust one another after Bjorklund's reign of terror, but they have to try. Too much depends upon them.
posted by Harvey Jerkwater at 7:49 PM on April 25, 2017 [24 favorites]
In a discussion about The Good Fight, the The Good Wife spin-off that's also only available on CBS All Access, several commenters opined that the pay service is where CBS is stashing their niche programming that they assume won't appeal to their generally older, conservative viewer base. In other words, if the show isn't about some form of law enforcement and most of the lead actors aren't White, CBS is gonna make you pay to see it. (The Good Fight has a diverse but predominantly female and Black cast.)
posted by fuse theorem at 7:54 PM on April 25, 2017 [9 favorites]
posted by fuse theorem at 7:54 PM on April 25, 2017 [9 favorites]
Star Trek: Canada Edition
posted by furtive at 8:00 PM on April 25, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by furtive at 8:00 PM on April 25, 2017 [1 favorite]
Dream ST series:
- The further adventures of those three people from the "90's" who got revived in the 24th century. Every episode they make a sport reference that's supposed to be cute but is quickly made wrong by current day sporting events.
- A ship full of replicated Datas and EMHs with one human crew member who's supposedly in charge but really the most inferior person on the ship.
- Voyager, but heavily influenced by GoT so they go through a captain dying pretty much every season and by the end Harry Kim is running things.
- Centuries and centuries into the Federation's future, all of the biped species have interbred to the the point where they're all the same new species, and their ships are giant, super intelligent, and snarkily do all the real work while the people have strange adventures across the galaxy.
posted by thecjm at 8:05 PM on April 25, 2017 [9 favorites]
- The further adventures of those three people from the "90's" who got revived in the 24th century. Every episode they make a sport reference that's supposed to be cute but is quickly made wrong by current day sporting events.
- A ship full of replicated Datas and EMHs with one human crew member who's supposedly in charge but really the most inferior person on the ship.
- Voyager, but heavily influenced by GoT so they go through a captain dying pretty much every season and by the end Harry Kim is running things.
- Centuries and centuries into the Federation's future, all of the biped species have interbred to the the point where they're all the same new species, and their ships are giant, super intelligent, and snarkily do all the real work while the people have strange adventures across the galaxy.
posted by thecjm at 8:05 PM on April 25, 2017 [9 favorites]
Elevator pitch:
The Federation stopped losing its goddamn mind once the Dominion invades Alpha Quadrant, and kicked the Authoritarians to their various Oort Belts. This meant that conscripts were now free and could claim Federation commissions and back-pay. The conscripts on the decrepit, old NCC-1701K were the engineering crew of the most famous starship to go marauding, the Botany Bay III.
Henrietta Mudd is a woman who is ducking the law, she's laying low as a pilot ushering vessels out of their drydocks ahead of the Dominion Wave. One of the vessels is the NCC-1701K. When the Dominion Fast Attack Ships comes to call, the Federation officer refuses to take the helm, so she does. It's either that, or die. She has no idea how these Federation combat-capable ships operate, so she takes hard turns and spirals and inversions much more intensely than should be seemly, all the while her panel is patched into Engineering, and there is a lot of joyous shouting. She shouts back. The Enterprise is even more unhittable, and has some of the heaviest hitting cannon, stolen from a retired space station and the powerplant to run them, which also propels them to warp factors not yet contemplated by the finest scientists at the Vulcan Science Academy. The re-awakened Federation, with the Enterprise leading the charge, is suddenly very, very dangerous. The Federation is most dangerous when it is the most free and unpredictable... here we go.
Senator Merik tr'Mayvor is an honorable observer from the Romulan Republic (NOT Empire!) assigned as cultural liaison to the Starship Enterprise. He, is in secret, the great Democratic Romulan Admiral Courig Spockent, a slave to his emotions, no-kidding founding force of his Republic and a brilliant interstellar tactician.
When the charismatic negotiator and tactical expert Captain Mayra Jones Lin of the NCC-1701K, who is running from Borged Jem'Hadar, orders the bridge to go to full impulse and then full New 8 Warp, you just kind of do it, whether she's onboard or not...
So now you have a "war-criminal" Romulan captain (as per the Romulan Empire, NOT the Romulan Republic, the difference makes a few eps!), a hyperintelligent pirate Chief Engineer, a grifting, treasure-hunting human who is only looking only after her own skin when redefining interstellar combat on the fly as a pilot.
Also, the Captain isn't dead, she's Awaying as hard as she can! This is obviously a problem and will require intervention of tr'Mayvor promising global holocaust in about as a non-prime-diective as you can get....
Also the Ferenghi Admiral laughing in the face of his Dominion handler as the true might of the Fernenghinar Trade Fleet warps into the battlefield, "The wise investor knows there is no such thing as a sure thing, and also betting against the Federation is like betting for your shoes to take fire. Even if you win, you lose. Your shoes are on fire."
Yup. This is the series we need.
posted by Slap*Happy at 8:22 PM on April 25, 2017 [11 favorites]
The Federation stopped losing its goddamn mind once the Dominion invades Alpha Quadrant, and kicked the Authoritarians to their various Oort Belts. This meant that conscripts were now free and could claim Federation commissions and back-pay. The conscripts on the decrepit, old NCC-1701K were the engineering crew of the most famous starship to go marauding, the Botany Bay III.
Henrietta Mudd is a woman who is ducking the law, she's laying low as a pilot ushering vessels out of their drydocks ahead of the Dominion Wave. One of the vessels is the NCC-1701K. When the Dominion Fast Attack Ships comes to call, the Federation officer refuses to take the helm, so she does. It's either that, or die. She has no idea how these Federation combat-capable ships operate, so she takes hard turns and spirals and inversions much more intensely than should be seemly, all the while her panel is patched into Engineering, and there is a lot of joyous shouting. She shouts back. The Enterprise is even more unhittable, and has some of the heaviest hitting cannon, stolen from a retired space station and the powerplant to run them, which also propels them to warp factors not yet contemplated by the finest scientists at the Vulcan Science Academy. The re-awakened Federation, with the Enterprise leading the charge, is suddenly very, very dangerous. The Federation is most dangerous when it is the most free and unpredictable... here we go.
Senator Merik tr'Mayvor is an honorable observer from the Romulan Republic (NOT Empire!) assigned as cultural liaison to the Starship Enterprise. He, is in secret, the great Democratic Romulan Admiral Courig Spockent, a slave to his emotions, no-kidding founding force of his Republic and a brilliant interstellar tactician.
When the charismatic negotiator and tactical expert Captain Mayra Jones Lin of the NCC-1701K, who is running from Borged Jem'Hadar, orders the bridge to go to full impulse and then full New 8 Warp, you just kind of do it, whether she's onboard or not...
So now you have a "war-criminal" Romulan captain (as per the Romulan Empire, NOT the Romulan Republic, the difference makes a few eps!), a hyperintelligent pirate Chief Engineer, a grifting, treasure-hunting human who is only looking only after her own skin when redefining interstellar combat on the fly as a pilot.
Also, the Captain isn't dead, she's Awaying as hard as she can! This is obviously a problem and will require intervention of tr'Mayvor promising global holocaust in about as a non-prime-diective as you can get....
Also the Ferenghi Admiral laughing in the face of his Dominion handler as the true might of the Fernenghinar Trade Fleet warps into the battlefield, "The wise investor knows there is no such thing as a sure thing, and also betting against the Federation is like betting for your shoes to take fire. Even if you win, you lose. Your shoes are on fire."
Yup. This is the series we need.
posted by Slap*Happy at 8:22 PM on April 25, 2017 [11 favorites]
The further adventures of those three people from the "90's"
I adore any and all references to the Eugenics Wars of the 90s, which must have totes been a thing that happened and we all forgot. Maybe it was like Blur vs Oasis and in the end nobody really won.
posted by Artw at 8:42 PM on April 25, 2017 [11 favorites]
I adore any and all references to the Eugenics Wars of the 90s, which must have totes been a thing that happened and we all forgot. Maybe it was like Blur vs Oasis and in the end nobody really won.
posted by Artw at 8:42 PM on April 25, 2017 [11 favorites]
CBS All Access has been a terrible idea for quite some time. Scripted network television multi-platform is a solved problem.
I'm planning to wait until the entire season of The Good Fight has been uploaded, sign up for the free week of service, then watching them all in a couple of days. That's possible, right?
posted by JoeZydeco at 8:48 PM on April 25, 2017 [1 favorite]
I'm planning to wait until the entire season of The Good Fight has been uploaded, sign up for the free week of service, then watching them all in a couple of days. That's possible, right?
posted by JoeZydeco at 8:48 PM on April 25, 2017 [1 favorite]
Some thumbnail sketches:
Star Trek: Academy. The adventures of Starfleet cadets and professors at the academy.
Star Trek: Bebop. A rag-tag crew of bounty hunters roams the alpha quadrant in a broken-down freighter. They're always successful and yet never seem to make any money.
Star Trek: Escape. Prisoners have broken out and are on the run. This could be done either from the perspective of the prisoners or from the perspective of the marshals tracking the prisoners. (Could be combined with Star Trek: Bebop.)
Star Trek: Orion. The story of the origin and expansion of the Orion Syndicate.
Star Trek: Out of Time. The series begins with a small ship that is marooned in the past. The series is about trying to get back to the right time without screwing up too much of what they know as history. Like Voyager but with time, rather than space.
Star Trek: Parrises Squares. Real live-played games of parrises squares played with amateur athletes in the style of American Gladiators.
Star Trek: Muppets. Just like classic trek (or TNG or ...) but entirely cast with Muppets.
posted by Jonathan Livengood at 9:09 PM on April 25, 2017 [10 favorites]
Star Trek: Academy. The adventures of Starfleet cadets and professors at the academy.
Star Trek: Bebop. A rag-tag crew of bounty hunters roams the alpha quadrant in a broken-down freighter. They're always successful and yet never seem to make any money.
Star Trek: Escape. Prisoners have broken out and are on the run. This could be done either from the perspective of the prisoners or from the perspective of the marshals tracking the prisoners. (Could be combined with Star Trek: Bebop.)
Star Trek: Orion. The story of the origin and expansion of the Orion Syndicate.
Star Trek: Out of Time. The series begins with a small ship that is marooned in the past. The series is about trying to get back to the right time without screwing up too much of what they know as history. Like Voyager but with time, rather than space.
Star Trek: Parrises Squares. Real live-played games of parrises squares played with amateur athletes in the style of American Gladiators.
Star Trek: Muppets. Just like classic trek (or TNG or ...) but entirely cast with Muppets.
posted by Jonathan Livengood at 9:09 PM on April 25, 2017 [10 favorites]
AAAARGH come on! Star Trek: Daystrom Institute is the show we need. Better Off Ted meets Black Mirror! Engineering puzzles and hijinks!
posted by daisystomper at 9:24 PM on April 25, 2017 [7 favorites]
posted by daisystomper at 9:24 PM on April 25, 2017 [7 favorites]
All these Discovery suggestions so far are sorely lacking in ships that are sentient and/or dragons. Space dragons!
Join young Captain Dany Stormbeorn as she takes her new ship, the USS Dracarys on her shakedown cruise. The Dracarys is the first vessel of a new class of ships, with full AI. When a bizarre mishap with a wormhole occurs, they find themselves flung into a completely different Galaxy, where the Captain decides that they should take some time to poke around and bring enlightenment to the alien civilizations there before trying to see about going home. Meanwhile, back home. the UFP breaks up and descends into civil war while a strange new race emerges from cryosleep and begins destroying everything in its path.
Also featuring:
Commander Jorah - the second in command, an experienced officer who offers Dany advice, wisdom, and temptation.
Captain Snow, who must take command of a shattered element of Starfleet to oppose the alien menance.
posted by nubs at 9:27 PM on April 25, 2017 [3 favorites]
Join young Captain Dany Stormbeorn as she takes her new ship, the USS Dracarys on her shakedown cruise. The Dracarys is the first vessel of a new class of ships, with full AI. When a bizarre mishap with a wormhole occurs, they find themselves flung into a completely different Galaxy, where the Captain decides that they should take some time to poke around and bring enlightenment to the alien civilizations there before trying to see about going home. Meanwhile, back home. the UFP breaks up and descends into civil war while a strange new race emerges from cryosleep and begins destroying everything in its path.
Also featuring:
Commander Jorah - the second in command, an experienced officer who offers Dany advice, wisdom, and temptation.
Captain Snow, who must take command of a shattered element of Starfleet to oppose the alien menance.
posted by nubs at 9:27 PM on April 25, 2017 [3 favorites]
Star Trek: Muppets. Just like classic trek (or TNG or ...) but entirely cast with Muppets
Let's talk about Star Trek Babies.
posted by rhizome at 9:29 PM on April 25, 2017 [9 favorites]
Let's talk about Star Trek Babies.
posted by rhizome at 9:29 PM on April 25, 2017 [9 favorites]
Star Trek: Singularity
It's mostly static, but occasionally you can see Id Creatures looming toward the screen saying WOOGA BOOGA.
With Ray Kurzweil as Chief of Engineering.
posted by Sparx at 9:40 PM on April 25, 2017 [3 favorites]
It's mostly static, but occasionally you can see Id Creatures looming toward the screen saying WOOGA BOOGA.
With Ray Kurzweil as Chief of Engineering.
posted by Sparx at 9:40 PM on April 25, 2017 [3 favorites]
Star Trek: Muppets. It's been done. PIGS IN SPAAACE!!!
posted by oneswellfoop at 9:51 PM on April 25, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by oneswellfoop at 9:51 PM on April 25, 2017 [5 favorites]
I have extensive thoughts about the Star Trek I would make, and have written them up at some length.
posted by nonasuch at 9:54 PM on April 25, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by nonasuch at 9:54 PM on April 25, 2017 [3 favorites]
And we should also keep in mind that Star Trek has always been half crap. From the micro-miniskirts and subservient women of the original [...]
The original series aired in 1965.
1965.
posted by Beholder at 10:00 PM on April 25, 2017 [2 favorites]
The original series aired in 1965.
1965.
posted by Beholder at 10:00 PM on April 25, 2017 [2 favorites]
Scripted network television multi-platform is a solved problem.
And that solution is TV/IP streaming services. Cable TV is a bunch of dinosaur scientists just now wondering why there's iridium everywhere all of a sudden.
posted by bonehead at 10:05 PM on April 25, 2017 [4 favorites]
And that solution is TV/IP streaming services. Cable TV is a bunch of dinosaur scientists just now wondering why there's iridium everywhere all of a sudden.
posted by bonehead at 10:05 PM on April 25, 2017 [4 favorites]
The original series aired in 1965.
1965.
I take your point, of course, but what is Star Trek without pedantry? While the earliest pilot (incidentally with a hypercompetent woman as first officer) dates back to 1964, the show did not air until September 1966.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 10:15 PM on April 25, 2017 [5 favorites]
1965.
I take your point, of course, but what is Star Trek without pedantry? While the earliest pilot (incidentally with a hypercompetent woman as first officer) dates back to 1964, the show did not air until September 1966.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 10:15 PM on April 25, 2017 [5 favorites]
Star Trek: Academy. The adventures of Starfleet cadets and professors at the academy.
this, like an X-Men series that's 'A Wes Anderson movie about boarding school but everyone has superpowers and feelings" seems so obvious to me I don't why it doesn't exist
I also want Space Doctors Without Space Borders, like can be a Federation group bu thier work takes them into a lot of non Federation space.
posted by The Whelk at 10:18 PM on April 25, 2017 [9 favorites]
this, like an X-Men series that's 'A Wes Anderson movie about boarding school but everyone has superpowers and feelings" seems so obvious to me I don't why it doesn't exist
I also want Space Doctors Without Space Borders, like can be a Federation group bu thier work takes them into a lot of non Federation space.
posted by The Whelk at 10:18 PM on April 25, 2017 [9 favorites]
Star Trek: Canada Edition
This is called Mass Effect.
posted by The Whelk at 10:20 PM on April 25, 2017
Mass Eh-ffect
posted by Going To Maine at 10:28 PM on April 25, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by Going To Maine at 10:28 PM on April 25, 2017 [4 favorites]
Wait, am I hallucinating that Star Trek: Academy was a real thing in development that almost happened at one point?
posted by brennen at 10:53 PM on April 25, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by brennen at 10:53 PM on April 25, 2017 [1 favorite]
They tried to get it off the ground multiple times, sometimes as a film. I believe the was a dispute over whether or not the JJ Abrams Trek was based on it.
posted by Artw at 10:58 PM on April 25, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Artw at 10:58 PM on April 25, 2017 [1 favorite]
Wait til you see who they wanted to play Lt. Broseph.
posted by rhizome at 10:58 PM on April 25, 2017
posted by rhizome at 10:58 PM on April 25, 2017
Also a not-terrible but overly clip-dependent video game.
posted by mwhybark at 11:20 PM on April 25, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by mwhybark at 11:20 PM on April 25, 2017 [1 favorite]
Star Trek: Special Circumstances
For those times when the Prime Directive is ignored and the Federation wants a more cynical, hands-on approach.
posted by honestcoyote at 11:31 PM on April 25, 2017 [5 favorites]
For those times when the Prime Directive is ignored and the Federation wants a more cynical, hands-on approach.
posted by honestcoyote at 11:31 PM on April 25, 2017 [5 favorites]
While the earliest pilot (incidentally with a hypercompetent woman as first officer) dates back to 1964, the show did not air until September 1966.
Something based on that original show might be neat. More like Forbidden Planet, and a sense that they really are exploring the vast unknown, without backup or a safety net.
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 12:02 AM on April 26, 2017 [1 favorite]
Something based on that original show might be neat. More like Forbidden Planet, and a sense that they really are exploring the vast unknown, without backup or a safety net.
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 12:02 AM on April 26, 2017 [1 favorite]
I think I speak for us all when I say that the best imaginary Star Trek series is Star Trek: Logos, which is just about Academy field linguists. One language per episode with a series arc about proto-Klingon. The comedy episode is about the holodeck malfunctioning and throwing them into Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales" without even the Riverside glossary.
posted by No-sword at 12:14 AM on April 26, 2017 [13 favorites]
posted by No-sword at 12:14 AM on April 26, 2017 [13 favorites]
Guest starring Marc Okrand as a crackpot who claims to have discovered bizarre humorous connections between Klingon and various Earth languages.
posted by No-sword at 12:20 AM on April 26, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by No-sword at 12:20 AM on April 26, 2017 [6 favorites]
Even if CBS isn't wholly to blame for the Star Trek Discovery issues it really feels like there are so many potential creators out there who would do something amazing with the franchise and CBS seems to really like to own it and control it more than they'd like to do anything interesting with it.
It's also frustrating because the most popular media franchises right now have moved to a model where there are frequent releases in the same universe so there's a wide variety of related things for people to enjoy with a whole bunch of different tones, and that should be a really good model for something like Star Trek that has already navigated those waters to a certain extent. There's going to be a Star Wars movie every Christmas for the rest of our lives, and probably a couple Marvel movies every summer until they either run out of characters that anyone has ever heard of or get to Ant-Man 26: Larva Pits of the Undercity. There's no real reason other than CBS having bungled this that we couldn't have both a classic-style Trek with a new planet every week and a different series about the Federation outside of starships and their commanding officers, plus a movie every couple years about some weird alien stuff that doesn't have any humans at all.
posted by Copronymus at 12:22 AM on April 26, 2017 [6 favorites]
It's also frustrating because the most popular media franchises right now have moved to a model where there are frequent releases in the same universe so there's a wide variety of related things for people to enjoy with a whole bunch of different tones, and that should be a really good model for something like Star Trek that has already navigated those waters to a certain extent. There's going to be a Star Wars movie every Christmas for the rest of our lives, and probably a couple Marvel movies every summer until they either run out of characters that anyone has ever heard of or get to Ant-Man 26: Larva Pits of the Undercity. There's no real reason other than CBS having bungled this that we couldn't have both a classic-style Trek with a new planet every week and a different series about the Federation outside of starships and their commanding officers, plus a movie every couple years about some weird alien stuff that doesn't have any humans at all.
posted by Copronymus at 12:22 AM on April 26, 2017 [6 favorites]
You know, the world is pretty okay with serialized stuff — is it too much to hope for something more like DS9, which can best be summed up as Star Trek, but with consequences?
I mean, obviously the answer is "it is already too much to hope for another series in the first place" but still
posted by DoctorFedora at 1:01 AM on April 26, 2017 [4 favorites]
I mean, obviously the answer is "it is already too much to hope for another series in the first place" but still
posted by DoctorFedora at 1:01 AM on April 26, 2017 [4 favorites]
Honestly, I don't care where they set a new Star Trek series, as long as it's not yet another "edgy," bleak storyline with washed out colors.
I want a brightly lit space world where people try their hardest to do right, and everyone works together even though sometimes they don't see eye to eye. The human crew is diverse in a way that is rarely seen on mainstream TV (like a captain who doesn't conform to the gender binary), and the alien species stand in for various aspects of the human condition (I propose a new species of isolationist aliens who were forced to leave their planet after they destroyed its environment, and who must now learn to trust outsiders). There's kids on the ship/spaceport/wherever, and they're sort of annoying sometimes, but they symbolize hope for the future.
Every episode deals with serious issues with the earnest belief that we can improve ourselves and the world around us if we try. Sometimes the plot lays on the social commentary kind of thick, but it's the right message anyway. When things go wrong, it's because the universe isn't perfect yet, but darn it, the crew will do everything they can to make a difference, even if the real lesson we get out of it is that sometimes you have to forgive yourself for making a mistake.
The social messaging should ideally look kind of quaint 20 years in the future, and horribly dated 50 years on. We should aim for people to have conversations about the ways this show was totally ahead of its time, while having to acknowledge its shortcomings at the same time.
Most of all, it shouldn't be cynical. It shouldn't be angry. Of course the world is lousy, but this is fantasy, and let us have this 45 minutes or so where, if nothing else, we can imagine that it's possible to have a brighter future for everybody.
Also, if possible, the opening theme shouldn't sound like the song from a beer commercial.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 2:46 AM on April 26, 2017 [41 favorites]
I want a brightly lit space world where people try their hardest to do right, and everyone works together even though sometimes they don't see eye to eye. The human crew is diverse in a way that is rarely seen on mainstream TV (like a captain who doesn't conform to the gender binary), and the alien species stand in for various aspects of the human condition (I propose a new species of isolationist aliens who were forced to leave their planet after they destroyed its environment, and who must now learn to trust outsiders). There's kids on the ship/spaceport/wherever, and they're sort of annoying sometimes, but they symbolize hope for the future.
Every episode deals with serious issues with the earnest belief that we can improve ourselves and the world around us if we try. Sometimes the plot lays on the social commentary kind of thick, but it's the right message anyway. When things go wrong, it's because the universe isn't perfect yet, but darn it, the crew will do everything they can to make a difference, even if the real lesson we get out of it is that sometimes you have to forgive yourself for making a mistake.
The social messaging should ideally look kind of quaint 20 years in the future, and horribly dated 50 years on. We should aim for people to have conversations about the ways this show was totally ahead of its time, while having to acknowledge its shortcomings at the same time.
Most of all, it shouldn't be cynical. It shouldn't be angry. Of course the world is lousy, but this is fantasy, and let us have this 45 minutes or so where, if nothing else, we can imagine that it's possible to have a brighter future for everybody.
Also, if possible, the opening theme shouldn't sound like the song from a beer commercial.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 2:46 AM on April 26, 2017 [41 favorites]
You can take a franchise forward without losing its soul, innovate without destroying the foundations, rebuild it while keeping the essential framework, and you can do it across generations and cultural shifts. But you have to want to do it that way, and I'm sure that the new Trek movies have turned CBS's heads (especially under Moonves and Lanzone) away from any such thinking. For them, ST is a brand, not a theme, and CBS is congenitally unable to allow a brand to develop a recognisable, organic identity. Things like James Bond and Doctor Who are themes, not brands; you can take a theme and mutate it endlessly, sometimes discordantly and sometimes triumphantly, but a brand is just there to be managed. Or catastrophically mismanaged.
I don't think that CBS is able to do what it wants to do and what, at one level, it knows it needs to do, which is to take a strong idea, give it strong people and have faith in both. I imagine the most coherently it could formulate such ideas internally was along the lines of 'take WagonTrail To The Stars and West World it', but perhaps that's giving the network too much credit in coherency and historical perspective.
Perhaps Fuller just couldn't do the job, but I think his track record shows otherwise and one presumes that CBS thought that too. The evidence, though, is that at all levels of higher management, too many people were pulling in too many directions, and as things are currently constituted that will continue to be the case.
ST cannot work in CBS, but CBS can't afford the reputational deficit of letting it go.
posted by Devonian at 3:08 AM on April 26, 2017 [5 favorites]
I don't think that CBS is able to do what it wants to do and what, at one level, it knows it needs to do, which is to take a strong idea, give it strong people and have faith in both. I imagine the most coherently it could formulate such ideas internally was along the lines of 'take WagonTrail To The Stars and West World it', but perhaps that's giving the network too much credit in coherency and historical perspective.
Perhaps Fuller just couldn't do the job, but I think his track record shows otherwise and one presumes that CBS thought that too. The evidence, though, is that at all levels of higher management, too many people were pulling in too many directions, and as things are currently constituted that will continue to be the case.
ST cannot work in CBS, but CBS can't afford the reputational deficit of letting it go.
posted by Devonian at 3:08 AM on April 26, 2017 [5 favorites]
Star Trek: Kids Are Our Future!: The Federation is moribund. Starfleet pays lip service to its rich history of exploration and expansion, but presently it serves as an excessively armed military serving only to enforce the boundaries of its territory, both against outsiders and against forces that would prefer to split from the Federation. Back on Earth, a drydocked space ship is repurposed as a living museum where schools can send classes to spend a day dressed in old-style fleet uniforms and play-act as the officers and crew out discovering planets and stuff. Ms McGillicuddy's brilliant class of 5th graders somehow activate launch protocols (thanks in no small part, a flashback vignette later reveals, to the custodial team tasked with keeping the ship in working order, a tight crew of veteran engineers of the ship during its heyday), and take off on new adventures! Can a rag-tag bunch of diverse and squabbling kids, their fifty-something maiden teacher, and a handful of lonely retiree men teach Starfleet and the entire Federation a thing or two about the values of boundless curiosity and exploration?
posted by ardgedee at 3:43 AM on April 26, 2017 [7 favorites]
posted by ardgedee at 3:43 AM on April 26, 2017 [7 favorites]
Star Trek: The Plague Ship: NCC 67845 is in the waning days of its five year exploration mission when a landing party returns to ship bearing symptoms of an unrecognized disease. Too far away from civilization for reliable contact, the ship's captain declares itself incapacitated and heads back towards home, but when entering Federation space Starfleet decides that the ship and its occupants are no longer welcome at any port or inhabitable planet. Starfleet Command is trapped by the interstellar scandal of a ship out of their control. The medical crew is overtaxed trying to both cope with and cure an unknown and virulent illness. The captain is fighting both his own chronic illness and a crew perpetually verging on mutiny. This is a suite of long-form narrative arcs which resolve during a series of planned finite length.
posted by ardgedee at 4:01 AM on April 26, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by ardgedee at 4:01 AM on April 26, 2017 [2 favorites]
CBS All Access has been a terrible idea for quite some time. Scripted network television multi-platform is a solved problem.
The fun part is that the basic subscription package still has commercial interruptions. You have to pay extra to get rid of them.
posted by octothorpe at 4:06 AM on April 26, 2017
The fun part is that the basic subscription package still has commercial interruptions. You have to pay extra to get rid of them.
posted by octothorpe at 4:06 AM on April 26, 2017
Star Trek: Are These Your Panties?: Late-night entertainment broadcasts of the future resemble present-day late-night Japanese and Italian variety shows, with emphasis on young women put into embarrassing situations in front of leering men. Retired Captain James Jay Ray has found a second career as a regular panelist on these shows, his quick wit and ability to fake a hearty laugh making him popular and in demand. Starfleet calls him back to duty, but he can't leave his budding burlesque career behind as he confronts the biggest alien menace the Federation has ever encountered. An HBO Presentation.
posted by ardgedee at 4:14 AM on April 26, 2017
posted by ardgedee at 4:14 AM on April 26, 2017
Star Trek: Canada Edition
Follow the adventures of the Starfleet Standing Committee on Fisheries and Nebulae, as they work towards developing a policy framework for the management of the Federation's natural resources.
posted by sfenders at 4:20 AM on April 26, 2017 [9 favorites]
Follow the adventures of the Starfleet Standing Committee on Fisheries and Nebulae, as they work towards developing a policy framework for the management of the Federation's natural resources.
posted by sfenders at 4:20 AM on April 26, 2017 [9 favorites]
Star Trek: Starfleet's Elite Can't Be Beat: In a future that has abolished war, differences between planetary races are resolved by rap battles. Each episode features two to three musical numbers. (Fans commonly refer to this short-lived series as "Star Trek: Yo Momma")
posted by ardgedee at 4:36 AM on April 26, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by ardgedee at 4:36 AM on April 26, 2017 [1 favorite]
Stop it, all of you pitchmakers. You're making me too sad for What Might Have Been.
posted by Mogur at 4:42 AM on April 26, 2017
posted by Mogur at 4:42 AM on April 26, 2017
I still want the burned-out-Wesley-Crusher series I mentioned when we discussed this previously.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 4:42 AM on April 26, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by Pater Aletheias at 4:42 AM on April 26, 2017 [2 favorites]
But Wesley will not rest until his Resentment Class starship design becomes a reality
posted by middleclasstool at 5:03 AM on April 26, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by middleclasstool at 5:03 AM on April 26, 2017 [5 favorites]
I once had an idea for a Star Trek series that opens with a Borg cube screaming towards Sector 001 where it enters Earth orbit. The Borg theme from "Best of Both Worlds" / First Contact plays because that's their theme music. The twist is that the Borg were invited to Earth; it's the 25th century now and the Federation is on semi-friendly terms with the Collective and this is the first peace conference.
During negotiations the Borg let it slip that there's an amazing space thingee that they know about just begging to be explored, but something something technobabble the Collective cannot enter that region of space because it's deadly to them and they can't fix that, but they really wanna know what's in there for reasons of Perfection. So they strike a deal with the Federation: UFP will check it out and share the results with the Collective. A starship is sent in and that's where the adventure begins.
posted by Servo5678 at 5:05 AM on April 26, 2017 [8 favorites]
During negotiations the Borg let it slip that there's an amazing space thingee that they know about just begging to be explored, but something something technobabble the Collective cannot enter that region of space because it's deadly to them and they can't fix that, but they really wanna know what's in there for reasons of Perfection. So they strike a deal with the Federation: UFP will check it out and share the results with the Collective. A starship is sent in and that's where the adventure begins.
posted by Servo5678 at 5:05 AM on April 26, 2017 [8 favorites]
I don't know. This article defends Fuller to the utmost, and while I agree he said all the right things to make it sound like a great series, it also seems like he has to take responsibility for the timetable slipping. I mean, he was the showrunner, and he says the reason he left is because the network wanted the show on time. That hardly seems like CBS's fault.
I get the feeling the timetable set by CBS was totally unrealistic. Fuller was announced as showrunner in february 2016 but CBS wanted to premiere the show in january 2017 ? That seems way to short...
posted by Pendragon at 5:09 AM on April 26, 2017 [1 favorite]
I get the feeling the timetable set by CBS was totally unrealistic. Fuller was announced as showrunner in february 2016 but CBS wanted to premiere the show in january 2017 ? That seems way to short...
posted by Pendragon at 5:09 AM on April 26, 2017 [1 favorite]
If they were smart they'd just start a Star Trek channel and produce every show listed on this thread mixed in with reruns of old shows.
posted by blue_beetle at 5:32 AM on April 26, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by blue_beetle at 5:32 AM on April 26, 2017 [5 favorites]
Star Trek Dept. Of Temporal Investigations: Bake Off (ST:DoTI:BO) Mel and and a Borgified Sue (of Nine) judge cake and history in a pocket universe at the end of time. Only the most delicious contestants can stay and uphold their timeline.
In all seriousness though, the people least able to create a Star Trek show are going to be the big corporations.
posted by The River Ivel at 5:32 AM on April 26, 2017 [1 favorite]
In all seriousness though, the people least able to create a Star Trek show are going to be the big corporations.
posted by The River Ivel at 5:32 AM on April 26, 2017 [1 favorite]
In all seriousness though, the people least able to create a Star Trek show are going to be the big corporations.Star Trek: The Next Degeneration
posted by ZeusHumms at 6:11 AM on April 26, 2017
Star Trek: Candid Communicator
Alan Tudyk: "We went to the Enterprise commissary where we heated the spoons to 3000 degrees centigrade.... let's sit back and watch the fun!"
posted by valkane at 6:16 AM on April 26, 2017 [1 favorite]
Alan Tudyk: "We went to the Enterprise commissary where we heated the spoons to 3000 degrees centigrade.... let's sit back and watch the fun!"
posted by valkane at 6:16 AM on April 26, 2017 [1 favorite]
we cannot, er, access CBS All Access from this country & countries not getting it on All Access were to get it on Netflix
Not in Canada. I believe they signed a deal with Space up here. Which makes some sense as they have their fingers in a lot of productions in Toronto.
My suggestions for a new ST:D show would be either Couillion Quest or this one I previously mentioned. Or if it is to take place in the future after Voyager, I'd like a show about Harry Kim fighting for the rights of photonic light beings in an universe where the Federation becomes increasingly fascist. And it ends up being a metaphor for America, RIGHT NOW. Oh and any new show needs a matchmaking Space Dog who helps his crew find love each episode. CBS gimme a call, I'm cheap.
posted by Ashwagandha at 6:18 AM on April 26, 2017
Not in Canada. I believe they signed a deal with Space up here. Which makes some sense as they have their fingers in a lot of productions in Toronto.
My suggestions for a new ST:D show would be either Couillion Quest or this one I previously mentioned. Or if it is to take place in the future after Voyager, I'd like a show about Harry Kim fighting for the rights of photonic light beings in an universe where the Federation becomes increasingly fascist. And it ends up being a metaphor for America, RIGHT NOW. Oh and any new show needs a matchmaking Space Dog who helps his crew find love each episode. CBS gimme a call, I'm cheap.
posted by Ashwagandha at 6:18 AM on April 26, 2017
newly discovered multi-species culture that centuries ago fragmented
If writers ever went that route the reasons dyson swarms/spheres and colonization of asteroids like in The Expanse could be explained. The power plants which
1) allow breaking down matter into information, transmitting that information to a remote location and making it matter again.
2) making matter from energy.
3) the ability to create warp fields.
in contrast with the energy constrained world of The Expanse.
Contrasting Trek VS YouTube Issac Authur would be another option. How would a Federation-style operation ever win VS a civilization who'd take uninhabited or "dead" 'star system' as raw material for production of even a modest defense capability?
posted by rough ashlar at 6:21 AM on April 26, 2017
If writers ever went that route the reasons dyson swarms/spheres and colonization of asteroids like in The Expanse could be explained. The power plants which
1) allow breaking down matter into information, transmitting that information to a remote location and making it matter again.
2) making matter from energy.
3) the ability to create warp fields.
in contrast with the energy constrained world of The Expanse.
Contrasting Trek VS YouTube Issac Authur would be another option. How would a Federation-style operation ever win VS a civilization who'd take uninhabited or "dead" 'star system' as raw material for production of even a modest defense capability?
posted by rough ashlar at 6:21 AM on April 26, 2017
in an universe where the Federation becomes increasingly fascist. And it ends up being a metaphor for America, RIGHT NOW.
"becomes increasingly fascist." Becomes?
posted by rough ashlar at 6:24 AM on April 26, 2017
"becomes increasingly fascist." Becomes?
posted by rough ashlar at 6:24 AM on April 26, 2017
Star Trek: Legacy
Rosanna April is the captain of an independent freighter that hauls supplies out to colonies on the farthest fringe of the Federation. The ghost of her great-grandfather, Captain Robert April, haunts her and constant harangues her about never joining Starfleet and living up to her legacy. Episodic format where she and the crew are forced to face strange and dangerous situations over and over and prove that you don't have to be Starfleet to save lives.
posted by charred husk at 6:34 AM on April 26, 2017
Rosanna April is the captain of an independent freighter that hauls supplies out to colonies on the farthest fringe of the Federation. The ghost of her great-grandfather, Captain Robert April, haunts her and constant harangues her about never joining Starfleet and living up to her legacy. Episodic format where she and the crew are forced to face strange and dangerous situations over and over and prove that you don't have to be Starfleet to save lives.
posted by charred husk at 6:34 AM on April 26, 2017
Star Trek: A Dang Follow-Up to That TNG Episode "Conspiracy"
posted by jason_steakums at 6:36 AM on April 26, 2017 [12 favorites]
posted by jason_steakums at 6:36 AM on April 26, 2017 [12 favorites]
There are some great ideas here (and a lot of funny ones, and a few that are both), but I'm becoming increasingly reluctant to invest emotionally in what really is seeming to be turning out to be an all-around shitshow. I'm reminded of two things: 1) the decade-long effort to reboot TOS, which ended up with a movie that spent four times what Star Wars/A New Hope cost and ended up being tedious (although the next movie more than made up for it), and 2) the UPN Era, which ended up producing a series that had its bright spots but also its share of problems (and that we're currently rewatching over on FanFare), and a show whose cancellation effectively marked the end of the TNG era (along with Nemesis, of course). In particular, it's the UPN thing that bothers me, because that network was clearly relying on its iteration of the franchise to draw in and boost its viewership, and there were some really odd creative decisions made. (After they'd started filming the pilot, Geneviève Bujold quit, and they started refilming her scenes... but after a few more days, they started refilming them again, because some network exec didn't like Janeway's hair.) I've been wondering if the perennial reluctance of many of the Voyager and Enterprise cast and crew to name names has something to do with those ex-UPN people still being active in Hollywood, and in particular if some of them are part of The Powers That Be at CBS.
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:37 AM on April 26, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:37 AM on April 26, 2017 [2 favorites]
Star Trek: A Dang Follow-Up to That TNG Episode "Conspiracy"
Maybe the good symbiotes wiped out the bad symbiotes and now we have Jax.
posted by Artw at 6:37 AM on April 26, 2017
Maybe the good symbiotes wiped out the bad symbiotes and now we have Jax.
posted by Artw at 6:37 AM on April 26, 2017
Dax, yes? And [rot13]gurer jnf n frevrf bs QF9 abiryf gung fgnegrq nsgre "Jung Jr Yrnir Oruvaq" gung fnvq gung gur "Pbafcvenpl" cnenfvgrf naq gur Gevyy flzovbagf jrer napvrag rarzvrf naq gung gurl jrer va gur zvqqyr bs n irel ybat cebkl jne. (And doesn't rot13ed text look a bit like Klingon if you squint?)
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:45 AM on April 26, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:45 AM on April 26, 2017 [1 favorite]
Star Trek: The Pakleds
Let's welcome the newest members of the Federation - The Pakleds! Join us for weekly hijinks as the first Pakled crewed Starfleet vessel sets off on a voyage of exploration and discovery of things-that-make-us-go! Shot in the style of The Office so that we get the full experience of the veteran human liaison officers.
posted by nubs at 6:50 AM on April 26, 2017 [3 favorites]
Let's welcome the newest members of the Federation - The Pakleds! Join us for weekly hijinks as the first Pakled crewed Starfleet vessel sets off on a voyage of exploration and discovery of things-that-make-us-go! Shot in the style of The Office so that we get the full experience of the veteran human liaison officers.
posted by nubs at 6:50 AM on April 26, 2017 [3 favorites]
Yeah, I think it's better to remember that Discovery is still in the phase where a lot of proposed TV projects die or get radically reshaped, because that's the nature of TV. CBS put a lot of effort in promoting this, but they did it at the stage when most normal TV series have maybe a page in Variety. It's like a broken baby bird - you hope it survives, but you know it's probably not going to make it.
As for Star Trek, I'd like a not-starfleet-centric series. Either Space Doctors Without Borders (how much can you heal without violating the prime directive), focusing on a border colony that maybe has a starfleet presence, but a lot of other things going on, or maybe following around some ambassadors or a non-starfleet first contact team.
posted by dinty_moore at 6:55 AM on April 26, 2017
As for Star Trek, I'd like a not-starfleet-centric series. Either Space Doctors Without Borders (how much can you heal without violating the prime directive), focusing on a border colony that maybe has a starfleet presence, but a lot of other things going on, or maybe following around some ambassadors or a non-starfleet first contact team.
posted by dinty_moore at 6:55 AM on April 26, 2017
Dax, yes?
Yeah, that's the direction I'd go in as a tie-in writer, pretty much.
posted by Artw at 7:04 AM on April 26, 2017
Yeah, that's the direction I'd go in as a tie-in writer, pretty much.
posted by Artw at 7:04 AM on April 26, 2017
This article is the worst kind of clickbait.
FWIW ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ 2017 CBS TV series: Everything we know so far has pretty much the same information without the blatantly obvious conclusion.
posted by Artw at 7:07 AM on April 26, 2017 [1 favorite]
FWIW ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ 2017 CBS TV series: Everything we know so far has pretty much the same information without the blatantly obvious conclusion.
posted by Artw at 7:07 AM on April 26, 2017 [1 favorite]
The fine article never mentions the new showrunners, but the info is in another article
I wish all this energy were being spent on new ideas instead of retreading something 50 years old.
posted by Nelson at 7:08 AM on April 26, 2017
The new showrunners will be exec producers Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts; they’ll take on their added responsibilities as Discovery aims to begin shooting next monthMy read on that is there is no single showrunner, it's just the producers. Which is normal enough, this producer-as-auteur thing is new.
I wish all this energy were being spent on new ideas instead of retreading something 50 years old.
posted by Nelson at 7:08 AM on April 26, 2017
Let's talk about Star Trek Babies.
Been there, done that.
posted by Cash4Lead at 7:34 AM on April 26, 2017 [4 favorites]
Been there, done that.
posted by Cash4Lead at 7:34 AM on April 26, 2017 [4 favorites]
Star Trek: Progrock
The intrepid USS Dark Side of the Moon, NCC 90125, travels a galaxy full of floating mountains, lost gods searching for meaning, crimson kings holding court, and so on, solving problems through the powers of rock and pomposity. In the pilot, the crew warps into a system calling itself the Solar Federation and ends up jamming at the Temple of Syrinx.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 7:37 AM on April 26, 2017 [7 favorites]
The intrepid USS Dark Side of the Moon, NCC 90125, travels a galaxy full of floating mountains, lost gods searching for meaning, crimson kings holding court, and so on, solving problems through the powers of rock and pomposity. In the pilot, the crew warps into a system calling itself the Solar Federation and ends up jamming at the Temple of Syrinx.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 7:37 AM on April 26, 2017 [7 favorites]
One of the problems here is indeed undoubtedly tied to the Abrams reboots and how the established Trek community reacted to them. The reboots are popular, but not so much among the old school fans who appear pretty difficult to please at this point.
People were happy enough about TNG because it was the first time something new was being tried by the franchise that didn't involve the original cast. Even so there were complaints about the first season, for good reason, but eventually it was accepted and even liked better than TOS by some. DS9 had the same sort of initial reaction. "It's not real Star Trek." since it was a space station and the beginning of the series also took a while to find its footing or to make clear its goals. But by the time it was accepted by the more loyal fan base, its ratings weren't so great and it remained mostly a cult show with a devoted, but not all that large a fan base. Voyager and Enterprise fared even worse in the complaint department and Enterprise didn't even get many viewers.
So, the problem is that the Trek loyalists aren't going to be happy with anything less then a miracle series to start with, making all sorts of complaints over things not being "right" or how Rodenberry would have wanted it or it not following canon correctly or some such. While any new viewers or non-dedicated Trek fans will likely find anything tied too closely to old school ideas outdated fan wankery and likely not all that interesting in the Game of Thrones everybody dies era. Trying to appease the loyalists while being broad enough to draw new fans is not an easy challenge since Trek fans are as picky and deeply invested fandom as you'll ever find. I mean that's pretty much their defining feature. That isn't something that is likely to make new viewers all that happy as they aren't coming to the show with an encyclopedic knowledge of Gorn history, concerns about possible incursions from fluidic space by species 8472, or Reg Barclay's holofetish.
It's unsurprising that a network exec would focus more on getting the largest possible viewership while a dedicated showrunner might worry about continuity issues and appeasing the fanbase they'll have to face at conventions for the next thirty or so years. The new viewers will drive the numbers, but the old viewers the auxiliary sales of merchandise, DVD box sets and the like. Where a balance for those two groups might be, I have no idea, nor do I know how much money a network might feel they could afford to throw at a show only supported by hard core franchise fans, but I suspect it wouldn't be a lot and that show wouldn't be something they'd be all that excited to get behind for anything other than a low budget added attraction to an already established service. Low budget Star Trek is a cult show and maybe that is all loyalists really want from a series anymore, but I can certainly see why CBS or any major service wouldn't be all that excited about such a venture in today's marketplace.
posted by gusottertrout at 7:38 AM on April 26, 2017 [3 favorites]
People were happy enough about TNG because it was the first time something new was being tried by the franchise that didn't involve the original cast. Even so there were complaints about the first season, for good reason, but eventually it was accepted and even liked better than TOS by some. DS9 had the same sort of initial reaction. "It's not real Star Trek." since it was a space station and the beginning of the series also took a while to find its footing or to make clear its goals. But by the time it was accepted by the more loyal fan base, its ratings weren't so great and it remained mostly a cult show with a devoted, but not all that large a fan base. Voyager and Enterprise fared even worse in the complaint department and Enterprise didn't even get many viewers.
So, the problem is that the Trek loyalists aren't going to be happy with anything less then a miracle series to start with, making all sorts of complaints over things not being "right" or how Rodenberry would have wanted it or it not following canon correctly or some such. While any new viewers or non-dedicated Trek fans will likely find anything tied too closely to old school ideas outdated fan wankery and likely not all that interesting in the Game of Thrones everybody dies era. Trying to appease the loyalists while being broad enough to draw new fans is not an easy challenge since Trek fans are as picky and deeply invested fandom as you'll ever find. I mean that's pretty much their defining feature. That isn't something that is likely to make new viewers all that happy as they aren't coming to the show with an encyclopedic knowledge of Gorn history, concerns about possible incursions from fluidic space by species 8472, or Reg Barclay's holofetish.
It's unsurprising that a network exec would focus more on getting the largest possible viewership while a dedicated showrunner might worry about continuity issues and appeasing the fanbase they'll have to face at conventions for the next thirty or so years. The new viewers will drive the numbers, but the old viewers the auxiliary sales of merchandise, DVD box sets and the like. Where a balance for those two groups might be, I have no idea, nor do I know how much money a network might feel they could afford to throw at a show only supported by hard core franchise fans, but I suspect it wouldn't be a lot and that show wouldn't be something they'd be all that excited to get behind for anything other than a low budget added attraction to an already established service. Low budget Star Trek is a cult show and maybe that is all loyalists really want from a series anymore, but I can certainly see why CBS or any major service wouldn't be all that excited about such a venture in today's marketplace.
posted by gusottertrout at 7:38 AM on April 26, 2017 [3 favorites]
Star Trek: Progrock
The intrepid USS Dark Side of the Moon, NCC 90125, travels a galaxy full of floating mountains, lost gods searching for meaning, crimson kings holding court, and so on, solving problems through the powers of rock and pomposity. In the pilot, the crew warps into a system calling itself the Solar Federation and ends up jamming at the Temple of Syrinx.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe
Point of order: clearly the DSotM would not have a warp drive, instead preferring interstellar overdrive.
posted by the phlegmatic king at 7:39 AM on April 26, 2017 [6 favorites]
The intrepid USS Dark Side of the Moon, NCC 90125, travels a galaxy full of floating mountains, lost gods searching for meaning, crimson kings holding court, and so on, solving problems through the powers of rock and pomposity. In the pilot, the crew warps into a system calling itself the Solar Federation and ends up jamming at the Temple of Syrinx.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe
Point of order: clearly the DSotM would not have a warp drive, instead preferring interstellar overdrive.
posted by the phlegmatic king at 7:39 AM on April 26, 2017 [6 favorites]
I was incredibly excited about Discovery when Fuller was involved, but in retrospect I can't imagine why CBS thought they could/should put him in charge of it.
I know why HE wanted it, and I wouldn't be surprised if he actively campaigned for it- apparently he decided to be a TV writer while watching Star Trek and then broke into it by sneaking story ideas under the DS9 writers room door until they gave in and let him pitch an episode. And I get why he came to CBS's notice for this project, because he came off Hannibal with a huge amount of buzz and got snagged for a couple of high-profile projects almost immediately afterward and he talks about his love of Trek all the time.
But did CBS ever actually... watch any of his shows?
It sounds increasingly like CBS wanted, well, another Star Trek show. Not a new spin on the concept behind Star Trek- a (preferably) high-quality show that is still essentially a retread of the same formula. So they hire the guy whose shows are frequently described as 'high concept' and 'bizarre' and 'hallucinogenic' and 'stylized to the point where some people find it pretentious and annoying'? The guy who quit/got kicked off of his own show (Dead Like Me) after six episodes because he kept clashing with Showtime over creative differences?
I mean, I personally would LOVE to see Bryan Fuller's Star Trek. Hannibal and DS9 are in my top five favorite shows ever. But that Star Trek would be so incredibly 180-degrees different from what CBS wanted that I'm not surprised it didn't work out in the end. I'm sure the timeline thing is at least partly true, but I strongly suspect that that's not all there is to it. If I can't get the show I can't wait for the tell-all in a few years.
posted by showbiz_liz at 7:39 AM on April 26, 2017 [5 favorites]
I know why HE wanted it, and I wouldn't be surprised if he actively campaigned for it- apparently he decided to be a TV writer while watching Star Trek and then broke into it by sneaking story ideas under the DS9 writers room door until they gave in and let him pitch an episode. And I get why he came to CBS's notice for this project, because he came off Hannibal with a huge amount of buzz and got snagged for a couple of high-profile projects almost immediately afterward and he talks about his love of Trek all the time.
But did CBS ever actually... watch any of his shows?
It sounds increasingly like CBS wanted, well, another Star Trek show. Not a new spin on the concept behind Star Trek- a (preferably) high-quality show that is still essentially a retread of the same formula. So they hire the guy whose shows are frequently described as 'high concept' and 'bizarre' and 'hallucinogenic' and 'stylized to the point where some people find it pretentious and annoying'? The guy who quit/got kicked off of his own show (Dead Like Me) after six episodes because he kept clashing with Showtime over creative differences?
I mean, I personally would LOVE to see Bryan Fuller's Star Trek. Hannibal and DS9 are in my top five favorite shows ever. But that Star Trek would be so incredibly 180-degrees different from what CBS wanted that I'm not surprised it didn't work out in the end. I'm sure the timeline thing is at least partly true, but I strongly suspect that that's not all there is to it. If I can't get the show I can't wait for the tell-all in a few years.
posted by showbiz_liz at 7:39 AM on April 26, 2017 [5 favorites]
If they were smart they'd just start a Star Trek channel and produce every show listed on this thread mixed in with reruns of old shows.
But when would I sleep?
posted by Pater Aletheias at 7:45 AM on April 26, 2017 [7 favorites]
But when would I sleep?
posted by Pater Aletheias at 7:45 AM on April 26, 2017 [7 favorites]
The intrepid USS Dark Side of the Moon, NCC 90125, travels a galaxy full of floating mountains, lost gods searching for meaning, crimson kings holding court, and so on, solving problems through the powers of rock and pomposity. In the pilot, the crew warps into a system calling itself the Solar Federation and ends up jamming at the Temple of Syrinx.
The follow-up episode features the DSotM escaping the Solar Federation through the Gates of Delirium on a starless and bible black night. A long story arc will feature an omnipotent species known as The Ancients, who promise to reveal the science of God to the crew if they subject themselves to the horror known as The Ritual.
posted by stannate at 7:49 AM on April 26, 2017 [2 favorites]
The follow-up episode features the DSotM escaping the Solar Federation through the Gates of Delirium on a starless and bible black night. A long story arc will feature an omnipotent species known as The Ancients, who promise to reveal the science of God to the crew if they subject themselves to the horror known as The Ritual.
posted by stannate at 7:49 AM on April 26, 2017 [2 favorites]
It's too bad the TNG crew didn't get a proper sendoff like the TOS crew did.
Star Trek, due to its status as (once?) incredibly profitable franchise has morphed from a progressive property to an essentially conservative property. It should really be rebooted at this point, but the challenge is can it be true to its roots and still be progressive and still be Star Trek all at once? My gut reaction is probably not, especially if the obligatory "and can it be wildly profitable" is factored in there.
Sometimes stories have just run their course because times have changed. Nobody is making new Little Rascals films anymore.
posted by entropicamericana at 8:19 AM on April 26, 2017 [2 favorites]
Star Trek, due to its status as (once?) incredibly profitable franchise has morphed from a progressive property to an essentially conservative property. It should really be rebooted at this point, but the challenge is can it be true to its roots and still be progressive and still be Star Trek all at once? My gut reaction is probably not, especially if the obligatory "and can it be wildly profitable" is factored in there.
Sometimes stories have just run their course because times have changed. Nobody is making new Little Rascals films anymore.
posted by entropicamericana at 8:19 AM on April 26, 2017 [2 favorites]
One of the problems here is indeed undoubtedly tied to the Abrams reboots and how the established Trek community reacted to them. The reboots are popular, but not so much among the old school fans who appear pretty difficult to please at this point.
Yes, that's true and also generally true of other genre properties (we've had that discussion here many times in regards to Trek, Doctor Who and Star Wars) and I do agree that this is likely an important issue. However, based on the io9 article and the one Nelson links to, I suspect there are likely some production problems that go deeper than simply the inability to appease "tru fans". The desire to put it on CBS all access, Fuller leaving so early, changing dates, impending writers' strike and other issues seem to me a production with its component parts not moving in time with each other. Very rarely does a production survive something like that and rarely does the end product find an audience willing to put up with it. As Pluto Gangsta mentions above I think they are at a crossroads and need to decide whether to continue moving forward and fix it in Post and/or retool or to put a bullet in it.
posted by Ashwagandha at 8:26 AM on April 26, 2017
Yes, that's true and also generally true of other genre properties (we've had that discussion here many times in regards to Trek, Doctor Who and Star Wars) and I do agree that this is likely an important issue. However, based on the io9 article and the one Nelson links to, I suspect there are likely some production problems that go deeper than simply the inability to appease "tru fans". The desire to put it on CBS all access, Fuller leaving so early, changing dates, impending writers' strike and other issues seem to me a production with its component parts not moving in time with each other. Very rarely does a production survive something like that and rarely does the end product find an audience willing to put up with it. As Pluto Gangsta mentions above I think they are at a crossroads and need to decide whether to continue moving forward and fix it in Post and/or retool or to put a bullet in it.
posted by Ashwagandha at 8:26 AM on April 26, 2017
It should really be rebooted at this point, but the challenge is can it be true to its roots and still be progressive and still be Star Trek all at once?
I mean, there's no reason why it couldn't be - in fact, these days, a show that's explicitly based in a post-capitalist utopia and makes a point of the fact that everybody on Earth is now best buds who jet around doing science and making friends would be pretty fucking timely and refreshing - but it doesn't sound like CBS is super interested in pushing the envelope with it.
posted by showbiz_liz at 8:27 AM on April 26, 2017 [4 favorites]
I mean, there's no reason why it couldn't be - in fact, these days, a show that's explicitly based in a post-capitalist utopia and makes a point of the fact that everybody on Earth is now best buds who jet around doing science and making friends would be pretty fucking timely and refreshing - but it doesn't sound like CBS is super interested in pushing the envelope with it.
posted by showbiz_liz at 8:27 AM on April 26, 2017 [4 favorites]
It's too bad the TNG crew didn't get a proper sendoff like the TOS crew did.
They got their sendoff in the last spisode of Entetprise. It kind of pissed some people off.
posted by Artw at 8:31 AM on April 26, 2017 [1 favorite]
They got their sendoff in the last spisode of Entetprise. It kind of pissed some people off.
posted by Artw at 8:31 AM on April 26, 2017 [1 favorite]
This has nothing to do with the article, but it's a single link tumblr thing relating to Star Trek and not enough to make a post about and I have no where else to show it off to Metafilter. So here you go: Swear Trek. You're welcome.
posted by 80 Cats in a Dog Suit at 8:32 AM on April 26, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by 80 Cats in a Dog Suit at 8:32 AM on April 26, 2017 [5 favorites]
I have to admit, this new series lost me at the pre-TOS setting. I understand why it's what they chose - no barrier to new viewership, free to tell as simple/complex a story as they want in a familiar setting with less franchise baggage. But examining a post DS9 Federation (20-30 years post Dominon War) could be incredibly relevant to the cultural and political issues the US is dealing with; and that sort of scrutiny from a metaphorical distance has always been the bedrock of good SciFi.
posted by givennamesurname at 8:33 AM on April 26, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by givennamesurname at 8:33 AM on April 26, 2017 [3 favorites]
In a world where we're getting yearly Star Wars installments, and they're actually good and successful *and* pushing the boundaries of what Star Wars is, there's no reason why Star Trek can't succeed.
However, I have a unfortunate suspicion at this point that it can't succeed while under management by CBS.
posted by vibratory manner of working at 8:35 AM on April 26, 2017 [3 favorites]
However, I have a unfortunate suspicion at this point that it can't succeed while under management by CBS.
posted by vibratory manner of working at 8:35 AM on April 26, 2017 [3 favorites]
I mean, there's no reason why it couldn't be - in fact, these days, a show that's explicitly based in a post-capitalist utopia and makes a point of the fact that everybody on Earth is now best buds who jet around doing science and making friends would be pretty fucking timely and refreshing
the 1960s societal optimism that TOS embodied has long vanished and i don't think anyone honestly thinks we're going to be exploring the stars in the future instead of slowly boiling and choking to death. maybe a new trek could somehow bring that optimism back, but barring major political and economic changes it would ring hollow to me
They got their sendoff in the last spisode of Entetprise. It kind of pissed some people off.
you call that a proper send off?
posted by entropicamericana at 8:37 AM on April 26, 2017
the 1960s societal optimism that TOS embodied has long vanished and i don't think anyone honestly thinks we're going to be exploring the stars in the future instead of slowly boiling and choking to death. maybe a new trek could somehow bring that optimism back, but barring major political and economic changes it would ring hollow to me
They got their sendoff in the last spisode of Entetprise. It kind of pissed some people off.
you call that a proper send off?
posted by entropicamericana at 8:37 AM on April 26, 2017
Well, a send off. Of sorts.
posted by Artw at 8:37 AM on April 26, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Artw at 8:37 AM on April 26, 2017 [1 favorite]
the 1960s societal optimism that TOS embodied has long vanished and i don't think anyone honestly thinks we're going to be exploring the stars in the future instead of slowly boiling and choking to death.
Like, geez, I do. I mean I'm not sure, but I'm not at the slit-my-wrists point that you seem to be at. If you don't like optimism then go watch The Walking Dead or something but I question your premise that no one anywhere in the world has any optimism whatsoever about the future.
posted by showbiz_liz at 8:43 AM on April 26, 2017 [3 favorites]
Like, geez, I do. I mean I'm not sure, but I'm not at the slit-my-wrists point that you seem to be at. If you don't like optimism then go watch The Walking Dead or something but I question your premise that no one anywhere in the world has any optimism whatsoever about the future.
posted by showbiz_liz at 8:43 AM on April 26, 2017 [3 favorites]
Well if we're all pitching our Trekoids, here's one I've actually been working on for about a year.
The elevator pitch is "Imagine you're watching a funny-animal take on Star Trek... except every other episode is from the point of view of the Borg."
Who are of course not actually Borg, but are an Ancient body backup system that's started making up its own people instead. Two ships from expanding stellar empires exploring the Uncharted Territories, looking for new resources, new allies, and whatever else they can find; reflexively seeing each other as The Bad Guys when they run into each other (complete with alternate designs that clearly read as The Bad Guys), occasionally forced to cooperate despite the fact that their two home cultures end up going from Cold War to Hot.
It's called Parallax, and you can look at the pitch bible here. Right now we're working on getting the first couple episodes done as comics; if the Patreon gets enough traction then maybe someday it'll turn into a cartoon of some kind.
posted by egypturnash at 9:12 AM on April 26, 2017 [3 favorites]
The elevator pitch is "Imagine you're watching a funny-animal take on Star Trek... except every other episode is from the point of view of the Borg."
Who are of course not actually Borg, but are an Ancient body backup system that's started making up its own people instead. Two ships from expanding stellar empires exploring the Uncharted Territories, looking for new resources, new allies, and whatever else they can find; reflexively seeing each other as The Bad Guys when they run into each other (complete with alternate designs that clearly read as The Bad Guys), occasionally forced to cooperate despite the fact that their two home cultures end up going from Cold War to Hot.
It's called Parallax, and you can look at the pitch bible here. Right now we're working on getting the first couple episodes done as comics; if the Patreon gets enough traction then maybe someday it'll turn into a cartoon of some kind.
posted by egypturnash at 9:12 AM on April 26, 2017 [3 favorites]
I would really love a Star Trek show that's basically Exiles, a team culled from past and future versions of favorite characters from different dimensions and timelines hopping around the multiverse Sliders-style.
posted by jason_steakums at 9:27 AM on April 26, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by jason_steakums at 9:27 AM on April 26, 2017 [1 favorite]
I think it is time for Star Trek: Legal Dramedy. High tribunals for Starfleet captains who break the prime directive (lol), interplanetary property contracts where one species considers ownership of land to be inherently illegal, divorce cases when one spouse ascends to a higher incorporeal plane, interspecies custody disputes, court stenographers trying to figure out what to do when the species being questioned considers writing down their language to be treason, intellectual property rights cases over the 15th edition of the “To Serve Man” cookbook, defendants claiming the fringe on the flag in the courtroom means they don’t have to abide by Federation law: all of it.
STAR LAW.
posted by a fiendish thingy at 10:05 AM on April 26, 2017 [4 favorites]
STAR LAW.
posted by a fiendish thingy at 10:05 AM on April 26, 2017 [4 favorites]
What is it that finally starts to change things for the better, leading to Trek's eventual utopia? Violent riots.
Not to mention that First Contact took place when the world was still recovering from World War III. This was alluded to in TOS, and got a bit more detail in the spinoffs. Yes, Trek was optimistic about the future, but clearly we'd have to go through a lot of shit to get there.
posted by Halloween Jack at 10:41 AM on April 26, 2017 [2 favorites]
Not to mention that First Contact took place when the world was still recovering from World War III. This was alluded to in TOS, and got a bit more detail in the spinoffs. Yes, Trek was optimistic about the future, but clearly we'd have to go through a lot of shit to get there.
posted by Halloween Jack at 10:41 AM on April 26, 2017 [2 favorites]
I think it is time for Star Trek: Legal Dramedy.
Only if the title is changed to Star Trek: Single Female Lawyer and it stars Katey Sagal.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 11:08 AM on April 26, 2017 [3 favorites]
Only if the title is changed to Star Trek: Single Female Lawyer and it stars Katey Sagal.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 11:08 AM on April 26, 2017 [3 favorites]
it's a single link tumblr thing relating to Star Trek and not enough to make a post
The last thing I will do before I retire from MetaFilter in 20 years is make a MetaTalk post defending, for the nth time, the notion that one sufficiently interesting link is ideal for an FPP, and there are far, far more posts with too many links than with too few.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 11:21 AM on April 26, 2017 [7 favorites]
The last thing I will do before I retire from MetaFilter in 20 years is make a MetaTalk post defending, for the nth time, the notion that one sufficiently interesting link is ideal for an FPP, and there are far, far more posts with too many links than with too few.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 11:21 AM on April 26, 2017 [7 favorites]
Hell, I will link to a single post from that tumblr, because it is beautiful and brilliant.
posted by Halloween Jack at 11:32 AM on April 26, 2017
posted by Halloween Jack at 11:32 AM on April 26, 2017
> Star Trek: Legal Dramedy
Alien McBeal
posted by ardgedee at 11:36 AM on April 26, 2017 [3 favorites]
Alien McBeal
posted by ardgedee at 11:36 AM on April 26, 2017 [3 favorites]
I think The Expanse took STD's lunch money and then some. Bobbie and Amos are taking turns using it as a punching bag while Avasarala stands nearby, dropping f-bombs. And THEN they'll turn it over to the protomolecule.
I think that to get genre fans (and not just ST diehards) to give a damn they have to realize that the ante has been raised significantly for genre television. Viewers are just not going to settle, let alone pay for, some safe conservative soulless retread. Perhaps talk to a diverse group of genre writers and creators. Space opera has gone under significant changes since the last Trek series. And reconsider putting it behind that damn paywall. You're all but begging for the thing to be pirated.
posted by Ber at 12:14 PM on April 26, 2017 [1 favorite]
I think that to get genre fans (and not just ST diehards) to give a damn they have to realize that the ante has been raised significantly for genre television. Viewers are just not going to settle, let alone pay for, some safe conservative soulless retread. Perhaps talk to a diverse group of genre writers and creators. Space opera has gone under significant changes since the last Trek series. And reconsider putting it behind that damn paywall. You're all but begging for the thing to be pirated.
posted by Ber at 12:14 PM on April 26, 2017 [1 favorite]
And reconsider putting it behind that damn paywall. You're all but begging for the thing to be pirated.
"Hey, what's our target audience, again?"
"That would be nerds, sir"
"And these 'nerds' are good with computers, yes?"
"Yes, sir"
"Awesome! Let's charge for access. It's not like there's an already established international networking and communications medium with a subculture dedicated purely to pirating AV material populated almost exclusively by these 'nerd' types. This can't go wrong..."
posted by Nice Guy Mike at 12:49 PM on April 26, 2017 [3 favorites]
"Hey, what's our target audience, again?"
"That would be nerds, sir"
"And these 'nerds' are good with computers, yes?"
"Yes, sir"
"Awesome! Let's charge for access. It's not like there's an already established international networking and communications medium with a subculture dedicated purely to pirating AV material populated almost exclusively by these 'nerd' types. This can't go wrong..."
posted by Nice Guy Mike at 12:49 PM on April 26, 2017 [3 favorites]
Is this where we all share how we'd create a Star Trek series for the 21st century if we ran the Federation circus? Because I'd like to read all of your versions of that series.
Anthology series are the big thing now. Why not do that? Every season has a different cast, different characters, set in a different era.
Season 1: 10 years before TOS. Fine, that's already on the board, start with that.
Season 2: 50 years post-TNG/DS9/VOY.
Season 3: Between TOS and TNG. There is a wealth of unmined potential in this era. Perhaps featuring the Enterprise-C.
Season 4: A time travel adventure. In the first half of the season, TNG-era Starfleet officers travel to the mid-21st century (post-Bell Riots, pre-Phoenix). Surprisingly, everything seems to be resolved and the characters return to their own era at the end of episode 6. In episode 7, the focus shifts to an entirely different group: a team from the Department of Temporal Investigations, who find that everything was decidedly not neatly resolved, and have to go back to clean up the temporal mess created in the first half of the season. Possible character appearing in a few episodes: Zefram Cochrane as a brilliant but surly teenager.
And so forth.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 1:15 PM on April 26, 2017 [4 favorites]
Anthology series are the big thing now. Why not do that? Every season has a different cast, different characters, set in a different era.
Season 1: 10 years before TOS. Fine, that's already on the board, start with that.
Season 2: 50 years post-TNG/DS9/VOY.
Season 3: Between TOS and TNG. There is a wealth of unmined potential in this era. Perhaps featuring the Enterprise-C.
Season 4: A time travel adventure. In the first half of the season, TNG-era Starfleet officers travel to the mid-21st century (post-Bell Riots, pre-Phoenix). Surprisingly, everything seems to be resolved and the characters return to their own era at the end of episode 6. In episode 7, the focus shifts to an entirely different group: a team from the Department of Temporal Investigations, who find that everything was decidedly not neatly resolved, and have to go back to clean up the temporal mess created in the first half of the season. Possible character appearing in a few episodes: Zefram Cochrane as a brilliant but surly teenager.
And so forth.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 1:15 PM on April 26, 2017 [4 favorites]
My thoughts on a Star Trek series are mostly structural.
First, Star Trek struggled in the ratings when it first aired. TNG eventually did well in syndication (and DS9 also did reasonably well in syndication, though it was more of a cult show). Voyager and Enterprise played to diminishing returns.
The interest in a network Star Trek TV show has never really been there - particularly not in the "science fiction writers write the series to ask big questions" format of much of the original series. It seems like there's a great deal of interest in Star Trek, but I don't think ratings have ever really reflected this.
So, my first thought about a TV show is that it should be a prestige series with 12-16 episodes max a season released at a somewhat irregular schedule. This maintains the excitement ("new Star Trek"), raises the expectation for the writing, and allows maybe some story-arcs mixed in with "space monster of the week" episodes.
Second, hire some great science or fantasy fiction writers to write some of the episodes. Encourage them to not worry about the franchise's history but just to write a few kick ass episodes that really delve deep into ideas. Star Trek is at its best when it struggles with moral dilemmas beyond "which Beastie Boys song will eradicate the swarming enemy fleet." Though that was a kick ass moment. Leave the bulk of the action adventure stories to the movies.
Third (and several of you have touched on this already), set the series in a part of the universe we haven't seen before but, I'll add, that the crew has seen before. TOS assumed the Federation already knew a good portion of the aliens the crew encountered. Roll with the idea that the new creatures are new to us but that we're already in the middle of the Federation dealing with them. This gets past all of the "let's discover what these new creatures are like" BS and gets us straight into the story. TOS especially was really, really good at starting in the middle.
Finally, have a compelling story to tell. Like a over-arcing story that might end after a season or after five seasons or something. This where Voyager should have succeeded but failed. The idea was compelling ("crew trapped light years from home with no clue how to get back") but it frequently was about as interesting as being lost on a road trip. Enterprise often felt to me like Star Trek cosplay with less compelling characters and occasional steam baths. The story should be about character (DS9, for example, was largely the story of Captain Sisko, who was as fascinating a character as ever was created in Star Trek).
I ramble. I've loved reading everyone's proposals though. I'd watch all of those.
posted by Joey Michaels at 2:30 PM on April 26, 2017 [5 favorites]
First, Star Trek struggled in the ratings when it first aired. TNG eventually did well in syndication (and DS9 also did reasonably well in syndication, though it was more of a cult show). Voyager and Enterprise played to diminishing returns.
The interest in a network Star Trek TV show has never really been there - particularly not in the "science fiction writers write the series to ask big questions" format of much of the original series. It seems like there's a great deal of interest in Star Trek, but I don't think ratings have ever really reflected this.
So, my first thought about a TV show is that it should be a prestige series with 12-16 episodes max a season released at a somewhat irregular schedule. This maintains the excitement ("new Star Trek"), raises the expectation for the writing, and allows maybe some story-arcs mixed in with "space monster of the week" episodes.
Second, hire some great science or fantasy fiction writers to write some of the episodes. Encourage them to not worry about the franchise's history but just to write a few kick ass episodes that really delve deep into ideas. Star Trek is at its best when it struggles with moral dilemmas beyond "which Beastie Boys song will eradicate the swarming enemy fleet." Though that was a kick ass moment. Leave the bulk of the action adventure stories to the movies.
Third (and several of you have touched on this already), set the series in a part of the universe we haven't seen before but, I'll add, that the crew has seen before. TOS assumed the Federation already knew a good portion of the aliens the crew encountered. Roll with the idea that the new creatures are new to us but that we're already in the middle of the Federation dealing with them. This gets past all of the "let's discover what these new creatures are like" BS and gets us straight into the story. TOS especially was really, really good at starting in the middle.
Finally, have a compelling story to tell. Like a over-arcing story that might end after a season or after five seasons or something. This where Voyager should have succeeded but failed. The idea was compelling ("crew trapped light years from home with no clue how to get back") but it frequently was about as interesting as being lost on a road trip. Enterprise often felt to me like Star Trek cosplay with less compelling characters and occasional steam baths. The story should be about character (DS9, for example, was largely the story of Captain Sisko, who was as fascinating a character as ever was created in Star Trek).
I ramble. I've loved reading everyone's proposals though. I'd watch all of those.
posted by Joey Michaels at 2:30 PM on April 26, 2017 [5 favorites]
If they're going to be pre-TOS or TOS era, one idea is to go the full retro Mad Men route. Replicate the old uniforms, the blinkenlight consoles, pointy sideburns, etc. Maybe even replicate the liberal-for-the-1960s outlook of the characters, with an interesting retcon that the nuclear war and the recovery made society more conservative for a while, and humanity is just now emerging from their limited viewpoints.
The current society is generally tolerant but still haunted by their self-inflicted near extinction event and the hard rebuilding afterwards. It's one thing to be living in a utopia, but yet another to be living in the utopia where a horrendous past is lurking just barely outside of living memory, and there's a fear it will return one day. At their own hands or at the hands of something alien.
Anyways, so retro in look. Retro in attitudes and predjudices. But portraying a society trying to move past that and past the old traumas. And past the old ways of thinking which makes hatred and war (especially between humans) inevitable. And have friendly races like the Vulcans not entirely being helpful. "Logically, you should just move on. The past is the past. It is illogical to dwell upon it."
And the show can illustrate how you can leave home but home never really leaves you. 5 year missions into unknown places and humans still have to struggle with what they are and where they came from. And struggle with not applying the old ways to new places.
Maybe this would be the proper semi-optimistic Trek for the Trump / Brexit era.
posted by honestcoyote at 2:32 PM on April 26, 2017 [3 favorites]
The current society is generally tolerant but still haunted by their self-inflicted near extinction event and the hard rebuilding afterwards. It's one thing to be living in a utopia, but yet another to be living in the utopia where a horrendous past is lurking just barely outside of living memory, and there's a fear it will return one day. At their own hands or at the hands of something alien.
Anyways, so retro in look. Retro in attitudes and predjudices. But portraying a society trying to move past that and past the old traumas. And past the old ways of thinking which makes hatred and war (especially between humans) inevitable. And have friendly races like the Vulcans not entirely being helpful. "Logically, you should just move on. The past is the past. It is illogical to dwell upon it."
And the show can illustrate how you can leave home but home never really leaves you. 5 year missions into unknown places and humans still have to struggle with what they are and where they came from. And struggle with not applying the old ways to new places.
Maybe this would be the proper semi-optimistic Trek for the Trump / Brexit era.
posted by honestcoyote at 2:32 PM on April 26, 2017 [3 favorites]
The intrepid USS Dark Side of the Moon, NCC 90125, travels a galaxy full of floating mountains, lost gods searching for meaning, crimson kings holding court, and so on, solving problems through the powers of rock and pomposity. In the pilot, the crew warps into a system calling itself the Solar Federation and ends up jamming at the Temple of Syrinx.
The follow-up episode features the DSotM escaping the Solar Federation through the Gates of Delirium on a starless and bible black night. A long story arc will feature an omnipotent species known as The Ancients, who promise to reveal the science of God to the crew if they subject themselves to the horror known as The Ritual.
Waaaiit a minute...this is just a bunch of old Philippe Druillet comics from the '70s.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 2:37 PM on April 26, 2017 [3 favorites]
The follow-up episode features the DSotM escaping the Solar Federation through the Gates of Delirium on a starless and bible black night. A long story arc will feature an omnipotent species known as The Ancients, who promise to reveal the science of God to the crew if they subject themselves to the horror known as The Ritual.
Waaaiit a minute...this is just a bunch of old Philippe Druillet comics from the '70s.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 2:37 PM on April 26, 2017 [3 favorites]
Actually, I wouldn't mind watching a version of Star Trek that was just Morn hanging out in dive bars and pulling off heists all over the Alpha Quadrant.
You'd need to find an especially witty dialogue writer, though.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 3:32 PM on April 26, 2017 [6 favorites]
You'd need to find an especially witty dialogue writer, though.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 3:32 PM on April 26, 2017 [6 favorites]
Second, hire some great science or fantasy fiction writers to write some of the episodes. Encourage them to not worry about the franchise's history but just to write a few kick ass episodes that really delve deep into ideas.
That's more or less how TOS was written, right? I know at least a few episodes were written by SF writers like Richard Matheson. I'm never all that interested in overarching series arcs (X-Files loses me when it starts being all about the black goo), and my favorite Star Trek episodes tend to be the "bottle" episodes that just probe some aspect of a character or scenario.
The big thing for me is moving past the trend for gritty darkness in everything. TOS premiered during the Cold War, within living memory of a presidential assassination, during ongoing civil rights struggles, a new war, and so on, and yet it managed to acknowledge all of this while presenting the possibility that we, as a species, can overcome it all and be stronger together. So they had a Russian character and a black woman and an Asian man as prominent characters, because that sort of representation was its own message.
What I'm saying is, I'd be perfectly happy if a new series were more like tos.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 5:05 PM on April 26, 2017 [11 favorites]
That's more or less how TOS was written, right? I know at least a few episodes were written by SF writers like Richard Matheson. I'm never all that interested in overarching series arcs (X-Files loses me when it starts being all about the black goo), and my favorite Star Trek episodes tend to be the "bottle" episodes that just probe some aspect of a character or scenario.
The big thing for me is moving past the trend for gritty darkness in everything. TOS premiered during the Cold War, within living memory of a presidential assassination, during ongoing civil rights struggles, a new war, and so on, and yet it managed to acknowledge all of this while presenting the possibility that we, as a species, can overcome it all and be stronger together. So they had a Russian character and a black woman and an Asian man as prominent characters, because that sort of representation was its own message.
What I'm saying is, I'd be perfectly happy if a new series were more like tos.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 5:05 PM on April 26, 2017 [11 favorites]
Future technology must have even more scope than current technology for planet-scale and system-scale destruction. We've seen mad scientists destroy both in Trek. I figure system-scale weapons are forbidden by a Mutually Assured Destruction system that dwarfs what the US and USSR created in our 20th century. But nobody's willing to talk about it.
Related: Why the big deal over cloaking device technology, that the Federation can't have it by treaty?
Related: Why the big deal over AI technology, that the Federation makes a big deal about not touching it?
Related: Why was the Federation military gaga over the offensive potential of the Eden device?
Answer: Alpha quadrant's MAD system is a system of cloaked, AI-piloted sun killers on a dead man's switch. Romulans have them, Klingons have them, and they fear that despite treaties and strikes on military reasearch facilities that the Federation might have them too.
In reality, what the Federation has is even worse: generation ship asteroids in the darkness of space. Their true origins hidden from all but the commanding caste, the crew believe they're on their way to a new Eden. But in reality, they sit silent and cold in interstellar space. Orders wait unopened in the despot-captain's computer, for news of the final conflict to arrive. What will she do, when the orders come to turn the ship into a giant (if absurdly slow) kinetic kill weapon large enough to wipe out a whole planet's ecosystem? Or were the orders put into action 2, 3, 10 generations ago? In any case, down on the engineering decks, the crew labors on, unaware.
posted by the antecedent of that pronoun at 5:24 PM on April 26, 2017 [5 favorites]
Related: Why the big deal over cloaking device technology, that the Federation can't have it by treaty?
Related: Why the big deal over AI technology, that the Federation makes a big deal about not touching it?
Related: Why was the Federation military gaga over the offensive potential of the Eden device?
Answer: Alpha quadrant's MAD system is a system of cloaked, AI-piloted sun killers on a dead man's switch. Romulans have them, Klingons have them, and they fear that despite treaties and strikes on military reasearch facilities that the Federation might have them too.
In reality, what the Federation has is even worse: generation ship asteroids in the darkness of space. Their true origins hidden from all but the commanding caste, the crew believe they're on their way to a new Eden. But in reality, they sit silent and cold in interstellar space. Orders wait unopened in the despot-captain's computer, for news of the final conflict to arrive. What will she do, when the orders come to turn the ship into a giant (if absurdly slow) kinetic kill weapon large enough to wipe out a whole planet's ecosystem? Or were the orders put into action 2, 3, 10 generations ago? In any case, down on the engineering decks, the crew labors on, unaware.
posted by the antecedent of that pronoun at 5:24 PM on April 26, 2017 [5 favorites]
(This would explain the uncanny humanness of the crew in For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky)
posted by mwhybark at 5:58 PM on April 26, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by mwhybark at 5:58 PM on April 26, 2017 [2 favorites]
My pitch is Star Trek: Deep Service
A team of planetary specialists is based on Starship Endeavor, a high speed, stealthy craft commanded by a hyper-competent female captain. The team is commanded by a charismatic male lead who has definite tension/attraction with the captain.
Each week's episode has the team dropped into a new scenario where they work to prevent planetary catastrophe, anarchy, manipulation by other space faring cultures and other challenges all while remaining within the tenets of the Prime Directive.
Their missions are funded and controlled by a shadowy organization within Star Fleet. A continuous dialectic builds around conflicts between saving sentients and leaving them to find their own way as per the Directive.
I, for one, am bored to tears with the Trek brand of star ship/phasers/people pretending to fly about during some ridiculous space ballet warfare. If Trek continues to go this route, I think it's pretty much doomed so I have no particular reason to want to see Discovery as it's pretty much guaranteed to be more of the same shtick.
posted by diode at 6:53 PM on April 26, 2017 [1 favorite]
A team of planetary specialists is based on Starship Endeavor, a high speed, stealthy craft commanded by a hyper-competent female captain. The team is commanded by a charismatic male lead who has definite tension/attraction with the captain.
Each week's episode has the team dropped into a new scenario where they work to prevent planetary catastrophe, anarchy, manipulation by other space faring cultures and other challenges all while remaining within the tenets of the Prime Directive.
Their missions are funded and controlled by a shadowy organization within Star Fleet. A continuous dialectic builds around conflicts between saving sentients and leaving them to find their own way as per the Directive.
I, for one, am bored to tears with the Trek brand of star ship/phasers/people pretending to fly about during some ridiculous space ballet warfare. If Trek continues to go this route, I think it's pretty much doomed so I have no particular reason to want to see Discovery as it's pretty much guaranteed to be more of the same shtick.
posted by diode at 6:53 PM on April 26, 2017 [1 favorite]
I'd personally love to get more of a sense of what life for a non-Star Fleet citizen of the Federation is like, but having done some research into this for fanfic purposes (shh) I kind of came to the conclusion that from the glimpses we've gotten of how the whole system works, it kinda makes no goddamn sense
posted by showbiz_liz at 6:59 PM on April 26, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by showbiz_liz at 6:59 PM on April 26, 2017 [5 favorites]
Two Broke Ferengis
posted by rhizome at 7:10 PM on April 26, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by rhizome at 7:10 PM on April 26, 2017 [6 favorites]
My pitch is Star Trek: Deep Service
So basically a numbers filed off version of Banks' Special Circumstances.
posted by Justinian at 10:08 PM on April 26, 2017
So basically a numbers filed off version of Banks' Special Circumstances.
posted by Justinian at 10:08 PM on April 26, 2017
Star Trek: Academy. The adventures of Starfleet cadets and professors at the academy.
this, like an X-Men series that's 'A Wes Anderson movie about boarding school but everyone has superpowers and feelings" seems so obvious to me I don't why it doesn't exist
The X-Men project was called Generation X and much like Doctor Who only got as far as a made-for-TV movie on Fox and was never picked up as a series.
My pitch: Star Trek: Blue. It's a medical space drama where they can't just "charge phasers" or "reverse the polarity" and overpower their way out of every situation. And Rick Berman isn't allowed within three light-years of the damn thing.
posted by dances with hamsters at 10:36 PM on April 26, 2017 [2 favorites]
this, like an X-Men series that's 'A Wes Anderson movie about boarding school but everyone has superpowers and feelings" seems so obvious to me I don't why it doesn't exist
The X-Men project was called Generation X and much like Doctor Who only got as far as a made-for-TV movie on Fox and was never picked up as a series.
My pitch: Star Trek: Blue. It's a medical space drama where they can't just "charge phasers" or "reverse the polarity" and overpower their way out of every situation. And Rick Berman isn't allowed within three light-years of the damn thing.
posted by dances with hamsters at 10:36 PM on April 26, 2017 [2 favorites]
Star Trek: Real Hosts(esses) of Risa.
Cringe-worthy puns about warp cores and jeffries tubes. Romulan ale consumed like water. Dramatically scored fisticuffs with Orion slave companions. Suspiciously frequent transporter 'malfunctions' that leave clothes behind.
posted by CynicalKnight at 9:37 AM on April 27, 2017
Cringe-worthy puns about warp cores and jeffries tubes. Romulan ale consumed like water. Dramatically scored fisticuffs with Orion slave companions. Suspiciously frequent transporter 'malfunctions' that leave clothes behind.
posted by CynicalKnight at 9:37 AM on April 27, 2017
An afternoon talk show called, "Deanna."
posted by rhizome at 12:07 PM on April 27, 2017 [10 favorites]
posted by rhizome at 12:07 PM on April 27, 2017 [10 favorites]
I think it's time for a voyager reboot. Same premise, similar cast.
But, no Tom Paris ('cause the universe has too many already) and no Neelix ('cause you've got to be fucking kidding me.) Also, the Maquis aren't cowardly dipshits who surrender their convictions during the pilot, so the crew has to invent a new way of operating without just imitating Star Fleet. And, instead of rushing headlong back home so they can tell their grandkids about how much of their lives they wasted traveling home, they take advantage of an unprecedented opportunity to actually go where no one (they know) has gone before. Oh, and they have a strong female captain who isn't an ethically bankrupt war criminal (or who is, but isn't celebrated for it in every implicit aspect of the production). Also, they hire writers who've heard actual humans speak to eachother before. That would be some great Star Trek.
posted by eotvos at 4:14 PM on April 27, 2017 [5 favorites]
But, no Tom Paris ('cause the universe has too many already) and no Neelix ('cause you've got to be fucking kidding me.) Also, the Maquis aren't cowardly dipshits who surrender their convictions during the pilot, so the crew has to invent a new way of operating without just imitating Star Fleet. And, instead of rushing headlong back home so they can tell their grandkids about how much of their lives they wasted traveling home, they take advantage of an unprecedented opportunity to actually go where no one (they know) has gone before. Oh, and they have a strong female captain who isn't an ethically bankrupt war criminal (or who is, but isn't celebrated for it in every implicit aspect of the production). Also, they hire writers who've heard actual humans speak to eachother before. That would be some great Star Trek.
posted by eotvos at 4:14 PM on April 27, 2017 [5 favorites]
I've mooted the idea of a Voyager reboot as it was such a potentially interesting idea in theory, and even occasionally worked out as such in practice, but after some thought, I've come to feel the premise of any new show is less important than who is creating it. My own wish at this point then is that they'd keep the basic Rodenberry spirit of optimism and exploration, try to adhere to a loose feeling of continuity, where there is no requirement to revisit the older series characters or dilemmas if they don't seem relevant, and they keep a racially diverse crew but give the entire show over to minority showrunner(s) and writers to explore the very idea of a more utopian society from the perspective of people who've so often been on the outside of "western values".
Too often the Trek franchise feels like the values of the Federation and those that the captains and commanders of Starfleet spread are too strongly associated with white liberalism. Sometimes those are fine values in the abstract, but they often seem to be coming from a position of superiority sharing "the right" values to those less enlightened, either directly in dialogue or implicitly through viewers relationships to the characters. Examinations of those values or challenges to them come too from that same assumed position of the social order being like that of today, but where white people are more accepting of challenges to their authority.
This is most obvious in things like how the shows have handled Native American characters or situations that are clearly connected to our own times, but it's also something that sort of lingers over so much of the normal relationships in the shows as well and clearly comes from thinking about ideals from a relative position of dominance rather than from a position of having been dominated. I'd like to see what a more uptopian outlook might be from that other perspective, one where the white characters are voiced by writers of color and Starfleet isn't simply a bastion of enlightened western values alone, but incorporates broader perspectives while still holding to the possibility of better lives for everyone rather than the more common distopian shithole everything sucks perspective on the future that is so commonplace now.
posted by gusottertrout at 12:13 AM on April 28, 2017 [4 favorites]
Too often the Trek franchise feels like the values of the Federation and those that the captains and commanders of Starfleet spread are too strongly associated with white liberalism. Sometimes those are fine values in the abstract, but they often seem to be coming from a position of superiority sharing "the right" values to those less enlightened, either directly in dialogue or implicitly through viewers relationships to the characters. Examinations of those values or challenges to them come too from that same assumed position of the social order being like that of today, but where white people are more accepting of challenges to their authority.
This is most obvious in things like how the shows have handled Native American characters or situations that are clearly connected to our own times, but it's also something that sort of lingers over so much of the normal relationships in the shows as well and clearly comes from thinking about ideals from a relative position of dominance rather than from a position of having been dominated. I'd like to see what a more uptopian outlook might be from that other perspective, one where the white characters are voiced by writers of color and Starfleet isn't simply a bastion of enlightened western values alone, but incorporates broader perspectives while still holding to the possibility of better lives for everyone rather than the more common distopian shithole everything sucks perspective on the future that is so commonplace now.
posted by gusottertrout at 12:13 AM on April 28, 2017 [4 favorites]
Too often the Trek franchise feels like the values of the Federation and those that the captains and commanders of Starfleet spread are too strongly associated with white liberalism.Interesting point. It's definitely always been a show written by people who think of themselves as the winners. Except, arguably, a hand full of DS-9 episodes. The degree to which the things Star Fleet people say (and occasionally the things they do) reflect my own private version of utopia is probably what make that easy to overlook. But it's a great point.
Thinking a bit more, if money were no object, I'd love a show in which we follow an entirely different group of beings in the Star Trek universe every week. The pilot starts with the Enterprise-F, and they go observe a space MacGuffin, and the next week we follow the visiting civilian scientists after they leave the ship and head to a conference, and the next week we spend an hour on the internal politics of the Romulan science authority as they negotiate with another alien of the week for a joint expedition, and the following week we jump to an entirely new species that has little to do with the Federation. Sadly, I imagine it would take a large fraction of a film budget per episode to do well, and doing it badly would be ugly.
But, a few years spent following the Maquis exodus from Federation and Cardassian space would also be pretty great.
So the holodoctor stays?I thought the holodoctor was harmless and occasionally fun. But, I'm game to kill him provided we also agree to kill Barklay. Let's kill them all off, one at a time, on screen during the first season. As time goes on, we'll replace the entire crew with delta quandrant locals who aren't Neelix. Around 60% turn over per season should keep the show interesting.
posted by eotvos at 5:24 AM on April 28, 2017 [1 favorite]
Additional casting news. Still no release date.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 11:25 AM on April 28, 2017
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 11:25 AM on April 28, 2017
Artw: "They got their sendoff in the last spisode of Entetprise. It kind of pissed some people off."
They got their sendoff in the last episode of TNG. It was really great!
The TNG movies and shit never happened.
posted by Chrysostom at 12:41 AM on May 15, 2017
They got their sendoff in the last episode of TNG. It was really great!
The TNG movies and shit never happened.
posted by Chrysostom at 12:41 AM on May 15, 2017
Yesterday, I went to the Star Fleet Academy Experience at the local science centre. It was a little...disappointing? I mean, some of it was fun - I got a lot of enjoyment in the linguistics section because I was the only one in the exhibit at the time who could apparently mimic Klingon well enough to get the computer to offer the "well done" message instead of the "you need more work" message everyone else was getting (the trick, apparently, is to just sound really aggressive and pretend you are speaking German).
Anyways, the overall thing was a little lacking somehow; I was expecting either a deeper look at the science of the show, in terms of how the ideas of Trek had been reflected and developed in/from modern uses of science (the communicator/cell phone stuff, for example), or a bit of a deeper dive on the shows and what was behind them. And while there were amazing props and costumes from the show and movies and it was neat to see them up close, it all just felt superficial; a fan thing more than a science thing. And speaking as a fan, I was annoyed when we came to the section for Command test, and of course the Kobayashi Maru scenario is the focus of that. (They have the video clip from ST II playing on repeat, and the display information talks about the test, with a photo from the film stating "The Kobayashi Maru test in action". Except Kirk and McCoy are standing on the bridge, while Saavik in the captain's chair - it's from when Saavik is taking them out of stardock. As a fan, I was a little taken aback by such an obvious mistake - we don't see Kirk in the movie until after the test, which the video clip playing right beside the sign makes clear).
Anyways, in every section - ("Medical"; "Tactical"; "Communications"; "Navigation"; "Engineering"; "Command") there was a display of all the characters from the various shows who had played in that role; it was striking how white and male it was when they all got put together like that for me. And I was left with the sense that maybe it's time to leave Stark Trek alone for a while longer - to let it rest and give it some more time before we try to get another series going. It doesn't feel ready yet for being something big and bold and different; it feels like another franchise that a studio is trying to keep going.
posted by nubs at 8:31 AM on May 15, 2017 [1 favorite]
Anyways, the overall thing was a little lacking somehow; I was expecting either a deeper look at the science of the show, in terms of how the ideas of Trek had been reflected and developed in/from modern uses of science (the communicator/cell phone stuff, for example), or a bit of a deeper dive on the shows and what was behind them. And while there were amazing props and costumes from the show and movies and it was neat to see them up close, it all just felt superficial; a fan thing more than a science thing. And speaking as a fan, I was annoyed when we came to the section for Command test, and of course the Kobayashi Maru scenario is the focus of that. (They have the video clip from ST II playing on repeat, and the display information talks about the test, with a photo from the film stating "The Kobayashi Maru test in action". Except Kirk and McCoy are standing on the bridge, while Saavik in the captain's chair - it's from when Saavik is taking them out of stardock. As a fan, I was a little taken aback by such an obvious mistake - we don't see Kirk in the movie until after the test, which the video clip playing right beside the sign makes clear).
Anyways, in every section - ("Medical"; "Tactical"; "Communications"; "Navigation"; "Engineering"; "Command") there was a display of all the characters from the various shows who had played in that role; it was striking how white and male it was when they all got put together like that for me. And I was left with the sense that maybe it's time to leave Stark Trek alone for a while longer - to let it rest and give it some more time before we try to get another series going. It doesn't feel ready yet for being something big and bold and different; it feels like another franchise that a studio is trying to keep going.
posted by nubs at 8:31 AM on May 15, 2017 [1 favorite]
And while we wait for more Star Trek, it looks like Seth MacFarlane has been getting a "Galaxy Quest"-esque show ready to go: The Orville
posted by nubs at 9:50 AM on May 16, 2017
posted by nubs at 9:50 AM on May 16, 2017
Everything about that looks potentially good to me other than the star. Funny how much of a difference that made to my reaction.
posted by middleclasstool at 10:18 AM on May 16, 2017
posted by middleclasstool at 10:18 AM on May 16, 2017
"What if Red Dwarf was American and not funny" has been done.
posted by Artw at 10:22 AM on May 16, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by Artw at 10:22 AM on May 16, 2017 [4 favorites]
I'm not at all sure about it; that trailer is the first time I've heard anything about this project and...yeah...the jokes seem stale to me right now.
posted by nubs at 11:06 AM on May 16, 2017
posted by nubs at 11:06 AM on May 16, 2017
If I never see Seth MacFarlane's actual face outside of an awards show that will suit me just fine.
posted by rhizome at 11:19 AM on May 16, 2017
posted by rhizome at 11:19 AM on May 16, 2017
And here it is. I'm in. I mean, I was anyway, because Star Trek, but more so now.
1:49: "Starfleet doesn't fire first." How Roddenberrian (in the best way).
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 8:46 PM on May 17, 2017
1:49: "Starfleet doesn't fire first." How Roddenberrian (in the best way).
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 8:46 PM on May 17, 2017
Oops, sorry everyone, I had missed the new thread.
I dream of a world where we have sparsely commented US politics posts every six months or so, but we have to have a new Trek thread every 2-3 days because the previous one was at ~3000 comments and was breaking everyone's browsers.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 8:59 PM on May 17, 2017 [3 favorites]
I dream of a world where we have sparsely commented US politics posts every six months or so, but we have to have a new Trek thread every 2-3 days because the previous one was at ~3000 comments and was breaking everyone's browsers.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 8:59 PM on May 17, 2017 [3 favorites]
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posted by Fizz at 5:04 PM on April 25, 2017 [4 favorites]