As above, my "expectation" is that they tell a good story, which has little to nothing to do with the budget. At its core Renegades has a weak script, and that's the primary thing that's wrong with it.
I am hoping it will be good. I've seen the trailers, and they don't inspire me with confidence, but I will most assuredly give it a fair shake. I have seen movies where I went in not expecting much, and have been pleasantly surprised. I love it when that happens, and I hope it happens here. Like Maurice, I just want a good story.
Beyond that, Renegades has been trumpeting their intention to pitch the program to CBS as a pilot. That sets a higher bar than any other fan film presently out there. The publicity about the pitch has invited viewers to judge the final program accordingly.
True. It takes it from "low budget fan film" to "Oh, this is a candidate for a network television pilot," which has a much higher standard than a fan film (no slight intended to fan films).
In short, it'd be hypocritical to position a show as professional enough to serve as a network pilot and then expect it to be critiqued on the level of a fan production.
My two cents. I have always found Maurice's comments to be fair and balanced, and yes, tough. That's why I love reading them. I think we can all learn a lot from the mistakes of others.
IMHO, any fan-paid pilot (whether it's made by pros or not) is going to be futile. CBS doesn't want to use Star Trek right now. It's primary network has more pilots than it has time slots, and even the CW is moving up in the ratings, filling up with comic book fare. Things run their course, and the current procedural glut can't grab ratings forever. At some point, like Westerns, they will need to be replaced. Likewise 'reality' television. If Star Wars is a big hit, could this change? Sure, but probably not for some time. I will be pleasantly surprised if there is any new Star Trek on TV before 2020, and I will not be surprised if there is still none in the fall of 2024. (yes, that's a longer stretch than from TOS to TNG). They abandon upgrading DS9 and Voyager to Blu-ray. That's not a good sign. Good or bad, if it's Star Trek, the suits at CBS aren't interested. Would CBS sell Star Trek to somebody else? I'm sure that would depend on the size of the offer. If Elon Musk decided he wanted a Trek-based series set on Mars or one with the tech he is advocating actually building, it could happen. Aside from that, for now, fan Trek is all the fresh Trek we are likely to see.
If there ever is any new Star Trek TV series, it won't be before the current feature film franchise has run its full course. That's been pretty obvious since the suits at Paramount and CBS believe the franchise had oversaturated itself in the market for a LONG time; and the current feature film franchise has done very well financially; so it's not something they would risk doing again (oversaturation with a TV series and a film series running concurrently.) Tim Russ was either too optimistic, OR figured the "and we'll approach CBS and show that there IS a market for Star Trek on TV..." would play well to get hard core Star Trek fans to open up their wallets and crowdfund this project. It's a tactic Gene Roddenberry himself excelled at.
Russ certainly isn't playing up the "network presentation" angle, since he himself stated it was highly unlikely when he was interviewed after the Fedcon screening.
Barbreader, can you cite any official or semi-official online source for that comment? This is the first time I've heard anyone say that there definitely won't be a BD release for Deep Space Nine. Thanks.
To my knowledge there has not been any official announcement declaring that Deep Space Nine or Voyager in HD on Blu-Ray is dead, just lots of speculation.
Rob Burnett tweeted that the sales for TNG on Blu-ray were "dismal". That's all the confirmation that I need.
I read it speculated that the whole "TV pilot" thing was a tax break. I don't know enough to say if there's any truth to it, though.
Yes, HD upgrades are not in the works at his time for DS9 and Voyager unfortunately, but that does not mean that something might change in the future that will let them get done. I would love DS9 in HD myself, but it all about the money. I would have hoped that future-proofing those 2 series may help motivate CBS to do it but there needs to be some monetary reason for them to commit to that project.
Nothing official as far as I know, but guys that worked on the TNG restoration were saying that. Just read the thread in the DS9 section.
RMB said that on the recent Axanar YouTube vlog. It's sad, DS9 and VOY have never really been seen as commercially stable as TNG or TOS - of course ENT was filmed in HD so blu rays were more cheaper to produce where with the other sets CBS Digital had to overhaul the shows. IDW did a DS9 mini comic series but due to poor sales they decided to stick to Kirks' and Picard's crews. Anyway we're going off topic here
RMB said that Season 6 of TNG Blu-Rays sold only 5,000 copies. Ds9 and Voyager on Blu-Ray are dead. Sadly.....
A shame because the restoration team did a tremendous job with TNG. Though I think CBS damaged their own product by releasing Enterprise concurrently with TNG.