why is there no more talk of a new star trek tv series?

Discussion in 'Future of Trek' started by tmosler, Apr 8, 2013.

  1. Greg Cox

    Greg Cox Admiral Premium Member

    Joined:
    May 12, 2004
    Location:
    Lancaster, PA
    Ah, but the younger ones are sometimes willfully ignorant of the classics of the past--and don't care to learn anything about them, because all that old stuff is dated and corny and cheesy anyway. So they dismiss entire decades of TV history as being beneath their interest--and miss out on lots of great stuff while practically bragging about their ignorance of the past.

    Just wait until you're older and some kid tells you that "Throne of Games" couldn't possibly have been any good 'cause nobody his age has ever heard of it. :)

    (Trust me, I've been there.)
     
    Last edited: Apr 24, 2013
  2. horatio83

    horatio83 Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    Oct 25, 2009
    I love the gems of classical cinema but I have never seen a great TV show from the past. Either I am ignorant or they are simply pouring more money and creative juices into TV nowadays.
     
  3. Dream

    Dream Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Dec 2, 2001
    Location:
    Derry, Maine
    It's called "Game of Thrones".:p

    It will be remembered years from now. It's the garbage shows that tend to be forgotten.
     
  4. Greg Cox

    Greg Cox Admiral Premium Member

    Joined:
    May 12, 2004
    Location:
    Lancaster, PA
    Yes, that's the joke.

    As for classic shows of the past, how about, say, THE AVENGERS, THE TWILIGHT ZONE, THE OUTER LIMITS, and, um, STAR TREK . . . ?
     
  5. CoveTom

    CoveTom Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Jul 17, 2003
    Location:
    CoveTom
    Really? You don't think there are any great TV shows from the past?

    If we just want to stick to the science fiction genre, I would submit Twilight Zone as one example. Frankly, I'd also offer TOS. For all it's cheesy 60's goodness, there's a lot of real high-quality storytelling in there.
     
  6. horatio83

    horatio83 Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    Oct 25, 2009
    I have only seen the one Twilight episode with Shatner and the creature in the plane and considered it to be fairly bad. About The Outer Limits, I actually liked the 90s series quite a lot as a teenager and without having seen the original series I guess they are of roughly equal quality. But all these series are fairly rooted in their time. TOS is a total 60s and the new The Outer Limits is a total 90s show which prevents them from becoming timeless classics.

    My point was rather that cinema seems to be in decline nowadays. Of course there are still good moviemakers and in indie cinema you can find many gems but there isn't another Hitchcock or Kurosawa on the horizon.
    But on the other hand a lot of creative energy seems to flow into television. Game of Thrones has been mentioned and the best TV show ever, The Wire, is also an HBO product. Television is no more the little brother of cinema, they are on equal footing nowadays. No idea whether this shift from cinema to TV will continue though.
     
  7. Dream

    Dream Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Dec 2, 2001
    Location:
    Derry, Maine
    I don't consider the original Outer Limits to be a classic. There were many excellent episodes, but many garbage episodes too. I call shows good when nearly all of it is good.

    The new 90s Outer Limits was decent enough, but not really popular. I know they canceled the dvd releases in America because the first season didn't sell well enough.

    The thing about "Game of Thrones" is that the best place for it is on cable, it is impossible to do as movies considering the length of the books. It is based on excellent written material. The fact that the production values, acting, writing, and effects are all excellent are an added bonus.
     
  8. horatio83

    horatio83 Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    Oct 25, 2009
    Well, I actually wanted to deny TOS the status of classical. I think a piece of art has become classical when you totally don't mind its rootedness in its time anymore. Shakespeare, Hitchock, you name it. But at least for me TOS is too 60s.

    Technological changes like larger television screens and streaming makes it likely that this trend of towards television as home cinema / televisions with cinema-like budgets continues.
     
  9. Greg Cox

    Greg Cox Admiral Premium Member

    Joined:
    May 12, 2004
    Location:
    Lancaster, PA
    And you don't think today's shows won't seem dated or "rooted in their time" fifty years from now? "Ohmigod, Game of Thrones is so early-century . . . ."

    It's all a matter of perspective. By coincidence, I was on the phone this morning with a friend who was talking up a classic James Garner comedy from the sixties.

    "Sounds like a fun old movie," I replied. "I'll have to check it out the next time it turns up on TCM."

    "It's not an old movie!" he protested indignantly. "It's in color."

    "It came out over fifty years ago. It's an old movie."

    "Oh, god, you're right . . . .")

    (The really sad part? He's younger than I am!)
     
  10. horatio83

    horatio83 Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    Oct 25, 2009
    As I wrote in my previous note, when something is extraordinarily good you don't mind all the idiosyncracies of the period anymore.
    Let's take Hamlet. Sure, when you produce it you take out part about children actors in Act II, that's too time-specific. But nobody minds the Elizabethian worldview that informs everything about the play, from the view that marrying an in-law is incest to the four temperaments/fluids opinion about melancholy. But the play is fantastic despite of all of this as its greatness is rooted deeper. It's like watching a Hitchcock movie, of course you are aware of all the 50s/60s elements but it feels at the same time as if the guy could have done the same movie in ANY time period, it would basically still be the same piece.
     
  11. sonak

    sonak Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Jul 13, 2007
    Location:
    in a figment of a mediocre mind's imagination
    they'd have to do a Star Trek police procedural to get it on regular network TV. Police procedurals are the thing now.
     
  12. DCR

    DCR Commander Red Shirt

    Joined:
    Apr 15, 2013
    Location:
    Wentworth Hall, Tellus of Sol
    CSI: Qonos!
     
  13. Greg Cox

    Greg Cox Admiral Premium Member

    Joined:
    May 12, 2004
    Location:
    Lancaster, PA
    Fortunately, regular network TV is not the only game in town these days. I think most of the series I watch nowadays are on A&E, FX, Syfy, AMC, etc.
     
  14. xortex

    xortex Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    Apr 25, 2006
    Location:
    Staten Island, NY
    Yea, like all those show runners of the various star Trek incarnations. :guffaw: Trek started off as a procedural and then gradually became all things to all people. I could see a Trek with one Human Captain with an all alien crew. I think that would be interesting.

    Come to think of it Farscape and Buck Rogers were very similar, weren't they? And even Andromeda except he (Kevin Sorbo),Dylan Hunt wasn't the only human.
     
  15. wingsabre

    wingsabre Lieutenant Junior Grade Red Shirt

    Joined:
    Apr 22, 2013
    There has been buzz that Paramount's Brad Grey wants to build a TV studio to help insulate and diversify the studio. It's still part of Viacom, and Viacom has CBS focused on television production and Paramount focused on film production, however such a move may make room for a Star Trek TV series.
     
  16. Shaka Zulu

    Shaka Zulu Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    Mar 28, 2013
    Location:
    Bulawayo Military Krral
    ^Exactly what I've been saying will and should happen.

    I'm insulting them because they refuse to see reason and think that these old shows are still popular enough to be put on home video as pressed complete season boxed set DVD's with all of the trimmings, when they know they aren't that popular (the only old shows that have been are Star Trek: TOS, Mission: Impossible, Bewitched, Hogan's Heroes, Gilligan's Island, I Dream Of Jeannie) and also because of the mentality that says that only old shows are any good. These people are in dire need of a wake-up call to make then live in the present that they are in now, not the past (this blog post by Stephen Bowie sums up what's wrong with people like these better than I could: Well I Heard Mister Young Sing About Her)
     
    Last edited: Apr 26, 2013
  17. CoveTom

    CoveTom Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Jul 17, 2003
    Location:
    CoveTom
    ^ How condescending. If I believe that only older TV shows are any good, I am not wrong, I simply have different tastes than you.
     
  18. Shaka Zulu

    Shaka Zulu Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    Mar 28, 2013
    Location:
    Bulawayo Military Krral
    ^Not at all. Read the article that I posted a link to.
     
  19. R. Star

    R. Star Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Jun 15, 2012
    Location:
    Shangri-La
    So by refusing to see reason... you just mean think what you think.
     
  20. C.E. Evans

    C.E. Evans Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Nov 22, 2001
    Location:
    Ferguson, Missouri, USA
    Given that neither Viacom nor Paramount has the rights to make a Star Trek TV series, I wouldn't hold my breath.

    Here's the lowdown regarding Trek's ownership. There was a time in which Star Trek was wholly owned by Paramount (which in turn, was owned by Viacom). But that ended in 2006 when Viacom and its sister/rival company, CBS, were separated and Paramount was divided between them. Viacom got Paramount Pictures, while what was formerly Paramount Television (which includes Star Trek in all its various incarnations) eventually became the property of CBS. Paramount continues to make Star Trek movies, but only under license from CBS (Paramount pays CBS for the use of Star Trek). CBS is the ultimate owner of Trek and any new TV series is theirs to say, not Paramount or anyone else.

    The current relationship between CBS and Viacom is like a separated couple that underwent a very messy divorce. CBS got full custody of Star Trek and Paramount got visiting rights. They don't really get along that well, otherwise as feuding and infighting was among the reasons why CBS and Viacom were separated.