Direct-to-DVD Trek movies?

[BillJ]

heavy lids wrote:

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I always thought a mini-series centered around the end of the occupation of Bajor would be interesting. As far as direct to dvd, I think a web series or a Netflix show would be more likely.

James Swallow wrote a trilogy of books under the Terok Nor title that examines the occupation from beginning to end.

[mos6507]

BillJ wrote:

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Doesn't this ever get old? Do you realize how many nods there are to prior series and even the novels in Star Trek 2009?

I hate when people spread false information because they don't like something.

JJ himself said he isn't making it for the fans. He just throws them a bone but does it in a rather shallow way that shows how little he really "gets" Trek. That's why there are a lot of fans out there who "don't like something" as you call it.

[mos6507]

C.E. Evans wrote:

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It would be Trek going out with a whimper with a couple of low-budget productions.

Just because it's low budget doesn't mean it has to be bad, and having a big budget doesn't guarantee quality either. You could make a whole season of Trek TV out of JJ's lens-flare budget.

[heavy lids]

BillJ wrote:

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James Swallow wrote a trilogy of books under the Terok Nor title that examines the occupation from beginning to end.

I'll have to read those.

[Pavonis]

mos6507 wrote:

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JJ himself said he isn't making it for the fans. He just throws them a bone but does it in a rather shallow way that shows how little he really "gets" Trek. That's why there are a lot of fans out there who "don't like something" as you call it.

Name one summer blockbuster film that is made just for the "fans".

[RandyS]

heavy lids wrote:

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I always thought a mini-series centered around the end of the occupation of Bajor would be interesting.

Yeah, this is a good idea. Except, why limit it to just the end of the Occupation? Do a four parter covering the entire 60 year occupation.

Yeah, I know the novels already did a trilogy on this (and very well, too), but there's no reason it can't be adapted for a miniseries.

[King Daniel]

mos6507 wrote:

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JJ himself said he isn't making it for the fans. He just throws them a bone but does it in a rather shallow way that shows how little he really "gets" Trek. That's why there are a lot of fans out there who "don't like something" as you call it.

Speak for yourself. I loved the movie, JJ got what made TOS great and updated it for the 21st century, IMO.

Just like non-Trek-fan Harve Bennett did for the 80's in Wrath of Khan.

[Therin of Andor]

BillJ wrote:

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James Swallow wrote a trilogy of books under the Terok Nor title that examines the occupation from beginning to end.

James Swallow wrote the first book. SD Perry wrote the next two:

http://www.goodreads.com/series/5404...trek-terok-nor

[Therin of Andor]

mos6507 wrote:

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He just throws them a bone but does it in a rather shallow way that shows how little he really "gets" Trek.

I guess Orci and Kurtzman are also full of hot air when they talk about what huge fans they are? And how they reread favourite ST novels, and rewatched "Yesteryear" (TAS) and quoted whole slabs of DC Fontana's animated script? And found ways to use TNG in the lead-up comic mini-series, "Countdown", to the 2009 film?

That's why there are a lot of fans out there who "don't like something" as you call it.

How many's "a lot"? Because it's my impression that most ST fans were very happy with JJ's movie, and supported it at the box office, wrote positive reviews about it, bought the DVD and tie-in comics (such as "Nero", "Spock Reflections") and demanded a comic adaptation of the movie script.

[BillJ]

Therin of Andor wrote:

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James Swallow wrote the first book. SD Perry wrote the next two:

http://www.goodreads.com/series/5404...trek-terok-nor

Thanks for the correction. I barely made it through the first book but own all three, for some reason I thought Swallow had written them all.

[C.E. Evans]

mos6507 wrote:

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Just because it's low budget doesn't mean it has to be bad, and having a big budget doesn't guarantee quality either.

But lower budgets do equate to lower production values and you could end up with something that very much looks low-budget.

You could make a whole season of Trek TV out of JJ's lens-flare budget.

Doubtful. It's not 2001 anymore when ENT left the air. I would wager that a new Trek TV series would probably be budgeted around 3 million dollars an episode these days.

[Greg Cox]

King Daniel wrote:

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Speak for yourself. I loved the movie, JJ got what made TOS great and updated it for the 21st century, IMO.

Just like non-Trek-fan Harve Bennett did for the 80's in Wrath of Khan.

Certainly, some fans had issues with the reboot, but plenty of us liked it just fine. It's not really a "fan vs. non-fan" thing.

Plus, of course, there are plenty of gradations of fandom. It's not like you have true believers on one side and totally clueless mundanes on the other--with nothing inbetween. It's a spectrum, not a binary choice.

The world is full of people (like most of our relatives and neighbors) who may not be able to quote chapter and verse of every single DS9 episode, but who are familiar with STAR TREK and have enjoyed many of the movies and TV episodes over the years.

That's where the bulk of the audience is, not at the polar extremes of hardcore fandom or total ignorance of all things Trek.

[BillJ]

mos6507 wrote:

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JJ himself said he isn't making it for the fans. He just throws them a bone but does it in a rather shallow way that shows how little he really "gets" Trek. That's why there are a lot of fans out there who "don't like something" as you call it.

Abrams said what he needed to say to get people to not write this off as 'just another Trek movie'.

As a fan since 1975, I think he "gets" Trek just fine. Kirk is the big risk, big reward player. While Spock is the emotionless side-kick who has a bubbling undercurrent of emotion. Scott is the Scottish guy who fixes the engines. The rest are mostly blank slates.

The people out there who say Abrams doesn't get Trek are usually the ones who don't really seem to get it themselves.

[Temis the Vorta]

Forget DVD, it's a dying format. But streaming is a great place for Star Trek, either Netflix or Amazon or both.

Their goal is to ramp up subscriptions by offering original content you can't get anyplace else. So they trot out some big names like Fincher and Spacey based on the fact that they are seeing a lot of fans of those guys watching stuff, but Star Trek is a bigger name with a more loyal and fanatical audience and all the series (except I guess ENT?) are on Netflix streaming already, so in addition to new subscribers, they can tell which existing subscribers to market the show to, with great precision and at low cost.

Of all the new series they could do, what's more likely to be the killer app - the one series that people would subscribe to the service for, regardless of what else is offered - than Star Trek? (or Star Wars? Disney should be doing a deal with Netflix, too, they're already pretty cozy.)

CBS is cozying up to both Netflix and Amazon, and is doing an original sci fi series (Under the Dome) this summer based on the idea of showing it both on CBS and Amazon and getting revenues from both sources to offset the budget. If they only showed on CBS, it probably wouldn't do well enough to justify its existence. Star Trek is in the same boat - CBS's audience is wrong. But the early adopter techy types who subscribe to Netflix and Amazon are just the right audience.

ChristopherPike wrote:

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Making new adventures for online streaming and a Netflix premiere, seems to be "the in-thing" these days. A television broadcast might be secondary before too long.

I wouldn't write the obituary of traditional TV quite yet, it'll survive for a while yet with sitcoms, CSI and sports. But Star Trek is a poster child for exactly the nichey sort of show that can't find a home on traditional TV anymore, but is custom made for subscription streaming. It's a huge name that can attract a loyal following, and it matches the Netflix or Amazon customer base much better than it matches the CBS audience. The same type of person who is the first to make a switch to a new technology is also likely to be a sci fi fan.

[dub]

Temis the Vorta wrote:

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Star Trek is a poster child for exactly the nichey sort of show that can't find a home on traditional TV anymore, but is custom made for subscription streaming.

I can see it now...a new Trek reality show, "Keeping Up with the Cardassians" -- the flagship series of the new United Paramount Intergalactic Streaming Service (aka UPISS).