Star Trek Continues, Episode 4...

[Warped9]

For now I'm happy with them sticking to the TOS era.

THE HELL YOU SAY

I respect that, you are loyal to the show you grew up with In 50 years there is a lot of Star Trek that some prefer others don't

I for example grew up with TNG and Star Trek VI is my favourite - the last hurrah. I ignored the original 79 for some years and have only just started appreciating Enterprise properly. We all have different tastes. Just look at my profile picture, it's possibly blasphemy to some.

You are going to a dark place.

 

[Joel_Kirk]

For now I'm happy with them sticking to the TOS era.

THE HELL YOU SAY

I respect that, you are loyal to the show you grew up with In 50 years there is a lot of Star Trek that some prefer others don't

I for example grew up with TNG and Star Trek VI is my favourite - the last hurrah. I ignored the original 79 for some years and have only just started appreciating Enterprise properly. We all have different tastes. Just look at my profile picture, it's possibly blasphemy to some.

*gasp*

May The Founders decend their wrath upon thee!

You will have no vaccine and no Lt.Yar!

 

[Danlav05]

THE HELL YOU SAY

I respect that, you are loyal to the show you grew up with In 50 years there is a lot of Star Trek that some prefer others don't

I for example grew up with TNG and Star Trek VI is my favourite - the last hurrah. I ignored the original 79 for some years and have only just started appreciating Enterprise properly. We all have different tastes. Just look at my profile picture, it's possibly blasphemy to some.

*gasp*

May The Founders decend their wrath upon thee!

You will have no vaccine and no Lt.Yar!

I know I'm the Devil in the Dark - I got into TOS throuygh New Voyages so I'm kinda a convert! :P

 

[Joel_Kirk]

^^

 

[BoredShipCapt'n]

James Kerwin and Kipleigh Brown appeared on the G&T podcast today and gave a bit of information about episodes 4 and 5 and the next "Kirkstarter."

- The Kickstarter is due to start around November 10. Their goal will be something higher than the $126,000 raised in the first one. They may be looking to fund more than three new episodes from this one. It costs them $35,000 to 40,000 to make an episode.

- There are to be some impressive guest stars known from other science fiction productions.

- A new alien race will be introduced in episode 4.

- Episode 4 will be very poignant and address some sort of issue that hasn't been dealt with in fan productions thus far.

- Yeoman Smith will be in episode 4.

- They will finally leave the ship to visit an alien planet in episode 5.

Interestingly, James Kerwin mentioned that the STC team do not consider TAS canon. This is not only because Roddenberry declared it non-canon during his lifetime, but because the presence of Arex and M'Ress was at odds with the fact that it was viewed as a novelty in TOS for an alien (Spock) to be serving on a ship with humans.

I guess the solution for TAS fans like me is to imagine STC takes place before TAS while inter-species crews are gradually becoming more commonplace.

 

[Warped9]

Some interesting and neat information. Too bad about TAS becsuse the whole canon thing has long since been tossed in the trash. That said there is no way Arex and M'ress could have been done live-action during TOS and finding a way to do it on STC would stray too far from trying to be authentic with TOS.

That said one could always simply have the odd off-hand verbal reference to said characters. It would be an easy way of acknolwdging TAS without actually trying to bring the characters to life. Or even just a reference to Edoan and Caitin races in general, something that TOS had actually done regarding races and lifeforms never actually seen. TOS made a number of such references to things they actually couldn't or didn't need to show.

I would still like to see an Andorian Starfleet officer as well as another Vulcan in Starfleet. We know they exist since the starship Intrepid was said to have been crewed by Vulcans. So there must be others just as we saw with Commander Sonak in TMP.

 

[BoredShipCapt'n]

I'd like that kind of allusion, but they said they try to limit references of that type to only when necessary to preserve continuity with other series. Otherwise they prefer to stay within what was "known" at the time of TOS.

As for an Andorian, they probably aren't too anxious to do complicated makeup jobs unless the story demands it. The green Orion makeup alone took 5 hours to put on and 2 hours to remove!

 

[Warped9]

I'd like that kind of allusion, but they said they try to limit references of that type to only when necessary to preserve continuity with other series. Otherwise they prefer to stay within what was "known" at the time of TOS.

Yes, they've said that from the beginning. But it's somewhat disingenuous because right off the bat they inserted a ship's Counselor which is a direct shout-out to TNG. There are other ways they could have included a new female character without connecting it to TNG. So that argument is somewhat blown. Also their vague reference to something that happened in ENT is also something of a call-out to that series. Ditto with reference to specific Andorian cruisers if I'm not mistaken.

When it was produced TAS was considered a bonafide continuation of TOS and it was only later things seemed to get murky. And since then it's all been cleared up.

As for an Andorian, they probably aren't too anxious to do complicated makeup jobs unless the story demands it. The green Orion makeup alone took 5 hours to put on and 2 hours to remove!

Welcome to the world of TOS. And note that the Orions STC showed required painting a lot of exposed skin as opposed to just face and hands which is all you'd need with an Andorian. And we're talking about TOS Andorians and not ENT Andorians with moving antennae.

 

[BoredShipCapt'n]

Yeah, the Counselor thing (read: pretext to insert Michele Specht into the cast). And they also had the holodeck, which links to both TNG and TAS.

 

[Warped9]

The holodeck is rather easy to excuse because the idea was conceived during TOS, but not used. To that end there are things that could have been envisioned and perhaps even done during TOS, but for lack of story opportunity or lack of time or resource.

A case in point is other Starfleet ship designs. It isn't that it would have been impossible to do--certainly not. It was sinply a matter of time and budget and not one of resources. The fact that we did get cool original designs such as the Klingon battle cruiser, the Romulan warship, the Botany Bay, Space Station K-7 as well as others proves they had the resources, but too often lacked sufficient time and money to do it more often such as coming up with other Starfleet designs.

There are a great many things they could have done with more time and money. So STC is something of in the same boat except for the contemporary advantage of CGI. So there's no real reason STC can't deliver on some things that could have been on TOS but weren't because of some circumstance or other.

They certainly gave us a female Command officer which is something we should have seen on TOS when there was no explicit reason to prevent it.

 

[E-DUB]

I certainly enjoyed seeing the old "mystery ship" make an appearance in episode 2.

 

[Warped9]

I certainly enjoyed seeing the old "mystery ship" make an appearance in episode 2.

See, that's a case in point. I'm not totally certain, but I think Matt Jefferies designed that after TOS had ceased production. So it is in effect something that didn't exist or hadn't yet been envisioned, and yet there it is in STC. And we accept is as reasonably authentic because MJ designed it even if after the fact.

There are a number of fan designs over the years that really look consistent with what we saw on TOS and could conceivably have existed (given sufficient time and budget allowance) and something like them could be used on STC. If filmed in exactly the same way as Doug Drexler's cgi model of the TOS E then such designs could be accepted.

 

[urbandefault]

Nitpicking aside, STC is the first independent production I've seen that actually feels like a continuation of TOS. I'll give them a stretch here and there and go along for the ride, just because it's so much fun.

I hope they keep having fun with it and don't let the "superfans" drive them away.

 

[BoredShipCapt'n]

I agree. Every problem I have with STC turns out to be something incredibly small, which speaks volumes on how good it fundamentally is.

It's not like watching Phase II (which I truly respect, btw) and thinking "I so do not believe that guy as Captain Kirk."

 

[Warped9]

Nitpicking aside, STC is the first independent production I've seen that actually feels like a continuation of TOS.

No question.

The fans that get my eyes rolling are those asking for all sorts of things from other productions to be parachuted into STC. They don't get the intent and approach of the STC folks at all.

 

[GSchnitzer]

Nitpicking aside, STC is the first independent production I've seen that actually feels like a continuation of TOS.

No question.

The fans that get my eyes rolling are those asking for all sorts of things from other productions to be parachuted into STC. They don't get the intent and approach of the STC folks at all.

For every fan that likes the approach that STC is taking (i.e., not incorporating "later" developments in the Star Trek universe that we "know" are coming down the pike and being reluctant to spend valuable narrative time simply "connecting the dots in the ST universe), there are fans who want more than just the canonical universe with which we have become familiar. They actually want to see such things as other Vulcans in Starfleet--or maybe even other Trek aliens--like Andorians.

In the case of Phase II, we try to strike a balance. For example, we have included an additional Vulcan Enterprise officer ("Xon") and a starship crewed entirely by Andorians (the U.S.S. Eagle).

It's always hard to know how "pure" to be with our productions, and how much to integrate with the rest of the franchise. Our productions each have their own flavors--and we know that our respective fanbases are composed of diverse Trek fans who actually represent a wide range of how "pure" and how "fan-wanky" to be. I think there is no "right mix" consensus.

 

[Warped9]

Seeing other Vulcans or Andorians in Starfleet is perfectly reasonable since it's sopported by what we actually saw in TOS. Seeing Borg, Ferengi, Cardassians or whatever in the TOS continuity (since those things didn't yet exist) doesn't fit STC's stated intent.

 

[GSchnitzer]

Seeing other Vulcans or Andorians in Starfleet is perfectly reasonable since it's sopported by what we actually saw in TOS. Seeing Borg, Ferengi, Cardassians or whatever in the TOS continuity (since those things didn't yet exist) doesn't fit STC's stated intent.

I think it might be easy to fall into a pattern of reaction formation.

"Must...not...be a harbinger...of things to come! Nothing that exists in the later franchise existed during TOS era--no matter how practical it might be!"

I think there probably is some happy medium between feeling obligated to connect every single dot in the Trek timeline in some fanwankery way and studiously avoiding ever acknowledging that there might be some timeline dots that it might make good, practical sense to connect. In the case of Phase II, we know that large swaths of our fan base live and breathe, hoping to see such things as Kirk's first Federation contact with the planet Betazed.

Like I say, our viewers represent a wide diversity of desires.

 

[BoredShipCapt'n]

It's great, both that there is so much really good unofficial Star Trek being made with such a variety of approaches, and that there are so many of us fans out there to be their audiences. Thank you, CBS/Paramount, for being so indulgent. And thanks to everyone who is making it.

 

[CaptainMurdock]

I can see a little bit of Chris Pine in Brian Gross's facial expression. I can't wait to see his debut.