Why not go animated?

[Tarek71]

I wouldnt mind animated. I liked the Clone Wars. I think a new TAS would be great. Generally speaking, I prefer live action, but I wouldnt not watch because it's animated. I would like the JJ movies to establish that both during and after the 5 year mission, crew members move on, get reassigned, and new people come to the Enterprise.

The Harve Bennett movies decided that they all stay together until the characters are in their 50's and 60's. The TNG movies were headed that way too, to some extent. I would like the reboot to change that and allow new futures.

I'd like to see an Ensign Ilia, Decker, Arex, Mress, Dr. Mbenga and other various characters get worked in. Rotated in, to replace departing characters. Maybe Helen Noel as ships counselor. It could be set on the Enterprise with lots of new faces, or a new ship with some old and new mixed together.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Ilia was a last-minute emergency replacement who Decker hadn't seen in many months, and when leaving drydock in TMP, the only main character among the bridge crew who knew Ilia prior to her coming aboard was Decker. Chapel arguably knew who she was from before (perhaps while Chapel was off getting her MD), and perhaps Scotty, McCoy, and Spock did too (doubtful, though), but everyone else, Kirk, Uhura, Sulu, and Chekov, fairly surely met her for the first time.

 

[Tarek71]

Ilia was a last-minute emergency replacement who Decker hadn't seen in many months, and when leaving drydock in TMP, the only main character among the bridge crew who knew Ilia prior to her coming aboard was Decker. Chapel arguably knew who she was from before (perhaps while Chapel was off getting her MD), and perhaps Scotty, McCoy, and Spock did too (doubtful, though), but everyone else, Kirk, Uhura, Sulu, and Chekov, fairly surely met her for the first time.

That's ok, now they can meet her again. Maybe as an ensign. It is a few years earlier after all, and a different timeline. Decker in there too. Maybe hes a Lt Cmdr or somesuch. There is a gold mine in TOS-TAS-TMP of characters who could be fleshed out and used for NuTrek movies and spinoffs, including an animated series.

Sure many are one-timers or secondary characters. But they can be fleshed out just as any new characters would have to be fleshed out.

 

[eyeresist]

I would like the JJ movies to establish that both during and after the 5 year mission, crew members move on, get reassigned, and new people come to the Enterprise.
The Harve Bennett movies decided that they all stay together until the characters are in their 50's and 60's. The TNG movies were headed that way too, to some extent. I would like the reboot to change that and allow new futures.

This is a good point. Instead of just having one-off guest stars, Trek really needs to change by having a secondary cast on the ship who are strong characters with potential. Then when a main character actor wants to leave, the best or most popular of the secondary characters can be promoted.

(The Bennett movies almost did this with David and Saavik in TWOK, but then screwed it up with TSFS.)

 

[Tarek71]

I would like the JJ movies to establish that both during and after the 5 year mission, crew members move on, get reassigned, and new people come to the Enterprise.
The Harve Bennett movies decided that they all stay together until the characters are in their 50's and 60's. The TNG movies were headed that way too, to some extent. I would like the reboot to change that and allow new futures.

This is a good point. Instead of just having one-off guest stars, Trek really needs to change by having a secondary cast on the ship who are strong characters with potential. Then when a main character actor wants to leave, the best or most popular of the secondary characters can be promoted.

(The Bennett movies almost did this with David and Saavik in TWOK, but then screwed it up with TSFS.)

TOS-TAS-TMP and the other TOS movies introduced all sorts of interesting characters that I think had alot of potential.

Number One, Helen Noel, Ann Mulhall, Ilia, MBenga, Arex, Mress, Decker, Saavik, Carol & David Marcus and a number of others.

I thought Marianna Hill (Helen Noel) had great chemistry with Shatner. Even without any romantic dimension she could have been a good foil for Kirk. Alas!

And some good steps were made for the TOS cast. Chekov as 1st officer of the Reliant, Scotty in Excelsior, Captain Sulu, etc.

But Chekov and Scotty ended up back on 1701.

I like the movies. But this time, I'd like to see a different future. No more 52yo Sulu still piloting the Enterprise. Let them move on and lets see some of the many other established characters, and some new ones.

 

[martok2112]

Gaaaahhh... I want to either get my computers fixed, or get new ones so I can get the latest iClone CG animation software, and HitFilm post-production effects software. I was working on (what I was hoping would be) a YouTube Star Trek animated series called "Captain's Logs: Declassified". Some of this would've taken place during Kirk's second five year mission, between TMP and TWOK.

 

[Phantom]

Hate to be a downer, but action animation (esp all-ages action animation) is DEAD in the US broadcast market. The current Marvel products don't count because they're more action-comedy, and written for the 8-12 boy market.

They're written that way because network execs have a laser like focus (if not an outright obsession) with that demographic because they buy toys. They don't even want girls, in fact, creatives have been told specifically NOT to write to girls.

http://io9.com/paul-dini-superhero-cartoon-execs-dont-want-largely-f-1483758317

 

[horatio83]

Hate to be a downer, but action animation (esp all-ages action animation) is DEAD in the US broadcast market.

First of all, if you try to guess and satisify current market demand you will most likely produce crap and also make no money. A priori preferences about good pieces of art are virtually not-existant. I would e.g. never have guessed before that I would like Clone Wars but I did so any marketing, guess what consumers want thingy would not have captured my interest,
Furthermore this is the 21st century so you are selling a US TV show worldwide (admittedly you will still make most of your income in the US).

Back to Clone Wars, I think this show illustrated that an animated sci-fi show can be technically good, feature decent scripts and capture the interest of virtually everybody (I am certainly not in the target group for animated shows).

So IMO another animated Trek show would not just be feasible but perhaps also a very good idea as it'd break, at least on a formal level, with what came before. If the powers that be are ready to do an animated show they might also be less risk-averse in other respects and break from familiar patterns like that the show has to be set on a Starfleet ship and that most of the main characters are senior officers and so on.
You could set the show on a space station, a cargo ship, you could have varying settings and so on. Infinits possibilities.

 

[Phantom]

^What you and I would like to see and what animation executives (or just studio executives in general) find profitable (whether they are right or wrong) are two different things.

Modern broadcasting, like filmmaking, is run out of the Marketing office, not the writer's room or the producer's office. They have their focus groups and demographic studies and their survey results and pages and pages and pages of spreadsheet calculations. They've made their choice. And it isn't for action animation.

Sorry if you don't like that. I don't like it for what it's worth. But it is what is, at the present time. This is not the late 90s-early 00s, when a unique set of circumstances allowed all-ages drama/action cartoons to flourish. Unless/until those conditions return, we're stuck with what Dini refers to as "goofy boy humor" comedy-action shows.

 

[mos6507]

This may be an absurd thought but I am wondering whether what Netflix and pay cable has done with 'adult' drama can ever trickle down into shows for younger kids?

I mean, does quality television also have to go hand-in-hand with nudity and killing?

 

[calamity_si]

Come on, who wouldn't watch THIS?

 

[T'Girl]

does quality television also have to go hand-in-hand with nudity and killing?

Nudity isn't a requirement for quality television, it's included solely for ratings.

Star Trek has always featured occasional killing, some quite blatant and graphic, but it could easily be lowered to the level of "implied." A return to 1960's disintegration.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

^ That's pretty awful. Actual Pixar work would be way better.

 

[MANT!]

The following was an attempt to get fandom and perhaps the powers that be to think about an animated series.. too bad it didn't work..

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_473147&feature=iv&src_vid=Z6zDg0dKygE&v=P9sFyY9LN0M[/yt]

 

[eyeresist]

Hate to be a downer, but action animation (esp all-ages action animation) is DEAD in the US broadcast market.

I don't think anyone here is seriously considering this as a broadcast proposition. It would be a Netflix/direct-to-disc show.

 

[TolkienOtaku]

This is a great idea that I have never even considered before! While I didn't watch Clone Wars and don't watch Rebels, I've heard good things about both. It probably would have to be a Netflix series or something like that, but it could work out really well if the right people were involved.

 

[C.E. Evans]

Hate to be a downer, but action animation (esp all-ages action animation) is DEAD in the US broadcast market.

I don't think anyone here is seriously considering this as a broadcast proposition. It would be a Netflix/direct-to-disc show.

Not necessarily. Depending on the intended audience, it could be on a number of cable networks from Cartoon Network proper (which still airs acquisitions from other studios), to Adult Swim's action-oriented Toonami block, to even possibly Discovery Family (they can't keep showing reruns of Transformers and G.I. Joe forever). I would even say Disney XD is a possibility now--if it can run the BBC's Doctor Who, then anything is possible. In each scenario, the show could be owned and produced by CBS with the other television network simply being where its aired. Sort of like how various networks handle shows from other countries.

 

[M-Red]

The more I think of it, an animated version of Trek would just be so liberating for the franchise.


It would allow for the creation of new aliens and worlds that would otherwise be impossible, and it would allow the producers of Trek to tell new and interesting stories in a way they've really never been able to tell.


And I think it would work financially if they found the right television outlet. The animation doesn't need to be in the extremely expensive style of The Clone Wars or Rebels. I loved the concept art I've seen from other Star Trek ideas that weren't 3-D.


I really do think it's the best way back to TV. And I also think that --if it was created effectively --many people would be fine if Trek on TV never left the animation format again, just because of everything that's possible in-universe in that format.

 

[Phantom]

I don't think anyone here is seriously considering this as a broadcast proposition. It would be a Netflix/direct-to-disc show.

Interesting concept, but I don't see CBS going for that either. If it won't share Trek with it's own in-corporation "sister" (Paramount), then I don't see it sharing with an outsider like Netflix.

OVAs would be cool, but again, that's not a CBS thing either. And I question whether they'd be happy with the 200-400,000 unit sales that a OVA typically generates.

CBS is the poster child for "conservative" (that is "not risk-taking") thinking. Very old-school broadcast programming.

 

[C.E. Evans]

I don't think anyone here is seriously considering this as a broadcast proposition. It would be a Netflix/direct-to-disc show.

Interesting concept, but I don't see CBS going for that either. If it won't share Trek with it's own in-corporation "sister" (Paramount), then I don't see it sharing with an outsider like Netflix.

CBS does share Trek with Paramount (via a licensing agreement). It's just a case that CBS is in the driving seat when it comes to any new Trek series and some (be it Paramount or whoever) may not like that arrangement. CBS is hardly the only studio that owns famous IPs. It's a cliché, but it is all about the money, IMO, and who gets the biggest cut of what.