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New Fuller Interview; Season 1 = 13 (Serialized) Episodes

Rahul said:
I'm still hoping they pull a Doctor Who:

-The new series was a completely new type of television and storytelling
-It's main focus was to introduce the show to people that have never seen it before, and only having small "nods" to the past for the old fans
-It still was "officially" set in the same continuity as the rest of the franchise
-There were even small cameos (Sarah Jane, K9) and returning monsters (Daleks, Cybermen) from the old series
-They completely ignored the "reboot"-movie that was made inbetween (the one with McGann, where the doctor was half-human). At least continuity wise. They still aknowledged parts of it in retrospect. Ignoring the changes and the plot of that movie, but accepting McGann as one of the doctors, and even giving him a small cameo in an Internet special later on.

How would that work in Star Trek? Be set in the prime universe. Ignore what happened in the JJ-reboot movies. But accept Pine, Quinto and the rest of the actors as part of the franchise. Ignore the plot and timeline split, ignore the destruction of Vulcan and/or Romulus, ignore the worst parts of JJ-Treknology (like transwarp beaming, curing death, way-too big starships, most of which Beyond already ignores). But pretend Chris Pine and Shatner were the same person, that lived in the same universe with Picard and Sisko. If that should ever be mentioned. Which it should only in small doses. Very small ones.
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I confess I do see parallels between Doctor Who and Star Trek's situations - both taken off the air after a long continuous run; 10+ year TV gap with books, and a couple of one off screen returns (Trek got 3 movies, Doctor Who got a 1996 TV movie and 2 charity specials [Dimensions in Time and The Curse of Fatal Death]); both being revitalised by known fans with a respectable TV portfolio
 
Dukhat said:
But that's not what I said. I said that the larger the amount of episodes per season, the higher chance that many of those episodes will be duds. So, having one dud in a 13 episode season is infinitely better than having 20 duds in a 26 episode season.



There's every reason to expect a better hit ratio when all 13 episodes are part of the main story arc and the standalone/episodic/dud/whatever-you-want-to-call-it episodes are eliminated.
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Just because you say it, doesn't make it so.

My point is that they scale/budget the writers and resources to the number of stories. So, if they have more stories, you'd expect the same hit ratio. For example, 1 dud per 13 episodes or 2 duds per 26 episodes.

Mr Awe
 
Mr Awe said:
My point is that they scale/budget the writers and resources to the number of stories. So, if they have more stories, you'd expect the same hit ratio. For example, 1 dud per 13 episodes or 2 duds per 26 episodes.
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That has historically not been the case, or at least by one's definition of "dud" episodes.

In a 26 episode season of TOS, TNG, and VOY, most episodes were just the ships going to some alien planet-of-the-week, and did not move the plot along for any kind of larger story arc. DS9's major story arc in later seasons, the Dominion War, was still hampered by at least half of each season devoted to filler episodes that had nothing to do with the war arc. ENT's first two whole seasons were just more of the same, with maybe one or two episodes a season devoted to the Temporal Cold War arc (although admittedly Berman & Braga didn't consider the TCW as important because it was foisted on them by UPN.) This was how Star Trek was from 1966 to 2005.

Fast-forward to today. That format is no longer de rigeur. From what had been gleaned, Star Trek 2017 consists of 13 episodes in which each one is an integral part of the entire arc. So there are no stand-alone, filler, or "dud" episodes that have nothing to do with the overall plot. That's my point.
 
Tosk said:
Just because an episode doesn't relate to some ongoing arc, doesn't make it a "filler" episode. Otherwise 90% of Trek is filler.
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Yes, but the comparison being made here is the difference between a 13 episode full-arc season versus a 26 episode season with mostly non-arc episodes.
 
All right, then feel free to substitute another word for "filler." It still doesn't change my mind about someone that was brought in during the last season before the show ended and whose need for character development was IMHO a waste of time and a drawback to the main war arc season that was supposed to conclude the series. But I think now we're getting off the topic of the OP.
 
Ezri annoyed me in season seven as well. I think less Ezri episodes could have seen a tweaking of some of the other arcs. I would love to have seen what DS9 would have been like with a lean, mean 13 episodes.

I hope the new show is a soft reboot, a bit like how TNG was of TOS. Though I suppose the difference there was that TNG was only the second show, so it will be a bit more difficult here over 700 episodes later. They should just play fast and loose with continuity, kind of like the new Doctor Who actually, like others have said. Use anything from the past that you like, but don't be beholden to established dates or events. Concentrate on creating your own saga.
 
Dukhat said:
That has historically not been the case, or at least by one's definition of "dud" episodes.

In a 26 episode season of TOS, TNG, and VOY, most episodes were just the ships going to some alien planet-of-the-week, and did not move the plot along for any kind of larger story arc. DS9's major story arc in later seasons, the Dominion War, was still hampered by at least half of each season devoted to filler episodes that had nothing to do with the war arc. ENT's first two whole seasons were just more of the same, with maybe one or two episodes a season devoted to the Temporal Cold War arc (although admittedly Berman & Braga didn't consider the TCW as important because it was foisted on them by UPN.) This was how Star Trek was from 1966 to 2005.

Fast-forward to today. That format is no longer de rigeur. From what had been gleaned, Star Trek 2017 consists of 13 episodes in which each one is an integral part of the entire arc. So there are no stand-alone, filler, or "dud" episodes that have nothing to do with the overall plot. That's my point.
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Some series today are more arc driven, but not all. And, just because all the episodes are in an arc doesn't mean there won't be any duds. Arc doesn't necessarily equal quality!

Overall, I like what I hear. I like arcs but I'm not sure about it being completely arc driven. But, all in all, it sounds like all the fundamentals that are in place look good. So, fingers crossed and I'm looking forward to the show!

Mr Awe
 
Mr Awe said:
Arc doesn't necessarily equal quality!
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Agreed.

Overall, I like what I hear. I like arcs but I'm not sure about it being completely arc driven. But, all in all, it sounds like all the fundamentals that are in place look good. So, fingers crossed and I'm looking forward to the show!
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Well, I have faith that Fuller et. al know what they're doing and aren't going to be micromanaged by CBS like VOY and ENT were with UPN. If anything, if the new show bombs, CBS would probably just cancel it instead of "retooling" it. After all, Star Trek is only the flagship show of CBSAA, not of the entire network itself.
 
Dukhat said:
It still doesn't change my mind about someone that was brought in during the last season before the show ended and whose need for character development was IMHO a waste of time and a drawback to the main war arc season that was supposed to conclude the series.
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I wasn't talking about Ezri, I was addressing the idea of "filler" episodes.
Dukhat said:
But I think now we're getting off the topic of the OP.
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You commented, I commented back. I think the thread will survive. :)
 
Dukhat said:
In a 26 episode season of TOS, TNG, and VOY, most episodes were just the ships going to some alien planet-of-the-week, and did not move the plot along for any kind of larger story arc. DS9's major story arc in later seasons, the Dominion War, was still hampered by at least half of each season devoted to filler episodes that had nothing to do with the war arc. ENT's first two whole seasons were just more of the same, with maybe one or two episodes a season devoted to the Temporal Cold War arc (although admittedly Berman & Braga didn't consider the TCW as important because it was foisted on them by UPN.)
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A minor correction: the Temporal War in ENT s1-2 wasn't really an arc, just something they brought up occasionally with no real plan in mind. Nearest thing to an arc was the development of the hostile relationship between Vulcan and Andoria.
DS9 - I thought the standalone eps in the last couple of seasons were uniformly tedious. I suspect that, with the Dominion war in the background, the writers just lost interest in standalones, but still felt obliged to do them.
 
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