• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

News Harberts: Reconciling Discovery With The Original Series

The only real issue I had with the TOS remastered was just the registries of Constitution-class starships (exceptions being USS Hood NCC-1703 and USS Lexington NCC-1709), as well as the SS Antares registry. That's one of the reasons I want to think that Starfleet bureaucracy since the beginning of its formation created problems where new starship names and registries are handed out at random without a care and no one attempted to fix it till the late-24th Century.
 
Then there was that 70s KISS revival that swept through the Klingon Empire in the late 23rd Century.
 
Well maybe. But Enterprise has kind of ruined any notion of that. They showed a TOS period bridge on their (not all that long ago) show.
Well, I won't open the whole 'Ent was too advanced' debate. Suffice it to say that it is debatable as to whether or not the Ent bridge was "TOS era". What it was, was a 2000's representation of a 22nd century bridge (as opposed to 23rd century).
The producers and writers of this show sure seem to think realigning with established canon (including the looks of things) needs to be explained so it seems there is little you can do to stop it from occurring at this point.
Again, I'm not talking about canon. I'm referring to the "look" of the production, which is not canon. I don't think there is any plan by the staff to attempt to copy those big snappy buttons, or those old funny looking monitors, or that telescoping viewer thing Spock (and T'Pol) used. I think a revision would take some time travel reset or alternate universe shenanigans and I just don't see this happening.
 
Well, I won't open the whole 'Ent was too advanced' debate. Suffice it to say that it is debatable as to whether or not the Ent bridge was "TOS era". What it was, was a 2000's representation of a 22nd century bridge (as opposed to 23rd century).

Again, I'm not talking about canon. I'm referring to the "look" of the production, which is not canon. I don't think there is any plan by the staff to attempt to copy those big snappy buttons, or those old funny looking monitors, or that telescoping viewer thing Spock (and T'Pol) used. I think a revision would take some time travel reset or alternate universe shenanigans and I just don't see this happening.
@Nerys Myk was correct.

ENT season 4 was released only 12 years ago it's only four years older than the Kelvin Timeline films. And despite having a better production budget and a different set of writers and producers when it came time to show us a TOS era ship they gave us this:

mirror%2B1.jpg


To me that makes the visual style TOS canon. They could have done anything they wanted to do but they did that. And yes various people have said it will all make sense including the look of the Klingons and why the tech looks the way it does. They've said that stuff.

Like I said while I love me some continuity this seems like a lot hoops they themselves set up to jump through. I would have just taken a different route.
 
@Nerys Myk was correct.

ENT season 4 was released only 12 years ago it's only four years older than the Kelvin Timeline films. And despite having a better production budget and a different set of writers and producers when it came time to show us a TOS era ship they gave us this:

mirror%2B1.jpg


To me that makes the visual style TOS canon. They could have done anything they wanted to do but they did that. And yes various people have said it will all make sense including the look of the Klingons and why the tech looks the way it does. They've said that stuff.

Like I said while I love me some continuity this seems like a lot hoops they themselves set up to jump through. I would have just taken a different route.

It still looks like a low budget set from the 1960s that wouldn't hold up for 15 episodes of a modern TV show.

2-3 one off episodes are fine as a homage to the original series. But not for an entire production.
 
2-3 one off episodes are fine as a homage to the original series. But not for an entire production.

If a cheap set will hold up for an episode, then an expensive set with the same designs would easily hold up for 15 episodes. Modern construction techniques combined with modern materials and the TOS bridge design would look fantastic. Even with the buttons and blinky lights.
 
Enterprise was reaching the stage where it didn't matter much anymore as the show was coming to an end, and they were playing to the fans, no longer trying to attract a new audience.
 
Enterprise was reaching the stage where it didn't matter much anymore as the show was coming to an end, and they were playing to the fans, no longer trying to attract a new audience.

Discovery seems to already be at that stage. Where they just toss name drops by the bucket for the die-hards.
 
If a cheap set will hold up for an episode, then an expensive set with the same designs would easily hold up for 15 episodes. Modern construction techniques combined with modern materials and the TOS bridge design would look fantastic. Even with the buttons and blinky lights.
It's the athestic as well.

I'm not against the design of the bridge, I'm against how colourful it is, how cheap it looks.
It just doesn't work. It's too simple.
 
I miss the green-yellow-red color scheme. Nowadays, it all has to be light-blue-ish to say "futuristic".
The JJ-verse bridge had only blue displays (hell, they made every light on the Enterprise blue - even the bussard collectors and the deflector dish!). The Nemesis bridge had a lot of blue displays. And the Discovery has only blue displays. Adding some colors would certainly make it more era-appropriate.
 
I miss the green-yellow-red color scheme. Nowadays, it all has to be light-blue-ish to say "futuristic".
The JJ-verse bridge had only blue displays (hell, they made every light on the Enterprise blue - even the bussard collectors and the deflector dish!). The Nemesis bridge had a lot of blue displays. And the Discovery has only blue displays. Adding some colors would certainly make it more era-appropriate.
According to people on the show the displays will become less blue over time.
 
According to people on the show the displays will become less blue over time.

They also said this would all fit into canon by the end of the first season, now they are saying the second. So, who really knows if they'll stick to that?
 
@Nerys Myk was correct.

ENT season 4 was released only 12 years ago it's only four years older than the Kelvin Timeline films. And despite having a better production budget and a different set of writers and producers when it came time to show us a TOS era ship they gave us this:

mirror%2B1.jpg
and
.
To me that makes the visual style TOS canon. They could have done anything they wanted to do but they did that.
You're right, the Ent production staff could have used any type of set they wanted in order to represent the 23rd century Defiant. But, that they chose to replicate the 1960's design perfectly was simply a matter of preference. They didn't HAVE to perfectly emulate the 1960's, they chose too.
And yes various people have said it will all make sense including the look of the Klingons and why the tech looks the way it does. They've said that stuff.
The "it will all make sense" and the "Klingon look" parts, notwithstanding, I haven't read a single quote from the staff stating that the show will eventually explain the current look of the production. It's fine if they choose to do that, but there is no obligation to explain the technical advances made in TV and movie production technology between 1966 and 2017.
I still don't get how the look isn't "canon"? :shrug:
The colors and design of the those costumes in the photo can be considered to be in-universe canon. The fabric used to make the uniforms is not canon. Lets say that a new production of Trek is presented 50 years from now, and in that time, a new synthetic fabric that is much cheaper, lighter, and stronger than cotton/wool is invented. That new synthetic fabric is then used to create the same uniforms in the picture, same design and colors.

The design of the uniforms can be considered to be in-universe "canon", but using the new synthetic fabric is not part of the canon, because locking the production into use of the only fabrics available in 2017 is not a matter of canon. Using a stronger, cheaper, lighter, new synthetic fabric, has to do with the out of universe cost of production and personal comfort of the actors. If the new fabric had been available in the 1960's or in 2017, that is what they would have used to make the uniforms.

You have to narrow your definition of the word "look".
 
Last edited:
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top