Poll Do you consider Discovery to truly be in the Prime Timeline at this point?

[Rahul]

Enterprise didn't kill the franchise, it just happened to be the one in the hospital when the franchise finally slipped into a long expected coma for a few years. If you look at the Nielsen's ratings of all the shows of the modern era, there was a continual downward trend of all the spin-off shows after TNG that was smooth enough to ski down, with ratings spikes for premiers, finales, and big event episodes. I love me some DS9, but it was as much a part of the death spiral as Voyager and Enterprise were, just it was more pronounced by the time of the latter two series. TNG was a ratings monster by comparison, and the the only one on a continual uptick, and probably the only time this franchise is going to achieve that kind of mainstream success.

THANK YOU!
These charts are extremely informative. Could they have reversed the trend? Surely. IMO if ENT would have had the quality of it's later seasons right from the beginning, I'm sure there at least wouldn't have been this drastic decline in audience numbers right after the pilot.

What I still think is a bit baffling, is that everytime someone wants to re-invigorate the franchise - eather it be with DIS, the kelvin timeline, or hell, even VOY - they always try to ape TOS. Which they inevitably don't "get" (TOS is a MUCH MORE cerebral show than people think! Yes, Kirk usually kicks some ass in the middle of the episodes - but the finale in the thir act is almost ALWAYS just a bunch of people, debating). And they always do that in the same style - IMO the Kelvin movies, DIS, VOY and ENT are stylistically much more similar to each other, than any of those to TOS or TNG.

When you're the only Trek series that's both a part of recorded history and canon in both timelines that gives you at least some bragging rights. Haters are gonna hate, but Michelle Yeoh, William Shatner AND Chris Pine studied the missions and career of Captain Archer in school and at Starfleet Academy.

Top that, Janeway.

I love dramativ irony! ENT is now the ONLY Trek show that has universally happened in ALL franchise variants, whether it's the prime timeline, the Kelvin timeline, and whatever the Discoverse is. Freakin' Archer is the only thing that universally connects the Trek franchise now! We deserve this.

 

[Refuge]

When you're the only Trek series that's both a part of recorded history and canon in both timelines that gives you at least some bragging rights. Haters are gonna hate, but Michelle Yeoh, William Shatner AND Chris Pine studied the missions and career of Captain Archer in school and at Starfleet Academy.

Top that, Janeway.

Speaking of haters going to hate..

 

[cooleddie74]

Hey, I like VOY and I like Janeway. But they're not ENT and Archer.

 

[Mudd]

Hey, I like VOY and I like Janeway. But they're not ENT and Archer.

Yeah, I enjoyed Enterprise more than DS9 or Voyager.

 

[fireproof78]

What I still think is a bit baffling, is that everytime someone wants to re-invigorate the franchise - eather it be with DIS, the kelvin timeline, or hell, even VOY - they always try to ape TOS. Which they inevitably don't "get"

Because they want a safe bet but TOS can't be recaptured, any more than TWOK can.

And Star Trek needs to learn to that.

 

[cultcross]

I'm not as well versed in TV history as I could be, is there any precedent for rebooting/redoing a spin off rather than the original?
A modern take on TNG seems inevitable at some point, but is that a fairly unique situation?

 

[Mudd]

I can more easily see them deciding to reboot the 24th century in general - doing a series that freely mixes the characters from the three Roddenberry/Berman shows set in that era, rather than just redoing TNG.

I'd expect it to focus more on TNG characters and their ships as the primary setting because of the relatively wider popularity of that one, but there's no reason I can think of that they'd try to replicate that show's format whole cloth rather than running Sisko, Seven of Nine et al through the reboot blender along with all of that.

 

[Lord Garth]

I can more easily see them deciding to reboot the 24th century in general - doing a series that freely mixes the characters from the three Roddenberry/Berman shows set in that era, rather than just redoing TNG.

I'd expect it to focus more on TNG characters and their ships as the primary setting because of the relatively wider popularity of that one, but there's no reason I can think of that they'd try to replicate that show's format whole cloth rather than running Sisko, Seven of Nine et al through the reboot blender along with all of that.

Strangely enough, this is the way I see them doing it as well.

I'm glad they didn't give TNG the Full House, Rosanne, X-Files, Will & Grace treatment. If they bring it back, they should bring it back fresh, not as the long-delayed eighth season.

I'm not as well versed in TV history as I could be, is there any precedent for rebooting/redoing a spin off rather than the original?
A modern take on TNG seems inevitable at some point, but is that a fairly unique situation?

This is correct. Reboots are less common on TV than in films, but they've never been based on spin-offs.

EDIT: Wait, no, that's not true. They rebooted One Day at a Time on Netflix. But TNG would be higher profile.

One Day at a Time was a Norman Lear show, so it had to have been spun-off of something that was spun-off from All in the Family. I used to watch One Day at a Time (obviously not when it was on). I should watch the reboot at some point.

 

[Tosk]

EDIT: Wait, no, that's not true. They rebooted One Day at a Time on Netflix. But TNG would be higher profile.

There's also The Bionic Woman, which was a spin-off of The Six Million Dollar Man and rebooted in 2007.

 

[Rahul]

I'm not as well versed in TV history as I could be, is there any precedent for rebooting/redoing a spin off rather than the original?
A modern take on TNG seems inevitable at some point, but is that a fairly unique situation?

It would be unique. But I'm not talking about a reboot: I want something inspired by. Aka another spin-off.

There is this case: NCIS is officially a spin-off of J.A.G. But it was the widely more successfull show. Thus, it had another spin-off (NCIS:Los Angeles), which was more inspired by the previous spin-off, than technically the original.

But here is this:. I DON'T WANT ANOTHER REBOOT.

I want someone with a brain (a rarity in Hollywood to be sure....) make a new Trek series, thinking about "How would we do TNG if we would do it in the modern, serialized tv landscape?" And not, as they usually do, "How would I do TOS today?". Because none of those fuckers actually ever saw TOS since they were a child, and are thus way more influenced by the parodies and Pop-culture memes of it than by the actual thing. And then they take the parody version of Trek (douche-Kirk, green woman, shirtless Kirk punching a lizard) and try to play it straight. And it never works.

 

[Discofan]

There's also The Bionic Woman, which was a spin-off of The Six Million Dollar Man and rebooted in 2007.

I remember seeing another spin-off which was the SMDM's son.

So we get the bionic man, the bionic woman, and their son... who's also bionic.

 

[Crazy Eddie]

I'm not as well versed in TV history as I could be, is there any precedent for rebooting/redoing a spin off rather than the original?
A modern take on TNG seems inevitable at some point, but is that a fairly unique situation?

The original Clone Wars animated series by Gendy Tartakovsky. Five years later, got adapted and rebooted into the CGI David Filoni version.

 

[Tosk]

There is this case: NCIS is officially a spin-off of J.A.G. But it was the widely more successfull show. Thus, it had another spin-off (NCIS:Los Angeles), which was more inspired by the previous spin-off, than technically the original.

Like Trek then.

TNG was a sequel to TOS, DS9 and VOY were spin-offs of TNG.

 

[Crazy Eddie]

I want someone with a brain (a rarity in Hollywood to be sure....) make a new Trek series, thinking about "How would we do TNG if we would do it in the modern, serialized tv landscape?" And not, as they usually do, "How would I do TOS today?". Because none of those fuckers actually ever saw TOS since they were a child, and are thus way more influenced by the parodies and Pop-culture memes of it than by the actual thing. And then they take the parody version of Trek (douche-Kirk, green woman, shirtless Kirk punching a lizard) and try to play it straight. And it never works.

They should just make TNG literally "the next generation" after TOS and have Jean Luc Picard being hand-picked for command of a brand new Enterprise by Admiral James Kirk (who occasionally pops in as his superior officer at Starfleet Command for the entire series). We'd get occasional appearances by Sulu and Chekov (commanding their own ships), by Uhura who is commanding a deep space station somewhere, etc.

To be honest, 24th century history doesn't make a whole lot of sense otherwise. There's an 80 year gap in which nothing much seems to happen; the Romulans basically vanish, the Klingons remain mostly hostile until like a couple of decades before, etc. If you knock 50 some years off the timeline there, then "Yesterday's Enterprise" would literally be the Enterprise-A being thrown forward in time when General Chang's bird of prey explodes (and the war being the direct result of Azetbur's assassination). You could basically fit an entire episode in between scenes, Back to the Future style.

 

[Mudd]

I want another reboot - another good one.

 

[Lord Garth]

They should just make TNG literally "the next generation" after TOS and have Jean Luc Picard being hand-picked for command of a brand new Enterprise by Admiral James Kirk (who occasionally pops in as his superior officer at Starfleet Command for the entire series). We'd get occasional appearances by Sulu and Chekov (commanding their own ships), by Uhura who is commanding a deep space station somewhere, etc.

To be honest, 24th century history doesn't make a whole lot of sense otherwise. There's an 80 year gap in which nothing much seems to happen; the Romulans basically vanish, the Klingons remain mostly hostile until like a couple of decades before, etc. If you knock 50 some years off the timeline there, then "Yesterday's Enterprise" would literally be the Enterprise-A being thrown forward in time when General Chang's bird of prey explodes (and the war being the direct result of Azetbur's assassination). You could basically fit an entire episode in between scenes, Back to the Future style.

When I first became a fan, watching TVH on video, they had a trailer for TNG at the very beginning. "With all-new adventures from the 24th Century!" And, I thought to myself, "Wow! It's even further into the future!" And, then the trailer continued with "See the all-new television adventures of Star Trek: The Next Generation!"

The exciting part was that it was 400 years into the future instead of 300. Very shallow thinking, but I think that was part of the hype. Part of the draw. And I was 11.

Then I rented "Encounter at Farpoint" at the super-market (this was the beginning of 1991, when they started putting TNG out on video), and thought it was crap. Sometimes first impressions matter. Unlike a lot of Trekkies, if I don't like something, I don't stick around (so it's a good thing they don't think like me or the show never would've lasted). So I didn't watch it again until at the end of the year when I heard Spock was making an appearance.

 

[Crazy Eddie]

When I first became a fan, watching TVH on video, they had a trailer for TNG at the very beginning. "With all-new adventures from the 24th Century!" And, I thought to myself, "Wow! It's even further into the future!" And, then the trailer continued with "See the all-new television adventures of Star Trek: The Next Generation!"

I remember that trailer. "With an all new ship! And an all new crew!" an voiceover to Riker saying "This is nothing like any vessel I've ever encountered."

Wonder if they still have that trailer on youtube somewhere?

Then I rented "Encounter at Farpoint" at the super-market (this was the beginning of 1991, when they started putting TNG out on video), and thought it was crap. Sometimes first impressions matter.

Well, I was in kindergarten when I saw "Encounter at Farpoint" and thought it was awesome. Then every episode AFTER that was dumb as hell, until "Skin of Evil" which for some reason I really really liked.

Honestly though, I almost stopped watching after "Shades of Grey."

 

[Rahul]

God no! No reboots anymore! NO!

 

[Lord Garth]

Wonder if they still have that trailer on youtube somewhere

Let's find out. Searching...

YES! Here it is!

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[Crazy Eddie]

^ Yep, that's the one!