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Alex Kurtzman Gets New Deal With CBS, Will Expand 'Star Trek' TV

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This wasn't true long before Fuller left for Christ's sake.

The post I was replying to was talking about "Fuller's original idea" not the state of the show when Fuller left.

Which is weird. There was so much fanservice, yet the show had no real vision or identity of its own. It was just a vessel to go "look, TOS!".

I felt like the show basically pulled open its shirt and flashed its tits at me at that point honestly.
 
I do wonder how people would've felt way back when DS9 was on, if the wormhole only led to the Klingons and the Mirror Universe?

This gets back to my hatred of the spore drive. Not just as a concept, but as execution.

We have access to a magic drive which allows us to go anywhere in space, anywhere in time, and to any alternate universe. The story possibilities are endless!

What do we do? Use it as a weapon of war, then accidentally jump to the MU, then accidently jump four months in the future. Finally, the Federation says it's just too dangerous and shelves it.
 
The post I was replying to was talking about "Fuller's original idea" not the state of the show when Fuller left.

No. Anthology idea was only in original pitch presented to CBS. At this stage all other elements of story you mentioned didn't existed.
 
No. Anthology idea was only in original pitch presented to CBS. At this stage all other elements of story you mentioned didn't existed.

Fuller's original pitch did indeed involve a ship traveling forward through time, along with a "crossover" period. Whether that involved the Discovery and the "spore drive" is another question entirely of course.
 
I agree. Gravity, Interstellar, The Martian all did well well financially.

But those movies are fresh new entities and I think that sparks interest. Star Trek doesn't feel progressive or new. It's just re-hashes and nostalgia. Star Trek parodies do a better job of societal commentary than actual Star Trek does these days.

I don't know what needs to be done in order to refresh the franchise, but I feel confident in saying neither does Alex Kurtzman.
He doesn't really need to. They're apparently making several shows. If he gets the right creative teams, they will do the refreshing. He needs to coordinate them, get them made and on budget.

Not everything will work, but some should...
 
Into Darkness is a good film. I don't think its flawless, but then there arent many flawless movies, but its fun through many viewings
Of course it isn't flawless, but its successes are so multitudinous that any minor flaws are rendered utterly insignificant.
 
And diminishing viewership. To the point Enterprise was nearly cancelled after season three. Only the need for enough episodes for strip syndication gave it a season four.
OMG! Diminishing viewership from 1987 to 2005. It took 18 years to diminish to the point where a series got cancelled. I'm sure they were laughing all the way to the bank! :lol:

Do you have any conception of how rare that stability is in Hollywood?
 
If the mission statement of a prequel series is to set the pieces on the board up for a series that aired 50 years ago, that's very introverted, un-expansive, and self-limiting in terms of audience growth. Connecting dots with continuity should be only of tertiary significance at most.

That means for best results "prequel series" should only be a nominal term. It's a hobbling term, though, like "spin-off." The best spin-offs are shows that stand on their own without leaning on the show that spawned them. How many people thought of Frasier only in terms of how it related to Cheers? Or of The Jeffersons and Good TImes only in terms of how they related to All in the Family? How many fans of Olivia Benson consider her only in relation to what's going on in homicide at the 27th? The answer I'm looking for here is "few or none." When a show stands on its own, its characters become the focus, and significant events are those that relate to those characters, not the characters of the parent show.

This is why involving TOS characters in the premise of DSC was such a risky move.

I would agree that in overall terms, "adherence to previous continuity" and "connecting the dots" should be third to good characters and good drama. However, addressing continuity should be the primary goal of the setting of the show - why choose to have a prequel, why choose to set it in a specific time frame if you don't intend to exploit the setting either to address specific historical events, include historical characters, or take advantage of the "mood" of that timeframe?

As for best results for a "prequel series", especially in the case of Enterprise where there are few to no previously established characters to "spin off" with, I agree that the plot and events should tie in with the new characters, but again that means that you have chosen to set the show in a time/place where certain events or "moods" do directly tie to your characters. It would be weird to have Enterprise have been set in the 22nd century, but take place in the unexplored (at that point) delta quadrant - what would be the point of that?

Consistency has the least to do with quality of any aspect of Star Trek. Who cares?

I think consistency has a lot to due with quality Star Trek. You need consistency within a series so that your characters behave in ways that are consistent for their character (see criticism for Janeway's uneven characterization). You need consistency in terms of technology and capabilities, so that you don't accidentally remove all drama by having random abilities and inconsistent results (see complaints about "teching the tech" for solutions to some TNG/VOY problems). You need consistency across seasons and series so that villains, political and social settings aren't simply bent to the needs of the plot. Consistency has tons to do with quality - and a lot of that consistency has to do with at least not significantly violating continuity.

Of course it isn't flawless, but its successes are so multitudinous that any minor flaws are rendered utterly insignificant.

I just cannot agree with any of this. I do not personally see how its successes are "multitudinous" nor at all how its flaws are minor and insignificant.

Some issues (warning - rant):
- Spock is willing to die while violating General order #1, provided they aren't seen by the natives, but is willing to rat out Kirk?
- Kirk doesn't learn a lesson: he mopes and is ready to quit and or die due to repeated failures, is saved by Spock, and even when he is contrite they they are all going to die, they don't, so everything is ok again in the end?
- Spock and Kirk have known each other for about 12-18 months, part of that time hating each other - but Spock reacts (and the audience is supposted to react) as though they have had a 15 year friendship?
- Chekhov gets bumped from ensign to chief engineer (perfectly fitting in the Kelvin Universe, apparently), and has about 2 scenes with any other cast members
- Uhura does nothing - she tries and utterly fails at talking to the Klingons.
- Magic blood.
- Suddenly a few torpedoes brought aboard are going to risk the ship, when fighting Borg-enhanced future Romulan vessels at the edge of a blackhole does nothing to the engines - and suddenly Scotty is going to resign over this? And Kirk lets him?
- Spock Prime says he vowed never to reveal future information - except transwarp beaming equation, and now NuKhan. Except NuKhan is not remotely the same Khan that threatened Kirk and crew in TWOK nor even in Space Seed. NuKhan may be inherently powerful, but doesn't care one bit about Kirk at this time.
- Section 31 is the most secretive organization in the quadrant, yet they have massive underground complexes and massive shipbuilding capabilities
- They litterally warp from near Klingon space to Earth orbit in 20 seconds
- There is a firefight in Earth orbit between the Flagship and a black supership and there is no one else around, no starbases, no other ships, no rescue shuttles? After the attack in Star Trek 2009, you think the Federation would guard Earth better. Where did all the crews of those starships conviened at Earth for the meeting with Marcus and Pike go to?
- Marcus's war plan makes no sense: he has just one new supership constructed, but no other upgrades distributed to the fleet, and his plan is to start a war by sacrificing the current Flagship (the Enterprise), attacking a wrecked and diserted section of Q'ronos?
- Why was the Enterprise disabled before it could complete its mission? wouldn't stranding the ship in Klingon space just after having attacked be better? No Klingon's even came to check the disabled Enterprise even after Sulu broadcast their mission and location.
- Why did Marcus send all 72 torpedoes? Did he expect Kirk to fire all 72 torpedoes at one time to kill one man in a deserted part of Q'ronos?
- If they can track Khan from multiple lightyears away, why not use the transwarp transporter to grab him?
- Khan has the access and time to swap out the innards of 72 torpedoes, but he doesn't just get his people awake and escape?
- Khan's whole mission in life was to kill Marcus, but he totally fails at it first try, and just runs away?
- Khan has no motivation after giving up to Kirk. No goal, no nothing, just tells his sob story and then sits around waiting for death or jail?
- The character of Carol Marcus does noting - she provides no useful information that Khan doens't also provide, and knows even less than Khan does; not to mention the gratuitous underwear scene.
 
Some issues (warning - rant):
- Spock is willing to die while violating General order #1, provided they aren't seen by the natives, but is willing to rat out Kirk?
- Kirk doesn't learn a lesson: he mopes and is ready to quit and or die due to repeated failures, is saved by Spock, and even when he is contrite they they are all going to die, they don't, so everything is ok again in the end?
- Spock and Kirk have known each other for about 12-18 months, part of that time hating each other - but Spock reacts (and the audience is supposted to react) as though they have had a 15 year friendship?
- Chekhov gets bumped from ensign to chief engineer (perfectly fitting in the Kelvin Universe, apparently), and has about 2 scenes with any other cast members
- Uhura does nothing - she tries and utterly fails at talking to the Klingons.
- Magic blood.
- Suddenly a few torpedoes brought aboard are going to risk the ship, when fighting Borg-enhanced future Romulan vessels at the edge of a blackhole does nothing to the engines - and suddenly Scotty is going to resign over this? And Kirk lets him?
- Spock Prime says he vowed never to reveal future information - except transwarp beaming equation, and now NuKhan. Except NuKhan is not remotely the same Khan that threatened Kirk and crew in TWOK nor even in Space Seed. NuKhan may be inherently powerful, but doesn't care one bit about Kirk at this time.
- Section 31 is the most secretive organization in the quadrant, yet they have massive underground complexes and massive shipbuilding capabilities
- They litterally warp from near Klingon space to Earth orbit in 20 seconds
- There is a firefight in Earth orbit between the Flagship and a black supership and there is no one else around, no starbases, no other ships, no rescue shuttles? After the attack in Star Trek 2009, you think the Federation would guard Earth better. Where did all the crews of those starships conviened at Earth for the meeting with Marcus and Pike go to?
- Marcus's war plan makes no sense: he has just one new supership constructed, but no other upgrades distributed to the fleet, and his plan is to start a war by sacrificing the current Flagship (the Enterprise), attacking a wrecked and diserted section of Q'ronos?
- Why was the Enterprise disabled before it could complete its mission? wouldn't stranding the ship in Klingon space just after having attacked be better? No Klingon's even came to check the disabled Enterprise even after Sulu broadcast their mission and location.
- Why did Marcus send all 72 torpedoes? Did he expect Kirk to fire all 72 torpedoes at one time to kill one man in a deserted part of Q'ronos?
- If they can track Khan from multiple lightyears away, why not use the transwarp transporter to grab him?
- Khan has the access and time to swap out the innards of 72 torpedoes, but he doesn't just get his people awake and escape?
- Khan's whole mission in life was to kill Marcus, but he totally fails at it first try, and just runs away?
- Khan has no motivation after giving up to Kirk. No goal, no nothing, just tells his sob story and then sits around waiting for death or jail?
- The character of Carol Marcus does noting - she provides no useful information that Khan doens't also provide, and knows even less than Khan does; not to mention the gratuitous underwear scene.

I mean most of this is obvious, or explained in the movie, or better explained in the last 5 years of fans going to the lengths to do so...
 
Do you have any conception of how rare that stability is in Hollywood?

Every show should be like the Simpsons!

Except wait - Simpson fans tend to think the show started going downhill after Season 8 or so, ratings have pretty much consistently gone downhill since, and everyone wonders why the hell it's still on the air.
 
So, did we cancel each other out, or what?

Regardless, we are in a day and age where over-saturation is far more common and possible. .

We're also in a day and age where so many niche types of entertainment are available through an array of sources ranging from broadcast, premium broadcasters, to the various streaming services.

If people are feeling over saturated with one franchise rather than branching out and finding other series that match their specific tastes, they are fricking morons. Particularly if they spend time moaning about it!

This is not directed at anyone here. It's just that there are so many options available in different niches that you should be able to find exactly what you want! If you're tired of one thing, there's a lot of other stuff available!
 
Speaking of which, check out the Amazon series of The Man in the High Castle if you haven't. It's awesome!

I've seen the first season. So much good stuff on, haven't had a chance to watch the second, yet.
 
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