http://trekcore.com/blog/2018/09/new-trailer-for-star-trek-discovery-short-trek-runaway/
Space Channel is getting the shorts in Canada.
Space Channel is getting the shorts in Canada.
Star Trek: Short Treks
- Thread starter ITDUDE
- Start date
Also... CBS All Access has 2 to 3 million subscribers (unsure what the last number count was), and I imagine another handful more more with its Showtime bundle. It's not some obscure streaming service nobody has heard of, or is struggling for numbers. DSC isn't living off just a small number of Trek fans behind a really tall paywall.
Was this ever questioned? I think the shorts don't get tax reflief if they don't air on television in Canada.
Yes it was.
Fair enough.
As I said: For the majority of the runs of DS9 and VOY, those other shows that you say overshadowed Trek weren't even conceived yet. With the exception of Enterprise. But no one really ever has acused Enterprise of being revolutionary television...
But you said that both VOY and DS9 weren't THE big television shows of their day. And that is simply not true. That is re-writing history, like saying Battlestar Galactica obviously ripped off Game of Thrones (despite the latter being conceived later than the former), or how "The Simpsons" obviously should have taken more inspiration from "Futurama" to be more relevant. It's simply a gross misrepresentation of how things actually came to be. End of discussion.
CBSAA answered on Twitter that Shorts are only available in USA.
I don't want to do this, but... how old are you? The '90s were my decade. I was 10 at the beginning, 20 at the end. I was there. The biggest Sci-Fi Shows of the 1990s were TNG in the first half and The X-Files during the second half. DS9 and VOY didn't touch those shows in terms of popularity. They just didn't.
There was a big debate over DS9 and B5. I won't take a side in the Deep Space Nine vs. Babylon 5 "who ripped off who?" debate because I don't know what's true. But neither series had the ratings of TNG. As far as VOY, it was the #1 show on UPN but UPN and WB were both seen as joke networks. Those networks never really took off or matched the popularity of ABC, CBS, NBC, or FOX.
Quality-wise, VOY was bashed throughout its run as being warmed-over TNG. DS9 was bashed for not being Star Trek, "violating Gene's vision", and taking place on a space-station. They're better-regarded today than they were at the time.
As far as what I myself thought at the time: I liked DS9. I also liked VOY until the fifth season, where I started having major problems with too many episodes, so I stopped watching at the beginning of the sixth. In retrospect, I think Jeri Taylor should've stayed on as the head of the writing staff. That's neither here nor there, but I figured I'd tell you where I stood. So I would've liked for DS9 and VOY to have been as big as TNG but they weren't, and I knew it, but it didn't effect what I thought of them.
"End of discussion." "You don't know what you're talking about." I'm going to nicely tell you right now to watch the way you talk to me. If you want to disagree with me, that's fine. If you have a different opinion or interpretation than mine, that's fine too. But you're being very rude.
Last edited:
"The X-files" (which btw is more "mystery" with plenty of fantasy elements, rather than actual "sci-fi") is another one of those genre shows that escaped the genre niché, and became a popular mainstream success. VOY and DS9 didn't cross that line. They were aknowledged by mainstream audiences - most people today still at least know about the existence of these shows, even if they aren't Trekkies - but both shows never were "the" mainstream show of their time.
What they were, were "the" sci-fi shows of their era. That's the point I made since the beginning. Yes, neither of them reached the mainstream success of TOS or TNG. But on the other hand - no other sci-fi show at the time surpassed them. None. Neither B5, nor Stargate, which both btw were pretty successfull in the genre as well.
Something like "Battlestar Galactica" - which, in retrospect, had a more profound influence on the sci-fi genre and it's tropes and way of storytelling than either VOY or DS9, was created after these shows had finished. And even then - ENT was surpassing BSG in viewers. By quite a lot. It was just that ENT was riding on the waves of a super juggernaut mainstream success and two genre successess, wheras BSG had to claim it's place in the genre without much help. And it was good. Farscape OTOH - which I really love - always was a niché show, even a niché show within the already limited sci-fi genre.
In hindsight I think that tweet just meant it'll only air in the US on CBS All Access.
Anyway, DS9 was my favorite of the four Star Trek shows during the Berman Era. I already like Discovery better than DS9, so you can see where TNG, VOY, and ENT would land when it comes to what I think.
I'm looking forward to the shorts.
To get back to the main topic, about the individual short episodes:
The first one has an alien that absolutely looks like it jumped right out of Voyager or Deep Space Nine. Also, just by judging from the trailer and the description, this one really seems like a stand-alone episode Discovery's first season should have had. There is absolutely nothing special or really exciting about the premise or the material so far. But I think the first season was absolutely lacking such one-off episodes, IMO they are a big part of what constitutes 'Star Trek' to me.
It's just a weird choice. If I had anything to say, I had done such a premise as a stand-alone episode during the main series, and as a first episode of the return of the show something connecting to the larger theme of the first season, aka maybe a short episode involving a klingon or something.
It has an original premise, is probably the best use of the format (15 minutes is enough to tell a story about a single human), and is written by a friggin' Pulitzer-prize winning author!
I'm really excited for this one.
Even if the final product doesn't completely meet my expectations - this is exactly the way I want the franchise to be handled!
I'm actually a little bit mad about this. Like, kinda' angy.
Seeing Saru's homeworld for the very first time should have been a big deal!
That should deserve it's own, regular episode - like Spock's homeworld first being seen in 'Amok Time', or Shrans' on ENT. Putting this in a minisode doesn't do the significance of this justice. Also, from the promotional stills, it looks like Saru's homeworld is just planet Canadian forest. Like Pahvo, but even less (that had at least color-tilted the vegetation).
I guess this one might actually be good. But I really, really think visiting Saru's homeworld for the first time - and the design of that homeworld! - should have been something special in the series. This is an opportunity wasted in this format.
I actually don't care about this one. TOS Mudd was an affably evil kind of guy - not really a criminal with a heart of gold, but definitely having charisma and a rogue-ish vibe. The DIS Mudd is jast a manic sociopath, who also is somehow capable of running around with a phaser and gunning professionally trained combat officers down. Yeah.
Unless this is short of a complete reboot of the character to someone more identifiable, I just don't care about this version of Mudd and his adventures. With that low expectations, probably has the biggest chance of positively surprising me, though. Because if it's a fun space adventure romp...? I'd like something like that. We'll see.
“Runaway” – Thursday, Oct. 4
On board the U.S.S. Discovery, Ensign Tilly (Mary Wiseman) encounters an unexpected visitor in need of help. However, this unlikely pair may have more in common than meets the eye.
Written by Jenny Lumet & Alex Kurtzman. Directed by Maja Vrvilo.
The first one has an alien that absolutely looks like it jumped right out of Voyager or Deep Space Nine. Also, just by judging from the trailer and the description, this one really seems like a stand-alone episode Discovery's first season should have had. There is absolutely nothing special or really exciting about the premise or the material so far. But I think the first season was absolutely lacking such one-off episodes, IMO they are a big part of what constitutes 'Star Trek' to me.
It's just a weird choice. If I had anything to say, I had done such a premise as a stand-alone episode during the main series, and as a first episode of the return of the show something connecting to the larger theme of the first season, aka maybe a short episode involving a klingon or something.
This is actually the one I'm most looking forward to!
It has an original premise, is probably the best use of the format (15 minutes is enough to tell a story about a single human), and is written by a friggin' Pulitzer-prize winning author!
I'm really excited for this one.
Even if the final product doesn't completely meet my expectations - this is exactly the way I want the franchise to be handled!
I'm actually a little bit mad about this. Like, kinda' angy.
Seeing Saru's homeworld for the very first time should have been a big deal!
That should deserve it's own, regular episode - like Spock's homeworld first being seen in 'Amok Time', or Shrans' on ENT. Putting this in a minisode doesn't do the significance of this justice. Also, from the promotional stills, it looks like Saru's homeworld is just planet Canadian forest. Like Pahvo, but even less (that had at least color-tilted the vegetation).
I guess this one might actually be good. But I really, really think visiting Saru's homeworld for the first time - and the design of that homeworld! - should have been something special in the series. This is an opportunity wasted in this format.
I actually don't care about this one. TOS Mudd was an affably evil kind of guy - not really a criminal with a heart of gold, but definitely having charisma and a rogue-ish vibe. The DIS Mudd is jast a manic sociopath, who also is somehow capable of running around with a phaser and gunning professionally trained combat officers down. Yeah.
Unless this is short of a complete reboot of the character to someone more identifiable, I just don't care about this version of Mudd and his adventures. With that low expectations, probably has the biggest chance of positively surprising me, though. Because if it's a fun space adventure romp...? I'd like something like that. We'll see.
As the writer of the short is writing the Picard series, I sorta hope it's the first taste of the Picard series, and Craft is a character in that. If so, I could see that being why Netflix aren't airing the series internationally - they don't have the rights to the Picard series, so don't want to be teasing it. My theory anyway.
^^^
You also kind of forgot 'Stargate SG-1' which premired on Showtime in 1997. It wasn't space sci-fi in the classic sense (well, in the later seasons, it added that aspect); but it had a BIG following and was mentioned by critics, and had a lot of Star Trek fans watching it too.
There was also GR's (well Majel Roddenberry's) 'Andromeda which started in 2000 an ran to 2005 (I thought it sucked myself, but again, it had enough ratings to last 5 seasons.)
Star Trek wasn't the only popular or talked about sci-fi show in that era, there was quite a bit of 'space' sci-fi around.
SG-1 is the most Star Trekish show that wasn't called Star Trek. At least based on what I've seen of season one.
About the '90s sci-fi shows, even though I am a Trek fan and DS9 is my favorite of the Trek series, X-Files was much bigger in the '90s, in terms of pop culture and captured the paranoiac aspects of that decade. It has just enough sci-fi in it, wrapped inside an alien conspiracy, to be considered a sci-fi show. And to me, that makes it the sci-fi show of its time. If anything, DS9 was ahead of its time in some of its subject matter. But X-Files got a lot of the '90s zeitgeist and it was the biggest sci-fi breakout hit.
If memory serves, VOY got as much (likely more) mainstream publicity and attention than DS9. DS9 was, and is, a better show, but in terms of attention and ratings, I think VOY beat it (it helped that VOY was the flagship-pun intended-of UPN whereas DS9 was still syndicated I suppose).
As others pointed out, there were quite a few '90s sci-fi shows. I didn't watch them all, but stuff like Stargate SG-1, Babylon 5, Earth Final Conflict, Space: Above and Beyond, Seaquest DSV, Farscape, Lexx, Sliders, Dark Skies, VR.5, etc., all had their fans, but none represented the decade as successfully as the X-Files did. Looking back though, the '90s was a very strong decade for sci-fi television.
If memory serves, VOY got as much (likely more) mainstream publicity and attention than DS9. DS9 was, and is, a better show, but in terms of attention and ratings, I think VOY beat it (it helped that VOY was the flagship-pun intended-of UPN whereas DS9 was still syndicated I suppose).
As others pointed out, there were quite a few '90s sci-fi shows. I didn't watch them all, but stuff like Stargate SG-1, Babylon 5, Earth Final Conflict, Space: Above and Beyond, Seaquest DSV, Farscape, Lexx, Sliders, Dark Skies, VR.5, etc., all had their fans, but none represented the decade as successfully as the X-Files did. Looking back though, the '90s was a very strong decade for sci-fi television.