Alex Kurtzman on the Fine Line Between Adding to, and Staying True to, Star Trek's Canon
- Thread starter Danja
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In fact, the very concept of utopia and paradise is refuted repeatedly throughout TOS as stagation at best and unnatural at worst - often a great excuse to break the prime directive.
So perhaps I might have not been clear about my intentions. I enjoyed DSC season 1. I haven’t seen season 2 but am looking forward to it, and am also looking forward to what they plan on doing with the 3rd season. When I treat the show as its own thing, I find that it works for me just fine.
I also did not want a new show that slavishly looks like TOS. I wanted a show that was essentially Star Trek rebooted, just like the Abrams films that I absolutely love (except for the design of the nuEnterprise, which I hate.)
The issue I have is the idea that DSC is some sort of prequel to TOS. That I simply find hard to swallow. There are others that suspend disbelief and have no problem with that. And that’s fine. I’m not trying to convince people otherwise or tell them that they’re wrong. I’m stating that it doesn’t work for ME.
Maybe? The show did seem to change directions a lot.
I don't know; they were going on about the "TOS prequel" stuff pretty hard from day one.
I credit that to a combination of the success of the Abrams Films and the studio wondering if the TNG Era was still toxic. Clearly they've changed their mind since then, with Discovery moving into The Future and the advent of Picard, but I can see them still having that mentality in 2016 back when DSC was still being developed.
I think the success of The Orville may have a lot to do with Picard going forwards. TNG fans just go gaga over the series, showing that TNG is no in the realm of forgiving nostalgia.
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What the what?
Pretty much. CBS All Access was smart to put that information to use.
Yeah but it didn't have a Gestapo flying around in a fleet of black ships doing all the dirty work so they could be all shiny and virtuous. Whether you like it or not, Discovery is a massive re-contextualisation of the TOS era.
Personally I'm cool with it, but I don't really consider Disco to be in continuity with TOS*, where Spock didn't really have a sister and Starfleet didn't have a Section 31 doing all their dirty work and making us no better than the enemy.
*although of course I get that's the official party line and they're sticking to it.
And weren't we told that we would eventually find out how Section 31 went from being practically out in the open to the organization we saw in DS9 or even Enterprise? Section 31 went from being super secret in Enterprise to having their own badges that people can recognize in Discovery, back to super secret in DS9. Where was the explanation? Did I miss it somewhere? Was it all lumped into "never talk about it again" in the season 2 finale?
One could surmise that They are saving all that for the Actual "Star Trek: Section-31" Show that They are producing.
I hope that never gets produced and goes the way of Phase II.
Well you probably won’t get that wish.
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From what we've already been told a few times now about the behind the scenes stuff, you're hope isn't likely to be fulfilled.
They've already mentioned that They are well underway into pre-production with scripts being written.
Ms Yeoh has also stated several times she's looking forward to starting it as soon as her part in DISCOVERY-Season 3 is done.
I'm kinda interested in seeing how it goes, even though it probably isn't really in my wheelhouse of things I'd go out of my way to watch.
Yes, I would expect that re-contextualisation, as you put it. That doesn't put it out of step with TOS, as it just adds an additional layer to previously known information.
As much as people find S31 offensive, I find the idea that the Enterprise is running around doing all the dirty work just as implausible. The idea that Kirk and Co. would do espionage or even Picard and Co.
But, I won't let my opinions get in the way of all the Nazi comparisons.
Well considering S31 seems to have all but collapsed at the end of Season 2 because of Control, and the joint Klingon-Federation fleet destroyed most of their fleet, they wouldn't have ships flying around during TOS.
Maybe whatever reforms to the agency Tyler puts into place makes it more like ENT/DS9
Um...go rewatch TOS S3 - "The Enterprise Incident". In it you have:
- The Federation CLEARLY violating a treaty made in good faith.
- A Federation Captain willing to risk his entire career and reputation if it goes wrong.
- Mr. Spock willing to lie.
All to try and capture a new cloaking device develped by the Romulans thatr they feel is a move towards starting another Federation/Romulan War; (and hmmm...I wonder HOW the Federation found out about said device in the first place...IDK maybe a Fleet of more/deeper covert operatives?)
I know it'll probably happen, that's what makes me so sad about it.
Which doesn’t make much sense in the context of future Trek series. The fact that Michelle Yeoh will be starring in a Section 31 series soon, it stands to reason that the organization is still in existence even after Control was destroyed. That would mean that the mission that Kirk and Spock were given makes no sense. Why, as you say, have Starfleet clearly violate a treaty and Kirk risk his career to steal a cloaking device when Section 31 operatives could have done it without implicating the Federation? The reason: because the concept of Section 31 didn’t exist when TOS was being made. This kind of thing is why retcons almost never work in the larger scheme of overall continuity.
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The world is messed up. I'm tired of pretending it isn't. Ignoring problems won't solve them. And I'm tired of pretending things won't be messed up in the future. It's a lie. It might get better, but that's all. There will always be setbacks and there will always be regression to go with the progression.
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