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I hope it is, because the mistake of the "timeless child" is that it gives The Doctor greatness by design instead of the Doctor being a mortal person who made choices that defines the character's greatness.
Honestly, if we have to go down the road of this story, it would have made more sense to make The Master the "timeless child" since it would explain some of the weirdness that has gone on between that character and the Time Lords over the course of Doctor Who.
"the writing of Deep Space Nine represents Star Trek at its artistic low point" - is this where we are now with Trek fandom? Years of the Kurtzman soap opera cringe stuff have given us Trek fans who write impassioned rants about how Deep Space Nine is a "shallow artistic low point" because it didn't have enough huggy crying time? Wild.
Poking around on this subject and saw "Warren Buffett, perhaps the most acclaimed investor in history, told CNBC that Paramount’s streaming offering 'fundamentally is not that good of a business.'”
Charlie Munger of Berkshire Hathaway agreed.
Paramount Falls Apart
24/7 Wall St.
Douglas A. McIntyre
CNBC recently published an article about legacy media and the great trouble they are in. None is as crippled as badly managed Paramount Global, which is unlikely to recover from its current problems. (Link: These companies have the worst reputations.)
Paramount’s stock is down 42% in the past year, while the market is 12% higher. The recent stock market rally has not helped it much.
While Warner Bros. Discovery and Disney have viable streaming services, which at least can challenge industry leaders Netflix and Amazon Prime, Paramount does not. It has only 60 million subscribers for its Paramount+ service. Disney+ has 158 million, and Netflix has 232 million. The streaming business suffers greatly from churn as people regularly cancel one service and move to another. The average U.S. household has four services. Paramount is near the bottom of the pyramid.
Paramount may simply be too small to compete in either the old media or new media business. That news could hardly be worse for shareholders.
The idea that Klingons are "naturally violent" reflects real-life racial essentialist thinking. It's a dramatic flaw in ST that ought to be avoided. Future ST shows should not depict Klingons as "naturally" violent, but rather should simply depict violence as a cultural norm.
The difference between Rom, Nog, Quark, Brunt, Zek, Leck and Gaila in DS9 was really interesting. It showed the common cultural background, but the different ways members of that culture operated, both reflecting their cultural background (not just being made into a homogenous human -- see Nog in Treachery, Faith and the Great River), but also showing they weren't just one-attribute species.
TNG did try this a little, Worf's view on Klingon culture was very different to what we actually saw from other Klingons. This was more evident in DS9 of course, Martok was clearly different to Gowron in the Honor vs Power battle, but the biggest outlier was of course Alexander, trying to fit into a culture which he didn't really fit into (which was as much on TNG)
This type of exploration was far more so that the original series, and more than anything that came later. One "I'm not a one-note character" that comes to mind is Tendi, who certainly is different to the average Orion we've seen before.
Saru doesn't really count as we don't have much experience with other people from his species. Most of the "not one hat" things tend to be offshoot cults -- Logic Extremeists or Quolot Milaj, those super-secret Romulans worried about AI.
Streaming Trek does have far more variety in Human characters though -- there was no sign of the Raffi or Rios type of person in Berman trek, and not much in the Roddenberry trek (Mudd I guess) -- aliens were the way to explore the human condition (hence the planet of the hats trope).
The Ferengi Worf had an altercation with was different to DS9 Ferengi too, far more like the Orion syndicate that O'Brien dealt with in DS9.
DS9 of course with its semi-serialised stroytelling and large supporting cast could afford to do the kinds of character exploration that TOS, TNG and Voyager couldn't. It's still more a single culture per species thing, but I can see that as a plausible future of any advanced civilisation as the collapse of internal borders and increase in communication allows cultural aspects to be shared and adopted throughout a species.
I think this is a fair assessment, but I would argue that the rigid set of rules, pro-institutionalist bias, hierarchicalism, and emotionally shallow writing of Berman-era ST represent ST at its artistic low point.
Maybe with the humans we saw (although see Joeseph Sisko in Homefront/Paradise Lost), but I don't think it's a fair reflection of 25 years of episodes.
I would argue that the rigid set of rules, pro-institutionalist bias, hierarchicalism, and emotionally shallow writing of Berman-era ST represent ST at its artistic low point.
How any era of this franchise with DS9’s “The Visitor,” “Duet,” or “Far Beyond the Stars,” or TNG’s “Family,” “The Inner Light,” or “The Offspring” can be called called “emotionally shallow” is beyond me. Also, how exactly is Deep Space Nine, a series that deconstructs a lot of the ideas surrounding Starfleet and the Federation, pro-institutionalist in bias?
Part of the reason season 3 of Picard works is because the audience connected with those characters. You don’t have that 30 years later if the writing was emotionally shallow.
How any era of this franchise with DS9’s “The Visitor,” “Duet,” or “Far Beyond the Stars,” or TNG’s “Family,” “The Inner Light,” or “The Offspring” can be called called “emotionally shallow” is beyond me. Also, how exactly is Deep Space Nine, a series that deconstructs a lot of the ideas surrounding Starfleet and the Federation, pro-institutionalist in bias?
Part of the reason season 3 of Picard works is because the audience connected with those characters. You don’t have that 30 years later if the writing was emotionally shallow.
My main criticism of the writing during that era would be some unfulfilling endings and lack of overall character development within any given season. The later is really a problem with episodic writing. The characters basically reset after every episode.
Poking around on this subject and saw "Warren Buffett, perhaps the most acclaimed investor in history, told CNBC that Paramount’s streaming offering 'fundamentally is not that good of a business.'”
Charlie Munger of Berkshire Hathaway agreed.
Getting back to the topic, I have to say the Paramount Plus service itself is not particularly user friendly. (To be fair, I am not the most technically inclined person around. But my wife is really good with these things, and even she thinks 'it's garbage'.) As an example, Netflix is pretty easy to use and navigate.
Having a good catalog of shows and movies is important. But also having a user friendly service is key to not only attracting people but KEEPING them.
Paramount+ seems to have finally made a good decision and now has a Star Trek Universe section across the top of the home page. (It may only be at the top for me because it's the only thing I watch on there, but at least they're trying to organise it.)
I know, but Memory Alpha specifically states that "Lost and Found" was originally released as a single episode, as opposed to "A Moral Star" and "Supernova" which were originally released as two episodes. It's apparently a single episode on the DVD/Blu-ray release as well, though I don't have it to confirm.
I watched it on P+ last week and "Lost and Found" was listed and played as a single episode even though it was labeled as 1&2. the second one on the list being episode 3, 'Starstruck'.
But I could see how those first two might play as individual episodes in whatever half-hour time slots Nickelodeon put them in.
This seems similar to TNG's Encounter at Farpoint, which debuted as a single pilot movie, but was split into two for it's syndication runs.
I think this is a fair assessment, but I would argue that the rigid set of rules, pro-institutionalist bias, hierarchicalism, and emotionally shallow writing of Berman-era ST represent ST at its artistic low point.
To say that any of the three Trek eras is a low point is just inaccurate. To say that any of the 12 shows is a low point is the same.
TOS gave us "The City on the Edge of Forever"... and "Spock's Brain".
TNG gave us "The Best of Both Worlds"... and "Code of Honor".
DS9 gave us "The Visitor"... and "Profit and Lace".
Each series produced episodes we will long remember... and episodes its creators wish we would forget.
Even DIS, a show that I couldn't get into despite multiple tries... I won't call it a low point. It was just not my choice of Trek.
Regarding Paramount Plus, it is clearly not doing well, and is the equivalent of a foundering ship throwing its cargo overboard in an effort to save itself. Discovery's early end and Prodigy's abrupt cancellation seem to be symptoms of its severe and possibly terminal disease. The whole Trek franchise may soon be looking for a home, just like PRO is.
Even DIS, a show that I couldn't get into despite multiple tries... I won't call it a low point. It was just not my choice of Trek.
Regarding Paramount Plus, it is clearly not doing well, and is the equivalent of a foundering ship throwing its cargo overboard in an effort to save itself. Discovery's early end and Prodigy's abrupt cancellation seem to be symptoms of its severe and possibly terminal disease. The whole Trek franchise may soon be looking for a home, just like PRO is.
Honestly, big Sci-Fi Franchises could possibly do well in it's own individual "Mini IPTV" Channels
Especially big Tent-Pole Sci-Fi Franchises like:
- Star Trek
- Star Wars
- Star Gate
- Battle Star Galactica
- Babylon 5
- FireFly | Serenity
- The Expanse
- Doctor Who
All those could easily get their own individual channels and make good money that is seperate from the other franchises out there.
If you think Firefly/Serenity (just to take one) could have a channel built around it, you are either off your rocker or joking. You couldn't build a channel around any of them. They range from minority interests to complete obscurities.
If you think Firefly/Serenity (just to take one) could have a channel built around it, you are either off your rocker or joking. You couldn't build a channel around any of them. They range from minority interests to complete obscurities.
Granted, the sum total of all Firefly content in existence wouldn't fill a single day of programming so if even it were the most popular show in the world, I don't see that one working out.
If you think Firefly/Serenity (just to take one) could have a channel built around it, you are either off your rocker or joking. You couldn't build a channel around any of them. They range from minority interests to complete obscurities.
I think it's more accurate to say DS9 is the anti-TNG, with the Federation being the ultimate utopian idealism instead of TOS' "humans have gotten better but we still have major flaws and work on them". DS9, in many ways, is the closest in spirit to TOS than any of the spinoffs.
Honestly, big Sci-Fi Franchises could possibly do well in it's own individual "Mini IPTV" Channels
Especially big Tent-Pole Sci-Fi Franchises like:
- Star Trek
- Star Wars
- Star Gate
- Battle Star Galactica
- Babylon 5
- FireFly | Serenity
- The Expanse
- Doctor Who
All those could easily get their own individual channels and make good money that is seperate from the other franchises out there.
I don't think a channel can survive on just B5, BSG, or FIREFLY on their own. (And I say this as a huge fan of all three.)
But combine them and add a few others into one channel? Absolutely. DragonCon has a track called Military Science Ficton Track that focuses on those shows and ANDROMEDA, SPACE: ABOVE AND BEYOND, the STARGATE shows, and others. A channel could definitely branch out and have these shows be their main focus.
Honestly, Paramount is near the end of my patience already, because of their steadfast refusal to have a PS5 app. I'm starting to think I should just go with another streaming service instead.
