Tawny Newsome and Justin Simien developing new live-action Trek series
- Thread starter Precious Tritium
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Why. It's further down the pike. In predevelopment. Tawny's main gig right now is SFA.This is not a good sign.
Well I was going to say it was like Christmas, but you can't have Christmas every day, ofc.You've just described Thanksgiving dinner at my house!
I don't necessarily think that the Nostalgia seen elsewhere in Trek has brought anything new to the table in actuality. It's still just one big hook for older fans in most cases. (Fwiw, I've enjoyed it all for the most part)
Case in point, Newsome had this to say about her potential show-
"I mean, I always wanna work with my friends. So yes, without being able to like–there's not even anything to spoil– I can definitely say that part of my and Justin's idea for setting it in the 25th century was so that everybody that we've come to love in the franchise, like everyone in the Picard era, all of our friends here from Lower Decks, like the possibility is definitely there.
That was why I was like, this is the time period I want so that we don't have to [de-age] Jonathan Frakes' face [laughs]. Like let, let everybody kind of be vaguely the ages they are. We have nothing actually planned so this isn't a spoiler, but that was definitely the promise of setting it in that time period."
Sounds great to me, but with all things Trek, you have to ask what it brings to the franchise moving forward....
...except that Nostalgia bait i mentioned.
Same could be said for Picardo in SFA. A casting I love btw, but, did TNG ever bring in a TOS character long term?
We got two appearances from Sarek if that counts! DS9 did better with multiple episodes featuring Kor, plus it brought over TNG's Worf as a regular.
In fact if you want a show where actors from other series could just turn up, DS9 was the star back in the day. It brought back FOUR original TOS Klingons, not counting the ones in the bar fight in Trials and Tribble-ations. It featured Picard, Q, Vash, Gowron, Lursa & B'Etor, Duras' son, Lwaxana Troi, Thomas Riker, Dr Zimmerman, Tuvok and so on. TNG set up the Maquis situation for Voyager, but DS9 was the one that ran with it. It has scenes on the TOS, TNG and Voyager sets, it brought back the Galaxy-class to blow it up, the show would just not ever leave the other series alone and do its own thing.
But it did always build on the things it brought back, and Newsome is a big DS9 fan, so I think there's reason to be optimistic there. Personally I've got 'could bring back old characters' in my positives column and 'sitcom set on a resort' in my negatives at the moment, but I'm awaiting further information.
We've been through a six-months-long actors/writers' strike. Paramount is in the process of finalizing a months-long merger.
We've only just begun.
TNG's Worf, as a regular, is the closest equivalent. Had it been Kor in Worf's role, it would've been spot-on. (Not sure it would've sat well with Jadzia, lol)
I think with shows like this one, you just take what you can get. I often ask the tough questions about modern Trek, but it doesn't detract from the fact that I'm happy it's here.
Old faces never make me miserable, that's for sure.
Sadly, the film and TV industry as a whole is in a period of contraction since the strikes. I've seen a lot of folks who have been in the industry, like Robert Zemeckis, note that they've never seen production and development moving at such a slow pace. As Zemeckis said in this week's WTF with Marc Maron podcast, "nobody is in any hurry to make anything new."
If anything, SFA's production success and season 2 pickup is an exception, rather than the norm.
It's still a long wait. It was only a 3 year wait between DIS S2 and SNW.
As it stand, SNW will like continue into 2027-28, if it gets a fifth season. For LEG, that will be a 4-5 year wait from PIC S3.
You'd think Paramount would have wanted to strike while the iron's hot, even with the writer's strike and the merger business BTS taken into account. Instead they've greenlit two seasons of SFA already, in the face of skeptical fans.
Only a PIC movie or PRO S3 will keep audiences interested in the concept of LEG while fans wait for a confirmation.
I've been working with the understanding that it's been hard to find work in Hollywood.
Though, it's hard to find work in lots of places outside of Hollywood as well.
Financial instability will do that. Cautiousness will make investors wait, and more time needed to secure financing.
Like why am I not surprised that like Newson uses the word “like” like a thousand times? Maybe the fact I can’t stand the character of Mariner colours this, but I’ve no idea why she’s being given the keys to the car. I don’t think I’ve ever looked forward to a Trek project LESS than I do this.
I’ll give it a go. 
It could be nerves. I've never really read any other interviews with her to know for sure.
There's no real guarantee she's got any keys tbh, I think the idea was made into a big deal to get a bit of hype.
A fifth season is a big IF (Disco was cancelled on the spur of the moment while the cast was at sea on the Star Trek Cruise).
Disco was pushing things to the extreme. I don't see SNW doing that given Paramount's financial issues and the fact they have the cheaper SFA in the pipeline.
How eager is Paramount ready to reboot TOS AGAIN? We already have the Kelvin reboot. How long before SNW butts up against TOS?
How long has it taken for SFA to get going? It was first announced in 2018.
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True, I was in a bad mood when I posted. I do find excess use of the word “like” very grating. I’m a 45-going-on-95-year-old yelling at the yoof of today.
I’m actually not sure this show will come to fruition given the uncertain state of affairs at Paramount, so I won’t lose sleep over it. And, even then, maybe it won’t be terrible!
I've seen it since I was a teen in the 90s and it drove my mom nuts. Despite that outrage, the behavior persists.
I regularly prevent myself from using that word as punctuation, so don't worry.
It's all a bit uncertain. For my money, I think Kurtzman and Newsome brought it up in full knowledge that Lower Decks was ending, and that there's also an appetite for a Picard follow up. It's probably an elevator pitch with a tight budget in mind, but still requires a lot more than good will to get it greenlit.
"Why" was very common many, many decades ago. The more things change, the more they stay the same..
