News Exclusive: Scott Bakula Eyeing Star Trek Return In President Archer Series Pitch From ‘Enterprise’ Producer

[Quinton]

All we have to go on for Section 31 is its 180-million-minute premiere week (don't quote me on that figure; it was somewhere around there) per the usual analytics sources. Wasn't the most dreadful outcome imaginable, but it was beneath what we've frequently seen for new-episode weeks of Picard, DIscovery, and Strange New Worlds.

Those show numbers are always going to be inflated to some extent by their total number of episodes, but, like... how many people are actually watching the first season of Strange New Worlds when a third-season episode premieres? Not many, I'd imagine, but that's not the sort of information that anybody here is going to have access to. Probably.

Suffice it to say, Section 31's reception (critical, audience, the whole shebang) has been truly dire. So, yeah. That's not good.

 

[Dukhat]

Getting back on topic, I will say this, though: I would be very happy with a TV movie showing President Archer and the early days of the Federation. But my fear is that the current production values will make it look exactly like the Section 31 movie, which looked exactly like DSC, which looked exactly like PIC. Get my drift? The producers seem to have lost all sense of understanding of time-period-specific settings.

 

[Tuskin38]

exactly like the Section 31 movie, which looked exactly like DSC, which looked exactly like PIC.

None of those shows looked the same :/

 

[Tomalak]

I'm old enough to remember when people said Enterprise looked the same as Voyager.

 

[Dukhat]

None of those shows looked the same :/

I can’t help it if you’re choosing to not see what I see.

 

[Dukhat]

I'm old enough to remember when people said Enterprise looked the same as Voyager.

That’s because both shows used the same production values despite being over 200 years apart. That’s my point.

 

[HotRod]

That’s because both shows used the same production values despite being over 200 years apart. That’s my point.

Production values, sure. But the interior sets of the NX-01 look nothing like Voyager.

 

[Tomalak]

That’s because both shows used the same production values despite being over 200 years apart. That’s my point.

Production values/styles versus art direction.

The NX-01 sets, props, costumes etc were miles away from the TNG/VGR style. But because they were built using 21st century technology rather than 1980s, there were complaints at the time that they looked too expensive or "advanced", despite all the buttons and rivets everywhere.

The current slate of shows all have a glossy look (quite literally when it comes to the floors!), but the SNW Enterprise sets feel totally different to the Titan or S31.

I'm quite confident that it would be within the capabilities of a competent production designer to build era-appropriate sets. ST Beyond did it with the Franklin. I would guess they might build on the retro-futurism of SNW, and extrapolate it back a few decades.

 

[Dukhat]

I'm quite confident that it would be within the capabilities of a competent production designer to build era-appropriate sets. ST Beyond did it with the Franklin. I would guess they might build on the retro-futurism of SNW, and extrapolate it back a few decades.

Then you have more faith in the producers than I do. There was literally nothing about the Section 31 movie, other than the Rachel Garrett character, that even hinted at a specific time period that movie was supposed to be set in.

 

[Tomalak]

Then you have more faith in the producers than I do. There was literally nothing about the Section 31 movie, other than the Rachel Garrett character, that even hinted at a specific time period that movie was supposed to be set in.

Agreed, but that doesn't mean it won't be the case for any other production. S31 is a weird oddity that was seemingly designed to be a generic action sci-fi movie-of-the-week.

(Honourable exception for Garrett's outstanding era-appropriate phaser design.)

A political thriller starring President Archer would likely be aiming at a rather different demographic. Which is also why it won't ever happen.

 

[valkyrie013]

It would work and be something different.
Have a more of a political thriller, with some action. Have it around 2171 or so, 10 15 years after the founding of the federation. Archer fighting off the war hawks/manifest destiny to spread Humans to the stars, coming into political conflict with other species, some infighting with the Vulcans, andorians, Tellerites. Maybe have something happen with the Klingons where they go into there "hiding" phase like the Romulans. There are plenty of Ideas.

Just don't let anybody from Discovery touch it with a 10 ft pole, especially there writers.