Big Budget mini-series - 10 Episodes & $150 Million dollars
- Thread starter Flake
- Start date
An even better reason why Trek should be more like Stargate.
I don't think that had much to do with it. The proliferation of cable during that same time would have been more of a factor - DS9 (and VOY and ENT) mirrored the overall downward trends for most network shows during those years. They were just caught up in much larger trends.
BSG's premise was very limiting so no wonder they ran out of ideas. It was obvious they were stretching things to the point of absurdity as it was. Star Trek is in the opposite situation - the premise is open ended and there's no limit to the stories that can be told.
And if BSG's budget was limited by its audience (3M or so), that shouldn't an obstacle to Star Trek, which (depending on where it airs) will be expected to get 5-10M. The budget will be larger but the downside is that the expectations will be higher. Nobody will want to put Star Trek back on TV if they're only going to get a puny BSG-size audience. As a premium franchise, Star Trek will be expected to perform better than that.
The Governator has finally gotten incentives for California, so we can compete in the runaway-production olympics.
Yikes! Star Trek should be NOTHING like Stargate*. Don't say things like that!
Just as we got poor thing back on track, too.Stargate survives by a low-rent strategy - aiming for maybe 2-3M viewers who are happy to see mindlessly repetitive stories with okay-to-mediocre actors and boring, vanilla production values. If that's all we can hope for out of Star Trek, I don't even want it back on TV.
For Star Trek, under ideal circumstances, I'd say 8M or so viewers isn't out of the question, 10M at the outside. Those levels should finance a decent production that won't shame the movies.
*Okay, there's one way Star Trek should be like Stargate - having a good track record of hiring hot guys like Ben Browder and Joe Flanigan. But with Chris Pine and Zach Quinto on board, I don't think Star Trek needs any schooling in such matters.
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Yikes! Star Trek should be NOTHING like Stargate*. Don't say things like that!
Stargate survives by a low-rent strategy - aiming for maybe 2-3M viewers who are happy to see mindlessly repetitive stories with okay-to-mediocre actors and boring, vanilla production values. If that's all we can hope for out of Star Trek, I don't even want it back on TV.
For Star Trek, under ideal circumstances, I'd say 8M or so viewers isn't out of the question, 10M at the outside. Those levels should finance a decent production that won't shame the movies.
*Okay, there's one way Star Trek should be like Stargate - having a good track record of hiring hot guys like Ben Browder and Joe Flanigan. But with Chris Pine and Zach Quinto on board, I don't think Star Trek needs any schooling in such matters.
I've read your posts many times and while I agree with what you say most of the time. We see different sides to SG-1.
Ok it's not the best looking tv show out there. But If Star Trek did imitate Stargate production wise not storyline or fx. It would have a great chance at succeeding. I personally don't think it will get TNG or even DS9 ratings now days unless the show is retooled so much I don't want to watch it.
RobertScorpio
Pariah
Yikes! Star Trek should be NOTHING like Stargate*. Don't say things like that!
Stargate survives by a low-rent strategy - aiming for maybe 2-3M viewers who are happy to see mindlessly repetitive stories with okay-to-mediocre actors and boring, vanilla production values. If that's all we can hope for out of Star Trek, I don't even want it back on TV.
For Star Trek, under ideal circumstances, I'd say 8M or so viewers isn't out of the question, 10M at the outside. Those levels should finance a decent production that won't shame the movies.
*Okay, there's one way Star Trek should be like Stargate - having a good track record of hiring hot guys like Ben Browder and Joe Flanigan. But with Chris Pine and Zach Quinto on board, I don't think Star Trek needs any schooling in such matters.
I've read your posts many times and while I agree with what you say most of the time. We see different sides to SG-1.
Ok it's not the best looking tv show out there. But If Star Trek did imitate Stargate production wise not storyline or fx. It would have a great chance at succeeding. I personally don't think it will get TNG or even DS9 ratings now days unless the show is retooled so much I don't want to watch it.
And We are very lucky that STAR TREK doesn't do "mindlessly repetitive" stories with mediocre actors. Star Trek just puts out great episodes, one after another, and are cast with great actors/actresses....umm...yeah...ain't that the truth???
Rob
I dug the reboot BSG mini-series. I liked the following series, even if didn't always make much sense. lol
I've posted this here a few times, too. I'd love to see a 6-8 hour miniseries with episodes first aired all in one week: 1 hour on Mon-Wed, then 2 hours on Thu & Fri. The cast of characters would include a handful from the 24th century stories (TNG, DS9, VOY, Titan, & New Frontier). In addition, there would be some original characters and they wouldn't all necessarily work together. Some groups or individuals could be indirectly related to the plots and not working directly with each other.
After the show airs initially, it would be replayed at various times for a few weeks. Six months later it would be released on disc right around the time the next miniseries airs. And the cycle continues forever.
After the show airs initially, it would be replayed at various times for a few weeks. Six months later it would be released on disc right around the time the next miniseries airs. And the cycle continues forever.
RobertScorpio
Pariah
I was once in favor of this...now I am not. I think TNG/old universe stuff should stay dead; forever. The page has been turned, and I think its for the better. And the further we get from the last TNG movie, and Enterprise, the less likely anything to do with that universe is ever going to get made. It has been retired to the books.
The new movie series should exist alone. 600+ hours exist for those who want to start over and see it again, you have more than enough material to do that.
Evolution has decided that this new TREK, JJ's trek, is the future. And even I, the old FART I am, can see this. A mini-series about JJ's Pike, JJ's Kelvin?? Sure..maybe. But anything made for the screen, I think, should be from this new universe or not at all.
Rob
The new movie series should exist alone. 600+ hours exist for those who want to start over and see it again, you have more than enough material to do that.
Evolution has decided that this new TREK, JJ's trek, is the future. And even I, the old FART I am, can see this. A mini-series about JJ's Pike, JJ's Kelvin?? Sure..maybe. But anything made for the screen, I think, should be from this new universe or not at all.
Rob
Of all those ideas, the adventures of a young Jean-Luc Picard is the best one. We'd get to see that hell-bent-for leather young officer who had the guts to take on Nausicaans twice his sized, the person Riker said he would've liked to get to know, and who Q rather admired.
It would be great to see how Picard becomes captain of the Stargazer, for example. One thing that would be easy is the wardrobe, as the young Picard wore the STII-VI movie outfit, which they seem to have a lot of those left over. We could see Picard on board an Ambassador-class starship in the beginning before finally being on the Stargazer.
The framing mechanism could be Picard writing his memoirs and narrating the action, or telling his story to journalist Jake Sisko (or a new character who's a journalist), who'd be writing a book on the Federation's flagships and their captains.
Red Ranger
I would be very happy with an animated Trek show that was an anthology. Those in their 40's and older might recall a TV show from the 70s called "Police Story." Weekly episodes showed various LAPD officers in various assignments. It a few recurring characters but for the most part it was a different cop (or small group of cops) each week. It even had a couple of spin-offs - Police Woman & Joe Forrester. In my proposed animated antholgy, the writers would have the freedom to create stories that follow the exploits on starships, starbases, and worlds of the UFP members, Starfleet personnel, and various aliens. The worlds and alien races could be as exotic as the writers' imaginations can come up with. They aren't limited to any one era or by the cost of sets, SPFX, make-up, costumes, etc. They could tell prequels and sequels by use of flashbacks and flashforwards. Background stories could be told as well as the occasional "else-worlds" stories. And, if one character or era is particularly well-received, then it could get its own series at the same time or after the first ends.
trevanian
Rear Admiral
The only era of Trek I'm interested in exploring is the end of 23rd century/beginning of 24th, specifically the E-b recovering from what happened in GEN.
There are still 'frontiers' at this point, and it isn't all easy with replicator magicbox tech at each corridor, so you've still got stuff that relates to realworld. Plus you've got a classic, practically LORD JIM situation, with Harriman and the ship having to deal with a reputation that screams, 'we got Kirk killed.'
I've still got pages that I jotted notes on after suffering through GENERATIONS, and this idea was the only good thing to come out of the first viewing. Even though I know Peter David also plumbed this territory, I still steer clear of that book, because I don't want to see how near or far he came to my approach with his take.
My concept would have been more in the mini-series size, but the numbers you cite would have worked as well, since part of my notion was not just ship-based, but political and dirtside. SFS and TUC showed the Federation to be a real mess, practically post-Watergate with paranoia, and being able to show SOME kind of credible evolution out of that would be interesting. In my mind, I've justified the retrograde feel of SFS to a plot point that fell out of TWOK -- that Starfleet gave up its 'brave new worlds' motto in favor of just holding onto existing territories -- something that would have really given Kirk more reason for his midlife crisis.
EDIT ADDON: the POLICE STORY notion mentioned above is a good one too; you could have minor characters carried over for several shows, interacting with guest stars, like POLICE STORY did with recurring bartenders and bg cops (I think Eddie Egan is a cop turned actor who appears in many PS eps.)
There are still 'frontiers' at this point, and it isn't all easy with replicator magicbox tech at each corridor, so you've still got stuff that relates to realworld. Plus you've got a classic, practically LORD JIM situation, with Harriman and the ship having to deal with a reputation that screams, 'we got Kirk killed.'
I've still got pages that I jotted notes on after suffering through GENERATIONS, and this idea was the only good thing to come out of the first viewing. Even though I know Peter David also plumbed this territory, I still steer clear of that book, because I don't want to see how near or far he came to my approach with his take.
My concept would have been more in the mini-series size, but the numbers you cite would have worked as well, since part of my notion was not just ship-based, but political and dirtside. SFS and TUC showed the Federation to be a real mess, practically post-Watergate with paranoia, and being able to show SOME kind of credible evolution out of that would be interesting. In my mind, I've justified the retrograde feel of SFS to a plot point that fell out of TWOK -- that Starfleet gave up its 'brave new worlds' motto in favor of just holding onto existing territories -- something that would have really given Kirk more reason for his midlife crisis.
EDIT ADDON: the POLICE STORY notion mentioned above is a good one too; you could have minor characters carried over for several shows, interacting with guest stars, like POLICE STORY did with recurring bartenders and bg cops (I think Eddie Egan is a cop turned actor who appears in many PS eps.)