I don't think there are actually
countless references in our episodes to things that take place after the original series; I think you can probably count them pretty easily. (We make sure not to put in very damn many.)
One of the problems with the
The Motion Picture is that it had different costumes, different sets, different make-up, different props, different music, different--well--everything. What was annoying to a lot of
Star Trek fans was the silly notion that everything in the entire universe was all "
TOS" through the three seasons (through the years 2266-2268, if you will) and up through all the years between
TOS and
TMP and then all of a sudden, in December of the year 2279, the Federation and the entire universe looked different when the new
Star Trek art direction "snapped on."
The conceit of our
Phase II series is that there is actually a bit of a continuum between the look of 2268 and 2279. We are trying to build a bridge between the two looks to make the change in the universe less abrupt. So, for example, some people might think that there were no Deltans anywhere in Starfleet up until we finally became aware of their existence in
TMP. We take the approach that the universe didn't actually change overnight.
And, of course, for every person who says "Why are you constantly making references to stuff that manifests itself in the future of
Star Trek?," there's someone who says "Geez Louise, why are you so fixated on the old
TOS show? Can't you please make reference
at least once in while to something that we know is going to happen? I mean, it's not like Stafleet built an entire fleet of those little yellow one-man workbee repair craft the day before
TMP happened. They had to have been around for
some period of time before
TMP, didn't they?"
So,
Phase II tries to expose the viewer to all the things that are changing throughout the galaxy during this time--rather than having no reference to anything other than
TOS and then all of a sudden, in December of 2279 have everyone look around when they wake up one morning and say "WTF? What just happened? How did the look of the entire universe change over night?"
I liked the episode overall, but one of the things that constantly brings me out of it feeling like a real episode of the series and screeching to a halt as yet another fan film are the seemingly constant references to things that happened after the original series.
From my understanding, the timeline of these episodes are the 4th and 5th seasons of the original series up until TMP, right? Must we see countless references to things that come after this episode?
I was going to go into detail, but I wouldn't want to spoil any plot points for people that haven;t watched it yet... but think of it this way: If Kirk and co. have already encountered these things and said some of the same exact lines some 2-3 years earlier, what on Earth would be the drama in their reactions to the exact same things in TMP. TWOK, etc.?
And on another note, I think it's a little jarring to hear references to present (21st century) technology in the 23rd century (that was supposedly filmed in the 1960s, no less). I'm obviously not a purist by any means, but doesn't it make more sense to make a more abstract explanation like they did in TOS than to ground it in 2011? How dated would Enterprise sound if suddenly they started talking about myspace -- just because it was then current?
And I use that example just because I wanted to not spoil the superb plot you guys out together. I'd just like to see the scripts advance as much as the rest of the production has.
