Making a Star Trek series that fits in with today's TV landscape

[David.Blue]

In terms of dollars and cents, a new Star Trek needs to hold its budget in reasonable levels. That means planning, CGI when needed, no major stars and quite possibly a limited number of episodes via premium cable.

Or wait a few years, when a "fan made" production can be done for a tiny fraction of the budget, using amazing computer-generated effects and tapping into the vast pool of (for example) theater actors.

 

[BillJ]

Modern market? If you're going network? Reality Trek.

Build a partial mock up of the Enterprise. Fill it full of Trekkies, give them "Missions" to do: This week "A virus breaks out on the ship and the crew must find a cure!"; "Next: One of the crew is a murder, who is it? You'll never guess!". Every week, one gets promoted, another gets "lost in a terrible transporter accident". Get William Shatner to play Captain Kirk

That makes Baby Jesus cry. But you're probably right.

 

[SolitaryJustice]

BSG got cancelled?! How in the world did they build up to such a fantastic ending?! Five seasons of pure awesome! I think that must be an incorrect fact. FireFly got cancelled, but BSG?! Really?

 

[Sindatur]

BSG got cancelled?! How in the world did they build up to such a fantastic ending?! Five seasons of pure awesome! I think that must be an incorrect fact. FireFly got cancelled, but BSG?! Really?

BSG was only 4 Seasons. Yes, it intended to be at least 5 seasons, but after the first half of S4 (Or maybe when S4 in it's entirety was commissioned) they were told to wind it up by 4.20. It wouldn't have gotten that long, except for the prestige, because it was a "Critic Darling" and they gambled that the prestige would improve their brand image., so, they supported it longer than they normally would, to give it a chance to grow, which it never did.

Whedon's Dollhouse, had an awesome finish being cancelled after only 2 seasons, because he was told in enough time to wrap it all up (Though, the 13 episode season 2 could easily have been a 20+ episode season, or even 2 13 episodes seasons)

 

[David.Blue]

BSG continues as a franchise, though. Just sayin'

 

[BillJ]

BSG continues as a franchise, though. Just sayin'

It does?

 

[Sindatur]

BSG continues as a franchise, though. Just sayin'

Don't take me wrong. I think NuBSG is an excellent Series, and I don't have the complaints of the "Seemingly Random" (to some people) selection of The Final 5 (I guessed most of them and thought they made sense, wether the Foreshadowing was deliberate or not). I don't have a problem with the overt God and Religion, that was always shown in S1 and S2, but, many thought it was just misdirection, etc, etc. I do, however, think it was a bit too dreary. It needed to be broken up a bit more with humor (Not necessarily Laugh out loud funny out place humor, dry humor is fine) and some hope, and some character growth. Yes, the situation would be dire and depressing, but, the Military couldn't function that hopeless and depressed/depressing.

DS9 and B5 were pretty close to be as gritty, but, they kept the shows fun to watch. Though NuBSG was enjoyable and made you ask yourself tough questions, it was rarely fun to watch

I've been thinking, what we need is to have a "Breakout Alien Species" in the next movie. Get "Pet Rock" or "Mood Ring" marketing genius infiltrating Pop Culture with T-Shirts and everything else, and then sell a Series as a way to get a weekly dose of that Species. It would have to be Soapy (True Blood, Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, Vampire Diaries, Falling Skies, Mad Men...), which I'm fine with since I enjoy Walking Dead and Falling Skies (Gave up Vampire Diaries, True Blood didn't appeal with the first couple episodes, never seen the other two)

 

[David.Blue]

LOL!

Sindatur, I'm pretty much with you. Already noted some things that seem necessary to me for a good Trek reboot/continuation/whatever. Others have talked about good characters and retreat from bland formulaic writing. Now you've added some other good points--variety of tone and fun!

A breakout species? Why not? DW pretty much did that with the Ood ("We must feed...you dinner if you are hungry").

Me, I've got nothing against interpersonal relationships woven into the whole thing. For example, really liked Paris/Torres in VOY and grew to love Ezri in DS9. Just a matter of balance and integrating things.

 

[SolitaryJustice]

What about the Tzenkethi? Wasn't there a non-canon war that was even mentioned by Sisko on TV at some point? That would be cool to explore based on what little we've read in the books.

 

[SeerSGB]

Modern market? If you're going network? Reality Trek.

Build a partial mock up of the Enterprise. Fill it full of Trekkies, give them "Missions" to do: This week "A virus breaks out on the ship and the crew must find a cure!"; "Next: One of the crew is a murder, who is it? You'll never guess!". Every week, one gets promoted, another gets "lost in a terrible transporter accident". Get William Shatner to play Captain Kirk

That makes Baby Jesus cry. But you're probably right.

Hell, for extra points make 'em interact with the regular world in full garb and gear. I'm surprised it hasn't happen yet.


Torturing my fellow fans aside (guy's gotta have a hobby), I'd love to see an animated series. Grab the guys off Clone Wars (if they're looking for work--I think they're working on Rebels) and let's do a serious Trek animated series set in the Abrams timeline. Orci and Krutzerman (sp) worked on Transformers: Prime and it was a good to great series--especially the final season.

 

[SolitaryJustice]

An animated series would be cool. They talked about doing one some time back.

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_Final_Frontier

I thought that looked interesting as hell. If it were done in the style of the newer Ninja Turtles (not the new stupid lego-looking turtles, but the comic-book style Turtles), THAT would be F'n RAD!

 

[Hober Mallow]

An animated series would be cool. They talked about doing one some time back.

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_Final_Frontier

I thought that looked interesting as hell. If it were done in the style of the newer Ninja Turtles (not the new stupid lego-looking turtles, but the comic-book style Turtles), THAT would be F'n RAD!

I dunno, I wasn't too impressed. I would like animated Trek, but not yet another ship, another captain, another crew. They've spun Trek off to death. I think it's time to stick with the source material now: Kirk, Spock, the Enterprise.

 

[SolitaryJustice]

I don't know, man.... I mean, it would be cool to see Kirk & company do something cool in a cartoon, but I.... I struggle. I don't know how it'd work.

 

[Hober Mallow]

I don't know, man.... I mean, it would be cool to see Kirk & company do something cool in a cartoon, but I.... I struggle. I don't know how it'd work.

If some writers come up with some imaginative scripts... why wouldn't it work?

 

[SolitaryJustice]

I struggle because I don't know if I'd buy it. I struggle with TAS because, to me, it never felt like... a continuation. I don't know. It's hard to explain. I just never bought it. It never felt like Star Trek. Although they've done Ninja Turtle reboots again and again, and I've I enjoyed some of the movies and the mid 00s cartoons. *sigh*

 

[Hober Mallow]

Maybe you struggle with TAS because the animation is crap.

 

[T'Girl]

A breakout species?

Problem with that is you can't anticipate who a "breakout" character will be in advance, or even if you're going to have one.

There no way to plan for the new black helmsman, with his muscular body and handsome looks, to resonate with the all important 18 - 34 year old demographic.

(Travis Mayweather didn't)

 

[SeerSGB]

I don't know, man.... I mean, it would be cool to see Kirk & company do something cool in a cartoon, but I.... I struggle. I don't know how it'd work.

Don't knock animation cause it's animation. It's a lot more freeing than live action, and you can tell just as serious stories as you can in liveaction.

An animated series would be cool. They talked about doing one some time back.

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_Final_Frontier

I thought that looked interesting as hell. If it were done in the style of the newer Ninja Turtles (not the new stupid lego-looking turtles, but the comic-book style Turtles), THAT would be F'n RAD!

I dunno, I wasn't too impressed. I would like animated Trek, but not yet another ship, another captain, another crew. They've spun Trek off to death. I think it's time to stick with the source material now: Kirk, Spock, the Enterprise.

Yeppers. I like TNG+ Era Trek, but what I really want is to get back to Star Trek not just another sci-fi show with Star Trek in the title--which is what a lot of TNG+ Era Trek started feeling like.

I don't know, man.... I mean, it would be cool to see Kirk & company do something cool in a cartoon, but I.... I struggle. I don't know how it'd work.

If some writers come up with some imaginative scripts... why wouldn't it work?

This ^ Just cause it's animated doesn't mean it has to be dumb down.

 

[SolitaryJustice]

Pixar has put out some GREAT animated stuff. So has Dreamworks. There have been a few series that I liked, too. My son and I watched the Spider-Man series with Neil Patrick Harris, and that was great, as was the Iron Man cartoon from the teenager POV. I'd be down to see something clever. I just struggled, personally, to accept TAS.

 

[Hober Mallow]

Don't knock animation cause it's animation. It's a lot more freeing than live action, and you can tell just as serious stories as you can in liveaction.

The advantage of animation is that you can do some really cool-looking alien environments, some amazing space shots, and just get a really futuristic atmosphere. The reality of animation on a TV budget is that the characters would have to be stylized, which is my only real concern, but I don't think there's any inherent reason they couldn't do both stylized yet not too crazy proportionally. Actually, the ST:FF characters don't look too bad if they could render something like that in CG. I think Batman: TAS did a great job there, in the traditional animated world, at least.