Total Reboot?

[Lance]

I want a hard reboot. Start from scratch. Make Kirk/Spock/Bones their own and canon be damned.

Except that it will be canon no matter if it's a reboot or not.

Continuity, however, is another matter...

Absolutely right. I do wish some fans didn't keep getting the words 'canon' and 'continuity' mixed up.

'Canon' is whatever the franchise rights holder says that it is. Regardless of the actual content of the product, regardless of whether it ties up with existing continuity or not. If they say it's Star Trek, then it's Star Trek, no matter what some sections of fandom might think. "We" do not get a say in what is 'canon'.

 

[F. King Daniel]

I think it's one of those things where the word has slipped into the other meaning so often, that's pretty much what it is now to most Trekkies.

And even if they did a clean reboot, nothing would change. Look at Man of Steel (or, going further back, Smallville), a total reboot of Superman where fans nonetheless complained online about every single deviation from comic book and/or classic movie canon. Khan being British is to us what a Superman without external undergarments is to them.

 

[mendelin]

May be offtopic, but:
I wonder, why "they" still didn't made new TV-show? ST'09 was a good occasion to make something based on alternate reality. "Bad Robot" proved, that they have opportunities for good Star Trek show (they made Fringe!). But nothing happened.

I think, it's not a simple question what will be the next TV-show, and TOS reboot is not an obvious answer. At least, not in coming years.

 

[Warped9]

I think it is possible to have a new series and I think there are people who could do it, but I'm not optimistic it would be a show that would interest me.

I have no illusions that it could replace my favourite (TOS), but it would be nice if it were something I could really like like I enjoyed Babylon 5. But I'm cynical and feel it's more likely they would fashion something that would stray too far from what impressed me with Star Trek. I could even enjoy a TNG oriented show if it were done a certain way.

But I have no interest in revisiting the Berman era as it was. And I have no interest in seeing anything like VOY or ENT. I've no real interest to revisit something like DS9 either because, for me, space war is not a primarily element of Star Trek.

If I can't have a Star Trek series I could like than I'd rather have a non Trek space adventure series.

I'm wondering if part of the issue is the times. People seem to have different ideas about entertainment and science fiction today that could be incompatible with what made Star Trek work. I certainly have no interest in seeing cherished familiar characters deconstructed to such degree as to make them unrecognizable and even unlikable (a big issue I have with JJtrek). I also have no real interest in seeing overly heavy arc based structures despite them being the trend today. It's okay in some other works, but I've no real interest in seeing it in Star Trek.

 

[dahj]

May be offtopic, but:
I wonder, why "they" still didn't made new TV-show?

Because the general consensus amongst the decision makers seems to be that sci-fi on network television is as dead as a dodo.

 

[BigJake]

A Star Trek show done for HBO* or Netflix would seem to be the way to go. I'm actually fairly -- probably totally illogically -- optimistic about that happening in the next decade.

dodge, if I may ask: the artwork in your avatar is really nice. Where did you get it from?

* Yes, that's right, non-PG Trek with cussing and nudity and graphic beatings. Why not?

 

[dahj]

dodge, if I may ask: the artwork in your avatar is really nice. Where did you get it from?

It's a character portrait from Icewind Dale.

Here's a bigger version:

Spoiler: spoiler

 

[Warped9]

* Yes, that's right, non-PG Trek with cussing and nudity and graphic beatings. Why not?

Not interested. And not necessary either.

 

[BigJake]

I dunno, Trek made with the Game of Thrones rule that there must be fornication in 50% of the shots would certainly be a new angle. Get some of that simmering sexual tension under the surface of the franchise out into the open*.

* I kid, of course.

 

[mendelin]

Because the general consensus amongst the decision makers seems to be that sci-fi on network television is as dead as a dodo.

Are you kidding? And what about Fringe? Isn't it a kind of SciFi?

 

[dahj]

Are you kidding? And what about Fringe? Isn't it a kind of SciFi?

Its ratings were abysmal. I'm still not exactly sure how or why it survived as long as it did, though I am glad that it did.

It was also done well under a budget that would be required for a proper fancy Star Trek show.

 

[BigJake]

It's a character portrait from Icewind Dale.

Very cool, thanks!

Yes, we're in a bit of a fallow period right now as regards space-related TV. The latest attempt, Defying Gravity, appeared and vanished without my even hearing about it. But these things go in cycles; after the massive glut of such shows in the Nineties and early Oughties there was bound to be a swing in the other direction for a while.

 

[Warped9]

I suspect the suits don't have much liking for space adventure.

 

[BigJake]

The proverbial suits have always seemed clueless about and vaguely embarrassed by sci-fi generally. I've actually considered trying my hand seriously at screenwriting and trying to pitch scripts... but then there are stories like this.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

I suspect the suits don't have much liking for space adventure.

Probably because it is kind of expensive.

 

[Drone]

Perhaps those on high also have a perception that the sci-fi audience is overly finicky, prone to intensely picking show elements apart more than other genre viewers, and conflating trivial questions into major concerns far out of proportion to their true significance?

 

[Warped9]

Perhaps those on high also have a perception that the sci-fi audience is overly finicky, prone to intensely picking show elements apart more than other genre viewers, and conflating trivial questions into major concerns far out of proportion to their true significance?

That's fucked. Where could they have gotten that stupid idea?

 

[Hober Mallow]

I want a hard reboot. Start from scratch. Make Kirk/Spock/Bones their own and canon be damned.

Except that it will be canon no matter if it's a reboot or not.

Continuity, however, is another matter...

Absolutely right. I do wish some fans didn't keep getting the words 'canon' and 'continuity' mixed up.

And I wish fans would stop mixing up "remastered" and "new special FX," but I don't think that's gonna happen either.

 

[Drone]

Perhaps those on high also have a perception that the sci-fi audience is overly finicky, prone to intensely picking show elements apart more than other genre viewers, and conflating trivial questions into major concerns far out of proportion to their true significance?

That's fucked. Where could they have gotten that stupid idea?

Mumbles something incoherent, shuffles off down the road while occasionally looking back over his shoulder with a morose, hangdog expression clearly marking his face.

 

[BigJake]

Perhaps those on high also have a perception that the sci-fi audience is overly finicky, prone to intensely picking show elements apart more than other genre viewers, and conflating trivial questions into major concerns far out of proportion to their true significance?

Since the sci-fi audience pretty reliably turns out no matter how much it picks things apart -- except if no marketing effort has happened or if the product is sh*t, and sometimes even then -- I can't see why that would matter in the slightest. It's the kind of complaint self-conscious fans make about other fans, like hipsters bitching about the pretentiousness of "the hipster".