Alex Kurtzman on the Fine Line Between Adding to, and Staying True to, Star Trek's Canon

[MakeshiftPython]

TOS screens just weren't animated cause it wasn't necessary. In ENT they showed that these screens can show animation. They just never had to in TOS.

I know, I was being sarcastic. Should have put a winky face.

In "The Cage" the monitors were animated in the background, but due to cuts in budgets after the pilot that meant they couldn't do little details like that for the regular production episodes. The bridge in the pilot is probably the best and most advanced it ever looked in TOS.

 

[NCC-73515]

It wasn’t an argument so much as a statement of fact.

No to what do you think is a fact?

Er, why? Will Memory Alpha show me pics of the interior of the NX-01 that looks like this?

https://www.gettyimages.com/photos/submarine-interior?sort=mostpopular&mediatype=photography&phrase=submarine interior

It's actually not that hard, but since it's xmas, I'll help you out.

Although similar, phase-pistols were not yet technically phasers. According to Worf in TNG: "A Matter of Time", phaser weaponry was invented in the 23rd century. Phase-pistols were intended as an earlier version of phasers according to the text commentary on ENT: "Broken Bow".

Through the application of electromagnetic power, the metal hull of the ship can be made several orders of magnitude harder than it is in its non-polarized state.

When shields were "up," or energized at a high level, most matter or energy that came into contact with the shields was harmlessly deflected away. This was important in starship combat, as shields were essential for hull protection. When the shields were up, only minor hull damage would be expected during combat.

You see, the difference between stopping impacts before they even get close to the hull, and making the hull more resilient without preventing any hits is obvious.

The set for Archer's ready room was intentionally built to be cramped. "Captain Archer's ready room was designed to have low ceilings, so we would see Scott Bakula have to bend over, a little bit, when he moved around in there," observed Visual Effects Producer Dan Curry. "That gave the impression about how valuable space is in this craft, just how it would be in a submarine."

"Unlike the spacious, brightly-lit engine rooms of future starships, this is more like the cramped, red-lit nerve center of a nuclear submarine."

He gave John Eaves the directive of designing the engine room so it would look cramped and functional, Zimmerman having recently returned from a visit to a submarine where he could do some research in preparation for tackling the NX-class. "So he was saying, 'We want it really cramped, really tight,'" Eaves reflected.

The sets of the USS Defiant and Enterprise NX-01 were designed to be reminiscent of submarine interiors.

The cramped living conditions aboard the NX class were influenced by an experience in which a group of the production staffers personally researched what it was like to spend a day on a nuclear submarine in 2001, about six months before the series started to be broadcast.

Deciding that they didn't want the NX class interiors to be quite as claustrophobic as those aboard the submarine (out of concerns that such uncomfortably confined areas might be off-putting for the show's weekly audience), the group used conceptual elements from the seafaring craft in their designs for the starship, so that (for instance) the doors aboard the NX class were made to seem like the heavy-duty hatches of nuclear submarines.

Following your "logic" that shape differences don't matter when the purpose is the same, you'd have to think that the A380 and the Spirit of St. Louis are the same thing. And that the A380 is not any bulkier than the Spirit XD.

On Earth, the universal translator was invented shortly before 2151, and was still experimental at the time of the launch of Enterprise NX-01. (ENT: "Broken Bow") The actual universal translator, which was used for deciphering unknown languages on the fly, was a handheld device with a keypad and display to which a communicator could attach at the top. (ENT: "Precious Cargo")

Despite its being able to translate alien languages in relatively short order, due to the UT's experimental nature, the use of a skilled linguist – in Enterprise's case, Hoshi Sato – was still required, notably in situations where reading alien languages on the control panels, hatches, and displays were involved.

A new language could quickly be translated in person-to-person encounters by having one speak his or her language until the universal translator gathered enough data to build a translation matrix. Sato also created the linguacode translation matrix in order to anticipate and speed up the translation of new and unknown languages.

 

[Dukhat]

How does any of that invalidate anything I said? Almost everything stated in TOS and TNG about the 22nd century was contradicted in ENT. There was an episode of TNG where it was stated that doctors in the 22nd century wore surgical masks. Did you ever see Phlox wearing one? ‘Cause I sure didn’t.

And everything you quoted from Memory Alpha about submarine interiors never made it to the actual show. I’ll ask you to provide evidence that anything on the NX-01 was ‘cramped.’

And Merry Christmas to you too.

 

[WebLurker]

Starting to feel like a Star Wars thread here.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Enterprise may have used different terminology, but their technology was functionally the same. All they did is swap words like "shields" for "hull plating". Story-wise there was no difference.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Starting to feel like a Star Wars thread here.

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[NCC-73515]

Enterprise may have used different terminology, but their technology was functionally the same. All they did is swap words like "shields" for "hull plating". Story-wise there was no difference.

That's true if you don't know the differences. Casual viewers with no technical background can mistake them for the same thing, sure.

 

[F. King Daniel]

That's true if you don't know the differences. Casual viewers with no technical background can mistake them for the same thing, sure.

But they made no differences in any of the stories themselves whether it was phase canons or phasers, or photonic torpedoes or photons being used. And the transporter, which was explicitly new and dangerous, was eventually used casually. Thus they're essentially identical.

 

[NCC-73515]

Just like all ships are essentially the same. Whether a Romulan warbird or a Klingon attack cruiser attacks the ship makes no difference to those viewers. The A and the E are the same, all the Kelvin stuff is the same as prime. Right?

 

[F. King Daniel]

Just like all ships are essentially the same. Whether a Romulan warbird or a Klingon attack cruiser attacks the ship makes no difference to those viewers. The A and the E are the same, all the Kelvin stuff is the same as prime. Right?

For storytelling purposes, to an extent that is true. Even DS9's Defiant, explicitly a stripped-down warship, sprouted whatever science labs and shuttlebays the plot needed.

A lot of people expected Enterprise to feature truly more primitive technology, rather than the same stuff with names that were awkwardly slightly longer.

 

[Shaka Zulu]

Alex Kurtzman on "Canon" ...

I agree 100% with what he said. As a wise old owl once said:

Canon is only important to certain people because they have to cling to their knowledge of the minutiae. Open your mind! Be a Star Trek fan and open your mind and say, 'Where does Star Trek want to take me now?'

 

[Dukhat]

I agree 100% with what he said.

Do you mean you agree with what Nimoy said, or what Kurtzman said? Because from what I see, Kurtzman’s take on staying true to canon is to classify everything and send everyone a thousand years into the future so they and their supership can’t muck with past canon any longer.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Do you mean you agree with what Nimoy said, or what Kurtzman said? Because from what I see, Kurtzman’s take on staying true to canon is to classify everything and send everyone a thousand years into the future so they and their supership can’t muck with past canon any longer.

Except they intend to continue telling 23rd century stories in Short Treks and Section 31.

 

[Shaka Zulu]

Do you mean you agree with what Nimoy said, or what Kurtzman said? Because from what I see, Kurtzman’s take on staying true to canon is to classify everything and send everyone a thousand years into the future so they and their supership can’t muck with past canon any longer.

I agree with both Nimoy and Kurtzman.

 

[Shaka Zulu]

Also, who said that the Discovery and its spore drive couldn't be canon? As others here have opined, the showrunners and the production staff are making a TV show of the 2010's, not the 1960's. Therefore, they can have a ship like the Discovery exist alongside the 'traditional' Starfleet ships.

 

[Dukhat]

Also, who said that the Discovery and its spore drive couldn't be canon? As others here have opined, the showrunners and the production staff are making a TV show of the 2010's, not the 1960's. Therefore, they can have a ship like the Discovery exist alongside the 'traditional' Starfleet ships.

Discovery and the spore drive is canon. No one’s disputing that. But it seems that Kurtzman’s way of keeping canon ‘secure’ (i.e. why wasn’t the spore drive used in TOS; why didn’t Kirk know about the Mirror Universe; why didn’t Spock ever mention he had a human adopted sister, etc., etc.) was to classify it all. That’s just stupid storytelling.

 

[NCC-73515]

Also, who said that the Discovery and its spore drive couldn't be canon? As others here have opined, the showrunners and the production staff are making a TV show of the 2010's, not the 1960's. Therefore, they can have a ship like the Discovery exist alongside the 'traditional' Starfleet ships.

I will never understand the "but it's (current year)!" argument. No matter when they are produced, if they are set in the same time and universe, they should fit with each other and make sense, and not contradict each other.

 

[Alan Roi]

Discovery and the spore drive is canon. No one’s disputing that. But it seems that Kurtzman’s way of keeping canon ‘secure’ (i.e. why wasn’t the spore drive used in TOS; why didn’t Kirk know about the Mirror Universe; why didn’t Spock ever mention he had a human adopted sister, etc., etc.) was to classify it all. That’s just stupid storytelling.

Why is that stupid? Its been made abundantly clear over the decades that Starfleet doesn't allow the complete free flow of information any more than branches of the US military do.

 

[Alan Roi]

I will never understand the "but it's (current year)!" argument. No matter when they are produced, if they are set in the same time and universe, they should fit with each other and make sense, and not contradict each other.

Depends on whether you think certain eras of Star Trek should forever be consigned to the dustbin of dead retro-futurism for pure nostalgia purposes only or be allowed to be made to engage audiences of today and have new life be breathed into them. I accept the latter in the same way that someone watching a movie based on a Shakespear play accepts that its still Hamlet, even though it interprets the bard's work a little different from the Hamlets that came before over the last 100 years of cinema.

 

[Masiral]

I accept the latter in the same way that someone watching a movie based on a Shakespear play accepts that its still Hamlet, even though it interprets the bard's work a little different from the Hamlets that came before over the last 100 years of cinema.

Women acting the female parts? But what about Will's Vision?!