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CBS Considering New Animated Trek Series For The Web

USS Excelsior

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Commodore
CBS Considering New Animated Trek Series For The Web

http://trekmovie.com/2006/12/13/cbs-considering-new-animated-trek-series/

http://trekmovie.com/wp-content/uploads/ntas/chasesml.jpg

Star Trek may be set for a comeback into yet another arena, this time in the 2nd dimension. TrekMovie.com has learned that there is a new animated Trek project under consideration at CBS, but it has yet to get the green light. The series would most likely be broadcast on the web and be made up of ‘Clone Wars’ like 6-minute mini episodes. The yet-to-be-named project was originally pitched by long-time Trek producer David Rossi (well known to TrekMovie.com readers as a producer on Trek Remastered) along with his producer/writer partners Doug Mirabello and José Muñoz. Rossi sat down with TrekMovie.com for an exclusive look at how he and his partners hope to create a different kind of Trek set in the 26th century.

The idea for a new animated Trek started back around the time that Star Trek Enterprise was cancelled. Rossi and his partners didn’t buy into the notion that Star Trek ‘needed a rest’. "We wanted to spark a little life into Star Trek and to keep it alive in people’s eyes," explains Rossi. They knew CBS and Paramount weren’t going to be keen on a new (and very expensive) live action show so they decided that animation was the way to go. Their first notion was to do a show set in the Original Series era (but not on the Enterprise), however that notion didn’t sit well with the people at CBS. Rossi then took the advice he got from LeVar Burton on how ‘Star Trek should always be about moving forward and what is next in the human adventure.’ So the team came up with the notion of taking a big leap forward and setting a show 150 years after the time of Picard and Star Trek Nemesis, but in a very different and somewhat dark Trek universe. CBS were more open to that idea and over the last year and a half have asked the team (now formed into Zero Room Productions) to flesh out their idea. Although CBS have not committed to the series, they have asked the team to develop test artwork and scripts for 5 mini episodes.

CONTD.................

http://trekmovie.com/wp-content/uploads/ntas/chase1.jpg

(Hotlinking removed -Lindley)
 
I've been saying that a new animated series would be a smart move for quite a while now. It's a cheap and relatively easy way to put fresh Trek out there.

The animated genre frequently spawns movie and merchandise intensive proprties. This could lead to some extra revenue sources for Trek.

I'll watch it when and if it comes out. I'll even watch whatever stupid ad they put in front of it.
 
Ugh, this horrid concept is still alive?

Sorry, but it's a total fanwank. There's far too many continuity references (especially dealing with the Omega particle) for anyone but hardcore fans to watch it.

I don't mind the Clone Wars style of animation, and I think that a properly-written Star Trek version would be excellent (as the Doctor Who version, The Infinite Quest, was). However, this idea is bad, bad, bad.
 
From what I've heard about it, it sounds promising; the Romulans being framed for a devastating attack which led to a horrible war, Vulcan succession from the Federation in protest, huge pockets of space inacessibly to warp ships. The idea of the Enterprise being a 60 year-old battleship on border patrol that everyone's pretty much forgotten is relevant to the way the wider audience has pretty much forgotten Star Trek.
 
Turbo said:
Sorry, but it's a total fanwank. There's far too many continuity references (especially dealing with the Omega particle) for anyone but hardcore fans to watch it.

If it's a series on the web then who else is going to watch it besides hardcore fans? That's who you're going to want to aim for if it's an Internet series just like if it were airing weekday afternoons on Cartoon Network they'd want to aim for the school-aged. Different demographics for different outlets.

Motion pictures in a cinema or a series carrying a television network? That's a different story. This isn't.
 
That said, it's been almost a year, and there hasn't been any news about the project, not even someone at a convention to help stoke the flames of interest (i.e. George Lucas and Rick McCallum dropping miniscule tidbits of info about the Star Wars TV show at conventions). Kinda makes me wonder if this thing is dead.
 
Turbo said:
Ugh, this horrid concept is still alive?
If you click on the link the story is dated 2006. So it's a year old and nothing more has been said about it since. It looks pretty dead.
 
Turbo said:
Ugh, this horrid concept is still alive?

Sorry, but it's a total fanwank. There's far too many continuity references (especially dealing with the Omega particle) for anyone but hardcore fans to watch it.

I don't mind the Clone Wars style of animation, and I think that a properly-written Star Trek version would be excellent (as the Doctor Who version, The Infinite Quest, was). However, this idea is bad, bad, bad.

Well, the clone wars cartoon was total fanwank, just a lot of fighting and shooting with no real story to speak of. If marketed to the right people and done on a tight budget this idea could be profitable.
 
I'd love an animated series based on the characters from the 24th century shows (TNG/DS9/VOY) maybe set in the arly 25th century. I'd want just a few familiar characters, I.E.: Capt. Will Riker, Cmdr. Deanna Riker, Cmdr. Julian Bashir (CMO), Lt. Cmdr. Tom Paris, etc. A couple of times a season, we might see one or two of other characters we know: Gen. Kira, Capt. Worf, Adm. Jellico, Adm. Janeway, Adm. Picard, and Ambassador Spock.
 
Lord Garth said:
If it's a series on the web then who else is going to watch it besides hardcore fans? That's who you're going to want to aim for if it's an Internet series just like if it were airing weekday afternoons on Cartoon Network they'd want to aim for the school-aged. Different demographics for different outlets.

'Scuse me, Garth, but Cartoon Network is not necessarily a bad place to air a Trek cartoon. Most of the action orientated 'toons that have aired on CN and the WB have been very adult (B:TAS, S:TAS, Static Shock, Batman Beyond, Justice League, Justice League Unlimited, The Zeta Project, Star Wars: Clone Wars, X-Men Evolution) as well as shows like Kim Possible, Code Lyoko, Reboot, The Mummy: Secret Of The Medjai, Spider-Man(MTV CGI), to name a few. A new Star Trek show would just be (hopefully) like those shows; well-written, made for both adults and kids, and could also be shown on TV as well (Cartoon Network and Kids WB, G4 Tech TV, etc.) Sorry for the response, but I was feeling a little sore.

As for you, Turbo, background in a series isn't a bad thing, and in the case of this show, explaining how half the galaxy can't be got to makes the plot quite intriguing; how will Capt. Chase get to one part of the Federation with no way to create a warp field (I know-use Borg transwarp conduits! :D) Most everybody knows about Star Trek anyway: the terminology is part of Americana enough that it won't be much of a fanwank, and even if it is, and the mundanes can't get it, fuck 'em; they watch enough brain destroying shit as it is, watching this will make them think.

Besides, the characters are as dysfunctional as everybody else in Sci-Fi TV nowadays, they'll fit in. And isn't that what most of the people here at Trek Nation and Trek Web want? God knows you've all been bitching about how modern Trek is so bland like a bunch of spoiled babies for so long anyway? ;) :D
 
Dusty Ayres said:
Lord Garth said:
If it's a series on the web then who else is going to watch it besides hardcore fans? That's who you're going to want to aim for if it's an Internet series just like if it were airing weekday afternoons on Cartoon Network they'd want to aim for the school-aged. Different demographics for different outlets.

'Scuse me, Garth, but Cartoon Network is not necessarily a bad place to air a Trek cartoon. Most of the action orientated 'toons that have aired on CN and the WB have been very adult (B:TAS, S:TAS, Static Shock, Batman Beyond, Justice League, Justice League Unlimited, The Zeta Project, Star Wars: Clone Wars, X-Men Evolution) as well as shows like Kim Possible, Code Lyoko, Reboot, The Mummy: Secret Of The Medjai, Spider-Man(MTV CGI), to name a few. A new Star Trek show would just be (hopefully) like those shows; well-written, made for both adults and kids, and could also be shown on TV as well (Cartoon Network and Kids WB, G4 Tech TV, etc.) Sorry for the response, but I was feeling a little sore.

You're among friends. I used to watch Cartoon Network on a regular basis, I'm an anime fan. When I mean "school aged" I'm talking about the whole thing: grade school, middle school, high school, even college at this point.

The trick is to aim the series towards pre-teens and early-teens (the 10-14 cusp) without writing down to them and have it so adults can appreciate it, then you have a good, dramatic cartoon. The 90's Batman series took the same approach. I can't speak for the 00's version as I haven't seen it.
 
If you aimed it at 14+ I think it makes some sense. I just don't see it working in elementary school.

One thing that I don't like about it is that they're trying to make it as close to Clone Wars as they can -- same format, same art style, same universe at war. Just my thinking, but how can trek attract an audience by trying to become Star Wars? If the animated series comes off as "I can't believe it's not Clone Wars" then I think most people given the chance would choose Clone Wars.

I think they'd do better to try to find a better idea. Something that shows off the strengths of the Trek idea. Trek isn't Wars, and pretending to be Wars when it's not ... I don't think kids will be fooled. Do exploration of some kind. Ship "Chase" and his crew to another galaxy, have them investigating some civilization a million years ahead of the Fed, something like that.
 
I agree - just doing "Me too" won't make you famous.

Maybe Chase could go through a time warp and find a future Federation that has evolved into something he hates?
 
^^ I think I remember reading that the thrust of the series was that Chase wanted to restore the Federation to the way it was.

Kinda like Andromeda...but hopefully much better.
 
Broccoli said:
^^ I think I remember reading that the thrust of the series was that Chase wanted to restore the Federation to the way it was.

Kinda like Andromeda...but hopefully much better.

I kinda like that part, but I just don't like the post-appocaplyse future, where it's all dark and gloomy, with no hope.
 
BalthierTheGreat said: I just don't like the post-appocaplyse future, where it's all dark and gloomy, with no hope.

Seconded. (That's also why I don't like nuBSG...)

I don't want the Federation to fall. Not now. Not ever.
 
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