• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

CBS/Paramount sues to stop Axanar

Status
Not open for further replies.
I'm actually hoping for less serialized. With everyone these days doing season-long stories, it might be nice to get back to episodic storytelling.

X-Files is doing it with their new miniseries.

Perhaps 10 episodes with different "A" plots but an over-arching "B" story that culminates in a big finale would be the best approach.
 
Albinator said:
I'm actually hoping for less serialized. With everyone these days doing season-long stories, it might be nice to get back to episodic storytelling.

X-Files is doing it with their new miniseries.

Perhaps 10 episodes with different "A" plots but an over-arching "B" story that culminates in a big finale would be the best approach.
Click to expand...

Kind of like Star Wars: Rebels - a show I am so desperate to watch that an American friend points their laptop at the screen for me to watch over skype!
 
Albinator said:
I'm actually hoping for less serialized. With everyone these days doing season-long stories, it might be nice to get back to episodic storytelling.

X-Files is doing it with their new miniseries.

Perhaps 10 episodes with different "A" plots but an over-arching "B" story that culminates in a big finale would be the best approach.
Click to expand...

I prefer the complex stories made possible by serialization, but your compromise might work. The real question I have is who their target demographic is going to be. By moving off of prime time network television and into streaming, they've opened up the possibility of being a lot more nuanced with their characters and stories. If they're trying to make it "family friendly" then they probably won't take advantage of this opportunity. If they're targeting teen and up, however, we could get something very different from what we're used to.
 
Squiggy said:
That just proves people like movies
Click to expand...

No it doesn't.

And doing a Martian or Gravity 10 times a year would be easier? The Martian's budget was 108 billion and made 600 million. Gravity made 700 million on about 100 million budget. Those are 6-7x returns.
Click to expand...

I'm not focused on the budget part of the equation. Their success means audiences will embrace thoughtful, intelligent, dramatic storytelling when executed with a high degree of creative quality.

TFA is about to cross 2 billion on a 200,000,000 budget. That's a 10 time return on investment.
Click to expand...

Faulty comparison. Star Wars is arguably the largest brand on the planet. Had it been "Generic Sci Fi: the Space Awakens" it would be sitting at about 500MM global. The movie is great, but let's acknowledge that it's the characters and the world people are flocking to. Star Trek cannot replicate that by throwing money at a production, and they know it.
 
If the same SW:TFA movie were made, but based around "Battlestar Galactica"-- Han Solo is Starbuck, Stormtroopers are Cylons, X-Wings are Vipers, Tie Fighters are Cylon Raiders-- does it do 2 Billion dollars? Does it even do 1 Bllion?

Does it even do half a billion?

The last two Trek movies were an attempt to be more like Star Wars, and I think they succeeded: they're the top 2 Trek movies even adjusted for inflation, but it also proves that trying to be Star Wars is not a guarantee of having Star Wars level of success.

I'm hoping CBS sees it likewise: bug budget episodes ($5MM each?) for a solid cast, great FX, and top-level and directing and writing talent, with a focus on drama and science fiction, maybe with one action piece per episode to draw in the popcorn-eating masses.

But we're getting way off-topic here.
 
Albinator said:
I'm actually hoping for less serialized. With everyone these days doing season-long stories, it might be nice to get back to episodic storytelling.

X-Files is doing it with their new miniseries.

Perhaps 10 episodes with different "A" plots but an over-arching "B" story that culminates in a big finale would be the best approach.
Click to expand...

You can hope, but I don't see that being the case. There is a reason why 9 million 18-49 year old males watch The Walking Dead, and only 3 Million watch NCIS. There is a reason why Cable TV is serialized, because you need to secure subscriptions, and thats going to be true of All Access. It's a model the most successful streaming shows have followed (House of Cards, OtNB, DD) have followed and it's worked well for them. Heck, the most successful genre shows on TV at the moment (Arrow/Flash/AoS) are following...
 
HMS Ark Royal said:
Actually, the only reason I watch NCIS is for the delightful Abigail
Click to expand...
5EtgbFP.gif


Tell me you didn't see that coming? ;)

I wouldn't mind less serialized storytelling, but I think the new show could do a mix of both.
 
I've seen every episode of every show and every film at least once, most of them more than once, a lot of them several times, many of them at least 50 - 100 times and at a rough guess I reckon I've seen TWOK at least 1000 times.

And I have absolutely no fucking idea what I want. :D
 
Serialized storytelling will probably work better for me if all 10 episodes are released at once. I just worry about it being too melodramatic. As much as I love True Detective, Fargo, and other shows like that, it's not what I want out of Star Trek, and serialized storytelling really works best for serious, intense drama. Because the intrigue and suspense keeps you coming back.

Doing it with lighter fare is tricky, though Arrested Development's Netflix season did it pretty well.

If it were to emulate any show i'd say the first season of Justified: each episode was a different nearly-self-contained story, but there was an over-arching plot that culminated in the final few episodes.
 
Jon1701 said:
I've seen every episode of every show and every film at least once, most of them more than once, a lot of them several times, many of them at least 50 - 100 times and at a rough guess I reckon I've seen TWOK at least 1000 times.

And I have absolutely no fucking idea what I want. :D
Click to expand...

I know I want to see good stories, and when I look at the Television landscape today, the better stories being told, aren't the stories that have to be told in 48 minutes with commercial breaks. They are the ones that are told, over episodes, and seasons.
 
I'm very easy to satisfy. I just want "Game of Thrones" or "Breaking Bad" In Space. :) I'd settle for first-season "House of Cards," though.

I just don't think CBS will have the courage to take Trek in that direction.
 
I'd like them to give one episode to each of the Hugo / Nebula award winning writers alive, and then not muck with the results beyond a continuity guide basic conformance and budget management. But its product, not art, so that's never gonna happen.
 
muCephi said:
I'd like them to give one episode to each of the Hugo / Nebula award winning writers alive, and then not muck with the results beyond a continuity guide basic conformance and budget management. But its product, not art, so that's never gonna happen.
Click to expand...

You can have art and product coexist. The problem with what you suggest is: How many episodes per year will they be producing? How long will the series last? How many living Hugo or Nebula award winners are there? I started to list them but realized I could spend all day doing that. Regardless, this will likely not be a 26 episode season and I'd sincerely doubt that it would run for 7 years so what you're suggesting is an awesome idea that would be better for an anthology sci-fi series.
 
Or, one episode in each season. But, budgetary constraints are always a concern, and award winning writers cut deeply in to that. Not saying they should skimp on the writers, but that it must be weighed against other needs.

I mean "City on the Edge of Forever" is a very famous example. Ellison wrote a screenplay but it didn't work for a number of reasons. The result was a rather nasty fighting among the parties involved. Not every Hugo or Nebula winner is the right writer for the show you are producing. That's fine, but I wouldn't want to bank the success of the series on a writer who only got hired because of their awards.
 
Campe98 said:
How many living Hugo or Nebula award winners are there? I started to list them but realized I could spend all day doing that.
Click to expand...

There are five living Hugo Award-winning writers in Star Trek: Harlan Ellison (The City on the Edge of Forever - 1968), Morgan Gendel, Peter Allan Fields (The Inner Light - 1993), Ronald D. Moore, and Brannon Braga (All Good Things... - 1995).

No one has ever won a Nebula Award for Star Trek.
 
Albinator said:
No it doesn't..
Click to expand...
Yuh huh!
You cited Gravity, The Martian, and Interstellar as evidence that people liked cerebral dramatic science-fiction (more science than fiction). That may be true. But you also named a bunch of movies that made more money than any of those - that pokes a Starkiller Base sized hole in your argument.

People like X,Y, and Z as much as A, B, and C, even though A, B, and C made several times more money.

X,Y, and Z might have more critical acclaim, but the public votes with their wallet.

Tim Thomason said:
I didn't realize the budget was so high on The Martian. Did they film some location shots on Mars itself?
Click to expand...
Colonizing Mars for dramatic purposes ain't cheap.

Earthrise said:
I'm very easy to satisfy. I just want "Game of Thrones" or "Breaking Bad" In Space. :) I'd settle for first-season "House of Cards," though.

I just don't think CBS will have the courage to take Trek in that direction.
Click to expand...
If those series are all TVMA (R) , we might get a Trek that's TV14 (PG-13).

Trek isn't ever going to be rated TV-MA with full on green bewbies on display.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top