Star Trek Discovery - Outside of Mythology?!?!?!

[Aeronnaex]

I just saw an article that referenced a report in Variety that described the new Star Trek series like this, "The creative plan is for the series to introduce new characters and civilizations, existing outside of the mythology charted by previous series and the current movie franchises."

It's an interesting statement, especially given what we know now and Fuller directly referencing the Prime timeline......anyone have any insights? It's probably a throw away line - the sort that generates clicks, and yet.......I can't help but wonder if the series will be a soft reboot given some of the other things we've heard.

Fuller has said they will update the look of the show. Given that TOS was made 5 decades ago, this is a great idea. There's no way modern audiences will buy control panels and display screens from the 60's - no matter how "in continuity" they are. That would qualify as "outside mythology", but such an ambiguous term can be stretched pretty far too. Is it possible that the Prime Timeline is a map of events, but races, planets, uniforms, and technology, are all brand new? It would be a neat reboot wouldn't it? Instead of changing character backgrounds, the window dressing is new. The Kelvin-verse was theoretically that, but ultimately not, and really, relished in how things in that timeline were different than the Prime timeline. The more I think about it as a soft reboot, the more I kinda love it. What about you?

 

[F. King Daniel]

I suspect it's going to be Trek Prime in broad strokes only. Just make it good, and people will watch.

 

[Kevin Wolff]

I suspect it's going to be Trek Prime in broad strokes only. Just make it good, and people will watch.

Agreed. It's a lot of fun to discuss continuity and design, but there are plenty of properties out there that exist mostly on the surface (cue John Williams music). TV Trek has to be about the content. It's too important to pander to pop culture.

 

[Dr. Bashirs protege]

I am fully expecting this to be a soft reboot. Imagine this scenario, the show is successfull and has four to five good financially viable seasons. You now have a fan base made up of old fans and new ones, the new presumably younger fans are what's to be brutally honest the most important to this new series. So...what's happens with next iteration of the show? You now have a dedicated group of fans whose first experience is this star trek....do you now jump to the 25th century and leave behind everything all of that hard worked serialized developed work and story threads? No, youd jump to the next point in the timeline. The next point in the timeline happens to be thr most recognizable and Hollywood succesful of the eras. Kirk. From CBS's point of view you go to the next logical step in the story of this universe which happens to have james Tiberius Kirk. That's having your cake and eating it too

 

[Ovation]

Agreed. It's a lot of fun to discuss continuity and design, but there are plenty of properties out there that exist mostly on the surface (cue John Williams music). TV Trek has to be about the content. It's too important to pander to pop culture.

No. It really isn't. Trek IS pop culture.

 

[shady12]

Yeah this is what I was worried about when all the news came out. Fuller basically said he was creating a new universe and people were saying he didn't mean it like that.

 

[Tuskin38]

I'm thinking Discovery will be a visual reboot. Like same universe/timeline but they're changing the looks of things.

He did mentioned changing how existing aliens will look.

Like how before DS9 and Enterprise pointed it out, you were suppose to pretend Klingons always had headridges.

 

[Thefallguy]

I think visual reboot is the right word. As a Star Trek fan himself, Fuller wants to preserve the canon. He even bases his show on a hardcore trek canon event, that probably no casual viewer ever heard of. But on the other side, the visuals HAVE to be brought on par with today's tv for the show to be successful. With this in mind, I'm pretty sure, the show might look VERY different, but I'm totally ok with that.

 

[Grendelsbayne]

There's not nearly enough information yet to tell exactly what Fuller is and isn't planning to do, but in this case I think you're all massively overanalyzing that quote.

It's just a kind of awkward way of saying that he's introducing new characters and races that haven't been seen before (just like every other show did).

 

[Kahless the Unforgettable]

I just saw an article that referenced a report in Variety that described the new Star Trek series like this, "The creative plan is for the series to introduce new characters and civilizations, existing outside of the mythology charted by previous series and the current movie franchises."

ie, it's not going to be a direct part of any existing story, or directly involved with any of the major characters from any previous series or movie. It's brand new. It's own little thing. Which is exactly why we've never heard of it or its adventures before.

 

[mos6507]

The Discovery ship design is not exactly contemporary in stylings, given that it's still showing a lot of its 1970s lineage. So I wouldn't discount some degree of retro remaining in the production design.

 

[uniderth]

There's no way modern audiences will buy control panels and display screens from the 60's - no matter how "in continuity" they are.

They did for The Force Awakens and will again for Rogue One. Granted, those are from the 70's. People don't watch Game of Thrones and think how ridiculously primitive swords are or how outlandish and unscientific dragons are.

 

[-Brett-]

Discovery is an attempt to breathe fresh life into a dead, failed property. Of course it's going to be a soft reboot. How could it not be?

 

[Dr. Bashirs protege]

Woth

They did for The Force Awakens and will again for Rogue One. Granted, those are from the 70's. People don't watch Game of Thrones and think how ridiculously primitive swords are or how outlandish and unscientific dragons are.

With all due respect the original star wars aesthetic holds up much more than that of TOS. The aesthetic is a much more dhour and lived in one. It doesn't have big flashing jelly bean lights and massive earpieces. It has...a basic cockpit, and understated flourishes. If anything, star wars being a boring and drab aesthetic future proofed it whilr star treks briggt colourful clean cut aesthetic made it look too idealized and fanciful to be practical. In this day and age of media practical and dark are very much in style. Not bright and idealized

 

[Kevin Wolff]

No. It really isn't. Trek IS pop culture.

But wouldn't you agree that there is a wide definition of pop culture? Mozart, Bach and Beethoven were pop culture at one time. Now it's Taylor Swift and co.

My point originally was that there is no shortage of entertainment that exists only on the surface only these days. The Transformers isn't going inspire young people to become doctors, scientists and explorers. Not because robots are stupid, they aren't. But because of Michael Bay (digression activated) . Ok, I retract that.

I grew up in a family of suburban racism and bigotry, religious fundamentalism and underachievement. Not haters per se, but narrow-minded just the same. People who were proud to say they don't like reading. Similar to Fuller's home life based on what I've read.

TNG, specifically the Picard character taught me not only tolerance, but the importance of education whether it be personal or formal. I'm not saying it turned my life into something great, but it gave me a new perspective. The show itself was a role model for me and I imagine for others who did not have a role model closer to home. One could say that's corny or pathetic, but it is honestly how I feel about Trek.

Having said that, yes I understand that Trek is classified as pop culture.

 

[Kevin Wolff]

Woth

With all due respect the original star wars aesthetic holds up much more than that of TOS. The aesthetic is a much more dhour and lived in one. It doesn't have big flashing jelly bean lights and massive earpieces. It has...a basic cockpit, and understated flourishes. If anything, star wars being a boring and drab aesthetic future proofed it whilr star treks briggt colourful clean cut aesthetic made it look too idealized and fanciful to be practical. In this day and age of media practical and dark are very much in style. Not bright and idealized

TOS was before 2001: A Space Odyssey and the Apollo moon landing imagery. Star Wars was well after. The entire look and feel of space-based scifi shifted after those 2 game-changing events. It's why much of Space:1999 hold up visually to this day (series 1 I mean. Always series 1) because it came after.

 

[Dr. Bashirs protege]

TOS was before 2001: A Space Odyssey and the Apollo moon landing imagery. Star Wars was well after. The entire look and feel of space-based scifi shifted after those 2 game-changing events. It's why much of Space:1999 hold up visually to this day (series 1 I mean. Always series 1) because it came after.

This makes sense

 

[JD]

TrekCore has quotes from an interview Fuller did where he talked about redesiging the uniforms and some of the aliens.
So it sounds to me like they'll be using the world building elements of the Prime Universe, while redisigning a lot of the visual stuff to fit modern styles. The big question for me is how drastically different will the familiar things look.
For instance there was a picture posted online a while back of an orange alien with antenna, that a lot of people thought could be an Andorian. I still wonder if that was actually just one stage in a multistage process, or maybe a different alien. Going from blue to orange for the Andorians seems like way to big of a change to make and still expect people to buy it's the same universe. I guess they could say there are different colored Andorians, but that's also a pretty drastic change, when every other Andorian we've seen is blue, and we've never gotten indications of other colors.

 

[Kor]

In this day and age of media practical and dark are very much in style. Not bright and idealized

All the Apple stores look pretty bright and idealized to me.

Kor

 

[Kevin Wolff]

All the Apple stores look pretty bright and idealized to me.

Kor

The Apple look is exclusive to the JJverse, as are lens flares and hair dryer nacelles