Room for what? If they wipe the slate clear, they can retell all the TOS adventures differently and develop all the characters identically? Because that's essentially what happened with the JJ movies. Where was the "freedom" for the writers?
Spoilers Strange New Worlds General Discussion Thread
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Here's the freedom I see. One different main characters rather than constantly trying to recapture the TOS triumvirate. Two, allow technology to progress where it can keep pace with current developments and extrapolations of technology. TOS and TNG all have their period appropriate interpretations of technology that didn't anticipate advancements that happened.
The freedom for the writes though will have to come from the attitude of breaking free from fan service. A reboot is only effective if the writers are willing to let go of the familiar touchstones.
It's not really problematic it's just another aspect of his character. Pike as a character is a complete unknown beyond "The Cage". STD season 2 was the first time any aspect of the character was expanded on. Yes he's supposedly seen his future, but until the event actually occurs, no he really doesn't know If what happened on Borath is a real precursor of his future; or some weird delusion.
Yes any Star Trek fans with intimate knowledge of TOS "The Menagerie' know this is Captain Pikes fate; but Pike himself (and anyone he tells), have no way of really knowing if the event will ever occur. Pike also doesn't strike me as the type of person/character (as written) who will overly dwell on such a situation.
As for what it does to/for the execution of the series; come on, as you watched TOS, was there ever a point (and believe me there were plenty of times when both Kirk and Spock and others were pronounced or shown as 'dead' on screen, but we're back to full health by the end of an episode) were you actually thought, "This is it.... Kirk / Spock / the Enterprise I really done for... I guess this is where the series ends..."
So no it doesn't really affect the stories or the action/drama of the show. If anything, it'll be interesting to see what if anything ultimately happens to the character of "Number One" since she's never been shown or mentioned at all since TOS - "The Menagerie".
Yes we all know what will happen to Captain Christopher Pike but we have no idea what will happen or have happened ultimately to her, and that may be something the series does or does not answer in the long run.
None of that is about a reboot. It's the producers' priorities that would allow those things and those don't change automatically because they describe it as a reboot (see JJ trek), nor are they automatically the same because they use the word continuity. DSC was clearly originally conceived to have a *very* different style of main cast than ever before seen in Trek. Until the producers' priorities started shifting back towards the familiar again.
As for the technology, DSC already updated it, too. Some people complain, as will always be the case no matter what you do, but not rebooting doesn't in any way shackle them to 60s sci-fi technology and it never has.
Sorry, but both the fan base and the production team have demonstrated it is shackles. So a reboot is the option now. It seems to me that they can't be trusted to unshackle themselves.
No. The fans are the shackles. A reboot changes nothing. You'll just get the same familiar stuff with a slightly different history.
A new production team could theoretically set a new path if they wanted to and CBS wasn't dead set against it. For the moment, it seems, comfort food just wins with the fans and with CBS. The only way you'll ever get what you want is if THAT changes and it won't matter in the slightest what continuity is being used.
I think a reboot would work a lot easier and potentially be more readily accepted by the fan base, or at least with less grumbling.
But, yes, comfort food wins and no amount of arguing will change that. More's the pity.
More easily accepted by certain fans maybe, but the JJ films already made it clear what a reboot would look like (and how hard it would be for it to win the fans, incidentally). Sure, other reboots could be more substantially different but other continuations than what we currently have could also be way more innovative and fresh just as easily. It's just a matter of the makers choosing to do so. If they can't be trusted to be fresh without a reboot then they can't be trusted to be fresh with one, either.
Yeah, they pretty much can't be trusted.
In this franchise, collectively appeasing fans to any measurable degree is impossible. I don't even know why they bother. Yet they do - to such a degree that anything TPTB say just feels like a constant stream of platitudinous pandering.
McMahan seems to be the only one who hasn't fallen into this trap. And the results show in the product.
McMahan seems to be the only one who hasn't fallen into this trap. And the results show in the product.
ENT was basically a giant pander to TOS fans because it was at least partly the backstory to how we got to the original Star Trek and the times of Pike and Kirk and even in 2001 the producers couldn't make people happy. "A 22nd century Enterprise shouldn't look this advanced." "Romulans shouldn't have any cloaking technology this early." "The Klingon forehead explanation was stupid and a waste of time."
The fact that fans conflate a fictional continuity with historical settings that can be researched independent of a project, debated, deconstructed, and reframed based on additional source material is a recurrent delusion, almost as scary as it is sad.
Because he just got play with his fan fiction.
I definitely remember the first 2 complaints but don't remember anything about the 3rd. I thought it was mostly appreciated that the discrepancy was explained, and fans next wanted an explanation for the Romulan ridges (which has now also been added).
Just have the series premiere of Strange New Worlds show Pike walking into the Cage bridge saying "Who changed the starship bridge theme again? That night shift practical joker is going to the brig! Computer, restore starship bridge theme pattern gamma" at which point the bridge turns into the Disco-Enterprise bridge.
Next, we have a scene of Pike going through his closet and looking at a Cage uniform, muttering "I always told Starfleet that this choice of dress uniform for special occasions was poor fashion sense."
Actually, I wouldn't mind one episode being a prequel to the Cage so we can find out what exactly happened on Rigel VII, how Pike's yeoman died, and why Spock got a limp for a while.
Then get another episode with a special appearance by Idris Elba as Krall where Pike and the crew fight him and Yeoman Colt is forced to use Krall's life extension tech on a spiky alien, turning her into a spiky alien herself.
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Oh, there were some people who thought it was stupid. "DS9 gave us enough of an answer. We don't need everything explained."
But yeah, it was the least common of the three examples I mentioned.
But yeah, it was the least common of the three examples I mentioned.
Fanwanky bullshit used to explain inconsistencies in production design is not a healthy way to run a franchise,
That's a complete load. If that were the case you couldn't have comics or books based on the TOS era and both of those things continue today.
Not sure what one has to do with the other. TOS' popularity is unquestioned.
The early 2000's called. It wants it joke about people making a joke about wanting their joke back, back.The 90s called and wants its joke back.
I kid, I kid!
Strange New World is effectively set in the TOS era. If they can continue to do stories in the TOS era for books and comics. Strange New Worlds will have no problem creating stories for Captain Christopher Pike in the same era.
To claim somehow existing continuity will be too constrictive is ridiculous.
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