Spoilers Strange New Worlds General Discussion Thread

[fireproof78]

Pike is the best thing to happen to Star Trek in a while. Mount is a charismatic lead, and generally liked.

He is also yesterday's news at this point. Ah, the fleeting nature of fame.

 

[Tuskin38]

People will forget about Kirk when SNW starts airing. He's not even appearing until Season 2, so it's a year or so until we see him anyways. There will be idle speculation sure, but nothing at the level of current hype.

Unless he makes an appearance in the season finale.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Exactly! That's why this casting is overshadowing the series lead character - they're literally fighting for the same chair! And "Kirk" is just a much bigger household name.

Leading to the weird situation where their super charismatic leader actor everyone was excited for has to play second fiddle to a dull pretty-face (sorry, in "Vampire diaries" he was pretty much just dollar-store Edward Cullen)

Nah, The show's a few months from premiering and Kirk wont show up until a year or more after that. The Kirk buzz will die down and pick up again either at the end of season one or the start of season two.

 

[fireproof78]

People will forget about Kirk when SNW starts airing. He's not even appearing until Season 2, so it's a year or so until we see him anyways. There will be idle speculation sure, but nothing at the level of current hype.

Unless he makes an appearance in the season finale.

I'm skeptical. I hope you're right.

This hype is borderline ridiculous.

 

[cooleddie74]

I'm still more excited for Pike than Kirk.

Yep. Way more for Pike for me than Kirk.

Kirk could have waited. Several seasons. But we are where we are so let's just make the best of what the producers decided.

 

[plynch]

I (and many others) predicted this hundreds of pages ago. Bringing in Kirk was catnip these people couldn't avoid, and we knew it.

Tptb are addicted to fanwankery, I swear.

Been watching since the 60s and I'd be fine! with a show that just blazed its own trail and wasn't rife with shoutouts. It takes you out of the story/show, kind of, doesn't it.

Makes more sense with SNW, that we'd see a young Uhura, M'Benga, etc. The Khan thing is overdoing it. "Hey, and . . . let's throw in a Khan somehow!" "Yeah, cool."

I mean they and many of the people on this board make the case that for the audience they're going for, the general public, all the self-referential stuff is on deaf ears, right? I guess it's to make squee a segment of the audience, cuz why not, even if it doesn't resonate with the general audience.

It bugged me then and bugs me now that they couldn't let DSC just . . . go discover shit. Had to be the Spock family saga. Which has been jettisoned. Remember when Burnham was quasi-Vulcan-logicky?

And as to SNW being TOS 2.0, that of course is what it was designed to be. To appease ppl like me, ha ha! But again from an artistic point it bugs me.

TPTB: "Let's have Pike and crew going off to strange new wor ... HEY, HERE'S JIM KIRK!!"

Cue squeeing fans. Some. Not too many here though. Maybe a miscalculation?

 

[fireproof78]

TPTB: "Let's have Pike and crew going off to strange new wor ... HEY, HERE'S JIM KIRK!!"
(squee)

I doubt there was much squeeing. It was a money making decision, and a temptation they could not employ enough self-control to avoid.

I understand a lot of people better now, though.

 

[Jadeb]

The weird thing about this IMHO is he's a relatively big name that you don't just pick for a guest star role...yet his age kinda boxes him out of a lot of things, presuming Mount actually wants to have a decent run on Strange New Worlds.

I mean, there are basically two options.

1. He is meant to play Kirk at this time, meaning he's playing a character who is 15 years younger than he is. Sure he's a well-preserved 39, but if Mount stays on as Pike for 5 years or more, he's going to start being visibly middle aged.
2. Another possibility is that he's playing a "future Kirk" who has time-skipped back for some reason. This is intriguing, but it offers additional complications unless they want to just use him as a one-off, as there are a ton of SNW cast members who should also be on Kirk's Enterprise, and would thus have to be aged up a bit for the next spin off series.

Yeah, things may have broken one way or another. Either he’s been locked in as “streaming Kirk” and put under long-term contract or they have decided against a Kirk-led show ... at least for now.

This being Trek, he could always turn out to be a fake Kirk, I guess.

 

[Noname Given]

Where are people getting this idea that Kirk is only in two episodes from?

Because you don't cast an actor with the television pedigree of Paul Wesley for a glorified cameo. This is a "Anson Mount as Star Trek Discovery Series Regular"-level casting decision and smacks of " we really want SNW to just be TOS 2.0".

What pedigree? "The Vampire Diaries", "Smallville" and a few YA films most of which I barely have heard of?

When I did a google search - what was at the top of the list?

"Is Paul Wesley still acting?"

So yeah, sorry if I don't see his apparent acting "Pedigree" here.

He seems to be a working actor and they gave him a part on SNW.

I also gotta love the "This means Anson Mount must have already bailed..." <--- The guys who think this are doing Small...err Doomcock's work for him.

 

[cooleddie74]

There is so much wrong with the "pedigree" and "TOS 2.0" argument that I'd need a J.J. Abrams reboot and alternate timeline just to cover it all.

 

[Yistaan]

I (and many others) predicted this hundreds of pages ago. Bringing in Kirk was catnip these people couldn't avoid, and we knew it.

Tptb are addicted to fanwankery, I swear.

Been watching since the 60s and I'd be fine! with a show that just blazed its own trail and wasn't rife with shoutouts. It takes you out of the story/show, kind of, doesn't it.

Makes more sense with SNW, that we'd see a young Uhura, M'Benga, etc. The Khan thing is overdoing it. "Hey, and . . . let's throw in a Khan somehow!" "Yeah, cool."

I mean they and many of the people on this board make the case that for the audience they're going for, the general public, all the self-referential stuff is on deaf ears, right? I guess it's to make squee a segment of the audience, cuz why not, even if it doesn't resonate with the general audience.

It bugged me then and bugs me now that they couldn't let DSC just . . . go discover shit. Had to be the Spock family saga. Which has been jettisoned. Remember when Burnham was quasi-Vulcan-logicky?

And as to SNW being TOS 2.0, that of course is what it was designed to be. To appease ppl like me, ha ha! But again from an artistic point it bugs me.

TPTB: "Let's have Pike and crew going off to strange new wor ... HEY, HERE'S JIM KIRK!!"
(squee)

Star Wars tv shows now seem cameo restrained by comparison, that's saying a lot.

 

[DigificWriter]

sorry if I don't see his apparent acting "Pedigree" here

You not bring able to see the residual value of having co-headlined a long-running series based on an incredibly popular series of novels doesn't mean said value doesn't exist.

If all you're looking to do is cast the role of Kirk for a couple of guest appearances, you don't hire somebody with name recognition, regardless of how obscure said person may or may not currently be.

 

[fireproof78]

There is so much wrong with the "pedigree" and "TOS 2.0" argument that I'd need a J.J. Abrams reboot and alternate timeline just to cover it all.

I'd love to read it. Or watch it. Do you have a podcast?

Star Wars tv shows now seem cameo restrained by comparison, that's saying a lot.

Ooff...that's a tough one. I still think Star Wars is worse.

 

[cooleddie74]

If the universe has any decency I'll have one.

 

[Noname Given]

You not bring able to see the residual value of having co-headlined a long-running series based on an incredibly popular series of novels doesn't mean said value doesn't exist.

If all you're looking to do is cast the role of Kirk for a couple of guest appearances, you don't hire somebody with name recognition, regardless of how obscure said person may or may not currently be.

No, you hire whom you consider the best actor who comes and agrees to read for the role.

It's an acting gig, and he's an actor, and one or two episodes in a ten episode season is more than a cameo, and less than a leading role. It's work, which is what all good actors aspire to do. Who knows, they may indeed decide to make a "Young Kirk' series down the road - but to immediately assume "He must be taking over for Anson Mount..." is ridiculous at this point.

 

[eschaton]

It's an acting gig, and he's an actor, and one or two episodes in a ten episode season is more than a cameo, and less than a leading role. It's work, which is what all good actors aspire to do. Who knows, they may indeed decide to make a "Young Kirk' series down the road - but to immediately assume "He must be taking over for Anson Mount..." is ridiculous at this point.

But the issue here is he's not really young at all. He's only ten years younger than Anson Mount (albeit with a lot less gray). Kirk is supposed to be 32 when he gets command of the Enterprise, which is a full seven years after the beginning of Strange New Worlds. So if they waited till SNW season 8 to take over the reins, he would be 46, playing 32. I'm not sure he'd be willing to wait around that long, which means they'd need to kick Pike out of the chair and time skip a bit to get to 2265.

Another added issue is the remainder of the cast. If they decide to time skip because Mount wants out (or whatever) they basically have to fire Rebecca Romijn, because Spock was Kirk's XO in Where No Man Has Gone Before. They'd need to add Sulu to the cast in Year 1 as well. By 2266 they'd need to have all of the original TOS cast. This presumably means that all of the original characters created would have to be dropped or severely cut back. But what if one or more of them ends up breakout fan favorites? They'll be caught between a rock and a hard place here, because they couldn't follow the desires of the fans and have a Kirk revival show at the same time.

 

[Rahul]

Wasn't there some rumour that they were exploring a "Cpt. Kirk on the USS Republic" - show? Maybe they're just doing that - like with Pike: Make him a regular for a season, and then lobby to give him a full show.

 

[Noname Given]

But the issue here is he's not really young at all. He's only ten years younger than Anson Mount (albeit with a lot less gray). Kirk is supposed to be 32 when he gets command of the Enterprise, which is a full seven years after the beginning of Strange New Worlds. So if they waited till SNW season 8 to take over the reins, he would be 46, playing 32. I'm not sure he'd be willing to wait around that long, which means they'd need to kick Pike out of the chair and time skip a bit to get to 2265.

Another added issue is the remainder of the cast. If they decide to time skip because Mount wants out (or whatever) they basically have to fire Rebecca Romijn, because Spock was Kirk's XO in Where No Man Has Gone Before. They'd need to add Sulu to the cast in Year 1 as well. By 2266 they'd need to hve all of the original TOS cast. This presumably means that all of the original characters created would have to be dropped or severely cut back. But what if one or more of them ends up breakout fan favorites? They'll be caught between a rock and a hard place here, because they couldn't follow the desires of the fans and have a Kirk revival show at the same time.

Where is everyone suddenly getting: "Anson Mount must have quit the show..." idea from? From one casting decision for a character who (based on the more BTS stuff I see) won't become a regular cast member on that show. It looks like either some sort of time-travel OR Kirk in Command of another smaller ship.

 

[eschaton]

Where is everyone suddenly getting: "Anson Mount must have quit the show..." idea from? From one casting decision for a character who (based on the more BTS stuff I see) won't become a regular cast member on that show. It looks like either some sort of time-travel OR Kirk in Command of another smaller ship.

It might not be what they plan. But honestly, casting a guy who is nearly 40 as Kirk just seems like a bad idea unless you plan to utilize him in a broader fashion pretty soon. I also feel like they've sort of backed themselves into a corner now, as they can't really (provided he's the real deal Kirk, and not an imposter) reasonably recast again in this generation of Trek shows.

 

[Yistaan]

If they decide to time skip because Mount wants out (or whatever) they basically have to fire Rebecca Romijn, because Spock was Kirk's XO in Where No Man Has Gone Before. They'd need to add Sulu to the cast in Year 1 as well. By 2266 they'd need to have all of the original TOS cast. This presumably means that all of the original characters created would have to be dropped or severely cut back. But what if one or more of them ends up breakout fan favorites? They'll be caught between a rock and a hard place here, because they couldn't follow the desires of the fans and have a Kirk revival show at the same time.

I'd rather they just recast Mount than go through all this.