The Problems with Prequels...

[Spot261]

So then (SPOILERS!)


News today that the new series will be set Ten years before James T Kirk and the crew boldy went where no man had gone before.....

I'm dreading another prequel. Partly because the years of non-canon whining we're all going to have to put up with will dredge up all the old Enterprise days. Borg. Ferengi. Romulans etc. We can't see any of those now because they were NOT seen Pre-TOS. We're going to get years of whining about 60s art styles not being adhered to. (sigh)

My biggest issue with setting this pre-TOS is that it removes a large part of suspense from the show. One of the things that worried us all when the Jem-Hadar attacked in Deep Space 9 was whether the federation would survive this or not. When Huge Godlike Aliens™ threaten the universe, we know they won't win because hey Jimmy Kirk and the guys are only ten years down the line and the Universe was just fiiiiiine then.

If the TOS era floats your boat then ok, kick them into another alternate universe. If its not just the TOS fixation then set it after VOY and the TNG movies.

Between the Fugly ship and this....I'm not looking forward to it so much.

Only if "the universe may end in this episode, just like last week, and the week before" is the only way to create drama in a TV show and engage the viewer.

Let's face it, that risk of annihilation has never really added drama or suspense except in the movies and feature lengths. What has added drama has been how the characters moralise and weigh up the problems they are faced with. The universe is absolutely mind bogglingly huge and there is no reason to suppose we need to go further into the future to create new stories.

 

[locutus101]

I think they say in one of the late series, possibly Voyager, that they've explored nineteen percent of the Alpha Quadrant, if we refer to the current estimate of the number of stars in the galaxy and suppose that a quadrant contains about a quarter of them then that's nineteen billion Stars! I don't think the writers realize how big a number that is.

 

[Spot261]

No, it's unfeasible when you look at the numbers, I'm not even going to try to work out just how big and how busy that would require starfleet to be given that even the most basic planetary survey takes anywhere from days to months, depending on the episode, before you consider preperation and travel time. Billions of landing party missions would surely require SF to have been active for thousands of years non stop?

I'm going to have to speculate here that "explored" must be interpreted quite loosely, possibly meaning "has been subjected to long range scans", or "has been within sensor range of a probe at some stage".

 

[locutus101]

No, it's unfeasible when you look at the numbers, I'm not even going to try to work out just how big and how busy that would require starfleet to be given that even the most basic planetary survey takes anywhere from days to months, depending on the episode, before you consider preperation and travel time. Billions of landing party missions would surely require SF to have been active for thousands of years non stop?

I'm going to have to speculate here that "explored" must be interpreted quite loosely, possibly meaning "has been subjected to long range scans", or "has been within sensor range of a probe at some stage".

Yes, in a practical sense you're most definitely right but I am not sure the writers realize that themselves. I think we can give them the benefit of the doubt even if they don't deserve it until they make one of the characters say something stupid that can't possibly be interpreted that way.

 

[uniderth]

I think a prequel has unique disadvantages because a lot of the viewers will be bothered by either seeing new aliens ("why didn't we see them before/later")

Which I don't understand becasue the galaxy is HUGE!!!!! plenty of room for lifeforms we've never seen before. Though there are amble opportunities among the various background aliens we've seen through out the franchise.

or already-seen aliens ("I don't want to just watch a remake"

Which I don't understand either becasue clearly we know they've interacted before this.

or "They're acting out-of-character").

This I can understand. But there's a simple solution, write them in character.

I admit I disliked X-Men: First Class in part because it was really different in story and style to what the first films suggested about that universe's past (also I thought the new mutants were pretty uninteresting in terms of both personalities and powers, maybe because most of good characters had already been used).

Amen and amen.

 

[locutus101]

Maybe there are plenty of aliens that just keep to themselves.

 

[fireproof78]

Nah, there is an easy fix for how some things that happened not to be mentioned later on:

I mean, that tech had to come from some where.

 

[locutus101]

Nah, there is an easy fix for how some things that happened not to be mentioned later on:

I mean, that tech had to come from some where.

They never had anything like that on ST. Or if they did , they used it on themselves, the writers I mean.

 

[Captain of the USS Averof]

I think a prequel has unique disadvantages because a lot of the viewers will be bothered by either seeing new aliens ("why didn't we see them before/later")

Star Wars fans never make that complaint. In fact they expect and welcome new alien species with every new film/series!

 

[locutus101]

Star Wars fans never make that complaint. In fact they expect and welcome new alien species with every new film/series!

It's definitely not the same crowd.

 

[fireproof78]

They never had anything like that on ST. Or if they did , they used it on themselves, the writers I mean.

There was that one episode of TNG, Clues

Star Wars fans never make that complaint. In fact they expect and welcome new alien species with every new film/series!

Oh, wait, you're serious.

Generally speaking, some changes have been accepted, but the Special Edition additions, as well as the Neimodians were not exactly met with warmth, at least among my circle and in my experience.

Actually, what gets some friends of mine's ire up is the lightsaber effect.

 

[locutus101]

There was that one episode of TNG, Clues
.....

They didn't have the flashy thing in clues.

 

[Captain of the USS Averof]

Oh, wait, you're serious.

Yes I am. Not a single Star Wars fan said "hey, how come we've never seen the Dowutin before", after watching The Force Awakens.

Generally speaking, some changes have been accepted, but the Special Edition additions,

I specifically said "new movies/series" to make the distinction from the Special Editions of the old films.

as well as the Neimodians were not exactly met with warmth, at least among my circle and in my experience.

Nobody cared about the Neimodians or the Gungans. It was a specific character (Jar Jar Binks) that everyone complained about. And even then nobody said "how come we never saw any Neimodians in the OT"?

 

[fireproof78]

Thank you for clarifying your point. I missed that initially,

However, having been there when the PT was released I do know that several aliens were questioned about never being seen before. So, yes, I have heard those complaints in the Star Wars fandom.

Is it rare? Sure, but it does happen.

 

[Captain of the USS Averof]

Thank you for clarifying your point. I missed that initially,

However, having been there when the PT was released I do know that several aliens were questioned about never being seen before. So, yes, I have heard those complaints in the Star Wars fandom.

Is it rare? Sure, but it does happen.

Oh, I won't doubt that. There will always be some people who will complain about almost everything. We're lucky we don't belong in such a group!

By the way, are the Neimoidians an ancient offshoot of the Duros people?

 

[locutus101]

Oh, I won't doubt that. There will always be some people who will complain about almost everything. We're lucky we don't belong in such a group!

By the way, are the Neimoidians an ancient offshoot of the Duros people?

Boy, are they ugly! They must hate mirrors.