Poll The TAS Redux That Might Have Been

[Nightowl1701]

Split the difference - do it Archer-style. CGI ships/sets, traditional animated cels with more visible emoting than the originals. Completely redo the sound mix, throw in some TOS music. If you can use the video game stuff to make new 'episodes,' go for it.

Then, if it's a success, Season 2 jumps into the TMP era with a new cast of soundalikes who know their way around a recording booth, and it's off to a six-season run.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

Split the difference - do it Archer-style. CGI ships/sets, traditional animated cels with more visible emoting than the originals. Completely redo the sound mix, throw in some TOS music. If you can use the video game stuff to make new 'episodes,' go for it.

Eh, it's been done.

 

[somebuddyX]

I think it'd be even more fun to

Spoiler: Possible Story Idea

have the Cerritos crew travel back to the original Tribbles episode, so they're trying to stay away from the crews from the Enterprise AND DS9.

(I put this in SPOILER text as it may be crossing the line into story idea territory. Writers, beware!)

Spoiler

I thought about that but I think that would be fun for some other live action show sometime and there's some humour you could mine for modern animation vs filmation style, like pink klingons and limited sets. What's wild is that Trials and Tribble-astions was for the 30th anniversary of TOS and in 3 years you could do the 30th anniversary of the DS9 episode.

To be honest I don't really think this is spoiler because I'm sure those guys have had this as a possibility in the back of their head since day one but I like your attitude.

 

[CrockAlley]

The animation company in that article, Mainframe, produced some pretty fun cartoons. ReBoot, Beast Wars, Scary Godmother, and other are great fun. At the time, I think a Trek show from these people could have been interesting, but there's no doubt that the CGI would look pretty dated by today's standards.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I’d be all for a CGI remake of TAS.

Especially since certain elements (such as Robert April’s race and the true appearance of the Bonaventure) have already been overwritten.

Plus the Enterprise would no longer have to fly sideways during the opening credits.

 

[Kor]

The videos from Gazelle Automations made a point to reproduce what to me is a defining, period-specific, aspect of TAS: the audio. I don't just mean the TAS music, but the 'tinny' quality of the dialog recording. As an audio and music enthusiast (I wouldn't put myself quite at the level of 'audiophile though), this has always stood out to me just as much as the visual style of TAS. It sounds like a 1970s cartoon. It would stick out like a sore thumb to me if modern animation was put on top of that recorded dialog. I don't know how feasible it would be to reduce the tinny, canned quality of the dialog audio.

If they were to do some kind of new animated productions set in the TOS era, then visually I would like something along the lines of the DC animated movies of the last several years. Pretty good quality 2D animation. I think stuff like vehicles may sometimes be done with 3D animation and cel shading, but I'd have to go back and do some re-watching for specifics.

Since games have been brought into the discussion as well... the problem with making episodes out of games is that the story structure and writing for an interactive game is different than for a movie or TV episode that you watch non-interactively. Like you have a cut scene to start a quest, and then you spend half an hour to an hour doing the quest, and then you have another cut scene that lasts a few minutes to end the quest and maybe lead into the next one. The 'quest' part would need to be completely re-written into something that's engaging to watch instead of play. And that would require new dialog, which can't be done properly without the original actors available. Supposed sound-alikes never sound like the real thing to me. It's why I absolutely could never get into newer Looney Tunes revival cartoons.

Kor

 

[Relayer1]

I'd STILL like it to be redone.

In the interests of full disclosure, I hate TAS. Absolutely loathe the cheap Saturday morning animation style and find many of the episodes less than well written.

There's not that much can be done with the writing (although some improvement may be possible) but a high standard redo of the visuals would certainly be great - give it to the "Prodigy" people.

 

[Serveaux]

We could have had a CGI redux of the Animated Series.

https://trekcentral.net/exclusive-the-cgi-remake-of-star-trek-the-animated-series/

I could have had the flu this season. Fortunately, I didn't.

 

[Shawnster]

Especially since certain elements (such as Robert April’s race and the true appearance of the Bonaventure) have already been overwritten.

I don't recall any canon references that change the Bonaventure

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I don't recall any canon references that change the Bonaventure

It’s on the wall of Keiko”s classroom on DS9.

 

[Richard Baker]

It’s on the wall of Keiko”s classroom on DS9.

Is there any way to see it? Trekcore might have a framegrab if I knew where to start looking...

 

[Shawnster]

It’s on the wall of Keiko”s classroom on DS9.

Ohhh yeah

 

[JonnyQuest037]

Since games have been brought into the discussion as well... the problem with making episodes out of games is that the story structure and writing for an interactive game is different than for a movie or TV episode that you watch non-interactively. Like you have a cut scene to start a quest, and then you spend half an hour to an hour doing the quest, and then you have another cut scene that lasts a few minutes to end the quest and maybe lead into the next one. The 'quest' part would need to be completely re-written into something that's engaging to watch instead of play. And that would require new dialog, which can't be done properly without the original actors available.

Plus if you're doing a video game, you have to record TONS of audio for all the possible permutations in the gameplay. I honestly doubt there'd be enough audio in all of TOS and TAS to cover all the options they'd need.

 

[Kor]

It’s on the wall of Keiko”s classroom on DS9.

It seems more likely that the one shown in DS9 was an earlier ship that happened to have the same name. There's more about all this here: https://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/articles/bonaventure.htm

Kor

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

The Bonaventure from TAS looks way too advanced to literally be the first ship with warp drive. It looks exactly like the Enterprise!

No, the real Bonnie should be way more primitive looking. Like the one from DS9.

And as I said, TAS’ version of Robert April has been decanonized, so therefore so can its version of the Bonnie. Easy peasy.

 

[Warped9]

The TAS Bonaventure was lazy thinking to make a direct connection to the TOS Enterprise.

 

[Mytran]

Which hasn't stopped some fans doing some impressive over-thinking of it!

 

[Warped9]

No matter how you try to model it it just looks cartoony. Thats why when I did my TAS made real thread I reimagined the design.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

And as I said, TAS’ version of Robert April has been decanonized, so therefore so can its version of the Bonnie. Easy peasy.

No, both Aprils are canon. Funny how that works. Kinda like James R. Kirk and James T. Kirk.

Really, it's more like how Saavik sometimes looks like Kirstie Alley and other times like Robin Curtis.

 

[Warped9]

No, both Aprils are canon. Funny how that works.

TOS/TAS has its canon and DSC/SNW has theirs given they’re obviously two disparate continuities.

I would royally piss off legions of fans if I were launching a new Trek project or series, by doing the very same cherry-picking of continuity these show runners do. Imagine setting a new Trek shortly after TMP and asserting I don’t care about what came after in the previous productions I’m charting our own thing.

At least I’d be honest about it rather than disingenuously insisting “this is the way it always/really was.”