Titan: The TV Series

[Herbert1]

Lately, when I go to my local Half Price Books the Star Trek novels are on the $1.00 rack on close out and where they once had a shelve filled with Star Trek novels at half-price is now devoid of novels. It doesn't look much better at my local Borders for new novels.

It just seems like there isn't much interest in Star Trek anymore, except for a small group of devoted fans. Hopefully, the JJ Abrams movie will renew interest in Star Trek andthat Paramount's $135 million gamble will pay off. That licensed merchandise, like the novels, can ride its coat tails and it will make new television series, either live action or animated, possible.

I would love to see an animated series based on Titan or even an audio adaption of the novels featuring a cast like the BBC Radio dramatizations or a radio play with sound effects.

I don't have a preference of 2D or 3D animation as long as the characters and scenary are well designed and executed.

 

[Geoff Thorne]

Put me down for all of the above.

And I'm a huge fan of CGI.

Animation for TITAN is the only way to go anyway. Actors age. Toons don't.

 

[Natural]

I thought it was a cool idea, but then I read Marina Sirtis and stopped caring.

 

[Man of Steel]

Put me down for all of the above.

And I'm a huge fan of CGI.

Animation for TITAN is the only way to go anyway. Actors age. Toons don't.

Some toons do age. Some are classics and still shown while others--- well, when was the last time you saw He Man or GI. Joe cartoons on the air or Silverhawk?

 

[Warp Coil]

I guess I just have this preconceived notion stuck in my head, but I have this thing with animation... I can't take it seriously. Kids enjoy cartoons and that's fine. But for me, as an adult, I cannot watch anything that's animated and take it seriously. It has to be funny. It has to make me laugh. I can't watch anime because it's too serious, and I completely lose interest. A Trek cartoon just wouldn't do anything for me.

 

[Geoff Thorne]

Some toons do age. Some are classics and still shown while others--- well, when was the last time you saw He Man or GI. Joe cartoons on the air or Silverhawk?

Those toons were crap when they were made. Cheaply produced sweatshop fare. I'm embarrassed to see them now and so are the people who might make money off them. Kids won't accept them because the standard has been raised.

Batman: The Animated Series brought quality back to TV animation and it hasn't left since.

Find the trailer for the upcoming feature film 9 and tell me CGI is not a viable medium for action/adventure.

Or the visually stunning ADVENT CHILDREN (terrible script, sure).

Not only should there be a CGI version of Star Trek, it is MORONIC for there not to be one already.

A CGI TITAN series flattens the production costs (every episode would be uniform, price-wise, for obvious reasons) and allows actors who are, perhaps, physically unable to play those parts anymore, continue to do so for years and years after they've passed their primes.

Wouldn't you have liked to see TOS characters having adventures again? There's only one way that could have happened.

2D is fine. It's great when done well but CLONE WARS proves that while both approaches are viable, you just can't beat CGI for the "texture" and immediacy of the space battles and character interactions.

Loved this for the time period:

It's awesome, no question.

But, I mean, really,

get a grip.

 

[Paris]

I guess I just have this preconceived notion stuck in my head, but I have this thing with animation... I can't take it seriously. Kids enjoy cartoons and that's fine. But for me, as an adult, I cannot watch anything that's animated and take it seriously. It has to be funny. It has to make me laugh. I can't watch anime because it's too serious, and I completely lose interest. A Trek cartoon just wouldn't do anything for me.

Really? I would argue that most of the best animated shows out there aren't for kids at all. Yes, a lot of those adult cartoons are funny, but an animated Titan series on Cartoon Network, or on Spike or something, could be played as serious as live-action Trek without a problem. All budgetary constraints would be moot. Every character of this diverse crew could be rendered without a problem. Animation isn't relegated to Saturday mornings anymore. Don't close your mind to new story telling possibilities and different medium's just because you're an adult. We can have imaginations as well...

 

[Christopher]

I guess I just have this preconceived notion stuck in my head, but I have this thing with animation... I can't take it seriously. Kids enjoy cartoons and that's fine. But for me, as an adult, I cannot watch anything that's animated and take it seriously.

That's a totally false prejudice. Medium is not genre. Just as you can tell children's stories in live action, so you can tell adult stories in cartoon or animated form. In most of the world, the American assumption that animation = children's programming does not exist; it's really just the result of Disney dominating American animation for decades and choosing to focus on children's/family material to the exclusion of all else. But in Japan, for instance, animation and comics are directed at all age groups and encompass everything from goofy children's comedies to ultraviolent adult action and horror to graphic erotica.

And even in America, comics and animation have never been solely for children. The early theatrical cartoons -- Warner Bros., MGM, Fleischer, and the like -- were meant for all ages, and were often quite risque for their time; check out early Betty Boop or Tex Avery's Red Hot Riding Hood and its knockoffs for examples. (When Betty Boop did a cameo in the first Popeye cartoon, she danced a topless hula with only a lei over her chest.) Comic books in the '30s and '40s were meant for all ages and were highly popular with soldiers overseas.

In more recent times, there have been plenty of American animated adventure series aimed at older audiences and having considerable adult followings, such as most of the DC Animated Universe shows and Gargoyles. Then there are shows like Avatar: The Last Airbender, a series that's aimed at children but is absolutely brilliant, superbly written and made, and thus just as satisfying to viewers of all ages. It's bizarre to assume that children's programming has to be inferior in quality to adult programming. Don't children deserve the best we can give them?

 

[Sci]

I guess I just have this preconceived notion stuck in my head, but I have this thing with animation... I can't take it seriously. Kids enjoy cartoons and that's fine. But for me, as an adult, I cannot watch anything that's animated and take it seriously.

That's a totally false prejudice. Medium is not genre. Just as you can tell children's stories in live action, so you can tell adult stories in cartoon or animated form. In most of the world, the American assumption that animation = children's programming does not exist; it's really just the result of Disney dominating American animation for decades and choosing to focus on children's/family material to the exclusion of all else. But in Japan, for instance, animation and comics are directed at all age groups and encompass everything from goofy children's comedies to ultraviolent adult action and horror to graphic erotica.

And even in America, comics and animation have never been solely for children. The early theatrical cartoons -- Warner Bros., MGM, Fleischer, and the like -- were meant for all ages, and were often quite risque for their time; check out early Betty Boop or Tex Avery's Red Hot Riding Hood and its knockoffs for examples. (When Betty Boop did a cameo in the first Popeye cartoon, she danced a topless hula with only a lei over her chest.) Comic books in the '30s and '40s were meant for all ages and were highly popular with soldiers overseas.

In more recent times, there have been plenty of American animated adventure series aimed at older audiences and having considerable adult followings, such as most of the DC Animated Universe shows and Gargoyles. Then there are shows like Avatar: The Last Airbender, a series that's aimed at children but is absolutely brilliant, superbly written and made, and thus just as satisfying to viewers of all ages. It's bizarre to assume that children's programming has to be inferior in quality to adult programming. Don't children deserve the best we can give them?

Exactly. In point of fact, quantifying the exact traits that differentiate a story for children from a story for adults can actually be quite difficult. There's a general consensus, for instance, that The Lion King is a story directed at children (and enjoyable by adults) and that, say, The Queen is a film for adults, but apart from peripheral "taboo" elements such as vulgar language, what actually distinguishes them? What makes, say, Doctor Who a show targeted for children and Buffy the Vampire Slayer a show targeted at teens and adults?

The only real differences I can find is that most stories aimed at children, in our culture, are: 1) designed to create an emotional "safe space" for the audience from which it can move to confront disturbing issues and to which it can retreat when it feels overwhelmed (ergo, comforting characters, comedy, and other mechanisms to "lighten the load" and a re-establishment of a stable and desirable status quo at the end in Lion King), and 2) that disturbing or threatening issues, when explored, are explored in a manner that is generally not emotionally intense or graphic, so as to make it easier for the audience to assimilate the issues addressed (ergo, we never see a graphic depiction of death in, say, Lion King).

But that doesn't meant that within those parameters, a very smart, very deep, very sophisticated story cannot be told for children that adults can also appreciate.

 

[Stevil2001]

Exactly. In point of fact, quantifying the exact traits that differentiate a story for children from a story for adults can actually be quite difficult. There's a general consensus, for instance, that The Lion King is a story directed at children (and enjoyable by adults) and that, say, The Queen is a film for adults, but apart from peripheral "taboo" elements such as vulgar language, what actually distinguishes them? What makes, say, Doctor Who a show targeted for children and Buffy the Vampire Slayer a show targeted at teens and adults?

The lack of comedy farting wildebeests in The Queen, maybe.

 

[William Leisner]

^ You haven't seen the Director's Cut, then?

 

[Sci]

Exactly. In point of fact, quantifying the exact traits that differentiate a story for children from a story for adults can actually be quite difficult. There's a general consensus, for instance, that The Lion King is a story directed at children (and enjoyable by adults) and that, say, The Queen is a film for adults, but apart from peripheral "taboo" elements such as vulgar language, what actually distinguishes them? What makes, say, Doctor Who a show targeted for children and Buffy the Vampire Slayer a show targeted at teens and adults?

The lack of comedy farting wildebeests in The Queen, maybe.

What, Prince Philip doesn't count?

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I would love to see a CGI animated Titan series. Indeed, with all those exotic alien races among the crew, animation would be the easiest way to go, wouldn't it?

And a TAS remake as well. I've seen what can be done with that. It's awesome!

 

[Paris]

I would love to see a CGI animated Titan series. Indeed, with all those exotic alien races among the crew, animation would be the easiest way to go, wouldn't it?

And a TAS remake as well. I've seen what can be done with that. It's awesome!

It may be easier for rendering all those interesting Aliens, but i'd go so far as to say that Animation would be preferable to live action for this very reason. The fact that Frakes and Sirtis are in their 50's is also a pretty good reason.

 

[Sci]

I would love to see a CGI animated Titan series. Indeed, with all those exotic alien races among the crew, animation would be the easiest way to go, wouldn't it?

And a TAS remake as well. I've seen what can be done with that. It's awesome!

It may be easier for rendering all those interesting Aliens, but i'd go so far as to say that Animation would be preferable to live action for this very reason. The fact that Frakes and Sirtis are in their 50's is also a pretty good reason.

Personally, I'd prefer to see Frakes and Sirtis live-action, their real ages. I don't see how their being in their 50s is any different from Patrick Stewart being in his fifties whilst playing Picard on TNG.

 

[Man of Steel]

I would love to see a CGI animated Titan series. Indeed, with all those exotic alien races among the crew, animation would be the easiest way to go, wouldn't it?

And a TAS remake as well. I've seen what can be done with that. It's awesome!

It may be easier for rendering all those interesting Aliens, but i'd go so far as to say that Animation would be preferable to live action for this very reason. The fact that Frakes and Sirtis are in their 50's is also a pretty good reason.

Personally, I'd prefer to see Frakes and Sirtis live-action, their real ages. I don't see how their being in their 50s is any different from Patrick Stewart being in his fifties whilst playing Picard on TNG.

I think Picard was older then Stewart.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

It may be easier for rendering all those interesting Aliens, but i'd go so far as to say that Animation would be preferable to live action for this very reason. The fact that Frakes and Sirtis are in their 50's is also a pretty good reason.

Personally, I'd prefer to see Frakes and Sirtis live-action, their real ages. I don't see how their being in their 50s is any different from Patrick Stewart being in his fifties whilst playing Picard on TNG.

I think Picard was older then Stewart.

At least twenty years older. Picard, as of NEM, is in his mid seventies (he was born in 2305).

 

[JD]

I would love to see a CGI animated Titan series. Indeed, with all those exotic alien races among the crew, animation would be the easiest way to go, wouldn't it?

And a TAS remake as well. I've seen what can be done with that. It's awesome!

It may be easier for rendering all those interesting Aliens, but i'd go so far as to say that Animation would be preferable to live action for this very reason. The fact that Frakes and Sirtis are in their 50's is also a pretty good reason.

Yeah, but as long as they followed the timeline the characters would be that age in a CGI version too.

 

[Christopher]

Well, as of Over a Torrent Sea, Riker is 46 and Troi is 45. Remember, it's been over 6 years since NEM came out (although I'm surprised it's been that long), but in the books it's less than two years since NEM happened. And both characters are a few years younger than the actors portraying them (6 years for Riker/Frakes, 4 years for Troi/Sirtis).

 

[JD]

Wow, I didn't realize it had actually been that long since NEM. So I guess it would be somewhat noticeable if they came back now and said it had been a year or two since we saw them last.