What do you think the status of Trek will be in 2066 ?

[TrickyDickie]

Considering the thread about imagining Trek in 1866, I thought it would be worthwhile to go in the other direction and see what folks imagine will be done with the franchise over the course of the next 48 years.

Considering the advances with CGI, voice synthesis, etc, I'm wondering if by some point fans will be making their own high-quality Trek series, movies, etc, that will be much easier to put together than all of the effort put into something like New Voyages....although I think some fans will still be very much into continuing with that method as well. I think the technology will make the possibilities burst at the seams and that the studio will be faced with such a flood of fan-produced material that it will be impractical to attempt to legally pursue everyone.

As for the studio franchise itself, I think that the pressure to produce high-quality work that appeals to both fans and non-fans alike will continue to amp up.

I see the future of Trek over the coming decades to be bright and without limit.

What do you think?

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

I hope they decide to go for a retro look and opt for a classic look from the sci-fi of the 1960s, a homage to a bygone time when the shows were about fun and adventure and bright colours and social commentary.

 

[Tenacity]

The number of fans who remember seeing TOS episodes first run would be getting pretty thin.

Any zero gee scenes will be recorded in zero gee.

the studio will be faced with such a flood of fan-produced material that it will be impractical to attempt to legally pursue everyone

Legal action with be handled by the studio A.I.

 

[The Old Mixer]

The show will enjoy a massive resurgence of interest after Zefram Cochrane invents the warp drive and makes first contact with the Vulcans.

 

[lawman]

Considering the advances with CGI, voice synthesis, etc, I'm wondering if by some point fans will be making their own high-quality Trek series, movies, etc, that will be much easier to put together than all of the effort put into something like New Voyages.... the studio will be faced with such a flood of fan-produced material that it will be impractical to attempt to legally pursue everyone.

Well, it wouldn't just be impractical, it would be pretty pointless, since Star Trek will enter the public domain starting in 2061.

(Unless The Mouse persuades Congress to extend the length of copyright terms again, which actually doesn't seem all that likely... or unless you buy a somewhat arcane argument that original Trek's first "publication date" was 1978, when it was registered with the Library of Congress, rather than 1966 when it was first broadcast.)

 

[Captain pl1ngpl0ng]

After China discover an abandoned alien observatory-base
on the far side of the moon in the 2020's,
the star trek of the 2066 will probably be a documentary version of Ent.
Which will be about how mankind got there hands on alien technology that was left behind on the moon and how we developed warp-engines and started exploring other starsystems.

This will all be live broadcast and people will be voted off the ship once a week.

 

[johnjm22]

By 2066 I don't think Star Trek will be mainstream entertainment. It will be pretty obscure IMO.

 

[Matthew Raymond]

@lawman, you are aptly named.

By 2066 I don't think Star Trek will be mainstream entertainment. It will be pretty obscure IMO.

Possibly, but I think most people will still be aware of it, if only as a cultural footnote. However, I suspect there will have been a plethora of shows that take inspiration from Star Trek. (There have been quite a few already.)

Of course, you're also talking about nearly 50 years of fan community evolution too. The fan community may have moved towards highly organized cooperation that allows the reuse of massive quantities of virtual assets and an army of thousands that help each other create fan films. There might be a dozen fan films a week, with quality far superior to what was possible in the late 1960s...

...Or maybe it'll all be cheap Ultraporn about Vulcan love slaves.

 

[TrickyDickie]

By 2066 I don't think Star Trek will be mainstream entertainment. It will be pretty obscure IMO.

What do you feel will cause it to fade from the entertainment landscape? Anything 'big' that will turn people away? Gradual diminishing of interest and people moving on to other things?

 

[johnjm22]

What do you feel will cause it to fade from the entertainment landscape? Anything 'big' that will turn people away? Gradual diminishing of interest and people moving on to other things?

I just think it's the nature of the entertainment landscape. I think entertainment is becoming more and more fragmented. The amount of entertainment options will continue to grow to the point where people's choice of entertainment will become personalized and niche.

I think they'll still be some big mainstream entertainment, but even those won't be as popular relatively speaking as the entertainment of the past. Tons of people watch the Marvel movies, but what happens when there's a Marvel equivalent movie released every few days via Netflix/Amazon/YouTube/Theatres? The most popular TV today is the Super Bowl. One third of the U.S. population watches it. I bet by 2066 the most popular thing on TV will be watched by one tenth of the population or less.

Also, "TV" as we know it might be completely different in 2066. People might get bored with it.

 

[TrickyDickie]

Interesting points....definite food for thought.

Right at this moment I'm wondering if advancements in virtual reality will open things farther up for Trek and keep it going because of interactive possibilities.

 

[Captain pl1ngpl0ng]

Right at this moment I'm wondering if advancements in virtual reality will open things farther up for Trek and keep it going because of interactive possibilities.

^this!

 

[Matthew Raymond]

Right at this moment I'm wondering if advancements in virtual reality will open things farther up for Trek and keep it going because of interactive possibilities.

Perhaps, but I suspect it's more likely that it will open possibilities for a show that, while perhaps inspired by Trek, will be more reflective of the society and science of the time. Trek, that far into the future, may be considered "space fantasy", kinda similar to the way we think of Steampunk now.

 

[johnjm22]

Perhaps, but I suspect it's more likely that it will open possibilities for a show that, while perhaps inspired by Trek, will be more reflective of the society and science of the time. Trek, that far into the future, may be considered "space fantasy", kinda similar to the way we think of Steampunk now.

I think it already is. Star Trek is looking at the future through the lens of the 1960s-1980s. It doesn't have a real futuristic/scientific edge to it anymore.

ST is just retro nostalgia now. It doesn't feel fresh or new. Maybe that could be remedied, but I doubt it.

 

[Matthew Raymond]

ST is just retro nostalgia now. It doesn't feel fresh or new. Maybe that could be remedied, but I doubt it.

Well, a while back, I suggested that Star Trek could be rebooted in such a way that the previous shows and movies would still loosely be part of canon, but that their events were actually a series of retro-futuristic holo-novels retelling actual events as if they were a twentieth century TV show, thus allowing you to make major changes to the technology, format and style of the show while still being able to bring in the original actors in (sort of) their original roles. The question is if such an idea would allow significant enough changes to make the Star Trek a contemporary science fiction show again.

 

[Lord Garth]

In 2066? Hard to say. I think they might go Ultra-Futuristic but also address the scarcity we'll be facing by that time.

This Star Trek would show not just The Future but The Future of The Future. It will adapt to whatever the equivalent of TV is at the time. So it might be interactive. The world of 2066 itself would be interesting. Globalization would be more prominent. So the series would be made with more international appeal from the start but it would still be an American-centrist version of the future.

As a parallel to the United States sharing power with nations of the rest of the world, I imagine the Federation would share power with empires of the rest of the Quadrant and possibly beyond. There would be a larger view as the world itself will have to take a larger view.

You might have episodes focusing on colonies started by people who had to get away from overpopulated worlds. There might be episodes focused on a strain of resources. Renewable energy would be a prominent focus in stories as Earth itself in 2066 will have fewer and fewer natural resources.

I'm basing all of this on absolutely nothing. Other than how I see the world going and how Star Trek might adapt.

 

[Jayson1]

It will be a collection of discarded dvd's and blu-rays and old merchandise laying about the globe and some rusting statues of KIrk,Spock and McCoy from the 2030's outside of NASA when they tried to rebrand themselves into something both kip and cool and retro to keep people interested only to have it fail. The reason is because all humans will be dead from nuclear fallout since mutated monkeys created by enviromental changes from climate change became a thing and they took over the planet and humans foolishly thought they could defeat them with nukes.

Jason

 

[Lord Garth]

^ Great. So I don't have to worry about my Retirement Savings.

 

[Jayson1]

^ Great. So I don't have to worry about my Retirement Savings.

I suggest investing that money into banana's. It will soon be the only currency recognized on Earth. Sure the monkeys will still kill you but if you give them enough banana's they will pray for your soul to go live with Monkey Jesus once you pass.

Jason

 

[Nyotarules]

Star Trek will be a footnote in TV history in 2066, most of the fanbase will have passed or living in the grey zone. Its something they will bore their great grand kids with as they moan about virtual reality tv.

Or humanity having completely destroyed itself the Vulcans will have found a new world to clean up that has plenty of water and enough soil to grow plomeek and gasper. They will rename this new planet New Vulcan or New Solkar. The Andorians will claim Antartica and Canada and the Vulcan - Andorian war will begin.