Why not go animated?

[Warped9]

I haven't read a Trek book for years. I just lost interest and enjoyed non Trek SF more. I've written some TOS facfic many years ago, but I was generally not a reader of fanfic.

I think fan productions have a lot of potential to explore things we probably wouldn't see officially onscreen. I like Star Trek Continues because it continues where TOS left off in the closest way we could hope for. I liked Starship Exeter and some of Starship Farragut because they were another look into the TOS era. I'm curious about Axanar and wonder if it will evoke how much I enjoyed reading John M. Ford's The Final Reflection.

Personally I still like the idea of a Pike era animated series set between "The Cage" and TOS, inspired partly by Marvel Comics' book Star Trek: Early Voyages. I even wrote out something of an outline and characters for how it could be approached so while it would be part of the TOS continuity you could still set it apart on its own terms to a reasonable extent. It's all execution.

In the TrekBBS Arts forum I'm presently modeling an early to mid 22nd century ship design partially inspired by some of Matt Jefferies' early conceptual sketches. From that I've gotten the idea for something that could do what ENT failed to do, whether it be animated or live-action.

Presently I think of it as Star Trek: Constellation.

Imagine...

- No saucer
- No transporter
- No phase pistols
- No Warp 5 (unless we assume an older Warp formula)
- No catsuits
- No Suliban
- No temporal guys
- No Klingons
- No Ferengi or Borg

...to name a few things.

Star Trek with a touch of The X-Files vibe.

 

[Jeffe525]

If animated is all I can get right now, I'll take it. Maybe that would be a good way to bring some of the novels to life, like New Frontier or Titan. That would provide a lot of good source material and lets face it, Frakes and Sirtis (and I'm sure others) would be on board for an easy gig like that.

 

[Esirprus]

I think that truly alien aliens can be done without animation and TAS I only found about when I started trying to animate my own Trek fiction. So I don't think it's a good idea. People like watching Star Trek in my opinion because it's a future that is totally believable. Unlike most sci-fi the characters depicted seem to come alive. Cartoons or 3D animations don't do that quite as well.

I think a new Star Trek is highly demanded. I also think it ought to be done right.

TOS was done on a shoestring budget with penciled in weapons and more punches than phaser stuns, and is still aired on television. Accordingly the show NBC turned Star Trek down in favor of (Lost in Space) I have only seen on DVD and it's not as believable but relied a lot more on special affects. It's not the quality of the affect in my opinion that makes the show popular. But if the affects are used in context.

 

[Warped9]

^^ It's CBS, not NBC, that turned Star Trek down because they were already working on Lost In Space. Ironically, decades later, CBS now owns Trek.

TOS' budget was not shoe string in 1960's terms, particularly during the first season, but it was still largely inadequate for the kind of show TOS was and what it needed. As is the budget reductions in second and third seasons really hurt. If the budget had stayed at least the same as that of the first season it would have really helped.

In an ideal world another ten to twenty thousand per episode (in 1960's dollars) throughout the series' run would have been gold.

 

[Tim Walker]

Animation would solve that problem and it would remove a lot of the restrictions Star Trek has faced since the very beginning. We could finally have truly alien worlds and organisms. Species like the Tholians and Gorn could be all over the place and, like the previous animated series we could even have a larger number of alien main characters. Heck, in animation there is no need for all characters to be humanoid at all.

Alien world/organism thing was done well in Titan A.E.

Another example was an animated Dr. Who endeavor, Dreamland. Though set on Earth, it did well in depicting alien creatures. And the style of animation looked sufficiently realistic while remaining fairly simple.

 

[Tim Walker]

^Kind of reminds me of how with the Doctor Who series, the animated Richard E. Grant was sort of the "official" ninth Doctor (In the "Scream of the Shalka" webcast)

I disliked Grant's version of the doctor, and the "scream" was a very annoying screach.

But the visual style did manage to convey a sense of the alien.

 

[Tim Walker]

If animated is all I can get right now, I'll take it. it, .

Me too!

 

[Tim Walker]

Re: What might have been

Dr. Who-nelvana animated series

http://doctorwhowatch.com/2014/11/20/nelvana-animated-series/

 

[Tim Walker]

Re: Dr. Who

The Infinite Quest

Features insect people, robot guards, a big robot parrot, and a lizard man. And walking oil rigs under three suns.


Includes that which would be either difficult or impossible to show in live action.

 

[jefferiestubes8]

The press release of the 2017 Trek TV series did not say "live-action".

CBS Television Studios announced today it will launch a totally new Star Trek television series in January 2017.

The new program will be the first original series developed specifically for U.S. audiences for CBS All Access,

The brand-new Star Trek will introduce new characters seeking imaginative new worlds and new civilizations, while exploring the dramatic contemporary themes that have been a signature of the franchise since its inception in 1966.

Everything that could describe an animated series. The missing "live-action" description is interesting.

While I don't think it will happen as animated it is still possible. The real question would be will people pay to watch a modern-looking CGI (like Star Wars The Clone Wars) animated Trek TV series as a subscription?

 

[shapeshifter]

Would it be canon?

 

[Squiggy]

The press release of the 2017 Trek TV series did not say "live-action".

It also didn't say it wasn't going to be crewed entirely by apes.

 

[Herkimer Jitty]

FIRST APE CAPTAIN CONFIRMED

 

[Sector 7]

Would it be canon?

Hopefully, it will create its own new canon. Let's not shackle it will the old one.

 

[T'Girl]

Hopefully, it will embrace the existing prime canon with enthusiasm. A continue to add to the rich history of Trek's first half century.

 

[Squiggy]

Because it worked so well last time.

 

[Dukhat]

Hopefully, it will embrace the existing prime canon with enthusiasm. A continue to add to the rich history of Trek's first half century.

It can do that just fine without embracing the existing prime canon.

 

[T'Girl]

Because it worked so well last time.

Seven hundred plus episodes, so yes.

 

[Tim Walker]

Re: Dr. Who animation

I'll take the depiction of characters in Dreamland, and the backgrounds from Infinite Quest.

 

[Squiggy]

Because it worked so well last time.

Seven hundred plus episodes, so yes.

Until the end, when it didn't work anymore.