Will this series be more adult than the other ones?
- Thread starter SailorLadyGaga
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Self contained stories within a season long arc sounds very appealing. I'd prefer more stand a lone episodes with stories that vary in style. What I don't want is one long episode that takes 13 episodes to reach a conclusion.
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I think the trick is to let it be OK to be a little risqué and raunchy without making it look like the show is obviously trying too hard to be raunchy. Or else the viewers will catch on in a minute. I think they tried something like this in Nemesis with Picard taking a wild ride in a dune buggy.
For me, being more adult can simply mean characters talking the way people normally talk, which is going to include cursing, crazy humor, silly/dumb behavior from time to time. And when you add interesting characters, it gets----interesting.
TNG, upon re-watching it--the characters appeared too restricted and safe to me. It's a favorite, but they never crossed the boundary into 3d--the environment they lived in just seem 2 dimensional at times. I think a lot of it had to do with being on broadcast TV and corporate meddling.
Shows like Breaking Bad, GOT, Orange is the New Black don't have to worry about all that. They doing, saying whatever they want. And got huge ratings and viewership.
For me, being more adult can simply mean characters talking the way people normally talk, which is going to include cursing, crazy humor, silly/dumb behavior from time to time. And when you add interesting characters, it gets----interesting.
TNG, upon re-watching it--the characters appeared too restricted and safe to me. It's a favorite, but they never crossed the boundary into 3d--the environment they lived in just seem 2 dimensional at times. I think a lot of it had to do with being on broadcast TV and corporate meddling.
Shows like Breaking Bad, GOT, Orange is the New Black don't have to worry about all that. They doing, saying whatever they want. And got huge ratings and viewership.
I started subscribing to CBSAA early, mostly out of curiosity because I was planning on doing it anyway for DSC. I started watching The Good Fight. Great show, btw. In any case, it's not explicit in terms of sex or violence. But I remember in one particular instance a character shouting "Fuck!" at a particularly appropriate and realistic moment in which a person would shout that. So, they use that kind of thing sparingly for effect. Given that Good Fight is also a CBSAA show, I am starting to think DSC will be similar. Generally the kind of thing you could see on basic cable, but every once in a while it'll take advantage of the fact that it's a streaming show, not a typical tv show. And frankly I think that's a good thing. As long as it fits with the story and make sense in its context, I'm good.
I'm terribly worried that they're going to stick Star Trek trappings and iconography over a Walking Dead/Game of Thrones approach to storytelling. Ie, characters being perpetually grumpy and humourless, lots of shockingly violent scenes designed to get the chattering social media classes perched over their keyboards, and just generally awful things happening constantly, superseded only by what happens an episode or two later.
It's hard to see a place for traditional Trekkian humour in a 2017 action adventure. I still laugh out loud thinking about Scotty being all "there's nothin' wrong with the bloody thing!", and Captain Picard Day and the Doc and Seven singing 'You Are My Sunshine,' and Kira throwing her arms up in despair at Rom throwing the baseball, and Trip's obsession with designing the perfect captain's chair.
I just don't see scope for those kinds of warm character moments today. I hope I'm wrong (I usually am, so it'll probably be fine).
It's hard to see a place for traditional Trekkian humour in a 2017 action adventure. I still laugh out loud thinking about Scotty being all "there's nothin' wrong with the bloody thing!", and Captain Picard Day and the Doc and Seven singing 'You Are My Sunshine,' and Kira throwing her arms up in despair at Rom throwing the baseball, and Trip's obsession with designing the perfect captain's chair.
I just don't see scope for those kinds of warm character moments today. I hope I'm wrong (I usually am, so it'll probably be fine).
They'll have an explicit sex scene between two unjoined Trill that climaxes in...
"I bet you can't fit your whole head in my symbiont pouch."
Two girls, one Dax.
But in all seriousness, it would just be silly to go too 'adult'. A large part of Treks appeal lays in it being relatively family friendly. A good many of us came to Trek through parents, probably around 7 or 8 though we probably saw it and had some attachment to it far earlier. Fixing it so every episode is unsuitable for kids is a daft move. (Note, there is a difference between aimed at and suitable for.) CBS won't be able to depend on us aging whale fans for income forever....pester power puts toys on shelves and puts license money in pockets. To give an anecdotal example, Doctor Who under Capaldi has skewed higher...which means it's basically been given up in my house as anything other than a 'daddy might watch it later on iPlayer if he remembers'. Which means my little one isn't really wanting Doctor Who toys. Or books. (He's not even interested in the ones I probably started reading at his age...because Doctor Who isn't one of his things anymore. It was when he was about three. But not anymore.) Star Wars ...yep. Star Trek...what he can get yep. Now if it's wrong to frame it in terms of money...put it another way...cultural significance works better if it's accessible to a wider range of people who will live longer. There's no childhood nostalgia gonna happen for Chris Pine Kirk, because in today's climate there's no edited for TV, tape and watch it as a family audience. That model has changed so much, and now execs chase adult collectors rather than where fandom used to start.
I don't know. You may be underestimating the power of cable. The new movies are going to be running constantly on cable for today's kids, the way TOS played endlessly in syndication when I was a kid. And it's not like we watched TOS reruns as a family back in the day; it was just something that was always on TV, like Gilligan's Island, Bewitched, or Wild, Wild West, that the kids watched while the grown-ups were busy.
Somewhere as we speak, there's some kids watching INTO DARKNESS on cable for the umpteenth time while their folks are doing something else, or maybe watching their own shows on their own devices. And those kids are going to grow up with fond memories of watching Pine and Quinto and Saldana and the rest . . . .
(Meanwhile, I admit to being wryly amused that "taping" a movie is now regarded as childhood nostalgia. Trust me, there were no VCRs when I was a kid; you watched a show when it aired or not at all.)
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Yup. Time marches on. My five year finds my old VHS fascinatingly alien.
And your point about. Cable is true...but misses out that 'edited' nature. There used to be less violent cuts of films, or softened language, entire different scenes, that meant parents were OK with kids watching stuff. Or would watch stuff together. I wouldn't let my little one watch TWOK, or TSFS, because the only edits we have are the full versions... the versions I watched at his age were editted for TV. As it stands , there is no new Trek for the under tens...which is when I started.
Hmm. I was seven or so when TOS debuted, but I never remember my parents worrying that it was too intense for me. And maybe I'm wrong but it seems to me that the new Trek movies are no more violent or disturbing than the average sci-fi action movie, so would modern parents really worry about letting kids see them? It's "fantasy violence" as the movie ratings say.
Then again, my dad was a horror buff who practically raised on me on old monster movies, so I may have a skewed perspective here.
(I'm perversely proud of the fact that my littlest brother saw his first Boris Karloff movie when he was only eight days old, all because Mom and Dad left the baby alone with big brother for a few hours. "Here's your bottle; here's your burping blanket, that's THE MUMMY on TV.")
My parents drew the line at Laugh-In. SF and horror were fine, but not "adult" comedy. I used to sneak out to the hallway to secretly watch.Hmm. I was seven or so when TOS debuted, but I never remember my parents worrying that it was too intense for me. And maybe I'm wrong but it seems to me that the new Trek movies are no more violent or disturbing than the average sci-fi action movie, so would modern parents really worry about letting kids see them? It's "fantasy violence" as the movie ratings say.
Then again, my dad was a horror buff who practically raised on me on old monster movies, so I may have a skewed perspective here.
(I'm perversely proud of the fact that my littlest brother saw his first Boris Karloff movie when he was only eight days old, all because Mom and Dad left the baby alone with big brother for a few hours. "Here's your bottle; here's your burping blanket, that's THE MUMMY on TV.")
Maybe worse would be only occasional have "unsuitable for kids" and they never let it be known in advance when one of these special episodes is going to be on.
Be nice if they would have something on a website that told you "in the next episode at 17:35 there will be a unsuitable for children scene that will last for about 30 seconds."
My parents vetoed ROSEMARY'S BABY when I was nine, more for the sex than the scares. I remembered being disappointed at the time because . . . devil baby! (Chances are, though, I would have actually found the movie too slow and talky at that age.)
Later, the shoe was on the other foot and I've had to make all sorts of tricky judgment calls regarding various siblings, nieces, etc.
One time, a local revival house ran a double bill of HEATHERS and BLUE VELVET. I took my tween sister to the former, but drew the line at the latter: "Don't even think about it. We're leaving at intermission."
Some things that are suitable for some children might not be suitable for others.
I recall going to see Tommy when I was around 16, but also on the bill was a film called Friends, which featured a bit of nudity and sex.My parents vetoed ROSEMARY'S BABY when I was nine, more for the sex than the scares. I remembered being disappointed at the time because . . . devil baby! (Chances are, though, I would have actually found the movie too slow and talky at that age.)
Later, the shoe was on the other foot and I've had to make all sorts of tricky judgment calls regarding various siblings, nieces, etc.
One time, a local revival house ran a double bill of HEATHERS and BLUE VELVET. I took my tween sister to the former, but drew the line at the latter: "Don't even think about it. We're leaving at intermission."
I don't mind pre-viewing to check, but if I get three episodes in and find that basically it's all not, it's off the family viewing list. After that it's all dependent on whether I get time to watch it myself and if my Trek fandom keeps me watching if it starts just not great (same thing has happened to Doctor Who. Some weeks I forget it's even going to be on.) The joy of the old BBC showings is you could rely on it being editted suitably.
Yup. But a median approach would be good. Most of TNg is kid friendly, especially in SD, and you can dodge the heavies like Chain Of Command with a bit of forethought and a viewer discretion warning. Voyager is more iffy (thanks Braga) só you never know when you have to worry about vidians in people's faces or autopsied Borg drones front and centre.
Yep.
A well-meaning theater manager once tried to discourage my dad from letting my little sister see THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL. "Do you think this movie is suitable for a child her age?"
Dad: "She's read the book three times."
The manager conceded the point.
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