Could the popular book series have been a successful show???
Would New Frontier Have Been Good as a Show??
- Thread starter Nine of Four
- Start date
I vote yes. An irreverent Star Trek series would have been great.
Peter David himself said many times that he didn't want "New Frontier" to go to TV because any such show is the work of a committee and the writer has to start compromising. It was created to work as novels. PAD was also quite critical of attempts at illustrating his characters, especially Kebron, in the Starfleet Academy YA stories, and on covers, and worked with the comic artists to get things right.
PAD also purposely added actresses he really liked, whose indelible characters were no longer being used by the live-action franchise (Shelby, Lefler and Selar), another character who only works if she's a dead ringer for a young Majel Barrett, plus aliens deliberately described so as to be very difficult to achieve in live action (Kebron, Janos). And later, he even adds Filmation's Arex and M'Ress to the mix.
So, while "New Frontier" might made a cool animated series, it was conceived as a series of novels and the creator preferred it that way.
PAD also purposely added actresses he really liked, whose indelible characters were no longer being used by the live-action franchise (Shelby, Lefler and Selar), another character who only works if she's a dead ringer for a young Majel Barrett, plus aliens deliberately described so as to be very difficult to achieve in live action (Kebron, Janos). And later, he even adds Filmation's Arex and M'Ress to the mix.
So, while "New Frontier" might made a cool animated series, it was conceived as a series of novels and the creator preferred it that way.
Never said it wasn't fun to think about, but it is a rather fruitless exercise. I can picture it in my head as I read his books, and that's fine with me.
Would we be satisfied with new actresses reinterpreting Shelby, Lefler or Selar, or the originals attempting to play younger? Would a Baldwin brother or Joe Flanigan agree to play Calhoun? Could they afford the CGI for Kebron, Janos, Arex and M'Ress...?
Nah. Don't get your hopes up.
Not sure why this would be a problem in and of itself, since we've accepted new actors reinterpreting Kirk, Spock, McCoy, etc...
Forget I spoke.
Roll on the "New Frontier" series whether PAD likes it or not.
My point was that PAD liked these characters because of the actresses playing the roles, IIRC.
I voted yes, I've loved the series of books since the beginning. Not all stories have been great but the characters have always been fascinating to me. Could have been interesting to see on screen versions, I agree Showtime could have been the place to really portray the crew correctly.
Oh, I agree with you that there will never actually be a New Frontier TV series. I just didn't think this particular point would be that much of an issue with fandom at large (I assume that's the "we" you refer to), since we've seen the entire main cast of TOS recast, and honestly, Shelby, Lefler and Selar have each appeared in two episodes at most.
Well, insofar as fandom at large accepts any change, anyway.
Where were you when they switched Saaviks?
Not to mention the resistance by some to the Bad Robot actors. And Khaaaaaaaaaaan!
Where were you when they switched Saaviks?
I was too young and not a Trek fan at the time, so I missed out on whatever rage might have engulfed fandom with that one.
Because of this, sadly, although TWOK is my favourite ST movie, I have never seen it in a theatre. Well, until I watched Into Darkness, anyway!
[ducks & covers]
To me, NF was unique in a lot of ways, not all of them good. The points that worked against it for me personally, was the sometimes comicbook-like approach to dialogue, events and characters. Especially 'evil' characters. It all felt very much unlike Star Trek for me, and it's the main reasons I stopped reading after a while. And I don't think that type of dialogue and events (giant flaming birds cracking open planets like they are eggs??) will work on a tv show. Maybe if it were a new Animated Series....?
It does indeed. I didn't like the change myself, but never approached a rage mode about it.
On topic, the more I think about it I do believe an animated series would be better for New Frontier.
Speaking about Peter David, would a creator have more input on an animated series then they would on a live action series?
I think a lot of the responses here are missing the OP's question: Would New Frontier have been good as a show? I took the question to imply that this New Frontier TV show would debut at the same time the novel series did, in the nineties, not could it work now. That means no need for recasting (let's assume the original actors would be keen to reprise their roles) and no affordable TV CGI effects for characters (Kebron would be a dude in a suit -- think Chiklis as the Thing).
Would they be able to tell the exact same stories as the novels? Nope. What works as a novel story doesn't necessarily work as a TV story and vice versa, but I think most of the novels' storylines could work as story arcs sewn into seasons of the show. Mostly.
Would it still be Peter David's baby, with most of the decisions stemming from him and his imagination? Absolutely not; TV shows have writing staffs and network execs to over think every minute detail. As a showrunner, he could still set the tone and style of the show.
Would we see M'Ress and Arex on the show, given its limitations? Possibly; they may have to be Farscape-d but they could work.
As long as they kept the same characters and tone of the novels, I think -- despite all of the differences I mentioned -- a Star Trek: New Frontier TV show would have been good and worth watching.
Would they be able to tell the exact same stories as the novels? Nope. What works as a novel story doesn't necessarily work as a TV story and vice versa, but I think most of the novels' storylines could work as story arcs sewn into seasons of the show. Mostly.
Would it still be Peter David's baby, with most of the decisions stemming from him and his imagination? Absolutely not; TV shows have writing staffs and network execs to over think every minute detail. As a showrunner, he could still set the tone and style of the show.
Would we see M'Ress and Arex on the show, given its limitations? Possibly; they may have to be Farscape-d but they could work.
As long as they kept the same characters and tone of the novels, I think -- despite all of the differences I mentioned -- a Star Trek: New Frontier TV show would have been good and worth watching.
I think a New Frontier show could've worked. I mean, there would have to be some changes made from the books, but for the most part I think it could've been a fun addition to live-action Trek.
The changes I would've liked made is developing some of the adversarial species up more, like The Redeemers. Also not having Spock in the stories so much.
The changes I would've liked made is developing some of the adversarial species up more, like The Redeemers. Also not having Spock in the stories so much.
Ha! Priceless. You win this round, Therin of Andor! [shakes fist]
The funny/sad part is, the same night I posted that, I also posted a little mini-rant against the Greg Jein Constitution registries in the Tech Forum. Since "The Case of Jonathan Doe Starship" was published in [checks online] 1973 (
), I guess I have absolutely no room to talk! 
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