Would Star Trek Discovery have worked as an animated show?

[Paul755]

Animated is the way to go if your gonna do an anthology series. Especially if you want to do something with a character like Garak. I doubt Andrew Robinson at his age is up for a 10 hour day in the makeup chair. But a few hours in front of a microphone…

as for Discovery, I think it would work as an animated show but I don’t think the stories would be the same. There’s no way it could be a 1 for 1 translation. Just like a live action Lower Decks couldn’t be a 1 for 1.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

Animated is the way to go if your gonna do an anthology series. Especially if you want to do something with a character like Garak. I doubt Andrew Robinson at his age is up for a 10 hour day in the makeup chair. But a few hours in front of a microphone…

as for Discovery, I think it would work as an animated show but I don’t think the stories would be the same. There’s no way it could be a 1 for 1 translation. Just like a live action Lower Decks couldn’t be a 1 for 1.

Oh for sure but I was thinking of animation is good when you can show a species that you can't do in live action or even with CG or an event that just would be too expensive to film properly.

 

[Phoenix219]

Some animation is just plain amazing. Some of the DC animated movies, for instance, or the CGI Green Lantern show. I would love a TOS animated or CGI revival involving Shatner before its too late. Got a big kick out of the Adam West animated Batman movies too.

 

[dupersuper]

Trek doesn't work as an animated show.

So disagree. So very much.

 

[Richard S. Ta]

Trek doesn't work as an animated show.

Very hard disagree.

I'm self aware enough to realise that part of the problem is my general dislike of animated shows - I've tried (and failed) to like Clone Wars, Rebels and Marvel's What If - all animated entries in franchises I like.

There it is, and that's fair enough. It doesn't work for you.

 

[Relayer1]

Very hard disagree.

There it is, and that's fair enough. It doesn't work for you.

Everyone's experience is by it's nature subjective.

I'm not down on all animation - over the years I've very much enjoyed some animated movies - Disney and earlier Pixars especially. Despite some advance misgivings I enjoyed Spiderverse hugely.

The care, attention and quality of these are obviously higher than those possible for weekly TV and it shows. Putting aside the dire temptation to shoehorn a cute or funny robot/alien/animal into shows, even without them the shorter format and ability to cheaply portray more fantastical things almost inevitably leads to rushed plotting ans stuff sneaking in like The Ghosts Of Mortis into The Clone Wars, which in my opinion was just awful.

It's not inevitable but it seems to be the norm. I've not seen Prodigy and at least quite like the way it looks, but I have seen TAS, the animated Trek short and some of Lower Decks. Those to me cover all points between poor and absolute garbage. I'll reserve special loathing for the writing, performances and design/animation in Lower Decks.

What would you point to as evidence of animated Trek working ?

 

[Richard S. Ta]

What would you point to as evidence of animated Trek working ?

I’d point to me liking all of them, which means for me, they work.

I know you clarified later and as I said, fair enough, but your opening volley of “Trek doesn’t work as an animated show” hardly sounded subjective. That’s all I took issue with.

Maybe it doesn’t count for much, but in the general section there’s a thread to vote for your favourite current Trek show and Lower Decks is topping the vote. It must be working to do that.

As I said, all’s fair, you don’t enjoy quite a broad range of animation. For what it’s worth I also found ‘What If…?’ to be a bit ‘So What…?’ I just didn’t like the objective statement you led with.

 

[Relayer1]

I’d point to me liking all of them, which means for me, they work.

I know you clarified later and as I said, fair enough, but your opening volley of “Trek doesn’t work as an animated show” hardly sounded subjective. That’s all I took issue with.

Maybe it doesn’t count for much, but in the general section there’s a thread to vote for your favourite current Trek show and Lower Decks is topping the vote. It must be working to do that.

As I said, all’s fair, you don’t enjoy quite a broad range of animation. For what it’s worth I also found ‘What If…?’ to be a bit ‘So What…?’ I just didn’t like the objective statement you led with.

Fair comment, and I can't in any way disagree with your slam dunk first sentence.

I will add one thing though - my dislike of pretty much everything about Lower Decks would absolutely be mitigated should I find any of it funny. All other perceived shortcomings would become irrelevant, but sadly I don't find myself in the slightest degree amused.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

Fair comment, and I can't in any way disagree with your slam dunk first sentence.

I will add one thing though - my dislike of pretty much everything about Lower Decks would absolutely be mitigated should I find any of it funny. All other perceived shortcomings would become irrelevant, but sadly I don't find myself in the slightest degree amused.

I feel kind of the same. I mean I get they were wanting something different with Lower Decks but like you it didn't quite work for me, some nice ideas and visuals but overall it didn't hook me that's all.

 

[eschaton]

As others have pointed out, there are a certain proportion of adults who simply will not watch animation, due to it being for kids.

For example, Spider Man: Into The Spiderverse was easily the best Spider-Man movie ever made, and critically acclaimed by all. It still only grossed $190 million, which is the worst box office of any modern Spider-Man movie (even The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which was awful).

On the other hand, animation is much, much cheaper, which means you don't need a super-high box office to turn a profit.

I think the premise of Discovery could work in animation. However, the goal CBS had with Discovery was to revive the franchise with a new flagship show. They couldn't do this with animation, because too many people wouldn't take it seriously and wouldn't check it out.

 

[Relayer1]

As others have pointed out, there are a certain proportion of adults who simply will not watch animation, due to it being for kids.

They don't help themselves with that perception when, for instance, "What If" had a Captain America variant jumping from plane to plane and chucking vehicles around.

If you're shitting all over already established parameters and killing the suspension of disbelief in something as fantastical as the MCU you're already sunk.

Edit : or, in Trek terms, episode 6 "Terminal Provocations". The rogue shield core was using its cables as limbs - how the hell... ?

Don't worry about it, it's silly kids stuff, doesn't matter...

You can do pretty much anything you can animate in live action these days, but for some reason, animation gets a pass on that stuff. It exists in a different head space. It's animated, anything goes.

 

[dupersuper]

They don't help themselves with that perception when, for instance, "What If" had a Captain America variant jumping from plane to plane and chucking vehicles around.

If you're shitting all over already established parameters and killing the suspension of disbelief in something as fantastical as the MCU you're already sunk.

I don't think that shits over the premise at all: MCU Cap has always been stronger than comics Cap (comics = peak human, MCU = holding a helicopter down), and Peggy started from a much stronger, healthier baseline, and has more extensive combat training.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

I don't think that shits over the premise at all: MCU Cap has always been stronger than comics Cap (comics = peak human, MCU = holding a helicopter down), and Peggy started from a much stronger, healthier baseline, and has more extensive combat training.

Yeah but I don't care how strong a regular human is no way you can hold down a chopper... But then we have comic book science lol

 

[eschaton]

They don't help themselves with that perception when, for instance, "What If" had a Captain America variant jumping from plane to plane and chucking vehicles around.

If you're shitting all over already established parameters and killing the suspension of disbelief in something as fantastical as the MCU you're already sunk.

Edit : or, in Trek terms, episode 6 "Terminal Provocations". The rogue shield core was using its cables as limbs - how the hell... ?

Don't worry about it, it's silly kids stuff, doesn't matter...

You can do pretty much anything you can animate in live action these days, but for some reason, animation gets a pass on that stuff. It exists in a different head space. It's animated, anything goes.

Eh, I dunno man. I feel like the benefit of animation is that you can do things in it that wouldn't make sense in a live action show.

I mean, again, let's look at Into the Spiderverse. The core emotional beats of the movie - the origin story of Miles Morales - could have been told as effectively in a live-action Spider-Man movie. However, you couldn't have pulled off the comic sidekicks like Spider-Ham and Spider-Man Noir. You also couldn't have had the wild stylized visuals which made the movie so beautiful.

Of course, this isn't a defense of "Looney-Toons" style physics. Those are completely inappropriate in most stories.

I feel like What if...? was a big failure (worst of the MCU series TBH) because it's pretty clear there was no good reason for it to be animated. The only reason they chose that route is because they couldn't afford an anthology which brought back all the MCU actors (and some were recast with voice actors). They didn't really take advantage of the medium though - everything was represented onscreen in pretty much as close as they could get to a mainstream cartoon version of the MCU as possible. Which just made it feel cheap and shoddy...at least to me.

 

[Lord Garth]

I don't know enough about modern American cartoons to really say for sure. Not including Lower Decks or Prodigy. Based off those, DSC wouldn't be the same series if it were done like either of them. It would either be nothing but constant goofing (LD) or it would be aimed at kids (PRO). I happen to like Prodigy a lot, but that's not the way I see Discovery.

But if DSC were an Anime, I'd be all over that. I think DSC could survive, as it is, mostly intact.

 

[WarpTenLizard]

Only as an anime.

Love it or hate it, the only animation style that would fit the dark melodramatic tone would be an anime, of the sort aired at midnight in the 00s on Adult Swim. Not an insult, just an observation.

Actually, the more I think about it, "Discovery" might be better as an anime than as live action. The constant pausung the story to show two characters talking dramatically is frustrating for lice action, but expected for a dark anime.

 

[fireproof78]

Anime or the style of the MTV Spider-man series.

 

[Lord Garth]

MTV Spiderman? I'll have to look that up. I haven't watched MTV since the mid-'90s. Beavis & Butthead, The State, they had this one show called The MAXX that lasted for a hot minute, some actual music videos... Aeon Flux...

Good times.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

Charlize Theron did a live action version of Aeon Flux which was kind of bad.

 

[Lord Garth]

Charlize Theron did a live action version of Aeon Flux which was kind of bad.

I saw that. It's a guilty pleasure of mine.