Would you listen to Big Finish produced trek?

[JD]

About as likely as remastering DS9 and Voyager?

I still wish they would just crowdfund that. I swear the entire remastering project would be covered within a day.

I'm sure it would take a lot longer than that to do the kind of deep, full remasters they do for these kind of projects. I'm pretty sure they spent at least months or years working on the remaster of The Original Series and The Next Generdation. And I think it gets more complicated when you start dealing with CGI effects like you will in the later seasons of Deep Space Nine and Voyager.

Although it seems that Khan is not produced by CBS, but by Secret Hideout, Roddenberry Productions, and the podcast producers, under license from CBS, of course.

Since it's not directly from CBS, that would essentially make it a licensed production like any other tie-in; although since it's from the other co-producers of the TV shows, the studio CBS subcontracts to make them, I'd say the closest analogy would be something like Sony's non-Spider-Man Marvel movies like Venom or Morbius, something from the licensed subcontractor without the direct participation of the owner. Either that or TAS before Paramount acquired ownership of it, when it was a production of Filmation Associates and Norway Corporation that was simply distributed by Paramount, which is part of the reason Paramount was cagey about acknowledging it back then.

I thought CBS's podcast studio was one of the producers?

My expectation would be that it's not canonical, or at best is canon-adjacent. But I hardly see how it matters, since I doubt any future canonical work is likely to cover or address the same subject matter and either affirm or contradict it. Of course, canon works are always free to borrow ideas from non-canonical tie-ins, like Star Wars has done with a bunch of characters, planets, and species from the old Expanded Universe. And conversely, canon works are always free to contradict previous canon, like how TNG and Voyager ignored how quickly the Enterprise was able to reach the galactic center in ST V. So really, whether something is canon or not has no real impact one way or the other.

Wouldn't the fact that it is produced includes all of the major producers from the modern shows pretty much put it on the same level as them?

I have a similar concern. They've done some good stuff, but they do seem to prioritize quantity over quality.

Also, I suppose it might be harder for a British production to get hold of enough Trek actors who live and work in North America.

I'm really enjoying Khan, so suddenly pushing future podcasts over to Big Finish just seems like an unnecessary complication.

Khan only has two screen actors and an otherwise new cast, but future audios might make more use of returning regulars. I wondered if maybe they might want to limit the number of regulars they use for reasons of budget, but Naveen Andrews and Wrenn Schmidt are pretty high-profile actors.

I'm not sure what you mean by this, I checked Wikipedi and IMDB, and almost ever actor who plays a named character has dozens of live action screen credits to their name. Zuri Whashinton who plays Madot has the least live action credits with just 1, and at the other extreme, Ivan actor Maury Sterling has 119. Or do you just mean Star Trek actors?

 

[Zarm]

I'm sure it would take a lot longer than that to do the kind of deep, full remasters they do for these kind of projects. I'm pretty sure they spent at least months or years working on the remaster of The Original Series and The Next Generdation. And I think it gets more complicated when you start dealing with CGI effects like you will in the later seasons of Deep Space Nine and Voyager.

'Covered' as in 'funded'. As quickly as the Voyager 'To the Journey' doc was funded, and as much as it exceeded It's gold, I have no doubt that Star Trek fans worldwide with band together and cover the often-sided costs of the remastering project in record time.

I'm aware that the actual work would take much longer. I'm just saying that I feel like if they gave Star Trek fans worldwide the opportunity to contribute to Deep Space nine being remastered, even prohibitive costs would be raised within 24 hours of the campaign going live. Which would remove the one major barrier that is always cited to why they don't attempt the project. (Logistics of CGI and everything else aside, as there have been answers for those objections).

I'm aware that from a legal point of view, that will probably never happen. It's just frustrating because the demand is there, and I truly do think the funding would be there. It's just paramount unwilling to go that route, but also I'm willing to pony up the money themselves to undertake a project that is clearly quite necessary.

 

[kaj21206]

I'd be interested in an audio series either by Big Finish or anyone else. I've listened to the first two Khan episodes so far so good. Maybe we could get Shatner and Takei to do an adventure set during TOS. Just have them record their parts separately.

 

[JD]

With so few of the original TOS actors left, it just wouldn't hold that much appeal to me.
If they were going to do TV series stories with the original casts, I'd much rather see actors from DS9, Voyager or Enterprise.

'Covered' as in 'funded'. As quickly as the Voyager 'To the Journey' doc was funded, and as much as it exceeded It's gold, I have no doubt that Star Trek fans worldwide with band together and cover the often-sided costs of the remastering project in record time.

I'm aware that the actual work would take much longer. I'm just saying that I feel like if they gave Star Trek fans worldwide the opportunity to contribute to Deep Space nine being remastered, even prohibitive costs would be raised within 24 hours of the campaign going live. Which would remove the one major barrier that is always cited to why they don't attempt the project. (Logistics of CGI and everything else aside, as there have been answers for those objections).

I'm aware that from a legal point of view, that will probably never happen. It's just frustrating because the demand is there, and I truly do think the funding would be there. It's just paramount unwilling to go that route, but also I'm willing to pony up the money themselves to undertake a project that is clearly quite necessary.

Oh, my mistake. In this case, I do agree with you, they could definitely crowd fund for those remasters in no time.

 

[Christopher]

I thought CBS's podcast studio was one of the producers?

Oh, was it? I didn't know that. I heard them saying "Eye Podcast Productions," but I thought it might be "I Podcast Productions," so I didn't make the connection to the CBS eye logo. I guess I was wrong, then.

Wouldn't the fact that it is produced includes all of the major producers from the modern shows pretty much put it on the same level as them?

Not necessarily. Lucasfilm produced Genndy Tartakovsky's Star Wars: Clone Wars animated shorts, but still felt free to contradict them with Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Marvel Studios produced the Agent Carter short film, but that didn't stop the Agent Carter TV series from contradicting it. A side production with a niche audience is generally considered supplemental or secondary even if it's from the original production company.

On the other hand, the main Secret Hideout Trek productions have largely treated Short Treks as canonical. So maybe they'll consider Khan that way as well. Although, again, I doubt the specifics of what happened on Ceti Alpha V are likely to be relevant to any future screen story, so it's probably an academic question, at least where this audio is concerned.

I'm really enjoying Khan, so suddenly pushing future podcasts over to Big Finish just seems like an unnecessary complication.

And unlikely to happen. As long as CBS/Eye is making its own audio dramas, I doubt they'd sell the audio license to anyone else.

I'm not sure what you mean by this, I checked Wikipedi and IMDB, and almost ever actor who plays a named character has dozens of live action screen credits to their name.

I was talking about Star Trek screen actors specifically, as the rest of the paragraph makes clear. I meant that Takei and Russ are the only veteran Star Trek cast members to appear in this one. I was continuing the point that it would probably make more sense logistically to keep Trek audio production in North America for the sake of actor availability, presuming that future audios want to use more veteran Trek actors reprising their characters, as opposed to new or recast characters.

 

[Zarm]

One of the approaches Big Finish took with Stargate (that I think could work well) was to do a sort of hybrid audiobook- one main actor (say, Walter Koenig, Nana Visitor, Conor Trineer, whoever...) doing a first-person narration, as if recounting an event that occurred to them. But then the most significant second role that the character interacted with is also cast, so that there is a second voice- while all other characters are simply the narrator's impressions of them, audiobook style.

I suspect it was partly done to keep actor costs down. But I think that kind of approach could be used to tell a story in an era where not all cast members are no longer with us. And it could also be a great way (as Stargate did) to focus on some of the less-main characters. Have Joe Carrey telling a story about an unseen crises on Voyager where he had to step up and serve as chief engineer with B'elanna indisposed. Let Barclay narrate his own trying academy days. Crewman Cutler talks about her first away mission with Captain Archer. And so on.

 

[Avro Arrow]

I personally wouldn't mind seeing something along the lines of a recurring series with no previously-established characters at all: an entirely new crew, akin to Vanguard or Seekers. I like it when things are expanded beyond just the shows. But I admit that would be a harder sell generally, since a lot of fans seem to really only be interested in more adventures of the characters they are already familiar with from TV/streaming.

(But as mentioned by others above, I see no reason why it would have to specifically be Big Finish doing it.)