Star Trek Discovery

[BurnEverythingG]

Looks like CBS is putting together their own type of Hulu service and the very first original show for this is a new Star Trek TV show. Thoughts?

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/liv...s-works-828638

[The Tatterdemalion King]

It will be terrible.

[C5]

I fear this series would either happen in the Abramsverse and/or be full of grittiness and unlikeable characters plotting against each other, because that's the way series are supposed to be now.
I can understand why people would like it if it was, but in my case, this would be an instant repellant.
It could also be a bland copy/paste of ENT/VOY, two series I actually liked, but I agree Trek needs to do something new. However in that case I'd probably be at least able to watch it.

[Huckleberry]

I fear this series would either happen in the Abramsverse and/or be full of grittiness and unlikeable characters plotting against each other, because that's the way series are supposed to be now.

I think the big money-maker model is, for TV series anyway, a group of conflicted people have long talks about how they feel about things. And somewhere in there, someone has a fight about something. I think a Star Trek show in that vein would be...hilarious?

It could also be a bland copy/paste of ENT/VOY, two series I actually liked, but I agree Trek needs to do something new.

The sad thing is that ST:ENT was their golden opportunity to do something new. We should have seen not merely the events leading up to the formation of Coalition of Planets/Federation of Planets but the formation of Starfleet itself, with (relatively) primitive ships and a quadrant of space known to Humanity only secondhand. And, damn it, the Earth-Romulan war. Instead we got ST:TNG all over again, with phasers and renamed shields and a temporal war and a bunch of stuff that just didn't have any place in the mid 2150's. And we got Starfleet, where Starfleet shouldn't have been.

We should have got the astronauts that dared the galaxy to find Humanity's place in it. Those brave astronaut/explorers that Starfleet and the Federation of Planets, once they actually existed, looked back on as their heroes. We should have got a Captain Kirk. And don't get me wrong, I'm one of those that thinks ST:ENT was a decent enough Star Trek show, it just wasn't what it should have been. Which is to say, a pre-Star Trek story.

I probably sound a little bit bitter and more than a little cynical. But that's why I expect to be underwhelmed by this new ST series. There's a reason I'm on my third Star Trek RPG campaign and already have a rough sketch of a fourth, just in case. We like our stories better.

[WaveMan]

I fear this series would either happen in the Abramsverse and/or be full of grittiness and unlikeable characters plotting against each other, because that's the way series are supposed to be now.

this is my fear as well, I wonder which period of Trek it will focus on Enterprise, TOS or TNG/Voy/DS-9? That being said there is no new Trek coming out so we have to suffer what ever is produced.

[Huckleberry]

this is my fear as well, I wonder which period of Trek it will focus on Enterprise, TOS or TNG/Voy/DS-9? That being said there is no new Trek coming out so we have to suffer what ever is produced.

That's a point worth considering right there. The assumption that it would be one of those periods. That's probably because it's all been covered and there's no new ground without breaking new ground.

If you want to be insanely bold...revamp the whole thing from the very start. My fourth Star Trek RPG, if I have a fourth campaign, will do exactly that. In that campaign setting, the Romulan Star Empire "wins" the temporal war by doing what any Romulan Star Empire of the distant future would do. They send an Omega particle bomb back in time to 1957. Boom...no more subspace warp or communication in that whole sector. Maybe even the surrounding sectors, if you sent a big enough bomb or more than one bomb. And you can forget all about any "Federation".

Let's say the warp engines the Romulans of that time (the 1950's) use doesn't rely on subspace. Now you have the Romulans as the only ones with FTL, whole colonies cut off from their home planets, starships stuck between the stars stuck at sublight speeds, etc. And you have (with the events of ST:ENT Carbon Creek) Vulcans stuck on Earth, with a whole starship's worth more (the ones sent to rescue them) arriving a few years later.

Humanity is forced to deal with aliens stranded in the Sol system (Vulcans, no less), forced to create a new FTL engine (say, the stutterwarp, stolen from 2300AD rpg) and forced to come up with a new FTL communications system (quantum entanglement comm). And they accomplish all of this through Vulcan's superior intellect and Human's superior ingenuity, working together.

Their mission? To boldly deliver QEC transceivers to the Vulcans, Andorian, Tellaries and all the other locals who'll one day form the Federation of Planets, with the Romulans the only other FTL capable species. To try to bring back the galactic community that existed before the Omega event. Plenty of colonies and sublight vessels to encounter, decades after the Omega bomb(s) detonated. The same Star Trek species to encounter, having been suddenly confined to their individual star systems for decades. And Romulans as the go-to bad guys.

A Star Trek universe that formed in the decades (or centuries) following the Omega event could take any shape you like. You needn't be afraid of modern future technology or modern social issues. This setting could easily still be Star Trek with all of that. And you wouldn't have to butcher the Star Trek universe any more than Abrams did.

[WaveMan]

my Khan Ascendant also delivers a another variation on the Trek universe, which postulates as to what would happen if the Augments don't loose WWIII and lead Earth into the future (how I see it as actually going in real life)

http://forum.trek-rpg.net/showthread...Khan-Ascendant

You are right Huckleberry, there is plenty of room outside the established timeline to set a series, particularly after the 25th century.

[Huckleberry]

my Khan Ascendant also delivers a another variation on the Trek universe, which postulates as to what would happen if the Augments don't loose WWIII and lead Earth into the future (how I see it as actually going in real life)

http://forum.trek-rpg.net/showthread...Khan-Ascendant

You are right Huckleberry, there is plenty of room outside the established timeline to set a series, particularly after the 25th century.

See, that's the thing. If we can revamp Star Trek for fun, then all those folks who make a living writing this stuff it have no excuse.

[Derf Evol]

My guess is that the new series will be set in the same universe as the Abrams movies, but it will most likely feature a new ship and a new cast. Sort of like Agents of SHIELD's relationship to the overall Marvel cinematic universe. And that's fine with me. If they find some good writers and a good cast, there's no reason they can't tell some compelling stories under those circumstances. I also applaud the idea of making the show available through a streaming service. It's a show about the future after all. CBS can count on my $6 a month, at least as long as the series runs...

[Cpt. Lundgren]

Without any information, it could go in any direction. But a TV-show producer don't have the same funds to cover up bad writing with shiny special effects, and both have more time to develop the story and a need to fill up the time.

So... until I have more information I will remain carefully optimistic. But, that is mainly because I find it to be more fun to be optimistic than pessimistic.

[Huckleberry]

I admit that I can't help but hope. Star Trek as a TV series really, really needs a win. I would love for this to be it, even if that means I'm surprised out of pessimism. So, yeah, here's hoping.

[spshu]

Looks like CBS is putting together their own type of Hulu service and the very first original show for this is a new Star Trek TV show. Thoughts?

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/liv...s-works-828638

CBS All Access is currently operational (with a 1 week trial now available) with past Star Trek series episodes already available. Early this year the CW network president indicated that he was interest in having Star Trek on his network.

My guess is that the new series will be set in the same universe as the Abrams movies, but it will most likely feature a new ship and a new cast. Sort of like Agents of SHIELD's relationship to the overall Marvel cinematic universe. And that's fine with me. If they find some good writers and a good cast, there's no reason they can't tell some compelling stories under those circumstances. I also applaud the idea of making the show available through a streaming service. It's a show about the future after all. CBS can count on my $6 a month, at least as long as the series runs...

this is my fear as well, I wonder which period of Trek it will focus on Enterprise, TOS or TNG/Voy/DS-9? That being said there is no new Trek coming out so we have to suffer what ever is produced.

It will not be in the same universe as the current Paramount film series. As Wired.com in "Weirdly, the New Star Trek Series Isn’t Tied to the Movies": "It also could be an indication that Trek movies and TV will forever be separate following CBS’ split from Viacom in 2006 (Viacom owns Paramount, which holds the film rights)."

It is such that Paramount has the DreamWorks "Galaxy Quest" movie that spoofed Star Trek in development as a TV show. So we could have two "Trek" TV shows being made.

[Tricky]

Why am I more excited for a Galaxy Quest series than a new Trek?

So, that being said, what could we see in a new Trek series, and what would we want?

I'd imagine that left to their own devices, the producers of this show would look around what other cable dramas are doing and emulate that (god, I hope we don't have a Vulcan science instructor discovering he has Bendii Syndrome and starts creating "warp krystals" with the help of a Ferengi). We'd get a show like Star Trek: Renegades; a crew of misfits with their own agendas that fight amongst themselves while solving an over arching plot. Not original, not really all that Trek, but it might be fun to see the underbelly of the Star Trek universe.

If I had to make the show, I'd get back to what made the show great: stories of exploration that examined our culture through the lens of sci-fi. For an era, I'd chose the "Lost Era": the period of time between the TOS and TNG. And no shoehorning in stuff like the Borg and things that haven't happened yet just to get fan/viewer interest up. There's plenty of stuff in there already to make compelling stories: First contact with the Betazoids and their telepathy might create story themes like privacy and survailence. The Cardassians and the looming war could create any number of themes of our own war torn reality.

[WaveMan]

Why am I more excited for a Galaxy Quest series than a new Trek?

Lol, sounds good, I loved Galaxy Quest.

The problem I see if a new series is done in any time that has already been done (so from Enterprise to Voyager/DS-9) you will invariably get 're-writing' of established canon. I always wish for a future Trek series, set well past the 24th century, so that the potential for re-writing is minimized and writers can advance the technology (for me Technology is always a big draw). Though it would probably be very unpopular here I do wish they did drag Trek in line with current trending and future predictions as well, but that may be too much to hope for.

[Easterner]

It will almost certainly drown in its own Political Correctness.