Someone who actually knows merchandising tie-in’s in charge of them.

For a franchise that has the legacy of the ‘Spock helmet’ and the complete marketing miss on Moopsy, someone who actually has a clue about this business coming in the year before the 60th anniversary can only be seen as having upward potential.

At least, there’s some kind of planning this time.

But Rick Berman was still hassling Terry Farrell to get her to get breast enlargements.

Which is one of the reasons she left the show.

It’s my favourite season just for that.

Yes, there were a few great season one Enterprise episodes such as ‘The Andorian Incident’ directed by Roxann Dawson of Voyager and guest starring Jeffrey Coombs as Shran but it was the fourth season that truly redeemed the show.

It was your assertion that ‘if you’re a fan of older Star Trek’, someone would share your view that irked me.

There’s a lot of older fans that don’t dislike the new shows. We just aren’t feeling the need to caution other older viewers about the new shows.

I felt that way about Voyager at one time.

Watched the episodes once as they came out but wasn’t seeking to rewatch.

But then our kids came along, hit their preteens, and for them Voyager reruns on cable was ‘their Star Trek.’

I watched Voyager more with them during their preteens and early teens than I did during its first run.

And I can say that it DOES stand up to rewatch. More, it has many ‘best of trope’ episodes.

I think perhaps it was Voyager’s unevenness in quality across the entire run or, perhaps fatigue from hundreds of episodes of TNG and DS9 rewatched immediately after they were broadcast, that led me to not appreciate Voyager as much initially.

All to say, I was very wrong about Voyager’s rewatch value, and perhaps many crusty 90s Trek fans are wrong about Discovery too.

Speak for yourself.

I’ve been watching since 1967 and happily watched all five seasons of Discovery as they came out.

I’ve also rewatched them all with other members of our household.

I’ve definitely watched Discovery more times than Enterprise.

I agree Discovery over Enterprise.

It’s hard to hold up the show that showed our first hero captain in the franchise not only condoning but choosing torture as an alternative as being ‘more optimistic’ or ‘more in line with Star Trek’s aspirational vision.’

Then there’s its sharp retrograde to bro culture.

BTW I’m almost as longtime a fan as possible.

My first episode was TOS ‘Devil in the Dark’ on the day it first broadcast in Canada in early 1967.

Since then, I have seen every episode in first run the week it aired EXCEPT when Enterprise went off the rails after 9/11, trying to be an apologia for the appalling reaction of the US which suddenly condoned torture and violations of the international rules based order.

I really find this narrative offensive.

First there’s the mischaracterization of a very young and completely dependent who child completely abandoned with the death of the last adult who cared or supported him.

But more than that, Star Trek is littered with a trope about children with incredible powers to interact with the universe who nearly destroy the galaxy or civilizations or large swaths of them.

It started with Charlie X, and was taken up by every other series, sometimes more than once.

On all those other occasions, our hero ship and crew miraculously saved the day and prevented disaster by psychic or superpowered child who was incapable of adult decision-making.

Discovery called the bluff.

Discovery reversed the trope, had the child’s powers actually destroy civilization.

Instead of the hero crew stopping the disaster in the nick of time (again), Discovery finds the child and solves the problem.

And long time fans are offended by THAT?!!

[-] StillPaisleyCat@startrek.website 7 points 5 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Discovery is fine overall.

It may not be everyone’s favourite Trek but NO SINGLE SHOW IS EVERYONE’S FAVOURITE.

I’m stooping to yelling because, looking at it as someone who saw TOS in first run, it really can’t be stressed enough that there needs to be new Trek for every generation.

I didn’t expect that our GenZ kids would like Voyager best of the older shows.

And yes, for one of our GenZs, Discovery season one is ‘the best season of Trek’ ever. They have rewatched all the seasons of the show more than I have.

Discovery season 5 was fine in my view. I wasn’t fond of the series epilogue tacked on to the finale.

Season 4 of Discovery has a better premise and structure than Picard season 2 but both seem to suffer terribly from being shot under COVID restrictions. Other shows managed to write around the limitations without such stilted and drawn own scenes. I don’t know what Paramount instructed its writers teams be it’s boggling to see these seasons against the rest now.

10

Lots of interesting comments in the interview.

One that stood out to me:

The Duffers emphasized that they don’t plan on becoming prolific producers of a large stable of shows and films. “We don’t want to become like Bad Robot,” Matt Duffer said, name checking J.J. Abrams’ production company. “Ross and I are incapable of juggling that many things.”

7

“Media conglomerate putting together majority cash offer for WBD backed by ultra-rich Ellison family, reports say”

The Wall Street Journal, this Guardian article and other business news media are reporting that the rumoured Warner Brothers - Paramount merger is back under consideration — this time with the deep pockets of the Ellisons.

One can see it as a worthwhile investment for the Ellisons regardless whether the motivation is acquiring IP or media control.

Disquieting for Star Trek franchise fans nonetheless.

39

Treklit has some great offerings. The Relaunch universe books in particular developed coherent serialized storylines and a group of strong authors. There is also a deep library of standalone books from across all eras of the franchise.

By contrast, serialized Star Trek is struggling onscreen. Of the current era, only Prodigy has excelled in serialized storytelling.

So, why not look to the books? Not just to lift an idea like Control or the end of the Borg, but to actually tell a coherent narrative across a season or season?

On Netflix, Prime and Apple, it’s become established that successful streaming shows are often based on novels and novel series. Those streamers have come to understand that novelists, not scriptwriters, excel in laying out long form storytelling, and resources are often better put in having the screenwriters adapt than create from the whole cloth.

Reading a recent interview with Mick Herron, author of the critically acclaimed and popular Slow Horses on Apple, with a second show based on his other books launching this fall, I was struck by the interviewer’s assertion of this truism.

I thought about several of the non franchise shows I enjoy and how many of them are more or less faithful adaptations of books.

I was also struck by the thought that both Skydance and Paramount are quite capable of producing excellent book adaptations for Netflix and Apple. Murderbot is a very current example.

So, what’s holding back Star Trek from exploiting the Vanguard series or the Starfleet Core of Engineers books?

Why insist on giving showrunners resources to keep retelling franchise stories with legacy characters and tropes?

Why not exploit that IP that Paramount already owns by adapting the best of decades of TrekLit?

35
submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by StillPaisleyCat@startrek.website to c/startrek@startrek.website

During a panel with Picard season three showrunner Terry Matalas and Todd Stashwick (Shaw), were questioned about a ‘30-page outline’ for the Star Trek Legacy concept.

Reportedly, Michelle Hurd (Raffi) mentioned this during an earlier panel.

It sounds as though there’s nothing new in terms of interest from the executives about the concept, just fan interest and an ongoing campaign. Matalas and Stashwick are focused on the upcoming Marvel limited series Vision Quest in which Stashwick stars as the Paladin.

What’s interesting to me is that the more I hear about Matalas original pitch, the more I dislike. Matalas confirmed that it would have a Klingon focus.

While I loved the deep dives into Klingon lore in the 90s, I would prefer something new in the 25th century even a show featuring legacy characters.

As well, Matalas confirmed that they proposed that Shaw would a holographic recreation rather than revived by Borg nanites. We don’t need another grumpy hologram now that the Doctor is back in both Prodigy and Starfleet Academy.

I would find Shaw’s journey as a victim of the Borg with survivor guild to someone who accepts that his own life depends on Borg technology as much more interesting, compelling and new ground in terms of a character arc.

Edited to correct Michelle Hurd’s family name…

4

Variety reports that “Brian Robbins Calls Paramount-Skydance Merger ‘Bittersweet’ in Memo to Staff Amid His Exit as Co-CEO”

David Ellison, the founder of Skydance, will become chairman and CEO of Paramount. Andy Gordon, who leads the West Coast office of RedBird Capital Partners, is set to take the role of chief operating officer and chief strategic officer. RedBird teamed with Skydance to acquire Paramount Global for $8.5 billion.

Looking at how Paramount, since 2021, has failed to deliver on a new Star Trek movie, arguably wound down three successful shows prematurely, it’s difficult to see that this leadership team has done well by the franchise.

Looking at the apparent expeditious compromises Paramount leadership and Shari Redstone were willing to make to clear the way for the sale, I’m willing to look forward to see what comes next.

3
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by StillPaisleyCat@startrek.website to c/startrekonline@startrek.website

We picked up some good deals from the promotion this week.

34

Several Star Trek licensed games are on Steam, now at a significantly discounted price for the annual Star Trek Day celebration.

These include the MMP Star Trek Online, but also single player games Star Trek Bridge Crew and Star Trek Resurgence (a choose your own path role play game).

We’d waited until Resurgence came to Steam, because we did want to buy it from Epic, but decided to be even more patient and wait for a sale so we could get it for our teens as well. I’ve been playing in parallel with one of our teens and debating the impacts of our very different choices.

I have had Bridge Crew since 2022, but we got copies for the teens yesterday. One is into it. It requires running an Ubisoft account synched to Steam which can be annoying, but otherwise G2G.

17

Having reached my exasperation on the total lack of information from Bell Media on a Canadian release, I asked @GoodAaron@mastodon.social if he or the Hagemans could share any information. Here is his reply on Mastodon.

It’s great to have EPs who will engage with us.

I’m still gearing up my recipes for a Star Trek Prodigy Soirée for the premiere!

In case you haven’t seen this, CBS entertainment sponsored a social media influencer to develop watch party ideas for the Prodigy Season 1 finale Supernova Soirée .

I’ve been experimenting and building on some of these ideas for the premiere of season two. One of Canada’s favourite ice cream brands has this interesting suggestion for A triple-berry yogurt sorbet float punch that seems very Star Trek Prodigy themed.

14

More departures of former Viacom senior executives from Paramount Global in the wake of Baklish’s firing.

17

The Directors Guild of Canada (Ontario) ‘Hot List’ compilation of Ontario-based production information has been updated with a new CBS Studios show ‘Ivory Tower’ to begin Accounting & Art Department preproduction in March.

75

While all TAS episodes had some kind of moral lesson, S1 E10 was an outright criticism of substance use.

M’Ress and Scotty, unwittingly exposed, end up enamoured then incensed with one another. One is never sure how different that is from a Caitian’s usual romantic style.

Chapel comes off badly in this one. As Spock puts it “A few moments of love, paid for with several hours of hatred.” It’s all the more poignant given SNW’s deepening of their backstory.

109
Thank you, Lucy! (startrek.website)
[-] StillPaisleyCat@startrek.website 52 points 2 years ago

There’s still very low understanding of how devastating and threatening the convoy protests were for the residents and businesses in the core of Ottawa.

Residents, businesses and people who work downtown in Ottawa roll with protests day-in and out. Large ones usually are usually respectful of the legal limits, and local people know how to plan their days to avoid them if they need to.

This protest damaged hearing with unremitting high decibel air horns, polluted the air with weeks of nonstop truck emissions, actively harassed, intimidated and threatened local residents trying to get to work and essential services, filled the streets with garbage and feces.

They also created significant fire hazards and risked major explosions, including by creating a large stash of gasoline in tanks in Confederation Park - directly across the street from city hall, an armoury, and close to a high school as well as right across the narrow Rideau canal from National Defence headquarters.

But it was the utter lack of consideration for the most vulnerable that truly showed the incredible selfishness and lack of compassion of the protesters.

There are many lower income, disabled and senior residents in coop apartments downtown. Many rely on visiting services from care workers who could not get through the protests on most days. A small proportion had family and friends who were able to host them outside the area of the protests, most were trapped, isolated and terrorized.

view more: next ›

StillPaisleyCat

joined 2 years ago