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Straczynski Offers To Re-Boot Star Trek [updated]
EvilMagnus writes "I just came across this thread over on usenet where J. Michael Straczynski, creator of Babylon 5 and Jeremiah, talks about the cancellation of Enterprise. It seems he and a collaborator have already written a series bible and treatment for a new version of Star Trek - but it's not been pitched to Paramount out of 'political considerations' (Berman refusing to give up his dead horse?). JMS calls for everyone who thinks a JMS-run Star Trek series would be a good idea to write Paramount and let them know." Along similar lines, yonnage writes "Last week there was an article posted here about Enterprise fans atempting to pay for the next season of Enterprise. It seems that all the efforts have been pulled together and a new website has been created and has started collecting contributions for Enterprise's next season." Update: 02/16 19:47 GMT by T : Read the rest of the thread to see JMS's followup; he's decided to at least postpone this endeavor.
OTOH, I liked much of Babylon 5 and prefer it over Enterprise (but not anything that really has Star Trek in its name). I think he would certainly be able to do a good job.
It's Berman's fault the series on TV is as stale as it is. Proof is that some of the ST novels are tremendously well-written, proving their are plenty of new, fresh, and quality stories left to tell in the final frontier.
Of the best, are the DS9 relaunch, which continues the story of Deep Space Nine directly after the TV series ends, and Peter David's remarkable New Frontier series with it's Xenexian captain Mackenzie Calhoun. This series has proved, IMHO, to be one of the best out of all the Trek series.
Sugapablo
Given JMS's sucess in creating followups to B5, I think I'd be happier to hear he was working on something new.
_O_
.|< The named which can be named is not the true named
Maybe JMS can sell one-year long mini-series or something ? Bab5 was overlong, although the idea of a multi-episode script was nicely exercised .
This is not a signature.
Michael Straczynski is among the few people that, I think, could save Star Trek and bring it back to its former glory.
Of course there are MANY people who could improve the current situation (for while I can image quite a few worse than Berman, yet most of them aren't in the TV biz) but Michael Straczynski is among the few that have the skill to revive a franchise that badly beaten.
So let's see the good part - either Michael gets to do the new series, or Berman drives another series in the ground and then - finally - is fired - even the most ignorant bosses don't like dropping ratings, and the cancellation of Enterprise shows that something is fundamentally wrong with the ratings and that the bosses noticed.
+++ MELON MELON MELON +++ Out of Cheese Error +++ redo from start +++
I continously hope for enterprise to be ended in it's seven season as a Star Trek series ought to be ended! I must admit though that some seasons were really lame, I liked enterprise at first. When they didn't have any equipment that worked and their was no experience in anything of what they did had political problems with klingons and vulcans as well as andorians, pretty much the starting seasons. later on as they got photonic torpedoes and other technologies to their usage so that the humans wouldn't seem so inferior, that was when the show started to go bad and it's anticlimax must in my opinion been the whole time wars shit. This season been quite good though with Vulcans having internal problems and dealing with Andorians and Romulans starting to look like something good again, and hence I would like to have the series continue. Hopefully a new Star Trek series will also be made, I seem to never be able to get enough of Star Trek. I would have nothing against a remake of the old series, but I think they need to cram in some more juice into it, better scenery and Klingons that actually look like they should do and not human!
people change and cultures change and while too structured an arc may be out of date by the time it is complete (see what 9/11 did to some shows and movies), I think that with the right 'architect' so to speak the arc can adapt. You are right about TNG - early episodes in tng (season 1) show a different flavor and philosophy to some of the more complex episodes near the end of the run. trying to think of an example - best I have is how the Data character evolved, or some of the prime directive messes - I know there are inconsistencies in there somewhere. However they had the PICARD and that overcomes all clumsy plot devices. The beauty of the ARC is really complex character development can happen over multiple shows - of course you miss a few episodes and it can be confusing. (farscape, glactica, bab5) Course I perfer a hybrid where the one off episodes are well woven into a larger ARC - Star Gate does this pretty well.
The rock, the vulture, and the chain
That actually isn't a bad idea.
People either loved Wesley or hated him. But considering the success of TNG, it would be interesting to see a series that is based around a grown-up Wesley (with the original Wil Wheaton, of course - no cheap replacements!).
The possibilities of that character are limitless. Did he become a doctor like his mom? Did he become a star fleet captain? Is he still working his way up through the ranks? Is he a second in command? Does he run a space station? Does he operate a fledgling colony on a planet at the farthest outreach of known space?
Why keep recreating the tired old "one robot-like character" (Vulcan, Robot, Shape-Shifter, etc), one strong woman, one of every earth-race, blah blah blah. And enough captain-centric shows. Is there no other interesting position or career in the Federation beside StarFleet captain?!
You could even give it a fairly dark, gritty edge that hasn't really been done in the Trek universe so far. Maybe, rather than having a nice big safe ship, lots of weapons and a replicator that provides you with everything you'd ever need - have him lead a bunch of stranged people on a hard-to-survive-on cast-away edge-of-the-universe planet. Pioneers of sorts. Only small bits of technology in their posession. Only a limited replicator. People actually have to work for their survival and posessions and meals. People have to band together to survive. No more "red shirt - you go check that it's save before we head out".
Ah, the requisite NextGen nazi.
Dont get me wrong, NextGen rocks, but to lump DS9 with Enterprise is just wrong. Enterprise totally sucked, and thats why it got axed. DS9 is rad and allowed for a real overarching plotline to develop, as opposed to the NextGen thing of the "X-Character Episodes." Like the "Data Episodes" where the silly humans are doing something that puzzles data and he endeavors to understand, or the "Barclay Episodes."
That's not to say that DS9 is better, I happen to like NG better overall, simply because the best of the "X-Character episodes" are just soo good.
But needless to say, Berman has shown himself unworthy of the reigns and should, in turn, be shown the door.
Come read my stupid blagablog. Rants and Giggles
... tripe on Slashdot. People go on and on about how "It has all been downhill since TNG" and it has all been Berman's fault, etc.
For one thing, Roddenberry died midway through TNG. Berman was basically the man at the helm for what was argueable the best portion of the series, the last 3 seasons. Even before that, he played a very, very large part in TNG. So to say that "Berman is Death" of everything, than to praise TNG, borders on the edge of ridiculousness.
For another, DS9 (the first series run soley by Berman) was actually very good (once it got going - the first season or two were quite.. icky).
Voyager, well..... what can you say. An amazing capability for a plot line, but it descended into fodder. Basically, the same thing with Enterprise.
So from *my* point of view, he is batting 0.500 - a decent average the way I look at it.
Aside from all this - you people seem to believe that the whole series lives and dies by Berman's word. Shouldn't some of the blame be put on the writers? The writers are the ones coming up with the same old crap over and over again.
Indeed. I suppose JMS and company are counting on the geek legions to just support any idea he has, even sight unseen. This was certainly the case when Rick Berman was given all-but-complete control over Star Trek - TNG was good, so why not let him do whatever he wants? That certainly turned out well.
If I were to support anyone along these lines, I'd support Manny Coto. Enterprise really IS better than it was previously, which is pretty impressive considering how weak the show was before (and Odyssey 5 was pretty good, too).
It's a pretty crowded bandwagon that I'm yelling from here, but the key is to drop Berman like a hot potato. Then, if Paramount feels that they have to get Star Trek back on screen (big or small), they should throw the doors open and take pitches from all kinds of people - JMS, Coto...anyone who wants to take the time and make the effort to construct something that will hopefully revitalize the A/V portion of the franchise (some of the books are actually pretty darned good - I've liked the DS9 followups, for example).
It's generally thought that DS9 was a pretty good series, getting better as it went along and getting a story arc.
However, JMS might be reluctant to speak about DS9 for a personal reason. JMS had tried to pitch Babylon 5 to a number of studios, such as Paramount, but they wouldn't have it. After years of work, WB finally took up the show. After the Babylon 5 pilot was shot, Paramount just happens to shoot a pilot of their own new show that just happens to be set on a space station, and get the pilot to air just before the Babylon 5 pilot. (Why are some of the sets from the Enterprise?)
Although this had happened, JMS vocally disliked rivalry between the fans of Trek and B5 and advocated that one could like both.
DS9 turned out quite different in the end, so the competition from B5 was kind of good for Trek, wasn't it?
Irene KHAAAAAAN!
You'd prefer something more enlightened? Another series of Survivor, perhaps?
If you don't like it, don't watch it. Some of us do like it, and are doing something proactive to see if we can keep it around for at least another season.
Well, lets' see... Could the fact that QL was a formulaic remake of Highway to Heaven with smaller hair and some special effects be relevent here?
People involved in one crap series are often a good indicator that another will be crap IME.
_O_
.|< The named which can be named is not the true named
I think I speak for many Trek fans that when I first heard about Enterprise, the possibilities for a prequel series seemed very interesting, and after Voyager we deserved something decent.
Like many I was worried about Berman being involved. I became more worried when the opening credits feature a dreadful recycled pop song instead of something symphonic. Then the temporal cold war silliness starts. Meanwhile, all along has been little effort to remain consistant with the Trek universe.
I will admit, I have not laughed so hard in a long time as I did when I saw the Xindi Nazi at the end of last season. But I don't think that was the intended effect.
For everyone who who is proclaiming this season is much better, how could it get much worse. Paramount and Berman especially should be ashamed at how they have treated such a large and loyal fanbase.
That said, I'm actually surprised that UPN killed it. They kept Voyager going for seven years and it was horrible most of that time. Enterprise seems like the high spot on their garbage filled network.
Trek needs a rest. If you want to send someone your money give it to http://www.eff.org/ or some other worthy cause. Don't worry, there will be more Trek, it has made too much money to be ignored forever.
"Kittens give Morbo gas!"
The bad thing about JMS is that once the curtain has been pulled away after the huge and great buildup my reaction was HUH?. Wonderful intricate buildup, no followthrough.
Of course with Bab5 he got some help in screwing up the end with the fact that it almost got cancelled after 4 series, so series 4 is compressed to fit it all in. Then series 5 does not have enough content and has too many filler episodes.
Not to worry! I don't think anyone can hear him in space.
I've only watched Star Trek "part time". I watch reruns of Voyager and Next Gen quite often and enjoy both of them quite a bit. Even with the old "away team is screwed" or "lookit Jim, theres aliens in that there alien!" plots we seem to see alot, it's kinda like a inside joke now more then anything. But Enterprise made me cringe, I couldn't stand it from day 1. It doesn't FEEL like Star trek, it feels like Krikkit has been renamed "Earth" and they forgot to build their battle robots. All the "OMG TEH VULCANISM IS HOT!" just doesn't seem to work for me as I'm sure many others will agree.
Some hot nerd + no feel to the series or intresting plots = a failed series.
If they want to revive Star Trek maybe they should look at continueing the adventures of Picard outside of the movies. The movie cast is starting to dye off or get sick of it, so why not do a short series (straight to DVD would do) or 20 episodes say, restock the crew, fill in some plot holes, give the fans what we want (real Trek) and then continue on the movies for another 5 years (2 movies maybe?) and use it to set up the next Enterprise. In the second film introduce the guy as a trainee, the series would then start 20 years later when the guy has command of his own ship. Picard could be his mentor and would pop up from time to time with other series spin offs to give advice, but rather then the "lets go look at the same 12 sets every 2 weeks!" put it in a war where Earth is being attacked on pass and the new enterprise is trying to defend it untill re-enforcements arrives. Once it's held off and got support it could go on the offence and try and find out information about the attackers (could be mysterious or some rebel faction of a friendly group). Throw in linked episodes (so you meet a character in episode 1-3 and he does some helpful stuff, only to find out in ep 24 he was infact a spy), if it was this well thought out geeks would adore it and the idiot fanbase who watched Enterprise just for the Vulcan ass and edited porn would all get confused and fuck off back to their little hell hole to oogle more poorly edited porn leaving the real Trekkies and geeks to enjoy their new series which isn't 4 sluts doing whatever or yet another cop drama,
I like muppets.
Some think that this is also a hidden message to the fans that their campaign KeepB5Alive has worked.
The campaign was calling for the original cast to play their roles in the upcomming Babylon 5 theatrical movie "Babylon 5: The Memory of Shadows"
He was calling for a letter-writing campaign when it's "common knowledge" that those campaigns have become devalued because everybody is doing them these days.
The retraction also references a TV show for the fall of 2006. A TV show. One that sounds like a done deal. Which probably means that it's a new show that they believe so strongly in that they know it'll be picked up (a B5 universe show maybe), or that it's an existing TV show.
PS: When it comes to his reading of the poll on ScifiWire: "This whole thing is wildly inaccurate. Rounding errors, ballot stuffers, dynamic IPs, firewalls. If you're using these numbers to do anything important, you're insane."
Irene KHAAAAAAN!
Except that it was neither. It was kitschy space opera by a hack who was most famous for a series adapation of a movie spit out by a hollywood script machine. I *WILL* get modded both flamebait and troll for this, but it needs to be said.
Whedon doesn't even deserve to be mentioned in an article about JMS. I would compare the two to maybe Andy Warhol and Davinci, except that Warhol was still an artist, and still had talent.
I watched 4 episodes of Firefly, trying to give it a fair chance (TNG sucked longer than that, and Babylon 5, while not sucking, took that long to make sense of even a little of it). Are there even any aliens in the show? I don't want it "chock full of nuts" aliens like Voyager was at its worst, but given 5 years and whatever budget Whedon wants, would there still be any? Would they be like the lounge singer in Angel? Would he explore even one new idea (scientific, social,doesn't matter to me), or would he rely on lameass "let's shoot the episode starting with the end, and our hero being shot and then work our way backwards" directors tricks?
Firefly sucked. That you guys who liked it can be forgiven, in a desert you drink whatever water you can find, even if it's brownish with all sorts of little things swimming in it. Hell, you might even tell yourself it's from a mountain stream, cold, clean, and pure. But that was years ago, both literally and metaphorically, and in any event we are metaphorically sitting at that mountain stream now (it is a story about JMS, after all).
It's literally painful to talk to people like yourself. Once, at work, we got on the subject of actors and actresses, and who we thought were the best. No one under 30 was able to name somone other than the likes of "Jennifer Lopez".
I found it suspicious that this last season spent so much time repairing the general plot and timeline of the Trek universe. And I don't mean in a temporal cold war, either.
Every. Single. Plot. Was overturned, reversed, or even erased. The Xindi, the temporal cold war, the Vulcan mind-meld disease. Anything new has been put aside for old-school plots. Tellerites? whoa. And no more trips to Klingon, thank you.
This is the PERFECT OPPORTUNITY for this property to do right by its fans, while attracting an entirely new viewing audience, while bolstering viewership with JMS's current, dedicated fanbase.
And that means more money for the franchise and Paramount. Lots. Not to mention no further suits from Activision and whoever has bought into this IP.
Why am I writing this as less a fan and more a business plan? Because that's what UPN needs to hear.
Now, let's go tell them!
kulakovich
... tripe on Slashdot. People go on and on about how "It has all been downhill since TNG" and it has all been Berman's fault, etc.
But it is - he is in charge, ego he is to blame.
For one thing, Roddenberry died midway through TNG.
Lies. Roddenberry died at the end of season 5.
Berman was basically the man at the helm for what was argueable the best portion of the series, the last 3 seasons.
1: He was mostly working with the talent Roddenberry had hired.
2: He didn't have the guts to suddenly change TNG to something else in the middle of the series (like he let them do with DS9)
Ie, he just continued on the course set by Roddenberry.
For another, DS9 (the first series run soley by Berman) was actually very good (once it got going - the first season or two were quite.. icky).
So DS9 became better once Berman withdrew from day to day running of the series and started to focus on Voayger - funny that. Not to mention again, he had Ira Steven Behr("Dark Angel"),Michael Piller("Dead Zone") , Ronald Moore("Battlestar Galactica") to help him. I entirely suspect he was out having lunch with management while they were writing.
Aside from all this - you people seem to believe that the whole series lives and dies by Berman's word. Shouldn't some of the blame be put on the writers? The writers are the ones coming up with the same old crap over and over again.
Yeah, except: HE HIRES THE WRITERS, his blame.
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
The problem, IMO, is that episodic television tends to dumb down the content. Having a sequential story, IMO does raise it to a higher level as it does allow a more complex and intertwined story. And IMO, yes, it really does raise it to a higher level when done well. Reducing TV, or keeping TV reduced to simplified stories, is an insult to the watchers, especially if few to no episodes have a meaningful impact on those following it.
Each episode of B5 can be watched on its own and watched in sequence as well.
Yes, there will be unknown bits but that doesn't mean the episode itself isn't relevant on its own without watching other parts.
Shows like 24 and Alias have proven that prime time TV audiences are willing to accept a continuing story. I've watched three episodes of Alias, and despite not knowing certain bits, I didn't feel punished for not having seen previous episodes.
Just so that we're not exclusively on Babylon 5, Buffy the Vampire Slayer did a decent job at this too. While there was a definite story going on that had been planned out (and included a large number of references towards and fro in the timeline) and things could change quite drastically (Spike's status as enemy, then friend, then enemy, then lover, then psychotic nutcase actually made some sense in the course of the series), you could pick up any one episode and enjoy what was going on. In my opinion, any good TV show or book series, should be like that, enough going on that it rewards people who site down and view it all, enough hints to allow people to step in at the middle, and subtle enough hints that people who are watching all the way through don't get annoyed at the repeated redundancy.
This sig has absolutely no significance and serves only to take up screen space and waste the time of the reader.
Why does it have to be absolute on either way? Why not have a hybrid. Underlying themes/plots coming up in the episodes, but each episode having some individual aspect to help bring in the n00bs.
I mod down so you can mod up. Your welcome.
I'm surprised no one has commented on a key phrase in JMS's post:
"with challenging stories, contemporary themes, solid extrapolation, and the infusion of some of our best and brightest SF prose writers..."
IMO, writers like Ted Sturgeon, Harlan Ellison, Robert Bloch, Jerome Bixby, Frederic Brown, David Gerrold, Norman Spinrad, Richard Matheson, and Larry Niven (animated series) gave the original series an edge that the later incarnations of Trek haven't matched.
But can we believe JMS here? Despite the greatness of B5, he seemed to have trouble working with other writers. And why not-- if you had a novel planned out, how easy would it be for you to let other writers pen a chapter? For JMSTrek to work, a looser 5-year arc would need to be crafted, with ample room for other writers to work. Moreover, bridges would have to be built to the fiction-writing community, which has soured on the SF-tripe produced by Hollywood. As David Gerrold once said: "I'm not a Star Trek writer, I'm a science fiction writer. I like building my own worlds more than share-cropping in someone else's. "
Even two years from now, after Paramount's Star Trek break, I doubt whether movie or television science fiction will have changed. Expect the infatuation with special effects, and the resultant shallow chacterization to continue.
It's sad; I find shows like Numb3rs doing a better job with science than any techno-babble infused science fiction shows.
I actually really liked Alias season 1. I was unable to watch season 2 very much, so until I catch up I can't say too much.
From what I hear, I do think Alias may be beginning to have a problem with not knowing when to end. IE, the main arc is done - end the show.
I think trying to transition some stories, like Alias's into new arcs breaks the show. Like how Matrix as one movie was awesome, but trying to extend to a trilogy basically ruined it. IMHO of course.
And I'll give newer eps a chance when I can get the DVDs from netflix or whatever.
Opera, Proxomitron-Grypen,GPG 0x0A1C6EE3
The theme was awful. I remember watching the first episode... waiting for a big orchestral theme, like DS9 or Voyager (which won an award, didn't it?). Instead I get a crappy rock ballad.
That was the first sign it was doomed.
Archer was the second sign. I like Scott Bakula alot. Really loved Quantum Leap. But he didn't seem strong enough to be captain. And his lines... "On my planet we learned long ago to not steal candy." "On my planet we learned long ago to respect our elders." "On my planet we learned long ago to look past awful theme songs."
If you go back to TOS, Kirk was badass. We come in peace... shoot to kill. Pickard was firm, but also gentler. Sisko, before his hard haircut, was softer and Janeway was softest (although they all had their shoot-to-kill mode, when needed). As time moved forward, I guess we evolved to gentler people.... maybe.
So Archer, being pre-Kirk should have been a real badass++. None of the "come in peace" rhetoric. Join the Federation or we'll nuke your planet. Ok, not really... but he should have been more badass than Kirk - that's all I'm saying.
The third sign was T'Pol. Oh my God. Seven of Nine was hot, and all, but at least Voyager had a run of a few years before they took her out of the box and inflated her. Enterprise needed T'Pol and her decon gel from day 1. Not good.
The fourth sign was Zindi (Xindi?) weapon of mass destruction. The show is a flop... let's turn up the heat. Get some marines on board. Awful.
All in all I'm happy to see Enterprise go. I've recently been watching TNG, DS9 and Voyager on Netflix... I don't think I'll ever watch Enterprise again. Sad, but true.
Battlestar Galactica is filling my SciFi need very well right now.
I look forward to a new interpretation of Star Trek in 2010. New writers, producers, artists and technicians will hopefully do for Star Trek what Battlestar Galactica has done for its ancestor.
The reason Star Trek Enterprise failed..and it DID failm, was that Trip was not allowed to actually marry T'Pol. That cut the heart right out of the series. That her character was make to pander to marriage to an evil slimy oligarch went against all that Star Trek has stood for. Over thirty years of Trek has shown that goodness and honor were valued, and now comes the groom of T'Pol, a lying assassin and scheming blackguard, poor caricature of all things reputed to be Vulcan....and HE gets to marry and keep the best looking Trek lady since 'Seven of Nine' just because he is a scumbag. The series died there in the second episode of the last season for me. All the so called justifications for it are just pandering to a criminal oligarchy as depicted in the show's presentation of the Vulcan government.
A presentation, I might add, that paints a dark picture of a world where evil is rewarded and the earth is encouraged to emulate. Make no mistake,
many viewers will not really know just why they
tuned trek out. Many will say that reception of monopoly controlled UPN free to air stations was poor if one lived over 20 miles from a tower. Many others will say that they were not going to fork over thirty bucks a month to a crooked monopolist of a small dish service provider just to see UPN because that small dish provider had bought out or threatened all the competition into silence or compliance. Still others will say that they were willing to watch it on GB-603 on C-Band where KTVD, UPN20 Denver, Colorado showed it for more than a year until the monopoly threatened it into silence just two months ago. MILLIONS WATCHED IT FREE ON C-BAND UNTIL THAT ACT!!
Unless the show can be brought back on C-Band
in its natural home, the Sci-Fi Channel so that a-la-carte big dish viewers can watch it for two bucks a month; and unless the bad plots as detailed above can be changed by better writing...(read LEAVE THE GREEK TRAGEDY AND SO CALLED REALITY TV TO THE 'COPS' SHOW); and unless Trip and T'Pol can put the heart back in the series like Tom and B'Lanna did on Voyager
and Keiko and O'Brien did on STNG, I really fear that this series is dead. Future series take note! We the public will not watch the bad guys win. We watch for enjoyment and escape. We want to see the bad guys' butt seriousely kicked, and when we do not see it happen, we turn it OFF!