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New Animated Star Trek In The Works
Philias writes "A new web-based Star Trek Animated Series may be in the works. CBS is considering a pitch by veteran Trek producer Dave Rossi for a 'Clone Wars' style animated series for StarTrek.com. Like Clone Wars the episodes would be just a few minutes long. Unlike the old animated Trek show from the 70s, this one would be with a whole new crew set in a new time period. The setting is to be a war-torn post-9/11-like Trek universe 150 years after the time of Picard." From the post: "The Zero Room team felt that the time was right for a new approach to Trek. The setting is the year 2528 and the Federation is a different place after suffering through a devastating war with the Romulans 60 years earlier. The war was sparked off after a surprise attack of dozens of 'Omega particle' detonations throughout the Federation creating vast areas which become impassible to warp travel and essentially cut off almost half the Federation from the rest. During the war the Klingon homeworld was occupied by the Romulans, all of Andoria was destroyed and the Vulcans, who were negotiating reunification with the Romulans, pulled out of the Federation. The setting may seem bleak and not very Trek-like, but that is where the show's hero Captain Alexander Chase comes in."
Dumbest Star Trek captain name, ever.
Can we start a pool on when the first time travel episode will be? I'm betting 5th show of the first season.
The Blaster Master Fighting for Truth, Justice, and Evil Pie since 1979
Are the uniforms still made out of real velour?
On a serious note, this sounds like it might actually
make me interested in Star Trek again. I never really
identified with anything after TNG.
... until Capitan Chase goes back in time fix the Federation once and for all.
ahhh the good old days
Done long ago. I watched it as a kid. Didn't like it.
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Cartoons + Star Trek? Man, this is going to be the nerdiest show ever.
I would personally rather see something between the first faster than light voyage and NCC-1701. Eric
Armaments, 2-9-21 And Saint Attila raised the hand grenade up on high, saying, 'O Lord, bless this Thy hand grenade' N
..... there's a very shapely and sexy female character in tight clothes that makes a nerd like me drool, then I'll watch.
This is my opinion. To make sure you don't steal it, it's covered by the DMCA.
This sounds a whole lot like "Gene Roddenberry's" Andromeda. Please try not to make this suck, guys.
Star Trek became closer to Star Wars as time went along. And a new series based after a war? No shit....You'd think they would actually sit down and try to come up with a thought provoking story at some point.
Who said it? All of the aliens on Star Trek look like humans with Elephantitis.
Don't mod me down: I was joking!
When do we start getting the "Vulcan christmas special"?
Or "Two Kirks, a Kahhn and a pizza place"? (tacos rule!)
Or "everyone loves Sulu"?
Cant they let that worn out, beaten and horrible franchise die?
Sounds like a yuppie from, oh heck, some show I never watched like Melrose Place or something. BLEH.
Anonymous Cowards are at -6...
Call me simple, but I've always cared for the positive outlook Star Trek implied.
This sounds too depressing too me. I'll watch the Matrix if I want to be depressed.
because it's making me laugh.
"...and the Vulcans, who were negotiating reunification with the Romulans, pulled out of the Federation."
Dogs sleeping with Cats.
"The war was sparked off after a surprise attack of dozens of 'Omega particle' detonations throughout the Federation creating vast areas which become impassible to warp travel and essentially cut off almost half the Federation from the rest."
All Hell breaking loose.
This is the best they came up with?
It's crap, Alex, but not as we know it,
Not as we know it,
Not as we know it,
It's crap, Alex, but not as we know it, not as we know it, Captain.
It's worse than that, it's dead, Alex!
Dead, Alex!
Dead, Alex!
It's worse than that, it's dead, Alex! Dead, Alex, dead!
Hopefully it will be well written to spawn the imagination of scientists to be. Looking back a good number of the star trek technologies have come to be a reality simply by nudging the creative energies of young minds.
When the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail
No kidding, Omega particles. Wow. Ok then, I guess it's time to fire up the main deflector dish or something with tachyons.
Sounds like Trek wants to imitate the awesomeness that is BSG. Good luck guys, BSG is as great as it is because it doesn't fall in the the Trek writing traps.
-Grey
Silver Clipboard: Time Management Tips
You know, if Viacom keeps pulling on those teats like that they're eventually just going to break right off. I mean, there's milking it and there's milking it.
Does new Trek content really have dominion over any part of our cultural consciousness anymore? Go on: quote me a well known line from Voyager. No, no -- the show. Remember? How could you forget? It not only featured the worst series finale of any TV show ever produced, it also made my ears bleed whenever the quavering caterwauling of that shifty-ass captain sounded.
And let's not forget Enterprise...no, wait -- let's.
Anyone who sat through Deanna and Riker's wedding in those waiter uniforms knows what I'm talking about: the whole idea has seen its day, and Star Trek should be buried alive...buried alive...buried alive...
The franchise peaked with "There are four lights!"
These stories are free but worth money.
Why can't they make the Trek spinoff we really want to see: the late 19th century escapades of Mark Twain and Guinan.
There are many other series out there, such as Stargate, Babylon 5, Firefly and so on.
So, is there a reason that we have to keep coming back to Star Trek - The Search for More Money every damn time?
The franchise is dead. People just don't seem to get it.
Actually, I've always thought there was a strong demand for a Star Trek comedy. I'd much prefer those over an animated series with 6-minute episodes.
I don't know. If you've ever seen the "Wrath Of Farakhan" sketch with Jim Carey as Kirk, it's pretty much all sewn up, right there. You can't beat that.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
Wow. This is great. Plucky idealistic hero, resentful second in command and a hard nosed war chick. Doesn't get more cliche and two dimensional than that. Hell, why not have a freaky/cutesy break out character like No-No or Snarf
What the fuck? They have an entire section going trans-human with Borg technology
Instead
That makes no sense what-so-ever.
And
Captain's Log, Stardate 2528 point 4. I have beamed half the crew into space during a mutiny. They had forgotten that this was a Star Fleet vessel and not a Democracy. I will
Star Trek is dedicated to the idea that every species has one culture, one religion, one government, and they all belong together on the same planet (or at least the same star system). Anybody who dares to marry outside of their race, err, species, will have children that are horribly torn between their two distinct and apparently utterly immiscible heritages. "Oh, woe is me, shall I be Vulcan or Human because it isn't possible for me to forge my own distinct identity, I must only belong to one race, err, species!"
What other reasons would the Vulcans have for re-uniting with the Romulans? The Vulcans may be the same species but in almost every other way they are night and day; their culture, their philosophies, their approaches to problems, everything except maybe general arrogance. They're geographically separated so far apart that there was enough time before they re-discovered each other that they forgot they were related. They share few to no strategic interests.
But blood will out, apparently.
I bet Vulcan or Romulus ends up destroyed at some point (probably Vulcan) and all of the Vulcan refugees go live on Romulus, cause the post-TNG Star Trek mythos can't tolerate races living in two places.
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&sa=N&resnum= 0&q=cheetara&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&tab=wi= &q=jem= &q=daphne+scooby&btnG=Search= &q=tmnt+april= &q=linsner+dawn
http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&lr
http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&lr
http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&lr
and although not a cartoon I keep hoping...
http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&lr
I guess I like being disturbed.. (some of that is really historical)
funniest damn thing I ever saw was a short (robot chicken?) where lion-o was using his sword to watch cheetarah in the bathroom...
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
I just pictured Kirk saying that Captain's Log, and I would gladly accept any Star Trek series that would do that.
or greg bear. PLEASE
DRM-free indie games for the PC and Mac: Positech Games
Mod parent up. So stupid that he/she was modded down. I had no idea about this series until SexualPuppy posted this link.
When it was called Andromeda...
Leben Sie jetzt die Fragen.
It sounds to me like they're finally going to do one of these with some actual drama and grit. I wonder what the temperature in hell is right now.
You are so boring that when I see you my feet go to sleep.
The REAL Star Trek TAS.
6 70.torrent/Star_Trek_Tas_-_Entire_Series.3378670.T PB.torrent
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[UID-HeinzIntel]
Or am I mistaken?
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
Alexander Jay Chase.
It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
Plot a course for Gitmo Prime, engage!
As long as he's not watching My Little Pony or The Care Bears, I think he's alright.
I know someone will mod this "-5 send him to Gitmo!", but:
I didn't watch ANY of the spin-offs after they stopped making ST:TNG.
Why?
I recognized the horse, as it were, was dead. Sometimes, even most times, it's better to let the thing rot and disperse back into the environment, instead of resurrecting it over and over again. It's looking a bit tatty now.
I didn't think the house band in Hell would play this badly.
"My idea of the perfect living room would be the bridge on the Starship Enterprise. You know what I mean? Big chair, nice screen, remote control.. that's why Star Trek really was the ultimate male fantasy. Just hurling through space in your living room, watching TV. That's why all the aliens were always dropping in, because Kirk was the only one that had the big screen. They came over Friday nights, Klingon boxing, gotta be there."
It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
That was, I think, the strength of DS9, and one reason while, after all the seasons of TOS and TNG, it still had something going for it, whereas Voyager and Enterprise just seemed to flounder.
-Eric
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
They should learn from two or three good episodes of Andromeda.
Putting a society back together after embittering losses gives your stories scope for Roddenberrish idealism _and_ gritty drama _and_ thought-provoking moral dilemmas. How many eggs will the Captain break in order to build a safe egg crate for the other eggs? What unexpected opposition will there be? What hidden social problems of the shiny TNG Federation have unearthed themselves?
Then hire real writers. Somewhere out there, there's a struggling young writer with the vision and talent of a Stracxynski.
I remember reading that Gene Roddenberry had written a pilot back in the 70s about a postwar federation and a "lone" captain trying to bring the fedeation back together. That idea turned in Andromeda. I wonder how much Andromeda had on this idea?
http://www.windmeadow.com/
Didn't read the summary, didja?
The trouble with all these spin-offs is that if they keep things the same they're just labelled as tired and unoriginal, yet if they change too much they'll almost certainly piss off the hardcore fans of the original and find themselves with a show less popular than if they'd started from scratch. It's not impossible to do, but it's a balance delicate enough that in all likelihood it'll be fucked up.
The problem lies from returning too quickly to the franchise. ST:TNG came 18 years after ST:TOS, that's why it worked. It gave the old fans some time away from the show and allowed a new set of potential fans to arrive who had never experienced it before. The same applies to Battlestar Galactica. Doctor Who went to shit in the 80's after the BBC desperately trying to squeeze it for everything it's worth. After ~15 years it's returned and is more popular now then ever. Right now I'd rather see a new series of something like Doomwatch or Blake's 7 than yet another cash-in of Star Trek/Star Wars/Stargate/Babylon 5/Whatever. Or better yet, how about an entirely original sci-fi series? That'd be nice.
Spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, and stupid comments are intentional.
Please, please just let it die.
God please help all the poor nerds who actually watch this garbage. Someone please put Star Trek to rest.
[Pause.]
"Nope, not quite dead yet..."
[Smack, smack, smack, smack....]
"The setting is to be a war-torn post-9/11-like Trek universe 150 years after the time of Picard."
So there will be no liquids or gels allowed on starships? "Tea Earl Grey powdered"
I'm not even American and it still pains me to see how diluted 9/11 is becoming. Call it war-torn or whatever, but at least reference an event that occurred in a warzone.
Sounds pretty cool, will it be called 'Andromeda'?
That sounds a LOT like the failed Stargate: Infinity cartoon series. Because, you know, if it's a cartoon they MUST have neato gadgets and vehicles* that don't do anything while they pound another nonsensical "life's lesson" into your head.
* Duh, how else are they going to sell the toys?
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
...for a singularity fiction based Star Trek. These lamers just aren't going the right direction. Being a longtime Trek fan (I abhor the "Trekkie" moniker) I have to say that I believe I have the ULTIMATE Trek plot ever conceived. Much like their idea, it takes place in the future, but after the occurrence of singularity (the melding of machine and biological, virtual and reality, all that is good and pure and the cleansing of the dirty). But since everyone can live in any of various and simultaneously multiple existences in any way conceivable, all cast members are now female. Yes, female! Even if they're born male, they become fully functional females (ROWR!!!) with big cone bras. And they're also all lesbian until they encounter males. I also suggest that my show should have a rotating guest cast made up solely of contest winners, where the contest is to explain why you should be a permanent member of the Trek universe! (With the advanced ideas I have, I'm sure I'd win!) The prize, is of course to be on the show and to be a male character who encounters these singularity liberated lesbian cone bra federation women! ROWR!!!! Umm... Ok. I need to go away for a bit. But I'll be back to post more of my brilliant ideas later.
-"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
You know it's gonna be amazing, because cartoon spin offs of live action sci-fi series that are set in the future are always great.
The third most important thing I have learned in life: Squeeze anything hard enough and it eventually makes a noise.
I mean, is it even possible to do any more injustice to a show?
Well, I suppose that they could put "To Be Continued..." at the end of the season ending cliffhanger, and then not renew the series.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
Who else sees that the story they're proposing completely reverses the trend established by every single previous series? There's a move towards peace between the major powers. One of the major purposes of the last movie was to show that the Romulans and the Federation are getting closer together. How come all of a sudden the shit hits the fan? And the bit about the vulcans goes directly against their characters.
This is all flogging a dead horse anyways.
Come on? Seriously! That is the premise for a new Star Trek series? If TPTB are listening, don't do it! It's bad enough that you ran the franchise into the ground with Voyager and Enterprise. Don't compound your mistake with this idea.
My Sysadmin Blog
What we need now is the Stories of the Orion Combines!
:-)
Just think how many Booty Shots we can get into an episode!!
And they don't ALL have to be of voluptuous green booty either. All the colours man!
How about this, Episode 1, an Orion Slaveship, piloted by scantily clad Vulcans chickos
blow away the Enterprise J ?! They beam aboard the Captain, who thinks he's been
Attacked by the Intergalactic Hooters....
Just a thought
End of Line.
Data. He was supposed to have an indefinite lifespan, which gives it instant plausibility. And if this series is about a troubled Federation trying to find its way back, what better character to give his blessing (and sidestep the cliched time travel plots)? To top it all off, it also solves the big issue about Brent Spiner's portrayal of the character, which was his aging. Too bad they %$$#@& it up and killed Data off.
http://www.amazon.com/Star-Trek-Animated-Adventure s-Roddenberrys/dp/B000HEWEJ4/sr=8-1/qid=1166128581 /ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/105-2294669-9642864?ie=UTF8&s=dvd
If you care about.. you know.. paying
First, is the fact they need to jump 150 years into the future. Why not just 5 years or something? There is a rich culture waiting to be explored in the current realm of DS9 and VOY, why jump ahead and make another load of changes to the universe and an audience has to learn everything all over again?
Jonathanjk.com
It's been proposed that what would make the franchise interesting again is a total reset. Abandon the existing continuity and timeline, and go back to the early exploration of an unknown universe rather than politics and war in a well-settled part of the timeline. Do realistic extrapolation of technology this time, instead of (a) bringing in super-technologies and never mentioning them again and (b) assuming that real technologies like robotics and biotech barely advance over the centuries. Consider redesigning the premise of the Federation, taking into account the critique that it's basically a fascist state. Keep the theme of space exploration and adventure.
Revive the Constitution.
Fair enough AC. The universe allows for IDIC.
I wouldn't normally reply to an AC, but I'll make an exception for you.
In the future, however, if you want me to pay attention to anything you might post, try logging in.
If you care about.. you know.. saying something.
[UID-HeinzIntel]
The show did get flushed.
There was a power struggle between Hercules and the Head writer. The Head Writer got fired.
I forget whether this was between Season 1 & 2 or 2 & 3.
... and guess what, all those big breasted lesbian chicks are really all dudes!
Add to all that, one simple fact: the further they move away from Roddenberry's vision of Star Trek, the less the fans seem to like it.
Both ST:TOS and ST:TNG were wildly success (even if, for TOS, is was in syndication) because people like a bright happy future of grand exploration. DS9, Voyager, and Enterprise didn't fair as well because they tried to be more "realistic". At least, realistic in the sense of everyday drudgery.
Oh, and this is where some (a minority) of the fans will cry "But DS9 was great!" It was only great because it swiped the large story arc of a war from someone else (Babylon 5, anyone?).
Now, with this new "series", they're trying to make take it further from Gene's idea. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe this new "the universe sucks" Star Trek will provide some new and interesting plots. Or, maybe, they'll just travel through time again, turn the Borg into Fluffy the lovable kitten, realign the deflector dish and further kill my fondness for all things Trek.
Picture the new Ford Mustang or a PT Cruiser -- that's how the Enterprise (or whatever ship they're using) will look. For the bridge, an orange handrail but no obsolete-looking-by-reality's-standards raised buttons would be my guess.
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
I'm no trekkie. Trekker. what the hell ever. But even enterprise, while not extremely good tv, got watchable in the 4th season, and Voyager wasn't completely repulsive... But now Viacom's fucking with us! Why not a post-DS9 series about what happens to Sisko? Or what goes on in the 29th century?
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
You can't take the sky from me...
Even you're even a minor trek fan and enjoy/can tolerate house I recommend tracking
down some Star Pilot on Channel K (S.P.O.C.K), a nifty little Sci-Fi Swedish band.
"Never Trust a Klingon" and "The Trouble with Tribbles" are especially good.
Were that I say, pancakes?
However, over the decades, Star Trek has had many memorable themes, characters, settings, etc. If the IP holders would be willing to consider not turning a profit on Star Trek in the short term (and that's a big if), I believe, one or two decades down the line, an entirely new Star Trek series that drew on the best and brightest ideas throughout "Trek history" could possibly prove financially and artistically viable.
I'm glad someone else mentioned Deep Space 9. I've been watching it on DVD recently (never watched it much when it was actually on TV - a shame, but I came to the party too late, and it was a bit too hard to catch up with all the on-going story arc). Anyhow, Deep Space 9 has actually re-sparked my interest in the Star Trek universe. It has it's problems, but for the most part, it's a pretty well written series, with an interesting on-going story about the problems the Federation has with its neighbors.
To all the people who are saying "Star Trek is dead. Let it lie in peace", the thing is, everyone will say that, until a writing/directing team comes along that does something *good* with it. There's no inherent reason Star Trek has to be dead. The main reason it's 'dead' is that Paramount/Viacom/CBS don't know what the hell to do with it.
Now, I'm mighty skeptical about this new animated series. Sounds like it's trying too hard to match 'real-life' political situations in the world. A risky business at best. But, I suppose they could make it work. . .
You know, one of the things I've been coming to appreciate about DS9 is just how topical it is to a post-9/11 world, even though the episodes in question were written years before the bombing of the world trade center, and the subsequent invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Really. Go back and watch the first couple seasons. Makes you think the writers really did walk with the Prophets. (In truth, it just shows they have a good understanding of human nature and history, and are good writers. The problems of wars, insurgents, terrorists, the responses of governments to those forces, and the like are nothing new).
...I refuse to watch this unless they are kept well away from it. They were responsible for running this franchise into the ground.
Oh yeah: please, no more Euro-American captains. I'd like to see a Captain Ali Iskander. Or a Captain Janata Ashok. Or a Captain Matsumoto Hiro. Or a Captain Tan Chen-yu. There have been token characters that weren't white-bread. However, if you look at who's been in the captain's chair, unless you count Sisko they've all been white, and there has been exactly one woman, Captain Janeway. It's time for an ethnic captain. The '60s are over.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
The most interesting part is of course that they've seem to have switched back the division colours to those of the TOS era. That is gold for command and red for operations. /Erik
Erik Dalén
Although, since DS9 started before TNG ended, I guess you caught the early seasons... before it got perverted even further into something almost, but not quite, completely unlike Trek.
*sigh*
I had hopes for that show. When they announced, I thought it would be on those super cool giant mushroom-shaped federation space stations big enough to "dry-dock" the Enterprise, and then some.
That would have been great, these things are big enough for a small civilisation to hide innit, they'd be plenty of oppurtinies for a wide range of adventures in that setting.
But no, Berman had to have his army surplus alien station where no one gets along. Grrrrr.
You can't take the sky from me...
In episode 23 they're going to inject a giant spaceshark with Borg nanoprobes. They will then use the ships antigraviton emitterarray to make the ship "jump" over the huge Borg Spaceshark. In episode 24, the genius holographic doctor and his trusty sidekick ensign Ricky (who will only live this one episode, and never before appeared on the screen) will then develop form of poisoned spaceplankton which ensign Ricky will need to deliver manually into the sharks feeding orifice (which surprisingly looks like a black hole, but let's not get into that).
The star trek universe doesn't make a lot of sense to be honest. Don't get me wrong, the show had its merits, but those have been run over by countless years of milking the big fat spacecow, repetetive storylines (eg timetravel, kid saves the ship (yet again), particle of the week), etc etc...
Ensign Ricky please report to the airlock for ... euhm... maintenance duty. Repeat, ensign Ricky, please report to the airlock for maintenance.
... of the positive vision for humanity that Roddenberry projected with Star Trek. This is just as bad as pissing on his grave. 9/11 may not have changed everything but it sure as hell ruined the Star Trek universe.
Ok so now we're in the 26th Century. Time travel, trading bodies on demand, immortality, whatnot. The further you push this stuff into the future the more it becomes a Science Fantasy Chick Flick Soap Opera. Everything will get magically solved with magic science at the end of every episode. Engines going to blow up? Push the 17th dimension button that supercools them to 1 billion degrees below absolute zero. Then fly through the sun with your sun protector shield. Naturally.
Reboot Trek so that the Evil Parallel Universe is the REAL universe, the Federation is running around looking for planets to put under its thumb, and Vulcans have goatees! Sweet!
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
It's a CARTOON goddammit!
The setting may seem bleak and not very Trek-like, but that is where the show's hero Captain Alexander Chase comes in.
Wait, I think I see where this plot is going. The lead character is imprisoned by the now corrupt and evil Federation (which uses the ST:TNG logo flipped on its side) for political activism, only to escape from a penal ship and find a derelict alien space craft. He, along with 7 other escaped convicts, vow to overthrow the evil Federation, and it's legions of black storm-trooper like minions led by a ruthless, yet attractive female commander.
Link for the sci-fi clueless
Shameless plug for my photos on Flickr
What about the Eugenics Wars?
How did the whole planet earth come under the dominion of a handful of super-human genetically engineered dictators?
How did the regular people win over their oppressors?
It would be great to have an episode where the ending shot is of a lone ship fleeing earth from the far side of the moon,
that ship being found again in Space Seed where Kirk meets Khan.
What massive oppression forced a battle so great that Khan lost badly, and fled Earth?
There was a big buildup of the fall of civilization before the founding of star fleet and the enterprise,
with people living in walled off sections of cities with no jobs, chaos in the streets, ( a lot like certain gated community areas in Florida).
That whole - Pre Federation - Pre Enterprise time period was as dark and hopeless as TOS was inspired and optimistic.
Just when you don't think the show could not get darker - it constantly gets worse and worse for the protagonists?
That would be a great prequel build up explaining how Enterprise came to be,
all that stuff that hit the fan before the 1st Warp Drive and the Vulcans came into the picture.
Sort of a Mad Max Meets Star Trek.
Alternately - just do TOS entire series in the mirror universe!
The Empire kicked A** and made sure the whole galaxy was aware of it!
"Weapons are at Maximum."
LONG LIVE THE EMPIRE!
The big black dude is totally a Teal'c ripoff.
Why another war with Romulans? 200 years after the TNG era ships I would expect that they've explored the rest of the galaxy and found lots of other interesting species to get assraped by.
I just found the box to change my sig. Um.... [timeless witticism].
Meh, I only watched DS9 because it was a cheap knockoff that reminded me how good B5 was.
:P)
(Which is likely to happen when writers from the two series share house
"We know what happens to people who stay in the middle of the road. They get run over." - Aneurin Bevan
But no, Berman had to have his army surplus alien station where no one gets along.
I'd rather that than Voyager where everyone gets along and it's fucking boring.
This poo is cold.
Ironic that you should choose that line to say it "peaked" with when, in fact, it was very obviously ripped off from 1984. Don't get me wrong, I love ST:TNG, but (Stewart's nice acting notwithstanding) that particular scene was maybe 1/10 as powerful and insidious as the original scene from Orwell's classic.
It was better than Hercules in New York...
Well, marginally.
Note: Hercules in New York, aka Hercules Goes Bananas, had a budget of $15,000. They spent $14,000 of that on the helicopter shot in the first scene. The actors and crew had to bring their own food because they couldn't afford a caterer.
Find environmentally and socially responsible products on http://buy-right.net
It's like the Republican party. Or the Conservative party of Canada.
Find environmentally and socially responsible products on http://buy-right.net
It's not quite dead. It's just pining for the fjords of Ceti Alpha Six.
Find environmentally and socially responsible products on http://buy-right.net
Wow, this almost sounds EXACTLY like what Wiz Kids did to Classic Battletech. Did I mention that I hate the new MW:Dark Age? I dunno about this one...The premise already sounds extremely stretched (Oh NOES!!! it's TEH DARK AGE!); and actually seems to be quite contrary to what Perpetual (I think it's them) is doing story wise for the Trek MMORPG. I'd rather prefer if they made a new trek series that DOESN'T focus on a Federation crew (For something as short as this, figure the whole thing will probably be about 60-90 minutes). How about a bunch of Fed. Fighter pilots? Or actually, for an action show; it might be better to focus on Section 13 (Again, I THINK I got this right). Besides some small mentions and tiny plot lines; Section 13 doesn't show up a whole bunch, and when they do it's usually on the "evil" side of things. How about showing some (if any) of the good Section 13 does? At the very least, they (Paramount) needs to put someone in charge of Trek. It's becoming increasingly obvious that without a clear leader at the helm, Trek is going to end up ALL over the place (Not in a good way).
Nah, you've got no imagination. How about...
The Seven of Nine Dominatrix Training Institute
Instead of dull recurring catch phrases like "It's dead, Jim" or "Make it so", we'd have gems like "Bend over, you worthless worm" and "You force me to use the large flogger."
Find environmentally and socially responsible products on http://buy-right.net
but much less Simpsons :-)
It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
who the fuck do these writers think they are? I've suspected for some time now that this is just the sort of thing the money bags at paramount would do. IT Is time to call jihad on the rights holders and open source star trek whether they like it or not.
You have two choices:
Four centuries of technological advances, contact with other civilizations and philosophies.
To which human society has remained stubbornly immune?
Think of the real-life changes which began with the invention of the birth control pill. Its impact on the Roman Catholic church, the authority of the Pope.
The alternative is to accept change and find a way to weave it intelligently into your story. This does not mean you need to settle for a sterile socialist Utopia in which ambition, wealth, malice and madness do not exist.
A Klingon warrior would never allow themselves to get captured. So either all Klingons would be dead or there would be a continuous war which doesn't really sound much like a 'occupation' then to me, but rather an attempt to wipe out all Klingon's.
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Am I the only one who wants to see a Klingon show? Think about it, colourful characters, lots of action, potential for both the "lone starship" and the "organized empire" episodes. I get real tired of the human perspective on everything. It's like all episodes revolve around some moral dilemma where the rights of some other species has to be put above the interest of the humans. But with a Klingon show they could just start screaming nonsense while they beat the poor little Binars over the head with their bat'leths!
I wonder why they don't make a series, animated or not, of Star Trek: New Frontier. It's simply the setting if what you want are dark stories, a violent lawless background, government corruption, and tons of politically incorrect fast paced action inside the Star Trek universe.
The captain of the Excalibur starship, for instance, is an ex-guerrilla terrorist who successfully won independence back for his home planet using such lovely tools of the profession as genocide.
It's an amazing series of Science Fiction novels. If you haven't read it yet, please do so. It's worth the effort, even if you don't like the standard Star Trek universe.
Conservatism: (n.) love of the existing evils. Liberalism: (n.) desire to substitute new evils for the existing ones.
Disney, for some years, had a specific division devoted to producing crap sequels: DisneyToons. This is the outfit that produced The Lion King 1½, Bambi II, Mulan 2, and similar bad sequels, to milk the last remaining revenue from the franchise.
It wasn't a huge moneymaker, and was running down the value of the Disney brand. So that operation was shut down when Disney bought Pixar. The Aristocats II, Pinocchio II and Dumbo II were all canceled, to the great disappointment of nobody.
This last line extension for Star Dreck sounds like something that would have come from DisneyToons at their worst. This is not a good thing.
There are so many other, better plot threads they could pick up, but instead they base everything on a premise out of one of the least scientifically plausible episodes of Voyager, a series which was already stretching it past the breaking point, even for Star Trek. Good job completing Star Trek's metamorphosis into pop crap, guys.
The original star trek was about how the human race had unified and was attempting to unite with the galaxy as a whole. The reality was wagons in space.
But, you had a russian on the bridge during the 60's, the height of the cold war. You had black commanders and admirals. You had female commanders and admirals.
This new series kind of pisses on the original intent of star trek.
Oh, and it's not the first time that paramount has ripped off the plot line from another show. The creator of babylon 5 pitched the series to paramount, they rejected it, but.... lo and behold DS9 has almsot the same plotlines as B5.
Besides does anyone expect quality from paramount after watching the series "Enterprise". They ought to rename paramount to miracle movies, because if they can make an orignal and good series it's a miracle.
Loonatics wants their XTreme back.
the Canon is not amused.
-- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
Consider redesigning the premise of the Federation, taking into account the critique that it's basically a fascist state.
Wow. Just wow. That was just... horrible.
The author of that critique seems to be some kind of religious conservative who takes offense at the fact that the Federation doesn't use money and talk about God all the time. Nevermind the fact that they have replicators and thus there is no scarcity and no need for money OR for communistic redistribution of wealth - just throw your garbage into the recycler and replicate whatever you want. In the Star Trek future, everything is as plentiful and reusable as air, and so there is no more need for any economic system to regulate it than there is to regulate the distribution of air here today. We don't have air banks or air credits because we don't need them, and neither to we strictly ration out the use of air in equal parts, because there's plenty of it and people can just take whatever they want. Economic systems are just a solution to problems of scarcity - where there is no scarcity, economics disappear.
But what really gets me is that the author seems to be somehow offended by the notion that you might have a nontheistic society. Not militantly atheistic - you don't see Federation people ridiculing anyone for their religious beliefs or trying to convince them that God doesn't exist. They just don't seem to have many such beliefs of their own. I'm sure there's still philosophy classes in their academies, and old religious are taught as history... but this whole thing sounds like some old polytheist complaining about our (contemporary, western) society because we don't sacrifice livestock to the local fertility gods. So? What's the problem if we don't? And what's wrong with "explaining away" disembodies entities as "energy beings" or whatnot, if that's a real explanation in the (fictional) science of Star Trek? Should they just ignore their scientific explanations so that there are still some mysteries to "wow" people?
He seems to think that without such mysterious religious doctrine, and without some sort of capitalist economic system, everybody would have nothing better to do than... well... join the military I guess. The series is set on a military ship, of course you're going to see military lifestyles there! But the ordinary people living planetside, in a world of plenty with no scarcity - what, you think they won't have anything interesting to do? What about art or science for it's own sake, not for profit? Taking up some occupation that you enjoy doing for it's own take, like cooking, designing clothes, writing software, etc? In a world of plenty, people don't *need* to be paid to do things - they'll do whatever they enjoy doing, and if something needs doing, someone who needs it done will do it, if someone who enjoys doing it hasn't done it already. Heck, what about just playing games for fun?
I have to wonder if this person's vision of heaven is of some job where he gets to work really hard and gets paid lots of money which he can then turn around and give straight to some incomprehensible mysterious God, who he spends all of his free time worshipping. Seems like it must take a serious lack of imagination not to be able to envision enjoying a life of luxury where money isn't needed, where everything is there free for the taking, and nothing is an indecipherable mystery that couldn't be solved with sufficient investigation. Wouldn't that be nice? It's a stretch of the imagination to think that it could practically happen, but in Star Trek the basic premise is that that HAS happened - and look at the awesome society that has followed. How could anyone think that such a society is bad?
-Forrest Cameranesi, Geek of all Trades
"I am Sam. Sam I am. I do not like trolls, flames, or spam."
id like to see a series where the captain of the ship is a total babe (think 7 of 9 with gold implants {the stuff over her eye and the one hand you perv!!}) where the ship runs partially on Song (one crew member, say the only WASP "needs" to be tone deaf) of course my idea of a BattleStar would have 8 subships each named for a different octave.
1 octave shows up its trouble
2 is not fun
4 is the Oh H*** moment
8 is the run for your life moment (would also mean that the BattleStar himself is about to show up)
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> "Although the show is set in the future the designs are founded in TOS, it is a throwback that is also looking forward," explains
> Rossi.
That makes no sense what-so-ever.
Basically it means a return to miniskirts, but unlike TNG, only for the girls
Were Star Trek and Star Wars really the pinnacle of sci fi creativity? These premises are decades old. What happened to sci fi allowing barriers to imagination and creativity to be broken down? Where did the creativity go?
RTFM; please, I beg you.
Jokes aside how bad can it possibly get? Is there already somebody there that we're not supposed to know about? It's not like they could ruin the franchise with a little info. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yX3dT7NV8U
Have Tardis, will travel.
The money not existing is a huge continuity fuck up. As you mentioned there will be things like "cooking, designing clothes, writing software, etc" which would be scarcities with supply and demand requiring some form of exchange. Lets not forget how food is still grown due to repilcators "not getting it right," how certain materials like dilithium can't be replicated, how energy is still a limited resource, and the entire Ferengi race...
I was first in line to get a signed copy of Dawkins' The God Delusion when he spoke on campus, so I sympathize with your reaction, but I also mostly agree with the critique. I don't think his point is that his religion (whatever it is) was left out, but that it's a bizarre continuity breach to assume, without explanation, that religion has vanished altogether from human culture. I've written a related column arguing that religion should play a greater role in a particular SF/fantasy subgenre, not because I'm a fan of it but because it's both a rich source of story material, and such a universal part of human life to date that ignoring it weakens a story setting's plausibility. Look at the "Firefly" essay below the Trek one -- the author approves of a story where there's just one character who's got a Bible and makes offhand references to Jesus and Buddha. That's a far cry from turning the show into BibleMan. So, a writer can incorporate religion into a story without bludgeoning the audience with their own personal views. Its total absence among humans in the Trek world is mysterious to the point of being implausible.
As for the lack of capitalism, he's right to note that the main Trek species that has recognizable business dealings is portrayed as a gang of sniveling pirates who somehow don't even have banks or letters of credit. Maybe you'd get a utopian society in the Federation if "replicator" technology were perfected, but it's strange that the show seems contemptuous of civilizations where people actually have to work for a living. Also, Trek doesn't need a magic fix-all-economic-problems technology. Wouldn't it be more interesting than the current setup to say that the Federation actually needs to explore space to create continued opportunity for a growing, ambitious population that still has poor people in it?
Replicator tech is itself implausible due to how it's handled. It seems to be an unlimited matter/energy conversion gadget! With such a device, who needs a matter/antimatter reactor or a phaser? Just throw a rock into the replicator and get all the energy you need! Even if that's not how it works, the Federation seems able to manipulate matter on the particle scale (for transporters at least), so why does their technology look as though it's built by conventional manufacturing methods? Why aren't there lots of privately owned mini-spaceships mining Jupiter for raw matter and building space habitats and ringworlds all over the place? Instead of an unprecedented explosion of human creativity and freedom, Trek seems to be about a central authority dominating all activity and building a benevolent empire no more imaginative than the average 4X space game. Sure, the shows' focus on military life gives us a skewed view, but why is there such limited imagination in looking at the implications of its technology?
Revive the Constitution.
DAMMIT Jim! I'm a CARTOON, not a DOCTOR!!
A lot of the "species" are based on good old-fashioned real-world prejudices:
The Klingons were always representative of what America feared most from a cultural stereotype perspective. In the 60s, they were Russian, right down to the Cossack suits. In the 80s, they were big black men with Japanese philosophy.
Depictions of Ferengi (aside from the first couple of appearances) always exploited the worst stereotypes of Jews
Bajorans are a race of fundamentalists prone to committing acts of terrorism
Maybe these are just convenient shortcuts for the writers or maybe they're archetypes thrown in for the audience's benefit, but they are there for sure.
I'll agree that it seems a far stretch of plausibility, both that religion would be eliminated from human society and that such magical replication technology would be invented, especially in the short time span portrayed in the Trek series. But that didn't seem to be the author's point in that critique. It seemed much more like a political than a science-fictional commentary - not "oh right, like that will ever happen, keep dreaming bud" but instead "this 'glorious future' is only glorious if you're a militant athestic commie-fascist".
However I will completely agree with you that the existence of their level of technology seems a bit discontinuous with the rest of their apparent level of development and social structure. Their transporters, replicators and holodecks seem to imply that they can create and manipulate mass and energy on a very fine-tuned level (and have AI advanced enough to do these things automatically and fill in the details as needed, as they can just request the holodeck to "create a chair. make these changes to it." etc as I recall from some Voyager episode). With that kind of tech it seems like the only limit they should have is available mass-energy to manipulate, and available computing power; and given enough of those, everything in the real would should be as manipulable as things in a virtual world would be. Replicate a huge biosphere in space, tell the computer to make landscape that looks like so-and-so, keep the weather like such, gimme a nice house designed to these specifications, and take a scan of those three hotties over there, make these modifications to them, and give me some repli-holo-copies of them who like to play in the field all day, dance naked in the rain and have hot foursomes all day long. Oh and computer, keep the house cleaned up, and feel free to repair any wear and tear that happens to by body - don't want to be getting old now, eh?
Heck, with that level of technology the computers should be able to interface directly with people's minds (scan the brain-state and interpret appropriately), so you wouldn't even have to ask the computer for something - you just will it to be and it's replicated for you. Combine that with their equivalent of the internet and you could get an interesting, non-collectivist sort of collective consciousness - you just wonder some question to yourself, the computer(s) check to see if anybody knows the answer to that and isn't keeping it a secret, and then tells you the answer. (I'm assuming the computers here are as they are portrayed in Trek; very capable systems that can accomplish pretty much anything processing task you ask of them, even creative ones as per the holodeck example in my first paragraph, but which have no independent will or motivation of their own). You wouldn't get a borg-like hive mind, but it would be like... like everything you ever thought was automatically blogged, except the things you didn't want to be public knowledge, and everybody had a direct neural link to a search engine which automatically scanned all these blogs for whatever you asked it to, and presented that information direct to your mind. You wonder a question, and "recall" an answer as though it was just something you had momentarily forgotten. It's just be a much faster, more comprehensive version of the sort of information exchange that we already do with the internet, and with journals and books before that.
Even in this fantastical setup, there would still be perfectly good reason to have spaceships going about and exploring: novelty! Exploration for it's own sake! Boredom is the bane of the well-off, and so these incredibly well-off people would be searching for new cultures, new phenomena, new anything to occupy their interest. You can only do so much creative art sitting at home by yourself before you need more inspiration, and you can only do so much science when your observations are only of a limited area - and what's left to do in such a utopia (besides satisfy your basic desires whenever they come up) other than art and sci
-Forrest Cameranesi, Geek of all Trades
"I am Sam. Sam I am. I do not like trolls, flames, or spam."
Man, I can wait to watch another show about something "post 9/11" or some goofball premise that pulls in pseudo terrorist/religions fanatics who are all really human deep inside, even if they want to kill you, and even if they are not, in fact, actually human.
/. image thing for this post is the word Serenity. Oh how ironic.
Someone needs to make Star Trek in a post 7/11 universe, where everyone rolls around and groans about the Slurpee brain freeze they just got, and where regret consists of burps from the third Slim Jim you really shouldn't have eaten.
Slim Jim. There's your captain name and product placement all in one.
You know, that's what really kills Trek. No product placement. Do they not have brands in the future? Come on. Plus they miss all the placement revenue.
Oddly enough, the little
Because Berman and Braga (aka Bermanga the alien tentacle raping producers) deliberately jumped the shark. Trek United raised enough money to cover the costs of production and Viacock pulled the plug anyway.
Firstly, remember there's a good chance this could turn out non-canonical, if that comforts you at all.
Secondly,
I think the dichotomy here is completely the wrong way around. The lesson learned from this will be "The Captain is always right, don't mess with him." I think what you need is a gung-ho "new breed" captain and a crew which is very much of old school Starfleet and want traditional values stuck to - exploration as motivation, violence as a last resort. Thus the captain is fallible but as a team effort the whole group manages to pull through and learn stuff.
Thirdly, where's the allegory? Borg = China? Hello?
qntm.org
I'm a doctor Jim, not a cartoon!
The real problem with Star Trek Enterprise was that the element of exploration was totally lost. The ENT crew seemed like a bunch of space cowboys out on a horse ride just for fun.
If CBS wants to make a new Star Trek series, an animated series IS NOT THE WAY TO GO. The way to go is to return to the days of exploration: a ship full of officers with scientific pedigree on a mission to map the rest of the galaxy.
I agree that it is difficult to realistically present new cultures, new races, new galactic events, new science, in episode after episode. But I think there is room for plenty of new discoveries, provided that the writers put their mind on work.
Some people say that the most interesting part of Star Trek is the drama. I strongly disagree. If you want drama, watch Santa Barbara. Star Trek without exploration is like a soap opera without intrigue.
Of course the execs don't really care about us Star Trek fans. They think that by dumbing ST down, a larger audience will be attracted. Well, that's plain wrong. Currently people go away from technology and logical thinking, there is a rise in religion and mysticism...except for us Star Trek fans, of course!
What I see as Star Trek's problem is that they (the show's caretakers) continue to move further and further away from what made the Star Trek appealing. Although many of you may have grown up on TNG and shunned TOS for its low production value, Star Trek got its start by Gene Roddenberry's "Wagon Train to the Stars" and a future where humanity had evolved a higher sense of sensibilities and a future worth working for.
The problem, as I see it, is not that Star Trek doesn't have something left to offer, it's that it hasn't been offering what it's good at. I mean, if we want amazing CGI battle sequences and bad acting, we'll crank out another Star Wars. If we want drama and a bleak future, we'll tune into Battle Star Galactica. But if we want a positive message about the future where we're (still) learning to overcome adversity and exploring the galaxy - that's Star Trek.
If you think about some of the best episodes of ST (either TOS or TNG), they either played on our levity or on the realities of the human experience. Kirk's choice to let Edith Keeler die on the "The City on the Edge of Forever" or the Picard's proud declaration, "There are four lights!" in "Chain of Command" examine us for who and what we are. The answer is as much about the viewer as it is about the characters we revere.
If Paramount's idea is that we need more fighting, more ship combat, and more negativity, they're going to drive what's left of this franchise into a permanent grave. At that point, it becomes just like every other series out there. It'll have no long lasting impact on our culture because it'll be just a snapshot in time. It won't be a goal worth working towards, it'll just be a picture of where we used to be.
I had never heard of "Coda", but it was a fascinating read for one who watched Andromeda through the highs, lows, and WTFs.
Voyager with a crew of mixed starfleet officers and rebels against the Federation where everyone is pissed at the captain for stranding them and no one gets along? Sure, it sucked, but no one got along.
You can't take the sky from me...
Seriously, there was conflict for about the first 5 minutes, then the rest of the series the worst that would happen were minor disagreements or Tuvok getting annoyed with Neelix. The only time the Maquis issue even came up after the pilot was in the episode where someone discovered Tuvok's secret unfinished holodeck training program for dealing with a Maquis mutiny, and then he pointed out that it was unfinished because it stopped being a concern. The whole thing was a let down. And 7 of 9's joining the crew sucked, too. Who knew that a Borg, disconnected from the collective, would turn out to be just like a Vulcan? The whole problem stems from the cast of two dimensional characters and spirals outward from there. It was like they took all the worst parts of the first 3 seasons of TNG and made a series out of it.
This poo is cold.