New, Canon-Faithful Star Trek Series Is In Pre-Production

An anonymous reader writes "Star Trek veterans such as Walter Koenig (Pavel Chekov), Tim Russ (Tuvok), Robert Picardo (the Doctor) and others are busy in pre-production of a professionally produced pilot episode for a suggested new online Star Trek series named Star Trek: Renegades, which will be faithful to the original Star Trek canon. The events of the series are placed a decade after Voyager's return from Delta Quadrant. When the pilot is complete, they'll present it to CBS in the hopes that it'll be picked up. They have also opened an Indiegogo campaign, seeking more funds from Star Trek fans to help make the production even more professional. They've already reached their primary funding goal."

Comments

Shades of Blake's 7

[fredrated]

Sigh me up.

Re:Shades of Blake's 7

[jythie]

While optimism was always a major part of Star Trek, the franchise has shown over the years it can explore darker themes and still be intellectually interesting. If it is all phasers and boob shots I agree it is not really 'Trek and would (for me at least) be painfully boring,.. but there is a lot of potential in exploring a weak federation that has to make (and live with) more complex moral choices.

I imagine the devil will be in the details, and being good or bad will come down to what they actually do with this situation.

Re:Shades of Blake's 7

[wisnoskij]

Exactly, Star Trek is not just TNG, with Captain Picard being very unwilling to do anything more than ardently ask the natives to not murder his crew.

It is DP9 with traitorous officers, civil wars, racists, and war.
It is Voyager with a genocidal Janeway, cutting a swath across the Delta Quadrant, and being willing to destroy whole civilizations on her journey home.

Re:Shades of Blake's 7

[93 Escort Wagon]

I know I'm in the minority, but DS9 was my favorite Trek after the original - in part because they did a much better job developing the interpersonal relationships than other post-TOS Treks (which is part of the reason TOS stands up so well, even now).

And I actually enjoy long story arcs.

How?

[Anonymous Coward]

How can you be faithful to the canon when the canon isn't internally consistent? (see especially Star Trek: Enterprise)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek_canon

Re:How?

[smooth wombat]

If you hack out the time travel portion of the middle of the series, Enterprise was quite enjoyable. One episode in particular gave insight into how things we took for granted in the later years came to be. Namely, the Prime Directive.

Sure, you could call Archer's speech about needing guidance a bit heavy-handed (he comes right out and uses the phrase Prime Directive), but similar to the original series and somewhat with TNG, that episode raised the question of how much interference/help should we give to another civilization without that help changing their natural progression?

As an aside, the actress who played the doctor's assistant in that episode, Elizabeth Cutler, and who had an attraction to him, died the year after that episode aired.

Re:How?

[jellomizer]

Heck Cannon is out the Windows in TOS, even in TNG.

We see Trekees or Treckers (which ever one has the negative connotation) Coming up with extended reasons to explain every inconsistency.

Lets face it. TOS and TNG were TV shows meant to be have a full story in one episode. The fact that the guy died a few weeks ago isn't that big of a deal because he wasn't really part of the story, or the fact that minor character started to get more parts thus his history changes a bit.

O'Brian before he got his name, was a LT, his uniform had the LT pips... Then he became a Non-commission officer. Why well early on he was just an extra with a couple of lines. Then they made him a bigger part. Cannon out the window... Who cares.

Re: How?

[dpidcoe]

It felt like a version of Star Trek crafted specifically for people with short attention spans and little ability to spot plot holes.

Nailed it.

Not to show my inner hipster, but I really feel that massive box office sales actually mean that it's not a particularly good star trek. The series is enjoyed by nerds, and since the vast majority of people in the world aren't nerds, it will appeal to a very small subset of people. What appeals to nerds usually doesn't appeal to others, and vice versa. By expanding to include a wider audience, it will by definition need to abandon a lot of what made it "good". That might be great for making money, but the series is no longer star trek and has abandoned its initial fanbase.

The Trekkies will finance

[ikhider]

Somehow, I don't think they will have trouble getting funding for this. I am sure Wil Wheaton will be on this as well. Trekkies are a massive economic force to be dealt with. I thought the Star Trek shows were more interesting when each episode stood on its own without you having to know about the canon and universe. A cursory glance at the newer shows and I have no idea what is going on and thus no reason to care. Heck, while I am at it, why don't the script writers add a bit f science to their sci-fi. That would be nice.

Re:The Trekkies will finance

[fahrbot-bot]

I thought the Star Trek shows were more interesting when each episode stood on its own without you having to know about the canon and universe.

Then you would have disliked Farscape as it was very serial - at least to get it all. True many episodes could stand alone, but the season/series arcs really tied things together and many details were intertwined throughout most episodes. Actually one of the reasons I liked it - though I won't discount my crush on Aeryn Sun (Claudia Black) - and most of the other women on the series :-) [ I do like strong, smart, independent women. ]

Pointless

[Jiro]

Being stars of the series and/or professionals doesn't mean you own the copyright. Producing something you don't have the rights to produce is just as likely to get you a cease and desist order.

And even ignoring that, although this is "professionally produced", the people who own Star Trek will produce what they want. I'm pretty sure that if they had wanted a Star Trek pilot to be made, they could have commissioned one on their own. If they're not willing to commission one, they're probably not willing to buy one either.

All this is is a piece of expensive live action fanfic.

ST Continues

[TheGoodNamesWereGone]

Star Trek Continues is very, very good. The first episode features the return of Apollo, played by original actor Michael Forest. I've already sent them money; I'd rather see this funded than more TNG era stuff. The era had its moments, but this is a really faithful back-to-the-roots adaptation that captures the heart and soul and the *feel* of Star Trek better than anything else I've ever seen. The attention to detail is amazing. Gorn Bob says check it out: http://www.startrekcontinues.com/

I wish them godspeed

[roc97007]

I really do. And it's good to see Walter working again. But Voyager and Enterprise pretty much soured me to Old Trek. I'm sure some people will really enjoy this, and the best to them. But I'm done. I'd much rather see something (relatively) new and different move forward, like L5. Or a series based on literature that hasn't been done yet, like Ringworld or even the Heinlein juveniles. Why must we continue to flog dead horses?

Re:No Thanks

[Jason Levine]

So long as a show doesn't stagnate (I'm looking at you Simpsons), I see no reason why a particular time limit needs to be put on a show. I'm a big Doctor Who fan that that's been around for 50 years now. (Granted, I haven't seen many of the classic Doctor Who episodes yet. I began watching last year with Doctor Nine and worked forward. Eventually I'll go back and watch the classics.)

Self Consistency Canon

[ShooterNeo]

I would greatly prefer if the writers for this series, in the unlikely event it takes off, focused on being self consistent.

Don't show the "time police" one episode, complete with an enforcement vessel called the USS Relativity, that ruthlessly polices the timeline, then magically resolve all the outstanding problems by having your captain come back from the future with cheat-technology in a later episode. (because if the time police let this stand, why don't they simply give the Federation the best tech of all time from day 1?)

Don't show a space station next to earth one movie, with a massive infrastructure, then show the Enterprise and another ship have their illegal fight between Federation warships right next to earth, so close that the Enterprises crashes into the earth in the same movie!

If you establish that maximum warp has a speed, don't show a ship getting from the border of the Klingon neutral zone to Earth in 5 minutes of warp.

If you establish that Bones is the medical officer on the ship, aka the only qualified doctor, and you then show the Enterprise taking massive damage with mass casualties, don't have him quietly standing on the bridge lecturing Kirk instead of getting his ass to sickbay to treat the critically wounded.

Re:YES PLEASE!

[dgatwood]

No place to go? It's an infinite universe with an infinite timeline. Therefore, there are an infinite number of things that could happen that don't involve interactions with anyone important and therefore don't affect the timeline. You could write a story about the war between the Vulcans and the Romulans, for one. That's never been explored in any depth. Heck, that could be an entire series by itself, with almost no risk of significantly violating the canon.

This could have been better

[Tighe_L]

I was talking to a friend about my idea for the next Star Trek show. One set in a remote federation outpost where a Federation Admiral is corrupt, and there is a crew of a non-federation (human captain) ship that is constantly having to deal with him. Think Dukes of Hazzard. The Admiral makes them out to be criminals, but the reverse is true and this ship is always coming to the aid of people in the sector while trying to scrape out a living and possible get the big score. The crew would be a Human male captain (I am thinking about reprising William Campbell as Thadiun Okona) An old Klingon with a death wish (just wants to die in battle, but whenever he get the chance he is needed and misses the opportunity) (also he likes 80s rock and plays the guitar) Exiled Romulan who constantly clashes with the Kingon (looking for evidence to go home and reunite with his family) Orion Slave Girl A female Nausicaan (twist that female Nausicaans are attractive) Vash might be a recurring guest star.