New 'Star Trek' Series Set For Fall 291
demaria writes: "Executive producers Rick Berman and Brannon Braga of ST: Voyager are at it again, and we can expect another Trek series in the fall, according to this article. Rumors are that it'll take place during the early days of the Federation. I wonder if they'll make the bridge have the same cardboard/buttons glued-on look as TOS did." Just my luck -- the more Star Trek spinoffs there are, the more toys I have to buy for Trekkie friends, and I'm always a few shows behind. Hopefully this one will have some cool merchandise. ($15 MP3 playing "communicators" for kids?) So send in scripts early, if you want to counteract an expected writers' strike. Note that Rick Berman specifically denies the "early Federation" rumors.
Re:For great meaning click all zig... (Score:2)
Apparently a line of games from SNK have been bad enough in translating english to lead to the term SNK-glish being coined. This was all news to me.
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Signs of the apocalypse (Score:2)
1. Studios and recoding industries on a rampage agiast consumer rights, check.
2. Mindless TV programs coving "hoaxes", check.
3. New Star Trek series, check.
Well people we're all going to hell. Bring marshmallows.
ST:TOS technology (Score:2)
Star Trek: The Operating System
Now you too can experience the thrill of Starfleet's easily hackable, error-prone computers, just like on the popular series!
Captain, it appears that the Borg have infiltrated our journaling filesystem and are threatening to frag us!
Imagine the joy of having your own computer crash due to metaphasic radiation, perfectly in sync with the television broadcast, giving you a chance to test your skills and summon your own 'inner Wesley' to bring it back up.
"I had no idea of the constant trouble the crew of the Enterprise experienced while out in space. Having 'Star Trek: The Operating System' loaded on my machine has made me feel closer to the show. I now identify with the characters more intimately. Thanks, Paramount!" -- Lester Platt, Jeffersonville, IN
Order your copy of Star Trek: The Operating System today!
Re:Early days could work (Score:2)
Yes you can. No captain at all. The entire ship is run by a committee... or it could be an anarchy... or a group mind... Hmm, this might even get me to watch the series for an episode or two.
Re:Summary of new series: No plot, meaningless act (Score:2)
Star Trek: Cash Cow (Score:2)
There will be no human actors. In a merchandising first, the actual toys will finally take center stage.
And, of course, Roddenberry's widow will play a bit part. She will appear on alternate episodes to feed the cow.
live long and profit [ridiculopathy.com]
curse you, Rick Berman! (Score:5)
Rick Berman doesn't know good Trek from a hole in the ground. What we really wanted was Excelsior [startrekexcelsior.com]! Get it straight, Berman!
I'm personally fed up with the over-merchandised crud that's being pushed on us under the guise of Star Trek nowadays. The quality of the series has been consistently declining since TNG. Even the low-budget TOS (my personal fave because it's the original) beats DS9 and VOY.
Re:Future Past (Score:2)
I share your opinion on SG1, but I can never quite make my brain ignore the fact that every race they encounter speaks English and represents some cultural stereotype, just like in Star Trek, past the first one where "Tealk" lives. It is especially irritating since so much of the appeal of the movie was the depth of the foreign culture and Daniel's process of learning the language.
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Bush's assertion: there ought to be limits to freedom
Hidden message in slashdot story!! (Score:4)
Ar Trek Series Set For Fa-
L-
L Posted by timothy
on Monday Februar-
Y 19, @03:13AM fr-
Om the v-
Ulcans-in-tight-skirts dept. dema-
Ria writes: "Executive producers
Rick Berman and Brannon
Braga of ST: Voyager are at it again,
And we can expect another trek serie-
S in the fall, according to this articl-
E. Rumors are that it'll take place
during the early days of the Feder-
Ation. I wonder if they'll make the b-
Ridge have the same cardboard/buttons glu-
Ed-on look as TOS did." Just my luck -- the more Star
Trek spinoffs there are, the more toys I have to
Buy for Tr-
Ekkie friends, and I'm a-
Lways a few sh-
Ows behind. Hopefully this o-
Ne will have some cool merchandise. ($15 MP3 playin-
G
"communicators" for kids?) So send in scrip-
Ts early, if you want to c-
Ounteract an expected writers' strike. Note that Rick
Berman specifically denies the "early Federation" r-
Umor-
S.
-- Optimal, minimum-bandwidth solution, found by dynamic programming for your viewing pleasure. --
Tentative Series Titles (Score:3)
(Star Trek: One Last Pathetic Grab for Money)
ST:AYBABTU
(STAR TREK: ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US)
***
Re:new ST special effects test shots... (Score:2)
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Re:Federation = U.S.? (Score:2)
- Vulcans - England. Our closest ally, more restrained and refined, "discovered" Earth
- Klingons - Russia. During TOS, worst enemy, during TNG became a cautious ally.
- Romulans - China. Still an enemy
There are many other similarities with races, enough to write a thesis on, but also if you look at a few of the TOS episodes, they do remind the viewers in a not-so-subtle way that the Federation is just as bad as the Klingons in some ways, and Voyager is coming back to that trend of showing how Janeway is not always right and how people in the Delta Quadrant fear and hate her for imposing.
Make no mistake about this, it was intentionally a morality play - based on "current society" whatever that was when the show was airing.
For this reason, I'm pretty sure the new series will not be a prequel, despite the rumors... it is too hard to impose modern society *before* 70's society and not have an odd descrepancy...
-Alison
prediction on new ST (Score:2)
//rdj
Summary of new series: No plot, meaningless actors (Score:2)
The lead characters should change over time, get replaced, or even die. There should be real humor and banter amoung the characters. They should carry grudges.
This ST Voyager 'let's see what's new this week' same-old, same-old, just shows how worthless Paramount's 'franchise' has become.
Who would care if Janeway, Paris, or any of the other characters die. They are not 'real' in any sense of the word. They have reset buttons, and spring back at the begining of the next show.
Good 'space' shows are;
Earth: Final Conflict
Babalon 5
Farscape
Lexx
Of these, B5 had the strongest series plot line, leading to the show ending.
Re:Tentative Series Titles (Score:2)
Alex Bischoff
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Yuppies in Space; GenX in Space (Score:2)
"yuppies in space". Most of the characters were
30-somethings in the early 90s. They were upscale
and concerned about their careers, like yuppies.
Another Roddenbery-derived series- Andromeda-
resembles GenX in space. It has 20,30-somethings
of the current era. Includes geek, slacker
and artistic types.
The first Star Trek series was pre-boomer.
Authentic 1960s SF!!!!! (Score:3)
To get that real TOS look, you need a lot of complicated gadgets that make silly noises and seem to have been designed by people who never heard of integrated circuits.
Which, come to think of it, is precisely what I miss most about TOS. Like all good SF, it required a certain amount of imagination on the part of the audience. You're involved in making the concept work. Once you get in that mode, you don't care that surgical tools look like exotic salt shakers (they actually were), that all the caves and mines have flat floors, and that all the alien planets look like the San Gabriel valley.
Now all the effects and sets are letter perfect -- and the scripts are unimaginative, scientifically illiterate stories about a future where humanity is represented entirely by cliche-spouting dweebs, and all the aliens are walking stereotypes that would be considered painfully racist in any other context. This is progress?
__________________
Re:Authentic 1960s SF!!!!! (Score:2)
Well, an early TNG episode did mention that Data comes "fully equipped". Probably not quite what you meant.
__________________
Re:Authentic 1960s SF!!!!! (Score:2)
Well, some of them. Others seem to spend an absurd amount of time in role-playing recreations. Others spend a lot of time arguing about things nobody else cares about. Still others seem so caught up in their jobs as to have no personal lives at all. A typical Trekkie convention, in other words.
__________________
Don't get your hopes up. (Score:3)
Re:Future Past (Score:2)
I fully realize that everyone here is a skeptic as to how well another series is going to go over with the fans and the rest of the world+dog. My experience has been that Paramount, evil corporation that they are, is generally very capable of exceeding my expectations when it comes to my affinity for Trek.
I got into Star Trek midway through the TNG series. (I say blegh to TOS, it was a good idea but far too ahead of its time.) Then along came DS9, which I had doubts about. But they eventually gave the charaters some personality and it scored pretty well with me. By the time Voyager was announced, everyone was like, "What *another* Star Trek? This can't work!" But somewhere after the first season or two, Paramount brought in some highly skilled writers and staff, and has now taken over TNG's spot as my favourite Trek series yet.
I have little doubt that they may be able to do it again. As for the premise of this new series, I can't even speculate. But if they can turn the "federation starship stranded in the Delta quadrant" idea into a good series, I think they can pull off pretty much anything.
I'd like to see some more cross-series character and species appearances. I highly doubt they would do Q, but Guinan is a very distinct (and excellent, might I add) possiblity. We all know she hung around mostly with humans after her culture was decimated by the Borg. I wonder if Whoopie Goldberg would be willing to do it, though.
Sad to see suck a trusted horse beaten so (Score:2)
These shows were not simple science fiction.
No Deep Space Nine has that distinction, however, DS9's point was to be a show for the existing ST fans. Day to day life in the Federation, along with a continuing story arc, much like Babylon 5 but not as involved.
So I can see how Voyager was such a good idea, show the resourcefullness of the Federation's Star Fleet but stranding them light years away from home, throw in the need for help from their enemies and you've got a good show. But the screwed up and they didn't pursue any of those concepts very far. In the end the show turned into a bunch of technobabble to further a plot straight from a pulp fiction novel and it required the addition of a blond in a tight outfit to bring it's ratings back.
To me it seems the horse has died, or at least needs a rest.
but no this fall Paramount is coming out with yet Another ST show with another toatlly new concept not realizing the fans really don't want to see it.
They should put down the whip, or at least switch to an old one.
Honestly the best Star Trek concept I've ever heard involves returning to Sulu as he commanded the Excelsior. There is so much story behind the Excelsior they would have no trouble for episode ideas and more so they would be going back to the old school star trek that was only seen in the movies. Fans would not have to digest a whole new style, production wouldn't have to design new sets and costumes from scratch. It would just work. But big studios don't listen to fans.
I reminice to the days of the Original series where a letter writing campaign to desilu saved the series for oblivion.
Re:Yeah, screw the writers (Score:2)
Re:Damn! No advendtures of Captain Sulu. (Score:2)
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Origin of "All Your Base Are Belong To Us" (Score:4)
You can see an animated gif of the intro sequence here [overclocked.org].
Title of posting said it all... (Score:2)
"New Star Trek Series Set for Fall"
I couldn't agree more. It's doomed for failure. It won't go anywhere. It's set for a fall immediately.
Oh! You meant 'fall' as in 'autumn.' My mistake.
Re:Future Past (Score:2)
That's because when DS9 was cancelled, the best writers from that show were hired to rescue Voyager from total suckitude. The writing of individual episodes did improve, but the characters are so stale and annoying that even the injection of new writing talent (and the borg known as "two-of-double-D") was not enough to save the show from being horrible.
Killing it at the end of this season and starting over with a totally new show was the best decision they could have made.
Klingon Evolution? (Score:2)
Aristotle's poetics (Score:2)
plots 2300 years ago in his essay "Poetics".
And authors still pretty much fit into his scheme.
another soap opera (Score:2)
Re:Summary of new series: No plot, meaningless act (Score:2)
Now, I've got more free time, and a TiVo! It's on every night here on our ABC affiliate, and I tuned it towards the start of the sixth season. It's incredible! The war with the Dominion episodes are outstanding, stories arc across entire seasons, and there is actual drama and emotion...
I read somewhere that this happened because Paramount was busy with Voyager, so they stopped paying attention to DS9, which allowed DS9 to bend the rules a bit, and do whatever they wanted to do. The resulting episodes are spectacular, and if the new Star Trek series wants to truly be successful, they'd be wise to look at those last two seasons of Deep Space Nine and follow the same sort of pattern.
I tuned out of Voyager after the second or third season, much for the same reason as Deep Space Nine, it became too much work to keep track of new episodes, and a lot of them got too repetitive. A new species shows up, threatens Voyager, Janeway kicks their butts, or makes peace with them, and Voyager continues on its merry way.
I'm not trying to bash Voyager, there are some good episodes of it, but it just didn't hold my attention the way ST:TNG and now DS9 do. Maybe when I can start watching all Voyager episodes in order via my TiVo, I'll come to appreciate it more.
Anyone have any news on the DVD releases of ST:TNG? The little inserts that come with the Original Series DVD's say that it's "coming soon". I'm hoping that they bundle entire seasons, like the X-Files, but I'm sure that Paramount will screw the fans by selling them only 2 episodes at a time, requiring us to have to store 90 DVD's to get the whole series...
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Omega Directive? (Score:2)
Be afraid -- Be very afraid (Score:3)
Marrissa Amber Flores Picard
(Google [google.com] is your friend).
Re: (Score:2)
Interpretations. (Score:3)
This is actually the thing that I like most about Star Trek, and paradoxically, the thing that most people hate about Star Trek. (Referring to the technology, not specifically the holodeck, though I will get to that.)
Many people miss the point that the writers are deliberately vague on the specifics of the technology. For one thing, it's obviously difficult to just invent technology that might exist hundredes of years from now for the mere purpose of a television show. Secondly, the technology is explained vaguely so that the audience is free to use its imagination regarding the details. This was always Gene Roddenberry's principle: Create an entertaining story about interesting characters and let the future be the vehicle.
In a nutshell, you have to do a bit of thinking for yourself in order to make the technology on Star Trek seem believable. You have to make your own interpretation. Those who refuse to do so are just plain lazy and inevitably come to the conclusion that Star Trek is stupid because its technology is unbelievable.
"They could take a relatively small room and, through the magic of... magic, make it into a full-size baseball field (DS9) where individual crew members could look at each other and be a hundred yards apart. People could run and run and never hit a wall. They could walk the plank and fall 20 feet into water (TNG - movie). It could reproduce old B&W sci-fi movies (Voyager) and, miraculously, all of the "real people" would see themselves as B&W. But despite the fact that it could manipulate visual perception this way, you still had people parading around the hallways on the way to the holodeck dressed as pirates, cowboys, and 19th century Irishmen. If it could make you see B&W, why couldn't it put a costume on you?"
My interpretation is this is that the holodeck is able to project the illusion so that the actual illusion itself is, in reality, never beyond a few meters of each participant. That, coupled with force fields and artificial gravity generators (which were never mentioned in any show, but this is *my* interpretation) can easily make it seem to separate people that they are walking away from each other, in any direction, for any distance.
There are contradictions to this in the very first few TNG episodes... such as where Wesly comes off the holodeck dripping wet after falling into the illusion of a stream. Or when data throws a rock into the wall of the holodeck when the rock is supposedly part of the illusion. I merely attribute these to bad writing.
About the costume issue. I would think that it might be a bit more desirable to replicate your own costume and don it in the privacy of your own quaters than to go to the holodeck, strip naked, and have the holodeck "paint" some clothes on you.
What if you have to leave really quick because the Borg are attacking? What happens if the deck loses power and the captain walks in?
Regarding B&W, it's probably a simple matter of projecting certain visual wavelengths on top of the existing environment that cancel out "colors" of the surrounding area, resulting in a monochromatic illusion.
" And it was not simply the visual and physical issues. Why was it that the computer, normally barely smart enough to open lift doors on command, could suddenly create completely believable, intelligent, human characters in the holodeck?"
Once again, my interpretation: technically, the computer does not do this. Whoever programs the particular scenario is responsible for the behavior of the characters, with a little help from a bunch of pre-made subroutines. The holodeck is not capable of "creating" people, it can only emulate them within whatever set of parameters the user defined.
But this rule too has been broken before. Moriarity, for example. Just a really stupid decision on the part of the writers. (Though it was a nice plot.)
"I like science fiction to be science fiction and fantasy to be fantasy -- and never the twain should meet."
I'm sorry to disappoint you, but the former has always been a subset of the latter.
[And I apologize in advance for mozilla's splended job of misformatting this post.]
Re:How involved was Roddenerry? (Score:2)
While I don't agree with your assesment, I feel compelled to correct you on one minor aspect...
Its pretty clear that someone is trying to market the Roddenberry name pothumously.
That would be Paramount Pictures. And they are marketing the Star Trek franchise, not Roddenberry's name. Why? Only because it's the most successful television franchise to date.
Re:Interpretations. (Score:2)
Hmm, well I think this should be modded up.
You have a good point, and it's not one that I'm willing to completely neglect. Your are correct in that they do seem to fall back on technobabble more than they should. Maybe it's just because that kind of stuff is easier to write, I dunno. But it is my opinion that most of the time, the writers are creative enough to make the story and plot actually revolve around the characters and their choices rather than the fictional technology.
Yeah, screw the writers (Score:5)
Civil liberties are dependent on grass-roots-level solidarity (ooh, scary word that); just as militias and insurrections are our defense against the depredations of a corrupt government (see Yugoslavia, the Phillipines, Indonesia, etc.), unionizing, strikes, walk-outs etc. are our defense against the depredations of corrupt corporations.
I mean, the sides are writers who are ST geeks vs. UPN [kband.com] aka Viacom/Paramount etc.
Hooray for megacorps. BTW, the Viacom boardroom is sweet, let me tell you.
--
Writers strike? (Score:2)
According to the Screen Actors Guild [sag.org] there is a threat of an actor's strike [sag.org]. This is expected to impact the fall season.
Will we have yet another scale for Warp speed?
Re:Ahhh a blessed era, before brat kids were allow (Score:2)
Umm, I don't see what's wrong with having her on the show, schmoozing or not. Unlike most infrequent characters on the show, she was not annoying at all and often added a certain quality to the show that I'm certain no other actor could. She was a fan of the original series, and I think her perfomance as Guinan was excellent.
I think we have already seen the start of it... (Score:3)
Re:Early days could work (Score:2)
Pike didn't have the Space Tube to blow in. The chair moved by thought, which is a lot less theatrical. And since he could only beep, and not speak, he's a suboptimal leading man.
FIRST OFFICER: Captain! The alien swarm is about to overtake us... what should we do?
PIKE: BEEEEP
FIRST OFFICER: So, did you want us to remodulate the shields, or charge the hull with isolinear tachyon radiation?
PIKE: BEEEEEEEP
FIRST OFFICER: STOP YOUR INFERNAL BEEPING!!
PIKE: BEEEEEEEEP BEEEEEEEEP
Besides, Pike was taken to Talos IV to live out a life of wonderful illusion anyway.
Pern Pilot Preps For March (Score:2)
Voyager was so absolutely terrible that I don't care about Star Trek any more. Among Voyager's sins were making the characters one-dimensional and then making them repeatedly behave out of character, and completely ignoring the consequences of past events. It was very shallow Trek, written for people with short attention spans and no background in science fiction.
However, one of the 'More Headlines' on the Trek article page caught my eye: "Pern Pilot Preps For March." "http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/art-main.html?2001 -02/16/14.00.tv [scifi.com]" (Note that it's prepping to start shooting in March, not air in March.)
A Pern series could be really cool, and could be unlike anything else that's been on TV before. Pern, if you're not familiar with it, is a planet in a series of books far in the future; a colony ship from Earth lands on this remote planet and is soon beset by environmental problems which cut the colony off from the rest of civilization. Over centuries, technology is gradually lost and science is forgotten, and the people revert to a feudal caste-based society and forget their past. Adventure, romance, and some of the strongest female characters I've seen in literature; it's remarkable stuff, really!
So, who cares about Trek? I want Pern!
Re:Star Trek: Cash Cow (Score:2)
And, of course, Roddenberry's widow will play a bit part. She will appear on alternate episodes to feed the cow.
Eh? What's wrong with that? She's already on pretty much every single episode as the voice of the computer.
Re:Early days could work (Score:2)
Re:Early days could work (Score:2)
Yes, but we all know that the Prime Directive can be over-ridden by the Omega Directive.. Amazing to what lenghts they will go to write an episode.
Re:Different POV - Not a Joke (Score:3)
Maybe it could take place on a planet/base that is in Romulan or Klingon territory before there is an alliance, and they are trying to rebel and join the federation. This way, the plot would be from the POV of a new alien race rather than from the Federation. And perhaps in the end they should end up winning the rebellion, but not being Fed either.
Re:No more jumpsuits! (Score:2)
Re:prediction on new ST (Score:2)
What? Won't take place in space?! That, like, violates the prime directive and stuff!
To quoth Bones McCoy: (Score:3)
Spock: "I believe, doctor, your observation is in error."
Re:Future Past (Score:2)
LOL. "No there were 63 original episodes." "No there were 64." Anyone recall the South Park episode where a couple of Star Trek nerds build a time machine...
Re:Summary of new series: No plot, meaningless act (Score:2)
* Earth: Final Conflict
* Babalon 5
* Farscape
* Lexx
Earth is of course a Roddenberry creation (and I admit to not having seen it), but I saw some B5 and it just seemed too wacky for me yet far too similar to DS9. I have heard, however, that Babalon 5 was originally a script for the pilot of DS9, but was refused by Paramount for one reason or another. But whoever wrote it (I honestly don't know the name), took it to another network and with some cosmetic changes, aired it as Babalon 5.
Future Past (Score:4)
I bet they go for an earlier time, somewhere between first contact and The Enterprise. It could make for an interesting series, where more impactful discoveries are made than just another 'subspace anomaly.' It's been a long time since I watched an ST creation and actually felt like they were "boldly going where noone has gone before."
Will they change it back to "no man" since it's set earlier? Will Guinan guest star? Will Q?
Kevin Fox
Re:Voyager finale -- a movie? (Score:2)
Hmm, I actually rather like that idea.
But... for some reason, everyone (including myself) just *knows* that the final episode will feature Voyager getting home. It is practically written into the laws of the universe that the first episode had them flung into the depths of space, and the very last episode will have them finally getting back home.
I do like your friend's idea. It would certainly require Paramount to have some balls and do what everyone least expects them to do. And to have Picard and his crew, Sisko and his buddies, and Reg Barclay and everyone else that makes Star Trek matter appear in the film would be a delight for me.
There is at least one more TNG movie in the works, and I would definitely like to see a Voyager movie sometime in the future. I was watching Insurrection again today and was amazed at what a good show it really is, in comparison to the other two movies. No Borg, no time-travel, no Kirk, no Nexus... just good clean TNG fun.
Re:Future Past (Score:2)
I don't agree with you, but I am compelled to point out that seven seasons is the typical length of a Star Trek series. (Minus TOS, which only had three because no one liked it until the 70's.)
What to do with the TV and Movie franchises? (Score:2)
Kevin Fox
Re: (Score:2)
Aint It Cool stories on this (Score:2)
There was some information on aint-it-cool-news last year:
TREK TV Series 5 to be called ENTERPRISE? [aintitcool.com]
A Fifth life for the Star Trek TV Series? [aintitcool.com]
Also of interest: Three of the ideas [aint-it-cool-news.com] they were floating before test groups. Personally, I think that the "Star Trek 90210" series sounded so bad that it's good, but I guess I'm in the minority.
Re:Gak... Licensing run amok (Score:2)
Star Trek XIV: The Search for Spock's Dentures.
Re: (Score:2)
Early days could work (Score:5)
The biggest problem facing the writers in Star Trek is that the technology can do so many different things. If the characters are in trouble, why not just beam them out? If a friend is fighting an enemy and you can't get a clear shot at the enemy, why not just stun them both? If the Federation had a cloaking device that not only made things invisible but could actually make things slide through solid matter, wouldn't they have done something with it when fighting a major war?
The current answer is just to handwave with silly made-up words: "We can't use the transporter right now because there is a cluster of verteron particles in the area." (At one time there was a "Particle of the week" web site, updated whenever Voyager introduced a new particle, which was about every week.)
A series set in the early days of the Federation would let them put more limits on the tech. They might go as long as a month before introducing a new particle to us.
If I were somehow put in charge of Star Trek, I know what series I would make. We know that when a civilization invents warp drive, the Prime Directive ends and they are invited into the Federation. We know that sometimes the Federation sends in a covert team to make sure things go smoothly--remember the episode where Riker was undercover and that alien chick was blackmailing him for sex? So, the series I would make is about a covert team that goes from planet to planet, helping smooth the way as each planet makes the final leap and joins the Federation. Because they are covert they can't just run around with phasers, communicators, and other gadgets, and they can't just beam out whenever they feel like it. Ideally it would have a story arc like Babylon 5 had, where it would take multiple episodes to resolve all threads in the plot and get the planet introduced to the Federation; over a 7 year run we might see 10 planets helped in this fashion. I wanted to call this "Star Trek: First Contact" but they used that title for a movie.
Anyway, setting the show in the wild-and-wooly early days of the Federation might work out well. But I still don't expect them to take any actual risks with the new show. It will be more of the same, but just a little bit different.
Hmmm, let's extrapolate from the past: white male starship captain, older starship captain, black starship captain, woman starship captain... I figure the next one up will be an older, woman black starship captain. Probably not bald, but we can't be sure.
steveha
And the next captain IS.... (Score:2)
Nope! Either the captain will be a very compelling non-human, or it'll be a gay Arab man with a superintelligent pet that gets the crew past the more sticky situations.
Re:No more jumpsuits! (Score:2)
------------------
Re:Future Past (Score:3)
9: Wesley gets gang-raped by a group of female Klingons.
8: Riker gets carried away executing an order from Picard to "knock the little snot around a bit."
7: Data catches him tossing off. Uncomprehending, he requires a detailed explanation from Wesley, who dies of embarrassment.
6: Extensive lab analysis of a green slime found on one of the control panels uncovers the fact that our favorite ensign has, once again, been picking his nose. He is summarily fired and commits suicide.
5: Wes gets gang-raped by a group of male Klingons.
4: On an earlier episode, Wes got to kiss a girl who turned into a Chewbacca-like creature. Here, she returns, and they once again get involved. (Un)fortunately, once she gets really heated, she mutates back into a wookie and forces Wesley to be her cringing sex slave. She then tears him limb from limb and eats him.
3: In a rare episode involving characters from both ST and ST:TNG, Spock attempts a Vulcan mind-meld with Wesley. Wesley's head explodes. Spock barely survives, spending the next several days scratching himself and whining.
2: Worf notices a Romulan ship on the scanners, and sends Wesley down to clean out the photon tubes. Later, someone makes a comment about the needs of the many having outweighed the needs of the few.
1: Wes gets involved in a deviant sexual practice known as "tribble stuffing," not realizing that tribbles multiply _anywhere_. Even an emergency laser enema by Dr. Crusher fails to save him.
These are obviously not my own, but I thought they certainly applied. May the writers take them to heart when they get an urge to write in an annoying character WHO DOESN'T DIE AND STAY DEAD, DAMMIT! [wipes drool]
--
Re:Future Past (Score:3)
Voyager promised so much and delivered so little, it's sad.
When the pilot of Voyager first aired, the characters were pretty much all introduced through the perspective of Ensign Harry Kim... which had me thinking "coo1! they are going to do a Star Trek series that tells the story of a green, disposable henchman, instead of spending most of their time with the front-on view of the Captain's bridge chair!" -Wrong. That idea would have been too good. They used Harry as a device to introduce us to Captain Hepburn er.. I mean Janeway (the least interesting of all the leads to date), and then prompty forgot about him for two and a half seasons.
When they introduced "The Doctor", I thought "cool! An AI that actually thinks and behaves the way you would expect and AI to think and behave! He's going to be the greatest Star Trek character ever!" -Wrong. A few short episodes, and he became a carbon-copy of Data, and most other non-humans on the show... hoping that someday Geppetto will make him into a Real Boy! The day that The Doctor "went beyond his programming" is the day I began to actively HATE the show. (When 7of9 showed up, we had the treat of having TWO quests for humanity on the same show... oh joy! From that moment on, Voyager was always better to watch with the sound turned off.)
When the annoying salvage yard guy was brought on board as a comic relief, I thought "okay... maybe they will kill him off before long. That would be nice." -Wrong! They killed of his hot girlfriend instead. Morons!
When it became obvious that he would not die soon, I thouhgt "okay... maybe he will be an interesting underworld connection and spy for them." -Wrong! They made him the ship's cook. On a ship that replicates food automatically.
When they introduced Tuvok as a vulcan (not a half-vulcan, like Spock was), I thought "cool! An actual full-blooded vulcan who has no 'human' side to suppress. He will be a real bad-ass!" -Wrong! He is exactly like Spock in nearly every way. The butt of the same jokes, carrying the same repressed demeanor, the same "humorous" moments of catching him in the act of almost showing emotion. What a waste of time.
In short, all of the characters on Voyager are flat and stale reconstituted archetypes. It's as if somebody got their hands on an old Star Trek role playing game, rolled up a few boilerplate characters, and used them for the show. For the last 3 years, UPN has had to run promos every single week that promised "ONE OF THE CREW WILL DIE!!!" or, "THEIR LIVES WILL CHANCE FOREVER" just to get people to tune in, only to discover that it was just another episode in which they manages to get x light-years closer to home, one or two characters learned something about themselves, and Janeway sits in her ready-room with grave doubts about the moralluty of whatever they just did.
Face it, Voyager is a stupid show, and it's death is welcome news to most Star Trek fans.
The secret of their sucess (Score:2)
Note to readers: For those who are not Star Trek fans, here is a quick guide to the acronyms/different series:
In my (humble) opinion, something is being overlooked. I have been a Star Trek fan for a while but never an ardent one (I havn't seen all the episodes). What makes Star Trek such a lasting and important part of our/American culture is not the technology, not the federation, nor the plots. Star Trek is sucessful because of the character development and character interaction.
I'll get back to this in a moment but think about this TNG couple: Worf and Troy. Who would have predicted that!
(I used "our/American culture" for a reason, I'll get back to is soon)
First I want to explain my views on why the other elements are not the reason for Star Trek's rise to fame.
Among my friends (yes we are all geeks), some of our favorite quips are: "Just reverse the polarity.","Activate the Heisenburg compensators.", or "Turn on the Reality compensators." There is a reason why new physics is invented constantly, the real stuff is too contraining. Hence an episode of Voyager where the ship falls into "Chaotic Space," where the law of physics (conveniently) don't hold. My point is that technology simply a tool used by the writers/producers to set the show in. Not much of the technology in Star Trek makes that much sense. As someone pointed out in another comment, "If a friend is fighting an enemy and you can't get a clear shot at the enemy, why not just stun them both?"
What an ideal society. It's just that, and ideal society. Roddenberry wanted to set his show in some society that didn't have the social problems that were prevalent in the 1960's, when he conceptualized Star Trek. Look at TOS cast, a black woman Communication's Officer, a Japenese Helmsman, and Russian Tactial Officer, and a Scottish Engineer.
Yet at the same time women wore really short skirts and the three main characters were white males (Shatner, Nemoy, and DeKelly[sp?]). But that is another issue all together
I would like to point out that the main employer (or what looks to be) and/or main focal point of the Federation is not the ideal society but a military orginization. Let's face it, the Enterprise may have a mission "to go where no man has gone before," but they do it with phasers and photon torpedos. Again, my point is that the Federation plays the same role as technology does, a tool for the settting of the show.
Did you notice that you can save the (choose one: ship/planet/Federation/galaxy) in a single hour! Wow! I would argue that the plot of the episodes do not constitue a major part of the show's fame. Of course there are some exceptions. DS9's war with the dominion was a multi-season story that was well written and well produced. The reason plot is not important is tied into the culture behind the show, which I will now address.
Whether we like it or not, Star Trek is a part of American culture. The reason for this can be found in American history. In the 19th century, Americans moved west and covered the continent. That "western" era with cowboys and gunfights at the "OK Coral" inspired many American ideals and attitudes: the open frontier, the vast unknown, the cowboy hero. It also killed thousands of Native Americans and destroyed their culture but in the 1950's that was swept under the carpet.
I say 1950's because that is when television producers started making all the western shows that I have never seen. Roddenberry wanted to make a "western" style show set in the future, hence Star Trek was born. Think about the parallels: "to explore strange new worlds, to boldly go where no man has gone before." Sound like a cowboy western? Compare Captain James T. Kirk with Wyatt Erpp (sp) or The Lone Ranger. White men who are flamboyant and charasmatic. Although Roddenberry did not explicitly say, "I will make a western set in the future," the fact is that westerns were an ingrained part of American culture, and that culture unfluenced Roddenberry.
Star Trek TOS and TNG could easily inherent the western. Both has ships which ran around uncharted space exploring or fighting or discovering new conflicts that needed to be resolved (usually in an hour). DS9 had problems with this paradigm. A space station doesn't fly around space. To comensate the writers/produces introduced the Defiant. They also created a massive multi-threated plot (the Dominion war). Voyager has tried to mimic the TOS and TNG but for some reason is not as sucessful. That reason is because of the characters (my original point).
Character development and interactions is what made Star Trek (TOS and TNG and to a partial extent DS9) successful. Kirk, Spock, and McCoy worked great together, playing off each others personalities. Picard, Ricker, Data, etc. wound up being a great combination. Why didn't Wesly Crusher work out? Not because the fans didn't like him (it didn't help), but because he didn't fit into the TNG universe. Picard was the Shakespearean captian, wise and philosophical. Riker, the cowboy (likely more popular than Picard). Data, the brains of the operation. Worf, the warrior who could be gentle and humane. Look at the relationships that developed. The friendship between Georde and Data developed when the writers realized the two worked great together in Engineering. Picard and Riker played off each other; one a flamboyant, almost reckless first officer, the other a stern, yet brilliant captian. Like I said before, Troy and Worf developing a realtionship? Although some people would agrue that was a stupid love story, I would look back and say the two worked well together.
What definatly helped TNG in its character development was good actors. Not to say the acting was award-winning or great, just good. This is partially the reason why Voyager doesn't seem to get anywhere. Voyager tries to develope character realtionships, but it isn't working very well. Plus the acting isn't much to speak of, which doesn't help. Try this, think of two characters which play off each other well in TNG (you can use the ones I've pointed out if you want). Now compare that relationship to another relationship in Voyager. Can you even think of a good two person relationship in Voyager?
DS9 managed to be the exception to this rule of character development. Since the "cowboy frontier" genre was not working, the writers/producers introduced the huge Dominion war, which succeded in overlaping the lack of character development. Again, think of a relationship, Kira and Odo? (I'd rather not think about it thank you). Sisko and ??? In fact Avery Brooks really played off himself. He is a pretty good actor. He did a good job being Captain Sisko. His character and force personality really didn't need a foil. He was Captian Sisko. I would say he alone helped make DS9 a sucess. The plot however is what really captured viewers. I must admit I have been arguing character this and character that, but when I watch DS9 I watch for the plot. This is why some DS9 episodes that don't deal with the Dominion War suck.
Think about the difference between a movie and a TV series. A movie is about a story, told in two hours. Star Trek runs once a week, so unless you have a huge plot like DS9, what are you going to intice the viewers with. Answer: the characters.
I haven't said much about the new show. I would hope that regardless of where or when it is set, the producers get some good actors and the writers generate good characters. Regardless of what they come up with, the fan base is so large that not everyone will be happy. But I'll still watch the first episode, and that is what the producers are hoping for.
Re:Future Past (Score:2)
I'm surprised you haven't been modded up as "funny" for that statement.
Let's see; wormholes without gravitational sources, just magic rings.
Parallel universes accessible via portable devices.
A magic metal that can explode with thousands of times greater force than an atomic bomb, but isn't radioactive.
Everybody speaks English, even if they were plucked from Norway a thousand years ago.
Magic regeneration machines.
Yeah, that's largely accurate. After a couple of bowls, anyway. Don't get me wrong, I love the show, and record it so I won't miss it; but I'd never make the mistake of calling science fiction, much less accurate. It's science fantasy, and damn good science fantasy at that.
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new ST special effects test shots... (Score:3)
You can get a good feel for the new show seeing the setting in the first one & one of the craft used. The second shot has a pic of some aliens.
Craft & Bases [tumbleweed.net]
and
Aliens [tumbleweed.net].
EARLY DAYS (Score:2)
Re:Early days could work (Score:2)
The new captain will be a quadraplegic, in a wheelchair that he has to steer by blowing into a tube. A space tube, of course.
Re:Early days could work (Score:2)
There was a fairly lame Voyager episode where sone aliens were trying to kill everyone via the holodeck... it's only worth mentioning because Harry Kim developed a crush on one of the holodeck characters. Tom Perris said something like, "well, it happens to everyone," which I though was a pretty damn insightful for Trek. If the holodeck was as good as they say, it would suck people in worse than EverQuest, and it would be easy to develop unhealthy emotional relationships with the computer-generated characters.
Of course, this is what happened to the Talosians in TOS. They perfected the power of illusion and the whole society went down the crapper because they were too busy playing EQ.
Re:Early days could work (Score:2)
Re:Origin of The Federation... (Score:2)
Black Ops would rule. Except I have no confidence in any of the current producers to do it right. I can hardly remember any well-executed military action scenes in the whole damn franchise. They were all pretty lame... guys in red spandex.
Black Ops done RIGHT would be an awesome thing. I want to see the series really start using the amazing destructive power of their small arms. They ought to be vaporizing people right and left, blowing chunks out of buildings, all that good stuff...
No more jumpsuits! (Score:3)
The "Prime Directive" novel does this (Score:2)
I once got suckered into reading a ST novel. I don't recall the author, but the title was "Prime Directive". Basically, there's a whole bunch of the covert monitoring stuff surrounding a culture that's almost ready to join, yadda yadda, then Kirk manages to cause total nuclear devastation of the entire planet, which counts as "interference in the natural development of the people," go figure, and has to stand trial for it, yadda yadda, until Spock bails his ass out again.
I don't know whether you could make an entire series out of this. Even this novel started off with some interesting scenes, but was hard put to come up with a good ending. (Actually, it failed miserably to come up with a good ending. Oh look, a universe-eating monster in the last five pages.)
I do agree with you on this, however: reducing the level of tech available would make the show watchable again. (I nearly vomit when a character asks the computer to speculate on something, and it does so with complete accuracy in less than a second. If the characters could really do that... they wouldn't need to.
Re:Writer's strikes are bad news - ask Wesley! (Score:3)
I read somewhere that the original concept for TNG was a knock-off of the "Horatio Hornblower" series. Wesley was supposed to be one of the main characters, always saving the day with his unconventional ways, while the stuffy captain did things by the book.
For whatever reason, they abandoned this and chose another route. Thank goodness...
Re:Ahhh a blessed era, before brat kids were allow (Score:2)
5) No Whoopi allowed.
I read that Ms. Goldberg tried to schmooze her way onto the X-Files, just like she did with ST. Fortunately Chris Carter had the balls to tell her to get lost, he wasn't interested in having her on the show.
Less Effects... More Substance (Score:2)
ST went downhill after TNG. StarWars is another good example of this trend - Episode I had great effects but fell short on content. Fantasy can exist without effects... its the reason you can play a text-based online RPG or even a paper-based one. The important thing is immersion.
At the same time, critics will skewer a show unless it has these needless effects, so what can you do? People just expect it now.
Set for fall, indeed. (Score:5)
Re:Summary of new series: No plot, meaningless act (Score:2)
Well, to be honest, no, I'm not sure. Hence the disclaimer, "I have heard..." But it sounds plausible enough to me, given the similarities of the two.
How involved was Roddenerry? (Score:2)
I'd don't think they can milk the Star Trek franchise any longer - let it die already!
And some of his other projects that never saw the light of day while he was alive - Andromeda or Earth Final Conflict - were pretty damn weak.
Its pretty clear that someone is trying to market the Roddenberry name pothumously.
Re:Future Past (Score:3)
Well, strictly speaking, TOS lasted 3 seasons AND six blockbuster motion pictures. (Seven, if you count Generations, in which Kirk dies.)
Eh, when did I say different? I didn't meantion the movies, but I was talking about seasons. Anyway, I'm not familar with TOS at all. Yes, it set the stage for all Star Trek to come, and yes, it did some groundbreaking stuff for television in the 60's, but on the whole I just thought it was corny and predictable. From my perspective, Trek didn't begin until 1988.
When I saw the Voyager pilot, and I realized that it was a *woman* commanding the ship, adding to the fact that the whole "starship thrown out into the far reaches of space and trying to get home" premise sounded dumb, I didn't think I'd like the series very much. But thankfully, I was wrong.
I do kinda like the idea of following Harry Kim's POV of the action as the theme for the show, but let's face it, that would get boring as hell after awhile.
Janeway is pretty much the icon of everything that's supposed to be "right" in the universe. But what exactly else would you have the captain of a federation starship be? You just can't have manic, evil, depressed, selfish, or stupid captains running around the universe. Not only does it run perpedicular to what the Federation and Starfleet stand for, but that would get old after awhile, too. Along the same lines, I think the whole story behind Sikso being an unwilling emissary for a group of religious fanatics was brilliant.
All of the characters you mentioned above as hating were actually some of my favourites. I don't see how you can say The Doctor is a carbon copy of Data... Physical structure aside, The Doctor serves an entirely different purpose on the ship, has emotions, feels pain, is arrogant but autoritative, likes art for its beauty, and is just plain eccentric. Those are his main qualities, and Data is none of those.
Neelix was an inventive character, I think. Aside from Quark, Star Trek has never really had any comedic characters in it before. Again, we're talking eccentricity here. But what makes Neelix a nice addition to the show is the way he interacts with the rest of the cast. He sucks up to Janeway, and Tuvok, a Vulcan who ought to have no emotion, obviously LOATHES him. That's funny in itself.
Face it, Voyager is a stupid show, and it's death is welcome news to most Star Trek fans.
Err, uhh, if these hypothetical "fans" hate the show, then couldn't very well be fans, could they? Anyway, like I mentioned before, seven seasons is par for the course on a Star Trek series. Not much of a "death" if that's what they planned all along, eh? This fan is sorry to see it end already.
There is a writer's strike. (Score:2)
Re:Origin of "All Your Base Are Belong To Us" (Score:2)
For those carefully looking at any shots of it, you'll note that Zero Wing's demo is predominately red and purple, common colours for Genesis games. Most first gen (1991 was the year of the SNES release) games for the SNES tended towards much broader palettes.
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Re:but seriously... (Score:2)
Oh, no argument there. Thats why I tried to make it clear that I was talking about sci fi on TV. I'd love to see what Roddenbury would have created in a social world had he been writing a book rather than a TV series. Sci fi books tend to be much more progressive than TV shows - some seem to exist mostly to think about the social future rather than the tech one (childhoods end springs to mind).
TV in general seems (to me) to be a beat ahead of the heartland (just enough that they don't get worried) and two beats behind the coasts in terms of social representation. Movies run the gauntlet between painfully retrograde and slightly (but I'm sure painfully for others) progressive. Books can be whatever they want to be. :)
Kahuna Burger
Re:Interpretations. (Score:2)
Well, okay, you have a point. But I never said the technology or its use in ST was perfect. Maybe some people can go about not needing an explanation for why all the aliens can speak english, but ST has traditionally been a geek show. That's changed (somewhat) in recent times, but I think part of the reason for the existance of things such as a universal translator is that geeks need an explanation. If you have an underlying theory behind warp drive, transporters, and replicators, then you're going to need a reason why the aliens speak english too. (Ironically, many people STILL don't know...)
Another example: Warp drive. Currently, it is widely accepted that there is no way to travel faster than light, yet in Star Trek, it is routine. Geeks like me would quickly lose interest if the space ships flew around in every episode, without so much as telling us how they did so. Which is not to say they should spend an entire episode going into great detail about the inner workings of the Warp core... just give us enough information that we can grasp it and let our interpretations of it run away with the details.
In many ways, Star Trek is a unique show *because* it highlights the use of technology that doesn't exist yet. To my knowledge, no scifi television show or movie has come right out and *tried* to provide a *brief* explanation for their technology before Star Trek did. Perhaps in TOS, a large quantity of it was completely unbelievable, because at the time not a single viewer believed that things like transporters would even be possible in the future.
But when TNG came around, a large part of the show was set up around the technology of the Enterprise. The Engineering room, for example. I don't think you can get away with just showing the audience a picture of Engineering and the people working in it and say, "This is Engineering." The show would quickly turn into Yet Another Space Flick.
However, I do agree with you that sometimes they go too far. The one Voyager episode about the Omega molecule was rather neat. But when it comes to dreaming up yet another outlandish reason why they can't beam an away team out of some dangerous location is going too far.
But from my point of view, the clever uses of Star Trek technology seem to greatly outweigh the stupid ones, insofar as plot goes.
Different POV (Score:3)
I think it will be really interesting to have a show with a non-federation point of view. Will others races see the Federation as an evil monopoly that forces their ways to others? The Federation way or no way! Anyone not in the federation is pretty much a bad guy. I can see it now...
Just a joke, Trekkies leave me alone!
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Re:Writers strike? (Score:2)
Right now, SAG's 135,000 members (most of which make drek for pay) are working under a new contract. ( A link to NewCity-Chicago [newcitychicago.com] referencing the end of the strike; a link to SAG's own web site [sag.org] about the new commercial addendum.)
The Directors' Guild contract expires on 30 June 01 (AFAIK: correct me if I'm wrong), and the Writers' Guild contract terminates on 30 April 01, and I am trying (unsuccesfully) to dredge up web info confirming this.
The SAG contract also expires 30 June 01.
Without writers, no new scripts are made.
Without actors, no motion cinema is possible.
This means that Hollywood shuts down.
Maybe this also will mean that the MPAA will focus more on the contract dispute and send Proskauer Rose LLP (sp?) against the big bad unions as opposed to the little indie hacker 'zine.
(Wishful thinking never hurt anyone, did it?
Ruling The World, One Moron At A Time(tm)
"As Kosher As A Bacon-Cheeseburger"(tmp)
Psshaw! (Score:4)
So, don't whine and boo-hoo about someone making a joke at a union strike. Non-union writers have every bit as much right to work as union members, and probably deserve more respect since they don't try to bully people into unionizing just to work and paying a union-tax that gets used for PAC money whether the worker forced to pay union dues agrees with it or not. Now, legally, union members don't have to pay the portion of dues used for political bribery--err, lobbying--but Big Unions managed to successfully defeat a bill that would have required union shops to post this information, so few union members even know this. Kind of reminds me how slimey megacorps buy legislation, eh...
Re:Early days could work (Score:2)
In theory that's true. But this is Star Trek. They ran out of ideas years ago. I'm willing to bet that no matter what show they decide to do, they'll still Particle-of-the-week and deus ex machina (sp?) the hell out of it.
That's what I don't like about Trek. At the end of an episode, usually everything is EXACTLY the way it was at the begining. Except in Voyager it's like "Oh yeah, we used that SuperTransHyperWarp drive for 5 seconds so now we're closer to home. Also, 7 of 9 tried a new hairdo".
Babylon 5 ruined Trek for me (:
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Re:Origin of "All Your Base Are Belong To Us" (Score:2)
Ah, sorry about then. I knew it was some old system, and a quick Google search seemed to indicate SNES. My bad.
Re:Early days could work (Score:2)
Extraterrestrial starship captain. Can't go any further than that
Re:Hidden message in slashdot story!! (Score:2)
Ahhh a blessed era, before brat kids were allowed (Score:3)
1) The Federation has not made contact with Ferrengi yet.
2) Little brat kids are not allowed on board the ship at all. This means you Wesly, Nog & Naomi.
3) As with point number 2, this isn't "The Original Series Kids". We wont have the young adventures of Captain Kirk
4) Not the love boat in space as Deep Space 9 was.
The way I see it the series looks like it's going to be a whole series of first contacts with important races, and discoveries of technologies taken for granted in other series.
Major plot devices will be easy to come up with because they've already been in the series, just not introduced. We'll occasionally have some time travel so we can have star apperances, and probably an unrecorded Q encounter.
The question is what social/ethnic group will play Captain? Sadly not Sulu (which would of rocked cause he has coolest voice) slightly wrong time zone.
Oh well I've blathered enough.
Re:Early days could work (Score:2)
(BTW, I don't like the word "race" as a delimiting category among people... our "race" is "human".)
Re:Psshaw! (Score:4)
Re:Prequel, eh? (Score:2)
Writer's strikes are bad news - ask Wesley! (Score:4)
About once a week, the writers and producers would get together and have a big brainstorming session. Ideas are tossed out at these meetings. The group as a whole thinks about continuity and character development: What areas haven't we explored lately? What interesting things might we do next? What overall direction should the show take, what relationships should we develop? What are we doing wrong that we could do better? That sort of thing.
Anyway, one fine week at the writer's meeting the chief Suggestion From On High was: "Hey, what about Wesley? We haven't really done much with that character. He's around, but we don't have much sense of who he is as a person." Everybody agreed, so that was the closing thought that a half-dozen Star Trek writers went away with.
And what's the easiest way for the audience to learn more about and identify more with Wesley? Have him save the ship! Arrange things so that some unlikely danger comes along that only Wesley's special talents are capable of recognizing or defending against. So what comes back is a slew of "Wesley saves the ship" scripts.
Most of these scripts were actually pretty good as individual scripts, but you wouldn't want to use them all sequentially as a matter of balance. Rather, in an ideal world you'd want to slip in a "Wesley saves the ship" script every now and then among the more traditional "Picard surrenders the ship" or "Geordi dislikes being blind" scripts. Use the better Wesley scripts first, send the weaker ones back for a rewrite or keep them around for a rainy day. No two consecutive episodes should be allowed to seem too similar.
But then the writer's strike was declared. When you've got a show to film and no new scripts are coming in, you use the scripts you've already got, regardless of whether this makes for a balanced presentation. Therefore, Wesley got to save the ship every other week, no matter how annoying it was to the fans who watched the show religiously. Thus, the "die-wesley-die" phenomenon.
[my best friend's godmother produced some of the ST:TNG episodes]
Comment removed (Score:5)
Re:Early days could work (Score:2)
More to the point it's an American term with little meaning in the rest of the world.
It's only possible meaning would be as the Latin for "Spanish".