New Star Trek Series Rumblings 414
Tycoon Guy writes "TrekToday just posted a write-up about the next Star Trek series, containing info on all the characters. Here's a quote: 'Series V will indeed be set on a Starship Enterprise, under the command of human Captain Jackson Archer. The backdrop of the series will be the 22nd Century, at a time when starship travel was a relatively new endeavour, humans and Vulcans still had much to learn about each other, and the universe really was still filled with strange new worlds, new life and new civilizations.'" I guess I'd care more if the last 2 Trek series, and the last Trek Movie maybe, didn't suck monkey. The casting information reads just as bland as you would expect. I'm actually much more interested in tonight's premiere of The Lone Gunmen (X-Files spinoff). Please don't suck!
Re:The new Lone Gunman series... (Score:2)
It was actually pretty good IMHO. It is a bit lighter and tounge-in-cheek then the X-Files, though it does attain a fair sense of mystery and intrigue. The the lone gunmen characters are flushed out more then in the X-Files and form a good ensamble.
I think that will be the key to the show's success or failure: whether they can operate as a strong ensamble cast, which is very difficult to do on TV. The writers also have a very tricky job ahead of them in balancing the humor and intrigue. I think the pilot was successful in all of these areas. We'll have to wait to see if they can pull it off for an entire season.
This is not to say that the show is perfect. There were some weak spots, including a number of especially improbable and bizzare fudging of technical aspects (mostly computer related, ironically).
My suggestion: Be sure to watch it, but put on your "suspension of disbelief" hat.
-- tjoynt
Hoax? (Score:3)
Re:Hoax? (Score:2)
render it with the amiga! (Score:2)
the stories have gone from okay, to bad, to worse, to the the worst crap hollywood and new york can scrape off the used wax ring of a trailer park toilet.
gimme a break.
Tired of the same old crap. (Score:3)
The same old plots come up over and over again: resolving generations-old blood feuds in a few days, refusing to take or use over-powerful weapons, facing trial by god-like aliens, respecting alien culture (no matter how stupid), forced alliance between old enemies, etc.
TOS was okay when it was new. TNG was okay for those who hadn't seen TOS, or were pathetically desperate fans of the sort who can watch the same second-rate show a hundred times without getting bored of it.
Going from loading an optical illusion into the borg so their computers will crash to giving the shapeshifters an incurable virus is not creating a new story. We've heard it all before, the players just keep putting on new masks.
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Re:Spinoffs ARE successful! (Score:2)
Rich
What about Quantum Leap (Score:2)
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Re:Please! No more Trek! (Score:4)
Obvious Hoax, People! (Score:4)
Tell me where this supposed 'Enterprise' would fit into Trek History?
The first Enterprise, NCC-1701 was commanded by Christopher Pike, Robert April, then James Kirk.
The second Enterprise, NCC-1701-A was commanded by James Kirk.
The Third, NCC-1701-B was commanded by Captain John Harriman.
NCC-1701-C was commanded by Captain Rachel Garrett.
NCC-1701-D and NCC-1701-E were commanded by Captain Jean-Luc Picard.
None of the official Star Trek documentation lists anything of a ship called "Enterprise" prior to NCC-1701, and after the Barbados Patrol Craft commisioned in 1981. They're trying to come off as saying that this new series is Pre-TOS, but it doesn't fit.
Then, there's the crew. The doctor is supposedly an Exotic Alien. Prior to TOS, people from Earth had limited contact with extra-sol life forms. "The Doctor has filled Sickbay with all sorts of bizarre medical instruments, alien plants and spores, and stasis chambers with small, living creatures." No doctor would create a sickbay like this. Even Dr. McCoy's sickbay was a clean, sterile environment.
Then, we have names. The author of the hoax couldn't come up with any creative names, so they stole the names from various Star Trek sources:
Sub-Commander T'Pau (Sub Commander? This isn't a Romulan Ship...)
Admiral Forrest (DeForest Kelley, or "Leonard McCoy")
Admiral Leonard (Leonard Nimoy, or "Spock")
Commander Williams (William Shatner, or "James Kirk")
Tos (Well known acronym for 'The Original Series')
Plus, the sheet goes on to say that shooting begins in May - before casting is even complete?! For a series that debuts at the end of the year? Not likely.
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?
They Compromized Our Cookie! (Score:2)
It could be interesting.... (Score:2)
We don't need our officers screwing eachother dammit!
Re:ST Historians: Please Help Me... (Score:2)
The whole thing sounds great too me, *if* it happens, would be bridging that gap that has always been there between the 'current day' (paranoid, etc) human society and the 'future' startrek UFP..
With the TMP scene, i saw this link http://www.geocities.com/st_ent/ which is apparently one of the pictures shown in that scene of TMP.
Re:Star Trek in the 29th century (Score:2)
Damn. I was determined not to post to this story, and then you had to go and read my mind. Please don't laugh, I have to get this off my chest.
I watched my first star trek in fifth grade. That was Voyager's 1st season. I still vividly recall Future's End. Now, I will say that I have a very active mind, and I spent a lot of time thinking about Captain Braxton and the 29th century. Car rides, long hikes, boring gym classes, whatever... whenever my brain was on "idle," I would start speculating. Soon I had an entire 29th Century (or C29, as I couldn't help calling it) setting thought up. A crew for a ship, uniforms, technology, politics, history... the works. No one really wanted to hear about it, so I just kept it to myself and let it grow in my head.
Eventually, i matured, and found it felt much better to spin my own universes in my mind. C29 sank to the back of my mind, and I've recently found myself cannibalizing some of those ideas for my original fiction. But I still recall a lot of it. In fact, I probably still hve my sketched out uniform designs somewhere. Maybe I should turn it all into a webpage.
When series V was more sepculation than fact, one rumor I found was much like this one, except that it specificed occasional appearances by Captain Braxton from the 29th century, in pursuit of temporal criminals and suchforth. That blew my mind, especially since i hadn't thought about it for a couple years.
For all that it would doubtless conflict with my ideas, I would love to see a C29 series. There's so much potential, as you said.
I guess it's hard to take all i've said here seriously. This being slashdot, mockery is probably forthcoming. Whatever. Had to get this off my chest.
You know, while a historical doesn't seem to have much potential, it could have been much, much worse. One of the other rumors I encountered a while ago was a Starfleet Academy series. Good gods, it would've been the voyages of the starship Loveboat, NCC-90210.... ;)
-J
Re:I can't wait (Score:2)
Re:Lets all be honest... (Score:2)
Re:It could be interesting.... (Score:2)
I guess we could leave it to lonely trekie geeks to get sour about their main escape turn to 'relationship crap'.
Re:Why all the negativity? (Score:2)
DS9 desprately tried to be all dark and realistic, but it couldn't do a story arc to save its life, and failed miserably at character development. While relying on the RESET button at every turn.
Re:Spinoffs ARE successful! (Score:2)
Don't forget "All in the Family". I think they lead the pack with spinoffs: Goodtimes, Maude, Jeffersons, Florence, Archies' Place, etc.
Re:Sigh.. (Score:2)
-1 Flamebait (Score:2)
Wattsamatter, need a few more hits on those banners, so you post some flamebait comments attached to an article?
The Lone Gunmen (Score:2)
Re:The new Lone Gunman series... (Score:2)
The fundamental problem? The average, non-tech TV viewer hates real technology, and the propeller-heads (like us) hates everything not true to form.
Every time we see the "magic computer search", my wife turns to me and asks, "how come ours doesn't do that?" to which I must reply, "because we don't live in TV land, dear..."
Hercules in space. (Score:2)
The first few shows looked great, even if the acting and FX were cheesy, and I thought it was going to be one great big storyline, but then it went totally episodic. They don't seem to be busily restaffing the ship, as I assumed they would, and their new allies from previous episodes don't seem to be helping them much in restoring the Commonwealth. It had such potential, it's really a shame to see it turn out as nothing more than a cross between Hercules and Star Trek.
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Re:The new Lone Gunman series... (Score:3)
It's almost as bad as when the TNG crew solved problems by "reversing positronic flows". The difference is that 23rd century technology is completely fictional, whereas Lone Gunmen addresses real technology that many viewers are familiar with.
I expect that every episode of this series is going to have a couple of hacking-into-computers sequences, and I hope they're not all as silly as this. I don't expect technical accuracy. But why not put in somewhat-believable gibberish rather than complete gibberish? Non-techie viewers won't know the difference, but it won't turn off techies..
Re:ST Historians: Please Help Me... (Score:2)
The UFP was started in the year 2161. Whether or not Starfleet was started is another matter.
Starfleet is one of the principal executive agencies defined in the Federation's Constitution (Chapter 8). There is mention that temporary forces would be "borrowed" from individual Federation members until Starfleet got its own fleet up and running. Perhaps this Enterprise will be such a ship.
Sigh.. (Score:5)
Excuse me - I have to go secure my cookies with my new sector editor so the spooks don't steal my new Socket-7 CPU or my USERDATA.INI file. Maybe I should defrag it to make sure the modem inside my CPU doesn't upload any information to the internet..
Re:Why all the negativity? (Score:2)
The cube destruction was not all that unbelieveable given that nobody else was crazy enough to actually board a Borg ship before (this part is completely obvious as the Borg have even less internal security than your average unmanned Federation Ships (My guess is that every other race assumed that anybody boarding a Borg ship would be more or less instantly assimilated, that and transporters seem to be in short supply in the Delta quadrant). Since the Borg are rather poor at thinking up new things for themselves (as opposed to merely adapting to solve problems, and assimilating new knowledge from species), they may never have considered the internal security problems on their ships. They certainly didn't learn anything useful on this issue by scanning the Enterprises computers... Also, they wern't blown up by conventional means, they self destructed when Picard glitched the command systems (and they show yet more really bad security by not securing the "everybody goes to sleep" command!)
I think the Starfleet is probabally one of the formost experts on the Borg now, as they have a lot of time to study Borg technology (and even have an ex-drone) without worry of assimilation (unlike every other species that meets the Borg, save Species 8472). Most likely the Quantum torpedos are designed to be difficult to adapt to. Plus the first Borg attack was against a mostly unprepared Federation, later on the Federation has no doubt spent 1000s of man hours developing procedures for Borg attacks. Finally, the ships at Wolf 359 were no doubt a mish-mash of Federation ships from whatever was available. After the destruction of these old ships, the replacements were no doubt newer, stronger ships.
Seven of Nine is more than just T&A, she is also the requisite robot/alien looking to become more human that every ST series needs...
Down that path lies madness. On the other hand, the road to hell is paved with melting snowballs.
Re:ST Historians: Please Help Me... (Score:2)
Re:Spinoffs ARE successful! (Score:2)
Re:Please! No more Trek! (Score:5)
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Re:last 2 series suck monkey? (Score:2)
Seasons 6 and 7 (about halfway through 7 now) are brilliant. It's nice to have stories that aren't resolved in an hour, and have characters who remember and reference events in past episodes.
If you were like me, and sort of tuned out of DS9 after the first few seasons, check out the last two. You'll be blown away. I can't wait for the finale, which I haven't seen yet...
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Re:Best reason not to: time travel SUCKS! (Score:2)
Please, someone make a non-PR scifi series! (Score:2)
-main characters who occasionally set aside their principles to make a really big gain
-at least a few alien species that never betray their stereotypes
-at least one alien from a species with a deeply unpleasant, but generally accurate stereotype, who betrays the stereotype to be nasty in totally different and dramatically worse ways
-weapons that blow their targets into messy globs of whatever the target is made of, even if it always happens offscreen
-reasonably intelligent robots without emotions, that everybody treats as machines (no casual conversation, are casually sacrificed without concern except for the cost of replacing them)
-deaths of main characters that serve the plot, not casting convenience
-badasses who are more concerned about their ability to wreak havok than any particular ideas about why they should do so
anti-wishlist:
-fistfights (unless there's a very good reason for the combatants to be unarmed)
-drawn-out close-range shootouts (as if their weapons couldn't blast through flimsy cover like tables)
-comic relief characters
-deus ex machina resolutions
-time travel or other "physics anomalies"
-humanoid aliens without at least a dozen immediately obvious distinctions from humanity (basically, anything that can be done with a rubber mask)
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Re:Please, someone make a non-PR scifi series! (Score:2)
But it's got great characters, cool animation, and a nihilistic feel to it that's a nice contrast to the new-agey, feel-good, politically-correct rut that Star Trek often falls into.
I've watched a lot of anime and I'd put Bebop into my top 4 series of all time (along with Star Blazers, Evangelion, and Kare Kano). Of course, YMMV.
In anime, they're free to show some more blood and deal with less uh...family-friendly scenes then are acceptable on USA TV, so that opens up room for more creativity IMHO. Not that gore in itself makes a good series.
And no, I'm not saying that anime is "superior" to American TV. Just like American TV, most anime sucks. But when anime is good, the results can be amazing. Like Bebop!
http://www.bootyproject.org [bootyproject.org]
Re:The new Lone Gunman series... (Score:3)
I hope it picks up, because, man, what a great show concept for nerds.
-m
Hrm... (Score:4)
Security Lessons from The Lone Gunmen premeire (Score:2)
Don't run a file server when hacking into another system, lest they retaliate by hacking into yours.
If you run a file server anyway, don't keep your real name and address in a file named userdata.ini.
When you take over a system, encrypt the manual override command to make sure no one knows what it is.
The new Lone Gunman series... (Score:5)
The problem with really great supporting characters is that they're really great supporting characters -- you usually just can't give 'em enough to do on their own. Think of all those spin-offs that failed horribly; the only ones I can think of which succeed are complete departures from the original premise (for example Fraiser is technically spun off from Cheers, but is in all important respects completely unrecognizable as a derivative).
The Lone Gunman were barely enough to pull off an episode that was mostly them (the DefCon Vegas convention epp, and even that one had a lot of help from Scully).
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Re:The new Lone Gunman series... (Score:2)
Angel, the spinoff of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, has done pretty well - I would go so far as to say that the first series of Angel was much better than the fourth series poutings of Buff + friends. Angel was a fairly major supporting character throughout series 1-3 of Buffy, and the rules and standards of the `Buffyverse' are maintained through the transition to Angel.
The consistent failure of spinoffs isn't related to the fact that they _are_ spinoffs, its a matter of motive.If the spinoff is done to allow explore a legitimite plot arc/character/etc, the writers will come, the stories will seem natural, and the support of the fans will carry it. However, if it's just an attempt to bleed more money from the merchandising stone, no amount of association with past glory will save it.
Whether this applies to Lone Gunmen - we will just have to wait and see. The wait will be especially long for me, as I live in Australia, and unless Lone Gunmen is a ratings boom, I can reasonably expect to see it sometime in 2033, probably in a late night time slot.
Russ %-)
Re:Tired of the same old crap. _ what I'm sick of (Score:3)
On voyager, every other show someone mutinys for 40 mins and they appologize to janeway in the last 5 and its all cool.
Id like the show to be a bit more like the real military. Anyone who mutiny'd would be dead by morning.
Re:It could be interesting.... (Score:2)
Re:The Lone Gunmen (Score:2)
Anybody remember the original appearance or thereabouts of the Lone Gunmen well enough to tell me what's making me think that there was a fourth guy? This would be when one of them made a crack about them sitting around laughing at the scientific inaccuracies in "Earth 2".
Suckage and Star trek? (Score:2)
Re:Tired of the same old crap. (Score:2)
stuff that works or doesn't work as the plot demands
yes, the series cant be real world, where nothing ever goes wrong with technology, and things always work the way they should, and only the way they should. Technology going wrong is something that happens, and its gonna happen more in the 24th century than it is now, since there will be more technology and more things to go wrong. Frankly, if the show didnt show this once in awhile, id be suspicious.
It's Arnold Rimmer!!!! (Score:5)
Does he also invent new types of salutes, and unclog chicken soup dispensor nozzels?
--
"How many six year olds does it take to design software?"
Need new mod category: Prophetic (some spoilers) (Score:2)
* I had heard it labeled as humorous in nature. Ha! And that was a Ha of sarcasm. Much of the show was spent in moody lingering moments - most of the humor I found really lame, and I have a pretty broad tolerance for humor.
* The computer stuff was totally rediculous. "Hey look - red text in an otherwise all blue interface! It's a breakin!". "Processor frozen". "I'll just pop in this prototype chip into my laptop and we're good to go!". I know they have to have some leeway to make the computer stuff exciting, but a computer professional just using "deltree" to wipe a computer leaving the FAT intact? Come on! I'd rather have seen them use a handbuilt remote magnetic sensor to detect previous disk images, it would have been more beleivable. And the text file download - time to upgrade the 300 baud modem guys! And you might want to check the tmp directory for partial downloads.
* (Major spoilers here) Plot "twists". I might be able to forgive other areas, but the plot was SO WEAK. Who did not know right when they found it that the blood was not his fathers? Who here didn't assume automatically the moment they knew the plane was in danger that it would be another remote? Forget the father wanting to tell the media, don't you think the pilots would be just a tad upset and be talking to them anyway????? ARRRGH!!! It was so stupid I had to force myself from turning it off a number of times.
* Lara Croft ripoff. I can hear them discussing the basics of the show now: "Hmm, we can't write, we have little sense of humor. Say, I hear this 'Lara Croft' character is quite the rage with the kids, how about we throw one of her in there! We can just have her shooting uzi's in every seen and re-use footage.
All in all, I found the plot so mind-numbing stupid that it just amplified the other basic errors (like all the computer flaws) that I can normally get past in a movie or TV show. The problem is that at the core it's still a warmed over conspiracy drama, when it should really have been be a comedy I was expecting - it had real potential there. Read the IGN preview, that's how I thought it would be.
It's probably just as well, I only have two or three shows a week I watch all the time and I really didn't need another time drain.
Re:It could be interesting.... (Score:3)
I used to have a very low opinion of Voyager, but recently I started watching a few episodes, and I'll be damned if it hasn't greatly improved. Of course now that they finally get some decent storylines the series ends.
Havn't you ever noticed that all the episodes of Voyager are the freaking same???
I guess TNG inured us to that. "Another entity made from pure energy? What if we reconfigure the sensor array to produce ?"
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Sounds excellent to me. (Score:2)
When TNG came along, things seemed so inwards - they were no longer exploring other worlds, they were reciding into their own minds and the issues had become much more social. This is why the holodeck (a crappy addition to the show) and Diana Troy both annoy the crap out of me.
I am glad that this show is earlier in time, because it suggests to me that the series will be returning to its roots, that of exploration of the physical universe.
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Re:The new Lone Gunman series... (Score:2)
*maddest_hatter*
Re:Obvious Hoax, People! (Score:2)
Wasn't T'Pau Spock's mother or something?
(and a 80's rock band, iirc)
The Lone Gunmen (Score:2)
Voyager was a pretty disappointing series for me, at least until about halfway through (this last season has actually been very good, IMHO, but it's unfortunate the series took this long to really get going).
I thought Deep Space Nine was quite good, though I haven't seen it for a while (nobody plays DSN reruns around here). I never got to see as much of it as I wanted, since it was on at the same time as Friends. Sorry guys, but some days I really need to laugh
Anyway, hopefully TLG will be good.
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The big question is.... (Score:2)
______________________
Re:Spinoffs ARE successful! (Score:2)
Actually, The English show from which "Threes company" was copied was called "man about the house" and spawned off the really rather successfull "George and Mildred" (Roper of course) and the somewhat less successful "Robin's Nest" (Where the guy shacks up with one of the girls and opens a restaurant).
Of course, differences in humour and the American entertainment industries tendency to dumb things down may have had something to do with it (I mean, "Cybil" is meant to be your version of "absolutely fabulous"?)
Rich
A comment by Majel Roddenberry (Score:2)
Do you want to appear on Voyager before it goes off the air, to keep the Number One/Christine Chapel/Lwaxana Troi track record going? How about Series V?
I'm still doing the voice of the computer on Voyager. But I know there is no chance of appearing. Two years ago, I would have loved to work on a campaign to get me on the show, because I was thinking, after thirty-some years, why not? But then as it started to settle in -- the older you get, the wiser you get -- I started to say, not on your life.
I know absolutely nothing about the next Star Trek series. I don't think there are many people over at Paramount who do either. I haven't heard anything, not even that the main office has said, here's the money, go ahead. Those days are over.
Says an awful lot about Paramount
Maybe, maybe not (Score:2)
This is very true and one of the big reasons while I'd like to see the Timeship premise fleshed out. This is obviously my own opinion, but I think some of the best Trek episodes (in any of the series) were those dealings with conundrums of time travel.
It gets boring and obnoxious quickly.
Here is where I have to disagree. I think there is an immense amount of stories to be told revolving around time travel. The aforementioned Trek episodes are very different from one another and illustrates how a whole series could be had from the premise of a time ship.
Also, temporal mechanics doesn't need to be the only thing discussed. I'm sure the entire law, economy, moral system of those in the 29th century is shaped by the ease of time travel. Are criminals punished even though their wrongs can be righted? Are they placed into rehab before they even develop the personality to commit said crimes? Do rare artifacts hold any value when it is possible to reach back in time and bring them forward? Are there any fields of study like history, archaeology, anthropology when absolute answers are available rather than assessments of evidence (Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter address this question somewhat in The Light of Other Days)? Those are just ideas that I've come up in my stream of conciousness for this post. I'm sure the writers of the show would come up with others much more interesting.
Just as the all the other Trek shows don't use the exploration of space as a way to show all kinds of extraterrestrial wonders, a show based on time travel doesn't need to show all the wonders of time. They show the implications of the ability to do so. Some shows may resolve around time travel technobabble but others may use it as a vehicle to explore ethical and moral dilemmas - just as all the other Trek shows have.
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Re:Please! No more Trek! (Score:2)
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Re:The new Lone Gunman series... (Score:2)
I can't complain about the source code screen shots, though. One of them looked like C (a linked list?), and the previous one looked like scheme. Anyone else notice them? It was when they were hacking into the DOD computer, or something.
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Re:The new Lone Gunman series... (Score:2)
Oops (Score:2)
- Ensign Hoshi Sato: Comm Officer. Japanese. Mid to late 20s. Striking and intelligent, Hoshi has a feisty spirit that often tests the patience of the crew. She's in charge of communications on Enterprise, but she also serves as ship's Translator. An expert in exo-linguistics, she learned to manipulate her vocal chords to emit a range of alien sounds no human has ever produced. She has a natural affinity for picking up languages. Hoshi doesn't like the idea of being trapped in a "tin can" hurtling at impossible speeds. Every time the ship jumps to warp she grips her console and closes her eyes. She's a "white knuckle" space farer.
Is it just me, or isn't this new series supposed to take place before the warp drive was invented by Zephram Cochran (à la First Contact)?--
Re:This is so fake. (Score:2)
1) NOBODY would be stupid enough to make a series set so far in the past that it would mess up every timeline in existance.
My pet peeve. (Score:2)
How much do I look like an Octopus? How much do I think like a bobcat? The answer my friend is nothing and not much. If two creatures who evolved on the same planet, same atmosphere look and act so different from each other why do you think aliens from another planet with a completely different atmosphere, gravity, flora and fauna would look and act excetly like humans?
Spinoffs ARE successful! (Score:2)
What you say may be true in the general case, but spinoffs work enough of the time to make trying them profitable. Sure, some spinoffs are doomed failures. (Does anyone remember The Ropers from Three's Company, or Golden Palace from The Golden Girls? I didn't think so.) But how about Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, which was spun off from Law & Order? I'd hardly call SVU a "complete departure" from Law & Order. Likewise with the hugely popular Star Trek: The Next Generation and, to a lesser extent, Deep Space Nine and Voyager, which were spun off from Star Trek. Also let's not forget the countless successful children's cartoon series spun off from movies, such as Beetlejuice and Ghostbusters.
Regards,
I Seriously Doubt This... (Score:2)
Re:Sigh.. (Score:2)
I think it does a fairly good job of showing culture and motivation. Watch Dean Haglund's shirts.
I also found the "Octium IV" sequence quite interesting as a nod to the PIII serial number fiasco.
I almost fell on the floor laughing when I saw Lisp scrolling on the screen. My boss, a Lisp freak, would get a kick out of it.
Then again, people keep telling me that I look a helluva lot like Dean Haglund...
Re:Sounds excellent to me. (Score:2)
In the meantime bring on more 20th-century Earth references that even the aliens recognize and use, offer us more bubble-haired green chicks in heat for Shatner's studly charms, and of course never forget this weeks new bit of st-jargon ("Ohmygoodness the omicron-multiphase-inverter-particles have discombobulated the interociter! Eject the core!")
Frankly I'd appreciate some more characters that weren't sicky-sweet, who did have personal lives more substantial then the cardbord props and plot-lines that weren't direct from Ethics-101 or badly reinterpreted sf-staples.
If going back to before the beginning is what it takes to get themselves out of the mess they've written themselves in to so much the better. Lets see what brought this Federation about and how all these folks got to be such good pals. Finally, lets get a few more aliens that don't have bad nose-jobs but are Horta rock-eating-blobs or whatnot.
Oh, seat-belts, air-bags, chairs without wheels, circuit-breakers, spare oxygen supplies, The-Club-for-Starships and a damn manual-override on the Holdodeck (perhaps a big red button mounted on a nearby bulkhead?) would all also be appreciated.
Finally, if they bring Shatner back on more time I want his toupee to get screen-credit, perhaps as a Tribble-pelt.
ST Historians: Please Help Me... (Score:3)
Is this series before or after the set up of the UFP? If it is after, then logically the Enterprise would have an NCC designation.
However, we know that the TOS Enterprise must be the first NCC Enterprise, otherwise they wouldn't keep putting on the A, B, C suffix...
And another thing... in ST:TMP after the alien intelligence infilitrated the crew member's body, they took her on a tour of the Enterprise and they passed through a rec lounge (or similar) and mentioned "all these craft were called Enterprise" with pictures of the AC, Space Shuttle, and a few others. I can't remember the details exactly, but is this new Enterprise going to look like one of those, or are they going to fix that in the Directors Cut?
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Re:Why all the negativity? (Score:2)
The non borg part of FC (the planetside part), was great though.
Re:Please! No more Trek! (Score:3)
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Re:Sounds excellent to me. (Score:2)
Sometimes a bit of subtlety is wasted on folks...
Its a fake (Score:2)
http://section31.com/stories/mar-2001/030401_a.ht
My name is (Identity Preserved) and I'm a casting director in London. Having an office in New York allows me to obtain US casting information.
I'm afraid to say that all the information you have received about the next 'Star Trek' project is incorrect. The official information about the new show was given out a few weeks ago and the steps have been taken to ensure that information is kept confidential.
I truly believe that this is someone's idea of a practical joke. Even though the party in question went to extreme lengths to make the character info as a real document, it's a fake.
T'Pau (Score:2)
Re:I'm not sure I get it (Score:2)
And as for the thing about no-new-aliens, I think it's actually for the better. The species that kicked the Borg's ass (four thousand something) had so much potential, yet it was wasted by just using the species as a motivator for a human-Borg business deal. I'd rather not see any new species than a species that could've been a lot but never went anywhere because the soap must go on...
Re:The new Lone Gunman series... (Score:2)
As pilots go, this was pretty damn good. Solid story (ignoring technology), character development (Byers and his dad; how cool was it when Byers went up to hug his dad, discovering he wasn't dead, and got slapped in the face?), and they didn't even need to throw in Mulder or Scully or anybody for a cameo. It had a solid ending, unlike most X-Files episodes, while still leaving some things open.
Get off your high horse for a minute and give The Lone Gunmen a chance. Based on what I've heard elsewhere, it's probably going to be around for a while.
last 2 series suck monkey? (Score:2)
Re:I Seriously Doubt This... (Score:4)
The 60's thing has been done. The logical next step is obvious:
Q: What predates the 1960's?
A: The 1950's!
They could dress all the girls in poofy pastel dresses, all the boys would wear either light blue college jackets or black leather, depending on if they're good guys or bad guys, and all the people in engineering could wear black horn-rimmed glasses.
And I'm sure they could squeeze out a least a season or two with just the storyline of pinko aliens trying to take over the universe.
Scary thing is, I'd probably watch that._ __
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Re:ST Historians: Please Help Me... (Score:2)
I too would like to know how they're going to make the ships look - retro?
Re:I'm not sure I get it (Score:2)
Re:Please! No more Trek! (Score:3)
I always wondered what happened with that line of the story and why they never further developed it, after all, at the end the worm creatures had managed to send a signal out into deep space before Riker and Picard could blow his host up.
I was eagerly awaiting a follow up with some sort of invasion force that was to do battle with the Federation.
That two part? episode had the best suspense of any of TNG episodes. Too bad people thought it was too dark and ruined it for the rest of us.
Besides people shouldn't say that Star Trek doesn't have it's dark side. The old series had dark moments like when Kirk was split in two with a good half and an evil half, or how about when innocent seeming kids killed their parents via a supernatural force and then tried to take over the Enterprise? Or how about "Cat's Paw" or the "Gamesters of Triskelion"? Two other very dark and medievalish episodes from the original series?
one dimensional characters, please (Score:2)
Star Trek *had* characters, but we weren't expected to care about them as themselves, but what they stood for. Kirk, Spock, and McCoy are different parts of our own mind and culture coming into conflict. Spock was interesting as the outsider looking in for the observation; in the newer series, we're supposed to care about the stupid robot *himself*.
[The spinoffs aren't the only shows to make this mistake--compare the first half-season of Alien Nation, which was very well done and was about the conflict rather than the races, to the rest of its run, in which we were supposed to become interested in the details of the space beasties. The early episodes frequently crammed a feature-lenght plot into the hour, whereas the later ones spent time babbling about the eggs . . . Or _Heat of the Night_. The movie and early television series had the conflict between the two characters, whereas it devolved into them being chums fighting other evils . .
Anyway, skip the character development and write a better plot. Don't waste time on the characters "growth," or let excessive consistency get in the way of a good episode.
And a couple of quibbles after looking at the page. The captain may be an improvement over the last several, who have been burdened by (and even provided!) adult supervision. Kirk ran around the galaxy without supervision, getting himself into messes that were, often as not, of his own creation. The Bald One was the type of pencil-necked desk-flyer that Kirk avoided. [Oh, and if Kirk ever caught a klingon on his bridge, he would *personally* have thrown him out the airlock].
I'm starting to ramble (just coming off the second really bad cold in a week), but when the Klingons became more interesting than the fedceration, it was doomed . . . and that switch. Originally, the Klingons were Nazi's with bad accents. In the later series, they were Norsemen with funny heads . . .
Oh, and why are there a Sub-Commander and a Lt. Commander in the same navy in this new character list??? These are the British and American names for the same rank . . .
Finally, I suppose that the "sensual" female vulcan will be the, errr, busty hormone target, in the tradition of Commander Cleavage, Major Mammary, and 36 of D?
:)
hawk
Re:Spinoffs ARE successful! (Score:2)
My personal nomination for the Worst Spin-off Of All Time goes to: "After-M*A*S*H".
Anyone else remember that big floating steamer?
Actually it did real well in the ratings (Score:2)
Afterall, a spin-off doesn't have to be better than the original show, it just as to be almost as good as it. It already has an established fan base [thelonegunmen.net] which helps with the word-of-mouth/email/IM marketing efforts. Also, they'll be helped by the original series going off the air if they get sufficient ratings to justify the original show's time slot, as Frasier did eventually (though not permanently), and by the orginal show becoming a big screen franchise (for example, it was Star Trek's big screen success that prompted the STNG era spinoffs).
Re:Oops (Score:2)
That was my point...
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Re:ST Historians: Please Help Me... (Score:2)
However, in order to throw in some back consistency, there would be at least one story arc in which such interference led to some horrible outcome for both the culture involved and the budding federation, thus leading to the prime directive in the first place. (And bust up the old joke about the impossible episode where the ship encounters a situation made much easier by application of the prime directive.)
Kahuna Burger
This had better be at least comparable to voyager. (Score:2)
Non-recurring characters (Score:3)
Commander Williams
Admiral Leonard
Admiral Forrest
Anyone else see a pattern here?Re:T'Pau (Score:2)
Re:It could be interesting.... (Score:2)
DS9 has a lot cooler non repetitive conflicts. It has an elaborate plot, and great characters. The only thing I hate about it is the stupid "new" Dax, but its not really that big of a deal. The only reason you probably dont like it is because you didnt start watching from the beginning and nothing made sense.
On another note, I would rather see the new series set in the future instead of the past. The only problem is that they are starting to run out of ideas. I dont want to see a "Timeship" series or anything like that, I want to see something with a helluva lot of kick ass CG ship fighting scenes. I dont want to see some dinky poor ass soap opera involving a love interest that spans a whole season. They are going to have to do a really good job of the show to keep me interested if it's set in the past (relative to TOS). There is a lot of potential for a good series, it seems to be wide open for new ideas.
I hope they dont wreck everything like voyager did. Voyager screwed up big time, all their time travel crap screws up the other series and the future for their own series. Does anyone not find the fact that Seven of Nine was assimilated by the borg ~20 some years ago in her parent's ship? This would probably be before the Federation even knew ANYTHING about the Borg. She would have been born way before TNG Borg encounters... and it would have took 10 some odd years to get to the Delta quadrant to inventigate the Borg!!! This would make them leaving ~30 years ago (from current voyager time).... WTF!! This is obviously not very accurate, but it just makes you think. ALL I WANT IS A WELL THOUGHT OUT STAR TREK SERIES WITH NO RELATIONSHIP CRAP AND NO PLOT HOLES!!!!
Re:Obvious Hoax, People! (Score:3)
At the end of Kirk's 5 year mission, the first Starship Enterprise (NCC-1701) was about 20 years old. Assuming that Robert April (first Captain of that ship) and Christopher Pike (who was Captian immediatly before Kirk) each flew a 5 year mission, that leaves 5 years between Captain April and Captain Pike that is unaccounted for. I think that this is where the new series will be set.
As for your implication that the names are a hoax...
Yeah, you're probably right.
Re:Best reason not to: time travel SUCKS! (Score:2)
Star Trek in the 29th century (Score:3)
Let's see some more of the 29th century Federation Timeship Aeon! ( Future's End, I & II [startrek.com] , Voyager, Season 3). How many more wonders of space can they create for Series V? Let's see the wonders of time that confront the crew of a Federation Timeship. Hell, if they wanted to show some Trek history, then write an episode w/ Cpt. Braxton returning to "fix" the timeline in the 22nd century and do it there.
I just wonder how soon the premise for Series V will wear itself out. A 29th century will at least give the writers a whole new playing field. I honestly think a radical departure from what they have done in the past is the only way this francise can keep itself going without a break after 14 years.
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Pre-Kirk Star Trek (Score:3)
Maybe it will be before they have a prime directive to circumvent as a plot gimmick every other episode. Maybe there will be "insensitive" ear jokes about the Vulcans and vice versa. Maybe there will be pre-catastrophe Klingons who still look like humans.
Maybe there will be only one plot per episode.
Re:I want something DIFFERENT! (Score:2)
Re:ST Historians: Please Help Me... (Score:3)
I suppose they should do a special Directors Cut of Wrath of Khan because a genitically engineered superman didn't really rule half of Asia in 1986.
Why all the negativity? (Score:5)
Do you even know *why* DS9 was so different from TNG? Because TNG was starting to get boring with all those nice and almost flawless characters and another series like that would be very boring. Instead, DS9 was different. A lot more shades of grey, flawed characters with dark sides and yes, perhaps not always the most positive view of the future.
Gene wouldn't have liked it that way. Well, wake up: we were not exactly getting along with the Klingons and Romulans in TOS, are we? Sure, there was no large war like the Dominion one, but there was conflict. (actually there was plenty of war, just not during the timespan of the series)
I'm glad DS9 explored some new grounds. Not yet another starship, but a station. Many reoccuring characters. True, a soap-like arc, but therefore also bigger story arcs and some continuity I *like* in TV shows.
As for Voyager: again something else. Away from Starfleet. While I would agree that could have played out better at times, the concept was good and it created some nice shows. The whole Hirogen arc was terrific. Seven of Nine is a babe but also gave us room to explore the Borg and I think they did a fine job there most of the time.
Last but not least, Insurrection. Come on, it wasn't that bad. Stop comparing it to First Contact. We all know that one was better. Look at it this way: it was definitely the best odd-numbered movie.
I am sure the new series will have shows that suck. And I am sure some shows will be very interesting and exciting to watch.
And if you really think Star Trek sucks nowadays, just ignore it and watch reruns of the shows you did like or watch other series and movies.
Re:I Seriously Doubt This... (Score:3)
Also ... am I the only person to nice this: take a look at the names of the 'Admirals' toward the casting list. Admiral Forrest. Admiral Leornard. Admiral Williams. Make the last one singular ... and don't you have the first names of the actors playing the lead charaters in the original series? I find this very suspicious.
Note: The Admiral names may be placeholders (i.e. they haven't decided on names quite yet for the ancillary character)
Best reason not to: time travel SUCKS! (Score:3)
Time-travel paradoxes are always resolved by fiat: "Yes, today you can go to yesterday and murder yourself; it doesn't really matter, as a time-traveller, you're insulated from the effects." "No, even if you don't do anything important, you'll return to a dramatically different universe." It gets boring and obnoxious quickly.
The only logically consistent bidirectional time-travel is one in which a new parallel universe is created every time someone makes a jump backwards. Which means that you never actually accomplish anything by time travelling, which is totally unsatisfying when you're faced with it for more than an hour or two.
There's just no way to make a good time-traveller series.
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Re: Babylon 5 (Score:4)
Someone kept pestering me to watch the re-runs of B5 on Sci-Fi (I missed the entire original run), and I was very pleasantly surprised by the quality and cohesiveness (it helps that it was almost entirely written by JMS instead of an army of vying authors). I've never liked DS9 or Voyager very much, and this new series doesn't sound promising either
There's a report [post-gazette.com] that the 13 Crusade episodes are getting shown on Sci-Fi (which JMS has apparently confirmed), as well as a possible new B5 movie (which is more realistic than Crusade itself being picked up as a production series I think).
I guess my point is that people looking for good sci-fi on TV don't have to settle for Star Trek or the dreck in Sci-Fi's original shows... (I also found it very amusing that TNN is getting the Next Generation re-run rights).
Please! No more Trek! (Score:5)
The people in charge have proven they cannot write themselves out of a wet paper bag....well actually they can, but it requires a new particle of the week and 40 minutes of pure Celine Dion-grade melodrama. And no matter how bad or potentially life-changing the whole experiance is, no one will remember it ever again. There will be no mention of it, and all it's effects will be purely short term.
This pisses me off like nothing else.
- The Trek writers cannot develop characters that are remotely believeable. Only mindless, one dimensional cliche's.
- They cannot handle character development. They tried on DS9, but it was always herky-jerky and forced. People didn't develop over time, they developed in one of their two or three designated character development episodes. Even then they couldn't convince anybody with an IQ above 74 that it was remotely natural and believeable. At the end of TNG, everybody was almost exactly the same as they were Season 1. Let's not even mention Voyager.
- They cannot handle long-term story arcs. The Trek way is to start a war in one ep and forget about it for oh......8 episodes or so, with a few infrequent cut and paste mentions here and there. Even then, you can forsee the outcome 3 seasons in advance. Their "surprises" are incredibly weak and convoluted. God forbid they start a conflict in an ep that isn't the season finale!
- No character ever dies unless the actor playing them asks for more money or quits in frustration when the writers can't think of anything to do with them. Everybody has their nice 6 year contract.
- The writers cannot come up with a new and exciting story, most of it is recycled from other Trek shows, and even if they can write a script you could consider "passable" everything is neatly wrapped up by the end of the hour.
- Did I mention the Trek universe has zero consequences?
- The surroundings are always sterile and unrealistic. Unless you count the one, single "plot-device-personal-possesion" each major character has.
- Everyone is obsessed with the 20th century and makes references almost exclusively to this time period.
- The solution to any problem is a particle-of-the week/technical thing we have never heard of before. While the "realistic" and "logical" soltion is impossible because of veteron radiation or something.
- The Federation believes itself to be infallible.
- All bad guys are one-dimensional caricatures who either die or come around to the infallible Federation way of doing things. Not to mention the fact they look like 50 other aliens we have seen.
I could go on for hours.....is it any wonder why a lot of people who watch B5 for long enough get so disgusted with Trek?
It's depressing to think the brain-trust behind the past decade of incresingly mediocre Trek has been handed the reigns once again.
Oh well, let's hope "Crusade" comes back.
Any Trek refugees are welcome in the land of Babylon 5, right now Season 5 is winding up on SciFi. Season 1 should begin again on March 9th.
I can't wait (Score:3)
This message was encrypted with rot-26 cryptography.
I want something DIFFERENT! (Score:3)
Maybe a trader-of-ill-repute (read: smuggler) operating on the fringes of Federation space, in a ship which is constantly in need of repairs and/or imaginative engineering, and where the basic goal is survival first, money second - and the great lengths they go for the second will often result in desperate moves to do the first.
They could have a female Klingon "captain", who has a tendency to get drunk, with the resultant havoc