New Star Trek TV series to be released in 2017

[Maxperson]

I agree on all counts, but...I also know me. Unless it is awful, I'll probably watch at least the whole first season, probably for no better reason than it is ST, and I have a deep hope that it will be better than the trailers that left me utterly cold on the films.

I know. Low bar.

Man, I suffered through a season or two of Voyager before I quit, but I couldn't make it through the entire first season of Scott Bakula's series.

 

[Ryujin]

I *loved* the Andorians in the show. That was the "This is how the Federation got started," line that the show really should have focused upon.

I agree completely. That was a squandered opportunity. One of my favourite lines in "Prelude to Axanar" is this one:

[video]https://youtu.be/1W1_8IV8uhA?t=826[/video]

 

[Staffan]

I've been a long-time trek fan; love TOS and TNG, liked Voyager and DS9 (which got much better once the Defiant was introduced), and I felt Enterprise had real promise until the "temporal cold war" crap spoiled it. I doubt the new series will be what I really want to see at this point, but I'll definitely check it out.

The temporal cold war was part of Enterprise from the very first episode. I guess they put it in to give them an out against fans who had memorized the entire history of the Star Trek universe - "Sure, that's not what the previous lore said happened, but temporal cold war messed things up."

I've said for years now that the kind of Star Trek series I'd be most interested in at this point is a BSG-esque series set on Earth during the time of Khan and the eugenics wars.

Oh, for the love of Gene, no. DS9 is about as dark as I like my Star Trek to be. Star Trek is, at its core, about a better future.

Also, I want the series to be about exploration in a starship. DS9 got away with not doing that by (a) always being on at the same time as a show that did do that (first TNG and then Voyager), and (b) still having a lot of Gamma Quadrant exploration.

 

[MechaPilot]

The temporal cold war was part of Enterprise from the very first episode. I guess they put it in to give them an out against fans who had memorized the entire history of the Star Trek universe - "Sure, that's not what the previous lore said happened, but temporal cold war messed things up."

The temporal cold war was in the first episode, but it wasn't part of every episode. The episodes without it were the best ones in my opinion.

Oh, for the love of Gene, no. DS9 is about as dark as I like my Star Trek to be. Star Trek is, at its core, about a better future.

For the love of Gene, yes. In many cases, Star Trek is NOT about showing us a better future. Yes, they have eliminated unemployment, poverty and international wars on Earth (and, presumably, on the other Federation planets as well). However, they still have interstellar wars, and sexism (TOS' rule about no female captains), and racism (or rather, species-ism against rubber-mask aliens).

The better future you're talking about is illustrated solely through throwaway comments about a setting and culture that we never actually see in real detail. The journey to how we get there is important, and yet it's glossed over in almost every Trek series. DS9 was the only one that I recall who actually addressed it

 

[Umbran]

For the love of Gene, yes. In many cases, Star Trek is NOT about showing us a better future. Yes, they have eliminated unemployment, poverty and international wars on Earth (and, presumably, on the other Federation planets as well). However, they still have interstellar wars, and sexism (TOS' rule about no female captains), and racism (or rather, species-ism against rubber-mask aliens).

Well, be careful there - any series is a product of its time. TOS was showing a future better than the 60s. Not *the ultimate better society*, but something better than we had in the 1960s. That the society pictured wasn't perfect doesn't mean it isn't better.

The better future you're talking about is illustrated solely through throwaway comments about a setting and culture that we never actually see in real detail. The journey to how we get there is important, and yet it's glossed over in almost every Trek series.

Yes, we don't see details of how things work on Earth often, but detailed explicit depiction of a fictional culture is not the only (or arguably even usually the best) way to get that information across, especially in the weekly-episodic TV format, in which we get a whole whopping 40 minutes of screen time for a story that has to have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Even shows like Battlestar Galactica don't really give you much of the homeworld culture. BSG *eradicates* the homeworld culture at the start of the show, so you're working with a microcosm. Babylon 5, similarly, gives you a very localized view through mostly military personnel, rather than show you much of what Earth is like. You arguably get more of what the Centauri culture is really like than any other, and that's still limited.

TNG and TOS have a heavy dose of morality play in their structure. That the future is better is implied in how the main characters act towards those who are not part of their culture - "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" is an example here. This is intentional, as it mirrors how much sci-fi short fiction handles such issues.

Trek has always had an issue of mixing species conflict with cultural conflict - issues with Romulans and Klingons are usually not stand-ins for real-world racism in TOS, so much as they are stand-ins for the Cold War. That they also happen to be on species lines confuses the issue, and isn't generally intentional. I'd argue that TOS (and, by extension, DS9) do show much of the process of making the culture a better place, through the Klingons, especially. In TOS, they are almost entirely antagonists. In TNG, we have an exemplar to show Klingon's are really people, and then over the course of TNG and DS9, we go through the arc of making old enemies into allies, slowly accepting them for what they are, and having that be more and more okay as tie passes.

 

[MechaPilot]

Well, be careful there - any series is a product of its time. TOS was showing a future better than the 60s. Not *the ultimate better society*, but something better than we had in the 1960s. That the society pictured wasn't perfect doesn't mean it isn't better.

While I absolutely agree with your point that it doesn't have to be perfect to be better, I will say that there is very little of the better future shown in TOS. Pretty much the only thing we see in the show that would be part of that better future in people's everyday lives is the better medical technology.

Yes, we don't see details of how things work on Earth often, but detailed explicit depiction of a fictional culture is not the only (or arguably even usually the best) way to get that information across, especially in the weekly-episodic TV format, in which we get a whole whopping 40 minutes of screen time for a story that has to have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Even shows like Battlestar Galactica don't really give you much of the homeworld culture. BSG *eradicates* the homeworld culture at the start of the show, so you're working with a microcosm. Babylon 5, similarly, gives you a very localized view through mostly military personnel, rather than show you much of what Earth is like. You arguably get more of what the Centauri culture is really like than any other, and that's still limited.

Granted, but nothing really prevents the occasional episode from revealing more of the culture, or even focusing on the culture. Here's an example of missed inclusion. We see books in their paper form a few times during the different series, and one would be inclined to think that books in such form would be quite rare considering the presence of library tapes in TOS and the PADs in the TNG era (which would also include the DS9 and Voyager series). However, I don't recall a single instance of someone commenting on the rarity or specialness of having a paper book.

TNG and TOS have a heavy dose of morality play in their structure. That the future is better is implied in how the main characters act towards those who are not part of their culture - "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" is an example here. This is intentional, as it mirrors how much sci-fi short fiction handles such issues.

The morality play aspect is, I believe, part of what makes Star Trek special, and that it is often a featured aspect of some of Trek's best episodes. However, the way human Trek characters behave is frequently not much different than the way we currently behave as a people.

Trek has always had an issue of mixing species conflict with cultural conflict - issues with Romulans and Klingons are usually not stand-ins for real-world racism in TOS, so much as they are stand-ins for the Cold War. That they also happen to be on species lines confuses the issue, and isn't generally intentional. I'd argue that TOS (and, by extension, DS9) do show much of the process of making the culture a better place, through the Klingons, especially. In TOS, they are almost entirely antagonists. In TNG, we have an exemplar to show Klingon's are really people, and then over the course of TNG and DS9, we go through the arc of making old enemies into allies, slowly accepting them for what they are, and having that be more and more okay as tie passes.

The movies attached to TOS does a decent job of illustrating the cultural acceptance required to make a lasting peace with long-time enemies, the fruits of which, at least as it relates to the Klingons, are seen in the TNG era. However, I don't recall much of this from the other enemies. You certainly have some of them join forces with the Federation against a greater threat, such as the Dominion (even then, the Romulans had to be lied to in order for them to agree to help), but I don't recall anything about those alliances being lasting or leading to greater acceptance.

 

[Ryujin]

Granted, but nothing really prevents the occasional episode from revealing more of the culture, or even focusing on the culture. Here's an example of missed inclusion. We see books in their paper form a few times during the different series, and one would be inclined to think that books in such form would be quite rare considering the presence of library tapes in TOS and the PADs in the TNG era (which would also include the DS9 and Voyager series). However, I don't recall a single instance of someone commenting on the rarity or specialness of having a paper book.

When you have replicators, nothing is really novel nor scarce. Want a book? Have it made in a couple of minutes. Done with it? Toss it in for reclamation and make a coffee cup instead. Even in the original series they would have 'local costumes' whipped up a few minutes before beaming down.

 

[Legatus Legionis]

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[Morrus]

All TV will be streamed on demand eventually. Broadcast TV is going to go away. It's just where it's headed, like the slow demise of newspapers. May as well get used to it.

 

[Umbran]

All TV will be streamed on demand eventually.

I don't see a whole lot of resistance to it streaming here. I see resistance to CBS putting it on its own proprietary streaming service, on which they only serve their own content. Making me pay for an entire network's worth of stuff that I'm not going to watch, just for one show? Not a great business model.