UPDATE: Sarek Joins “Star Trek: Discovery” and Premiere Date Pushed Back

James Frain as Sarek for Star Trek: Discovery

Sarek, Spock’s father, is the newest character added to Star Trek: Discovery, scheduled to premiere later this year. Actor James Frain has been cast in the role, a British actor who might be familiar to American audiences as Paul Raines on 24. He has also appeared on Orphan Black, Agent Carter, and Gotham, among his many other credits.

frain-announcement

No word yet on what Sarek’s storyline will be, or if his wife Amanda will appear as well, although she was brought up by former showrunner Bryan Fuller as a character he’d love to include on the series.

In other breaking news, the May 2017 premiere date is now off the table. Entertainment Weekly speculates that one of the reasons may be cast member Sonequa Martin-Green, who is also on The Walking Dead, which will be airing through April; they want to avoid what they call “marketplace confusion.” The other reason, they suggest, is that extra time is needed for set design and special effects. They report this statement from CBS:

“Production on Star Trek: Discovery begins next week. We love the cast, the scripts and are excited about the world the producers have created.  This is an ambitious project; we will be flexible on a launch date if it’s best for the show.  We’ve said from the beginning it’s more important to do this right than to do it fast. There is also added flexibility presenting on CBS All Access, which isn’t beholden to seasonal premieres or launch windows.”

As we recently reported, shooting begins next week, January 24th in Toronto. Previously announced cast members include Sonequa Martin-Green (Lieutenant Commander Rainsford), Michelle Yeoh (Captain Georgiou of the U.S.S. Shenzhou), Anthony Rapp (Lt. Stamets), Doug Jones (Lt. Saru), Chris Obi (T’Kuvma), Shazad Latif (Kol), and Mary Chieffo (L’Rell).

Read the full press release.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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James is a great choice. Just a shame that the show is delayed again.

Where is any news that there is another delay?

In the article. The May release date has been pushed back.

Sorry, that paragraph was not in the original post, see it now.

Sorry, I read the article after I first saw the announcement online. It must have been updated after I got here. Didn’t intend to sound so much like a criticism of you, just that you may have missed it.

Err…BEFORE I got here.

It will be fine in the end.
I am not worried about Discovery at all.

This is GOOD news. It means they are focused on making the show great! I find it very encouraging.

Same spin was put on here when Star Trek Into Darkness was endlessly “delayed” for four years… “well, that means they’re taking their time to do it right. I’d rather wait four years for a GOOD Star Trek movie than wait two years for a mediocre one”

Pity that wasn’t the case.

I take it as unfortunate but good news at the same time. If we got a show with sub-par SFX or with scenes that felt rushed or acting that felt stiff we’d all be complaining about CBS not putting enough effort into this. If this gives us the Trek that is refreshing and exciting and thoughtful and beautiful to look at then I’m all for it. I think the main thing is that in the meantime, they (CBS) needs to gives up bts bits here and there to keep not only the fans but the general public interested and excited.

I like this.

In other related news, the series now has no official release date. It’s been announced that they won’t make the June target.

It was May, not June. I would think they can’t be that far behind now, so June-July seems likely. Would they aim for being a ‘summer sensation’ like last year’s Stranger Things, or wait for September/October and air the two-hour premiere on CBS Broadcast when more people are watching?

I’d change it to sometime in September – early October or perhaps even

just before or on Thanksgiving. It would truly give all of us a reason

to be Thankful. Why worry about dates? Overall Star Trek movies really

suck due to what looks like no thought being put into anything that

made worthwhile to begin with. Star Trek has been mediocre at best so

if they don’t get right this time then it’ll be DOA.

My guess is they might want to avoid the broadcast TV Fall season since they are positioning this as more of a pay-TV thing. Similar to how HBO often debuts their shows in spring or early summer.

LOL, this mess was supposed to have debuted in January and it’s not even going to be ready for June. How can anyone have faith in it?

I think perhaps because they’re not rushing it to market. Despite the fact that this show is being used to sell their subscription service they’re still prepared to wait until they have a quality product before releasing it. I suspect you realise this though and are still just pissed because it won’t be available for free.

Rich Corinthian logic!

I am nothing if not logical.

I think the problem is not the delays themselves, it’s that they announced a premier date so early on. I’m assuming they did it in order to hype CBS All-Access. As Douglas Adams said, “I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.”

I think they probably regret announcing the date before any work was ever done. Lesson learned, hopefully. I think Iron Man 2 is the perfect example of that– they announced the release date the day after the first movie’s opening weekend, and the director was as surprised as the fans! In the end, he had to rush out a mediocre product to meet the date.

^^Agreed. But I said this before this has just become the ‘thing’ to do in Hollywood. Movies like never before have release dates 2,3,4, 5 years out now and yet they don’t have a single idea of what the story is about or who will write it before they announce the date. When you have a film with a release of 5 years thats crazy but at least they have time. But when you have something like what Disney is doing with Star Wars and cranking out films every year it only takes one delayed film to wreck the other dates so they have to get it out no matter what. Look what happened to RO, that had tons of reshoots and I’m guessing they spent a ton more than planned to get it out on time but they couldn’t delay it. There was a time when they at least actually started working on the film before they announced a date.

TV is a bit different though because new shows only have a few months anyway between conception to pilot. The case with Discovery is its not just a new Trek show its also one that will headline a new streaming service so they are trying to get it right and they should be commended for that. I think, sadly, hiring Fuller was now a mistake because they were trying to do all the right things and hire people who previously worked on Trek but also ‘fan favorites’ like he and Nic. Meyer. Oddly Fuller didn’t really become known until after he left Trek. Trek fans knew him for his work but I don’t think any considered him some fantastic writer at the time but its been everything after that.

So in the end it sucks its delayed again but its for the best to get it right. It does make me sad though that we heard of another delay when the show was suppose to be airing right now. I think they really underestimated what it would take to get it going. When Fuller was talking about shooting the pilot in October for a show that was suppose to be released in January that already spelled trouble.

Reminds me of Duke Nukem Forever.

Oh come on. I’m sure your comment was made in jest, but comparing this to a product that took ~14 years of development before being released is a bit silly.

remind
verb
3rd person present: reminds
1.
cause (someone) to remember someone or something.

Mark Z,

Re: …comparing this to a product that took ~14 years of development before being released is a bit silly

You mean like comparing DUKE NUKEM FOREVER to Coppola’s APOCALYPSE NOW VG?:

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/01/27/coppola_crowdsources_apocalypse_now_game/

With each and every announcement coming out about this show I become less and less confident in it. Release dates keep getting pushed back. Showrunner leaves etc. Add this to the paywall platform that relegates me to watching it on my laptop and my excitement dwindles. I’m also not very fond of Trek always looking backwards instead of going forward with the story. We now have Sarek. Soon we’ll have young Spock and Kid Kirk. Let’s get stories on the Enterprise H (or J!) and see what happens AFTER Nemesis.

It makes sense that a change in showrunner would be followed by a delayed start date. There’s a new person with a new vision for the show running it.

Agreed, that or set it in the alt universe so that they’re not beholden to what comes after. The tech will have to be old Skool, with flippy communicators and lunchbox tricorders

You can watch it on you TV if you have Apple TV, Chromecast, Roku, Amazon Fire Stick, Playstation, XBox, or some other devices.

I live in the mountains where wifi is unavailable so all of my internet is provided by Verizon Home which basically eats into my family’s phone data plan.

Better yet…let’s pretend Nemesis didn’t happen – or even better none of the TNG films and do a partial reboot into the All Good Things version of the TNG future timeline.

First Contact is a great film – easily as good as any Trek movie we saw before or since…

I don’t think I can say I even ever enjoyed FC until the last few years (I guess it wore down my ‘resistance’), and I’d still rank it in the lower half of the films overall. They totally squandered the premise of Earth in ashes, which is a crime, since you can’t resurrect the Phoenix without first having the ashes. No decent views of postwar Earth, and you needed that to sell the premise. Plus the whole film has a ‘grind’ feel to it, that limits enjoyment, while the comic relief aspects feel ported in from the 1950s.

Nemesis was garbage – and most of the TNG movies have been forgotten by the masses. They have to build towards something familiar. In this case, probably the formative years of the Kirk-era – which the masses are now familiar with thanks to Jar Jar Abrams.

Yeah only Beyond bombed though. I don’t think the Kirk era is any stronger at this point. All I know is we got plenty of successful Trek for years after TOS went off the air and they were all hits minus Enterprise. And that probably would’ve done better if they let Star Trek rest for a year or two and started the show like it was in season 4 when it went all fan service and started tying in to the rest of the franchise.

And there’s a decent argument to be made that the great irony in Beyond’s box-office failure is that it was more of a classic TOS Trek episode than either of its JJ predecessors. It deserved a lot better than it received.

I think the one overarching theme that will someday be etched on Trek’s virtual headstone will be an epitaph of “We all loved it, but the studio didn’t have a clue how to manage it.”

I remain convinced that “Beyond” bombed only because of the shitey publicity. No previews in theatres till a month before [and the first one was shitey too]. No lobby cards until a month before.

Until Paramount can strain itself to produce decent publicity, or great publicity to c/w Disney’s “Star Wars” push, Trek movies will continue performing poorly. I am peeved about it, because “Beyond” was quite good, IMHO.

Well said. This has been an unmitigated disaster from the start, on a foundation of a crappy time period looking backward. The world is sick to the back teeth with prequels and reboots.
Kill it already. I’d rather wait a few more years and see something looking further in to the future than everything which has already been written, as it is preferable to a tiny slither of a timeline only hard core of TOS fans want, nosediving in to the ground and killing off trek for another 10 years.

We said this would happen during Enterprise. Were we listened to then? No. Did it get cancelled? yes. Did it kill off TV trek for a decade? Yes.

The CBS Execs need to pull their heads out of their backsides, stop hiring people who have already worked in Trek with a vested interest in reliving nostalgia, get some balls and hire a completely new writing and production team to continue on were Nemesis left off. But hey, common sense isn’t so common at CBS these days, it’s all about dollar signs from Netflix and CBS all access.

Shame about the delay, although I do agree that they should get it right rather than rushing it. Let’s just hope the end product turns out well!

So, Spock is still likely serving under Pike? Really wish they hadn’t gone that route. But, I’m still willing to wait and see.

What? Where did that come from?

Spock is serving under Pike, and Spock and his father are still estranged during this time period. That means that Sarek is unlikely to be talking about Spock at all on Discovery, so I’m not quite sure what your qualms are?

its a reboot, they tried to pretend its in the Prime Universe, they will do whatever the want

I’d have liked to see that too. Maybe with John Slattery as Dr Boyce.

Geeze, and here I was thinking it was 100 years before TOS. What’s the true story, folks? Anyone know?

If CBS really wants Discovery to succeed they need to stop with delays… otherwise it won’t be successful and it will die… so much for an effort to bring Star Trek back.

That doesn’t even make sense.

You’d rather they rush a product and put junk on the air? That’s how the first season of the Original Battlestar Galactica happened (it was only supposed to be four 2-hour TV movies, all those corny one-hour standalones in the first half of the season were the result of rushing to meet ABC/Universal schedules.)

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home = “rush job” (released only two years after Search for Spock, they began production immediately afterwards)

Star Trek Nemesis & Star Trek Into Darkness = “taking the time to do it right” (four year delay while they went through all kinds of changes behind the scenes to give us a “good” final product)

ST5:TVH was 2 1/2 years after ST3:TSFS, not 2. Longer gap than between TWOK and TSFS.

(Um, ST4:TVH)

That delay was due to the writer’s strike and Nimoy directing THE GOOD MOTHER – TFF had less time than most of the others for prep, and given the vast visual ambitions, it NEEDED that lost time.

A few months delay on a brand new show isn’t comparable to the years made making films.

BB, STIII was released exactly 2 years after TWOK, so no, TVH wasn’t a rush job. The Meyer rewrite was a rush because they wasted too long on the original writers, though.
Taking four years is fine if you’re making 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY and having to invent brand new tricks and tech to make the images for the first time, otherwise it indicates massive issues.

@ Wes: As far as I know a little show called Westworld was also delayed by a year or so. Didn’t turn out too bad when it finally premiered.

More like two years on WW.

Why will the delay make it unsuccessful? When has a delay alone been responsible for any failure in film/tv? This is just you frustrated by the direction and hoping for a failure so you can be happy about it.

If anything this gives them more time to actually advertise the show, not to mention actually finish the effects and such.

“A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad.”
-Shigeru Miyamoto

I hope this is true, despite my dwindling confidence in this show. We’ll see, though. We’ll see.

Well, lots of productions were greatly delayed and still ended up being awful. See the movie version of Stephen King’s “Cell” for example.

Believe you me, I’m all too aware. My gaming quote is not without Duke Nukem Forever’s response of “watch me.”

Discovery may very well turn out god-awful. But I’m hopeful it won’t. I’ll pay for it anyway, but be pissed about it if it’s bad.

If Discovery is awful it won’t be because of the delay. It will just mean the delay was wasted.

I’m still carrying a grudge against Sarek for the way he treated Spock in “Journey to Babel.”

It will be interesting to see how Discovery treats this character, since some fans seem to revere Sarek, whereas personally, I think he’s a complicated character and one who’s not entirely good. But that’s good for the show, because complicated is more interesting, and when a character has both strengths and weaknesses, it broadens the dramatic possibilities.

Sorry to hear that the release date is being pushed back, but I’d rather they made it good than that they made it fast.

Been waiting 12 years for a new Trek show, I can def wait another few months even years for a new well-made Trek.

There is no real deadline or time limit CBS needs to meet other than the one that fans have created in their minds. The show’s success will be based entirely on its quality, not its timely release.

Absolutely!!!
It take the times that it needs for the best Quality.
The Point is, when you see the first episode on air, it is irrelevant if it is May, July, or September!

Very true! Quality is WAY more important than timeliness. I still watch TOS episodes, fifty years later, whereas I’ve only seen the first season of Enterprise once…

Go straight to season 4.

Okay, I’ve been patient with the lack of information on the show and the original release date not being met, but another delay is the straw that has broken the camel’s back.

I’d be very surprised if we ever get it, considering the mismanagement that has clearly gone on.

They’ve already SOLD the show in foreign markets, so they have to produce something.

Delays are common nowadays, and personally, I’d rather have a good show than an on-time show.

That should be CBS’s tagline for Discovery – “Star Trek – we have to produce SOMETHING!”

Well obviously its still coming. Its not like they shut down production or anything and they are still hiring actors as this article highlighted Sarek has been cast. It will just be later. It would be different if Discovery was Avatar lol. Its nothing like that, it just sounds like they are behind which isn’t a new thing in TV and film.

You’re going to be VERY surprised.

It starts filming next week.

Wow! Someone I’ve actually heard of!

If you’ve heard of James Frain but not Michelle Yeoh, you should really examine your taste in movies and TV.

Not interested in Asian martial arts movies where people magically and effortlessly walk around in the treetops.

(And take your superior attitude about tastes in movies and shove it…)

There’s an implication in your original post that the people previously cast were not worth knowing. Many people cast already are well known (whether from Asian cinema, the highest rated show on American television, or one of the all-time most loved Broadway shows) so expressing amazement that you’ve finally heard of someone without acknowledging that that’s down to you also comes across as superior.

Michelle Yeoh is an international star who has appeared in a wide range of movies (including a number of starring roles) in her 32 year career. James Frain is an actor who has appeared in supporting roles in a bunch of Tv series and a few movies. These are facts, not a matter of taste.

If you’re complaining that the new show is being cast with unknowns, Frain is further proof of that. Yeoh contradicts it.

Comm. Lohmann… Sorry. Hadn’t had my morning coffee yet!

At least the wait will be worth it, thinking positive they could be writing season two before it even starts its premiere in September.

If the first 13 episodes started now we would of watched them all by may, then we will be wondering about when season two will start, probably about 8 months now that’s painful.

I’m not surprised or worried by the delay. When I heard production was just beginning next week, my first thought was that wasn’t enough time for such a complicated show.

I’m very much looking forward to it, and while sooner would be better than later, I don’t really care when it gets going.

I’m fine with a delay since it’ll only make the end-product better to give it more time. If they push it back to late summer or fall, it will also give them the opportunity to have a big push for it at Comic-Con.

I know a lot of people don’t like the idea of CBS All Access, but we realistically wouldn’t get the show we’re getting without it being a streaming show. The production budget was paid for by Netflix international rights, and CBS All Access already has one million subscribers without any original content yet (besides crappy Big Brother).

It’s not like there aren’t space based TV shows being shot and produced successfully already. I realize I’m in the minority in not being in a position where I can watch streaming at home but nevertheless I’m sort of left on the outside looking in. Trust me, I’ve voiced this concern to people who were actually involved in the production of Star Trek when it was last on TV and was basically told it was my fault for not living near a wifi hub. It all leaves me feeling like, “OK, cool, glad I invested all that time and money in watching and supporting Star Trek.”

I’m actually gaining confidence in the show. The casting has looked excellent so far. I think the delays are a harbinger of quite a different show than we are used to getting with Star Trek. Of course, that’s both exciting and worrisome, at least to me, simultaneously.

I’d rather they get it right than put out a rushed show that isn’t the one they wanted to make. We’ve already seen what a rushed teaser looks like and it’s not pretty.

The Sarek resemblance is strong with this one! Plus great acting creds! Good call!

Welcome aboard James Frain! LLAP

Oh look, more bad news. Meanwhile Disney is giving Star Wars fans everything they could want and Trek fans keep getting crapped on. No wonder Trek isn’t popular.

Well to be fair Episode 8 got delayed by 6 months as well. It was suppose to be out in May so these things happen but yes I can’t disagree Disney is really on the ball with Star Wars but its easy to be when a franchise is being run by its own separate company and they are making a billion dollar a film.

Believe me if the KT films were making real money then they would take Trek more seriously. Sadly they aren’t doing anything close to that.

Episode 8 got delayed because Disney saw that Christmas releases were getting them a billion $$$ in worldwide BO and keeping the movies a year apart is smart business. It could be ready for May release if they wanted to do it. We can say what we will about Disney/Star Wars but the proof for their handling of the property is easy to see.

Yes thats true BUT they did say they wanted more time to rewrite parts of the script to give the new characters more screen time. So there was more to the delay than just selling it at Christmas.

And I’m not saying its the same thing as Discovery just making the point not every delay is the end of the world either. Hopefully it will be worth it.

Barf. Stop with the Disney/Star Wars crap.

It’s relevant to the discussion.

It’s apples and oranges.

A specific date was never really announced. They are still making their shoot date. Not sure who’s getting crapped on.

I really hope they start managing Discovery with the care and attention a Star Trek production deserves. They released a half-assed, tacky teaser trailer, the show runner aborts mission and now the release date has been pushed back again. Come on CBS — please for the love of Gene Roddenberry, get this thing turned around.

Casting announcements look promising though! Keep it up! If they get this right it will be well worth the wait.

I have no faith that this series isn’t an absolute mess at this point…Not that I will be paying to watch it anyway.

I’ll take “Things that don’t excite me” for $1000, Alex!

Sheesh!! What a bunch of little whiners! All the majority of people on here can do is piss and moan about how “doomed” “terrible” this show is gonna be.
We’re lucky to be getting a new TV show at all..

You know you certainly don’t embody the sentiment of a show about hope and optimism!!

Pleased with this casting, Frain was excellent in 24 and Gotham and if the delay helps make this potentially better then bring it on!

Amen. I heard a guest on the Jordan Hoffman Engage Star Trek podcast call the comment section at trekmovie.com the Rura Penthe of Trek comment message boards. All you have to do is look at these comments and to see why he would say that. It really is sort of pathetic that these “fans” act like this.

The biggest mistake Discovery made was announcing a premier date too early, before any production design, casting, stories had been done.

The casting so far has been stellar and i for one can not wait.

It is not just Discovery that CBS needs to get right, it is the CBS All Access. I have to wonder if they are rethinking the whole strategy of an independent service in the US.

They announced last week they had over 1 million subscribers, and that’s before original scripted content has been released.

Harve Bennett started writing Wrath of Khan late in 1980 and the movie was released June of 1982. Quality can happen quickly. I hope this show turns out to be as good as we all want!

Yes, quality can happen quickly. By all accounts they were still writing scripts for DSC in the fall. So assuming they finished in 2016, that means it would release, by the TWOK schedule, late 2017. Sounds about right, but everyone is complaining.

You can’t compare TV productions with movies though. They’re just too different. A movie needs one script for a two-ish hour production. DSC needs 15-ish scripts.

I can compare them. TV series do not have to have all the scripts ready before they start filming! All I meant was that they could produce a good quality show sooner rather than later. JJ Abrams delayed Westworld due to script issues and that show turned out very well! So, I am hopeful that the new Trek will be good, but it seems they might be having issues.

@My Two Cents… “TV series do not have to have all the scripts ready before they start filming!”

Some do. “Stranger Things” and “Man in the High Castle” for example, which are probably very relevant to CBS All Access/ST:DSC.

Yes some streaming shows, especially shows where its all shot before they air they actually do write out all the scripts before airing, especially Netflix shows. But thats also why the Netflix shows like the Marvel stuff especially have pretty strong writing because they are shot like long 10 hour films essentially. My guess is things can change between episodes but they do write them all first but also why a season for those shows takes about a year to do even with just 13 episodes.

You can’t compare the two.

A. Someone said it, TWOK is a two hour film. Discovery is a 13 hour series. Its going to need more time period.

B. TWOK already had its cast of characters before they started being a sequel to both a film and a TV show. Discovery is essentially starting from scratch. Everything is being introduced and created top to bottom. Bennet didn’t have to come up with Kirk for example.

C. TWOK actually had a fast production BECAUSE it was being treated more as a TV production than a movie production. Harve Bennet was a TV producer. He had never actually made a feature film before TWOK. Thats why they hired him in the first place they wanted a TV guy who knew how to do things fast and cheap. They basically tried the whole big movie feature thing with TMP and felt it bit them in the butt so they went back to Trek roots in a way and essentially made cheap movies with a TV production. Also why he hired Meyer to direct because Meyer had both TV and film directing experience and could get it done with a smaller budget.

All that said, yes you can make something fast and it turns out great or you can take your time with something and it still turns out bad. I don’t know why people feel you can’t have either option since its proven all the time. I mean they waited 19 years to make another Indiana Jones film. 19 years! How long did they say over and over they were working to get the right story and script right? How many scripts did they reject? And yet look what they still got in the end even with all that time past.

It just comes down if you have a good idea or not and the right amount of time (and money) to execute it.

Alarming trend. The Trek movies were delayed on several occasions and it apparently didn’t appreciably raise the quality of the product.
We must remember we are dealing wit an audience full of Millennials who have an 8 second attention span. 8 seconds. Something must happen every 8 seconds or the iPhone comes up to eye level, thumbs at the ready, moving on to the next thing.
I see this reflected in shows directed at this audience on the CW. I can’t keep up with these series…… drama, plot and character development suffer. It’s why Star Trek Beyond, the bet of all Star Trek Movies, didn’t hold the audience and didn’t get repeat viewers.
I have no idea what the solution might be as it applies to Trek- ignore the Millennial audience, I suppose and hope the 34 to 65 crowd supports it well enough to make it viable.

They can push it back to winter 2017 ….as long as they get it right and give us something different. Don’t know how I feel about another actor playing Sarek though. But then again Quinto did good as alternate universe Spock.

Kind of crazy out of all characters its Spocks dad that has the most versions so far.

Delayed again? Gosh darn it all to heck. To heck, I say!

PMSL!!!!!

Delayed again? Okay. That’s fine I guess as long as they throw us a few bones in the form of pics & clips on a regular schedule. They don’t have to reveal the plot. I just want to see it happening.

In the military, we called this and endeavours with similar symptoms clusterf*cks. Very clear CBS really doesn’t have their s–t together. Or perhaps it’s the usual willful incompetence / benign neglect that CBS treats trek with. CBS ought to let the big boys axanar handle this.

Apart from the Axanar comment, I completely agree with you there. This situation is very much the dictionary definition of a “clusterf*ck”.

Who is playing the captain of the Discovery?

No announcement has been made about that yet.

Unknown. I think it is increasingly likely the Captain and First Officer are killed in the opening act, forcing Our Heroine ™ to take command.

Very possible actually! Didn’t think about that. Hey it worked for Kirk and that guy was only a cadet. ;)

They repeatedly delayed Star Trek:The Motion Picture and we all know how that turned out.

No. They didn’t. There were a number of aborted attempts, but when they finally gave the greenlight to the movie, there was no delays. One of the main problems is they had locked into the Dec. 7, 1979 release date before shooting even began. They didn’t have time to refine the editing or the effects. Reels were being sent to the theaters still wet from processing. The movie would have probably been a lot better if they had delayed it till the next summer.

The effects were not the problem with TMP.

The pacing of the effects were. They did not have the opportunity to see how they played and how long they should hold a shot. And if you’ve seen the director’s cut, you know there were a number of effects they didn’t have time to complete.

There were completed effects shots that didn’t make it into the theatrical that they could have presumably found and reused for the director’s version — the Dykstra-shot asteroid explosion, part of which is in the longer trailer, along with the bad shot of the E at the end when KIrk & co go onto the hull — but those would have looked immensely higher-quality than the digital work done for the DVD. One more reason why I find the DVD to be a real ‘miss’ and have embraced the theatrical blu-ray (at least until they re-scan the theatrical to deliver something that is more in the vein of the recent TWOK — many TMP effects shots are even higher quality than can be discerned on the current blu, though some of the awful ones — like part of the wingwalk and the cargo deck and the idiotic little guy fleeing epsilon 9 — are only going to look even worse.)

Original release was supposed to be summer 79, not dec7, but that got changed really quickly. Even if the original vfx folk had delivered, there is no way they’d’ve ever made that release date.

And I called this. Seriously does this surprise anyone?

If we are honest we will admit to ourselves they have planned this whole “push back” the date thing in order to make us more rabid. And we love it.

If you loved being jerked around, just hang around congress instead.

Heh. I’m a filmmaker and DC is often my backlot. In fact, I’ll be there shooting on Saturday.

Now I have a prediction. We are all trying to figure out what little mentioned conflict in TOS will be explored in Discovery. I think it’s about the dilithium producing planet Cordia that is featured in “Journey to Babel.” It allows for plenty of “balance of terror “intrigue and a yet also is a window into our own time and battles over natural resources.

And this is also why Sarek is a featured character: Discovery will show that he was also an expert in the Cordia system, and all sorts of dilithium diplomacy.

Thoughts, cyber-friends?

Coridian system.

Danglers are good and the show should stand on it’s own – it will need to. I can’t imagine Nicholas Meyer involved otherwise. I keep thinking that the best blend of TOS and GOT is actually Mad Men – a series which has elments that are retro, current, stylish, intriguing, and humorous. It’s a tall order to fill!

I’ve never read FINAL REFLECTION but maybe I should.

Babel isn’t a bad notion, but if they were going to make that kind of thing a factor, I’d prefer they just made John Ford’s THE FINAL REFLECTION novel instead, which features an earlier Babel conference and remains one of THE most awesome Trek novels ever written, even though K/S/M are barely in it at all (takes place decades earlier than tOS.)

Back to musings … Shouldn’t this be the same year that Capt Garrovick was killed by the cloud monster? (11 years after OBSESSION) If so, Kirk could be in some kind of mental rehab. Then again, maybe there are early issues with planet Neural from PRIVATE LITTLE WAR, which is certainly klingon-centric.

There are all sorts of danglers and hints from TOS that could be launch points or at least points of overlap, but I’m hoping they limit themselves to single-line throwaways, at least at first, because this show OUGHT to be strong enough to stand up on its own.

This is a very good guess, I think there is something in this. The Coridan system is the ‘Middle East’ Dilithium is ‘Oil’ The Klingons are the Russians and The Federation are the US led Coalition!

Wow! Now they dont give an actual premier date.

At least we should see the first episode by the end of the this year!

Every day they delay is another day Netflix looses money from me. I had 5 friends all ready to sign up for the January release date. I have no use for Netflix other than to beam Star Trek Discovery into my room (and in the future Lost In Space) – I suppose there are similar Trekers in the US who will hold off subscribing to ALL ACCESS too. Good one CBS!

Netflix has some great shows mate. Unlike CBS’s crappy service, there’s actually good stuff to watch.

How great was Netflix before it was great? You’re making the assumption that CBSAA can never be good.

I never intended to join CBS All Access. If the show turns out to be good, I’ll see it ‘some other way.’

There is so much great streaming content out there already on channels I already pay for, there’s no way I’m adding another just to see one show – Star Trek or not.

I don’t think Discovery will be released before 2018. I never did, actually.

I think they got severely burnt with the rushing of Enterprise right on the heels of Voyager. If the show quality is here, I am ok to wait…

I think James Frain is great, but I am not really seeing him as Sarek.

I have a bad feeling this will be another emotional take on Vulcans.

I pretty much refuse to watch any more weeping Vulcans. Good point. Sign of the times…

But even Nimoy’s Spock wept before. Its not like Spock didn’t show emotion in TOS he showed it a lot even if it was manipulated. I think Tuvok is the only Vulcan I don’t think ever cried but I’m waiting to be corrected on that. ;)

The modern problem is as an actor do you want to play a robot or a Shakespearean actor? So if you cast Sarek and you accurately describe him as an emotionless man of science and logic, how many actors are interested in that role? And how many will say they are and then try to fit emotional moments? Sarek is full Vulcan. Complicated, yes, but you really need to know the character to understand the depth of the character.

I’m starting to think, at this rate, we’ll see Star Trek Axanar before we see Star Trek Discovery.
>;>}

Another reason for the delay that was not discussed was the delay in completing casting as they need to obtain more apostrophes before naming any more alien characters.

>;>D

Okay, that made me laugh!

Because of the delay, it will now be set 9 years before TOS, instead of 10. Seriously, if Sarek is in it, Spock and his pals can’t be far behind, can they?

It might be their way of being able to reference TOS without having to show it. it would make sense to open the door for stunt casting. The time period allows them to avoid Kirk (even though that would be the best stunt cast, but a potential hand grenade of suck) and go right to the Enterprise with Spock/Pike.

Even though the age is off, I’d be happy if Bruce Greenwood reprises Pike.

This is getting weird. Every other show has had a cast of seven or eight regulars announced well in advance. We know of three Discovery crew members, and while I know they don’t want to focus on the captain (as if the other shows all did), we should at least know who it is. Instead we have a captain of *another* ship, three (!) Klingons, and Sarek of all people. (Nothing against Sarek, but you should see the problem here.)

Who knows, maybe they’ve rejiggered the whole thing and the ship is no longer called “Discovery” and the whole show will be about early Federation diplomacy. Nothing wrong with that, although we got a fair share on ENT. But a big change like that just cranks up the uneasiness level.

The pacing of the casting announcements doesn’t bother me.
It is not a network show.

Star Trek: Turn Off the Dark.

The longer the wait goes on, the less confident the production appears. At this rate, a drama series about a production team trying to get a new Trek show on to the web seems like a better idea. ;)

OK this one made me laugh lol. Whatever happened to that btw? Did it end its run? I only heard all the bad media reports on it and then it just went awa.

I will agree with you a delay, twice in a row now, is never a good thing in terms of confidence but plenty of things gets delayed and turns out fine. Yes I agree its probably more of a mess than they are letting on but it doesn’t mean it can’t turn around, they just need the time to do it so hopefully they will.

Couldn’t agree more.

I hate to be negative because there are enough negative nancies reacting irrationally about this series, but this screams “problems”. Yes, they changed showrunner but Im getting the impression the change in direction isnt *because* they changed show runner, but they changed show runner *to* change direction.

Impression is studio didn’t like the direction. There is then a trickle down effect of a new vision as they build new sets or create new CGI.

Cant say Im overly enthused about Sarek if only because that role and actor are so iconic and since this takes place in the general TOS prime era, you’re casting a new actor to play an established character. I guess its ok. I dont know.

Plus the actor has a unique look that doesnt fit the role in my opinion.

Its funny how me and you think the same way about Sarek. You know MY issues with all of this so I’m not going to go there but this is exactly why I feared would happen once we learned the time period. This screams it. That said I’m willing to see what they do with him but already know Spock’s mom will show up too of course, Fuller mentioned her months ago they just probably haven’t cast the part yet. So trust me, be ready for of this, not less.

I also agree the show could be in some kind of trouble beyond just losing Fuller. I thought originally it was because he was too buy with other shows which is probably still true but yes I think its now more to it than that. They probably are having issues with the overall direction, maybe its taking longer with the FX, etc. We already know they are redesigning the ship after the fan backlash so who knows what it is being changed at this point.

Clearly if Fuller’s schedule was the issue, they would have waited since they’ve pushed the date back twice and now dont even have a date. Sounds to me like someone high up got nervous about Fullers vision.

I can speculate that it was the negative backlash to the Discovery footage and perhaps the studio feeling they needed a more traditional Star Trek series. Which could be a good news or bad thing. If its a GOOD traditional “ship explores space” story, then great. If its bad, boring etc, then its bad.

Im not too worried about the feeling that original series characters might show up due to the time period. Every series had some cameo or something by other series’ characters, some through time travel or CGI or whatever. They all want to do it…Discovery actually makes it easier to a degree. A post Nemesis series makes it easier to use current day Shatner as an aged Kirk. But since it’s Star Trek there is no reason this series cant have an episode that has Picard, Kirk, Archer, Sisko, Khan or anyone else they see fit. As long as the story is good, anything is possible (in fact, anything is possible regardless of the quality of the story, we can only hope its good though).

You know, if they were free to choose any time period, they should have gone with post TUC and just cast Shatner. Especially for a limited episode HBO-style project like this show. Talk about free PR and excitement…

His resemblance to Mark Lenard is incredibly uncanny, much more so than Ben Cross. I hope he also has the gravitas Lenard has, that Cross didn’t seem to have as much. Maybe Winona Ryder can still play Amanda.

It’s too bad the show got delayed again, but I guess it means I’ll be signing up for All Access later.

I liked Ben Cross once I saw him perform. His casting was weird because he looks nothing like the character he was playing but his performance was fine. Ofcourse, Bob Orci and Co. badly mis-wrote the character. Like they completely goofed on his relationship with Spock to the extent it was completely out of left field that these writers allegedly watched Star Trek.

How? We only see Sarek’s interaction up until Spock rejected his admission to the Vulcan Science Academy, and then after Vulcan exploded. They didn’t depict how their relationship was between those times.

Yeah I agree, I don’t think they screwed up their relationship at all. The Spock we see in the KT films is still younger and they really didn’t focus on their relationship that much anyway. Did Spock even talk about his father when he wasn’t in the same scene with him? I just don’t remember. And the only other time we saw them in a room together after Spock decided not to go to Vulcan academy was when he lost his mother so any interaction would be different.

They totally did. It was always implied, if not plainly stated, that Sarek and Spock didnt get along because Sarek wanted Spock to embrace his Vulcan side and serve Vulcan, not Starfleet and not his human side. That was the root of the complication of Sarek – he seemed to loath that his son was half human and yet he married a human woman and served an organization who’s leadership was primarily human.

In Trek 09, Sarek gives a nice fatherly speech to young Spock that undid this, amounting to ‘hey you’re half human and thats ok and it will be up to you which side you choose’. Except then he gets pissy when Spock does exactly what Sarek told him he could do. And this scene was written as an FU by Spock to the Vulcans for insulting his mother. We never get a follow up to show if Sarek was angry at all. They didnt seem to have an issue later in the film.

When Sarek shows up again, it is he who “snaps” Spock out of his rage and gives him another fatherly pep talk. There is no indication (that I recall), that Sarek and Spock were particularly estranged nor should there be since Sarek’s advice to child Spock was to do whatever you want.

But worse then undoing the complicated relationship between Spock & Sarek, the writers missed a great opportunity to deepen Spock as a character and create a much stronger emotional moment when Sarek finally accepts him.

When Spock was a child and got bullied, Sarek should have implied it was Spock’s fault for being “too human” and advised him on how he could ignore his humanity and embrace his Vulcan side. He could tell him to keep studying, not worry about making friends as friendship served no logical purpose and pursue a top of the class entry to the Science Academy. Present it like doing so would not only make Sarek proud (the implication being that Spock always wanted his father’s love and acceptance and this was the only way to get it) but also that it would sort of be thumbing the other kids’ noses to be better than them.

That way, when Spock rejects the science academy its not just a spur of the moment reaction to a mom joke – but a true cross roads that one could feel was building inside him his entire life. And that he wasnt just flipping the bird to the elders, but rejecting his father. It would also make the coldness between Spock and Kirk a throw back to his father’s insistence that friendship wasnt important and show us that his relationship with Uhura was not just an affinity for his mother as a human but another rebellion against his father.

They should have then included a scene of Sarek showing emotion – anger – at Amanda when Spock goes off to Starfleet, showing us his rejection of his son and implying that this also caused a rift or coldness between Sarek & Amanda.

It deepens and strengthens Spock as a character. And then when Sarek finally takes Spock aside after Amanda dies and gives him a pep talk, admits he loves Amanda, admits he is proud of Spock etc, its like this huge emotional break through…it changes the character through the course of the film. It lets Sarek show us his coldness to Spock was more about trying to protect him, that he never held a grudge against Amanda but in fact, appreciated her encouragement to Spock as a parent he wished he could have been. It endorses the whole arc of Spock.

But that’s giving the story too much thought.

“Of course, Bob Orci and Co. badly mis-wrote the character.”…
Like every other character and relationship in the movie(s).
Ben Cross, even though he was not really like the real Sarek, he was, by far, NOT the worst thing in those movies.
As far as James Frain, not really seeing the resemblance to Mark Lenard, and not seeing the gravitas. Don’t get me wrong, I think Frain is great but not right for Sarek. I think he would be a great sneaky underhanded, i.e. TOS-type, Klingon, but not Sarek. At least they are moving away from the ‘bitter beer face’ Vulcans of Enterprise.

Maybe its a red herring and he’s playing the Romulan commander that was played by Mark Lenard… one can hope.

I think if they got Winona Ryder back that would be interesting. She would be playing the same character in two different universes which is actually what Trek has always done until the KT films for the obvious reasons. But yeah I would like to see her back (well actually I wouldn’t lol, not because of her just the whole fan service of old characters) but if they are bringing back the character would be fine if its her.

But I liked Ben Cross too.

You know, given this second delay, I can’t help wondering if one of the real reasons is that they are redesigning the Discovery. We all know that many fans have complained about it. Maybe CBS got bad feedback through official marketing channels, too. There’s nothing that says the starship in last year’s marketing video has to be “final,” does it? You’ll note we haven’t seen any more graphics/videos of that design since then. Also, if you’ll recall, the Voyager team had a completely different starship design built before Rick Berman nixed it.

I think that “marketplace confusion” PR regarding Sonequa Martin-Green is insulting; they’re basically calling us “stupid,” thinking we won’t be able to distinguish between her TWD and Star Trek characters. Please, CBS. That’s like the 1990s TV mentality, when DS9 couldn’t name its starship the “Valiant” because it was thought the audience would “get confused” because of the OTHER Star Trek starship that began with the letter “v,” namely Voyager. True story.

And so the Discovery “adventure” continues …

Betting that this “marketplace confusion” contrivance was the best fake excuse they could find.

Actually Fuller said it months ago they were changing the design of the ship so thats a given. HOW different is the issue though. Might guess is it may be the same type of look but just a cooler version of it like all the different Enterprises.

And it doesn’t take this long just to redesign the look of the ship. I figure a few weeks at best for any changes.

I agree with you about the Martin-Green thing. I mean c’mon? Actors are on multiple shows and films all the time. Do they reschedule a film if an actor in it is on a TV show when the film is suppose to run? That makes no sense. And I did not know about that DS9 story lol. Its amazing all that education these people have and yet come up with some really stupid ideas about its audience.

Well, this is interesting. Wonder if there’s a possibility of a young Spock at some point?

Ooooooh believe me, a young Spock will pop up at some point along with a Kirk, Bones and etc. Sigh

I seriously doubt it. The TV and Film divisions don’t play particularly well together and casting a Nu-Nu Spock/Kirk/Whoever from the main cast would cause many problems.

Depends how successful the series is. If they have oodles of money to play with, there might be a way to have an appearance by young Shatner using either CGI or archival footage or both. Really wouldnt surprise me to have a mission that has the Enterprise involved sort of in a side way and we get a “thanks for the help” message from Kirk on screen.

Really it seems like the elephant in the room when you do a Trek TV show in Kirk’s (basic) time. Im all for Bruce Greenwood as Pike though…and have them meet the Enterprise (more in line with the TV version that the stupid film one).

Fuller had teased at times the idea of using Shatner via Twitter and at the convention panel when they had stars from each show. Who knows if that is still in the plans since Fuller left or how he was to bring him back. I agree with you that since it is in this time frame how can you resist eventually crossing paths

Shouldn’t Spock already be serving on the Enterprise under Captain Pike at this point?

I keep forgetting if Discovery starts in 2252 or 2254. Regardless, according to the Star Trek Chronology, Spock is serving aboard the Enterprise in either year.

It’s entirely possible. I would have said no, until I saw them bring Peter Cushing back from the dead in ROGUE ONE. I’m not entirely sold on how well it played, though. Had the role been smaller, I probably wouldn’t have noticed. We know that they are changing the uniforms and ship designs from canon, so they won’t be able to just use stock footage as they did in Trials and Tribulations on DS9. But the CGI technology is definitely there, even for TV. As long as the role is much smaller, I would totally expect them to include a Young Nimoy Spock, even a young Lt. Shatner Kirk at some point, especially since this takes place in the Prime universe where it wouldn’t necessarily be appropriate to see the Bad Robot actors in those roles.