IGN got a few preview images from the two animated Short Treks episodes that debut this Thursday, along with official descriptions for the pair of mini episodes.
“The Girl Who Made the Stars”
Written by Brandon Schultz (co-writer of DSC S2 episode 11 “Perpetual Infinity”). Directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi.
When a lightning storm in space scares a young Michael Burnham, her father aims to ease her fears with a mythical story about a brave little girl who faced her own fears head on.
Star Trek:Short Treks are available in the USA on CBS All Access. Season 2 is available in Canada via CTV Sci-Fi Channel (formerly known as Space) and Crave. Availability for the second season in other regions has not be announced.
Keep up with all the Short Treks news and reviews at TrekMovie.
Pretty Far Field meaning what? A story about a little Black Girl is a problem? What else could you possibly be talking about? I feel like we get a lot of coaded language on here sometimes. I wonder how much Trek you all have watched. Seriously?
I think the whole point of Short Treks is to explore different formats, visuals and tell stories they otherwise couldn’t. Just embrace it for what it is — experimental story telling.
It’s just a short. I personally love that they are being creative, trying new things, taking some changes, and stretching the ST universe in ways we haven’t seen before. Especially with these Short Treks. Some will work, some may not. Some may excite one subset of fans, and bore others. If you don’t like some of them, no harm done. Maybe you’ll like the next one.
Boze, we haven’t seen these yet, but you are ready to call them lazy and shoddy…Perhaps because they use animation?
Nate Crawford opened this thread with an expletive (in text shorthand)….and felt tha was ok just because it didn’t fit their concept of Trek.
There are many of us who are long time fans (including those like me who saw both TOS and TAS in first run) who are thrilled that TPTB are enabling all this innovative Trek-centered creative energy to take flight.
Coming to this thread and seeing the first word of the first post as a big-foot negative is saying more about how some fans wish to enforce that only their idea of Trek is valid than anything about quality.
Nothing wrong with having opinions of any sort, but it would be nice to have a basis for expressing such (i.e. having seen the product first) before doing so.
For example, you expressed in an earlier thread an appreciation for “Encounter at Farpoint.” I think it’s fairly awful. Neither of us is wrong, but at least both of us have had the opportunity to see and fairly evaluate it.
I don’t know what you mean by shoddy. This looks comparable to the quality of the different Star Wars TV animated series on the air, for what that’s worth.
Yes, he’s allowed to have his opinions. Others are also allowed to have opinions about his opinions (though they should express them civilly). That’s just the way these things work.
I think you should ask yourself if you really are the target audience for those short treks. Don’t get me wrong I’m 38 and still love to watch animated shows, some anime,… but the creator’s clearly laid out who their target audiences are for the animated trek shows. Consider those short Treks more of a field test ;)
You didn’t answer the question. Let me rephrase based on your response since you said you know… As far as you know, who is the target audience for Lower Decks?
I’m hoping that someone with CGI deepfake tech can ‘fix’ the Discoprise and make it into the TOS Enterprise (TAS looking) in the Ephraim & Dot animated scenes….and get rid of the ‘A’ designation on the NCC-1701 Enterprise (assuming its from ST3 SFS). If Youtubers can CGI paste faces onto actors in other movie scenes and Despecialize Star Wars….they can De-Disco-ize the Conny Enterprise, they can fix these Canon errors,to make more appealing to us ‘OG Trekkers’ as Director Michael Giacchino stated in his Tweet. “Help us Deepfake you are our only Hope!”
Star Trek as a franchise needed to evolve a long time ago.It should always be in flux. If not it will die and it almost did back in 2002 after Nemisis was released. If you can’t see Star Trek in its current incarnation then you weren’t paying attention to the original or for that matter any of it. I loved those animated shorts.
Adding layers to the original series and other series is not a bad thing. Grow up sir.
How is this unrecognizable? Please explain instead of yelling into the void.
Bobby Harding
December 11, 2019 5:36 am
It looks nice, but not really for me. Why some of the original actors are still alive let’s hope for some genuine original animated adventures. I personally would like the idea of an anime type art style. A little like Blade Runner 20149 had with their short prior to release.I really love the animated series and consider it trek cannon. It did have the feel of original Trek.
Let’s please have some genuine thoughtful animated scifi, I’m not really interested in lower decks and more comedy focused episodes or children’s Saturday morning adventures with no substance. They certainly do have their place but Star Trek to me will always be about boldly going where no one has gone before. Animation could be a wonderful tool to realise this. Cartoons are for everyone not just kids. I hope for some genuine ‘Star Trek’ but I fear this will be cute, emotional with little exploration of the characters. I wish DC Fontana was still alive to write Star Trek. I guess I’m just too old and curmudgeonly.
Buck Bokai
December 11, 2019 6:16 am
‘Humble Tardigrade’ is a good soft rock band name.
I’m glad that Short Treks has provided an opportunity to close the loop with the dangling thread of the myth that launched Discovery S2. The red signals storyline seemed to suffer quite a bit through the upheavals in the writers room. Despite the time lag in making an animated episode, one hopes the continuity will still work.
I am also wondering who will be doing the voices: will Arise Arhin and SMG’s husband Eric Green be reprising the roles?
My inner middle-grader is very excited about Ephraim and Dot. Those TAS like images are really succeeding in tweaking my curiosity and my nostalgia. Thankfully our middle-grade kids are also curious to see how new Trek animation will work out.
I’d like to see some other ships, shows and periods in the Trek multiverse in the Short Treks too VZX!
I’d even like to see a more adult audience oriented animated Short in the style of ‘Undone’.
That said, it takes more than 12 months to bring an animated Short through concept, production and distribution. For the two new animated series, it’s taking a good two years.
So, it’s not surprising that Shorts that were ordered 12 or more months ago are only based on Discovery.
Let’s hope they are well received so that TPTB will authorize yet more animated experimentation.
@Joseph Cifala – No offense intended, but you’re not really comparing Space Charter to pro-level animation, are you? It’s not. It’s like saying “Not so sure why Gordon Ramsey takes so long to cook. I can microwave a pizza in 3 minutes.” Not really the same thing.
Exactly. And Ephraim and Dot short doesn’t seem to have anything to do with Discovery but with the Enterprise. So not sure what the OP is even getting at.
And we also know the next Short Trek after these will be about Picard. So we know they are willing to make other stories as none of the first three shorts had nothing to do wit Discovery but with others.
Athus
December 11, 2019 6:35 am
Mhe, lets see how MB save the universe when she was a Kid..
One does tire of the Michael Burnham messianism. Earlier iterations of Star Trek seemed more like a team effort, this one is overly centered on one character who improbably is key to solving every difficulty.
The frustrating thing is that Star Trek has always gone it’s own way and pushed the limits of writing and broadcast norms in whatever era.
But with Discovery, the writers seem to be rigidly locked into a streaming series serial format where the mystery always has to focus on a single star character whose personal transformation maps to a major societal one.
We’re seeing now that streaming series such as The Expanse and The Man in the High Castle are reaching further into their ensembles to sustain their stories.
However, what we hear on format from Discovery’s showrunners sounds at times more like a recitation of ‘what we learned in recent film school’ than a commitment to innovation in the Trek tradition.
One wonders if there are contractual issues, or if CBSAA has required that Discovery be the Trek product that leans heavily into this rigid mould.
Sisko was the son of a god or a very powerfull alien, depending what you want to call them, and even yet, with out Dax or Bashir or Kira he was nothing..
They hung a lantern on the messiah complex a couple of times in S2 in Spock’s dialogues with Burnham. It was amusing and self-aware. I hope they get away from that concept, because Messiah Michael is not easy to relate to. I found Michael much easier to relate to in S1 than S2, even though a lot of things hinged on her character. Firstly, her importance to Mirror Lorca was based on HIS desire to take over the Empire, so in twisting and fighting against that, Burnham was a power for good, but not the ONLY one.
Off the top of my head… None. The only time I can think of where the universe was potentially at stake was “The Alternative Factor”. Where Lazuras was the one who saved TWO universes. Not Kirk.
It does not speak well that you immediately jump to the racial argument.
And he is re racist.. he thinks that USA is the center of the universe.. he thinks that the poor american females person of colour are the only one in the world with problems.
I invite him to came to Venezuela, where your CIA agents are killing ppl just beacose they want our oil. I wish I was a female of color on America.
Kirk killed a man who could have brought havoc to the galaxy in “Where No Man Has Gone Before”. Avoided interstellar war in “Balance of Terror”. Saved the whole timeline by stopping McCoy from saving Edith Keeler in “The City on the Edge of Forever”. Helped Lazarus in saving two whole universes in “The Alternative Factor”. Saved the galaxy from a civilization-ending plague accross multiple systems in “Operation: Annihilate!”. Saved the galaxy once again from one unstoppable “Doomsday Machine”. Saved the whole Earth against a giant cloud in “Star Trek: The Motion Picture”. And saved it again against an alien probe in “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home”. Killed “God” in “Star Trek V: The Final Frontier”… what a Mary Sue! :-)
Where No Man Has Gone Before: OK. That’s a maybe but it is unlikely Mitchell would have gone on to destroy the universe.
Balance of Terror: A war does not threaten the entire universe.
City of the Edge of Forever: Changing the timeline does not destroy the universe.
I mentioned The Alternative Factor.
Operation Annihilate! The Federation does not constitute the universe.
Doomsday Machine: A few worlds does not constitute the universe.
TMP: The Earth is not the entire universe.
TVH: The Earth is not the entire universe.
TFF: No one knows what the entity would have done. Possible gone back to where it came from for all we know. Unlikely the Universe was at stake but like WNMHGB let’s be generous and call it a “maybe”.
And neither has Michael Burnham saved “the whole universe.” This is just so much fretting over a particular character some don’t like being the lead and doing the many of the same things that lead characters in Trek shows traditionally do, albeit not always from a position of direct authority. And that sole distinction doesn’t make her anything like a “messiah.”
Pretty sure Burnham did indeed save the universe in S2. It was stated that the AI would have destroyed “everything”. Kinda illogical but I didn’t write it. Further, the arguments I have heard have had nothing to do with that particular character being the lead. No one seems to be bothered with her as the lead. Most seem to be bothered by the situations and how she, and the rest of the show, have been written.
Okay “misogynistic white man”. How about “dumb black people” or “Evil Hispanic people”? How does that sound?
I am a white male, 35 years old. And I get it. Whites have a historical track record of being auful to pretty much every other skin color in existance. The native south and north american peoples got royally screwed by us. African Americans got screwed by us. We had condescending names in America for the Japanese, chinese and Mexicans for a long time. This happened. I can not erase it, and I will not down play it.
With that said. to call a whole generation of white men “misogynistic”, is in itself racist.
Here, look at the Movie series “The Hunger Games” have you watched it? Most of the population was walled off into different districts, that were all very poor, and provided for a 10% wealthy population. The 90% poor went to battle and won against the 10%. what happened in the end though, was that the the poor people set up a government, that repressed the previous rich. And a cycle happened all over again.
Does this make sense. You don’t cure racism by spewing racism. White men are not evil. Black women aren’t evil. Chinese kids arent evil. Native American Shaman aren’t evil. Aboriginal tribes people aren’t evil.
You know who is evil. . . Individual people, individually choosing to do things. In that, one could say we are all, at times, evil. But, that is for another discussion.
Can we just unite under the banner of Star Trek that tries to say all people are worthy of respect, and everyone no matter how white or black or green skinned you are, has a chance at reaching there dreams, and getting to have a great and glorious future?
I appreciate if you have read this whole post. Live Long and Prosper.
TJ Trek,
I agree with you completely.
What I find terrifying is that what you said is such rare thinking these days. That good behavior, conveying mutual respect and kindness, is what is needed instead of identifying any group based on their skin color, gender, sexuality, etc. as good or bad.
The fact that this basic idea is not embraced by factions on the right or left is terrifying. Perhaps humanity is really more like chimpanzees, who are tribal primates too. The difference being that we use our bigger brains to invent bombs instead of throwing rocks. I wish we used our bigger brains to embrace the idea you and I share.
TJ, I don’t tend to brand individuals with a big label unless they earn it with their individual remarks. This has happened in various threads of TM over the years.
I am a “first generation” Trekker and Trek has informed my principles. One of those principles is observing the rights of all people.
So if I call out a misogynist or assume someone is a white person, it’s because they usually make it obvious in their posts.
Kirks heroic accomplishments on the frontiers of space were awesome. Sisko’s accomplishments administrating an entire space station, and arbitrating between star fleet and the bajorian people was incredible. Janeway’s ability to keep her people mostly sane and mostly alive while being lost in the Delta Quadrant was pretty laudable. Burnham helped avoid universal disaster, and was instrumental in stoping a Klingong war. That’s not to be snubbed at
Each of these people worked with their crews to accomplish these tasks. They alone were great people, but were made even greater by being back up by a command crew of 5-7 awesome people. Do you notice that in the group I picked above that we have men and women, blacks and whites?
anyways, As I have said in another post can’t we all just join under the banner of star trek and just get along enjoying star trek.
Oh come on.
Burnham is not a terrible character because she is a female person of color… That doesnt saves a character from being terrible overwritten…
Burnham isn’t the greatest example of a character of color– she’s a mutineer, has eaten sentient beings, and foments war. Isn’t the problem though that she and her family are responsible for virtually all creation — the red bursts. Plus she’s supposedly responsible for Kirk and Spock’s relationship to boot. She’s a person of color, yeah, but that doesn’t make her a great character. I think they would have been better off making her the Captain — although the show’s portrayal of a chain of command could be tighter.
I didn’t want to use the “cannibal” word. Whether or not she knew, they still saddled the character with this negative baggage. The audience knows. Couldn’t she have deduced what was happening? –“He who sups with the devil should have a long spoon.”
If that is what stigmatizes a character for you:
Which first officer again, was introduced while eating from the body a intelligent, self aware alien life-form? Well, that was Riker. What is your take on him?
Netflix released the first season of Short Treks internationally prior to the release of the second season of DIS. There is no reason to believe the same won’t be true of the second season prior to the release of the third season of DIS.
It’s not CBS decision on how Netflix decides to release these. Just like it’s not CBS fault that Netflix doesn’t promote in lock-step with the CBSAA social media accounts. Netflix paid a good amount to get the international rights to these things and it’s up to them how they want to release them.
Not-US Trek fans are still discriminated by CBS. If you cant sell it, just release it for public.
CBS’ “discrmination” is right up there with Jim Crow. Sheesh.
Quit complaining. You get all of DISCO full-length episodes with your Netflix subscription, sans commercials. In the US, we have to subscribe to a different streaming service. And we pay extra for commercial-free viewing.
Bird of Prey
December 11, 2019 7:03 am
Lil’Michael has a tardigrade plushie! :-D
Phil
December 11, 2019 8:24 am
Figures. No one has seen them, yet the bitching about them is in full force.
Tardigrades have been known to science for centuries. I see the gift of a plushie of this amazing creature to a budding young scientist as a perfect choice.
Yah, I don’t get it. I personally have been looking for different perspectives in the trek universe for a long time. Give me a show that is based on Kronos, and is all about Klingon society. Give me a show that is “Star Trek: West Wing” about federation politics. Give me a show about the Temporal police guys we learned about in DS9. Give me an animated show about pretty much any Star Trek thing. Give me a show about Star Fleet Academy. Give me a show about the 3rd world war (could be awesome). Give me a show about. . . The possibilities are endless
As Q once said “For that one fraction of a second, you were open to options you had never considered. That is the exploration that awaits you. Not mapping stars and studying nebulae, but charting the unknowable possibilities of existence.”
This has been my push back on a Pike based Enterprise show – if they do it, great, but the Trek universe is a mighty big place, there’s nothing wrong with exploring more of it. It just seems like anything outside of a WASP-y plywood spaceship just really tends to set off that portion of the fan base with grey hair…..
Agreed. I would be more than happy if we got a Pike show but if I had my preference I would want to do something as different as possible like what Discovery is doing next season and I don’t mean just in a new century but just something that takes us out of our comfort zone. You can do SO MUCH with Star Trek and even with so many shows and films, it still just scratched the surface.
I obviously love to see return characters like Spock, Picard, Seven, Pike, Riker etc but I still would ultimately prefer completely new characters in settings we never seen before. After all every favorite Star Trek character today started out this way as completely new at some point.
If it weren’t show business, we would get all these diverse Treks. When an artist reaches out to the suits with the $$$, it’s a different story. Any new Star Trek movie that might get made? It will be based on established characters.
Sadly agree, especially when it comes to the movies. And its probably why so many prefer the TV shows because they can at least experiment more and offer new things, these latest Short Treks being the perfect example.
This grey haired Trekkie was part of the 2nd group of TOS fans who discovered Trek in syndication. We kept the dream and spark alive until TMP came into our cineplex. This grey haired Trekkie was 23 when TNG premiered and pushed back at “purists” who hadn’t seen it yet. I’ve embraced every incarnation of Trek that they’ve given us. I don’t clamor for a Pike Enterprise because it’s “Wasp-y” Ridiculous sentiment,by the way. You’ve seen TOS,right? I clamor for Pike and the Enterprise, because for me, it has the best chance at recapturing that magic I discovered almost 45 years ago. All of that being said, I look forward to Picard, DSC season 3 and Section 31.
“Give me a show that is based on Kronos, and is all about Klingon society. Give me a show that is “Star Trek: West Wing” about federation politics. […] Give me a show about the 3rd world war (could be awesome).”
I’ve been suggesting these examples for a while here too. With a sufficiently big budget, and with the right showrunners, the potential is incredible.
gwarden019
December 11, 2019 9:22 am
I must say the animators did a great job creating a younger version of Michael. If you saw a side-by-side image of the two with no reference, I bet most people would say they are the same character.
Marcelo
December 11, 2019 11:37 am
These look fun, but what I really would love is a Pike-era Enterprise Short Trek done as a Filmation TAS episode, down to the reused closeups, mis-sized delta shields, and filmation walk cycles. You can even bring Shatner back for that.
See, I would groan at the nostalgia of that. I love TAS as well but even for it’s time, the animation was primitive. Maybe an animator could weigh in but the cost would be the same, no matter what the style. I do think it would be fun if the end credits did “still shots” (like TOS did) in a TAS style.
Mike2
December 11, 2019 12:06 pm
Based on these descriptions and images, I’m more excited to see The Girl Who Made the Stars than Ephraim and Dot. But looking forward to both.
Yah, I get it. But you can’t deny that Star Trek’s version of Wall-E looks too cute to pass up right? :)
Legate Damar
December 11, 2019 1:08 pm
The Girl Who Made the Stars looks like it will be completely unlike anything we’ve ever seen before in Trek. It should be interesting.
Darfyn
December 11, 2019 1:31 pm
Many rumors abound through the Trek Fan Community of stolen creative rights for recent movies and series . I’ve heard the Tardigarde idea was stolen from a poor videogame creator .
That’s been talked about since Discovery first introduced the tardigrade, so you haven’t heard anything new. Old story, covered and discussed around the internet.
I have a recollection of playing that game briefly many years ago , and the creature is identical , but I guess it could have come from a writer’s knowledge of current research biology . Mind you the girl in the above animation looks very familiar from something . Also , someone mentioned the theme of the 2009 Star Trek movie was taken from Renegades Studios : Of Gods and Men . I should mention someone also had links from where the the 2nd and 3rd movies stories had come from too . Mmmm , Is there an investigative site that could compile these allegations ?
jobryant
December 11, 2019 1:46 pm
Anyone notice that the “Ephraim and Dot” video shows two different impulse engines? Around 17 seconds we see the Discovery Enterprise impulse engines. But at 24 seconds, they appear more TOS-like. I wonder why that is?
Wait, I think I just answered my own question. It appears that the Enterprise at 24 seconds is the refit Enterprise or 1701-A. Looks like time travel will happen in this short.
It looks like this will go through a number of classic Trek moments. I see the Green Hand from “Who Mourns for Adonais?”. It looks like that’s Khan on the Bio-bed from “Space Seed”. And the refit Enterprise battling the Bird of Pray is probably from TSFS.
Yeah it looks like time travel will be involved. One image is the refit Enterprise in the short. We know you can time travel through the mycelial network and probably how the tardigrade will do it.
Assume Ephraim and Dot are going to be life long friends… is Ephraim going to save Dot over Genesis?!? How cool is that?!?!?
Captain Danno
December 11, 2019 1:49 pm
Interesting that the Tardigrade episode seems to follow a TOS aesthetic for the Enterprise as compared to the updated designs featured in Discovery episodes. Wonder if we should read anything into that?
See my note above. The aesthetic seems like it’s all over the place. I see TOS elements, but the shot of the Enterprise at 17 seconds is definitely a Discovery era Enterprise. However the shot at 24 seconds is a refit Enterprise or 1701-A. I hope there is an explanation for all of this.
Thanks JoBryant. I haven’t watched the trailer yet. Just looked at the pictures. Must be either time travel, which would imply that we are to believe the Discovery-era Enterprise will be refit to look like what it did in TOS instead of us just pretending that’s the way TOS really looked. Or maybe it is implying there are a couple of different timelines being represented with Discovery vs TOS. Either way this Short Trek may have significant implications for how Discovery fits into the Trek canon.
Good point Salvador. My interpretation of that episode is that the story before the closing credits was intended to be considered “canon” but the commercial, which was after the credits, was intended to be more of a joke… But, in the end, I guess “canon” is ultimately an opinion and can be interpreted in a variety of different ways.
As the story summary says that Ephraim the tardigrade was wandering around the mycelial network there is no reason to think that it all takes place in a single time period.
The writers may have come up with a fun way to stitch things together in a way that is only possible with animation.
TechNoir
December 11, 2019 2:02 pm
I don’t know what CBS has in mind for the future, but I would love to see a Star Trek animated anthology, exploring different styles and different points in the Trek timeline. Could be a lot of fun.
Boze
December 11, 2019 2:11 pm
Everything is in the original series aesthetic, there’s Khan, Kirk and McCoy in the sickbay, but the Enterprise herself look like the Phase 2 hybrid. This thing is getting weirder and weirder.
OMG you’re right!!! I didn’t enlarge any of the photos but yes that is Kirk, McCoy and Khan. OK, this thing has now shot up waaaaay up for me lol. I’m genuinely excited about it. It looks like its a time travel/possible multiple dimensional story to see some of the Enterprise most famous moments. Count me COMPLETELY on board now! :)
Yeah it was done so well! Just a nice treat for us uber-fans!
I watched it twice in my first sitting because I missed how she could travel behind the Enterprise for years and her eggs never hatched. I actually thought maybe we WERE watching some form of time travel. Then on the second viewing I realized I missed the line that it could take years for tardigrade eggs to hatch. I guess they are the anti-tribbles lol.
Bose, I agree… After looking at this in more detail, it is very interesting. There are interior shots that use the TOS aesthetic (i.e. sickbay with Kirk, McCoy and Khan), but the exterior shot of the hand from “Who Mourns for Adonais” has the Discovery version of the Enterprise exterior, and then later movie-era shots of the Enterprise exterior. I am really excited to see how this plays out in the full episode and what it means relative to how we think about the “Prime Timeline.” I wonder if the “Powers That Be” have decided there is a need to reconcile both the storyline (which they tried to do in ST DSC Season 2) and visual inconsistencies between TOS and Discovery and have decided to use animation as a means to reconcile everything with what has come before?
Bryant Burnette
December 11, 2019 2:43 pm
I’m not enough of a “Discovery” fan to be terribly excited about these, but the animation styles look cool. I’ll give ’em a shot.
Bob Marley
December 11, 2019 4:02 pm
For a moment, I thought this was the Disney channel.
Was that a refit Enterprise I saw and a Klingon bird of prey… Wow
AJinMoscow
December 11, 2019 4:35 pm
If Star Trek is to make it into the family of consistent big-money-makers (i.e. continue to exist), it needs to be on the cutting edge, as it was in the 1960s, and 1980s (before it was overtaken by everything that came in its wake because of it). These new shorts are low-risk shallow dives into different formats and ideas which could give new generations the same access Star Wars and comics fans have had for generations with animated versions of what’s on the big screen, or on live-action TV. These franchises need buy-in from an early age to create lifelong fans (consumers) who will access them anywhere and on all different types of media for decades. There’s more to come, and soon.
Scott Gammans
December 11, 2019 5:02 pm
Christmas comes early this year! These both look like a lot of fun. The CGI animation was startlingly high quality, and I love the notion of the more traditionally-animated episode taking place during Kirk’s five year mission. EXCITED!
Adhamh
December 11, 2019 5:30 pm
A lightning storm in space? It wasn’t the Narada, was it??
Cmd.Bremmon
December 11, 2019 11:22 pm
Can’t wait to see “Ephraim and Dot”!!!! Is that going to go through the whole history of the Enterprise all the way to TSFS?!? I think I saw Kirk and Kahn and that beautiful Constitution class retrofit!! Is Ephraim going to save Dot in the end?!?!? Who thought we would ever get to see movie era (the “good” movie era with the Connie refit) again?!?!?!?! Awesome, I think that episode really shows what they could do with an animated series. Also love the TOS engineering!
BRING BACK TOS Animated.. even better yet set it between TMP and St:II with the awesome uniforms and ships, exciting time. I think the Encyclopedia had Kirk on a second five year mission?? Use the DC Comic stories, they were great!!
I liked it. Efraim and Dot were so cute! And it was a fun way to relieve moments of the show and film’s.
I could see a TOS animated show. I’m more excited about Lower Decks because it’s something new but the Nickelodeon show could’ve been a nice TOS revival.
Tiger2
December 12, 2019 1:16 am
HEADS UP! Just letting everyone know both shorts are already online!!!! For some reason I just had a feeling maybe they could’ve posted them earlier (like all the other streaming sites) and sure enough…
Going to have a look. If I’m not too lazy will give my non-spoiler review of them!
It also looks like Bell crave has both available for streaming in Canada.
Those of us who subscribe to CTV’s Sci-fi channel (premium cable) in Canada will need to wait until they are broadcast at 9:00 pm tonight. This is a change from the previous norm where CBSAA and crave waited until CTV Sci-fi channel was broadcasting before streaming starts.
No I meant CBSAA. I only watch things legally. But they been posted since midnight PST. I think CBS is finally starting to act like other traditional sites and release things at the start of the day instead of some arbitrary time which makes no sense on a streaming site. I hope this happens for Picard as well. Doubtful but its possible now.
Tiger2
December 12, 2019 2:32 am
Watched them and really liked them both! Both very simple but sweet stories. I think I like the Efraim and Dot one more for the nostalgia fun and very cute. And The Girl Who Made the Stars had a nice Star Trek twist in the end. Also thought the animation was great.
The only issue is these shorts seem to be getting shorter and shorter. One was only 8 mins long. The other 9. They both could’ve been fleshed out more.
But overall they both show what a great format this is. We could get future animated shorts with TNG, VOY, ENT etc. And next month is the Picard one. The preview keeps it a big mystery but man I CAN’T WAIT!! Things are about to get real!
But these shorts were nice. Neither one amazing but memorable and solid! And shows great potential for animated stories. Really happy they went this route.
noraa
December 12, 2019 2:46 am
Well I’m excited for these! I’m a sucker for good animation, and I love that TPTB are using the Short Treks as a bit of a creative playground.
To the various naysayers out there, why don’t you wait until you actually see these before you judge? You may still hate them after watching them, and that’s fine, but to not even give these shorts a chance is decidedly not Trekian.
EEE HHH
December 12, 2019 4:50 am
I’m super excited to see the refit ENT animated honestly, reminds me of DC comics.
2278
December 12, 2019 6:10 am
Sorry to say the animation for both of these isn’t working for me aside from the Refit Connie. It’s just great to finally see a ship design rendered faithfully in new trek.
Jay
December 12, 2019 7:03 am
Just watched the two Short Treks. They are already up and available. Embracing the new. They need to do things differently for the new generation. If they are building a Star Trek MCU kind of thing, this is a great start. Like someone mentioned here, this is an experimental story telling, experimental narrative, experimental animation. Both are sooo different. One, the little Michael story looks like The Miles Morales Spiderman. And the Tardigrade story, looks like a Pixar short. Not my style of Star Trek, any of the two, but guys, this is great for the kids. Thank you Kurtzman and Fuller!!! My 7 year old enjoy watching us watching Star Trek. I know he will like these two. Great gift for families with little ones right before Christmas! These shorts are great. Can’t wait for the new shows next year!
Danpaine
December 12, 2019 7:03 am
Both look harmless enough to me – clearly not geared towards adults, imo – maybe something I might check out when I sign back up on CBS to watch Picard, but likely not. I don’t see what all the fuss and animosity is here about a couple of cartoons. Hopefully kids will enjoy them.
Jay
December 12, 2019 7:45 am
One more thing…after watching these two Short Treks, I cannot stop thinking how much I would like to see DS9 back. Animation, Season 8, short series. Before Picard, in the same time with Picard. Could be Animation. Anything! DS9 is the only show that can be done with the original creative team. Mr. Kurtzman, after the success of Picard, Discovery S3, Section 31, please get Ira Steven Behr and his talented crew onboard!!!
That would have been a marvelous idea… last year. Sadly, I don’t think I could bear to watch a series where the voices for Odo and Nog have been recast (and let’s be real—will anything lure Avery out of retirement these days?).
DS9 was like a family to me, and the talented actors who inhabited those characters became iconic. I love the show, and I would’ve loved to have seen an animated eighth season, but so much sadness has occurred in that family in the past few months.
Ian
December 12, 2019 8:14 am
The Bratz Doll character design is a little off-putting for the first one, but I’m still all for Trek breaking into new storytelling techniques.
Ian, it’s not just Bratz dolls that have big heads: it’s fairly universal in modern animation for preschoolers and kindergarteners.
Our kids are middle-graders now, but we really noticed the big headed characters when we started watching television with them.
Apparently young children respond and pay more attention to characters with very large proportioned heads (as they have) and large eyes. There are also differences in hearing ranges (higher pitched).
So children’s programming, which is informed now by early childhood development research, has shifted across the board towards big headed and high pitched characters.
So children’s programming, which is informed now by early childhood development research, has shifted across the board towards big headed and high pitched characters.
My problem with that is why should I, as a consumer, be forced to purchase a streaming service I do not want just to get another streaming service in better quality? CBSAA should be ashamed for their lack of quality. When I watched S2 earlier this year I still got glitches. It’s pathetic. I haven’t had a glitch on Netflix for years. (although they BOTH could use MAJOR improvements in their interface and controls)
Oh, no argument there ML31. But since I already have Amazon Prime I get the video for free anyway, so paying Jeff Bezos the extra $9.99 instead of CBS was a no-brainer. Amazon never gives me a problem. CBSAA was almost always finicky no matter when I would tune in. So until and unless the “Tiffany Network” gets its streaming **** together, Prime Video it is.
As I understand it, CBS, not Bezos, is still getting your $10. Or at least 99% of it I suspect.
Scott Gammans
December 12, 2019 11:40 am
I just watched “Ephraim and Dot” for the fourth time. I was utterly charmed and delighted. If this kind of effort is put into the animated series coming online next year, I AM ALL IN. Honestly, I think I enjoyed this more than “Q&A”!
Yes I think it’s my favorite of the season as well. For the record I loved the animated shorts idea from the start and don’t mind the shows being the same. But I didn’t think this story was going to be all that interesting. Ok, probably fun but nothing special.
But I was proven wrong. I still don’t think it was amazing but very charming and so well done. Without the TOS callbacks I doubt people would be pining over it as they are but that angle is what made it feel so clever and inventive.
I’m an aficionado of 40’s and 50’s Warner Brothers cartoons, so I would have loved “Ephraim and Dot” even without the callbacks. But when they threw TOS and movies #2 & 3 into the mix, it was (for me) like pouring melted dark chocolate on top of the three-layer Devil’s Food cake. It somehow never occurred to me that these two wildly different universes would work together, but boy they sure did.
Rewatching the master Farscape recently, I’d been thinking that it would be cool to see Trek take on the kind of ‘out there’ wacky and creative tribute to cartoons that Farscape did with the Road Runner/Wil E coyote type episode in Creighton’s head.
Ephraim and Dot has the same off-the-wall ethos but with an allegory that runs true to Trek.
Well played.
Patrice
December 12, 2019 11:58 am
Please just stop. I just can’t with these. Discovery was a hard sell and swallow but I watched it- both seasons- although it’s very different from what I know of as “Trek”. Now, I just can’t move on. I tried. I rallied for nu-Trek too, so desperate to see Trek on the big and small screens again; but Discovery, Shorts, Lower decks and now this animation- I’m out. Cancel my subscription CBS. This is so far beyond what I am even interested in. I’d rather go back and read the oldie but goodie Star Trek novels of the ’80s and ’00s that “feel” like more of the “Paramount” Trek of which I’m accustomed. I can’t stomach this CBS stuff anymore. I wonder if today’s younger generation is even watching this stuff or is it more of us “old heads” just trying to keep the franchise alive. If it’s the latter, I wish the franchise ‘peace and long life’, but I’m out.
Hi Patrice. You are growing old. (^_^) Everything changes at all times. Its hard for me as well, used to STNG and DS9. But we are in 2020 very soon. In order to attract a new audience/generation, they need to update the way they produce the show.
I don’t even know of one person who watches this stuff personally and I am genuinely interested if the younger generation is even following Trek. Where is the “bold exploration of the human condition?” Listen, I want Trek to survive but this, is not it. It’s sci-if but not Trek. As far as I’m concerned. I’m out. LL&P
As someone who really didn’t like DIS first season but have grown to like it a lot more in its second, I understand how you feel. And I don’t mean I AGREE with you per se, but I know how it feels to want to like something but you just can’t because it just feels too different.
The irony for me PERSONALLY is I have never had an issue with Trek being different or doing different things. In fact I ENCOURAGE it. That’s not why I didn’t like Discovery. I just thought it wasn’t very good with storylines we seen before, unlikable characters, didn’t remotely feel like the era it was suppose to be in and frankly BORING once you got pass how cool it looked. Now I will say I did have some problem that the stories themselves didn’t feel Star Trek ENOUGH (and probably where we agree) and why I like season 2 more because I feel they have improved on that aspect at least. But again its in the EXECUTION.
People argued the same exact issue with DS9 when it first appeared (it literally was about a space station which is the exact opposite of exploration in its premise) but I didn’t mind it because the stories it DID tell were still great on their own with great characters. DS9 is actually what made me realize how great Trek can be when they don’t just throw everybody on an Enterprise and meet a new alien every week (although no show really did that every week lol).
I think what Kurtzman is doing IS an interesting idea and that is the shows are not about exploration in themselves with MAYBE the exception of Lower Decks? But because that’s more of a comedy and a cartoon I know it still may not feel the same as the other shows. I don’t mind this approach that much because we DO have tons of that in all the other shows, so I’m willing to see where it goes. And as said I have been very mixed on Discovery and its really the ONLY show we have to gauge it now so if you don’t like that show, I understand you perfectly (but I also have a feeling season 3 will be even more about exploration given the new setting).
I will say this though, IF you were a big TNG or TNG era fan then wait and see what you think of Picard. To ME, this is the real test of how future Trek shows will be perceived because its based on a very known entity BUT done in a very different package. They keep saying they want to honor TNG (and how it strongly it was about the human condition) but same time the show isn’t TNG, its a completely different approach, just using characters from that show. So far fans don’t seem bothered by this which is a good sign because BEFORE people assumed they were going to reject it the second they learn Picard is not on the Enterprise again with Worf and Riker but basically going rogue instead. I’m actually shocked just how much people DON’T seem to care about that lol. But I think it just tells you how much they just want a return to this era and characters in general (and stuff like the Borg and having others like Seven back keeps people excited). But yes, the show itself could still suck of course.
BUT I think if Kurtzman delivers a show that really feels to the spirit of Trek (which I personally think Discovery missed the boat on its first season) but still do something very different in the process you could change your mind.
Or maybe not lol. But I don’t think Discovery should be the only indicator. If you think that show sucks, fine, you’re not alone (and they are trying VERY hard to fix the show), but I wouldn’t discount everything going forward just yet either.
Totally agree, Tiger2. Disco Season 1 was soooo ackward. Firing Fuller right at the start was a total disaster. They were patching up holes and fixing the mess along the way. You can tell when you go back and see the whole season. So unfortunate. The artists suffered. Specially Sonequa and Jason. Glad they survived. Glad Star Trek is coming back at warp speed. Next year the new shows will begin, and movies are already back on track.
And yes I think the mess behind the scenes in Discovery’s first season made it feel partly as bad as it did (and I’m only talking about for people like us that thought the season was bad as a whole. I’m well aware others did really like and enjoy it), but so much of it just feels really off now in hindsight. I have tried to go back and rewatch the entire season but I can’t to this day. That’s how I know its bad for me, I literally have no interest to watch it beyond maybe 3-4 episodes.
But I will say for ME they have turned it around a lot in second season. I’m still highly mixed on a lot of it for sure, but it at least FEELS like Star Trek more if nothing else and very excited for next season.
As for Picard and other future shows, it doesn’t sound like it has the same drama of Discovery and that (at least so far) everyone seems to be suggesting the show is very much in line with the spirit of TNG. It still may not turn out great but I am hoping they learned from their mistakes with DIS early on and will deliver something that feels like Star Trek even if its still different from TNG the show.
At the very least the trailers have felt that way.
For the record… The rewatch value of these short season shows with full season story arcs aren’t very high to begin with. I can easily catch 40-54 minutes of a stand alone episode that was particularly good multiple times. But it is a rare thing indeed when episodes that are a piece of a larger whole to be worth looking at again unless you plan to spend 12 hours rewatching the whole thing. Which I am unwilling to do even if the story was really good. Case in point, I have seen shows on the Netflix that were quite good and I wouldn’t mind seeing again but I don’t want to invest the time as I would feel compelled to catch the whole thing over the course of a number of days. Those really have no single or multiple stand out episodes. It’s about the whole more than the parts. The Xindi arc in Enterprise I only partially put in that mode as the bulk of those episodes qualify as good stand alones. Most were up front and it was only as the season was winding down did it take on the serial quality heavily.
Marja
December 12, 2019 1:08 pm
POSSIBLE SPOILERS?
Ephraim and Dot was an absolute delight … I had such fun hearing the music and the characters were cute. There were even some great old cartoon sound effects :^D
Yes it was so cool!! I had such low expectations for that short (and yes like many thought it was going to be a Wall E rip off) and I think its the best one of the season for me. I enjoyed both but its clear Ephraim and Dot will be the fan favorite given its story line and attachment to TOS.
These were Absolutely Amazing! I did not have high expectations for this but both of these kept to Star Trek’s main themes of living in tolerance with each other and realizing how fear is not always healthy. Ephraim and Dot was both absolutely hilarious ,in a Warner Brothers cartoon sort of way, and paid homage to the Enterprise’s history (using the new Constellation class as the original was a nice touch). There was even one part where I actually started to tear up a bit. For those of you who think this is not Star Trek then I respectfully ask you to open you mind up and not prejudge.
Rear Admiral Damien
December 12, 2019 3:43 pm
👏If. 👏You. 👏Don’t. 👏Like. 👏It. 👏Turn. 👏It. 👏Off.
MysticalDigtial
December 12, 2019 4:47 pm
Honestly these were both really good. Would I want a whole series of Ephraim and Dot? No, but it’s a nice little thing, really fun, nice little story. The Girl Who Made The Stars was really really well done. Great animation style, and I hope the Nickelodeon show is in that style or at least of that type of style (as opposed to the one for Ephraim and Dot).
My wife and I (both life long trekkies) went into this knowing Short Treks are experiments and short form story telling. It is telling that so much of the fanbase is so set in their nostalgia that any deviation from the tired TNG-era form is still decried as ruining the franchise.
Check The Circuit
December 12, 2019 5:07 pm
E & D….
Tears in my eyes! LOVE the way Short Treks is experimenting with the format. Just a delightful tribute to a classic age of Trek. So many surprises and easter eggs in a few minutes. And a pure Trek story at it’s core.
LOVED IT!
Finnegan
December 12, 2019 7:42 pm
Meh.
Michael Hall
December 12, 2019 7:46 pm
I thought these were, respectively, lovely and a lot of fun. Were they anything in format like TOS I grew up with, or the more adult-level, provocative SF I look to the franchise for when it’s at its best? Definitely, no. But if the themes of courage in the face of the unknown or reconciliation don’t resonate with you as very in keeping with Star Trek, I’m not sure what would draw you to it in the first place.
Is it bugging anyone else that the animation mixed up the refit 1701 with the 1701-A? And the one scene from above had the registry rotated at an odd angle on top of the saucer? Lol I genuinely enjoyed The short, but I ust noticed those little oddities!
LOL! I did notice that, but only cuz Imma starship nerd. 8-) I still enjoyed the hell out of “Ephraim and Dot” and would be tickled if the two upcoming animated series even came close to delighting me this much.
Ha. It bugged me too. Before the episode I thought there might be some grand hidden meaning in the aesthetic choices, but in the end it was just a fun little short. If there was any takeaway for me, it was that visual continuity isn’t really that important to the current keepers of the franchise. It’s the storyline that they want to stay as consistent as possible within the prime universe (yes, there really was a giant hand and Abe Lincoln in space!) but, we shouldn’t get hung up on what things look like… I would personally prefer they did a better job with the visual continuity too, but maybe I just need to “get a life,” ha! I enjoyed both of these Short Treks better than I thought I would and agree with many of the comments here that it is a really great form of experimental story telling within the Trek universe!
For myself, Ephraim and Dot were the better of the two.
On two levels, art and show business.
As a grey haired Trekkie hoping for grand kids some day? I’d start showing them this short. They’d love the two main characters. The studio suits would be excited because we original Trekkies are starting to drool a bit and they’ve got new fans. There also is merchandise to sell. Ephraim and Dot and plush little Enterprises…
The blog story on Syfy wire pondered whether the tardigrade could see multiple future events at once (as Stamets can with tardigrade DNA) or overshot and went forward in time to the Enterprise-A and then came back to the destruction of the fitted 1701.
That actually makes sense to me. Imagine the horror of mother tardigrade to realize that the ship with her eggs aboard is gone in future, and her determination to find the correct one.
I wonder if there was something crunched together in the final cut.
Haha yes I noticed as well. Since both were obviously made for kids, I needed to laughingly tell myself to “Get a Life” haha. These shorts are not going to be for everyone but it was good to see that the Star Trek universe is expanding for kids and I can easily see how both of these shorts would appeal to younger audiences. At least they threw in numerous “TOS episode and movie easter eggs” to keep the grey beards like myself amused.
Bryant Burnette
December 13, 2019 12:25 pm
These were not good. “The Girl Who Made the Stars” was at least an admirable swing-and-miss, but “Ephraim and Dot” was plain old awful.
Michael K
December 13, 2019 1:51 pm
It took me a moment to find anything worthwhile about “Ephraim and Dot”, but it quickly found some steam and was allot of fun, especially the way it used the Tardigrade’s power to take us on a journey through the Star Trek Chronology. I found it fun and charming and a nice tie-in with Discovery and TOS. “The Girl Who Made The Stars” is a little banal and irrelevent for my taste, it didn’t really register for me but I think it will for others which is wonderful. I will say the animation for “TGWMTS” was artful at times, but the facial animations were flat and off-putting to the point I just couldn’t be bothered to connect with the story or characters.
But I have reached a realization that the only Star Trek I will ever be truly passionate about has already come and gone, and that’s fine because so has the version of me that originally fell in love with those shows. I can enjoy this from a less feverish distance, but it’s not something that I rewatch and absorb every detail of. I’m older and less invested in any one thing and I know I will never be that person again, but I don’t blame the new Star Trek for that.
Very wise. I feel similarly, but you put it more succinctly than I ever could. There’s a line from Ursula Le Guin’s classic novel “The Dispossessed” it puts me in mind of: “You can go home again, so long as you understand that home is a place you’ve never been.”
Yeah, I actually ended up enjoying E & D more than I was expecting, but in terms of it relating to Star Trek? Didn’t work for me at all in that regard. Didn’t really care much for GWMTS due to animation that looked like it had walked out of a 1998 PBS kid show. Nonetheless, if others enjoyed these, fair dues. As you’ve said, I think I’ll just stick with the Star Trek stuff I like and leave the rest of it to a new generation.
I’m generally very flexible when it comes to Star Trek, it can work in many genres as far as I’m concerned and I don’t mind the genre bending shows. I guess I’m not that invested in what succeeds or doesn’t as long as I get some storytelling variety from the franchise that isn’t shoddy or boring. And indeed, GWMTS really suffers from what I would describe as a poor quality production combined with a story that is only loosely relevant.
Kevin
December 13, 2019 2:25 pm
Jenette Goldstein played the computer’s voice in “Ephraim and Dot”. She also played the Enterprise-B science officer in STAR TREK: GENERATIONS.
Forward Propulsion
December 13, 2019 11:13 pm
you’re all crazy… looks beautiful…
AJinMoscow
December 14, 2019 1:30 am
“No Bloody A, B, C or D” – Beautiful animated shorts, both of them. But, if you’re going to pay tribute to TOS continuity…
wpDiscuz
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WTAF is this stuff. Star Trek is unrecognizable to me now. Emotionally, visually, everything-ally.
Yeah, I gotta say that this is pretty far afield from what I would like to see in Trek.
Well , I saw the Girl Who Made The Stars and, I liked it.
Pretty Far Field meaning what? A story about a little Black Girl is a problem? What else could you possibly be talking about? I feel like we get a lot of coaded language on here sometimes. I wonder how much Trek you all have watched. Seriously?
Apart from the visuals and a very brief description of the plot, we know nothing about these. I’m not sure how you can possibly judge it yet.
That big stick up some peoples @$$ leaves splinters, and they hurt. That’s how.
Some people have good instincts, that’s how.
I think the whole point of Short Treks is to explore different formats, visuals and tell stories they otherwise couldn’t. Just embrace it for what it is — experimental story telling.
exactly what tacotuesday said
Fair point.
agreed
How is it any different than Carbon Creek or any of the non-standard Trek episodes over the years??? I don’t get the angry hyperbole from some people.
It’s just a short. I personally love that they are being creative, trying new things, taking some changes, and stretching the ST universe in ways we haven’t seen before. Especially with these Short Treks. Some will work, some may not. Some may excite one subset of fans, and bore others. If you don’t like some of them, no harm done. Maybe you’ll like the next one.
I’m totally supportive of Short Treks as series that offers scope for experimentation.
Nate Crawford, if experimentation isn’t to your taste, please don’t try to gatekeep it for the rest of us.
You say “gatekeep” as if having gates was a bad thing.
Standards exist in order to be upheld. Experimentation is not (and should not serve as) an excuse to do lazy work and deliver shoddy products.
Boze, we haven’t seen these yet, but you are ready to call them lazy and shoddy…Perhaps because they use animation?
Nate Crawford opened this thread with an expletive (in text shorthand)….and felt tha was ok just because it didn’t fit their concept of Trek.
There are many of us who are long time fans (including those like me who saw both TOS and TAS in first run) who are thrilled that TPTB are enabling all this innovative Trek-centered creative energy to take flight.
Coming to this thread and seeing the first word of the first post as a big-foot negative is saying more about how some fans wish to enforce that only their idea of Trek is valid than anything about quality.
So you only want people with positive opinions to express themselves?
Not a very Trekian philosophy, is it?
@Bryant B, I don’t think continually dwelling in negativity is very Trek-ian either.
It certainly isn’t. Which is one of the reasons why I dislike “Discovery” so intensely, as that is precisely what that show does more often than not.
I love the cast, though. If they can ever get some writers who know what they’re doing, there’s a great Trek series to be made with them.
Hear hear, poor Sonequa, Doug and Anthony… they deserve so much better!
I was speaking of fandom, but sure, whatever
@Bryant B, I don’t think continually dwelling in negativity is very Trek-ian either.
Well, let’s all gather ’round and watch “Spock’s Brain” and “Threshold,” in that case.
They are the height of camp … and enjoyable in their own way.
But, Temarc, your remark seems a bit of a non sequiter
Nothing wrong with having opinions of any sort, but it would be nice to have a basis for expressing such (i.e. having seen the product first) before doing so.
For example, you expressed in an earlier thread an appreciation for “Encounter at Farpoint.” I think it’s fairly awful. Neither of us is wrong, but at least both of us have had the opportunity to see and fairly evaluate it.
I don’t know what you mean by shoddy. This looks comparable to the quality of the different Star Wars TV animated series on the air, for what that’s worth.
Nate’s allowed to have his opinions and to comment.
Honestly, some of these Trek fans and their disregard of IDIC bewilders me.
Yes, he’s allowed to have his opinions. Others are also allowed to have opinions about his opinions (though they should express them civilly). That’s just the way these things work.
So leave. There’s the door.
Or maybe you can ignore Nate’s comment or resist the urge from spouting your intolerant view and move on to your echo chamber?
Nobody is forcing you to engage with Nate or other fans who aren’t 100% happy with recent additions to the Trek tapestry.
I think you should ask yourself if you really are the target audience for those short treks. Don’t get me wrong I’m 38 and still love to watch animated shows, some anime,… but the creator’s clearly laid out who their target audiences are for the animated trek shows. Consider those short Treks more of a field test ;)
Query… Who do you think is the audience for Lower Decks?
I know who the targe audience is as I tend to remember stuff I read.
You didn’t answer the question. Let me rephrase based on your response since you said you know… As far as you know, who is the target audience for Lower Decks?
Wholeheartedly agree!
I’m hoping that someone with CGI deepfake tech can ‘fix’ the Discoprise and make it into the TOS Enterprise (TAS looking) in the Ephraim & Dot animated scenes….and get rid of the ‘A’ designation on the NCC-1701 Enterprise (assuming its from ST3 SFS). If Youtubers can CGI paste faces onto actors in other movie scenes and Despecialize Star Wars….they can De-Disco-ize the Conny Enterprise, they can fix these Canon errors,to make more appealing to us ‘OG Trekkers’ as Director Michael Giacchino stated in his Tweet. “Help us Deepfake you are our only Hope!”
Star Trek as a franchise needed to evolve a long time ago.It should always be in flux. If not it will die and it almost did back in 2002 after Nemisis was released. If you can’t see Star Trek in its current incarnation then you weren’t paying attention to the original or for that matter any of it. I loved those animated shorts.
Adding layers to the original series and other series is not a bad thing. Grow up sir.
How is this unrecognizable? Please explain instead of yelling into the void.
It looks nice, but not really for me. Why some of the original actors are still alive let’s hope for some genuine original animated adventures. I personally would like the idea of an anime type art style. A little like Blade Runner 20149 had with their short prior to release.I really love the animated series and consider it trek cannon. It did have the feel of original Trek.
Let’s please have some genuine thoughtful animated scifi, I’m not really interested in lower decks and more comedy focused episodes or children’s Saturday morning adventures with no substance. They certainly do have their place but Star Trek to me will always be about boldly going where no one has gone before. Animation could be a wonderful tool to realise this. Cartoons are for everyone not just kids. I hope for some genuine ‘Star Trek’ but I fear this will be cute, emotional with little exploration of the characters. I wish DC Fontana was still alive to write Star Trek. I guess I’m just too old and curmudgeonly.
‘Humble Tardigrade’ is a good soft rock band name.
“Buck Bokai” is a pretty great user name, for that matter!
Lol
I’m looking forward to these.
I’m glad that Short Treks has provided an opportunity to close the loop with the dangling thread of the myth that launched Discovery S2. The red signals storyline seemed to suffer quite a bit through the upheavals in the writers room. Despite the time lag in making an animated episode, one hopes the continuity will still work.
I am also wondering who will be doing the voices: will Arise Arhin and SMG’s husband Eric Green be reprising the roles?
My inner middle-grader is very excited about Ephraim and Dot. Those TAS like images are really succeeding in tweaking my curiosity and my nostalgia. Thankfully our middle-grade kids are also curious to see how new Trek animation will work out.
That’s Arista Arhin and Kenric Green.
My spell checker is far too aggressive.
Let’s hope! Ya gotta think they would get them to do it.
StarTrek.com (official site) has the global trailers up now.
It definitely is Kenric Green’s face in the animated image of Burnham’s father.
I’m not sure if it’s Artist’s voice though.
So the animated shorts are only based on Disco? I was hoping that we would see some animated shorts based on other Trek-related concepts.
I’d like to see some other ships, shows and periods in the Trek multiverse in the Short Treks too VZX!
I’d even like to see a more adult audience oriented animated Short in the style of ‘Undone’.
That said, it takes more than 12 months to bring an animated Short through concept, production and distribution. For the two new animated series, it’s taking a good two years.
So, it’s not surprising that Shorts that were ordered 12 or more months ago are only based on Discovery.
Let’s hope they are well received so that TPTB will authorize yet more animated experimentation.
Not so sure – we made space charter (animated star trek parody) in six months and there were only two of us (one animator)
@Joseph Cifala – No offense intended, but you’re not really comparing Space Charter to pro-level animation, are you? It’s not. It’s like saying “Not so sure why Gordon Ramsey takes so long to cook. I can microwave a pizza in 3 minutes.” Not really the same thing.
This is just the first two. Give it some time.
But, as a Star Trek fan, I have no patience! I want it now! Wah.
Just these first two. They do have two animated series coming out that take place in different eras.
Exactly. And Ephraim and Dot short doesn’t seem to have anything to do with Discovery but with the Enterprise. So not sure what the OP is even getting at.
And we also know the next Short Trek after these will be about Picard. So we know they are willing to make other stories as none of the first three shorts had nothing to do wit Discovery but with others.
Mhe, lets see how MB save the universe when she was a Kid..
One does tire of the Michael Burnham messianism. Earlier iterations of Star Trek seemed more like a team effort, this one is overly centered on one character who improbably is key to solving every difficulty.
The frustrating thing is that Star Trek has always gone it’s own way and pushed the limits of writing and broadcast norms in whatever era.
But with Discovery, the writers seem to be rigidly locked into a streaming series serial format where the mystery always has to focus on a single star character whose personal transformation maps to a major societal one.
We’re seeing now that streaming series such as The Expanse and The Man in the High Castle are reaching further into their ensembles to sustain their stories.
However, what we hear on format from Discovery’s showrunners sounds at times more like a recitation of ‘what we learned in recent film school’ than a commitment to innovation in the Trek tradition.
One wonders if there are contractual issues, or if CBSAA has required that Discovery be the Trek product that leans heavily into this rigid mould.
What does this character centric aporach to do with streaming?
Wasn’t Captain Sisko literally a messiah?
Point taken, but DS9 was much more of an ensemble cast and the stories I remember best were about Quark, Kira, Odo, Garak, etc.
Sisko was the son of a god or a very powerfull alien, depending what you want to call them, and even yet, with out Dax or Bashir or Kira he was nothing..
Sisko was the son of a restaurateur.
I think he means his mother who was a wormhole alien.
ML perhaps forgot the other parent ;^)
I did. And I feel shame for it.
You should!!!
They hung a lantern on the messiah complex a couple of times in S2 in Spock’s dialogues with Burnham. It was amusing and self-aware. I hope they get away from that concept, because Messiah Michael is not easy to relate to. I found Michael much easier to relate to in S1 than S2, even though a lot of things hinged on her character. Firstly, her importance to Mirror Lorca was based on HIS desire to take over the Empire, so in twisting and fighting against that, Burnham was a power for good, but not the ONLY one.
How many times did Kirk do that? Not a big deal though because he’s not a female person of colour, right?
Off the top of my head… None. The only time I can think of where the universe was potentially at stake was “The Alternative Factor”. Where Lazuras was the one who saved TWO universes. Not Kirk.
It does not speak well that you immediately jump to the racial argument.
And he is re racist.. he thinks that USA is the center of the universe.. he thinks that the poor american females person of colour are the only one in the world with problems.
I invite him to came to Venezuela, where your CIA agents are killing ppl just beacose they want our oil. I wish I was a female of color on America.
I invite him to came to Venezuela, where your CIA agents are killing ppl just beacose they want our oil. I wish I was a female of color on America.
Your president Maduro, of course, would have nothing to do with killing people.
Kirk killed a man who could have brought havoc to the galaxy in “Where No Man Has Gone Before”. Avoided interstellar war in “Balance of Terror”. Saved the whole timeline by stopping McCoy from saving Edith Keeler in “The City on the Edge of Forever”. Helped Lazarus in saving two whole universes in “The Alternative Factor”. Saved the galaxy from a civilization-ending plague accross multiple systems in “Operation: Annihilate!”. Saved the galaxy once again from one unstoppable “Doomsday Machine”. Saved the whole Earth against a giant cloud in “Star Trek: The Motion Picture”. And saved it again against an alien probe in “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home”. Killed “God” in “Star Trek V: The Final Frontier”… what a Mary Sue! :-)
Saving Earth and saving “EVERYTHING” is something else…
Where No Man Has Gone Before: OK. That’s a maybe but it is unlikely Mitchell would have gone on to destroy the universe.
Balance of Terror: A war does not threaten the entire universe.
City of the Edge of Forever: Changing the timeline does not destroy the universe.
I mentioned The Alternative Factor.
Operation Annihilate! The Federation does not constitute the universe.
Doomsday Machine: A few worlds does not constitute the universe.
TMP: The Earth is not the entire universe.
TVH: The Earth is not the entire universe.
TFF: No one knows what the entity would have done. Possible gone back to where it came from for all we know. Unlikely the Universe was at stake but like WNMHGB let’s be generous and call it a “maybe”.
And neither has Michael Burnham saved “the whole universe.” This is just so much fretting over a particular character some don’t like being the lead and doing the many of the same things that lead characters in Trek shows traditionally do, albeit not always from a position of direct authority. And that sole distinction doesn’t make her anything like a “messiah.”
Pretty sure Burnham did indeed save the universe in S2. It was stated that the AI would have destroyed “everything”. Kinda illogical but I didn’t write it. Further, the arguments I have heard have had nothing to do with that particular character being the lead. No one seems to be bothered with her as the lead. Most seem to be bothered by the situations and how she, and the rest of the show, have been written.
You dont even know your star trek. Kirk with out Spock and McCoy was nothing. Lets not talk about Scotty saving the day with a miracle.
PPl like you is why Donald Trump won.. evrything is racist, evryone is misogenic white man..
I am from South America, your “black female” problems are a walk in the park here.
Okay “misogynistic white man”. How about “dumb black people” or “Evil Hispanic people”? How does that sound?
I am a white male, 35 years old. And I get it. Whites have a historical track record of being auful to pretty much every other skin color in existance. The native south and north american peoples got royally screwed by us. African Americans got screwed by us. We had condescending names in America for the Japanese, chinese and Mexicans for a long time. This happened. I can not erase it, and I will not down play it.
With that said. to call a whole generation of white men “misogynistic”, is in itself racist.
Here, look at the Movie series “The Hunger Games” have you watched it? Most of the population was walled off into different districts, that were all very poor, and provided for a 10% wealthy population. The 90% poor went to battle and won against the 10%. what happened in the end though, was that the the poor people set up a government, that repressed the previous rich. And a cycle happened all over again.
Does this make sense. You don’t cure racism by spewing racism. White men are not evil. Black women aren’t evil. Chinese kids arent evil. Native American Shaman aren’t evil. Aboriginal tribes people aren’t evil.
You know who is evil. . . Individual people, individually choosing to do things. In that, one could say we are all, at times, evil. But, that is for another discussion.
Can we just unite under the banner of Star Trek that tries to say all people are worthy of respect, and everyone no matter how white or black or green skinned you are, has a chance at reaching there dreams, and getting to have a great and glorious future?
I appreciate if you have read this whole post. Live Long and Prosper.
TJ Trek,
I agree with you completely.
What I find terrifying is that what you said is such rare thinking these days. That good behavior, conveying mutual respect and kindness, is what is needed instead of identifying any group based on their skin color, gender, sexuality, etc. as good or bad.
The fact that this basic idea is not embraced by factions on the right or left is terrifying. Perhaps humanity is really more like chimpanzees, who are tribal primates too. The difference being that we use our bigger brains to invent bombs instead of throwing rocks. I wish we used our bigger brains to embrace the idea you and I share.
G7, We are absolutely primates with “tribes.” This has a very unfortunate affect on public dialogue, on the internet and elsewhere.
YMMV
TJ, I don’t tend to brand individuals with a big label unless they earn it with their individual remarks. This has happened in various threads of TM over the years.
I am a “first generation” Trekker and Trek has informed my principles. One of those principles is observing the rights of all people.
So if I call out a misogynist or assume someone is a white person, it’s because they usually make it obvious in their posts.
Kirks heroic accomplishments on the frontiers of space were awesome. Sisko’s accomplishments administrating an entire space station, and arbitrating between star fleet and the bajorian people was incredible. Janeway’s ability to keep her people mostly sane and mostly alive while being lost in the Delta Quadrant was pretty laudable. Burnham helped avoid universal disaster, and was instrumental in stoping a Klingong war. That’s not to be snubbed at
Each of these people worked with their crews to accomplish these tasks. They alone were great people, but were made even greater by being back up by a command crew of 5-7 awesome people. Do you notice that in the group I picked above that we have men and women, blacks and whites?
anyways, As I have said in another post can’t we all just join under the banner of star trek and just get along enjoying star trek.
TJ, Agreed!!
Oh come on.
Burnham is not a terrible character because she is a female person of color… That doesnt saves a character from being terrible overwritten…
Burnham isn’t the greatest example of a character of color– she’s a mutineer, has eaten sentient beings, and foments war. Isn’t the problem though that she and her family are responsible for virtually all creation — the red bursts. Plus she’s supposedly responsible for Kirk and Spock’s relationship to boot. She’s a person of color, yeah, but that doesn’t make her a great character. I think they would have been better off making her the Captain — although the show’s portrayal of a chain of command could be tighter.
Kev-1: “has eaten sentient beings”
To be fair, she wasn’t aware and she was repulsed when she found out.
All but the most primitive organisms are sentient. So unless you are vegetarian you have eaten sentient beings.
I didn’t want to use the “cannibal” word. Whether or not she knew, they still saddled the character with this negative baggage. The audience knows. Couldn’t she have deduced what was happening? –“He who sups with the devil should have a long spoon.”
If that is what stigmatizes a character for you:
Which first officer again, was introduced while eating from the body a intelligent, self aware alien life-form? Well, that was Riker. What is your take on him?
Um, the description says it’s about her father telling her a story.
Not-US Trek fans are still discriminated by CBS. If you cant sell it, just release it for public.
Oh we can easily watch this outside the US,lol!
Netflix released the first season of Short Treks internationally prior to the release of the second season of DIS. There is no reason to believe the same won’t be true of the second season prior to the release of the third season of DIS.
It’s not CBS decision on how Netflix decides to release these. Just like it’s not CBS fault that Netflix doesn’t promote in lock-step with the CBSAA social media accounts. Netflix paid a good amount to get the international rights to these things and it’s up to them how they want to release them.
Perhaps CBS will take a different approach in future contracts with out-of-North America platforms.
Like season 1 of STD airing on a regular channel in the UK. That’s pretty good.
I’d like it to air on a regular channel HERE in the USA! But that’s not going to happen.
Not-US Trek fans are still discriminated by CBS. If you cant sell it, just release it for public.
CBS’ “discrmination” is right up there with Jim Crow. Sheesh.
Quit complaining. You get all of DISCO full-length episodes with your Netflix subscription, sans commercials. In the US, we have to subscribe to a different streaming service. And we pay extra for commercial-free viewing.
Lil’Michael has a tardigrade plushie! :-D
Figures. No one has seen them, yet the bitching about them is in full force.
Agreed
It’s worth a few facepalms at least.
🤦♂️🤦♀️
Tardigrades have been known to science for centuries. I see the gift of a plushie of this amazing creature to a budding young scientist as a perfect choice.
Yah, I don’t get it. I personally have been looking for different perspectives in the trek universe for a long time. Give me a show that is based on Kronos, and is all about Klingon society. Give me a show that is “Star Trek: West Wing” about federation politics. Give me a show about the Temporal police guys we learned about in DS9. Give me an animated show about pretty much any Star Trek thing. Give me a show about Star Fleet Academy. Give me a show about the 3rd world war (could be awesome). Give me a show about. . . The possibilities are endless
As Q once said “For that one fraction of a second, you were open to options you had never considered. That is the exploration that awaits you. Not mapping stars and studying nebulae, but charting the unknowable possibilities of existence.”
Whaddaya say kids? anybody with me? :)
This has been my push back on a Pike based Enterprise show – if they do it, great, but the Trek universe is a mighty big place, there’s nothing wrong with exploring more of it. It just seems like anything outside of a WASP-y plywood spaceship just really tends to set off that portion of the fan base with grey hair…..
Agreed. I would be more than happy if we got a Pike show but if I had my preference I would want to do something as different as possible like what Discovery is doing next season and I don’t mean just in a new century but just something that takes us out of our comfort zone. You can do SO MUCH with Star Trek and even with so many shows and films, it still just scratched the surface.
I obviously love to see return characters like Spock, Picard, Seven, Pike, Riker etc but I still would ultimately prefer completely new characters in settings we never seen before. After all every favorite Star Trek character today started out this way as completely new at some point.
If it weren’t show business, we would get all these diverse Treks. When an artist reaches out to the suits with the $$$, it’s a different story. Any new Star Trek movie that might get made? It will be based on established characters.
Sadly agree, especially when it comes to the movies. And its probably why so many prefer the TV shows because they can at least experiment more and offer new things, these latest Short Treks being the perfect example.
This grey haired Trekkie was part of the 2nd group of TOS fans who discovered Trek in syndication. We kept the dream and spark alive until TMP came into our cineplex. This grey haired Trekkie was 23 when TNG premiered and pushed back at “purists” who hadn’t seen it yet. I’ve embraced every incarnation of Trek that they’ve given us. I don’t clamor for a Pike Enterprise because it’s “Wasp-y” Ridiculous sentiment,by the way. You’ve seen TOS,right? I clamor for Pike and the Enterprise, because for me, it has the best chance at recapturing that magic I discovered almost 45 years ago. All of that being said, I look forward to Picard, DSC season 3 and Section 31.
“Give me a show that is based on Kronos, and is all about Klingon society. Give me a show that is “Star Trek: West Wing” about federation politics. […] Give me a show about the 3rd world war (could be awesome).”
I’ve been suggesting these examples for a while here too. With a sufficiently big budget, and with the right showrunners, the potential is incredible.
I must say the animators did a great job creating a younger version of Michael. If you saw a side-by-side image of the two with no reference, I bet most people would say they are the same character.
These look fun, but what I really would love is a Pike-era Enterprise Short Trek done as a Filmation TAS episode, down to the reused closeups, mis-sized delta shields, and filmation walk cycles. You can even bring Shatner back for that.
I would love that.
I’d watch.
Perhaps Chabon would be up for writing one more Short.
See, I would groan at the nostalgia of that. I love TAS as well but even for it’s time, the animation was primitive. Maybe an animator could weigh in but the cost would be the same, no matter what the style. I do think it would be fun if the end credits did “still shots” (like TOS did) in a TAS style.
Based on these descriptions and images, I’m more excited to see The Girl Who Made the Stars than Ephraim and Dot. But looking forward to both.
Same!
Yah, I get it. But you can’t deny that Star Trek’s version of Wall-E looks too cute to pass up right? :)
The Girl Who Made the Stars looks like it will be completely unlike anything we’ve ever seen before in Trek. It should be interesting.
Many rumors abound through the Trek Fan Community of stolen creative rights for recent movies and series . I’ve heard the Tardigarde idea was stolen from a poor videogame creator .
That’s been talked about since Discovery first introduced the tardigrade, so you haven’t heard anything new. Old story, covered and discussed around the internet.
A judge heard that rumor, too. Said nope, sure wasn’t.
I have a recollection of playing that game briefly many years ago , and the creature is identical , but I guess it could have come from a writer’s knowledge of current research biology . Mind you the girl in the above animation looks very familiar from something . Also , someone mentioned the theme of the 2009 Star Trek movie was taken from Renegades Studios : Of Gods and Men . I should mention someone also had links from where the the 2nd and 3rd movies stories had come from too . Mmmm , Is there an investigative site that could compile these allegations ?
Anyone notice that the “Ephraim and Dot” video shows two different impulse engines? Around 17 seconds we see the Discovery Enterprise impulse engines. But at 24 seconds, they appear more TOS-like. I wonder why that is?
Wait, I think I just answered my own question. It appears that the Enterprise at 24 seconds is the refit Enterprise or 1701-A. Looks like time travel will happen in this short.
It looks like this will go through a number of classic Trek moments. I see the Green Hand from “Who Mourns for Adonais?”. It looks like that’s Khan on the Bio-bed from “Space Seed”. And the refit Enterprise battling the Bird of Pray is probably from TSFS.
Yeah it looks like time travel will be involved. One image is the refit Enterprise in the short. We know you can time travel through the mycelial network and probably how the tardigrade will do it.
Assume Ephraim and Dot are going to be life long friends… is Ephraim going to save Dot over Genesis?!? How cool is that?!?!?
Interesting that the Tardigrade episode seems to follow a TOS aesthetic for the Enterprise as compared to the updated designs featured in Discovery episodes. Wonder if we should read anything into that?
See my note above. The aesthetic seems like it’s all over the place. I see TOS elements, but the shot of the Enterprise at 17 seconds is definitely a Discovery era Enterprise. However the shot at 24 seconds is a refit Enterprise or 1701-A. I hope there is an explanation for all of this.
Thanks JoBryant. I haven’t watched the trailer yet. Just looked at the pictures. Must be either time travel, which would imply that we are to believe the Discovery-era Enterprise will be refit to look like what it did in TOS instead of us just pretending that’s the way TOS really looked. Or maybe it is implying there are a couple of different timelines being represented with Discovery vs TOS. Either way this Short Trek may have significant implications for how Discovery fits into the Trek canon.
If it is canon itself, that is. We don’t know. The Tribbles commercial certainly wasn’t.
Good point Salvador. My interpretation of that episode is that the story before the closing credits was intended to be considered “canon” but the commercial, which was after the credits, was intended to be more of a joke… But, in the end, I guess “canon” is ultimately an opinion and can be interpreted in a variety of different ways.
As the story summary says that Ephraim the tardigrade was wandering around the mycelial network there is no reason to think that it all takes place in a single time period.
The writers may have come up with a fun way to stitch things together in a way that is only possible with animation.
I don’t know what CBS has in mind for the future, but I would love to see a Star Trek animated anthology, exploring different styles and different points in the Trek timeline. Could be a lot of fun.
Everything is in the original series aesthetic, there’s Khan, Kirk and McCoy in the sickbay, but the Enterprise herself look like the Phase 2 hybrid. This thing is getting weirder and weirder.
OMG you’re right!!! I didn’t enlarge any of the photos but yes that is Kirk, McCoy and Khan. OK, this thing has now shot up waaaaay up for me lol. I’m genuinely excited about it. It looks like its a time travel/possible multiple dimensional story to see some of the Enterprise most famous moments. Count me COMPLETELY on board now! :)
I don’t think its time travel. I think the tardigrade ends up on the Enterprise early on, and stuck around on the ship throughout TOS.
But that’s literally years. He just hangs around the ship out all that time? Eh, I can go with it.
She she does follow the Enterprise NCC-1701 for years.
You called it Tiger2 : beyond the refit and through to the self-destruct.
What a complete delight this!
Gianncono has tweeted that he made this one for the OGs. Well, I for one can’t stop smiling.
Yeah it was done so well! Just a nice treat for us uber-fans!
I watched it twice in my first sitting because I missed how she could travel behind the Enterprise for years and her eggs never hatched. I actually thought maybe we WERE watching some form of time travel. Then on the second viewing I realized I missed the line that it could take years for tardigrade eggs to hatch. I guess they are the anti-tribbles lol.
Bose, I agree… After looking at this in more detail, it is very interesting. There are interior shots that use the TOS aesthetic (i.e. sickbay with Kirk, McCoy and Khan), but the exterior shot of the hand from “Who Mourns for Adonais” has the Discovery version of the Enterprise exterior, and then later movie-era shots of the Enterprise exterior. I am really excited to see how this plays out in the full episode and what it means relative to how we think about the “Prime Timeline.” I wonder if the “Powers That Be” have decided there is a need to reconcile both the storyline (which they tried to do in ST DSC Season 2) and visual inconsistencies between TOS and Discovery and have decided to use animation as a means to reconcile everything with what has come before?
I’m not enough of a “Discovery” fan to be terribly excited about these, but the animation styles look cool. I’ll give ’em a shot.
For a moment, I thought this was the Disney channel.
No, Disney didn’t buy it yet.
Was that a refit Enterprise I saw and a Klingon bird of prey… Wow
If Star Trek is to make it into the family of consistent big-money-makers (i.e. continue to exist), it needs to be on the cutting edge, as it was in the 1960s, and 1980s (before it was overtaken by everything that came in its wake because of it). These new shorts are low-risk shallow dives into different formats and ideas which could give new generations the same access Star Wars and comics fans have had for generations with animated versions of what’s on the big screen, or on live-action TV. These franchises need buy-in from an early age to create lifelong fans (consumers) who will access them anywhere and on all different types of media for decades. There’s more to come, and soon.
Christmas comes early this year! These both look like a lot of fun. The CGI animation was startlingly high quality, and I love the notion of the more traditionally-animated episode taking place during Kirk’s five year mission. EXCITED!
A lightning storm in space? It wasn’t the Narada, was it??
Can’t wait to see “Ephraim and Dot”!!!! Is that going to go through the whole history of the Enterprise all the way to TSFS?!? I think I saw Kirk and Kahn and that beautiful Constitution class retrofit!! Is Ephraim going to save Dot in the end?!?!? Who thought we would ever get to see movie era (the “good” movie era with the Connie refit) again?!?!?!?! Awesome, I think that episode really shows what they could do with an animated series. Also love the TOS engineering!
BRING BACK TOS Animated.. even better yet set it between TMP and St:II with the awesome uniforms and ships, exciting time. I think the Encyclopedia had Kirk on a second five year mission?? Use the DC Comic stories, they were great!!
I liked it. Efraim and Dot were so cute! And it was a fun way to relieve moments of the show and film’s.
I could see a TOS animated show. I’m more excited about Lower Decks because it’s something new but the Nickelodeon show could’ve been a nice TOS revival.
HEADS UP! Just letting everyone know both shorts are already online!!!! For some reason I just had a feeling maybe they could’ve posted them earlier (like all the other streaming sites) and sure enough…
Going to have a look. If I’m not too lazy will give my non-spoiler review of them!
On line on some site for free or on CBSAA?
That would be CBSAA ML31.
It also looks like Bell crave has both available for streaming in Canada.
Those of us who subscribe to CTV’s Sci-fi channel (premium cable) in Canada will need to wait until they are broadcast at 9:00 pm tonight. This is a change from the previous norm where CBSAA and crave waited until CTV Sci-fi channel was broadcasting before streaming starts.
“Online” I thought was potentially vague but that was my guess.
Better to wait for tonight than me waiting til next month.
No I meant CBSAA. I only watch things legally. But they been posted since midnight PST. I think CBS is finally starting to act like other traditional sites and release things at the start of the day instead of some arbitrary time which makes no sense on a streaming site. I hope this happens for Picard as well. Doubtful but its possible now.
Watched them and really liked them both! Both very simple but sweet stories. I think I like the Efraim and Dot one more for the nostalgia fun and very cute. And The Girl Who Made the Stars had a nice Star Trek twist in the end. Also thought the animation was great.
The only issue is these shorts seem to be getting shorter and shorter. One was only 8 mins long. The other 9. They both could’ve been fleshed out more.
But overall they both show what a great format this is. We could get future animated shorts with TNG, VOY, ENT etc. And next month is the Picard one. The preview keeps it a big mystery but man I CAN’T WAIT!! Things are about to get real!
But these shorts were nice. Neither one amazing but memorable and solid! And shows great potential for animated stories. Really happy they went this route.
Well I’m excited for these! I’m a sucker for good animation, and I love that TPTB are using the Short Treks as a bit of a creative playground.
To the various naysayers out there, why don’t you wait until you actually see these before you judge? You may still hate them after watching them, and that’s fine, but to not even give these shorts a chance is decidedly not Trekian.
I’m super excited to see the refit ENT animated honestly, reminds me of DC comics.
Sorry to say the animation for both of these isn’t working for me aside from the Refit Connie. It’s just great to finally see a ship design rendered faithfully in new trek.
Just watched the two Short Treks. They are already up and available. Embracing the new. They need to do things differently for the new generation. If they are building a Star Trek MCU kind of thing, this is a great start. Like someone mentioned here, this is an experimental story telling, experimental narrative, experimental animation. Both are sooo different. One, the little Michael story looks like The Miles Morales Spiderman. And the Tardigrade story, looks like a Pixar short. Not my style of Star Trek, any of the two, but guys, this is great for the kids. Thank you Kurtzman and Fuller!!! My 7 year old enjoy watching us watching Star Trek. I know he will like these two. Great gift for families with little ones right before Christmas! These shorts are great. Can’t wait for the new shows next year!
Both look harmless enough to me – clearly not geared towards adults, imo – maybe something I might check out when I sign back up on CBS to watch Picard, but likely not. I don’t see what all the fuss and animosity is here about a couple of cartoons. Hopefully kids will enjoy them.
One more thing…after watching these two Short Treks, I cannot stop thinking how much I would like to see DS9 back. Animation, Season 8, short series. Before Picard, in the same time with Picard. Could be Animation. Anything! DS9 is the only show that can be done with the original creative team. Mr. Kurtzman, after the success of Picard, Discovery S3, Section 31, please get Ira Steven Behr and his talented crew onboard!!!
That would have been a marvelous idea… last year. Sadly, I don’t think I could bear to watch a series where the voices for Odo and Nog have been recast (and let’s be real—will anything lure Avery out of retirement these days?).
DS9 was like a family to me, and the talented actors who inhabited those characters became iconic. I love the show, and I would’ve loved to have seen an animated eighth season, but so much sadness has occurred in that family in the past few months.
The Bratz Doll character design is a little off-putting for the first one, but I’m still all for Trek breaking into new storytelling techniques.
Ian, it’s not just Bratz dolls that have big heads: it’s fairly universal in modern animation for preschoolers and kindergarteners.
Our kids are middle-graders now, but we really noticed the big headed characters when we started watching television with them.
Apparently young children respond and pay more attention to characters with very large proportioned heads (as they have) and large eyes. There are also differences in hearing ranges (higher pitched).
So children’s programming, which is informed now by early childhood development research, has shifted across the board towards big headed and high pitched characters.
So children’s programming, which is informed now by early childhood development research, has shifted across the board towards big headed and high pitched characters.
Well, that explains Jar Jar Binks.
You know that it never occurred to me that Jar Jar was in that mould…but he came along before our kids.
It didn’t take much time once we had preschoolers to notice the phenomenon though.
Is anybody else getting an “Error 3004” on CBSAA when you try and play Short Treks?
This is why I switched to Amazon Prime for my CBSAA shows. Amazon streamed “Ephraim and Dot” flawlessly (for me, at least).
My problem with that is why should I, as a consumer, be forced to purchase a streaming service I do not want just to get another streaming service in better quality? CBSAA should be ashamed for their lack of quality. When I watched S2 earlier this year I still got glitches. It’s pathetic. I haven’t had a glitch on Netflix for years. (although they BOTH could use MAJOR improvements in their interface and controls)
Oh, no argument there ML31. But since I already have Amazon Prime I get the video for free anyway, so paying Jeff Bezos the extra $9.99 instead of CBS was a no-brainer. Amazon never gives me a problem. CBSAA was almost always finicky no matter when I would tune in. So until and unless the “Tiffany Network” gets its streaming **** together, Prime Video it is.
As I understand it, CBS, not Bezos, is still getting your $10. Or at least 99% of it I suspect.
I just watched “Ephraim and Dot” for the fourth time. I was utterly charmed and delighted. If this kind of effort is put into the animated series coming online next year, I AM ALL IN. Honestly, I think I enjoyed this more than “Q&A”!
Is there an Emmy category for animated shorts?
These should definitely be put forward for consideration.
Or…what about showing Short Treks as shorts before Paramount cinematic features?
Build the brand.
That’s a peach of an idea, TG47!
Yes I think it’s my favorite of the season as well. For the record I loved the animated shorts idea from the start and don’t mind the shows being the same. But I didn’t think this story was going to be all that interesting. Ok, probably fun but nothing special.
But I was proven wrong. I still don’t think it was amazing but very charming and so well done. Without the TOS callbacks I doubt people would be pining over it as they are but that angle is what made it feel so clever and inventive.
I’m an aficionado of 40’s and 50’s Warner Brothers cartoons, so I would have loved “Ephraim and Dot” even without the callbacks. But when they threw TOS and movies #2 & 3 into the mix, it was (for me) like pouring melted dark chocolate on top of the three-layer Devil’s Food cake. It somehow never occurred to me that these two wildly different universes would work together, but boy they sure did.
Rewatching the master Farscape recently, I’d been thinking that it would be cool to see Trek take on the kind of ‘out there’ wacky and creative tribute to cartoons that Farscape did with the Road Runner/Wil E coyote type episode in Creighton’s head.
Ephraim and Dot has the same off-the-wall ethos but with an allegory that runs true to Trek.
Well played.
Please just stop. I just can’t with these. Discovery was a hard sell and swallow but I watched it- both seasons- although it’s very different from what I know of as “Trek”. Now, I just can’t move on. I tried. I rallied for nu-Trek too, so desperate to see Trek on the big and small screens again; but Discovery, Shorts, Lower decks and now this animation- I’m out. Cancel my subscription CBS. This is so far beyond what I am even interested in. I’d rather go back and read the oldie but goodie Star Trek novels of the ’80s and ’00s that “feel” like more of the “Paramount” Trek of which I’m accustomed. I can’t stomach this CBS stuff anymore. I wonder if today’s younger generation is even watching this stuff or is it more of us “old heads” just trying to keep the franchise alive. If it’s the latter, I wish the franchise ‘peace and long life’, but I’m out.
Hi Patrice. You are growing old. (^_^) Everything changes at all times. Its hard for me as well, used to STNG and DS9. But we are in 2020 very soon. In order to attract a new audience/generation, they need to update the way they produce the show.
I don’t even know of one person who watches this stuff personally and I am genuinely interested if the younger generation is even following Trek. Where is the “bold exploration of the human condition?” Listen, I want Trek to survive but this, is not it. It’s sci-if but not Trek. As far as I’m concerned. I’m out. LL&P
As someone who really didn’t like DIS first season but have grown to like it a lot more in its second, I understand how you feel. And I don’t mean I AGREE with you per se, but I know how it feels to want to like something but you just can’t because it just feels too different.
The irony for me PERSONALLY is I have never had an issue with Trek being different or doing different things. In fact I ENCOURAGE it. That’s not why I didn’t like Discovery. I just thought it wasn’t very good with storylines we seen before, unlikable characters, didn’t remotely feel like the era it was suppose to be in and frankly BORING once you got pass how cool it looked. Now I will say I did have some problem that the stories themselves didn’t feel Star Trek ENOUGH (and probably where we agree) and why I like season 2 more because I feel they have improved on that aspect at least. But again its in the EXECUTION.
People argued the same exact issue with DS9 when it first appeared (it literally was about a space station which is the exact opposite of exploration in its premise) but I didn’t mind it because the stories it DID tell were still great on their own with great characters. DS9 is actually what made me realize how great Trek can be when they don’t just throw everybody on an Enterprise and meet a new alien every week (although no show really did that every week lol).
I think what Kurtzman is doing IS an interesting idea and that is the shows are not about exploration in themselves with MAYBE the exception of Lower Decks? But because that’s more of a comedy and a cartoon I know it still may not feel the same as the other shows. I don’t mind this approach that much because we DO have tons of that in all the other shows, so I’m willing to see where it goes. And as said I have been very mixed on Discovery and its really the ONLY show we have to gauge it now so if you don’t like that show, I understand you perfectly (but I also have a feeling season 3 will be even more about exploration given the new setting).
I will say this though, IF you were a big TNG or TNG era fan then wait and see what you think of Picard. To ME, this is the real test of how future Trek shows will be perceived because its based on a very known entity BUT done in a very different package. They keep saying they want to honor TNG (and how it strongly it was about the human condition) but same time the show isn’t TNG, its a completely different approach, just using characters from that show. So far fans don’t seem bothered by this which is a good sign because BEFORE people assumed they were going to reject it the second they learn Picard is not on the Enterprise again with Worf and Riker but basically going rogue instead. I’m actually shocked just how much people DON’T seem to care about that lol. But I think it just tells you how much they just want a return to this era and characters in general (and stuff like the Borg and having others like Seven back keeps people excited). But yes, the show itself could still suck of course.
BUT I think if Kurtzman delivers a show that really feels to the spirit of Trek (which I personally think Discovery missed the boat on its first season) but still do something very different in the process you could change your mind.
Or maybe not lol. But I don’t think Discovery should be the only indicator. If you think that show sucks, fine, you’re not alone (and they are trying VERY hard to fix the show), but I wouldn’t discount everything going forward just yet either.
Totally agree, Tiger2. Disco Season 1 was soooo ackward. Firing Fuller right at the start was a total disaster. They were patching up holes and fixing the mess along the way. You can tell when you go back and see the whole season. So unfortunate. The artists suffered. Specially Sonequa and Jason. Glad they survived. Glad Star Trek is coming back at warp speed. Next year the new shows will begin, and movies are already back on track.
Thank you!
And yes I think the mess behind the scenes in Discovery’s first season made it feel partly as bad as it did (and I’m only talking about for people like us that thought the season was bad as a whole. I’m well aware others did really like and enjoy it), but so much of it just feels really off now in hindsight. I have tried to go back and rewatch the entire season but I can’t to this day. That’s how I know its bad for me, I literally have no interest to watch it beyond maybe 3-4 episodes.
But I will say for ME they have turned it around a lot in second season. I’m still highly mixed on a lot of it for sure, but it at least FEELS like Star Trek more if nothing else and very excited for next season.
As for Picard and other future shows, it doesn’t sound like it has the same drama of Discovery and that (at least so far) everyone seems to be suggesting the show is very much in line with the spirit of TNG. It still may not turn out great but I am hoping they learned from their mistakes with DIS early on and will deliver something that feels like Star Trek even if its still different from TNG the show.
At the very least the trailers have felt that way.
For the record… The rewatch value of these short season shows with full season story arcs aren’t very high to begin with. I can easily catch 40-54 minutes of a stand alone episode that was particularly good multiple times. But it is a rare thing indeed when episodes that are a piece of a larger whole to be worth looking at again unless you plan to spend 12 hours rewatching the whole thing. Which I am unwilling to do even if the story was really good. Case in point, I have seen shows on the Netflix that were quite good and I wouldn’t mind seeing again but I don’t want to invest the time as I would feel compelled to catch the whole thing over the course of a number of days. Those really have no single or multiple stand out episodes. It’s about the whole more than the parts. The Xindi arc in Enterprise I only partially put in that mode as the bulk of those episodes qualify as good stand alones. Most were up front and it was only as the season was winding down did it take on the serial quality heavily.
POSSIBLE SPOILERS?
Ephraim and Dot was an absolute delight … I had such fun hearing the music and the characters were cute. There were even some great old cartoon sound effects :^D
Enjoy!
Yes it was so cool!! I had such low expectations for that short (and yes like many thought it was going to be a Wall E rip off) and I think its the best one of the season for me. I enjoyed both but its clear Ephraim and Dot will be the fan favorite given its story line and attachment to TOS.
Fun bit of trivia: the narrator for the Ephraim & Dot was Kirk Thatcher (AKA The Punk on the Bus in Star Trek IV)
WILD!
That is cool.
These were Absolutely Amazing! I did not have high expectations for this but both of these kept to Star Trek’s main themes of living in tolerance with each other and realizing how fear is not always healthy. Ephraim and Dot was both absolutely hilarious ,in a Warner Brothers cartoon sort of way, and paid homage to the Enterprise’s history (using the new Constellation class as the original was a nice touch). There was even one part where I actually started to tear up a bit. For those of you who think this is not Star Trek then I respectfully ask you to open you mind up and not prejudge.
👏If. 👏You. 👏Don’t. 👏Like. 👏It. 👏Turn. 👏It. 👏Off.
Honestly these were both really good. Would I want a whole series of Ephraim and Dot? No, but it’s a nice little thing, really fun, nice little story. The Girl Who Made The Stars was really really well done. Great animation style, and I hope the Nickelodeon show is in that style or at least of that type of style (as opposed to the one for Ephraim and Dot).
My wife and I (both life long trekkies) went into this knowing Short Treks are experiments and short form story telling. It is telling that so much of the fanbase is so set in their nostalgia that any deviation from the tired TNG-era form is still decried as ruining the franchise.
E & D….
Tears in my eyes! LOVE the way Short Treks is experimenting with the format. Just a delightful tribute to a classic age of Trek. So many surprises and easter eggs in a few minutes. And a pure Trek story at it’s core.
LOVED IT!
Meh.
I thought these were, respectively, lovely and a lot of fun. Were they anything in format like TOS I grew up with, or the more adult-level, provocative SF I look to the franchise for when it’s at its best? Definitely, no. But if the themes of courage in the face of the unknown or reconciliation don’t resonate with you as very in keeping with Star Trek, I’m not sure what would draw you to it in the first place.
Well said, Michael Hall.
Indeed.
Is it bugging anyone else that the animation mixed up the refit 1701 with the 1701-A? And the one scene from above had the registry rotated at an odd angle on top of the saucer? Lol I genuinely enjoyed The short, but I ust noticed those little oddities!
LOL! I did notice that, but only cuz Imma starship nerd. 8-) I still enjoyed the hell out of “Ephraim and Dot” and would be tickled if the two upcoming animated series even came close to delighting me this much.
Ha. It bugged me too. Before the episode I thought there might be some grand hidden meaning in the aesthetic choices, but in the end it was just a fun little short. If there was any takeaway for me, it was that visual continuity isn’t really that important to the current keepers of the franchise. It’s the storyline that they want to stay as consistent as possible within the prime universe (yes, there really was a giant hand and Abe Lincoln in space!) but, we shouldn’t get hung up on what things look like… I would personally prefer they did a better job with the visual continuity too, but maybe I just need to “get a life,” ha! I enjoyed both of these Short Treks better than I thought I would and agree with many of the comments here that it is a really great form of experimental story telling within the Trek universe!
For myself, Ephraim and Dot were the better of the two.
On two levels, art and show business.
As a grey haired Trekkie hoping for grand kids some day? I’d start showing them this short. They’d love the two main characters. The studio suits would be excited because we original Trekkies are starting to drool a bit and they’ve got new fans. There also is merchandise to sell. Ephraim and Dot and plush little Enterprises…
I hesitate to say that they don’t care.
The blog story on Syfy wire pondered whether the tardigrade could see multiple future events at once (as Stamets can with tardigrade DNA) or overshot and went forward in time to the Enterprise-A and then came back to the destruction of the fitted 1701.
That actually makes sense to me. Imagine the horror of mother tardigrade to realize that the ship with her eggs aboard is gone in future, and her determination to find the correct one.
I wonder if there was something crunched together in the final cut.
Haha yes I noticed as well. Since both were obviously made for kids, I needed to laughingly tell myself to “Get a Life” haha. These shorts are not going to be for everyone but it was good to see that the Star Trek universe is expanding for kids and I can easily see how both of these shorts would appeal to younger audiences. At least they threw in numerous “TOS episode and movie easter eggs” to keep the grey beards like myself amused.
These were not good. “The Girl Who Made the Stars” was at least an admirable swing-and-miss, but “Ephraim and Dot” was plain old awful.
It took me a moment to find anything worthwhile about “Ephraim and Dot”, but it quickly found some steam and was allot of fun, especially the way it used the Tardigrade’s power to take us on a journey through the Star Trek Chronology. I found it fun and charming and a nice tie-in with Discovery and TOS. “The Girl Who Made The Stars” is a little banal and irrelevent for my taste, it didn’t really register for me but I think it will for others which is wonderful. I will say the animation for “TGWMTS” was artful at times, but the facial animations were flat and off-putting to the point I just couldn’t be bothered to connect with the story or characters.
But I have reached a realization that the only Star Trek I will ever be truly passionate about has already come and gone, and that’s fine because so has the version of me that originally fell in love with those shows. I can enjoy this from a less feverish distance, but it’s not something that I rewatch and absorb every detail of. I’m older and less invested in any one thing and I know I will never be that person again, but I don’t blame the new Star Trek for that.
Very wise. I feel similarly, but you put it more succinctly than I ever could. There’s a line from Ursula Le Guin’s classic novel “The Dispossessed” it puts me in mind of: “You can go home again, so long as you understand that home is a place you’ve never been.”
Well said, thanks Michael. It took me awhile to recognize this phenomenon in myself and I see it in others all the time.
Yeah, I actually ended up enjoying E & D more than I was expecting, but in terms of it relating to Star Trek? Didn’t work for me at all in that regard. Didn’t really care much for GWMTS due to animation that looked like it had walked out of a 1998 PBS kid show. Nonetheless, if others enjoyed these, fair dues. As you’ve said, I think I’ll just stick with the Star Trek stuff I like and leave the rest of it to a new generation.
I’m generally very flexible when it comes to Star Trek, it can work in many genres as far as I’m concerned and I don’t mind the genre bending shows. I guess I’m not that invested in what succeeds or doesn’t as long as I get some storytelling variety from the franchise that isn’t shoddy or boring. And indeed, GWMTS really suffers from what I would describe as a poor quality production combined with a story that is only loosely relevant.
Jenette Goldstein played the computer’s voice in “Ephraim and Dot”. She also played the Enterprise-B science officer in STAR TREK: GENERATIONS.
you’re all crazy… looks beautiful…
“No Bloody A, B, C or D” – Beautiful animated shorts, both of them. But, if you’re going to pay tribute to TOS continuity…