The third season of Star Trek: Discovery kicks off tomorrow, with the final episode dropping in January 2021. Even though the CBS is planning more upcoming shows and seasons from the Star Trek Universe on TV, the global COVID pandemic has put shooting live-action on hold starting last March. In a new interview, the man in charge of that TV universe talks about his next steps to keep the Star Trek content flowing.
Getting ready to start shooting Trek TV again
The new issue of SFX Magazine has a comprehensive cover-story about the third season of Star Trek: Discovery, including interviews with the cast, director Jonathan Frakes, and executive producer/co-showrunner Alex Kurtzman. When it came to Discovery Kurtzman didn’t drop any major spoilers but did hint at the main adversary for season three, saying in the 32nd century “people who used to be allies are now enemies and vice versa.” The only specific group that got a mention was the Borg, only to confirm they will not be playing a part.
Kurtzman also talked about where things stand when it comes to returning to production for live-action Star Trek shows:
“Things are just starting to shoot again. We would have been in production already on Picard, but we couldn’t be because of COVID. It’s pushed our Discovery and Strange New Worlds dates just a little bit, but I think we’re actually planning on staying on track for those. By the time they shoot, we will have innovated with a couple [non-Star Trek] shows, and we will know where we are. And we will be a little bit more down with a process.”
This is yet another mention by Kurtzman of Discovery returning to production for a fourth season, even though as of now CBS has yet to officially announce season four, likely waiting until after the third season debuts. All indications are that over the upcoming months, CBS and Secret Hideout will have three Star Trek shows in production, two in Canada (Discovery season four and Strange New Worlds season one) and one in Southern California (Picard season two). It’s possible that one of them could be ready to debut in 2021, but certainly not in time for the relaunch of CBS All Access as Paramount+ coming early in the year.
Kurtzman also talked about how Strange New Worlds has actually benefited from the pandemic shut down:
“The silver linings are that Akiva [Goldsman] and Henry [Alonso Myers] are ready to show up and able to really get ahead with scripts. By the time we go back into production, we will have a lot of scripts ready to go, which is not usually how it is for us. We’re always running ahead of the freight train that is production and trying not to get flattened, but this time we actually have some advance warning with a lot of prep time.”
Ethan Peck as Spock; Rebecca Romijn as Number One; Anson Mount as Captain Pike in Short Treks “Q&A”
Kurtzman wants Star Trek TV and movies unified
Even though Alex Kurtzman is in charge of the Star Trek Universe for CBS, that is still limited to the TV shows. ViacomCBS reunified in early 2020, bringing CBS and Paramount Pictures under the same corporate umbrella, however, it appears the film side is still working separately. Kurtzman, who co-wrote the two first Kelvin-universe films for Paramount, told SFX he has hopes both sides will come together:
“I have no involvement in [Star Trek films] right now. I don’t know where that’s going. Frankly, I have my hands very full. Having done two of those films, I loved them so much, and I really would love to see continuity and unification between the features and the TV side, because I think it’s what’s good for Star Trek, and that can be done any number of ways.”
From Star Trek: Into Darkness, co-written by Alex Kurtzman
More from Kurtzman, Frakes and the cast of Star Trek: Discovery in the new issue of SFX Magazine, available now.
Keep up with the Star Trek Universe on TV at TrekMovie.com.
If I was Paramount,
“Sure! On one condition only. Anyone but you.“
Why?
Because we want to see different interpretations of ST, too.
By different interpretations, are you referring to…
“What if we had this character named Michael who the whole universe revolves around and is never NOT the center of attention?”
or
“What if we had a show about unprofessional Starfleet officers who don’t take anything seriously and any drama the stories might have are only there to serve the punchline to a joke?”
And my favorite
“What if Starfleet and the Federation as a whole were filled with miserable, terrible people who willfully commit acts of genocide, allow Romulans to infiltrate their highest ranks and continually mock one of their most accomplished and universe saving heroes because he’s old?”
Oh, and don’t forget the profanity so it can be edgy. We all know the reason The Original Series never achieved perfection was because no one got to drop the f-bomb.
Did we watch the same shows? Your talent for hyperbole is very impressive
At least he demonstrates some talent (and taste.) That puts him ahead of the subject of this thread.
I definately watched that version of Picard.
I also agree fully with Picard. Lower Decks is meant to be a comedy. It, at least, shows the optimism of Star Trek which is the biggest component to me. Discovery, I’m mixed about. Season one wasn’t as bad as Picard, and that’s the nicest thing I can say about it. The second season felt a lot closer to good Star Trek, mainly due to two things, Pike and Spock, and the characterization of everyone else. I really like the personalities for the characters. Saru, Paul, and Hugh being my favorites, but I really like Michael too. The plots for the characters though, that’s another whole thing. The plots suck. They just do. If we could have better plots, and the same characters, I’d be very happy. I just saw the opener for season 3, and I’m hopefully optimistic. We’ll have to see.
Well said.
I also fear his sole objective of reunification is to bring Michael over to the movies TOO!
His obsession with this character and actress starts to feel a tad unhealthy, kind of like Braga’s obsession with Seven (that extended behind the set too) and that he needed to insert her into everything, even much to the chagrin of the series lead.
Only that Seven WAS a great character beloved by the fans and played by a competent acress.
And this is not.
I think the characterization and actor are great for Michael. I think the plot lines for her are horrific. But yeah, it definitely needs to be a more ensemble show.
The Romulans were infiltrating Starleet/Federation for awhile now. Data’s Day episode for example.
Because it’s not good. No one is interested in making Star Trek. They’re only interested in ‘changing’ Star Trek. Not changing it as in giving it a new direction, but changing the stories that have already been told so that these new shows can have a relevant twist. Examples?
Not that I’m disagreeing with you, but Pike was never a vegetable. The point of his condition on the contrary was, that his mind was pretty much trapped in his destroyed body, which is basically the opposite of what being a vegetable means, namely your mind being gone, while your body still works.
That’s called “locked in” syndrome
Pike was severely burned, not mentally destroyed. Dude, perhaps brush up a bit on your TOS.
The radiation left him paralyzed, unable to speak, and badly scarred. He had to use a brainwave-operated wheelchair for mobility. He was still able to think and reason, but the radiation did injure his mind as well as his body.
Maybe you got your shows backward, but most ships in all eras of Star Trek did have holographic view screens on the bridge. That’s why they could magnify and show the aft view. Some of the early guides and technical manuals for the original series and TNG back in the 80s spelled that out. Have a look at a few:
https://engineering.thetafleet.net/manuals.html
What they didn’t have was an window that looked out into space, until NuTrek.
Doubt that Paramount gets to unilaterally make that call.
Every post I have read today here seems thoughtful and makes a good point, except yours
I actually think he does make a good point, that many do want traditional Trek that sticks to canon. Discovering strange new worlds, new characters vs. new back stories, episodic vs. serialized.
Looking at his post again here, he is personally insulting Kurtzman — that’s his point.
It’s like if someone gave you the-finger, and you concluded that person was simply making the point that’s it’s important to rest your other four fingers from time to time. LOL
Discovering strange new worlds
Got That
new characters
Got That with more nuance to existing back stories
episodic vs. serialized
Why would you want a giant fucking reset button?
Episodic does not necessarily mean reset button. You can easily have a show with ongoing continuity and character progression while having plots that begin and end in the same episode.
Likewise serialization doesn’t preclude a reset button. Is the ending of Picard season 1 not just a big giant reset button? Picard died, but not really. He got a new body that is literally exactly like his previous body and we can theoretically never mention it again.
“By the time we go back into production, we will have a lot of scripts ready to go, which is not usually how it is for us.”
And it shows. Big time.
The pandemic was his sliver lining.
He got more time to write better scripts!
Nope, he had more time to overthink and re-write.
That’s true of almost all TV that comes out on a regular annual schedule. It was true of TOS, TNG, DS9, all of it.
But it bites more when shows are heavily serialized.
No, it’s actually the reverse. Look at early TNG, Voyager and Enterprise. That’s just a lot of really bad writing, with a few exceptions.
okay but look at Picard and Discovery, two shows with season-long stories that (imo) are not compelling. One off bad episodes – hey, I’ll tune in next week and see if the next adventure is better. But with this format, it’s, dang, that episode sucked, I hate these characters, I hate this story, I don’t care about the mystery, these plots aren’t adding up, there’s no logic…if that’s how I feel, then an entire season goes by and I can’t enjoy it. Standalone episodes like Yesterday’s Enterprise, City on the Edge of Forever, Little Green Men (ok I got a thing for time travel), they can’t happen because of the serialization of bad stories.
I agree for the most part, but there was at least one episode in season 3 of “Enterprise” that was more or less standalone: “North Star.” “Twlight” might also fit into this category, but probably not because the story of Archer’s illness was pretty much related to the Xindi business.
When you have a show that consists of some 24+ episodes, sure. You can get away with it.
But when you have a 10-13 episode serialized story ALL episodes should be at the very least mapped out before the cameras start to roll. Better if the scripts are ready to go when you start shooting. Would you start filming a movie before the script is ready? And no, script changes on the fly are not the same thing. Those only affect lines of dialog. Not the entire storyline.
You think you made a clever point, ML31, but you didn’t. Kurtzman’s comment was about ALL television shows, not Star Trek. So your snark is moot.
I doubt any of us think his point was clever.
It wasn’t meant to be clever. It was meant to be correct. And it is.
No. It isn’t.
Nope
0 for 2
Rios, Meth,
You guys are nuts, to so blatantly demonstrate such a lack of discernment over & over. Fans!
Funny… Not sure how you can claim how that’s how it is for ALL television shows when he specifically said, “it is not usually how it is for us.” “Us” as in, their own production, not everyone else’s.
Maybe they thought he said “for US” (the country) and has a problem with proper capitalization like your President ;)
“Snark”? Hey, we just found another sibling for Spock! SNARK!
Spock, Sybok, Michael and Snark. Two brothers and one sister!
Boy, Spock has gone from being an only child, growing up alone to wrestle with his emotions (oh, the angst!), to WHAM! growing up in a rather crowded household “Hey, get your foot out of my pointed ear!”
One thing that stood out for me in the interview is that it’s not just the screenwriting that’s usually not done in a coherent block, it’s also the final editing as well.
My ears ears perked up when Kurtzman described some of his working style challenges and the choices COVID-19 is requiring. I actually think the pandemic may help with coherence even more than expected.
First, in talking about working on a number of shows, he says that he has to focus on what is before him as he works and counts on his co-showrunners and writing partners to keep him on track. So, maintaining coherence has really been on the other EPs shoulders, and if there are differences on that, Kurtzman will have difficulty providing the overarching story vision needed to resolve these disputes, even if he has the final word.
Second, while Kurtzman is still holding the power of the final edit, but he acknowledged that it’s challenging to get back into what was intended when post production vfx are finished nearly a year after scripts are done. Doing a group of episodes of one show together should help.
Third, one of the interviewers asked about whether the extra production costs due to safety protocols would mean that they would be shortening seasons, say from 13 to 10 episodes. Kurtzman’s response was interesting, and implies that reducing episode counts isn’t the primary plan. (Actually, amortization over more episodes would be better if possible.)
Instead, he replied that they were having to look at the page count per episode. He went on to say that in some cases this meant that they might make the choice of reducing the number of scenes in order to ensure they had enough shots of key scenes.
Now, given that we have heard that Kurtzman has had, up to now, a “shoot it and sort it out in editing” approach to resolving writers’ disagreements about whether a scene should be included or not, it sounds as though COVID-19 may be pressing the showrunners to make the hard decisions in the writers room rather than in post.
More preparation, tough decisions earlier than later may be all for the good in terms of coherence.
On the other hand, Anson Mount is not likely to get the “creative chaos” that is his preference though.
“Now, given that we have heard that Kurtzman has had a “shoot it and sort it out in editing” approach to resolving writers’ disagreements about whether a scene should be included or not, it sounds as though COVID-19 may be pressing the showrunners to make the hard decisions in the writers room rather than in post”
That technique is use by some of the best directors around, BTW.
“That technique is use by some of the best directors around, BTW.”
In theatrical movies, where budgets are considerably steeper than for tv! It certainly wasn’t done in any 1990s Trek shows, and the narrative episode quality was still superior to any Kurtz Trek so far!
I remember reading an interview with the editor of the Dune film and he was saying that the biggest problem he is currently seeing in streaming television is the tendency to “overcut” everything. I guess he had a point. I also think this might be one of the main reasons why Kurtzmans Trek work always seem so disjointed. I mean no one wants the deliberate pacing of 60s TV shows here but just a little bit more restraint on cutting and pacing would probably work wonders.
Except that it doesn’t. As compared to the early seasons of TNG, Enterprise and Voyager, the initial seasons of Picard and Discovery have been pretty well written for early in a series.
That’s awfully subjective. I’d argue that the first season of TNG was better than STD’s. There is a difference, however in that TNG was all stand alone episodes compared to a serialized story over 13 episodes. Which should have been mapped out in advance. Also one season of TNG consisted of two seasons of STD. So they had a rather significant break to come back and improve while TNG had to make their adjustments more, ‘on the fly’ as it were. And in the end TNG still did a better and more coherent job.
I certainly would not agree with that. Discovery Season 1 was an uneven mess, but nothing approached the nonsense of Code of Honor, Justice, or Lonely Among Us. TNG Season 1 did improve significantly late in the year, but that was after 18-ish episodes (out of 25-26). It took a very long time for TNG to become just okay.
Nothing on Disocvery approached the HIGHLIGHTS of TNG Season 1 either! You can easily skip the worst of the season and still enjoy the rest, unlike Discovery. And that is the pitfall of serialized storytelling, you’re either all-in or all-out. There’s no diversity in styles and stories since there’s only one story.
As someone who just rewatched all of season one of Discovery I completely agree. In fact while I thought it was slightly better on rewatch its still EASILY the one first season for me out of all the shows. Not even close after watching it all in a few days. TNG season 1 is not great but there around 10 episodes I can watch and enjoy even if none are my favorites. Discovery it’s about 3-4 tops. And yes when everything is so serialized it makes it even harder to pick out the ones you like.
Picard was certainly better than DIS by far but still pretty low on my list, but better than TNG at least and tied with ENT first season.
I wonder how you count Picard better than TNG season 1 when you said 10 episodes of the latter where ‘good enough’ for you? Picard only had 10 episodes overall. Which episodes are ‘good enough’ for you and which are even standouts? I think we all agree that the beginning was sluggish and had some negative, if bearable points (Admiral f-bombs, Raffi’s constant drugging), the middle was unwatchable (Eye-popping, as they say ;) and the end, as far as I got that, was too disjointed and unsatisfying for you (AI tentacles from the future, Picard the android etc). So that leaves which episodes as standouts? Nepenthe? That’s 1/10. I have to admit that’s also the only episode I can clearly connect to certain scenes/happenings, and its no coincidence that was basically the only standalone episode.
So all in all, the writers themselves have proven that this level of serialization is a dead-end for Trek, at least at their skill level!
As I :said I liked some of the TNG episodes in first season but I didn’t have any favorites either (I still think the finale was the best out of that season though). Picard had some VERY strong episodes I thought were great. The first episode is easily one of the best pilots for me. I generally thought the first four were really good, but the second half starting with Stardust City is where it really fell apart for me outside of Nepenthe.
Okay! For me TNG season 1 had some very strong, thoughtful scifi episodes that easily hold its water with anything Picard so far: 10011100, Conspiracy, The Big Goodbye, Where Silence Has Lease, Datalore, Home Soil. Maybe it’s a matter of taste; many of these are more idea than character – driven. An episode like Nepenthe is purely character- (and nostalgia) driven, it didn’t really ponder any big ideas. Maybe that’s one of the biggest failings of a series announced by Kurtzman as “introspective and thoughtful” – it always stopped short of truly exploring the many ideas it presented (maybe with the exception of the metaphysical sequence in the finale): the XB’s, the whole Romulan affair, the risks vs. benefits of artificial life. So it was too slow and too fast at the same time – quite a feat!
Season 1 did give us one of the best episodes of the entire 7 year run with “Heart of Glory”. That alone qualifies to to be superior than anything STD did. Further, STD has the honor of the biggest bonehead move in the history of Trek. Which automatically makes it worse than any of the many bad TNG S1 episodes. STD did have Lethe. Which is still easily the best episode Secret Hideout has ever produced. But that one episode was not so good it was able to overcome the failure of the full season story arc.
So season long arcs can work in favor of the show when the story is good. But severely cripples the show when the story is bad.
“Heart of Glory” is definitely one of the few highlights of Season 1, but I wouldn’t consider it one of the best of the series. It is interesting, but come on what was the Security guard doing, playing pocket pool while the Klingons built themselves a phaser? HoG, “Coming of Age“, “Conspiracy” and “Neutral Zone” are really the only episodes of Season 1 that hold up pretty well (and even Neutral Zone has problems with its condescending view of 20th Century Earth.) Some add “Big Goodbye” to the list, but that established the ridiculous “Holodeck Run Amok” precedent so I ground-rule it out.
You give season one more credit than I do. Coming of Age was terrible as nearly every Wes Crusher episode was complete garbage. Will agree with Conspiracy and The Neutral Zone as decent. Not great. But decent. And that was about it from the first season. Completely agree with you on The Big Goodbye. The entire ‘holodeck run amok’ concept never worked for me.
But HoG, even with your nit pick, was easily the best of the first season and stands up as one of the top episodes of the entire series. I stand by that comment.
All three of those series were vastly better in their first seasons than either Discovery or Picard has been so far.
Wow. You and I remember TNG and ENT’s first seasons VERY differently.
ML31, it seems they push through serialized storytelling but do so with an episodic television work style. It’s not surprising that won’t work out. At least it leaves some hope for SNW (as the only Kurtzman era episodic show, LDS at least did not seem to have the uneven quality issues that plagued both Discovery and Picard)
We share the same feelings towards the plusses and minuses of a serialized story arc. Yes, LDX as a show was put together better than STD or STP. They didn’t have a season long arc building. Just an underlying situation that was referred to a few times that they returned to in earnest for the final episode. But they suffered from a different problem. Their show was supposed to be funny. Epic fail on that front.
“Their show was supposed to be funny.”
Yeah I get that and the jury’s still out on that for me. From the ‘laugh lines” they post here I’m also sceptical. I agree that deep references in itself are NOT funny. But I recognize that its really difficult to write a funny show that does not devolve into silly spoof or parody, can still be regarded as canon. Even Futurama does not have this problem because it does not need to adhere to any canon. But the characters must be designed as funny (as in the latter show) and that kind of clashes with the setup of a Starfleet starship show of Utopian aspiring officers. But my point was, at least it’s not the typical failing of Kurtzman Trek. We will see how they fare with non-comedic live action episodic Trek (SNW) – that should be like a breeze to write then, without all these pitfalls!
Fair enough. I do think that LDX has thus far been the show with the least Kurtzman influence. My problem was that show relied too heavily on past Trek for EVERYTHING. Which limits it’s ability to be of appeal beyond heavy Trek fans. I do not blame Secret Hideout for LDX’s failure to deliver as much as I blame McMahon as the show runner. (Maybe he should have brought Dan Harmon with him? Even Community was more fun than LDX,) It is possible to be funny without diving into parody. And I’ve said for months that you can have fun with Trek tropes without MAKING fun of Trek tropes. But it was like they didn’t want to take that risk. Which is sad. They needed to push the envelope on that.
It’s occurred to me VS that the “work style” issue you’ve identified may originate with CBS.
It’s the network that’s known for doing almost no serialization at all. So, it sounds like their financial / cash flow model is one that makes starting production while writing obligatory.
“It’s the network that’s known for doing almost no serialization at all”
That is ironic. So they put too much trust in Kurtzman et al. being “serialization experts” and pulling this off. Seeing that they really didn’t, maybe there’s another reason SNW was an easy green light (beyond “fan feedback” – I doubt multi-million dollar business is ever really based on that alone).
I think a lot of people may ( rightly or wrongly ) interpret Alex’s words to mean unifying the TV and the movies into “one timeline” – but as he points out – it could be done in a number of ways.
The Kelvin movies and Prime Timeline already exist as part of the “multiverse”, so there’s no need to unify them in THAT manner, but maybe some crossover of plot-points, certain TREK characters or story arcs might be interesting ( in much the same way that the TREK comics have stories that span across the the different comic series sometimes ).
There’s lots of things they could do – especially now, with the wonderfully burgeoning variety of TREK properties.
Regardless of how it’s to be interpreted, everything should not be Kurtzman Trek.
I would prefer he had as little involvement with the films as possible (preferably none at all).
I also think a big screen version of ST should remain as far away from the Kurtzman stuff as possible for marketing purposes. I wouldn’t be surprised if most of the movies’ target audience (even after adjusting for a lower budget than the Kelvin films) doesn’t even know that new Trek has been on streaming for three years.
Star Trek movies and TV should have been under one roof to begin with.
I support a unification with Paramount movies. It streamlines the canon.
I’m worried about Star Trek fatigue.
3 Star Trek TV series are readying production. Alex Kurtzman has a plan.
With all the Star Trek shows we are getting, it’s getting overwhelming and the quality might suffer as a result.
Star Trek fatigue is a problem he should watch out for.
No I don’t see it.
For a start ‘seasons’ are far shorter and nothing drags for long. A season of episodes airing nearly every week between September and June are gone.
To be honest it already feels an age since Discovery S1 and S2 feels like it came to pass a while ago too. Picard came and went in no time and so has this animated TV show just concluded.
I don’t see evidence of fatigue at this point.
It’s not Star Trek fatigue you should be worried about. It’s bad writing fatigue.
Faze Ninja, you leave a comment every five minutes. If you experience Star Trek fatigue, it’s nobody’s fault but yours.
The only Star Trek fatigue that I am suffering is all of the misinformation or lack of information concerning the status of the Star Trek movies. How long does it take to decide a direction for the movies. I’m beginning to lose interest in going to see the movie even if they finally get around to making it. Tired of all the drama in raising hopes the movie is green lighted, then in a few weeks has been shelved, paused or cancelled. Enough already!
I would like to see a crossover between Discovery, Picard, Strange New Worlds, Lower Decks, Prodigy, and the Kelvin movies.
God, please no.
That’s a mighty big blender…..
That’s a bit much don’t you think…
Er………………………. let me think…………………………………..
No.
I would too. Star Trek Online has a great way of putting them together (temporal cold war, the Kelvinverse, bringing legacy characters back… I wouldn’t mind them doing a series based off of any of their seasons… if you haven’t played the story (not the incessant grinding) you should, I personally (again just me) enjoyed it all! But not in the way the android app games have tried, no thanks on that front.
LLAP fellow trekkies
Maybe some of them, but all of them at once would be a bit much.
I think Discovery would actually work better, and more acceptable, as an animated series because its lead, villains, action set pieces and stories already all have cartoon style!
I still can’t believe Star Trek is being helmed by the writer of Batman & Robin (Akiva Goldsman) and the writer of Star Trek into Darkness (Alex Kurtzman). Good grief! Trump is president. Truly the darkest of timelines
dw it’s all a simulation, our creators are trolling us
Hopefully Trump will be out of here very very soon! But the others, yeah.
This will be interesting or scary:
I am a black man.
I am a Star Trek fan and I have been to several ST conventions (w/out cosplay).
I have an MBA.
I have lived in Tokyo, Seattle, San Mateo, LA, Atlanta and Detroit.
I have worked in 3 tech companies and 3 auto companies.
As a college undergraduate, I interned for a former Democrat President (after he served his term).
I watched Trump decades ago when young Jesse Jackson routinely called on then-Democrat Trump to support initiatives and give large sums to help Black people and Jackson’s Rainbow-Push organization in NYC.
By every economic metric, I have been more enriched in the last 4 years than during the prior administration. And he has done more in about 10 key areas that are very important to me – one being to provide the highest level of HBCU funding on a permanent basis than any president has ever done.
As I mentioned, I interned for a former Democratic President (Carter) while he worked with a sitting Republican President (Bush #1) on regional economic renewal initiatives… while he also coached the incoming Democratic President-elect (Clinton). The behind the scenes that I have seen on both sides is amazing and shocking.
In any case, election preferences may not bring us to the same table, but I am glad that a robust debate of Star Trek can.
Amen!
nice cherry picking you got there.
And the Dark Knight was written by the writer of a Nick Fury trash tv movie starring David Hasselhof…..
Eerie….here I was thinking this morning that I’d not be suprised of some of this streaming content due between now and 2027 was in the Kelvin universe. Cool….
Technically, nobody has their hands involved in Star Trek films at the moment. Nothing will be happeing there until late 21, early 22 at the earliest, for a variety of reasons.
Is Ron Moore available?
Anyone notice how we never hear anything about The Orville these days?
That show is dead. Fox dumped it on to Hulu for a reason.
And Orville fans are going to get full hour episodes with higher budgets thanks to Hulu. Terrible isn’t it?
The reason you hear so much about Star Trek and all the “wonderful and tremendous “ things coming is because the media campaign is part of damage control.
The louder the PR is, the more in trouble the show is. You don’t need to spend a lot of money on advertising and marketing successful shows or to hear from the production team so much.
Interview fatigue is also a thing.
The Orville is better off on Hulu. Fox might cancel that show. Hulu is a great streaming service. I like Hulu more than Netflix.
Star Trek gets more news because of its notoriety. The PR spins and damage control is so true!
This is utter nonsense. It is the exact opposite. When a studio doesn’t believe in its product, it scales back promotion to cut its losses. See Star Trek Beyond, for a nice reference on this.
bassmaster22, I think that you’ve entirely missed the point of some of that promotion.
The Orville is an amusing show, but it’s not a legacy asset that was the centre of a major and controversial remerger.
Star Trek is doing fine, but ViacomCBS just got through its difficult remerger, and CEO Baklish had been checked by investors on his strategy of providing content to other streamers when COVID-19 hit.
That merger was promoted to SHAREHOLDERS on the basis of maximizing the value of established franchises including MI and Star Trek.
They need to reassure investors by providing information on the progress of these flagship franchises.
Disney buys Fox so The Orville is a Disney product now. That show is better off on Hulu.
Hulu is better than Netflix. In terms of a streaming service.
Only for TV. Netflix has better movies. So does Amazon Prime.
But is Hulu better? I can’t think of a single show on Hulu that I’d like to see. And the one I have seen was so mind bogglingly bad I felt dumber just for watching it.
Although, that terrible show did have one moment that produced a laugh so hard that I had to pause it for a good 10 minutes. But it was probably not meant to be a joke but it sure came across that way. Funny… That overrated drama had more laughs in it than Lower Decks!
Um, I guess you don’t understand the meaning of “dead,” then. It’s coming back on Hulu and it has spawned comics.
The Orville is on Hulu because Disney buys Fox. Disney owns Hulu so The Orville is their Star Trek appetizer.
Disney is focused on streaming. Disney+ did really well for them.
Disney BOUGHT Fox. They BOUGHT them.
It’s in a COVID holding pattern while they wait to finish shooting S3 for Hulu.
You don’t hear much about it, ’cause there’s not much to say right now.
Brannon Braga talked about it on this week’s Inglorious Treksperts podcast. They are resuming production on it after being shut down since March.
So they’re going to pull a Tuvix on Zachary Quinto and Ethan Peck? :-)
Yeah. They’ll come out of the transporter as Leonard Nimoy.
The crazy thing is with today’s technology that is literally possible now.
Yes, someone’s actually redone scenes from ST2009 with superimposed faces of the original actors. It’s freaky.
Ha!
Hmm, Kurtzman could be the right man to oversee a film-tv Trek unification… if there were an Omega Man scenario in which he was the last man on Earth. Granted, in that case there wouldn’t be much of an audience, but it would keep Alex busy.
LOL you guys are so mean.
But which part? Unification Part I or Part II?
I’ll see myself out… :D
Or is it Unification Part III?? According to Memory Alpha, that is the recently revealed episode title of Discovery season three, episode seven…
Kurtzman has done an excellent job with the TV end of the franchise, but INTO DARKNESS was such a narrative mess with off-base casting.
Yeah, but how much of that was Lindelof? This is coming from someone generally supportive of BR’s effort with Trek, but one thing that was very irritating was all this circular non-talk that Abrahams/Orci/Lindelof engaged in all the time.
At least for the next couple of years, anything that’s made feature length will likely go to streaming with limited theatrical runs. Kurtzman might be the ideal guy in this environment.
Finally we can agree on something :) No matter the reason, Cumberbatch was criminally miscast as Khan, and the whole remake was unnecessary to begin with.
I would like to see Star Trek feature films on Paramount+ personally, I don’t think a Box Office release makes sense anymore, especially for Star Trek. But a big event movie on the streaming platform would draw lots of new subscribers each time. Kurtzman could certainly fold that into the shows he’s working on. The only problem is that the movies and TV shows are nearly indistinguishable now.
I will say this about the Colonel. He is nothing if not ambitious!
The only “Reunification” I’d like to see is one where they reboot (or delete) the Kelvin movies and revert to the original continuity. Enough of Spock making out with Uhura.
As soon as PICard isn’t part of the original continuity…
And as soon as The Voyage Home is removed as well.
Fabio – Uhurah and Spock is a thing. It goes back to original fandom. Seeing it as a normal part of this new version of their lives was great.
The Kelvin Universe is a seperate universe. Part of the multiverse established in TNG with the Worf episode where he was jumping around different universe. The closest analogy in the Prime universe to 24th century Spock and Nero ending up in the 23rd century Kelvin Universe is 23rd century USS Defiant ending up in 22nd century Mirror universe on Enterprise.
Not all fans share your opinion!
i quit
Why?
tom, we clearly have different preferences and opinions, but your voice and views are appreciated here – by me at least.
Not sure if you were active on this board when other season premieres came out, but I’ve noticed a pattern where a vast number of “new” aliases suddenly post very negative views. In many cases, I have found those posts repeated/spammed word-for-word across every major board and review site.
I’m always concerned that it is a kind of intentional gatekeeping, flooding the boards with negativity to discourage new and old fans from watching or participating in balanced discussion.
If that flood is putting you off, could you hang in a couple of weeks please?
Ah, Alex “wings it” Kurtzman and his “pew! pew!” Star Wars Trek.
Haven’t fans suffered enough? SNW will basically be Kelvin films on TV. All glitz, no soul. People expecting TOS 2.0 will be sorely disappointed.
I know, I’ve been to the future.
I fear you are absolutely correct there, Captain, despite the impressive cast. And it’s prequel aspect does not thrill me whatsoever.
Unfortunately, I think you are correct. But 21st century trek is better then no trek at all. IMHO
If any of these shows were produced by Netflix they’d be cancelled by now. I’m surprised CBS & Paramount are so desperate for a flagship franchise they’ll accept anything.
So I’ve just rewatched the end of Disco S02 and it seems like there is a big hole in the story. Once Michael resets the time line,Control is neutralized and Leland is dead, why does Discovery need to go anywhere? Even if that issue isn’t resolved, and Disco must go to the future, it seems a bit surprising that Captain Pike abandons Disco to return to the Enterprise. It is his command at the time. THen he lets the Admiral go down on the Enterprise. What ever happened to the Captain going down with his ship? Pike saves himself 2 times in an hour while others go down. I think Pike is a great charactor, but seems like they could have found a better way to accomplish the story.
it is also really bazaar that in the midst of preparing for battle with Control, all of sudden Spock’s parents show up? Then they leave in time to avoid being destroyed by Control, and why didn’t they tell anyone? if they were able to get to Disco in a small diplomatic shuttle, surely an armada of ships could get there. The Klingons showed up, but no own from Starfleet could get there?
All these issues were brought up back when this episode was available to stream. There are no good answers except, we need Discovery to leave because we THINK that will solve all the problems (it won’t) and, drama amid the chaos.
Yes, I know it was, It’s just irritating. It also makes no sense that Spock didn’t shave or put on his uniform unitl moments before the 1701 was ready to fly again amd he saw the 7th signal (124 days later). Apparently the suits at SFC are OK with a leutinent just showing up in casuals and a beard and tell them to totally disavow the existance of Disco and engage is a complete coverup. The only thing that really makes it at all plausable is that it sort of justifies why 10 years later Spock was willing to hijack the Enterprise to take PIke to Talos IV.
I don’t think Spock even needed the Discovery back story for that. It’s pretty easily explained by devotion to his captain. That’s good enough for me.
Possibly, but what about devotion to kirk. He tossed kirk under the bus
I don’t think that was his intent. It’s just how things turned out.
RedLetter’s Re:View of STD is very worth listening to in full. A plot diagram of S2 (not that they attempted one) looks like a zombie snake not only eating its tail, but proceeding on swallow all of its own intestines until it’s just a dead circular husk of skin and digested/vomited/defecated innards.
The whole story was an exercise in belatedly gaslighting viewers into believing that something resembling a story had taken place. Any attempt to fill in the holes (there a lot more than one) is meaningless.
I don’t think I’ve been looking forward to new Star Trek this much since DS9 was last on the air.
Discovery Season 1 was a bit hit-and-miss for me at times (the 4-part Mirror-Mirror story kicked butt)… but I loved Season 2. And I thought the first episode of Season 3 was a lot of fun.
Loved Picard Season 1. Looking forward to seeing what’s next.
Lower Decks was a bit of a tough go at the very beginning… but after the 3rd episode or so, I thought it got really good. Once they focused more on poking good-natured fun at TREK-isms… instead of the characters just being mean to each other, I thought the show found it’s footing.
Strange New Worlds is probably the show I’m most interested in getting to see next… based largely on how much I enjoyed Anson Mount’s Captain Pike in Discovery’s second season. There’s still a lot of room for them to explore Pike, early Spock, Number 1 and the pre-Kirk universe.
As series go… DS9 and TOS are still the high water mark for me… but after years of kind of finding Trek shows underwhelming… and not liking the first 2 Kelvin TREK movies, it’s really nice to see Star Trek come back strong and interesting… but not be the same as it was.
In my experience it is probably best to go into these things with very low expectations. I was really looking forward to Lower Decks. Thought it had the best chance since it seemed to be the show that would have the least amount of incestuous cross show pollination among crew of all the SH productions. And I ended up being VERY disappointed. It’s very possible I was expecting too much. I too am looking forward to SNW. But I feel I need to lower the expectations. Which will be tough. I liked what I saw from Mount as well.