Star Trek Universe TV Head Alex Kurtzman Says Line Between Movies And Television Is “Gone”

Last week’s big news that Paramount Pictures had put a Star Trek movie on the calendar for the summer of 2023 has fans buzzing and wondering if it will be connected to all the Star Trek TV happening on Paramount+. Now the man in charge of all those TV shows is weighing in on the new reality of modern franchises.

Kurtzman on the line between movies and TV

Today Variety has an extensive cover story feature on “How Big IP Is Driving the Streaming Wars.” The article looks at how the media landscape has changed in recent years “obliterating the traditional silos between film and television.” It cites many examples from different media companies, holding out how Disney is handling the Marvel and Star Wars franchises as the gold standard.

For Trekkies, the article examines how ViacomCBS is adapting to this new world. Alex Kurtzman, who has been heading up ViacomCBS efforts to build out the Star Trek Universe on TV, had this to say about the state of things:

“I think vertical alignment has made it so that it’s impossible not to accept the reality that the line between movies and television is gone. It doesn’t mean that you can’t have a feature that is separate from television. But if they aren’t connected in some way, then you’re basically running two universes parallel as opposed to interconnected, and I think that those messages could potentially cancel each other out.”

The last three Star Trek feature films – the first of which was co-written by Kurtzman – set up their own “Kelvin” Star Trek universe through the narrative of time travel and parallel universes. This allowed those films to have their own identity and stand apart from previous films and television shows set in the “Prime” universe. However, these films were made in a period when there weren’t any Star Trek television shows in production — and while Paramount Pictures and CBS (who produce Trek television) were part of separate media companies. Paramount and Viacom have now re-merged with CBS, with the new ViacomCBS currently producing five Trek television series (three of which are live-action) for the Paramount+ streaming service.

While the Star Trek TV shows and films have primarily occupied actual parallel universes in the last decade or so, there have been connections. For example, the entire Romulan refugee storyline featured in Star Trek: Picard season one is based on the destruction of Romulus plotline from the 2009 Star Trek movie. Kurtzman has also strived to have the Star Trek Universe shows match the level of production design seen in the recent Trek features, including moving to a widescreen cinematical style.

Kurtzman’s comment to Variety about the media landscape of the 2020s could indicate more connectedness to come.

Picard with Romulan refugees in “Absolute Candor”

Star Trek showrunners coordinating

While the connection between future Star Trek films and television shows is still uncertain, Kurtzman did give details on how the various Star Trek shows have started working closer together. From the Variety report:

Kurtzman says those who oversee the various “Star Trek” properties have begun strategizing to an even greater degree within ViacomCBS in the past year, with the launch of a monthly showrunners’ meeting. It allows everyone to see what parts of the “Star Trek” universe are being utilized on other shows.

“We make sure that those showrunners are coordinating so that they’re not stepping on each other’s toes,” he says.

We have already seen the early fruits of this coordination between Star Trek: Discovery, Lower Decks, and Picard with some elements of continuity. With more shows coming it makes even more sense to have these creatives talking to each other on a regular basis.

Star Trek Discovery season three used elements from Star Trek: Picard season one in “Unification III”


Find more news and analysis on the Star Trek Universe.

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It’s about time. Now we may be able to, for instance (and if the price is right for the actor to agree) to have Chris Hemsworth portray Kirk’s dad in the STRANGE NEW WORLDS time line (or something like that) when it’s time for Kirk to take the Chair in the series finale. The possibilities for George Kirk to have much to do (and Hemsworth as an actor to see stories that are much more in-depth than that once scene in ST 2009) are as limitless as the minds of the writer(s) who craft them. Then we’d also likely see his family backstory, maybe some of Riverside, Iowa in the 23rd Century, Capt. Robert April, maybe an aged T’Pol, or even Archer before his passing the day after the Big E is christened (if that’s used), and more.

This is a major good news for the ‘Trek franchise!

There are many other cross-overs from all the different Trek shows that can happen, and from the films, such as basic canon (lines, references, and much more) that can now be used to make it an all-inclusive ST universe without too much, if any, continuity errors. This has been done before. The various cross-over stories in TNG, DS9, VGR and ENT are some examples, as is the revelation of seeing The Guardian of Forever in DIS Season 3. We’ve seen this kind of story-telling before: “Tiberius” was first heard as Kirk’s middle name in TAS episode “Bem,” then confirmed by Chang in ST IV: The Undiscovered County.” And, in that movie, Caitians were seen on the Federation Council (online notes on the production have confirmed they were indeed that species), and Caitians were referred to in dialogue in DIS Season Two, episode 1. Now maybe we can find, in one of the TV shows, what happened to Archer’s “prize beagle,” as Scotty mentioned in ST 2009. (LOL)

Yes, this is very interesting and a welcome change from what’s happened to ‘Trek since the Paramount/CBS division.

What this does is it provides and ENTIRE CANVAS and/or TAPESTRY to draw from to fill in every conceivable gap in the overall, 300-year (and now, 1,300-year) future as depicted in Star Trek, which as G. Rodddenberry was famous for saying, “Our canvas is the Galaxy: there are plenty of stories left to tell!” Warp speed, Alex and the production teams of all the new ‘Trek stories, on the small AND big screens. Anson Mount’s line in DIS is right on target: “HIT IT.”

Exactly!

I think for most fans, that’s what draws us to the Trek universe more and more, because of how deep and rich it has evolved between all the shows and films. When it was just TOS, it was nice but it was just about one ship and crew basically and the adventures we saw them between the show and TUC.

But for the last 30 years, Star Trek has gotten wildly expansive. It now covers not just 13 movies and (currently) 9 shows, but now a thousand years between them and multiple universes. In many ways, Star Trek is probably the biggest universe out there because of just how much it covers. And as DIS just proved, it can always go farther and farther into the future. It has basically a fixed point of when Trek formally started (First Contact), but it can go on and on into the future and even multiple universes for decades.

So it’s great to see them taking advantage of that. When they said Discovery would take place in the 32nd century, I kind of assumed we wouldn’t hear much about any past canon or references because the nearest show in the timeline is still 800 years prior. But yet they actually surprised me including the Temporal wars, the Vulcan/Romulan unification and even the Guardian of Forever. I didn’t expect any of those things to be discussed on this show. What’s amazing about Discovery today is that it can now use canon from every show or film ever made. And because it’s so far in the future, it can basically add whatever it wants to them like we saw with the Mirror Universe. Crossovers are basically out lol, but again, it’s Star Trek, it can always find a way. And it doesn’t stop people like Q showing up now that he’s coming back in Picard. If they found a way to bring back the GoF 900 years later, then Q is not a problem at all.

And look at all the freaking crossovers or familiar characters we already seen just in the past four years since Discovery started: Seven, Picard, Pike, Spock, Riker, Hugh, Number One, Data and on and on. And look at all the random species they have brought back in that time as well: Talosians, Borg, Tribbles and the Pakleds. They even found a way to create an origin story around the Tribbles lol. Now the Q are back!

And we are getting Janeway again (a version of her anyway) and heading back into the Delta Quadrant in Prodigy. I always knew we would see Janeway again, but it never occurred to me we would ever go back to the Delta Quadrant outside of a random episode or something. So now all those old species can show up and of course create even newer species.

I know Kurtzman and these shows are very divided in the fanbase, but I really do love what he’s doing with it. It’s mostly the execution that I (and many others) have issues with. They have some really interesting premises and plot lines but then do the lamest things with them. But to me, this is what I always to see Star Trek doing and going into multiple periods and formats. Going farther into the future and even universes but having it all connected as well. And I do love that he is bringing back so many iconic characters like Janeway, Pike, Picard, etc to lead their own shows. BUT we still get completely new characters like in Lower Decks. It’s a lot of fun!

I remember the days when it was just DS9 and VOY on together for years and a TNG film every few years. It was fun to know they were technically connected, but their premises separated them where we couldn’t get any real crossovers. DS9 and the TNG films never mentioned VOY in fact although VOY and the movies referenced DS9 from time to time. And we did get VOY crossovers with Janeway and the Doctor in the movies. But now we have an opportunity to tie all these shows up in ways they couldn’t back then because we have shows actually being made in present day from the 23rd to the 32nd century so it just creates a mountain of possibilities.

And if the next movie goes back to the Prime universe, the sky is now the limit.

Now we may be able to, for instance (and if the price is right for the actor to agree) to have Chris Hemsworth portray Kirk’s dad in the STRANGE NEW WORLDS time line (or something like that) when it’s time for Kirk to take the Chair in the series finale.

That was always possible. There was never anything stopping the TV team from hiring him to play George.

Sigh. The SNL skit about fanboys obsessing over the combination to combination to Kirk’s safe was supposed to be parody, you know.

Now maybe we can find, in one of the TV shows, what happened to Archer’s “prize beagle,” as Scotty mentioned in ST 2009. (LOL)

He was clearly joking, hence ‘LOL’.

The takeaway from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is that there was no need to do a reboot (i.e. the “Kelvin Timeline”). They just needed to get people who care about Star Trek and new actors to play the existing roles.

Except that JJ Abrams and Co wanted the freedom to tell any story they wanted, shape the characters any way they wished, and the separate timeline allowed them to do that while allowing Leanord Nimoy to “pass the torch” and withut erasing everything we’d seen already, which was important to continuity-obsessed Trekkies.

Frankly, making it a branching timeline was a stroke of genius, even if the final product (the movies) weren’t perfect. The concept was sound.

As for SNW, i’m glad it’s happening but there’s no denying that the writers will be hamstrung somewhat by continuity. That’s not a problem, but it’s not what Abrams wanted.

Dude, all they did was redo Space Seed and Wrath of Khan badly. The Abrams movies failed to justify their existence. And Beyond was just terrible. There was no justification at all for doing a separate timeline as prequels like Discovery and Strange New Worlds have demonstrated.

They wanted to fankwank and do “their” version of Khan, and “their” version of Space Seed and Wrath, nothing more and nothing less. Beyond tried to salvage the formula and it failed to do so.

Dude, no he didn’t. He actually made Star Trek 09 first, and had the freedom to turn those iconic characters and the iconic franchise into something new, whether it turned out good or bad.

Even if “all he did was remake Space Seed/TWOK” he still rewrote the characterizations of the crew (as I recall, many took issue with how Kirk and Co. were portrayed as inconsistent with past shows/movies, which was the entire justification of the branching timeline).

You may not have liked it, and that’s fair. But your personal dislike is completely irrelevant to the issue.

“Dude, all they did was redo Space Seed and Wrath of Khan badly.”

There WERE two other movies. This is a bit like saying “VOYAGER had a lot of wasted potential. Literally all they did was turn Janeway and Paris into giant lizards.”

Not only that but remaking TWOK, while still including Prime Spock (as lame as the inclusion was) would have only been possible in a new branched timeline.

Point is, the idea of the new timeline was a good idea for rebooting the franchise. Poorly executed, but still a great idea in concept.

In a series that already had a multi-verse, I never, ever, ever understood the argument (apparently from the fan base) that the Abrams film couldn’t have been a complete reboot. The production team just needed to acknowledge that it was a parallel universe (like the Mirror Universe) and move on. Honestly, what we got was the worst of both worlds.

We still had nitpicky fans who pointed out all the inconsistencies in the Kelvin timeline (Chekov is 4 years older than his Prime counterpart, Blue Sky on Vulcan, Vulcan doesn’t have moons, strange stardates, San Fran skyline, etc.). Granted, I’ll concede that the theatrical version of TMP Vulcan has moons, but it contradicts all other live-action media. Overall, it’s something that wasn’t necessary to shackle themselves to, especially given their solution in-film as to the universe deviating is just a bunch of technobabble.

They squandered any chance to do whatever they wanted since they immediately went straight into rehashing TWOK and Space Seed.

Making them entirely unrelated universes (no time travel or quantum explanations connecting them) would not have stopped future “Prime” content from being produced along side or after the Kelvin films came and went. After all, this is exactly how it’s operated anyway as the Kelvin films seem to be done and over with and all current Trek (for better or worse) is back to being part of the “Prime” universe.

I fully agree with you (and been saying for awhile I would be fine if they just rebooted it completely) but I do think they were scared if it was completely it’s own thing and not prime universe fans would reject it. And of course it probably felt like a really clever idea to tie in Nimoy and make him the connection between both universes.

And I think it was fine, but as you said they kind of squandered the idea by going back to stuff like Khan in the very next film and THEN ignored their own rules they set up in the first film and say everything that happened prior to the Kelvin attack was prime canon. But ‘Khan’ clearly wasn’t the same Khan from the prime.

But if we had a fully rebooted universe he could look and be whatever they wanted him to be. He could’ve been a Korean woman.

I really like the concept of the Kelvin universe and it’s very ‘Star Trek’ in nature. But after where it stands now and how a lot of fans feel about it, I think it would’ve been smart to just do a hard reboot and just do whatever you wanted.

Nobody said it COULDN’T have been. But he wanted it that way. It also allowed for Prime Spock to pass the torch, something you couldn’t do if you just did a clean reboot and pretended all past Trek never existed.

Also, if you told Trekkies “we’re erasing everything this is new Trek from now on” there’d have been riots.

…and their first move was to remake TWOK, with the Punjabi antagonist played by a white actor. Genius, I tell ‘ya.

Except that JJ Abrams and Co wanted the freedom to tell any story they wanted, shape the characters any way they wished, and the separate timeline allowed them to do that while allowing Leanord Nimoy to “pass the torch”…

Are you living in an alternate timeline? Because that was their second movie… not “the first move”. …. seriously, keep up.

I think what he’s saying (and I agree) is that their first move after successfully rebooting the franchise and creating a blank canvas was to revisit Space Seed and Khan instead of creating an entirely new, standalone story. Four years have passed since Kirk took command of the Enterprise, he’s been having a good run but seemingly winging it so what happens when he is truly tested as a Starfleet captain? That should have been the story explored instead of revisiting old, familiar ground. It was a missed opportunity and we wouldn’t get an original story until Beyond.

And Beyond arguably wasn’t as original as maybe it should have been given that it trotted out the “evil villain seeking revenge” trope once again.

That’s not the takeaway at all. What a silly statement. The takeaway is that Mount’s Pike is popular with fans.

For once (maybe twice in 2 years? May-be?), we are in utter agreement, at least about Mount’s Pike and fans.

Now we can go back to being utterly and completely opposing in views on everything.

Um… OK. I have no idea who you are.

I remember reading once that JJ’s original proposal when he did Trek 09 was to completely realign Star Trek and the rights to it around his company, and to “de-canonize” the old series and movies like how Disney made the Star Wars novels Legends. And with SNW being a “visual reboot” and Disco wholesale ignoring canon particularly in season 1, there really is no point in even having a “canon” because it doesn’t matter anyway, and never really has.

The thing is, I don’t like the direction that Star Trek stories have headed since 2009. While thankfully Kurtzman Trek has been a hit, and it maintains a sort of continuity with itself, it’s also divided the fanbase in big ways, even as it continues to bring more fans in. And I’m consistently disappointed and surprised by how disappointed I am in the quality of the writing of these shows. Even Lower Decks, which I enjoyed the best of the three, has these head scratching moments that make you wonder why these people get to be making decisions.

But one thing I appreciate is that it’s clear by the sheer effort they’re putting into it that they want Star Trek to succeed. And whether or not I think it has doesn’t change the fact that I think Star Trek is more popular than it ever has been. Since the pandemic started, I’ve seen the internet fill with more and more stories of Trek fans binging the old series, many of them who love Discovery, many who were brought in through KT movies. I’m seeing more Star Trek memes in non-Star Trek communities. It’s clear that the brand is big and there’s a lot of potential. And while I can’t say I’m exactly looking forward to another Kurtzman Trek movie in 2023, at least I can be excited that maybe, just maybe, they’ll get it right this time.

Discovery Season 1 did not “ignore” cannon. It IS cannon.

It is a metal tube filled with gunpowder that fires shells.

It’s cannon? What type of projectile?

It’s a canon piercing cannon projectile.

Wait, I presume you mean “canon” with twice the “n,” not thrice.

Other than it being a visual reboot (which is fine IMHO), the only irreconcilable canon violation in DSC season 1, is the Klingons possessing cloaking technology way too early and making the Starfleet officers in balance of terror thinking cloaking technology is impossible a little confusing

Yeah, but Enterprise already introduced Starfleet to cloaking technology a hundred years earlier anyway.

I tend to think of ENT, the Franklin and Kelvin, and DSC/SNW as belonging to a separate timeline caused by the events of FCT, which is somewhat reinforced by the ENT episode ‘Regeneration’. Then it was likely further polluted by the Temporal Cold War. The changes from FCT alone shouldn’t affect Romulan technological development, so they may have been given cloaking tech earlier on, or maybe captured it from the Suliban, which again would have been a result of the Temporal Cold War. Then in DSC, following that same continuity, the Klingons would have had about 100+ years to get cloaking tech from either the Romulans, the Suliban, or maybe other species that were interfered with by future factions. I’m sure there are a few holes in this idea, but probably less so than trying to fit everything into one cohesive timeline.

Personally I thought of the “cloaking” issue – which at first angered me – was more like “this was cloaking for this period of time.” And when we see it again in TOS it is a cloak for the same effect, but uses some other “hand waves” tech.

The Klingons DID have cloaking tech by that point since they had it during Archer’s time.

Lots of stuff in TOS makes no sense in hindsight. Tons. The original series often contradicts itself episode-to-episode because they really weren’t bothering with strong continuity. I tend to look at contradictions with TOS with a very undiscerning eye.

TOS was a rough draft. I don’t consider any of it to be cannon.

That and the fact that Starfleet officers will assault their commanding officers on a whim, get thousands killed in the ensuing battle and still somehow come out smelling like roses.

Tbh the Klingons having A type of cloaking device wasn’t a problem.
I always imagined cloaking devices a matter of arms race between cloaking and sensors.
The 22nd century Romulan cloak was circumvented with the help of Daniels (an event that wouldn’t have gone unnoticed by the Romulans).
The T’Kuvma style cloaking device was rendered useless by Discovery and didn’t seem to work at warp speed.

Re: a type of cloaking device

It shouldn’t be a problem at all considering we in the 21st century possess stealth technology, a type of cloaking device, without upsetting Trek canon.

But if some are really yearning to scratch the canon violating cloak bugaboo, what about in ASSIGNNENT EARTH, when Kirk says he’s using the E’s shields to hide, i.e. a type of cloak, from 20th century Earth? Isn’t that a violation of the Romulan War Treaty’s ban on cloaks that Federation shields can be configured to cloak no matter how primitive the effect?

TOS isn’t cannon. Consider it a rough draft of Star Trek. The first movie was a reboot of Trek.

JJ’s original proposal when he did Trek 09 was to completely realign Star Trek and the rights to it around his company, and to “de-canonize” the old series and movies like how Disney made the Star Wars novels Legends.

Not even remotely true.

Uh, yeah, pretty sure it is. The fact Paramount wouldn’t embrace his idea of taking all the merch off the shelves to make it just jjtrektoys was supposed to be the reason he phoned in ID, as I recall. Pretty sure there were some exhaustive threads on that here and elsewhere.

If you’re old enough to remember, sort of like John Byrne did with SUPERMAN, overwriting 45 years and starting over with a new issue 1 of the comic, or so I read in an Ellison interview.

I don’t think he was suggesting to just de-canonize the stories though. Because if so, then how do you explain Prime Spock from the 24th century? That in itself basically means everything literally up that point in the timeline had to remain canon (yes, I know I’m getting nit picky nerdy here ;)). But their own story actually made it clear the Prime universe WAS canon in every way.

I think all Abrams was suggesting was to make the Kelvin characters the primary merchandising arm. And it made sense because the Kelvin movies (at the time) were literally the only new Star Trek content happening, at least in canon. Now I don’t AGREE with him and yeah I can’t blame CBS for laughing out of the office if it’s true, but I think it was more about merchandise and not about making prime universe a non-factor.

And you would have to assume that meant Abrams wanted every Trek story going forward would be in the Kelvin universe and would basically omit any new stories with all the old characters (and actors) they had for decades. I know Abrams don’t get a lot of love here these days, but I can’t believe even he would be that arrogant to even want to suggest doing that?

I am so seriously not a fan of Abrams — there is literally not a single credit of his that I like, outside of a story credit on ARMAGEDDON and, oddly enough, most of THE FORCE AWAKENS, for which I had less than zero expectations — that I can believe he is arrogant as all that, but you’re right, gaming it out as you did suggesting it would be most unlikely.

I worked for the company at the time. What’s being claimed here is simply untrue.

Enlighten us then as to what the angle was being pursued?

I’m not a fan of JJ’s work on Star Trek or Star Wars but, as I understand, Rios is correct (I wasn’t working there but I knew people who were). If you look back at when the film was in production and released, it seemed everyone involved with the production was going out of their way to make it very clear that the ’09 film was not attempting to replace the original series or prime timeline and that they were running parallel to each other (thought the film could have been a bit clearer about it with a line of dialogue or two from Spock). The idea was to have this series of films stand alone from what had come before it. That’s pretty much the long and short of it.

Exactly! I mean Bob Orci made that as clear as day right here on this site before the film came out. They explained not a single thing from the Prime universe was erased or changed. They would have to be nuts to somehow suggest they were going to erase 40+ years of stories in one movie that could bomb. I don’t think anyone would let them suggest that even if they wanted to knowing how important these shows and movies are to fans.

I really wish someone just said the words ‘parallel universe’ in the movie and that would’ve been it. They purposely kept it vague but all that did was create a decade of nerd fights asking if the prime universe was erased or not….while oddly ignoring the fact all the new shows on now has made it clear it wasn’t. Shows being developed by the same guy who wrote the first film as well.

I was referring to the discussions pre ID about the need to suppress pre JJ merchandise, not 09. Sorry if not clear on that point.

Oh OK. Sorry this is so late but I understand you now.

and Disco wholesale ignoring canon particularly in season 1

Jesus, not this again. No. No, it didn’t.

Agreed. Far too many fans are melodramatic and ridiculous.

This obviously isn’t a surprise because Star Trek has been a shared universe since 1987 since that iconic moment between Data and McCoy walking in the corridor on the Enterprise and it’s been one since. That’s what I loved about Star Trek once TNG came around is that not only was the universe being expanded, it was also now interconnected.

The irony about the MCU for me is I started to really like it because it felt like what Star Trek was already doing for decades before it showed up, it just wasn’t as deliberate as the MCU was doing it and they did try to keep the shows and movies mostly separate but would include references and crossovers here and there.

But that’s what makes Star Trek so much fun for fans, is to see how interconnected it is, especially now that it has crossed not only multiple centuries but now universes. But just think about all the storylines Star Trek has done and how they crossed over and affected numerous shows and films.

Mirror Universe (actually one of the BIGGEST storylines in Trek today):: TOS, DS9, ENT and DIS

Augments/Eugenics war: TOS, TWOK, DS9, ENT, STID

Borg (big one too): TNG, FC, VOY, ENT, PIC

Vulcan/Romulan unification: TNG, DIS

Section 31: DS9, ENT, STID, DIS

Maquis: DS9, TNG, VOY

Dominion War: DS9, INS

Klingon/Federation conflict: TOS, TUC, DS9, ENT, DIS

What is also fun about Star Trek is how writers/producers decides to drop references from storylines made years, sometimes decades ago into new shows and movies. Like how Sisko was there at Wolf 359 that killed his wife and was part of the character even though we never saw the Borg on the show. How the Temporal Wars are now being referenced in Discovery that started on Enterprise and even hinted it was part of the Kelvin universe as well. How Beyond took the MACO/Xindi storyline from Enterprise and made it part of the background of Krall. How Nic Meyer took the idea that Klingons and Federation were no longer enemies in TNG and decided to base the story of how that started as a prelude in The Undiscovered Country. How the story in the Tholian Web from TOS was extended into Enterprise In the Mirror, Darkly on Enterprise and then referenced in Discovery in it’s first season. It just creates a nice continuity in things without hitting you over the head about it.

Fans want to see more of these things going forward, not less. It just makes the universe(s) more whole. And it’s probably why they picked a writer from Discovery to write the next film (IF that is the film that they are prepping for 2023) and can add a layer on the current and past shows into that movie as well. It doesn’t HAVE to but with Kurtzman’s statement here, that’s probably what is happening.

And I can’t wait how new shows like SNW and PRO are tied into the bigger universe too.

Well, crossovers have been happening in comics since 1940, when The Shield first teamed up with The Wizard in an issue of Pep… and multiverses since 1961’s ‘Flash Of Two Worlds!’ comic introduced Earth-1 and Earth-2, when Barry Allen meets Jay Garrick.

But to your point, yeah, the idea of all of Star Trek’s evolving IP being in a shared multiverse makes sense strategically; both as a big canvas to tell lots of different stories, and then to do Team-Ups Of Awesome™ when the moment arises.

I’m still kinda sad we didn’t get to see any of the Netflix Marvel characters, nor anyone from Agents of SHIELD in Endgame, but hey, now we’re into phase…what is it.. five? Maybe it’ll be cool to have a new Disney+ show with cameos from Quake, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones etc.

Also to get even more technical the Universal Monsters movies from the 1930s and 40s were a shared universe too. One of the first cinematical shared universes I believe.

I didn’t say Star Trek was the first shared universe…I only meant it was the first one *I* was invested in personally because I been watching it for so long. My brother runs a comic book store, believe me, I know all about comics history at this point.

But as for MCU, I do agree that has been it’s weak spot, that it basically ignored the shows, especially AoS (which I’m a huge fan of). That show brought in the movie characters all the time, but movies never brought in the TV characters. That really bothered me (a lot of us). And yes same with the Netflix characters, but even in their own shows, MCU was vaguely referenced itself. It’s like Netflix wanted to use MCU to promote the shows, but then did very little to make them feel connected most of the time. It’s also why I think less people started to watch them as well.

But now that they are doing all the new shows on Disney+ starring the movie characters directly, those will clearly be connected to the films the others didn’t get a chance to do. But there has been rumors Daredevil will show up in the next Spider-Man movie, but yes, for now that’s all it is, rumors.

Peggy and Jarvis from ‘agent carter’ appeared in EG.

Word is Matt Murdock will be appearing either in the next Spidey movie or ‘she hulk’ for D+

As a life long Trek fan I am happy about having more Trek and more interconnectedness. I have enjoyed the new shows although they have yet to stick the landing and give us a complete season with a satisfying finale. They are throwing way too much crap and not enough substance and logical resolution into the finales. This past season of Disco is the perfect example. It was a total train wreck that really screwed up the entire season. And for what? Did they really think that fans were going to be mesmerized by ridiculous action scenes in an impossibly large starship train station? Did that stuff bring in new viewers during the series finale? What a shame to ruin a decent season, and for what? That kind of think makes me question the entire staff of people working on these shows.

So far I’ve loved most of what’s happening in Trek. I am kind of mystified by the hate Discovery gets. I thoroughly enjoyed it so far. I wasn’t bothered so much by visual inconsistencies from what was established in that era, but the Klingons having cloaking devices remains a sore point, ( as did Enterprise indicating Klingons had Photon Torpedoes before the United Earth. )
There are two issues that have been a problem for me. The destruction of Romulus is one. The Romulans never really got their due, especially with the Klingons ‘stealing’ the bird of pray/War Bird style and the cloak. Also, the end of the Terran
Empire. Hopefully that can be corrected as it was a terrific enemy that could have rivaled the Klingons in interest.

I have a side question that is related to this. When I read Trek news here, it seems like Kurtzman has a pretty steady hand on the wheel of Trek and despite whatever aesthetic choices I may take issue with once in a while, I overall feel like TPTB seem fairly happy with how he has been managing the franchise during his tenure. But then on YouTube, you have channels like Midnight’s Edge preaching this total doom-and-gloom version of events that, as far as I can tell, is mostly conjecture and not particularly based in facts. Am I misreading it? Can someone explain to me what is going with Kurtzman? I am more inclined to believe TrekMovie because the coverage here has been fantastic, but I can’t factor-in some of the absolutely negative coverage. Does anybody want to offer some sort of explanation that I can wrap my head around?

From what little I’ve read of their stuff, Midnight’s Edge seems to be a bunch of lying morons (as in, they’re deliberately misrepresenting stuff and doing a stupid job of it), but knocking the Kurtzman and co are doing is for me, the right thing to do, because these two live-action series have largely sucked IMO. And some (not all, Lord knows) of it was in ways that could have been fixed by smart rewriting. I’m beginning to wonder if the whole writer’s room thing at some productions is no different than a Republican sit-down where everybody just nods when the big cheese intones, because I have a hard time believing a bunch of professionals could all miss the really moronic storytelling choices, especially the ones that pad critical moments with more of the hard-on-the-eyes VFX and dull them out with bad dialog.

Midnight’s Edge are like the UK tabloids. They have a tendency to report sensationalist stories based on what usually are false rumours, conjecture and snippets of information taken way out of context. Its gossip and People love a good story, however ridiculous is credibility.

Those YouTube trolls make up stories for view hits. Don’t waste your time with them.

For anyone who has ever been associated with one of the shows or film franchises they’ve discussed or picked apart over they years on YouTube your first reaction is, “Yeah, I happen to know for a fact that’s not true.” They’re far less than what they’re attempting to portray themselves as and are just making it up as they go.

Its the 90s all over again! all we need now is Pine and Stewart (and Burnham) on the cover of TIME magazine (if its still going that is)

I recall Alex stating that the TV Production has gotten so good that to do a feature it would have to be special. Perhaps the next movie should be an Avengers style mashup with all the Captains getting together. That is something that probably couldnt be done on TV. The age old question is do you want to appeal to audiences outside of the fanbase. They may be scared off by not knowing the backstory of the characters. Ifs you do a complete reboot you run the risk of not having something that folks identify as Star Trek. Will be interesting to see which way they go

An “Avengers” style mashup is probably out of the budget range Paramount is eyeing. Also, unless you recast the roles, most of the Captains from previous shows are unfortunately no longer able to carry an “Avengers” style movie. I mean Shatner and Stewart are 90 and 80 years old. That’s not whom studios usually base action blockbusters on.
Unless they drop the budget substantially, Paramount simply has to appeal to audiences outside of the fanbase. I’m also very interested to see which way they’ll try it, assuming that movie announced for July 2023 does actually happen.

IMO Paramount need to completely change tac in terms of what they want the next movie to be.
Revenge, Action Shooter isn’t the answer. It’s been done for 4 films in a row now and it’s been done before those films as well.

They to do one off movies. Make a “Joker” version of a trek movie.

Do a war movie, horror, comedy.. but revenge, needs a rest lol.

They could use PLANET OF THE TITANS as a basis for a standalone TREK movie, w/ or w/o the regular Enterprise crew, been saying that for years. Though not Kaufman’s reworked treatment, I’ve read all but one page of that and it is some kind of mess.

To quote the great Montgomery Burns:
“Excellent.”

So true. And if you think about it, a season of Discovery is like a 10-hour, sloppily atrocious movie filled with chills and big-screen cringe. But with synergy.

I might be in minority, but I think Discovery 100% plays like TV, not a movie, or even parts of a movie.

I haven’t watched Discovery all through properly (haven’t seen S3 at all) though so maybe that’s why I feel this to be the case.
The visuals are pretty close to JJ, generally. Though movie visuals are more consistent in terms of quality, which is understandable.

In terms of pacing and character play, TV and Movies are different and always will be.
Both mediums have their positives and negatives. IMO.

Didn’t even see a second of Strange new world and I already wish for a feature Film with Anson Mount at the helm!

How long do you think before everyone here will be saying that the show is awful?

Here, let’s start now. It just about has to be partially awful because they will almost certainly use the bad light design and effects choices that Discovery has been using.

If they ever have a choice between splashy and realistic NuTrek always seem to vote for the splashy. I’m talking about sets with tiny spot lights shining into the camera nearly every direction it is aimed and dark wall shadows all over rooms where people regularly work. Who designs a room like that?. Then effects like the transporter beam or Klingon makeup which were redesigned purely to be splashy and different instead of for an improved hypothesis of the “scientific” realism.

I sure would love to be proven wrong though.

I agree at least a thousand percent with this post.

Multiply that by my issues with the storytelling thus far, and … well, Magic 8-ball sez, ‘outlook doubtful.’

As much as I’m mightily impressed by Mount, all you have to do is look at YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE or NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN to see even Sean Connery’s presence can’t save every Bond or supposed-to-be-Bond movie.

That gap….pre TNG, post UC….I really wanna see that gap filled!

Same. Would love to get a proper introduction of the Cardassians or even how they got into a war with them.

Good to see this. Hopefully it will get the movies rolling again.

DC still has different versions of their properties out there.

Good: A return to the permeability between segments of the franchise that we enjoyed in the late 90s/early 00s with TNG movies running alongside multiple TV shows (even though they each picked their own corner of the room to play in and the TNG movies had to jump through some hoops to justify not being About the Dominion War).

Bad: Maybe the Kelvinverse has outlived its usefulness, despite Beyond having finally matured it into something with really great potential.

What’s funny about the Kelvin films is that the cast is far more established and well known today than in 2009. They’re now the A-list talent they weren’t when the series was rebooted. If you were going to do a new film with the Kelvin cast now would be the perfect time to do it.

I think it would be cheaper to do the Prime Universe counterparts of those characters. They have a Spock, they need a Kirk and the rest of the crew. They could probably do a 13 episode series for a hundred million or less. When another Kelvin film is at least going to cost 200 million. They could use the Discoprise as well. Redress sets as needed.

Leave these mediocre Kurtzman TV series on TV where they belong. Outside N America they are not popular at all on any streaming services just click on this if you already have a sub content then click away once you have had enough the forced PC messages being crammed into the content.

Linking poorly conceived TV series to future movies outside of minor lines of dialog is simply not going to make any difference.

They need to craft a cinematic movie with the Kelvin crew otherwise keep it on TV no longer any point trying to relaunch a movie with new crew & ship (that alone adds $100m+ to the budget).

What I don’t get is why we even need trek movies at this stage anymore. I get the need to do the Kelvin films because there is no TV show, but the prime universe shows have movie quality production values as is. Plus a series allows for broader and deeper character development anyway.

Because movies can bring in a lot more money than a TV show if they are really successful. End of the day franchises diversify themselves as much as possible and for an entity like Trek its ALL important: TV shows, movies, comic books, novels, etc.