Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

New Star Trek Series Premieres January 2017

startrek.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 200 posts

Re: New Star Trek Series Premieres January 2017

#151

Post by eslaught »

dogma1138 wrote: post #39
eslaught wrote: post #12

While we're here, let's also acknowledge some of the fan-funded efforts that have been keeping the spirit alive: http://www.startrekaxanar.com/ http://startrekrenegades.com/ I, for one, am really looking forward to Axanar as much or even more than these official series.

Renegades was nigh godawful. Prelude to Axanar reminded me of the real-action adverts that big budget games have these days was very HALO 3-eque, not good or bad persay, but it was just a relative short (20min) for their kickstarter so not much to judge it by, the VFX looked professional but very un-Star Trek like which was some what disappointing but unless you have the DS9 effects team that managed to make 3D-CGI l…

Renegades I won't dispute. But I felt like Prelude was exactly what it set out to be and did quite well for that too. Both are doing remarkably well considering the budgets they've been given (even Renegades).

In this day and age we have the privilege to pay for what we want to see, if we feel like it. People love to complain, but seriously, if we aren't willing to pony up the cash for something, why should we expect to studios to produce what we want to see? Even paying for a Netflix subscription will split your money so many different ways that the studios aren't going to be getting that much at the end.

Re: New Star Trek Series Premieres January 2017

#152

Post by ConceptJunkie »

Someone1234 wrote: post #147
savanaly wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They were fine action films, but they totally lacked the heart and soul of the tv series, particularly the tv series' focus on exploration and diplomacy and resolving conflicts without violence. Granted, this has often been the case with Star Trek films (First Contact was sort of an action movie for example).

> Granted, this has often been the case with Star Trek films (First Contact was sort of an action movie for example). This is a point Trek fans rarely acknowledge. Star Trek the TV show is often more thoughtful and deals with social commentary well. However Star Trek movies rarely are. Let's look at the classic Star Trek movies: Wrath of Khan, Search for Spock, and The Undiscovered Country are all action films. The V…

I thought "First Contact" was not a very good Trek movie. It always struck me as a movie that was made from a non-Star Trek script that was retroactively made into a Star Trek script. I also thought Captain Picard's behavior was wildly inconsistent with how he was portrayed in the show... not where he went all "Goodfellas" on the Borg in the holodeck, that was a fine character moment, but when he "mercy killed" one of his crew. This was something the TV Picard would never have done. He would have risked his life and the whole ship to save that one crewman and not just given up so early one... after all, he was dragged off and assimilated himself, but he was rescued and recovered.

"First Contact" also played fast and loose with established canon a lot more than any other movie had done. I didn't care for the portrayal of Cochrane as a drunk loser (although this has no bearing on James Cromwell's performance... he is always great).

There's nothing wrong with action in Trek... it's built into the concept, but the action was always less important than the Big Ideas... at least until some of the movies, and especially the vapid JJTrek reboots came along.

Re: New Star Trek Series Premieres January 2017

#153

Post by cmiles74 »

Amezarak wrote: post #47
cmiles74 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given they have the head writer from the last two movies, I can't see them sticking with the old, tired canon. It could be that they need to be clear that they aren't associated with the next film. Different characters, etc.

> Given they have the head writer from the last two movies, I can't see them sticking with the old, tired canon What is "tired" about existing canon? What stops people from writing new stories with new characters in the "old" canon? How, for example, was Voyager burdened by the old, tired canon in TNG or DS9? As best I can tell, the only reason they don't do it is because they would prefer to cash in on the popularit…

I can see where you are coming from and I acknowledge that my comment was cleary meant to denigrate "the canon" of older Star Trek works.

You may be right, a new team of writers may be able to author a new show that adheres to these stories and still comes off as fresh and exciting.

To my mind, the Voyager series (which I did enjoy) was meant to do what you recommend: use exploration of new worlds as a way to introduce new storylines and, to some degree, to distance the show from the storylines of the past. While I enjoyed that show, I don't think it was entirely successful. Specifically, it didn't appear to generate enough interest to warrrant more films, which seem to be what keeps this series alive.

The last series, Enterprise, seemed to be trying to accomplish the same goal by going back into the past, before many of these storylines took place. To my mind, it was wholly unsuccessful. I watched every episode and felt unsatisfied after the majority of them.

In my opinion, the failure of the last two series to generate enough interest for more films was a big reason why the "reboot" idea is more attractive.

Re: New Star Trek Series Premieres January 2017

#154

Post by ocdtrekkie »

rhino369 wrote: post #143
aidenn0 wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah the two new movies were essentially action movies that captured the feel of the TOS characters.

All the movies except 1 and 4 were essentially action movies. And 4 was mostly a fish out of water comedy.

As much as it's often panned, Insurrection is the most Star Trek of Star Trek movies. It's about the Prime Directive at it's core. The Undiscovered Country is also a great example of a movie about diplomacy.

Sure, every movie is going to be action-packed for film screens, but those two I felt stuck to Star Trek's ideals more than the rest, where the movie focused on stopping a specific evil villain.

Re: New Star Trek Series Premieres January 2017

#155

Post by ocdtrekkie »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #45
valm- wrote: post #35

It appears we will all need to pay CBS %5.99 a month to watch this.

Yes, CBS has this weird notion that you will pay $5.99 a month AND watch commercials that you can't skip. I get that they "think" its like this now, they get paid by the cable company for their channel (the $5.99) and they send them content with commercials (which they have sold), but the new world is NetFlix which charges monthly, but has now commercials.

People love to make the Netflix comparison, but it's generally silly. First-run, current-season material is vastly more expensive than the backlogs and cheap movies Netflix buys.

You couldn't/wouldn't want to pay for how much current TV shows would cost in commercial free. Netflix works because they only buy cheap content.

Re: New Star Trek Series Premieres January 2017

#156

Post by vanderZwan »

ericcumbee wrote: post #33
vanderZwan wrote: post #14

> The brand-new Star Trek will introduce new characters seeking imaginative new worlds and new civilizations, while exploring the dramatic contemporary themes that have been a signature of the franchise since its inception in 1966 . Although the series is aimed more at the US than the rest of the world, What if they decided to tackle the current migration issues? Those will only become bigger in the future as climate…

I'm really hoping its not set in the new timeline. My hope is that it is a continuation of the Post Deep Space Nine/ Dominion War/ Voyager timeline. I would hope they look at whats happened in the books set in that period. The final borg invasion, the rise of the typhon pact, and Dr.Bashir from DS9 becoming sort of a Ed Snowden character.

Oh that sounds fantastic. Yes, surveillance and privacy is also a Big Theme these days.

(I only mentioned the new timeline because a Star Trek centered around the troubles of the migrating remainders of Vulcan civilization is just about the only thing that sounds like an appealing hook in that setting. Like others have mentioned, it's an Space Action Movie timeline, not a cerebral Star Trek timeline)

Re: New Star Trek Series Premieres January 2017

#157

Post by ocdtrekkie »

dogma1138 wrote: post #21

Kinda worried that this will be a "web-only" series, Star Trek needs quite a good production to work well, The budget for a TNG episode was 2M$ which was pretty unheard off back then and is even considered expensive these days (GOT which is currently the most expensive running show has about 6M per episode and when you count the fact that TNG had 24-25 episodes per season the overall season budget was almost the same…

Web-only may be a great choice for a scifi series these days though. Nielsen ratings are harsh on traditional TV scifi shows since so many of us watch online.

Re: New Star Trek Series Premieres January 2017

#158

Post by ocdtrekkie »

cmiles74 wrote: post #153
Amezarak wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Given they have the head writer from the last two movies, I can't see them sticking with the old, tired canon What is "tired" about existing canon? What stops people from writing new stories with new characters in the "old" canon? How, for example, was Voyager burdened by the old, tired canon in TNG or DS9? As best I can tell, the only reason they don't do it is because they would prefer to cash in on the popularit…

I can see where you are coming from and I acknowledge that my comment was cleary meant to denigrate "the canon" of older Star Trek works. You may be right, a new team of writers may be able to author a new show that adheres to these stories and still comes off as fresh and exciting. To my mind, the Voyager series (which I did enjoy) was meant to do what you recommend: use exploration of new worlds as a way to introdu…

Enterprise was just badly written for much of it's run. Season 4 was an excellent example of how Enterprise could've been done very well, but unfortunately it was way too late to save the show.

Re: New Star Trek Series Premieres January 2017

#159

Post by ChuckMcM »

toxican wrote: post #113
ChuckMcM wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, CBS has this weird notion that you will pay $5.99 a month AND watch commercials that you can't skip. I get that they "think" its like this now, they get paid by the cable company for their channel (the $5.99) and they send them content with commercials (which they have sold), but the new world is NetFlix which charges monthly, but has now commercials.

It's not a weird notion, considering it works fairly well for Hulu. Even their "commercial-free" tier features commercials on select episodes because "reasons"

Perhaps 'weird' is the wrong word, I think ultimately it is an unsupportable position. It seems irrational to me in the face of alternatives (Amazon, NetFlix) with higher customer satisfaction.
Post reply on HN