Star Trek in Film and TV (and The Orville, too!) (Page 1 of 12)

The initial rumors have the first season set somewhere just after the 6th movie, "The Undiscovered Country"; and that's probably one of the eras I'm least interested in.  For me, it would feel like a step backward instead of a step forward.  Bakula's Enterprise had a similar problem, but at least it's history was new to us.  A revisit to the Undiscovered Country era is just going to be pure retread.

Maybe they're thinking they need to do it first before George Takei dies - all of his adventures as Captain Sulu are in that era.

I'd be interested in a Klingon ship after Undiscovered Country.  Or a Federation ship patrolling the Federation/Klingon border, where things might be in a bit of chaos.  Could be some interesting Cold War / post-WWII Berlin / post Iraq War Middle East comparisons to be made.

I do hope we get some post-DS9/VOY stuff and not all prequel stuff.

A Worf series WOULD be awesome.....

That said though I am very fond of TNG/DS9 Era Romulans too....

I read a Fan made Partial rewrite of Star Trek: Nemesis.... I guess you could call it an early draft?

Basically a Romulan Movie done right in Fic Form rather than the haphazard mess of a Film we ACTUALLY got.

Let me know if a Link to it would be of interest.

Thoughts....

1. To answer the canon question, this series is "rumored" to follow the original, pre-Orci movie canon.  That means all 10 films and the 5 TV shows, which is music to my ears because I have little affinity for his stories.

2. An anthology series is quite intriguing.  Ironically this is basically what they've been doing with the fan-produced series for years now.  Moreover, this is the new trend.  More and more TV series are doing it, and changing out the casts season after season.  This allows shorter arcs, that can be more focused and fresh.  I like it.

3. CBS All Access I think to me sucks.  Why would I PAY for a service for one show?  Really dumb idea.

4. I'm generally happy to hear about this, because as I said, I'd given up on the franchise.  The movies do nothing for me, and the 2nd one was terrible.

Include me on that.  I'm already PAYING CBS as part of my cable bill, why would I pay them again?  They're out of their minds.

I think they could do subtle updates to the tech without being too disloyal to the original shows.  A PADD was just a less-fancy tablet.  Make it a little better, and it works.  Less buttons and more touchscreens.  The new movies did a lot of this stuff (Kirk and Scotty have a conversation on a "cell phone" across the galaxy).

I think that's sorta the way I'd do it.  Keep the look and feel of the old tech but update it slightly to make it more relatable.

Well, if we're talking TNG-VOY, the "communicators" also function as transporter locks.  So while it's separating "communication" from our "cell phones" - it actually serves another purpose in the Trek universe.  And it makes sense to have the communicator/transport lock be on your universe/on your body to make sure it works.  It could be subdermal, I guess, but I don't think that technology is necessarily archaic.

The big difference would be however information is displayed, and everything would be smaller and more compact.

If they wanted to go with an explanation, I like the idea that technology stagnated after WWIII.  They're also seemingly behind us in terms of AI technology (The Computer is basically just a better version of Siri, and we'll be better than that in the next decade).  So maybe AI was responsible for WWIII, and we vowed never to go down that road again.  And maybe, due to the fact that everyone had their faces in their cell phones 24/7, we decided to make technology less streamlined.

It sorta works, I guess.

I guess we'll see how it plays out.

For the record, I have never used Siri, but I do like Amazon's Alexa.

That is interesting. What I always found funny was that in emergency situations, everything could be done by voice command. The helm, weapons, environmental systems and all of it could be controlled by voice when they needed to. So most of the crew is just for show.

Well there's a few episodes where the various ships go down to skeleton crews, and they can still function.  There's the episode where the Doctor is the only one on the ship, right?  And still manages to win a battle, right?

In the episode where Voyager turned out to be duplicates, the crew was just Harry and Seven, right? 

You gotta think a great deal of the crew would have to be maintenance and cleaning, right?  Those ships are always running at top efficiency and look brand new every day.

https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads … t-20806408

https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads … t-21077946

There ya go!

He was a great actor, destined for quite a lot, very nice, humble guy too.  Quite a shame.

He seemed like a good dude, and he was a rising star at one point (he did a bunch of big projects in a row at a pretty young age).  He sorta slowed down a bit, but he brought a lot to the Chekov role.  RIP.

I like the idea of an anthology series and so many possibilities are wide open.
I would like to see "The Adventures of Excelsior" captained by Capt Sulu (of course have another actor play . He was in his forties at the time of St 6 and is in his sixties now. Could Takei pull it off?  Possibly. Would be interesting. ) 

I'd like to see one story dedicated to the Federation -Romulan War. This would preclude TOS by about 100 years and chronicle the adventures of a starship, the USS Patton that engaged the Romulans.

Be good to see Worf in command of his own vessel, be it a Federation Starship or a Klingon battle cruiser...

And lets see them dedicate a season  to a Romulan storyline
I get all warm and fuzzy thinking of the possibilities.

Fuller implying that nothing we know is right:

http://www.superherohype.com/news/37699 … rek-rumors

Wow, that's way more restrictive than I thought it'd be.  I was thinking they might exclude actual Star Trek actors and restrict any money they make.  The titling rule makes sense.  But if guys want to pay a crap ton of money to make an authentic-looking Trek, I don't see any reason why they shouldn't be able to.  As long as, of course, people aren't making any money off of it.

I'm surprised Paramount didn't just require the movies to be hosted on their own website.  And let Paramount put ads during or before it so they can get some money off every viewing.  Anything not housed on the Paramount-owned site would be taken down, and they'd control it. 

I mean, heck, they could even do more with it.  What if Paramount decided to take an actual role in these films?  These fan studios/productions could pay Paramount to make their productions with the help of Paramount themselves.  If you want to make your own sets and costumes and run the production yourself, then that's fine.  But what if you wanted  to make a fan film but didn't have any experience?  What if Paramount let you pay to use certain sets that they've built?  And costumes?  And even use freelance cameramen, directors, editors, etc to help the whole process through?

I don't know if the demand is there for that, but wouldn't it be cool if you could make something under the banner of Paramount?  Something, while not canon, that is "official" in one way or another?

Those rules are clearly aimed at things like Star Trek:New Voyages, that have used unproduced TOS and TNG scripts and featured appearances from TOS cast members.

Yeah, I get that.  I don't blame Paramount for coming down hard - and maybe they will ease up in the future.  I just think it'd be really cool for the property if Paramount went the other direction and actively helped fan films.

As someone who works for a not-for-profit, it can be hazy to determine what counts as profiting and not profiting. I'm a staff member; I earn money, I am profiting. The not-for-profit part simply means that my organization is not seeking to earn money to enrich itself; it's seeking to accomplish other goals. But we get to operate in that gray area because we're not using unlicensed copyrighted material and intellectual property that belong to somebody else.

Paramount's restrictions seem partially focused on how nobody involved in a fan film should be making money from it, not from the sale of the film, not from tickets, and not from salaries based on working in it. However, the restricted length and the content limitations that STAR TREK itself doesn't adhere to and the requirement that fan films use Paramount sponsored props seems designed specifically to discourage all fan films. It's unfortunate -- but Paramount is entirely within its rights to say what should and shouldn't be done with its material.

If my neighbour uses my backyard barbeque without asking, I may let him or I may refuse or I may let him do it for a week or two but then declare that it's off limits for the third week. Or I may say that he's limited to using only olive oil and that no charcoal is permitted or that it's only for vegetable kebabs. It's my barbeque. If he wants to make hamburgers, he can buy his own barbeque. If Alec Peters wants to make a space opera film, he can do it without using the STAR TREK copyrights. Paramount is entirely within its rights to say what can and can't be done with its barbeque.

I sometimes wonder if EarthPrime.com and Dimension of Continuity are just one or two ceast and desist letters away from getting shut down due to us posting scripts, reviews, original writing and other uses of material that is owned by NBCUniversal and used without permission. However, we're not making any money from it aside from having portfolio pieces to show our skills to future employers. We lose money on it; SLIDERS REBORN is $180 overbudget because I had to rent a hotel room to finish the first script, Matt pays the hosting fees and for tech support due to hacks. Any financial gain will be for NBCUniversal through a DVD sale now and then.

A ROBOCOP site out there earns money by having referral ads to ROBOCOP merchandise on Amazon that earns the site a small piece of each Amazon purchase resulting from the link -- I would avoid doing even that. When we don't own a property, we have no business taking other people's money for it; even crowdsourcing to presumably pay for resources makes me wary, and people like Alec Peters have made it clear that the crowd may simply be having their funds line the fundraiser's pocket.

Alec Peters' defense of his financial arrangements and his legal position are absurd. He first claims that Paramount is giving him trouble because they want his money as though a studio that earns $300 million in profit annually would want his $1 million on crowdsourced funds. He then says that Paramount is jealous of his material and insecure that his output is better than theirs, a claim based in such petty and empty subjectivity that it should be dismissed entirely. He then says that yes, despite AXANAR being not for profit, he pays himself out of the crowdsourced funds, but he should because he works 60 hour weeks and it's less than what Paramount executives get paid. Whether it's more or less is irrelevant; he is earning money with somebody else's property which he has not licensed, which he has no right to use. And if Paramount didn't mind, that's fine, but if they do mind, they are entirely within their rights to do so. It's their house. They get to say you're not to use their barbeque.

JJ Abrams and Justin Lin protested the lawsuit; I think they were unaware that AXANAR was using crowdsourcing to build Alec Peters' studio space for other projects and to pay him five figures.

One of the things I would super-appreciate if people did is write to Amazon's Kindle Worlds program (http://kindleworlds.amazon.com) and ask them to add SLIDERS as a world. This will allow authors to write Sliders work (minimum 5k words up to full length books) and be able to sell it on the kindle platform, and get compensated for it.

It takes two seconds to write Kindle Worlds, you can do so here: https://kindleworlds.amazon.com/contactus 

They already responded when I wrote them, saying:

"In order to submit or create a World we need you to please send us a request, just like you have done. Your request has been recorded.

We continue to expand the program, and will keep your offer in mind when we open negotiations for new Worlds.

If we believe there's an opportunity to work with them, we'll be definitely announce and let you know about it via email.

I think if they get 5 or 10 requests, it's certainly better than just one so I hope folks here will send a brief note. It would seem to help to improve the chances.  I know Aaron, who many of you have heard on Sliderscast, would want to try to do a Sliders series (he's already done six non sliders books), and I am sure there's some other authors out there who've already done work that can be repurposed for the program.

We have a lot of good authors in the community, and it is a way of carrying the torch with regard to the franchise continuing to put out stories, and at least there's a little financial incentive, even if it by and large remains passion project writing.  Getting Sliders on Kindle Worlds is a achievable goal.

As far as your mentioning a fan-made Sliders series, I think it would be certainly cool to do teleplays... there are a couple of great JRD impersonators out there, there's a guy who imitated Jerry's voice for VO work on the Kangaroo Jack animated series, doing Remmy wouldn't be too hard, and same with Wade. I think a decent quality audio production could be put together for $2-5k. I think Sliders 2015 is perfect for it. And I think it would be plausible to raise the money on kickstarter.

That said, I'm not even thinking about the teleplay nowadays.  Since Jerry wants to bring back to tv series so much (especially if he doesn't get the Kelly talk show gig), I'd like to see how that plays out. I had an interesting exchange on twitter with the co-executive producer on NBC's blacklist, a friend & past collaborator with Tracy, and while I think it'd be awful hard to get a network without the right things in place, I'm not giving up on the idea that a tv series or tv movie is impossible.

My thoughts on Grizzlor's thoughts:

(a) With the exception of STAR TREK CONTINUES, all those fanfilms and fan serieses SUCKED. Terrible cinematography, embarrassingly poor acting (even from the professional actors) and ghastly writing. We had this lengthy debate on the old Bboard where you said the original series was cheesy too and I said the original TREK was melodramatic and funny and conversational and skillful whereas these fan films were just inept. So, no great loss on the most part.

(b) When you play in somebody else's sandbox without permission, that sand may be confiscated and the box dismantled at any time. Anyone who doesn't take the time to inform themselves of that potentiality shouldn't get into the sandbox. Nobody told them to invest the time and money into a project that used copyrighted material they didn't license and do not own.

(c) If they really want to tell their stories and make their shows and films in the way that they have, they could still do it. If NBCUniversal sent me a cease and desist notice on SLIDERS REBORN, I'd be back online within the hour. SLIDERS REBORN would become JUMPERS REBORN. Quinn would Quentin Michaels, Wade would be Willa Wallace, Rembrandt/Remmy would become Raphael/Raphi Baldwin and Professor Arturo would become Professor Allan and I'd just carry on as a parody.

The idea of getting impersonators is because I don't think you can get the real actors. I once did think that might be possible... as a final send off of the series for sliders fans... but with jerry now interested in doing a tv series, I would think he wouldn't want to do what would be canon via a uncommercialzed one time radio drama.

I don't think corey/tom were doing those things seriously.. they were meant to be funny.  You'd have to find people who could do a decent job of sounding like these characters.  Although not easy, I think its possible. And I don't think you do it if you can't find those folks. I realize this more now than I once did.

I do agree bad actors would make the entire thing satirical in a bad way.  Trying to do such a project is not something I'd even suggest pursuing at this time, I just brought it up as a form of a fan revival that I think is more reasonable to achieve then doing anything live action, like i think informant was suggesting.... because it is just so much bigger of an effort once cameras are involved.

The STAR TREK RENEGADES fan series, in response to the TREK fanfilm guidelines, has decided to carry on with their project anyway. They're just removing all the STAR TREK elements from their content. If their material is worth doing to begin with, this isn't going to be a problem.

Looking at my own stuff -- if you took LONELYGIRL15 out of LONELYJOURNAL15 and SLIDERS out of SLIDERS REBORN, they would collapse instantly. But that's why I would never want anyone to put anything but thought and typing into either of these projects; that's why they exist as PDF documents.

I don't see what the problem is. Did GALAXY QUEST suffer because they hired Tim Allen and Alan Rickman instead of Shatner and Nimoy? Doing RENEGADES as an analogue to STAR TREK rather than a fan film is a valid and effective approach. They'll need to change the costumes and makeup. As a comic book fan, this is nothing new to me: Wildstorm comics wanted DCesque characters, so they created Apollo, Midnighter, Zealot as their versions of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. When DOCTOR WHO was cancelled, there were some fan productions where the actors who played the Doctor now played The Stranger.

We'll have to disagree on the quality of these fan productions, but the issue wasn't that the fan stuff endangered their new property; it was the fan stuff was being used to make money with absolutely no licensing agreement whatsoever. And they have every right to take issue with 1.1 million dollars being used to make a STAR TREK fan film without authorization, the same way you probably would not tolerate strangers using your house as a brewery without your permission and compensation. We can debate whether Paramount and CBS are being extreme, but they have every right to permit some fan films or no fan films. STAR TREK is their house.

**

Hmm. One iffy thing regarding SLIDERS REBORN, now that I think on it -- I offered SLIDERS fanfic genius Nigel Mitchell money for his services on the project. Not being a history buff or a world-builder, I asked Nigel to take my one-sentence concepts and give me an alt-history as well as visual details of daily life to work into the scripts.

I wanted to pay him for each Earth, but Nigel declined and pointed me to his Amazon page, where I bought every novel he's published and will buy every novel he ever releases, partially because I want to read them and partially to pay him something.

I wonder what kind of trouble we'd have been in if I'd paid Nigel about $500 for what I imagine would have been a couple hours of writing bullet points of whatever came to mind for the four Earths. I guess I could have written it off as a one-time gift? And what about the hotel room I rented? The hotel made money off me doing SLIDERS REBORN. But I guess they made money off me wanting a room as opposed SLIDERS REBORN.

I imagine that NBCUniversal wouldn't see the point of litigating over a matter of $680, but crowdsourcing over a million dollars raises all sorts of alerts and red flags.

Well it wasn't proven whether the Axanar guy really paid himself a salary or what-not.  However, that production clearly went off the rails, both by raising a LOT of money via Kickstarter, and essentially hiring people left and right.  I think that stuff gets very murky, and should be curtailed.  So I'm with CBS in the spirit of their rules.  However, they went way too far.  The time-limits, preventing past Trek employees from working, things like that, not good.  You don't see Star Wars (arguably a far more active property) imposing these restrictions.  Then again, I suppose if Billy Dee Williams were to appear in one of them, Disney might get antsy.  That being said, the Star Wars universe is once again alive.  The Trek universe we knew (TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY, ENT) is dead.  I'm not sure what Fuller has in mind, but I seriously would be shocked if he went back to the well for actors from those shows.

They did go pretty far with the rules. But I think they kinda had to. It's like having a dog who keeps pulling on the leash and dragging you down the street. You can say "no" and calmly try to stand your ground, but that usually doesn't work. You normally have to assert your authority over them and jerk back a little.

Like I said, these extreme rules will probably be loosened or altered in the future. But right now, the dog is being shown who the master is. There isn't a fun way of doing that. I think that at this point, I'm not holding it against the company. However, they need to find a way for reasonable fans to remain close to the franchise.

I'll wait until it's on a service I have, not paying $15 to see it.  It's been said that given the NCC-1031 designation spotted on the Starship Discovery (in the SDCC teaser), the new series will be set at some point before TOS.  Now, as we know, the NCC designations as used in TOS were not always so easily "organized."  Reason being that the set artists tended to prefer to do as little redressing ($$$) as possible.  This wound up with situations such as USS Constellation getting NCC-1017 of course.

The design looks more like the TOS era than anything that's come after. It almost looks like a Starfleet/Romulan (or Klingon... but more Romulan, I think) combo design from that era, but I doubt that's the case. The nacelles and deflector dish do look TMP-era.

It's actually a really klunky design, which doesn't impress me. The shapes are so basic and uninspired. I guess it makes sense if it's from some point around TOS or TMP (and assuming that the current movie timeline isn't in play) but it's not a pretty ship.

The more interesting element to the video of the Discovery is the shipyard that's it's docked in. It seem to be inside an asteroid. I don't think we've ever seen that shipyard before. It makes it seem more secret somehow.