Star Trek Discovery If Memory Serves

[cloudkitt]

It's amusing how complaints about Discovery's aesthetic were always met with accusations of being a purist or strawmen about wanting the Discovery bridge to look like cardboard and plastic, and then Discovery finally shows the Enterprise bridge and it was just - yeah, like THAT. That's all we wanted. Color palettes and presentation that evokes the original, like maybe what they would have made if they could have. Instead of the Avengers' Apple Store they put on the Discovery.
(they could still stand to turn down the lens flares even on the Enterprise, but still it was a huge improvement)

[BunBun299]

So we have the announcement that we are getting another Star Trek series "Strange New Worlds" which will focus on the adventures of Captain Pike, Science Officer Spock and Number One. Does that mean we will get to see "The Menagerie/The Cage/If Memory Serves" for a FOURTH time, with a new perspective? Will Talos IV become the next hotspot of activity for all the CBS Access/Paramount Network Star Trek shows?

Odds are, that show will never see production. They can announce all the shows they like, but it's getting harder for them to find funding for them. Like how they announced Star Trek 4, several times, with and without Chris Hemsworth. Or Section 31.

Netflix paid for season 1 of Discovery, and have been regretting it ever since. They're definitely out after season 3. Amazon paid for Picard, and now they don't want anything to do with Star Trek anymore either.

Absent from both the Section 31 and Strange New Worlds announcements, which read nearly identically, is an international distributor. That's how they've been paying for it. I very much doubt anyone else is going to come along and lose money giving Alex Kurtzman money to make Star Trek.

[Thebestoftherest]

I do think his view of what star trek is, is just too different for what the fans want.

[chaos42]

all star trek productions had rough starts it just takes time

[Chengar Qordath]

The nature of the shows makes it a lot harder to recover from rough starts. Episodic storytelling makes it far easier to recover from an episode that flops. TNG, DS 9, and Voyager all took a bit to find their footing, but when each week is a brand new story it's a lot easier to recover from storylines or plot elements that just don't work. It's okay if this week's episode fell flat, because you're starting from a largely clean slate next week.

Meanwhile, with serialized storytelling each episode has to follow on from the last, and build up to the next one. There's no clean slates or opportunities to recover from mistakes, because these aren't their own self-contained stories so much as chapters 1-10 of a single story.

[Thebestoftherest]

I feel star trek needs a mix not every story needs to directly connect to the last but some stories need consequences other wises it get ridiculous. I am sorry but there no way voyager could lose three crew memebers a day without that effecting the rest within two seasons.

[CrypticMirror]

The nature of the shows makes it a lot harder to recover from rough starts. Episodic storytelling makes it far easier to recover from an episode that flops. TNG, DS 9, and Voyager all took a bit to find their footing, but when each week is a brand new story it's a lot easier to recover from storylines or plot elements that just don't work. It's okay if this week's episode fell flat, because you're starting from a largely clean slate next week.

Meanwhile, with serialized storytelling each episode has to follow on from the last, and build up to the next one. There's no clean slates or opportunities to recover from mistakes, because these aren't their own self-contained stories so much as chapters 1-10 of a single story.

Exactly, none of them had one duff episode that lasted an entire season. Until now. DSC has had two duff episodes, but those episodes have both lasted a full season. And I don't see how it comes back from that. Picard still has a shot, the last half of the seasonsode was decent, and finally seemed to pick up pace as far as story goes, but they need a decent chunk of standalones to let the characters breathe and let us get to know them.

Also, standalones mean we don't fall into the trap of writing an episode with no purpose other than to set up a cliffhanger for the next episode. That is what killed the BSG reboot, you had three minutes at the start that resolved the previous cliffhanger than the rest of the episode was stilted over drawnout conversations until five minutes from the end when it was time to set up the cliffhanger for the next episode's first three minutes. They could have filled all that space with an actual adventure, if they went standalone, but refused to to continue the serialisation.

[Chengar Qordath]

I feel star trek needs a mix not every story needs to directly connect to the last but some stories need consequences other wises it get ridiculous. I am sorry but there no way voyager could lose three crew memebers a day without that effecting the rest within two seasons.

I think Deep Space Nine did a good job of balancing having a broader plot with more episodic standalone storytelling. Not perfect, but pretty good.

[Thebestoftherest]

I feel star trek needs a mix not every story needs to directly connect to the last but some stories need consequences other wises it get ridiculous. I am sorry but there no way voyager could lose three crew memebers a day without that effecting the rest within two seasons.

I think Deep Space Nine did a good job of balancing having a broader plot with more episodic standalone storytelling. Not perfect, but pretty good.

I think the first couple season mainly had mainly episodic and started linger story after we already like them.

[Makeshift Python]

It's amusing how complaints about Discovery's aesthetic were always met with accusations of being a purist or strawmen about wanting the Discovery bridge to look like cardboard and plastic, and then Discovery finally shows the Enterprise bridge and it was just - yeah, like THAT. That's all we wanted. Color palettes and presentation that evokes the original, like maybe what they would have made if they could have. Instead of the Avengers' Apple Store they put on the Discovery.
(they could still stand to turn down the lens flares even on the Enterprise, but still it was a huge improvement)

I agree that the update on the Enterprise was done very tastefully. Evoking the vibe of the classic TOS bridge while looking like it could be the future of 2020s as opposed to 1960s. It's certainly a much better take than J.J. Abrams' bridge.

I feel star trek needs a mix not every story needs to directly connect to the last but some stories need consequences other wises it get ridiculous. I am sorry but there no way voyager could lose three crew memebers a day without that effecting the rest within two seasons.

I think Deep Space Nine did a good job of balancing having a broader plot with more episodic standalone storytelling. Not perfect, but pretty good.

STRANGE NEW WORLD is supposed to return to the episodic format, so you'll be getting your wish there. PICARD and DISCO will likely retain their story-of-the-season approach.