DIS: Light and Shadows

[Deledrius]

The funny thing is, to me, Spock's Sister is the least annoying thing of all the annoying things in Discovery.

It's still hilarious that they thought it would be a good idea.

Has Discovery ever mentioned Spock's OTHER secret sibling? Like, Micheal and Sybok have to have known each other.

Not yet, but I'm hopeful.

[Ikiry0]

Honestly, at this point I kinda hope they just went 'Yeah, Spock's parents just went Crazy Cat Lady with adopting kids. Spock has like 10 siblings'. Go so far that it becomes funny instead of annoying.

[Deledrius]

Honestly, at this point I kinda hope they just went 'Yeah, Spock's parents just went Crazy Cat Lady with adopting kids. Spock has like 10 siblings'. Go so far that it becomes funny instead of annoying.

It wouldn't be that far of a stretch, really.

[Thebestoftherest]

Would explain why he never mentioned them.

[Taurian Patriot]

The funny thing is, to me, Spock's Sister is the least annoying thing of all the annoying things in Discovery.

Which could easily be construed as a horrendous slam on the rest of the show.

It does deserve mention though that the "surprise family member" goof - like a lot of other tired cliches - could easily be forgiven if the writers were mindful of what they were doing and took exceptional care with it. Alas, Michael spouts half-assed Zen while being tragically sad about her stupid, stupid mistakes and her tortured relationship with her brother, and we're supposed to love and accept her because... uhh...

Come to think of it, with her supposedly being a graduate of the Vulcan Science Academy, and existing in the same universe as "I like science" Spock... are we sure this is the original Trek continuity and not another parallel universe? Like, maybe instead of being more evil, the inhabitants of this universe routinely receive sharp blows to the head?

[BunBun299]

The funny thing is, to me, Spock's Sister is the least annoying thing of all the annoying things in Discovery.

Which could easily be construed as a horrendous slam on the rest of the show.

It does deserve mention though that the "surprise family member" goof - like a lot of other tired cliches - could easily be forgiven if the writers were mindful of what they were doing and took exceptional care with it. Alas, Michael spouts half-assed Zen while being tragically sad about her stupid, stupid mistakes and her tortured relationship with her brother, and we're supposed to love and accept her because... uhh...

Come to think of it, with her supposedly being a graduate of the Vulcan Science Academy, and existing in the same universe as "I like science" Spock... are we sure this is the original Trek continuity and not another parallel universe? Like, maybe instead of being more evil, the inhabitants of this universe routinely receive sharp blows to the head?

They like to pretend it's in continuity with old Trek in order to attract old fans, but it's really not. I'd recommend hunting down Midnight's Edge's videos on the subject to get the details, but all Trek that has been developed since 2009 has been made under an alternate license. It started with the Kelvin Timeline movies. Things had to be visually and tonally different from old Star Trek so that it could be separately merchandised, which is, as Yogart said, where the real money is made.

The Alternative license is technically no longer necessary now that Viacom and CBS have reemerged into one company, but Secret Hideout, which is it's own separate development company, has a vested interest in keeping it going. Hence why they keep trying to announce other Trek projects like a Section 31 show that is never going to be funded.

Anyway, as long as it exists, no Trek we will ever see is actually a part of the old Star Trek we used to know. It always has to be just different enough to merchandise. Good Star Trek could potentially be produced under it, but the people behind it lack the talent to ever make anything resembling good.

[Taurian Patriot]

...Trek that has been developed since 2009 has been made under an alternate license. It started with the Kelvin Timeline movies. Things had to be visually and tonally different from old Star Trek so that it could be separately merchandised, which is, as Yogart said, where the real money is made.

The Alternative license is technically no longer necessary now that Viacom and CBS have reemerged into one company, but Secret Hideout, which is it's own separate development company, has a vested interest in keeping it going. Hence why they keep trying to announce other Trek projects like a Section 31 show that is never going to be funded.

Anyway, as long as it exists, no Trek we will ever see is actually a part of the old Star Trek we used to know. It always has to be just different enough to merchandise. Good Star Trek could potentially be produced under it, but the people behind it lack the talent to ever make anything resembling good.

Star Trek, Star Wars, BattleTech... it seems one way or another, all my favorite sci-fi franchises manage to get boned by licensing.

Agreed that there's still plenty of potential for good Trek as it is now, so long as it's not being made by people who think "established fanbase" is an excuse to slack off on actual talent and effort.

[TGLS]

OK, before more nonsense about here's how it all went down.

In 1966, Star Trek was produced by Desilu Productions who held the rights to the show. In 1967, it was bought by Gulf and Western and renamed Paramount Television and made a subsidiary of Paramount Pictures. Starting in 1979, Paramount Pictures began producing movies based on Star Trek, which caused no problems, because PM Pictures owned PM TV. Paramount was bought by Viacom in 1993. Star Trek collapsed by the mid-2000s, so no legal issues had ever really arose while it was running.

In 2006, National Amusements, the conglomerate that controls Viacom, decided to divide Viacom into two companies, either because of poor stock performance, or because of animosity between Les Moonves and Tom Freston. For whatever reason, they decided to fold Paramount Television in with the parts of Viacom that would become the CBS Corporation. Paramount Pictures would receive the rights to the Star Trek movies, and Paramount Television (now folded in with CBS Television Studios), the rights to Star Trek Television series.

Circa 2009, JJ Abrams began producing his Star Trek movies. At the time, he also wanted to follow it up with a television show as a general multimedia push. CBS refused, which is in part why Abrams lost interest in his series and moved on to Star Wars. The Kelvin-verse was most likely created to justify new Kirk and Spock while allowing a Nimoy cameo, or so Paramount could have full control.

Circa 2017, CBS decided to produce a new Star Trek television series. Given that Picard started production before the Viacom remerged, I think it wasn't a prequel to avoid Romulan supernova implications. There would be no reason for some "alternate license" as CBS can make any television show they like under the one they had after the Viacom split.

The recent Viacom merger may mean good things for the movie series, but changes little for TV. As of 2020, the only Trek related thing that gives a damn about anything resembling an alternate license is the Starfleet Battles Universe (which is complicated, stupid, and too minor to matter).