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Star Trek Strange New Worlds


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https://trekmovie.com/2020/05/16/star-trek-strange-new-worlds-to-be-more-optimistic-and-episodic-says-co-creator/

 

So, this news has been out about a week, and I think many who watched Discovery knew this was inevitable. As someone who hasn't watched Discovery outside the first couple episodes and long before Anson Mount's (and the Enterprise's) appearance, but has been spoiled on most episodes, I understand that Mount's Pike is pretty popular. I have seen a number of interviews with him in it, and he seems like a cool guy.

 

I also like the fact this show will be more episodic, more importantly it seems it will be POSITIVE, and it seems to me that CBS is actually making an effort to make a Star Trek show for long time fans of the Roddenberry/Berman era. Time will tell if this show lives up to the hype, and I have to admit that I have NOT been a fan of Star Trek since 2009. The JJ verse was disappointing, namely Into Darkness, and comes off as a caricature of what I consider real Star Trek (TOS). I lasted only 2 episodes with Discovery, and being spoiled on most of seasons 1 and 2, has really disappointed me. Picard, while it was nice to see P Stew back and other TNG/Voy alum, was almost as disappointing at times, and I hope Season 2 is much better. Bad Robot/Secret Hideout really make me nervous about Strange New Worlds, because up until now, the way Bad Robot and Secret Hide out have operated is basically to say "F YOU, we want to change Star Trek into our vision" to long time fans of the Star Trek franchise, which has angered many fans, let along hasn't exactly brought in much of a new fan base. Many would say the JJ verse and the so-called CBS prime verse has been either a failure, or at best, mixed results. But this article does give me a glimmer of hope that SOMEONE at CBS is finally getting the message and creating something for us long time fans of the franchise.

 

I have no problem if shows like Discovery continue, so long as there is also a place for shows like Strange New Worlds that may be more like the classic era.

 

Anyone else feel similarly, or have any opinions they want to share with this news?

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Discovery was pretty hit or miss, but I felt it got better as the show progressed. Pike was one of the best parts, so to have him on the Enterprise in a new show sounds fun. Not a big fan of who they have for Spock though. His retconned origin was a little annoying too, but that's more to do with Burnham than Spock I guess. Either way, I'll watch it.

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Discovery was pretty hit or miss, but I felt it got better as the show progressed. Pike was one of the best parts, so to have him on the Enterprise in a new show sounds fun. Not a big fan of who they have for Spock though. His retconned origin was a little annoying too, but that's more to do with Burnham than Spock I guess. Either way, I'll watch it.

Yeah I was spoiled on the back story of this version of Spock, and when I read about it, I was like WTF. I can't speak to Peck's acting, but he doesn't look anything like Leonard Nimoy. One of the things I really liked about the JJ verse is casting Quinto as Spock. I can't think of any modern actor they could have come up with that would have done as well, and I wish they had found someone more like Quinto (I know they couldn't cast him, because he's about 10 years too old at this point). Peck, just going by what he looks like, seems to have the look of a fan film version of Spock. But, I will give the guy a chance and I may end up liking him as well as Quinto, hopefully.

 

Oh, and Rebecca Romijn as Number One is brilliant!

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Yeah, Disco has been real iffy. But as soon as Pike showed up and they dude the pseudo sequel to The Cage, everyone felt like that was the show we wanted. It even found a way to update the camp visuals. I didn't the Michael/Spock stuff, but free and clear of Disco, I'm hoping this actually happens.

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From the pics of the new Enterprise and its bridge, I think they did a really good job feeling modern, but staying true to the classic look. I personally have always been of the opinion that even the classic TOS bridge, especially the color scheme from the Cage, IS a modern looking bridge layout, minus the controls (which do look fake by today's standards). A lot can be done with the right lighting.

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I do not understand ...

a) why this isn't just going to be called Star Trek ???

&

b) why this isn't going to be airing on television ????

&

c) how could the Discovery travel to Talos IV if it's a capital offense under General Order 7, wait, what's the point of prohibiting travel to that planet if the inhabitants are still capable of telepathy over interstellar distances, wait, why is Pike uncomfortable w/women on the bridge if he's served alongside them his whole life

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I do not understand ...

 

a) why this isn't just going to be called Star Trek ???

 

&

 

b) why this isn't going to be airing on television ????

 

&

 

c) how could the Discovery travel to Talos IV if it's a capital offense under General Order 7, wait, what's the point of prohibiting travel to that planet if the inhabitants are still capable of telepathy over interstellar distances, wait, why is Pike uncomfortable w/women on the bridge if he's served alongside them his whole life

Discovery and Strange New Worlds are an alt timeline? That works for me, anyway.

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I do not understand ...

 

a) why this isn't just going to be called Star Trek ???

 

&

 

b) why this isn't going to be airing on television ????

 

&

 

c) how could the Discovery travel to Talos IV if it's a capital offense under General Order 7, wait, what's the point of prohibiting travel to that planet if the inhabitants are still capable of telepathy over interstellar distances, wait, why is Pike uncomfortable w/women on the bridge if he's served alongside them his whole life

Discovery and Strange New Worlds are an alt timeline? That works for me, anyway.

 

 

What kind of פֿאַרקאַקטע timeline do WE live in that they're going to be make a Star Trek featuring a familiar concept and familiar people in familiar uniforms and they're not just going to air it on TV with a familiar title where an audience of aging baby boomers can tune in and watch? When they re-made Hawaii Five-0 they didn't call it Hawaii Five-0 : No Snakes Here or what-have-you and make it only available by dialing in to the CBS MUD!!!

 

AND FURTHERMORE

 

If it's an alternate timeline why would they deliberately centre the events of 'The Cage' not just on the level of narrative but exe-diegetically cutting in footage from TOS into the program itself which speaks to the larger overall point that Discovery is only meaningful (currently) as a prelude to established canon, they end the most recent season w/Michael Burnham tearfully begging Spock to become friends w/Kirk, how can that be an 'alternate timeline', the story only works because of its deep ties to these other older stories; the final imagery of the second season is the USS Enterprise going off into space w/classic Spock in classic uniform on its bridge, Burnham has reconciled the conflicting portions of herself so successfully that it has summoned into full being this totemic emblem of what the franchise IS, she (and the show!) is free to go be in the far future because of this v. specif. past she's wrought

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I totally agree with you. There were too many inconsistencies with Discovery from the get, which is why I didn't warm to it after the first 2 episodes. When I say alt timeline, I am talking about my own head canon. That is the only way I can wrap my head around Discovery, and now this new show, SNW(?). They really could have simply called it Star Trek like you are saying, but honestly, every single show since TOS has had a subtitle (TNG, VOY, DS9, ENT, etc), so it does make sense they went with a subtitle. In fact, even the original series is now known as Star Trek TOS.

 

The thing is, Kurtzman stated that Disco is prime universe, and for the last 11 years, under the Abrams/Kurtzman era, NOBODY at CBS or Paramount gives an eff about canon, or the world building that went into Star Trek before 2009. In fact, a case can be made that they wanted to transform Star Trek into something completely different and were hostile towards what came before. At least the JJ movies explicitly say the movies are in an alt timeline. Unfortunately, every issue you pointed out, really has no good in-universe answer for Discovery's (and by extension, SNW's) lack of consistency. I think I personally could have accepted Discovery more, had they done the same thing and explicitly stated it is yet another timeline.

 

As far as I am concerned, I won't watch Discovery because of that, though. Well, that, and the asinine story-lines like Kling-orcs, spore drives and red angels. However, because it seems like CBS is trying to right the ship by making a Star Trek series that is closer to what I loved (Roddenberry-Berman era), I AM willing to give SNW a chance, and if I end up liking it, I will simply choose to think of it as an alt timeline, even if technically it isn't according to CBS, and there are inconsistancies with TOS.

 

As for it not being on broadcast TV, I also agree. I sooo wish it was. However, what I have read online about CBS All Access indicates it is in trouble, and CBS is going to rebrand and relaunch it. So, I speculate that Star Trek Strange New Worlds will be one of the anchor shows for whatever they call the new CBS All Access.

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Every single other sequel and/or spin-off show is about different people in a different place. This is a show about some of the same people in the same place. I have to assume, even if only for purely commercial reasons, that it would make sense to just call it by the same name in order to try to attract the largest possible audience. I don't understand the television business (how come a Star Trek show could get cancelled for ONLY having two and a half million live television viewers in '05 but now that there's nearly no live television viewers it's time to have a Star Trek show and another Star Trek show and another Star Trek show and another Star Trek show) or how Star Trek makes any sense (so there are magic crystals in the engineering room that somehow use the combination of matter and anti-matter to generate some sort of magic plasma that is then sent throughout the ship to somehow make the ship able to go magically fast?????) and plenty else besides (why have we re-opened things here in Ontario when we're in the midst of increasing numbers of positive cases EVEN AS the number of tests we're doing is plummeting!!!!!!) but your explanation of head canon (I wish I could get some head canon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) sure seems a-okay to me!!!!!!!!

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Hey I get what you mean. It is crazy to think that this is the third prequel series, too. As a fan of Star Trek since 1977 (that is as far back as I remember), I have spent the last 15 years feeling like I've been in the wilderness. I am not a fan of the JJ verse, though I liked the 1st and 3rd movies well enough to be able to rewatch them once in a super blue moon. I really can't bring myself to watch Discovery, so I hope Strange New Worlds doesn't require one to watch Disco season 2.

 

I also would prefer a series that is not a prequel. Star Trek ENT (which I loved) was enough Star Trek prequel for me. However, the reason I am willing to give Strange New Worlds a chance is that Anson Mount's Captain Pike seems interesting to me. I've not seen Disco, but I have seen excerpts with Pike, as well as interviews of Anson Mount, where he just seems to me he could be a really good captain and deserves his own show. He just has that unnameable thing like P-Stew, Shatner, and Brooks...command presence, maybe? Also, whomever decided to make Rebecca Romijin as Number One, really got that right. She still is beautiful, really looks the part, and I happen to think she is a good actress. Also,***nerd alert*** it's kind of cool that years ago there was a Star Trek/X-men crossover comic (non canon), and now we are seeing an Xmen movies alum in a Star Trek show, something Famke Janssen can also claim.

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  • 1 year later...

I thought the first episode was fun. The tone and visuals were bright. The episode also had that classic “It’s complicated” Trek undercurrent to it. I liked that each main crew member had a moment for them.

However I have really enjoyed some of Discovery and Picard, so take that as you will. Not to say any of this new Trek is like “Whoa! This is amazing! Like TNG in its’ prime!” No. It is just that I have enjoyed these new Treks for a good part of them. In fairness to the “new Trek isn’t Trek” crowd, I haven’t seen all of the recent season of Discovery or Picard. What I had saw of each series just felt heavy in a manner which I wasn’t wanting to experience at that time, but I’ll revisit eventually.

With that said, looking forward to more SNW.

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10 hours ago, Spider-Man said:

I thought the first episode was fun. The tone and visuals were bright. The episode also had that classic “It’s complicated” Trek undercurrent to it. I liked that each main crew member had a moment for them.

I think that's one of the things I don't like about Discovery, they don't let you get to know the side characters. Like the two helmsman (helmswomen?), I barely remember their names half the time. And after watching three seasons, I still don't know much about them.

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I thought the pilot simultaneously :

  • wasn’t very good! Part of that can be chalked up to me just being a real grimace, a groucho, a grindy grumblegus, I just don’t like anything no more. Really little teeny tinsy things bothered me (literally, only me, they shoot part of the show in a place that doesn’t bring back fond memories for this guy I’m watching the show and seeing Spock & Co. walk through parts of the York University campus I used to trudge through real sad, real unhappy), things like odd use of colons in the chyrons and inconsistent labelling terminology (Why is it “Bear Creek: Montana” but then “Vulcan: Raal”? Pick a lane!) and some other stuff that I wrote down after watching it but the document I dump my TV thoughts into experienced some sort of hiccup and that day is gone!? I guess it couldn’t have been too bad if I can’t remember my complaints at a distance of one week since viewing. Oh well! [Oh wait, now I remember. I disliked parts of the pilot for extremely tedious political reasons! Oh yeah, it’s alllll coming back to me.]

  • was the best pilot of any Star Trek spin-off so far!?!? I think it’s better than DS9, I think it’s better than VOY, I think it’s better than ENT, I think it’s better than DSC, I think it’s better than PIC, I think it’s better than either of the two animated ones! It’s obviously better than TNG but that’s no biggie since every Star Trek spin-off’s pilot has been better than “Encounter At Farpoint”. Partly it’s so good because so much of the work of a television pilot has been done for it way ahead of time either a few years before it aired thanks to the 2nd season of DSC or TOS and the movies, y’know? But it does what it needs to do. It’s just kind of got the bumper rails up on the bowling lane because what it needs to do is tell a story about Captain Pike, Spock, Number 1, Nurse Chapel, Uhura, Transporter Chief Kyle, Dr. M’Benga, and Khan’s Einekle (she’s a major part of the story! they spend a lot of time on her character and her feeeeeeelings!) and their adventures on board the original Enterprise.

The second episode is real good, real fun stuff, I mean, I gotta say, I do not like how they used the bridge’s main screen in it (Don’t brief the crew with the main screen! Sit everybody around a table in a conference room like proper Star Trek! What are we, animals!?!? Also, later, when they’re hanging out over the comet itself the main screen is displaying a previously recorded image of the comet from a distance!?!?!? What!? Why!?) and I missed Dr. M’Benga (I guess part of the problem of having such a big cast is that everyone’s going to miss out on screen time every now and then!) and I kind of don’t get the urge of modern Trek to make Uhura into a linguist (an urge that’s got plenty of canonical back-up for it, though, seeing as it’s something some of the books have done for years and years + it’s something that Nichelle Nichols wanted to emphasize she was mad at the joke in VI where it makes it seem like she doesn’t know the language of the Federation’s major enemy; I’m probably in the wrong here on this one, I’ve accepted it, I’m learning to deal with, I’ve been mulling it over since ‘08 and slowly coming to terms with it) but overall I liked it way more than the pilot. Looking forward to the next one!

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I also liked the second episode.

Some things about New Next Trek that boggle my mind a bit are still in this show. One of those is the size of the ships and the magical Tardis like insides of the ships. Both crew quarters and turbo lifts feel crazy big. These New Next Trek ships also often feel bigger than a Star Destroyer, but fly like the Millennium Falcon.

Another thing is the Starfleet uniform variations. It’s like when a (public) Elementary School Orchestra has a concert and they tell the kids to all wear black and white, giving them an example of a dress shirt and dockers. However while all of the kids show up in black and white, some kids show up in a hoodie and jeans, while another kid is in a suit, and another kid is in the exampled dress shirt with slacks, and another kid is in a t-shirt and shorts, and then…

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I don’t love all the inconsistencies with technology, uniforms, continuity, established character ages, and despite top notch effects, 40 years have passed and TWOK still has the best looking Enterprise in space effects…

But despite those things, this show is an utter joy so far. Too soon to say, but it feels like the best spin off since DS9.

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On 5/13/2022 at 8:52 PM, Tank said:

The space between decks stuff is a MEGAHATE for me.

The last episode of Discovery S3 had this scene where there was a fight in the elevator between decks and the amount of empty space on the ship was ridiculous! Like, I know the ship was retrofitted for 32nd century tech but the ship itself is still the same size. How much of that space is needed?

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2 hours ago, CoLA said:

The last episode of Discovery S3 had this scene where there was a fight in the elevator between decks and the amount of empty space on the ship was ridiculous! Like, I know the ship was retrofitted for 32nd century tech but the ship itself is still the same size. How much of that space is needed?

I hated that SOOOO much.

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I saw the third episode!

I still don’t like how there’s no identification of the character’s names and ranks in the title credits. And no episode titles in the upper left hand corner of the screen after the credits, too! But I guess those days are over — LD excepted for the latter, though.

Episode is ... about as good as a fairly crummy VOY or ENT episode!? But that is now, in and of itself, a pretty high level of quality for Star Trek to reach? Like, the premise is pretty awful (“Oh no! We’ve been infected with a disease!? But perhaps the TRUE disease is p-p-p-p-prejudice?”) and the execution isn’t up to snuff but because of how good the SFX are nowadays and of course the always attendant truth of how this is the Enterprise the whole thing feels way better than it would’ve otherwise. Loved to see the detailed diagram of the ship’s interior on a screen! Loved to see all its external running lights blink out!

I appreciated the craftsmanship of having that scene with the Andorian engineer guy doing his thing with the transporter beaming up a piece of the planet’s mantle in a way that it wasn’t actually there there yet in order to set up the bizarre ending scene where Dr. M’Benga can ... talk to his daughter while she’s in the transporter buffer!? That’s not how the transporter works! Scotty didn’t spend decades just waiting around on the transporter pad of the USS Jenolen for the Enterprise-D to show up! My point is this : the show understood that it had to make it clear to the audience that the transporter works in a way it doesn’t work BEFORE it decided to show the audience the transporter working in a way it doesn’t work. Gotta give them credit for that.

Oh, and I liked Spock’s line pointing out the oxymoronishness of the phrase “Looks like they’re gone.” Kind of more of a Data thing than a Spock thing (there’s a lot of overlap there, yeah, I know) but still pretty good.

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I don’t think M’Benga was talking to his daughter while she was in the buffer. He explained you can keep a person in the buffer indefinitely if you rematerialized them for a period between stasis. As such I think the indication here is that he rematerialized her, for a story and chat, then puts her back in stasis. However this kinda makes Scotty seem dumber by time he has to use the buffer stasis trick, seems like if this is a thing a good doctor knows about technology then a genius engineer should know it about technology. Scotty would have rigged the system to be momentarily rematerialized. But then… eh. Who cares. lol

All that said, this third episode was awkward. The red herrings were weird, which in fairness do get touched on (eg. Una acting sus, Andorian acting sus, M’Benga acting sus). They packed hell of a lot into this, but that’s really par for the course with these Naked Now episodes.

Afterthought: I guess we can assume that the daughter dilemma for M’Benga could be why he isn’t still the Chief Medical Officer for Kirk’s command, even tho he is still assigned to the Enterprise. But then… eh. Who cares. x2

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