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Star Trek Discovery - official trailer in OP, 15 episodes ordered, premieres 9/24

mcrommert

Banned
Season 3 and parts of 4 of Enterprise are pretty great in my opinion. It's not better than the best of TNG/DS9 because the characters don't hold up to that standard but the story arcs are really well done.

I would agree...and season 3 and 4 are better than almost anything in the rehash that is voyager

The more that comes out about this new series the more concerned i become...seems like they have decided to just forget there were other shows in this series

I feel like In the Beginning is a good intro to B5, but yeah, it's a commitment even though S1 and 2 had some episodic episodes.

I think "soft" serialization can work, like maybe some two or three parters in between some standalone episodes. But in 2017 it's all about the SEASON LONG MYSTERY with QUESTIONS that will never be answered. And if one episode is bad, it'll drag down the entire season with it.

Agreed and this 15 episode count is troubling and shows just how dedicated they are to the show

The strength of TNG was always that you could watch any episode and not be completely lost
 

JeffZero

Purple Drazi
A few more quotes from the showrunners.

”There's a hint of all of them, but in the writers' room people are so in love with The Original Series and Next Generation, and they talk about the family aspect of those cast members."

”I think Nicholas Myers' [sic] film are a touchstone, and not just because he's been on staff with us. His storytelling is complex and intellectual and yet there's a lot of room for character voices and character work, he's done such an incredible job with the franchise."

In terms of scope and scale, there's something about Star Trek: The Motion Picture that really speaks to us as well. CBS has allowed us to find a cinematic language that's wider in scope — our aspect ratio is 2:1 — and it just lends itself to a very lyrical way of telling the story. And just visually speaking, there's also a little hint in terms of what J.J. Abrams did, a little bit, in terms of some of the visuals."
 
It was inevitable, I guess:

Jonathan Frakes returning to the Star Trek universe? Make it so!

The major luminary from the Trek franchise will direct an episode of the CBS All Access show’s first season.


Frakes, of course, played Commander William T. Riker on Star Trek: The Next Generation and in several Trek films.

“Jonathan Frakes will rejoin the Trek world with Discovery,” writer-producer Gretchen J. Berg told EW. “He’s a fantastic guy and great director.”

Added fellow showrunner Aaron Harberts: “Our cast is dying to work with him.”

Frakes is very experienced behind the camera, having helmed several episodes of TNG, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager, as well as the Trek films First Contact and Insurrection. In addition, he’s directed episodes of several non-Trek titles such as Leverage, Burn Notice, and NCIS: Los Angeles. Berg and Harberts previously worked with Frakes when he directed five episodes of CBS’ Roswell.
 
I would agree...and season 3 and 4 are better than almost anything in the rehash that is voyager

The more that comes out about this new series the more concerned i become...seems like they have decided to just forget there were other shows in this series



Agreed and this 15 episode count is troubling and shows just how dedicated they are to the show

The strength of TNG was always that you could watch any episode and not be completely lost

I'm sorry but I don't understand this post at all.

What exactly are they saying that makes it seem like they have decided to just forget there were other shows in this series?

And why is a 15 episode season (bumped up from a initial 12(13?)) troubling and telling for how dedicated they are to the show?
If anything isn't the fact it's been delayed (reportedly because they didnt want to skim on stuff and wanted to make things just right) far more telling?

Jonathan Frakes is good news. I've always liked that guy.
 

Ivory Samoan

Gold Member
The more I see/hear about Discovery, the more I'm digging it.

Hopefully it fills the Andromeda shaped hole in my heart that remains due to EA's inept management of the ME series.
 

JeffZero

Purple Drazi
Back when I first hopped aboard the Mass Effect fandom some 8 years ago or more, I recall hoping that it would fill the Star Trek hole in my heart.

Everything's cyclical.
 

Ivory Samoan

Gold Member
Back when I first hopped aboard the Mass Effect fandom some 8 years ago or more, I recall hoping that it would fill the Star Trek hole in my heart.

Everything's cyclical.
I actually think I recall you saying something along those lines in the OG ME thread ages ago, C'mon Discovery, you have Krogan sized shoes to fill! Haha (I'm actually crying, lol).
 

JeffZero

Purple Drazi
The tie-in novel by David Mack has a release date and a comic from IDW has also been announced.

http://trekmovie.com/2017/06/28/star-trek-discovery-novel-tie-in-coming-september-comic-to-follow/

In March we reported that the first Star Trek: Discovery novel tie-in was available for pre-order and titled Star Trek: Discovery: Desperate Hours, written by David Mack. Now that CBS has set a release date for the series, Pocket Books has set the release for Desperate Hours for September 26th, the Tuesday following the premiere (September 24th).

As of now, there’s no cover or synopsis for the novel, but in an exclusive interview with TrekMovie, Mack said of the the book:

"I developed it based on characters, dialogue, backstory, and situations in the upcoming series’ two-part pilot. If we’ve all done our jobs correctly, it should serve as an excellent companion piece to the two-part premiere."

Star Trek: Discovery: Desperate Hours can be pre-ordered at Amazon in large-format paperback and Kindle e-book. It will also be available as an unabridged audiobook at Audible and other audiobook retailers.

Discovery comic coming too
IDW is also working on a comic book tie-in to Star Trek: Discovery. It will be written by Mike Johnson and Kirsten Beyer with art by Tony Shasteen. We know it won’t be released in September as it wasn’t part of IDW’s announcement of their September comics, but it could still come as soon as October. We will know more when IDW announces their October solicitations in July, or perhaps there will be something announced at San Diego Comic Con.

Like with the novel, there are no details at this time, but in another interview with TrekMovie, writer Mike Johnson said:

The comic will be closely woven into the show.

Kirsten Beyer is also one of the staff writers for Star Trek: Discovery who was also the key point of contact with Mack for his novel tie-in. Discovery supervising producer Ted Sullivan recently described Beyer as the “keeper of the flame” and “defender of canon” for the show and as a regular author of Star Trek novels she is a natural fit for keeping an eye on how the show ties into the books and comics.

TrekMovie will continue to monitor things related to these tie-ins and provide updates when there is more information.
 
D

Deleted member 1235

Unconfirmed Member
Thought the dialogue at the start of the desert walk sounded terrible. Rest of the trailer seemed OK.
 

jb1234

Member
Never been the biggest Riker fan, but Frakes is a good actor and a great director.

I wouldn't be surprised if more of the Trek stars turned directors also get gigs (especially Roxann Dawson and Robert Duncan McNeill, both highly qualified).
 

JeffZero

Purple Drazi
I wouldn't be surprised if more of the Trek stars turned directors also get gigs (especially Roxann Dawson and Robert Duncan McNeill, both highly qualified).

They'd both rock it. They're very talented directors. The TNG/DS9/VOY era seemed to bring us several of those!
 

Shoeless

Member
I would agree...and season 3 and 4 are better than almost anything in the rehash that is voyager

I'm on the home stretch of my first viewing of this series, a few episodes into season 7. Man, the writers just kind of gave up on everyone and started focusing on the Doctor and 7 of 9, didn't they?
 

JeffZero

Purple Drazi
A Comic-Con panel has been announced.

Con season is officially upon us, and with the production of Star Trek: Discovery in full swing, Trekkies have been waiting to find out about what special appearances are on the docket.

The biggest of the big conventions (at least on the West coast) is San Diego Comic-Con, which runs July 20-23. And today CBS announced that there will indeed be a panel for Discovery at SDCC. They promise that cast and crew will attend a panel on Saturday July 22nd at 2:30PM in Ballroom 20, making this the first substantial Discovery panel ever.

They made the announcement via Twitter this morning.
 

JeffZero

Purple Drazi
Major characters won't be safe.

Here's another way that Star Trek: Discovery will shift course from older series in the iconic sci-fi franchise — and HBO's Game of Thrones gets some of the credit: Showrunners Aaron Harberts and Gretchen J. Berg tell EW that major characters in the series will not be safe. As in: They can be killed off (and at least one, at some point, probably will be).

”Game of Thrones changed television," Berg says. ”They almost made it difficult to fall in love with people because you didn't know if they were going to be taken away from you. That show's had an influence on all TV dramas that have come after it."

Adds Harberts: ”Death isn't treated gratuitously on this show. It's not for shock value. But when it happens we want to make sure that people really feel it."

And the best way to generate that impact is to have a character impacted that's been developed over multiple episodes. HBO's Thrones — along with AMC's The Walking Dead — are widely considered to have rewritten the informal rules for serialized dramatic storytelling. It used to be that a show could tell a high-stakes story where the core cast was in constant mortal jeopardy season after season yet nobody was ever killed off and the audience just accepted that. Nowadays an action drama that's free of mortal consequences doesn't feel very credible.

More at the link.

Klingons factor substantially into the ongoing plot, and their main perspective character is T'Kuvma.

EW says to expect ”a lot of Klingons." The time period we're in is during the cold war between the Klingon Empire and the Federation, but things will come to a head at the beginning of the series, and the Klingon we'll get to know the best is T'Kuvma, played by Chris Obi (who's also on Bryan Fuller's American Gods). T'Kvuma is a Klingon leader, and is determined to unite the Klingon houses ”by any means necessary." Ominous.

Also, the Discovery is officially a science vessel.
 
To be fair, Star Trek already proved this out in both The Next Generation and Deep Space 9.

Though this wouldn't likely be a "so-and-so wants to move on in their career" style of affair as it was in those shows. Hopefully might be a bit more natural-feeling with Discovery.
 

JeffZero

Purple Drazi
To be fair, Star Trek already proved this out in both The Next Generation and Deep Space 9.

Aye, the article actually goes into a bit of depth by citing specific characters across the franchise. I'm sure Discovery will more routinely place its characters in predicaments they might not be safe from, though. Season 4 Episode 14 of any given season of any series was probably not going to kill anyone... until now. Heh.
 

Shoeless

Member
Though this wouldn't likely be a "so-and-so wants to move on in their career" style of affair as it was in those shows. Hopefully might be a bit more natural-feeling with Discovery.

That's also very true. It was usually more the result of real world contractual stuff than an actual plan of an overarching plot. Although I didn't actually mind this, as it mirrored one aspect of real life, which was that when the death did come, it was random and unexpected.

When the death is planned as part of an arc, sometimes you can see it coming. Joss Whedon, for better or for worse, has already trained me to expect that if you have an awkward but warm and likable side-character, and they start getting a few episodes to really shine and bond with that character, death is incoming.
 

Shoeless

Member
Yeah, this is playing into what I've thought before: I'll be stunned if Michelle Yeoh's character survives the pilot.

I thought it was a given that she dies and in some tragedy and that's what kick starts the main character's transfer to discovery.

I think this also means that the show tipped its hand too early and we can expect the Captain of the Discovery to die by season 2 at the latest.
 

JeffZero

Purple Drazi
Alex Kurtzman fears the reaper of broken canon and upset fans. (Tongue-in-cheek link title; he's being jokey.)

You have got a roomful of people with very different and very devoted relationships to Star Trek in that writers' room. And that carries on a pretty proud tradition of Trek being written by fans.

You have to respect canon as it's being written. You cannot say, ”That never happened." No, no no, you can't do that, they would kill you. Star Trek fans would kill you. No, you have to respect canon. You have to understand the timelines and what the different timelines were and what the different universes were and how they all worked together. You have to keep very meticulous track of who, what, where, when and why. And we have people in the writer's room whose sole job is to say, ”Nope, can't do that!"

Also, regarding the show's placement in said canon:

If you are a fan of Trek you are going to see a lot of things which hearken back to the original series and elements of the original series. I am not just talking plot, but the spirit of what that show was. We are going to be revisiting a couple of things on Star Trek: Discovery that I think people are going to find familiar. Without spoiling anything we are adhering to a timeline and sticking to the rules, but also I think finding some new areas and avenues that have only been alluded to, but never fully explored.

And why Roddenberry's vision remains relevant:

I think that the core of [Star Trek creator Gene] Roddenberry's vision – and I think that is why it has endured for as long as it has – is the belief that human beings will always find a way to persevere and connect to each other. And that there is an optimistic outlook to where we can be going. And now more than ever we need that desperately. So, he gives you hope. Star Trek gives you hope.
 
I wonder if that means it's going to be more over the top like TOS (and TAS) was in regards to the type of aliens and what they encounter out in space.
 

Instro

Member
Jeopardy has a Trekkie working for them

2lPQbIP_d.jpg
 
There is some speculation that these Klingons were in stasis on a "sarcophagus ship" and are from the time of Kahless and are possibly even Fek'Ihri.

http://ew.com/tv/2017/07/17/star-trek-discovery-klingons-photo/

The Klingons will cause major intergalactic chaos in the upcoming Star Trek: Discovery.

The ridge-headed warrior race plays a huge role in the CBS All Access drama’s mysterious story, which is set during a Federation-Klingon cold war a decade before events in the original series.

Producers constructed a massive ship set, glimpsed here, that looks like an alien cathedral. At its helm is T’Kuvma (Chris Obi), the leader of an ancient Klingon house looking to unite his people, even if that means provoking a war with the Federation. By his side is L’Rell (Mary Chieffo), his Battle Deck Commander.

But the big question online that fans keep asking: Why did producers redesign the look of the Klingons?

Showrunner Aaron Harberts noted that original series showrunner Bryan Fuller was an advocate of updating the look of the Klingons and was involved in the redesign — and that the look of the Klingons has frequently changed over the franchise’s 52 years.


“In the different versions of Trek, the Klingons have never been completely consistent,” Harberts said. “We will introduce several different houses with different styles. Hopefully, fans will become more invested in the characters than worried about the redesign.”

In other words: BIjatlh ’e’ yImev! (Translation: Be quiet!)
 

CorrisD

badchoiceboobies

It has been pretty consistent since 1979.

Yea...what sort of answer is that. Not only have they followed a pretty similar visual since TMP, they made a canonical reason as to why they looked different after Enterprise and through TOS up to TMP.

Not that it matters because I'll still watch it, but I'm not a fan of that sort of hand waving excuse, I understand it's hard to keep consistent due to the age of TOS, but it makes me wonder what else they will have decided to ignore of Star Treks 50 year history just because.
 

brian577

Banned
Yea...what sort of answer is that. Not only have they followed a pretty similar visual since TMP, they made a canonical reason as to why they looked different after Enterprise and through TOS up to TMP.

Not that it matters because I'll still watch it, but I'm not a fan of that sort of hand waving excuse, I understand it's hard to keep consistent due to the age of TOS, but it makes me wonder what else they will have decided to ignore of Star Treks 50 year history just because.

Depending on how things go it may be necessary to declare the show an alternate universe. At least Enterprise made an effort to connect the two eras, Discovery does not appear to be even trying.
 

Previous

check out my new Swatch
I wonder what actor is going to have a cameo appearance in the pilot to "pass the torch" as was done with all other Star Trek shows/reboots.

10 years before TOS, 100 years after ENT... Captain Archer would be in his 140s, T'Pol would be in her 170s.
For comparison Bones was 140 in the pilot of TNG, and Sarek lived to be 200.
 

antonz

Member
I wonder what actor is going to have a cameo appearance in the pilot to "pass the torch" as was done with all other Star Trek shows/reboots.

10 years before TOS, 100 years after ENT... Captain Archer would be in his 140s, T'Pol would be in her 170s.
For comparison Bones was 140 in the pilot of TNG, and Sarek lived to be 200.

Archer is probably dead or just about to die. Show is set around the launch of the Enterprise and Archer dies the day after the christening of the Enterprise. Not sure Blalock would come back though money for a quick cameo would appeal to many I'm sure
 

rjinaz

Member
I wonder what actor is going to have a cameo appearance in the pilot to "pass the torch" as was done with all other Star Trek shows/reboots.

10 years before TOS, 100 years after ENT... Captain Archer would be in his 140s, T'Pol would be in her 170s.
For comparison Bones was 140 in the pilot of TNG, and Sarek lived to be 200.

Hmm, redo T'Pol in her old age makeup during that one time travel episode and it would work. She had to be around that age.
 
There is some speculation that these Klingons were in stasis on a "sarcophagus ship" and are from the time of Kahless and are possibly even Fek'Ihri.

If they're an ancient biological cousin of the Klingons then I could get behind the idea but otherwise they just look too different from normal Klingons for my liking.
 
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