New Star Trek series coming in 2017

[Malthus]

It would be great if they brought back the original concept - a ship wandering around looking into stuff, using a lot of different writers, not caring overly about 'canon' - but I doubt it can be done.

Nobody does shows like that anymore though.

Purely episodic shows were perfect for the broadcast tv era - where if you happened to miss a show, it didn't matter because there was no carry-over from episode to episode.  But in the streaming era, where you can watch the show when and how you want, it makes more sense to give it an overarching plot and theme that develops from episode to episode.

Perhaps not, but that's what gave ToS its edge - the fact that nearly anything could happen, leading to a flood of ideas (good and bad) that the current TV series', movies, etc. have been cannibalizing ever since. Star Trek had no real 'plot' with a beginning, middle and end, so attempting to graft on onto it (season by season) risks making it resemble a soap opera more than a tightly scripted science fiction miniseries - an "As the World Turns" ... in space! 

[Barrister]

It would be great if they brought back the original concept - a ship wandering around looking into stuff, using a lot of different writers, not caring overly about 'canon' - but I doubt it can be done.

Nobody does shows like that anymore though.

Purely episodic shows were perfect for the broadcast tv era - where if you happened to miss a show, it didn't matter because there was no carry-over from episode to episode.  But in the streaming era, where you can watch the show when and how you want, it makes more sense to give it an overarching plot and theme that develops from episode to episode.

Perhaps not, but that's what gave ToS its edge - the fact that nearly anything could happen, leading to a flood of ideas (good and bad) that the current TV series', movies, etc. have been cannibalizing ever since. Star Trek had no real 'plot' with a beginning, middle and end, so attempting to graft on onto it (season by season) risks making it resemble a soap opera more than a tightly scripted science fiction miniseries - an "As the World Turns" ... in space! 

You sound like a man who has never watched DS9 - Trek's one attempt at building an overarching plot - which many feel was the best Trek show ever.


Incidentally, I wonder if perhaps this show will not be related to the reboot movies.  Curiously, the movies rights are the property of Paramount Pictures, while the TV rights are the property of CBS.  But then again Kurtzman is apparently involved in both, so who knows.

[celedhring]

Incidentally, I wonder if perhaps this show will not be related to the reboot movies.  Curiously, the movies rights are the property of Paramount Pictures, while the TV rights are the property of CBS.  But then again Kurtzman is apparently involved in both, so who knows.

CBS and Paramount are part of the same media conglomerate.

[MadImmortalMan]

I don't think that matters for the content anyway. He could still do a dumb reboot show under the ST property.

[Barrister]

Incidentally, I wonder if perhaps this show will not be related to the reboot movies.  Curiously, the movies rights are the property of Paramount Pictures, while the TV rights are the property of CBS.  But then again Kurtzman is apparently involved in both, so who knows.

CBS and Paramount are part of the same media conglomerate.

Nope.  They split in 2005.  CBS is part of CBS Corporation, while Paramount is a part of Viacom.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/cbs-viacom-formally-split/

Whats amusing (and yet sad) is that the primary reason I know this is because of how it affects Star Trek.

[celedhring]

Doesn't Redstone still own a majority stake in both?

[Caliga]

No Rick Berman, eh?  I'm definitely interested

[MadImmortalMan]

No Rick Berman, eh?  I'm definitely interested

At least Berman has proven he can make both good and bad Star Trek. Mostly the good stuff is when he's less involved, but hey. Kurtzman has never made any Star Trek. Only reboots.

[viper37]

It would be great if they brought back the original concept - a ship wandering around looking into stuff, using a lot of different writers, not caring overly about 'canon' - but I doubt it can be done.

Nobody does shows like that anymore though.

Purely episodic shows were perfect for the broadcast tv era - where if you happened to miss a show, it didn't matter because there was no carry-over from episode to episode.  But in the streaming era, where you can watch the show when and how you want, it makes more sense to give it an overarching plot and theme that develops from episode to episode.

Perhaps not, but that's what gave ToS its edge - the fact that nearly anything could happen, leading to a flood of ideas (good and bad) that the current TV series', movies, etc. have been cannibalizing ever since. Star Trek had no real 'plot' with a beginning, middle and end, so attempting to graft on onto it (season by season) risks making it resemble a soap opera more than a tightly scripted science fiction miniseries - an "As the World Turns" ... in space! 

Babylon 5.
ST: Deep Space Nine.
Firefly.
Killjoys.
Fringe.
Lost.

All successful sci-fi shows with an arc.  The first 4 ones being exclusively in space, while the lasts are other type of sci-fi, but that worked pretty well too.  There are more, of course.

Nearly everyone here who has rewatched TNG found the first few seasons sucked.  Why?  Because they mimick what the old ST was about, a spaceship wandering almost aimelessly (from our perspective) with seperate stories each week, with barely no continuity until the very last seasons.

Voyager had pretty good episodes, but overall there was a real lack of continuity, and it failed, trying to combine DS9 storytelling with TOS episodic nature.

[Barrister]

Doesn't Redstone still own a majority stake in both?

I googled.  According to VF yes, but he's seriously out of it these days.

http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2015/05/sumner-redstone-health-fortune

[Malthus]

It would be great if they brought back the original concept - a ship wandering around looking into stuff, using a lot of different writers, not caring overly about 'canon' - but I doubt it can be done.

Nobody does shows like that anymore though.

Purely episodic shows were perfect for the broadcast tv era - where if you happened to miss a show, it didn't matter because there was no carry-over from episode to episode.  But in the streaming era, where you can watch the show when and how you want, it makes more sense to give it an overarching plot and theme that develops from episode to episode.

Perhaps not, but that's what gave ToS its edge - the fact that nearly anything could happen, leading to a flood of ideas (good and bad) that the current TV series', movies, etc. have been cannibalizing ever since. Star Trek had no real 'plot' with a beginning, middle and end, so attempting to graft on onto it (season by season) risks making it resemble a soap opera more than a tightly scripted science fiction miniseries - an "As the World Turns" ... in space! 

You sound like a man who has never watched DS9 - Trek's one attempt at building an overarching plot - which many feel was the best Trek show ever.

Critics liked DS9, but it was in no way as memorable and ground-breaking as the original series, and it was never as popular - and for good reason: it was more boring.

Critics love "morally ambiguous" characters, they tend to forgive, more than audiences do, the fact that shows have to have some sort of interesting stuff going on for an audience to care about the "morally ambiguous" characters.

People remember (for good or bad) what happened in ToS shows, because the plots were often interesting (or amusingly bad  ). Few remember the contents of any particular DS9 show.

From the wiki article:

Andrew J. Robinson commented on DS9 not being as popular as its predecessors: "It's not the most popular because it's the most morally ambiguous... Whenever you have characters who are gray rather than black and white... Although they are more interesting, they are more difficult for people to get a handle on. I loved DS9 because they were gray, because the characters were not easily definable, but that's not for everybody".[13]

Author Terry J. Erdmann commented: "DS9 was never as popular as its two predecessors, although it arguably was a more critically acclaimed series".[14]

[MadImmortalMan]

I don't know. Janeway was the most "morally ambiguous" character to ever appear in a starfleet uniform.

[Malthus]

It would be great if they brought back the original concept - a ship wandering around looking into stuff, using a lot of different writers, not caring overly about 'canon' - but I doubt it can be done.

Nobody does shows like that anymore though.

Purely episodic shows were perfect for the broadcast tv era - where if you happened to miss a show, it didn't matter because there was no carry-over from episode to episode.  But in the streaming era, where you can watch the show when and how you want, it makes more sense to give it an overarching plot and theme that develops from episode to episode.

Perhaps not, but that's what gave ToS its edge - the fact that nearly anything could happen, leading to a flood of ideas (good and bad) that the current TV series', movies, etc. have been cannibalizing ever since. Star Trek had no real 'plot' with a beginning, middle and end, so attempting to graft on onto it (season by season) risks making it resemble a soap opera more than a tightly scripted science fiction miniseries - an "As the World Turns" ... in space! 

Babylon 5.
ST: Deep Space Nine.
Firefly.
Killjoys.
Fringe.
Lost.

All successful sci-fi shows with an arc.  The first 4 ones being exclusively in space, while the lasts are other type of sci-fi, but that worked pretty well too.  There are more, of course.

Nearly everyone here who has rewatched TNG found the first few seasons sucked.  Why?  Because they mimick what the old ST was about, a spaceship wandering almost aimelessly (from our perspective) with seperate stories each week, with barely no continuity until the very last seasons.

Voyager had pretty good episodes, but overall there was a real lack of continuity, and it failed, trying to combine DS9 storytelling with TOS episodic nature.

I didn't say you can't have a successful science fiction show with an "arc".  I said that it would be nice to have an episodic version of Star Trek that worked.

Though I'll be damned if I include Lost in the legion of great science fiction shows with an "arc" - when the writers so obviously painted themselves in a corner.

[Barrister]

Critics liked DS9, but it was in no way as memorable and ground-breaking as the original series, and it was never as popular - and for good reason: it was more boring.

Critics love "morally ambiguous" characters, they tend to forgive, more than audiences do, the fact that shows have to have some sort of interesting stuff going on for an audience to care about the "morally ambiguous" characters.

People remember (for good or bad) what happened in ToS shows, because the plots were often interesting (or amusingly bad  ). Few remember the contents of any particular DS9 show.

I have to disagree that DS9 was "boring" - it had some fantastic eposides.  But that's a matter of taste.

It's also a matter of the intervening 20 years or so.  No one had ever heard of streaming video on demand.  It's that technology which has changed how we watch television, and consequently how they make television shows.  They don't want a show that you can walk away from - they want it so that they hook you into binge-watching.

[MadImmortalMan]

If it were my decision, I'd put the new show in the hands of Ira Behr.