Amph [NERRRD] Observations, rhetorical questions, comments & 55 Years of Star Trek (General Thread)

As I said, Showtime has a real problem with pushing shows to stay on air too long until they suck. But at least you get a few good seasons out of it, up to four or five, which is near the max for most shows. On CBS you just get 15 equally terrible seasons.

 

Depends on whether or not CBS tries to squeeze 22 episodes a season out of it, rather than 10 or 13. CBS needs to realize that the 22 episode model is dying. Unfortunately, this CBS-All Access crap is probably going to kill the show rather than the show sucking after multiple seasons. I would have much rather seen CBS swallow their pride and work with Netflix to create a show cooperatively.

The issue with shows like Banshee and Strike Back on Cinemax is that they ran longer than they were likely designed to do in the first place. Stargate SG-1 started out on Showtime, but I think much of the success for that show was due to the fact that SciFi bought the rights for cable broadcast after season two.

 

They are apparently only doing 13 episodes for the first season, so they have apparently at least learned that lesson. That is what I have been saying ever since the "It is going to be exclusive to CBS All Access in the US after the premiere" nonsense was announced.

 

I understand that is for the first season, but I'm talking about after that if it gets a second season (which considering that for expensive to produce shows you pretty much want at least two seasons).

 

I highly doubt it will remain on All Access past a first season. That's the ultimate CBS move, thinking that this is what the young people want... When no, they really don't want to buy your terrible streaming service just for one show. All this will lead to is torrenting.

They'll probably wind up moving it to another channel of theirs.

 

This isn't the first time that a network has tried to use Star Trek to launch a new channel/app/whathaveyou. Voyager was supposed to be the flagship series for UPN. Guess how that turned.

 

Hey, hey, CBS aired BrainDead just this summer which was A) awesome B) weird as all hell. And, yes, no second season but they aired all of em and it had a very distinctive creative voice. The only gripe I read about between Fuller and CBS was they wanted to show up and running because they already pushed it back to May re. Deadline

Originally set for a January, 2017 premiere on CBS All Access, the launch date was pushed back to May 2017 at the request of Fuller and Kurtzman, who wanted in particular to get the special effects right. CBS was unwilling to delay the premiere further but after Fuller’s departure, the network said it intended to honor the concept for the show he had co-developed. “We are all committed to seeing this vision through,” the network said in October.

Haven't read anything about creative differences just more along the lines of "get the ball rolling"

 

CBS wanted terrible effects. Shocker. They don't care about any kind of quality. Supergirl had a budget of only 3.5 million an episode, which is both not enough for decent effects that won't ruin the show, and is less than many basic cable dramas. Tightwads.

And this is a creative difference. It's the difference between wanting it to look good and feel immersive as a viewing experience vs. looking like a 90s TV show.

 

Seems kinda tenuous to me, I haven't read anything that says "We don't like what Bryan Fuller had planned and are going to change it" and all indications are they're running with whatever he had mapped out and didn't want to wait around for him to finish up American Gods. They really want this show up and running because they can push their All Access platform and the contracts have already been signed with Netflix and Bell Media for international distribution. It is a tad odd, though, that CBS sat on the rights for a Star Trek TV show for over a decade and just now they're all like "We want it running now!!". Geez, y'all can't wait another 3 months? But, like I said, they want (what they hope) is the CBS All Access Gravy Train to start flowing.

 

So in Canada all the episodes are airing on Space, right? Thank goodness I can avoid this CBS All Access stupidity. Do they not realize that lots of people in the US will simply watch the torrents from other countries, rather than spend money on it?

 

The Bell Media release was frustratingly vague:

http://www.bellmedia.ca/pr/press/ne...e-long-and-prosper-in-canada-with-bell-media/

The rollout for the new STAR TREK series in Canada will mirror the launch in the U.S. The first episode will premiere on Canada’s most watched broadcast network, CTV, on the same night as CBS. All remaining episodes will initially be televised on Bell Media’s cable networks, Space (in English) and Z (in French), and then later exclusively on CraveTV™, Bell Media’s streaming video-on-demand service.

Which makes it sound like CTV airs the pilot, Space airs other eps but, eventually, it'll be a CraveTV exclusive. Now my TV actually does play CraveTV (has it built into the model) which makes it unique so I would go for it. It also mentions

The STAR TREK television library will return to Space (in English) and debut on Cinépop (in French), and will also be found among CraveTV’s leading lineup of premium television series.

Which I dunno if to interpret that as the Trek series will disappear from Netflix Canada and eventually be a Space / CraveTV exclusive as well. But I just watched a TNG ep on Space, like, 2 weeks ago.

It would have been a hellova lot easier if Netflix Canada had gotten the international rights like everywhere else but we gotta figure out how/what BellTV is going to do for it. But, yes, right now it's CTV / Space at the start until .... who knows? But if CraveTV will have the episodes right after they air without more than a few hours delay, I think I will plunk down for CraveTV.

 

Some of UPN's highest ratings were for the premieres of Star Trek: Voyager and Enterprise. People totally watch Star Trek pilot episodes. That is a thing. It's what happens afterwards is when Trek can get into trouble.

 

To bold go where no show should go before...

 

I will definitely torrent it. I don't want to support a push toward every channel having its own paid streaming. That would be terrible for consumers in the long run. I would pay for a Hulu subscription if they'd put it on there, because that comes with other stuff, and is the model we should be using.

Also, I pay for cable, so I'm already paying CBS to see their shows. I shouldn't have to pay for that twice (the FCC agrees with me: they've considered rules that would force all nets to give free streaming to people who already have that channel on cable and satellite, something many nets do already).

 

Well CBS All Access is basically there to be an archive of CBS entire catalouge of shows (Which is pretty freakin' huge) so that is supposed to be the primary draw for All Access as an archive. But now they're moving original programming to it and kicking off that wave with Star Trek: Discovery because it's a huge IP that people will shell out to pay for. But putting it in the Thunderdome of Network Programming in this day and age probably isn't the best thing for longevity. I do think that by having the show on All Access it would run longer (and also Bell / Netflix have plunked down cash for it) than if it had to compete against Skating with Celebrities and so forth.

 

It's not just old stuff, though. They also put even this week's episode on there. CBS gets public funding, which is why it has to remain free over the air. All other networks put recent episodes up free. That's why the FCC also feels it's dubious whether CBS is even allowed to charge subscribers a separate fee for recent episodes.

 

It doesn't do me any good on CBS All Access, because I have no desire to get a subscription, especially since it is already a struggle for me to watch everything, which has only been mitigated by DVR. I still haven't even seen most of NCIS and the two spinoffs this season, due to superhero shows. The Thunderdome of Network Programing is at least available to me, so if it isn't successful in that environment it won't be my fault. I haven't even kept up with Marvel Netflix, because I am lazy, so why would I subscribe to yet another service I pretty much won't use. A huge IP, not anymore, the Abramsverse is terrible and if practically no one has CBS All Access, such as me, then Discovery will be DOA.

 

Star Trek will always be a huge IP, it simply goes into various cocoon periods and then morphs into something new that grabs the audience again. Whenever someone thinks Star Trek is dead it always comes back. Trappings change but it's still Star Trek at it's core. That foundation Roddenberry built, the Wagon Train to the Stars aspect, is perfect for a franchise to constantly reinvent itself.

 

Bob Orci posted this on Trekmovie, unopened e-mail from Leonard Nimoy re. the Orci version of Star Trek Beyond, seems to indicate, as rumours had it, there would have been Shatner / Nimoy & Pine / Quinto. Although he posted later on the movie "had nothing to do with time travel". Nimoy's suggestion for a scene sounds cool as in I'm picturing something with Kirk Prime / Spock Prime talkin bout stuff with Kirk Kelvin / Spock Kelvin inter cut finishing the sentences or something.

Today, I was going through my emails and I found one I’d never seen from Nimoy. Shicked me to see it un opned in my in box. He sent it after I pitched him Trek 3 at his house. Thought Trekmovie was the right place to share this. Happy holidays.
“Bob: in the late 50’s Eugene Ionesco wrote a play about cultural conformity. It was titled “Rhinoceros”. There was a show stopping scene which takes place in an outdoor cafe. At separate tables people are having two conversations. A couple at one table start a sentence which is competed by people at another table. It is about simultaneous thought. Strikes me this might be an interesting area to explore between the two Spocks and Kirks. Just a thought. Leonard.”

 

That sounds like it would have been very, very interesting.

 

Agreed but wasn't to be.

Completely unrelated to the above posted bit but somewhat on topic:

 

You know you're a nerd when....

 

Speaking of knowing when you're a nerd...

I was watching "Doctor's Orders", when Phlox has to run Enterprise by himself because the rest of the crew has been placed in a coma for their own protection.

Being alone, I quickly guessed that he would start freaking out due to the isolation, and that becomes obviously the case quite quickly. Well, I remembered a quote from an episode earlier in the season where Hoshi thinks she is hallucinating, and Phlox tells her that Denobulans consider hallucinations a healthy way to relieve stress. Aha, I thought. Well, midway through the episode, this quote was mentioned.

I fist pumped. I love it when I remember a piece of continuity, and so does the show. I just love having my memory given a nod that way, it feels like a reward for paying attention and remembering trivial bits, and I love when a show remembers its own continuity and uses it instead of being oblivious to it, especially when it seems so relevant. Good job, whoever remembered that.

So, that was my nerd confirmation.


More trivia: The story was basically the exact same as the Voyager episode "One", the one where Seven is taking care of the ship alone while the crew is in stasis, and she begins to hallucinate.

 

Which actually makes for good question since they're very similar in plot: which series did the story better?