Star Trek: The Wrath of Fans

[Rhom]

1 hour ago, red snow said:

That and them wanting to force a Kirk and Riker dynamic - especially with Data dying. It's a bit on the nose and I can understand why the show avoided it

Do you mean Kirk and Spock?

[red snow]

8 hours ago, Rhom said:

Do you mean Kirk and Spock?

I do. But clearly a day of reading a manuscript about worm phylogenetics has turned me mad! I was probably subconsciously comparing riker as the next gen 90s sensibility kirk. A bit like how spock was data. Picard was a bit of an outlier in comparison to the original show.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

Is anyone planning on watching “Star Trek: ZAP!” (aka Star Trek: Lower Decks)?

I’m really tired of this type of animation.  Why is it the norm now?

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

23 hours ago, Werthead said:

Alexander Siddig and Andrew Robinson are doing a series of Bashir/Garak Zoom meetings at the moment. They're quite entertaining. More characters join in as it goes along (Jake in Episode 2, Kira in Episode 3, Quark in Episode 4).

Thank you very much for posting this.  Who’s writing it?

[sifth]

Just got done watching the first episode of Lower Decks and I was pleasantly surprised. I was going in expecting more horrible Kurtzman Trek and to be honest this wasn't so bad. It wasn't great by any means, but I think I liked it more than Discovery and Picard. For one thing this show wasn't super dark and depressing like those shows always tended to be and actually had a little fun with it's concept. I felt no sense of nihilism while watching the show, the way I did with much of Disocvery and Picard and actually was able to enjoy seeing these characters interact. The weakest points on this show are the comedy though, I really didn't find most of the jokes funny, but the fact that CBS was able to make a Trek show that didn't make me feel miserable is a step in the right direction.

[RumHam]

2 hours ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

Is anyone planning on watching “Star Trek: ZAP!” (aka Star Trek: Lower Decks)?

I’m really tired of this type of animation.  Why is it the norm now?

Well Solar Opposites and Lower Decks were both created by people who worked on Rick and Morty. Are there other shows that use that style? 

Also is it just one episode so far? I'm not gonna re-up all access for just one episode. 

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

9 minutes ago, RumHam said:

Well Solar Opposites and Lower Decks were both created by people who worked on Rick and Morty. Are there other shows that use that style? 

Also is it just one episode so far? I'm not gonna re-up all access for just one episode. 

"Teen Titans: GO"... "Thundercats: ROAR!"... "Powerpuffs Girls".  

I don't care for that animation style.

[Jace, Extat]

4 minutes ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

"Teen Titans: GO"... "Thundercats: ROAR!"... "Powerpuffs Girls".  

I don't care for that animation style.

That's what I see. Forget Rick and Morty, they made Star Titans. There's a beast boy, and a Robin character on the fucking cover.

[Werthead]

6 hours ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

Is anyone planning on watching “Star Trek: ZAP!” (aka Star Trek: Lower Decks)?

I’m really tired of this type of animation.  Why is it the norm now?

It's cheap.

I was very pleasantly surprised to see the new Transformers animated show on Netflix didn't use that style, and instead used a much better form of CG animation. The tradeoff seems to be that it was quite expensive and took them absolutely ages to make six episodes.

[DaveSumm]

I liked it OK. The pace kinda bugged me, there’s a lot of shows these days that think speaking fast is the same as comedy and it needed to slow down a tad, let things breathe. It was certainly great to see a slightly modernised TNG aesthetic though, it looks like what I wanted ‘the next’ Star Trek show to look like before DIS/PIC came along. And if you like references to canon there was about 600.

It was never really funny, but it got a few smirks from me. I’ll certainly keep watching.

[Werthead]

8 hours ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

Thank you very much for posting this.  Who’s writing it?

I think the actors themselves are.

CBS came out and admitted they'd made a massive balls-up. They'd swapped Lower Decks and Discovery in the production cycle, because Lower Decks was way ahead of schedule and Discovery was way behind schedule (apparently their normal CG pipeline was less easy to replicate for home systems than it has been for other companies), but their foreign rights department wasn't notified, so they hadn't gotten the ball rolling on getting the show sold in Europe.

It also sounds like Netflix isn't interested in buying more Trek shows because they got such a great deal on the package they bought from CBS back in 2017 (for all the shows, including the HD versions of TOS and TNG, with Discovery added on as a sweetner) that this established a baseline price they weren't prepared to go above for future shows, which is why Picard and probably Lower Decks went/will likely go to Amazon instead. Seems a bit tight of them, considering they were also boasting about the huge figures they were pulling in for old episodes of Voyager.

[Aemon Stark]

Haven't watched Lower Decks yet, but perhaps tomorrow if not tonight. So long as it's not boring and at least amusing I'll be okay. Can't manage to be more disappointing than Space Force.

[red snow]

13 hours ago, Werthead said:

It's cheap.

I was very pleasantly surprised to see the new Transformers animated show on Netflix didn't use that style, and instead used a much better form of CG animation. The tradeoff seems to be that it was quite expensive and took them absolutely ages to make six episodes.

Although the fights were hilariously wooden but probably refelective of how giant robots would really have to fight. A bit like people in the old deep sea diving suits having a squabble.

9 hours ago, Aemon Stark said:

Haven't watched Lower Decks yet, but perhaps tomorrow if not tonight. So long as it's not boring and at least amusing I'll be okay. Can't manage to be more disappointing than Space Force.

I thought space force was fun - I guess I'd have been disappointed if I'd expected it to actually be about making a federation type outfit I'd have been upset but I went into it expecting a comedy primarily. Plus, I'm a malkovich fan and it was fun to see him in that role.

10 hours ago, Werthead said:

I think the actors themselves are.

CBS came out and admitted they'd made a massive balls-up. They'd swapped Lower Decks and Discovery in the production cycle, because Lower Decks was way ahead of schedule and Discovery was way behind schedule (apparently their normal CG pipeline was less easy to replicate for home systems than it has been for other companies), but their foreign rights department wasn't notified, so they hadn't gotten the ball rolling on getting the show sold in Europe.

It also sounds like Netflix isn't interested in buying more Trek shows because they got such a great deal on the package they bought from CBS back in 2017 (for all the shows, including the HD versions of TOS and TNG, with Discovery added on as a sweetner) that this established a baseline price they weren't prepared to go above for future shows, which is why Picard and probably Lower Decks went/will likely go to Amazon instead. Seems a bit tight of them, considering they were also boasting about the huge figures they were pulling in for old episodes of Voyager.

That is a massive balls up and suggests international territories are an afterthought. Maybe because they don't get anywhere near as much money for international distribution as domestic? 

I can see why Netflix wouldn't blink tbh. They probably get more consistent views for the back catalogue than they do Discovery. Also as Discovery was the first trek show in a decade it got folk interested. Picard was initially touted as a one-off mini-series so why bother investing more than what you already were for several hundred episodes and the main new show?

I guess if CBS had been more confident in the Trek revival they'd have launched with "picard" as there'd have been a ton of heat (and bidding) over the first new trek show in a decade featuring one of the Franchise's most popular characters. But at the time Discovery felt like it may have been a niche success - the recent films had already stalled and it was hard to guage whether there was an appetite for a new show, especially one featuring all new characters in an odd continuity-problematic setting (Enterprise went the prequel route and turned out to be the only show since TNG not to hit seven seasons).

It'll be interesting if CBS ever tries to launch their platform internationally. Will they have more interest in that market? Wil they be able to get back everything from Netflix and Amazon? Or have they tied themselves into a bit of a bind thanks to being overly incautious or not factoring in international markets? The crazy thing is that by using netflix and amazon they've made it really easy (and not really illegal?) for people who already have netflix/amazon to just use a proxy to access a non North american account.

[Corvinus85]

16 hours ago, DaveSumm said:

I liked it OK. The pace kinda bugged me, there’s a lot of shows these days that think speaking fast is the same as comedy and it needed to slow down a tad, let things breathe. It was certainly great to see a slightly modernised TNG aesthetic though, it looks like what I wanted ‘the next’ Star Trek show to look like before DIS/PIC came along. And if you like references to canon there was about 600.

It was never really funny, but it got a few smirks from me. I’ll certainly keep watching.

Agree with the bolded. I tried watching, but stopped at the scene where the new medic trainee had to literally hold someone's heart and pump it. It could have been funny without such ridiculous moments.

[Werthead]

4 hours ago, red snow said:

It'll be interesting if CBS ever tries to launch their platform internationally. Will they have more interest in that market? Wil they be able to get back everything from Netflix and Amazon? Or have they tied themselves into a bit of a bind thanks to being overly incautious or not factoring in international markets? The crazy thing is that by using netflix and amazon they've made it really easy (and not really illegal?) for people who already have netflix/amazon to just use a proxy to access a non North american account.

I don't think so. CBS, ABC and NBC simply have zero brand recognition outside of the United States, so setting up their individual services outside the United States would not work. People would shrug and not bother. So I think it's more likely they will continue to work with people like Netflix and Amazon Prime on international distribution.

[red snow]

3 hours ago, Werthead said:

I don't think so. CBS, ABC and NBC simply have zero brand recognition outside of the United States, so setting up their individual services outside the United States would not work. People would shrug and not bother. So I think it's more likely they will continue to work with people like Netflix and Amazon Prime on international distribution.

In that sense I'd probably flip the question to "why bother with CBS all access and just deal with Amazon/Netflix?" I guess the answer is that enough people are willing to pay an additional $6-12 a month for another streaming service to the point where they still make more money having streaming service solely for North american audiences. In which case I guess the international sales are just seen as a bonus to them.

Hopefully the stand winds up on Amazon/netflix UK

[RumHam]

Hawley's Star Trek movie is basically dead. That article doesn't mention it, but the other day I read that the plot involved a a deadly virus and that was giving paramount pause.

[Heartofice]

5 hours ago, RumHam said:

Hawley's Star Trek movie is basically dead. That article doesn't mention it, but the other day I read that the plot involved a a deadly virus and that was giving paramount pause.

That’s unfortunate, though given how popular Contagion was after the virus outbreak id say it’s a missed opportunity 

[red snow]

1 hour ago, Heartofice said:

That’s unfortunate, though given how popular Contagion was after the virus outbreak id say it’s a missed opportunity 

Yeah streaming viewing suggests pandemic movies sell. 

It would probably have been a crazy sentient virus though that induces weird musical interludes. I like Hawley's work but I'm not sure it fits trek. 

I wonder who's next in the line up of auteurs to make the next trek film? Aronofsky? Refn-wending, bong joon ho?

[DaveSumm]

I forget what the situation is with CBS/Paramount, are the films and TV series still separate? So are they basically looking to create a self sufficient movie universe, while CBS carry on cranking out Picard/Discovery? Feels like they really need to get on the same page and have films and TV working in tandem. 
 

I mentioned it somewhere here before, but I really believe a big part of the Marvel success is that it runs in real time like a soap opera. There’s a sense that the universe is still there, and when the next movie/series comes out, we can all find out what our favourite characters have been doing in the interim. Star Trek is currently in five different time periods (Picard is 2399, Lower Decks 2380, Discovery 30??, Strange New Worlds 2250ish, movies alt-2260). It’s no wonder it’s not gelling as its own universe.