Netflix interested in new Trek series

[Iroscato]

So I performed my occasional 'new Star Trek series' google search a few minutes ago (I am an eternal optimist) and, bugger me, this article was written yesterday. Apparently Netflix is very interested in making a new Star Trek series with CBS, and has reportedly tried to get something going. Makes for an interesting read, and would make a degree of sense given Netflix's track record for new show content.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/2 ... ertainment

[FaxModem1]

While I would hope it would take place in the original universe, I fear it'll take place in the reboot universe if it ever gets made.

[Simon_Jester]

There's nothing fundamentally wrong with the reboot universe except, perhaps, the character of Kirk, who made a callow, arrogant, questionably-competent showing in the first two movies.

Thing is, that's a known criticism, and executives have to bear in mind that "bad boy Kirk" is going to get very tiresome for viewers watching him every single week. So we might see pressure to make the character a bit more mature on that basis alone.

[Batman]

I'd argue he improved by a considerable margin between movies and it's not like TOS Kirk was the most level-headed or humble individual either.As for the competency, I give you TWOK. Whose brilliant idea was it not to raise shields when Reliant remained incommunicado? Yes, nuTrek Kirk isn't exactly a genius, but neither was his predecessor.

[Iroscato]

Thing is, that's a known criticism, and executives have to bear in mind that "bad boy Kirk" is going to get very tiresome for viewers watching him every single week. So we might see pressure to make the character a bit more mature on that basis alone.

I doubt very much that if it was based on the new movies, the same actors from the films would return for the series due to their demand in Hollywood. However, not doing so might create confusion for audiences, so I think their best bet would be either a different time period (or ship) in the reboot universe, or just a new series in the prime universe. Keep the nuTrek to movies, Prime Trek to the TV show perhaps.

[Simon_Jester]

Well, old-Kirk routinely won the day based on some cunning or resourceful decision of his own. He made some pretty impressive bloopers. But for the TV series, Shatner was able to convey the impression of a competent character in his mental, physical, and professional prime most of the time. Sure, he made mistakes, but he was also decisive and effective quite often, and good at thinking up ways to outwit a more powerful opponent.

With the movies being made in the '70s and '80s there was more of a 'fumbling oldster' vibe, but that may be partly because they tried to make the question of whether Kirk was too old for this shit a routine recurring theme in those movies.

If Chris Pine as Captain Kirk is going to be a recurring role for the actor, I think he's going to have to make a transition into the role of the competent, cunning, (usually) disciplined Kirk of the original series. He's at least part way there, mind, I'm not disputing that... but watching many hours of screen time from the 'average' Kirk of the two recent movies would be grating.

I doubt very much that if it was based on the new movies, the same actors from the films would return for the series due to their demand in Hollywood.

That's a fair point.

However, not doing so might create confusion for audiences, so I think their best bet would be either a different time period (or ship) in the reboot universe, or just a new series in the prime universe. Keep the nuTrek to movies, Prime Trek to the TV show perhaps.

Possibly. I think it's a little too soon to have any other series set in the reboot universe, so that increases the appeal of going back to the prime Star Trek setting.

[Batman]

Shatner's Kirk also had the unfair advantage of the character having been at the job for 15 years (not as Captain of the Big E, but as a Starfleet officer) or more at the beginning of the series, nevermind the movies, whereas nuTrek Kirk was a freaking cadet in the first movie. Now if you want to argue making him a cadet was a stupid idea, I'll agree, and I was less then impressed with the first nuTrek movie, but they went a long way between those movies especially with the Kirk/Spock/Bones dynamic, and given the apparently rather short time between 'Into Darkness' and 'Star Trek' I think it would have been unrealistic for Kirk to mature much more than that, leave alone to TOS Kirk levels.
'Star Trek' was a 'Yay! Explosions and pointless action sequences that make no sense' SciFi movie that happened to be parked in a reboot Star Trek universe.
'Into Darkness' was a 'Star Trek' movie.

[Simon_Jester]

What I mean is that if they take those characters into a TV series, they're going to have to have Kirk finish growing up in pretty short order, or it's going to become rather annoying and turn off their audience.

Viewers will put up with two hours of immature Kirk every three or four years in exchange for OHMIGOD EXPLOSIONS! They won't put up with 30 minutes of immature Kirk every week.

[Batman]

Depends on what you mean by 'short order' I guess. Given that from the movies it is pretty clear that yeah, he's young and inexperienced and immature (not to mention arrogant as hell-which TOS Kirk was too, to an extent, they didn't drop the Kobayashi Maru scenario into the first reboot movie for nothing) so I think the audience would put up with immature Kirk for, say, a season, as long as he's improving.

Besides, viewers put up with 7 seasons worth of VOY and four seasons worth of ENT. If you want to bottom ENT you have your work cut out for you.

[Iroscato]

Besides, viewers put up with 7 seasons worth of VOY and four seasons worth of ENT. If you want to bottom ENT you have your work cut out for you.

Voyager's ratings were less than amazing as far as I recall, which is why they introduced Seven of Nine to um...reach out to a wider demographic. And that was getting on for 20 years ago, mind you. Put a show of a similar tone and caliber to Voyager on the air now and I think it'd bomb hard.
And as always, the less said about Enterprise the better for us all.

[Simon_Jester]

In 1995 or 2001 you could start a new Trek series riding on the coattails of a generation of fans who had been watching Star Trek on TV continuously since 1987. Now, you can't; you have to convince people to watch it all over again. So it has to be at least reasonably good.

I think Batman's right that 'brash young immature Kirk' could still work as long as he's visibly improving over the course of a season or whatever. But my basic point is, if they want their new series to work they can't halfass it.

[PREDATOR490]

Not going to happen.

I seriously doubt Netflix would be able to manage a Star Trek series without it being heavily watered down to the point it is rubbish. Then you have to compound that by throwing in the decades worth of baggage for the original series.
Alternatively, going for the NuTrek might seem more promising but it is going to easily conflict with movies unless they come up with a consistent universe like Marvel have with Avengers vs. Agents of Shield.

More baggage than it is worth for Netflix and Star Trek has died rather effectively. Trying to revive it is going to require some serious work otherwise it will just be an epic mess like Stargate Universe.

[SCRawl]

Alternatively, going for the NuTrek might seem more promising but it is going to easily conflict with movies unless they come up with a consistent universe like Marvel have with Avengers vs. Agents of Shield.

This is really the only model that can work, IMHO. But some work still needs to be done to set up a secondary cast that would interest the fanbase in the same way Agent Coulson did.

[Elheru Aran]

Alternatively, going for the NuTrek might seem more promising but it is going to easily conflict with movies unless they come up with a consistent universe like Marvel have with Avengers vs. Agents of Shield.

This is really the only model that can work, IMHO. But some work still needs to be done to set up a secondary cast that would interest the fanbase in the same way Agent Coulson did.

Quick off-the-cuff idea:

The show is about a group of crew members on the Enterprise. Pine, Quinto, Pegg, Urban etc. pop in every now and then, not unlike Sam Jackson and a few others on Shield.

They basically go through TOS, but from more of a crewman/redshirt's perspective.

Big problem with this is that it would depart from the mold fairly seriously by not having the main leaders of the show being the command crew of the ship, which has been pretty much the status quo for Star Trek since it got started (and if you think about it, for pretty much every SF show out there). That might be what helps it get off the ground-- but that might be what kicks it into the gutter.

[Borgholio]

They basically go through TOS, but from more of a crewman/redshirt's perspective.

They did that in at least one episode of Voyager. IIRC it was one of the better episodes...until the end when one of the redshirts attempted to murder an alien lifeform during first contact and Janeway just literally smiled and waved it off.

But I digress. I agree with you, it'd be fun but it'd be a bigger risk.

[Batman]

Wouldn't work. Yes, we got a number of fun episodes (across various franchises, B5's 'A View From The Gallery' comes to mind) out of it, but it's not something you can build a series on. Space exploration, extraterrestrial menaces, weird nebula of the week...but the series concentrates on the guys who clean the privies (figuratively speaking). Somehow, I don't think that would gather much of an audience.

[PREDATOR490]

Doing a show from a crew man perspective just wont work if your on the big E. Either the stories are going to be so weak that it becomes a soap drama which keeps the main cast out of it or... the stories are so large that it becomes a serious suspension breaker for the big names to show up. Agents of Shield works because the Avengers are flaky enough to be waved away and your dealing with a global scale of coverage.

IF your going to try and mimic Agents of Shield then it will end up being focused on another group that may have interactions with the big E. However, this effectively becomes DS9 or Voyager.
As far as NuTrek is concerned I find it highly unlikely they will take the risk to make a spin off series because they just dont have the momentum that Marvel has acquired to eventually get Agents of Shield viable.

If a new Star Trek series is going to be made, I think it is likely to be animation / CGI story with voice cameos which may work like the Clone Wars but the big question is if a consistent universe could be constructed. Star Trek has a spotty track record with being consistent even within the same series without cross-series interactions.

[biostem]

Personally, I would love to see a series about some *other* ship, off in some fringe corner of Federation space, where the events of the movies would just trickle in as news. Go in a different direction with things, while retaining the aspects of the older material people loved; The crew are tight-knit and supportive of one-another, but play things a bit looser with the rules. Where things are just a tad tongue-in-cheek, but only in the sense of the characters playing off one-another. Less of the techno-babble, but more about ingenuity, cleverness, and so on. Maybe give us a bit more of an insight into non-federation life as the crew encounters privateers and so forth...

[Mr Bean]

You don't have to do a DS9 or Voyager show there is a dead easy story to tell in the old universe.

Old Continuity:A ship on former Romulan neutral zone. With the destruction of their home system and billions dead the once solid Romulan empire is crumbling. Follow the voyages of the of the USS:Sucks to be you as her Captain and crew struggle to handle the disintegrated of the Empire, the protection of Federation colonies, the fallout from the Dominion war and the culture clash for new colonists taken from their idealized lifestyle and put out on the border here.

The show would be half-episodic/ half episode in a bottle. Twelve episode series with 6 shows in two 3 act parts and 6 stand alone episodes where everything is handled in our fifty minutes since this is a netflix series. The main theme of the show was applying Star Fleet ideals running smack dab into messy reality. The long running theme would be intent matters and in the absence of order many different things can happen thanks to the smallest of changes. And to emphasis that the crew would be a mix of old Starfleet and new Starfleet. I want the explorers and boldly go people smack next to the people who got battlefield promotions thanks to loses fighting the Borg or the Dominion. And because we are nice modern people I'd like both sides to be right.

And most importantly I want this to be an Enterprise show. Because while the Enterprise E was the biggest and best thing in space In my mind it goes perfectly with Starfleet sending a (Lets say) twenty year old ship which used to be the top of the fleet but is showing her age. Picard is not in command but someone else (Take your pick) and while the prestige of being handed the Enterprise is great I want it obvious from day 1 that this is a ship that's gone through hell and been put back together again many times and the pieces work but don't fit together as well as they should. More over Star Fleet is already planning the next Enterprise so this should be a two year stint showing the flag at the border.

So it's an Enterprise show and we get the E again but she's on her last legs without Picard at the hell. Half her crew spent the war in planet side or safe positions aboard other science vessels. There's a tiny core left of Enterprise old hands, and the rest are war volunteers who are still in. We would stay very hard away from anomalies of the week to focus on defusing tensions on the former border. Dealing with criminals elements sneaking their way in to exploit colonies and dealing with the hard fallout of the Romulan Empire collapsing in on itself. The fallout of a messy potential civil war, few ships to watch the borders of Romulan space and a long communication loop means our Captain is by him or herself allot. Our cast would break for once from bridge crew and the nobodies. Instead we would par down. Captain and Exec, the Engineer chief and his crew plus the security team and the specialists. So total of about 9 actors plus about 5-10 regular extras with maybe one line per episode.

[Lord Revan]

this Idea might be considered heretical here but what about a random NX-class (not the NX-01 but another one) during the Earth-Romulan war, you wouldn't have that much baggage from pre-existing canon as that era is never been seen or told in detail before. You could appease the old fans by explaining that tech in ENT while still existing is cutting edge and wasn't really cost effective during the war thus explaining why in TOS they said that Earth-Romulan war was fought with lasers and nukes since that would be what most ships would using with our "hero" ship using the high-tech weapons (also helps to make the "hero" ship seem special), also since this pre-dates the "offical branching point it ties into both Prime and Abrams trek.

You'd also have totally new crew to work with and thanks to the era you should be able to plenty of actions and since we know that in Prime-trek UFP didn't discover what romulans looked like until the 2260s you can plenty of exotic aliens as minions of the romulans.

[PREDATOR490]

I have a distinct distaste for prequels in Star Trek after Enterprise was a train wreck of stupidity. Showing the Romulan war is only going to make things worse if they try to continue from Enterprise while trying to maintain the TOS interpretation.

If you want to be totally out of the box and original - make a Star Trek show that is on an alien vessel. Your going to get plenty of mileage out of Romulas being destroyed if you do it right and the aliens could even be part of the Federation. I suppose Star Trek Online would take a royal ass-fucking as a result but I am more than happy with that given STO story is woefully thin anyway.
Alternatively, a series that focuses on aliens in NuTrek and / or just another Federation ship would work to expand the setting a bit but this still runs into the issue of trying to generate a consistent universe between film and series.

[Elheru Aran]

STO isn't actually all that terrible compared to the original Trek shows.

Most of the stories aren't awesome, I'll give that to you, but some do stand up fairly well. Take the Klingon arc for the first, oh, twenty episodes or so. You can totally see that taking place over a few episodes of TNG (if it wasn't set like 100 years after, but anyway).

The problem with a nuTrek show is that so far nuTrek has only focused on the movies and some comic books, which have been largely thin adaptions of TOS episodes. Not very impressive at all. If nuTrek had started with a show, there would be more of a foundation to build upon.

For my part, I'm not terribly interested in a hour every week of pew-pews and light flares.

[Iroscato]

ITT I learn that Star Trek, as a franchise, might have just painted itself into a corner

[Elheru Aran]

ITT I learn that Star Trek, as a franchise, might have just painted itself into a corner

That is honestly pretty much it, yeah.

Either go with a show based on nu-Trek... but you won't have the actors from the movies, because they're too high-profile now to really dedicate a chunk of their year to a TV show which might not even make it. So you have to come up with a reasonable premise which doesn't actually involve them. Which in turn runs into more issues.

Or go with a series in the prime universe... but then you run into the issue of how do you make it fresh and interesting? TNG was TOS from a different angle; DS9 was Star Trek with a proper war and on a space station; VOY was, well, TOS turned into shit and warmed over, and Enterprise was prequel-ish shit. Do they bump it up to STO era? Do they stick in that general vague late DS9/VOY time-space? Do they go back to TNG or TOS?

And in the middle of all this, sci-fi on TV has moved right along. The current atmosphere of SF is very different from that which Trek is most at home-- a fairly optimistic 'let's see what's out there' kind of attitude. That's the most glaring problem with the nu-Trek films-- while in a sense they're setting their own new universe, they're missing that point that makes it Trek.