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Star Trek: Discovery discussion

29K views 127 replies 40 participants last post by  bobmac 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
Star Trek New Star Trek Series Premieres January 2017

Apparently it will be based on the "reboot" time line. I was a big Star Trek fan as a kid when ST:TNG was running. This was especially true for The Best of Both Worlds between seasons 3 and 4. I must confess that I'm really excited about the prospect of more Star Trek on TV. I hope they don't screw it up.

I'm also hoping that we get long story arcs. In the past Star Trek tended to stick with story lines that "put things back where they found them" at the end of the hour. Presumably this was because TV episodes were designed so that new viewers could jump in at any time without confusion. But with modern streaming solutions to deliver TV in-order and on demand, I think that that long story arcs makes for better story telling.
 
#2 ·
I saw the press release earlier. Only the first episode will be broadcast on CBS.
CBS Television Studios announced today it will launch a totally new “Star Trek” television series in January 2017. The new series will blast off with a special preview broadcast on the CBS Television Network. The premiere episode and all subsequent first-run episodes will then be available exclusively in the United States on CBS All Access, the Network’s digital subscription video on demand and live streaming service.
It will be interesting to see how it's distributed in Canada, possibly on a specialty channel or a streaming service.
CBS Studios International to Distribute the Series Globally For Television and Multiple Platforms
 
#6 ·
I'm not sure Star Trek is big enough anymore to get the kind of number of subscribers CBS would need.
I don't know, Star Trek Into Darkness brought in ~$467 million in worldwide box office sales (citation), which is pretty good. Much better than what many of the previous TNG-based movies brought in - and TNG was a very successful TV series by most measures.

If there is any connection between success on TV and success on the "big screen", I'd say that Star Trek should do very well on TV.

I think there are a lot of Sci-Fi fans out there, and they're relatively under-served. The real question is: can Star Trek be profitable on TV. If they can keep their production budget under control, I think they certainly can make a good business case. Plus, modern Sci-Fi has a cost advantage; it costs much less to do special effects compared to the 10+ years ago, and that type of show tends to need more special effects than your average TV program.
 
#12 ·
Apparently it will be based on the "reboot" time line.
What's the basis for that observation? The stuff I've seen haven't indicated one way or another.

I'm also hoping that we get long story arcs. In the past Star Trek tended to stick with story lines that "put things back where they found them" at the end of the hour.
I agree, though Deep Space Nine was better at having character development and story arcs.

Hard to say where it will land in Canada. There's already series that air on streaming services in the US, that are on regular channels in Canada. For example, the current season of The Mindy Project, which airs on Hulu in the USA, and a few weeks later on City TV in Canada (Sundays at 8 pm).
 
#16 ·
nfitz said:
What's the basis for that observation? The stuff I've seen haven't indicated one way or another.
You know, now that I go searching for the article that implied that, I can't seem to find it again.

CBS doesn't seem to have published an official position on that; but we do know that Alex Kurtzman is responsible for the new series and he co-wrote and produced the bits of Star Trek (2009, 2013 movies) which created the new time line. If he felt the need to shed the burden of all the old school "canon" material to start fresh for the movies, I doubt he would want to re-attach himself to it for the new TV series.

So, I can see why people would have drawn that conclusion.

That said, you're right - which time line this new story will be set has not been officially communicated.
 
#17 ·
Wouldn't it be something if the new show was not available in Canada AT ALL (legally). What if CBS fears that people might bypass geoblocking on a Canadian provider to watch it instead of subscribing to their service.

I am not saying it is likely, but it is not beyond the realms of possibility.
 
#18 ·
#23 ·
Because the EP and the studio have no creative vision whatsoever. It's the same reason that Stargate is being rebooted as a movie trilogy.

There hasn't been any confirmation yet on whether the new series will be in the original timeline or the rebooted one. People are just assuming it'll be the rebooted one, because the executive producer (Kurtzman) was a co-writer of the 2009 and 2013 Trek movies. In the meantime, Moonves has said that additional announcements about Star Trek — both behind and in front of the camera — would be coming soon.

While I'm happy Star Trek is finally returning to television, it certainly took CBS long enough to do it. By the way, it looks like Spiner was right when he said a while back that an agreement was put into place to prevent a TV series from occurring until after the trilogy of reboot movies. Best case scenario is they return to the original universe timeline and compose a good original opening theme song worthy of a Trek series (it's still sad that both Jerry and Joel Goldsmith are dead now -- at least they knew how to create good theme songs). Worst case scenario is that it's part of the rebooted timeline with the massive lens flares, super-fast-camera-movements, sex-infused, explosions-every-minute style that has been part of the Abrams movie franchise. Oh, and a 5-second opening intro just showing the title name of the show, instead of an actual theme song.

Say what you will about the problems that Nemesis and Enterprise had, but at least when Berman and Braga were running the series, they knew what they were doing as far as the camera movements and storylines were concerned. There was a certain... production consistency... for lack of a better phrase, between TNG, DS9, Voyager and Enterprise, that's clearly absent from the 2009 and 2013 films, and that's what I miss from the previous series. If the new series is just going to be the continuing 5-year adventures of the rebooted Kirk and co. timeline that started in the movies, except now on an episodic basis, then a lot of people (including myself) will be irrevocably ticked off.

And as far as airing the new series in Canada, if you remember, back in the day, Enterprise used to air first on City, and then the episode subsequently repeated on Sunday night on Space. So I'm sure one of those two networks would pick this one up.
 
#20 ·
I had thought that the next ST project was called REBELLION bringing back characters such as Tuvok but having read about the new ST reboot-series doesn't appeal to me at all.

History shows that beyond Voyager, these newer series (such as Enterprise) with extremely busy screens and soapy characters just don't cut it.

I was and still am an extreme Star Trek fan of the 80s and 90s flavor who was never able to watch an entire movie beyond Nemesis.

Anyhow, that CBS online-exclusive series will certainly have a budget set accordingly and will be, by the time it airs, available EVERYWHERE for the picking! I'll certainly take a look at it.
 
#21 ·
I guess this shows that there are all sorts of people out there. Personally, I felt that Nemesis was a low point for Star Trek and while I hated the excessive lens flare, I quite liked the two recent movies.

On the topic of distribution, I think it would make sense for CBS to expand All Access internationally. They own the content, so it makes perfect sense for them to go direct to the consumer. I firmly believe that the future will minimize the number of middle men between the content owner and the consumer, we're just not there yet.
 
#26 ·
I see 3 things 'possibly' happening in Canada in regards to this series:

1)Rogers/Shaw will pick it up, but it will only be available on Showmi. The first episode will be on City, the following Episodes will be on Showmi

2) BCE Media will pick it up and do the same except the first Episode will be on CTV, the rest will be on Crave TV(as by that time Crave TV will be available to everyone)

3)Netflex Canada will pick up the series and will show it on their streaming service.

This way your "Forced" to pay extra to see the series.In any case I see it landing on some streaming service in Canada. The only thing is I'm not sure if you can access this CBS streaming service in Canada or not?
 
#32 ·
No, what I'm saying at some point Canada is going to follow the US streaming services at some point where content will only be available on streaming service(as to when I can't say exactly). remember you have to pay to receive Shomi,Crave TV or Netflex. In the case of Bell or Shaw/Rogers that's extra revenue if they only have it on their streaming service. I'm not saying that's what's going to happen, only a possibility. The thing is if as an example Bell or Shaw/Rogers wins the bid, since they both have streaming services they win, because you'll need to pay extra to see it if its on Shomi or Crave TV with having TV service.

Why do think CBS is doing it? If they put it on their regular CBS network those with OTA will get for free,if you put it on a streaming service you'll need to pay for it regardless if you have only OTA,IPTV,Cable or Sat, you'll need to pay CBS'S streaming service to watch, hence extra revenue for CBS or perhaps in this case Bell/Shaw//Rogers or Netflix or some other provider?
 
#33 ·
CBS is using it to try and build their streaming service, knowing that they can later recoup a lot of costs through direct sales.

However, as CBS would still control direct sales in the Canadian market, they'd be looking at maximizing revenue from Canada, and I very much doubt that any of the current streaming services, would be making the highest bid - other than perhaps as part of a bid like Rogers airing it initially on their Shomi service and a few weeks later on their City or Omni services.
 
#36 ·
I wouldn't be surprised if it ended up on Space. I also wouldn't be surprised if it also ended up on the streaming service of whichever company (sorry I can't remember) that owns Space.

It might be CBS's decision to stream only in the US, but outside of the US they'll be trying to maximize profits which would probably be maximized by selling TV and Streaming rights.
 
#37 ·
Well, no. Profits would be maximized by going direct to the consumer. Middle men will always require a cut in order to survive.

The difference between the future and the past is that content owners/creators can get to their viewers without the need of some proprietary TV network.

So, whether they (content creators) charge a subscription fee or show advertising, have iTunes style "buy the episode/season" system, or some combination of the above, the path to maximum profit is to remove middle men.
 
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