Rumours, news and general speculation

[sunnyside]

Oh I agree entirely, I was just trying to explain the whole note/production error thing. Incidentally, I've found the alleged note:

Great find!

[Nutso]

[Graham Kennedy]

Airdate announced : Sunday, Sept. 24 at 8:30 p.m./7:30c

[Nutso]

Jonathan Frakes will Direct an Episode of Discovery.

[DonP]

I think the most important thing to keep in mind when looking at all of these, and the reason most of us think it will be a steaming pile, is that this series is set at most just one year before The Cage. One year. We don't have to speculate about what the ship, weapons, uniforms, etc should look like, because we know. And this isn't it.

[Mikey]

I thought it was a decade before then. Still not much in terms of the lifespan of a class-type of starship... in any event, that lack of temporal distance just magnifies the issues that are bound to plague a prequel to which I've alluded and which Graham as detailed in no uncertain terms. The production of a prequel series is fraught with pitfalls when the people making them care about the show, at least initially, and there is a huge amount of time elapsed between established canon and the prequel in question - all of which pitfalls were admirably demonstrated by ENT. Now that we have the lack of elapsed time, as Don mentions, and people making the prequel who appear to not give a skinny rat's ass about 'Trek... well...

BTW, welcome to the forum, Don.

[DonP]

Thank you very much! Totally agree with all your points. And I initially thought a decade as well, but the producers say 10 years before Kirk, which puts it pretty much squarely in Pike's lap.

[Mikey]

Which, is why it makes sense to have uniforms, ships, equipment, and everything else that is absolutely nothing like anything from TOS: The Cage.

Oh, wait...

[Bryan Moore]

I'll start by admitting that I could get as pissy about all of this as anyone else on here... after all, in-universe consistency is crucial for nerds like us.

Still, at the end of the day, we're looking at an artistic re-interpretation of a fictional universe. I can completely deal with re-imagined ships, costumes, and the visuals of alien races, as long as the "history" of the universe and the heart of the show remain the same. Perhaps I'm looking at things with a rose colored VISOR, but I am thrilled to have new Star Trek stories available for my viewing pleasure.

In an admittedly lame and slightly contrived bit of devil's advocate banality here... Let's just stay for a minute that some modern day show like Game of Thrones becomes iconic and a prequel spinoff gets produced for our mind-streaming pleasure in 2067 - should our grandkids be up in arms because the White Walkers look different or the producers choose to make the sigil of house Targaryen a slightly more stylized dragon?

[DonP]

Should they be upset about a slightly more stylized dragon? Certainly not. But I'd expect them to be very upset if everyone was suddenly wearing kevlar and the Wall was equipped with radar towers. If people can look at this and see it as just a slight redesign, then honestly, good for them. I actually envy that, because to me, it looks like something that's decades, if not generations, out of place.

[Mikey]

For me, at least, the annoyance stems from the fact that the problems we've mentioned here could easily have been avoided with little effort and with just an iota of thoughtfulness and concern for the preexisting material.

[Graham Kennedy]

The transporter room of the other ship.

[DarkMoineau]

The transporter room of the other ship.

Is it me or they look like Police Officer more than Starfleet officer?

[Graham Kennedy]

They're wearing what look like kevlar body armour.

Also, the transporter seems to incorporate radar dishes. Because reasons.

Anybody want to bet that those things will spin when the transporter is used?

[Graham Kennedy]

Source

Over the past five decades, we’ve seen Star Trek appear in traditional television aspect ratios, widescreen upon the arrival of Star Trek: Enterprise, and of course, in cinematic widescreen in the films – but revealed today is another new look coming with Star Trek: Discovery.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly today, Discovery producer Aaron Harberts revealed that the new series will be broadcast in a new aspect ratio for the franchise, a 2:1 widescreen dimension.

Widescreen is a good idea, but 2:1 seems like an odd choice. Why not the standard TV widescreen format of 16:9? This way they are going to give even people with widescreen TVs black bars top and bottom.

Or is US widescreen TV based on a 2:1 ratio?