General Star Trek thread

Andor was pretty good, so not a bad pick. But I take announcements of any Trek movie with enough salt to season a thousand dinners. If it happens I'd be surprised, and if they have any cop-on they'll link it with Enterprise, which is as far as I can gather is the only Trek show that still slots in with every iteration of Trek made so far, even the JJ-verse.

Interesting that they say the Paramount "continue to develop" Season 5 of Discovery (I assume that is what they mean by the "main Star Trek series"). Wasn't this pretty much ready to go last year? Didn't they just need to make some reshoots to allow for a finale? What is happening there?

"Even as it continues to develop the final chapter in its main Star Trek series..."

My guess is they're referring to Discovery. It's the only thing we know for sure is finishing up now. It's still a bit wierd to see anyone potentially refer to Discovery as Trek's "Main Series" as if the show somehow earned the title of Brand Flagship, much like TNG was during its run. Problem is, it technically has been Trek's flagship and has been running throughout the time we've all been watching much better uses of the Trek IP.

We are indeed in a strange time where what I would regard to be Trek's poorest showing has been the standard barer of the franshise while the "Spin-off" content actually did a much better job at creating enjoyable Trek for the fans.

Back in the day it used to be other way around. TNG was the real Trek, while that wierd DS9 show on the space station hung onto its coat-tails. Then when DS9 came out from TNG's shadow, you had Voyager trying it's damdest to recreate TNG's magic...only to end up hanging onto DS9 and TNG's coat-tails.

I fully expect a 2024 where you'll have the likes of Screen Rant / Trek Culture screaming from the rooftops about how "important" and "ground-breaking" Discovery has been, and then dane to compare it with good Trek from the past. Then the finale will come, and the same sources will "celebrate" Burnham, & overblow a sense of loss and tears that is all over!

Then it will be done, and when the dust settles I suspect people in short order will begin to forget about this show. Other Trek shows may come and will (hopefully) be better, but this half-cooked Trek Antology experiment will be relegated to the dustbin of Trek that fans have a knack of skipping over, like Fairhaven, or Shades of Grey. And then when you ask of Discovery in years to come you might hear someone say:

"Oh that show. The one with the Mushroom Ship? Yea...didn't really watch much of it...."

As a follow up to earlier posts.

@pixelburp Not just any episode of 'Black Mirror' but an Iconic award winning episode!

Although the discussed spin-off never came to fruition.

Yeah I remember reading that elsewhere. Much prefer the ending we got. As much as I love Stewart and his portrayal of Picard over the decades, the chap needs to be kept away from the writing room.

"decades before the 2009 Star Trek" is an interesting way to put it in terms of the Kelvin timeline. Decades before the 2009 film, they'd be the same place.

The quote Pixelburp added makes clear that they're talking about JJ Star Trek 4 with work continuing on the main series: "Insiders add that the final chapter in that main series, Star Trek 4, remains in active development."

Are we sure this other film is a cinema movie? Maybe a direct to streaming thing instead?

Maybe:

Follow up to Star Trek: Enterprise with Archer etc (streaming film)

USS Kelvin with Hemsworth (movie film)

"Decades before 2009 Star Trek" ....technically... a Strange New Worlds film? (could be either)

I've zero interest in a Starfleet Academy / Section 31 / JJ Trek 4 movie to be honest.

Of the new series, the best (IMO) have been Lower Decks and Prodigy which continue the TNG/Post VOY era but have managed to move that universe forward while still respecting the 3 series from that time.

A lot will call out SNW but I struggled with the last season (it started well and ended well but very mediocre in between for the most part). I don't like the new interpretation of Spock, and I just think Anson Mount would have been better as a new captain in that post VOY world rather than once again rebooting the past.

I'll make an exception for that episode but only because it's a sorta Lower Decks episode so the comedy doesn't seem as out of place.

Sassy girl boss Space Hitler and all that S31 and mirror universe camp shte was very popular with the vocal diehard Disco fans. And in a rare stopped clock moment they could see that Michelle Yeoh was a great asset to milk.

I don't think it will happen now tbh. All these spin offs and announcements are reminiscent of a bunch of stoners throwing out "ideas" in a drug haze.

A really interesting phenomenon in new Trek is their ability to create exceptional characters for captains but then also waste them.

Georgiou (what little we saw), Lorca, Shaw, Rios, Saru and Pike. With the exception of Pike all were figuratively or literally gutted.

That’s got me thinking again. How to go forward with Trek without having to mine the past of the franchise for any story gaps to exploit. How to avoid being mired in prequel territory for another 20 years or without resorting to setting everything in the Burnham-tastic 31st Century?

For good Trek I feel a return to episodic exploration adventures is key. SNW shows us that it can still work, but now we just need them to do it after Picard.

Could we maybe get a new Trek show where they try to go back to the Gamma Quadrant and explore Odo’s take on the Dominion? Perhaps even a show where they attempt to launch over to a another galaxy and all of the issues that could come with that?

Basically, I’d love some new Trek, that isn’t a prequel and can give us a good weekly adventure for the ship’s crew to sort out. We kind of get that with Lower Decks which I think is part of why I love it so much.

The Romulan end of things does bring up one idea: The Beta Quadrant.

It’s been touched upon a good bit in the Klingon Empire, Romulus pretty much anything near the Neutral Zone, but we’ve rarely seen Trek go too deeply into the Beta Quadrant.

It could be an ideal setting for some new Trek adventures, since the other quadrants have been pretty much done so far. (Maybe not Gamma as much)

Based on some (non-canon) maps of Voyager’s journey that I’ve seen, it looked like Voyager was just short of the Beta Quadrant border by the time of Endgame.

I guess as you suggested, the show only ever mentioned the Delta Quadrant to avoid confusion but also possibly because Voyager was the «Delta Quadrant Show».

Showing her enter the Beta Quadrant kind of ends that theme, and also places the ship in the same quadrant as Federation space. They might have only been 4 - 5 years out from the outermost Federation outposts, like Jouret IV (assuming it was rebuilt after BoBW). Then Voyager would be less «stranded» in deep space, and more on the return leg of a long term exploration cruise.

Yeah on balance of things looks like they just reached the border of the Beta Quadrant. I think it would be nice if "Endgame" had opened with the ship celebrating the achievement of making it from the Delta quadrant to the Beta quadrant on its own accord before the Deus Ex Machina solution that brought them the rest of the way home. Then again, there's a whole ton of things I can think of that would have made the ending more satisfying.