CBS: Star Trek

[keg in kc]

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The Next Chapter of the Legendary “Star Trek” TV Franchise Will Premiere on the CBS Television Network, Then Move to CBS All Access Digital Subscription Service

Alex Kurtzman, Co-Writer and Producer of the Blockbuster Films

“Star Trek” and “Star Trek Into Darkness,” to Executive Produce

CBS Studios International to Distribute the Series Globally

For Television and Multiple Platforms

STUDIO CITY, CALIF. AND NEW YORK, N.Y. – Nov. 2, 2015 – 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.

The next chapter of the “Star Trek” franchise will also be distributed concurrently for television and multiple platforms around the world by CBS Studios International.

The new program will be the first original series developed specifically for U.S. audiences for CBS All Access, a cross-platform streaming service that brings viewers thousands of episodes from CBS’s current and past seasons on demand, plus the ability to stream their local CBS Television station live for $5.99 per month. CBS All Access already offers every episode of all previous “Star Trek” television series.

The brand-new “Star Trek” will introduce new characters seeking imaginative new worlds and new civilizations, while exploring the dramatic contemporary themes that have been a signature of the franchise since its inception in 1966.

Alex Kurtzman will serve as executive producer for the new “Star Trek” TV series. Kurtzman co-wrote and produced the blockbuster films “Star Trek” (2009) with Roberto Orci, and “Star Trek Into Darkness” (2013) with Orci and Damon Lindelof. Both films were produced and directed by J.J. Abrams.

The new series will be produced by CBS Television Studios in association with Kurtzman’s Secret Hideout. Kurtzman and Heather Kadin will serve as executive producers. Kurtzman is also an executive producer for the hit CBS television series SCORPION and LIMITLESS, along with Kadin and Orci, and for HAWAII FIVE-0 with Orci.

“Star Trek,” which will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2016, is one of the most successful entertainment franchises of all time. The original “Star Trek” spawned a dozen feature films and five successful television series. Almost half a century later, the “Star Trek” television series are licensed on a variety of different platforms in more than 190 countries, and the franchise still generates more than a billion social media impressions every month.

Born from the mind of Gene Roddenberry, the original “Star Trek” series debuted on Sept. 8, 1966 and aired for three seasons – a short run that belied the influence it would have for generations. The series also broke new ground in storytelling and cultural mores, providing a progressive look at topics including race relations, global politics and the environment.

“There is no better time to give ‘Star Trek’ fans a new series than on the heels of the original show’s 50th anniversary celebration,” said David Stapf, President, CBS Television Studios. “Everyone here has great respect for this storied franchise, and we’re excited to launch its next television chapter in the creative mind and skilled hands of Alex Kurtzman, someone who knows this world and its audience intimately.”

“This new series will premiere to the national CBS audience, then boldly go where no first-run ‘Star Trek’ series has gone before – directly to its millions of fans through CBS All Access,” said Marc DeBevoise, Executive Vice President/General Manager – CBS Digital Media. “We’ve experienced terrific growth for CBS All Access, expanding the service across affiliates and devices in a very short time. We now have an incredible opportunity to accelerate this growth with the iconic ‘Star Trek,’ and its devoted and passionate fan base, as our first original series.”

“Every day, an episode of the ‘Star Trek’ franchise is seen in almost every country in the world,” said Armando Nuñez, President and CEO, CBS Global Distribution Group. “We can’t wait to introduce ‘Star Trek’s’ next voyage on television to its vast global fan base.”

CBS All Access offers its customers more than 7,500 episodes from the current television season, previous seasons and classic shows on demand nationwide, as well as the ability to stream local CBS stations live in more than 110 markets. Subscribers can use the service online and across devices via CBS.com, the CBS App for iOS, Android and Windows 10, as well as on connected devices such as Apple TV, Android TV, Chromecast, Roku players and Roku TV, with more connected devices to come.

The new television series is not related to the upcoming feature film “Star Trek Beyond,” which is scheduled to be distributed by Paramount Pictures in summer 2016

[bowener]

Originally Posted by RealSNR

Trek movies I-VI found some way to explain/kill off the technology advances, didn't they? Project Genesis was basically explained as, "It was a cool idea, but it didn't work and everything went to shit." Transwarp drive on the Excelsior went away because... Paris and Janeway turned into salamanders? I thought there was something explained in Undiscovered Country about why the transwarp drive wasn't possible.

In any case, Discovery has to do something about all the technology that ADVANCES plot. I don't give a shit about the futuristic-looking gizmos and gadgets that are out of place. As far as I'm concerned that's all presentation stuff which is superfluous to better story telling.

The REAL problem is this spore shit. It has no place in this timeline. They're going to have to find some way to kill off this technology. I think they will. I HOPE they will.

I'm absolutely with Frazod on this. God... this could be so interesting. It's decent, but it could be so much better if it weren't a goddamn prequel.

Spoiler!

The Klingons will kill the universal spore network at some point or Starfleet will destroy it once the Klingons find a way to traverse it as well.
How they do it will be interesting, and probably the season finale. I am sure there is a mole or spy in the crew or how else would the Klingons know where Lorca's shuttle would be. Hell, Stamets is acting all weird after using himself to guide the ship (the mirror at the end so it appears the Mirror Universe is in play now --Evil twin time!). I wouldn't be surprised if he considers himself or is now part spore and will fight to keep the network alive at all costs, even if it means giving it over to the Klingons.
I'm curious if WHEN it happens it strands the Discovery in deep space and sets up the entire premise for the second season: to go where no one has gone before, and boldly return home.

Edit:

Spoiler!

After thinking about this a bit more I could see them destroying the sporenet to strand the entire Klingon fleet in some unknown portion of the Universe to save countless lives and effectively end the war. Looking at the episode names I am guessing we are going to get a "dark night of the soul" moment in the 9th episode, which is the final one for this half of the season before starting again in January. The title is "Into the forest I go" which I am assuming comes from, "And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul." This could be a Mirror Universe moment perhaps or maybe Stamets goes in for a bit of soul-searching and personal reflection (puuuuns) only to realize he must kill the sporenet and himself.

I am most likely extrememly far off on my conjecture, but I am bored and killing some time. Also, I am using some of The Expanse's story in my reasoning.

[Hammock Parties]

I can't wait to watch this show.

[Discuss Thrower]

Spoiler!

In spite of the decidedly non-Trek idea of people consciously interacting with another person's soul, we got a pay off with Frain being cast as Sarek. They needed someone with his grave mien to pull off a Vulcan struggling against emotion in order to act 'logically' and I think he did a great job of that. Further, Martin-Green has done a good job showing Burnham's loosening up and becoming more 'human.'

Story wise.. Well, Lorca is either the disguised form of Voq the albino acolyte of T'Kuvma or he's so balls deep into PTSD and anchored to the idea that he has to be the captain to win the war with the Discovery that he just abandoned a former **** buddy and superior officer to the Klingons. Ash is likable but he's also the most likely candidate to be the disguised / brainwashed Voq so it's kind of tough to buy in to any of his character development moments. Tilly's been good so far as well and is the medium to show that the writers have adopted more "realistic" dialogue first with the F-bomb last week and the banter between her and Ash in the shuttle.

Dunno what the payoff with Stamets is considering his Tommy Chong-esque mood after exposure to the Sporenet and the delayed mirror image of him from the prior episode. Next Sunday it looks like they're going to rehash TNG's "Cause and Effect" with a timeloop plot which isn't too appetizing considering all of the rehashing ENT did but we shall see.

[Frazod]

Lorca is far and away the best character in the show. Sort of like if somebody took Commodore Decker, Gowron and Gul Dukat and threw them in a blender. Cold blooded, crazy and broken, yet gets results and sees the big picture of the war far more clearly than the typical warm and fuzzy Star Fleet types. Plus, his character's ****-what-everybody-else-thinks attitude makes the whole Burnham redemption angle work.

If you haven't seen last night's episode yet

Spoiler!

I knew he was going to throw the admiral/his old squeeze under the bus - you could just see it in his eyes. Reminded me of when Underwood threw the reporter in front of the train. You sure you want to do this? Well, okay......

Love it.

[DaneMcCloud]

http://ew.com/tv/2017/10/23/star-tre...-for-season-2/

Star Trek: Discovery renewed for season 2

The voyages of the USS Discovery will continue on CBS All Access.

The streaming service has renewed Star Trek: Discovery for a second season. Sources say current showrunners Aaron Harberts and Gretchen J. Berg are signing on for another tour of duty as well.

“In just six episodes, Star Trek: Discovery has driven subscriber growth, critical acclaim and huge global fan interest for the first premium version of this great franchise,” said Marc DeBevoise, president of CBS Interactive. “This series has a remarkable creative team and cast who have demonstrated their ability to carry on the Star Trek legacy.”

It’s still unclear how many subscribers Trek has fueled and how many viewers are actually watching the series — CBS hasn’t released either number — yet a renewal seemed likely at any rate due to the show’s heavily promoted tentpole status on the subscription service plus CBS’ heavy start-up world-building investment in the series (additional episodes add to the show’s total cost but decrease the average spent per episode overall). A relatively early renewal was expected as well since the show’s creative team would have to start work on a second season soon in order to have episodes ready for next fall (season 1 started filming last January).

Discovery airs Sunday nights on CBS All Access. The show’s fall finale airs Nov. 12

[Rausch]

The Orville still has SJW bullshit and is still better...

[unlurking]

Latest episode with a full on holodeck continues to destroy the technology timeline.

[Discuss Thrower]

Originally Posted by unlurking

Latest episode with a full on holodeck continues to destroy the technology timeline.

The Animated Series had an episode with the original 1701 Enterprise having a recreation deck outfitted with holographic projectors.

As long as you don't see Lorca use a holo-Thomspon to gun down Klingons, it's not techincally breaking the canon.

[Frazod]

Originally Posted by Discuss Thrower

The Animated Series had an episode with the original 1701 Enterprise having a recreation deck outfitted with holographic projectors.

As long as you don't see Lorca use a holo-Thomspon to gun down Klingons, it's not techincally breaking the canon.

Definitely sounds like a Lorca thing to do, though.

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

There's far more money with OTA networks than the subscription model.

When shows like The Big Bang Theory and Two and a Half Men draw 20 million viewers per week, the network is earning hundreds of millions per season and even more when it goes to syndication (if it's produced by the network). They'd lose that money moving to a $5.99 per month subscription model.

For example, HBO complains about the $60 million dollar budget for 13 episodes of Game of Thrones, yet NBC had no problem paying the six "Friends" one million per episode for a 24 episode season, or $144 million per season, just for the actors. They did it for ER, too.

Streaming just can't compete with that at this time.

if you are not paying for the product, you're the product.

[Discuss Thrower]

Spoiler!

Okay so it's at the midseason break. I've liked just about every post-pilot episode and the pseudo-finale tonight was pretty good and made up for a lackluster but necessary set up episode which preceded it.

Credit to the show for doing a time loop episode without being a blatant rehash of "Cause and Effect" from TNG beforehand. That was well done, though the mid-season finale outdid it.

The plot wasn't too thin though it was a bit dodgy in its execution in needing very obvious and easily discovered devices to pull off. The universal translator contrivance was used well and some more dedicated fans noted that there was a marked difference in how Kol spoke in English to Adm. Cornwell earlier in the season and the episode tonight. Speaking of the good admiral, Discovery dispensed a teaching moment in showing how PTSD (... or is it?) is experienced and how to try and deal with it.

Burnham's Vulcan upbringing makes sense too seeing her go toe to toe with Klingons and survive the ordeal in addition to her scientific knowledge. Further, her being standoffish to people allowed for an organic way to stave off "shipping" which some might find tiresome (Bechdel test and all that.)

As for shipping, tonight was the first human-on-human same sex kiss on the show. I'm not one to say how things outta be in spite of the many gay friends I have, but I still kinda feel like the Stammets and Colburn relationship seems campy to the point of it being needlessly "we're here, queer, get used to it" in a way instead of a Roddenberry-esque "It's the 23rd century; there's really no difference among people based on the gender of their romantic partners."

Speaking of romantic partners and going back to the PTSD part, either the showrunners are doing a marvelous job of depicting the ****ed up dynamic of captor-rapist and captive-victim or are just blatantly signaling that Lt. Tyler is T'Kuvma's albino acolyte Voq. For the sake of getting people to think on a meta level, I'd prefer it be the former rather than the latter.

As for the overall plot and circling back to telegraphing potential future plot points, Lorca might not be who he appears to be, Stammets might be going full Gary Mitchell and we just might be getting a reason why the Mycelium-drive wasn't proliferated through Starfleet.

The two-part pilot aside, I think Discovery has been an enjoyable, modern soft sci-fi show that has stayed true to what Star Trek is all about that people should take a chance on.

[DaneMcCloud]

Fans of “Star Trek” vary wildly with some preferring the original series, some the spin-offs, and some the more recent J.J. Abrams films.

With the launch of CBS & Netflix’s “Star Trek: Discovery” a few months ago, the fanbase again has found itself divided. ‘Discovery’ has earned a fanbase, whilst others prefer FOX’s “The Orville” which is effectively “Star Trek: The Next Generation” with occasional genital-related jokes and a family-friendly setting.

‘Discovery’ has been mostly well-received, but if there is one common complaint about it from the fans it’s that the series doesn’t appear to fit into existing “Star Trek” continuity – the inconsistencies within long established canon are too many and too varied to be easily explained. The show’s producers have previously made it clear the show is set in the ‘Prime Universe’ like all of Trek prior to 2009, and not the ‘Kelvin Timeline’ of the films since the Abrams-directed reboot. Yet ‘Discovery’ veers even further away from established Trek lore in those films not just in terms of onscreen technology but character elements and Starfleet’s capabilities. This is most notably seen with Burnham being Spock’s half-sister and the Discovery’s spore drive, neither of which have previously been mentioned in established Trek history. Producer Aaron Harberts has now revealed to Metro UK that a big element of the show’s second season will be how the new series reconciles with the old canon:

“We have ten years until the original series comes into play. It is a challenge creatively because we have lots of choices in terms of how do we reconcile this [Spore] Drive? This surrogate daughter of Sarek? How do we reconcile these things the closer we get to the original series? That’s going to be a big discussion that we have in season two.

What’s so fun about the character of Michael, just because she hasn’t been spoken about, doesn’t mean she didn’t exist. A lot of the writers on our show are deeply involved in Star Trek, their knowledge is some of the finest around, they really do help us find areas where we can steer around things. But the Spore drive? Who knows? It could be classified. There are many options.”

The final episodes of the first half of the first season suggested the Spore Drive could be used for jumps to alternate realities, an explanation that could work in canon if this was simply another alternate Trek timeline. The second half of the first season will continue from January 7th.

----

I haven't watch this series yet but why does it continually sound like a cluster****?

[unlurking]

Because it is.

Yay! Alternate reality resolves all issues. Lame.

Sadly, it has a ton of potential with the amount of $$$ they are spending on FX and an actually interesting story. It's just badly done and what they've done to the Klingons is an abomination.

[Frazod]

Imagine it's about a guy who drives a car in the 1960s, yet the car looks like it's from 2020.

These clowns were so intent on making everything look cool, sleek, modern and different that they clearly flipped the bird to everybody who'd ever watched Star Trek in the past. That's it in the nutshell.

If you're new to Star Trek, or have only experienced the Abrams movies, you won't care. If you're an old school Star Trek guy like me, it will piss you off. You'll either accept it based on the other things the show provides, which I for the most part have, or you won't.

But I still don't like it.

I still prefer the fan made Star Trek Continues to this. Vastly.

[Frazod]

It should also be pointed out that J.J. did the same thing with his movies. They didn't look right for the period, the technology was way too different/advanced, and the gigantic spaces (filmed in breweries, IIRC) were absolutely ridiculous. You can't play all that off on the timeline change. It was also a giant **** YOU to the old time fans.

I hated that too, but over the past eight years I got used to it. Still sucks, though.