# Is the Star Trek universe pretty much put to bed at this point? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 2, 2006, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-star-trek-universe-pretty-much-put-to-bed-at-this-point/371169 "2006-09-02T04:56:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2006, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-star-trek-universe-pretty-much-put-to-bed-at-this-point/371169/1 "2006-09-02T04:56:17Z")
Any notices about new TV shows or movies out there, or is it all shut down? ---
**Author:** ![Dan\_Norder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4af34b/32.png) [@Dan\_Norder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dan_Norder)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2006, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-star-trek-universe-pretty-much-put-to-bed-at-this-point/371169/2 "2006-09-02T05:47:48Z")
There are rumors of a new movie in planning stages focusing on the early lives of Kirk and Spock meeting at Starfleet Academy as teens/young adults. With Shatner and Nimoy attached as older versions of the characters or something. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2006, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-star-trek-universe-pretty-much-put-to-bed-at-this-point/371169/3 "2006-09-02T06:19:43Z")
Dear God just let it die and maybe something resembling decent sci-fi will fill the apparent void. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2006, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-star-trek-universe-pretty-much-put-to-bed-at-this-point/371169/4 "2006-09-02T06:24:06Z")
Not entirely meant to be snarky. Let me explain a bit. I’m guessing here, but I think marketing/producing people in TV land view sci-fi as being interchangable (“those nerds will watch anything we throw at them that involves space ships!” - and perhaps the success of star trek would give some credibility to this viewpoint) and that the market has a low saturation point (one major show, and a few minor ones), and so with the dominance of star trek, no one has wanted to give a major chance to anything else that might be considered sci-fi. Perhaps when star trek is gone, there will be a void - and that void might actually be filled by something that’s good sci fi. But then again… in a universe where star trek can have 500 episodes, and firefly gets 13… ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2006, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-star-trek-universe-pretty-much-put-to-bed-at-this-point/371169/5 "2006-09-02T07:45:11Z")
[They’re going to be “Lucasifying” the original eps for HD.](http://trekweb.com/articles/2006/08/31/Original-Star-Trek-Gets-CGI-Upgrades.shtml) > [@](#): > > “Our goal is to always ask ourselves: What would Roddenberry have done with today’s technology?” > > Formerly static backdrop paintings come to life with animated folk and landscapes of sauntering clouds and shimmering water. A view of Earth in “Miri” has been “replaced with a more accurate image, now that we’ve gone into deep space and looked back at ourselves,” notes Okuda. > > Space battle scenes, planets, galaxy shots, and alien starships (e.g. Romulan Bird of Prey, Klingon Battle Cruiser) will be redone. And some goofs will be tweaked. > > Upgraded episodes will appear weekly, in no particular order, commencing with “Balance of Terror” as a flagship example “that gives us a chance to really show off the ‘new’ Enterprise,” said Okuda. “The exterior of the ship now has depth and detail, and it will fly more dynamically.” I am **not** optimistic about this. Oh, and as a Trekkie, I couldn’t agree with you more, **SenorBeef**. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2006, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-star-trek-universe-pretty-much-put-to-bed-at-this-point/371169/6 "2006-09-02T08:24:58Z")
Yikes. That seems like a good idea for about half a second… I’ll probably watch them anyway. I didn’t watch TOS till I was an adult - I grew up in the TNG days. I actually kinda liked TOS because I could appreciate that at the time it was trying to be something different and innovative, and not just the factory-churned modern trek “they’ll watch anything labelled trek so why bother to try hard to make it good?” stuff. It’s campy quite a bit, though, but that’s forgivable in context. But when they start adding modern effects with dated, semi-campy acting/plots/etc. the contrast is not going to favor it. It’ll change the context, and probably just end up being awkward. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2006, 9:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-star-trek-universe-pretty-much-put-to-bed-at-this-point/371169/7 "2006-09-02T09:21:10Z")
Well, maybe it’ll show what you can do with modern special effects, but classic TOS-quality writing. No, wait…that was _Firefly_, too. Just with less social allegories, and more summary executions. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2006, 9:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-star-trek-universe-pretty-much-put-to-bed-at-this-point/371169/8 "2006-09-02T09:47:09Z")
[QUOTE=Ranchoth] but classic TOS-quality writing. No, wait…that was _Firefly_, too. [/QUOTE] !!! Spock’s brain. Southern side of the galaxy. DOES NOT COMPUTE. Pistols at dawn, sir. Or swords, I guess, would be more appropriate. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2006, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-star-trek-universe-pretty-much-put-to-bed-at-this-point/371169/9 "2006-09-02T10:57:05Z")
They’re releasing the Animated Series on DVD. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2006, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-star-trek-universe-pretty-much-put-to-bed-at-this-point/371169/10 "2006-09-02T12:07:39Z")
[QUOTE=Tuckerfan] [They’re going to be “Lucasifying” the original eps for HD.](http://trekweb.com/articles/2006/08/31/Original-Star-Trek-Gets-CGI-Upgrades.shtml) [/quote] Just as long as they don’t give the Klingons forehead ridges in _The Trouble with Tribbles._ That will ruin a most excellent DS9 joke in _Trials and Tribble-ations_. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2006, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-star-trek-universe-pretty-much-put-to-bed-at-this-point/371169/11 "2006-09-02T13:39:20Z")
I say they should let it lay fallow for a while. The “Trek Franchise” at its peak really gathered a lot of its driving impetus in the decade-long hiatus between TOS and the movies and the further seven years before it came back to weekly TV. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2006, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-star-trek-universe-pretty-much-put-to-bed-at-this-point/371169/12 "2006-09-02T16:16:08Z")
[QUOTE=ivylass] Just as long as they don’t give the Klingons forehead ridges in _The Trouble with Tribbles._ That will ruin a most excellent DS9 joke in _Trials and Tribble-ations_. [/QUOTE] While it’s unlikely due to rights issues it’d be kind of cool if we saw the DS9 crew in the background. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2006, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-star-trek-universe-pretty-much-put-to-bed-at-this-point/371169/13 "2006-09-02T16:25:49Z")
[QUOTE=SenorBeef] Dear God just let it die and maybe something resembling decent sci-fi will fill the apparent void. [/QUOTE] Say, when is Straczynski going to give us another series? ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2006, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-star-trek-universe-pretty-much-put-to-bed-at-this-point/371169/14 "2006-09-02T22:26:14Z")
[QUOTE=SenorBeef] !!! Spock’s brain. Southern side of the galaxy. DOES NOT COMPUTE. Pistols at dawn, sir. Or swords, I guess, would be more appropriate. [/QUOTE] I’ll see your “Spock’s Brain,” and raise with Voyager’s _“Threshold.”_ Even at it’s worst, TOS was better than _that_. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2006, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-star-trek-universe-pretty-much-put-to-bed-at-this-point/371169/15 "2006-09-02T23:38:02Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] Say, when is Straczynski going to give us another series? [/QUOTE] I’ve been buying his B5 script books from CafePress. Volume 9 is delayed, with an explanatory note from JMS that included this _very_ exciting bit of info: [QUOTE=JMS] The good thing is that the delay is caused primarily by the creation of new Babylon 5 episodes, to be produced with the original cast, which is a cause for celebration on every level imaginable. We hope to follow up this with another announcement with the September publication date for volume nine as quickly as possible, so stay tuned, for as they say in the television business…there is more to come. [/QUOTE] Needless to say, I’m very excited. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2006, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-star-trek-universe-pretty-much-put-to-bed-at-this-point/371169/16 "2006-09-03T00:59:06Z")
Heck, I’d love to see a _Captain Sulu of the Excelsior_ series, set a few years after Praxis and largely about the Federation assuming an increasingly dominant role in light of the Klingon collapse, which for the most part was completely ignored in TNG and later shows as something that evidently had no lasting effect. Explain the bumpy vs smooth-head conflict and the “smooths” being cast off (with Kang and other TOS-era Klingons getting surgically bumped or rebumped to conform with their DS9 appearances). Sulu commands a mega-awesome starship, but the political leadership is, ahem, erratic, and sends him out on missions that are morally and strategically questionable. Plus he’s openly gay. His daughter was the product of a short-lived contract marriage some thirty years before. He loves her and all, but he’s really not inclined to have more kids. To be really gutsy, his lack of interest in having kids isn’t specifically because he’s gay, but because he’s serious about concentrating on his military career. First season: the Tomed Incident, which will lead to the Romulans cutting off diplomatic ties with the Federation for decades. The “Incident” is actually the climax in a whole series of minor skirmishes and political saber rattling where some kind of Taiwan- or North Korea-like incident brings the Feds and Romulans into brief but direct conflict, as might happen between the U.S. and China. Sure. the Feds would love it if the Roms were all chummy and democratic, as all right-thinking people should be, but it ain’t gonna happen. Sulu’s right there on the line, conflicted between wanting to make a historic name for himself (and get out of the shadow of his believed-dead mentor James Kirk) but is afraid that if the shit really hits the deflector, the _Excelsior_ might end up being remembered as a vector of mass destruction just like the (dun dun DUNNN) _Enola Gay_. Which way’s Hollywood? ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2006, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-star-trek-universe-pretty-much-put-to-bed-at-this-point/371169/17 "2006-09-03T02:31:39Z")
[QUOTE=Bryan Ekers] …Explain the bumpy vs smooth-head conflict and the “smooths” being cast off (with Kang and other TOS-era Klingons getting surgically bumped or rebumped to conform with their DS9 appearances)… [/QUOTE] Enterprise already did it; the Klingons attempted to create their own version of Khan Noonien Singh’s Augments, the result was a plague and smoot-heads are a side-effect of Phlox’s cute. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2006, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-star-trek-universe-pretty-much-put-to-bed-at-this-point/371169/18 "2006-09-03T02:42:14Z")
[QUOTE=alphaboi867] Enterprise already did it [/quote] They didn’t do it _well_, though. It didn’t explain how the smooth-heads apparantly came to military prominence during the TOS era. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2006, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-star-trek-universe-pretty-much-put-to-bed-at-this-point/371169/19 "2006-09-03T03:15:15Z")
[QUOTE=SenorBeef] Perhaps when star trek is gone, there will be a void - and that void might actually be filled by something that’s good sci fi. But then again… in a universe where star trek can have 500 episodes, and firefly gets 13… [/QUOTE] To be fair, Babylon 5 got something like 120 episodes and 5 movies, and Stargate has had around 250 episodes by now, with rumours of more movies in the future, and these in only around 15 years; Star Trek has had around 40 years to build up it’s current scorecard. Also, the Trek crew never got to be in an adaptation of HP Lovecraft (although it was still several years before I gave any deep thought to a scene of Commander Ivonova in her trademark teddy being attacked by a tentacle alien :eek: ) And yeah, one of the big speed bumps for Babylon 5 was the continued existence of Star Trek. There’s a joke/thorn in B5 fandom about how Babylon 5 wasn’t originally picked up by Paramount because they felt nobody would watch a TV show about a bunch of people and political goings-on aboard a space station in the ass-end of space. :smack: The death (or at least coma) of the Star Trek universe will probably be healthy for sci-fi in general. Even now, how many quality sci-fi franchises are there at the moment? There’s Stargate, BattleStar Galactica, and I’ve seen a number of sci-fi series popping up on different channels this season such as Eureka and Three Moons Over Milford (TMOM looks really interesting for me, the sci-fi is the catalyst for the plot, rather than being deeply important, with us watching how people react to the apparant sword of Damoclese appearing with the moon being struck and shattered by an asteroid; otherwise the show seems to play out more or less like any other family drama). With any luck, maybe we’re entering a rennesance in sci-fi (which means, unfortunately, that Firefly suffered from remarkably bad timing, showing up 2 or 3 years early) [QUOTE=alphaboi867] While it’s unlikely due to rights issues it’d be kind of cool if we saw the DS9 crew in the background. [/QUOTE] Heh, I saw an interview on TV with Walter Koenig talking about how much he loved Trials and Tribbelations. Apparantly he got paid more for that episode than he had made in 30 years of syndication of the episode it was based on. And he didn’t even have to show up to earn the paycheck. 😃 And yeah, it would be kinda funny to have the DS9 guys wandering around in the background, especially if Bashir and O’Brien are still prominently featured in the chewing-out scene with Kirk. (all without comment, of course, since the DS9 crew wouldn’t be talking about it where any TOS folks would hear it) ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2006, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-star-trek-universe-pretty-much-put-to-bed-at-this-point/371169/20 "2006-09-03T03:16:14Z")
[QUOTE=Ranchoth] I’ll see your “Spock’s Brain,” and raise with Voyager’s _“Threshold.”_ Even at it’s worst, TOS was better than _that_. [/QUOTE] Unless I misread him, I think he was trying to favorably compare the writing in TOS to firefly… that’s what I was faux flipping out over. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-star-trek-universe-pretty-much-put-to-bed-at-this-point/371169.md?page=2)