StillPaisleyCat
@StillPaisleyCat@startrek.website
- Comment on Interview: Jonathan Del Arco Talks “Borg Spin-Off” That Became ‘Star Trek: Picard’ And Hugh’s Surprise Death 10 hours ago:
Here’s another take.
We know that everything was reshaped to flatter and entice Patrick Stewart to come back and play Picard.
He kept refusing and keep on insisting on Picard’s life should be a reflection of his own.
But the suits at ViacomCBS (and later Paramount) put priority on greenlighting anything they could get with Picard as a character.
So, whatever initial concepts with and without Picard were all sacrificed in the end in order to indulge Stewart enough to play the role.
- Comment on New Star Trek Action Figure Line Coming From Nacelle 1 day ago:
It’s absurd. Our kids end up playing Star Trek with Playmobil’s space and planetary exploration lines.
When the Star Trek line finally arrived it was only TOS.
- Comment on Worst examples of Treknobabble 2 weeks ago:
The thing is that while the technobabble is just that, the process represents how engineering gets done better than most other ‘serious’ SF, albeit at compressed speed.
Voyager did a better job than any at showing how the thinking and problem-solving work gets done - which to me is more the point.
All this criticism seems to come from folks who’ve never seen nerds working in teams being nerds. They seem to want science FICTION to be locked down to concepts that someone with a mid 20th bachelor’s degree in science would know.
Whereas the real life scientists and engineers in my circle react more like Erin Macdonald did when she was working on her physics PhD and saw Voyager. She recognized the process and thought it was cool that some of the newer concepts in gravimetrics were referenced but didn’t sweat the small stuff.
- Comment on An Exclusive Look and Poster for Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 5 Debuts on Star Trek Day 2 weeks ago:
Glad to have you mention that here.
So many fans of the older shows assume that Lower Decks isn’t accessible to new viewers who don’t get the references, but it’s quite the opposite. Gen Z and younger viewers are into animated comedies and it’s a successful entry point. And with the number of middle schoolers who got into manga and anime during the pandemic, the portion of the audience that prefers animation as a medium is only going to grow.
Our teens were fans of the Voyager when they were in middle school, and sampled the rest of the classic shows. Despite that they seem to be split on the animated vs live action new shows, and none of them would watch Picard.
It’s a real shame that there won’t be any new animated Star Trek after this season of Lower Decks.
- Comment on I just finish to see all TNG movies. 2 weeks ago:
Star Trek Prodigy is the true sequel to Voyager. It’s all ages / family rather than the ‘kids show’ many fans take it for. I would watch that with your GF next.
Because Prodigy is designed to be an entry point for new viewers, it introduces many of the key legacy characters and much of the lore. It has a Star Wars vibe in the pilot, mainly to draw in viewers from other franchises, but it settles into being some of the Trekiest content ever by the 6th short episode of season one.
- Comment on New info on Universal Fan Fest Night at Universal Studios Hollywood. 2 weeks ago:
Dave Blass said much of it was packed up in crates and shipped.
To where is the question.
- Comment on A Gamble: What will be the plot of *Lower Decks*'s Finale? 2 weeks ago:
Tawny is already in the writers room for Starfleet Academy as well as working as a cocreator of a new live action Star Trek comedy series in development.
It seems that she’s another alum who will be mostly behind the camera but will show up as a legacy character in other shows.
- Comment on Happy Star Trek Day! What was your first contact? 2 weeks ago:
TOS ‘The Devil in the Dark’ in first run.
I was barely in school, but my slightly older neighbour who’d hooked me on Time Tunnel and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, convinced me that Star Trek must be seen.
I quickly caught up during the hiatus reruns, and have seen absolutely all of it in first run since.
- Comment on James Darren, Teen Idol Actor in ‘Gidget,’ Singer and Director, Dies at 88 3 weeks ago:
I hadn’t been aware that he’d also been a director for television. Truly a wide-ranging career.
- Comment on Interview: Doug Jones On His Surprise Star Trek: Discovery’ Evolution And Ideas For Saru On ‘Academy’ 3 weeks ago:
McCoy was in Encounter at Farpoint with one meta purpose - to counter the TOS fans that were campaigning hard to say that it ‘wasn’t the same universe.’
McCoy’s presence was a nice Easter Egg, but not much more. But he did the job of saying that it was the new Enterprise in continuity with the legendary ship on which he served.
Fans argued that because Roddenberry insisted on moving WW3 back to the mid 21st century as of Encounter at Farpoint, TNG had to be a different timeline.
TOS fans understood the Eugenics Wars to be the precursor to WW3, so they just didn’t accept WW3 was going to be another half-century away. Roddenberry’s directive was to always keep the Star Trek future in our future so WW3 had to be shifted to later in time and any specific mention of the date of the Eugenics Wars was avoided.
They also hated the carpet and many other things about the ‘luxury hotel in space’ Enterprise.
Yup, that happened and continued to happen until well into TNG season 3. The brigading Berman-era fans who rail unrelentingly against ‘Nu-Trek’ don’t sound any different, they’re just more visible than the 1980s fans that relied on mimeoed fanzines and Usenet. Fans that liked TNG kept quiet at cons until at least 1990, and vendors didn’t bring TNG merchandise.
- Comment on August 30th 2024. America adopts the metric system. Never forget. 4 weeks ago:
From what I can tell Americans used to use scales for dry measures (in ounces) but somewhere along the line, they switched to volume measures for everything.
As a Canadian, it’s really frustrating because often will get the American versions of UK cookbooks here which are both not metric and not weights.
I enjoy my Australian cookbooks with metric weights.
- Comment on August 30th 2024. America adopts the metric system. Never forget. 4 weeks ago:
Cook in metric and use a scale!
- Comment on Thoughts on TAS Theme 4 weeks ago:
If anything, Lower Decks has intentionally lifted some 7-note sequences from the TAS title theme.
The title theme for Lower Decks almost does a bait and switch riff of the TAS one.
- Comment on Thoughts on TAS Theme 4 weeks ago:
Yea that was TOS.
- Comment on Star Trek Joins Universal Studios Hollywood's Universal Fan Fest Nights 5 weeks ago:
It’s pretty odd that an NBCUniversal event is bringing two Paramount Global fandoms (D&D, Star Trek).
- Comment on Interview: Doug Jones On His Surprise Star Trek: Discovery’ Evolution And Ideas For Saru On ‘Academy’ 5 weeks ago:
I’m not unhappy that Starfleet Academy has been holding back on callbacks of Discovery legacy characters.
As we saw with DS9, sometimes it’s better to let the new characters have some time to establish themselves and settle down before confronting them with former main cast legacies. Otherwise, what’s intended to help a new show get established can sometimes do the opposite.
Can anyone really cite a first season major legacy character appearance that boosted a new show and is considered a strong entry in hindsight?
The only one that comes to mind for me is Riker and Troi’s appearance in ‘Nepenthe’ in season one of Picard.
- Comment on 5 weeks ago:
I bought season two of Prodigy in Canada from AppleTV, but am super frustrated.
Season one continues to be available in the CTV app for CTV Sci-fi subscribers, but I am really wondering about what the value of that subscription is.
There still are a few new shows (SurrealEstate, The Ark, SNW) that I watch, but they remove some new shows from the app super quickly. We have to record them in the PVR or by physical media as soon as it’s out.
- Comment on U.S. regulator proposes new rules for AI-generated robocalls and robotexts to protect consumers and stop election misinformation by phone 1 month ago:
This is also raising questions of foreign interference/influence in democratic process.
In Canada, the federal Elections Commissioner has been called on to investigate the source of robocalls for the leading opposition party: Online bot campaign backing Pierre Pollievre prompts call for probe.
- Comment on Starfleet Academy Showrunners Explain Inspiration for Bringing Voyager's EMH Back to Star Trek 1 month ago:
I found it interesting that in recent articles quoting Kate Mulgrew on her conditions for Janeway to return in live action, the thing she most stressed was that she had told Alex Kurtzman that the quality of the writing would have to be meticulous.
She’s very happy with the writing for Janeway in Prodigy but sounds like she needs to be convinced that it would be the same in live action.
- Comment on A Space and Time Traveler's Guide to Star Trek 1 month ago:
I have thought ‘Move Along Home’ was great since first broadcast.
DS9 hadn’t yet locked into its eventual tone, but I hold to my view that it’s an episode that wouldn’t have raised the ire of the ‘Dignity of Trek’ on just about any of the other shows in the franchise.
- Comment on Star Trek: Prodigy - Season 2 Coming to Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital 1 month ago:
It’s here in Canada on digital via AppleTV.
- Comment on ‘Star Trek: Prodigy’ Season 2 Launching On SkyShowtime In Europe In August; Canada Still Waiting 2 months ago:
Also @GoodAaron@startrek.website has confirmed on his Mastodon account that CTV continues to retain the licence but the EPs didn’t have any news on when it might run either.
I have to wonder if there are any standard ‘use it or lose it’ clauses that crystallize after a certain point in the contracts for streaming licences.
- Comment on Cillian O'Sullivan To Play Roger Korby in Strange New Worlds – Trek Central 2 months ago:
I enjoyed it. It helped me see how Georgiou’s had already begun her journey even before season two of Discovery and it was a fun ride.
Simon & Schuster has been careful to select the best of its established ‘Relaunch Novelverse’ group of authors to write the tie-in books for its new live-action shows.
If you like the action focus of John Jackson Miller’s other tie-in fiction for Star Trek or other franchises, you’ll definitely like this one.
Definitely above average among Trekbooks, but there are some outstanding by some of the others that would place higher.
- Comment on Cillian O'Sullivan To Play Roger Korby in Strange New Worlds – Trek Central 2 months ago:
Emony (the gymnast) appears prominently in the Discovery novel ‘Die Standing’ that tells MU Georgiou’s journey between seasons one and two.
In the book, Emony had a covert identity as an operative for Starfleet Intelligence and was paired with Georgiou for a mission.
So, I have been hoping that Emory might appear in the S31 event movie.
While Chase Masterson’s Leeta took on Emony’s identity in the Trill zhian’tara ritual, there’s no reason to think she couldn’t be very different looking than Chase. So I am hoping Emony might be one of the yet-to-be-named female main characters.
- Comment on The Star Trek Universe Returns to San Diego Comic-Con 2 months ago:
I’m wondering if the cast appearances will include actors from S31 and Starfleet Academy, or just from Lower Decks and Strange New Worlds.
- Comment on Meet the New Class of Cadets in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy 2 months ago:
I was replying to the sarcastic remark directly above that posits that Trek has an adequate fanbase to sustain the franchise.
Prodigy’s been an investment in reaching younger fans and building an audience for the future.
Starfleet Academy’s target audience is later teens and young adults. Basically, ‘the key demographic’ as reported by Nielsen in the US.
- Comment on Meet the New Class of Cadets in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy 2 months ago:
Advertisers care mainly about 18-35 year olds, and now that streaming has ads that key demographic is important for the survival of the franchise.
Besides if the franchise hadn’t expanded its fanbase in the 90s it wouldn’t be viable now. And let’s face it, it’s not that significant outside North America. Gone are the days when US audiences were adequate for survival.
- Comment on Hero Within and Hallmark Unveil Star Trek Convention Exclusive Merch for SDCC 2024 2 months ago:
I really wish Hallmark put more effort into reaching younger fans with their collections.
And even older fans like me would like some merch from the newer shows and not just more TNG, and TOS or even Enterprise.
Do they have any kind of realistic focus groups informing these selections?
- Comment on Interview: Dan And Kevin Hageman On How ‘Star Trek: Prodigy’ Season 2 Is Different, And What May Come Next 2 months ago:
A 90 minute animated streaming movie for either Netflix or Paramount could be great.
- Comment on Confirmed! - CTV has the Prodigy season 2 licence 2 months ago:
I suspect you’re correct on this.
I have been looking for a ‘special presentation’ on CTV linear as they have a track record of inserting those when they’re out of alignment with streaming releases.