Star Trek: Picard (CBS All-Access)

[Hikuro]

I read the first issue and I sorta don’t like it. Picard being an admiral is fine, I hate his first officer, and the way they’ve written Picard feels very off of his character. While it’s nice the Odyssey class is now “cannon” they’ve royally screwed the timeline from its development

[sh9000]

 

[peter]

15 hours ago, sh9000 said:

 

WTF, I can't watch this in my country???

[derex3592]

Why do you say that?  You should be able to watch it anywhere you have a decent internet connection and a subscription to CBS All Access.  Yes, we ALL can agree that we would prefer it were on Netflix or Amazon, but sadly, that's how things are going now. Before it's all said and done we'll be paying for every show we want to watch.  

[azrael]

34 minutes ago, derex3592 said:

Why do you say that?  You should be able to watch it anywhere you have a decent internet connection and a subscription to CBS All Access.  Yes, we ALL can agree that we would prefer it were on Netflix or Amazon, but sadly, that's how things are going now. Before it's all said and done we'll be paying for every show we want to watch.  

Considering everyone and their mother are coming out with their own streaming services, having just Disney+ or Netflix or etc. is not viable. I know a number of people are just doing free/refundable trial subscriptions, watching the show they want to watch, then not signing on full-time. It's a sad state, but until a unified service comes that all studios want to get behind comes, there is no option.

[peter]

1 hour ago, derex3592 said:

Why do you say that?  You should be able to watch it anywhere you have a decent internet connection and a subscription to CBS All Access.  Yes, we ALL can agree that we would prefer it were on Netflix or Amazon, but sadly, that's how things are going now. Before it's all said and done we'll be paying for every show we want to watch.  

Oh, just talking about the trailer.

[sh9000]

 

[Roy Focker]

So Picard is the Mandalorian and the girl he's trying to help is Baby Yoda?

[Dobber]

5 hours ago, Roy Focker said:

So Picard is the Mandalorian and the girl he's trying to help is Baby Yoda?

I read that and I immediately thought of....

[TangledThorns]

Looks so much better than the recent Trek movies.

[azrael]

They're using this (or a variation of) combadge:

Cool.

[sh9000]

 

[kalvasflam]

Thanks PS for reminding us we are all getting old. You know, this gets the new SW trilogy vibe all of a sudden, try to bring back the good old days because TV and cinema in this age quite frankly sucks.

Personally, I rather they bring back the JJ trek in that case.

[Dynaman]

Don't worry.  Back when Star Wars was new people were complaining then too about the crappy new stuff.  All flash and blockbuster nonsense...

Don't worry about JJ Trek either - currently actually being worked on as we type.  Only script stage so it could go right back in stasis again though.

[Seto Kaiba]

24 minutes ago, kalvasflam said:

You know, this gets the new SW trilogy vibe all of a sudden, try to bring back the good old days because TV and cinema in this age quite frankly sucks.

Nah, Star Trek: Picard is an entirely different and rather more embarrassingly pathetic sort of project.

Instead of being an attempt to recapture the spirit of the "good old days" to mine the pockets of the terminally nostalgic, Star Trek: Picard is more along the lines of damage control.  Star Trek: Discovery was not well-received by the Star Trek fandom, and it didn't live up to Jason Isaacs boasts that it didn't need the existing Star Trek fandom.  CBS tried to lure Star Trek fans to Discovery using the promise of the Enterprise, Captain Pike, Spock, etc., but the resulting bait-and-switch and the idiot plot that resulted from it did more harm than good.  Since most fans didn't like Mirror!Georgeau and thus aren't too keen on the idea of a Section 31 series, the brain trust at CBS are trying to lure Star Trek fans back to the franchise by drawing on the goodwill of previous shows using Jean-Luc Picard's name and cameo appearances by noteworthy characters of past shows like Will Riker, Deanna Troi, Data, and Seven.

It's long since been confirmed that Star Trek: Picard is going to be more of the same action-ized tripe we got in Discovery, but the creative staff at CBS are hoping the familiar name and face will keep Star Trek fans watching and maybe even buying the merch that Star Trek: Discovery just couldn't sell.  (Whether they'll actually have anything remains to be seen, since there were reports of licensee mass walkouts over the design works, citing the lack of sales of Discovery merch.)

 

24 minutes ago, kalvasflam said:

Personally, I rather they bring back the JJ trek in that case.

Ech... no thanks.  If it's a choice between those two I'd rather have nothing at all.  It's like being asked if you'd rather have Stage 4 inoperable brain cancer or terminal radiation poisioning.  If the choice is between a badly-written, badly-acted, badly-shot story that sh*ts all over Star Trek and its legacy, a badly-written, badly-acted, badly-shot story that sh*ts all over Star Trek and its legacy in a slightly different way, or nothing at all... then "nothing at all" is absolutely the best choice.

[kalvasflam]

See, so you’d take radiation poisoning of JJ Trek....  hahaha.  This just really means JJ trek wasn’t that bad...  after all, radiation poisoning is more survivable.

Edited January 13, 2020 by kalvasflam

[Seto Kaiba]

30 minutes ago, kalvasflam said:

See, so you’d take radiation poisoning of JJ Trek....  hahaha.  This just really means JJ trek wasn’t that bad...  after all, radiation poisoning is more survivable.

Hey now, I compared JJ-Trek to terminal radiation poisoning... it's every bit as painful, unpleasant, and incurable as the inoperable Stage 4 brain cancer that is CBS's disgustingly racist and regressive take on Star Trek, but in different ways.

There is, however, an extra-special place in the deepest, darkest, foulest oubliette in the bowels of Hell for the cretins responsible for Star Trek: Into Darkness's butchering Star Trek II: the Wrath of Khan and one of the most powerful and iconic Star Trek scenes.  May they rot there for all eternity, enduring thrice-hourly rectal probings with jumbo pineapples covered in carpet tacks, rock salt, and drain cleaner.

[UN Spacy]

https://twitter.com/startrekcbs/status/1216477275660488705?s=21

[TehPW]

12 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Hey now, I compared JJ-Trek to terminal radiation poisoning... it's every bit as painful, unpleasant, and incurable as the inoperable Stage 4 brain cancer that is CBS's disgustingly racist and regressive take on Star Trek, but in different ways.

There is, however, an extra-special place in the deepest, darkest, foulest oubliette in the bowels of Hell for the cretins responsible for Star Trek: Into Darkness's butchering Star Trek II: the Wrath of Khan and one of the most powerful and iconic Star Trek scenes.  May they rot there for all eternity, enduring thrice-hourly rectal probings with jumbo pineapples covered in carpet tacks, rock salt, and drain cleaner.

you are forgetting a few choice chemicals: MIL-PRF-83282 used as the lubricant. 90W used as the affixture on the pine apple (or MIL-L-17111 when you don't have a 55gal barrel of 90W available. happens ALL the time when you are on cruise) and P-D-680(?) for the cancer requirements...

I've gone on record that I LIKED Trek 2009. I wish STiD just was done... differently (but yes, it showed that JJ is complete r*tard) and I did like STB... but I don't think any further JJtrek movies will happen. The cast has already moved on... 

Edited January 13, 2020 by TehPW
clarification. and spelling derps...

[Seto Kaiba]

2 hours ago, TehPW said:

I've gone on record that I LIKED Trek 2009. I wish STiD just was done... differently (but yes, it showed that JJ is complete r*tard) and I did like STB... but I don't think any further JJtrek movies will happen. The cast has already moved on... 

Matters of individual taste aside, I'm not sure why anyone on the studio side of things would even be willing to entertain the idea of a fourth J.J.-Trek movie... or why CBS is so wedded to the J.J.-Trek aesthetic when it demonstrably doesn't sell.

Star Trek: Into Darkness and Star Trek: Beyond both underperformed at the box office, and Beyond is reported to have finished around $50 million in the red when all was said and done, which was enough to convince the film's investors to pack it in.  Add in that the studio is obligated by contract to offer Pine, Quinto, and other key cast members a significant raise, and the whole thing screams "losing prospect" from a financial standpoint.  Add in the fact that many Star Trek fans really don't like J.J.-Trek overall, and I'm surprised they're bothering with story treatments.

Come to that, with as much dissatisfaction as the Star Trek fandom has with the aesthetic choices in J.J.-Trek, I'm kind of amazed CBS is doubling down on it for Star Trek: Picard when it's been cited as a reason for slow or nonexistent sales of Star Trek: Discovery merchandise.

Maybe they know something I don't (well, there's an excellent chance of that actually), but it seems like a rather risky strategy to me.

[Dynaman]

I'd already read one article saying the case was a go for another movie - of course I then read another one saying the cast could change.  If they don't have Pine signed up already and WW is a big hit getting him back may be more then they are willing to pay since they already would have a hefty price tag for Saldana.

[peter]

Let Star Trek die off for a while, at least the bad taste that is the JJ Trek dissipate.

Redo the Animated Series in photo-real CGI. 

They already have the dialogue recorded, just need tech to catch up enough that we can't tell the difference between real life and CGI.

Guess that won't be possible for maybe in another 15-20 years?

Edited January 13, 2020 by peter

[Dynaman]

The animated series was really bad, REALLY, bad.  Though it did have a couple of good episodes it was just phoning it in.

 

[Seto Kaiba]

4 hours ago, Dynaman said:

The animated series was really bad, REALLY, bad.  Though it did have a couple of good episodes it was just phoning it in.

The production values were low, but it wasn't THAT bad.  

It's certainly much more watchable than anything from J.J.-Trek or the current pack of rejects and throwbacks running Star Trek at CBS.  Every Star Trek series has a few dud episodes like "Spock's Brain", "Code of Honor", "Move Along Home", "11:59", the entirety of Star Trek: Enterprise Season 3, every episode of Star Trek: Discovery, etc., TAS just had more freedom to explore the campy side of TOS.  Even brilliant writers like Larry Niven occasionally throw a dud out the door.

Its main problem is that TOS-style camp and the Scooby-Doo era animation hasn't aged well.

[tekering]

10 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Every Star Trek series has a few dud episodes like "Spock's Brain", "Code of Honor", "Move Along Home", "11:59"

I found the entire 172-episode run of Voyager to be profoundly forgettable, so I had to look that one up -- and I still don't remember it! -- but it was apparently one of the 10 best episodes of the series, according to TrekNews.net.  

[JB0]

8 minutes ago, tekering said:

I found the entire 172-episode run of Voyager to be profoundly forgettable, so I had to look that one up -- and I still don't remember it! -- but it was apparently one of the 10 best episodes of the series, according to TrekNews.net.  

Best episodes of Voyager is surely damning with faint praise.

[Dynaman]

11 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

 

Its main problem is that TOS-style camp and the Scooby-Doo era animation hasn't aged well.

That and the smarmy seventies "we know best about everything" attitude.  And saying it was animated is stretching it a bit - it is barely above Space Angel/Clutch Cargo.

[derex3592]

Because we're all so bored waiting to see if Picard or STP??... haha...  is going to be #WOKE and a total crapshow, we should list our favorite or top 5 episodes of Next Gen here for the next few days. Or hey, maybe even your top 10 from all the series???....

[tekering]

1 hour ago, derex3592 said:

we should list our favorite or top 5 episodes of Next Gen here for the next few days.

Top five Picard episodes:

"The Inner Light"

"Tapestry"

"Darmok"

"Sarek"

"Chain of Command, Part II"

[Seto Kaiba]

2 hours ago, tekering said:

I found the entire 172-episode run of Voyager to be profoundly forgettable, so I had to look that one up -- and I still don't remember it! -- but it was apparently one of the 10 best episodes of the series, according to TrekNews.net.  

... really?

TrekNews ranked "11:59" as one of the ten best episodes of Star Trek: Voyager?  Are they trolling?  Most Star Trek fansites and fan groups have consistently ranked that episode as the single worst episode in Voyager's entire run or at least one of the worst.

 

 

2 hours ago, JB0 said:

Best episodes of Voyager is surely damning with faint praise.

Hey now, they had some good ones... and a lot of mediocre ones, but mostly because they kept trying to develop the lamest parts of the cast like Kes, Neelix, and the eternal milquetoast Harry Kim.  It didn't really start going downhill until they made the Borg into the main antagonist of the series and traded Kes in on Barbie of Borg in the hopes that a well-filled catsuit would be a workable substitute for a personality.

 

 

1 hour ago, Dynaman said:

That and the smarmy seventies "we know best about everything" attitude.

To be fair, isn't that basically what half of TOS and most of the first season of TNG was?  The Federation starship Enterprise flying from planet to planet passing high-handed moral judgement on the locals?

 

 

1 hour ago, derex3592 said:

Because we're all so bored waiting to see if Picard or STP??... haha...  is going to be #WOKE and a total crapshow, we should list our favorite or top 5 episodes of Next Gen here for the next few days. Or hey, maybe even your top 10 from all the series???....

Are we using #woke ironically or unironically here?  That is to say, are we using it to refer to actual progressive stances or the fake progressive "I'm taking a stand to be seen on Instagram" nonsense infesting Discovery, the Star Wars sequel trilogy, and so many other recent pieces of painful filmmaking?

That Star Trek: Picard is going to be a total sh*tshow is pretty much a foregone conclusion.

[Chronocidal]

I think the main piledriven stake in the coffin in this case is that despite CBS and Viacom re-merging, STP is still operating under the alternate universe contract that spawned STD and the Kelvinverse.  This isn't a post-TNG series, it's a post-"Countdown" series... which sadly makes even less sense in that they apparently forgot that Data was alive and well for the destruction of Romulus via the Not!Spock Not!GenesisPlanet resurrection through B4.  I think they've already stated that this series is going to connect with STD anyhow, through whatever temporal shenanigans they plan to introduce in the third season.

Though, the worst thing by far may just be the attitude they're approaching it from.  They keep insisting on dragging the bright hopeful future that the Federation used to represent through the grimdark mud, because how dare we presume that humans can ever achieve anything good and wholesome?  

As a side note, I didn't watch much of Voyager, but I still think my favorite episode was the one involving the Hirogen taking over the ship and rigging it into a massive flying holodeck to reenact scenarios from WWII.  I'm not going to argue it was a good episode by any stretch, but watching the ship overrun with scaley aliens wearing SS uniforms was a freakin' hoot.

 

[myk]

I liked that episode because the Hirogen forced Jeri Ryan to dress up as a sultry lounge singer.   Forcing sexy women to sing is TIGHT...

[Seto Kaiba]

4 hours ago, Chronocidal said:

I think the main piledriven stake in the coffin in this case is that despite CBS and Viacom re-merging, STP is still operating under the alternate universe contract that spawned STD and the Kelvinverse.  This isn't a post-TNG series, it's a post-"Countdown" series... which sadly makes even less sense in that they apparently forgot that Data was alive and well for the destruction of Romulus via the Not!Spock Not!GenesisPlanet resurrection through B4.  I think they've already stated that this series is going to connect with STD anyhow, through whatever temporal shenanigans they plan to introduce in the third season.

Maybe they'll try to reinvent it midway through or something.

From the sound of it, Viacom-CBS's board is watching Star Trek: Picard like a hawk in the hopes that this particularly odious brand of Star Trek will stand the test of time or at least fail to mortally offend fans.  They could find themselves with a rethink forced on them by poor viewership like what happened in Discovery in the gap between season one and two.

 

Quote

Though, the worst thing by far may just be the attitude they're approaching it from.  They keep insisting on dragging the bright hopeful future that the Federation used to represent through the grimdark mud, because how dare we presume that humans can ever achieve anything good and wholesome?  

Yeah... that's the lingering taint of Jar-Jar Abrams and Bad Reboot.  None of them really understood what it was about the series that made Star Trek a cultural icon, and Abrams himself was vocally proud of that fact.  They looked at Star Trek and saw the potential to turn the preeminent work of popular high-concept sci-fi into a soulless and generic Star Wars knockoff.

IMO, that was only exacerbated by Star Trek: Discovery's showrunners wanting the series to be Game of Space Thrones.  It had to be grimdark, gritty, action-intensive, and packed to the gills with expensive visual effects.  They just couldn't live with themselves if they didn't have a grimdark setting, so season three is f*cking with the timeline by having the Federation not exist anymore in the 32nd century so they can reinvent it in their own dystopian image.

Now Star Trek: Picard seems set to sh*t all over the Federation of Picard's era, complete with the same shenanigans that ultimately ruined Voyager by making the plot center around the Borg and hamfisted hypocritical rhetoric like what nearly tanked Discovery at the end of its first season.

Edited January 14, 2020 by Seto Kaiba

[derex3592]

4 hours ago, myk said:

I liked that episode because the Hirogen forced Jeri Ryan to dress up as a sultry lounge singer.   Forcing sexy women to sing is TIGHT...

HA! I see what you did there @myk Love me some Pitch Meetings.

[Dynaman]

6 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

.

To be fair, isn't that basically what half of TOS and most of the first season of TNG was?  The Federation starship Enterprise flying from planet to planet passing high-handed moral judgement on the locals?

 

 

 

TOS was the sixties version and did it FAR better.  The 30 minute runtime on the animated show probably hurt in that regard.  TNG's first three seasons were mostly dreadful for that reason (in a late eighties nineties way) but near the end of the third season they figured out what they were doing wrong and did a course correction.