New Star Trek Series Premieres January 2017

[Ryan Ruck]

New Star Trek Series Premieres January 2017

November 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.

This definitely has the potential to be awesome or beyond horribly bad.

All I can say is I hope to hell it doesn't take place in the Abrams universe and is set in the TNG/DS9/Voyager era. No prequels, no reboots, no nothing but Star Trek we all know and love. That's all I ask for...

I stand by to be fully disappointed though.

[American Patriot]

lol

Old Star Trek. Not reboot. Not time warped. Not fucked up.

New day, new worlds, new aliens, new CGI and for God's sake put it on regular TV, not some fucking premium bullshit we don’t have.

[Ryan Ruck]

Just revealed at Comic-Con...




Disappointed it's yet another prequel but still cautiously optimistic since it is supposed to take place in the "real" Star Trek universe, not the J.J. Abrams-verse.

[Malsua]

Aw look, Star Fleet got themselves a roulette wheel in space.

[Ryan Ruck]

I totally read that in his voice...

[Malsua]

You have no idea how many times I use that line around people who wonder what the fuck I'm talking about.

[Ryan Ruck]

Philistines one and all.

How can they not know such a famous line from one of the most iconic Christmas movies ever!

[MinutemanCO]

"Now I have a machine gun. Ho ho ho." [in a German accent, of course]

Sorry, couldn't resist. One of my all time favorites.

[Ryan Ruck]

I've so badly wanted a sweatshirt or ugly Christmas sweater that says that but all I've ever seen are t-shirts.

[Ryan Ruck]

You mean to tell me I've waited a decade, nearly a full 1/3 of my life on planet Earth, for this?!?

CBS All Access' 'Star Trek: Discovery' to Be Captained By a Woman, Feature Gay Character

August 10, 2016

The reboot will be putting a new spin on Captain Kirk with the central character played by a woman.

CBS All Access' upcoming Star Trek: Discovery is starting to take shape.

The Bryan Fuller series will be led by a woman, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter, with the role potentially also being diverse. The character, however, will not be a captain, with the showrunner noting that decision allows the series to explore stories from a different point of view. The top-ranking member of the fleet will instead be a lieutenant commander, Fuller revealed Wednesday at the Television Critics Association's summer press tour, adding, "but with caveats."

"We're going deep into something that was for me always very tantalizing, and [we're telling] that story through a character who is on a journey that is going to teach her how to get along with others in the galaxy," he told reporters. "For her to truly understand something that is alien, she has to first understand herself."

Fuller also added that the series will feature roughly 7 lead characters. "Star Trek started with a wonderful expression of diversity in its cast: a Russian, a black woman, an Asian, a Vulcan … we're continuing that tradition and our lead of the show is going to be subject of that same level of who is the best actor and what can we say about diversity in every role we'll have on the show," he said, noting there would be a few more aliens in its fleet than previous incarnations of the franchise. "We wanted to paint a picture of Star Fleet that's indicative of encountering people who are much more different than we are."

Fuller confirmed that his Star Trek also will feature a gay character after he received hate-mail during his time on Voyager following a rumor that speculated that one of the show's characters could be out. He noted that fellow executive producer Alex Kurtzman was the first to pitch the idea, which was already something Fuller had planned on including in the 10-episode series.

While details about the cast are still yet to be determined, the news that it would be led by a woman comes as little surprise. Showrunner Fuller — who is openly gay — recently moderated a 50th anniversary Star Trek panel at San Diego Comic-Con where he used the platform to stress that the franchise could serve as an antidote to the current political upheaval.

"Think about what’s happening in America, and think about the promise of Star Trek, and what we can all do to get there," he told the crowd before ending the panel by asking all the fans in attendance to take each other’s hands and “make a promise to leave this room with love, to leave this room with hope, to leave this room and take responsibility to craft a path to Gene Roddenberry’s vision."

During his time in front of the press Wednesday, Fuller also stressed that the show has an "opportunity" to start telling stories about how "we come together as a planet and seek new aliens and new adventures." He added: "That's what we're going to do on Star Trek: Discovery."

As for what the new Star Trek series would focus on, Fuller said he wasn't allowed to reveal too much. "There's an event in Star Trek history and Star Fleet that had been talked about but never fully explored," he said of the serialized story. "We're set in the Prime universe, 10 years before Captain Kirk. We have the opportunity to bridge the gap between the Enterprise and the original series and really help us redefine the visual style of Star Trek."

The CBS All Access show features the franchise's Enterprise now known as the U.S.S. Discovery. The drama, set to bow in 2017, 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.

Sources tell THR the rest of the cast also will feature an openly gay actor to play one one of the male leads (which Fuller confirmed), a female admiral, a male Klingon captain, a male admiral, a male adviser and a British male doctor.

For CBS, the news comes as the network is facing criticism for a fall lineup that is heavy on white male stars including Kevin James, Michael Weatherly, Matt LeBlanc and Joel McHale, among others. Last pilot season, the network rebooted Nancy Drew with a diverse female lead in Sarah Shahi, but the pilot did not move forward.

For his part, CBS president Glenn Geller was put on the hot seat earlier Wednesday about the network's lack of diversity. "We need to do better," he said — seven times — during his time in front of critics.

Star Trek: Discovery arrives as the franchise's latest big-screen take features a new spin on the original character of Sulu. Star John Cho's Sulu is now openly gay, much to the chagrin of the character's original star, the openly gay George Takei.

It just hit me, this series will be "STD". I really hope that isn't a harbinger of what to expect...

I'm still going to pay to watch it but I fully expect to cancel before the whole season plays out.

[American Patriot]

lol. std

[Ryan Ruck]

Okay, the first look trailer for Discovery is now out.

It looks like it has the potential to be pretty good if they can lay off the heavy handed SJW bullshit.

I'll admit though, after 12 years of no Trek, I am a bit desperate...

[vector7]

‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Under Fire for Not Casting Enough White Dudes



By Emily Zanotti | 4:34 pm, May 22, 2017

Read Moresocial justiceculture warsStar Trek

Star Trek: Discovery has been a problematic show from the beginning. The most recent spinoff of the Star Trek franchise has been beset by accusations of misogyny, a lack of female characters aside from leads, and, of course, fears that it can’t live up to previous incarnations.

But while social justice warriors grapple with what Discovery means for feminism and diversity, a group, usually diametrically opposed to social justice warriors, is grousing loudly on the Internet—because Discovery has too many women and characters of color.

(l-r): Doug Jones as Lieutenant Saru; Sonequa Martin-Green as First Officer Michael Burnham; Michelle Yeoh as Captain Philippa Georgiou. CBS

The series stars Sonequa Martin-Green as a high-level officer on the ship who has most of the show’s adventures (the captain, a white man, is just there for window dressing). Michelle Yeoh stars as another ship’s captain, who aides Martin-Green, and the two lead a cast of humans and aliens charged with saving the galaxy, before the events of Star Trek: The Original Series.

(l-r): Michelle Yeoh as Captain Philippa Georgiou; Sonequa Martin-Green as First Officer Michael Burnham. CBS

Star Trek has always pushed boundaries in the name of social change. But apparently, there was a little too much boundary pushing this time around.





And those were some of the tamer quotes—it turns out some Trek fans really don’t like what Discovery is threatening to do.
Obviously, these critics could simply avoid tuning in. And entertainment history seems to show that programs centered specifically around social justice, or that embrace diversity for diversity’s sake, don’t last long, whether because they’re preachy or because they embrace politics at the expense of creativity. It might be easier to just let Discovery find its audience or die trying.

But, it turns out, not just progressives can be snowflakes.

Hidden among those quotes, there is also one nugget of fair criticism. Star Trek has a long and storied history, and much of that history has developed into canon. Discovery appears to upend some of that canon in order to rewrite Starfleet’s story in a way that updates it for a modern audience.



The short answer is, of course that the original series premiered in the late 1960s, and Voyager in the late 1990s. It isn’t that the technology is better—just the visual effects.

[Ryan Ruck]

I'm going to give it a chance but when are these entertainment producers going to learn, not everything needs a "message". If it starts sucking, I'll cancel CBS Now and just torrent it and, I'll let them know why I cancelled.

Yeah, ST has always had a bit of a social justice streak. It's what Roddenberry was all about. But it wasn't typically the spotlight of the show or if it was, it didn't sacrifice the product to push its message. It just was.

As for the whole "woman captain" thing, that was upended on Enterprise when Columbia had Captain Erika Hernandez. Also, I don't recall anything about Janeway being a first woman captain but maybe I missed that. Could have sworn up and down there were female captains on TNG and DS9... I guess they could write around that in a similar way Enterprise did with on why Klingons on TOS looked different from "modern" Klingons (i.e. the Augment Virus). Discovery could come up with some sort of incident that lead to the no woman captain policy in TOS. It does, after all, take place 90 years after Enterprise and 10 before TOS.

I'll wait and see how they handle the tech issue. There was a lot of flak aimed at Enterprise for the same reason but, I think they ended up dealing with it well. They had modern sets but they did make a point to have NX-01 equipped with clearly inferior tech (polarized hull plating vs shields, grapplers vs tractor beams, no phasers initially, standard torpedoes vs photon torpedoes, and transporters barely able to beam people). Folks were all up in arms because the sets didn't look like they were made of cardboard and scotch tape like the TOS sets. Fact is, if they had made it look that simplistic, no one would have watched the show because it would have looked like garbage. Audiences have expectations that are too high to do something like that. That said, Discovery may have taken the pendulum too far in the other direction but, we'll see...

[Ryan Ruck]

Star Trek: Discovery To Tackle Trump-Era Political Divide

Exclusive: ‘The Klingons are going to help us look at certain sides of ourselves and our country’

September 7, 2017





Star Trek: Discovery will continue the venerated sci-fi tradition of using a fantastic setting to tackle real-world issues — only in a bigger way than any Trek series has done before.

The upcoming CBS All Access drama tells the serialized story of a war between the United Federation of Planets and the Klingon Empire. The show is set a decade before 1966’s original series — which premiered 51 years ago today — during which the Federation and Klingons were in a Cold War standoff that reflected yesteryear’s U.S.-Soviet relations. In Discovery, war breaks out and the Klingons leading the charge have some ideological ideas inspired by the 2016 electoral divide.

“The allegory is that we really started working on the show in earnest around the time the election was happening,” showrunner Aaron Harberts says. “The Klingons are going to help us really look at certain sides of ourselves and our country. Isolationism is a big theme. Racial purity is a big theme. The Klingons are not the enemy, but they do have a different view on things. It raises big questions: Should we let people in? Do we want to change? There’s also the question of just because you reach your hand out to someone, do they have to take it? Sometimes, they don’t want to take it. It’s been interesting to see how the times have become more of a mirror than we even thought they were going to be.”

While such topics have been explored across Star Trek‘s six previous series and 700 episodes before, the serialized nature of Discovery‘s 15-episode debut season allows for a greater depth of storytelling. “The thing about the war is it takes Starfleet and the Federation and forces them to examine their ideas and ethical rules of conflict and conduct,” Harberts says. “It provides a backdrop to how we want to be as a society and that analysis and self-reflection is new for Trek. They’ve done it in certain episodes in the past, but this is a true journey for the institution in itself.”

“In times of stress and conflict it can bring out the best of us and the worst of us,” adds fellow showrunner Gretchen J. Berg. “But but ultimately brings out the best in our Starfleet officers.”

The Toronto-based production is currently shooting its 13th episode, and producers note that President Donald Trump’s tense stand-off with North Korea has some reflections in the show as well.

“North Korea is in our thoughts as we finish the series,” he says. “What began as a commentary on our own divided nation — in terms of Trump supporters and non-Trump supporters — has blown out to North Korea and how we’re right on the brink. [The U.S. is] actually right at the place where Starfleet finds itself in episode one and we couldn’t have anticipated that happening. But how do you end conflict when both sides have such strong opinions?”

In the series, Sonequa Martin-Green (The Walking Dead) plays First Officer Michael Burnham, an ambitious Starfleet officer whose carefully planned career is upended when she makes a decision with far-reaching consequences. The Klingon characters are led by T’Kuvma (Chris Obi), a leader of an ancient Klingon house who goes to extreme measures to unite his people. Star Trek has a long history of allegorical commentary, including Deep Space Nine’s “Past Tense” (which tackled the separation of economic classes), Voyager‘s “Workforce” (labor issues), and The Original Series‘ “A Private Little War” (the Vietnam War).

Here’s the latest trailer:



Star Trek: Discovery debuts on CBS on Sept. 24 before switching to the CBS All Access streaming service.

Yep, fuck it. I'm out.

I was going to subscribe to CBS's stupid All Access service just to help show there was interest in new production Star Trek but if this is going to be it, fuck that.

I'll be torrenting the episodes just to see how bad this trainwreck will be.

And as a long time ST fan (shit, I'm sitting here rewatching an ep of DS9 as I type this) this really pisses me off. It's been more than 10 years since we've had any new Trek and I was really looking forward to this. I'll be honest, deep down I had a feeling they were going to fuck this all up and as news of the show has trickled out, it's only confirmed my fears. Guess I'll be stuck re-watching all the old episodes over and over to get decent stories, characters, and production.

Fuck you social justice warriors! Fuck you right in your stupid faces! Do you absolutely have to fuck everything up?!?!

[Ryan Ruck]

[Ryan Ruck]

Well, apparently my DVR wasn't able to record the whole premiere of STD, I'm guessing because of football. I've been busy most of the day helping one of my brothers move.

It did record about 35 minutes or so of the actual episode (not including commercial time) though so I'll offer up my first impressions.

As a Star Trek fan of more than 25 years, I'm not terribly impressed at all.

It talked like Star Trek but didn't have any of the look and feel (just like all of the Abramsverse movies). They want all this whiz bang wundertech like transparent HUDs and flashy interfaces on the bridge which takes it out of the setting they're trying to portray because they keep wanting to couch the stories in prequels so they don't have to worry about adhering to cannon. If they would just set this in the TNG/DS9/Voyager time period of the Prime time line, or even a bit after, the sets would be much more believable. Enterprise managed to be set 90 years before TOS and it actually felt like Trek even though they had more complex sets. This couldn't feel any less like just 10 years before the TOS time period if they tried. I think the reviews that said this could be any generic SciFi show if you changed a few of the words of the script are spot on.

Sonequa Martin-Green's acting was wooden. Didn't seem like she was well cast for the job. If this is how she normally acts, it worked on TWD because she was only a supporting role, not a lead like on here. Her whole "Michael" name is dumb. As is making her some adopted kid of Sarek that we've never heard about before.

The Klingon redesign is also dumb. Aside from the Federation people actually mentioning they're Klingon and the Klingons saying the occasional Klingon thing, nothing about them makes you think they are.

It's trying too hard to be a grand cinematic experience instead of a good television show.

Being generous, I might give this a 4 out of 10. Hopefully this will rightfully be put out of its misery soon. I can't believe anyone responsible for the purse strings at CBS actually thought any of this was a good idea.

I'll be torrenting the rest of the episodes just to see how badly this crashes and burns.

[Ryan Ruck]

'Star Trek: Discovery' Cast Kneels In Solidarity With The NFL

September 25, 2017

With Star Trek's legacy of diversity, it seems fitting that the cast of the reboot series, Star Trek: Discovery, would enter the national conversation on the NFL national anthem protests less than 24 hours after the show's premiere.

On Monday morning, Discovery star Sonequa Martin-Green, who plays the show's protagonist First Officer Michael Burnham, posted a photo of the Star Trek cast "taking a knee."

Martin-Green used the hashtag #takeaknee, invoking the NFL players who supported the protests of former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick and defied the president's calls for their firing Friday by kneeling and locking arms during the national anthem during Sunday's games.

While many comments on the Instagram post applauded the cast with heart eye and "live long and prosper" emoji, there were, of course, those who objected to the political and serious tenor.

"Ridiculous, lost a follower!" commented Instagram user bostonbone31. "It's disrespectful to those that died for our flag no matter how you look at it. #shameful"

But there were many more messages of support than detractions. Instagram user rbenenge wrote:

�� great show, congratulations, every winter I watched voyager one of my old favorite Star Trek, seen sister doing her thing it's so inspiring , many blessings ����������������.

htownbrown75 made use of the full spectrum of emoji diversity, writing "Absolutely!! Love it!!! ✊��✊��✊��✊��✊����������������������"

Star Trek Discovery premiered Sunday night on CBS. The reboot takes place ten years before the storyline of Captain Kirk and his crew-mates begin, and so far, is focusing on the story of Martin-Green's Michael Burnham. The show premiered to positive reviews - including our own - and so far seems like a promising addition to the Star Trek canon. ( )

Along with the Instagram protest photo, the show itself does justice to the legacy of Star Trek as an inclusive and "progressive" show. Star Trek historian Mark A. Altman told The Washington Postthat when the show premiered in the 1960s, its casting was notable for its diversity. It featured a black woman and a Japanese man in its cast - Nichelle Nichols as communications officer Lt. Uhura, and George Takei as Lt. Sulu - at a time when few other shows were prioritizing diverse representation on-screen.

Now, Discovery has cast two women of color as both the show's protagonist, Michael Burnham, and this iteration of Star Trek's commanding officer, Captain Philippa Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh).

In the Star Trek universe, imbued with the Vulcan philosophy of "Infinite diversity in infinite combinations," having women of color in power seems delightfully the norm - not something that should have to be stated as remarkable.

But, in a world where the president calls any NFL player who protests along with the Black Lives Matter movement a "son of a bitch," and one in which Star Trek fans object to the lack of a white man at the helm of a space ship, diverse casting, and taking a knee, are still bold acts that go where this universe desperately needs to go.

[Ryan Ruck]

Just watched E02.

It gets a +1 for a decent space battle (although some of the bridge damage effects were strangely flammable ) but then it gets a -1 for the "girl power" hand to hand combat with the "Klingons", of which one of the combatants is the ship captain, a 50+ Asian woman.

So it looks like it's right back at the 4/10 mark for me.

[Malsua]

I watched EP01 last night.

They role reversed "You've been an outsider because of the color of your Skin" to the Albino Klingon.

The "tough girl" shit really annoys me. Has anyone, EVER anywhere, EVER met a woman like that? No, she's doing a bad imitation of of a man and that man is frankly a jerkoff.

Furthmore, if she gets into hand-to-hand and isn't immediately crushed by a Klingon who could load 400 lb. nuclear shells into a space craft cannon all day long without breaking a sweat, I'm going to scream.

I see this shit in every movie these days, to the point they now put in little 9YO girls beating up buff navy seal types(Logan) or that TV show, Blindspot. She's all tough man, yeah, she's bad, all 100lbs of her. The fact of the matter is men have stronger muscles and bones, as well as thicker bones in the face, forehead and elsewhere because we've earned it, genetically, from getting the shit kicked out of us for 200,000 years.

I'm willing to watch more, but I will check out if they shove SJW shit down our throats.

Also, I do sorta have some issues with the first EP.

1. Why were they walking to the well? Clearly the ship could have just dropped down, dropped them off, picked them up, done and done.
2. A meteor mining accident caused the one and only water source to dry up? Huh?
3. The wind was blowing. Visibility is approaching zero, yet a Sand insignia is better than an RF transmitter? geezus. What a bunch of incompetent shitlips.
4. Oooh, an old artifact, let me directly disobey an order and land on it. "Just a flyby, remember?"
5. Oh, it's moving, let me stand here and gawk like a 15YO boy in a whorehouse. DUST OFF YOU IDIOT!
6. Oh, look at that, it's emitting 1 billion lumens per meter. PULL BACK YOU FUCKING DIPSHIT!
7. Go light the torch? Huh? Why do you need a batliff for that? How about you go into the other room and flip the switch?
8. Since when are Klingons all fancy with their architecture? Those drooling morons are into BATTLE, not art. If it doesn't serve a purpose, directly related to battle, they wouldn't bother.
9. What's the point of a light anyway? Most of the klingons are AT LEAST over a light year away, how did they see this torch and show up in hours?

I'm quite sure there's more to complain about.