Star Trek: Discovery new details emerge

I just want some confirmation from another set of eyes on this one.

New details of the in development series ST: Discovery have emerged…

The main item I was focusing on was this: The series will explore an incident mentioned in the 1960s series. (In the 1969 episode “Whom Gods Destroy,” there’s a reference to a war the Federation was fighting about 15 years earlier.)

Now, for anyone not in the know, that incident is the Four Years War (Federation vs Klingon Empire). Garth of Izar was the hero of that war. The fan film production of Prelude to Axanar is a direct story about Garth and the Four Years War. Now at one point Paramount tried to shut down the Axanar fan film with a bogus copyright infringement quit. And now we learn they are producing a series that is a direct comparison to the Prelude to Axanar fan flick.

Is it just me here? Someone tell me I am not a crack pot.

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wince

Bad idea.

If you’re going to do a TOS-era robot, it’s going to have to be a Lost In Space style robot. Robotic voice, susceptible to logic errors, no actual consciousness. Not that the Star Trek time line is anywhere near coherent, but you can’t have a robot anywhere near Data’s level of sophistication without raising questions of why there weren’t thousands of Datas a century later.

Plus, you’re going to invite comparisons to Brent Spiner, and no-one can out-Data Data.

ETA:

Unlike the last six Star Trek TV shows, the lead character will not be the captain of the USS Discovery, but a Lt. Commander.

Sisko wasn’t a Captain when DS9 started either.

ETA#2:

#StarTrekDiscovery will see more aliens in cast than in past,

Good. One of the greatest traditions of Star Trek is to look at human problems with an outsider’s eye, and that’s a good way to do it.

addition, we’re likely to see Section 31 pop up (oh, goody)

NO! Dammit!

Section 31 is a covert/black ops wing. They’re supposed to be so invisible that a hundred years after TOS, when they show up in DS9, they’re not even a rumour. Not even inside Starfleet.

If they show up as anything more than a wink and nudge that one of the officers is getting orders from someone other than the Captain, it ruins the whole purpose of plausible deniability.

Not to mention, you have to earn darkness. Star Trek is a utopian future; you need to show the shiny surface before you zoom in and look at the cracks. When Section 31 showed up in DS9, it was in Season 6, and also after 7 years of TNG showing off Picard, one of the most idealistic captains you’ll ever see.

You can’t just jump straight Into Darkness and have it still be Star Trek.

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Exactly. STAHP.

You already have people teleporting across the galaxy in the ST reboot movies when teleportation was still iffy in TNG. You’re not allowed to retcon shit until you’ve demonstrated you’re responsible.

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It’s all you. No one will ever believe you. Do you really believe the Federation Council wants to acknowledge what’s really going on? We do what’s necessary to protect the Federation so you can live your comfortable life with your cherished Federation values.

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Where does it elude to it being the four years war? Is that something else you’ve read, cause I didn’t really see it in the article you linked to…

So it is Paramount wanting to explore that era/set of events and shutting down the fan film… or is this just straight up stealing from the fan film in the first place now that they know there is demand to see that?

The evidence is:

  1. It happens 10 years before TOS
  2. It will be exploring an event which has been referred to in other series, but never shown before.

I’m sure that this isn’t the only event that qualifies, but it’s the most obvious one that’s big enough to spend a whole series of 13 episodes exploring.

ETA:
Of course, the current rumour I’ve heard is that the main character is a human Lieutenant Commander serving under a Klingon Captain, which would make having the event take place during a Klingon Empire vs. Federation war unlikely.

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As with all things Star Trek, I’m going to assume it’s going to be a shitshow until proven otherwise. And if it starts as a shitshow, it might still be redeemed if given enough time.

I think prequels and reboots are generally a bad idea with this franchise. Maybe this new series will prove me wrong, but it’s just so tricky to set anything before TOS in light of real-world developments since it was made. Not to mention that those fans who care about canon, and some care very deeply indeed, are guaranteed to eat you alive (cf Enterprise).

Foolish to take unnecessary risks like that when the option of fast-forwarding into the future is right there, and gives you free rein to evolve the aesthetic and everything else about the franchise, whereas prequels shackle you in multiple ways.

That said, Bryan Fuller should be a good choice to run this thing.

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That is about the one thing that gives me hope about this.

Between his work on DS9, and his later efforts (like Pushing Daisies), I honestly think that given the opportunity, he could get this right.

The rest of this whole concept looks iffy, but I agree, if anyone can get it right, it’s Fuller.

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Thanks for clarifying… I thought that @quorihunter was saying article says that, but they are really saying it’s his assumption (and a more than plausible one).

Were the Klingons ever cordial with the Federation enough for humans to serve on a Klingon ship (or vice-versa) even before this four Years War? Isn’t that a major ret-conning of Federation/Klingon relations?

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Picard comments that Starfleet thinks it would be a good idea for someone from the Enterprise to participate in the exchange program. He also notes that there is a Klingon vessel, the Pagh, in the area. Riker gets the idea, and volunteers to be the one to participate in the exchange because “nobody’s done it before”.

It sure sounds like there’s never been a Starfleet officer serving on a Klingon ship before this, but I don’t have the script of the episode in front of me. They may have just been referring to the exchange program itself.

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Okay… so, in that episode (which happens later than we’re assuming Discovery is set, which is between Enterprise and TOS) this is the first time a Federation officer has served on a Klingon ship (or as you say, maybe they’re referring to the exchange program?). I suppose it could be some other kind of situation where a federation officer is serving under a Klingon, but I’m not sure where and how…

Of course, as you said, that’s a rumor, so it could not be true…

Don’t all these shows have bibles they go by when they start a new entry into the franchise?

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If science fiction is always about the present, and we find our new fantastic stories are about looking toward the past, then what does that say about us?

#Makestartrekgreatagain

I actually think it would be refreshing to see a non-humanoid robot character that wasn’t constantly yearning to understand love and whatnot. Less “Data” than “those bots from Interstellar.”

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I’m partial to the doppelganger robots from The Last Starfighter

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