StillPaisleyCat @ StillPaisleyCat @startrek.website

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175

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1,324

Joined

2 yr. ago

Definitely a different perspective. I get the sense that this is one of those situations where viewer reactions can be quite polarized.

BTW I liked the role, and was very much looking forward to the show after the original pilot aired with the original first officer. I just didn’t find O’Hare’s acting in the actual show met the standard they were looking for.

It’s interesting that this is only available as a purchase rather than through a streamer. Seems like WB is trying to build demand for a new live action product.

I was surprised how much I enjoyed hearing Bruce Boxleitner’s voice in the promo clip. Having him join in the second season of Babylon 5 really saved the show for me. I’m curious to see where this leads, if they will transition with newer younger characters and if B5 can morph into a more viable franchise.

(I found Michael O’Hare’s performance in season one unbearable despite a strong pilot. Knowing his health issues, explains it, but he still pulled down the excellent efforts of all those around him. I still skip most of the season on rewatch.)

Where are you getting the information about contractual rights on likenesses?

I’m curious to know if actors’ contracts have evolved on this over time. I would have thought Paramount would be the exclusive rights holder.

Marina Sirtis, for example, has commented that she wasn’t even informed in advance about her image as Troi being on a recent UK stamp. She says that she has no rights in relation to her likeness as Troi, the rights remain entirely with Paramount.

That’s a food synthesizer gone mad as part of the overall corruption of the ship’s main computer.

A space anomaly (TM) has integrated ‘playful’ entertainment programming from a holographic simulator. We also see artificial gravity shenanigans, and Scotty directing engineering specialists to force open the door to the simulator.

The TAS screencaps (thanks to Trek Core’s fantastic library) are from the episode ‘The Practical Joker.’

In TAS, we first see a precursor of the later Holodeck technology. In ‘The Practical Joker’, we first also see the familiar Trek trope of a space anomaly affecting the crew’s holographic entertainment simulator, leading to the ship being taken over in some way.

The VR simulator is within one of the Enterprise ‘Rec Rooms’ that also serves as a mess. The malfunction of the nearby food synthesizers was one of the first symptoms of the ship’s computer (AI) pulling practical jokes.

Here’s an image of what was happening on the other side of the closed Rec Room simulator door by the time Scotty’s team was trying to break in to rescue the other officers.

TAS introduced so many great ideas to the franchise. If you haven’t seen it, it’s worth viewing all the episodes at least once. A few are classics.

The EPs have mentioned in interviews that the alternate version will be a bonus feature on the DVDs/BlueRay/UHD disc sets.

David Mack was more recently a consultant for the development and first seasons of both Lower Decks and Prodigy as well. I believe we can thank him for bringing Peter David’s Brikar aliens (from the YA Starfleet Academy and the New Frontier books) into onscreen canon with the character of Rok Tahk in Prodigy.

Enjoyed it too. There aren’t so many here yet that are interested in musing about the broader context of the industry. And we’re just getting to recognize and remember the aliases and the voices here.

No idea. They seem to be selling through the major outlets only.

YMMV I understand that recording but not watching shows on a VCR or PVR/DVR was common, it’s just not something anyone I know well did.

Even the generation of my family now in their nineties figured out how to use early difficult VCRs and used them constantly to time shift their viewing and avoid ads. I recently helped a family member in their 90s to get set up on Pluto, and their immediate question was “What do you mean I have to just watch what’s on and can’t skip the ads? I haven’t done that since the 70s.”

All to say that, I’m sure the advertising companies have a good sense of the demographics of who saves, skips ads and watches later. Also metrics companies like Nielsen provide 3 and 7 day views for a reason.

Thanks for the article on the Redmonds. Will read with interest.

BTW, Discovery season one was broadcast as a summer replacement on CBS. It was actually better for the cutdown for broadcast.

There’s no canon basis to support this, just head canon inference. While this could be the direction SNW is going with this, being posted elsewhere and then returning for a brief period doesn’t imply any demotion.

M’Benga was working, likely shadowing, with McCoy in TOS for just an episode or two before he acted as CMO when McCoy was away. The fact that McCoy had to confirm/remind Kirk that M’Benga had trained on Vulcan strongly suggests he wasn’t posted longterm to the Enterprise. More, M’Benga was supposed to be on his way to head up a medical station, which suggests he was moving towards a position of responsibility.

Asking a former CMO to work alongside for a short period and then act when he’s between postings, especially one with specialized expertise needed for the crew’s complement, is fairly routine.

It’s likely the impact of the sudden and unexpected death of Melissa Navia’s husband led to a lightning of her role in the second season.

She’s written about how hard it was for her to go into production just a couple of months after that. She was a musical theatre performer as a child, so it’s likely that a larger singing role was planned for her in 2 x 09. We can be thankful that she has apparently decided to stick with her career after some profound doubts in 2022.

Ah, someone who understands.

Several of the Relaunch novelverse TrekLit authors tried out with spec scripts before being picked up to write tie-in fiction.

David Mack, a film school grad, got script credits for 2 DS9 episodes, Starship Down and Only a Paper Moon before being contracted for some Starfleet Core of Engineers stories.

Kirsten Beyer, a theatre grad, never got into one of the shows with a spec script, but was picked up to write Voyager books, then came full circle to be in the writers rooms on all the new live-action shows.

Caitians are feliniods, yes.

That is M’Ress, a Catian, and the back up Comms officer among other roles.

Animation allows for aliens that aren’t just bumpy forehead humanoids.

T’Ana, the Chief Medical Officer in Lower Decks and, a minor recurring character in the first season of Prodigy (shown in my avatar) are also Caitian.

Strongly recommend seeing TAS at least once. There’s a lot of great stuff in there from the original TOS writers and cast.

A shout out to Trek Core’s great database of screencaps. This one is from their TAS BlueRay screencap library.

Yes. Born in Paisley (like David Tennant), and out of Scotland’s National Theatre Company, no less.

Good points.

We still have cable, and prefer the premium cable CTV Sci-fi Channel for much of what we watch, including Star Trek and Syfy content. At least with premium linear we can record and skip through ads.

Which brings us to one of the major transformative issues, increasing competition for advertising spends and dropping advertising revenue in the entertainment industry. A lot of the revenue drop is from declining audiences, in part is because the targeting is weaker than on internet platforms and because people can skip or avoid ads on linear.

Low tier streaming with ads and ad-supported streaming like Pluto or other video on demand, including YouTube, are great for advertisers. Basically, the audience is captured in a way that it hasn’t been since the onset of VCRs.

I noticed some reports from last month quoting Iger musing about selling of ABC and their other linear assets. Again, not a lot of real strategic thinking there. Also, not a lot of interested buyers.

Paramount’s stock is punished because the Redman family wants to keep their firm together now that they’ve reassembled it. They may seem less well organized than Disney or the others but they may be the only player really looking at the long term game in terms of a sustainable business.

Paramount is becoming an interesting case study in how a family holding has different incentives than a large widely held firm such as Disney has become.

Sheri Redman has wrested control back from her highly paid senior executives (especially Moonves) and is clearly will to dump senior management them if they underperform. (I keep wondering how long she’ll let Baklish stay as CEO if things don’t turn around. Everyone around and below him has proven expendable.) assets she’s much less willing to cut loose. The sale of publisher Simon and Schuster seems likely to be a one-off with a business line that was distant from the Redman family’s core experience with visual media and live events. The BET+ sale is looking less and less likely. The risk they took on buying Pluto and bringing its owner into a key strategic role shows a willingness to take risks as long as it aligns with their core. All very classic late 70s / early 80s business strategy.

Not advocating for families with incredible wealth here, just commenting on how the investment horizon of the publicly traded markets are not delivering good strategic management of these very large firms in an industry that generates significant employment and has an outsized impact in shaping culture.

20 seems unrealistic given the longer shooting time per episode and actors’ wanting flexibility to be able to work on more than one project.

12-15 however seems very possible especially with the episodic format. Producing a longer season after the strike especially would seem wise. It would also allow Paramount to take a brief hiatus midseason (the way Discovery did originally) to stretch out the schedule.

SNW has already demonstrated that it is an ensemble show with a full cast that can basically carry or star in their own episodes. Not every main cast member needs to be on set every production day, and even the principal character, Pike, can step back in some episodes.

Makes sense and good to know.

Some of the older Klingon model designs have been updated as they are rereleased. I can see that the Enterprise D would need that too.

Definitely the case that injection-moulded plastic models and miniatures have come up significantly in quality and down in cost in the past two decades as the technology has changed.

It would be important to know if these rereleases is an updated reissue or not. The proprietor of this shop seems to be in the k is on these points. It would be worth messaging him to ask if people are interested.

By the way, from the information he seems to have got at the con where the upcoming SNW Enterprise was promoted, it sounds like AMP is reworking the model design from its limited issue Discovery Enterprise to match the refit between Disco and SNW.

Thanks for the assessment. We haven’t ordered from him before.