Yet another Star Trek series is coming in 2017 on CBS All Access. Those last two words are the interesting part of that sentence. The premier will be on broadcast TV, the rest of the series will be on their streaming video service. My guess is that they figure that SciFi nerds are more likely to be cable cutters anyway.
The article really doesn’t say much about the show itself. That’s pretty much limited to “… 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.”
This will bring the number of Star Trek TV series to an even half dozen.
Star Trek
ST: The Next Generation
ST: DS9
ST: Voyager
ST: Enterprise
ST: To Be Announce
The original series was the best of the shows. TNG was good when it wasn’t being preachy. DS9 did it’s best work when it did what Babylon 5 did previous season. I called ST:V ST:Lost in Space, which it should have been. I liked Enterprise. Especially in the third season, when they told some excellent multi-show story arcs.
If I had to guess, I’d say this new series will have more influence from the last two movies (third in the works).
Scalzi takes a humorous, and also deadly serious look at one of the most famous themes of Television SciFi. Why Ensign Ricky doesn’t beam back up with the ship’s command crew. At the same time, he has fun with the topic of his earlier book, “Agent to the Stars”, the day to day work of Hollywood. As the author points out in the book, the theme is not new, but he does have an interesting take on it. One thing I did find interesting was that in list of “world as myth” examples, he left out “Number of the Beast.”
Let us set the Way Back Machine to 1982. Yup, 30 years ago, the best Star Trek movie ever was released. This one had the original TOS cast, with Leonard Nimoy directing, a fine looking Kirstie Alley as the Vulcan Lt. Saavik, and Ricardo Montalban as Khan. One of the reasons this movie was so cool was that they took it away from Roddenberry and put in more military style uniforms, and modeled the space battles after Age of Sail naval battles instead of cold war submarine battles. If you grew up on TNG, DS9, or Lord have mercy, Voyager, do yourself a favor and check The Wrath of Khan out.
He has a new album out, Seeking Major Tom is space themed collection featuring his return to his cool defining cover of the Elton John/Bernie Taupin hit Rocketman.
The people who helped lay down the tracks, complete with bumpers of actual space radio traffic & cuts from Shatner’s version of Major Tom, is amazing. Johnny Winter, Lyle Lovett, Steve Miller, Brad Paisley and Peter Frampton plus a bunch of others.
It really is a fun album, and Shatner’s unique vocal talents stand out on tracks like Mr. Spaceman, Space Cowboy, and She Blinded Me with Science.
