I have started (another) rewatch of TAS recently.

This time, what’s struck me is how much the Kirk in TAS aligns with Paul Wesley’s performance.

Despite TAS being animated to look like Shatner’s Kirk and Shatner voicing the part, somehow there’s less swagger and a more intellectual Kirk in TAS.

It’s in the writing surely but perhaps the creators had a sense that they needed to shift the tone to sell the drama on an animated show — especially one that took advantage of the medium to show even more trippy aliens and phenomena.

I wasn’t looking for it but there it is.

The Animated Series that ran in the mid 70s although it was originally just called ‘Star Trek.’

It had the same cast as TOS. Roddenberry was the showrunner again (after leaving before season 3 of TOS) and DC Fontana was the Supervising Editor in charge of the scripts.

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Star_Trek:_The_Animated_Series

At 22 episodes total, and only 6 in TAS second season, it could go either way.

I am willing to concede so that those who don’t love TAS much as I do can get their proper closure to the 5 year mission.

And then there’s part of me that very much wants Vanguard to be the new, darker station-based serialized ensemble show to fill the DS9 niche we haven’t quite had in this era.

TAS is the 4th season of TOS - with some of the scripts adapted from the prep for a live-action TOS season 4 that never happened. (Yes, TAS IS canon!)

Now, we know that Arex and M’Ress are difficult to bring to live action, but who’s to say that their rotations on Enterprise aren’t done, and Chekov isn’t back, as year 5 begins?

Indiewire has a less positive review - “Brings the Fun — and Zombies — but Misses Chances to Go Deeper”

https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/shows/star-trek-strange-new-worlds-season-3-review-1235132207/

As I share this reviewer’s opinion on Tomorrow-cubed, I think I’m at the point of wanting to stop myself from reading more reviews now…

I’ve been wondering how much of the decision to wrap SNW with a short sixth season might have to do with Goldsman’s contract with Paramount coming to an end and his new one with another franchise and major studio.

SNW really was his project, regardless of Alonso Myers being the co-showrunner.

There’s a possibility that this is also about a change in leadership as the show transitions to a true TOS show, perhaps hopping to a time post-TAS but before the movies, and even shifting somewhat in tone.

All of this would make sense of casting an older actor as Jim Kirk.

Ryan Britt had a good review for Inverse, and an interesting take on the show overall.

It’s tempting to say that SNW succeeds because, of all the newer Trek shows, it’s the one that feels the most like fan fiction. Or perhaps, to put it another way, it’s Star Trek version of Marvel’s What If? In this case, the “What If?” scenario that is floated in nearly every episode is “What if the 60s Star Trek show were made today?”

Given how much of a OG fan Akiva Goldsman is, this seems a fair assessment - even if other, mostly younger fans, have different ideas about where the show should link up with the original.

https://www.inverse.com/entertainment/star-trek-strange-new-worlds-season-3-review

I was hoping that SNW would focus on Pike and his crew and less on the legacy characters.

But it seems Goldsman has had his ideas about it since the early 1970s and he’s fulfilling his fan dreams, as an EP and writer, of filling in the backstories of the characters he and we love. I can’t naysay that and it certainly sold the suits on 5 seasons of an excellent show.

We have to keep in mind that we’ve only seen 20 of 46 episodes, less than half the full run.

I believe that the new benchmark for selling a licence for reruns on other streamers and linear has dropped from over 70 episodes to a bit over 40 based on various industry reports. So this definitely puts SNW above that threshold.

This does raise the question though whether there is a plan to morph this into some kind of TOS continuation past year 5 and TAS.

So a half season + a one-hour series finale?

Having only 5 seasons seems the new normal since they haven’t been able to actually produce one season per calendar year and actors’ contracts run 7 years.

But having a short season seems weird, like some kind of negotiated compromise.

This is just going to feed the ‘Kurtzman is done when his contract expires …’ speculation.

Now I wish I had preordered Spock.

The one I want most is Number One but it would have been great to have the set.

Should we start a pool?

One of the things in the interview, that’s super interesting, is that the original script had a scene that would have made it absolutely unequivocal that Hemmer was killed.

And it was shot, with some significant Sfx challenges.

The interviewers asked Bruce if there were any scenes left in the cutting room floor and he responded that there was.

:::The actor was in harness for a falling scene in which he would have been fighting off young Gorn. He had been pleased to have the opportunity to have a heroic on-screen:::

But the scene was cut despite it being challenging production-wise, all the more so with a blind actor in prosthetics.

So, one has to wonder if the showrunners decided to keep the door open for Hemmer to return…

My reaction precisely.

But who knows, it may be wonderful.

And I’m always ready to champion more animated Trek.

I don’t think you needed [sic], just the comma that StarTrek.com omitted.

So, this is a big reveal - the scenario is a planet that has not been but now is a part of the Federation.

The viewpoint is civilian.

The resort workplace setting, like the old Loveboat or Fantasy Island, means that anyone can come by as the guest star.

The production values are sufficiently high that it makes me think it might actually be from an episode to come.

Did I miss the actual Protostar announcement?

There’s absolutely no incentive to log in to YouTube now that subscriptions and bells do nothing to control your feed. End stage enshittification.

There’s currently an Redexit of Canadians who are looking to get off US-controlled social media.

Lemmy.ca has had a huge spike in enrolment as it’s the one that was most prominently promoted in r/BuyCanadian. Apparently, it’s had over 9k signups in the past day.

Thanks for bringing this here VS.

Saw Tatosky’s thread on Mastodon. It really gives a much better sense of how ‘real’ the preproduction was under Fuller.

Lots of expenditure clearly but badly managed.

Tamara Deverell talked about having little to spend when she took over after the pilot because the initial sets were built on the designs Fuller signed off on.

No engineering but a bay to hand load missiles! Which she repurposed to Stamets’ spore lab.