Star Trek News and Rumours

Freak

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I had a quick look around see if there was a general discussion on Star Trek.
The only think I could find was on the topic of the teaser trailer of STD when it was first announced and part way though Season 1, which died out shortly after. I am guess the general senses here is that STD is the worst Trek show to date, otherwise that thread would be still active.

Let keep the discussion friendly, just because you have a different opinion on something does not mean you start throwing mud around.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion, let respect that.

Anyway, I am starting this thread for a general discussion on all Trek News and Rumours.
To get the ball rolling, I got some news for you lucky lot living in the States.

The Deep Space Nice Documentary "What We Left Behind" is only available in Cinema Today 05/13/19.
As for the rest of living outside of the States, still no news on when we will be able to see it.
But what I heard from people that have already seen it, it very good and one of the best Trek Documentary's made so far.

Here is Trailer for the Documentry.


Here is a interview with Nana Visitor, Armin Shimerman, Andrew Robinson and Ira Steven Behr about the in Documentary.

Freak

So it goes from good news to bad.
Patrick Stewart has just announced that the up coming Picard Series will not be on Netflix but Amazon Prime.
Below is to the announcement on the official Star Trek Twitter account.

https://twitter.com/StarTrek/status/1127921503209525248

It has not been a secret that Netflix has not been happy with CBS and the direction they are taking Star Trek in.
Netflix paid CBS and unknown sum of money for all past Star Trek shows and the exclusive rights to show Star Trek Discovery and future shows internationally, this pretty much paid for season 1 of STD and weather the show did well or not CBS would not lose out.
However due the fan reception of STD and what was produced, Netflix was not happy as they wanted Star Trek and got something far from it. Shortly after Season 1 had finished airing Netflix slammed on the breaks and informed CBS that they will not be paying anything more toward STD and demanded the show be brought back inline with the rest of the Trek shows. This meant CBS now had to foot the budget of season 2 on their own.
Given what we got for season 2, needless to say the fan base and Netflix where extremely unhappy as CBS attempt to fix the show just made it worse.

Netflix and other dirtabutor along with CBS Mechanise Partners where brought in to CBS to look at what was planned for the Picard Series. (Story outlines, look of the show, costumes etc) None of them where happy what where planned and outright refused to pick up the licences to show and make products for it. Unless the show goes back to looking and being more inline with TNG, DS9 and Voyager and not a continuation of the look of STD and the JJ films.
With only a few months before production was to begin. CBS told Alex Kurtzman to make the changes, it was leaked he was not happy with being forces to change everything. Alot of the new changer where rejected again and Kurtzman was told to go back and redo everything. With all this going on the Picard Series missed it start date and any leaked news/rumours dried up until this announcement.

So with this announcement what does it mean? Well it looks like Netflix is still unhappy with the Picard Series and had pulled out, this is also most likely the case with Mechanise Partners.
Given the timeframe CBS gave Kurtzman to make these major changes that was demanded, it unlikely the majority of them could be made as they had already gone past their film production start date and thefore would be losing money with having to pay for the sound stage, production staff, actors etc sitting around and not doing anything.

Now I don't know about you guys, I don't have Amazon Prime as I don't use the site often enough to warrant it and when I did use the free trail I found their steaming service a joke, with having to pay extra for some content.
about 99% of the people I know don't have Amazon Prime and not all of them are into Star Trek. However all of them do have Netflix. Needless to say, I would not surprise if this the case for most people and I am unwilling to pay for it just to watch this show. As Alex Kurtzman said, I'll go round to a friends house to watch it if it any good. Which I don't has it Kurtzman.

Viper

Jesus, what a shitshow. I have Prime as well, so I'm not bothered, but still. Good on Netflix for keeping their ground though.

Freak

Yeah it sure is, their is a lot of back ground stuff I have been hearing about that not been reported on.
This is all to do with the licences and Bad Robot.

Viper

I keep hearing conflicting stories on that. From what I understand there shouldn't be any license issues at all. CBS owns everything. The problem is that the folks at Bad Robot like the JJ style, while others folks from CBS don't. So you get a clash of ideas going.

This does spell disaster for the Picard show though. I had heard about the design problems before, but didn't know about Netflix's involvement on that.

Freak

CBS does own all except for the rights to realise movies. That is owned by paramount. Problem come from the deal made with Paramount/Bad Robot. When CBS made that deal part of it was that CBS could not make a TV show for ten year, as a non-compete from when they realise their film (Star Trek 09).
CBS started work on Discovery before the ten years was up, which is fine. However CBS wanted to realise it before the ten years was up, because it was to be the lurnch show of CBSAA. So not to breach the contract, Fuller was let go and Kurtzman an employee of Bad Robot was brought to over see the show.
This is when the show went from being in line with Cannon to being more in line with the J.J films.

Freak

It is already well known that the as of yet untitled Star Trek Picard would be a CBS All Access exclusive in the US. Many assumed that international distribution would be handled by Netflix, seeing as they have the international distribution rights for Star Trek Discovery - but on May 13th, Patrick Stewart himself announced it would be broadcast on Amazon Prime in international markets.

The Video below explains what could have transpired behind the scenes to cause such a breakdown in relations that the international rights for Picard ended up with someone OTHER THAN Netflix.



The Video below also tires to explain the mess that is the Star Trek Rights and who can do what.

Viper

Yeah, I don't trust any of what that channel has. He just says a lot of random stuff and it's never in line with other reports and also almost never correct. Fuller was let go because he didn't want to follow Star Trek canon and just wanted to do his own thing. Kurtzman has a lot of flaws, but he did just spend a whole season trying to correct a lot of the bullshit Fuller created. The square nacelles were all Fuller for instance.

I also never heard about that contract thing with Paramount and CBS not being able to release a show. The actual contract is that Paramount has to develop a new movie or they lose the rights.

Freak

I would not post it, if it was just coming from once source. I am hearing the information from a few, some who are know to work in the industry. Midnight Edge try to confirm what they report from more that one Source, weather that is someone leaking information or official realised information.


I agree Fuller was no angel, after all he was behind the change to the look of the Klingons and the square nacelles. Which from what I heard was only meant for Discovery not all the rest of the Starfleet ships.

Robert Mayer Burrnett has said that he has seen Fuller outline for the show and it nothing like what we got. As he is the only one claiming this I take it with a little bit of salt, and wait until it has been backed up.
With that said Robert Mayer Burrnett says that the Spore Drive was not engine but a terraforming device. The Targrade was not a plot device, but a member of the crew more in line to Chewie from War for the Chief Engineer.
He has also mention that each season was to be set in a different time frame, this I did hear back when that god awful teaser trailer for the show dropped.

From what I understand when Viacom Paramount brock up, all the Star Trek rights and other TV shows went to CBS.(If you now watch an old paramount show from the 90's at the end you will not see the Paramount logo as this has been replaced with CBS logo.) However with Trek, Paramount got to keep the rights to all past movies and sole distribution of any future films. This meant they could make films and use the name Star Trek. But they could not use anything from the TV shows without CBS agreeing.
So Paramount wanted to make a film and brought in JJ Abrams and Bad Robot who was the golden boy of Hollywood at that time. It was them that came up with the current issue with Trek, after all they are a business and in it to make money.

As for Kurtzman yeah he tired to correct the mistake of season 1 but by doing so made a bigger mess of it.
There is no doubt that Kurtzman can make a studio money in the short term. But in the long he F's up any franchise he touches. He was the writer behind the first three live action Transformer films. (The first being okay but the rest are a hot mess.) He was put in charge of Sony's Amazing Spider-Man Universe, which died short after the second film came out. Sony have started again with Venom and without Kurtzman.
He was put in charge of Universal's Dark Universe franchise, which was killed off before it could really get started and he was brought back to Trek. This is not the man you want to run a beloved franchise.

Freak

Some news on the DS9 Doc "What We Left Behind", it coming to DVD/Bluray and streaming in August. As to which streaming service, it has not yet been announced.

Freak

CBS had it annual “upfront” presentation for advertisers yesterday and they have finally revealed the title to Sir Patrick Stewarts New trek show.

It will be know as Star Trek: Picard

https://twitter.com/StarTrek/status/1128774612735614976

Really, that the name you came up with? This was the best possible title for the show you could come up with.
Any hope I have for this show is slowly disappearing. That not to say I won't give it a chance, but at this point I am not expecting a lot.

In other news, CBS also confirmed that in Canada, Picard will be airing on Space.
I find it interesting that for the States and the rest of the world we have to pay for a subscription service, but in Canada they don't. Yes I know Space is a cable channel, but most people already having this and I would not be surprised that it thrown in with their Broadband connection or the other way around.

Freak

Found a leaked picture from the shoot of the Star Trek: Picard. It also gives us a look at what the Uniforms of this timeframe will look like.




The Uniform looks just like the early DS9 Jumpsuit with some very minor changes made to it. (A larger collar)
There dose not appear to much other details with the uniform though looking at the Vulcan? in the blue uniform, the ranking pips are now above the com badge.


Some have pointed out that it not the DS9 uniform but the one that was seen in Alex Kurztman Countdown Comic that tired into JJ 09 film.




Personal, I don't see it as has been taken to far away to see the uniform properly.

Viper

Yeah, this is turning out to be a bummer so far. And the uniforms don't really look like the Sierra uniform. In fact, they look pretty underwhelming. I didn't know Kurtzman wrote that comic though. Means Data returning is possibly canon then.

Freak

I had to look up Sierra uniform. I have not played ST: Online except for the intro.
I would not put that comic as cannon. I don't even count STD as cannon as the show is so bad and the retconning in it a joke and insult to everything that has come before.

For me Cannon is TOS, some episodes that are linked to live action shows from TAS (Gene Roddenberry did state that was not cannon.) TNG, DS9, VOY, ENT and all movies up to Nemesis. so Romulus is still in one peace post Nemesis.

STD is the timeline that Romulus was destroyed and that Spock went back and create the Kelvin Timeline.

Freak

Here is a better look at the uniform from the upper chest up.



I have to say I am not impressed and it looks cheap.

Viper

Yeah, that sucks

Viper

Seems not all is well with the Amazon deal:

Freak

Yeah I saw that this morning when I got up.
Was not going to mentioned the Amazon thing until I had seen it pop up in a few other places.

This Rumour is never going to be confirmed from a main steam news site, unless Amazon says something.
Gary is right about Netflix and CBS not being on good terms. Why would they pass on Picard if thing are okay behind the scene? They won't unless they know Picard is going to be just as bad as STD.

CBS should just bite the bullet pull the Kurtzman and Bad Robot deal. Talk to Rick Berman and few others like Ira Steven Behr and go from there. With someone that knows and care about Trek and it legacy, anything new, will be better received than anything Kurtzman and co will put out.

Viper

Not sure if getting Rick Berman back is wise. I would be onboard with getting Ron Moore in though. Let him write a real Trek show. Not sure if he would be interested as he has Apple money coming in now.

Freak

Yeah Berman stumbled towards the end. But he did know how to make a TV show, he did do 18 years of constant Trek all of witch were well with in Budget. The guy was a genius when it came to producing.
Just think what sort of Trek he could have done on the production side with the money spent on STD.
He also did write or come up with the story for some great Trek episodes, but he also came up with some real stinkers. (At least now he willing to admit it.)

If I was CBS, I would have Berman run the Production side of things. If that was not possiable someone that can produce very good shows when working on a small budget. That way when they got the sort of money that was spent on STD, they would not waste it and put it to good use.
For show runners I try and get Moore, Cotto or Behr. We all know that Moore and Behr are good writers and showrunners, So is Cotto who was really turning Enterprise around when it was cancelled.
I would even try and get Michael and Denise Okuda back not just to do the graphics but also to make sure that cannon is mainly stuck to. If that is not possiable have them as consultants.

With the right core people that love a respect Trek, you'll will get a TV show that is loved by the fans and willing to spend their money on it. Or CBS can carry on having the wrong people that don't give a crap about trek and see it only as a way to make money and killing the franchise. The fans don't want anything to do with this and therefore don't spend their money on it.

Freak

So a Teaser for Picard Dropped Yesterday. CBS has it region locked to North America, but thankful youtube come to the aid of those living outside the North America.

**Edit** Video has been removed form this post due to it being pulled form Youtube.**Edit**

This Teaser dose nothing for me. The shots look good, but it does not grab me, which is the freaking point of trailers.
Also if you remove the Voiceover and labels from the wine bottles, this could be any futuristic sci-fi film.
Talking about the voice over. It's looking the biggest rescue in the history of Alpha and Beta Quadrant is the destruction of Romulus.

Any hope I had for this show is dying out. If Picard does turn out to be good I will be pleasantly surprised, but give who running things that not likely.

Viper

The choice of having the voice over not be from Stewart also confused me. It's not like they are revealing something everyone doesn't know.

Freak

Not News but I thought this was an interesting watch.
RMB talks about how the Picard series is not part of the Cannon timeline and is part of the JJ Prime timeline. (This is where STD sits.) He also explains why this is the case and himself running into the licencing issues between Cannon Trek and JJ Trek, when working on the TNG Remastered Blu-ray boxset.

Freak

Look like Brent Spiner is heading back to Trek. He will be guest staring in an episode and possibly more.
At this time it is unknown if he is going to playing B4, with Data Memorise or another character.

https://www.startrektnz.com/news/593-brent-spiner-to-guest-star-in-star-trek-picard

With Spiner coming back in front of the camera, and Frakes directing a few episodes. Could we see more of TNG cast or possibly someone form DS9/ VOY or one of the many recurring guest stars like John de Lancie?

Freak

I was thinking that the news and rumour on Picard had been quite since the Brent Spiner news.
Then this morning I woke to two peace's of rumours.

First up is that filming on the first four episode are compete and where shown to a test audience.
It would make sense for the first four episode to be finished in front of the camera if you look at the filming schedule for all trek series made under Berman being 7 to 8 days filming per episode. However that does not take into account the time to edit and for V/FX to be added. As Picard only started filming last month it likely that these episode that where shown where rushed together with editing and have very basic V/FX if any at all.

The source of the rumour has stated that roughly 80% of the test audience hated what they where shown and the 20% that did like it, where fans of the JJ movies. Also the licenses partners that have so far rejected signing onto Picard also hated what they saw and are still refusing to sign on.

The Second rumour is that due reaction of the test screening Alex Kurtzman, has been banned from the sets of Picard and is likely on his way out. If this is true it is unlikely CBS will fire him as they are only a year into his five year deal to head Star Trek. What it more likely to happen is that CBS will promote him into a position where he has nothing to do with Trek, except hold a title in the credits.

What did CBS expect to happen with the Picard series when they got the same team that made STD which is hated by 95% of the fan base working on this show.

I have also heard another rumour regarding the lawsuit against CBS and Netflix with the copyright infringement.
This has not come form my normal sources so I would take this with a large bag of sault. But rumour has it that Netflix's are in talks with Anas Abdin lawyer and could switch sides. Reason for this is that Netflix put the money up for season 1 of STD and had no creative control over what was made, so are innocent of any copyright infringement. As the product they got was not what they expecting and they are pissed with CBS, they could side with Anas Abdin which will not be good for CBS if this happens and news outlet start to report on the case, which will likely happen if they do.

Freak

So this weekend a rumour started to fly about that Alex Kurtzman has been bought out of his five year deal, which basically means he has been fired. I did not want to mention it at the time as I had only heard it from once source and that was on youtube. (Anything reported on youtube you take with a large grain of sault. Though the person that reported it is normally about 95% right on Trek Rumours) Anyway since I heard that rumour I have heard it form other sources and they have all said the same thing.
Again it just rumours and I was waiting for CBS to make the announcement weather that would be Kurtzman has been moved up in the company or out right fired. As something this big will not stay quite for long.

Anyway yesterday it has been reported that JJ Abram's company is in the finalisation of a Megadeal with Warner Brothers, estimated to be worth $500 Million dollars. It seem a little coincidence that the rumour of Kurtzman being fired form CBS starts to fly about and a few days later this news is announced.

So what does this mean for Star Trek?
While the good news if true is Kurtzman is gone, the bad news is that his team and company Secret Hideout are still there. Which mean that the Picard series is still being made under the same licence as STD.
If the story of the reaction to the test screening I reported on last week is true and CBS orders reshoots, it is not likely there will be a great improvement as this happened on season 2 of STD and it did not help. CBS would be better of getting in new writers and a producer that does not have to be a fan, but at least someone that will respect what has come before. IE someone like Harve Bennett and start again.

As for Bad Robot, rumour has it is that they have given up on Star Trek and are now letting the deal with their licence of Trek come to an end. Something which is believe to happen this year. (In order to keep it Bad Robot would have to have a film in production before the licence reverts back to CBS. Something that is not currently happening.)
This is good news as it means that once the licence has come to an end, CBS will then be able to start making Trek that the fan actually want. It is also possible that by the time this happens CBS and Paramount have remerged bring everything back under one roof.

As for STD I have learned that even though it has been green lighted for a season 3. The writers room have not come together to hash out a story for the season let alone start writing any of the scripts. Given the time of year, filming should have started if CBS wanted to get it out by the end of the year or begging of the next.
I have heard the reason no work has started on this yet is that CBS has not given it a budget for the 3rd season which has left it in limbo.
It is most likely stay that way until the Picard series comes out and quietly cancelled.

Viper

I've seen most of those news as well. The key here is that Secret Hideout needs to go as well as they are operating under a different license. Once they go, then some proper Prime Star Trek can be made.

As for Picard, it's a shame. I didn't think they would botch it this badly. Also weird that Stewart would go along with it. But, it is what it is I guess.

Freak

Stewart has made bad creative choses in the past. He was the one that pushed of Dune Buggies in Nemesis and also had a creative hand in the story of X-Men: The Last Stand. He is also involved with the story for Picard.

As for Secret Hideout, it has been rumoured to be a subsidiary of Bad Robot and the Trek Licence they are working from is off the one Bad Robot/ Paramount has with CBS.
It is also rumoured that they get all their funding from Bad Robot and not CBS. (Bad Robot paid for the re-shoots of season 2 of STD as CBS and Netflix refused to give any cash for it.)
If this deal with Bad Robot and Warner Brothers goes though, it would mean that the movie deal with Paramount has come to an end. (It has been reported by the Hollywood Reporter that Bad Robot has stated to move out of it offices at the Paramount Lot.) This would also include their deal for Star Trek, which is rumoured to be coming to an end this year.

So if the link between Bad Robot and Secret Hideout is true and the licence is coming to an end for Bad Robot, it would also come to and end for Secret Hideout which would mean they will be gone as well unless CBS renews it which is unlikely see as they are not happy.

At this point, to save the Picard Series. CBS with the backing of Amazon Prime and Space in Canada, would need to put the brakes on the Picard Series. Let the licence with Bad Robot/ secret hideout come to an end and then they can do what they like and have it set in the Cannon Universe. Like I said in my last post, while CBS is waiting for that to happen they can bring in someone to oversee Trek. It does not need to be a Fan but someone like Harve Bennett, that will respect what has come before and take Trek into a new direction while still staying true to Cannon.
They can also bring in new writers that also have a Sci-fi back ground or can write a decent story and also bring in a scientific advisor so at least the science is right and start again.
Then they can rework the Picard Series and aim for a mid to late 2020 realise date. (This would most likely mean getting rid of all the plot premise that Secret Hideout came up with. But then as CBS holds all the rights I can't see an issue unless they have done something stupid when they created the contract.)

The final problem is with Sir Patrick Stewart and his contract is it with Secret Hideout or CBS?
If it with CBS not a major issue, but if it with secret hideout then CBS would have to rework it. But for Stewart point of view it not a major big deal as he is in a pay or play contract and therefore get paid either way.
If Stewart refuses to wait or go in a new direction leaves, then CBS is free to go and do something else with Trek.

Freak

News dropped on Trekmovie.com that the first of the Trek Shorts has started filming.
This will star Ethan Peck And Rebecca Romijn as Spock and Number 1 repeatedly. The short is also titled Chaos Theory.
However no Anson Mount to reprise Pike.

You can read the story here.

https://trekmovie.com/2019/06/23/star-trek-short-treks-with-ethan-peck-and-rebecca-romjin-coming/

Freak

Okay if there was any doubt that Kurtzman is on his way out, even after the interview with him on his "five year plan" (which has no new information in it as it was all stuff we have heard before.) was realised after the rumour of him being fired came out.

Yesterday it was announced that Michael Chabon will be the showrunner for the Picard Series.
Now I know some of you are going to say, that does not mean Kurtzman is out. But think about it, when Picard was announced CBS never stated who the showrunner would be and that Kurtzman was overseeing everything. This implied that he was the showrunner.
It is very unusual for a studio to announce the showrunner of a new show when they are halfway though filming it and it not even airing yet. If you look at other TV shows where this has happened it has been due to problems with the show and the studio has decide the original showrunner is not up to the task, and they bring in someone to replace them. In most cases everything done up to that point which it normal the pilot or the first two episodes, would be scrapped and redone with the air date pushed back to make the corrections need, or the season episode order will be cut to make sure that the budget does not go over due to reshoots.

Michael Chabon is best know on Trek for writing the Short Trek Episode “Calypso.” This was the best of the Short Trek episodes, problem with it, with the exception of a Shooting Star in deep space was that it really was not a Star Trek story. If you removed the setting of Discovery, this story could have taken place anywhere even in Star Wars.
It was just a generic Sci-fi story with no links except for the ship to Trek.

You can read the announcement here.

Freak

What I want to know is who are they trying to market this too? Old fan, trying to bring in new fans?
I don't have a freaking clue.

Let break down this poster.



Lets start off with the Title, Star Trek: Picard, It tell me nothing except the show is based around Picard.
What up with them constantly using the font from TOS on everything now since Star Trek 09. Even STD uses it.
Yet with TNG, DS9, VOY, ENT and the movies all had their own font to stand out from each other. So using the same font as TOS just make it confusing. (I know why they are doing it, they want everything to do with Trek have the same font like Wars. But Trek has already established different front for different shows and it in the mind of Pop Culture, not something that can be easily changed.)

What is with the warm colours, makes the vineyard look to be in a hot and dry climate near to the equator than in France.

Why is this picture in a Vineyard. If your not a star Trek fan it mean nothing to you and tell you nothing about the show. Also again why use the Vineyard, it was only seen twice, the first time was straight after the Battle of Sol and Picard needed to recovery from being Loctus. It was his lowest point in his life and was even thing of leaving Starfleet. He only went there to be with his family.
The next time we see the Vineyard was again at a low point in Picard life and in an Alt future created by Q where he has space alzimers. I guess as Beverly had left him, he went back to be with his Brother and family to help look after him. Again that was an Alt timeline as we know in Generations that his Brother and Nephew died in a fire, so their is now no reason for him to go back to the Picard family home. We also know form Generations onward Picard biggest regret is not starting a family and we see in the following movies this storyline continue where he is thinking about settling down and starting one but stay with Starfleet.

So If Picard has left Starfleet in this show, that would be one of his main goals to do and not go back to the family home. Also his second love after Starfleet is archaeology. He would start doing that instead of going home to make wine.

Why does he have a dog, Picard never been a pet lover except for his fish. Also if he has lost faith in Starfleet like they keep telling us. Why would he put the Starfleet Delta on it collar? Because he called it Number 1? (Trek Core has a close up picture showing this.) Also just to make the show dark and edgy you know they are going to John Wick the Dog.

Finally why is there a freaking Planet in the Sky? Last time I looked out the window there was not one and no one has found a Rouge Planet heading toward our system. (Something that would have been discovered long ago in Trek if there was one.)

As a non Trek fan this poster is just confusing and as a Star Trek fan it just sending all the wrong messages.

check out Robert Meyer Burnett Video on it, he makes a good point.