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Community => Comics and Other Media => Topic started by: Magus Prime on November 02, 2015, 05:32:53 PM

Title: Bout Dang Time!
Post by: Magus Prime on November 02, 2015, 05:32:53 PM
https://www.yahoo.com/tv/s/star-trek-series-coming-cbs-2017-160529449.html (https://www.yahoo.com/tv/s/star-trek-series-coming-cbs-2017-160529449.html)

Engage!
Title: Re: Bout Dang Time!
Post by: chuckv3 on November 02, 2015, 07:40:12 PM
That write-up is strangely vague. Is the series going to be called "Star Trek" or something else? unanswered.

Will it be on a regular TV channel, or only CBS's streaming service? (Seems like the latter, which might be awful).

It might also be nice to know what time period its supposed to be in (like before or after Archer / Kirk / Piccard).

The "Star Trek: Enterprise" show did a really great job of wrapping up loose ends, even going so far as to explain why the Klingons from the original series didn't look like the Klingons in "the Next Generation" and thereafter. Very creative for them to tackle such a thing. The "reboot" movies have Klingons looking completely different (not like Arabs as they did in the 60s). It makes me wonder if that was intentional, and tied into the logic from Enterprise, or if it's just artistic license. Not only that, but if the whole reboot is in an alternative timeline, where are those 29th-century guys who keep the timelines corrected? Are they all on a lunch break?
Title: Re: Bout Dang Time!
Post by: Atlantea on November 03, 2015, 04:30:12 PM
In regards to Klingons looking like Arabs in the original series. I don't think that was the intent at all.

Remember - this was pretty much at the height of the Cold War. And Communism to the West often was largely represented by Russians and Chinese. It was a short leap to make the reference to Mongols and Attila the Hun. If you look at some representations and images of peoples who populate Mongolia and other areas nearby, I think you'll see where some of the original look of the Klingons originated or was inspired by. But Roddenberry and the other creators were savvy enough to mix in other elements and make the Klingons more generic, I think.

It could also have been one of the last remaining vestiges in genre fiction of a racist trope later known as "the Yellow Peril". If you look at pulp serials from the early days, the trope saw expression in such characters as Ming the Merciless and Fu Manchu.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/YellowPeril (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/YellowPeril)

Thank goodness that Gene Roddenberry was consciously trying NOT to fall into those old tropes - I think I read somewhere that not only did he have to fight the TV execs to keep Uhuru as a character, but Sulu as well! If the original Klingons were "Space Mongols" that may have been one of the reasons why they were redefined later - because it was recognized that that had been a mistake.

Mind you - I'm making some informed conjectures here. I'm not 100% certain nor am I claiming to be. I'm offering my perspective based on experience and some casual historic research. Although I'm not old enough to have seen Star Trek when first broadcast - I did start watching it in the early 70s as a child when it was in syndication. So I more or less spent my earliest years growing up during that time. Enough to remember the perspectives of that era. For reference to the topic of "the Yellow Peril" trope, I can say that I read some early - EARLY - science fiction (I recall the original Buck Rogers novel was pretty blatant about it) and was curious enough about the topic later in life to look into it.

EDIT: I seem to be largely in agreement with Memory Alpha on the topic:   http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Depicting_Klingons (http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Depicting_Klingons)
Title: Re: Bout Dang Time!
Post by: doc7924 on November 04, 2015, 12:36:33 AM
I hope they do something like DS9.

But at least it should be in the future of TNG and Voyager.

I loved Enterprise and was sad it didn't take off until the 3rd series and by then it was too late and got cancelled the next year.

But it had its hands tied being a prequel show and had to keep in line with what we know about in the Trek universe in it's future.

Would be cool if they did a NG which takes place in the future of the rebooted Trek universe in the new films.
Since that Enterprise has updated tech compared to the original 60's show, how much updated would a NG be compared to the original NG?