What's Ahead for 2018

Slightly later than planned, we're back with our annual reflection on last year's predictions while also launching ourselves into the maw of 2018 not too far afield from the Constellation and the Doomsday Machine.

So to last year and those lovely guesses (seriously they were stabs in the wind if ever I saw some). 

First up we looked at The Next Generation hitting its 30th birthday. Due to time restrictions - that and adding to the family - the end of last year was a bit hit and miss for SKoST which meant I didn't get to cover The Next Generation's 30th anniversary in anywhere near the depth I would have liked. To be fair though it was overshadowed by the fact that some show called Discovery premiered the same week and pretty much eclipsed it. 

Deep Space Nine's What We Left Behind lost it's director in Adam Nimoy and filmed ahead of its planned 2018 release and there were lots of fundraising announcements throughout the year. Hope the results are out soon because this is one no fan will want to miss.

We also predicted a good year for Eaglemoss but didn't expect it to explode the way it did with the Starships Collection now set to hit a whopping 160 issues plus at least eight bonus issues, nine specials, four XL hero ships (so far), three shuttle sets, three Mirror Universe craft...and what else is to come? A big year however the regular issues did flag with a lot of filler and one-ep vessels appearing. A wide and varied collection which was accompanied by the ongoing graphic novel collection and the announcement of the Discovery Official Starships Collection to start early 2018.

Let's leave last year and our rather flexible predictions of what to watch behind. 2018 has now arrived and before we get into February, here's my top tips for the year ahead...maybe more successful a list this time huh?!

1. Discovery

The show that split fan opinion has returned after its Christmas break for ‘Chapter Two’ and the second half of its first season. It's been a whirlwind of epic proportions every week and as I write there are just two more episodes until the full season finale. Were the delays worth it? Yes, because it’s all been about the quality and it shows on the screen each week. The show wraps in six episodes and the next season is due in 2019 but don't despair because Simon and Schuster will be publishing at least two new Discovery novels this year. My question is when will we start seeing some crew figures available a la Diamond Select? Where's the merch? When will we get season two?!!!

2. Tarantino Trek

R-rated? The darkest, most graphic Star Trek film ever? I’m not passing judgement yet however it would indicate that the news of Chris Hemsworth’s return as George Kirk might be done and dusted if this is the case. News is that this is flying at the moment with Paramount genuinely interested in seeing what possibilities they can make work to the point where there are actual screenwriters attached to the project. It's a bizarre and attention garnering news story and I don't know if it's a good or bad thing at this time even if Quentin is a huge fan of the franchise. Well worth keeping an eye on throughout the year as we might receive a new movie in 2019 all going well. Might not be able to take the kids to see it mind.

Alongside this we can also note the rumours of a re-merger of CBS and Paramount which would bring all the Star Trek elements of TV and film back under one owner and make the universe a lot easier to manage.

3. DSTE UK/Germany

Thirty years of Deep Space Nine, the return of Star Trek to the TV and at least three of it's cast and guest cast appearing, Shatner back in the UK, a whole weekend of Trek indulgence...what more could a fan want? The last event was great fun and while I couldn't manage the whole weekend last time I'm definitely up for it this year. Not just that but there will be guests from Discovery and who would want to miss celebrating the 25th anniversary of Deep Space Nine in the presence of some of its legendary cast?. Set your clocks for October because this looks set to be the biggest Destination events ever in both locations. 

4. Rebirth of the fan film?

Now that the dust has almost settled after the Axanar fiasco, 2018 might be the year in which fan films make their reappearance on the block. Gone are the heavyweights of New Voyages and Continues, cut short by the rather restrictive fan film guidelines leaving the way open for more one-offs, short fan movies and daring new ways of storytelling. There are some notables out there including Pacific 201 but none have broken cover as yet. 2018 might give us some new stars to celebrate.

5. New Collection from Eaglemoss?

Perhaps a long shot since 2018 will see them running the Starships Collection, Graphic Novel Collection and the new Discovery Official Starships Collection all at the same time. Given the varied quality and reliability of deliveries and/or customer service, three might be tipping point but surveys sent out would indicate that Eaglemoss are looking to add to what must have been a successful and monitarily beneficial licence acquisition. Crew busts anyone? Part-work USS Enterprise-D perhaps? Just a couple banded around in 2017 but no more word as yet. Might be worth steadying the ship for this year and embarking on something new in 2019.

6. DS9 @ 25

As a big Deep Space Nine fan this is a huge anniversary for the third and most maligned of the Star Trek series. It will be overshadowed by the closure of Discovery's first season however it's a monumental occasion that should be celebrated and I would argue it should be recognised for its individuality and ground-breaking storytelling more than The Next Generation. I would like to see this series really represented and celebrated at Destination Star Trek this year.

7. New stories in print

The Star Trek novels calendar is looking a bit thin for 2018 with less than a handful scheduled in. News has it that there's been a renegotiation which has brought the Kelvin Timeline into the fold. Could this mean seeing those long-lost Kelvin Timeline novels from 2010 finally published or are we due a whole new raft of titles? It would make sense for the four written to be run out and test the waters from there. Plus we will be seeing the second and third novels from the Discovery line which will continue to act as unofficial prequels to the TV series.

What do you think will be the big Star Trek stories of the year?

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Forming the Team: Discovery Edges Closer

Three names are now confirmed for the return of Star Trek in 2017.

Already we had Michelle Yeoh "accidentally" linked to the project in an apparent slip by Nicholas Meyer and today her character is confirmed as Captain Georgiou of the USS Shenzhou not Han Bo as had been flung around. 

Adding to the list of crew we now have Doug Jones as Lieutenant Saru, a science officer and member of a brand new alien race to be introduced in Discovery. Secondly there's Anthony Rapp as astromycologist and science officer Lieutenant Stamets who is reported to be the series' gay character. 

From what we are hearing there are going to be a lot of cast announcements in the next few days including that lead role which is still such a huge secret. I would surmise this news has come off the back of Meyer's slip which might of course have been on purpose so that news would be outed.

As for the new announcements what do we know about our latest cast members? Well Doug Jones is no stranger to the weird and wonderful having starred in Hellboy and the series Falling Skies plus the Silver Surfer in the second Fantastic Four movie and all the imps in Doom. Overall he has over 150 acting credits with a fair chunk still in post or pre-production. This should be a piece of cake in comparison and it seems perfect casting for Jones if this is going to be a particularly odd alien addition. 

I'm not too familiar with Rapp and checking out his back catalogue only Road Trip, A Beautiful Mind and Twister are films I recognise or have seen. That said it is a huge CV of media involvement so I don't think it's a bad move. Certainly with all three castings CBS have aimed for individuals with a lot of experience and from a wide range of genres. Fingers crossed that the inclusion of a gay character doesn't bring about all the issues that the news that Sulu was gay in Beyond opened up. I feel sure that the producers and writers here will deal with that matter respectfully and as part of the show rather than a "selling point" if you will. It should be naturally included and welcomed not turned into some form of media spectacle.

With these three coming all together and with some background of their characters being provided too it does appear that we are very close to filming beginning. I'm frankly quite amazed that in such a media centric world that the powers behind Discovery have only been let down by the mouth of one of their writers and that more hasn't been leaked out online.

Presently we have no real idea of just how big the cast of the show will be since there are intimations that Yeoh's Captain Georgiou might only be there for the first season and who knows how much of that she will manage to stay alive for. Note too that both Rapp and Jones are playing science officers which might indicate one is on Discovery and the other under Yeoh's command on the Shenzhou.

The idea of a new alien race is a big draw since the only hint of alien life in Discovery so far was a makeup test for what seemed to be Andorian antennae so that secret too is yet to be revealed.

Of course it's way too early to tell if all those fancy credentials and experience actually make them good as part of one of the biggest TV franchises of all time but lets give them a chance before we go all out against them huh? I like the prospect of Discovery not being so fresh-faced and having that edge of maturity. Indeed, all three are born in the 60's and 70's. Sure there will be younger characters and actors involved but with these three announced it feels that the show will have some strong onscreen foundations with which to build its initial 13 episode season.

Good luck to the new additions to the Star Trek family and here's to your work in 2017!

Who would you like to see in that key role that's yet to be announced? What are your thoughts on these latest announcements?

Images from CBS publicity on Twitter

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Schedule Fuller Than Expected

Dammit - it now seems that due to an outrageous workload, apparent saviour of Star Trek on TV, Bryan Fuller is handing over the main reins of the show to another.

News has emerged that Fuller is finding it difficult to manage the show and continue with other commitments leading Gretchen J Berg and Aaron Harberts stepping up to the plate.  

After the delay from January to May 2017 this is yet another grumble for fans to contend with. What started out as an amazing possibility and one that offered new hope for the franchise on the small screen one thing seems to lead to another. 

Fuller appeared to be the light at the end of the tunnel - someone who understood the franchise more than Alex Kurtzman and Heather Kadin and could steer the show in a positive direction that would honour the Roddenberry vision yet be something new and exciting. As of now that seems to be over.

Fuller will continue to exec produce and guide the story of the show but day to day will be in the hands of Berg, Harberts and Alex Kurtzman.

So who are these guys?

Both Berg and Harberts have history with our main man Mr Fuller, working with him on Wonderfalls and Pushing Daisies and working alongside each other on virtually everything from that time onwards - Mercy, Off the Map, GCB, Revenge and Reign. Clearly it's a strong pairing that's worked although my concern with this is that none of their works have been particularly long-lived. In Harberts case his longest producing role was 22 episodes for Mercy (although he did produce/co-produce Roswell High for longer - 39 - but not in a single role). Is this a wise move? Not sure because these guys don't seem to stick around too long in one place so we could have a new showrunner by the end of the first year/Fuller back depending on how they handle the vision. Might there be an option for Nick Meyer to have a stronger lean on the show for its second season IF it gets green lit?

So now we sit six months from premiere date (or one and a bit if we were still looking at a January start) with a few seconds of footage and a picture of some antennae to show since the announcement in November 2015. Supposedly a few rumours have suggested casting announcements will be forthcoming but with the continual changes going on I'm not holding out any hope - all we seem to be getting is negative and there needs to be some positivity!

The way that other sites are reporting this is that Fuller has utterly abandoned the project which is 100% untrue. He's written the first two episodes and remains in control of the bigger picture rather than dealing with the day to day minutiae. Rather than reporting this is surely just the first stage to it being cancelled (yes, seriously there are some sites pushing that), more that it's an evolution process for the show. What guarantee was there that Fuller would have remained for the duration anyway? Was he actually pulled in just to get the show back on the right track? 

Reports from io9 indicate that as well as our lead non-captain role there will be a male gay character, two admirals and a Klingon captain at the forefront of Discovery. If true then this does cement the possibility that we are going to see the Klingon War and by assumption the Battle of Axanar. Fuller has teased that the show will be very different to any previous Star Trek series and by having this Klingon role plus the two admirals you get the impression that Discovery is going to be set across several locations rather than the familiar single Starfleet vessel we have known since The Original Series. Heck, we might even spend a decent amount of time on an old Klingon ship.

While I remain enthusiastically optimistic I can also see where the doubt could be creeping in - the delays, no casting news, multiple production head changes -is it becoming a case of too many cooks or should it be more a case that there is a lot of creativity being mined to make this the best Star Trek show ever made?

Honestly I don't think we have anything to worry about since Bryan Fuller's imprint on the show has already been made and his overseeing gaze will keep the show pointed in the right direction. These are not new names in the mix and have been working with Fuller since Day One so let's give them a chance to make their mark. 

Concerned? Happy? Undecided if all this is a good move?

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2017 and the Netflix Deal

This week's news that we finally have an international broadcaster for Star Trek 2017 broke like an atom bomb. For the first time all three of the main SKoST writers give their thoughts! 

NB: All three were independently written...

Clive - Payment Shocker?!

2016 - the year that should be remembered for Star Trek fans uniting behind the 50th anniversary but may well become known as the Year of the Moan.

Beyond, Axanar and now the 2017 series certainly get their places on that list because today it's been announced that the series will be making its way out of the US to 188 countries on Netflix. 

As things go this is another massive revelation in a week that has also seen George Kirk announced for a return in the fourth movie (more on that elsewhere) and a stupid spoiler of a trailer (more on THAT elsewhere too) that may well have just ruined the latest movie in a heartbeat. Fans are split it seems with some more than happy it's on Netflix while others disappointed it's not on Sky or just downright livid it won't be free to view. Indeed, it's going to be pretty much the same state of play as if you wanted to watch it in the US via CBS' new All Access subscription.

For some reason people seem shocked that CBS have sold the show to Netflix but hey, isn't that what this is all about? Surely they would logically sell it to the business that offered them the best deal and I guess in this case it was the subscription channel. 

Cards down here, I do subscribe to Netflix but only took it up recently. The addition of every single televised episode of the show to the service a week after I joined was, admittedly, manna from Heaven and I'm not complaining because it's easier than sticking a DVD on and I have every story at my fingertips. I did believe the rumour that SKY had almost signed on the line and stated so in the most recent podcast but I've had to eat my words with this news. It makes sense for Netflix to have it seeing as they already have the whole package and I would place a bet now that the classic movies will be reappearing very soon. 

What may well make this unusual is that instead of bombing the service with the whole series we're going to get one new episode a week for 13 weeks. So, what's the questions we should be asking? What day of the week is it going to be loaded onto Netflix? What time? How long after the US will we get it (within 48 hours apparently) or will it be available everywhere at the same time? I can just imagine us all sat poised refreshing the player to get it the instant it drops.

Even if the series had gone to SKY you can imagine that people would still have complained because it's still a paid TV service. Netflix is a bigger player in the UK than SKY's own sub service, NOW TV and rocks around five million subscribers and is rapidly growing. It's not the 12 million that SKY has but it's making big inroads and could well be a force to be afraid of in the future especially if it's grabbing big scalps like the new Star Trek series. 

CBS will never make everyone happy but hey, that's life so let's just get on with it. If you want to watch it you'll pay. If you don't you'll wait for the DVD or Blu-Ray.

Ian - Speed Issues

As someone with neither Sky or Netflix I was interested in seeing where the next series of Star Trek would take us. 

Sky, who have had first-run Star Trek since The Next Generation or the relative newcomer on the block Netflix. Personally there is advantages and disadvantages to either platform. As CBS have gone with Netflix we can have a look at that platform.

The biggest fear with Netflix is internet connection. Locally (Ireland) we have traditionally had poor internet but recently we have been upgraded to fibre so this won't be an issue luckily for me however but there are plenty will find this the major problem. One other thing I will be interested to see is how the home release is handled. Will we get the great content that has become the hallmark of the recent Blu-Ray releases and we worth purchasing or will it be just a half done home release that will just cater for people who lack decent internet?

One other thing I was glad to see was that we will get the episodes 24 hours after they air in the US. This continues the tradition we had since Deep Space Nine and will hopefully allow people's enjoyment not be ruined by spoilers(Beyond I am looking at you!!)

We will also get all the previous TV shows available online with Netflix. This alone along with the new content makes it worthwhile signing up seeing as you get a free month!

Tiff - Bigger Picture

When Star Trek The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager came to air on TV in the late '80s and early '90s, the whole system of how TV shows were distributed and broadcast was far more straightforward. 

There was a huge downside back then, by the time broadcast rights were decided upon for UK and the rest of the world, the series had often been on air for up to 2 years!. 

I remember well, how being a Star Trek fan was so frustrating back then as we waited to see when Star Trek would air, on SKY One usually. 

If you didn’t have a SKY subscription then you would be in Trekkie hell, waiting forever to see if BBC TWO would maybe, perhaps air The Next Generation or Deep Space Nine in their 6pm slot. 

So despite some cries of dissent about Netflix acquiring the new 2017 show, I fully support it. 

The very concept of the new show being instantly available (not to mention the entire trek back catalogue) to a world-wide audience is something that would have been unimaginable in the hey-day of Star Trek. 

Also there is the corporate consideration, all art has to co-operate and work with and around business to thrive in the 21st century. 

If the global availability of new and old Star Trek brings a broader audience, and possibly even a bigger new converted fanbase then the decision to go with Netflix could cement a brighter future for Star Trek in it’s next 50 year journey.

How are you feeling about the arrival of Star Trek via Netflix for 2017? Good, bad, indifferent?

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