StillPaisleyCat

The continuance of Paramount+ as a standalone streamer is entirely dependent on the delay of the merger. I would take anything the current management says with a certain amount of skepticism as they are having to carry on while the antitrust challenge is ongoing.

Ellison has been transparent that he is looking to consolidate the WB and Paramount streamers or at minimum restructure and retarget their content and audiences. He’s looking for synergies and in his justifications to investors regarding the merger, he’s specifically cited the intention for Paramount and WB to use Skydance’s animation studios.

I actually wonder in hindsight to what degree Paramount and Nickelodeon proactively shut down renewals with animation houses in anticipation of a deal with Skydance.

It’s interesting that they believe that they have leverage — and that it just might be the case.

Ellison suffered a setback that should not be underestimated when Taylor Sheridan unequivocally rebuffed Paramount’s offer to renew his first look contract. He has been Paramount+’s biggest content producer but flatly rejected a renewal, despite extensive personal courting by David Ellison and one of his senior people brought over from Skydance.

So, it’s not obvious that the kind of creatives that Ellison wants to work with will actually be willing to sign on with him. The Hagemans are significant creators in animation and Skydance’s animation studio is a major part of its business. They really are in a position to insist that on Prodigy renewal as part of any deal.

The choices in this list are an odd mix of ones that almost everyone acknowledges as top ranked and others that are likely not.

A Mathematically Perfect Redemption as the only standalone Lower Decks episode to make the cut?

No TAS classics such as Yesteryear, The Slaver Weapon or the Counterclockwise Incident?

TNG Qpid but not Q Who?

Nothing at all from Prodigy — the best effort and most successful landing of a serialized season the franchise has achieved?

Thanks for the thought experiment OP.

My spouse and I found this season opener disappointing, if for different reasons.

My partner couldn’t get past the bad science. More, something made them feel like they were watching low budget mid 20th century scifi.

I found the performances/acting off across the board. Given the strength of the cast one has to wonder why they were overwrought and unconvincing. The pacing and rhythm of dialogue definitely was part of it. The direction has to be part of it but the episode director has done a lot of better episodes in the this era.

I’m usually pretty forgiving on science and engineering as long as the process feels right. Without the actors selling it, I just didn’t get into the show in a way that allowed for suspension of disbelief.

The cast is saying they feel this is their strongest season yet. Based on episode one, I am unconvinced.

This is good news.

It was well done and might be something Paramount is willing to do more of even if the television franchise is on ice.

It’s not a fan novel.

The Full Circle Voyager series is official tie-in fiction published by Pocketbooks and CBS. Official tie-in fiction is beta-canon. That is, canon until overwritten by something onscreen.

The key thing in this is that the tie-in writer for this series Kirsten Beyer has significant credibility and authority within the franchise. Her research and statements on the legal situation around this are credible and official.

Kirsten Beyer was in the middle of writing the Voyager books when she joined the television writers as of the first season of Discovery. She’s officially got the mandate as the expert keeper of canon in the writers room — even if she’s not always listened too. More, she was made the liaison for the tie-in writers to the shows as of 2017. She’s now a CoExecutive Producer and cocreator of SNW.

When that book was published, and she chased down the history on Locarno/Paris, she had the greatest access to past Executive Producers and internal legal advice and archives. She wouldn’t have claimed that without solid evidence.

I suspect that it had to do with the WGA contract at the time that TNG was in production.

Writers with a script credit got specific residuals for characters they created in a script according to what Beyer wrote. So, taking a one-off character and putting them in a main cast role in a new show would be providing creator credits for the entire show.

Chief Miles O’Brien is a different story altogether. Colm Meany was originally contracted as a background regular as the transporter chief but without a name. These kind of roles are reliable and keep actors eating while allowing them to audition for other roles.

According to what I heard at a Creation Con panel back in the early 90s, the showrunners eventually decided to give the character a name. Colm Meany wasn’t advised, nor was his agent — so Meany actually was raising a complaint that he was being replaced without notice, only to find out he’d been upgraded to a named part.

Kirsten Beyer actually is on the record saying that this was confirmed to her when she was writing the Voyager Full Circle novels.

In those books, she has the incident and the consequences as part of Paris’ backstory that gets thrown in his face in a legal proceeding back on Earth.

My recollection is that she printed this in an author’s note in the specific book so it must have had legal clearance for the tie-in literature.

Unfortunately, that Instagram post seems unavailable now.

In any event, I would be happy to see both James Frain back as Sarek and Mia Kirshner as Amanda Grayson.

I was one of those who really liked their performances as those characters.

Yah, I was more ready to let go of new Star Trek by the time Enterprise was canceled — but that show finally felt like it was all coming together in season four so it was frustrating that it didn’t get a full run.

The miasma of sadness I feel knowing that the SFA and SNW sets have been ripped down in Toronto and Mississauga is making it hard for me to really get excited and embrace the marketing for SNW season four.

I know I will be watching with my spouse and engaging here, but it’s very really not a great feeling given I was around for TOS’ cancellation, TAS’ cancellation, Enterprise’s cancellation and now the closing of this era.

The Commitments.