CBS Discovery Woes, The Orville is the new Trek?, and ST Online Season 14

Welcome to future imperfect. I'm your host Steve

Megatron Phillips and in this episode I'll be

covering Well, I'm gonna go over some of the

new Star Trek discovery news among other things

and the orville Along with some Star Wars because

you know, it's a sci -fi podcast. So why not?

So I'm gonna be flying solo again in this one,

so I hope you guys enjoy this just like the previous

episode so Let's get on with it So as some may

know Star Trek discovery Premiered at a blue

carpet event. Yes, that's right blue carpet event

for the discovery premiere saying that it was

a night that won't soon be forgotten and Yeah,

they had various Star Trek actors from a multitude

of generations not to mention the current cast

but William Shatner and Nichelle Nichols was

present at the the premiere to kind of usher

it in as it were and Yeah, they were they were

kind of told to enjoy the ride as it were Yeah,

it looks like a pretty fun event But yeah, they

they did this this whole world premiere of the

show where they played the first two episodes

One of the things that kills me about this show

is the the discovery executive producer Akiva

Goldsmith because He kind of strikes me as someone

who doesn't understand Star Trek And I know that

he's an Oscar winner and a long -time Star Trek

fan But he's done a lot of a lot of other films

I'm not discounting anything. He's done, but

Yeah, I mean I know he he has been involved to

some degree in the recent stuff with Abrams,

but for me, he kind of, like I said, he kind

of strikes me as someone who doesn't really understand

Star Trek or everything that's come before because

he's saying that Discovery is ready to be born.

It's unlike any Star Trek you've ever seen, and

that it's so fundamentally and essentially Star

Trek in a way that I'm terribly proud of, and

yet it brings with it scope and the breadth of

a movie that's pretty exciting. Mmm, it's not

any more or less Star Trek than anything that's

come out prior or Will come out in the future,

but I Kind of wish it was in the Kelvin universe

because I'm not again, that's the aesthetics

thing but There's been some speculation that

And I'll get into this later because there's

this whole diatribe that I want to get into that

I read an article for pertaining to CBS and that

this could turn out very bad for them making

this exclusive on CBS All Access. However, then

they go into William Shatner talking about his

thoughts on it and he's he claims that you know

This is at the premiere. They asked me to come

down and give a little history. He said so here

I am It's understanding the anticipation of opening

night, even though it was filmed months ago And

it's existed now in its final form for a while

It is opening night now you and I and the rest

of the world are going to look at it and say

oh We like it or we don't like it Opinion is

going to be formed this evening as if the curtain

went up and that's fun to be a part of In other

words, he kind of gave a non -answer, but that's

that Shatner. Yeah, and they go through the rest

of them exploring this new universe anyway, and

then we get the Alex Kurtzman phrase of... We

definitely did set out to blur the line between

television and movies, which television is doing

now anyway. That is 100 % true. So in building

this universe and building this version of Trek,

we all wanted to feel like a massive cinematic

experience. Okay, I get that. Again, I still

feel like with this aesthetic and this touch,

I think they could have easily tackled a lot

of the content between generations and the next

generation. An entire time span of stuff that

has never been filled in and that's giving them

almost 50 60 years to play with there. So I would

have much rather seen that happen and then they

have both Bo and John Trimble the couple that

saved Star Trek I believe they were on the 25th

anniversary VHS tape that I used to have a long

time ago, but um, yeah, they're on here, too

They've got a lot of writers, they've got a lot

of actors. They've got John Billingsley of Enterprise

at the event, Anthony Montgomery from Enterprise

at the event. They've got Jonathan Frakes, one

of the directors of a couple episodes from The

Next Generation here. Julie Nimoy, daughter of

Leonard Nimoy there. Yes, I mean, they've got

a few old... Old hat people joining them for

this For this this Event and then Nana Vister

visitor of DS 9 is there Voyagers Roxanne Dawson

enterprises Connor Trineer and DS 9's Nicole

DeBauer Yeah, so they've had a decent chunk of

of the the different cast show up in support

of this I don't know, I'm still gonna watch it.

This is the thing too, they've been hyping this

show out and despite their best efforts, they're

saying that it's going to debut September 24th

on CBS All Access in the US, Space Channel in

Canada, and Netflix and the rest of the world

on the following day. The testament will be to

see if people sign up for CBS All Access to watch

the show and to see if this pans out and And

I guess I'll get into this this whole diatribe

that I've kind of read up on First of all CBS

has burned a lot of bridges over this last year

Last two for the for sure but this last year

they've burned a lot of bridges because not only

did Star Trek hit its 50 year anniversary But

CBS's reputation, especially with the fans in

the courtrooms, has pretty much gone down the

crapper in the last year because of all of their

flattening of fan films. And because of these

guidelines, there's been a lot of ugly litigation

between especially CBS and Axanar, which... there's

thoughts that the reason why Axanar got killed

was because that, and the reason why CBS arranged

for it to never see the light of day was because

that CBS singled it out because the theme was

10 years prior to James T. Kirk's assumption

of the command of the enterprise and had accidentally

stumbled on the very plot line that CBS was exploring.

for the struggling Discovery series so there's

that bit which my opinion of CBS isn't all that

great anyway and then just adding the fact that

they've kind of shot fan film stuff which how

Star Trek continues is still going on I'm still

unclear but I'm glad that it's still going I'm

glad that that's at least one production that

still gets to continue So But anyways There's

there's this article on Krypton radio that that

I saw that discovery could be poised for success

or would be if and I guess this is crazy. They're

making the episodes for eight million dollars

an episode and the ad campaign is the biggest

CBS has ever done for anything reaching far into

social media all over the planet and it should

be a raging success but there's a very large

problem and and they kind of single this out

and they said that there's a big elephant in

the room and the difference is that this new

track unlike every other track won't be on broadcast

television but on their paywall Which I myself

will not pay for I will not be a part of that

support system for CBS I've not been a big proponent

for paying extra for things and so this will

not be one of them I don't currently have cable

nor do I want it. I don't have satellite nor

do I want it I have Netflix and I have Hulu if

it's not on those two. I just won't watch Which

is why I'll get into the orderville later on

But anyways with this this whole paintball thing

There there's a lot of speculation of how much

Americans have actually heard of it and whether

the The need is there and the fact that CBS is

kind of flying in uncharted waters, at least

for themselves, because Netflix and Hulu have

been doing original content for quite some time.

But they're saying that the pro CBS pundit estimates

are that only about 10 % of the fans are making

ugly noises about track, which is total BS. Total

BS. If you go to... anyplace online right now,

whether it's YouTube, Twitter, Facebook. Star

Trek Online, most of the conversation is about

how pissed people are at Star Trek Discovery,

as opposed to what it could have been. And so

we get into this whole diatribe of not only have

they shot themselves in the foot with the court

stuff with the fans, not only have they blundered

it with this show supposedly coming out three

different times this year, and the fact it's

behind a paywall, they're seeming to base it

off of the like buttons or, you know, because

there's no dislike, which I'm sure would show

up very bad, but if you're looking at it from

that, it looks in fine shape, however... people

like myself or other people it may just click

like just so that it's you know yeah I like that

you know this article meaning that I might check

it back out later but I ultimately forget so

like casual clicker and that's kind of what they

mentioned in this article and there's gonna be

a big difference I think when it comes to people

spending money to get this one show exclusively

as opposed to watching it on cable. I would much

prefer this was on cable, but looking at the

numbers, CBS has this trailer on YouTube, and

the Orville has several hundred percent better

ratings on the trailer alone, and Discovery has

for only two of three fans who voted liked it.

As contrasted to the parody Orville, 6 of 7 fans

who voted liked it. In other words, 60 % of viewers

liked Discovery, where 87 % liked the Orville.

But yet, Discovery has 40 % of the thumbs down

response. So... That should be setting off alarms

for CBS, but yet it's not. And that's kind of

what they mentioned in this article. And so...

I am of the same mentality here. They're trying

to base this original show. Somehow they're getting

their data to say that there's an average Trek

fan, which I don't believe exists on any spectrum.

If you're into Trek in any regard, you're not

average. You're just among them. There's no age

group. It's kind of a thing that spans from You

know kids through Senior citizens like it there's

there's no there's no definite pattern with track

It's something everyone's grown up with since

the 60s and it's been passed on generation to

generation So it's kind of that that thing that

sticks with everybody so I feel like the problem

is going to be that We're going to come to see

the second week what actually happens with CVS

All Access and whether people sign up for this

thing. I don't know what's going through CVS's

mind on any of this. Like I said, I'm not paying

an extra fee for the fact that the CVS All Access

isn't available on about 50 % of the devices

like DirecTV, PS3, PS4, things like that, Mac,

you'd have to watch it on your TV, so I don't

know. I'm not overly enthusiastic and I guess

from what I've read too, CBS got all the production

money from Netflix, so that's why it's got the

little grittier and different look to it too.

Netflix is not footing the bill for season two,

though. So if CBS can't make the next season's

production costs from the All Access service,

which there's probably no way in the Q continuum

that that's going to happen, then we could very

well see Star Trek Discovery die after season

one. And they kind of mentioned that, you know.

For CBS to dump $130 million in production costs

alone out of its own pocket for the next season,

then the series will probably be canceled after

its initial 15 -episode run. Which I concur.

That being said, if that does happen, we won't

probably see another Star Trek series for a long

time, or it'll be a one -and -done and they'll

move on to something else. I guess we'll just

have to see what happens. So before I go into

the Orville conversation, I'm going to finish

my Star Trek discovery apparently at that event

though It came back with early reactions Saying

that it'll give fans what they've been asking

for Apparently because of you know shiny things

Which doesn't concern me. I would rather have

a functioning story and Not have the shiny stuff

Honestly, I don't And I don't want my white Walker

Klingons. I want What I've been accustomed to

for the last 50 years. Thank you very much so

just return to center your white Walker armored

Klingons with the the Orc faces from Lord of

the Rings and and give me back the the classic

Klingons so So anyways, they're saying that the

show is supposedly gone over well with with some

people and that it's as fun as possible And then

they're trying to give people different options

for for streaming and This is interesting CBS

all access subscription will set you back 599

a month or you can go ahead free for 999 per

month So then we it's almost like Hulu you're

paying either 899 or 1199 And then they're they're

touting that oh in addition to discovery you'll

be able to watch every other CBS programming

along with every episode of every previous Star

Trek television series which You can get all

those on Netflix and Hulu currently so in the

US, so why would you do it? Like there's no incentive

And ThinkGank is also offering a CBS All Access

pin, which features the USS Shenzhou in a limited

run of 1 ,000 units. Once ordered, $25 of the

$30 price tag will be delivered to you as a digital

credit toward your CBS All Access subscription.

So basically the pin is $5. I don't need a pin.

I'm just garbage. It's like the money mug infatuation

that people had for quite some time. I just can't

get behind throwing money behind something that

doesn't matter. So yeah, then they've listed

the first episode's title, which is The Vulcan

Hello, and the brief synopsis of the episode

is, in the series premiere... New worlds and

civilizations are explored by new members of

the Star Trek universe. Which, yippee -ki -yay.

And so, at the same time, the Vulcan Hello and

the second episode of Star Trek Discovery will

air pretty much back to back on CBS on September

24th. And... Yeah, the episode 2 title is called

the Battle at the Binary Stars Episode 3 will

be called Context is for Kings and Episode 4

will be called The Butcher's Knife Cares Not

for the Lamb's Cry Whatever any of that means

So anyways, they're going to have that. The show's

also going to have a new show that streams after

the new episodes air or whatnot. They're going

to have a show called After Trek. Yeah, that's

all the information that's out right now on that,

so... It's just another version of what I'm doing,

but somebody that's famous gets to do it instead.

So, yay! I won't be watching that either. So...

Joy! So DeJonathan Frakes also reveals that Star

Trek Discovery will make a trip into the Mirror

Universe, which we didn't see in TNG at all,

which was actually, I think, the only series

that didn't feature the Mirror Universe, surprisingly

enough. Frakes said that he has seen the CBS

pilot and it's amazing. He says freakouts are

unfounded and you'll be amazed, which... Yeah,

that's what they're gonna, of course, say. He's

associated with it. He's signed on to direct

one of the episodes of the show's first season,

though not the episode that visits the mirror

universe. Instead, the episode he's directing

will be focused heavily on the Klingons. That,

of course, yeah. So the Orville. I've actually

been enjoying this show and I'll probably be

reviewing this show as well on separate episodes

of Future Imperfect in addition to Star Trek

Discovery and I figured it's kind of fitting

because they're both essentially cut from the

same mold even though D 'Orville seems like it's

placed during the TNG era and certainly holds

to those aesthetics to some degree So I find

that show very very interesting The fun part

is some Star Trek actors are wanting to do cameos

McFarland revealed in a reddit ask me anything

thread that He's got one or two in the lineup

He gave no hint at who But Being that McFarland's

been on Enterprise Garrett Wang Harry Kim Really

wants to do it more than he'd like to appear

on discovery because he liked working with McFarland

on American Dad And then additionally Just because

of you know The fact that this is going on too,

Kurtzman on Discovery has stated that there has

been discussions with some actors to make cameo

appearances on the All Access show, which would

be the first new track series, obviously. But

the Orville premiered on its first day with like

8 .6 million viewers and a 2 .8 in its target

demographic, which is awesome. And then the second

episodes aired as well, which got more into the

Star Trek II realm and the third episode It's

the shows actually moving to Thursdays from Sundays,

which is a great But I love the fact that it's

on Fox and I say that because we get a sci -fi

series but it's It's not afraid to do anything

plus it's on cable So I'm more likely to support

it and just watch it from Fox's website at my

TV. And it's not a big deal to me. So the other

fun part is Brandon Braga, the executive producer

of The Orville, who was an executive producer

and show runner on Voyager. said that he liked

the fact that the Orville is more than just a

parody of Star Trek, but he returned a classic

Star Trek -style storytelling, which I concur

that I'm in favor of that as well. He said it's

kind of its own thing. It's funny. At times very

funny, but the stakes are real. It's science

fiction ideas. He says, I think, are really cool.

It's a good mix of comedy, but also drama. It's

like mash. You'll be laughing one second the

next something very serious is going on. You

have to be involved. You can't do an hour -long

satire of the genre. It's a loving tribute to

this kind of standalone storytelling, which I'm

in favor of that. And he said that he kind of

missed that storytelling that Star Trek did,

which are standalone parables with the beginning,

middle, and end. I don't know. I'm kind of...

I'm kind of the same boat and Honestly I've enjoyed

everything I've seen so far. I like the uniforms.

I like the ship even though it's real weird They

the funny thing is is John Favreau Iron Man director

did the first episode of the orville the second

episode was done by Robert Duncan McNeil Tom

Paris of Star Trek Voyager which is awesome.

And then Brandon Braga is doing the third episode.

And then James Conway, who's done episodes of

Enterprise, DS9 Voyager, Next Generation, is

directing the following episode. And then Jonathan

Franks is doing the next one after that. And

it's... Don't know it's it's kind of cool to

see a lot of Star Trek alumni Taking part in

this this tribute to Star Trek It's it just kind

of amazes me that There's enough Not only the

fact that these people are directing but the

fact that they're they're wanting to Partake

in this and that kind of makes me Excited about

it more. I Don't know. What do you guys thoughts

on Star Trek? Discovery versus the orville are

you gonna watch them both are you gonna watch

one you're gonna watch the other I'm going to

watch both but I And I can't say that I enjoy

one over the other because obviously only one

is out at the moment There's even a thought that

Charlize Theron might guest on the orville this

is old news from like two months ago, but it's

still almost a certainty that might be going

on. And I've seen ups and downs reviews on this

show, people asking if it wants to be a sitcom

or a sci -fi drama, people kind of questioning

what it wants to do. But I think that it's I

don't know, I like what it's doing. I don't care

if it's Star Trek Online Emergence They just

came up with season 13 .5 which has Geordi and

it's literally a 5 minute episode, maybe 10 minute

and you discover somebody that comes out of the

Nexus and I talked about that a little bit last

week but this new episode is called Emergence

and it's going to come out October 3rd and will

soon follow on Xbox One and PS4 and you'll reunite

with Captain Geordi LaForge of TNG. in this brand

new episode of Melting Pot and you accompany

him and Captain Kamaric to a new colony world

on Drainer established by the Lukari and their

long -lost sister series the Kentari and you

have to deal with them interacting so and then

they're going to have a new Five tier fleet holding

on the colony. They're gonna have a brand new

red alert two new fleet holding defense cues

and a new primary Specialization called the miracle

worker. So you basically you just call yourself

that instead of captain So it'll be interesting

to see what they do With this and if they do

anything with the Nexus after the fact Honestly,

I'd love to see more TNG love in the show or

in this game, but um, and I hope the episodes

longer I and there's a lot more interaction with

little forge because it was pretty pathetic What

what that previous episode or partial episode

did not to mention on September 21st captains

will also be able to purchase a brand new Galaxy

class interior and Star Trek online will also

be celebrating TNG's anniversary with server

-wide giveaways on September 28th, which includes

the classic scant Uniform and type 7 shuttle.

So you get another shuttle and the scant uniform,

which is basically the the male dress essentially

from season one of TNG so It'll be interesting.

I'm kind of looking forward to seeing what goes

down on that So yeah that kind of rounds out

this episode of future imperfect so until next

time set your phasers to stun and Live long and

prosper