Star Trek Discovery, Things To Come, and Other 'Star Trek' Programs

Hi, this is John Delancey and you are listening

to the GeekCast Radio Network. Hello and welcome

to Future Imperfect. I'm your host Steve Megatron

Phillips and in this episode I'll be flying solo

without Dodd or without Alex and without Blanchard.

So you might be asking why am I doing this episode?

Well, I kind of wanted to cover a little bit

of Star Trek -y, Star Wars, Orville, news like

that now that it's getting closer to discovery

and we're only about a week away from Star Trek

discovery debuting and there's still quite a

bit of news floating around about it and among

other things there is like I mentioned the knockoffs

and this week Seth McFarlane's comedic love letter

to Star Trek aka the Orville debuted on Fox this

past Sunday and it was shocked full of references

and Easter eggs for Star Trek fans. Also it had

a actress who was playing the wife of Captain

Benjamin Sisko in DS9 playing the chief medical

officer. McFarlane's been in Star Trek before

on The Next Generation. And in a couple episodes

of Enterprise, so he's a huge Star Trek fan and

he He's had them, you know the next generation

cast on Family Guy before I Don't think he was

on the next generation. I may have had that information

wrong, but he was on Enterprise So Yeah, the

the orville communicates with dr. Aronoff on

Science station epsilon 2 and there's a beagle

looking itself in the background obviously, it's

comedic in that sense, but He chose that dog

to be a beagle because it's like Captain Archer's

beagle from Enterprise and then if you look at

the larger picture as the The orville is a very

concept is a Star Trek homage The Orville as

a ship wouldn't look out of place in a fleet

of vessels from the Star Trek universe. And they

have the Planetary Union instead of the Federation

of Planets, mid -level exploratory vessel, kind

of like the Enterprise in Star Trek. And then

they have color -coded uniforms to indicate what

a person does. So blue is command, green is medical

science, and... red indicates operation security.

So it's almost like TOS in a sense, but they

just kind of recoded some of it. And then the

crew is various Star Trek archetypes. Lieutenant

Commander Bortus is basically like wharf from

the next generation Isaac. The AI from Kalon

is science, but like data and Spock melded. But

he doesn't want to be more human. He just looks

down to them And then they've got Helmsman and

navigators, which are basically like Sulu and

Chekhov how they riff off each other and then

they they have The captain the first officer

and the doctor kind of like Kirk Spock McCoy

in a sense So and then they've got the two seats

like voyagers. I mean, it's it's it's it's interesting

Then they've got the holographic simulation chamber

like the holodeck and then The the shuttle going

to the ship and for docking kind of like Star

Trek the motion picture There's just there's

just a lot of stuff with it, but um I I really

enjoyed it despite some of the comedic undertones

that were notorious of Seth MacFarlane So, yeah,

it wasn't as bad as what people are panning it

out to be. Yeah, if you're not a fan of Seth

MacFarlane, which I'm not either, you may not

like it, but if you're any kind of fan of Star

Trek, you should enjoy it for what it is. That

being said, it was just recently the 51st anniversary

of Star Trek. It's insane. And then they had

a bunch of... Stuff from the Star Trek discovery

crew doing nods to it but speaking of spoofs

Black Mirror season 4 is having a Star Trek related

spoof and I've never seen that show I've heard

things about it, but I have no idea what it is

But they're they're bringing the Star Trek influence

Obviously for a upcoming episode of the fourth

season called USS Calistar Which is being described

as a star -studded homage to Star Trek And they've

they've got people in the gold uniforms For it

looks like operations science and medical is

blue and then they've got red for command Again,

I've never seen it, but the the the captain's

chair almost looks very the original series ask

They've got the railings like the original series

on it and then they've got some some other Stuff

and in the background that looks kind of TNG

or more very similar to something that they would

use on Saturday night live knockoff So I'll probably

check that out just because of what it is So

that being said Star Trek discovery theme music

just dropped as in the 12th of september so i'm

going to play that youtube video right now hi

guys how are you star trek discovery if i could

go back and tell my eight -year -old self that

i would be standing up here in front of you i

would i wouldn't believe myself I got that fateful,

infamous call where you pick up the phone and

they want you to do Star Trek. My head exploded

at that moment. When I first started thinking

of what I would do for a main theme, I first

needed to feel like I was in the world of Star

Trek. Even though there's a lot of action in

our show, I wanted to really play into how these

characters are feeling. All right, we're gonna

start with Star Trek Discovery main title. One,

two. The music of Trek is a critical part of

the experience of Trek. The original Alexander

Kurge theme is one of the most iconic and memorable

themes of all time. It's built into the DNA of

the show. So there's a beautiful segueing in

and out of the original theme into the more modern

theme. So, yeah, that was kind of a gist of the

new theme of Star Trek Discovery. I'm not sure

what you guys think, but I think it's kind of

interesting. It's definitely a lot better than

that crapshoot we got for Star Trek Enterprise,

which made you think it was going to be a song

or a nice orchestra, and then it went into that

garbage of, it's been a long time, and then I

was like, skip. So yeah, I'm kind of glad that

it was very orchestra based and they tried to

kind of preserve what Star Trek is. So what do

you guys think about that? Be sure to leave feedback

on the episode post. So yeah, that's that's part

of it. Anyway, the other thing that I thought

was kind of interesting is there was a website

that did Basically like a where are they now?

in a sense of Star Trek for for the the characters

of the original series and they said that the

Because this show takes place ten years before

the USS Enterprise. In the first season of TOS

takes place in 2256, the crew is going to be

around. Some of them will be in Starfleet, some

in Starfleet Academy prepping for their first

deep space mission. But some of it's in canon,

some of it's kind of inferred in the Prime Universe.

So yeah, they They kind of say that Basically

Kirk could be still serving either in the Academy

or promoted to lieutenant on the either Farragut

or the Republic Because this show takes place

ten years before the original series so Um, Lieutenant

Kirk could be stationed there. I thought this,

it was on TrekMovie .com. It was kind of, uh,

an interesting take on all of their, uh, uh,

characters. And so then they, they show the where

no man has gone before and Kirk in 2265. Um,

so Kirk is 23 as of this Star Trek discovery

timeline. Spock would be 26. serving as science

officer aboard the Enterprise 1701 under Captain

Christopher Pike. And then they say Leonard McCoy,

29 years old, practicing medicine, possibly in

Starfleet. And it's kind of funny because they

state that in the mid -2240s, McCoy would have

met The trail eminy Dax Jadzia Dax's earlier

symbiote because Jadzia I guess in trials and

tribulations Mentions that when she was visiting

earth to judge a gymnastics competition saying

that uh He had the hands of a surgeon When she

met him which was when he was a young med student.

So yeah, it was kind of inferred there So Yep,

and then they they they mentioned stuff about

McQuay and Voyager as well Among other things

and then Scotty is 34 serving in Starfleet as

an engineer deployment unknown and Uhura possibly

17 unknown possibly Earth Christine Chapel unknown

possibly 20 to 30 unknown not in Starfleet Pavel

Chekhov 11 years old probably Russia Sulu about

15 to 25 unknown location. I find it funny though

and in where no man has gone before Sulu is a

blue shirt on the the first episode of that old

uniforms that are like the original Original

pilot of the show and then they should check

off. He's got a regular uniform Chappell's got

a regular Uhura Scotty's got a yellow shirt a

gold shirt and They show Spock with a gold shirt

and Kirk with that Gold shirt before they all

got the the current uniforms were used to Yeah,

it's kind of interesting to go back and kind

of check some of that out so So yeah, I was kind

of wondering a little bit of that and it was

it was a little interesting Shows gonna be rated

TV mature Not sure how I feel about that. Not

sure how I feel about the purple Klingons instead

of the brown ones we've had in the past. And

these goofy, almost orc looking Klingons. I still

can't get past that. I like some of the new gear.

I like some of the new uniforms. The ship, I

still can't get past. Yeah, I don't know I hope

that the the info the anthology plan that they

have for seasons two three and four that's I

Hope that they kind of go through with that and

jump through different eras Because then they

could realistically tackle the enterprise B or

C timeline or thereabouts in between before that

and even go beyond The the Star Trek online timeline

But they may pull a Star Wars and retcon it so

who knows but yeah, so Discovery is obviously

set in the dark time of war and it's a dark place

at the Federation and The funny thing is the

Kiva Goldsmith keeps mentioning how the show

is gonna be more like serialized and it's gonna

be it's gonna be massive and and the crew is

gonna be out the middle of nowhere and and nobody's

gonna gonna be able to Nobody's going to be able

to follow along. I couldn't help but comment.

I saw a Trek Movie post that Aaron Harbertz discussed

how the Star Trek discovery will deal with issues

of isolationism and race. I couldn't help but

comment on that on Twitter. Last week when I

saw that and I'm like didn't Voyager do that

isn't that the whole purpose like they went to

go Recollect a ship and ended up isolated and

dealing with race issues with various races that

they were discovering that were new and The The

whole thing about it just it kind of rubbed me

wrong that this guy's sitting here, you know,

oh we're gonna have isolationism and and deal

with with all these different things and yet

every Trek series has covered it. He's kind of

saying that it's the Federation and the Klingons

are no longer an allegory for the Cold War conflicts

with the Soviet Union and different factions

and they're basing it on different political

landscapes, which I hate when they do some of

that because they get a little too pushy on one

side or the other. But they're saying that the

The Klingons are going to help us really look

at certain sides of ourselves in our country

So certain sides should already give you a hint

kind of what direction they're gonna go I hope

they don't do this whole political leaning crap

that half the other celebrities or people are

doing these days, but I'm not getting into either

way, but they're saying isolationism is a big

theme racial purity is a big theme So technically

if they're gonna do the racial purity thing,

wouldn't that kind of affect the Klingons and

how people treat this sect of them as opposed

to what we're used to in the future generations

of the track? So it says the Klingons are not

the enemy, but they do have a different view

on things. It raises big questions. Should we

let people in? Do we want to change? There's

also the question of just because you reach your

hand out to someone, do they have to take it?

Sometimes they don't want to take it. It's been

interesting to see how the times have become

more of a mirror than we thought. And that's

all well and dandy, but again, like I feel like

I'm looking at Ivan Ooze Having raped An orc

from World of Warcraft and then having raped

a Klingon and that's what I'm looking at here

It just I don't know it it doesn't make any sense

to me and then their armor look like these weird

scaly things that I just I don't know. I absolutely

hate their take on the Klingons here. It says,

North Korea is their thoughts as they finish

the series and began as a commentary on divided

nation in terms of Trump, non -Trump, blown out

to North Korea and how we're on the brink. They're

basing it off of that. I'll just leave that alone.

It's going to debut on September 24th anyway.

CBS all access in the US and Canada will be on

Bell Media CTV and Space Channel on the same

night Netflix will launch it on Monday September

25th two countries outside the US and Canada

But yeah the whole thing with the race and isolationism

Voyager did it DS 9 did it DS 9 was also heavily

serialized The original series kind of did it

Because you know you had the whole stigma of

Klingons and Romulans and all these other races

and the whole you know being isolated from command

most the time Kind of like Voyager isolated from

command most the time DS9. Oh, we can't get reinforcements

most the time TNG was really the only one that

was like diplomatic and connected Because all

Picard had to do is call up Starfleet command

and say hey need some help Everybody else was

kind of on their own Kirk. That's why he broke

the Prime Directive so much That's why Janeway

kind of did her moral compass of right and that's

why you know, Cisco kind of did his own Espionage

ish version of the Prime Directive of whatever

benefited Starfleet Was was good as long as you

turn the blind eye and he wasn't afraid to do

it. So I Well, I kind of want to follow this,

I find that they're making all these things.

And I know that there was heavy backlash. I've

seen the articles where people have had heavy

backlash to TNG when it was announced, and this

is no different. However, it's got a lot of standards

it's gonna have to live up to for the fact that

Star Trek's been dead on the air for 12 years.

And this is the first new series we've gotten

since Enterprise, and Enterprise wasn't entirely

all that great, and it was a prequel. And to

me, honestly, it looks bad when, yes, the show

has all the CGI and all this other crap going

for it, but when the Orville looks like it could

fit in the timetable of either the TNG 90s or

the TOS 60s? And it looks like it fits better

than this show does in that time span. They could

have covered the Romulan War with the Federation

in the 2330s with the Enterprise -C, rather than

dealing with this. I don't know. I just feel

like it's unneeded, this version of the show.

Come back after this and switch gears a little

bit So I figure and this is my plan that every

week after Star Trek discovery airs, I'm going

to do a review episode on future imperfect speed

And rather than talking about it on my other

show Alter Geek or flooding another show on Geekcast

Radio, I'm going to cover it here to get my geeking

out of Star Trek Discovery and my commentary

on it after the show airs. And they'll probably

come out the next day or the day after to some

extent depending on when they drop. But that's

the general gist of it. so yeah and then of course

the show they've kind of talked about Shatner

possibly cameoing he doesn't hate the idea but

they'd have to come up with some creative thinking

to justify it Shatner says It would depend on

what the participation was I wouldn't want to

do something that was just throw away or sort

of gratuitous place in the plotline They would

have to really exercise our imaginations to have

a 50 years older captain in there If it was the

character they would have to do something remarkable

So yeah Who knows they may use some of that virtual

technology that Shatner Is is commandeering to

have him play the younger version and de -aging

him, which would be interesting Shatter suggests

so then I get to play my father and of his character

He says all I know is that is streaming and I've

been Playing in front of some large audiences

and they keep asking will they pay money for

it? They're asking them what they thought and

will they pay money for it about half the audience

doesn't want to pay each month to get it It looks

like they're doing What they are doing is making

it a beacon for joining CBS All Access. So in

the same way Paramount used the Next Generation

to promote their syndication organization, they

are doing the same thing with the streaming of

Star Trek, which is an interesting ploy. So I

guess we will really get to kind of see whether

CBS's plan pans out and whether the app tanks

Star Trek Discovery. I will say this, I don't

want to pay for it. I'm gonna sign up for the

free trial when the first two episodes drop.

So it's not, I already pay for Netflix in all

honesty. Like if it's not on Hulu or Netflix,

it's not really worth it. Don't pay for I don't

want HBO. So I don't pay for that. I don't want

When Disney comes out with their own streaming

service, I'm not gonna have that either WB might

have me if it weren't for the fact I own all

the stuff I want to have From them. So I mean

the same regard I'm not gonna pay for another

I would just assume just have internet and there's

plenty of ways to stream it for free Because

eventually somewhere is gonna have it So if it's

on CBS's website, I'll watch it on there If it's

free, but I'm not gonna watch it on the app.

I really don't want to pay for the all access

I have no need of the other shows because honestly

all the other Star Trek series Not the movies.

I own all the movies so it doesn't bother me

there, but all the Star Trek series I can watch

them all on Netflix or Hulu free Why would I

pay for the app? Just for one new Star Trek show

like it's not it's not really worth it So I guess

we'll get to see if if Shatner's right and then

it's it's a ploy and getting to see what this

pans out or not I'm sure people will will do

it and in ditch it promptly depending on how

they release the episodes so If they release

them in one mass dump Kind of like a Netflix

show then people will sign up watch binge watch

and then dump it under the free trial Which is

something I would do I'm not condoning stealing

it by any means, but I'm not condoning paying

for the service either I Think it's a mistake.

I would much rather see the same cable television,

especially when you're getting shows like You

know the Orville on Fox I just think it's kind

of a missed opportunity just because they want

to put a put more garbage on television and Want

to have this be its own thing on the app like

we're playing it safe. It's gonna be on the app

So if anything happens, it's not a ratings thing.

It's not a you know We're getting our money back

by making people pay money to watch it And then

what the worst thing is, is they're probably

gonna make you pay for the CBS All Access app

and then you're still gonna have stupid commercials,

so it's not all the way around, it's gonna be

dumb. We'll see, I guess. But speaking of Netflix,

Netflix has the most rewatched Star Trek episodes

list on a infographic. The funny thing is people

really like Voyager to some degree. I think it's

because it's the most recent show but there's

an infographic out by io9 that has this Netflix

County rewatch as a viewer going back to watch

at least six minutes of an episode they'd already

viewed in its entirety and the first two episodes

of a series were Called from the results as they

were unsurprisingly the most popular by an overwhelming

margin But what's left after that for the ten

most rewatched episodes after it's frankly alarming

collection of episodes? So anyways Voyager has

number one with Endgame parts one and two. I've

been guilty of that. What's funny is most of

these are like Borg related So you get that.

I really like watching that because I get to

watch Janeway doing her old version, young version.

You know, breaking the temporal prime directive

and Reginald Barclay in there. And then you get

the best of both worlds. Part one for number

two. And then part two for number three. Scorpion

for part one of number four, Voyager. Scorpion

part two of Voyager number five. Voyager hits

the gift. And then Voyager has Dark Frontiers

parts 1 and 2 for number 7. The next generation

has number 8 with QHoo. Voyager has number 9

with Time and Again, and the next generation

has 10 with Clues. There's not a single TOS episode,

not a single DS9, not a single Enterprise. It's

all TNG in Voyager. It's primarily Voyager. But

it's probably because that's the last good Star

Trek series we got. What's funny is Voyager had

cameos from various eras. You had Sulu, you had

Riker, you had Q, you had Troy, you had Barclay.

Just among some of the ones I can name off the

top of my head. But it's all ranking from TNG

or the original series. I just find it interesting

that the Borg takes a lot of this and then DS9

surprisingly doesn't have anything. And why is

Clues on there for the TNG? The crew goes through

a wormhole and it's manipulated by xenophobic

aliens trying to keep their planet hidden. I

can't understand why that's even on the list.

I Don't know some of these some of these are

a little bit of a head scratcher like there's

there's better episodes than What they picked

for seven through ten? I can't fathom it but

What are your guys thoughts on? Who should have

who what episodes would be your top ten? I I'm

gonna come up with that for my next episode as

well But I'd be interested to know And then Nerdist

thought it would be fun to rank all 13 Star Trek

films from worst to best and I see a list like

this a lot actually They put I Don't know why

they put Warning there's major spoilers for all

these movies. I'm sorry, but if you haven't seen

any of these movies, they've been out for a long

time You should have seen them by now. They have

Star Trek Insurrection as number 13 as the worst

Which I don't I Don't know if I go that far,

but it wasn't that great either It it is boring

which they do state that but it's it's basically

it's It's basically like I said though. It's

it's a run -on episode of of TNG then they have

the final frontier which Was pretty bad. I mean

it had its good points, but it was pretty bad

Star Trek nemesis Not horrible, but it was pretty

bad. I don't know if I would put it below The

next one which is the motion picture which was

horrible I'm glad that into darkness though made

it towards the bottom because it's number nine

What I find funny is that They said or seen Kurtzman

did almost everything wrong when running into

darkness even the name sucks The reason the movie

is as high as it is One the list is mainly this

the first hour of the film mostly works and addresses

certain big issues The previous film had like

the fact that saving the world or not cadet Kirk

was not ready to be captain of a ship yet The

first act really hums along and has great moments

then the The movie hits its second hour and it

falls apart. They said once Benedict Cumberbatch

reveals his true identity and hisses to the camera

that he's Khan, everything just hits a wall.

How did the timeline disruptions turn the previously

ethnic Khan into a pasty white British dude?

And then they ask, why is it his master plan

makes zero sense? There's no reason for Khan

to be in this movie aside from the fact that

there was once another Star Trek 2 that had Khan

in it. But if you're going to do Khan, do him

right or not at all. And redoing the end of Wrath

of Khan. But with Kirk dying instead of Spock,

the two of them sharing that particular heartfelt

goodbye moment feels totally unearned at this

point in the series. It's to JJ Abrams' credit

that he's such a good director of popcorn entertainment

that he can almost make you forget that the story

in this movie makes no sense and that the script

has giant plot holes. Some might even say he

did this for The Force Awakens, but the plot

holes are way bigger in this movie. There's a

reason this movie has a high Rotten Tomatoes

score. It's actually very watchable, especially

if you just want entertaining eye candy. It's

just not very good. Owen Conn has magic resurrection

blood in this movie because reasons. I kind of

agree with him on everything. They list Star

Trek Generations next, and kind of with good

reason, a lot of the stuff that comes after is

going to be better. It was kind of the Kind of

the the continuing and the goodbye to the enterprise

D and the you know showing the enterprise B and

then the goodbye to Kirk and then kind of bridging

that gap so It should have been much better,

but we ended up with This film and it wasn't

nearly that bad they kind of ranked soaring is

okay, but I still think he's pretty neat. And

then plus they resurrected the Nexus for Star

Trek Online. So with Geordi, it's awesome. Not

really. It's like a 10 minute episode, mini -sode,

until they come out with the rest of it. Number

seven, they have Star Trek 3, the search for

Spock. I can kind of see that. Star Trek Beyond,

definitely pretty strong contender. It's number

six. Star Trek First Contact, number five, which

I think is kind of blasphemy. I think it should

have been higher. Star Trek 6, The Undiscovered

Country. Star Trek 4, The Voyage Home. I think

Undiscovered Country should have been above Voyage

Home. Star Trek 2009, they have it as number

two. And then The Wrath of Khan, they have it

as number one. My personal list, I think I'd

put Undiscovered Country at one. And then I would

put First Contact at two. And then I would put

The 2009 at three. And then The Voyage Home at

four. Well, no, I'd put Wrath of Khan at four

and then the Voyage Home at five and then Star

Trek Beyond at six. So, I mean, I think I'd keep

pretty much the rest of the list the same. I'd

probably put number seven. Honestly, I'd probably

put Generations just because I like the fact

that Kirk's in it. So I'd flip -flop Star Trek

six and area seven and three. But other than

that, I think the list is pretty close. So...

And what do you guys think about possibly putting

some Star Wars news in the show? I mean, because

it is sci -fi. I probably won't do it this episode.

But I will say this, since we're talking JJ Abrams,

and since Colin Trevorrow is no longer directing

Episode 9, JJ is coming back to write and direct

Episode 9. Ooh. So, yeah. So anyways, let me

know what you guys think of the possibly doing

reviews of Star Trek Discovery. What do you think

about the app aspect? What do you think of the

covering other sci -fi news? And yeah, just leave

me some comments, questions, suggestions in the

episode post or feedback at geekcastradio .com

and we'll answer it on the next show.