StillPaisleyCat

joined 2 years ago

Given the complete failure to produce and release anything for Star Trek in more than a decade on the cinematic side, I can’t think any reasonable senior executive would think now is the time to let Kurtzman go. All the more, the historic chaos in relaunching the television franchise in the early seasons of both TNG and Discovery have demonstrated that it’s just not possible to launch a new overall franchise runner without running major risks.

Kurtzman’s got a reputation as being good to work with from both the studio/streamer and creative side. They don’t have any evidence to show he won’t adjust to new strategic direction.

The question more will be how far will Kurtzman himself be willing to compromise if the Ellisons give high level direction that would take the franchise in a very different direction for television.

What I do see is that some of the perceived failures will definitely lead to restricted opportunities for some of the EPs that have worked for Kurtzman. For example, Osunsami may not be given run of a project again after the S31 movie. Michelle Paradise won’t likely be asked to run another show in the franchise.

[–] StillPaisleyCat@startrek.website 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

There’s a newer TrekMovie piece, just out this afternoon, that cites a new interview with Kurtzman in an industry journal.

It also notes that a large number of of new Paramount senior executives came out for yesterday’s premiere screening.

[–] StillPaisleyCat@startrek.website 4 points 2 days ago (3 children)

I’m not sure that it’s entirely accurate that there’s no hints of a renewal for Kurtzman’s and Secret Hideout.

In the recent SFX magazine piece for Starfleet Academy, the Kurtzman quotes hinted vaguely at “Lots more Star Trek TV is in development”.

“There’s quite a few exciting things in the works right now, but I’m not going to say more than that!”

TrekMovie observes that, ‘The SFX article noted Kurtzman was “tight-lipped about future projects,” adding that the interview was done before the announcement that[ Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley are developing a new Star Trek film.’

Thinking back to the last 5-year extension, Kurtzman was asked to map out proposal for Star Trek’s television rollout for 5-7 years forward.

Clearly, he was given clearance by the new ownership to pitch stuff towards another extension. Whether there’s any uptake is to be seen.

I just keep coming back to the previous Paramount+ and streaming heads stripping the schedule back to the point that animation was being eliminated and the live action schedule was dominated by Taylor Sheridan.

Now the new owners have a large and prestigious animation studio and Sheridan refused to renew.

Meanwhile WB is fighting back against Skydance’s takeover effort to go with Netflix’s offer.

If I had to guess, Paramount+ will see more new Star Trek animation and live action as complementary to the darker whatever that the creators of Stranger Things will bring.

Kurtzman may get another but shorter extension until the movie franchise gets off the ground, but will be fenced to the 32nd century, animated shows, and shows from the 23rd and 24th century that won’t write new canon.

[–] StillPaisleyCat@startrek.website 6 points 2 days ago (5 children)

This seems to be just one more thing in development that hinges on the decisions David Ellison will make about the next decade for the franchise, or at least the next five years.

Now that some of the new things that Ellison had been counting on to anchor Paramount+’s schedule (i.e. anything new from Taylor Sheridan) are complete nonstarters, perhaps there’s some room for some new Trek.

Also, the relationship between Kurtzman and David Ellison goes back to when Kurtzman was a writer and Ellison was a producer on Into Darkness. There’s no sense of negativity between them.

While Ellison hasn’t hesitated to finally cut the JJ Abrams movie contract that failed to meet deliverables, Kurtzman has delivered what CBS and Paramount wanted on television. There’s no reason to believe that they couldn’t come to a meeting of minds but there may be some of Secret Hideout’s long term EPs that might be let go in the process of a shift in direction.

So, one of our GenZ kids has now watched the trailer a couple of times and asked some questions.

They’re not the Discovery fan among our teens, preferring animation generally. (They liked Lower Decks and Prodigy.). So, I had to fill in on the 32nd century.

They’re not entirely convinced about investing in a live action series but might watch the premiere.

Meanwhile, the one who was previously a Discovery fan has just come off a Picard and TNG watch and isn’t sounding interested. The marketing is not intriguing them the way Disco season 5 did.

All to say that I am not sure that Paramount really understands Zs or marketing to them at all.

I found Paramount’s camera operator’s position on the ground looking up led to a lot of weird angles for the exchanges between Celia and the Starfleet Academy cast.

I also found the sound quality poor given it was their host and set up.

All of these issues made it a pain to watch.

Paramount continues to not run these events well.

 

Although Paramount+ now streams all the live action Star Trek shows in Canada, BellMedia’s CTV Sci-fi Channel has continued to provide linear cable programming for many of the Star Trek shows, including Strange New Worlds.

It wasn’t clear whether Starfleet Academy would also be available on CTV in first run. It’s now appearing in the television listings with a double episode premiere starting at 9:00 pm Eastern Time.

I’m more suspicious that the old owners canceled all their animation so as to no be in conflict with Skydance’s animation studio which is top quality.

The law looks back further than Confederation. This was addressed in previous amendments to the Act.

It has to since Canada didn’t have independent citizenship legislation until 1947.

Even if you and others don’t want to get citizenships in place for yourselves, it would be important to get it in place and document time in Canada, as future generations born after December 15, 2025 will have to have parents who spent 1095 in Canada.

[–] StillPaisleyCat@startrek.website 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

You should look further back up your tree, especially if you family had settled in New England or New York State.

There were successful claims based on more than 4 generations back under the Interim measure in place while Parliament was considering legislative changes.

The Interim Measure was put in place, to satisfy the court ruling, based on the proposed legislation.

Since the bill wasn’t amended during the Parliamentary process, legal experts expect that the amended law will be applied/implemented consistent with the Interim Measure.

[–] StillPaisleyCat@startrek.website 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I would look at the FAQ on finding n documentation in the subreddit.

Family Search and Ancestry will help find Census records, birth certificates and baptismal records (for periods before civil registration which came quite late in several provinces).

Once you know where and when your Canadian ancestors were born, you will be in a good place to get a baptismal record from the appropriate provincial archives.

For this, it’s unlikely that you’ll need a lawyer.

However, if you’re looking for legal expertise, the two most experienced in citizenship by descent (practising in BC and Quebec) were guests on this recent Borderlines Podcast.

The citizenship law looks back before Confederation.

In fact, Canadian citizenship only came into existence in 1947. Canada has the separate constitutional authority from the 1930s but WW II held up the legislation.

Before 1947, Canadians were British subjects domiciled in Canada.

 

Despite a rebuff of an initial offer to buy Warner Brothers - Discovery, David Ellison is continuing to talk about it.

Meanwhile, WB-Discovery CEO Zazlav looks to be trying to split off the linear business and market the studios, IP and library.

 

Lots of interesting comments in the interview.

One that stood out to me:

The Duffers emphasized that they don’t plan on becoming prolific producers of a large stable of shows and films. “We don’t want to become like Bad Robot,” Matt Duffer said, name checking J.J. Abrams’ production company. “Ross and I are incapable of juggling that many things.”

 

“Media conglomerate putting together majority cash offer for WBD backed by ultra-rich Ellison family, reports say”

The Wall Street Journal, this Guardian article and other business news media are reporting that the rumoured Warner Brothers - Paramount merger is back under consideration — this time with the deep pockets of the Ellisons.

One can see it as a worthwhile investment for the Ellisons regardless whether the motivation is acquiring IP or media control.

Disquieting for Star Trek franchise fans nonetheless.

 

Treklit has some great offerings. The Relaunch universe books in particular developed coherent serialized storylines and a group of strong authors. There is also a deep library of standalone books from across all eras of the franchise.

By contrast, serialized Star Trek is struggling onscreen. Of the current era, only Prodigy has excelled in serialized storytelling.

So, why not look to the books? Not just to lift an idea like Control or the end of the Borg, but to actually tell a coherent narrative across a season or season?

On Netflix, Prime and Apple, it’s become established that successful streaming shows are often based on novels and novel series. Those streamers have come to understand that novelists, not scriptwriters, excel in laying out long form storytelling, and resources are often better put in having the screenwriters adapt than create from the whole cloth.

Reading a recent interview with Mick Herron, author of the critically acclaimed and popular Slow Horses on Apple, with a second show based on his other books launching this fall, I was struck by the interviewer’s assertion of this truism.

I thought about several of the non franchise shows I enjoy and how many of them are more or less faithful adaptations of books.

I was also struck by the thought that both Skydance and Paramount are quite capable of producing excellent book adaptations for Netflix and Apple. Murderbot is a very current example.

So, what’s holding back Star Trek from exploiting the Vanguard series or the Starfleet Core of Engineers books?

Why insist on giving showrunners resources to keep retelling franchise stories with legacy characters and tropes?

Why not exploit that IP that Paramount already owns by adapting the best of decades of TrekLit?

 

During a panel with Picard season three showrunner Terry Matalas and Todd Stashwick (Shaw), were questioned about a ‘30-page outline’ for the Star Trek Legacy concept.

Reportedly, Michelle Hurd (Raffi) mentioned this during an earlier panel.

It sounds as though there’s nothing new in terms of interest from the executives about the concept, just fan interest and an ongoing campaign. Matalas and Stashwick are focused on the upcoming Marvel limited series Vision Quest in which Stashwick stars as the Paladin.

What’s interesting to me is that the more I hear about Matalas original pitch, the more I dislike. Matalas confirmed that it would have a Klingon focus.

While I loved the deep dives into Klingon lore in the 90s, I would prefer something new in the 25th century even a show featuring legacy characters.

As well, Matalas confirmed that they proposed that Shaw would a holographic recreation rather than revived by Borg nanites. We don’t need another grumpy hologram now that the Doctor is back in both Prodigy and Starfleet Academy.

I would find Shaw’s journey as a victim of the Borg with survivor guild to someone who accepts that his own life depends on Borg technology as much more interesting, compelling and new ground in terms of a character arc.

Edited to correct Michelle Hurd’s family name…

 

Variety reports that “Brian Robbins Calls Paramount-Skydance Merger ‘Bittersweet’ in Memo to Staff Amid His Exit as Co-CEO”

David Ellison, the founder of Skydance, will become chairman and CEO of Paramount. Andy Gordon, who leads the West Coast office of RedBird Capital Partners, is set to take the role of chief operating officer and chief strategic officer. RedBird teamed with Skydance to acquire Paramount Global for $8.5 billion.

Looking at how Paramount, since 2021, has failed to deliver on a new Star Trek movie, arguably wound down three successful shows prematurely, it’s difficult to see that this leadership team has done well by the franchise.

Looking at the apparent expeditious compromises Paramount leadership and Shari Redstone were willing to make to clear the way for the sale, I’m willing to look forward to see what comes next.

 

We picked up some good deals from the promotion this week.

 

Several Star Trek licensed games are on Steam, now at a significantly discounted price for the annual Star Trek Day celebration.

These include the MMP Star Trek Online, but also single player games Star Trek Bridge Crew and Star Trek Resurgence (a choose your own path role play game).

We’d waited until Resurgence came to Steam, because we did want to buy it from Epic, but decided to be even more patient and wait for a sale so we could get it for our teens as well. I’ve been playing in parallel with one of our teens and debating the impacts of our very different choices.

I have had Bridge Crew since 2022, but we got copies for the teens yesterday. One is into it. It requires running an Ubisoft account synched to Steam which can be annoying, but otherwise G2G.

 

More departures of former Viacom senior executives from Paramount Global in the wake of Baklish’s firing.

 

Interesting extract from a longer /Film interview with in-demand director Roxann Dawson.

I appreciate how she speaks with respect for the shows of the new era.

 

This is good news for assuring that SNW’s 3rd season production will move ahead after the strike.

Greenlighting a couple of extra episodes and a 4th season would make strategic sense, but I’m just not willing to give Paramount the benefit of the doubt on that.

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