Seems to me there's no one magic bullet or simple set of instructions to make a new Trek series feasible. There're lots of factors involved, and frankly many give way too much emphasis on surface details or fairly sweeping judgments about the entertainment industry.
Fact is, to make a profit a new series has to balance cost and income. Cost is determined essentially by content, income by audience.
Cost in Trek cannot help but end up fairly high, because of both special effects and everything needs to be constructed more or less from scratch. After all, when CSI needs a private home set, they simply go out and find one! Now, effects at least in theory can be much cheaper than they once were. The big trick might be to not demand too many effects. Likewise it might behoove producers of a future series to borrow an idea from Babylon 5 and begin with the notion of redressing sets. Likewise, TOS as well as other shows leaned heavily on careful choice of locations. There are plenty of futuristic buildings or outdoors spots that can be used much cheaper than building an alien throne room.
In other words, the initial seasons of such a new show should aim small in terms of physical scale. Perhaps focus on a fair number of episodes set aboard ship? Try to do things with a minimum of special effects. Design as few new aliens as one can get away with.
For example, consider a TNG ep that involved in effect telepathic rape. They had a whole new species for that one. But what if the perpetrator had been a Vulcan? Saves a bit of design time and cost, with the added benefit of increasing our emotional investment. We have an idea about what Vulcans are like. A Vulcan rapist is inherently dramatic.
Which brings up audience, really. How many crime dramas or comedies or other types of shows are introduced each year--on cable, netflix, network t.v. etc.? But which ones tend to become popular, especially for more than a season or two? The ones that engage the audience, for whatever reason.
Even with cost-cutting measures in place, a new Trek will need a really good audience to sustain itself. Preferably the sort of intense loyalty that Game of Thrones, House, Doctor Who, The Big Bang Theory, Two Broke Girls and others have managed to engender. The biggest mistake any potential producers could make is try and copy what they think makes those shows so compelling.
Imagine for example a show about Captain Stark of the USS Winter, whose family is with him on a deep space mission when he is beheaded on the orders of the insane young monarch of the Seven Stars Empire, who intends to marry one of Captain Stark's daughter (one of his sons meanwhile begins learning to use his full psychic gifts from an ancient Spock, kept alive via Borg tech), while the proper heiress to the throne weds a Klingon Warlord, etc.
Oh please. No. As a parody, that has lots of potential. Maybe even half an hour's worth. But for a series...?
Instead come up with some characters that are genuinely themselves. You can even use some of the templates of Trek in the past, as long as you just use them as a springboard not a box. "The Outsider" character, for example, began with Spock but generally worked well in Data, in Odo, in The Doctor and even in T'Pol. Frankly I do think too many armchair critics seem to think all those characters to be identical because they fit the same dramatic function--but in fact they remained fundamentally different people. Rather like one person I knew who refused to see WOK because Saavik was so "obviously a replacement Spock" even though in that film at least she was nothing of the kind.
But to be sure, simply casing a "type" in and of itself is pretty useless. Audiences don't respond strongly to just a type. They want a real, compelling person--at least that is what seems to develop the most intense loyalty these days. Consider Criminal Minds--a police procedural that in many ways follows the same formula as the old F.B.I. series (in color!). But apart from more adult subject matter, the former is also much more of an ensemble drama, in which the regulars go through individual stories. Marriage, break ups, parenthood, family drama, alcoholism, personal fears, etc.
In fact I'd argue that as far as structure goes, Criminal Minds has something to offer potential producers of a Trek series. A group of characters in a hierarchical situation, with an internal dynamic, pursuing some specific tasks that impact them emotionally and echo their own personal issues. Every character pretty much gets some kind of arc, with a series of plot arcs through each season.
More, I'd point to Buffy the Vampire Slayer as something similar, except that Joss Whedon took it further. He allowed a lot more ambiguity, moral and otherwise, in exploring situations and character. He also rarely pulled his punch the way CM tends to. More, he violated expectations in some exciting ways. The whole idea of a blonde cheerleader whom monsters were rightfully terrified of--great idea! Likewise look at how the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica treated the idea of a first officer.
In other words, I think a new Trek series should aim small in terms of scale, at least at first, in order to keep costs down. Focus on creating compelling characters and interesting stories. It will remain something of a crap shoot, simply because you cannot always predict what audiences will be in the mood for. But this does seem the way to (perhaps) increase the odds of success.
[And please--I'm not advocating Star Trek: Profiler or Star Trek: The Vampire Wars or Star Trek: Galactica... )
Fact is, to make a profit a new series has to balance cost and income. Cost is determined essentially by content, income by audience.
Cost in Trek cannot help but end up fairly high, because of both special effects and everything needs to be constructed more or less from scratch. After all, when CSI needs a private home set, they simply go out and find one! Now, effects at least in theory can be much cheaper than they once were. The big trick might be to not demand too many effects. Likewise it might behoove producers of a future series to borrow an idea from Babylon 5 and begin with the notion of redressing sets. Likewise, TOS as well as other shows leaned heavily on careful choice of locations. There are plenty of futuristic buildings or outdoors spots that can be used much cheaper than building an alien throne room.
In other words, the initial seasons of such a new show should aim small in terms of physical scale. Perhaps focus on a fair number of episodes set aboard ship? Try to do things with a minimum of special effects. Design as few new aliens as one can get away with.
For example, consider a TNG ep that involved in effect telepathic rape. They had a whole new species for that one. But what if the perpetrator had been a Vulcan? Saves a bit of design time and cost, with the added benefit of increasing our emotional investment. We have an idea about what Vulcans are like. A Vulcan rapist is inherently dramatic.
Which brings up audience, really. How many crime dramas or comedies or other types of shows are introduced each year--on cable, netflix, network t.v. etc.? But which ones tend to become popular, especially for more than a season or two? The ones that engage the audience, for whatever reason.
Even with cost-cutting measures in place, a new Trek will need a really good audience to sustain itself. Preferably the sort of intense loyalty that Game of Thrones, House, Doctor Who, The Big Bang Theory, Two Broke Girls and others have managed to engender. The biggest mistake any potential producers could make is try and copy what they think makes those shows so compelling.
Imagine for example a show about Captain Stark of the USS Winter, whose family is with him on a deep space mission when he is beheaded on the orders of the insane young monarch of the Seven Stars Empire, who intends to marry one of Captain Stark's daughter (one of his sons meanwhile begins learning to use his full psychic gifts from an ancient Spock, kept alive via Borg tech), while the proper heiress to the throne weds a Klingon Warlord, etc.
Oh please. No. As a parody, that has lots of potential. Maybe even half an hour's worth. But for a series...?
Instead come up with some characters that are genuinely themselves. You can even use some of the templates of Trek in the past, as long as you just use them as a springboard not a box. "The Outsider" character, for example, began with Spock but generally worked well in Data, in Odo, in The Doctor and even in T'Pol. Frankly I do think too many armchair critics seem to think all those characters to be identical because they fit the same dramatic function--but in fact they remained fundamentally different people. Rather like one person I knew who refused to see WOK because Saavik was so "obviously a replacement Spock" even though in that film at least she was nothing of the kind.
But to be sure, simply casing a "type" in and of itself is pretty useless. Audiences don't respond strongly to just a type. They want a real, compelling person--at least that is what seems to develop the most intense loyalty these days. Consider Criminal Minds--a police procedural that in many ways follows the same formula as the old F.B.I. series (in color!). But apart from more adult subject matter, the former is also much more of an ensemble drama, in which the regulars go through individual stories. Marriage, break ups, parenthood, family drama, alcoholism, personal fears, etc.
In fact I'd argue that as far as structure goes, Criminal Minds has something to offer potential producers of a Trek series. A group of characters in a hierarchical situation, with an internal dynamic, pursuing some specific tasks that impact them emotionally and echo their own personal issues. Every character pretty much gets some kind of arc, with a series of plot arcs through each season.
More, I'd point to Buffy the Vampire Slayer as something similar, except that Joss Whedon took it further. He allowed a lot more ambiguity, moral and otherwise, in exploring situations and character. He also rarely pulled his punch the way CM tends to. More, he violated expectations in some exciting ways. The whole idea of a blonde cheerleader whom monsters were rightfully terrified of--great idea! Likewise look at how the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica treated the idea of a first officer.
In other words, I think a new Trek series should aim small in terms of scale, at least at first, in order to keep costs down. Focus on creating compelling characters and interesting stories. It will remain something of a crap shoot, simply because you cannot always predict what audiences will be in the mood for. But this does seem the way to (perhaps) increase the odds of success.
[And please--I'm not advocating Star Trek: Profiler or Star Trek: The Vampire Wars or Star Trek: Galactica... )
