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The setting: Why TNG and not TOS?

Acenos

Lieutenant Commander
Red Shirt
Why didn't they choose a TNG-esque setting instead of a TOS setting? They could have good for a TOS setting and take advantage of it's inherent cheesiness and over acting. It'd be a lot more fitting in that era instead of the TNG era.
 
Because it's time to leave TOS alone for a while and do something different in another time frame.

I don't see anything cheesy or overacting about the trailer, it's more lightsome but also shows some full on action scenes and is from the perspective of the "little people" onboard, who are just doing all the low-level jobs not the big important stuff of the senior staff.
 
Just a theory but 2380 is both past the TNG films and just before the flashbacks of Picard so don't have to worry about contradicting stuff there and where you are able to use cast/setting of TNG, VOY and DS9 if they want to bring in The Doctor or Admiral Janeway or go visit Quarks or whatever. I thnk TNG's setting lends itself more to them just being another ship in the fleet and looking at the mundanities of space rather than TOS where the feeling seems to be every ship was off on it's own on the frontier and kind of important. These guys might as well be the crew of the Brattain or Lantree rather than Intrepid or Exeter (if that makes sense).
 
There are a few factors:

1. Thanks to Picard, TNG is back in vogue. After 15 years of things being more TOS-leaning, the pendulum has swung the other way again.

2. Most of the people watching grew up with TNG, not TOS.

3. I genuinely think Alex Kurtzman wanted to stick to Post-Nemesis after all the grief they got about Discovery being a prequel (and the response to prequels in general). Because so many people wanted a Pike Series, I think Strange New Worlds is the only exception.
 
Changed the thread title in order to better reflect its subject matter.

My guess is that the idea for the show rose out of the fact that creator Mike McMahan is also the writer of TNG Season 8 on Twitter and the book Warped, both dealing with The Next Generation. It just seems to be his comfort zone of Star Trek and that's why it was a natural fit to make that the setting of the new show.
 
Why didn't they choose a TNG-esque setting instead of a TOS setting? They could have good for a TOS setting and take advantage of it's inherent cheesiness and over acting. It'd be a lot more fitting in that era instead of the TNG era.

I think you answered your own question in a way. Given that LD is a(n in-franchise) parody, they want to expand Trek's range and battle the perception it's all po-faced and they don't want the whole franchise looking like an off-kilter parody at once if every show being made is trying to be ha-ha funny or seen as such. So far, exploiting TNG's lore has been "serious" so it makes sense to balance it out by putting this wild and zany outing (which is drawn in the style of Family Guy and has the feel of Futurama's cousin.) Don't forget that DSC has had its share of cheese that makes TOS's pale by comparison (e.g. roller coaster turbolifts, impromptu singing, swear words as levity, and all the other things TOS didn't and would never do (per memos Majel and others put out back when they were alive. e.g. https://www.facebook.com/TheTrekFil...8JWnnMqN2uB9HjT2OkPvqqZxUcWgkDYUZL7mlsda83dsQ
))

If they were brave they'd make a new show in a new time frame and without the crutches or as much baggage and without falling of the modern day sci-fi trap of just making -fi without any sci... Buty I digress, Roddenberry wanted to do the same in 1987 in keeping TNG separate from TOS but his Ferengi were replaced by Romulans fast enough and never mind they incessantly used callbacks to "the old Enterprise" too (forgetting there were 4 previous iterations of said "old Enterprise" :guffaw:)...
 
There are a few factors:

1. Thanks to Picard, TNG is back in vogue. After 15 years of things being more TOS-leaning, the pendulum has swung the other way again.

More people will agree on that if there's a chart showing audience viewership and audience appreciation indexes increasing dramatically between episode 01 and 10. In Canada, what you say is incorrect, it was reported that viewership went down. But while Canada may be an audience, it may not be the primary audience.

2. Most of the people watching grew up with TNG, not TOS.

True. And so far the show can't be bothered in making a sequel that doesn't strongly rely on what came before it, which is very weak but does suggest they're aiming at established fans and not making new audiences.

3. I genuinely think Alex Kurtzman wanted to stick to Post-Nemesis after all the grief they got about Discovery being a prequel (and the response to prequels in general). Because so many people wanted a Pike Series, I think Strange New Worlds is the only exception.

I can't blame Kurtzman, and most people already knew NEM is a steaming pile to begin with. Hell, I'm not the biggest fan of either but wholly agree Data got a better sendoff from PIC than NEM (and why were the writers of NEM indulging Data's exiting back then, so lamely, complete with copy'n'paste script segments from TSFS by the other crewmembers (and the luck of small universe system with yet another Data clone)... even Kurtzman's biggest detractors should know his era isn't as bad as that.)

Also, people who don't like prequels are rather few to begin with and most who don't care about them pretty much just leaves them be. ENT, et al, are made for the fans looking for answers and not everybody has the same level of interest. If there's a really bad scene, regardless of which show it's in, people will always gripe anyway. Big woop.
 
It works in TNG too.
Yeah, and maybe even better. There's an argument to be made that The Next Generation has actually aged worse than The Original Series. I love it to pieces, but in parts it's really pure 80s/90s kitsch. Again, I say that as someone with undying love for the show, but the stilted language, the shoulder pads, the heavy-handed moralizing, the ever-present neon glow plus muted beige … you just can't escape the fact that it's a product of its time. And as that it's an area ripe for a humorous take.
 
Orville proves you can do comedy in a TNG style setting. Heck DS9 did as well and Voyager at times. I think they just wanted their Orville but weren't going to commit to a live action version and so if you can't get Seth McFarlande you go get another Star Trek TNG fan turned comedy writer who is famous for working on a edgy cartoon that is popular. Might even work. Family Guy and The Simpsons both exist. So does Futurama and Rick and Morty.


Jason
 
Also, people who don't like prequels are rather few to begin with and most who don't care about them pretty much just leaves them be. ENT, et al, are made for the fans looking for answers and not everybody has the same level of interest. If there's a really bad scene, regardless of which show it's in, people will always gripe anyway. Big woop.
It really depends on the prequel. ENT and the SW Prequel Trilogy left me with a bad first impression. Caprica began to make me change my mind. Then Better Call Saul blew me away as the best prequel ever made.

I don't count Discovery because I think its core premise is the least dependent on it being a prequel and I think it will ultimately spend more seasons in The Future when all is said and done.
Yeah, and maybe even better. There's an argument to be made that The Next Generation has actually aged worse than The Original Series. I love it to pieces, but in parts it's really pure 80s/90s kitsch. Again, I say that as someone with undying love for the show, but the stilted language, the shoulder pads, the heavy-handed moralizing, the ever-present neon glow plus muted beige … you just can't escape the fact that it's a product of its time. And as that it's an area ripe for a humorous take.
Yup. I know exactly what you're talking about. I can laugh at the time too, even though I have one foot in the '80s (childhood) and another in the '90s (adolescence). And that brings me to the other part of what I said. TNG is back in vogue and the fact is that nostalgia today is based on the '80s with the '90s starting to break in. It's not really based on the '60s and '70s anymore.

These days, I'm actually nostalgic for 2019 too... but that's a whole other story. Thanks Covid.
Orville proves you can do comedy in a TNG style setting. Heck DS9 did as well and Voyager at times.
That's right.
I think they just wanted their Orville but weren't going to commit to a live action version and so if you can't get Seth McFarlande you go get another Star Trek TNG fan turned comedy writer who is famous for working on a edgy cartoon that is popular. Might even work. Family Guy and The Simpsons both exist. So does Futurama and Rick and Morty.
I think The Orville might've helped them to think, "Why not give it a try?" But I think they can have a comedy and have both shows be totally different. Parks and Recreation (:techman:) and Two and a Half Men (:barf2:) are both comedies, but they're not at all alike.
 
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Why didn't they choose a TNG-esque setting instead of a TOS setting? They could have good for a TOS setting and take advantage of it's inherent cheesiness and over acting. It'd be a lot more fitting in that era instead of the TNG era.

I object to the thesis of "Cheesiness and over-acting"

Also....its set in the same time-period as PIC isnt it? Better known as 'present Trek'.

You know....oddly DS9 doesn't scream a certain time-period for me. Probably because it was set on a Cardassian station, there were so mnay guest aliens, and the Uni change.

Whereas VOY is definetely 90's and even ENT screams early 2000's to me.
 
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Oh thanks....and i was going to post that you know we're in peak Trek when the year actually means something...as opposed to "Oh 100 years atfer TOS"

The year has meant something going back to TNG's "The Neutral Zone", when Data gives it as 2364. Before that Kirk gives the period as "the late 23rd century" in The Voyage Home. The Wrath of Khan has a caption at the beginning of "In the 23rd century".
 
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