When it comes to the ongoing creation of the new series Star Trek Starfleet Academy, we've all heard the exciting news about it being filmed on huge sets, all the money being thrown into it, and the expanding list of noted actors (and wrestler) being cast. But what about THE WRITERS ??? Has anyone heard or got any news on who the writers of this series are going to be, and what their past writing history has been?. I think this is a vital component to its success, and something that has been lacking in some of recent Trek.
Writers??
- Thread starter JcarlA
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The writing staff includes Gaia Violo, Stephanie Savage, Josh Schwartz and Tawny Newsome. Savage and Schwartz have worked on The OC together, while Savage has also done The Astronauts Wives Club and Nancy Drew, among other things. Schwartz has also done the recent CW Tom Swift series. Newsome has no prior writing experience, though is best known in Trek circles as the voice of Mariner on Lower Decks. She's also currently developing another Trek spin-off series, a live action sitcom.
Of course, all this is covered in the Academy series thread, so I'm not sure why you didn't just look through that. In the event the answer is "I'm not wading through than many pages of thread" than Google is a thing.
Of course, all this is covered in the Academy series thread, so I'm not sure why you didn't just look through that. In the event the answer is "I'm not wading through than many pages of thread" than Google is a thing.
There's been a ton of criticism online because the writers and showrunner once wrote for a teen dramas and are apparently shit because of this. But everyone forgets that experienced science fiction writers like Brannon Braga wrote 'threshold' and Joe menosky wrote 'masks' and Ronald D. Moore fucked the ending of Battlestar Galactica.
Some of the writers have been hired because they know how to write for younger characters, others like Newsome for their star trek experience and so on. So they are all bringing different characteristics to the show.
At the same time, writers have a choice as to what projects they want to work on. I can imagine for a lot of the team writing for a science fiction series like Star Trek is new challenge and an opportunity to learn a new genre and grow with it. So to say that someone can't write science fiction, because they started their career writing teen dramas is like saying that someone who worked at Mcdonalds can't work as a chef at a upmarket restaurant one day.
Some of the writers have been hired because they know how to write for younger characters, others like Newsome for their star trek experience and so on. So they are all bringing different characteristics to the show.
At the same time, writers have a choice as to what projects they want to work on. I can imagine for a lot of the team writing for a science fiction series like Star Trek is new challenge and an opportunity to learn a new genre and grow with it. So to say that someone can't write science fiction, because they started their career writing teen dramas is like saying that someone who worked at Mcdonalds can't work as a chef at a upmarket restaurant one day.
Writers with a background in writing YA dramas writing a YA drama. Scandalous. Be on the lookout for my hate-filled YouTube video on this heinous act.
On the flipside, remember that before DS9, Ira Steven Behr was most known for being a writer on the final season of Fame. Which was, of course, a teen drama!
I will say though, I don't buy that only certain kinds of writers know how to write young. We've all been young people, and can relate to young people. Writing old characters when you're young, in contrast, is much more difficult.
Obviously an exception would be for writing young characters who are supposed to be contemporary, since they should reference present slang, memes, music, etc. However, Starfleet Academy would be very, very wise to avoid this at all costs.
The more I enjoy young person content with my kids the more I'm convinced that the adults who watch it and critique it for being "teen drama" do not actually recall being kids.
Teen drama is like all other drama - it can be good or bad.
I just don't want stupid teen drama if you know what I mean. Starfleet Academy is supposed to be half West Point, half a MENSA meeting. If they just depict it as space high school, they'll really be missing the boat.
I don't know what you mean.
I doubt it will be space high school. But, I imagine will have stupid moments because teens are stupid at times.
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It will be boring as hell and alienate even more viewers.
So your point is that legacy Trek writers who used to write teen dramas eventually became successful sci-fi writers, thus all teen drama writers must automatically be able to write likable sci-fi stories.
Well yeah they had to adapt to a completely new genre and succeeded which gives them even more credit.
The situation with SFA is to have longtime teen drama writers who create even more teen drama, only this time with a starfleet badge and some technobabble.
Obviously executives like Kurtzman believe that you can’t attract grown-up audiences with sci-fi stories anymore. That feels more like Trek executives who are giving up on quality sci-fi.
So your point is that legacy Trek writers who used to write teen dramas eventually became successful sci-fi writers, thus all teen drama writers must automatically be able to write likable sci-fi stories.
Well yeah they had to adapt to a completely new genre and succeeded which gives them even more credit.
The situation with SFA is to have longtime teen drama writers who create even more teen drama, only this time with a starfleet badge and some technobabble.
Obviously executives like Kurtzman believe that you can’t attract grown-up audiences with sci-fi stories anymore. That feels more like Trek executives who are giving up on quality sci-fi.
"SciFi" is the least important part of a Star Trek story, Hire writers that can write interesting stories about interesting people. Writing a "teen drama" is no different than writing an "adult drama".
In the words of the Bird
II. Tell your story about people, not about science and gadgetry. Joe Friday doesn't stop to explain the mechanics of his .38 before he uses it; Kildare never did a monologue about the theory of anes- thetics; Matt Dillon never identifies and dis- cusses the breed of his horse before he rides off on it.
III. Keep in mind that science fiction is not a separate field of literature with rules of its own, but, indeed, needs the same ingredients as any story -- including a jeopardy of some type to someone we learn to care about, climactic build, sound motivation, you know the list.
Reroute the verisimilitude through the suspension of disbelief compensators to balance the character harmonics and trope generators.
Nah man, I want it Full Metal Jacket style, with Robert Picardo going all R. Lee Ermey on the recruits.
"Let me see your exploration face!!!"
Honestly, I'd just be happy if the cadets seem like they want to be there and are keen to learn. I'm not expecting instant discipline, but a degree of reverence at them being the first Starfleet cadets in ages would be good.
To give you an example of a show I otherwise loved that did it wrong, consider The Magicians. It was adapted from a series of books, in which the MC starts at a magical college at age 18, and ages into his 30s over the course of the story. They made an adaptational choice to cast older actors and age up the characters too, so it became "magic grad school" instead of "magic college." However, a lot of the teenage drama from the books was just ported over, and as a result the first season was a bit wobbly in places. The students were unserious about school/lived in "party dorms." One of the main characters was initially a "mean girl." Upper classmen liked to haze incoming freshmen. The protagonist dealt with actual bullying. None of this is really relatable to what a 22-year old goes through when entering an MA or PHD program! I think it worked in spite of this adaptational change, but the latter seasons (where they de-emphasized the magic school elements) were much stronger, as they allowed the young adult cast to act like young adults, not children.
Obviously Starfleet Academy is going to have a younger cast. I've always seen it as "space college," with a few younger prodigies. But the general vibe should be midway between an Ivy League school and a military academy. Drama should be focused on issues of competition, imposter syndrome, academic stress, etc. Having some light relationship drama, perhaps even performance-enhancing substance abuse, that's fine. But if we're just going to see hot young people party and screw, it doesn't need to be a Star Trek show, IMHO.
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