test content
Logo
What is the Arc Client?
Install Arc
Options
How the rumored and upcoming Trek shows might, or probably wont, affect STO
somtaawkhar
Member Posts: 10,222 Arc User
Before I begin this I would like to make it clear that I am aware this all just very high level speculation based on what very little we know about the flood of new Trek material that has either been confirmed, or rumored, to be coming out, but It is still an interesting thing to think about.
Now, onto the main point at hand. The thing that makes most of the upcoming/rumored Trek series different from the previous ones is that they are not so much made as "continuations" of the Trek narrative, in so far as going out, exploring worlds, meeting new aliens of the week, etc. etc., but rather they are more of what I call "gap fillers". By this I mean, in a series like Star Trek, with sequels, prequels, and concurrently running stories, there inevitably ends up being gaps in the viewers knowledge about certain things. Viewers love to speculate on these gaps, and the beta-canon equally loves using these elements in their stories because they are big unknowns that people want explored. The problem with this is that, ultimately, these kinds of stories are so very focus on a particular subject that they don't end up having the sort of larger scenarios, or plots, that something like STO usually latches onto for its content. Now, like any new Trek show there will inevitably new costumes, gizmos, and ships for lockbox, lobi, and event rewards, but, at least from what little we know about them, most of these new Trek materials don't obviously offer STO a significant source of content for more narrative progression in my opinion.
1. To start off with, lets look at the rumored Starfleet Academy show. From what little has been said about it, the Starfleet Academy show is apparently going to be a CW style teen/young adult drama show, and the people supposedly involved with it are people known for these kinds of dramas. I will admit I despise these kinds of shows, but I would still be glad that they did a Starfleet Academy show because Starfleet Academy is a big part in most of the backgrounds of the main characters of Star Trek. After all, most of them went to Starfleet Academy to get onto the ships in the first place. That being said, I don't really see much a Starfleet Academy would offer to Star Trek Online. STO BEGINS with our players graduating after 4-5 years at the academy. All the "Trials and Tribble-ations" that the characters go through in the show would be things our characters went through before even the tutorial begins. I don't see Cryptic forcing us to go back and redo our Academy training since we have already proven ourselves capable to save the galaxy 16 times over by now. And after the backlash of Tovan, I don't see Cryptic forcing us to have some academy cadet be stuck with us for an entire mission arc as they learn how to do all the things they were taught in real world scenarios. This would be especially silly for them to do given that we already had this sort of narrative with Kuumaarke, and it would just be a repeat of that.
Even when it comes to getting the actors in the game for VA work, unless more time travel is involved(please no) it would be difficult to get them involved. Having the TNG/DS9/VOY actors appear in-game works because its been like 25 years since those shows were on the air, and its been 30 in-game years since the end of Voyager, giving them a somewhat even level of aging both in-game, and in real life. Teen dramas like Starfleet Academy usually have 20 somethings playing 18-23 year olds. Even if Starfleet Academy was set during TNG/DS9/VOY those characters would now be 50+ in universe. The voices of these actors simply wouldn't match the older appearances they would have in STO. If its set before TNG, that just makes the problem worse.
As I mentioned above, I could see Cryptic adding new costumes, new gizmos, new ships, and probably something like new mini-games/activities at Starfleet Academy(and probably make some Klingon variants for the KDF) but in terms of a larger story arc, I just don't see it.
2. Moving onto the Khan miniseries. From what we were told the Khan mini-series, named Ceti Alpha V, was going to involve Khan and his Augment family, and their challenges trying to survive Ceti Alpha V. While it would be cool to see this point in Khan's life, we already know how Khan's story begins(Space Seed) and ends(Wrath of Khan), and we know he didn't get off that planet in all the time between those two events, limiting just how much outside interference could have actually gone on. While this fills in Khan's story a bit more, there is nothing intrinsically about this mini-series that offers any sort of narrative opportunities that haven't already existed in the series for years now. Now, again, like the Starfleet Academy show, there would be new costumes and gizmos for Cryptic to throw in lockboxes and the lobi store, but narratively its a bit dry.
3. When it comes to Lower Decks, that is an animated comedy show. More specifically, we have been told its about the least important people on the least important ship in the fleet. While it will be cool to get insight into how the lower decks people go about their day, the ship they are on isn't the Enterprise, it isn't the Defiant, it isn't the Voyager, it isn't one of these "hero" ships. Not only that, the show isn't about the captain, or the bridge crew, or the Chief Engineer. The show is about "Bob", the low level mechanic, who spends all his days in the Jefferies Tubes with a wrench, the kind of people who aren't involved in all the "action" of a ship's adventure. This not getting into the usually surreal nature of animated comedy shows, which make no real effort to have any sort of consistency, or set rules, since everything exists "for the gag" so to speak. Imagine trying to do something with an episode of Family Guy, do you take Peter's constant musing about ancestors who were seemingly involved in the creation of pretty much everything as real, or just another gag? I will admit this kind of show would offer Cryptic an excuse to do something with ship interiors, like the much requested ship player housing, or something, but that's more systems based then narrative based.
4. Now here comes the big one, the Picard Show. From what little we have been told of it, it is seemingly going to cover the same ground as STO did in regards to the aftermath of the Hobus Supernova destroying the Romulan homeworld, and the dissolution of the Romulan Star Empire. Gecko himself has said that if the contradictions to STO are small, they will retcon STO if need be, or, if the changes are very large, they will just say STO is in another universe and have us visiting the Picard show timeline. Either way, this story is one that star Trek Onlne has already done, not only that, but its probably the largest story in STO besides the Iconian War plot, taking up pretty much the entire Romulan faction's 30+ unique missions. Cryptic changing STO's existing missions to fit the new information from the Picard show wouldn't be them doing new story content, but modifying existing content, and given how large that sotry is, even if we do go to the Picard timeline to visit it, I don't see them doing a large story with it, but something more similar to that one time we visited the Kelvin Timeline.
Realistically speaking, only further seasons of Discovery, and the Section 31 spinoff with Mirror Phillipa, offer obvious narrative hooks for extended development of STO's plotlines that I can see. This being due to Discovery being the larger "big epic narrative" show of the bunch, and Section 31's general "we are everywhere doing everything" type of operation, which would let them get involved into a number of adventures, eve if they are more secretive.
I am aware that there is another, kid focused, animated series that was announced, but given that we know basically nothing about it, whereas with the others we know at least the high level basics of them, I can't even begin to speculate on how this might, or might not, factor in, so I won't really try to delve into it.
This is OFC also dependent on how long STO lasts, and if it lasts long enough for some of these shows to even come out. Cryptic did say 2018 was the second best year for STO, and Geko mentioned they already have a plan for the year ahead, so I don't see it ending anytime in the immediate future. That being said, CBS has said they don't want all of these shows running at once, and that some will replace others. So assuming each one of them gets 3-4 years of run time, it could be another 10-15 years before all of them are out and done. While I would love for STO to last that long... it probably won't. STO has already done mostly everything to begin with, something Geko brought up back in November, and I doubt they could keep making up interesting idea to keep it afloat another decade.
Now, onto the main point at hand. The thing that makes most of the upcoming/rumored Trek series different from the previous ones is that they are not so much made as "continuations" of the Trek narrative, in so far as going out, exploring worlds, meeting new aliens of the week, etc. etc., but rather they are more of what I call "gap fillers". By this I mean, in a series like Star Trek, with sequels, prequels, and concurrently running stories, there inevitably ends up being gaps in the viewers knowledge about certain things. Viewers love to speculate on these gaps, and the beta-canon equally loves using these elements in their stories because they are big unknowns that people want explored. The problem with this is that, ultimately, these kinds of stories are so very focus on a particular subject that they don't end up having the sort of larger scenarios, or plots, that something like STO usually latches onto for its content. Now, like any new Trek show there will inevitably new costumes, gizmos, and ships for lockbox, lobi, and event rewards, but, at least from what little we know about them, most of these new Trek materials don't obviously offer STO a significant source of content for more narrative progression in my opinion.
1. To start off with, lets look at the rumored Starfleet Academy show. From what little has been said about it, the Starfleet Academy show is apparently going to be a CW style teen/young adult drama show, and the people supposedly involved with it are people known for these kinds of dramas. I will admit I despise these kinds of shows, but I would still be glad that they did a Starfleet Academy show because Starfleet Academy is a big part in most of the backgrounds of the main characters of Star Trek. After all, most of them went to Starfleet Academy to get onto the ships in the first place. That being said, I don't really see much a Starfleet Academy would offer to Star Trek Online. STO BEGINS with our players graduating after 4-5 years at the academy. All the "Trials and Tribble-ations" that the characters go through in the show would be things our characters went through before even the tutorial begins. I don't see Cryptic forcing us to go back and redo our Academy training since we have already proven ourselves capable to save the galaxy 16 times over by now. And after the backlash of Tovan, I don't see Cryptic forcing us to have some academy cadet be stuck with us for an entire mission arc as they learn how to do all the things they were taught in real world scenarios. This would be especially silly for them to do given that we already had this sort of narrative with Kuumaarke, and it would just be a repeat of that.
Even when it comes to getting the actors in the game for VA work, unless more time travel is involved(please no) it would be difficult to get them involved. Having the TNG/DS9/VOY actors appear in-game works because its been like 25 years since those shows were on the air, and its been 30 in-game years since the end of Voyager, giving them a somewhat even level of aging both in-game, and in real life. Teen dramas like Starfleet Academy usually have 20 somethings playing 18-23 year olds. Even if Starfleet Academy was set during TNG/DS9/VOY those characters would now be 50+ in universe. The voices of these actors simply wouldn't match the older appearances they would have in STO. If its set before TNG, that just makes the problem worse.
As I mentioned above, I could see Cryptic adding new costumes, new gizmos, new ships, and probably something like new mini-games/activities at Starfleet Academy(and probably make some Klingon variants for the KDF) but in terms of a larger story arc, I just don't see it.
2. Moving onto the Khan miniseries. From what we were told the Khan mini-series, named Ceti Alpha V, was going to involve Khan and his Augment family, and their challenges trying to survive Ceti Alpha V. While it would be cool to see this point in Khan's life, we already know how Khan's story begins(Space Seed) and ends(Wrath of Khan), and we know he didn't get off that planet in all the time between those two events, limiting just how much outside interference could have actually gone on. While this fills in Khan's story a bit more, there is nothing intrinsically about this mini-series that offers any sort of narrative opportunities that haven't already existed in the series for years now. Now, again, like the Starfleet Academy show, there would be new costumes and gizmos for Cryptic to throw in lockboxes and the lobi store, but narratively its a bit dry.
3. When it comes to Lower Decks, that is an animated comedy show. More specifically, we have been told its about the least important people on the least important ship in the fleet. While it will be cool to get insight into how the lower decks people go about their day, the ship they are on isn't the Enterprise, it isn't the Defiant, it isn't the Voyager, it isn't one of these "hero" ships. Not only that, the show isn't about the captain, or the bridge crew, or the Chief Engineer. The show is about "Bob", the low level mechanic, who spends all his days in the Jefferies Tubes with a wrench, the kind of people who aren't involved in all the "action" of a ship's adventure. This not getting into the usually surreal nature of animated comedy shows, which make no real effort to have any sort of consistency, or set rules, since everything exists "for the gag" so to speak. Imagine trying to do something with an episode of Family Guy, do you take Peter's constant musing about ancestors who were seemingly involved in the creation of pretty much everything as real, or just another gag? I will admit this kind of show would offer Cryptic an excuse to do something with ship interiors, like the much requested ship player housing, or something, but that's more systems based then narrative based.
4. Now here comes the big one, the Picard Show. From what little we have been told of it, it is seemingly going to cover the same ground as STO did in regards to the aftermath of the Hobus Supernova destroying the Romulan homeworld, and the dissolution of the Romulan Star Empire. Gecko himself has said that if the contradictions to STO are small, they will retcon STO if need be, or, if the changes are very large, they will just say STO is in another universe and have us visiting the Picard show timeline. Either way, this story is one that star Trek Onlne has already done, not only that, but its probably the largest story in STO besides the Iconian War plot, taking up pretty much the entire Romulan faction's 30+ unique missions. Cryptic changing STO's existing missions to fit the new information from the Picard show wouldn't be them doing new story content, but modifying existing content, and given how large that sotry is, even if we do go to the Picard timeline to visit it, I don't see them doing a large story with it, but something more similar to that one time we visited the Kelvin Timeline.
Realistically speaking, only further seasons of Discovery, and the Section 31 spinoff with Mirror Phillipa, offer obvious narrative hooks for extended development of STO's plotlines that I can see. This being due to Discovery being the larger "big epic narrative" show of the bunch, and Section 31's general "we are everywhere doing everything" type of operation, which would let them get involved into a number of adventures, eve if they are more secretive.
I am aware that there is another, kid focused, animated series that was announced, but given that we know basically nothing about it, whereas with the others we know at least the high level basics of them, I can't even begin to speculate on how this might, or might not, factor in, so I won't really try to delve into it.
This is OFC also dependent on how long STO lasts, and if it lasts long enough for some of these shows to even come out. Cryptic did say 2018 was the second best year for STO, and Geko mentioned they already have a plan for the year ahead, so I don't see it ending anytime in the immediate future. That being said, CBS has said they don't want all of these shows running at once, and that some will replace others. So assuming each one of them gets 3-4 years of run time, it could be another 10-15 years before all of them are out and done. While I would love for STO to last that long... it probably won't. STO has already done mostly everything to begin with, something Geko brought up back in November, and I doubt they could keep making up interesting idea to keep it afloat another decade.
Agents of Yesterday Arc issues, Klingon War Arc issues, Spectres Arc issues, Wasteland Arc issues, Romulan Mystery Arc issues, Cloaked Intentions Arc issues, Cardassian Struggle Arc issues, Lost Dominion Arc issues, Cold War Arc issues, Borg Advance Arc issues, New Romulus Arc issues, Solanae Dyson Sphere Arc issues, Delta Quadrant Arc issues, Iconian War Arc issues, Yesterday's War Arc issues, Future Proof Arc issues, New Frontiers Arc issues, Gamma Quadrant Arc issues, Age Of Discovery Arc issues, J'Ula's Discovery Arc issues, Klingon Civil War Arc issues, Terran Gambit Arc issues
Post edited by baddmoonrizin on
0
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
We get some new toys to play with in STO.
There is no Caitian arc. What's the deal between Ferasans and Caitians anyway? What about reconciliation/reunification?
Where did the Organians go?
Who are the Cytherians?
And what about these humans who are evolving towards being Q?
Andromedans have been on the fringes of Trek since TOS. Will our galaxy be overrun by tiny drinking birds? Or gargantuan space squid?
The many Delta Quadrant empires Voyager flew past. There's some lateral expansion possible in the DQ map.
I could go on, but you get the idea. Trek is huge, and STO has yet to explore very much of it at all.
The fact that we don't know much about DQ (or GQ, for that matter) means there are more stories, not less. There's a lot more room to maneuver without worrying about violating canon when you're away from the places that are defined in canon.
IF the changes are big and STO is set in an alternate universe, then basing things strictly off canon is no longer viable any more since it is a completely seperate universe with its own way of doing things and what happens in one universe doesn't happen in another, now if events diverged from the Hobus disaster then it can be bookended there. This makes Picards series coming to STO a pointless effort to consider adding to the game canon unless it was "visited" by a convienent parallel universe jump drive on your ship.
In any event, the effects of a seperate universe forming from the hobus disaster heading into STO would have to be signifcant enough to change events enough. This allows Cryptic more freedom to choose how they wish to advance their storyline. Cryptic i doubt have ran out of ideas, but so long as they are tethered to the canon universe then they will be. I can't imagine that after all these years they are played out, especially considering when creating their own events using canon that they had other options they could go for.
Cryptic should move into 2412 in game and set their own canon events into motion, sort of like a blank cheque within bounds of course so long as CBS are okay with it. Remember Trek is also about exploration, diplomacy and what not, so exploring the truly unknown in STO would be something to look forward to.
Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
> I'm with DC's opinion. All the talk of a plethora of new Trek shows was just the producer's attempt to keep DSC from being cancelled. I'd be very surprised if DSC got a 3rd season.
It certainly doesn’t look good at this point. As CBS isn’t releasing their data for the show, we won’t know for sure unless they renew.
That's simply not true. Season 3 of Discovery has not yet been approved. The statement regarding the S31 spinoff was the it "may not start until Discovery has ended".
As for the Topic id love to see the Enterprise F in the picard series or at least the odyessey class but i dont know what its actual staus is in conon.
"It appears we have lost our sex appeal, captain."- Tuvok
Until otherwise stated, we can assume that it's non-canon. CBS would first have to canonically state that the Enterprise-E has been decommissioned/Destroyed before F can canonically come. It's something that could happen in the Picard series.
Anything BIG (retcon) wise will not be done for the sake of bringing STO into conformity with the new shows. STO isn't canon. It's never been canon and it will never be canon. Any BIG and I mean BIG BIG story line changes (like whole replacement of story arcs) will only be done with the intent of actually generating a financial return. For example with all the focus on Discovery right now, the goal is to bring new Discovery fans into the game. If any big retcons are made because of the other shows, it will only be because they think that they can somehow profit on it.
I don't see a contradiction to what I said.
> szim wrote: »
>
> I don't see a contradiction to what I said.
>
>
>
> Except he DID announce it in the second article, which is dated after the first. There is most certainly going to be a S3 of Discovery.
If CBS has announced they are renewing esteedee for Season 3 kindly post a link, otherwise you are engaging in wishful thinking as surely as the clickbait brigade on YT who are claiming that esteedee has already been axed.
> somtaawkhar wrote: »
>
> coldnapalm wrote: »
>
> You mean the article that SPECIFICALLY said that S3 of essteedee is NOT officially green lit? The one that said it was just a fait acompli...which basically means it's just an assumption. You know, the thing YOU rail against when somebody posts an anti essteedee "news". And here you are claiming that it is definite. Hypocrisy much?
>
>
>
> You are very bad at reading TV speak aren't you?
>
> If you are just going to derail the thread, please leave.
>
>
>
>
> Really? You are gonna tell me that there has NEVER been a case of a writer or producer claiming fait acompli only to have the project canceled on them. NOT ONCE. Because otherwise, s3 being green lit is just as much a rumor mongering as anything midnight's edge puts out. Tribalism at it's best. The other side is rumor mongering when they report something they heard as truths...but when my side does it...well that's okay. No...it's not. Either rumor mongering is bad and what you just posted was BAD...or it's fine and you can no longer hold what people like doomcock and midnight's edge does. Or you are just a hypocrite and quite frankly at that point anything you say is rather worthless.
Kinda unfair to Doomcock.....at least he admits the rumors he’s mongering could be melarky, as opposed to someone who thinks “TV Speak” should be treated as if God Himself wrote it in letters of fire forty feet high on the side of Mt Sinai.
We won’t know for sure until CBS either renews for Season 3 or axes the show officially.
Actually, I was referencing Riker, Vash, and presumably Janeway, though Q never says it outright. For some reason humans scare the bluejeans off of Q. A story arc about a nascent Q of human stock could be of interest.
Hmm, Admiral Janeway becoming Q? Nah, she lacks a sense of humor, and we know Q have a keen sense of humor.
https://trekmovie.com/2018/10/06/exclusive-star-trek-executive-producers-reveal-picard-series-production-details/
The Picard Show currently has no cast (outside of Patrick Stewart), no crew and no sets. It also has no name. Like the Section 31 show, it has producers and scripts, but nothing else. We should be hearing about casting for the Picard Show (and hopefully an actual name) over the next two months or so.