Star Trek: Discovery Catch-All [Spoilers]

rat boy wrote:

Male Lead: No clue. First choice Nathan Fillion's signed on for Modern Family this season.

That's the best news I've heard in this whole thread. Yay for post Castle success.

Djinn wrote:

Head of CBS All Access: "It’s the lightest ad load you can get. We’re toying with the idea of a commercial free option."

These are words that came out of someone's mouth. Someone who apparently doesn't understand that, by definition, ad-free IS the lightest ad load you can get.

I think the networks are pretty generally behind the curve on this. Especially given things like NBC's head of research discounting Netflix, and how it took him until this summer to realize that most people won't start watching a show unless they can first watch the earlier episodes.

Gremlin wrote:

I think the networks are pretty generally behind the curve on this. Especially given things like NBC's head of research discounting Netflix, and how it took him until this summer to realize that most people won't start watching a show unless they can first watch the earlier episodes.

Duh.

The networks are notorious for only having the previous 5 episodes of a show available on their web sites.

So even if you hear good things and maybe want to catch up at the mid season break with 10-12 episodes you can't do it through their service.

Stele wrote:
Gremlin wrote:

I think the networks are pretty generally behind the curve on this. Especially given things like NBC's head of research discounting Netflix, and how it took him until this summer to realize that most people won't start watching a show unless they can first watch the earlier episodes.

Duh.

The networks are notorious for only having the previous 5 episodes of a show available on their web sites.

So even if you hear good things and maybe want to catch up at the mid season break with 10-12 episodes you can't do it through their service.

I've read they are going to do this with Star Trek on CBS All-Access as well: you must maintain a monthly sub for as long as the series airs, and they will remove episodes a few weeks after they are released. No single-month subs and/or binging at the end of the season.

PaladinTom wrote:
Stele wrote:
Gremlin wrote:

I think the networks are pretty generally behind the curve on this. Especially given things like NBC's head of research discounting Netflix, and how it took him until this summer to realize that most people won't start watching a show unless they can first watch the earlier episodes.

Duh.

The networks are notorious for only having the previous 5 episodes of a show available on their web sites.

So even if you hear good things and maybe want to catch up at the mid season break with 10-12 episodes you can't do it through their service.

I've read they are going to do this with Star Trek on CBS All-Access as well: you must maintain a monthly sub for as long as the series airs, and they will remove episodes a few weeks after they are released. No single-month subs and/or binging at the end of the season.

And since it is on a streaming service, no DVR'ing of the season to watch later. This is bullsh#t.

It's like they want you to torrent.

When I first heard of the new ST I was hoping it would be an animated show taking place after Insurrection in the prime universe to allow them to reuse the cast from the various TV series' but not worry about how they looked physically (e.g not worry how Brent Spiner is aging while Data doesn't). Something like following the USS Titan after the dominion wars with Riker as the captain

Rat Boy wrote:

The lead's not a captain, she's a lieutenant commander. And not white.

I'm really interested in how they're going to make this compelling. Unless the captain's a complete asshole and this is really just going to be about the mutiny of the week.

cube wrote:
Rat Boy wrote:

The lead's not a captain, she's a lieutenant commander. And not white.

I'm really interested in how they're going to make this compelling. Unless the captain's a complete asshole and this is really just going to be about the mutiny of the week.

Wouldn't surprise me if the long term plan is for the story to be about how she eventually ascends to the captaincy. Would be an interesting angle.

The show also doesn't have to be about the captain. The TNG episode The Lower Decks demonstrates how there are still stories to tell where the captain is peripheral. And there are many DS9 episodes where Sisko doesn't feature.

The captain could be a role similar to General Hammond in Stargate. Our new female lead would be the Jack O'Neill character.

Djinn wrote:

The captain could be a role similar to General Hammond in Stargate. Our new female lead would be the Jack O'Neill character.

Or like Riker in Season 1 of TNG, where more often than not the action was focused around him instead of Picard.

cube wrote:
Rat Boy wrote:

The lead's not a captain, she's a lieutenant commander. And not white.

I'm really interested in how they're going to make this compelling. Unless the captain's a complete asshole and this is really just going to be about the mutiny of the week.

It worked for The West Wing. You couldn't keep POTUS out of the story entirely, but it wasn't like he had to figure into every scene of every episode.

Kurrelgyre wrote:
cube wrote:
Rat Boy wrote:

The lead's not a captain, she's a lieutenant commander. And not white.

I'm really interested in how they're going to make this compelling. Unless the captain's a complete asshole and this is really just going to be about the mutiny of the week.

It worked for The West Wing. You couldn't keep POTUS out of the story entirely, but it wasn't like he had to figure into every scene of every episode.

Being lead doesn't mean you figure into every scene of every episode. Bartlett was still the lead character though.

For a political show example, there's Veep or House of Cards (with the obvious caveats).

Try to remember this is a prequel to a show where more people cosplay as the second-billed lead rather than the first and where two towns in Scotland fought over whether or not they were the birthplace of a character mentioned in the show's end credits. People will latch on to whatever character speaks to them the most.

In my experience, the characters I look forward to turn out to be "blah" and the characters that seem the weirdest turn out to be my favorites: Data, Garak, The Holo Doc, Dr Phlox.

Gremlin wrote:

and how it took him until this summer to realize that most people won't start watching a show unless they can first watch the earlier episodes.

That is unbelievable, but it totally explains the way they've been doing things. But seriously, how did they not know this? It's like these people don't even like TV.

Fedaykin98 wrote:
Gremlin wrote:

and how it took him until this summer to realize that most people won't start watching a show unless they can first watch the earlier episodes.

That is unbelievable, but it totally explains the way they've been doing things. But seriously, how did they not know this? It's like these people don't even like TV.

I mean, at least he recognizes that now. But how long did it take them to ask that question?

I may be an outlier, given I've been watching television exclusively sequentially-ordered, mostly in binges, ever since Babylon 5. (By exclusively in order, I mean I watched an episode of SVU once, a couple of Simpson episodes, and an Adventure Time episode, and I think that's it for out-of-order stuff in the past ten years.) But it seems like most people I know have pretty similar habits.

IMAGE(http://scifanatic.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/TrekMovie_DSC_Infographic_8_30_15_FIN.png)

The lead character will be known primarily as Number One; she will be the first officer of the Discovery.

http://trekcore.com/blog/2016/08/bry...

A number of people have taken this to mean that she will be the same character Majel Barrett played in the original TOS pilot "The Cage", though that's not really supported by Fuller's statement.

Haha. It's going to be on Netflix? So I'll just use my VPN to watch Netflix from Europe? Is it that easy?

Yeah, that's a bit crazy. Netflix everywhere but the USA and Canada? Seriously, screw you CBS!

Stele wrote:

Haha. It's going to be on Netflix? So I'll just use my VPN to watch Netflix from Europe? Is it that easy?

I really doubt your IP address is the primary way Netflix looks at what region you're in.

Fedaykin98 wrote:
Stele wrote:

Haha. It's going to be on Netflix? So I'll just use my VPN to watch Netflix from Europe? Is it that easy?

I really doubt your IP address is the primary way Netflix looks at what region you're in.

Actually, I think it is. That's how Australians have been using American Netflix, anyway.

bnpederson wrote:
Fedaykin98 wrote:
Stele wrote:

Haha. It's going to be on Netflix? So I'll just use my VPN to watch Netflix from Europe? Is it that easy?

I really doubt your IP address is the primary way Netflix looks at what region you're in.

Actually, I think it is. That's how Australians have been using American Netflix, anyway.

And it's how I was doing it in Canada - until they cracked down on VPNs here and made me stop. I'm sure Netflix knows when people are using a VPN to circumvent the regional restrictions. Once they've got a compelling reason to do it they'll stop others too.

Wouldn't you need to have signed up using the VPN?

I don't know anything about the technical end, but Netflix seemed to work based on a password and login, not on recognizing your IP. Once you'd entered your password It then looked at where you were connecting from (based on your IP, presumably) and supplied content accordingly. Even though I don't use a VPN for Netflix anymore, if I take my computer to another country and use Netflix, I'll get content for whatever country I'm in even though I'm using my Canadian login credentials.

When it stopped working for me I got a message saying that I needed to disconnect my VPN and reconnect to Netflix before I could play anything (even non-restricted content). They must maintain a blacklist of IPs or DNS servers or whatever they are to recognize people who were cheating the regional restrictions. Perhaps you could stay one step ahead of the blacklist, but who has that kind of time...

Meh. I've got other stuff to watch. I have no objection to paying for content, but there's only so much I can spend and paying to watch ads is a bit too dystopian for me.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

Wouldn't you need to have signed up using the VPN?

Nope, when I was in Australia, burned to a nearly bloody crisp (curse you non-water safe sunscreen!!!), I hit up Netflix and the shows available were wildly different from what I was used to (I'm American).

Gremlin wrote:

... paying to watch ads is a bit too dystopian for me.

People always say this like it's some scary new development. Newspapers and magazines have charged the end user while still selling ad space for centuries.