MisterPL

Exclusivity killed the line for me.

It started with impossible-to-get convention exclusives and ended with Target figures. 

"Our goal was to build some excitement..." More like resentment. Pissing off the core consumer base is never a good idea.

One of the things I wished Galoob had made was a Spacedock playset large enough to display all the Federation Micro Machines they offered.

It's not mandatory to like the show but, mother of God, the incessant bile from "fans" is ridiculous.

I don't recall everyone hopping on their CB radios in 1978 to talk crap about how a Star Trek movie was just a cash grab from greedy Paramount and that it should be free. No one whined that it looked too different or that the Klingons weren't real Klingons and that the whole thing was non-canonical because they were suddenly wearing pajamas.

We were happy to have live-action Trek back! Sure, we had criticisms but it had nothing to do with "introducing an Indian chick to promote the liberal SJW agenda of inclusion." No one looked at Nimoy's first scene and said, "Oh, great. It's hippy Spock."

Like I said; I'm just glad to see Trek back on TV. I'd be even happier if it was MY Trek (IE – the voyages of the starship Enterprise) but this renewal gives me hope that we'll get back to that eventually.

I think you should take one for the team and let us know. 

Nothing is immune to nerd rage.

I'd argue that every time the crew went back in time, a new timeline was created. "City on the Edge of Forever" created the timeline where Khan actually met Chekov.

Well, it's not an exact comparison...but the two franchises are related if you know the history. There was a brief comeback of M:I in the 80s but it wasn't all that good or well liked (perhaps like Enterprise wasn't?) so in 1995 we got the feature film which did great but, to me, diverged from the formula of the original series (Greg Morris reportedly hated it, I'm not sure how Nimoy or Graves felt). So M:I went on to be a totally different thing. The same happened with Star Trek 2009. Big, blockbuster film that departed from the formula of previous Treks and it hasn't been the same since. People say "well, there were people who said the same thing about TNG when it came out," but I was young when TNG came out and I grew up watching it, DS9 and Voyager. I didn't discover TOS until the 2004 DVD release (I had seen it before but wasn't able to see much). So I guess there are people now who have "grown up" with Chris Pine as Kirk and I guess the recent news would be not so great for them, they have my sympathy. I just "know what I like" and that is mainly TOS after the past 15 years. I re-watch it a few times a week. Sorry if I seem brash at times, I am not always as sensitive about things as I should be when I get talking online. I still love collecting Trek which is why I still come to these forums to see what people have to say about the new collectibles. Perhaps I shouldn't have waded into this subject and kept my mouth shut? Who knows.

Now I understand. Thanks for explaining your point, Nigel.

Yeah, imagine if Abrams rebooted Trek and immediately killed off half the bridge crew and made Kirk the bad guy! (Actually that might have made a compelling Mirror Universe plot, but I digress...)

Cruise has definitely done his own thing, moving M:I from an ensemble piece to his star vehicle. I'd ague it was more of a Battlestar Galactica reimagining that what happened with Trek, though. Abrams kept canon intact by creating the alternate timeline. It's just a different playground with fewer rules thanks to it being a new continuity.

As for criticism of Discovery, most or what I've read has been about how "it should be free" or that the show is suddenly "pushing a progressive, liberal agenda." People leveling these gripes insist they're long-time fans but that doesn't seem likely since they've apparently never paid for movie tickets, novels, or video games and are unaware that Trek has always been progressive. If anyone's making the same ridiculous complaints about M:I, I'd dismiss them just as quickly.

Of course there have been legitimate gripes about Discovery (pacing, tone, etc.) but they're few and far between. Most of the complaints are so superficial I have to wonder if the critics are all that familiar with the franchise, which is why I question if they're actually fans at all. 

Yeah, except for the starships, shuttlecraft, inclusive cast, racially diverse characters, futuristic setting, holodeck, communicators, interplanetary government, color-coded uniforms, musical score, cinematography, writers, directors, social commentary, and overall format of the show, it's nothing like Star Trek. I can see why so many Star Trek "fans" insist on flocking to it.

The attitude of the powers that be has been "The fans will watch it anyway" since at least the first season of TNG.

It makes sense that rival divisions of the same company wouldn't want to share assets. Despite the fact that it all goes to the same bottom line eventually, these people don't want to hand over something they've spent time, energy, and money developing only to have someone outside that circle use it for free. So it's either pay to license it or come up with something new and different that you can control.

I get it. It's just sad, sad that not only has the fandom been fractured since going from television to feature films but that the franchise itself was divided along the same lines.

"That's OUR Enterprise!" "NO! That's OUR Enterprise!"

It seems like there's an entire generation of participation trophy winners who were never taught how to deal with disappointment. They'd prefer to be cynical so that they can either be pleasantly surprised when they're mistaken or vindicated when they aren't.

I enjoy Star Trek. I have my favorites (TNG, DS9) and my disappointments (TAS, VOY) and my missed opportunities (ENT, NEM). But for the most part, I still find the franchise immensely entertaining. That's why I'm still here.

Other franchises, not so much. When they become more frustrating than fun, I just walk away. There's too much other stuff out there to waste time with something that I truly believe is going to bring me more angst than satisfaction. 

But some people would rather be negative at the first rumor (and bring down as many other people with them) before we even have a title for the show. What a morose bunch "fans" have become.

Lol... "we need real Star Trek"... so I think MisterPLs point is precisely that you can't stick a pin in a definitive "Trek" anymore because it does mean something so different to so many.

Personally, "real Star Trek" is not TOS. That's NBC's Trek, a corporate compromise. "The Cage" is real Star Trek and it's what Roddenberry modeled TNG after, right down to another Number One.

 ​Have the newer movies brought in new fans?

When you look at the box office ranking for the last three films, even adjusted for inflation, it's hard to argue that Star Trek hasn't gained fans thanks to Abrams' movies.

To get back to the topic then I guess maybe part of the question is will all the new media... including this new animated series garner more fans that translate to interest in more Trek specific events? Or even more interest in Pop Culture events?

Time will tell. I'm sure once we see art from this series, existing fans will argue over its merit as usual. That doesn't mean it won't hook new fans based on their own tastes.

Please. That looks nothing like Billy Dee Williams.

In a perfect world, CBS would tap Stage 9 to do an officially licensed product.

I recall Kirk and crew being so much shorter that AA/DST was accused of trying to attract 6" figure collectors. They corrected the problem so that TNG figures matched the scale of the Nemesis figures they'd done prior but TOS figures would still seem a tad small. The Borg line was close to 8", wasn't it? Those things were huge.

Ignoring Romulus would be a mistake. That said, if it happened ten years ago, it could be ancient history but the effects should be somewhat apparent. Romulan and Reman refugees joining the Federation, making the Klingons nervous. Romulan colonists holding fast to traditional ways and refusing to embrace a treaty with their old nemesis...

But, yeah, that's definitely an improvement to Todd's paint scheme. Subtle but significant. Well done!