Wanderlust

Randi asked: What’s next after STTOS??? With less than 10 episodes to go, this is a fine place to discuss that.

Randi asked: What’s next after STTOS??? With less than 10 episodes to go, this is a fine place to discuss that.

I would like to continue marching through Star Trek, in release order. I’ve attached a link to a website which lays out all of Star Trek’s original airdates, but for the time being, that means:

Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973-74) — 22 half hour (23 minute) episodes

Star Trek films I-IV (1979-86)

Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-94) — 178 hour long (44 minute) episodes

I freely acknowledge that TNG may be the Russia to my Napoleon. It’s huge, and when I was a kid I didn’t like it very much. Star Trek V and VI were released during TNG’s run and can be interleaved at the appropriate points. Deep Space 9 (which I’ve barely ever seen) premiered in 1993 and overlapped TNG seasons 6 and 7. There are 446 episodes of DS9, Voyager, and Enterprise. For perspective, by the time we’re done and rested, it will have taken us about a year to get through TOS. Shew.

This doesn’t mean there aren’t a lot of questions/possibilities still up in the air! I can think of several:

— TAS episodes are half as long (and probably individually somewhat less satisfying?). How fast should we try to get through them? Two per week would take about 3 months.

— Would starting something parallel to TAS help keep things fun? Maybe even draw some new or old people in? 

— If so, there are several highly polished/produced fan films out there that have focused specifically on continuing the 5-year mission of Kirk and his crew. Some of these have had significant participation from actual Star Trek actors, writers, and production people. I would suggest these: Star Trek: Phase II, a.k.a. Star Trek: New Voyages, which has 12 episodes: http://startreklist.blogspot.com/2011/04/list-of-all-star-trek-episodes-sorted_05.html, and the upstart Star Trek Continues which has two episodes, including the continuation of “Who Mourns for Adonais?” with the actor who played Apollo: http://www.startrekcontinues.com/episodes/#.U15s0VVdU4I

— I would be open to cutting Star Trek back to once per week, and starting another science fiction series. Farscape was mentioned, which I’ve never seen, and there are other possibilities. I would probably not volunteer to lead blog those, but I would watch along and comment if someone else took it up.

Other considerations moving forward:

— Whether and when to slow down the pace going forward to make room for a few things in my life other than writing about old TV shows (although I’ve been having a lot of fun doing it)

— Whether we would be better served in a blog or community environment outside of Google Plus…?

There are probably other possibilities and questions I haven’t thought of. It would be great to pull back in some of our early people like Don Glover, Melissa Simms, Dara Korra’ti, Michael Hanscom, Pearl Young, Katharine Bond, Bill Testerman, Audrey Meyer, Jennifer Douwes, Sarah MacMillan,  Geoff Gill, and Allen Knutson….

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13 responses to “Randi asked: What’s next after STTOS??? With less than 10 episodes to go, this is a fine place to discuss that.”

  1. Kevin Black Avatar
    Kevin Black

    Re: other sci fi series, I’ve heard good things about Orphan Black, which is just starting its second season on the BBC. Only 12 eps so far (10 per season). I wouldn’t entirely rule out leading the way through that. 🙂

    Reply
  2. Katharine Bond Avatar
    Katharine Bond

    I would be up for more Star Trek on a reduced schedule. I’m not entirely sure about my ability to keep up with posting on some level.

    Another series would also be interesting. I’ve been interested in Orphan Black.

    Reply
  3. Jennifer Douwes Avatar
    Jennifer Douwes

    I keep writing and deleting so I’ll just do a quick summary: less is more :-). I’d find time for that.

    Reply
  4. Don Glover Avatar
    Don Glover

    Lost in space!

    Reply
  5. Kevin Black Avatar
    Kevin Black

    Don, I’m pretty sure you’re kidding. 🙂 If you want to blog it, I’ll try it–but I don’t promise more than a few eps.

    Reply
  6. Randi Cohen Avatar
    Randi Cohen

    1. On  board with anything that does not require I take the lead!  Comfortable with current pace, so 2 approximately 1-hour watching times per week.  Would be interested in continuing Star Trek and/or watching something else too.  

    2. I get concerned about lack of privacy on Google plus, would prefer a community where I could be more anonymous, but am living with Google plus and have done what I can to improve the privacy settings for my posts.

    Reply
  7. R. Alex Reutter Avatar
    R. Alex Reutter

    My only concern about Orphan Black is that the series isn’t complete. 

    As for moving through all of ST at one a week… that’s ~3 years for STNG and ~9 years for the rest.  Maybe it’s easier to take it one step at a time; if there’s energy for TAS, let’s do that, if there’s still energy for TNG, let’s do that, and so on.

    Maybe save the movies for Friday Flix?

    Reply
  8. Kevin Black Avatar
    Kevin Black

    If you figure we can do about 3 seasons a year (2 eps per week, but with catch up days and breaks between seasons), and counting TAS as one season, there are 25 more seasons of Trek (1 TAS, 7 each TNG, DS9, and VOY, and 4 ENT). That’s a little bit boggling. Going to 1 per week would not quite cut our pace in half if we needed fewer breaks, but it would certainly take even longer.

    Reply
  9. Kevin Black Avatar
    Kevin Black

    But yes, one day (season, series) at a time! At least until they start interleaving TNG and DS9, if we live that long.

    Reply
  10. Randi Cohen Avatar
    Randi Cohen

    Wow, amazing that I watched that muchTV the first time around! That being said, I like watching two hours per week of something so why not star trek?

    Reply
  11. Kevin Black Avatar
    Kevin Black

    From a writing and production standpoint, development of ST5 and ST6 was influenced by the fact that these activities took place during production of TNG. There was some sharing of sets and props between the productions, and the character of Worf appears in ST6, albeit in a glorified cameo role. I like the idea of following release order instead of in-universe continuity–otherwise we should have started with Star Trek: Enterprise.

    Reply
  12. Katharine Bond Avatar
    Katharine Bond

    What if we didn’t have a schedule but pre – populated discussion threads and people contributed as they could at the speed they wanted?

    Reply
  13. Randi Cohen Avatar
    Randi Cohen

    I like the schedule, itgives me goals. Still enjoy reading posts of others watching eps later on.

    Reply

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