Today on the 5: Actor Colm Meaney recently commented that not every character needs to be return in modern Star Trek. Thinking back on how little I remember about Picard season 3, I have to agree and would much rather Paramount spend some cash on a proper remaster of Deep Space Nine!
Ozone Nightmare
Colm Meaney Has It Right
Welcome to your daily five, for Thursday, August 15th, 2024. I happen to see a post over on Gizmodo where there was a quote from actor Kolmini, which I think I'm pronouncing correctly, one of the stars of Star Trek The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine, where as inevitably I guess happens now, anybody who's ever been in anything popular is at some point asked, well, what happens if they want to bring you back for it, and he gave a very diplomatic answer where, and he could read the quote in there, but basically had said, well, I'm not going to, I will not say I never do something, and I'm sure, you know, if there's enough money in it, then of course he'd be a fool not to. But he also said, I think something that most people, most fans of these shows, would acknowledge, which is, I don't know if we need to reboot and revamp everything, you know, that it might not be necessary to bring back every single character from every single popular show and try to do something new with them. And it got me thinking about the fact that Picard season three, now let's throw aside Picard season one and two, because I think most people acknowledge that if they were not outright terrible, they were, that they certainly weren't that good. Season three, most people liked because what they did was they went back to a classic formula. They were smart to try to avoid changing things too much, and they just brought back characters everybody liked and put them back on a ship that everybody liked, and they just kind of did a nice lightweight story that was a celebration of these characters that people liked. I reviewed it. I talked to Brian Corfoff about it. We did a whole episode on it. We both enjoyed it, but thinking back now, I barely remember any of it. And I think that's by design. It's not meant to be weighty. It was just meant to be a fun rock, but there's nothing wrong with that. I'm not complaining about that. I think it was the best possible result for trying to do something like this, because it's just you were never going to get what I think people envisioned. If you were going to do something that people wanted like this, it would have to have been ten years ago or more. But it was fine, but it was really just popcorn. It wasn't anything of any substance. And honestly, why do that with something like Deep Space Nine, a series that really established itself as being a weighty serious show, which some people hate it for still. Some people think that that is the worst direction you could take Trek in. They want it to all be next gem where it's kind of lightweight and fun. And again, I'm not saying that they're wrong for that, but that would even more reinforce why trying to revisit that now would be a bad idea. It would be a bad idea in many ways, but also because that's one that still has a pretty divided fan base, unlike TNG, which is pretty much universally loved by anybody who likes Star Trek. Most people have come around to that, even if they weren't necessarily on board at the very beginning. They certainly are now. But you know what, Paramount should take its money and they should put it into remastering that series, which is going to be expensive. There's numerous videos that you can watch that will explain why remastering Deep Space Nine is going to be a much more difficult task than redoing the next generation. But honestly, that would be a better way to spend the money instead of bringing all these people back, paying them a bunch of money, making modern effects to make a series that would almost certainly be, if not a disappointment, a lesser revisit to a series that a lot of people really adore. Put the money into making the series as it exists, look as good as it can, and make the money off that. I would guess that it would still be cheaper to remaster DS9 than to do some kind of reboot series, which again, I don't know how much of an appetite there is for when it comes to that particular part of Trek. So I agree with Homeania, I think that not everything needs a revamp and revisit, but of course we've said that numerous times on our main shows and I've said it before on the fives, but it did have me revisit my mind Picard season three and the fact that again, so much of it has evaporated from my head, which is partially on me, but also because it did seem like a very cotton candy series, especially because they never went forward with Star Trek Legacy, or at least not yet, which seemed like the most promising new thing to come out of that series, but putting that again aside, put the money into remastering DS9, make that show look as good as it can, put out a nice, hey, 4K version, if you can, that would be a better use of Paramount's money. I think more people would respond to that than they would to a series, which might get some initial buzz and you know, first couple episodes would probably get viewership just because people would be fascinated, but does anybody who really loves DS9 see any way to revisit that series in a way that will be satisfying? I doubt it. Yes, it would be nice to see these people back in the characters again, but that would go, that would dry up in about two seconds, that enthusiasm would just go away. So instead of rebooting the series, if that's even being contemplated, please Paramount, remaster DS9 and give it to us in a physical format so it can really shine later.