I really hope not. However, this generation of writers are firmly in the grip of ‘trauma is necessary for interesting characters’ and the Hero’s Journey Pop anthropological theory of the 1970s that took over film schools.

So sure, why wouldn’t everyone need to be traumatized by a Betazoid dying horribly?!! /s

I have a feeling that Ocam Sadal (played by Canadian Romeo Carrere) could be an interesting third wheel in the dynamic between Daren and Caleb.

He’s such a contrast to his sister Tarima, and really gives off that Lwaxana Betazoid, says whatever he’s thinking because he knows what you’re thinking vibe.

I don’t see Brazilian-Canadian actor Rafa Virago as Pritchard in any of these publicity stills but it looks like there may be one or two new background regulars that we’ll be seeing.

I would add Heart of Glory because it gives a crucial introduction to where the Klingons are as a society in the 24th century much as The Neutral Zone introduces the state of the relationship with the Romulans (and sets up the Borg threat).

One could restyle it but if this cadet is from a low gravity world, they may prefer to get around as they can on their own in this environment.

Yes, this scans.

Indie-alternative is in there but not much recent mainstream American pop.

The music reinforces my concern that Millennials are trying to make this show for the younger Zs and Alphas, but they are really making it mostly for themselves.

Which isn’t likely to be successful in the way they hope.

One of our Zs is giving the show a try but it’s not a natural sell the way Lower Decks was for them or Discovery’s early seasons for another.

Are your siblings younger Millennials or GenZs?

They definitely have different ideas about music and sound tracks.

One of our GenZ kids likes a wide range of music, but most of it is from the 1960s to 1980s. But there’s a lot of KPop blasting in house too.

I think you’ve hit it right on the head!

I’ve been thinking that this is going to be precisely as divisive among fans as the syrupy, and very American-centric, cover of Faith of the Heart for Enterprise.

Fortunately, for those who weren’t enjoying that music choice, it won’t be the title music every episode.

The title music is boring but innocuous for our household at least.

I understand that many people are quite enthusiastic about the music for this show, and are quite moved by this rendition of this song.

I am truly bored by it. My parter and our oldest GenZ both replied, “What music?”when I asked them what I thought at the end of episode 2.

Is there some deep American Millennial music preference that this is tapping into that none of our household quite understands?

Generally, Paramount owns all Star Trek IP rights.

However, reusing some things isn’t cost less. In some cases, they have to pay residuals to specific individuals or subcontractors who have creative rights.

Historically, this has led to weirdness such as renaming the Locarno character from the TNG episode ’Lower Decks’, played by Robert Duncan McNeill, to become Tom Paris in Voyager because Paramount didn’t want to pay the writer who got scrip credit for the TNG episode ongoing residuals for creating the character.

I don’t know enough about whether creators of animated character designs have rights to similar kinds of residuals, or the production houses like Titmouse for Lower Decks, but one has to wonder. It was so strange that Paramount+ suddenly said it was refocusing away from animation just as Skydance started its moves to acquire it.

As an animated Trek fan, that definitely irks, especially as it’s an animated sequence.

I have a suspicion that there’s something about animated design IP rights behind the decision though.

The old owners had decided to jettison animated Star Trek, and some other Paramount+ animated content to make the streamer mainly live action focused. Which, at the time this was announced, seemed very odd because Paramount’s owners were trying to sell the firm to Skydance, which is a major producer of high end animation for streamers.

So, my thought is that Skydance wants its own animation studio to be doing any future animated content for Paramount. There will be exceptions for long running Nickelodeon animation such as SpongeBob, Beavis and Butthead or Dora the Explorer, but relatively recent creations will get short shrift.

It was mentioned in another interview that Tawny Newsome has the script credit for episode 5 and confirmed that it is SAM-focused.

Given the complete failure to produce and release anything for Star Trek in more than a decade on the cinematic side, I can’t think any reasonable senior executive would think now is the time to let Kurtzman go. All the more, the historic chaos in relaunching the television franchise in the early seasons of both TNG and Discovery have demonstrated that it’s just not possible to launch a new overall franchise runner without running major risks.

Kurtzman’s got a reputation as being good to work with from both the studio/streamer and creative side. They don’t have any evidence to show he won’t adjust to new strategic direction.

The question more will be how far will Kurtzman himself be willing to compromise if the Ellisons give high level direction that would take the franchise in a very different direction for television.

What I do see is that some of the perceived failures will definitely lead to restricted opportunities for some of the EPs that have worked for Kurtzman. For example, Osunsami may not be given run of a project again after the S31 movie. Michelle Paradise won’t likely be asked to run another show in the franchise.

There’s a newer TrekMovie piece, just out this afternoon, that cites a new interview with Kurtzman in an industry journal.

It also notes that a large number of of new Paramount senior executives came out for yesterday’s premiere screening.

I’m not sure that it’s entirely accurate that there’s no hints of a renewal for Kurtzman’s and Secret Hideout.

In the recent SFX magazine piece for Starfleet Academy, the Kurtzman quotes hinted vaguely at “Lots more Star Trek TV is in development”.

“There’s quite a few exciting things in the works right now, but I’m not going to say more than that!”

TrekMovie observes that, ‘The SFX article noted Kurtzman was “tight-lipped about future projects,” adding that the interview was done before the announcement that[ Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley are developing a new Star Trek film.’

Thinking back to the last 5-year extension, Kurtzman was asked to map out proposal for Star Trek’s television rollout for 5-7 years forward.

Clearly, he was given clearance by the new ownership to pitch stuff towards another extension. Whether there’s any uptake is to be seen.

I just keep coming back to the previous Paramount+ and streaming heads stripping the schedule back to the point that animation was being eliminated and the live action schedule was dominated by Taylor Sheridan.

Now the new owners have a large and prestigious animation studio and Sheridan refused to renew.

Meanwhile WB is fighting back against Skydance’s takeover effort to go with Netflix’s offer.

If I had to guess, Paramount+ will see more new Star Trek animation and live action as complementary to the darker whatever that the creators of Stranger Things will bring.

Kurtzman may get another but shorter extension until the movie franchise gets off the ground, but will be fenced to the 32nd century, animated shows, and shows from the 23rd and 24th century that won’t write new canon.

This seems to be just one more thing in development that hinges on the decisions David Ellison will make about the next decade for the franchise, or at least the next five years.

Now that some of the new things that Ellison had been counting on to anchor Paramount+’s schedule (i.e. anything new from Taylor Sheridan) are complete nonstarters, perhaps there’s some room for some new Trek.

Also, the relationship between Kurtzman and David Ellison goes back to when Kurtzman was a writer and Ellison was a producer on Into Darkness. There’s no sense of negativity between them.

While Ellison hasn’t hesitated to finally cut the JJ Abrams movie contract that failed to meet deliverables, Kurtzman has delivered what CBS and Paramount wanted on television. There’s no reason to believe that they couldn’t come to a meeting of minds but there may be some of Secret Hideout’s long term EPs that might be let go in the process of a shift in direction.

So, one of our GenZ kids has now watched the trailer a couple of times and asked some questions.

They’re not the Discovery fan among our teens, preferring animation generally. (They liked Lower Decks and Prodigy.). So, I had to fill in on the 32nd century.

They’re not entirely convinced about investing in a live action series but might watch the premiere.

Meanwhile, the one who was previously a Discovery fan has just come off a Picard and TNG watch and isn’t sounding interested. The marketing is not intriguing them the way Disco season 5 did.

All to say that I am not sure that Paramount really understands Zs or marketing to them at all.

I found Paramount’s camera operator’s position on the ground looking up led to a lot of weird angles for the exchanges between Celia and the Starfleet Academy cast.

I also found the sound quality poor given it was their host and set up.

All of these issues made it a pain to watch.

Paramount continues to not run these events well.

I’m more suspicious that the old owners canceled all their animation so as to no be in conflict with Skydance’s animation studio which is top quality.

Murakami is a theatre actor who has worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company in the UK.

IGN has details and a photo.

It seems logical that anyone who’s been alive eight centuries would have a unique way of speaking.

Works for me.