A fairly thorough piece.
Whatever your view on whether it’s a pro or con for the ensemble and storytelling, SNW ‘Lost in Translation’ having covered off the ‘met him when he made fleet captain’ reference to Pike in TOS, there seems to be a great deal of flexibility for SNW to keep bringing Jim Kirk into its stories.
Here’s one unexpected take.
So what does that mean for Kirk? We have to wait until 2265 for him to take over as captain of the Enterprise, right? Well, maybe not. Canon is oddly vague on the handover from Pike to Kirk. In fact, only one episode of TOS actually takes place in 2265: “Where No Man Has Gone Before,” the second pilot. There’s also nothing that indicates Kirk didn’t serve on the Enterprise in another role before getting promoted. If, in theory, Pike were to step down and someone else became an interim captain, then nothing is stopping Kirk from serving on the Enterprise before 2265.
Hm, here’s an interesting formulation for all or part of a final season:
Kirk and Spock working together for a year or so would give us a chance to explain the unusual situation where Spock is simultaneously science officer and XO. By the end of this season you’d have the full TOS crew in place. (Minus perhaps Chekov, or maybe he’s a cadet like Uhura was in season 1.)
Funny … maybe I’m alone in this … but I really am not that interested in SNW transitioning into TOS as a clear prequel.
I like the prequel dimension being in the background, and the canon consistency, but I want SNW to focus on itself and its own characters.
I’m not sure how the show should end, but I feel like it should end, not just slide into TOS like Rogue One into A New Hope.
If Kirk is going to be a mainstay, as it seems he will, I hope it focuses on “young Kirk” in the same way we’ve got “young” Spock without taking focus away from the SNW characters with the Spock-Chapel relationship being a nice example. I guess the canon flexibility the article talks about opens up possibilities there. But still, I don’t want the focus to be on … “how does this lead to TOS”.
I agree completely. I don’t want all TOS characters to take over, at least for another 2-3 seasons. I’m loving M’Benga’s character and would hate for a McCoy to come in to replace him. There’s a nice opening for Scotty to come into the picture without any character currently in that role but I also want this series to stand on its own. I love how the writers have gone back to an episodic series. It just works so well for trek
If there were 15 episodes per season, a few TOS bridges would be ok. But at ten? It is very tight, there is only so much story that fits.
I like how SNW is exploring the world, both inside the Enterprise and outside. There are more trees to set on fire with the current cast climbing them, more science fiction to explore, more places to discover.
If that includes some ”These Old Scientist” links, so be it—but I do like the word New in the title!