It would be nice if people here can discuss what are facts and not what amounts to mass speculation. I will give you that it makes this thread more "fun", but if speculation is all this thread has to offer, then it's treading on thin ice and has little validity to exist at all. Even if the facts are thin, it would be nice if this thread had some merit and not a center of gossip. So instead of just spreading rumors to perpetuate a discussion, it would be good to talk about people and situations that are actually factual and not guesses?
JMO, you may disregard if my conclusions are absolutely baseless.
There will be more hard facts to discuss as we approach the beginning of the season. Until then, feel free to gossip. All the known facts have already been discussed in the "Renewed for a 4th season" thread.
considering that at this point, before season 4, trekulation is all we can really fall back on.
We know that they plan on resolving the Temporal Cold War angle, so that leaves a few threads dangling (i.e. future guy, and his/her identity). And Shatners appearance on the series (if it happens) is another sources of trekulation. How? When? Where? Why?
That's the fun!
Then, in season 4, when future guy is revealed to be the Crystalline Entity, Data's cousin Raoul, or a mutant Tribble, Rob can gloat about right in his trekulation (), and we can all discuss how Shatners appearance as a Xindi janitor is going to sink/revitalize the series.
There's an interview with Manny Coto over at Trekweb. Here's a couple of tidbits:
He also talks about how they originally wanted Brent Spiner to play Colonel Green from "The Savage Curtain" but he wound up playing Soong's ancestor in the end.
Interesting quotes from ex Star Trek cast members on Trekweb today...
The New York Times reports on this past weekend's James Doohan Farewell Convention in Hollywood, this time including quotations from several STAR TREK personalities who weigh in on the health of the franchise that turns 38 next month.
"I felt that STAR TREK was like a beached whale," Leonard Nimoy said of the period immediately following STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE. "I think something similar is happening now. STAR TREK is in this stranded situation. The ideas that were propelling it have run dry."
TNG's 'Tasha Yar', who appears in the new TREKKIES 2 documentary out on DVD today, echoed the sentiment.
"As soon as one series ends, the next one begins right away," she said. "How can you sustain that?"
TNG cast mate LeVar Burton ('Geordi') agrees.
"They need to shut the whole thing down, wait five years, create an interest, an excitement, a hunger for it again."
STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE executive producer Manny Coto recently told TrekWeb that he feels like the reverse is true, however.
"There doesn't have to be an end at all," Coto said. "I would be developing the next show, right now. I don't buy the whole [oversaturation thing]. Good product will always bring them. People love STAR TREK. To my mind there should be another show starting up next year so we can have a whole STAR TREK night."
Coto spoke to the NYT this weekend as well, revealing a new tidbit about the upcoming Vulcan Civil War arc on STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE: the story will parallel "the war in Iraq and the direction of the country."
Paramount executive Garry Hart tells the Times that STAR TREK's television future is not as bleak as it may seem, saying, "I have no doubt there will be a demand for more STAR TREK on television."
TREK II and VI director Nicholas Meyer told the paper that the Hollywood tendency to make franchise pictures sometimes results in box office flops.
"Whether it's other movies, comic books, video games, it doesn't matter, as long as there is some presale," he says. "Which is not to say they can't turn out a good movie. A lot of good things are done for the wrong reasons."