The Pros and Cons of Remaking Old TOS Episodes

Like most of us, I am greatly enjoying Strange New Worlds. One of the small benefits of the series, in my mind, is that it has finally broken one of the strangest of fan habits – the insistence on literalism for TOS visuals, especially on things like ship designs and controls. Is there anyone still holding out for a “refit” of the beautiful SNW Enterprise so that it “really” looks like a set from the late 1960s? The updated look is a big part of what makes the TOS world seem relevant and alive for contemporary viewers, instead of just a nostalgia trip (as it was in the tribute episodes that showed TOS sets within a TNG/DS9 context).

Given that they have made the biggest remaining move of recasting Kirk, the idea of continuing past SNW into Kirk’s Five-Year Mission seems unavoidable. Given that Paramount seems to be contracting their streaming footprint, it is admittedly unlikely that anything like this would ever get made. But something like the Kelvin Timeline tie-in comics where they redo TOS stories and intersperse them with new ones could actually be a good format – reintroducing new viewers to classic stories while retrospectively granting more cohesion to TOS.

Obviously there would be drawbacks to redoing the old episodes. Fans would howl at any changes to the scripts, and of course there would be questions about whether any of this was worth anyone’s time or talents. And maybe it wouldn’t be! But redoing the most stone-cold classics of TOS in a more modern style could literally be the only way some new fans would engage with those stories. Young people are very intolerant of entertainment that seems old or outdated. Looking back at my childhood, I never liked TOS in large part simply because it looked too old and the acting style felt weird. If we really think that these stories are classics that deserve to endure for the long haul, a remake could be a way to inject new life into them.

What do you think? [UPDATE: You all have convinced me this is a bad idea. I will keep that in mind if I ever become head of Paramount.]

themusicgod1,

pro: anything that does not get copied will be forgotten within a generation or two. Star Trek seems big now but if it’s not kept alive with piracy, official sources, or remakes (both by paramount and others, like StarWreck) it will die out just like every other cultural phenomenon. Every copy gives it a new chance of reaching the future, p/k issues asside.

T156,

I personally doubt that they would. It goes against the philosophy behind the revival of Trek, where it’s meant to be “A Trek for everyone”. Your modern remake of TOS is SNW, and if you want something more cinematic and action-focused, that’s what the Kelvin Timeline movies are for. If you just want the older shows, you have the older shows for that.

From a practical standpoint, it would be something of a legal nightmare to dig up those scripts and start redoing them after all this time, both due to the age of the script, and the CBS/Paramount split-merger. They would have to check with the writers, or the estates of those writers if they’re no longer around, which adds quite a bit of a headache that they wouldn’t have wanted to deal with, not when they have a writing team that might do new scripts. The only exception to that that I could see is them trying to use it to get around the writer strike, but even then, that’s an unlikely prospect.

LibraryLass,

Is there anyone still holding out for a “refit” of the beautiful SNW Enterprise so that it “really” looks like a set from the late 1960s?

Sadly, I can confirm there are.

passinglurker,

While I welcome the more flexible interpretation of TOS visuals to make a world that is more immersive and functional while still keeping the color, and perceived campiness, I’d draw a hard line against making a genuine “Re-TOS” as it were. The idea of overwriting, or demoting old performances strikes me as a path to perpetual reboots and origin story retellings like we see with comic book superhero’s, and seems a tad rude to trek’s own past and how it got here.

Its also pretty unnecessary, folks often talk about how they want to see the old stories updated for a modern audience, but its often the case that the same stories have been retold with different characters and places already throughout trek’s subsequent series, and as a result we are flush with ways to retell TOS’s hit scenarios without crossing that line. Naked Time(TOS) vs Naked Now(TNG) vs Singularity(ENT) would be a commonly cited example, and we even already saw SNW demonstrate one such way to go about this with “a quality of mercy” a time traveling what-if reimagining of “balance of terror” had pike been captain and not kirk.

I accept and expect paramount to still be making at least one show set in the 23rd century for as long as SNW and its successors do well, but these should be used to look forward and expand on the time period not backwards at where we’ve already gone before.

const_void,

Plus, our society has moved on.

Science fiction at its best allows us to ask relevant questions of ourselves and find answers of hope and belief in a better tomorrow.

I would rather see new stories that go there.

reshooting stories from TOS take away that opportunity.

jaredwhite,
jaredwhite avatar

I like the idea of eventually arriving at canonical TOS era, but I wouldn't want a beat-by-beat recreation of any particular episode. I was actually thinking though, it would be pretty jaw-dropping if SNW eventually arrives at the events of Captain Pike's accident. Seeing how Pike handles himself right before it happens, knowing his terrible fate, and seeing the crew deal with the fallout over the next several episodes at least, would make for pretty powerful TV.

Emperor_Cartagia,

I think that instead of doing a TOS remake they should move forward in the TOS era but with another ship and it’s adventures. Imagine following Una Chin-Riley as Captain of, say, the USS New Jersey? Or a non-Constitution like the Reliant? Contemporary to the Enterprise under Kirk, on its own missions, and she takes Lt. Ortegas and (now Commander) La’an Noonien-Singh as her XO. That way we get new stories but still they get the nostalgia factor and the writing constraints of a lesser technological level.

passinglurker,

Or a non-Constitution like the Reliant?

Oh! Oh! USS Pioneer NCC-1500! its the TOS era STO easter egg also tucked away in the PIC’s starfleet museum. I just really like the sort of side kick hero ship vibes the class has compared to other alternate-TOS era designs I’ve seen.

LibraryLass,

Or, keeping up SNW’s traditions of reviving projects from early in Star Trek’s history, we could finally get M’benga leading a medical frigate in the vein of the Hopeship pitch.

williams_482,
@williams_482@startrek.website avatar

What would be the incentive to outright remake episodes instead of creating new ones with the same set of characters? Old fans will mostly hate the remakes, with some begrudging (but far from universal) acceptance if they execute it extremely well. New fans who aren’t familiar with TOS won’t know the difference, and worse, will see even less reason to use these remakes as a jumping off point into the older series: why go watch something that Paramount obviously thought was so terrible they had to redo it? And people who aren’t Star Trek fans but exist in the periphery where they could get hooked in will see this as an example of creative bankruptcy from a giant studio riding yet another huge IP into the ground for lack of any new ideas.

I don’t think anyone would want this.

Contrast that with releasing a TOS “season 4” which uses these same characters and sets, and like all Star Trek leans on similar tropes, but isn’t outright recreating anything. Those existing TOS fans who have been won over by SNW will be at least curious about seeing what more this cast and writing team can do with that time period, and are much more likely to give it a shot. Newer fans who haven’t seen TOS will react largely the same as they would with outright remakes, plus the possibility of them being drawn towards TOS itself as well. And to potential fans on the periphery, this is at least less of a flagrant “we’re all out of ideas” option than outright remakes would be.

Personally I’m extremely intrigued by this recast Kirk, and would like to see more of him (not at the expense of Pike and company). But I definitely don’t want to stick Paul Wesley in exactly the same spots with more or less the same words and actions as William Shatner, just to revel in a sharper picture of a nicer set.

Tired8281,

why go watch something that Paramount obviously thought was so terrible they had to redo it?

Sorry, that point-of-view just doesn’t jibe with the immense amount of re-makes and sequels we’ve got out there now. If it was common to think a re-make means the whole thing sucks and shouldn’t be watched, re-makes wouldn’t be as successful as they are.

williams_482,
@williams_482@startrek.website avatar

I wasn’t referring to the remake being “so terrible they had to redo it”, but the original.

Paramount has a financial incentive to get people interested in their products, including TOS. Any new Star Trek show is valuable both as a draw for people interested in it, and as an opportunity to get people interested in watching the older, already existent shows. An outright remake of one of those older shows tells a potential convert brought in by your remake that the original version is something they probably shouldn’t bother with.

Tired8281,

I know you meant the original. I just feel that, if that was the way people felt about originals after re-makes are made, we wouldn’t have so many re-makes. I think people feel more like, if they bothered to do a re-make, the original must be pretty good.

passinglurker,

Contrast that with releasing a TOS “season 4” which uses these same characters and sets, and like all Star Trek leans on similar tropes, but isn’t outright recreating anything.

Technically that’s already been done with TAS… Would a TAS remaster similar to TOS-R be out of the question? basically keep the voice acting (and other sfx since I expect it can’t be isolated) but reanimate it from the ground up?

khaosworks,

There is a kind of middle ground I can see them considering - remake specific episodes while forging on with new ones, much like the IDW Kelvinverse comic did when they retooled “Where No Man Has Gone Before”. It’d only make sense if they used the opportunity to retcon certain details, though, or else it’d seem completely gratuitous (like the Gus Van Sant version of Psycho), even more so than your standard fan service episode. “Space Seed” with La’An might be interesting.

Or they could set some episodes between the episodes we already know - like: “Captain’s Log: having left Sherman’s Planet and removed the last of our tribble infestation, we find ourselves with a new assignment…”

passinglurker,

I’m not keen on “in between the episodes” episodes, you’d either be viewing them out of order or alternating between two different casts.

lowvisnitpicker,

Modern TV is so expensive to make that a flashy show like SNW is doing well if it can average ten episodes per year. On that basis alone I want them to do new stories. I wish they would lean a little less on TOS sometimes too. Maybe then they’d have time to write some scenes for Ortegas.

Electricorchestra,

While I do agree that TOS looked dated even when I was a kid I don’t know if we should redo TOS just for updating it’s sake. I don’t remember how far into the 5 year mission TOS starts but I would be happy to get episodes before or after it. My main point is that I think society is at a different place and our science fiction should represent that. I think some of the great TOS episodes hit so hard because we understand our society having that problem and it gives us solutions to our own struggles. While many of the social issues of the late 60’s are still prevalent and it seems like American (I’m not American) is backsliding on a lot of things such as Women’s Rights I would still like these issues looked at from where we are today and not where we were in the 60’s.

TL:DR Science fiction is an abstraction of our society and I want our Sci-fi to abstract 20XX and not 1960’s.

echo,

Making new “TOS” episodes that take place during the five year mission would be cool (maybe even setting it after TOS and making a “season 4”), but I really have no interest in them just remaking episodes that already exist. It just seems like a waste of everyone’s time and budget they could use to make something new.

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