I'm actually happy they've not been boneheaded and restricted themselves to TOS tech, as TOS was 23rd century tech from the viewpoint of the limitations of the 1960's.
50 years on, we're seeing 23rd century as tech as viewed from the limitations of late 2010's technologies.
that's the thing, holo comunication is to holoprograms as tv is to EVE Online. And to overhaul the early 23rd century to fit with the new view of tech evolution...that would mean overhauling Star Trek, changing the timeline...AGAIN!
No need to change the timeline, just trust that the viewers understand.
When TMP came out there was no need to change the timeline to explain the Klingons foreheads, people just understood that a better budget and better tech meant the Klingons got to look like how they were meant to be.
Were it not for a throwaway joke in DS9 I doubt we'd ever have seen the Augment storyline in ENT, which really screws up the whole Klingon forehead thing anyway. Either the forehead/non-forehead Klingons were well known, in which case O'Brien would've been prepared for flat-foreheaded Klingons, or it was a biiiiig secret in which case Klingon agents got ahold of Men in Black memory swipes and spent decades tracking down any and all Starfleet crew who encountered the flat-foreheads and zapped them.
Or, if everyone had just grinned at the 4th wall breaking joke and left well alone, it wouldn't have peppered the franchise with shiny new plot holes.
100% agree. The whining over NX-01 design in ENT ought to have informed them that going the prequel route was going to be fractious.
Every post-TOS release has triggered a section of fandom to hop about like Gollum bellyaching about their precious, and it's gotten tedious. Setting a post VOY series would've solved a lot of it, not all, but most.
There are a pile of things in Discovery that are questionable, making it a prequel just hides some actual flaws behind perceived ones.
Comments
Well put.
The problem is that die-hard "fans" have problems with change...and that affects the production.
No need to change the timeline, just trust that the viewers understand.
When TMP came out there was no need to change the timeline to explain the Klingons foreheads, people just understood that a better budget and better tech meant the Klingons got to look like how they were meant to be.
Were it not for a throwaway joke in DS9 I doubt we'd ever have seen the Augment storyline in ENT, which really screws up the whole Klingon forehead thing anyway. Either the forehead/non-forehead Klingons were well known, in which case O'Brien would've been prepared for flat-foreheaded Klingons, or it was a biiiiig secret in which case Klingon agents got ahold of Men in Black memory swipes and spent decades tracking down any and all Starfleet crew who encountered the flat-foreheads and zapped them.
Or, if everyone had just grinned at the 4th wall breaking joke and left well alone, it wouldn't have peppered the franchise with shiny new plot holes.
100% agree. The whining over NX-01 design in ENT ought to have informed them that going the prequel route was going to be fractious.
Every post-TOS release has triggered a section of fandom to hop about like Gollum bellyaching about their precious, and it's gotten tedious. Setting a post VOY series would've solved a lot of it, not all, but most.
There are a pile of things in Discovery that are questionable, making it a prequel just hides some actual flaws behind perceived ones.