All you Star Trek fans are going to have to wait a little bit longer for the premiere of Star Trek: Discovery. Well… that seems to be the idea right now anyway. Originally, it was set to be released in January 2017, which got pushed back to May 2017. And then May got pushed to “the fall”, but now that vague date might not be accurate either. While it is unknown as to when the movie will be released, CBS’s Mark DeBevoise has stated:
“It’s going great, I’ve actually been up there [to the set]. It is, you know, phenomenal. It is huge. And we’re very excited about the content, the creators, the actors, all coming together. As you said, we’re not tied to any specific release date. It’ll be there when we’re ready to do it, and when we feel it’s in a great place. We’re not worried about anything here. We’re excited, and we’ll have more specifics as we get closer to what will likely be the release dates.”
So did Star Trek over promise with their release date, originally? Or did fans just get too excited and presume the dates were fact? If this was a movie, I would say that knowing the release date would be imperative, but it’s a TV show so there are a lot of movie parts. We often see a TV show premiere, only to get cut after the first episode. It seems like it’s a bit of a crap shoot with the networks. Now, I’m not suggesting that this would get cut, but I think that we have to consider what is going on behind the scenes. Even if we want that show to be available to us now.
What is interesting, though, is that they had wanted to release this “on the heels” of the 50th anniversary of the original show. But that would have been 2016, so they’re no longer on the heels. Which begs the question, what’s going on with the production? According to an article in Variety from last year, the reason for the delay was to help meet the high expectations of the creative team behind the show. So I kind of feel like I need to side with CBS on this one. Fans want a show with some quality, right? Think back to the original, or even the Next Generation show. At the time that the show was shot, that was the extent to the special effects available to them. But this is 2017 folks. What can be done now is next to incredible.
Like with most things, I think we are being too impatient and maybe even a little hard on CBS. I think we want this done right. My thought is that if we don’t let them take the time to do it, we will have a situation of poor special effects. And is that what we really want? Further, there will always be hardcore Star Trek fans willing to watch the show, so why can’t you just wait a few more months? I know that I’m going to get flack for this from someone very close to me, but I stand by it. I think that we are too impatient these days. Me included. But sometimes I think I lack the attention span to notice. For example, I was so excited when I read that there would be a new Trainspotting movie released this year. I read that a year ago, and before I knew it, it was only a matter of weeks before it was released.
My point is that in order to make a good production, we need to let CBS and the creative team do their job. I would rather wait a year or two, even, for something good… and maybe even great, than to have them push something forward that could be sub-standard or even mediocre.