StillPaisleyCat

There were media reports last week noting that a new CBS Studios production, under the pseudonym ‘Dovercourt’, had been added to the Rumour section of the Directors Guild of Canada (DGC) Ontario hotlist.

As of today, there is more confirming information, and a clear indication that this is the greenlit Star Trek Section 31 movie event starring Michelle Yeoh.

‘Dovercourt’ has moved into the firmer preproduction section of the list. It’s identified as a TV movie. Olantudne Osunsami is listed as the director, with the two other EPs based in Canada Frank Siracusa and John Weber also listed. These all line up with the previous S31 direct to streaming movie announcement in the spring.

Preproduction is listed as running from May 1 to October 22, 2023. This implies that production design and costume design are underway in the Greater Toronto Area.

Paul Henry Kirby is listed as Production Designer (PD). He seems to be new to Star Trek. I find listings that he was PD on Shazam! Fury of the Gods and several other cinematic releases. He was Art Director on Batman Begins. (His portfolio is listed on a personal website paulkirby.com.)

The production location is given as Toronto rather than Mississauga, which suggests that the big volume leased soundstages at Pinewood Toronto Studios may be getting one more redress for the movie rather than using CBS’ own stages.

The hotlist says it is compiled by the guild from “from deal memos, callsheets, crew lists and Members updating their availability.“

If you’re not familiar, every month the main publisher of Trek fiction, Simon & Schuster puts out an offering of more than a half dozen ebooks for $ 0.99 in Canada and the US and at a similar low price in some other countries.

This month is a bit of a blast back to the late Berman era with a collection of DS9 Dominion War books, a Voyager Seven of Nine story and a few others.

The standout of the month however is the Star Trek TNG - X-Men crossover ‘Planet X’.

While my preference is for physical books, Simon & Schuster’s ebook deals got me invested in the high quality Trek Relaunch continuity of Treklit as well as helped fill in my collection of out-of-print standalone classics.

Can highly recommend taking a risk on adding ebook specials at low cost to your ebook summer reading.

A bit late, but for those who aren’t aware, the small town of Vulcan, Alberta, has long embraced its connection to the franchise. A gigantic model, Trek themed uniforms for the town council, fairs and parades - nothing seems to be too much for this cheerful town of unabashed fans.

Conan O’Brien may have goggled to hear of it, but at this point it’s a point of multigenerational identity and civic pride.

I thought folks here might welcome a local take. (And I was myself taken aback by the local news site’s name ‘Chat News Today.’)

@[email protected] is boosting the news that the Save Prodigy petition has crossed 29k signatures.

Although change.org has become a monetized platform, those who are willing to use it and haven’t yet signed may wish to help it get to the 30k threshold that helped launch SNW and save The Orville.

The wonderful comedy of Vulcan manners, Charades, turns out to be a first time directing Trek for Newfoundlander Jordan Canning.

The Newfoundlanders on my spouse’s side will be stoked to learn this.

While we just saw with the Nielsen numbers from June that SNW is continuing to perform well against other original streaming series, Parrot Analytics is demonstrating that the audience interest is being maintained through the season and the strikes. Only the Witcher and Stranger Things rank higher.

Parrot Analytics demand metrics pull together several different measures including social media engagement as well as their own surveys and focus groups.

They are one of a very few metrics that are designed to provide global measurement and comparisons between and across markets. They also capture demand on phones and PCs not just televisions. Here’s their profile for Strange New Worlds for the US. You can see other countries using the menu at the bottom of the page.

While there had been scepticism about how accurate they were for the US, since Nielsen’s streaming metrics have become available, Parrot has been confirmed to provide a fairly accurate estimate of where rankings of actual viewership will fall.

Here are the Mastodon posts directly from @[email protected].

He also confirms that the DVD release of the back half of season one, with special features is going forward for September.

@[email protected] suggests there will be some new information on Prodigy tomorrow.

Is it possible that there may be some announcements at San Diego Comic Con?

Let’s keep boosting Prodigy positively.

For those who are willing to engage in change.org’s petitions (regrettably monetized), the Save Star Trek Prodigy petition is nearing 30k signatures, and could use the support to break the threshold during the SDCC weekend.

The Directors’ Guild of Ontario hotlist is a fairly reliable source for production guild news. Star Trek preproduction in the Greater Toronto Area usually shows up there before any official announcements of production dates.

Today’s hotlist update adds a rumour for a CBS Studios television movie to start production in October.

Is ‘Dovercourt’ the working pseudonym for S31 this round? Or is there some other made for streaming movie in the schedule for CBS Stages Mississauga? Only time will tell…

An interesting and reasonably balanced piece.

I learned a few new things about the fediverse, including a Canadian angle on the creation of the ActivityPub protocol.

Prodigy EP Aaron Waltke is continuing to update on progress on his mastodon account.

“The world needs to see this.”

We’re with you @[email protected].

For those who missed it, Prodigy picked up a Children and Family Emmy nomination for 2021-2022 Outstanding Animated Series.

Prodigy continues a strong trend in critical nods with a nod for best YA / Middle Grade novel with A Dangerous Trade by Cassandra Rose Clark.

Litverse favourite authors John Jackson Miller and David Mack are both nominated for best novel for SNW The High Country and TOS/Vanguard Harm’s Way, respectively.

While I picked up the Prodigy books, I haven’t read them yet.

I can agree with Trek Movie’s reviewer that Harm’s Way is one of the strongest licensed fiction offerings not just in 2022, but for some time. If you’re a Vanguard fan, this is a great interstitial offering, with the 1701 at the focal point rather than as a cameo in other mainline Vanguard stories.