Good to know. Thanks for sharing that.
Kbin/Lemmy federation doesn’t seem as good as it once was regardless of the state of your instance there.
VS and I just seem to have settled on having separate Mastodon and Lemmy profiles, albeit with closely similar names.
The fediverse remains a work in progress but it’s good to see that this place, which drew many of us from a large commercial platform, is still active.
Fantastic to hear. Glad you can join in.
We’ll be watching S1 E3&4 this Saturday, June 20th between 3:00 and 5:00 pm EDT.
Paywalled for me in Canada.
I find that I am less and less willing to invest enthusiasm in American productions as they don’t get enough commitment from their streamers to make it worth it.
Apple seems to be make two season commitments for most shows, but generally they are following the self-destructive pattern of Syfy. There’s only so many times one can be burned.
Wow, that’s a lot of negativity towards both fancasting and idols. But I appreciate your laying out your perspective.
This fancasting was done with humorous intent, as one can tell by the original post text that I have included as well as the Chanel visor (since cdrama ‘traffic stars’ are known for being global brand ambassadors of high fashion houses).
So the joke is falling flat with you. The question is “Why?”
Star Trek fans always propose their ideas for new characters in the franchise and even for recasts. It’s nothing new. It’s done in the spirit of fun.
And it’s never taken particularly seriously by those who make casting decisions or we would have seen very different actors cast in all of the shows and movies over the past 50+ years of the continuing franchise. Especially, as many or most of the actors fancast are not any more skilled than idol actors — while on the other hand, the most recent Star Trek shows, that have consistently cast actors with good foundations and craft, have experienced the most fan negativity about casting.
What’s different about fancasting popularity idol ‘traffic stars’ from China vs the usual fancasting of A or B list American actors?
What I found different, and amusing, is that it’s a fancasting crossover from two very different entertainment contexts. It’s challenging assumptions with popular faces, known to the younger cdrama audience.
What’s also amusing to me is that it implicitly pokes fun at Star Trek’s baked-in tendency to cast at least some of the roles on the basis of physical attractiveness, despite its aspirational nature — and recognizes that there has been fan blowback when diversity in looks and body types are included.
I’m absolutely with you that Star Trek needs to be more inclusive of Asian actors, and generally inclusive of more non US actors to really have global reach.
The US-centric mindset of those at senior levels in charge of the franchise since Roddenberry, as well as the embedded American Exceptionalism, is a principal reason it’s cinematic features aren’t capable of making adequate profit margins.
Anime, kdramas and now cdramas, all are rising in global popularity, especially among GenZ and among young women. That’s a global trend affecting the audience that Star Trek needs to share in to survive. What’s the problem with considering what the franchise would need to do to compete with these?
Yes, there are other serious actors in Chinese film and television, as well as other Asian countries. And hopefully as the young audience that is interested in cdramas matures, they may broaden their horizons and take in productions that are more focused on quality than personal beauty.
However, it’s also true that very few, even among those who graduate from China’s top theatre and performing arts programs go directly into serious roles. Very few have the resources to create their own independent production companies. Most are contracted by agencies, with their careers managed by them — with enormous financial penalties if they seek to become independent or move agencies. Most are in their 30s before they can break into more serious film and television roles.
Let’s face it, Star Trek has historically put the most seasoned actors, with theatrical credits, in the Captain chair but the rest of the ensemble has typically been a mix of with less experienced actors included. Many legacy roles were cast with actors of an equivalent skill level to idols.
It’s very welcome to have an Asian actor of Michelle Yeoh’s calibre in a captain’s chair, but Sulu and Kim, in 60 years of the franchise, should not remain the only East Asian main ensemble characters. More, future casting of characters with Japanese, Korean or Chinese biographies should consider hiring actors who are from those countries rather than exclusively Americans with that heritage.
All to say, it’s an interesting discussion. Appreciate the engagement.
As I said, the images were posted on Reddit by someone who loves both Cdramas and Star Trek.
I’ve checked privately with the creator and they asked to watermark the images. They shared the watermarked versions with me by private messaging and agreed to let me post here.
This person is a professional vfx specialist working in television who did this for their own amusement. They have asked me to avoid sharing more detail on who they are which I believe is fair.
If you aren’t aware that there is a certain amount of directed compositing in many CGI engines for vfx and game design, I don’t know what to say.
Using generated render to rough up an idea can be part of the process.
Pursuit of Jade reportedly cost the equivalent of $100 million for 40 episodes and certainly looks like it.
S-tier cdramas are quite well funded now. I just watched the current day 2025 science fiction thriller Mobius on Netflix. It was at the production level of any American or European show.
The creator is a professional vfx artist who was playing, and has included a watermark for that reason.
Yes, AI is part of their toolkit, but these were not just a case of asking a gen AI tool fabricate something.
Got it.
I generally think of the vertical market niche as under 25, not a large slice of the fediverse.
I don’t see though how vertical pagination is much different than social media on phones, which we’re all fairly accustomed to.
I don’t think this is targeted to our age group at all.
The vertical format is grown in anime and Asian dramas as well.
China is starting to be competitive with vertical short dramas specifically produced for the US market.
This is interesting.
The vertical manga/manha/manhua format is where new GenZ audiences can be found.
It looks like a 1970s toy. . . Which makes sense given who their target market is.
I would take it as another sign that the franchise has aged out were it not for the fact that it’s always had awful merchandising and licensing.
My partner and I really liked this one.
We both think it’s in the top rank of Star Trek episodes. In my view it may be the best of SNW to date.
It definitely should be the ‘For Your Consideration’ episode of this season.
The direction was excellent. This was one of the best dramatic performances from Mount as Pike since season two of Discovery.
My sense is that some viewers were mistaking the C-plot about the warring groups, for the A-plot about the Enterprise officers response to the ethical choice between orders and the free will of a sentient being or the B-plot about the making of the documentary.
I can’t agree that the episode was too short. The best Trek episodes are tightly rendered and leave lots of room for thought after.
It depends on the populations.
Steppe populations from modern Ukraine easy through to the Urals lived mainly on meat and dairy 5000 years ago (even if they didn’t yet have the lactose tolerance adaptation).
More Prodigy erasure…
🤦🏼♀️
I can agree that they’re doing a brilliant job of what they’re doing.
For those of us who’ve been wondering about Pike since The Cage was first put back together and released in the 1980s, it’s been a bit disappointing.
Too much Spock, Uhura, M’Benga and Chapel, not to mention Kirk, too soon rather than a focus on Pike, Number One and the ensemble that preceded Kirk.
I didn’t expect the graphic novel to be able to so accurately capture the voice, tone and humour of the show.
It’s exceptionally good right down to the fine print footnotes on the bottom of several pages.
I had wanted a Pike and Number One focused show but the showrunners and Paramount seem determined to make this show about laying the backstory for TOS.
While I still love the show, I agree that it’s still frustrating that the opportunity to focus more on the unexplored characters.
The Commitments.