If annother Trek series was being made, what would you want in it?

Discussion in 'Future of Trek' started by Green Lantern, Jul 4, 2012.

  1. Green Lantern

    Green Lantern Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    I second this.
    Good, annother fan of darker storylines. Just what I'm pushing for.
     
  2. Greg Cox

    Greg Cox Admiral Premium Member

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    Yeah, but that was a one-shot comic book aimed at fans. There wasn't an entire multimillion dollar tv series riding on it.

    If you're trying to launch a whole new Trek tv series aimed at general audiences as well as Trekkies, do you really want to hobble it with obscure trivia from the least successful of the previous cycle of movies? That doesn't seem like the best way to get the new series off on a strong footing . . . .

    "So, what's your hook? How are you going to get today's audience to sample your show?"

    "Well, we really want to deal with the fallout from NEMESIS, you know that old movie from umpteen years ago that not even the fans liked."

    "The one that flopped? And forced us to reboot the series?"

    "Yeah, that one."

    "But seriously . . . what are you really going to do?"
     
  3. Sindatur

    Sindatur The Gray Owl Wizard Admiral

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    Ah, OK, I was starting to wear a hole in my head from all the scratching, wondering what I was forgetting
     
  4. horatio83

    horatio83 Commodore Commodore

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    Not really but not because of the lack of success of NEM. Quality and popularity have little to do with each other.
    I also did not like the elements in STXI which were copied from NEM.
     
  5. Bry_Sinclair

    Bry_Sinclair Vice Admiral Admiral

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  6. BillJ

    BillJ The King of Kings Premium Member

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    Then go watch Battlestar Galactica (2003), I want Trek to be about a positive future, not one where everyone hates everyone.
     
  7. Sindatur

    Sindatur The Gray Owl Wizard Admiral

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    Yea, darker stories, doesn't necessarily need to be doom and gloom (Babylon 5 and Deep Space Nine, as well as Enterprise had some very dark stories, but, never sank into doom and gloom).

    Doom and gloom, the way I interpret it, is just depressing, everyone's an asshole, there's never any hope it's just non-stop hopelessness.

    Doom and Gloom was fine for NuBSG, and could be fine for another show in the future, but, it goes against everything Star Trek stands for, which is building a better future and hope for Humanity.
     
  8. Knight Templar

    Knight Templar Commodore

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  9. Bry_Sinclair

    Bry_Sinclair Vice Admiral Admiral

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    IMHO Trek needs more aliens!

    150+ member planets and the vast majority of crew on the vast majority of ships are humans who would only make up a small percentage of the UFP's overall population. Makes them kinda dull. Also having a character an alien immediately gives them a distinctive look and perspective on things, so we don't wind up with more bland characters like Kim and Mayweather (who were pretty much only there to tick the box for ethnic diversity).
     
  10. Knight Templar

    Knight Templar Commodore

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    How do we know that? For all we know Earth and its human colonies make up the vast majority of the Federations population.
     
  11. JustAFriend

    JustAFriend Commodore Commodore

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    3 Rules:

    1) No teenagers.

    2) No kids.

    3) No 'we are all children of Gaia' hippies.

    These are proven death to any Trek series.
     
  12. C.E. Evans

    C.E. Evans Admiral Admiral

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    Or that Humans merely make up the vast majority of Starfleet personnel.
     
  13. Bry_Sinclair

    Bry_Sinclair Vice Admiral Admiral

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    We don't. But Earth's current population is currently over 7 billion and the UN predictes that by 2300 there could be as many as 36 billion humans (http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/longrange2/WorldPop2300final.pdf).

    But if that is our population, on worlds that are as/more advanced than ours, their populations would also continue to grow as medical technology improves, life expectancy increases, etc. Granted some alien races may live considerably longer than us (in which case they could have many more children over the centuries), whilst others would have shorter lifespans (which would mean that conceiving and raising children to continue their society is of great significance). Or other worlds like Vulcan where fertility cycles play an important role in population growth.

    By the time of Trek colonisation of other worlds has occured, as has terraforming planets to be made suitable for future settlement, so overcrowding on one planet isn't an issue.

    If 149 other planets could have populations that varied from 1 billion to 100 billion, which would leave humanity very much the minority.
     
  14. Herkimer Jitty

    Herkimer Jitty Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    The main character would be a plucky young lieutenant, playing off of a Pellew-esque captain. The core cast would be very small, preferably some kind of freudian trio (ego, superego, id). The rest of the command crew, as well as other prominent positions, show up often, but don't have the some focus on characterization as the core cast.

    All the main characters ought to have good, personal reasons for being where they are in the universe. DS9 is a good example of this... all of the main characters feel like they want to be there, or have been forced to be there. There's a lot of character agendas at work. Its a good example to follow and improve upon.

    Don't be afraid to change up the cast now and then. A lot of long-running shows do this. Think like JAG, or CSI, or some other mainstream shows.

    Speaking of which, police/detective/law procedurals are the rage these days, so why not take after them a bit? TOS took a few bites out of spaghetti westerns after all. Add a heavy analytical aspect to the show, lots of laboratory time, lots of investigations. Really chew into the investigative aspect of Starfleet. Maybe have there be more mystery stories than have been in previous Trek series.

    More moral and ethical ambiguity. The best decisions Kirk, Picard, etc. ever made were ones where they sat at their desk afterwards and had to tell themselves "I did make the right choice."

    Use classic Star Trek setting and furniture. Warp drive, transporters, Klingons, the works. Don't care about the timeline. Prime or JJ works for me either way. Get in on some of the cyberpunk/posthumanism/new space opera wave. RAMA's linked post has some cool ideas in this regard.

    Keep time travel to an absolute minimum, since all it breeds are repeats of Yesterday's Enterprise and Tomorrow is Yesterday.

    The ship would be an old-as-hell rustbucket that's fallen behind the times. The crew thus, must rely on their wits more than their phasers. Keep technobabble to a minimum, and where there is technobabble, have someone Watson a way simpler explanation out of the technobabbler.

    Don't get bogged down in minutiae and trivia. The show should have something of a mythology of its' on, to make it accessible to new viewers who might not have seen any Star Trek before. If something from elsewhere in Trek is introduced, it needs to have a natural and smooth expository entrance of its own within the series. It has to stand totally on its own, again, for accessibility's sake. Like if one were to use the Cardassians, or the aftermath of the Dominion War, or the loss of Vulcan, the conflict needs to be established within the context of this new show.

    A huge war premise doesn't appeal to me. However, having the Federation embroiled in a couple of smaller conflicts far from the main characters would feel more realistic, would be more dynamic, and would present nice opportunities for modern allegory.

    I'd have each season be a self-contained story arc, with standalone-ish adventures contained within. Bonus points if they sometimes end up being part of the main story. Try and shoot for a wide variety of plots, the audience should be surprised each and every week. Tap modern day scifi novellists and short-format authors for scripts.
     
  15. Bry_Sinclair

    Bry_Sinclair Vice Admiral Admiral

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    After thinking up my ideal 'contemporary' Trek seres (ie 2380s), I suddenly got to thinking that I wouldn't mind if they went backwards a little and revisited the Enterprise-B for a series of its own.

    A whole new bunch of actors would be needed, seeing as how GEN is almost 20 years old now (for some reason I could envision Sam Witwer as Harriman and Gemma Chan as Demora). But I think it would be interesting to visit a time of change--an alliance with the Klingons, Kirk 'dead', and a whole new era of exploration opening up.

    Here are my thoughts on the crew:
    http://www.trekbbs.com/showpost.php?p=6602986&postcount=41
     
  16. Tracer Bullet

    Tracer Bullet Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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    I'd love to see a prequel set during the period from around 2151-61. It would deal with Starfleet's early deep space exploration with a buildup to the Earth-Romulan War, culminating in the founding of the Federation. I'd love for the ships to be primitive, small, and slow, with lasers and nuclear warheads.

    You know, what Enterprise should have been.
     
  17. MacLeod

    MacLeod Admiral Admiral

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    So why don't you like the episodes when DW travels back in time? After all the premise of the show is about a mad man in a blue box who travels through time and space defeating evil.

    Some of the more popular episodes of the current run of DW have been travel into the past.

    "The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances"
    "The Girl in the Fireplace"


    Or why do you like ST episodes that travel into the past?

    Is the era ST travels to? The area they travel to i.e 1996 LA?
     
  18. RAMA

    RAMA Admiral Admiral

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  19. Brainsucker

    Brainsucker Captain Captain

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    Well, this is what I think

    Star Trek is a story about exploration. in TOS Era, we have already have exploring Alpha and Beta Quardrant while in TNG, Voyager, and DS9 we have Gamma dan Delta.

    So..., if Star Trek wants to keep it's genre without having repetitive like the previous story. They must aim another galaxy with different concept. It will funny if we have a 25th century Star Trek with similar 24th Century Star Trek plot and story. Why should repeat the old one if we can refresh them to new Star Trek?

    So rather than we retold Federation conflict against Klingon, Romulan, Borg, and Dominion, why won't we create a new stage for the next series?

    Vulcan, Klingon and Romulan were spectacular idea for old Star Treks. But if we just represent them again and again, there will no novelty in Star Trek anymore.

    So... rather than telling the same story with different casts and ships, we should do 2 things :

    1. Reboot Star Trek and create a new universe with 100% different species inside it (no Vulcan, Romulan, Klingon, etc)

    or

    2. Use different galaxy as the stage. We can say that Enterprise is a moveable Star Base / mega Star ship like carrier that can be docked by other smaller ships. The main hero will Admiral and not a mere captain, and because it is in a different galaxy, we won't find Federation, Klingon, Romulan, etc anymore (beside the Enterprise crews).

    With this new settings, Star Trek can goes and explore new plot or story that free from their previous series. Thus give us new / fresh Star Trek with the same exploration theme and USS Enterprise.
     
  20. captainkirk

    captainkirk Commodore Commodore

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    I had been thinking at one time about how Bryan Singer's Federation pitch could be salvaged, since there were a great many problems with it. One of the things I thought of is that instead of having it take place in the year 3000, it be set in the 26th century on the Enterprise-J. And that the Federation has now found a way into another galaxy (not Andromeda or Pegasus). The villains for the series would then come from there.
    However, that isn't really what I'd like in a new series. What I'd like is a Pike series set after the events of ST '09. There would only be about four main characters, all the rest would be recurring and so it would be easier to replace some of them every now and then. The problem is that I have now idea what the series would be about.