Very nice, by pushing the story so far into the future you effectively get rid of much of the previous canon, and also (hopefully) the more magical technology.
Exactly. The previous series have all effectively faded into legend. The universe has gone through what amounts to a Dark Ages, after the fall of civilization and what really happened before is unknown. All they have are theories, suppositions, and old wives tales. As for the magical tech, yes most of it would be gone, or at least lost. I'd set the tech somewhere between TOS and TNG, but closer to the former. Bry, sorry about the lack of aliens but as this is an Earth ship I was going for a primarily Earth crew. Although I did try to pick some nationalities that we hadn't really seen on Trek before, or at least had seen little of. Canadian, Italian, Egyptian, Brazilian, German, and Irish.
ENT could have been *BRILLIANT* (had the studio not insisted making it really a TNG clone - with "phase pistols" and "photonic torpedoes" and Ferengi and Brog - and not a true prequel. The tech should have been closer to what Spock described about the Romulan War era in "Balance of Terror" - which would NOT have *limited* the show, but made it be more creative.) And they should have brought in new blood like Manny Coto and Judith and Garth Reeves-Stevens from the start. It could have had the *excitement* and *freshness* and "adventure" of the new films - but with the brains and depth (and exploration of the human condition) of TNG, DS9, and the best of the TOS movies and episodes! I loved that old Trek novel about the Enterprise's first voyage under Capt. April and his Doctor wife and Kirk's dad. That's kinda some of the feel I would have gone for. With seat of your pants flying and exploration on the galaxy form the first time. With wonder and excitement and fear. And I would have made the show concentrate more on the TOS (and some of the TMP background) races - and *meeting* them for the first time. (No TNG races except maybe a few it was established where known by then. Like when Dax said she was on Earth - though why it too 200 years for the Federation to find out about symbiote I'll know.) It would have been about exploring the galaxy (no silly "Temporal Cold War" and instead the Romulan War, the disastrous Firs Contact with the Klingons, and the Founding of the Federation (maybe even I would have used a League of Nations style failed coalition of Planets as stepping stone!) And NO evil Vulcans! The Vulcans and Humans should have become fast and close friends like the Human and Thranx in Akan Dean Foster's Flinx and Pip novels - with the Vulcans as wiser guides - but who let the humans make their own decisions and mistakes when they needed to learn. (Sure, maybe thrown in a faction of Romulan spies - with the Vulcans keeping the true Vulcan-Romulan relationship secret because they feared losing the human friendship.) The Enterprise might have looked like something between the "refit" NX idea - and the Daedalus class. Such a waste...such a HUGE WASTE OF POTENTIAL.
You want a new Trek series that I think would actually work? Ok...here it goes. I honestly believe these are required elements, regardless of how we feel or what we personally want. 1. No crossover fanwank. No Dr. Bashir and Tom Paris showing up to help B4 defeat the Borg Queen. This is where the current novels are total crap. A show depending on this kind of gimmick would be garbage. 2. Nothing post-Nemesis or post-Voyager. 3. Nothing so far in the future or so far away that it is no longer relatable. 4. Can't have "intergalactic politics" that so many fans love override a theme of pioneering and space exploration. 5. No war theme. It was already done well in DS9. No need to revisit that arc. 6. No need for the silly fan-wanky crew make-up so many seem to want. You know, no dolphin security officers, Horta Captains, or Romulan ships councilors. Stupid. I believe this means a total reboot. If it were in my hands, I'd reboot the Kirk and Spock era aboard the original Enterprise as severely as BSG rebooted that franchise. Mainly, I think this is the way to go because of "brand recognition," but also because those characters are the best. What made the original great was that it was cutting-edge and took a ton of risks for the time. I believe you'd need to bring a modern mentality and accomplish that very same thing for our time. Make it a cable show with a limited season run (8-10 episodes) so the writing and production values are top-notch. I'd also look at doing something like Game of Thrones, where you have multiple interconnected story lines taking place in multiple locations. It would be cool to have the Enterprise be the hub of storytelling activity, but to have interconnected drama taking place on Earth, a remote space station, Kronos, etc. I think they'd also need to have more risks with the characters. They'd need to be willing to make massive changes and developments and/or have character deaths occur at times. Have conflict and drama! Also, don't overdo the technobabble or nerdy tech elements. Have more of aTOS approach where that stuff is there, but doesn't take 5 mins to explain, nor does it become necessary to solving the episode every week. Include the classic antagonist races like Klingons, Romulans, and Tholians, but revamp them considerably to be multi-faceted and not so one-dimensional. The crap idea that Trek perpetuated was that "all Klingons are boisterous drunken warriors" and "all Romulans are scheming double-crossers." For a series that valued diversity, it really tended to pigeonhole races. Visually, I think they need to abandon the static, 1987 TNG era presentation of ships. I'd love to see more of a "2001" realism to the starship scenes. Not taking it too far...but just taking it in a different direction, much the same way BSG did. And, thematically, like in said earlier, it's a 70-30 split on pioneering / exploration and intergalactic politics. Lots of character drama and relationships. And, comparing the format to Thrones or BSG isn't to be mistaken for saying that Treks's fun and optimism should give way to darkness and violence. Sure, it can't be moustache twirling villains dressed in black against the ultimate pious good guy all the time either, but you can never do away with the fundamental theme of mankind striving to better themselves and working together. I wouldn't make them all perfect like the TNG characters, but they would also avoid the overboard use of "moral ambiguity" that seems so popular these days as well. I think if you created a show based on these fundamentals, you'd have the best chance for success with fans and modern audiences. I'm Sure it would disgust and repel some fans, but that's completely unavoidable. You can't create a series like this and try to please everyone...and it would be death to try. Make something that is high-quality and dramatic and avoid fanwanky nerdy stuff and you can bring in a good percentage of the existing fan base and start to build a totally new one to ensure the franchises continuity and longevity.
Don't get me wrong, I like the representation of other nationalities, but in a universe where there can be such varied and diverse alien life-form through which to examine the "human condition" and look at things from a whole different perspective, I find that a far more interesting insight. Besides the last time we had an "Earth ship" it was cancelled after four years
Fair enough. I contend that, that was due to a poor production, lazy writing, weak casting, and a generally bad execution of the idea, rather than a weakness in the premise itself. But you're fully entitled to feel differently about it.
I agree that the answer isn't to have a bunch of alien crew members. If you want to have a series that explores the human condition, you should do it through humanity being heavily represented. One, maybe two non-human characters are good, but we don't need a bunch.
I don't dispute any of those points (it was badly written, terribly cast, and poorly executed), but the premise itself was weak to begin with. A ship full of humans could easily be Stargate or any other sci-fi series. If it'd been based on one of the first Federation ships post-Romulan War it would've been a far more dynamic show. Of all the Trek series' DS9 had by far, IMHO, the most interesting character, only a small percentage of which (main and recurring) were humans, which gave the show much greater depth than any of the others. Then just look at the likes of FarScape, which had only one human and did far more interesting and sometimes risky stories than VOY or ENT, whilst still being very human at its core--given that the focus was on and from Crichton.
I think Vger23 and Duncan Macleod's ideas both have something to recommend them... but then I'm already on record as favoring a concept reboot much like Vger23's idea pushed into the far future like Duncan's idea, so I would.
With today's current TV trends, I really believe the Vanguard series would make the ideal next Trek series. TV series back on epic novel lines are hot right now, and the tight nature of the storyline would fit the trend to shorter seasons. Each book would correspond to a season, with about 10-12 episodes each. You could even release them all at once, Netflix-style. The Trek meets West Wing meets Lost feel to Vanguard, with the depth and complexity of character and storylines (without being too dark) would really capture the modern viewers attention, I think. I can't get this teaser trailer out of my head - The camera starts from high above, in an otherwise dark cabaret stage, a lone female figure is playing "Rhapsody in Blue" at a spotlighted piano. Next shot starts at the foot of the piano, close up, and slowly pans out, eventually revealing the player wearing the classic red TOS minidress. The last thing we see before the camera snaps to black is the fact that player has pointed ears. Then the Vanguard logo flashes up on the screen as the jazz music fades out....
[LEFT] Oh, yeah? Well ... I'll have you know, sir, that an ex-girlfriend of mine once likened me to ... ambrosia.[/LEFT] [LEFT][/LEFT]