What Star Trek story ideas do you think were the most original and creative? The episodes that used the ideas did not necessarily have to be good episodes. Name specific episodes please
The crew beams down to a planet and interacts with the humble villagers who are all welcoming and dressed in robes. THEN.. it is discovered..that things are NOT as they SEEM!!!
Spock's Brain The Way to Eden No, really. Two really crappy episodes, in my opinion, but the concepts were creative.
Mirror, Mirror (TOS) Conspiracy (TNG) BoBW (TNG) Arsenal of Freedom (TNG) (That's all that's coming to mind right now.)
Crew vs God like Alien Crew vs Evil A.I. Crew vs Rogue Starfleet Officer Crew vs Evil version/alien controled Crewmember Ship is hijacked Crewmember falls in love with person who isn't what they seem. Misunderstanding leads to conflict Crew is tested by superior alien race Sabotage! Crewmember is put on trial
Just stick the word "space" before a word that it wouldn't usually go before and you get some of the best ideas around. Examples: Space Amoeba Space Lincoln Space Jellyfish Space Octopus
I personally love Space Nazis. Who wouldn't love all that whipping in Patterns of Force? And Spock in the uniform?! ENT Space Nazis were way cool, like something out of Hogan's Heroes. Only.. with Space!!!
Honestly, the first one that came to mind was the Star Trek: Enterprise episdode entitled "Cogenitor." It was about a tri-gendered species that the Enterprise crew encounters, where one of the genders, the gender that is able to make the production of children possible, is treated poorly, as dumb, lowerclass beings- individuals have no name of their own, they eat only one meal a day, they aren't allowed to intermingle with the other two genders, etc. Trip befriends one of these, and puts into "its" head that it deserves better, encouraging it to learn to read and write. It is punished for doing so. When the Enterprise is unable to offer "it" assylum, it commits suicide rather than live an unfufilled life of denial. The whole gender and/or racial equality thing has been done over and over again in almost every media mode known, but this spin on it was pretty different. I know Star Trek: Enterprise had its issues, but there were some very, very, very good, unique, and engaging episodes in it, this one among them.
Cogenitor was awesome and absolutely one of Treks 10 best story ideas. It was also quite original.. all the great story ideas I've thought of to post here weren't very original. The Borg were a great idea too. At their best they were both terrifying and full of pathos because you knew that drone was once a person like you and might still be a person somewhere deep inside, under all the circuitry. And yet the drone's mission was to take away your own personhood in the most horrifying way.
In no particular order, the story threads that I enjoyed most, at least in concept, execution was often lacking. And often follow through on certain things. Borg assimilation. Kobiyashi Maru. Temporal Cold War(Horribly executed). Dominion War(Somewhat poorly executed). Ship lost far from home(HORRIBLY executed). Bashir as secret genius. Section 31(Could have been done better). Birth of the Federation(...). Federation/Klingon alliance. Maquis concept.
One that I did not see mentioned. Sim - The concept of cloaning as a means to provide transplantable organs is something I can see being debated in the future.
As a true Borg enthusiast, I can tell you that what you just wrote is positively correct. And that is why, I think, that people are drawn to the Borg. We relate because the Borg drones were and are people like us, assimilated into a world of the Hive Mind and unified "individuality" in the hopes of achieving perfection. We fear them because, in their drive towards universal perfection, they are required to take our individuality away from us; but at the same time we empathise with them because they were once individuals like us, with emotions, hopes, dreams, and Life. So I agree 100% that the Borg were a truly unique and creative idea and theme, and should definately be up there on the charts!
Someone mentioned a ship lost far from home already, but couple that with the idea of integrating a crew of terrorists with a starfleet crew and you've got a recipe for awesome. Sigh. Edit to add episode titles Caretaker Parallax And then it seems to fizzle out for the rest of the series.
No one seems to have got the point of this thread whatsoever. Maybe I will let it die and post a new one in a couple of weeks.
Well YOU can't let it die. It lives or dies under it's own power. I thought it was a great thread, particularly enjoyed Caliburn24's list of great story ideas: "Borg assimilation. Kobiyashi Maru. Temporal Cold War(Horribly executed). Dominion War(Somewhat poorly executed). Ship lost far from home(HORRIBLY executed). Bashir as secret genius. Section 31(Could have been done better). Birth of the Federation(...). Federation/Klingon alliance. Maquis concept. "
I love Space Nazis. Trek's used them three times to date: Patterns of Force (TOS), The Killing Game (Voyager), and Storm Front (Enterprise). And even that's still not enough!