If you were creating a TOS Prequel, how would you do it?

[The Badger]

Captain Robert April wrote:

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^ Any relation to Ensign Mary Sue?

Oh yes. She even has a line of dialogue lifted verbatim from 'A Trekkie's Tale' at one point!

Partridge was intended as a human replacement for T'Pol, so she had to be both extremely clever and, as RobertScorpio put it, a hot chick in a tight outfit to get the 14 year old lads watching. As my skill at writing sexy female characters has all the subtlety of a Bayonetta cutscene she's not what you would call a realistic portrayal, but she is I hope an interesting one. Whilst I'm disappointed T'Girl was put off by her I do understand.

[T'Girl]

Bry_Sinclair wrote:

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Chief Helm Officer - Lieutenant JG Travis Mayweather - Human male, early-20s. A Boomer who has spent his entire life in space. He has more space hours, visited more places and witnessed more unusual things than anyone else on the crew and looks set for a very promising career in Starfleet. e.

Have Mayweather be a chief petty officer, "Chief of the Boat," anyone who knows anything about naval service know these guys are the true power behind the thrown. Senior NCO's will pull an inexperienced officer (and a experienced one) to the side and spell things out to them.

Make Mayweather older, fifty plus, iron gray crewcut hair, Marine Corp fit, born in space, served aboard a dozen civilian ships, commanded a couple, multiple ex-wives and a grandfather too. His wandering feet have brought him to star fleet decades before, has a been there - done that attitude, he sometimes gets in Archer face with his greater life experiences.

Saquist wrote:

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Captain must first deal with one of his crew that he learns is a Eastern Coalition Terrorist and has sabotaged the ship

Instead of a individual, have it be a terror cell, that way you can catch one or two, but then more spring up. Have the Eastern Coalition aim be subtlety different than the (United Earth's?) aims, instead of a heavy handed difference. That way they can recruit from amongst the crew.

[Saquist]

T'Girl wrote:

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Instead of a individual, have it be a terror cell, that way you can catch one or two, but then more spring up. Have the Eastern Coalition aim be subtlety different than the (United Earth's?) aims, instead of a heavy handed difference. That way they can recruit from amongst the crew.

Hmmm. That would be quite harder for the good guys to resolve. The ticking clock with the enemy fleet approaching Sol and dealing with an entire cell would be wonderfully suspenseful. It could be taken right down to the wire.

It could also draw some interesting lines between the main characters and not like Reed being Section 31 in ENT but more ideological and serious.

It would imply a much greater plan of the last remains of the Eastern Coalition like some kind of fleet wide sabotage plot. Maybe the Eastern Coalition Terrorist don't even know they have been manipulated by the Romulans.

I like the way you think.

[C.E. Evans]

T'Girl wrote:

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Make Mayweather older, fifty plus, iron gray crewcut hair, Marine Corp fit, born in space, served aboard a dozen civilian ships, commanded a couple, multiple ex-wives and a grandfather too. His wandering feet have brought him to star fleet decades before, has a been there - done that attitude, he sometimes gets in Archer face with his greater life experiences.

An older, more experienced space traveler who would occasionally clash with Archer is closer to what they originally intended for "Lieutenant Joseph Mayweather" in ENT, IMO.

[PorthosShadow]

Easy, I would have started the series from season 4 and gone from there.

[Anwar]

S4 wouldn't have worked without the set-up from the prior 3 seasons. Saying "Start with Season 4" just doesn't work.

[ghoyle1]

I really enjoyed Seasoon 4, and I wish that the rest of the series had been more like it. Some of it could have been done in earlier seasons, although maybe not in just one season.

I loved the revelation that Romulans had infiltrated Vulcan society, and had usurped control of the Vulcan High Command, and were the ones who were trying to hold back Earth's technological development (and reinforcing the xenophoia responsible for the birth of such groups as Terra Prime). I would rather have seen this as a major arc of the series, rather than the Temporal Cold War, leading up to the Syrannite Revolution. This could have been the start of the Romulan War, as well, as the Romulans take more direct action to stop the Humans who had disrupted a centuries-long plan.

[PorthosShadow]

Anwar wrote:

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S4 wouldn't have worked without the set-up from the prior 3 seasons. Saying "Start with Season 4" just doesn't work.

Not litterally but in terms of quality and story telling. If the series had started with actually delving into the klingons, Vulcans and the rest of Star Trek's back story ENT would have been fantastic.

[Saquist]

I was also thinking about what made Battlestar Galactica exciting to watch.
It think I would have to add high speed rail guns with a twist. I was dreaming this up last night...that perhaps the Rail guns could get so fast that the ship had to fire it's main engines as retro fire. Or that not firing your main engines would allow for dramatic maneuvers when the Rail gun fires. However this means that the BSG slow moving look of the Rail guns is gone...it would look like machine gun fire with much larger salvos.

Of course that adds some interesting factors like Fuel becomes a battle concern, ammo and the weapon might be a mid range tactic while the torpedo missiles would be long range and lasers would be close range.

I also suggest a heavy use of robots for exploration

I'd like the crew as follows

Captain David Akira
Human: Male: American Chinese: Age 36
Note: I chose Akira to give the class ship in the 24th true meaning by making David Akira one of Earth's legends. I think with the Post Atomic Horror that he has an interesting perspective on the war that was fought 100 years.

XO: Xavier Diaz
Human: Chilean : Age 29
Note: Unbeknown to his captain Diaz is an Augment of Super Human Strength


Chief of the Ship: Aria Lim
Human: Philippino Age 27

Communications: Christopher Arcenaeux
Human: Black : Ireland: Age 24

Helmsman/ Navigator: Desean Leonard
Human: Black: American: Age 23

Petty Officer: Cala Issa
Human: Female: Omani : Age 25

Weapons Officer: William Veazey
Human: Irish: Canadian: Age 31

[Duncan MacLeod]

T'Girl wrote:

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I really loved you re-imagining of the Enterprise story, but I'll have to admit I finally got so sick and tired of the Polly Partridge character I stopped reading.

Can't there be a tragic air lock accident involving her?

No!

Besides there almost was one already.

http://www.trekbbs.com/showpost.php?...&postcount=308

[Finn]

I'd have started in the 22nd Century, with a Trill meeting an elderly Cardassian living in a cave on Vulcan.

[ghoyle1]

Finn wrote:

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I'd have started in the 22nd Century, with a Trill meeting an elderly Cardassian living in a cave on Vulcan.

Well, that's pretty specific...

[caisson2delta]

I would have set the series earlier in the 22nd Century, say 2115-2130. All the major nations, that rebuilt after first contact and the war, now have separate space forces; navies so to speak. In the first attempts to make one "unified space fleet (or force)", it was difficult to get experienced, veteran officers and crews. Come up with some nice plan to utilize younger officers, and enlisted personnel, that didn't want to stick to the traditional naval format and had ambitions of their own.

The main ship (I'd actually make this prequel based on a smallish sized taskforce of say 8-10 ships of various designs and weaponry) would serve as an operations hub for the smaller vessels. Exploration of new regions of space would be their key objective, but I would have them also serving as hauling cargo, goods, and on occasion military aid to whomever needed it. They would evolve as sort of futuristic "privateers" for the fledgling unified Earth Space program. I like a lot of the previous mentioned ideas of colonial disputes, pirates (both human and alien), and seeing how their friends and former colleagues view them.

As they manage to meet new races of aliens, they don't hesitate to use force if necessary, and sometimes provoke clashes out of ignorance. They are always willing to trade, with whomever, if it aids their mission. It might be interesting to see this sort of bartering and trading as a means to establish new allies, new foes, and acquiring more sophisticated (or improved) propulsion designs, weapons, and so on. Little by little, they begin to see that there is too much chaos in dealing with strange new aliens in this manner and eventually report back to their superiors at the end of their first mission. They report that they need guidelines and protocols for dealing with other space fairing races that are more neutral.

I think everyone gets the idea and the show just evolves from this point.

[Saquist]

caisson2delta wrote:

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I would have set the series earlier in the 22nd Century, say 2115-2130. All the major nations, that rebuilt after first contact and the war, now have separate space forces; navies so to speak. In the first attempts to make one "unified space fleet (or force)", it was difficult to get experienced, veteran officers and crews. Come up with some nice plan to utilize younger officers, and enlisted personnel, that didn't want to stick to the traditional naval format and had ambitions of their own.

Okay, I really like the idea of the combined space navy of Earth's government. It'd incorporate that into my ideas. It would allow for many different type of ships and it was have the awesome international flare that this very...human series would really need.

The question is why would Earth have such a large naval force? True it is 60 years after WW III and that might be enough time...to rebuild after the Post Atomic Horror. I always figured that the PAH lasted maybe a good generation. Those people seemed well set in that system.
Usually a culture that rebounds that quickly as a planetary group does so because it has to. Are humans paranoid by this time?

The main ship (I'd actually make this prequel based on a smallish sized taskforce of say 8-10 ships of various designs and weaponry) would serve as an operations hub for the smaller vessels. Exploration of new regions of space would be their key objective, but I would have them also serving as hauling cargo, goods, and on occasion military aid to whomever needed it. They would evolve as sort of futuristic "privateers" for the fledgling unified Earth Space program. I like a lot of the previous mentioned ideas of colonial disputes, pirates (both human and alien), and seeing how their friends and former colleagues view them.

One of the things that was left out of my ideas and Enterprise too was that there should be some time to deal with the situation on Earth and the continued rebuilding and showing of good faith between the nations and how fragile that relationship is...we can't give earth the look of being united if it wasn't united a few Decades ago...There should still be contention and strife and even the danger of war..

[T'Girl]

Saquist wrote:

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The question is why would Earth have such a large naval force?

True it is 60 years after WW III and that might be enough time...to rebuild after the Post Atomic Horror.

Nations have military forces because they require them, they serve a purpose. The reason for the forces would come into existence prior to the creation of the naval ships. If you have colonies, freighters, excursive trade routes that are endangered somehow, THEN you build your navy. If you have a single colony and you round trip a civilian ship twice a year, then maybe you only require one naval ship. But as you acquire multiple colonies, dozen/hundreds of civilian freighters and lots of trading partners the pressing need for fleet develops.

So why does Earth need a naval force in your prequel?
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The post-atomic horror wouldn't necessarily have been evenly spread across the Earth, entire nations and regions might have "sat out" the third world war. We know that at least one major missile base in Montana was untouched, and they tend to be primary targets. The Transamerica building in San Fransisco is still standing in the 24th century, perhaps indicating that the US was one of the nations that largely sat out, at least as much as possible.