Re-booting TNG For TV?

Temis the Vorta wrote:

---

Nah, I'd keep Picard male but give him hair. And make him evil.

I'm still going back and forth about the goatee.

^ Played by James Marsters.

[Captaindemotion]

^ I read an interview with Marina Sirtis where she reckoned that they should've got Marsters to play Shinzon in Nemesis. There is certainly a sort of resemblance between his and Stewart's bone structure.

[Bry_Sinclair]

MAIN CAST
Captain Jean-Luc Picard - Make him a little younger, mid-50s, still the diplomat and statesman, with a slight French accent.

Commander Wilhelmina "Wil" Riker - Now female (obviously), she is bold, brash and daring. More a fighter than Picard, which often puts them at odds, though deeply respects him.

Commander Beverly Crusher MD - The determined and compassionate CMO, she cares for her patients as much as she does her son.

Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge - Chief Engineer from the time the ship launched, born blind, he is a close friend of Riker's (some suspect more to be going on between them).

Lieutenant Commander Deyan Troi - The hot and buff Ship's Counsellor (always in a variety of skin-tight jumpsuits or skants), full Betazoid with strong telepathic abilities.

Lieutenant Data - A female-designed android built by an alien race in order to preserve the memories and knowledge of a dying Federation colony.

Lieutenant Macha Hernandez - The strong and sassy Security Chief, from a failed Earth colony, she has a need to keep others safe.

Lieutenant JG Worf - Sitting at the Conn, he is a proud and honourable Klingon, raised among humans.

Wesley Crusher - Beverly's teenaged son, academically very average, coming onboard the Enterprise makes him want to join Starfleet and start to really work hard (he will never outshine the officers onboard).


RECURRING CAST
Lieutenant JG Reginald Barclay - An introverted, quiet and timid Engineer, who is also brilliant--something which isn't noticed due to him bumbling nature.

Lieutenant JG Alyssa Ogawa - A kind-hearted and compassionate Nurse serving under Doctor Crusher, she is very efficient and level-headed.

Ensign Ro Laren - A brooding, blunt and outspoken young Bajoran woman with a troubled past in Starfleet and authority, she isn't your typical Science Officer. She came aboard as a mission specialist and was then convinced by Picard to remain aboard.

Chief Petty Officer Miles O'Brien - The down-to-earth and homely Transporter Chief, with a long service record, he would do anything to safeguard his family.

Professor Keiko O'Brien - Miles' loving wife who is one of the foremost xenobotanists in the Federation.

Guinan - The ship's mysterious El-Aurian Bartender.

[Captaindemotion]

Bry_Sinclair wrote:

---

MAIN CAST

Lieutenant Macha Hernandez - The strong and sassy Security Chief, from a failed Earth colony, she has a need to keep others safe.

I'm assuming that you know that Rodenberry originally had a character of this name planned for TNG (inspired by the tough Latina marine in Aliens) - but you do know that he opted not to call her this name because 'Macha' is Latin American slang for Lesbian, right?!

[Bry_Sinclair]

And the problem with that being?

[Captaindemotion]

^ Well, would you have a tough female character called Dyke Smith?

[Temis the Vorta]

Captaindemotion wrote:

---

^ I read an interview with Marina Sirtis where she reckoned that they should've got Marsters to play Shinzon in Nemesis. There is certainly a sort of resemblance between his and Stewart's bone structure.

Marsters would have been more intimidating but the script still would have sucked.

Captaindemotion wrote:

---

I'm assuming that you know that Rodenberry originally had a character of this name planned for TNG (inspired by the tough Latina marine in Aliens) - but you do know that he opted not to call her this name because 'Macha' is Latin American slang for Lesbian, right?!

By the 24th C, it either won't mean that (slang terms change greatly over time and many fade out of existence) or it will have evolved into a compliment, in a more enlightened time.

Captaindemotion wrote:

---

^ Well, would you have a tough female character called Dyke Smith?

No because that's obvious and boring. If she were sweet and feminine, then it would be an interesting contrast.

Leslie Van Dyke?

I think if a character is gay it would be stupid to name them in a way to reflect that aspect of the character.

I really wouldn't deviate from Jean Luc Picard, William Riker, Data, Geordi La Forge, Deanna Troi, Beverly Crusher, Worf, Tasha Yar & Wesley Crusher. I probably would change the gender of the characters...if I did it would be Data...like I said before...but it isn't something I would push for.

[Mr Silver]

They should just make a 25th century series. Completely new concept, based in the same universe but with more advanced technology, completely new characters and a new direction of storytelling. An emphasis on continunity would be helpful too, no more aliens of the week and one off episodes.

[Captaindemotion]

Temis the Vorta wrote:

---

No because that's obvious and boring. If she were sweet and feminine, then it would be an interesting contrast.

I think calling any character by a name which will make a portion of the audience snigger is generally a bad idea.

[Bry_Sinclair]

When I hear the word kirk, I think of a church, which of course includes the whole sex before marriage thing. So seeing Kirk chasing after everything in a skirt always amused me.

As for Hernandez, make her totally asexual. Married to her job, without any interest in a romantic or physical relationship with anyone (male or female). I could imagine someone growing up in a place where 'rape gangs' roamed the streets would cause intimacy issues.

[T'Girl]

Captaindemotion wrote:

---

but you do know that he opted not to call her this name because 'Macha' is Latin American slang for Lesbian, right?!

Actual marimacha is slang for lesbian, not macha by itself. Macha is the feminine form of macho, it's how you refer to a girl who is butch or a tomboy, but again not specifically lesbian.

In central America, it's also sometime a derogatory term for someone who's skin isn't "brown enough."

[ColeMercury]

Bry_Sinclair wrote:

---

Wesley Crusher - Beverly's teenaged son, academically very average, coming onboard the Enterprise makes him want to join Starfleet and start to really work hard (he will never outshine the officers onboard).

In other words, Nog without the delinquency?

It is possible to keep Wesley a prodigy without making him save the ship all the time.

[Bry_Sinclair]

ColeMercury wrote:

---

In other words, Nog without the delinquency?

Or Jake (a far more likable character). Just a normal teenager who happens to live in space and then gets a taster of life onboard the Flagship and wants to be a part of it.

ColeMercury wrote:

---

It is possible to keep Wesley a prodigy without making him save the ship all the time.

They don't seem able to manage it. We had to suffer him for three and a half seasons, then had to suffer Seven being rammed down our throats in Voyager for four seasons. One person always saving the day gets very tired, very quickly (IMHO), and is one that that always makes me switch off.

[T'Girl]

Bry_Sinclair wrote:

---

Wesley Crusher - Beverly's teenaged son, academically very average, coming onboard the Enterprise makes him want to join Starfleet and start to really work hard (he will never outshine the officers onboard).

Wesley really was a missed opportunity.

If Star Trek had wanted the tie the show into a teen and twenties demographic, then show Wesley as tied into the other teens on the ship. There was a scene in ten forward with Wesley interacting with other ships people his own age. And one episode Wesley had a semi-girlfriend. But most of the time I received the feeling that Wesley was estranged from his peer group. Teens like to identify with people on TV who are popular. Not a guy who only want to hang out with people in their thirties and sixties. You couldn't really identify with Wesley the way he was written.

Despite what TPTB at Star Trek might have thought, no one in their teens wanted to be Wesley.

Look at it this way, Enterprise's first season premiered when I was fourteen, all the geeks in my school could identify with Trip, he seemed somehow like he was in his mid-late teens, he was cool, laid back, played the harmonica and he was Mr. Popular aboard the ship.

Trip was everything Wesley wasn't. There was a "Kill Wesley" sediment among Star Trek fans. Fans are still crying about Trip being killed in the last episode.