TNG Characters in the JJ-Verse

[Delsaber]

If this hypothetical nuData is played by anyone other than Tom Hiddleston, it will be a missed opportunity bordering on the criminal.

[R. Star]

No reason it couldn't be Spiner. As much make up as he has to wear, age is a relative thing.

[Ryan8bit]

By all means, none of the TNG characters should exist in this new timeline's future.

[BillJ]

Ryan8bit wrote:

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By all means, none of the TNG characters should exist in this new timeline's future.

This.

[Delsaber]

They could very well exist, there's just no way of knowing in what manner they exist. It would be another Mirror Universe situation where a lot of them could be living entirely different lives, or largely the same lives, just totally irrelevant to the story at hand.

Guinan. She would be the one prominent TNG-era character who should be mostly untouched in this timeline. As would Q, I suppose, but I'd rather they not go there, unless it's to finally out him as Trelane.

[Ryan8bit]

Delsaber wrote:

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It would be another Mirror Universe situation where a lot of them could be living entirely different lives, or largely the same lives, just totally irrelevant to the story at hand.

The MU stories after TOS really stretched any kind of believability. You could maybe say that the universes were linked together by some unknown force, but at that point things get too far into hyper fantasy.

The same rules don't apply to time travel, which is often shown to be more deterministic (or at least it was before JJ got to it). If JJ cared, he could make the TNG cast be alive here much in the same contrived way that the OS cast came together, but I doubt that he wants that. And as much as I love TNG, I'm glad that he wouldn't do that. It just seems unlikely that after such changes in the timeline that the same people could come together to create the same kids that would have even remotely the same lives. They should not be.

[Delsaber]

I see what you mean, yeah. I'd argue (though not very fervently) that the JJverse at it currently stands hasn't diverged quite enough to totally rule-out the TNG characters even being born in the first place, but the more this universe develops with more movies (and comics, assuming those are canonical), the farther out the chances get.

By the time the trilogy is done, I figure it'll be a completely different 24th century coming up in the queue. The outsiders will probably still exist: Worf, maybe Data, the Delta Quadrant characters who don't matter, Odo... but that's about it. No real reason to do anything with them, either. Just fun to speculate.

[Set Harth]

Picard's parents could easily still create Picard, and so forth.
( EDIT: this reminds me of the joke/rumor that the drill falling on SF crushed a Picard ancestor. ) Abrams' time travel is no less deterministic than what we've seen before. The thing is, there's no way to know exactly how the changes in the timeline will influence things, so the writers have a somewhat free hand. Though I agree it would seem highly unlikely if all the significant TNG era characters turned out almost exactly the same.

[Xaios]

Temis the Vorta wrote:

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Data would be by far the best one to bring in. Alan Tudyk could play him, if he isn't too old by this point too. if not, hey, maybe Jim Parsons. I can't see the other TNG characters working, they're not iconic enough.

I couldn't see Jim Parsons as Data, but Alan Tudyk? That would be AWESOME!

Ignoring the fact, of course, that I hope they don't try to shoehorn anyone from TNG into the Abramsverse.

[Ryan8bit]

Delsaber wrote:

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The outsiders will probably still exist: Worf, maybe Data, the Delta Quadrant characters who don't matter, Odo... but that's about it. No real reason to do anything with them, either. Just fun to speculate.

Worf, probably not. For all we know, some of his ancestors were on one of the many Klingon ships destroyed by Nero. The Klingon Empire should be facing some pretty big changes.

Data (or a similar android) has a decent chance though. Soong was possibly already born before Nero made too many waves.

Set Harth wrote:

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Picard's parents could easily still create Picard, and so forth.

That is assuming Picard's parents are even born yet.

Yes, the mother has a set amount of eggs, but a man's sperm varies so greatly. The chances of anyone from TNG being born is like winning the lottery two or three times.

Abrams' time travel is no less deterministic than what we've seen before.

Time travel ideas usually weren't too consistent throughout Trek. But the best stories ("The City on the Edge of Forever", "Yesterday's Enterprise", Star Trek: First Contact, "All Good Things", "Year of Hell", "The Visitor", etc) usually involved a more deterministic point of view.

These stories didn't involve putting characters in for any fated reasons against odds. At least not as drastically.

[Set Harth]

Ryan8bit wrote:

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That is assuming Picard's parents are even born yet.

I wasn't assuming that.

Ryan8bit wrote:

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usually involved a more deterministic point of view.

The time travel in STXI is not less deterministic simply by virtue of not being single-timeline.

[Ryan8bit]

Set Harth wrote:

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The time travel in STXI is not less deterministic simply by virtue of not being single-timeline.

I never said that's why it's less deterministic.

[Set Harth]

It's not less deterministic.

[doubleohfive]

The ideal way to get TNG characters in the JJ-verse would have been, during Spock Prime's flashback in the first film, to have Picard, Geordi, Data and possibly even Worf, in the background as they outfitted the Jellyfish before Spock launched it. No lines, no big change from the scene as it was already done, just have some or all the characters from Countdown there in the background in place of the nondescript Vulcans we got. A simple nod to TNG fans.

Apart from that, why would we bring any TNG characters into the JJ-verse? More time travel, more alternate universe BS... no. It flies in the face of what the first film set out to do - reboot the universe.

[Set Harth]

doubleohfive wrote:

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Apart from that, why would we bring any TNG characters into the JJ-verse? More time travel, more alternate universe BS... no.

If said TNG character is immortal by human standards and thus should presumably have been around in the Abrams filmverse timeframe, then it would be appropriate.