Earth based Trek show

[theARE]

Konata Izumi wrote:

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It could be quite similar to DS9 and that's liked.

Could be cool too if they focused on other species' governments too, intercutting.

There's always been politics. They could do so much more with the weird shit though, than they already have. No limits there really.

There would definitely be a lot of alien government things going along - at least in the form of ambassadors, how they interact, secret meetings and plotting between them etc.

One thread that could be picked up in the time period I mentioned earlier would be the Federation's resources being stretched in helping the Klingons rebuild Qo'noS explosion. There might be a group of planets along the Klingon border who had only recently joined the Federation after being occupied off and on by Klingons for generations.

They joined the Federation for safety and security and to help their worlds rebuild only now to find Federation resources now being channelled to the Klingons instead.

They might start casting about - talking of succeeding from the Federation - maybe reports of them having secret meetings with Romulan representatives

[anh165]

The concept is all very insular and limited from the get go - it sounds like a political documentary and yet fictional.

I seriously doubt anyone wants to watch characters with lumps on their heads moaning and snarling about territory desputes or securing interstellar aid every episode in some futuristic UPF office. ZZZZZZZ

[Konata Izumi]

^I'm thinking of Breaking Bad. Lots of tension. Replace drugs & thugs with space & aliens. Always on the edge of catastrophe.

[Bry_Sinclair]

Earth is paradise. That'd be very dull, IMO.

A planet-based series would be different, but go for something more like a colony on the outer edge of the Federation, either into the unknown or just a stone throw away from a hostile species. Give them a Starfleet field office to monitor the region, protect and serve, etc.

The colony could either be a brand new one, so you have the whole situation of getting things established and building a new home, or (if you wanted to throw in an element of mystery and danger) a planet that has been resettled, after the original colony disappeared--a bit obvious probably, but it does set up a long-term plot element to work with.

[Worf'sParmach]

How good or bad a show like this would be depends entirely on the characters. When DS9 came out people had the same reactions, who wants to see Starfleet Officers stuck on a space station? But the excellent writing and well developed characters made it work.

I've always thought that the idea that Earth became a perfect paradise handi-capped Star Trek. Because, as Bry Sinclair said, paradise is very dull. It's also very unrealistic, IMO. So it pretty much limited the number of good Earth-based plots you could have unless you went back in time to when Earth wasn't perfect, in other words, when Earth was interesting.

[anh165]

Konata Izumi wrote:

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^I'm thinking of Breaking Bad. Lots of tension. Replace drugs & thugs with space & aliens. Always on the edge of catastrophe.

It's as if all advanced and intelligent species of Alien ever want to do in the Trek universe is to make the Federation/humans life difficult, not exactly a compelling or original concept.

Can't see how familes look forward to gathering together to watch contrived doom and agression in their back yard each week.

Oh wait, this is a TV show for 'real' trek fans, all 1381 of them.

[Konata Izumi]

^It would be more for the adult drama demographic yeah.

Paradise wouldn't be paradise if it was dull. It's a bit weird how there seems to be so much difficulty in portraying, the parts of happy lives that are not only interesting to the one experiencing them, but outsiders too as of course that happens all the time IRL. Animu does it, but it's limited to the utopistic 'high school' life genre only and it's almost always bundled with cute/sex appeal. One show had pretty ordinary-looking boys and it got a second season though. I remember the part where they were racing around hallways in some cardboard box or something lol. But why can't it work without always humor or something to oogle at?

[Temis the Vorta]

Can't see how familes look forward to gathering together to watch contrived doom and agression in their back yard each week.

Families don't watch TV together anymore. TV is now made up of a bunch of different audiences who all expect different things. The CBS audience vs CW vs FX vs HBO, etc. The grownups have their TV in one room and the kids used to have a TV in their bedroom but now they probably use their iPhone etc.

So wherever the show ends up, it needs to suit the audience there. If it's on the CW, that's very different from Showtime and the approach would also be different.

Of all the options, CBS teaming with a streaming service would result in a series most like what we're used to, because then the idea would be to appeal to Trekkies, and/or new fans who iike Abrams' movies, enough to get them to subscribe to that service.

CBS is co-funding Under the Dome (a sci fi premise that would probably not get survival-level ratings on CBS if that were the only place its shown) by selling streaming rights to Amazon. They could do the same with Star Trek, and I'd imagine that could spark a nice little bidding war between Amazon and Netflix, given the power of that brand name.

[LtChange]

Well I think it could work. Just imagine Deep Space Nine but instead of a space station we have Earth. We could have a restaurant where there would be meetings between characters, a command center and so on. Also, it could have some permanent space ships attached to the main base, so we could have space based adventures too, as when Defiant or a runabout left the station to go explore ... so I really don't see the problem story wise, it might even bring some new element to the series beside the classical Star Trek themes.

[EmoBorg]

While DS9 did rip off Babylon 5 in terms of the space station concept, Why not Star Trek rip off the stargate franchise as well. We could have federation scientists inventing and building an inter galactic gateway that opens a wormhole to other worlds in other galaxies. Romulans, Klingons, Cardassians,Ferengi and Federations member species all use the portal to explore and trade with alien races in other galaxies. The gateway could be located on earth or the moon.

[Admiral Buzzkill]

theARE wrote:

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I think many would disagree - Trek at it's heart, good Trek anyway is using "aliens" to hold a mirror up to real world issues. Trek at it's best is stuff like "Let that be your last Battlefield".

One of the worst Trek episodes ever, down there with "The Way To Eden."

"Many" would not agree with you - some hardcore trekkies, but not enough people to keep a tv show on the air.

[BillJ]

Worf'sParmach wrote:

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How good or bad a show like this would be depends entirely on the characters. When DS9 came out people had the same reactions, who wants to see Starfleet Officers stuck on a space station? But the excellent writing and well developed characters made it work.

And the badass starship and a war with lots of ships shooting lots of weapons at each other...

And it still isn't popular outside a narrow band of Trek fans.

[Shazam!]

LtChange wrote:

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Well I think it could work. Just imagine Deep Space Nine...

Make more DS9 then

[BillJ]

LtChange wrote:

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Well I think it could work. Just imagine Deep Space Nine but instead of a space station we have Earth. We could have a restaurant where there would be meetings between characters, a command center and so on. Also, it could have some permanent space ships attached to the main base, so we could have space based adventures too, as when Defiant or a runabout left the station to go explore ... so I really don't see the problem story wise, it might even bring some new element to the series beside the classical Star Trek themes.

Kinda defeats the purpose of putting it on Earth to begin with: to keep costs down.

[Admiral Buzzkill]

BillJ wrote:

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And the badass starship and a war with lots of ships shooting lots of weapons at each other...

And it still isn't popular outside a narrow band of Trek fans.

Yep.

It's pointless to come up with idea for shows and movies that would never actually be made because of the fact that the studio is in business to turn a profit. The more something looks like DS9 or the other later Trek shows the less likely it is to be considered.