Earth based Trek show

[Nerys Myk]

theARE wrote:

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There is very little SciFi on TV these days.
TV stations seem reluctant to invest in CGI heavy shows that are expensive to produce.

In that climate, I think a more Earth based focus would work well and lower production costs.

What I'm thinking of is a sort of a Federation "West Wing" but with 2 focuses - the Office of the President and Starfleet Command.

We might occasionally see some space based stuff - some incident or battle that kicks off a new storyline or shows the result of another.

The President Office stuff would mostly focus on diplomacy and the Starfleet command thread on operational matters.

Stories would sometimes cross over and intersect, but not always.

Characters though would interact - head of Starfleet briefing the President etc

There would be alien Ambassadors, political campaigns, interaction with media, maybe even a bit of family life of some of the character touched on.

Events on the frontier would often drive the story though we might not see those events.

Not sure about timeframe - maybe between Undiscovered Country and TNG as that seems like an intriguing time line. Relations with the Klingons still being fragile - the Federation still helping to restore Qo'noS (maybe at the expense of existing Federation members), why the Romulans cut off contact with other species (prior to TNG:Neutral Zone), terrorist groups etc etc

I think a series similar to that could
a)be pretty good
b)shed some light on parts of the Star Trek universe we've only ever glimpsed
c) have a realistic chance of being commissioned in today's TV climate

Thoughts?

What part of the phrase "Star Trek" do you not understand?

[theARE]

Nerys Myk wrote:

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What part of the phrase "Star Trek" do you not understand?

It's a big universe - they didnt do much Star Trek-ing in DS9 either and that was by far the superior series

[BillJ]

theARE wrote:

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It's a big universe - they didnt do much Star Trek-ing in DS9 either and that was by far the superior series

Ah, gotta love the righteous indignation many DS9 fans bring to the conversation when others don't find their show the "far superior series".

And they did quite a bit of exploration, which was why they set them right next to a doorway to a vast unexplored section of the galaxy.

[anh165]

theARE wrote:

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It's a big universe - they didnt do much Star Trek-ing in DS9 either and that was by far the superior series

Very insidious of you.

[Nerys Myk]

BillJ wrote:

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Ah, gotta love the righteous indignation many DS9 fans bring to the conversation when others don't find their show the "far superior series".

And they did quite a bit of exploration, which was why they set them right next to a doorway to a vast unexplored section of the galaxy.

What he said.

[dansigal]

[/LEFT][/QUOTE]What part of the phrase "Star Trek" do you not understand?[/QUOTE]

This is a silly argument. Star Trek has become more than a literal interpretation of its name, its a brand. Are you also prepared to argue that Star Trek IV and Star Trek First Contact weren't real Star Trek movies because they took place almost entirely on Earth?

[anh165]

What a silly question.

[BillJ]

dansigal wrote:

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This is a silly argument. Star Trek has become more than a literal interpretation of its name, its a brand. Are you also prepared to argue that Star Trek IV and Star Trek First Contact weren't real Star Trek movies because they took place almost entirely on Earth?

Having an episode take place on Earth here and there is far different than setting the show on Earth.

[Admiral Buzzkill]

dansigal wrote:

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This is a silly argument.

It's anything but. It is inconvenient, however, for folks who want to attach the name to one narrowly-targeted fannish hobby horse or another.

[BillJ]

I simply want a show about big heroes encountering weird shit and for it to be fun.

[xortex]

Set on an alien planet wouldn't be bad. That was the other alternative for DS9 - er, Plan 9 from outer space, or whatever, you know between two warring powers and factions again. I guess that is the same thing. It really has to have a new original crazy metaphysical off the wall premise, like Space 1999 had even. Nobody cared how unlikely that really was in the long run. Like if a race of unseen aliens are really living on Earth or another planet and they start attacking us and it turns out that we are the invaders. some kind of twist turned on it's head.

[dansigal]

My general point was more that Star Trek is now something bigger than its name, it's a universe with infinite ways stories can be told in it, and not just travel among the stars. It's perfectly legit to say that a Star Trek series based on Earth is something you personally wouldn't be interested in, but its silly to say that its not Star Trek or wouldn't be worthy of Star Trek if it was based on Earth. I personally would be very interested to watch Star Trek: Office of the President, as a political and cultural exploration of how something so massively diverse as the Federation operates.

[BillJ]

dansigal wrote:

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My general point was more that Star Trek is now something bigger than its name, it's a universe with infinite ways stories can be told in it, and not just travel among the stars. It's perfectly legit to say that a Star Trek series based on Earth is something you personally wouldn't be interested in, but its silly to say that its not Star Trek or wouldn't be worthy of Star Trek if it was based on Earth. I personally would be very interested to watch Star Trek: Office of the President, as a political and cultural exploration of how something so massively diverse as the Federation operates.

But it is silly and can only serve to piss off a portion of your audience with the bait-and-switch tactic. Part of Trek's problem was it went to far away from its base concept. I think many folks tuned out of DS9 when they found out they were going to be in one place instead of exploring week-to-week and never came back to the franchise.

Alien Empire HQ'd on Earth as a weekly sci-fi series, I'd probably watch. Star Trek: Office of the President, I wouldn't even give it a second thought and neither would most of the general viewers out there.

Why tie yourself down to seven hundred episodes of continuity and expectations when you can start fresh with a concept?

[dansigal]

I just see it the other way, the Federation has such a rich and complex history and foundation, there's so much interesting things worth exploring there. You're not tying yourself down at all.

As far as not personally being interested, if it's not your thing fine, but if people want to write something off because it's not what they were expecting (i.e., i'd be interested in this concept if it didn't have the words Star Trek in front of it) that's just sad because who knows what you're missing out on. Say what you want about where DS9 fits into the bigger ST picture, but it was a good show and at times a great show. People who skipped it simply because it was different than what had come before missed out on some great stuff. It would have been really sad if the show had never been made because someone said this isn't what we expect from Star Trek

[BillJ]

dansigal wrote:

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I just see it the other way, the Federation has such a rich and complex history and foundation, there's so much interesting things worth exploring there. You're not tying yourself down at all.

As far as not personally being interested, if it's not your thing fine, but if people want to write something off because it's not what they were expecting (i.e., i'd be interested in this concept if it didn't have the words Star Trek in front of it) that's just sad because who knows what you're missing out on. Say what you want about where DS9 fits into the bigger ST picture, but it was a good show and at times a great show. People who skipped it simply because it was different than what had come before missed out on some great stuff. It would have been really sad if the show had never been made because someone said this isn't what we expect from Star Trek

Deep Space Nine pushed the boundary then had to be reigned back in because of falling ratings, the reasons we got Worf, the Defiant and the Dominion War.

The reasons behind a Earth-based show not working are pretty obvious. We know everybody. We know the Romulans, we know the Klingons, we know the Cardassians, we know the Vulcans, we know the Breen and so on and so on. For an Earth based show this knowledge would be poison, there'd be little in the way of learning new cultures. You place a show in a new universe and everything is on the table as far as what you can do. That's why a new show with this concept would interest someone like me vs. just making it another Trek spin-off.

Star Trek is an incredible format for storytelling but it is fifty-years old and I've been a fan since 1975. So I'm more than content to allow Trek to thrive on the big screen and let a fresh face with a clean slate attempt to woo me on the small screen.

As in all things, your mileage may vary.