Every time I read this BBS I thank my lucky stars that Trek fans don't get to control what makes it to film.
What a jackamoose that would be.
What a jackamoose that would be.
TOS try again....
- Thread starter Warped9
- Start date
+1000
We all know the only True Trek is our own, which everyone else unreasonably disagrees with for some reason.
+1001
One thing I'd do is cut back on the references to "Earth" and "human". Obviously they serve as a touch stone for the audience, but conceptually Starfleet and the UFP are mutli-species and multi-planet. No more Qs judging humanity and threatening to send them home.
I fail to see how one relates to the other. You can write non-diverse characters as inconsistently as WASPy ones. "Non sequitur. Your facts are uncoordinated."
Ha ha. True dat.
But ships like the enterprise are from Starfleet which is a earth organization so naturally they have a majority of humans aboard. Its like when the Klingons became part of the UFP their ships still had all Klingons aboard. If Q would have decided to meet a Klingon ship he may well have judged them.
Starfleet has been assumed to be an Earth organization primarily because of ENT, but if you're rebooting you're not obligated to stay with that assumption. In TOS it wasn't so clear and for many of us Starfleet came into being upon or just after the founding of the Federation. Indeed FJ's tech manual follows that line of thought.
Prior to the establishing of the Federation and Starfleet it was thought Earth (and other worlds) had their own space agencies.
Prior to the establishing of the Federation and Starfleet it was thought Earth (and other worlds) had their own space agencies.
No it's not. Starfleet is the exploration and defense arm of the United Federation of Planets, not Earth. More so by TNG than TOS.
Star Trek said:
Of course depending on how far the rebooting is, you might not have a multi-species federation.
Remember it wasn't until later in season 1 that they went from Earth ship to Federation ship.
Plus it sounds like the original idea was the UN in space, which is probably why they had Earth starships and Vulcan starships.
BY the time we saw the Intrepid, the Enterprise was a Federation ship.
We have to remember that what TOS could show wasn't always what they would rather have done.
By the end of the first season and then throughout the rest of the series the idea was cemented that Starfleet was an arm of the Federation and it was meant to be a multi-species entity. But TOS was restrained by budgetary and resource limitations that prevented them from depicting that fully. So for a very long time fans took it on faith what was intended despite what was actually shown. Spock was the constant reminder that other races served in Starfleet. The reference to the all Vulcan crew of the Intrepid was another nod in that direction.
The movies and then the spin-offs also tried to convey that idea, but even though they went further than TOS they were still limited in what they could show on a weekly basis. Worf in TNG was the substitute for Spock in TOS in trying to show that Starfleet was not a merely humans club. But other than Spock and Worf there were no alien crew members amongst the main casts.
TAS actually did better (to an extent) because Arex and M'Ress were bridge personnel, but then they only had to be drawn rather than having an actor spend hours in make-up.
A new series could explain this and could be something of an indirect nod to TOS. The Intrepid was an all Vulcan crew while the Enterprise was predominantly human. Maybe it's simply easier (in terms of environmental conditions as well as cultural considerations) to have a ship's crew be predominatly of one type. You could have aliens mixed in as individual representatives who are quite comfortable living day-in-and-day-out with other species. That's obviously the case with Spock, Arex, Mress, Worf, Ro Laren, Jadzia, Belanna and Nog and others we've seen.
That said I think it gets silly when you try to include species that have no business on a starship. An old fan favourite idea was to have a Horta as a crew member of the Enterprise despite the fact it's established that a Horta cannot exist for long outside of its native environment. And without manipulative limbs and digits how exactly is a Horta supposed to serve aboard a starship? Something like a Medusan could work because you can extrapolate that a Medusan could exist within a humanoid shaped encounter suit or even a robot like body.
Another idea that could be part of the backstory ties in with the number of somewhat isolationist type aliens encountered throught the series. These races might like being associated and dealing with other races of the Federation, but have no great interest (as a race) to go tripping thrugh the galaxy. So from that idea you might have Humans, Vulcans and Andorians as making up the bulk of Starfleet personnel with a sprinkling of other races represented.
By the end of the first season and then throughout the rest of the series the idea was cemented that Starfleet was an arm of the Federation and it was meant to be a multi-species entity. But TOS was restrained by budgetary and resource limitations that prevented them from depicting that fully. So for a very long time fans took it on faith what was intended despite what was actually shown. Spock was the constant reminder that other races served in Starfleet. The reference to the all Vulcan crew of the Intrepid was another nod in that direction.
The movies and then the spin-offs also tried to convey that idea, but even though they went further than TOS they were still limited in what they could show on a weekly basis. Worf in TNG was the substitute for Spock in TOS in trying to show that Starfleet was not a merely humans club. But other than Spock and Worf there were no alien crew members amongst the main casts.
TAS actually did better (to an extent) because Arex and M'Ress were bridge personnel, but then they only had to be drawn rather than having an actor spend hours in make-up.
A new series could explain this and could be something of an indirect nod to TOS. The Intrepid was an all Vulcan crew while the Enterprise was predominantly human. Maybe it's simply easier (in terms of environmental conditions as well as cultural considerations) to have a ship's crew be predominatly of one type. You could have aliens mixed in as individual representatives who are quite comfortable living day-in-and-day-out with other species. That's obviously the case with Spock, Arex, Mress, Worf, Ro Laren, Jadzia, Belanna and Nog and others we've seen.
That said I think it gets silly when you try to include species that have no business on a starship. An old fan favourite idea was to have a Horta as a crew member of the Enterprise despite the fact it's established that a Horta cannot exist for long outside of its native environment. And without manipulative limbs and digits how exactly is a Horta supposed to serve aboard a starship? Something like a Medusan could work because you can extrapolate that a Medusan could exist within a humanoid shaped encounter suit or even a robot like body.
Another idea that could be part of the backstory ties in with the number of somewhat isolationist type aliens encountered throught the series. These races might like being associated and dealing with other races of the Federation, but have no great interest (as a race) to go tripping thrugh the galaxy. So from that idea you might have Humans, Vulcans and Andorians as making up the bulk of Starfleet personnel with a sprinkling of other races represented.
It's so easy to forget the half Betazoid, contact lenses an alien make...
If I recall, the original background to Data was that he was an android created by mysterious aliens, before the Soong storyline began...
I've never understood the phrase "just happens to be gay." Characters on shows and in movies are deliberate constructions. Riker didn't just happens to be heterosexual, it was overtly established in the pilot and was an important and often referred to part of his character.
Considering the Trek writers and directors who come and gone through the years, and the producers we gotten, are the fans really any worse?
I'd certain say no.
But if every Riker episode was obsessed within trying to bang some chick, it would get old. I think the distinction is that in the past a gay character's plot threads in movies and shows were often centred on the dreary subject of them and their families 'coming to terms' with their sexuality because it wasn't 'normal' or desirable or some sort of moral judgment. This is brilliantly parodied in Brooklyn 99 with Captain Holt's riveting stories about being black AND gay in the seventies.
It's fine to tell a story about a character coming to terms with something but when the same thing is done so often in so many shows, it starts to grate a bit.
And then you have disappointments like the movie adaptation of State of Play where we lose heroic gay MI5 agent but keep the amoral drug-abusing bisexual. It's better to have light and shade.
Considering the Trek writers and directors who come and gone through the years, and the producers we gotten, are the fans really any worse?
I'd certain say no.
There's really no consistency in the quality of Trek produced by different "types" such that you can really draw a causal relationship. For instance, wouldn't the actors be the ultimate insiders? Nimoy's track record was good, but Shatner's turn was a disaster. And Frakes' was mixed.
I also find the most strident "don't let the fans run things" drumbeat tends to come off as simply a swipe by JJ Trek fans at Trek purists, despite the fact that, revisionism or not, JJ Trek is chock full of the same sort of gratuitous homages and fan-service that some here bash amateur fan-films for. Nimoy showing up on the viewscreen in Into Darkness is not that different from finding some elaborate rationalization to wedge a William Windom cameo into Phase II.
Similar threads
