Explorers and Overwatch - concepts/ideas/plot discussions

[Serin117]

Hi there,

I've been working on this idea for perhaps about a year and a half now - figured it was time to post here and see what people thought.
These two storylines will eventually become interlinked and are set quite firmly in the fiction established by the pocket books novels, especially the Destiny timeline.
Spoiler warning for said timeline - for anyone who hasn't read all of it.

Quick descriptions:

Explorers –
15 years after the Borg invasion - Federation President Kellessar Zh’Tarash as one of her final acts as leader commissions a fleet of 20 new Starfleet exploration vessels. They are to be the most advanced starships ever constructed by the UFP and will serve as a new frontier of exploratory endeavour. These 20 Vesta Refit class ships were built in batches at various shipyards around the Federation and serve as test beds for many new technologies including experimental integrated AI, ship wide holographic interface systems and advanced slipstream drives - they are the absolute bleeding edge of starship development.
Early in the year 2401 the 16th and 17th starships off the production line were completed. The U.S.S. Walkabout (NCC-90116) and the U.S.S. Bacco (NCC-90117).
Newly promoted, Captain T’ryssa Chen is given command of the vessel named for the president who had been taken too early. Her mission - to take the Bacco and its diverse crew to the far edge of the gamma and delta quadrants and explore the truly unknown.

Overwatch –
Meanwhile in the halls of Federation power an organization grows, silently gathering support from council members, civilian entities and Starfleet officials.
This organization, in the wake of the apparent destruction of Section 31, seeks to defend the Federation from all threats. But unlike previous attempts this new group seeks not only to defend the Federation but to radically change Federation policy by challenging some of its most strongly held beliefs.
With the resources of a post-scarcity society, slipstream drive and enough support this group is able to construct an outpost far above the ecliptic plane of the galaxy itself. Equipped with the most advanced sensor arrays, a position specifically chosen to take advantage of the subspatial geometry flowing towards the Milky Way and some of the most brilliant minds in the Federation, Overwatch begins the multitude of tasks that its leaders hope will bring about not only a stronger civilization but one with a further advanced set of moral standards.


So there we go.
Those are the basic premises for the stories that I'll be telling.
I've already a few episodes concepted for Explorers and have begun fleshing out the dialogue for them. I hope to have a short demonstration trailer out by the anniversary date this year. I'm still in the process of setting up a motion capture studio for the animation of it but it goes quite well at this stage. Asset creation has been on-going almost as long as the idea has existed in my head. Slowly building the bridge and testing out character techniques as I learn them.

As to Overwatch - I hope to release little snippets of prelude as I write it in between all the rest. Assuming that I can gather the required support and voice acting talent it will eventually link up Explorers in what I think will be a most pleasing fashion.
Expect to find many new faces but also some old beloved characters from the novels and the television series'.

I'll be trying quite hard to make sure that it remains faithful to the novels, I've obviously extrapolated a few things here and there though as necessary.
Chen for instance I knew from the first moment we met her in the novels had to one day become a captain. One who struggles to overcome her inherent ridiculousness to become a consummate leader.
Some other things that I've pretty much set in stone for the story are as follows:
-Captain Picard has long since retired to civilian life at his family home. His having mentored Chen is one of the primary reasons she is given captaincy of a ship so important to the Federations history and future. -Status of the Enterprise will remain classified within this story.
-Admiral Riker will still be in Starfleet serving as its director of exploratory efforts in San Francisco.
-The relationship with the Romulan Empire will have faced challenges but will have grown significantly in the years since the books left off. This will become important for some way-down-the-line ideas I have for the crew. Oh and as a result of the warming relations the treaty banning the Federation from cloaking technology will have been amended slightly - this will result in the crew having access to personal cloaking systems that allow for easier observation of alien civilisations but they will be, by law, only used in those types of missions.
-The Andorian people will still be recovering from the fertility crisis and many societal norms will have been questioned since the need for strict bond grouping has become less necessary thanks to 'Bashir's Miracle'. This will most certainly be a plot point that gets a lot of focus as many of my characters will either be Andorian or have some kind of attachment to them. One young character in particular will explore these issues in depth.
-A new Federation president will have been elected since Zh'Tarash stepped down. I don't really want to have him/her in either series. The temptation to make their personality too much like Bacco would be far too strong.
-The Typhon Pact will still be around causing the occasional bit of trouble, but won't feature until/if the aforementioned Romulan plot begins.
-The hostile and allied powers will be on the cusp of developing their own slipstream technologies after many years of the Federation thwarting their plans through covert action.
-AI technology has made many advances since the U.S.S Titan's first encounter with the Sentry species and White-Blue. The Vesta Refits(need to talk to Mister Rademaker about a possible name for the class) will be a test bed for the first generation of shipboard AI - they'll be similar in function I think to the Andromeda tv show's AI but different enough to not be a complete cliché. A big inspiration here has been the AI from the Halo series and its novels. The idea of AI pretty much always being evil with few exceptions has really begun to bore me so thus the Bacco will have an AI to do some things and compensate for the crew and its biological fallibilities.

I hope to get the point with Explorers in which I can hit pretty close to the quality of the cut scenes in the last 2 Halo games in terms of CGI. Of course not having millions of dollars and being only one person this seems unlikely. Try I shall anyway. Its a learning experience after all.
As to why CGI - well, I can't afford to pay proper actors and frankly its a lot easier to just have one person doing the motion capture given the circumstances mentioned above. Both body and facial capture will be utilised for Explorers - more than happy to discuss how I plan on doing this and the tech behind it.

Right.
That's about it.
I'd love to discuss some of these ideas with anyone interested. Unfortunately I'm one of those horrible people who so enjoys pinging ideas off others endlessly - I apparently crave validation.
Criticisms are more than welcome and I will take them seriously - but to be quite honest this entire idea isn't for any particular market but my own enjoyment. A true 'in the shower thinking things that sound great in my head' endeavour.
I'll be posting bits and pieces as they happen here in this thread.
Cheers! Doubly so if you got this far...

 

[CeJay]

Sounds intriguing and really ambitious for a one person project.

Would love to see some fan fiction around these ideas at least. But hey, might as well think big here.

 

[Serin117]

Sounds intriguing and really ambitious for a one person project.

Would love to see some fan fiction around these ideas at least. But hey, might as well think big here.

Thanks.
The fanfic will certainly happen. Much prelude to cover.
And yeah, I admit that it most certainly a properly mad idea. The plan is to work my way up from a short clip that's not much more than a few shots on the bridge, of the ship and the title screen. After that is a slightly longer clip from various common locations with a voice over(in the form of a captains log, of course) explaining what has happened since last we saw TNG on screen. Then a bunch of little character shots explaining little details like Andorian biology(plan on this one being set in the ships classroom so we end up with children asking questions of the andorian teacher) and quick bios on some of the more important characters. These will serve as test pieces for the animation of various alien species.

 

[Serin117]

Overwatch - part 1.
3 years before the launch of the U.S.S. Bacco.

On Andor...

Thirishar ch'Thane had decided to walk home from the institute, the air a crispy chill due to the lack of cloud cover, the last beams of warm light starting to filter through the city streets. His route home was well traveled – trekked many times since his return to Andor years prior, he was guided by an internal auto pilot as his mind drifted to the work he had buried himself in since the Cure had been developed. Genetic profiles, Bond success statistics and newly evolving mating practices had become his daily life.
The Andorian government had since discouraged further investigation of the Shedai meta-genome but Shar had still mused at the possibilities since the day that Julian Bashir had helped to save his species. The possibilities were seemingly endless but research into the subject was outlawed by Federation law. Of course Shar had come to see this as quite contradictory in the face of the evidence provided by recent history.
Even Julian himself was the result of genetic engineering. How, Shar thought, could the Federation justify the continuation of a centuries old ban when all the recent evidence pointed towards it being unnecessary? What could they hope to gain by continuing the ban?
It was a conversational and repetitive argument he’d had with politicians ranging from local members of the Parliament Andoria all the way up to president zh’Tarash while she’d still been in office.
The local members had been much more receptive to the idea, very few of them hadn’t had their lives changed in some way by the Cure and they rightfully wanted to see where else the meta genome could help. As much damage as Ishan Anjar had done to relations between Andor and the Federation Shar’s people still saw them as part of the extended clan. They wanted to help, to pay back something of what Bashir had given them.
The President on the other hand hadn’t been as receptive. Shar imagined that Zha President had been forced to endure many classified briefings since taking office and he assumed that the first would have necessarily involved the meta-genome.
Still, he’d been disappointed to learn that research into it had been locked back down after Bashir had secreted the data out in an as yet unknown manner.
Shar had asked the Human over dinner or drinks many times about how he’d obtained the data but even decades later he still had no answer. Bashir had too much at stake still to reveal those secrets.
Julian had at first been apprehensive about the role he’d played; he didn’t want credit or celebrations on the streets in his name. They’d happened anyway of course. It had in fact since become a yearly celebration. Fertility rituals were nothing new on Shar’s homeworld, but they had taken on a new zeal in the years since.
Each year when the celebration came around Shar found himself torn. To see so many new Whole Bonds walking the streets happy beyond anything they’d thought possible. Zhavey cradling their newborn, charan and Shreya dotting while thavan proudly protected all as they rejoiced.
Shar was not sure how to process it. The loss of his Bond and his offspring to the Borg still haunted him. And Thriss… he still hadn’t forgiven himself for her death. Couldn’t forgive himself.

Turning onto a cobblestone road made of dark blue worn stones Shar found himself not far from home. The tall buildings of the capital behind him the architecture began to thin. Small dwellings, shops and the various structures that made up the outskirts of Lor’Vela surrounded him now. Still the buildings echoed the fact that the new capital had once been the financial heart of Andor. Most were new or at the very least not old. Not quite gleaming like the tall mirror-like buildings in the heart of the city but still showing enough of the areas wealth to inform visitors of the history of the place.
Turning another corner, he began crossing a park, the grass under his feet soft but with the crunch of the frost that gathered each night during winter on Andor. His house could be seen through the trees. Placed right on the edge of the park it sat with several others in a row that backed onto another road. His home was modern much like everything else. Straight and angled cuts of the same blue stone that made up the roads. Squat, single level but with a small basement constructed as per storm regulation codes.
A porch light activated as his homes computer system sensed his approach. Taking in the park once more before climbing the two steps that would cut off his view of it he sighed.

Something was wrong. His front door sat slightly ajar.
Antennae pushed forward as the defenses he had developed in Starfleet came into action. He listened for movement through the door but heard none.
He’d thought to call the sentinels but it would’ve made him ever more unpopular with them. Not even including his time spent with them during the crisis that the Cure brought he’d earned their scorn simply for the numbers of people who had somehow found his place of residence and wanted to give him their thanks. Hundreds of them came every year. Even more during the anniversary celebrations.
Quietly he pushed through the door, treading lightly on the carpeted floor towards the main room and kitchen. He stopped at the final turn into the kitchen. His antennae certainly sensing something alive. Taking a quick look around the corner he spotted only one thing out of place.
A small locket attached to a chain on the grey stone kitchen bench.
At first he didn’t recognise it. Did someone break into his home only to leave him something? No, that made no sense.
Tensing his muscles he turned the corner quickly and only when he saw the form sitting, legs crossed, on his couch did he realise what the locket was and who had broken into his home.

“Prynn.” He said softly.
“Hi Shar,” she replied. Older now than when he’d last seen her but still every bit as beautiful. The human woman wore modern dark greys and blacks. Something not dissimilar to what was now common in the capital.
“What are you doing here?” he asked as he walked to the bench. Taking the locket gently in his hand he recalled the day that he’d given it to her. And the promise it represented.

“Shar, I think you better sit down. I’ve got a lot to tell you and, I think, a lot to offer.”

 

[Serin117]

Oh and slight correct to my first post. I wrote sentinel instead of Sentry.. As in White Blue's AI race.
Much derp.

 

[Serin117]

Thought I'd add some of the continuing work I'm doing on both the plot and 3D assets for the Overwatch portion of this:

- Built in 2397 without the knowledge of Starfleet or the wider Federation, Overwatch station serves as a base of operations for a group of Federation citizens who have grown disillusioned with many of the Federations most cherished and entrenched ideals.
Seeking a means of testing alternatives to these ideals the Overwatch organisation set about creating a base located outside their home galaxy from which they could carry out humanitarian, scientific and covert operations that would not be allowed within the confines of the Federation.
Thanks to the advent of slipstream drive the wider universe became available and thus the station was positioned far above the core of the Milky Way.
Not only out of view and reach of most of the galaxies powers but within a zone of subspace topology that allowed for the collection of tachyon particles that had made their way through the galaxy and had been subtly influenced by the numerous power generation technologies utilised throughout the galaxy, effectively allowing Overwatch to spy on any given 'active' portion of the galaxy as their computers processing power allowed.

Without further blithering - the station:
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/vZq8x

I swear I named this thing before the Blizzard game 'Overwatch' announced...

 

[SolarisOne]

That station is a similar shape to the one Starfleet built to replace DS9, but much smaller, it appears.

 

[Serin117]

That station is a similar shape to the one Starfleet built to replace DS9, but much smaller, it appears.

Mines 2km x 2km x 1.5km. I think its actually pretty close to the work Doug and co did on the DS9 replacement Frontier class.
There are a bunch of early drawings that show people walking around - my one might even be a little bit larger than those.
In any case it is very much my own version of the Frontier class, just adapted for its own specific purposes.

 

[Spot261]

Sweet concept, to what extent are we going to see these obviously massive advances in tech enjoyed by the other powers, will we see similar out os galaxy stations for the Romulans or Klingons? Will Cardassians have access to slipstream tech? If so what does that mean for the balance of power across the board?

Small question though, isn't ship board AI something already within the means of the Federation as of TNG?

 

[Serin117]

Sweet concept, to what extent are we going to see these obviously massive advances in tech enjoyed by the other powers, will we see similar out os galaxy stations for the Romulans or Klingons? Will Cardassians have access to slipstream tech? If so what does that mean for the balance of power across the board?

Small question though, isn't ship board AI something already within the means of the Federation as of TNG?

Cheers!
I think the way I'm going to play it is that the other powers will be on the cusp of developing their own slipstream technologies. I'm assuming for some amount of undocumented trouble in the years between wherein the Fed had to protect their advantage like they did in the Typhon Pact series, this could explain the fairly long amount of time it'd have taken them to create their own tech.
The Klingons... assuming they are still allies after this years TNG trilogy I think they might have had access to closely monitored Fed slip-tech for probably a few years before my plots start.
The other powers being on the verge of gaining the ability is one of the things that inspired the Overwatch plot. They believe that the Fed hasn't tipped the balance of power further in their favour since the advent of slipstream. Taking scientific risks that wouldn't be allowed within the Federation is part of their policy of ensuring the continued survival of the UFP.

As to AI - I think the idea was that whilst it was possible it was frowned upon by starfleet. add to that the moral questions that seemed to be asked a lot about whether or not it was ok to create sentient life etc etc.
We saw how distrustful the Titan crew were of the AI that White Blue created in Synthesis when it first appeared. I wanted to take their positive experience there and expand on it.
Of course I may be wrong about that, its just the impression I've got.

And indeed if any of this stuff is invalidated by further novels before I actually premier the animation the plots can be changed to conform to the book-canon.

 

[SolarisOne]

Holy crap. That ship pictured alongside the station must be HUGE--that's what I based my estimate on. O.O

 

[Serin117]

Holy crap. That ship pictured alongside the station must be HUGE--that's what I based my estimate on. O.O

Yeah, she's an Odyssey class from STO I modelled a couple of years ago.... and she's a kilometre long... hah!
That said the Odyssey won't actually be making an appearance in either of these stories. Its just in those pictures to show scale.

 

[SolarisOne]

That begs the question: that would Starfleet need with a kilometer long ship? Sounds like too many eggs in one basket to me.

 

[Serin117]

That begs the question: that would Starfleet need with a kilometer long ship? Sounds like too many eggs in one basket to me.

You'd have to ask the people at STO. They seem to love giant ships.
It does sort of follow a logical progression though, building bigger and bigger as time progressed. I think it's meant to be a fleet command ship of some type, if I remember correctly.

 

[SolarisOne]

Did Wolf 359 and the Dominion War not teach the STO version of Starfleet how easily thousands upon thousands of people can die in quick succession aboard separate ships? Imagine how many people are going to be aboard a ship that big. One disaster they can't handle, and that's sooooo many personnel dead.

 

[Serin117]

This is becoming more a development thread than a fanfic one... whooops.

Finally starting to feel like the bridge of the Bacco is coming together.
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/8RQ0m

 

[Cyfa]

It's about time there was a Federation ship named Bacco. And a Vesta, at that - couldn't be more fitting.
You've got some great ideas here. I look forward to seeing how things progress - especially Chen in the role of Captain (something I think an older, wiser T'Ryssa would excel at).

P.S. Love the bunny on the bridge!

 

[Serin117]

It's about time there was a Federation ship named Bacco. And a Vesta, at that - couldn't be more fitting.
You've got some great ideas here. I look forward to seeing how things progress - especially Chen in the role of Captain (something I think an older, wiser T'Ryssa would excel at).

P.S. Love the bunny on the bridge!

Cheers!
Yeah, T'ryssa in a captains chair was quite honestly the first thing I thought when I first read her bits and pieces in the TNG novels. And coincidentally she is very similar to something I wrote about a Vulcan-Human captain who took after her Human side well before I started seriously reading the novelverse, so she definitely felt like the perfect fit.

A little news about how I'll deal with the new guidelines - I still plan on having at least 1 episode each for Explorers and Overwatch - the change is that I'll be filling in gaps with a CG comic-style release and short clips that I'll be calling teasers that will introduce the characters and settings but they'll be separate from the two 15min ep's.
Only trouble is that I've got outlines of so many episodes I want to tell... to pick only one is quite nasty.