Reposted from another thread, I thought this was worth discussion. I'd LOVE to see a post-Nemesis Trek that embraced and explored everything Trek likes to pretend never happened. Essentially, it'd be a show about humanity adapting to not only telekenetic superpowers (TOS: "Plato's Stepchildren"), but also instant teleportion almost anywhere (ST'09/ID) via commbadge-sized transporter (NEM), who can control their age (TNG: "Rascals") and are cured of all illness (TNG: "Unnatural Selection") with every transport, who reverse death with Borg nanoprobe technology (VOY: "Mortal Coil"), and who can also duplicate themselves at will (TNG: "Second Chances") and beam between universes (DS9: "Through the Looking Glass") and even through time (DS9: "Past Tense") if they so desire. Halfway to a Q. It wouldn't be much like any Star Trek we know, but it would be interesting to say the least. Still want a post-Nemesis series?
I would love to see that show but ONLY if we get to see a documentary (or, a commentary track) where the old Paramount execs and the old writing staff get to comment on everything (I'm sure @Dennis would have a blast)
But then they'd basically be saying none of Trek's 200 years of adventures and advancements mattered. Meaning they might as well have never occurred, making continuing the continuity largely pointless.
Already done. Almost all the things you listed were ignored almost immediately*. Just like the warp speed limit, virus caused 'de-evolution', warp 10 induced evolution, and all the other garbage best forgotten. *And the ones that aren't only come up for plot convenience.
I only have one request for post-Nemesis-Star Trek...... ......please make it interesting to explore space again. By the end of Voyager, the show's production design and outlook had made Starfleet look very pedestrian. Everything being solved by transporter technology or 7 of 9's nanoprobes. In a space show like Star Trek, I want there to be a real sense that you are embarking on an enterprise equal to the voyages of Captain Cook, or Shakleton, or Irvine and Mallory, or Hilary and Tenzing, or Scott, or Gagarin, or Yaeger, or Shepard. If you are a member of the show's writing team, read the biographies of those people. Watch "Master and Commander", "The Right Stuff" and "Apollo 13". Don't make space pedestrian.
See... It becomes immensely apparent that Trek only has two options that will creative satisfy continuing from this point. Either what Fuller is doing, or some variation... Or a total reboot. I've said it before, go all the way back to the original Gene outline/pitch and rework the DNA of Trek from the ground up for the 21st Century. Hang on to a few of those great superficial elements that make Trek, Trek. IE: Vulcans, The Enterprise...etc, but just put everything else to the side. That was then, this is now. Option 3, of course, would be to set the "next Trek" out into the future, but you'd have to "time war" Star Trek ala Doctor Who. Something big and dramatic has to basically shatter the course of events and completely reshape the galactic landscape. By the end of Nemesis, Trek felt narratively boxed in. The galaxy felt much smaller, less grand, and less interesting overall. TNG was a success, however it also was a little safer than it could have been because Trek fans needed to still feel the essence of TOS in TNG. It's still the same stuff, but a little further down the line. It still did what Trek had done previously though, and that was to think of new technological concepts and try and push things in that regard. A reborn Trek would have to look at the world around us and see not only what is new since the 1960s, but also what will THIS world see in 250 years. The technology we are seeing come about now is going to dramatically alter the flow of our society. The kinds of questions our society will face are way past what we thought they were going to be 50 years ago. In some ways that's thanks to Star Trek. It's not just hype when people say Trek influenced tech. It helped inspire a whole generation of engineers. It inspired the creator of the brick cellphone, Steve Jobs and the entire ipad craze, virtual reality... To say nothing of post-60s medical science which took a lot of inspiration from the "no scalpels, no needles" approach of McCoy's sick bay. For years they've been trying to get the hypospray for those of us who suffer from a condition like diabetes. "Imagine! No more needles... Just like in Star Trek!" So just imagine a re-imagined Star Trek that takes into account the new kinds of materials, technologies, cultural philosphy etc we are just now starting to tinker with. The new ways of doing things that are in their oh-so-primitive state today. Micro-engineering, Carbon-nano-materials, drones, microscopic robots, quantum computers, semi-sentient computers. A post-scarcity society where every single home is self-sustaining, and the kinds of "car" we drive are completely green. Industrial sized printing fabricators drawing up the homes of the future. Integrated computing systems in our body, allowing us to directly interface with a "computer" network. But even then, in that world not everyone may be comfortable with having computers integrated (drama!) so you'd have super miniaturized and ultra powerful versions of something like a PDA or a computer. The size of a pen, you pull it open and a "holographic" display is there, allowing you to access the "future internet" and do all kinds of things. I'm a huge fan of, I guess what Gene called "technology unchained." I love the depictions of future tech where it's not depicted as either SUPER SCIENTIFIC STUFF or MAGIC, but instead it's just part of the world. Someone sits in a seemingly semi-contemporary room, on their couch, and they make a gesture, and poof up comes the news out of seemingly thin air right in front of them! You could have these smart 3D displays that you could move around and "place" on any surface. You could have smart materials where any wall can be a window, or turn itself reflective so you can check your hair on your way out the door. Even nuttier than that. This is just me spit-balling off the cuff in five minutes. Trek could take the Utopian world Gene was trying to sell and actually make it a semi-plausible world with what technology and society is showing us today. You might say "Well gee, that's a lot of tech talk, what about character? What about story?" Well, exactly. You build a lush world like that, and the kinds of stories you can tell will be fresh. Just imagine the reworking origins of the Borg in that kind of a world. Instead of a far-flung "other", The Borg could be the result of a type of AI-virus that infects part of the subspace network. Entire colony worlds become psychologically "fused" to this AI and begin violently reworking themselves as the "collective" servants. The Federation has to basically quarantine entire sections of it's own territory behind "firewalls" and use ships to patrol those borders because the Borg start trying to spread across the rest of the network. But, I digress... I'm sure Discovery is going to be great fun.
Yep, my order of preference would also be: 1). What Bryan Fuller is actually doing - pre-TOS or TMP era update with modern drama 2). A full reboot, Gene's pitch, blind-casting TOS, re-designing the connie with modern physics 3). A show set in the JJVerse contemporary to the films 4). A show set after The Undiscovered Country 5). A 25th century post-Nemesis show I would like to see them all eventually.
I've had a very rough idea of what a post-Voyager/Nemesis show could be like for awhile now. Like I said, very rough, but here are my thoughts using some stuff from the Destiny novels as a springboard... Setup 2381 The destruction of two planets is followed by a message. “We are the Borg. You will be annihilated.” Continuing attacks soon lead to a full scale Borg Invasion into the Alpha and Beta Quadrants resulting in the Federation entering into a multi-world alliance to battle them. As the Borg attack planet after planet, ships from the Federation Alliance are sent to prevent the attack and destruction of an Independent world on the fringes of Federation space. Adelphous IV Shortly after Voyager’s return from the Delta Quadrant, this has been the location of a top secret joint project between the Federation, Klingon Empire, Romulan Star Empire, and Cardassian Union to develop a prototype ship to use against the Borg. Unfinished, the prototype ship is unable to assist in fending off a calculated Borg attack and the fleet is nearly destroyed. Before the Borg cubes are able to destroy the world, an anomaly appears and the planet begins to disintegrate. The planet, surviving ships, and debris of the destroyed are sucked into the anomaly. Unknown Galaxy Adelphous IV reforms in orbit of a class K star in a galaxy beyond the known universe, along with ships and debris in orbit. Some debris from wrecked ships is caught in the planets gravity as it reforms and rains down to the surface creating a ship graveyard planetside along with the one in orbit. Surviving ships are heavily damaged and require varying amounts of repair to be operational, limiting travel to only shuttles. For the most part, everything on the surface survived undamaged. Series Possibilities The mystery of the anomaly and who or what is responsible for it is at the forefront of the first season. They have hope of finding a way home but it is tempered with the realization they could be stuck there forever. The damaged ships limit the exploration to the range of working shuttles.This instills an urgency to repair the ships. There is also the possibility of the prototype ship that is near completion in a construction facility beneath the planet's surface. The mixture of powers on an independent world creates a possible struggle for power. What shape will a new government take? What would a new federation look like as it raises from a memory of the one that came before? What inhabited worlds are nearby? If any, they offer a chance for assistance if not hostile. What technology may they offer and will it be accepted/traded for or will the idea of a Prime Directive survive? Summed Up A story about the people on this planet who've been blasted into some unknown reality and whom are struggling to decide what to do and how to survive. Let them be like the audience, wondering what the hell happened that got them there. Some characters will be trying to piece together an answer to what happened and how to get back, while others will accept the hand they've been dealt and decide they have to figure out how to live with each other in this forbidding new place. These two groups can have conflicting goals over limited resources (we have to use these ships to build a means to get home vs. we have to use these ships to build a means to defend ourselves or build a new civilization). One World, One Ship, An Unknown Galaxy, A New Federation
A blank screen. I simply have no desire to go to that time period ever again. The Abrams films convinced me Star Trek belongs in the 23rd century.
I, for one, really want to go back to when Earth was represented by a bunch of snooty, holier-than-thou asshats who spent most of their time tugging down their tunics and espousing the virtues of their utopian society and enlightened outlook. So much fun, that! Wheeee!
So why do you want the post-Nemesis period if nothing ever changes? Why have the Dominion War if Starfleet couldn't appropriate their long distance beaming, for example? Or are we to pretend they never had that, either?
If we did see some post-Nemesis stuff, I would not want to see any of that "death of the Federation" Star Trek 3000 stuff that always floats around - unless it was done with optimism and humanity - like finding the values that brought the Federation together to begin with. I do think a lot of TV is too cynical, and would like to actually see things like science affirmed more often, as something that can be used to understand the natural wonder of creation, not something that is just fuelling our inevitable descent into a wage slave surveillance dystopia of constant systematic rape or something.
These would be my main preferences. The movie era has my favorite visual style, and the time right after TUC is bursting with potential for galacti-political drama, intrigue, and action, between the Federation, Klingons, and Romulans, and could make great allegories for the social and geopolitical situations of today. But for a new exploratory "where no one has gone before" series, I think there has to be a complete ground-up reboot, exactly as SpaceLama said. New universe, new characters, as hard sci-fi as possible while still being able to explore the galaxy at a reasonable pace. Completely free from the constraints of canon, able to discover and rediscover without having to worry about contradicting anything that happened before.
I would like to them jump ahead another 100 years and do for TNG what it did for the Original Series. I don't now if I'd want to see any huge upgrades in the tech, but I would want to see a change in propulsion that would allow them go farther, faster, possibly even to other galaxies. I think this would be a great way to really move away from the forehead aliens and on to something more unusual. Holographic communication and displays would be a nice step up from the old fashioned computer screens. The Klingons, Romulans, Cardiassians, ect could now be Federation members. I would like to see them bring in a new enemy who is a basically the anti-Federation. They kind of did this with the Dominion, but this time they should really make them even closer to the Federation. A great way to set them up as a big threat would be to show them completely, effortlessly wiping out the Borg or the Dominion.
I'd be up for a full reboot. Basic premise the same, Starship Enterprise from the UFP sets out to explore the galaxy, with everything else up for discussion/change. Might be the only way eventually to shed the baggage (the OP is a good list actually of the sort of thing people are talking about when they say the existing canon can be a burden). As for a post Nemesis series, well I'm on record as wanting that in preference to Fuller's choice, so I can hardly say I have no interest. But it would need to be both a modern up to date show (not another 80s style show remade) and take the franchise somewhere new, not just another crew on another ship doing much the same thing. DS9 did the latter but not the former. Voyager and Enterprise did neither. And the TNG movies felt old in a way that the equivalent TOS Movies never did. Maybe Earth/The Federation meet an alien race who challenge their whole arrogant perspective, to whom they are the junior partner but who can provide the secrets to the universe in a way they've never seen it. Maybe a scientific discovery opens up new possibilities for exploring. Anything, basically, to change things up a bit that is not a war, invasion, or similar.
I would want one for the potential to continue or revisit threads introduced by TNG/DS9/VOY. And it's not that "nothing ever changes", it's just that the show has almost always swept massive technological leaps under the rug once their one-story-usefeullness is over. And when they don't, people complain. (Transwarp beaming in nuTrek.) You don't need a clean sweep start over to be free of unwanted canon elements, you just ignore them. Why throw out the baby with the bathwater?
That would be an unwatchable mess. Yes, because Trek does this great thing where it ignores all those one offs and just keep on moving. Only if you ignore that fact would the dreck you're proposing come about. But then it's clearly a silly hyperbolic reaction to the hate being leveled against DSC.