Missed opportunities in Trek?

[Ralphis]

The weird truth of the matter is that it seems Future Guy's only real agenda was to tell Archer about the Xindi. In fact everything about the TCW episodes in Enterprise's first two seasons seems centred on making sure the NX-01 is ready to fight the Xindi.

We ignore Broken Bow, since Future Guy even states it's too early for humanity to be involved in his plans, and indeed Silik was at first willing to let Archer walk out of the Helix. True, Silik does attempt to kill Archer once Archer reveals he knows stuff about the TCW, but we can write this off as Silik being impulsive and not acting on Future Guy's plans. In Cold Front Future Guy sends Silik aboard the NX-01 specifically to prevent an accident which would have destroyed the ship. In Shockwave the Suliban destroy a mining colony and frame the NX-01, getting it recalled to Earth. Perhaps the intent was to have at, or at least near the Sol system so that it could be deployed to the Expanse in time to stop the Xindi after their first attack? Future Tense is just the NX-01 getting caught in the crossfire between the Suliban and the Tholians, and in The Expanse Future Guy finally tells Archer about the Xindi.

I don't dispute any of this at all. You're right. All I just meant was that, in 2001, when Broken Bow first aired, my initial thought was that Future Guy would end up being a future Romulan. I realize now after seeing how the events unfolded that he wasn't a future Romulan, and was never intended to be. They were just making it up as they went.

 

[The Wormhole]

Oh don't worry, the Romulan theory is strangely popular among fandom. Braga even latched onto it briefly after the series ended before deciding he's an older Archer for some reason.

 

[JJohnson]

I would like to have seen more Orions, Andorians, etc, in TNG/DS9/VOY. I do like how the 09 Star Trek shows Orion women as more than just dancers and gives them personalities. More species with tails (like Into Darkness/Beyond and Kirk's twins had).

More ships that aren't Excelsior / Miranda class in TNG/DS9/VOY. Because of their overuse, I'm kind of sick of those ships. Give us the Excelsior 4-nacelle study model, some Constitution-class, Loknar, Nelson, Larson, and so on. The Nebula class was okay, but more variety would have been nice. Show more New Orleans, Challenger, Cheyenne, and Centaur class ships. I understand budgets, yada yada yada, but as a fan I want to see how big and broad the Starfleet is.

More militaristic Starfleet. In TNG, Starfleet was only really military with Jelico, and it made more sense. I'm not talking full-on, just a little more nods to the military.

 

[Voth commando1]

I would like to have seen more Orions, Andorians, etc, in TNG/DS9/VOY. I do like how the 09 Star Trek shows Orion women as more than just dancers and gives them personalities. More species with tails (like Into Darkness/Beyond and Kirk's twins had).

More ships that aren't Excelsior / Miranda class in TNG/DS9/VOY. Because of their overuse, I'm kind of sick of those ships. Give us the Excelsior 4-nacelle study model, some Constitution-class, Loknar, Nelson, Larson, and so on. The Nebula class was okay, but more variety would have been nice. Show more New Orleans, Challenger, Cheyenne, and Centaur class ships. I understand budgets, yada yada yada, but as a fan I want to see how big and broad the Starfleet is.

More militaristic Starfleet. In TNG, Starfleet was only really military with Jelico, and it made more sense. I'm not talking full-on, just a little more nods to the military.

The Orion's were just hot green babes in 09 though.

 

[Shawnster]

I wouldn't consider budget constraints as missed opportunities.

Has someone mentioned the Romulans? Trek's first major villain and they are so much less developed than the Klingons. If only they't taken some of that Klingon energy and directed it toward Romulan development.

 

[F. King Daniel]

The Orion's were just hot green babes in 09 though.

Hot green babes? Yes.

Starfleet officers in all three movies? Yes.

 

[Richard Baker]

For me the Next Gen episode 'Emergence' was a wasted opportunity- mostly due to budget and SFX limitations of the time.
When it was mentioned that several holodeck programs were running simultaneously I had such great expectations, instead we saw the inside of a train car with people in costumes. Just inajine how that show could be done with today's CGI- landscapes and environments passing through each other, characters morphing...

 

[The Wormhole]

For me the Next Gen episode 'Emergence' was a wasted opportunity- mostly due to budget and SFX limitations of the time.
When it was mentioned that several holodeck programs were running simultaneously I had such great expectations, instead we saw the inside of a train car with people in costumes. Just inajine how that show could be done with today's CGI- landscapes and environments passing through each other, characters morphing...

At the very least I'd have put more variety into the characters than a farmer, gunslinger, knight, and gangster. At least throw in something like a Lizard Man wearing a Nazi uniform.

 

[Kevman7987]

I think it would have been funny to have Mark Hamill as a guest star and fill his episode with tongue-in-cheek Star Wars references just to mess with the audience.

 

[2takesfrakes]

TNG - Unification, Part II was such a missed opportunity. It's kind of depressing, really. It was so filled with corny cliché and was so obvious, from the first, what was going to happen, as soon as Spock meets with the Pro Council. The sets, the costumes, the makeups were all on the cheap and this distracted from Nimoy, quite a bit. Unification, Notice how Nimoy never did come back for further adventures. Notice that. How TNG could've dropped the ball, here, is problematic and puzzling. It may have had to do, in part, with the necessity of tying the adventure in to The Undiscovered Country, directly.

Had this not been so, at the very least, Romulus may have not ended up on Spock's itinerary. But ... all of that popcorn was at stake, so ... we get an episode that's passionless and pointless. Pointless because Spock hasn't gotten anywhere with Romulan leadership when the show started and when the show ended? He's STILL not gotten anywhere! WTF? Just hateful, all around ... when a fan could write a better show than what the 'professionals' dish out, that's bad. That is so bad ...

 

[JonnyQuest037]

Unification, Notice how Nimoy never did come back for further adventures. Notice that. How TNG could've dropped the ball, here, is problematic and puzzling. It may have had to do, in part, with the necessity of tying the adventure in to The Undiscovered Country, directly.

I don't think Nimoy coming back to TNG was ever much of a possibility. The show only ran for another two seasons after "Unification" and Nimoy didn't have another Trek project to cross-promote in that time. I don't see it happening even if "Unification" was the most successful episode since "The Best of Both Worlds."

 

[Voth commando1]

I always thought both the episode with Scotty and Spock were really just fan love letters anyway.

 

[2takesfrakes]

I don't think Nimoy coming back to TNG was ever much of a possibility. The show only ran for another two seasons after "Unification" and Nimoy didn't have another Trek project to cross-promote in that time. I don't see it happening even if "Unification" was the most successful episode since "The Best of Both Worlds."

No, you're right about that. Nimoy didn't need STAR TREK, directly, although he could never hope to escape it. I looked up his shows, before, which actually stemmed from taking an interest in his directing career. Turns out some flick he directed called "3 Men & a Baby" which was based on a French film. Anyway, it was -- apparently -- a huge hit. Alas, aside from that and TVH, Nimoy's directed nothing but turkeys and his directing options shriveled.

But I saw a "Marco Polo" something or other in his resume that looked like it might've held some possibilities. But I'm fearful ... I don't want to chance it. I've subjected myself to other William Shatner fare and it sucked so bad! Wow! Just so bad ... he cured me of looking up his movies. Although, I do have a soft spot for "Secrets of a Married Man," in which Shatner's the titular character and his "secret" is that he's wasting the kids' Xmas money on hookers, because he's bored of his wife's cougarly lovemaking style. But yeah, with TOS actors, the non-Trek pickings are slim. Even Nichelle Nichols 45's are rife with outerspace-loving themes. Egads ....

I always thought both the episode with Scotty and Spock were really just fan love letters anyway.

That pretty much sums it up. But neither was a fun outing for me. Watching Scotty as a loser, like something that climbed down from a tree ... totally clueless in his officiousness. Bloody embarrassing, if you ask me. James Doohan was a soldier making history, fighting on D-Day, during WW2! He was there saving the whole damn world and doing it for real! Then, he gets stuck with this Scotty persona and ends up doing Infomericals the rest of his career and UFO cover-up specials. Jimmy ... no!!! NO!!! How the MIGHTY have FALLEN ... It's no wonder he let himself go, the way he did. Maybe he was hoping that STAR TREK wouldn't keep asking him back, based on his size alone. So, he kept wolfing down those Big Macs, Biggie Fries and Diet Cokes ...

 

[UnknownSample]

Larger, easily flummoxed, jovial uncle Scotty, the one who banged his head on something and fell down and went boom in... ST5? That isn't Scotty at all to me. I get no nostalgic pleasure from seeing him. There were probably other actors who could have played real-Scotty better at that point. And the cliché story... it's the very first thing anyone would think of. The old man feels embarrassed at being behind the times.
------
The only thing I liked at all in Reunification is Sarek. That scene was jarring and well done. Last viewing, I noticed that Nimoy wasn't even playing Spock anymore. He was in Spock's makeup, but playing him as a human, without going into that "zone" as an actor that was so deep he had trouble getting back out of it to interact with family on the weekend, during TOS.

 

[somebuddyX]

I wanted to see the Ferengi join the war in DS9. Yesssssss, I know they were mostly annoying and kind of garbage but I was just really in love with the idea of those huge Marauders, the ones that could take down Galaxy-class starships, duking it out with Dominion warships. I felt it was going to go this way from the intro to Valiant.

 

[2takesfrakes]

Last viewing, I noticed that Nimoy wasn't even playing Spock anymore. He was in Spock's makeup, but playing him as a human, without going into that "zone" as an actor that was so deep he had trouble getting back out of it to interact with family on the weekend, during TOS.

Leonard Nimoy seemed to relish the opportunity to Humanise Spock from TVH, onward. He must've been very bored of playing the character, as he wasn't doing all that much, otherwise. Maybe that's why Doohan & Nichols began playing their characters so broadly, as well. Uhura takes on these mystic qualities, especially in TFF. Maybe none of these people can believe anyone would pay them to play Space Heroes in their Advanced Years, but someone out in the audience might've expected more familiar characterisations depticted, for their money. But, yeah, if I had to play Benedick from "Much Ado About Nothing" almost exclusively, throughout my acting "career," you know what? By the time I hit my 60's, I might start feeling constipated with creativity, being stuck in that role ...

 

[JonnyQuest037]

Although, I do have a soft spot for "Secrets of a Married Man," in which Shatner's the titular character and his "secret" is that he's wasting the kids' Xmas money on hookers, because he's bored of his wife's cougarly lovemaking style.

"Secrets of a Married Man" is friggin' hilarious. I caught it on TV years ago and I loved how goofy it got. Here's a clip:

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[Devilpogostick]

I wanted to see the Ferengi join the war in DS9. Yesssssss, I know they were mostly annoying and kind of garbage but I was just really in love with the idea of those huge Marauders, the ones that could take down Galaxy-class starships, duking it out with Dominion warships. I felt it was going to go this way from the intro to Valiant.

I admit...This would be interesting. I mean I think DS9 did pretty well on making the Ferengi a lot more than what TNG usually gave them. Not to mention Quark and family show a lot of depth that does convince you that the race is capable of doing much much more than what again early TNG establish then as (though I guess that one time with the Stargazer was kinda impressive before the Ferengi were turned full on joke character).

But a fleet of Marauders would look pretty sweet to see.

 

[Richard Baker]

I think it would have been funny to have Mark Hamill as a guest star and fill his episode with tongue-in-cheek Star Wars references just to mess with the audience.

One of the cabin doors on the Enterprise D was labeled 'Commander Skywalker'- you can read it on screen but the set people had a lot of fun doing things like that...

 

[Armus]

TNG should have done an episode with Jack Crusher and Picard(with hair) on the Stargazer. DC comics did a story like that.