The technology issue if you did a post-Berman era Trek show?

[Jayson1]

I have noticed that there are still alot of support for a Trek show that is set after the Berman era shows. One main argument that I have heard various writers talk about is how i you did that you would have to deal with tech way to advanced since it was already so advanced in the Berman era that it made it hard to tell stories.

I got to admit that also would be a major concern. I got a theory that a further you go into the future the more you got to pull back to make things relatable but when you go just a little bit into the future the more you can get away with wierd and different concepts because the more contemporary setting helps ground the far fetched stuff.

Seems to me if you went post-Berman you would need something that has things kind of regress in terms or tech. Ds9 sort of did that. That was one of the reasons the station was old and things didn't always work right in the early seasons.

I can only think of a few options on how to make such a setting work.

Federation in ruins
Contemporary humans in the future.
Old ship or station.

Jason

 

[Tenacity]

You could introduce the idea that energy weapon deactivators (they had those in TAS) or suppressors were so common that Starfleet no longer bothered to use phasers. But that only works for weapons.

But yes, beyond the 24th century the general level of technology would have become just plain goofy unless you came up with a logically reason to downgrade it.

One idea would be that the Dominion War did far more damage to the Federation, Klingon, Romulan, etc. civilian infrastructures than we heard about in DS9 and their societies experience internal collapses.

Maintaining advance technological societies likely involves a lot of interwoven systems and if the Dominion kicked over enough dominoes during the war the whole thing would have began to fall apart. The process might take years, and they wouldn't be able to stop it..

What happens if they can no longer mass produce antimatter, trans-ship dilithum, interstellar trade slows a few percentage points? Colonies are cut off, Federation member planets begin to turn inward.

 

[suarezguy]

A clear way to regress or at least complicate the technology would be to follow up on the idea that warp drive, especially at high speeds, damages space so there's a lot of pressure and even internal reluctance in Starfleet against going too fast. This could make the storytelling somewhat awkward and repetitive but it would definitely be different.

 

[C.E. Evans]

I think the idea that any post-24th-Century series will become problematic because of the technology is total bull because the technology is merely window dressing for a fictional drama (the moment it becomes the main element for storytelling is when Star Trek is in trouble). If anything, the tech will always boil down to the basic concepts since TOS of having a FTL drive, sensors, phasers, and communication devices of some kind. You can apply new names to them to make them sound like upgraded versions of what came before, but they're still going to be the same tried and true things we've always had. And if you think the tech is anywhere near as important than the characters and the situations they get into, then you're doing your audience a disservice right off the bat, IMO.

 

[Markonian]

There's the tiny problem that death would be defeated easily in such a setting - upload your mind to an android or hologram while a new body is cloned, or simply restore yourself from a transporter pattern backup. Plus, with quantum slipstream drive becoming standard, ships wouldn't be as isolated (unless they ventured into other galaxies).

To make any sort of drama or dire situation, the writers would have to conceive a brand new, never before seen situations that can't be solved with technology.

 

[at Quark's]

^Many technologies not only solve problems, but create new ones (or new dilemmas) too. This is, in fact, what we see in many trek episodes. It's possible -though not always simple- to write good stories for that. So I see no real problem in technology becoming more advanced-- if there are good writers on boeard.

Even if the Federation reached an absolute pinnacle in tech (rivaling or exceeding that of the Q continuum), being able to change reality with a single thought, you could still write stories about the challenges that creates in Federation society (e.g. how to prevent that everyone starts acting out on their thoughts). Not that I think you could write an entire series based on that premise, though.

 

[Jayson1]

I think it's a important thing to have technology that is used in different ways other than people pushing buttons or watching graphic's on a viewscreen. Trek needs to have more machinery and prop's that people interact with. Someone using a hammer is visually more intresting than someone pushing a button. I also think it's important to have tech that can be a dangerous thing. Maybe something gives off radiation so you got to wear enviroment suits around it or you play up the fact that phaser's might always be reliable. You basically got to make it less glamour's

Jason

 

[Voth commando1]

Unless you want to break with canon and have an Omega detonation across the Milky Way it's been shown decisively that Trek tech will be so advanced as to be increasingly beyond comprehension.

 

[fireproof78]

Why not explore a new galaxy, that results in less technology being available, beyond the basics of a starship?

 

[Voth commando1]

Why not explore a new galaxy, that results in less technology being available, beyond the basics of a starship?

I advocated a similar idea to the rejection of the supposed "learned" members of this board.

 

[Spot261]

I advocated a similar idea to the rejection of the supposed "learned" members of this board.

To be fair, no real advantage to the idea was given. We already had a show with a ship far beyond the federation's borders and isolated, why do it again and make the numbers bigger? What is the difference in story telling terms between "lost in the Delta Quadrant" and "lost in another galaxy but with faster engines"? Between "fixing problems on federation colonies on the borders of known space which happens to be in our galaxy" and "fixing problems on the borders of known space somewhere else that looks much the same"?

It wasn't rejected out of hand, there just wasn't any convincing suggestion as to how it would result in a different show rather than the same one with different terminology.

Even if the Federation reached an absolute pinnacle in tech (rivaling or exceeding that of the Q continuum), being able to change reality with a single thought, you could still write stories about the challenges that creates in Federation society (e.g. how to prevent that everyone starts acting out on their thoughts). Not that I think you could write an entire series based on that premise, though.

I'm not sure, maybe you could if you weer working in a non episodic fashion. Such powers doubtless have significant costs and moral dilemma attached and how best to deal with those would doubtless lead to conflict somewhere down the line. How such powers developed, how they affected society, how they were incorporated into or altered our existing moral frameworks would all have dramatic potential. The difficulty would be making those powers sufficiently beyond what TNG era characters already possess whilst maintaining some level of relatability.

Maybe something gives off radiation so you got to wear enviroment suits around it or you play up the fact that phaser's might always be reliable. You basically got to make it less glamour's

I think there's some merit in this, trek's use of tech has historically been two fold:

a) convenient plot devices to allow stories to develop
b) plot points in that the consequences of technology going wrong are exactly what causes the danger or drama.

 

[fireproof78]

My main argument is not a ship that's lost but that it would be the new frontier. The Milky Way is either explored enough, or some new alien civilization has been detected and the Federation decides, with the new stability of the Alpha Quadrant, to reach out. So, they start new colonies right on the edge of a galaxy, with support ships providing the bulk of the exploration. They are not "stranded" but they are out on the Frontier.

 

[Jayson1]

My main argument is not a ship that's lost but that it would be the new frontier. The Milky Way is either explored enough, or some new alien civilization has been detected and the Federation decides, with the new stability of the Alpha Quadrant, to reach out. So, they start new colonies right on the edge of a galaxy, with support ships providing the bulk of the exploration. They are not "stranded" but they are out on the Frontier.

I like this idea but to me this story work's better if you actually used established species a lot instead of trying to get ride of them. Establishing a new foothold is something races like the Klingons,Romulans aren't just going to sit back and allow because the will be at a disadvantage if the Federation keeps expanding, YOu could even sort of make the show the story of American expansion. The new alien races would basically be the various indian tribes that where here before the colonist.

Jason

 

[psCargile]

https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/ophion-a-st-fan-fic.279869/

In my vision of future Trek tech, I explored where transporter, holodeck, and replicator advances could lead to for deep space, long duration exploration. It ain't pretty when concepts of reality are called into question.

 

[fireproof78]

I like this idea but to me this story work's better if you actually used established species a lot instead of trying to get ride of them. Establishing a new foothold is something races like the Klingons,Romulans aren't just going to sit back and allow because the will be at a disadvantage if the Federation keeps expanding, YOu could even sort of make the show the story of American expansion. The new alien races would basically be the various indian tribes that where here before the colonist.

Jason

I don't see it working better at all. One, if we are exploring the 25th century, the Romulans are not in a state to go running off for new territory due to Romulus' destruction, unless that plot point is ignored. The Klingons are far more favorable towards the Federation with Martok as Chancellor and Worf as ambassador. So, the idea of the "standard" enemies being available is stretching it, at best.

Secondly, no I would not make it the show regarding the American expansion. The politics of that is loaded, and do not paint the Federation in a positive light, which is the whole idea of the Federation is that things are more positive, and this journey is more scientific than expansionist.

 

[Voth commando1]

I always imagined humanity joining or surpassing the Q to be end goal of Trek's progress.

I don't think it would occur though until I dunno a trillion or so years after Voy.

 

[fireproof78]

Well, you could have Decker from TMP make a return to try and teach humanity about ascending to a higher plane.

 

[The Old Mixer]

I don't think it would occur though until I dunno a trillion or so years after Voy.

Probably not that long...the universe isn't even that old. The Q became what they were within billions of years, unless they're beings that predate the current universe.

 

[Voth commando1]

Why would they not predate the universe? Quinn took Voyager to its beginning as a nook and cranny and then shrank them to subatomic levels.

They are for all intents and purposes gods of the Trekverse.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Let's look at it from the opposite end. If it would take humanity a trillion years to become Q, then they never will, because neither humanity nor the universe is supposed to last anywhere near that long.