Exactly, which was my main reasoning for making her have that as a secondary role, just like Ops for the Chief Engineer. I needed to make sure there were reasons for the main cast to be on the Bridge frequently enough. It leaves only the Chief Medical Officer and Counselor without primary Bridge positions, although that generally fits with the other series.
It's not just a long shot, it's a super long almost impossible shot! If you even get a foot in the door (good luck with no agent and no experience) you need something that's not TNG 2 with a bit of DS9 thrown in, that's everyone's idea, where's the hook? You need something new, something interesting, something that immediately makes them think "I want to know more!", the Enterprise F having adventures in the aftermath of the Dominion War is not that. But it doesn't have to be a visible position, there's no reason the conn can't be shoved to the side of the bridge out of focus. The prominent conn is the first thing I'd eliminate from a new bridge. Science, ops and tactical are probably the ones the captain should have easy access to.
Did you miss Troi sitting at Picard's left? Or Ezri manning communications during the latter days of the Dominion War?
There's a family a superior football players all called Manning. Archie, Eli and Peyton, to name probably all of them.
As long as the parallels aren't too on the nose and ripped from the headlines. I'm not automatically talking about everyone being on the farthest ends of any political or philosphic spectrum. but please god don't have them all occupy some bland middle position across the board. Another route would be to give your various characters individual viewpoints on different subjects. Another way of saying that is ... ... not all the characters should agree with YOU. Writing someone believably with multiple different convictions than your own can be tough. Subconsciously you can write them so all your readers/viewers will see their position as wrong. Spock and McCoy would differ and sometime argue, however it wasn't always necessary for one (but not the other) to be "correct."
^ That's the reason I love alien characters, because their thinking and ideals should be so different to humans (who can be pretty bland in Trek). Such as in "Rocks and Shoals" when they're in the cave going over the plan of action and the indoctrinated Nog says about how there are rules to war, to which Garak replies that humans have rules that make winning a war so much harder.
Yep, I was expecting someone to come along and say something like that. Even if it is a TNG 2 style concept (I've already thought about some unique qualities. I don't share absolutely everything here after all.), that's not necessarily a bad thing. I argued my point with a producer recently, that Hollywood is too busy trying to make everything "modern" and "edgy", and full of "unique twists", and it hasn't worked out the best for them. TNG in and of itself was, in essence, TOS 2, just in what was modern times for them, with a better budget and far better team working on it all around. It still took the core concepts of TOS, and how the show played out for the most part, but improved upon it. Sure, it can't be a cookie-cutter clone, but that's the beauty of Star Trek; you literally have an entire universe of possibilities, with a new adventure always around the corner! It's basing off a formula that works, but still twisting things around just enough to make it unique. Sometimes those formulas are the best thing to go back to, just because of the fact that they worked. As the producer said to me, in essence it's about this: "It’s just knowing why something works, having the content be unique, having a great script that does two things; proves your talent as a writer, and illustrates those intangible character relations and story elements that have proven to work time and again in series like MASH, FRASIER, etc. Building a career as a writer, finding enough success to be in a position of influence and access, and having the right project at the right time is what that path is about." I feel if that original formula, that lightning in a bottle, can be caught again, then there's a chance. Where each series is truly unique is in the ship, the crew, and the adventures. It's about using the original formula, but branching out to unexplored areas to keep the adventure going, to help feed that "what happens next?!" feeling. I think as it is, people DO want to know more, even without the series in existence as more than a concept yet. Time and again I keep seeing people say that they want a new series that expands on the future, not another milk run of the past. Indeed, I'll try to have some "unique" traits to help with grabbing an executive's attention, but I feel what I need for my main selling points. One thing is certain though, there are people who want to see what happens next, and they need to focus on the people; not how to milk the franchise dry just for the sake of money, expecting people to just mindlessly watch and fork over the money because they slap something together. While I probably went on for quite a while there, and heck I may not have changed your mind or even fully made sense due to my frequently awful capabilities of communicating my thoughts, but I'll start to wrap this up at what the producer last quoted me. "”You miss 100% of the shots you never take.” – Wayne Gretsky"" So even if it doesn't seem highly likely, or there may be things that go against me, I'm gonna try my best to see this through. Even though I won't explain why, I have confidence that this has a chance. It's a passion for me, and one of the things that's made me the absolute happiest in an otherwise relatively boring and unenjoyable life, and even if it fails, at least I can say I tried to achieve something, and then start all over again until I succeed. I may not be an insider, I may not have experience, but I do have a gift, and I want to make people happy. That should be what counts in the end.
Didn't miss Troi, just didn't mention her for whatever reason I decided not to yesterday, although that does solve that one. I remember most of DS9 fairly well, but I honestly don't remember where Ezri specifically fit in with manning stations, but point taken. I definitely don't want parallels that are extremely in your face. They should be a bit more subtle, but still make their point, I believe. Also not looking for bland middle positions as much as I'm trying to make sure topics chosen aren't going to be something that outright seems to favor one side or the other politically. I do like the concept of having some of the different species taking up different positions though, at least throwing in a viewpoint from their own society. It could actually be a VERY good thing, and in essence is differing perspectives on the same matter due to personal or cultural behaviors. I'll definitely remember that idea and utilize it.
Having aliens be the voice of different aspect of Humanity is great, and they can (but rarely do) bring in thoughts and actions that Human couldn't. All too often the aliens were just more Humans. But there's no reason that Human characters can't be a quirky collection of diverse mentalities and philosophies. It was sometime sad (and even scary) just how much of a "kool-aid drinker" Nog turned into.
Sheesh, I've been looking through species to give the Counselor a changeup, and I'm just not feeling anything for any of the different species. Best I'm coming up with so far are Haliians or an El-Aurian... Making a few edits for updates in the meantime.
Hmm, definitely true, and Guinan was a great character. Was thinking about it over the past few hours, and kind of liking the idea, so I think I'll go ahead and give it a try :P
To me, Star Trek IS the 23rd century. I never want to see anything else from the 24th century or later for as long as I live. Kor
Honestly for either, 7 seems to be the standard cast count, which does have limits on what you can do. With species, I *might* make the Captain be like 1/3rd something if need be, but beyond that, I tried to give unique characteristics to the human characters (lens for Chief Engineer, former Borg for Chief Science Officer), and changed up the Doctor and Counselor, both to species that we haven't seen much of, much less official starfleet positions (unless Guinan as Bartender is an official position...). With genders, I don't see what the big deal is. For me, it's what "feels right", although that may not be understood by most. I don't quite know how to explain it, but almost like a sixth sense I guess you'd say, I can kind of "feel" if everything is right. It felt off before changing the Doctor to a Tellarite (which got me very excited, and I'm still excited about it), and the Counselor to El-Aurian. At least for me, I don't see specific quotas for having a certain amount of a gender or anything like that, although I of course do see a need for some balance, since no matter what people generally want to see a mix of both. As of right now, I'm confident in all the characters besides the Captain and Commander. For both, without doing any major changes, I'm trying to think of things to spice them up just a tad, to separate the Commander from Riker a bit better, and make the Captain just special enough, since the Captain is often the first thing remembered when thinking about a series. Lastly, what I think I'll do to throw in a bit of extra balance, is see about coming up with a side character (like O'Brien or Guinan) that can be an extra female (maybe a different species?) once in a while, since I doubt I could ever talk executives into an 8th main character, especially for an initial pitch. Feel free to toss in some ideas, especially for some crew member names. Will likely resume my writing and double down my focus here once I finish my classes off.
I'd say make one character (your Second Officer for example) human and have the rest alien and turn your First Officer female to balance it up a little more. I would say that unless the star is going to be you Chief Engineer character then you'd need to get a far better handle on just who your CO and XO are, seeing as how they will be the main driving force. If it were me I'd go something more along the lines of: Commanding Officer = Andorian, Thaan (Male) Considered one of Starfleet's best, having commanded three ships previously, decorated with some of the highest accolades, and responsible for a historic peace agreement with the Romulans. With all that behind him, he was considering retiring from active service to take up a teaching role and help inspire the next generation of officers, but when asked to assume command of the latest Enterprise he couldn't refuse. First Officer = Deltan, Female Sultry, sensual and sharp as a tack, nothing gets by her. On duty she likes to run a tight ship, ensuring everyone carries out their orders in an efficient manner. Off-duty however she lives by the motto "work hard, play hard". Though she is stunning to behold and has many swooning after her, she is a dedicated Deltan as such her Oath of Celibacy is on file and remains intact. Second/Chief Engineering Officer = Human, Male Remains as is. Chief Science Officer = Nyvari, Female A species from the Beta/Delta Quadrant border, her species was almost decimated by the Borg centuries ago, but a small enough number managed to evade the Collective and rebelled. They were implanted with a bio-agent that spread through the Borg affecting only other Nyvari, breaking them from the hive mind and allowing them to regain their individuality. Over time the assimilated Nyvari were considered imperfect and ejected from the Collective and the remainders of their species were left alone, but the incident taught them the advantages of combining biology with technology and they began a programme of cybernetically enhancing the remainder of their people, to give them a better chance to survive. This practice continues to this day. Chief Medical Officer = Tellarite, Female Gruff, argumentative, surly, and about as warm as a Breen winter, what she lacks in social graces she makes up for with skill. One of the best diagnosticians in Starfleet, she is as much a researcher as she is a healer, with numerous papers and breakthroughs in medical science to her name. Chief Security Officer = Cardassian, Male His father taught him all he ever needed to know about the finer points of espionage, politics, and sewing. He joined Starfleet to get out from under his fathers prominent shadow on Cardassia and become his own person, though there is still much of the man inside him. Ship's Counsellor / Diplomatic Officer = Grazerite, Male A calm and peaceful man, he has a manner about him that is very disarming. Though he deplores violence, as a serving officer he understands the need for it in defence of others, though he will always try to disarm a situation through words first and foremost. Chief Conn-Ops Officer = Human/Orion, Female The youngest member of the senior staff, she had a hard life growing up on a rough colony outside of Federation space where her mother was the only human she knew. Her mother died when she was fifteen and she was left to fend for herself ever since, though she managed to sign onto a freighter as soon as she could and got as far away as she could, ultimately getting to Starfleet, though even there she faced hardships due to the Orion blood in her veins. But that's just me.
I like some of the ideas, but like I said, I kind of "feel" when it's right. I can't properly communicate what I'm thinking or envisioning, sometimes not even why, and I certainly don't intend to upset or offend if I can't do so and defend my ideas. All I can do is promise that I know it's good and will work. In any case, besides Commander and Captain, I'm really set on the other characters. Still wanna spice up the Counselor a tad, but beyond that, there's a special feeling to the rest of them of which I cannot explain. I think the main problem with making all but one crew alien species, is kind of like the idea of balancing out the gender ratio of characters. Too many either way can lead to issues. A solution for this, at least in my opinion, is making human characters especially unique to help stand out. While I do wish the star could be the Chief Engineer (heck I'd love to be in that position) I feel like the Captain still needs to be the main star, but the first three officers behind him get a good deal of importance too. Anyways, I'll think over some of your concepts, and probably explain myself a bit better later. Very upset and stressed out right now. Literally being attacked by a YouTuber right now for trying to explain my stance on a matter on Twitter. I think I'm seriously gonna take on the William Shatner policy of no politics...