If You Could Rewrite "The Original Series" . . .

[Shawnster]

It would be better than that. Heck, there's an idea for a novel (excise Miri and co. and make it another planet of Human kids, another way of controlling them)

Klingons find a planet where human children survived some plague or holocaust. Klingons use agents that look like humans to restore the civilization and raise the children, training them to be sleeper agents in the same manner that the Soviets did with children raised in those "cities" that looked like US cities

https://panethos.wordpress.com/2013...hot-dogs-and-vodka-spy-towns-of-the-cold-war/

https://m.ranker.com/list/kgb-built...yLI9Kw.5&utm_referrer=https://www.google.com/


Of course, these cities were unknown in the 60s

 

[Tenacity]

Miri.

I'd insert dialog as to why despite being centuries old they still act like children. Something like the disease is locking them into a certain mental state, like a form of mental retardation. Neither Jon nor Miri come off as particularly bright.

If you think about it, in-spite of their physical development, they've had centuries of life experiences, and should have acted as adults.

Even the smaller children.

Have Kirk, Spock, Rand and McCoy briefly discuss this subject in a scene.

 

[2takesfrakes]

Apart from the bottle of Saurian brandy in his locker when did we ever really see Bones drunk? He liked the odd tipple as seen in Requiem for Methuselah and Amok Time but that's about it!
JB

Well ... quite aside from his onscreen drinking -- (as seen in such episodes as Balance of Terror, This Side of Paradise and others) -- Bones demonstrated emotional instability which can be attributed to alcoholism. Were I a crewmember, I'd request Dr. M'Benga every time I visited Sickbay. He seemed very calm, rational ... a Man of Medical Science, rather than a Man of Thirst.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Well ... quite aside from his onscreen drinking -- (as seen in such episodes as Balance of Terror, This Side of Paradise and others) -- Bones demonstrated emotional instability which can be attributed to alcoholism. Were I a crewmember, I'd request Dr. M'Benga every time I visited Sickbay. He seemed very calm, rational ... a Man of Medical Science, rather than a Man of Thirst.

Uh...what?

 

[Tenacity]

Bones demonstrated emotional instability

When please?

McCoy is a passionate man at times yes, but never "unstable."

 

[J.T.B.]

Well ... quite aside from his onscreen drinking -- (as seen in such episodes as Balance of Terror, This Side of Paradise and others) -- Bones demonstrated emotional instability which can be attributed to alcoholism.

He drank in a few episodes, as did other characters in the show and on '60s TV in general, but there was never any indication that he was a problem drinker.

 

[FormerLurker]

Is There In Truth No Beauty has Scotty offering one of the Enterprise designers a turn at the engineering control, with a bottle of scotch if he can handle them.

The Tholian Web is the one where Scotty intends to mix scotch with a deadly Klingon nerve agent to see what the effects would be.

Of course. I went by memory, which can be faulty, rather than fumbling through stacks of research materials.

Miri.

I'd insert dialog as to why despite being centuries old they still act like children. Something like the disease is locking them into a certain mental state, like a form of mental retardation. Neither Jon nor Miri come off as particularly bright.

If you think about it, in-spite of their physical development, they've had centuries of life experiences, and should have acted as adults.

Even the smaller children.

Have Kirk, Spock, Rand and McCoy briefly discuss this subject in a scene.

Why? Research has shown that as long as someone is held in a child state, size and development-wise, their cognition retains the child state as well. I doubt even centuries of life experience would change this. Basically, children don't act like adults because they can't.

The comment you want may have explained this, but it wouldn't need to be more than an off-hand remark, taking a second or two. They wouldn't need an involved discussion.

 

[Commishsleer]

I would have thought the children in Miri would be in a development state somewhat between adult and child.
I'm thinking now would clothes and food last 3 centuries for these children. I'm doubting it. I reckon realistically they would have been struggling for food after 20 years.

 

[Borg King]

To be honest I would make a few changes to TOS;

Firstly, I would even the gender between the cast; when the show started it was three woman (Grace Lee Whitney, Nichelle Nichols and Majel Barrett) against five men (Shatner, Nimoy, Kelley, Doohan and Takei) then it became two women when GLW was removed and then six men against two women when Walter Koenig joined in S2; I would remove one of the men, most likely Takei and have kept Rand because I have always found her to be an interesting character that was never utilized to her full potential and Sulu really didn't do much in the way of being a central character and Rand was always planned as a regular (if she had stayed she might have been included in the opening titles like Kelley)

Also I would introduce more aliens because it always felt like a small universe running into the Klingons most of the time and then I would have featured the Romulans more because they were more interesting than the Klingons (always have been in my opinion). Additionally looking back outside of the Klingon and Romulan episodes there was only two other aliens (The Gorn and Tholians).

Finally I would have explored more of the characters past and found out more about them and where they came from and how they joined Starfleet.

 

[Warped9]

I would resist making changes from our contemporary perspective and lean more toward changes that could have been made under the circumstances of the time. Some things could have been different given a bit more courage, conviction and foresight.

Women in a command role was a completely blown opportunity and without cause. NBC not wanting Majel Barrett as Number One was all about the actress and not one whit about the role itself. Setting aside not recasting the role and rather strengthening the role of Spock it would have taken only one or two instances of seeing a woman in a command role in Starfleet to give the show a different feel. No more lip service because we would have seen the real deal onscreen. Seeing Nichelle Nichol given the con once or twice would have also helped, similar to what we see in TAS’ “The Lorelei Signal.”

Ditto with an alien character, but the fact that we know Spock (an alien) could be Captain cements the idea that other aliens could be in command in Starfleet.

Having a Dr. Leonora McCoy instead of Leanard McCoy might have worked albeit without the Crusher/Picard overtones.

Retaining Gene Coon would have been a winner if at all possible. Same with Dorothy Fontana and Robert Justman during the third season. Gene Roddenberry being less absent during season also could have helped.

Some of the episodes seen later in TAS could have been decent seen as live-action assuming those ideas had been pitched during TOS’ run. If not an actual fourth season than imagine getting a live-action version of “Slaver Weapon,” “Beyond The Farthest Star,” “Yesteryear,” “The Albatross” and others instead of “Wink Of An Eye,” “Turnabout Intruder,” “Whom Gods Destroy,” “The Apple,” “A Piece Of The Action,” “The Lights Of Zetar” and “The Mark Of Gideon.”

It would have been nice to not have the production budget cut throughout the second and third seasons to allow for not reusing 1st and 2nd pilot footage of the ship during the rest of the series, and to allow for a bit more variation in new footage. It might also have allowed for a bit more variety in ship designs actually seen.

 

[Tenacity]

Firstly, I would even the gender between the cast

Even the sexes.

Kirk and Spock, one male and one female.
McCoy and Scotty, one male and one female.

 

[Commishsleer]

To be honest I would make a few changes to TOS;

Also I would introduce more aliens because it always felt like a small universe running into the Klingons most of the time and then I would have featured the Romulans more because they were more interesting than the Klingons (always have been in my opinion). Additionally looking back outside of the Klingon and Romulan episodes there was only two other aliens (The Gorn and Tholians).

.

There were lots of other aliens shown, OK most of them looked human. But there were the aliens shown in "Journey to Babel", Andorians, the Kelvans, those guys shown in the Halloween episode, the Cage dudes, Ruks people (although they were dead), all the aliens in Gamesters, the Argellans, etc.
Or are you just referring to alien enemies?

 

[Nyotarules]

I would remove one of the men, most likely Takei and have kept Rand because I have always found her to be an interesting character that was never utilized to her full potential and Sulu really didn't do much in the way of being a central character

And have a show set in the future with only one nonwhite human as main crew...great!

 

[Tenacity]

Outside of the movies, when was Sulu ever "main crew?"

 

[Nerys Myk]

Outside of the movies, when was Sulu ever "main crew?"

Depends on what "main crew" is. The character appeared in 52 episodes of TOS, 19 episodes of TAS and 8 movies. Seems pretty "main" to me.

 

[Tenacity]

Maybe secondary character would be more accurate. Or as Shatner once described Takei "the extra with a few lines."

 

[Harvey]

Maybe secondary character would be more accurate. Or as Shatner once described Takei "the extra with a few lines."

Harsh! Takei was a regular for two seasons, albeit not one guaranteed to appear in every episode (his deal was for 7 out of every cycle of 13). In the third season, he was paid as a day player, but still appeared in many episodes.

Sulu’s characterization was pretty thin, though, I’ll grant you that.

 

[Kor]

If you could rewrite "The Original Series", especially Season Three, how would you do it?

I would basically make "The Cage: The Series."

Kor

 

[Herbert]

If you could rewrite "The Original Series", especially Season Three, how would you do it?

I'd probably do an episode with an alien giant carrot race, like on Lost In Space

 

[Galileo7]

I'd probably do an episode with an alien giant carrot race, like on Lost In Space