"Star Trek: Shenzhou" -- The Phantom Star Trek Series?

[Lord Garth]

A little mind exercise. Is Star Trek: Shenzhou the hypothetical "missing link"?

A normal season of CBS Trek seems like it would be 13 episodes. The first two episodes of DSC S1 are a prologue. The first two hours we see of Discovery are really the last two on-screen hours of the Shenzhou. Burnham had served on the Shenzhou for seven years. The "normal", "expected" length of a Star Trek series. Hold that thought.

If ENT had run for seven seasons, it would've gone from 2001 to 2008. DSC could've launched in January 2017 if they had everything together behind-the-scenes. Or, rather, in the middle of the 2016-'17 Season. Put the imaginary Star Trek: Shenzhou series right before, and you have a series that "ran" from 2009 to 2016. It would've started the year after Enterprise ended in this scenario.

The kicker: ENT is about an Earth that emerges from underneath Vulcan's thumb. The relationship is adversarial. Vulcans look down on Humans. Sarek not only married a human, Amanda, but raised a human in Michael Burnham. Michael views Sarek as her surrogate father. When the Vulcans first arrive on Earth, they're aliens from another world. To Michael, they're not aliens. They're family. And instead of Vulcans being overseers of Earth, they're now part of a Federation alongside Earth.

I've often called DSC the new DS9. If that's the case, then Shenzhou would've been its TNG. The Federation during a more peaceful time. With a model Captain, in the form of Georgiou, who's been compared to Picard. And the "next" Star Trek series is a direct reaction to the "previous" one, going in a different direction, with the "finale" of Shenzhou serving as the transition.

 

[pst]

nominally on subject: i was just thinking about that potential georgiou spinoff and how a prequel about georgiou aboard the shenzhou is so much more palatable (to me) than a georgiou in section 31 series. since variety (or was it the hollywood reporter) only guessed at the nature of the series, there's still room for hope. ok probably not but still.

 

[DaveyNY]

That would fit completely in my take of a SAREK series I mentioned in another thread.


https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/to-mildly-go-hither-and-yawn.297075/#post-12702536

 

[Rahul]

nominally on subject: i was just thinking about that potential georgiou spinoff and how a prequel about georgiou aboard the shenzhou is so much more palatable (to me) than a georgiou in section 31 series. since variety (or was it the hollywood reporter) only guessed at the nature of the series, there's still room for hope. ok probably not but still.

The problem with a Georgiou/Shenzhou-prequel would be that it wouldn't be any notably different than the current Discovery: Same era, same design language, probably very similar mission profile, same production time... So it would be kinda' redundant.

That being said: I would 100% prefer a Georgious/Shenzhou prequel, literally anything, before we have a "reformed genocidal cannibalistic fascist suppressor turned superspy"-S31 series....

 

[pst]

The problem with a Georgiou/Shenzhou-prequel would be that it wouldn't be any notably different than the current Discovery: Same era, same design language, probably very similar mission profile, same production time... So it would be kinda' redundant.

the basic premise of a crew on a starship is flexible enough well-paid writers could easily come up with a shenzhou prequel that doesn't just repeat star trek: discovery's moves. and since the shenzhou is supposed to be an older ship, the concept of a starfleet crew flying around in a less than state of the art ship is different enough to set it apart from the entire franchise.

 

[Rahul]

the basic premise of a crew on a starship is flexible enough well-paid writers could easily come up with a shenzhou prequel that doesn't just repeat star trek: discovery's moves. and since the shenzhou is supposed to be an older ship, the concept of a starfleet crew flying around in a less than state of the art ship is different enough to set it apart from the entire franchise.

Maaaaybe.
But I'm going to assume the Picard show will also be set on a starship, and then we have the Rick &Mory-style animated lower deck show also set on a starship.

I simply think there is only so much stories about a starship travelling around having adventures to tell. At least at the same time. Thus I think it makes much more sense to branch out - an Academy show and a spy show are both noticebly different enough they can work in the same unvierse without them tipping on their toes all the time.

I think there's a reason why the only series ever running parallel to a "regular" ship-on-journey show was set on a stace station - different enough - and that VOY, which was noticeably close to TNG - only started after TNG already ended.

 

[dinzy]

the basic premise of a crew on a starship is flexible enough well-paid writers could easily come up with a shenzhou prequel that doesn't just repeat star trek: discovery's moves. and since the shenzhou is supposed to be an older ship, the concept of a starfleet crew flying around in a less than state of the art ship is different enough to set it apart from the entire franchise.

But it would require Burnham as a pretty major component, and that makes it extremely unlikely. I suppose they could go back prior to her coming to the ship, but then there is the stretch in believing that Yoh/Giorgio is 15 years younger.

 

[Lord Garth]

Maaaaybe.
But I'm going to assume the Picard show will also be set on a starship

It could be, but I'm not so sure. If he isn't a Captain anymore, he's either an Admiral or retired. Unless they do something like he comes out of retirement and takes command of the Enterprise-F (and Online rewrites to accommodate). Picard taking command of the E-F feels too much like TNG II. I was under the impression the Picard Series wouldn't be a TNG II.

But it would require Burnham as a pretty major component, and that makes it extremely unlikely. I suppose they could go back prior to her coming to the ship, but then there is the stretch in believing that Yoh/Giorgio is 15 years younger.

Pretty much where I stand. This is why I like to think of the Shenzhou Series as a hypothetical. But it still would've been nice to have seen.

 

[Spaceship Jo]

I simply think there is only so much stories about a starship travelling around having adventures to tell. At least at the same time. Thus I think it makes much more sense to branch out - an Academy show and a spy show are both noticebly different enough they can work in the same unvierse without them tipping on their toes all the time.

There are a million and one Cop shows, heck, there are a million and one Ghost Hunter type shows (though not major network primetime type shows, so cop shows are a better comparison). It's not a matter of how many stories you can have on a starship (because the answer to that is limited by only the imagination), but how many Trek or Trek type series the market will pay to watch. The whole concept of TOS was that they could tell any kind of story each week, and traveling through space was a perfect excuse for stories to be wildly different from each other. Now, I'm not saying there are enough original thinkers in the writers' room to have multiple Trek shows on the air. But Shipboard Space Scifi shows need not all be samey, that's a box built of modern expectations (plus general audiences generally being unwilling to try new and or perceptibly "genre" things, generally, there are obviously lots of exceptions). But I do agree that within the Trek universe, it makes more sense to try things with more distinct hooks (academy, spy, etc).

 

[Burning Hearts of Qo'nos]

Maybe when DSC is over in the future world of CBS streaming, they'd do a one-off movie set in the past on the Shenzhou in between seasons of this whatever 9 new shows ST shows they have at that time haha.

 

[Cyrus]

They could do a mirror universe Shenzou mini-series with Killy. Or did she die already?

 

[Lord Garth]

They could do a mirror universe Shenzou mini-series with Killy. Or did she die already?

Killy commanded the ISS Discovery. She's dead now but they could set the mini-series during S1 or before. Not showing Captain Killy was a missed opportunity. A huge missed opportunity. "Vaulting Ambition", which was only 37 minutes long, would've been the perfect place to put it.

 

[Groppler Zorn]

I really enjoyed everything that happened on the Shenzhou up to the point when Michael went outside.

For that reason alone I’d welcome a Shenzhou series.

But to echo some of the points made above, this series would flesh out some of the characters. I don’t feel like we know Georgiou (or Michael for that matter, despite all the time we spent with her). Saru and Stamets were two of the more explored characters in s1, along with AshVoq.

So, yeah, some more backstory and character development in the era leading up to the Battle of the Binaries would be good. Let’s see Starfleet in its complacency with no Klingons to keep them in check. Since we know where it’s going to go, it would be interesting for the audience to see the Shenzhou crew respond to things in a certain way - knowing that those responses will ultimately lead them all to their doom.

It’d be kinda like TNG in s1-3 - before the Borg show up...

 

[SolarisOne]

I desperately wish we had gotten Star Trek: Shenzhou, instead of Discovery. There. I said it. I don't hate Discovery, but I don't really see myself ever being excited over it as much as I was for the first two episodes. It will always be tainted by what might have been.

I'm not angry--I just feel ... empty when I think about it.

 

[The Habs Fan]

I think a Pike series is more likely than a Shenzhou series at this point if we're going to get another 23rd-century ship based show. If they were to do a Pike series though, my prediction is that they will be changing the premise of Discovery to explore alternate timelines.

 

[Kor]

It's the "Requiem for a Martian" of modern Trek.

Kor

 

[DaveyNY]

It's the "Requiem for a Martian" of modern Trek.

Kor

??? Is that anything like "My Favorite Martian"?

 

[Kor]

??? Is that anything like "My Favorite Martian"?

It was an online hoax a while back about a supposed lost episode of TOS. It turned out to be a big waste of time.

Kor

 

[Phoenix219]

A little mind exercise. Is Star Trek: Shenzhou the hypothetical "missing link"?

A normal season of CBS Trek seems like it would be 13 episodes. The first two episodes of DSC S1 are a prologue. The first two hours we see of Discovery are really the last two on-screen hours of the Shenzhou. Burnham had served on the Shenzhou for seven years. The "normal", "expected" length of a Star Trek series. Hold that thought.

If ENT had run for seven seasons, it would've gone from 2001 to 2008. DSC could've launched in January 2017 if they had everything together behind-the-scenes. Or, rather, in the middle of the 2016-'17 Season. Put the imaginary Star Trek: Shenzhou series right before, and you have a series that "ran" from 2009 to 2016. It would've started the year after Enterprise ended in this scenario.

The kicker: ENT is about an Earth that emerges from underneath Vulcan's thumb. The relationship is adversarial. Vulcans look down on Humans. Sarek not only married a human, Amanda, but raised a human in Michael Burnham. Michael views Sarek as her surrogate father. When the Vulcans first arrive on Earth, they're aliens from another world. To Michael, they're not aliens. They're family. And instead of Vulcans being overseers of Earth, they're now part of a Federation alongside Earth.

I've often called DSC the new DS9. If that's the case, then Shenzhou would've been its TNG. The Federation during a more peaceful time. With a model Captain, in the form of Georgiou, who's been compared to Picard. And the "next" Star Trek series is a direct reaction to the "previous" one, going in a different direction, with the "finale" of Shenzhou serving as the transition.

I've often said that Into Darkness is like all of the action scenes and twists compiled out of a 13 episode jj Abrams series, like we started at the end of it's first episode.


Lol, in this new line of series, if Discovery is DS9 and Shenzou was TNG, that would make ENT it's TOS.

 

[Lord Garth]

Lol, in this new line of series, if Discovery is DS9 and Shenzou was TNG, that would make ENT it's TOS.

Yup. And the irony isn't lost on me that in this case, I'm the TNG/DS9 fan who doesn't like TOS. That's a mind-fuck.

But the crazy thing is, now it looks like it was designed to go this way (even though it wasn't).