If You Created a Cheap Star Trek Knockoff...

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Oh, sure. I didn't mean to suggest that that habit was unique to Christopher. He was just the first example that sprung to mind because he's talked about it a fair amount.

Happens in music all the time. Wendy Carlos recycled the rejected cue she'd written for the "Light Cycles" scene in TRON into a movement for her Moonscapes suite. Bach took the prelude from his E-Flat Major Partita for unaccompanied violin, transposed it down a full tone, transcribed it for organ, and added parts for trumpets, oboes, strings, and timpani; the result became the Sinfonia in his Cantata No. 29 ("We Thank Thee, God, We Thank Thee").

But to return to the topic, Johnny Carson came up with the perfect title for a low-budget science fiction project, decades ago: Star Dreck.

 

[Agony_Boothb]

I would call mine 'Star Travels' and it would be about the Starship Explorer under the command of Robert Trafalgar. Each episode would open with the following voice over: 'The Galaxy, the last unknown. These are the travels of the Starship Explorer. It's 6 year mission: to investigate bizarre new planets. To find new aliens and new societies. To bravely travel where not so many have travelled before!'

 

[trekshark]

And it bombed on Fox (it's now going to Hulu).

Fox is weird with scifi. They'll greenlight something then ditch it. Firefly and space above and beyond for example

 

[Greg Cox]

I am now more intrigued by this Farscape story.

"Samsara." Appeared in an issue of the official FARSCAPE magazine back in the day.

But, yeah, former Borg with ugly past isn't all that hard to turn into former Peacekeeper with ugly past. And both Seven and Aeryn are pretty blunt, hard-edged characters who aren't particularly comfortable with diplomacy and sentiment.

 

[fireproof78]

"Samsara." Appeared in an issue of the official FARSCAPE magazine back in the day.

But, yeah, former Borg with ugly past isn't all that hard to turn into former Peacekeeper with ugly past. And both Seven and Aeryn are pretty blunt, hard-edged characters who aren't particularly comfortable with diplomacy and sentiment.

I might have that. If I do will you autograph it?

 

[Greg Cox]

I might have that. If I do will you autograph it?

Sure! I'd be happy to.

 

[MAGolding]

Back when I read slush at Tor, we would occasionally get submissions that were obviously STAR TREK novels with the serial numbers filed off. I still remember the one that began with the "Klargon" battle cruisers activating their "stealthing" devices.

And then there was the thinly-disguised Janeway/Seven of NIne slash novel that barely changed the names . . . .

If I write a parody or sataire of something, I have some naming restrictions I want to follow. I wouldn't use "Klargon" as a take off of Klingon, because I see no obvious jokes with "Klarg".

With the name "Klingon" I could write a joke like this:

Federation kid number one: "What do you call a dead Klingon?".

Federation kid number two: "A good Klingon?"

Federation kid number three: "Anything you want to?"

Federation kid number one : "A clung-gone! Ha! Ha!":

So if doing a story based on Star Trek i would try to modify names of people, places, things, etc. in various ways and try to think of various jokes and puns that could be made about various versions of a name. I would want to have puns and jokes listed for most of the names I would finally use.

And sometimes I might think of a second name that reminds me of the first, and then of a third named connected in some way to the second, and then of a forth name with something in common with the third, And keep a list of all the links so that as I write I remember who and what everything is based on.

 

[uniderth]

Great ideas everyone. It's interesting to see the different ways people would rename and change things.

I think I'm might call my ship the IJSS INTERPOSE IVGG-ITOI

Depending on the font used that could get pretty close.

(Changing Seven of Nine into Aeryn Sun was surprisingly easy.)

Find and Replace All.

 

[Ralphis]

Anyone watch Black Mirror? The USS Callister episode. Gosh damn! Those sets! Those Uniforms! Man alive! I almost, kind of, sort of, somewhat wish that's what Discovery did with their designs. Almost. But anyway, I'd watch a series based on those USS Callister simulations Jesse Plemons' character was running (can't remember the name and too lazy to look it up.) The ones based more on TOS, not at the end of the episode where it was updated to Black Mirror Kelvin Timeline aesthetics.

 

[Maurice]

Fox is weird with scifi. They'll greenlight something then ditch it. Firefly and space above and beyond for example

Alien Nation.

 

[Orphalesion]

I'd basically do Riverdale in Space, so the whole crew consists of teenagers played by, and behaving like 25 year olds.
The uniforms would all show off the arms (male) or cleavage (female), maybe they'd even be patterned after cheerleader uniforms which the show would be trying to sell as ironic.
The main meat of the show would be love-triangles (will Captain Tyler choose good girl Doctor Madysyn or the bad girl space pirate?) and inexplicable, nonsensical events and "reveals" (First Officer Kylie is really an alien spy! No wait, that was just her evil twin! No wait that was her disguised as her evil twin, pretending to be an alien spy!) and somehow the captain would tear his shirt in every episode so that he can show off his abs.
Oh and there'd be several musical episodes per season.

To keep with the naming convention of this type of show I'd just name it "Space" and the tagline would be "In the Darkness of Space, pray that nobody will discover your Secrets!"

 

[valkyrie013]

They did.. its called Another Life on Netflix.. and it is the WORST.. it has every trope imaginable.. with a crew that you would cheer if the air seals blew and spaced everyone...

Recycling isn't limited to writers, etc. As a 3d guy i have a ton of assets that I recycle to other things

 

[JonnyQuest037]

Anyone watch Black Mirror? The USS Callister episode. Gosh damn! Those sets! Those Uniforms! Man alive! I almost, kind of, sort of, somewhat wish that's what Discovery did with their designs.

Supposedly Bryan Fuller wanted to do more of a retro look to Discovery before he pulled back from the series.

 

[Silvercrest]

Back when I read slush at Tor ... there was the thinly-disguised Janeway/Seven of NIne slash novel that barely changed the names . . . .

So, it was both "slash" and "slush" at the same time?

Some of David Gerrold's original ideas for what he wanted to do with TNG ended up going into his Star Wolf original novel series. That's a good example of a property that has some similarities with Star Trek, but goes in many directions that ST wouldn't.

I always wanted to see "The Protracted Man" onscreen.

Oh, we all cannibalize our rejects. I turned a rejected VOYAGER pitch into a FARSCAPE story, and later turned a rejected FIREFLY outline into a TERMINATOR novel.

Was the Summer Glau connection intentional or unintentional?

 

[Shaka Zulu]

Supposedly Bryan Fuller wanted to do more of a retro look to Discovery before he pulled back from the series.

How fortunate (for CBS and CBSAA) that he didn't get to do it; sci-fi TV shows of the early 21st century need to be costumed, set-designed and shot as a TV show of the early 21st century is to be shot, not as if it's a show of the 1960's.

 

[uniderth]

I'd basically do Riverdale in Space, so the whole crew consists of teenagers played by, and behaving like 25 year olds.
The uniforms would all show off the arms (male) or cleavage (female), maybe they'd even be patterned after cheerleader uniforms which the show would be trying to sell as ironic.
The main meat of the show would be love-triangles (will Captain Tyler choose good girl Doctor Madysyn or the bad girl space pirate?) and inexplicable, nonsensical events and "reveals" (First Officer Kylie is really an alien spy! No wait, that was just her evil twin! No wait that was her disguised as her evil twin, pretending to be an alien spy!) and somehow the captain would tear his shirt in every episode so that he can show off his abs.
Oh and there'd be several musical episodes per season.

To keep with the naming convention of this type of show I'd just name it "Space" and the tagline would be "In the Darkness of Space, pray that nobody will discover your Secrets!"

That is an awesome idea. I can't wait to not watch it.

They did.. its called Another Life on Netflix.. and it is the WORST.. it has every trope imaginable.. with a crew that you would cheer if the air seals blew and spaced everyone...

Recycling isn't limited to writers, etc. As a 3d guy i have a ton of assets that I recycle to other things

Well, there you go.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

How fortunate (for CBS and CBSAA) that he didn't get to do it; sci-fi TV shows of the early 21st century need to be costumed, set-designed and shot as a TV show of the early 21st century is to be shot, not as if it's a show of the 1960's.

IIRC, that was part of the creative impasse he reached with CBS. But I'm sure he was still going to shoot it as a modern television series. It was just going to be a bit closer in look to what had previously been established. It's not like he was going to try to literally shoot it like it was the 1960s, the way New Voyages/Phase II or Star Trek Continues did in their fan films.

 

[Greg Cox]

Was the Summer Glau connection intentional or unintentional?

Different Terminator, alas. This was a TERMINATOR: SALVATION spin-off.

 

[Dukhat]

Supposedly Bryan Fuller wanted to do more of a retro look to Discovery before he pulled back from the series.

How fortunate (for CBS and CBSAA) that he didn't get to do it; sci-fi TV shows of the early 21st century need to be costumed, set-designed and shot as a TV show of the early 21st century is to be shot, not as if it's a show of the 1960's.

IIRC, that was part of the creative impasse he reached with CBS. But I'm sure he was still going to shoot it as a modern television series. It was just going to be a bit closer in look to what had previously been established. It's not like he was going to try to literally shoot it like it was the 1960s, the way New Voyages/Phase II or Star Trek Continues did in their fan films.

From what I understand, Fuller's original idea was an anthology showing different periods in Trek history, so the TOS/pre-TOS parts would presumably have been retro-looking to fit with that era, instead of the pre-TOS show with technology indistinguishable from the Picard show like what we ended up with.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

From what I understand, Fuller's original idea was an anthology showing different periods in Trek history, so the TOS/pre-TOS parts would presumably have been retro-looking to fit with that era, instead of the pre-TOS show with technology indistinguishable from the Picard show like what we ended up with.

Yeah, I think he wanted to change up the time period each season.