What would the missing TNG Cast's film have been about?

[Admiral Archer]

EDIT: I just realized the title may be a bit misleading. If the mods want to change it, I can suggest "What would a Star Trek movie in the year 2000 have been like?" or some such. Sorry for any inconvenience!

In late 2000 Star Trek was waning a bit in popularity. DS9 was over, Voyager was still on the air but getting close to wrapping up. And it was due time for another Star Trek film featuring the cast of The Next Generation, who had been featuring in theaters every two years since 1994. Insurrection had been released two years earlier, in 1998. It was a new millennium, and a fresh chance to keep Star Trek relevant and renew interest. It might also have been a great time to switch things up, and push some boundaries.

Instead? Nothing. At least, nothing in the year 2000. The wait was instead doubled, and we ended up with Nemesis in 2002 after another two years of waiting. It ended up being a film which, in addition to killing the film franchise for seven years, is better off less spoken about, IMO.

But enough about Nemesis. The point of this thread is to see what each fan would have liked to see in theaters in November/December of 2000, in a potential continuation of the Star Trek film saga. Regardless of whether you would have brought back the TNG crew or not, what would you have wanted to see? As I said, it was a new millennium. I'd love to hear concepts for stories that dared to go somewhere truly bold, somewhere that only Star Trek could have taken us, and in such a way that it felt new and refreshing again.

I don't actually have a plot in mind myself, so I'm interested to hear what you guys come up with!

 

[Spock .]

I would have liked to see a link between the Next Generation & those movies and Picard. Some foreshadowing for Picard would have greatly impacted my viewing of the first Picard season, I think. More specifically, I would have liked to see some of the people that we don't know that Picard seems to have known for a long time, like Raffi.

 

[Khan 2.0]

so a 4th TREK TNG era film in 2000 wouldve had to fit in Nov/Dec (competition - Red Planet, 6th Day, Unbreakable, Vertical Limit, Castaway, 13Days, Dungeons&Dragons - nothing as huge as the 2002 triple whammy of Bond/Potter/LOTR so whatever happened box office shouldve been at least on a par with Insurrection)

story maybe something approaching a crossovery type thing that was mooted for the IMAX film that never happened Star Trek: IMAX | Memory Alpha as well as the follow up to Nemesis crossover/Justice League Avengers film Undeveloped Star Trek projects | Memory Alpha with various DS9/Voy characters (7of9 especially) crossing over with TNG. maybe even TOS too (Sulu? Spock?!) nothing major but bigger than Janeways cameo in Nemesis. like a celebratory type movie to mark Treks start to the new millennium

 

[Oddish]

My thoughts are still that Insurrection should have ended the TNG crew's movie appearances. Add the Riker/Troi wedding, and have them head for Riker's new command with Data taking his rightful place as Picard's Number One.

If there was a 2000 or 2001 movie, it should have featured the DS9 or Voyager cast. Surely they had one movie in them.

 

[Danlav05]

I imagiend at the time if TNG were leaving the movies then they would hand over to VOY, but they would have been in the middle of their final season.

So, with the year 2000 in mind.

DS9 is ended so we begin there when something catastrophic happens as Bajor is being inducted into the Federation. Maybe the station is destroyed? The Enterprise and DS9 crewmembers have to find the culprits. Not a full cast crossover but bring people over.

Sisko is still in the white void and not mentioned (this movie has to be accessible to all, not just those following the storyline)

Let's say this is till the last TNG film, Picard could sacrifice himself or leave to become Admiral? Riker becomes Captain of the Enterprise with Worf as XO, Crusher and Bashir with the EMH, Troi and Ezri help survivors.

 

[Danlav05]

I would have liked to see a link between the Next Generation & those movies and Picard. Some foreshadowing for Picard would have greatly impacted my viewing of the first Picard season, I think. More specifically, I would have liked to see some of the people that we don't know that Picard seems to have known for a long time, like Raffi.

Picard wasn't created until a few years ago, but I know what you mean - we're introduced to people who supposedly play a huge part in Jean-Luc's life

so a 4th TREK TNG era film in 2000 wouldve had to fit in Nov/Dec (competition - Red Planet, 6th Day, Unbreakable, Vertical Limit, Castaway, 13Days, Dungeons&Dragons)

story maybe something approaching a crossovery type thing that was mooted for the IMAX film that never happened Star Trek: IMAX | Memory Alpha as well as the follow up to Nemesis crossover/Justice League Avengers film Undeveloped Star Trek projects | Memory Alpha with various DS9/Voy characters (7of9 especially) crossing over with TNG. maybe even TOS too (Sulu? Spock?!) nothing major but bigger than Janeways cameo in Nemesis. like a celebratory type movie to mark Treks start to the new millennium

After all t he characters in a mega-crossover all we knew about were... O'Brien and Gorkon?!

 

[WarpFactorZ]

If there was a 2000 or 2001 movie, it should have featured the DS9 or Voyager cast. Surely they had one movie in them.

DS9 and VOY would never sell to a movie audience. I know I wouldn't have gone to see either.

 

[freethinker]

We discover that Picard's brother has not been killed by the fire but very badly crippled., plus he's ashamed that he couldn't save his son, so he's been hiding the whole time. So the movie would be Picard's quest to sent his bro into the nexus where he could live a happy life forever...Unfortunately, the feds have issued a new law making it forbidden to even try such a thing without incurring the death penalty, the other case for the death penalty on record. The question is then how will Picard trick the authorities, his crew, and his brother who's against such a thing, to accomplish that goal.

 

[C.E. Evans]

If it was 2000...

The next movie would have continued the idea implied in "Insurrection" that there were those at the highest levels of both Starfleet and the Federation that had okayed certain ideals (and possibly rights) to be bent--if not outright violated--in the name of the greater good. Ultimately it would have been revealed that Section 31 was behind it all, and there would eventually be a big showdown between the Enterprise and a big-ass Section 31 warship, but this would have been in 2000--long before Abrams & company would have done Into Darkness.

 

[UssGlenn]

Bump the Movie to Summer 2001 and do a TNG/Voyager crossover. Have a cameo from a couple Niners so they don't feel left out (and I say that with DS9 as my favorite series). This would also give the Voyager crew some of the "back home" closure that's missing from the end of the series. Pick a Delta Quadrant bad guy that isn't the Borg, Have the Enterprise encounter some kind of forward task force and have to team up with Voyager to fight them since Janeway and Crew have the experience. If the movie is a hit, Voyager can take over the movie franchise.

 

[freethinker]

Bump the Movie to Summer 2001 and do a TNG/Voyager crossover. Have a cameo from a couple Niners so they don't feel left out (and I say that with DS9 as my favorite series). This would also give the Voyager crew some of the "back home" closure that's missing from the end of the series. Pick a Delta Quadrant bad guy that isn't the Borg, Have the Enterprise encounter some kind of forward task force and have to team up with Voyager to fight them since Janeway and Crew have the experience. If the movie is a hit, Voyager can take over the movie franchise.

A bad guy from the Delta Quadrant... Well, there's the Hirogen, the Voth (they want to make sure that no one from Earth ever disturbs their society again), the malons?, Vaadwaur?...

 

[Danlav05]

Bump the Movie to Summer 2001 and do a TNG/Voyager crossover. Have a cameo from a couple Niners so they don't feel left out (and I say that with DS9 as my favorite series). This would also give the Voyager crew some of the "back home" closure that's missing from the end of the series. Pick a Delta Quadrant bad guy that isn't the Borg, Have the Enterprise encounter some kind of forward task force and have to team up with Voyager to fight them since Janeway and Crew have the experience. If the movie is a hit, Voyager can take over the movie franchise.

Interestingly a fan wrote this screenplay just before the Voyager finale came out
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/287594/1/Star-Trek-X

 

[Allyn Gibson]

It's hard to say what a December 2000 Star Trek film would have been like, but I feel confident about several things:

• It's a standalone film
• It doesn't tie into any other series (ie., no DS9 or Voyager elements except in passing)
• It's a little more action-oriented than Insurrection
• It's basically "The Picard and Data Show"
• The writer and director have previous Star Trek credits
• Maybe Levar Burton directs this one

The story could be anything -- that's the hardest part to predict -- but the four extant TNG films tell us a lot about the kind of film Rick Berman would greenlight and try to sell Paramount brass on making.

Maybe it would have been a Klingon film; audiences love Klingons. And it would be a Klingon film with zero reference to Worf being named Federation Ambassador to Qo'noS at the end of Deep Space Nine.

 

[Oddish]

Arghhh, really, I disliked everything about the ending of the Klingon arc. I'm surprised Klingon law allows a person to kill the Chancellor and then put someone else in charge. Hardly seems like something a warrior culture would condone...

 

[The Wormhole]

Honestly, I think if there had been a movie in 2000, it would have just been Nemesis two years early.

 

[freethinker]

Honestly, I think if there had been a movie in 2000, it would have just been Nemesis two years early.

No Admiral Janeway though.

 

[FederationHistorian]

A TNG/DS9/VOY crossover would have been the likely answer. Having the Ent-E and the Defiant briefly lost in the Delta Quadrant, and attempt but fail to bring Voyager back to the Alpha Quadrant.

As for the antagonist for the film, it would either be Species 8472, with the Ent-E/Defiant/Voyager having to prevent them from invading the Alpha Quadrant. Or Sela/Tomalak on a lone Romulan Warbird, due to the TNG connection.

 

[Lord Garth]

It's hard to say what a December 2000 Star Trek film would have been like, but I feel confident about several things:

• It's a standalone film
• It doesn't tie into any other series (ie., no DS9 or Voyager elements except in passing)
• It's a little more action-oriented than Insurrection
• It's basically "The Picard and Data Show"
• The writer and director have previous Star Trek credits
• Maybe Levar Burton directs this one

The story could be anything -- that's the hardest part to predict -- but the four extant TNG films tell us a lot about the kind of film Rick Berman would greenlight and try to sell Paramount brass on making.

Maybe it would have been a Klingon film; audiences love Klingons. And it would be a Klingon film with zero reference to Worf being named Federation Ambassador to Qo'noS at the end of Deep Space Nine.

I agree with almost all of this except, because it's TNG, they would've gone with the Romulans. If they got someone besides John Logan to write, it might not have been the same story as Nemesis, but I think Romulans would've fit in somehow.

 

[The Wormhole]

Been thinking the matter over a bit, not in terms of what the plot could be for a potential 2000 film, but rather the broader implications for the franchise as a whole if they had done one. I'm guessing they would have approached such a film as just another TNG film rather than potentially the last TNG film like they did with Nemesis. Meaning they don't end the movie with Data dead and the others splitting off on their own. But the film still underperforms at the box office, it ends up being the last TNG film anyway. With the Trek franchise currently in a slump, and with Voyager due to end in the spring of 2001 anyway, plans on Enterprise might be put on hold and ultimately abandoned. After which, the franchise would basically lie dormant until 2009 with the Abrams reboot and from there things would go more or less the same as they had.

Meanwhile, come 2020 we might still get Picard the series with very minimal changes, specifically since Data didn't die they could probably start the series with him having mysteriously disappeared years earlier, then Picard meets Dahj, learns her connection to Data and then goes on a quest to reunite with him.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Honestly, I think if there had been a movie in 2000, it would have just been Nemesis two years early.

In the sense that it would probably end up being the last Star Trek film for several years, I agree with this.

A TNG/DS9/VOY crossover would have been the likely answer. Having the Ent-E and the Defiant briefly lost in the Delta Quadrant, and attempt but fail to bring Voyager back to the Alpha Quadrant.

As for the antagonist for the film, it would either be Species 8472, with the Ent-E/Defiant/Voyager having to prevent them from invading the Alpha Quadrant. Or Sela/Tomalak on a lone Romulan Warbird, due to the TNG connection.

You're applying 2021 multi-threaded franchise thinking to Rick Berman in early 1999, and that's just not where Berman was in 1999 when he'd have been thinking about the follow-up to Insurrection. You're describing a film that's for fans, ignoring that Berman tried to make Star Trek films for the casual, non-fan audience. Hell, he called Insurrection "a date film" -- and I don't think he was wrong in that assessment.

He might well have tried a multi-series crossover film in 2004-2005, but by then it was too late -- the investment no longer justified the return, and the above the line costs on a multi-cast film would have given Paramount pause for the return they could expect.

I agree with almost all of this except, because it's TNG, they would've gone with the Romulans. If they got someone besides John Logan to write, it might not have been the same story as Nemesis, but I think Romulans would've fit in somehow.

Romulans would be totally fair. I suggested Klingons because of their wider familiarity outside of Star Trek fandom, which I don't think, even now, Romulans have. I can see how Romulans make more sense for the era and the cast, though. Like I said, totally fair.