Star Trek: COSMOS

Discussion in 'Future of Trek' started by Admiral2, Jul 18, 2008.

  1. Admiral2

    Admiral2 Admiral Admiral

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    It is the 25th century...

    ...and peace has reigned across the galaxy for more than fifty years, thanks to the Alpha Quadrant Cooperative Initiative, and in turn, the Initiative's accords with the other dominant powers of the Beta, Gamma and Delta Quadrants. In this era of relative galactic tranquility, a scientist at the famed Daistrom Science Institute makes a startling proposal: She reasons that it is time for the United Federation of Planets to expand the overall range of its explorations to the wider universe.

    The proposal is accepted, and after ten years the instruments for carrying it out are created: the Federation Starships Urd, Verthandi and Skuld. Each is a mammoth construct, manned by two thousand sentients and supported by enough crew to man three Defiant-class combatants, a hundred defense fighters and a detachment of a thousand security troops. The ships will also be the home of the crews' families, plus hundreds of scientists, researchers and potential colonists.

    Their mission: leave the galaxy in the general direction of what is theorized to be the center of the cosmos, using their ships to observe the space between galaxies in hopes of determining once and for all the exact nature of the universe. They will galaxy hop along the way, seeking out new life and new life-forms in each star cluster they enter.

    This journey is intended to be one-way. They will maintain contact with their galaxy for as long as technology and the continuum allow, but they will not return. It will be up to the occupants of these ships to make new lives either on board, or on other worlds they might encounter along the way.

    Premise: The series would focus on the travels of the Starship Verthandi and its leaders and just-plain-folk. With thousands of people aboard and an entire universe to explore, it ought to last decades on television if written well.

    Technical Crap: We shall use astronomical theory and good old fashioned sci-fi-ness to carry Verthandi forward. She will begin her mission by flying to the center of this galaxy along a predetermined course, then use a combination of high-warp and the gravity well of the black hole located there (there is one! honest injun! Astronomers say so!) to slingshot it out of this galaxy and (hopefully) toward the nearest similar one through intergalactic space. Since even such a dramatic increase in velocity will result in a trip requiring hundreds of years, Verthandi will be equipped for hypersleep for all its occupants and the ability to navigate itself and make automatic observations. The ship will be slowed in the next galaxy by using the central black hole to aerobrake, after which the occupants will be awakened and local observations can begin. Once they have explored as much as they can along their route, they will head for the next black hole and head for the next galaxy.

    I shall return with the proposed characters in the fullness of time. In the meantime, discuss, kvetch, or whatever. Up to you.
     
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  2. tenmei

    tenmei Commodore Commodore

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    Sounds like an interesting show - can't wait to see the characters that you have got planned for this, especially given that I love your previous work on Star Trek: MY WAY.
     
  3. Sheliak

    Sheliak Commodore Commodore

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    The best post I've read in TrekBBS in a long time. :techman:

    How long does it take to get from the Milky Way to Andromeda?
     
  4. Admiral2

    Admiral2 Admiral Admiral

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    Thank you both for your kind words!

    I've only worked out a couple of characters so far:

    Rear Admiral Emil Nighthammer: (Rigellian) Commander of the Verthandi's attendant Starfleet forces. One of the few veterans in the contingent that remembers what it was like to go to war, his biggest worry is what will happen when his people, used to the rare experience of total peace, will someday have to shift to a combat footing. A solitary man, childless and still mourning the death of his wife of thirty years, when asked to command one of the expeditions, he jumped at the chance.

    Doctor Devak: (Vulcan) She had been pleasantly surprised when her superiors had seen the logic of her proposal and supported her in presenting it to the Federation. Now she was taking the next logical step in directing one of the research teams. Accompanied aboard ship by her husband, Gael Nord (a Deltan) and their children Jora and Tanis (both girls), Devak takes on the role of a nomad civilization's scientific leader while continuing to find a balance at home with her very passionate mate and their still-learning-and-growing daughters.

    Siobhan O'Dell: (Human) Appointed by Federation Council Special Commission as the Civilian Administrator aboard Verthandi. It will be her task to help keep life among the ship's civilian populace peaceful and orderly, as well as helping to balance it's needs with those of the scientists and defenders. Ironically, O'Dell was chosen for her genius at management, not her people skills. A notoriously shy and reserved individual, her only really deep connection with another sentient has been with her companion, Sarah Strangis, who will be aboard with her.


    That's it so far. And Sheliak, it's always in hundreds as far as this premise is concerned, so any number between one and nine (in years) that you want it to be.
     
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  5. tenmei

    tenmei Commodore Commodore

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    With those character descriptions, I'm getting a very Trek-ian version of Galactica to this - and that's NOT a bad thing, in fact it's a very good thing. I look forward to seeing the other characters and, perhaps, how you'd organise the first season - or, perhaps, having the first episode to read, after all, your ST:My Way started off as a 'pitch' on here!
     
  6. BoxWhatBox

    BoxWhatBox Commander Red Shirt

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    I like most of this. Its really a great story idea. Here are my issues...

    1. The combat fleet, it sends the wrong message. Its okay to be armed, just not armed to the teeth on a peaceful exploration mission.

    2. The destination, would a more logical destination be the next closes galaxy?

    I would like to see the ship maybe be more of a mobile space dock, makes more sense for a one way mission. It could be equipped with a trans warp conduit which cannot be setup until the station reaches its destination. Until then they could use it for communication.

    Also if this is going to be a decades or centuries long mission, it would be cool if every season jumped a decade so we can see the crew aging and handling the loneliness of transverse the void.
     
  7. tenmei

    tenmei Commodore Commodore

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    But this is a ship that is heading to another galaxy - on her own - and these Defiants and these troops are her only method of defense. Maybe the troops could be brought in and also function as part of the massive vessels security department too - otherwise they might have little to do during the voyage to their destination.

    That's what he said, isn't it?

    I got the impression the ship WAS on the same scale as a mobile version of Spacedock, if she can carry a fleet of three Defiant Class and presumably other more traditional shuttles, shuttlepods and runabouts onboard as well as the massive troop detachment in addition to the vessels crews, their family and the supporting civilian personnel.

    This could be fun. Could also allow for some reshuffling of the crew every season if it was desired. If memory serves right, the above was something they were going to do on nineties UFO show Dark Skies, with the series beginning in the sixties - each season would span approximately a decade so that the fourth season would be the nineties and the fifth season would be contemporary to when the story was actually being made.
     
  8. Admiral2

    Admiral2 Admiral Admiral

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    Thanks again, tenmei!

    Thank ye! :D

    What tenmei said. We're not talking about just "The only ship in the quadrant" here. At times it will be the only ship in the galaxy, and you'll notice I never said anything about Verthandi's own armament. Frankly, I was thinking that the fighters and Defiants would function as the ship's principal weapons, and given the point of the exercise is for the ship to operate literally millions of light-years away from Federation space, back-up is not coming swiftly. You need a noteworthy striking force with built in redundancy to protect the people aboard.

    Plus, in times when Verthandi isn't facing some dire military threat, the Defiants can be deployed as explorers in their own right, extending the range of the exploration mission by that much within the target galaxies. The same could be said-in a limited fashion-of the fighters. Just because you have a powerful force available doesn't mean conquest is your intention.


    More logical, yes. As ambitious? Hardly. Frankly, I went into this thinking it was time for Trek to Go Big or Go Home.

    Oftentimes on this board, it's like pulling teeth just getting people to acknowledge that the notion of the Great Galactic Barrier is stupid and to even try to go to another galaxy at all. Others have proposed it here and still others have poo-poohed it using various rationalizations. In this case, I decided I didn't want to just say "go to another galaxy". My thinking was, if you can reach one other galaxy, why stop at one? Of course, you need a compelling reason to go to more than one, right?

    Center of the Universe, something that can only be viewed through about twenty million years of time from where we are now, but what if we could get closer? :)


    No mobile dock will ever be as mobile as a ship, and it doesn't make more sense if the point of the mission is to actually get somewhere (or, if necessary, get away from something). Whether it's one-way or not isn't the issue. And I came up with the slingshot/aerobrake scheme so the phrase "transwarp" wouldn't be necessary.


    Actually, my thoughts were:

    Season One: Transit to the central black hole, exploring all the way. Season finale has the first slingshot.

    Season Two: begins with the ship braking in the next galaxy and the crew being revived from coldsleep.

    The crew will age, but it will be during those times when they're exploring clusters of stars. They'll be asleep during transit in intergalactic space, so there won't be much to watch. :)
     
  9. AlxxlA

    AlxxlA Lieutenant Red Shirt

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    Also, going to other galaxies would give our valiant crew the opportunity to say "Up yours!" To the Kelvans for trying to take over the Enterprise in By Any Other Name.
     
  10. tenmei

    tenmei Commodore Commodore

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    AlxxlA, surely it would make more sense for our crew to try and make friends with the Kelvans? After all, isn't that the Trek way?
     
  11. AlxxlA

    AlxxlA Lieutenant Red Shirt

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    I apologize for not making myself clear. I should have used a sarcastic smiley to denote my true meaning.
     
  12. Newspaper Taxi

    Newspaper Taxi Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    I've heard the distant-galaxy idea thrown around a lot but I think that I like this one the best. It keeps to the "Boldy Going" spirit of Star Trek but also emphasizes the thirst for knowledge and understanding of the universe around us.

    The only even minor quibble that I have is that if I was on-board one of those three ships I'd be dying to let my people/The Federation know about what we'd discover. Once they go out of range, though, that becomes obvious. I know that's the fate of certain satelites but since they're not sentient beings they don't have to deal with the dilema of learning things, but not being able to report them. (V'ger just wanted to meet it's creators, it didn't really feel the need to tell us about all the space it mapped out.) It would sort of become an indulgance. But now that I think aobut it I guess that has a lot of dramatic/creative potential to it, too.

    You get a gold star.
     
  13. RobertScorpio

    RobertScorpio Pariah

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    I like this idea...a diffrent spin on the 'ship in space' concept (which most of you know I think has been done to death)...but I think there is enough here for good drama/tension...there is a tinge of BSG and Voyager in this as well...but enough new material to really make it interesting...

    but you face the biggest challenge that TNG season one and Voyager (the series) never were able to do; escape the known TREK universe. Eventually Romulans/Klingons/Borg all came back to 'roost' because TREK fans seem to have a problem with being with out the 'neighborhood' of aliens we are use to...

    can't wait to see where you take this...!

    Rob
    Scorpio
     
  14. Newspaper Taxi

    Newspaper Taxi Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    ^
    If the Galaxy is in relative peace, then maybe they could just take a bunch of Alpha Quadrent species with them. Of the six thousand people on the ships you could have hundreds of Klingons, Vulcans, Cardassians, etc., etc. About the only species you couldn't take with you would be species that are currently on bad terms with most of the Alpha Quadrent...Like say, the Borg. Possibly the Dominon and its various species, depending on what relations are like in the 25th century.
     
  15. BoxWhatBox

    BoxWhatBox Commander Red Shirt

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    I really like this show idea. Another thought I had would be that you would get maybe five non-linear stories a year that jump forward and show you glimpses of the future, that shows the explorers reconnecting with humanity, and maybe having to deal with unintended evolutionary differences.
     
  16. Admiral2

    Admiral2 Admiral Admiral

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    tenmei: Could we make friends with the Kelvans the day after we say "Neener neener neener! We can travel to other galaxies too!" ? :D

    Newspaper Taxi: They're going to report what they see. It's just that once they're out of the quadrant the reports won't get back to the Federation instantaneously, and once they're out of the galaxy it will be the Federation's great great grandchildren who will be receiving them. In fact, BoxWhatBox's ideas track with what I was thinking about what might happen if the ship returns. Also, I see no reason why former enemy Alpha Quadrant species can't go along, since it is supposed to be a time of peace.

    But yeah, no Borg. I'm done with Borg.

    Thanks for the gold star!

    RobertScorpio: As I stated in another thread, look up the definitions of the words "Star" and "Trek". "Ship in space" has not been done to death. It's what the title suggests.

    And Trek fans might have been more receptive about leaving the neighborhood if the powers that be had just been a little more creative in the process of creating new neighbors. Frankly, I think all imagination flew out the window after The Immunity Syndrome (Where do you go after you've encountered the giant space amoeba?) The TNG era's definition of alien was "How strangely can I apply this pancake make-up to this obviously human being?"

    Thanks for the continued feedback, everybody!
     
  17. Timewalker

    Timewalker Cat-lovin', Star Trekkin' Time Lady Premium Member

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    Here's a strictly silly suggestion: After one of their slingshot galaxy hops, the crew wakes up to find everything painted pink. Since it wasn't pink when they went to sleep, someone must have done it while they were between galaxies... but who?

    Q, being mischievous? Some alien who thinks the crew lacks any sense of interior decorating? Some natural phenomenon that turns everything pink? Some microscopic pink alien life that's coating the entire ship(s)? Let the mystery (and the repainting) begin...

    (inspired by lots of "Trading Spaces and "While You Were Out" episodes on TLC ;))
     
  18. Admiral2

    Admiral2 Admiral Admiral

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    Admiral Nighthammer awakes from coldsleep to find a strange woman standing next to his sleep chamber. "Hi!" the woman says cheerfully, "I'm Paige Davis! Welcome to your new starship!" :D

    Seriously, though. The idea of the ship being altered in transit is not a bad one. Done right that could be a creepy episode...
     
  19. Timewalker

    Timewalker Cat-lovin', Star Trekkin' Time Lady Premium Member

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    If Hildi did the redecorating, it would be creepy! :lol:
     
  20. tenmei

    tenmei Commodore Commodore

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    Yeah, that does sound pretty cool if extrapolated right. Any more thoughts on the main characters and the first season, Admiral2?