Writers: What nu-Trek Story Are You Dying To Write?

[tranya]

Let's assume, for a minute, a few things:

- That the nu-Trek of Abrams & Co. is successful, and there's a demand for spinoff novels/stories/eBooks/parchments/etc.
- That the rumored plotline is true, and that this is a "canonical reboot" of sorts, starting off the original 5 year mission's events in a new, altered timeline.
- That a new movie series isn't going to have the time to cover all the events of TOS, and fans of the original show would be curious to see how events they were already familiar with would be different in the new Trek universe.

Maybe a lot to assume, but, if you were to pitch a nu-Trek novel, what kinds of topics would you want to revisit in a new timeline? A new take on Mirror Universe, perhaps? A different take on Kodos/Karidian, assuming this new Kirk didn't spend his childhood off Earth? A new take on Journey to Babel, now that Sarek and Amanda have been introduced already? Hell, a modernized, more contemporary "A Piece of the Action"?

Apologies if this has already been discussed -- I poked around and didn't see anything on this topic.

 

[TerriO]

Like I said, I'd love to do the bodice-ripper of the McCoy and Dax romance now. Urban is MUCH easier to envision in that kind of........

Sorry, went away there for a second.

I just can't envision Kelley in any kind of romance scenario. Doesn't work for me.

But, I highly suspect I'm the only person who'd actually read that book, so I kinda just sit there with the idea in my backbrain, letting it fester and get even more Harlequin-esque as it goes.

 

[Dayton Ward]

Tribbles.

Tribbles with fangs. And eye-patches, even though they don't have eyes. Wait. Now, they have eyes. Bionic eyes, with X-ray vision so they can check out chick tribbles in the gym showers. The reason the Klingons are pissed at them all the time? Because the Fanged, Eye-patched Voyeur Tribbles kicked their asses. Twice.

 

[Lonemagpie]

Tribbles.

Tribbles with fangs. And eye-patches, even though they don't have eyes. Wait. Now, they have eyes. Bionic eyes, with X-ray vision so they can check out chick tribbles in the gym showers. The reason the Klingons are pissed at them all the time? Because the Fanged, Eye-patched Voyeur Tribbles kicked their asses. Twice.

I pitched that one months ago...

 

[Greg Cox]

To be honest, I'm not going to even think about this until I see the movie, especially since I've been kind of avoiding spoilers so far.

Unless, of course, someone makes me an offer . . . .

 

[Dayton Ward]

I pitched that one months ago...

Yeah, but if it's a reboot, then the slate's wiped clean, and everything's fair game again.

 

[Lonemagpie]

I pitched that one months ago...

Yeah, but if it's a reboot, then the slate's wiped clean, and everything's fair game again.

So who wants to be Harlan this time?

 

[tranya]

To be honest, I'm not going to even think about this until I see the movie, especially since I've been kind of avoiding spoilers so far.

Unless, of course, someone makes me an offer . . . .

This gets me thinking -- what about a new Assignment: Earth? Somehow I'm having a hard time seeing Gary and Roberta with the new Trek crew, but the dissonance could be entertaining.

 

[tranya]

Not that I've ever been a writer (of anything other than half-completed fanfic), but I'd love to see how one could update something like The Omega Glory or Patterns of Force with this new crew/ship. Storylines that seemingly have absolutely no place in contemporary media landscape would be fun to see thought through differently, IMHO.

 

[DEWLine]

Nicholas Campbell as Gary Seven, anyone?

After he's done reviving Da Vinci's Inquest and Kolchak, of course. :-)

 

[Dayton Ward]

To be honest, I wouldn't be interested in "re-doing" any of the original stories with Kirk and Company. If this is indeed a reset (which I doubt), then like I said...the slate's clean.

 

[Christopher]

Not that I've ever been a writer (of anything other than half-completed fanfic), but I'd love to see how one could update something like The Omega Glory or Patterns of Force with this new crew/ship. Storylines that seemingly have absolutely no place in contemporary media landscape would be fun to see thought through differently, IMHO.

Oh, that's tempting. Personally, I kind of like to pretend that the whole last act of "The Omega Glory" happened differently without any of the Earth-parallel stuff. It would be kind of cool to get to rework that story in a way that actually makes sense. Also maybe do that with "Bread and Circuses" -- not an actual duplicate Rome where they speak modern English, but just a Rome-like alien empire. And of course do "Miri" without it being on a physical duplicate of Earth.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Nicholas Campbell as Gary Seven, anyone?

That would be like the SCE sequel I spoke of earlier: Da Vinci's Da Vinci.

And I'm still not convinced there is such a thing as "nuTrek".

 

[Stevil2001]

This gets me thinking -- what about a new Assignment: Earth? Somehow I'm having a hard time seeing Gary and Roberta with the new Trek crew, but the dissonance could be entertaining.

These days, Gary would have a tortured dark past he needed to hide from his team, Roberta would have constant relationship issues with her boyfriend, Isis would be a lesbian, and they'd all live underground in a dank, poorly-lit secret facility, where they spend more time experiencing sexual tension than fighting aliens.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

So, it's a Torchwood spin-off then, Steve.

 

[seigezunt]

Tribbles.

Tribbles with fangs. And eye-patches, even though they don't have eyes. Wait. Now, they have eyes. Bionic eyes, with X-ray vision so they can check out chick tribbles in the gym showers. The reason the Klingons are pissed at them all the time? Because the Fanged, Eye-patched Voyeur Tribbles kicked their asses. Twice.

don't forget the frikkin' laser beams!

 

[KRAD]

There are too many assumptions there for me to be able to actually think of anything to pitch. I mean, we don't actually know if any of that is true, and we won't until next year.

And I think the notion of just redoing old stories is silly. Of course, that's what I thought about Marvel's "Ultimate" line, and that's still going, so what do I know? But retelling stories that were told just fine the first time strikes me as pointless. I mean, it took Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley 100 pages over five issues to tell the exact same story that Stan Lee and Steve Ditko told in 11 pages in an anthology comic, and Stan and Steve did it five thousand times better.

OTOH, it might be fun to do "Journey to Babel" with a plot that isn't dumber than a box of hammers and isn't sodden with tiresome cliches.....................

 

[Geoff Thorne]

There are too many assumptions there for me to be able to actually think of anything to pitch. I mean, we don't actually know if any of that is true, and we won't until next year.

And I think the notion of just redoing old stories is silly. Of course, that's what I thought about Marvel's "Ultimate" line, and that's still going, so what do I know? But retelling stories that were told just fine the first time strikes me as pointless. I mean, it took Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley 100 pages over five issues to tell the exact same story that Stan Lee and Steve Ditko told in 11 pages in an anthology comic, and Stan and Steve did it five thousand times better.

OTOH, it might be fun to do "Journey to Babel" with a plot that isn't dumber than a box of hammers and isn't sodden with tiresome cliches.....................

aside: I really enjoy you sometimes, Keith.



on point: I'll take The Ultimate Computer for the block.

jesus. I'm salivating.

sad.

 

[Christopher]

There are too many assumptions there for me to be able to actually think of anything to pitch. I mean, we don't actually know if any of that is true, and we won't until next year.

True, but it can be fun to speculate.

And I think the notion of just redoing old stories is silly. Of course, that's what I thought about Marvel's "Ultimate" line, and that's still going, so what do I know? But retelling stories that were told just fine the first time strikes me as pointless.

But what about stories that weren't told fine the first time? I have to admit, the idea of being able to revise canon in a way that eliminates "Miri"'s duplicate Earth and "Omega Glory"'s E'ed plebnista and "Alternative Factor"'s general idiocy has a certain appeal.

 

[tranya]

Frankly, the duplicate Earth is one of my favorite silly and ludicrous things in TOS.

Have any novels ever explored what in the world a duplicate Earth might have been doing out there in the first place? I hashed out a plot for a story about it years ago, but never got around to writing it.

Re: my initial assumptions, sure, there are a few of them. What seems clear, though, is that Roberto Orci has repeatedly stated that there's a "canonical" explanation for why everything looks different and why everyone meets up in a way Trek fans didn't expect, and it seems the most plausible explanation (given Nimoy's appearance in the film) is that this is an alternate timeline reboot. So, eliminate the other assumptions (cuz, really, who knows about the viability of the franchise until the film drops), and just speculate instead.

Cuz, y'know, speculation's free and fun.