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

[tranya]

I enjoy the analogy to the Ultimates -- I, too, prefer the old, Lee/Kirby/Ditko era, but there's something to be said for trying out new things a second time around. The new BSG did interesting things with the Pegasus again, the new Doctor Who gave the Master a, uh... unique revision, etc. And, of course, Dark Knight gave us the best (IMHO) versions of the Joker and Two-Face we've seen on screen, so this kinda thing seems in vogue.

I dunno, I suspect that, if there are sequels, we'll see the big elements of the TOS and near-TOS eras addressed -- who knows, perhaps a new first visit with Khan, almost definitely an appearance by a young Carol Marcus (who apparently got cut from STXI's screenplay at an early stage) -- but what interests me are all the little bits of Trek arcana that won't make it into a feature film (assuming I'm right about this alternate timeline stuff).

Or, who knows, maybe I'm wrong, and in a year we'll be talking about STXII, featuring Rainn Wilson as Harry Mudd.

 

[captcalhoun]

the Shatnerverse MU trilogy explored the parallel-Earth thing, but not much was actually specified other than there were multiple duplicate Earths as well as duplicates of Qon'os, Vulcan and, IIRC, Andor.

 

[HIj'Qa]

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.

Ohhhhhh, I'll have to rework some plot points!
http://www.geocities.com/grethor/AEGIS.htm

 

[JoeZhang]

I still want that Kirk boot camp book that was spitballed a while back!

 

[Dayton Ward]

[ScoobyDooFlashbackMusic]


"What's your name, scumbag?"

"Sir! James T. Kirk, sir!"

"T? What's the T stand for? Thumbdick?"

"Sir! No, sir! Tiberius, sir!"

"Tiberius? Well, holy shit. We've got ourselves a fucking Roman emperor here. You know the Romans were only good for two things: orgies and the second finest military force the fucking civilized world has ever seen. You best learn how to fight, Tiberius, because you don't look like you could get laid in a fucking whorehouse with gold-pressed latinum strung around your pencil neck."

"Sir. Yes, sir!"


[/ScoobyDooFlashbackMusic]

 

[KRAD]

^ Okay, that's the story I want to see you write, Dayton.

 

[Mysterion]

^^^^
I'd read/buy that!

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

the Shatnerverse MU trilogy explored the parallel-Earth thing, but not much was actually specified other than there were multiple duplicate Earths as well as duplicates of Qon'os, Vulcan and, IIRC, Andor.

Really? That's weird. So they didn't say who was responsible for all of 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.

I did hear that there is an alternate timeline, but that it would not survive the end of the film. Take that for what it's worth.

And for what *this* is worth, I am still not convinced that the mere fact that things look different is any evidence of a flat-out reboot.

 

[Lonemagpie]

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.

Just so long as they're not going to reveal that it was all a holonovel on board the Enterprise-D...

 

[Lonemagpie]

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.

Well, if it's honesty we're going for, I don't mind anything, so long as I get a shot at a full-length Trek novel someday...

 

[JoeZhang]

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.

Just so long as they're not going to reveal that it was all a holonovel on board the Enterprise-D...

hah - they could sell a special edition for fans who don't like the changes - with the end of TATVs stuck on the end of the film*


* I bet money that once the DVD of the film is out, someone will do such a bootleg edition..

 

[tranya]

hah - they could sell a special edition for fans who don't like the changes - with the end of TATVs stuck on the end of the film*

* I bet money that once the DVD of the film is out, someone will do such a bootleg edition..

And, then, will Pocket Books start publishing a series of novels which reverse all the changes made in the movie?

 

[Allyn Gibson]

the Shatnerverse MU trilogy explored the parallel-Earth thing, but not much was actually specified other than there were multiple duplicate Earths as well as duplicates of Qon'os, Vulcan and, IIRC, Andor.

Really? That's weird. So they didn't say who was responsible for all of that?

The Preservers were responsible.

The Preservers didn't just take colonies that were going to die and reseed them on other planets. The Preservers were running giant psychohistorical tests, and they were duplicating planets so there would be a control planet and a test planet, hence all the duplicates.

The problem was that, because people were suddenly aware of duplicates, thanks to the existence of an entire Mirror Universe, the psychohistorical tests no longer worked as planned. The key to psychohistory is that the great mobs of humanity be unaware of its existence or predictions. So the Preservers concocted a scheme to destroy the Mirror Universe so that their psychohistorical experiments could continue as before.

Which for some reason led to a giant duplicate of the Guardian of Forever orbiting Mirror-Halkan.

 

[TerriO]

hah - they could sell a special edition for fans who don't like the changes - with the end of TATVs stuck on the end of the film*

* I bet money that once the DVD of the film is out, someone will do such a bootleg edition..

And, then, will Pocket Books start publishing a series of novels which reverse all the changes made in the movie?

I can see it now, a miniseries entitled The Ultimate Retcon.

Y'know, it's just so crazy, it might work.

 

[PaulSimpson]

hah - they could sell a special edition for fans who don't like the changes - with the end of TATVs stuck on the end of the film*

* I bet money that once the DVD of the film is out, someone will do such a bootleg edition..

And, then, will Pocket Books start publishing a series of novels which reverse all the changes made in the movie?

I can see it now, a miniseries entitled The Ultimate Retcon.

Y'know, it's just so crazy, it might work.

Yeah but if it did - we would never know!!!

 

[TerriO]

And, then, will Pocket Books start publishing a series of novels which reverse all the changes made in the movie?

I can see it now, a miniseries entitled The Ultimate Retcon.

Y'know, it's just so crazy, it might work.

Yeah but if it did - we would never know!!!

We'd have to have one person not affected by the timeline change...I volunteer.

Nah, on second thought, that would be too much like ripping off SG-1. We don't want to do that.

Let me think on it over PhilCon....

 

[Herbert1]

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 let KRAD see that! Coming soon from Pocket Books, Star Trek : Klingon -- The Tribble Wars. Find out how Kang, Koloth, and Kor became Dahar Masters.

 

[Herbert1]

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.

You don't buy the Hodgkin's Law of Production Budget Savings explanation. "The Omega Glory", cringe. Could that story really be reworked until it made sense and then would it be really worth the effort?

 

[tranya]

I dunno, but I'd sure like to see someone take a crack at it. It could be quite hilarious.

 

[Christopher]

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....

You don't buy the Hodgkin's Law of Production Budget Savings explanation. "The Omega Glory", cringe. Could that story really be reworked until it made sense and then would it be really worth the effort?

I think it could -- that's the whole reason I had the idea. Last time I saw it, I realized that it all held together quite well as a story until the last couple of acts where the whole duplicate-Earth nonsense suddenly got tacked on. It was going along just fine with this effective story about a planet with an apparent fountain of youth and a captain who'd gone mad in his quest for it, and then all of a sudden we were getting parallel Yanks and Communists and the American flag and Shatner hugely hamming up the preamble to the Constitution. The parallel-Earth part had nothing really to do with the rest of the episode, and so it could be excised without any major change to the overall narrative. Just have the Yangs' ancestral culture be broadly similar to the United States, with a sacred document that merely embodied the same universal principles of freedom, and have Kirk win them over by speaking about the principle rather than quoting an exact passage that the Yangs had somehow written thousands of years before Gouverneur Morris wrote it again. Make that change and leave out the flag and the racial undertones, and it works fine.