Re-booting TNG For TV?

Discussion in 'Future of Trek' started by Jetfire, Aug 18, 2011.

  1. Quinton O'Connor

    Quinton O'Connor Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    Apr 3, 2010
    Location:
    Durham, NC
    Temis' CW-fied Trek examples are a healthy reminder that Trek on TV at all costs is not something we should be rooting for!

    I've experienced something similar by going through this thread, by the way. It really clicks; "it's a modern spin on the one and only very successful variation of the franchise" is probably the most alluring thing a hopeful producer could say to CBS.
     
  2. Temis the Vorta

    Temis the Vorta Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Oct 30, 1999
    Location:
    Tatoinne
    Oh but it would make the discussions around here so very interesting! :rommie:

    Yep. And let's all pray that they're making TNG: The Completely Unrecognizable Reboot for Showtime and not the CW.

    The way to pitch it to Showtime is to throw the ratings and critical success of Game of Thrones at rival HBO in their faces, a series that built a big following off an initial interest by a rabid fanbase, certainly a smaller fanbase than Trekkies represent. Showtime has got to be looking at that success with some degree of envy. What big-name sf/f franchise can they push out there, that could be an even bigger hit?

    Sadly, I can just as easily see a successful approach to the CW. They're making $$$ off supernatural and superhero teen angst dramas. It would be so tempting to take a half-step over to space opera teen angst drama. They could do that without Star Trek of course, but since they're part of the company that owns the rights...
     
  3. Quinton O'Connor

    Quinton O'Connor Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    Apr 3, 2010
    Location:
    Durham, NC
    Before Kirk and Sisko...

    Before Janeway and Picard...

    There was...

    Dawson's Trek

    Fridays this Fall on The CW
     
  4. ChristopherPike

    ChristopherPike Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Jan 13, 2006
    ^ Yep. That's the Enterprise UPN actually wanted...

    Although the then producers of the franchise tried to get close to that, before Paramount dictated any Star Trek needed to involve deep space exploration from the get-go, transporters, Klingons and time-travel. Instead of spreading the first season out on Earth, across the Solar System and then only just visiting our closest stellar neighbours.

    There's no need to go right the way back to the teenage angst stage of course. In their mid-to-late 20's would've done it, where career paths have already been chosen and a couple of older father-figures in charge of them.
     
    Last edited: Aug 28, 2011
  5. Quinton O'Connor

    Quinton O'Connor Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    Apr 3, 2010
    Location:
    Durham, NC
    Every time I hear about that original first-season pitch I sigh. It sounded so good.

    I'm a fan of the show, by the way, so don't take that as me saying what we got was terrible. But those first couple of seasons definitely weren't as good overall as the latter ones and if the creative team had gotten the time they asked for and the setting they decreed...
     
  6. ChristopherPike

    ChristopherPike Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Jan 13, 2006
    I feel the same. I'd have given anything for a fifth season to have happened, after they finally got ENT right under Manny Coto. But the other alternative to that, is just to reboot it without the events influenced by the Temporal Cold War. That basically enables wholesale changes but not enough to stop former cast members like Bakula & Trinneer appearing again, playing a different history version of Archer and Trip. Basically what they did in the last film with a different fork in the road in 2120's and then leap ahead to just prior to the Federation founding in 2160.

    http://trekbbs.com/showthread.php?t=146933

    That would seem to fill the requirements of a having largely new and different cast take over, some continuity with a face or two previously to have appeared in ENT, new set designs and costumes... the events of "Broken Bow" don't happen and the Enterprise launches a few years later when it's ready. Earth Starfleet make further adaptations to the NX-class, change uniforms to something else. Like a more colourful version of the NASA style flightsuits - gold, blue and red all over. The transporter has somehow proven only suitable for equipment, after some awful accident. Phase pistols are still EM-33 blasters. Photonic torpedos still on the drawing board, with no Xindi incident having happened to implement them. Terra Prime, the xenophobic organisation unhappy with Vulcans on Earth and humanity living with other aliens, is still around.
     
    Last edited: Aug 28, 2011
  7. Quinton O'Connor

    Quinton O'Connor Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    Apr 3, 2010
    Location:
    Durham, NC
    Oh yeah, I read that. I really dig the idea.

    What I wouldn't give.
     
  8. ChristopherPike

    ChristopherPike Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Jan 13, 2006
    Yeah, I've been wracking my brain how I could pitch that.

    Me: "Yeah. Hi. I'd like to bring back Star Trek to CBS. I'd like to completely redo the last chapter again. Separate out what worked, from what didn't."

    Leslie Moonves: "Get out of my office."

    :lol:

    If Star Trek's future is anything like Doctor Who, it will be used as a bargaining chip to get a talented writer proven in other areas (and who also happens to be a fan), to cross from one studio to another. One of the projects they're given in negotiation, turns out to be the next series.
     
  9. Temis the Vorta

    Temis the Vorta Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Oct 30, 1999
    Location:
    Tatoinne
    Only if the talented writer is a big Trekkie and insists on doing a Star Trek series in addition to whatever it is that CBS really wants. ;)
     
  10. Lynx

    Lynx Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Mar 27, 2001
    Location:
    Lynx Empire
    No re-booting please. I just hate the thought of seeing Picard and the others being played by other actors than Stewart, Frakes etc.
     
  11. Temis the Vorta

    Temis the Vorta Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Oct 30, 1999
    Location:
    Tatoinne
    If it's any consolation, I'm sure the rebooted TNG characters would bear only the most cursory resemblance to the originals. :D Perhaps only the name and rank would remain.

    ...except for Data. The "tragic robot" is an evergreen role. The rest would get tweaked to greater or lesser degree. Riker might get blended into Picard, who would be an action character. Worf would be a more traditional Klingon, less straight-laced and a lot more fun. Geordi would be more comic/antic/eccentric. Yar would be less tragic and more of a wild warrior woman. Crusher would be more of an overt love interest for Picard. Troi would be more alien/exotic/sexy. Wesley would be Crusher's little brother rather than son since nobody in the cast would be old enough to have a teenage child.
     
  12. Lynx

    Lynx Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Mar 27, 2001
    Location:
    Lynx Empire
    ^^
    Well, that's the point. I'll hate to see characters who don't even look like the real characters. Not to mention that the whole thing would screw up already established Trek history, just like that recent movie.

    If Star Trek can't come up with new scenarios, new stories and new characters, than they could just call it a day and cancel the whole thing, leaving TNG, DS9, Voyager and the other great series to fanfic and our own imagination.
     
  13. Skywalker

    Skywalker Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Feb 24, 2005
    No offense, but if Kirk and Spock and McCoy can be recast (and successfully, at that), then so can any character in Star Trek.

    Except possibly Morn. He was one of a kind.
     
  14. Temis the Vorta

    Temis the Vorta Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Oct 30, 1999
    Location:
    Tatoinne
    I always assumed Spock was the ultimate in an un-recastable character. Now I'd be willing to see any recasting. Go ahead and recast Han Solo for all I care! :rommie:

    But the reason TNG wouldn't be treated with the same respect as TOS (and Abrams did treat the characters with a fair amount of respect) is that the TOS characters are truly iconic in a way the TNG characters aren't, except for Data.

    An iconic character transcends any given actor, so the role can be handed off from one to another. That's what being iconic means. Data is like that. Picard isn't - he's specific to Patrick Stewart. So a new actor playing a character named Picard would be inevitably different. But I wouldn't mind seeing that new character named Picard. He might be cool.

    Nope, it's all in a different reality. The original reality remains untouched. We aren't seeing those characters at all. So in that sense, nobody is actually being recast. A new Picard might be strikingly different because he's literally a different person, born at a different time, born to the same father but a different mother, born to a different father who was the brother or cousin of the original dad or even some other more distant relative named Picard. Once you futz with the timeline, anything's possible.

    The reason TNG would be revived is not lack of imagination on the writer's/producer's part but lack of spine on the network's part. Networks like to reboot existing properties because it gives them the illusion of predictability and safety, even when the reboots rarely have anything to do with the originals. TV is run by cowards.

    And if you want to hold off on Star Trek until TV is no longer run by cowards, you'll be waiting a very long time. :rommie: Star Trek needs to get back on TV the way all the other worthwhile TV shows do - in spite of the suits. That's how Ron Moore got BSG through the gauntlet. He threw out a known brand name that gave the illusion of predictable safety and then proceeded to ignore that brand name and make something good instead.
     
    Last edited: Aug 28, 2011
  15. Captaindemotion

    Captaindemotion Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    May 26, 2001
    Location:
    Ireland
    I think that if the powers that be do another Next Gen type show, it will be set in the JJverse. It is unlikely to be called TNG, DS9 or VOY but they may go with the idea of another ship called the Enterprise, set some time after the days of Kirk etc. It's possible that they'll use some recognisable names like Picard or recognisable types like a Klingon or an android. But, as has been pointed out, this is a different timeline and it would be very surprising if 100 years after the events in ST09 an Enterprise-D was populated by this universe's Jean-Luc Picard, William Riker, etc, etc. More likely it will be a brand-new crew of brand new characters, even brand new aliens and species.
     
  16. Temis the Vorta

    Temis the Vorta Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Oct 30, 1999
    Location:
    Tatoinne
    Maybe Picard can be the villain. :D
     
  17. Captaindemotion

    Captaindemotion Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    May 26, 2001
    Location:
    Ireland
    ^ That would be an interesting way to go.
     
  18. TeutonicNights

    TeutonicNights Commander Red Shirt

    Joined:
    Oct 15, 2007
    Location:
    Non-isotropic cosmos
    They could make Picard a Deltan-French bastard woman.
    (S)he would still resemble the original character and they could credibly sex up the show.
     
  19. Captaindemotion

    Captaindemotion Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    May 26, 2001
    Location:
    Ireland
    And she'd still be bald!
     
  20. Temis the Vorta

    Temis the Vorta Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Oct 30, 1999
    Location:
    Tatoinne
    Nah, I'd keep Picard male but give him hair. And make him evil.

    I'm still going back and forth about the goatee. :rommie: