Star Trek, what I think it should be.....

[Temis the Vorta]

How did Firefly do on the Science Channel?

I'm sure the Science Channel paid much less for the rights to air it than they would have had to pay to develop it, so they could get minimal ratings and still do okay. That doesn't really help out with new show development.

It would be great if they could follow the History Channel's lead and start funding scripted show development, but my instinct is that History has a broader reach and more money for new series development. (On Comcast here in SF, History is on the basic-plus tier and Science is one tier up, which limits their reach and their share of cable subscription revenues.)

As for the military angle - Star Trek has established its philosophy of being "kind of military but not really." That's their unique identity, so trying to shoehorn Star Trek into some current real-world military tradition is missing the point. This is a future speculative military of a type that's never existed and probably never will, just as it's doubtful humanity will ever "evolve" beyond religious or even national identities, and I also have my doubts about the death of capitalism, ever.

Star Trek presents us with these unlikely scenarios and then asks us to suspend disbelief and just go with it, because that's what sci fi does.

 

[Sindatur]

How did Firefly do on the Science Channel?

I'm sure the Science Channel paid much less for the rights to air it than they would have had to pay to develop it, so they could get minimal ratings and still do okay. That doesn't really help out with new show development.

It would be great if they could follow the History Channel's lead and start funding scripted show development, but my instinct is that History has a broader reach and more money for new series development. (On Comcast here in SF, History is on the basic-plus tier and Science is one tier up, which limits their reach and their share of cable subscription revenues.)

As for the military angle - Star Trek has established its philosophy of being "kind of military but not really." That's their unique identity, so trying to shoehorn Star Trek into some current real-world military tradition is missing the point. This is a future speculative military of a type that's never existed and probably never will, just as it's doubtful humanity will ever "evolve" beyond religious or even national identities, and I also have my doubts about the death of capitalism, ever.

Star Trek presents us with these unlikely scenarios and then asks us to suspend disbelief and just go with it, because that's what sci fi does.

Here in Sacramento, I'm most likely running on the same Comcast as you.

Oh, yea, naturally syndicated reruns (especially for a 13 episode Series) would be much cheaper than funding a new Scripted Space opera, but, if SCI was to only have to come up with partial funding, and maybe Canadian Channel SPACE and whoever else all climbed in bed together to finance it...it might be possible. And of course, there's that Jordanian King

 

[Gaius]

What does that have to do with whether Starfleet should act like their the military or not? I seem to recall the Military usually doing exploration stuff back when there was exploration stuff to do.

Why would they act like "their" the military if they do not define themselves as such?

And then DS9 injected so much needed realism into that, turning the TNG federation from space hippy love fest to real government.

Since when was ST a 'space hippy love fest'?

 

[The Castellan]

What does that have to do with whether Starfleet should act like their the military or not? I seem to recall the Military usually doing exploration stuff back when there was exploration stuff to do.

Why would they act like "their" the military if they do not define themselves as such?

And then DS9 injected so much needed realism into that, turning the TNG federation from space hippy love fest to real government.

Since when was ST a 'space hippy love fest'?

And since what made DS9 'more realistic'.
And when military starts doing exploration, I know that all real learning, exploring and pretty much freedoms's done if the military does all that, since what's the point if no one else gets to do it, and over the past 20 years, I've grown to trust and respect the military as much as I do in the government, and I quit voting 8 years ago.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

TNG presented a more simplistic moral universe than DS9. The usual thing was for Picard & crew to fly to some planet, get in the middle of some conflict caused by the Obviously Wrong Aliens, give a lecture to the Obviously Wrong Aliens, and fly away, as though they had accomplished something.

DS9 was forced to stay in the midst of the conflict over an extended period of time. There was never an option to just spout some lecture about how the Federation is superior and then leave. This led to more honest exploration of the difficulty of maintaining any kind of moral stance in politics and war. Star Trek has always had a heavy dollop of cultural imperialism (we're right, the aliens are wrong) but DS9 at least made things tougher on the characters and didn't always allow them to be Obviously Right.

And Star Trek has always presented the military as doing space exploration. It's a weird fit, but it's one of the fundamental things that make Star Trek what is it.

 

[Sjaddix]

Well in Star Trek. Private Industry got crushed so the Government has to handle it because the corporations don't have the budget. Besides its not like military did not use to do exploration in the past. Usually when they were conquering or fighting wars but they did to surveying and such.

 

[Sjaddix]

1. Get rid of the hokiness!: Agreed, Serious nothing wrong with a little humor but real drama.
2. Come down to earth. Bending Space Time is fine still have to show a visual effect and make it quick no one wants a charge time.
3. Real military terminology. Fine, but they can add some of their own in.
4. Real scientific terminology. Technobabble is fine every good scifi events some of their own tech and names anyway.
5. Needs to be dark and gritty. Not all the time.
6. Aliens need to look like aliens and...... Not a problem as technology improves so does realism.
7. Timeline progression through seasons. Pretty sure we have this as long as the shows arc based it should be noticable.
8. Character development. Yes
9. Ships need to look like science/military vessels inside and out. It depends on the purposes of the ship.
10. Uniforms, I am 15 years ex-Navy don't get me started..oops too late! Uniforms are fine but I would not mind some more incorporation of tech into the clothing.
11. Officers and ENLISTED please! Special forces away teams! Contractors Better Training for Away Teams and Equipment fine. They already have officers and enlisted.
12. Sound does not travel in space! Everyone knows that but people want to hear something. They are not going to sit through silent films.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

What does that have to do with whether Starfleet should act like their the military or not? I seem to recall the Military usually doing exploration stuff back when there was exploration stuff to do.

Why would they act like "their" the military if they do not define themselves as such?

Funny Kirk seemed to think he was a soldier so did Sisko. Picard was the only Federation Starfleet officer I know of who didn't consider himself part of a military.

And then DS9 injected so much needed realism into that, turning the TNG federation from space hippy love fest to real government.

Since when was ST a 'space hippy love fest'?

In TNG with its we're better than everyone/no interpersonal conflict/lets give the Romulans a strategic advantage and hope the Klingons like having to give lifts to Starfleet officers who need to sneak into places because cloaking is teh evils philosophy

aka why I like TOS and DS9 more.

And since what made DS9 'more realistic'.
And when military starts doing exploration, I know that all real learning, exploring and pretty much freedoms's done if the military does all that, since what's the point if no one else gets to do it,

1) Lewis and Clark were in the army.

2) Charles Darwin was on a British Royal Navy ship

3) Why would the military doing it keep civilians from doing it Starfleet would just have better toys to do it with since civilians would have to buy equipment out of pocket. Plus they at least are better armed in case the locals aren't very friendly or the neighboring Federation unfriendly empire wants the place for themselves.

and over the past 20 years, I've grown to trust and respect the military as much as I do in the government, and I quit voting 8 years ago.

1) I don't care, as we are not in Misc and TNZ where that topic is usually discussed.

2) By your own admission you have from where I stand forfeited any right to bitch about it basically which goes back to 1).

 

[anh165]

Less millitary and cyncism in Star Trek please. This isn't Star Wars or Babylon 5.

All this grim future in space is just an excuse for mindless space battles and yet more banal phaser exchanges between crappy looking ships.

DS9 was bad enough.

 

[Commander Riker]

A much dark Trek, more so than DS9 would be very appealing for the next series.

Do people think that a new series should pick up around the same time that VOY ended or a lot before or after?

 

[nightwind1]

A much dark Trek, more so than DS9 would be very appealing for the next series.

No. No, it wouldn't.

 

[The Green Mushroom]

Star Trek has always been about the people more than the technology. Even when the people aren't people and even when they are technology. Data was an android that wanted to be human, not a cool toy for the Enterprise to use. Spock was an alien that wanted to not be human, not a super-powered being to create plot hi-jinks. I just don't understand why people want Trek to become some sort of bizarre tech porn thing. And even if it did--how long would it last?

On another note, the more I think about it, the more I have decided that making Star Trek more like the real military is just dumb. Its not the real military even if you insist that it is the military.

Its a (at least para-) military force two-three hundred years in the future--two or three hundred years ago, officers purchased their commissions in the army and only received a promotion when the guy ahead of him died or got his own promotion, naval officers learned their trade at sea starting their careers as young as 8; warrant officers (the technical people who maintained the sails, the guns, the wooden hulls) were seasoned professionals hired to do their jobs because neither the able seamen nor the officers were trained to do, part time militia considered themselves as able as professional soldiers, etc. To think that the military would be the same three hundred years from now is naive at best.

To study Starfleet's model by today's standards, it does make sense if you look at the U.S. Coast Guard--specifically the smaller cutters. On those ships, (most of) the captains are veterans who came up from the ranks--and may not even be an officer. Everyone else does whatever they can and by doing as many jobs as they possibly can. One day the cutter might board a suspected drug smuggler with a boarding party consisting of operations officer, a kid fresh out of boot camp and the ship's cook. The next day they may be inspecting a fishing vessel by sending over the skipper, the chief engineer, and the weapons officer.

If you consider the officer part of "Starfleet Officer" to mean the same as the officer part of "police officer" it, at least to me also makes sense. An ensign would be kid fresh out of boot camp, expected to learn how to be a value instead of a liability. Lieutenants would be petty officers--technical experts and front line leaders. Commanders would be the chiefs who supervise and teach the youngsters. Etc.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

They could make it more military by setting it in the 22th C. ENT really missed a chance there. It would make sense if Starfleet evolved from more to less military, and a more-military Starfleet would have been interesting and different to see, and possibly attracted and held onto an audience.

 

[xortex]

The Enterprise should be a labratory, not a military ship or submarine, comfortable but not too comfortable like TNG. Kirk's remark that he was primarily a soldier now was a lie to gain trust. Hawaii five O'ish space cop things should be individual episodes forced on them and kept under that umbrella and not be the main focus and thrust of the show as RHW's sci fi 'Untitled' seems to be heading - sort of an amalgamim of Andromeda and Space Precinct western. He's covering all grounds and will therefore probable wind up nowhere. The show is the person. What GR did was nothing short of miraculous to push his singular vision like that through such incredible resistance and like TZ, it started out as a lie to Lucille Ball as being a USO show where stars like her trekked to foreign countries to do shows and TZ would contain no social commentary whatsoever.

 

[T'Girl]

Why would they act like "their" the military if they do not define themselves as such?

Picard was the only Federation Starfleet officer I know of who didn't consider himself part of a military.

Perhaps that's why Picard and the Enterprise Dee were absent from the Dominion War, Starfleet did not want to introduce a "unstable element" into a combat situation.

Gaius, do you denign that Starfleet fulfilled the role of the military?

 

[Hartzilla2007]

Why would they act like "their" the military if they do not define themselves as such?

Picard was the only Federation Starfleet officer I know of who didn't consider himself part of a military.

Perhaps that's why Picard and the Enterprise Dee were absent from the Dominion War,

While I don't know about Picard but it would be kind of hard for the Enterprise-D to show up seeing as it was a Saucer crashed into a planet at the time.

 

[T'Girl]

the Enterprise-D

My bad, Enterprise E.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

What I would want from a new Trek series would be.

- Closer to TOS but updating the elements that are considered cheesy today.

- Dropping the transhuman bans i.e. legal genetic engineering.

- A shipboard A.I. that controls the ship just becuase that is kind of cool and literally makes the ship a character

- More willing to show that the universe can be a dnagerous place i.e. occasional appearances by soul eating space monster things that the crew would have to stop while their exploring the galaxy.

- Make the Klingons more willing to scheme (i.e. closer to John M. Ford's version) and drop the viking biker look.

- Get rid of the stupid head ridges on the Romulans that never made any sense anyway.

- Starfleet and being more like its depicted in Diane Duane's books

- The Federation's tech level being closer to the 80s TOS novels where it was more advanced than the TNG era.

- (This is optional but) can someone at least consider having space fighters on the ship.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

- Dropping the transhuman bans i.e. legal genetic engineering.

But that's one of the unique aspects of Star Trek - that they would be so blase about everything but hung up on just that one thing. Personally, I like it. Makes the oh so perfect Federation a bit neurotic.

A shipboard A.I. that controls the ship just becuase that is kind of cool and literally makes the ship a character

Seems like something that should exist anyway. Or, there could be a Medusan Starfleet officer who merges with the ship's computers and effectively serves the role of AI (since we've had AI main characters before but not a Medusan.)

More willing to show that the universe can be a dnagerous place i.e. occasional appearances by soul eating space monster things that the crew would have to stop while their exploring the galaxy.

Yes, Star Trek is definitely too tame for modern audiences, especially on cable. The audience needs to be freaked out every so often, a la The Walking Dead. Some episodes should need that "may too intense for some audiences" warning at the beginning.

Get rid of the stupid head ridges on the Romulans that never made any sense anyway.

Eh, maybe the original emigrants from Vulcan were largely from some sub-species of Vulcan that had ridges. It's easy to explain. Or, there could be variation among Rommies - from prominent ridges to none. Mainly I want the costuming and hair to be less comical. I'm really tired of the Moe haircuts.

 

[The Green Mushroom]

- Dropping the transhuman bans i.e. legal genetic engineering.

I, for one, disagree. Star Trek is about humanity and making humanity better. Not turning humans into the Borg or designer glow in the dark freaks. Keep the ban. In fact, make one for real life--aside from curing diseases.

- A shipboard A.I. that controls the ship just becuase that is kind of cool and literally makes the ship a character.

It could work or it could go badly. From what I have seen on all the shows is that ships do have a very advanced AI or at least a very advanced OS and can basically run themselves. Making it self aware and interactive would be gimmicky, and lead to ethical issues a la "The Measure of a Man"--could Kirk order a self-aware starship to make a suicide run?

- More willing to show that the universe can be a dnagerous place i.e. occasional appearances by soul eating space monster things that the crew would have to stop while their exploring the galaxy.

Now this I do like. Space should be scary, no matter how populated it is.

- (This is optional but) can someone at least consider having space fighters on the ship.

Again, I respectfully disagree. To me space fighters would work when they have some sort of technical advantage over the larger star ships--i.e. they can go faster, they can bring more (significant) weapons to bare, etc. In Trek, fighters may be able to go faster at impulse, but a starship could just warp away and come back a minute later. Considering the size of a fighter compared to a starship, a torpedo volley would work just as well if not better than a fighter squadron. The only way I could see fighters work would be if the fighters were based off of an unarmed ship--serving as escorts for a civilian convoy or something--or, if they changed the laws of Trek physics and limited the ability of starships to use warp. In B5 or Galactica were everything was slow in slower than light travel, fighters made sense. Trek ships don't jump around though and don't need gates either--they just move from point A to point B really, really fast. And a warbird can always run down or outrun a runabout.