Moore-izing TNG

[Wingsley]

I don't know if this has ever come up before, but with JJ Abrams vaguely remaking TOS in his own image, and this remake following vaguely similar lines as Ronald D. Moore's 2003 remake of GALACTICA, why not re-imagine TNG along similar, Moore-ian lines, complete with gender reversals? Here's what I mean:

Re-TNG

This ship is the U.S.S. Enterprise, registry 1701-G. (In this alterniverse, more starships named Enterprise have met a heroic, if unfortunate, end, leading to more successors. This also sidesteps any humor about the Enterprise-F being "F-Troop".

I have no clear vision of what this alt-Enterprise-G would look like. But it would be about the same size as the TNG Enterprise-D and it would have a limited civilian contingent aboard.


Captain Jean-Luc Picard = Commodore Vladimir Picovsky - Think of a cross between Vladimir Putin and Jacques Cousteau. I always thought a ship as huge and powerful as a Galaxy-class should be commanded by a flag officer.

Commander William Riker = Cmdr. or Capt. Winona Riker = In this Alterniverse, Riker and Troi switch genders. Riker and Troi met and bonded as a result of their less-than-proper sexual activities. In their younger days, both liked to swing and Riker became a sex addict after becoming promiscuous.

Deanna Troi = Dr. Dino "Dean" Troi. The telepathic Troi is Enterprise's head civilian scientist and chief civvie liason to the skipper and XO. Troi originally enjoyed a tryst with young Ms. Riker, but quickly fell in love with her and secretly used his telepathic abilities to help Riker overcome her addiction.

[NOTE: in this Alterniverse, Riker and Troi have a love/hate relationship, on one level, as ex-lovers, they have an uneasy friendship. On another level, their familiarity with each other gives them a feeling of mutual support and professional respect. The sometimes go-between and mutual confidant is Yar.]

Data = Data. I cannot see any serious change in this character; in fact, Brent Spiner seemed to be as much an anchor for the show as Patrick Stewart.

Tasha Yar = Tricia Yar. Hard-nosed and ambitious command aspirant who wants to rise to the command ranks. She is a command college candidate and wants to gain as much hands-on experience with as many of the ship's operations as possible. She is an adult version of a whiz-kid geek who likes to study everything. She is essentially a starship XO-in-training. She is also bisexual, though very discreet.

Worf = Worf. The Security Chief reports to Yar and the XO. I'm not sure if he should be another command-track junior officer aspirant or a Chief Petty Officer.

Dr. Beverly Crusher = Dr. Kate Pulaski. I won't try to hide that Dr. McCoy was my favorite character in TOS, and I love what Diana Muldaur brought to TNG's second year.

Geordi LaForge = Gerri LaForge. Starting out as a Starfleet science officer and helmsman on the "G", Gerri is following a technocrat career path. She eventually moves to become chief engineer when the G's senior engineer is killed. The position is made permanent. Like Yar, LaForge is a whiz geek uber-astronaut who wants to learn about all aspects of starship operation and exploration. She and Yar love to study and obsess over details and problem-solving. As with Geordi LaForge in FIRST CONTACT, Gerri is blind but uses bionic eyeball implants. She was robbed of her sight at an early age by some sort of colonial space accident.

Wesley Crusher = Lesley Crusher. This young lady was born on a starbase and followed her mother from one space station assignment to the next until being orphaned when the Cardassians attacked shortly after Lesley graduated from early advance-placement astronaut school. Lesley enlisted and quickly became a junior petty officer, on a career track to become a professional space pilot. Lelsey idolizes Yar and LaForge. Yar unconsciously stirs romantic feelings in Lesley.

Miles O'Brien = Yao Teng. Think Yao Ming, appearance-wise; a Chinese version of Miles. Yao is a career Starfleet NCO engineer-specialist. Picovsky ordered Yao to take over temporarily when the G's chief engineering officer was killed. He tolerates geeky ladder-climbing junior officers.

 

[Sci]

I don't know if this has ever come up before, but with JJ Abrams vaguely remaking TOS in his own image, and this remake following vaguely similar lines as Ronald D. Moore's 2003 remake of GALACTICA,

What the hell are you talking about? RDM's Battlestar Galactica is completely different from J.J. Abrams's Star Trek. They have nothing in common.

 

[Mr_Homn]

I don't know if this has ever come up before, but with JJ Abrams vaguely remaking TOS in his own image, and this remake following vaguely similar lines as Ronald D. Moore's 2003 remake of GALACTICA,

What the hell are you talking about? RDM's Battlestar Galactica is completely different from J.J. Abrams's Star Trek. They have nothing in common.

The internet: Responding to well thought out creative posts with snarky rudeness since 1990!

 

[Wingsley]

^^ ~~ ~~

 

[Sci]

I don't know if this has ever come up before, but with JJ Abrams vaguely remaking TOS in his own image, and this remake following vaguely similar lines as Ronald D. Moore's 2003 remake of GALACTICA,

What the hell are you talking about? RDM's Battlestar Galactica is completely different from J.J. Abrams's Star Trek. They have nothing in common.

The internet: Responding to well thought out creative posts with snarky rudeness since 1990!

That's not even snark, that's just pure confusion. I have no idea where the OP got that connection.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I'm with, Sci. How exactly are the RDM Battlestar Galactica and the JJA Star Trek similar? Once you get past them being reboots, I see nothing. JJ didn't change the names or gender of any character. Nor has he made the Trek Universe a dark pessimistic place with barely likable characters making morally questionable decisions.

 

[Leroy]

If "Moore-izing" TNG means having the characters declaring technology to be the root of all evil and tossing the Enterprise into the sun (sans metaphasic shields) in the last episode I'm out.

 

[Ian Keldon]

^I think what the OP is asking (albeit with a bit of grammatical trouble) is a Moore-ization of TNG a la Nu-Galactica.

 

[Wingsley]

Well, lest we forget, the trend of "re-imagining" a major sci fi franchise with major changes to the character, setting and storyline was trailblazed by Ronald D. Moore. I wasn't talking about all the specifics of what Moore's GALALCTICA was about. Just some of the basic techniques of re-imagining, such as major character shifts and gender changes. I was articulating what re-imagined TNG characters might be like.

 

[Shatinator]

I don't know if this has ever come up before, but with JJ Abrams vaguely remaking TOS in his own image, and this remake following vaguely similar lines as Ronald D. Moore's 2003 remake of GALACTICA, why not re-imagine TNG along similar, Moore-ian lines, complete with gender reversals? Here's what I mean:

Re-TNG

This ship is the U.S.S. Enterprise, registry 1701-G. (In this alterniverse, more starships named Enterprise have met a heroic, if unfortunate, end, leading to more successors. This also sidesteps any humor about the Enterprise-F being "F-Troop".

I have no clear vision of what this alt-Enterprise-G would look like. But it would be about the same size as the TNG Enterprise-D and it would have a limited civilian contingent aboard.


Captain Jean-Luc Picard = Commodore Vladimir Picovsky - Think of a cross between Vladimir Putin and Jacques Cousteau. I always thought a ship as huge and powerful as a Galaxy-class should be commanded by a flag officer.

Commander William Riker = Cmdr. or Capt. Winona Riker = In this Alterniverse, Riker and Troi switch genders. Riker and Troi met and bonded as a result of their less-than-proper sexual activities. In their younger days, both liked to swing and Riker became a sex addict after becoming promiscuous.

Deanna Troi = Dr. Dino "Dean" Troi. The telepathic Troi is Enterprise's head civilian scientist and chief civvie liason to the skipper and XO. Troi originally enjoyed a tryst with young Ms. Riker, but quickly fell in love with her and secretly used his telepathic abilities to help Riker overcome her addiction.

[NOTE: in this Alterniverse, Riker and Troi have a love/hate relationship, on one level, as ex-lovers, they have an uneasy friendship. On another level, their familiarity with each other gives them a feeling of mutual support and professional respect. The sometimes go-between and mutual confidant is Yar.]

Data = Data. I cannot see any serious change in this character; in fact, Brent Spiner seemed to be as much an anchor for the show as Patrick Stewart.

Tasha Yar = Tricia Yar. Hard-nosed and ambitious command aspirant who wants to rise to the command ranks. She is a command college candidate and wants to gain as much hands-on experience with as many of the ship's operations as possible. She is an adult version of a whiz-kid geek who likes to study everything. She is essentially a starship XO-in-training. She is also bisexual, though very discreet.

Worf = Worf. The Security Chief reports to Yar and the XO. I'm not sure if he should be another command-track junior officer aspirant or a Chief Petty Officer.

Dr. Beverly Crusher = Dr. Kate Pulaski. I won't try to hide that Dr. McCoy was my favorite character in TOS, and I love what Diana Muldaur brought to TNG's second year.

Geordi LaForge = Gerri LaForge. Starting out as a Starfleet science officer and helmsman on the "G", Gerri is following a technocrat career path. She eventually moves to become chief engineer when the G's senior engineer is killed. The position is made permanent. Like Yar, LaForge is a whiz geek uber-astronaut who wants to learn about all aspects of starship operation and exploration. She and Yar love to study and obsess over details and problem-solving. As with Geordi LaForge in FIRST CONTACT, Gerri is blind but uses bionic eyeball implants. She was robbed of her sight at an early age by some sort of colonial space accident.

Wesley Crusher = Lesley Crusher. This young lady was born on a starbase and followed her mother from one space station assignment to the next until being orphaned when the Cardassians attacked shortly after Lesley graduated from early advance-placement astronaut school. Lesley enlisted and quickly became a junior petty officer, on a career track to become a professional space pilot. Lelsey idolizes Yar and LaForge. Yar unconsciously stirs romantic feelings in Lesley.

Miles O'Brien = Yao Teng. Think Yao Ming, appearance-wise; a Chinese version of Miles. Yao is a career Starfleet NCO engineer-specialist. Picovsky ordered Yao to take over temporarily when the G's chief engineering officer was killed. He tolerates geeky ladder-climbing junior officers.

The 1st thing comes to mind is Are you kidding!!!

This is either spoof or premise for adult erotica / fan fic...

But, a pawn more reflective thought, their are some things I can take seriously and appreciate:

• I think a Flag officer would fit in quite appropriately for the flag ship of the Federation. So a + for a Commodore Picard. Though it "re-sets" the "assumed" notion that a Captain is in charge.
• Well, lets get real-yes Riker does have a sex addiction-I'm mean c'mon, how many babes does he realistically need to sleep with while still keeping Troi in reserve. So I don't think they would remain 'chums' through all of this. A "Freidnemies" relationship would be a natural out growth of HIS behavior.
• I always wanted Yar to stay in the pic, just if Denise Crosby didn't come off so pastie like a dry wall, i.e. bland. But Bi, hmmm...seems like a throw-out to the fan-geeks (of both genders) rather than a pitch tom equality & inclusiveness.
• Your description of LaForge, seems to want to merge him with Travis Mayweather, not that that is bad, but a wee bit suspect. However a like the inter-play you describe for Laforge & Yar, it reminds me of some such between Janeaway & Torres in "Parralax". Y'know the old we're girls and we rock by-line. Which can work.
• Aaah, the fateful return of the near mythical Leslie Crusher. As much as I like Will Wheaton, the character should of been a girl from the start..and stayed that. But Leslie having a 'crush' (I assume that is all it will amount to) to the bi-leaning Yar, are you really sure about that?
• Finally, O'Brien, of Asian decent? We know Prime Miles married Keiko, and while Conventional Wisdom says married couples eventually start resembling each other-but really?!?
• All else is good!

 

[Nerys Myk]

Well, lest we forget, the trend of "re-imagining" a major sci fi franchise with major changes to the character, setting and storyline was trailblazed by Ronald D. Moore. I wasn't talking about all the specifics of what Moore's GALALCTICA was about. Just some of the basic techniques of re-imagining, such as major character shifts and gender changes. I was articulating what re-imagined TNG characters might be like.

But how was JJA's Star Trek a Moorizing re-imaging?

 

[Wingsley]

In what I'm envisioning, there is no Keiko. At least not yet.

Keep in mind this is not Prime TNG just being picked apart. This is a re-imagining as different as Moore's GALACTICA was from the original GALACTICA.

One thing I puzzled by is if there would be a Guinan on board. The nature of civilian presence aboard the Enterprise-G should be very different than what we saw on TNG. I wonder how Guinan could fit in, if she could be there at all...

 

[Mr_Homn]

People are focusing too much on the wrong thing in this thread I think. Get past the fact that the OP used battlestar galactica as a comparison. OP is just trying to reimagine the characters in a different way, and it's fun.

IMO it's too much sex-centric, But i will concede that in today's television, that DOES seem to be a requirement to stay on the air. So while I might not agree with some of your ideas, I think TV producers would eat it right up.

Some of your ideas are very intriguing though. I especially would be interested in seeing your version of picard/picovsky

Picard always had an extremely formal demeanor about him, yet his command style was very relaxed. He would let respected officers break uniform code , he didn't seem to have any issues with inter crew relationships, he was much more a diplomat than a military man. So, seeing a more militarized picard would definitely be interesting. We got a glimpse of this in Yesterdays Enterprise I think, and I like what I saw. I also like the idea of switching Riker and Troi's gender. Male betazoids for some reason always interested me more than female ones, maybe because we saw so few of them besides devonani ral, who was a conniving yet entertaining bastard!

I always preferred Pulaski to Crusher, so definitely no argument there. And I think that pulaski would fit better in your reimagining. She wont take no crap from Commodore Picovsky! :P

One additional note: I think having the main character in the show be a Russian would be a cool throw back to the 60's Trek, where so much focus was obviously on the USSR/US political situation. I think it would be cool to have Chekov be one of his heroes or relatives, but perhaps that would be too fan servicey.

 

[CaptainJack]

I dont see what a "pawn" has to do with TNG. Or even a queen or a knight. Just plain old confusing. But UPON further refection I guess I can see the connection. But it has nothing to do with Chess.

 

[Desert Kris]

I've played this game a little bit, especially after the Star Trek (2009) movie came out. I didn't mess around with the characters as much, mainly focused on re-imagining the "origin" story for TNG.

I came up with the idea of Picard encountering Data in the remains of a destroyed colony, and shortly after the colony's attackers, the Borg, destroy the Stargazer.

With Data, there would be some question about a connection between him and the Borg, advanced cybernetics and AI as a recurring and connecting theme. If Lore is not included, put a little bit of Lore in Data, have him be a character with uncertainty in his background. Maybe have Dr Noonien Soogn be a trigger for dodgy behavior on occasion, because Data's creator is something of a question-mark, ethics-wise.

I just thought, a moment ago on a whim, have Q as a semi-regular, an exiled trickster-god stripped of his powers, who give always gives bad advice in the ship's bar. No one seems to smarten up about this, because sometimes the bad advice Q gives provides positive or ambiguous results, with mishaps or misunderstandings being the underlying reason for the appearance of "good" outcomes. Played for laughs, so the audience is always yelling at the TV screen "Don't do it! Don't listen to him!" while the characters wade in and complicate their lives.

I figure one of two things for Yar: Either killed off in the first episode, just to get it over with; or years of playing with audience expectation. She's always getting into situations of extreme jeodardy, and surviving by her own actions. The audience is left always wondering if/when the axe will finally fall.

I don't think I would include Wesley. But I was interested in the moments that pushed the dynamic between Beverly and Picard, and their history. In an "origin" story, it would be an ideal opportunity to straight up tackle the moment when he has to face Jack Crusher's wife and son, reporting his death to them after the Stargazer is destroyed. See it play out in a raw, unexpected way, maybe.

I like the idea of Picard as a Commodore. I think the gender swapping boarders on the point where you might as well just take every character who is male and make them female, and vice versa.

 

[Knight Templar]

This is a bad idea.

 

[Skellington]

I'm with, Sci. How exactly are the RDM Battlestar Galactica and the JJA Star Trek similar? Once you get past them being reboots, I see nothing. JJ didn't change the names or gender of any character. Nor has he made the Trek Universe a dark pessimistic place with barely likable characters making morally questionable decisions.

The 2009 movie, coming as soon as it did after the end of BSG, felt like a breath of fresh air. Tonally it couldn't have been further away, with a distinct air of optimism and adventure. Equally to the point, as well as preserving the show's basic ethos it also left the characters essentially intact. BSG had completely new characters whose similarity to the originals was limited to names and job descriptions.

If "Moore-izing" TNG means having the characters declaring technology to be the root of all evil and tossing the Enterprise into the sun (sans metaphasic shields) in the last episode I'm out.

The techman is really the only possible response to that. In some respects, BSG's storytelling was really the antithesis of everything Trek ever stood for. That decision would be unthinkable for anyone but the most deluded and deeply misanthropic of people.

Well, lest we forget, the trend of "re-imagining" a major sci fi franchise with major changes to the character, setting and storyline was trailblazed by Ronald D. Moore. I wasn't talking about all the specifics of what Moore's GALALCTICA was about. Just some of the basic techniques of re-imagining, such as major character shifts and gender changes. I was articulating what re-imagined TNG characters might be like.

I think reimagining or rebooting TNG might prove fundamentally more difficult than rebooting TOS. Gender changes notwithstanding, you have several very distinctive characters and performances where it seems that changing the actor would be tantamount to introducing a new character. For example, Patrick Stewart's stentorian delivery is part of what makes Picard Picard. Appearance in this case would be as good as irrelevant IMO, so the focus should probably be on casting an actor with presence.

Data could be a tough one. Our understanding of information and manufacturing technologies has changed on a fundamental level over the last 25 years, and I think that before too long it's going to become very implausible to show a far future where androids with roughly human-level mentality and superhuman-level physicality are only just becoming possible.

Worf and Troi might both have to go. Troi was a very 1980s creation and not only was Michael Dorn very distinctive as Worf but also that character's story has really been told. I don't see that there's much left to be said about him.

Riker? Generic character. Just recast.

I can see a Tasha Yar-type character being reworked in the wake of Katee Sackhoff's Starbuck, or at least the less objectionable elements of that character. She could easily be the crew's enfant terrible. Maybe have her develop a love/hate relationship with Riker and kill him off in season two.

 

[Herkimer Jitty]

• Your description of LaForge, seems to want to merge him with Travis Mayweather, not that that is bad, but a wee bit suspect.

Travis Mayweather had characterization?

Wow, ya learn somethin' new every day.

 

[Sci]

If "Moore-izing" TNG means having the characters declaring technology to be the root of all evil and tossing the Enterprise into the sun (sans metaphasic shields) in the last episode I'm out.

The techman is really the only possible response to that. In some respects, BSG's storytelling was really the antithesis of everything Trek ever stood for. That decision would be unthinkable for anyone but the most deluded and deeply misanthropic of people.

I think you're misconstruing the intent behind "Daylight." Moore's point in the BSG finale was not that technology is the root of all evil; his point was that the people of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol could not be trusted to wield advanced technology. His point was that the tools became more advanced than their hearts -- that their society itself had become so fundamentally corrupt that it needed to be finally, completely dissolved, and humanity needed to "start over" or "reboot."

Technology wasn't the enemy. Human culture was the enemy.

Meanwhile, Star Trek's essential premise is that human culture can evolve, can change, can become better than it is today. That we can become better people, people who are able to wield advanced technology more responsibly and more wisely, without resort to the corruption, aggression, and authoritarianism so common today (and in the world of Moore's BSG). Moore's BSG isn't opposed to that idea -- in fact, "Daylight" essentially depends on the assumption that, eventually, such an evolution of human culture is possible. But Moore's BSG does think the the Colonials' societies were to corrupt for such an evolution to occur -- hence the need to start over.

It's more cynical than Star Trek in its assertion that a human society can become so corrupt that it needs to be torn down completely and people can need to start over from scratch. But it's not a story that asserts that progress is impossible and no society can ever become better, either.

 

[JoeD80]

Moore had his chance when he worked on TNG the first time around!