The characters and universe post-TOS

[F. King Daniel]

Do you think the TOS characters and Trek universe were handled correctly in the movies and beyond? In TMP, a mere 2-1/2 years after TOS/TAS, Kirk had become an Admiral, Spock and McCoy had left Starfleet, Chekov became a security officer, the Enterprise had a new captain and was rebuilt and unrecognizable. In the next movie set about a decade later, Spock is commanding the Enterprise, now a cadet training vessel. By the end of STIV, everything's pretty much been reset to TOS, but with higher ranks.

Does anyone who thinks the movies were a mis-step have ideas about what should have happened post-TOS?

 

[BillJ]

My only regret is that we haven't really had any good stories set between the end of TOS and TMP. Pocket's offerings have always been lackluster.

 

[Galileo7]

In WOK Chekov was first officer of the Reliant and Spock was captain the refit Enterprise on a cadet training mission. As you stated the films always wanted to reset everyone back onto one ship namely the refit Enterprise with the exception of in TUC Sulu was captain of the Excelsior. I think it would have been more interesting if in WOK Chekov was the captain of the Reliant and in TSFS Sulu was already given the captain's chair of the Excelsior.

 

[T'Girl]

a mere 2-1/2 years after

The two and a half year figure is for Kirk's time as Chief of Starfleet Operations. The Enterprise rebuild was one and a half years. We know from the TNG episode Cause and Effect the year they were already wearing the maroon jacketed uniform coats. Captain Kelsey said it out loud.

Problem is in canon we don't exactly know when the TOS five year mission took place, which years. That part is loose conjecture.

Between the time the Enterprise returned to Earth and the events of TMP, up to a decade easily could have passed.

My personal preference is that after fairly brief refit, command of the Enterprise was turned over to Will Decker and he took her out again. Years and many missions later, Decker brought the Enterprise back to Earth (by this time Kirk is already CoSO) and the rebuild process began.

A year and a half after that, the events seen in the first movie.

 

[Robert D. Robot]

^ Interesting idea, T'Girl! I like that timeline, and it makes good sense to me.

 

[Galileo7]

a mere 2-1/2 years after

The two and a half year figure is for Kirk's time as Chief of Starfleet Operations. The Enterprise rebuild was one and a half years. We know from the TNG episode Cause and Effect the year they were already wearing the maroon jacketed uniform coats. Captain Kelsey said it out loud.

Problem is in canon we don't exactly know when the TOS five year mission took place, which years. That part is loose conjecture.

Between the time the Enterprise returned to Earth and the events of TMP, up to a decade easily could have passed.

My personal preference is that after fairly brief refit, command of the Enterprise was turned over to Will Decker and he took her out again. Years and many missions later, Decker brought the Enterprise back to Earth (by this time Kirk is already CoSO) and the rebuild process began.

A year and a half after that, the events seen in the first movie.

Star Trek Voyager episode "Q2" established that Kirk's five year mission actually ended in 2270.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

In TMP, I liked the idea of Decker in command, with a couple of new faces on the crew, whilst keeping a few legends onboard to see them through.

The later films, it just seems kinda nuts that they would still be serving together for thirty-odd years. Spock was a Captain in his own right, he should have had an Oberth-Class science ship, maybe taken Chekov along with him. Scotty should have transferred to the Excelsior, with him onboard then transwarp would have been a success. Sulu should have had a ship of his own by TWOK, maybe the Reliant, though he'd survive the encounter with Khan. Uhura could have made Captain, or at the very least XO. Leave Kirk on the Enterprise with Bones for company and a new crew of ambitious go-getters.

 

[Duncan MacLeod]

Alternately you could leave Kirk as an admiral commanding a squadron, with his old bridge crew as the commanders of the ships making up the squadron.

 

[Grant]

Alternately you could leave Kirk as an admiral commanding a squadron, with his old bridge crew as the commanders of the ships making up the squadron.

A squadron implies they are a straight up miltiary force and not exploritory vessels anymore.

That's just not Trek. A bunch of ships together in force wouldn't help dramatic storytelling.

Khan takes over a Starfleet vessel and encounters Kirk's squadron?

 

[jayrath]

For all of of its faults, TMP was the only movie during which I really felt we were in space.

 

[KeepOnTrekking]

Despite Gene Roddenberry saying that Shatner was the start of Star Trek, I always felt that Spock was the center of attention. TOS was more or less the 1st 5-year mission where Spock lives according to his Vulcan ideals and denying his human side.

I have no problems with STTMP. Spock encounters V'Ger ande recognizes finally the value of his human side.

I prefer believing that there was a 2nd 5-year mission after STTMP where Spock begins exploring the meaning of being human and all the discoveries he will make in the process. Kirk and McCoy would still be an important part of that. But the secondary characters could also step up and play more meaningful roles in Spock's education in the human nature.

Uhura would represent love. Not necessarily as a romantic interest for Spock like in ST2009 but as someone who would mentor Spock in learning to appreciate people a step further than appreciating their diversity in accordance with IDIC.

Chapel would represent the idea of hope. In the novel Vulcan! by Kathleen Sky, Dr. Tremain agreed to help Spock develop his imagination that was stunted by his logical reasoning ways. Although I didn't care for the character of Tremain and her bigotry I did like that idea of helping Spock in developing his imagination and saw that as an ideal job for Chapel instead.

I never cared for the backstory of Saavik as an orphan on Hellgaard. Personally, I liked the idea of her being the daughter of Spock and the Romulan Commander from "Enterprise Incident." The way the Commander spun around in her chair when Kirk and Spock first met her is remarkably similar to how we are introduced to Saavik in STII as she spins around in the Captain's chair. Like mother, like daughter maybe in habits? Kirstie Alley said that she always practiced being like Spock and wanting to play his daughter but playing Saavik was the next best thing. Maybe closer than she thought? I like that idea.

Although Spock accepted the value of his emotions in STTMP, I still see him as leaning towards the humanistic or atheist end. McCoy, on the other hand, seemed to drop an occasional reference in his speech that might hint at a religious side. This could be a whole new battleground for Spock and McCoy to explore graduating from logic vs. emotion to humanism vs. religion. Spock died in ST II and came back to life. We see McCoy toying with him in ST IV about "life, death, and things of that nature." I'm not saying that Spock would accept Christianity or a religious point of view but I believe he would be curious enough intellectually to explore any possibility of its value before either accepting or rejecting. Lots of story line potential there as a running character arc for a 2nd 5-year mission after STTMP and leading up to ST II.

I'm not expecting everyone to agree with my views. Just sharing my personal take or reboot of the TOS universe.

 

[Drago-Kazov]

Alternately you could leave Kirk as an admiral commanding a squadron, with his old bridge crew as the commanders of the ships making up the squadron.

A squadron implies they are a straight up miltiary force and not exploritory vessels anymore.

That's just not Trek. A bunch of ships together in force wouldn't help dramatic storytelling.

Khan takes over a Starfleet vessel and encounters Kirk's squadron?

Did Starfleet became a straight military force during the Dominion War?

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

Starfleet is the military of the Federation, however they aren't a military as we know it. Their focus is much wider and has a far greater remit than conventional ones, however during conflict the focus would shift from exploration and peacekeeping missions to combat operations.

To that end I have no problem with terms like 'squadron' or 'wing' being used to describe a collection of ships smaller than a fleet.

 

[Drago-Kazov]

They could make temporary adjustment then change everything back.

 

[sbk1234]

a mere 2-1/2 years after

The two and a half year figure is for Kirk's time as Chief of Starfleet Operations. The Enterprise rebuild was one and a half years. We know from the TNG episode Cause and Effect the year they were already wearing the maroon jacketed uniform coats. Captain Kelsey said it out loud.

Problem is in canon we don't exactly know when the TOS five year mission took place, which years. That part is loose conjecture.

Between the time the Enterprise returned to Earth and the events of TMP, up to a decade easily could have passed.

My personal preference is that after fairly brief refit, command of the Enterprise was turned over to Will Decker and he took her out again. Years and many missions later, Decker brought the Enterprise back to Earth (by this time Kirk is already CoSO) and the rebuild process began.

A year and a half after that, the events seen in the first movie.

I like that, too. I agree that it seems a bit contrived that the core group stayed together all those years in the same jobs.
I always figured that McCoy, Uhura, and Sulu were all on Kirk's staff as an admiral, which would explain why they were there in TWOK. Yes, they were still together, but at least they'd be doing different jobs.

 

[J.T.B.]

Alternately you could leave Kirk as an admiral commanding a squadron, with his old bridge crew as the commanders of the ships making up the squadron.

A squadron implies they are a straight up miltiary force and not exploritory vessels anymore.

Regardless of what it implies, it was established in "The Ultimate Computer".

That's just not Trek. A bunch of ships together in force wouldn't help dramatic storytelling.

TNG and DS9 did it fairly dramatically.

Justin

 

[T'Girl]

Enterprise was turned over to Will Decker

I like that, too. I agree that it seems a bit contrived that the core group stayed together all those years in the same jobs

Not everyone would have needed to be aboard the ship the whole time, Chapel left to become a MD, and then came back. There is conjecture that Chekov left to attend a security school, then returned.

Rand disappeared during TOS itself, returning as a transporter tech, wasn't aboard the ship during TWoK, later she was aboard the Excelsior. Uhura could have been posted to another ship for years. Scotty was there for the year and a half rebuild, but the in-between time?

Both Spock and McCoy left Starfleet altogether. Spock return because of V'ger (and would have joined Decker's crew for the mission). McCoy was pulled back in by Kirk.

I think that originally Sulu was Decker's first officer, either that or Kirk sent that individual into the bowels of the ship, or left them on Earth. Either way someone there got screwed.

How many really stayed with the ship after TMP?

Kirk was off the ship again , and maybe McCoy with him. He (and McCoy?) were aboard for the inspection cruise.

Chekov left again at some point to become the first officer of the Reliant, he wasn't officially reassigned to the Enteprise until the end of TVH.

Sulu, from his own comments, wasn't a part of the Enterprise's regular company during TWoK, he was there temporarily. He rejoined the ship at the end of TVH, and for TFF. He then became Captain of the Excelsior.

Transporter Chief Kyle never returned to the Enterprise after TOS. We saw him briefly (iirc) aboard the Reliant, hopefully he wasn't killed.

Chapel left the ship (after TWoK?) to be next seen working at Starfleet HQ.

So, the core group doesn't seem to have been continuously assigned to the ship.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

My personal preference is that after fairly brief refit, command of the Enterprise was turned over to Will Decker and he took her out again. Years and many missions later, Decker brought the Enterprise back to Earth (by this time Kirk is already CoSO) and the rebuild process began.

Except Scotty believed that Decker was untried, which wouldn't be the case if he had already commanded the ship for a lengthy period of time unless it was a very boring mission where nothing really happened.

 

[BillJ]

My personal preference is that after fairly brief refit, command of the Enterprise was turned over to Will Decker and he took her out again. Years and many missions later, Decker brought the Enterprise back to Earth (by this time Kirk is already CoSO) and the rebuild process began.

Except Scotty believed that Decker was untried, which wouldn't be the case if he had already commanded the ship for a lengthy period of time unless it was a very boring mission where nothing really happened.

This.

I think as much as seven or eight years could've passed between the series and TMP. McCoy may have retired but Kirk and Spock could've went onto other duties within Starfleet. Kirk serving as a Starbase commander and Spock and Scott doing work with Starfleet R&D on all the technological discoveries found during the Enterprise's five-year mission. That work may have lead to the Enterprise we see in TMP. Sulu likely served on another vessel as second officer, Chekov went back to school then served on smaller craft for a time and Uhura worked with Starfleet Intelligence.

The Enterprise was likely handed to another crew after the end of the series and the beginning of her refit prior to TMP. Heck, you could almost fit a second five-year mission in there.

 

[T'Girl]

but Kirk and Spock could've went onto other duties within Starfleet

Spock left Starfleet at some point previous to the movie, McCoy said " ... apparently for good."

Roddenberry's novel said Spock was on Vulcan for 2.8 seasons (however long that is) and that he left basically immediately after the Enterprise returned to Earth after the five year mission. So, Spock either resigned his commission, or he went into the reserves.