What Setting Would You Like For The Next Series?

[SeerSGB]

I don't own any Star Trek DVDs, unfortunately. Money and I are only briefly friends before it goes to feeding the family. Are you saying that DVD covers are canon now, too? Did the timeline split after Star Trek IV? After "Tomorrow Is Yesterday"? After "Yesterday's Enterprise"? After "Assignment: Earth" or "All Good Things..." or "Past Tense" or "Year of Hell" or "Future's End" or the Temporal Cold War in Enterprise? These are all relevant futures, right, because Abrams Universe exists and didn't change anything. It just threw out everything we knew about time and history in a Trek future. So Picard and Riker are having this conversation in an episode of TNG (or a movie) about something that happened 80 years ago, and instead of Riker saying "that was the mission where James Kirk was killed", he says "that was the mission where James T. Kirk negated our existance..." umm... wait... what?

Actually, yes they did cause a split. TNG, Paraelles proves out there is a near infinite number of realities created and running along side the "Prime" timeline. Created by events big and small, all outcomes that are possible do happen. The crew, any crew, is only aware of the events along their perceived temporal reality.

I just used Yesterday's Enterprise in another thread but here we go again:

The divergent timeline has to exist in order for their to be an Alt-Tasha to go back in time and cross the timelines to be captured at Neranda III and then give birth to Sela. Anytime there is something that cross from one alt-timeline to the other, that originating timeline of that person/item has to exist in order for that person or item to exist to make the crossover.

 

[David.Blue]

Time travel causes headaches. And not just because of the grammar. Here's the way I look at it:

Picard A commands the Enterprise-D in the timeline where Tasha Yar A is killed by the living tar pool. When the Enterprise-C goes through the time rift, reality shifts and it is Picard B who encounters them. Tasha B goes back in time, which in turn creates Picard C--native to a universe all-but-identical to that of Picard A.

Picard A still exists in his own timeline, one where Commander Sela never existed (although someone else might well have played her "role" in history).

Aside from all this is Picard D, whose timeline of the Federation at war with the Klingons but into whose timeline the Enterprise C never emerged.

There's also a Picard E, almost identical to Picard D save for some reason the Enterprise C didn't make it back into the past to change history.

All of these exist, but in their own timelines. TNG followed the adventures of Picard A and then those of Picard C.

 

[SolitaryJustice]

So what you're saying is that you could be David.Blue J and I may be SolitaryJustice F... by that logic, you could be David.Blue FJSPRMFQ and I could be SolitaryJustice RQRPFNQWLF, because in the course of my life, there have been more than 26 moments where a choice had to be made, and each one of those choices creates a different reality. Wait until the Whovians hear this!

 

[David.Blue]

In a nutshell, yes. The theory of infinitely branching timelines based upon every possible outcome would necessitate it. That is the essence of Hugh Everett's idea...

Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives

 

[SolitaryJustice]

What if a new Trek series explored that? Traveled through space & time. Too blatant of a Doctor Who ripoff? Even with characters like Q and Guinan? You ever wonder if Guinan was really a Time Lord?

 

[David.Blue]

Personally, I find that rather complicated and difficult to make work. JHMO

 

[SolitaryJustice]

Difficult, but not impossible. I mean, Russell T. Davies did it superbly.

 

[Grendelsbayne]

If going back in time and changing the past has no influence on the present, but only 'creates an alternate timeline', why did the Borg incursion successfully assimilate Earth in FC?

The Mirror Universe and the alternate universes in 'Parallels' were the result of different events occuring naturally. They were not caused by someone going back in time to change the past, so exactly how are they relevant to Nero's incursion?

 

[Grendelsbayne]

But getting back to the actual topic of the thread, I would like to see a show that focuses around a starbase/trading post in some frontier region of space, but, instead of following specifically the starbase and its crew, follow lots of different ships as they pass through the area.

Show stories on a local freighter, an alien diplomatic vessel, a deep space survey ship heading out to wherever, and then later coming back to the starbase. Any kind of ship and mission you can think of. And then every once in a while, you can show several of the main character crews meeting up (or not meeting up) on the starbase itself.

 

[SeerSGB]

But getting back to the actual topic of the thread, I would like to see a show that focuses around a starbase/trading post in some frontier region of space, but, instead of following specifically the starbase and its crew, follow lots of different ships as they pass through the area.

Show stories on a local freighter, an alien diplomatic vessel, a deep space survey ship heading out to wherever, and then later coming back to the starbase. Any kind of ship and mission you can think of. And then every once in a while, you can show several of the main character crews meeting up (or not meeting up) on the starbase itself.

But why would it be Star Trek? That the thing, why brand with the Star Trek brand beyond cash cowing.

 

[Grendelsbayne]

But getting back to the actual topic of the thread, I would like to see a show that focuses around a starbase/trading post in some frontier region of space, but, instead of following specifically the starbase and its crew, follow lots of different ships as they pass through the area.

Show stories on a local freighter, an alien diplomatic vessel, a deep space survey ship heading out to wherever, and then later coming back to the starbase. Any kind of ship and mission you can think of. And then every once in a while, you can show several of the main character crews meeting up (or not meeting up) on the starbase itself.

But why would it be Star Trek? That the thing, why brand with the Star Trek brand beyond cash cowing.

What isn't Star Trek about it? You can show all the exploration, science fiction storylines, Starfleet and the Federation, Colonists, Merchants, Diplomats, Aliens and anything else you think can hold up its own episode(s).

All of these things have been featured on every ST show we've already had, the only thing different about this is that you're showing a little more variety of settings and characters - which, as long as the writers are good, will still not stand in the way of creating characters that people really like and enjoy watching.

The only way it's not Star Trek, imo, is if your definition of ST demands that everything must automatically revolve around 1 starship - a definition none of the existing series actually meets.

 

[BillJ]

The only way it's not Star Trek, imo, is if your definition of ST demands that everything must automatically revolve around 1 starship - a definition none of the existing series actually meets.

 

[anh165]

What isn't Star Trek about it? You can show all the exploration, science fiction storylines, Starfleet and the Federation, Colonists, Merchants, Diplomats, Aliens and anything else you think can hold up its own episode(s).

No, what you suggest would be better utilised as a completely different sci fi work of fiction, why does it have to have the Star Trek labelling?

The appeal of classic Trek especially for the casual viewer is that it engages viewers with its space based adventure, no one really wants to see fictional colonists, merchants and diplomats talking about baseball between negotiating peace treaties of fictional planets, that just reeks of self indulgence. Very much what Berman era Trek is guilty of.

 

[BillJ]

The appeal of classic Trek especially for the casual viewer is that it engages viewers with its space based adventure, no one really wants to see fictional colonists, merchants and diplomats talking about baseball between negotiating peace treaties of fictional planets, that just reeks of self indulgence. Very much what Berman era Trek is guilty of.

Too find a way to make Trek even duller than it was during much of the Berman era would take an especially talented individual.

 

[Grendelsbayne]

No, what you suggest would be better utilised as a completely different sci fi work of fiction, why does it have to have the Star Trek labelling?

Why does any bit of Star Trek *have* to be Star Trek? It doesn't, obviously, so I don't know what the point is of even asking that question. The central question of this thread is what we would like to see for the next ST series, and, out of all the potential new ST series I can think of, this idea is very high on the list of ones I would really like to see.

The appeal of classic Trek especially for the casual viewer is that it engages viewers with its space based adventure, no one really wants to see fictional colonists, merchants and diplomats talking about baseball between negotiating peace treaties of fictional planets, that just reeks of self indulgence. Very much what Berman era Trek is guilty of.

The point of any story is to focus on the parts of it that are actually interesting, which would fairly obviously not be centered on diplomats discussing baseball in between making treaties. There are all kinds of actually interesting (short and long term) stories that could be made about Federation diplomats or merchants or colonists or anything (and non-fed, as well), even within their own specialties - which does not mean you automatically must always contain the story within their specialties just because. You seriously think alien attacks or weird spacial phenomena only ever happen to massive top of the line starships?

Spaced based adventure is not automatically reserved for ships that say 'USS' in their name.

Also, the biggest advantage of this kind of format would be the ability to switch back and forth between different kinds of characters and settings, so those people who just positively hate merchants for whatever weird reason can still tune in to the other episodes which don't center on the merchants.

 

[BillJ]

Why does any bit of Star Trek *have* to be Star Trek?

It's just odd that most of the people who claim to want Star Trek back don't really want it to be 'Star Trek'.

 

[bbjeg]

^Maybe they want the history, not the story style.

 

[BillJ]

^Maybe they want the history, not the story style.

I'd rather have a brand new universe, one where a creator can explore their own vision. Not something shoe-horned into the Trek universe.

 

[SeerSGB]

^Maybe they want the history, not the story style.

So--to be blunt, and a bit of an asshole--creative laziness? Someone else has done all the heavy lifting (world building, franchise market, etc), so just rubber stamp any sci-fi idea with Trek and sell it to the masses?

 

[Grendelsbayne]

Why does any bit of Star Trek *have* to be Star Trek?

It's just odd that most of the people who claim to want Star Trek back don't really want it to be 'Star Trek'.

I find it odd that anyone would want a new Star Trek series to simply redo exactly what's already been done. If that's what you want, how do you want anything 'new'? Isn't it better to watch the dvds of the shows you already know you like and leave it at that, instead of hoping for something else that is as likely as not to end up disappointing you (for whatever reason)?