Trek’s biggest missed opportunities

I would have liked to have seen a Trek/Wars crossover….pre Empire, post TWOK (impossible, I know). Kirk sees Luke as very like David….and David sees Kirk as a surrogate father in return. We see Enterprise broken up at Mon Cal shipyards…explaining their almost Starfleet looks. McCoy goes off on on how brutal light sabers are….Spock’s Katra now with Obi wan. Vader, not Soran kills Kirk…and Luke resolve is strengthened.

No real ship battles so as to avoid arguments.

 

I remember reading somewhere that the original idea for Enterprise was having the ship still in spacedock for almost the entire first season. Focusing a lot on worldbuilding and setup. That could have been really interesting. And although B&B are to be blamed for a lot, they actually were planning on making the Enterprise a lot more low-tech, but the studio-execs forced things like the transporter and phasepistols on to them because they felt it wouldn't be Star Trek without it and people wouldn't recognize the show.

Voyager really need to be battered and broken all the time. Much more internal conflict between Starfleet and Maquis crew. It should have taken much more time for them to fully integrate.
Basics could have been the crew stranded on the planet for months and months, maybe a 10 episode arc. When the crew finally gets the ship back, it's barely working properly because the Kazon had no idea how to maintain the more advanced tech. The crew however would finally be more integrated and become something not quite Starfleet and not quite Maquis.

DS9 should have focused on exploring the Gamma Quadrant a lot more.

 

The studios be like...

VOY: 2 crews! Conflict!
STUDIO: No, we want more TNG

ENT: Prequel! Before phasers and transporters! Season one set on Earth!
STUDIO: No, we want more TNG. Can we have hot current boy bands playing in the bar every week?

What I really don't get is why they allowed such different premises in the first place if they were gonna insist on more TNG.

 

Welcome to the Star Trek message boards, where we argue back and forth about the minutia of plots and devices of fictional television shows, but get upset when someone corrects your spelling of an actual historical word.
I don't think it was "dull pedantry" to get the name of France's brave freedom fighters correct. I have great respect for those people.

 

The very idea makes me cringe but you know what? That’s what novels and comics are for. If we can have an X-Men crossover, by god, we can have this.

 

In the case of Enterprise, my understanding is Berman refused to budge on the 22nd century setting. The studio did try talking him into the 25th century, but settled on 22nd century only after they had him agree on the conditions of Temporal Cold War and Future Guy.

 

Aw man, we could have had a 25th century show instead of that gawdawful prequel crap???

 

I don't think there was any possible chance of that happening. When Berman was meeting with executives to pitch Enterprise, one of them asked "what about doing it in the 25th century instead?" Berman replied "what is the 25th century? Tighter spandex and smaller tricorders?" and that was the end of that discussion.

 

... and the right thing to do

 

Disagree. Prequels are never the right thing to do.

Besides, the 22nd century ended up being a slight redress of the 24th century anyway, so the same could have been true about a show set in the early 25th century.

 

Not a fan of Breaking Bad or any spinoffs that might exist.

 

Fixed that for you.

 

And if you show me that supposed "amazing" prequel show, I might reconsider my opinion. Didn't know they made one besides ENT

 

:P

It's cool to disagree. I loved ENT. But also understand why fans who find a particular thing appealing in Trek might not got it from that show. Or any other Star Trek show for that matter. That's what's so awesome about this franchise. There's something for everyone to enjoy.

 

Agreed, that is why I don't generally go to the ENT forum, for example, just to post how much I dislike the show (I consider that forum to be the home ground of the ENT fans, and in the unusal situation where I'd find myself there I try to behave like I would as a guest in someone's home), but here in General Trek I think it's fair game to voice such opinions.

And to be fair, my biggest problem with ENT is Archer (I'm sure you have heard all the complaints about him, so I won't repeat them now) If Archer had been a completely different character and they hadn't had that whole "temporal cold war" and they hadn't felt the need to shoehorn Klingons and Ferengi and Borg into the prequel I would likely have a more positive opinion on it.

 

I could have lived with three Star Trek shows on at the same time. TNG, DS9 and VOY? That would have forced them to hire new writers, and maybe, just maybe, all the shows would have benefitted from it.

And if the studio is demanding more TNG, well, just give it to them, and bring in someone else to make it while B&B do VOY. It's not that hard.

 

A silly true story, just for you:

about 10 years ago, I went to a Paul & Storm concert — nerdy comedy show. And they sang a song about pirates. There was a call and response portion where they’d ask a question and the audience would respond to the question with an “Aaaargh!’ in the answer. One of those questions was “now tell me your favorite Star Trek captain!” And the room fills with a chorus of “Picaaaaarghd!” Except for one lonely voice, stage right, who pitifully sang out “Aaaaaaarghcher!”

I felt bad, but I appreciated the man’s courage.

 

Some things I wish they would have done early on in the life of the franchise:

1. Embraced Forbidden Planet as the canonical past of Star Trek.
2. Embraced “The Slaver Weapon” as an important piece of canon rather than a quirky crossover (bringing back Larry Niven to keep developing Kzinti and other elements from his fiction).
   
3. Embraced Franz Joseph’s Star Fleet Technical Manual as an important pillar of the franchise rather than reject it.
4. Embraced John M. Ford’s The Final Reflection as the fully foundational and canon development of the Klingons.*
   
5. Not gotten into doing movies in 1979, but instead been able to do a live-action series, or multiple series (perhaps FJ’s anthology concept), keeping the points #1-4 in consideration, and keeping the “TOS era” (aesthetics and assumptions) alive longer.

If only the prime consideration had been, “how can we curate the most beautiful possible vision for the future,” it would have been glorious!

* - I realize TFR as such would not have happened if not for TMP, but in a timeline of what ifs, anything is possible.