I would not call any incarnation of Star Trek "subtle".
A new Star Trek series should... [forum game]
- Thread starter RocksW
- Start date
This is basically what I want. Though I would probably avoid cameos, mostly. Maybe bring back a minor character once in a while. (Speaking of Lost, can Terry O'Quinn's character from The Pegasus come back???
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Well, no...like I said, actual space exploration has never been the chief topic of Star Trek, and the way it's been handled, that's all for the best.
TOS - Mostly not about space exploration at all, especially if you look at just the good episodes.
TNG - Dropped TOS' space cop story type in favor of annoying space moralizing. (Honestly, I'm not a TNG expert, just not my thing.)
DS9 - Very little actual exploration and what there is, is dull. Mostly about war and diplomacy, and did that very well. However that is not all there is to Star Trek by a long shot.
VOY - If the characters were truly interested in exploring space, why were they so eager to get home? VOY was downright anti-exploration. They had a beautiful opportunity to explore regions that Starfleet otherwise could not have reached (except with generational ships), as long as they were willing to simply forget their lives back home. That was the acid test whether they were willing to give everything to exploration (and some people are willing - why doesn't Starfleet send those people to the DQ on generational ships?)
ENT - Two seasons of pointless space tourism, aka "exploration," followed by one season trying and failing to ape DS9's serialized space war format, followed by a reasonably decent season of fanwanky stories, focused mainly on fleshing out existing Trek lore and not much on exploration at all.
There have been some isolated instances of good episodes dealing squarely with space exploration, discovering new cultures and that sort of thing. Darmok stands out in this regard. The writer put serious effort into devising a new and fresh idea for an alien species, and exploring the ramifications. But the rarity of this type of story just underscores how hard it is to do vs just doing yet another crew-taken-over-by-alien-parasites story or whatever.
The next Star Trek series doesn't need to do anything new. The roadmap TOS laid out - with space cop/soldier/diplomat stories plus personal stores and the occasional crew-taken-over-by-alien-parasites type episode - has been far from exhausted. The subsequent series either focused on only part of the equation or ignored it altogether. The key is putting all those story types into one series, to give it a feeling of breadth, and avoid repeating the same tropes every damn week.
Now, see, I disagree that basing the series around exploration is "limiting" or "tired" precisely because it is so broad a concept. In fact, it is so broad that they can do basically anything with it in terms of story arcs and such. I'm not suggesting that a new series be an episodic one-planet-a-week affair by any means -- I'm suggesting that exploration be the basic foundation of the thing, upon which everything else is built.
Again, there's the Stargate SG-1 comparison. That show had plenty of story arcs and recurring plots: the long-term fight against the Goa'uld, followed by the fight against the Ori, then there was the Replicators, the Asgard and their efforts to save their species, the Free Jaffa and Bra'tac and Rya'c, the history of the Stargate and the Ancients and Ascension, the Tok'ra, the Aschen, the Reetou... but day-to-day, what the SG teams did was go through the Stargate and explore strange new worlds.
Again, there's the Stargate SG-1 comparison. That show had plenty of story arcs and recurring plots: the long-term fight against the Goa'uld, followed by the fight against the Ori, then there was the Replicators, the Asgard and their efforts to save their species, the Free Jaffa and Bra'tac and Rya'c, the history of the Stargate and the Ancients and Ascension, the Tok'ra, the Aschen, the Reetou... but day-to-day, what the SG teams did was go through the Stargate and explore strange new worlds.
Sure, for instance, you could have an ongoing story arc where they explore planets within a certain sector of space, who all know each other and have "issues" with each other. To the crew and to us, it's all new, but there's enough complication and backstory that it could be the basis of strong drama. The main thing is that they should just bop from one interchangeable planet with interchangeable funny forehead aliens to another, like has been done in the past.
But why not make the action central to some mission Starfleet has assigned them to? That's also open-ended enough that anything is possible, but they're always an overriding purpose to ground the story back into something that seems "important." The mission could be completed in one episode, or in ten, or anything in between, which would allow for a nice variety in story structure.
Stargate SG-1 is a good example of what I don't want to see in a Star Trek series. Stargate was never very good, just a bunch of warmed-over Star Trek tropes. They bopped from one interchangeable villain to the next, raising a few cool ideas, but never really exploring them fully. It got by on having some charismatic actors, but I have much higher hopes from Star Trek than being a pale imitation of a pale imitation.
It should be noted that the Stargate Program's mandate for exploration was not "to seek out new life, to boldly go" but rather, "to find new technologies and new means to further the security of the planet."
So, yeah. The whole "exploration" thing wasn't because they were Peaceful Explorers. They said that a lot (particularly Daniel), but often at times when it could be slightly... contradictory. Basically, in the early years of the show, our heroes aren't pioneers... they're space vultures.
SG-1 had an interesting premise...because humans had used the Stargate, they had alerted the Goa'uld to their presence and made it imperative that humans seek out the means to defend themselves. The Stargates were both disease and cure.
A new Star Trek series should:
Be an allegory of our time. It should tackle current problems, dilemmas and challenges in our society and world on "strange, new worlds". It should bring back a new excitement of exploration and adventure. And Go-Go boots.
I would like to see:
A series set in the 25th Century. The Enterprise should be a generational ship, very large to accommodate thousands, with a multiple-mission of exploration and colonization. It should have Starfleet, Federation Diplomatic and civilian leadership. The bridge should be a multi-level command center and much less militaristic.
Be an allegory of our time. It should tackle current problems, dilemmas and challenges in our society and world on "strange, new worlds". It should bring back a new excitement of exploration and adventure. And Go-Go boots.
I would like to see:
A series set in the 25th Century. The Enterprise should be a generational ship, very large to accommodate thousands, with a multiple-mission of exploration and colonization. It should have Starfleet, Federation Diplomatic and civilian leadership. The bridge should be a multi-level command center and much less militaristic.
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