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Direct To DVD Movie Idea

It's the early 25th Century. A Klingon Negh'Var cruiser goes missing on a mission into unexplored territory in the Alpha Quadrant beyond Cardassian space. A Federation ship, the USS Excelsior NCC 2000-D Intrepid Class is sent to investigate. They come across the wreckage of the ship with all hands lost and recover the black box to find out what happened.
It becomes clear that the Klingons encoutered an unkown alien vessel, when the vessel refused to respond to hails the Klingons decided to open fire. They started a battle they could not win, a single torpedoe from the unknown vessel was enough to penetrate the shields of the Negh'Var and destroy the ship. Sensor readings of the unkown ship and weapons is sent back to Starfleet.

On Earth Seven of Nine now calling herself by her real Human name Annika Hansen is in charge of a new Starfleet department which deals with new possible technologies. Upon receiving the data she becomes shocked.
She calls for a meeting with her superiors to tell them what she knows.

She explains that she's encountered this species before when she was a drone in the collective, they are the only species the Borg have encountered that they were unable to adapt to. She does not know their name but their Borg designation is species 666.
The Torpedo the unknown vessel used is so unique and powerful that an entire fleet of 12 Borg ships were annihilated within seconds during a major attack on them when she was in the collective, from the sensor readings she determines the Neutrophasic Torpedos have been improved.
Each torpedoe is made of a metal alloy capable of penetrating even Duranium hulls, the front of the Torpedoe utilises an interphasic projector able to penetrate all known shielding. Upon impact the Torpedoes create a subspace implosion which creates a massive gravity well at the location of impact sucking in all surrounding matter with the strength of a Neutron star. The effect lasts for only a second but the destructive force of the Torpedoes are enough to rip apart a Borg Tactical cube.

Starfleet asksAnnika to see if she can develop a defence against the torpedoes if the species proves hostile but she explains there is no known defence against them.

Aswell as advanced torpedoes species 666 utilises multicellular shielding, transwarp drive and subatomic disrupters.

The Excelsior is told to fall back to Federation space and the USS Sisko a new type of Promethus class ship is sent to investigate the new species in hopes to maybe make first contact. The Sisko is equipped with all the latest technology including Borg modified sensors, Stealth technology, , holographic countermeasures, deployable armour, Transphasic torpedoes and Quantum Slipstream drive.
The Sisko leaves the shipyard orbiting Earth and enters slipstream for the last known location of the unknown ship.

Upon arrival the Borg sensors pick up a transwarp signature leading deeper into uknown space. They enter Slipstream in pursuit.

To cut a very long story short ;):p. This new species prefers to remain unseen and are extremely xenophobic but later in the film turns out to not be humanoid. They are an arachnid race, they breed and increase in numbers extremely fast and need more breathing room if they are to survive. They've established a foothold just beyond Cardassian space where they have begun terraforming multiple worlds and moons in a star system and even wiped out an entire civilisation in that system.
Using their stealth technology they make their way to the new Arachind colony and beam down to try and obtain information on the arachnid species.
An awesome planetary battle against swarms of Arachinds takes place and many of the away team get ripped to pieces but one of the away team survives and beams back up with information.
A space battle ensues and the deployable hull armour proves effective long enough to escape via slipstream. With the hull armour now irrepairably damaged they are left defenceless against a powerful ruthless new enemy.

They send Starfleet the information and Starfleet orders them to return to Federation space but Section 31 operatives onboard the ship have other ideas. They activate a takeover program which effectively seizes control of the ship. All ships personnel are trapped with forcefields except the section 31 operatives. Section 31 sets a course back to the Arachind planet and arms the torpedo tube with a Trilithium Torpedo in an attempt to destroy the star in that system and wipe out the arachnids.

The crew manage to regain control and try to stop the torpedo but are too late. The star explodes and the star system is wiped out.

The ship returns to Earth but when they go to the brig to turn in the operatives they are nowhere to be seen.
A priority one message is received at Starfleet command from Deep Space Nine. A Cardassian colony has been conquered by an unknown alien race, a message was sent just prior to the attack. The message is was an unkown language that has proved difficult to translate.

An invasion has begone.

END OF FILM ONE.
 
Forget direct to DVD. Paramount didn't spend hundreds of millions of dollars to revive Star Trek as a premium brand just to turn around and trash it with a format that's associated with Asylum crap movies. And it doesn't matter what your idea is. If it isn't "Abramsverse, 23rd C, Starfleet-centric, going boldly," it's got zero point zero chance of happening.

The range of things that can happen with Star Trek on TV is extremely narrow right now because it has been defined and constrained by the success of Trek XI. The content is the most narrow of all. It's what I just described. Once a successful series has been made from that, then they can start doing the Fall of the Federation or a Romulan-centric series or all the other ideas people come up with. First things first.

The placement of the series is more open to question. What won't happen: direct-to-DVD or other cheesy low-rent formats (download only, Internet only); HBO or Showtime (they would turn their noses up at Star Trek; does not fit their brand strategy); or airing on CBS even though it owns the rights (wrong demographic audience plus high standards for ratings success spells guaranteed disaster even if the Star Trek series in question was the best one imaginable).

Possibilities include NBC or Fox; ABC is less likely but possible; or basic cable - AMC, TNT, FX or (shudder) Skiffy.
 
From what I've read in the past months and seen direct-to-DVD films and know of the Trek franchise i agree with the above poster mostly.
The poll thread of what channel Trek should be on goes into this.
Direct to DVD market is lower quality stuff and has a limited audience.
i would suggest taking your story ideas to the Fan films and fan literature subforums as the story ideas are valid but the wrong medium.
 
Forget direct to DVD. Paramount didn't spend hundreds of millions of dollars to revive Star Trek as a premium brand just to turn around and trash it with a format that's associated with Asylum crap movies. And it doesn't matter what your idea is. If it isn't "Abramsverse, 23rd C, Starfleet-centric, going boldly," it's got zero point zero chance of happening.
Possibilities include NBC or Fox; ABC is less likely but possible; or basic cable - AMC, TNT, FX or (shudder) Skiffy.

What matters at the end of the day is the money coming in. If Trek is successful either has Direct to DVD or in the cinemas. I don't think they would mind.

I don't know why your against Basic cable I have no idea what that compared to what we have in the UK. But I do know that some of my favourite shows are on Cable channels like Syfy. The ratings that ENT got was more then enough to make it succesful on Syfy. Why not tool a series for it. If heavens forbid that the show is very successful maybe NBC might steal it for their main channel... NBC.
 
Hi there, I Am Legend. You're not the first to propose such an idea. ;)

I sincerely hope you're not the last either...

I found the 4 years after Enterprise's cancellation very long... and even if I somehow learn to care about the Abramsverse, waiting until 2012 or beyond to see if that has improved, is going to be equally tedious frankly.
 
Forget direct to DVD. Paramount didn't spend hundreds of millions of dollars to revive Star Trek as a premium brand just to turn around and trash it with a format that's associated with Asylum crap movies. And it doesn't matter what your idea is. If it isn't "Abramsverse, 23rd C, Starfleet-centric, going boldly," it's got zero point zero chance of happening.
Possibilities include NBC or Fox; ABC is less likely but possible; or basic cable - AMC, TNT, FX or (shudder) Skiffy.
What matters at the end of the day is the money coming in. If Trek is successful either has Direct to DVD or in the cinemas. I don't think they would mind.

I don't know why your against Basic cable I have no idea what that compared to what we have in the UK. But I do know that some of my favourite shows are on Cable channels like Syfy. The ratings that ENT got was more then enough to make it succesful on Syfy. Why not tool a series for it. If heavens forbid that the show is very successful maybe NBC might steal it for their main channel... NBC.

US productions have a very clear order of perceived market place value/reception. The order is roughly theatrical movie, broadcast network tv, cable tv, direct to dvd.

In general once a property drops down a level it never returns. If Paramount were to release a direct to dvd Star Trek it would lower the brand value in the eyes of most consumers. It would hurt marketing a future theatrical movie regardless of the DVD sales. That's why Paramount won't release a direct to dvd movie even if they could make money on the movie.

It's a similar issue to cable tv. Once a show goes to cable it's not going to return to a broadcast. Also, cable shows in the US generally expect lower ratings and budget accordingly. USA has begun to beat some broadcast shows, but in general any cable show no matter the quality/popularity will have lower ratings and a lower budget than a show on a broadcast network.
 
In general once a property drops down a level it never returns. If Paramount were to release a direct to dvd Star Trek it would lower the brand value in the eyes of most consumers.

While not scifi and thus offtopic, these horror genre films serve as a good model example:
Yeah look at the Friday the 13th movie series or similarly Nightmare on Elm Street movie series.
Friday the 13th had twelve films and a reboot and now a sequel to the reboot in cinemas.

Nightmare on Elm Street
had like 9 films and now has a reboot in the cinemas.

Now take Tremors. A 1990 film. It had 4 sequels direct-to-video ONLY. If you hadn't heard
Tremors V: The Thunder from Down Under (2010) comes out next year direct-to-video. It's never going to go back to the cinema.

or The Prophecy (1995) film series with Christopher Walken.
There were 3 (The Prophecy II, The Prophecy 3: The Ascent, The Prophecy: Uprising) direct-to-video sequels. Walken was in parts 2 & 3 himself!
I enjoyed the first 2 films and would recommend them if you like Walken & horror films. His character Arch Angel Gabriel was pretty badass with some humor.


AviTrek makes it very clear to me that canon is where it's at. Fan films are one thing.
Written novels, video games, and comic books with Trek stories are somewhat of 'sanctioned licensed fan product'.

We won't see Trek TV miniseries or films dumbed down to direct-to-video releases.
 
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