Exploring a darker theme in a future star trek series

[Nighthawk]

Speaking of a darker view of the Star Trek Universe.

When I was member of a International Star Trek Fan orginization. I wrote a Star Trek story in order to complete a course in the Marine Training accadamy. I had recieved a mark of honors and was well recieved.

It is an adulty story that followed a unit of Starfleet Marines that had to take down an Orian crime syndicate who Kingpin was an intergaltic drug lord.
It's all based on the technology of Star Trek Post Dominion War.

It is all orginal characters and it is a fun read.

If any one would like to read it I can send it you copy.... there is all types of adult themed items from snipper head shots, nudity,a hollywood over the top hover truck chase, and all types of stuff in it such undercover agents.

It's my take on a darker Star Trek.

I remember reading that before ENT was put into production B&B wanted to do a show based on Jag/NCIS/CSI spinkle in NYPD Blue. Type show that was going to be dark and gritty. Where we would have characters that had flaws and issues they were dealing with. It would be in the TNG/VOY/DS9 timeline just dealing with crimes commited against/by Starfleet personal.
Aliens and was going to show more of life on earth and have the charactors unraveling the cause of the crime/death and less on ships and show more of installations, residences and that type of stuff.

They shelved it and isntead decided to do ENT and they say the rest is history..... the end of ST on TV.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

They shelved it and isntead[sic] decided to do ENT and they say the rest is history..... the end of ST on TV.

Just imagine - if they'd gone ahead with the dark "JAG" show they could have cancelled it two years sooner.

 

[ImCaptKirk]

DarkER?
Darker than a Bog Invasion causing billions of deaths and almost wiping out every race inthe Alpha and Beta Quadrants?
Darker than political assasination to manipulate trends in a war?
Darker than genocide?
Darker than Section31?

After 9-11 [ONE terrorist attack that was massivly milked to death by tv and drama] they all became obsessed with darker themes in shows.

Please no we've done enough darkness, we need to go back to the optimism, ask most people why ST appealed to them they often say it was the brighter vision of the future, the 21st century is starting to look like the dystopia from the RoboCop movies so there is a demand for a vision of a brighter future.

With a world now filled with austerity, famines, economic hardship, mass unemployment, rising gun violence, wars etc people don't wanna turn on their tv and be slapped inthe face with the idea that things are going to get WORSE as time goes on. Espechally since the economic end of things is going to get much worse within the next few years before things rebound and society demands a diffrent way of doing things, its more important than ever that a positive vision of the future be portrayed.

Do you want star trek to go back to TNG or VOY style of show. I mean i don't mind as i became a fan of star trek by watching TNG and VOY (my favourite fyi) but nowdays TV programming is quite different from the 80s and 90s.

9/11 really messed things up. A lot of programes on tv nowdays reflect that change. The TV series "24" was hugely sucessful and it was a product of our times.

We could still try to go back to TNG/VOY type of star trek show but will it work nowdays? Will it attract the audience we need to keep star trek alive on TV? The main reason that i support a darker themed star trek series, is that hopefully it will have a longer run on tv.

I'd like to see a show from the perspective of the Romulans or Klingons.

 

[T'Girl]

After 9-11 [ONE terrorist attack that was massivly milked to death by tv and drama]

Wrong, it was four separate attacks, coordinated to occur on the same day.

I'd like to see a show from the perspective of the Romulans or Klingons.

As in set aboard one (or more) of their starships, or set within their society? I would said no, for a few scenes or a few isolated episodes would be fine, but not the main theme of a series.

 

[anh165]

LOL at the thread.

Lets make Trek darker = I want to see more space battles, crappy macho actors and lots of gun tooting in space.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Star Trek's next TV (or streaming) home will be cable (or Netflix). That guarantees a darker tone compared with what we've seen before, because the reason for the lighter tone was the demands of broadcast and the mass market.

Those days are gone and will not be back. What sort of "dark tone" Star Trek will have in the future remains to be seen. It's one thing if Showtime does it, entirely different on FX or TNT. Will it be Game of Thrones in space, or something much lighter, a la Falling Skies, filled with violent action, but a sense of optimism regardless?

It is an adulty story that followed a unit of Starfleet Marines that had to take down an Orian crime syndicate who Kingpin was an intergaltic drug lord.

I could see cable doing something along those lines rather than stick solely with the old starship-based format.

Star Trek will have to be adapted to new TV/streaming environments, just like JJ Abrams adapted it to the demands of the summer popcorn blockbuster. Some fans threw a fit and declared it's not Star Trek, but unless it had been adapted to fit its new ecosystem, it would never exist at all.

I'd rather check out new adaptations and see how I like them than hide my head in the sand and refuse to admit that times have moved on.

 

[Sindatur]

I'd rather check out new adaptations and see how I like them than hide my head in the sand and refuse to admit that times have moved on.

Well, you're obviously not a true fan and have no idea how this whole internet thing is supposed to work if you're gonna be rational about it

 

[Sjaddix]

Honestly Starfleet marine strike force sounds like a good idea for a video game. it basically be Mass Effect in the Star Trek Universe.

Not sure about it as a TV Show.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I'd rather check out new adaptations and see how I like them than hide my head in the sand and refuse to admit that times have moved on.

Well, you're obviously not a true fan and have no idea how this whole internet thing is supposed to work if you're gonna be rational about it

I promise to clean up my act. Off to Trek Movies to rant about Khan some more.

 

[horatio83]

Making Trek just dark would obviously be heresy, a word I do not hesitate to use. But, to use TUC and FC as examples, it is perfectly fine to have characters that go to the dark side but travel back before it is too late. This creates a lovely form of compressed dynamism, i.e. paradise is not something static that just is and always will be the way it is but it is constantly in danger and everybody has to work hard to maintain it. It might seem fairly static on the first glance but on the second glance you realize that without constant efforts it would just collapse.

"Vigilance, Mr. Worf, that is the price we have to continually pay." Taking Picard's line out of context one could easily substitute vigilance with discipline.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

Making Trek just dark would obviously be heresy,

Nah, TOS was pretty dark at times when you remember that in the show a planet with billions of people could be snuffed out at any moment from either doomsday weapons, or space monsters, or bored godlike beings.

Not to mention all the energy being or other aliens who use people as meat puppets or just plain toys for their own twisted amusement.

Then there are the things that literally suck the life out of people.

Also the fact that the universe will explode if two guys locked in mortal combat ever both show up in the universe.

Not to mention the the Federation was always pretty close to war with the Klingons which is usually describe as something that would be devastating.

Oh and if your in Starfleet and assigned to a ship that is not the Enterprise chances are you will die a horrible death in the empty void of space. And even if you are on the Enterprise chances are the first time you visit an alien planet you will die and in some cases quiet horribly.

Then there's the fact that everyone is one trip to the galactic barrier away from dealing with a rampaging mad god.

Seriously all the show needs at this point to go totally Lovecraft is the appearance of godlike aliens who either drive you mad or mutate you. Which were probably hiding on some rock out there somewhere.

So what was that about Star Trek being a Utopia again?

 

[Sindatur]

Making Trek just dark would obviously be heresy,

Nah, TOS was pretty dark at times when you remember that in the show a planet with billions of people could be snuffed out at any moment from either doomsday weapons, or space monsters, or bored godlike beings.

Not to mention all the energy being or other aliens who use people as meat puppets or just plain toys for their own twisted amusement.

Then there are the things that literally suck the life out of people.

Also the fact that the universe will explode if two guys locked in mortal combat ever both show up in the universe.

Not to mention the the Federation was always pretty close to war with the Klingons which is usually describe as something that would be devastating.

Oh and if your in Starfleet and assigned to a ship that is not the Enterprise chances are you will die a horrible death in the empty void of space. And even if you are on the Enterprise chances are the first time you visit an alien planet you will die and in some cases quiet horribly.

Then there's the fact that everyone is one trip to the galactic barrier away from dealing with a rampaging mad god.

Seriously all the show needs at this point to go totally Lovecraft is the appearance of godlike aliens who either drive you mad or mutate you. Which were probably hiding on some rock out there somewhere.

So what was that about Star Trek being a Utopia again?

This is all true, but, what most people mean by "Dark and Gritty" these days, is depressing and doom and gloom. NuBSG was great, but, it slid into making viewers want to slit their wrists as times. And...that's fine for one choice, but, some folks want to turn every SciFi (And specifically Space opera) into that. Babylon 5 and DS9 and Farscape, all got just as dark at times, but, there wasn't such a heavy depressing thread running through it. Nothing wrong with Dark elements and realism, and nothing wrong with some of the choices being NuBSG depressing, but, every show shouldn't be emotionally heavy

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Looks like "dark" is the new black this season on network TV.

The first quote is from the president of NBC Entertainment:

"How do you make an original cop or hospital show?" she said. "That's why you find yourself leaning into big ideas that are often complex and dark."

...

Why all this darkness now? Partly, executives say, it is a mood, with the political climate tense, the economy still shrouded in uncertainty and a lot of people still out of work.

"We think people want to escape," said Peter Roth, president of Warner Bros. Television, a Time Warner Inc. unit that is making several of the more ominous shows, including "666 Park Avenue." "Some people believe that escape is a singular form that means beaches, warm weather and bikinis," he said. "We don't subscribe to that theory."

...

Others say broadcast is taking a cue from cable channels, which, in a splintering wilderness of programming, are drawing increasing attention with their original shows, many of which deal with edgier subject matter.

Some kinds of darkness, a la nuBSG, are too thought-provoking and morally slippery to be properly escapist. The type of darkness that is good for escapism is the simple us-vs-them type. Jeckyll vs. Hyde. Innocent young couple vs. their landlords, who probably work for Satan. Cop/crusading journalist vs. serial killer. Paranormal investigator vs global conspiracy involving Nazis and probably Satan again. Sub commander vs. some sort of evil conspiracy in Washington DC.

The broadcast networks have been careful to stick with escapist darkness, so they're mimicking cable very gingerly - no morally complex shows like Dexter or morally anarchic like American Horror Story.

 

[RandyS]

Making Trek just dark would obviously be heresy,

Nah, TOS was pretty dark at times when you remember that in the show a planet with billions of people could be snuffed out at any moment from either doomsday weapons, or space monsters, or bored godlike beings.

Not to mention all the energy being or other aliens who use people as meat puppets or just plain toys for their own twisted amusement.

Then there are the things that literally suck the life out of people.

Also the fact that the universe will explode if two guys locked in mortal combat ever both show up in the universe.

Not to mention the the Federation was always pretty close to war with the Klingons which is usually describe as something that would be devastating.

Oh and if your in Starfleet and assigned to a ship that is not the Enterprise chances are you will die a horrible death in the empty void of space. And even if you are on the Enterprise chances are the first time you visit an alien planet you will die and in some cases quiet horribly.

Then there's the fact that everyone is one trip to the galactic barrier away from dealing with a rampaging mad god.

Seriously all the show needs at this point to go totally Lovecraft is the appearance of godlike aliens who either drive you mad or mutate you. Which were probably hiding on some rock out there somewhere.

So what was that about Star Trek being a Utopia again?

This is all true, but, what most people mean by "Dark and Gritty" these days, is depressing and doom and gloom. NuBSG was great, but, it slid into making viewers want to slit their wrists as times. And...that's fine for one choice, but, some folks want to turn every SciFi (And specifically Space opera) into that. Babylon 5 and DS9 and Farscape, all got just as dark at times, but, there wasn't such a heavy depressing thread running through it. Nothing wrong with Dark elements and realism, and nothing wrong with some of the choices being NuBSG depressing, but, every show shouldn't be emotionally heavy

Well said.

 

[horatio83]

Making Trek just dark would obviously be heresy,

Nah, TOS was pretty dark at times when you remember that in the show a planet with billions of people could be snuffed out at any moment from either doomsday weapons, or space monsters, or bored godlike beings.

Not to mention all the energy being or other aliens who use people as meat puppets or just plain toys for their own twisted amusement.

Then there are the things that literally suck the life out of people.

Also the fact that the universe will explode if two guys locked in mortal combat ever both show up in the universe.

Not to mention the the Federation was always pretty close to war with the Klingons which is usually describe as something that would be devastating.

Oh and if your in Starfleet and assigned to a ship that is not the Enterprise chances are you will die a horrible death in the empty void of space. And even if you are on the Enterprise chances are the first time you visit an alien planet you will die and in some cases quiet horribly.

Then there's the fact that everyone is one trip to the galactic barrier away from dealing with a rampaging mad god.

Seriously all the show needs at this point to go totally Lovecraft is the appearance of godlike aliens who either drive you mad or mutate you. Which were probably hiding on some rock out there somewhere.

So what was that about Star Trek being a Utopia again?

When people talk about darkness they do not refer to the horrible situations the people of the Federation might find themselves in but their basic attitude which is, as Sindatur has pointed out, neither depressed, cynical or desperate.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

Making Trek just dark would obviously be heresy,

Nah, TOS was pretty dark at times when you remember that in the show a planet with billions of people could be snuffed out at any moment from either doomsday weapons, or space monsters, or bored godlike beings.

Not to mention all the energy being or other aliens who use people as meat puppets or just plain toys for their own twisted amusement.

Then there are the things that literally suck the life out of people.

Also the fact that the universe will explode if two guys locked in mortal combat ever both show up in the universe.

Not to mention the the Federation was always pretty close to war with the Klingons which is usually describe as something that would be devastating.

Oh and if your in Starfleet and assigned to a ship that is not the Enterprise chances are you will die a horrible death in the empty void of space. And even if you are on the Enterprise chances are the first time you visit an alien planet you will die and in some cases quiet horribly.

Then there's the fact that everyone is one trip to the galactic barrier away from dealing with a rampaging mad god.

Seriously all the show needs at this point to go totally Lovecraft is the appearance of godlike aliens who either drive you mad or mutate you. Which were probably hiding on some rock out there somewhere.

So what was that about Star Trek being a Utopia again?

When people talk about darkness they do not refer to the horrible situations the people of the Federation might find themselves in but their basic attitude which is, as Sindatur has pointed out, neither depressed, cynical or desperate.

Thats because nobody has really given a though to the type of world they live in.

Or they're on something, I mean the people in the future don't feel grief thing makes me think they were on something.

Not to mention how after a situation where billions died Kirk and co. were doing a happy jokey ending.

 

[AggieJohn]

Define a darker theme. I think it has been pointed out that TOS had some darker themed episodes. Really its about a willingness to write an episode that is not afraid to hit at core issues, things that your argue sides with your friends after the show airs. Its not just about sex and violence. Star Trek has made us think in the past. I would love to see some "real" characters, people that can find a bright side in a dark world. Who when everyone else is running away they are running in, when all is lost then rise up as a beacon of hope. In a lot of ways the Enterprise and her crew symbolize the best possibility of humanity. I don't want to cheapen it for the "sake" of grit. Rather I would like to see how "normal" people rise to do something great. Face difficult situations in which technology can't bail them out.

 

[horatio83]

Thats because nobody has really given a though to the type of world they live in.

Or they're on something, I mean the people in the future don't feel grief thing makes me think they were on something.

Not to mention how after a situation where billions died Kirk and co. were doing a happy jokey ending.

I do not follow you here. In which episodes did people not feel grief or sadness although they normally should have?

 

[Ezri D]

I would not mind to see a very darker federation. The problem I see it, most have talked about issues that would be very limited and would come to an end the first season. If it is going to be darker then even DS9, it would not be thought a good series unless it last the stardard time of 7 seasons. If they come up with a new series that last as long as Enterprise, it would be thought a second and final flop.

Maybe something dealing with a federation civil war, and ending a a war or as close as it can get. Still, it has to have some positive with it. Like to get people interested, like the first same sex marriage in a star trek show or a movie. People in science fiction like the dark side, but it cannot always be about the darkness.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Star Trek's core identity is that its tone is "neither depressed, cynical or desperate." That's a pretty loose core identity which allows for a wide range of storytelling styles and topics.

Any franchise has to have some organizing principle - it can't just be "any bunch of people in a starship" - or else it has no meaningful identity, so what justifies using the same name other than crass business interests? Even McDonald's knows that when people walk through their doors, they expect to see burgers on the menu and not sushi.

Star Trek can depict dire and horrifying situations. But the attitude of Our Heroes must always stay within a basically positive zone, and become an angst-ridden navel-gazing self-flagellating wallow, a la nuBSG. That seems like an eminently fair compromise between hanging onto an identity and allowing for plenty of artistic latitude.