How should the franchise have been developed after TNG?

[DarKush]

DS9 gets a free pass for whatever reason. Also they could create and enemy that could match or exceed the Federation because they had access to the entire Trekverse for their stories. How the heck was VOY supposed to create antagonists fans would like and still make them weak enough that VOY could escape/beat them all the time? If they made an enemy as powerful as the Dominion VOY would've been toast in like 3 episodes.

So it's the choice: Make a powerful enemy and VOY gets fragged really easily, or make an enemyt hat VOY can survive against and they get hated by the fans.

I think that's a false choice. True, VOY didn't have the Alpha and Beta Quadrants to pluck adversaries from, but they had the whole Delta Quadrant, a region never explored on Trek before, with the possible exception of TNG's "Descent" (I'm not sure where that transwarp conduit went to). And they did create some interesting adversaries.

DS9's main baddies were from the Gamma Quadrant, also an unexplored area. They used the Cardassians, the Breen, and weaved together stories with the Klingons and Romulans, which of course were well known characters and it might've made it easier for them. But it also limited them. They didn't have the freedom to destroy worlds or create new orders, or anything on a grand scale that Voyager might've been able to do or participate in since they were far away from the Federation and the familiar planets and species that the suits, and perhaps the fans, cared more about.

My issue with Voyager was that they didn't know quite what to do with the wealth of villains they had. I also think they spent time building up some of the wrong ones, at the expense of developing others. Too much time was spent on the Kazon, a race established early on as being weaker and less advanced than the Voyager crew. Why not start them off with the Vidiian, a race with an interesting angle, and that they could reasonably beat or elude. The Kazon were too easy to beat. As for the Borg, they made a mistake by using the Borg too much. What made the Borg so awesome on TNG was the writers knew not to go to the well too much. VOY writers dried up the well pretty quickly. Perhaps they did it for the ratings, but they made it too easy for Voyager to outwit and defeat the Borg. They also weakened Species 8472 unnecessarily. If they had stopped at "Scorpion" that would've been cool, in hindsight I must admit (I wanted to see more of them after their introduction but I didn't like what happened to them in "In the Flesh", they were made too familiar and their mystique was lost; any alien-of-the-week could've filled that roll).

I think VOY should've been facing baddies like the Hirogen, Vidiians, etc. who were roughly on their level in terms of technology, with clear goals and different cultures/ideologies that could be fleshed out more. It seems like we either got too much (the Borg) or not enough (Swarm, Vaadwaur) when it came to exposure of the Voyager adversaries.

 

[Anwar]

Problem is, you'd get complaints then that they were running into those same races too much for a ship on their way to another part of the galaxy. So not only are the fans tearing into the new races for not being developed enough, if they tried to develop them they'd just complain that they shouldn't.

That thing about being far from the familiar worlds is another strike against Voyager. It meant the audience resented it for not having those worlds and weren't going to be accepting of any new ones Voyager could create for them. They were against new races from the start.

And if they did just ignore the complaints and develop the Vidiians and Hirogen then there would just be complaints that they were pathetic in that VOY could defeat or escape them. The Dominion had the advantage of fighting the entire Federation meaning they were allowed to win. If VOY ever lost to the Hirogen or Vidiians, then they'd all be dead.

In order to do what you were suggesting by blowing up planets and stuff, VOY would need their own Delta Federation or something to give them the numbers and infrastructure for that kind of storytelling. All they had was their one small ship, which doesn't work with what you're suggesting.

 

[mattyhugh]

Yeah, I think people want to see shooty spaceships and aliens in their sci-fi, not alien politics. Imagine Battlestar Galactica but with no Cylon threat. It'd suck.

Caprica is going to suck?

 

[Anwar]

Probably .

 

[DevilEyes]

Yeah, I think people want to see shooty spaceships and aliens in their sci-fi, not alien politics. Imagine Battlestar Galactica but with no Cylon threat. It'd suck.

Caprica is going to suck?

Probably .

Not likely, based on the pilot.

 

[RandyS]

I dont think there was anything wrong with what they did for the most part, the problem is that they were trying to do too much at one time. Two series and multiple movies occurring at the same time? It was over kill and left the creative team worn out. I think trek would have been better off doing one or the other, movies or a show

This is pretty much how I see it. Plus it didn't help that the first two years of ENTERPRISE were nothing but a watered-down VOYAGER rip-off. And that it's third season told a pointless story.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Yeah, I think people want to see shooty spaceships and aliens in their sci-fi, not alien politics. Imagine Battlestar Galactica but with no Cylon threat. It'd suck.

Caprica is going to suck?

Probably .

Not likely, based on the pilot.

I guess we saw different pilots.

 

[C.E. Evans]

Personally, I wouldn't have been in such a rush to get TNG to the big screen. I probably would have let the show run for a few more years (with Riker as captain).

There simply would be no Trek movies while Trek is still on TV.

Series III probably would have been introduced around '97 or '98--and still featured a space station, but it would have been of Federation design. It would have wrapped up production around 2004 or 2005.

TNG probably wouldn't have finally transitioned to the big screen until 2005 and would currently be carrying the franchise solo for awhile. At this point, TNG is a mix of original and new characters aboard a totally redesigned Enterprise-D and their first movie would have been something of a relaunch/reintroduction of the series...

(Shrugs)
It's not how I think the franchise should have been developed, just what I would have liked to see...

 

[xortex]

I see no reason why all Star Trek shouldn't be constantly reimaginied and over written - every version of it. There need not be any explaination (lame or not).

 

[Greylock Crescent]

Personally, I wouldn't have been in such a rush to get TNG to the big screen. I probably would have let the show run for a few more years (with Riker as captain).

Putting aside whether or not continuing TNG is a good idea, I like the idea of Riker as captain insofar as that it would provide some much needed (and long overdue) character development for Riker. As a character, he hit his peak in the Best of Both Worlds episodes and pretty much stagnated from there. It worked within the context of TNG but even Troi's character evolved more than Riker over the course of seasons 4-7. Plus, moving Picard off-ship would have allowed Data to be first officer, etc. Essentially, it'd be like using setup of "Future Imperfect" as a template for the evolution of the series. And there's quite a bit of potential there as far as character development is concerned.

Hopefully they'd still find a way to keep Picard as a semi-regular character, though.

 

[SFRabid]

I dont think there was anything wrong with what they did for the most part, the problem is that they were trying to do too much at one time. Two series and multiple movies occurring at the same time? It was over kill and left the creative team worn out. I think trek would have been better off doing one or the other, movies or a show

This is what I think. I'll also throw in too much interference from executives and too many spoiled fanposers that will never be happy unless Star Trek is confined to their narrow view of what should happen.

Given the number of new fans of Enterprise that are popping up, many who say they enjoy it now more than they did when it first came out, it may be time for a new series.