How Star Trek would be different if it were created from scratch today

[Finn]

The thing is that if Trek never existed. The TV landscape would be quite different....even the movies. We cannot look at the TV show and movies of the past fifteen years...as many of those productions may not have been made in a world where Star Trek never existed in the past fifty years...

 

[valkyrie013]

Me too? in my scenerio he would have grown up contemporaraly, not 1921.. So the social moars of male and female interaction of the 60's wouldn't be in the new show, a line about spanking the female ambasador wouldn't even be written today.. We're not transplanting 60's norms to today.

Also, in my scenerio, all the stuff that came off Star Trek.. doesn't exist, like I said, "Hard" scifi wouldn't have been made as mainstream, and campy and fantasy would be the norm. Sure other shows may have been made, maybe even someone else would have made a version of star trek.

With today's distopian, poor me, victim mentality, a show about Optomism about the future would be a breath of fresh air, and would probably be embraced by the people.

 

[Ronald Held]

If there was no TOS in 1960's what would have filled the void?

 

[Gary7]

It's far too difficult to speculate, because Star Trek TOS was the foundation that led to so many other sci-fi shows that followed. Without it, a very different "flavor" of sci-fi TV series would have been manifest. I think eventually someone would have come up with something like Star Trek... but it wouldn't be the same, in a deficient way. We're very fortunate we got this gem in the 1960's!

Star Trek TOS is not just about the idea, but the TIMING of it all. It was a very special moment in television and in US culture. Gene had a wonderful idea and made it happen with the help of Lucille Ball (financial) and many others with their incredible talent. As such, it's a time capsule in so many different respects. Some episode stories are rather comical or silly relative to what has been achieved today. But that's the thing -- you cannot truly appreciate ST-TOS without appreciating the context. The deficiency in special effects and sets has to be appreciated. The interpersonal interactions and acting all go together so well. It's a shame that ST-TOS didn't get more seasons. But then, with Season 3, the writing was already on the wall. It wasn't quite as captivating as it was in Season 2. Still, there's much to appreciate.

I consider ST-TOS an old friend. Even though I've seen most episodes about 20 times each by now (except for those that I really don't like), I still enjoy it. And actually, some episodes I didn't care for many years ago I now appreciate. Like "Court Martial." Still can't stand "And The Children Shall Lead" and "Turnabout Intruder." Just refuse to watch them.

 

[somebuddyX]

If there was no TOS in 1960's what would have filled the void?

The Solarnauts. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2301229/?ref_=ttls_li_tt

 

[Ronald Held]

The Solarnauts. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2301229/?ref_=ttls_li_tt

Should I assume you are joking?

 

[STEPhon IT]

My understand is Roddenberry volenteered after America entered the war and wasn't drafted. If Roddenberry join the military in the early nineties, the basic timeline of his life would play from there, following the military, time as a airline pilot, then time as a cop.

Creating the man who developed Star Trek.If Roddenberry (born a half century later) proposed a series similar to the one that was originally made, it would not look anything like Discovery. Drawing on his own life experiences, probably more real world military than Discovery, in tone (not plot lines) maybe like NCIS.

A somewhat more serious version of The Orville, maybe with elements of The Expanse.

Yes, but lighter.

Would it have been harder for Roddenberry to get into the Hollywood Corporate entity of today? With his known excesses and all?

 

[Tenacity]

^ Probably not. Hollywood is throwing a handful of sacrificial lambs to the media, but it's unlikely that much will actually change in the long term.

 

[The Wormhole]

And, of course, there wouldn't even be a guarantee that the Enterprise would even be part of Starfleet, a.k.a. the navy in space. It might be a different type of ship on different types of missions because who's to say a military ship would be the first thing to spring to mind for someone who wasn't in the service? For all we know, it could be a crew of space-truckers like on Alien, or just a group of scientists in space.

One thing is for certain, A Star Trek that was created from scratch today would either be definitively military, or definitively not military. Not this weird quasi-military that is military in every imaginable form other than its personnel won't admit is military that Starfleet is now.

Probably not. As the road map wouldn't exist. It might end up looking more like Star Wars or The Expanse.

As much as I don't like people harping on about The Expanse being the best thing since sliced bread,* I will admit, in many ways it is essentially classic pulp sci-fi modernized and naturalized, so I could see Star Trek as a modern product resembling it quite a bit. Hell, The Expanse is probably has a lot more diversity in its cast than the majority of Star Trek shows do.

*Don't misunderstand, I enjoy The Expanse quite a bit, having watched all three season, read all the novels, and I even have the upcoming one pre-ordered. But it's not really the masterpiece some of its fandom make it out to be.

 

[X24actor]

I have been pondering this question for a while. All I can think of is a different question. What would the world be like if Star Trek never existed?

 

[Yassa Justice]

It would look extremely similar to Discovery

i don't think you can do somethinjg as insane as the Trek mirror universe with a straight face today.

I have been pondering this question for a while. All I can think of is a different question. What would the world be like if Star Trek never existed?

It would be the same, of course.

 

[Gov Kodos]

If truly created from scratch, the cast wouldn't talk like it had a perpetual stick up its ass and swearing wouldn't be a shock.

 

[Nyotarules]

The TOS uniforms would not exist for a start. It would be more like Stargate but a more diverse cast of humans and aliens as part of the team. The ship would represent a diverse UFP and not NASA in space or the show would be a futuristic NASA in space with the idea of a United Earth an aim by most.
Based on present day politics most of the baddies would be of Middle Eastern or Pakistani-Indian appearance. Humanity would be trying to form a United Earth state, but extremists would be forever sabotaging their attempts. The Vulcan landings will be seen as an invasion by some and The Second Coming by others. The Vulcans will have an ulterior motive and be like the aliens in V after something precious like access to Earth's oceans but without the desire to eat the humans. Women like Amanda who fraternise with aliens will be ostracised as human males will feel threatened. A Terra Prime like candidate will attempt to be President of the infant UE government and will either succeed or a secret 'Section' of influential people will have him taken out as a threat to Earth joining the galactic community.

 

[Alan Roi]

I would say you'd be looking at something similar to Killjoys. Its pretty much the most idealistic scifi space series in sometime. Good guys vs badguys with modern themes.