How would you change or Re-Write TNG?

For those of you who would wish to make changes or even a full Re-Write, what would you change?

First off, I absolutely love TNG and would keep the general overall tone, feeling and aura of the show. The USS Enterprise D would be the same although more of its internal areas would be seen in detail. The Saucer Separation would be used regularly in episodes in my re-write. Perhaps it would be a good way for diplomatic meetings or battles, something of that sort.

Uniforms would look something like this although I would have more colors. Red for Command. Yellow for Engineering. Grey for Security. Blue for Science.



Bridge Design would be that of this here, but there would still be 3 chairs. Red chairs.



I never found Wesley to be a particular interesting character and scenes with him could have been replaced with other rookie Ensigns who would be minor characters, perhaps as various guest stars.

I find Troi to be under utilized. Her telepathic abilities could have been used in more offensive situations or in a general greater character. Would have had her been more impactful, being shown to take command when situations needed it.

Dr.Crusher would be replaced by a female Andorian. Perhaps one with a personality as a homage to McCoy, would be interesting. Would have Tellarite crew members be shown as well, with some being in the engineering staff.

Data would keep the beard look when he developed it in that one episode. Worf would have been the security officer from the start of the show itself with Tasha Yar also being a somewhat minor cast member throughout the whole series, never having quit.

As the seasons would progress, the Enterprise D would undergo a major refit in season 5 with the ship taking the Galaxy Dreadnought look. Perhaps a little less advanced, but definitely with the 3 nacelle design and various other improvements.

As for the lore of the show, I would keep everything as it was prior to the show. I would keep many of the Episodes. Major things I would change would be the Cardassians having more of an impact on the show overall and been featured more. Ferengi would have been not shown to be a threat, but of a wildcard species for sure. They wouldn't have been shown in a villainous manner which didn't make sense to me.

The Borg would have no Queen in the lore, no central figure. Didn't make sense for the Borg. Picard would have been assimilated into the Borg like he was, and would be freed but would suffer from a more realistic trauma, and would retire from the Captain rank, but would return as an Admiral later in the series with Riker taking up the captain's chair and Data being his first officer. Admiral Picard would still have a lot of focus throughout the series.

Romulans would also have made peace with the Federation, with the Enterprise saving a Romulan ship and leading peace. Riker would be rather prominent in this. Conversely, the Klingons would have had an alternate civil war in which a war mongering faction would win, making the Romulans a popular ally to side against the Klingons who would go down a wildcard path. Worf would have something to do with opposing the expansionist Klingon government, and would be the one to bridge the gap between the Romulans, Federation, and Klingons in an alternate peace Conference with an alternate Klingon-Federation/Romulan war that would be featured in the later seasons. Klingons would have a coup and a new government take power, would appear more distant and weary of the Federation but not directly adversarial.

Breen biology and such would be explored, general filling in the holes and gaps. I like the idea of an episode of Riker and a Tellarite Captain bonding on a planet together and focusing more on the cultural differences within the Federation itself.

By the end of the series the Romulans and Federation would be staunch allies and share technology. You would see Romulan designs influencing the Federation to a degree and various episodes focused on the Romulan-Federation alliance itself.

Many of the good episodes with Picard like 'The Inner Light' and such would feature Riker in them, but otherwise exact same plot.

The Borg would be featured more as well, with there being joint missions between the Alpha Quadrant powers to repel a Borg invasion in the same timescales as it occurred in the canon universe.

I would make Captain Jellico a Tellarite, and have the whole Cardassian affairs play out with more importance, with Riker being captured and tortured by the Cardassians instead of Picard.

 

Unlike some other Treks, I feel like TNG had their shit together. I'd just make adjustments to specific episodes, like a different director for Code of Honor, a less draconian interpretation of the prime directive in Pen Pals and especially Homeward, Picard not being like "Why'd you save these losers?!?" in Neutral Zone...

 

THE CHARACTERS:
I'd probably would have had Worf as chief of security from the start, Yar as chief engineer, and Data officially as science officer (since he was basically serving in that role unofficially anyway). Troi would be the chief contact officer and would lead all away teams that aren't of a tactical nature (that'd still be Riker's gig). Yar would still die in season one, but it would be during an incident on the Enterprise where she sacrificed herself to save the ship. LaForge would take over as acting chief engineer until he landed the position permanently at the start of season two.

THE LOOK:
The Starfleet uniforms would have a design pattern similar to those seen in early DS9/VOY, but would be two piece and more like today's combat fatigues. The formal uniforms would be evocative of those in TWOK, except in the early DS9/VOY pattern and minus the shoulder and sleeve straps. Tricorders would remain relatively unchanged, but phasers would be a more advanced form of those we saw in the last TOS movie and still resemble pistols. The Enterprise bridge would stay mostly the same, with the exception of the ops station, which would be redesignated sciences-1 and a little less beige overall on the set.

THE STORIES:
As far as the actual meat and potatoes of the series itself, there would be no further Borg stories after "Best of Both Worlds, part 2," but there would be signs of the Borg's handiwork in various subsequent episodes (ala "The Neutral Zone") and a growing fear that they're secretly planning something big. Everything else would unfold pretty much the same, including the events in "All Good Things..."

 

1. I would re-design the Galaxy Class to be more pleasing to the eye. I hated the D from the get-go. Also, the Enterprise would just be the Enterprise, not the Enterprise-D, with registry number 17001 or something like that.

2. Reduce the overall size of the bridge somewhat. It was cavernous.

3. Keep the uniforms with generally the same design as S3 onward, but go back to the original coloring style; Gold (Green) for command / operations, blue for sciences, and red for engineering / security / support services. I would design a dedicated coverall uniform and rank insignia for enlisted personnel. Maybe something as simple as square / rectangular pips for enlisted/ NCO vs. round pips for commissioned officers. Maybe warrant officers could use broken ellipses to denote W1 --> W4.

4. Crew assignments: Data as second officer / science officer, Worf as asst. chief of security, Tasha as head of security, Geordi as asst. chief engineer. Worf and Geordie would fleet up to lead those departments upon the death or re-assignment of their predecessors. Troi would start the show in uniform, the way she finished it, perhaps foregoing it for counselling sessions with ship's family members and/or kids. I like the idea of having her also be a 'contact officer', taking the lead in certain diplomatic or sensitive away missions that were not tactical in nature.

4. I'd actually keep Wesley Crusher, but maybe make him a bit more of a normal kid instead of a child prodigy. Instead of 'Acting Ensign', put him in a midshipman (cadet's) uniform and assign him an academy-style curriculum under the tutelage of Data and Tasha Yar- the latter being the D.I. figure to Data's more instructional one. Perhaps later, instead of testing for admission to Starfleet Academy, Wesley's program could become a test and evaluation Starfleet program for training and commissioning/enlisting family members who have lived years of their lives on active starships. However, said candidates would have to 'test out' of the Academy's rigid standards on a merit-based system in order to be commissioned this way.

5. Obviously, some stories would get a different script.

6. I'd go back to a I / II style hand weapon design. The subtlety and concealability of the smaller Type I hand phasers in TOS was a huge advantage in many situations. It seems like the larger 'dust-buster' phasers in TNG were actually a step backwards. In the same vein of miniaturization of tech and ease-of-use: wrist tricorders?

7. Last but not least... The Klingons would be John. M. Ford / FASA Klingons!! Complete with the Imperial race (ridges), Klingon-human fusions (smooth foreheads), and Klingon-Romulan fusions (pointy ears, with or without ridges), the honorifics, references, and stuff like the komerex zha in terms of their beliefs. It would have made them much more interesting both as allies and adversaries, and given Worf some material to chew on culturally instead of just prattling on about his 'honor' all the time.

 

My changes
More TOS-style exploration shows, especially in the later seasons

I'd reintroduce something that TNG lacks to a great degree, which is the wonder and mystery of space and the feeling that there is so much more out there to discover.

Fewer guest stars that take the focus away from the main crew

Much less Lwaxana

No ship counselor position (and even if I included a position like that, it wouldn't be a bridge position and it certainly wouldn't be a position that by simply passing a test would allow you to be in a command bridge position and outrank someone like Data)

Less Q

Less Borg (I also would have sent Hugh back with Geordi's virus to hopefully destroy them)

The Ferengi would not have been turned into a mostly comic relief race.

I think I'd also do something with The Gorn and the Tholians.



Episode story ideas like Liaisons, Dark Page, Interface, Attached, Homeward, Sub Rosa, Eye of the Beholder, Bloodlines, Realm of Fear, Man of the People, True Q, Rascals, Aquiel, Lessons, Suspicions, Hero Worship, Violations, Conundrum, The Outcast, The Perfect Mate, and many others would be rejected.

I know some will read what I just typed and say are you out of your mind? Maybe I am but episodes like those and others exemplify to me where TNG went wrong in the later seasons. As the series progressed it started to produce sappy dramatic stories that with a few tweaks could have been scripts written for non-sci-fi shows. To me, that's not Star Trek.

I'm not saying they shouldn't have done some stories like those, just not nearly as many as they did. Even TOS had some stories in that vein but if they had replaced even half of the episodes I listed above with more space exploration stories, it would have made those seasons much better

 

I would have had more continuity between episodes and character arcs, much in the way that Strange New Worlds is currently doing it. BermaTrek was too in love with completely standalone episodes.

 

I would really want to not make a lot of changes, not mess it up. I think my only changes would be having Selar appear more often, maybe have a few more recurring engineering or security officers, maybe Data starting out at a lower rank and yes having a little more continuity references, especially Worf and Data facing some more long-lasting consequences for some of their controversial decisions and actions.

 

Good changes!

 

Gotta remember, this was just pretty much the nature of TV back in those days. All shows were like this, pretty much until The Sopranos came along a few years later.

 

More episodes about exploring, and less focused on the crew's own personal drama. Especially Data.

Don't get me wrong, I love Data, but the whole thing became 'The Data show' by the end, IMO. Thanks to his sub-plots, every other scientist now in ST has the last name Soong... and I am pretty sick of it. Its like the writers don't understand that not only is it extremely rare for the offspring of a brilliant scientist to also become a brilliant scientist, but for every one of them to have the same type of personality and even be super-famous for it? 'Scientist' isn't inherited, that only works for royalty, politicians, and entertainers.

In the original pilot, the security personnel DID have a separate insignia, which was later dropped for the show. There was also a separate 'away team' uniform (grey), which SNW has at least given a nod to (and I believe Enterprise also may have done this at least once), and originally, every ship was supposed to have its own uniforms and insignia-badge (not the insignia itself - just the shape of the badge - only Enterprise was supposed to have that boomerang-looking one), but all of that was dropped to simplify things (but it does explain why we see so many different uniforms and insignia around - it was actually meant to be that way from the beginning). As for the now missing insignia for security - its the one that looks like a 'C' in this pic, and you can see it on the 'bridge guards' in The Managerie.

 

TNG definitely had its mojo in seasons 2-4. Finding the ideal style is one thing, inevitably changing it to try to keep the show as fresh is another.

I'd make the roles of Yar and Worf less interchangeable. Worf is security chief and Yar be a chief geologist or botanist; maybe the latter as alien plantlife seems to be more varied than a bunch of rocks, what with recent scientific discoveries of Rover's photographic abilities proving that "Doctor Who" had it almost right all along with filming on location in quarries to show vistas of alien planet surfaces, which look more realistic than any of Trek's plastic rock sets.

Avoid the "Chief Engineer Merry-Go-Round", as that role seemed to be an impressive afterthought as season 1 started filming.

Replace the plastic warp core with something that doesn't look as cheap. They reused TMP sets elsewhere, why not augment the engine core prop from TMP? (It got reused, with few alterations, for VOY anyhow...)

Seasons 5-7 switched gears to a revised storytelling format that often (IMHO) hasn't held up as well. Nor sure what the biggest issue was... maybe the music? I'd also opine to keep Ron Jones but to tone down the style again; later years did have his style getting louder and almost too much in a couple cases, but the complete change in incidental music to something so bland and even antithetical - as those boring scenes where big bad enemies go pew-pew on each other or when the stomp around having taken control of the ship was like a huge case of whiplash coupled with an ACME piano dropping from the sky inexplicably - remains a headscratcher to this day. So many episodes manage to lose all atmosphere by little more than the brown noise from the frog fart symphony orchestra.

 

I was actually talking about this on the "contraversial opinions" thread.

I would change ... absolutely everything.

I really like the above uniforms, though, and could totally adapt them into my re-imagining.

Basically, I would scrap the entire 24th century setting. I would put the show on board the "A", immediately after The Voyage Home. It would have all the new style TNG technology, holodecks, etc, but maintain aesthetics slightly more with the movie ship. (This whole concept started because I think its a shame we never got to see the gorgeous refit model in a weekly series.)

I would keep a big chunk of the TNG characters, but would dump Picard and Crusher right away. I would bring in Pulaski right at the beginning, so no drama there, and make her a relative of McCoy's, facilitating his guest appearances and explaining some of her demeanor without being a complete retread.

Shatner would be the regular Captain. He was still doing steady tv after this point, so I don't see why he couldn't still do a Trek show in '87 after Hooker ended.)

Chekov and Uhura would come along as Head of Security and Second Officer. (I thought about making her XO, but I would want the Kirk/Riker conflict over who leaves the ship and what not.) I would go back to the original plan, of using Riker and Troi (Decker/Ilia.) Data would be of his original "alien" origin, and there would be running jokes of Shatner testing him with logic puzzles. Data can not figure out how Kirk keeps beating him at chess. Like V'Ger and Nomad before him, he would be on a quest for his creator. Geordi would still start out as the blind pilot, but end up as Scotty's protege, and eventual replacement. Worf would still be human-raised, and exploring his heritage as Weapons Officer. Chekov and Worf would have lots of banter about the glories of Russia vs Kronos.

Wesley (Leslie?) and the families on board would add to Kirk's angst, so close to losing David and Peter Preston.

The series would start with the return of Trelane, and officially make him a Q. Delancie could still play the character, with a snap of his fingers, anyways.

A couple seasons in, when the Borg are introduced, they would completely be a product of the Decker/Ilia/V'Ger fusion. Ilia would be the Borg Queen.

The first couple seasons would continue the conflict with the Klingons where the movies ended up, but we would be exploring the other side of the issue from Worf's point of view. Eventually, after the Borg show up, the alliance finally happens, sort of like the Kaylons causing the Krill and the Union to work together more on the Orville.

Nimoy would guest star once or twice a year, and could still be working on reconciliation with the Romulans. Takei could guest as another starship's Captain.

I think it would be a really fun show, and I could happily trade the entire 24th century for a little bit more time with the TOS characters, and build on the world as it was in '87, rather than forgetting the past, jumping 80 years and reinventing the wheel.

 

This is all a little radical as a "TNG re-write". What you've got here are the makings of a "Phase Two" rewrite.

I don't see another TOS show working after the movies without Spock as a regular. Can I say for certain it wouldn't have worked? Of course not. But I personally don't think it would have. Trying to mix-and-match some of the TOS/TNG tropes and cast seem a little off-putting as well. I do like the idea of V'Ger reincarnating as the Borg, and hate the idea of families aboard ship (especially ships of those size) in the TOS era.

Just my .02.

 

How is it not a TNG rewrite, when its based in probably 70% TNG characters and concepts, and begins the exact same time TNG started in '87? I think disconnecting itself from the entire franchise was a major disservice to TNG. I think the "D" is one of the ugliest starships ever, and the chance to get the "A" and Captain Kirk again for another few years in the late 80s / early 90s would be worth it. Who knows, maybe he stays a Borg after Season 3, and we get Riker as Captain at that point.

It would have guest appearances from Spock and McCoy, and give long awaited screen time to Chekov and Uhura, and one more round with Shatner. I don't think any of the cast mixings i've suggested would be anything but pure gold. But, to each their own.

 

For start, I would remove children aboard the Enterprise. It doesn't make sense considering the Enterprise is often on dangerous missions. Besides, we wouldn't have any Worf and Alexander soap opera and episodes involving bad child actors.

 

I think/believe the idea of 1701-D being a ship for families stemmed in part from military bases that families lived on?

 

Don't know who first floated the idea for Trek, but I assume it was to give the writers more story-material to work with. Personally, I think it's a bad idea for a front-line starship planning on being beyond Federation space a lot of the time. The crew of a ship like that should be hand-picked for those without families and/or separation issues. Allowing families on 'safer' ships making supply and colonization runs well inside Federation space... sure, why not?

 

I wouldn't change much...I'd just make it far less pretentious and self-important, and I'd allow it to have more fun and adventure. TNG, upon doing a full re-watch recently, is dreadfully slow and dull compared to pretty much all of the other series in the franchise. Having also done recent watch-throughs of ENT, DS9 and VOY, it sticks out even more how slow the show really is at times.

 

Some of this is pretty radical, and I've already said my peace, but one thing I absolutely loved from Picard was the bridge-seats. Seat belts, people! How many years did that take? The ships shake like a damn carnival ride at least once per episode, and you have everyone standing up? Also, I think SNW went way too futuristic with their ship - don't get me wrong, I love the way it looks, just not for THAT show. But for a TNG reboot? Those large stand-up display panels make so much sense. I was just reminded of all this because I was looking at that bridge pic above (and put the toilets and double-turbolifts back!)

I was just watching an old movie the other day I never saw when it came out (I don't even remember it, which is odd), called Flight of the Navigator, and while it was the usual Disney schlock-take on space (starring a kid), there was one thing that Disney got right and was a fantastic idea. When the kid complained about the captain's chair being too big for him, it changed to accommodate him (seat lifted, arm-rests came in, etc.). Why the heck don't ST seats do that? Tucker tried to build Archer the 'ultimate chair' in one episode, with all sorts of bells & whistles that sounded cool, but it never got done. Captains need cool chairs that adjust to them, especially in a universe where lots of different lifeforms could be a Federation captain! Now I have to wonder how that 3-legged dude in TAS sat in his Helmsman's chair.

Oh, and if its a TNG-era reboot, more use of holdeck technology day-to-day. NO, I do not want more death-deck holodeck episodes, I am talking about the interesting ways holo-tech has been used since TNG, like with the Doctor in Voyager, and later in Picard. Hell, if you have holo-emitters all over a ship (like the experimental ship in that one episode of Voyager the Doctor visited), then you can even have Holo-chairs that do what I said above. Of course, when you lose power, that could make for some awkward problems. Still, how many times would using a holo-crewman in a dangerous situation have saved lives? Just about every episode where the warp core was about to breach? (happens at least twice a week, from what I gather LOL). In other words, I want almost NO episodes where the holodeck is a playground, and plenty of situations where that tech is used as a tool, because it certainly would be. Imagine how many times B'lanna could have used a room full of Geordi LaForge's to give her a hand?

 

I would change nothing in the content of any of the shows - even the terrible shows are great fun - sometimes precisely because they're terrible! I'm loving having the excuse to write about them for WAMTNG, it's like having a second childhood.
However, I still have a pair of changes I absolutely would make:

1. There would be no feature length version of "Best of Both Worlds Part 1 and 2". The best thing about "Best of Both Worlds" is the cliffhanger at the end - in the feature length version it falls completely flat as the story just rolls on and the cliffhanger is completely destroyed! It's a crime against Trek in my view, and someone should be put in the brig and made to wear one of Wesley's sweaters for a week.
2. Likewise, I would make it easier to get "All Good Things" as two episodes. I don't think I've ever seen this as two episodes (is it possible to see this...? Is there any cut of this as two episodes at all...?) Since it aired as a feature length movie, this is more a matter of taste, but just as "Encounter at Farpoint" got two separate episodes for syndication, despite airing as a movie-length double, I want this for "All Good Things". If anyone knows of such a thing, please do let me know as I don't think I've ever seen it as two separate episodes and I'd love to do so.

Otherwise, I'm shocked and amused at all these fans wanting to hack the show! But each to their own, right? Federation ethics means toleration of all ways of life, even those you don't understand.