How would you handle a TOS reboot/remake/continuation?

I didn't see anything, and I wasn't even here.

 

Wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot pole. I'm too close to the material for one, know the fanbase too well for another. I think I'd have more fun baiting an alligator trap with my genitals.

 

I tried to picture that. You’d have to remove them first to use them as bait though. Which would be the really bad part. Once that happens, whether they are subsequently used to trap alligators probably would matter much to you either way.

 

First I'd ask the Discovery team how they'd handle it. Then I'd do the exact opposite.

 

Just to clarify a bit of my original post, I wasn't suggesting that episodes be remade to combat bigotry (most of the episodes I'd nominate for remakes are clear of that sort of thing anyway), but just to anchor the series firmly in TOS and give the new cast a chance to truly become the characters.

I also just think it'd be straight-up cool to see things like the planet killer and the raid of Cestus III made with new effects (not the current naff TOS-R ones), but that's obviously very subjective, and I like the original floating blue cardboard space-turd planet killer as much as anyone. And I don't really trust CBS not to go bananas with it and have some kind of insanely awful, point-missing, lens-flare ridden Saving Private Ryan style scene of Gorn soldiers storming the colony or whatever.

 

There is absolutely no reason to remake anything about Cestus III. It's an absolutely amazing action sequence, possibly the best in the series.

 

It's got a Toys-R-Us mortar that fires blue plastic golf balls.

Not to mention the colony appears to be encased in foil paper.


I did say it was subjective, and didn't need remaking so much as it would just be fun to give it a shot and see what modern tech could come up with. TOS-R already has a couple of cool examples, mixed in with all the completely crap stuff like the reimagined planet killer battle.

 

I'm not a fan of starting again, and think ties to previous works are more satisfying but can also push forward. Also not a fan of two competing universes and prefer things to synchronise together.

So it's a follow up to Star Trek Beyond. 14th in the franchise. I'd keep the Kelvin/Abramsverse cast for 3 more pictures with $ multi-million deal. Over the next two & a half hours, have a story that resets their timeline to erase Nero's actions, resolves Kirk's daddy issues, Spock's Vulcan loss and takes out their Enterprise-A in a time-travelling shockwave. The closing scene shows the TOS/TMP refit beginning in drydock complete with something close to Jerry Goldsmith's theme. That places the subsequent 15th and 16th films between The Motion Picture and The Wrath of Khan. And the original film series Enterprise (exterior at least) is back up there on the cinema screen. Because in my eyes at least, it doesn't need updating and holds up every bit as much as fellow 1970's design the Millennium Falcon.

I'll leave a Captain Pike show to tinker around the edges of an Original Series prequel and do something with an older Kirk, Spock, McCoy et all in a kind of cross between Phase II and had more films been made in the 1980s. After bringing closure to the Kelvin timeline first, a couple of features that fit right in between Star Treks I & II.

 

I've always been an advocate of a reboot and I'd welcome it with open arms
I actually think that it's inevitable with the ongoing Discovery series
The more seasons of Discovery made, the possible Pike offshoot, it all points to Kirk and Co at the fore in a new reimagined Star Trek show.

 

http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x18hd/arenahd135.jpg

Not from Toys-R-Us and not golf balls. If anything they look more like billiard balls.

http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/2x06hd/thedoomsdaymachinehd0481.jpg

Not cardboard. Most likely tin foil wrapped around a metal frame with lighting gels wrapped around that.

I'm sorry but all attempts at remaking the Doomsday Machine have failed miserably. None have been able to recapture just how eerie and otherworldly the original design looks. It looks real, but also looks like a ghost at the same time. It's cavernous maw waiting to devour innocent starships who dare to wander too close.

 

I'd reboot TOS from scratch, ignoring everything before, Lost in Space -style. Genderswap some lesser characters like Chekov. Make K/S actually happen at the end of the 13 episode season simply because of all the publicity it would lead to. Make Spock's journey of self-acceptance (a la ST'09 and TMP) the backbone of the season.

Mix rebooted TOS stories with new ones. Landing parties sent down with loads of equipment and maybe even a vehicle.

 

That crumpled silvery thing above Kirk and co. in Arena I've always thought is the remains of a crushed metallic building! If it ain't then what the hell is it meant to be anyway?
JB

 

I'm totally against gender swapping characters. Kara Thrace was amazing admittedly but the characters in Nubsg were barely the same characters (ironically Starbuck was one of the closest). Plus Nubsg did nothing with any of the original female characters unless you count Caprica Six as Cassiopeia.

Modernise the female characters you have and plug other gaps with new female characters (security, astrobiology, admirals, supporting engineers) and you'd end up with plenty of women. Rand was always positioned to be a versatile female lead, they just never used her where they should and kept her silent when she should have been Kirk's confidant. Classic example is Balance of Terror; the perfect opportunity to play Miss Kitty as envisioned. She asks if he wants coffee and then hands over to McCoy to do the heavy lifting.

 

It looks like it could be a sort of cliff wall to me, like the outpost has been built at the base of a cliff.

 

I fear that would lead to a boated cast, and leave the underlings as criminally underused as ever. Although I agree with Rand having her role increased - security chief, maybe.

 

The gender-swap idea is really interesting, but it'd probably best be done on minor one-episode characters, rather than relatively major ones like Chekov. It strikes me as interesting, for example, to have Khan be female and Marla McGivers be male, but leaving the script very close to what it already is. I doubt people would respond well to any such major re-imagining of Khan, but still.

I think Rand could stay as a yeoman. Any connotations TOS might have put on the role can be easily avoided by just having a couple of male yeomans occupying certain shifts/seen on other ships. Her character arc could include her becoming a fully commissioned Starfleet officer, as she canonically does anyway.

As for security chiefs, I was actually thinking Mr Leslie could occupy the role. He's a genius who can work in every division and do everything, might as well bump him up to a glamorous chief role.

 

I don't think gender swapping is valid, I didn't think it worked for Smith in "Lost In Space" and I wouldn't like it imposed on a new "Star Trek" show.

 

A don't think a gender swap would get you much. Other than the "look what we did" aspect of it, I'm just thinking that so little of TOS is about gender anyway, that swapping them would sort of be like saying "Let's paint the bridge a different color".

I think a reboot of Way to Eden would be fun, and instead of hippies they'd be a Death Metal band. And Spock would still be sitting there strumming contemplatively on his lyre.

 

If we get that theoretical Anson Mount Pike Enterprise series/mini-series, I wouldn't mind if CBS just called it Star Trek and marketed it as additional episodes to TOS.

 

Every time I read this I think I'm in the Name That Episode thread and it's one of your terrifically cryptic clues.