Idea for a cooperative Star Trek screenplay project

[hellsgate]

Hmmm..I like the idea of The Shaleel.

2388: The U.S.S. XXXXXXXX, NCC ------ is about to leave orbit of Cardassia Prime after wrapping-up their final mop-up mission as this adventure draws them in. They're assigned to assist during the aftermath of a natural disaster on a world dangerously-close to the Tzinkethi and Tholian Empires. These oversized feline warrior rivals of The Klingon Empire are generally unhappy with Starfleet constantly running to their aide against The Romulans. The Klingons are still achy after the Dominion & then the Hur'q suddenly re-appeared through a wormhole/rift a few years ago. Its uncovered the remains of a Shaleel outpost & survivors still in stasis after several thousand (million?) years. Reviving them causes them to ecstatically offer the crew keen new abilities & knowledge that even causes The Q to momentarily look up from their newspapers. Knowledge of Humanity & other races' origins in The Gamma Quadrant & more, as a sort-of sequel to Picard & The Enterprise-D's meeting with a genetics-based holographic message program on Doctor Crusher's altered tricorder. The Tholians are xenophobic, & stick to their own territory. They're not aggressive except if you rattle their beehive. They just don't like Starfleet sniffing around their border as trouble tends to follow them like a bad smell. The Federation hasn't forgotten the loss of the Constitution-Class 'Defiant' to the Tholian interphase device created by the Tholians' webspinners.

 

[Dancing Doctor]

We've also got a vague idea about a planetary disaster unveiling an alien race called the Shaleel who want to give our heroes knowledge of the universe beyond what they should have.

The ship is in the Gamma Quadrant to explore AND to provide support and humanitarian aide to species previously ruled by the Dominion, who have vanished.

I think people seem to want a more open exploration based show - as opposed to a major mythic quest as you seem to be proposing.

That's the way I've been seeing it, although personally I'm not *too* much in favor of the Shaleel

EDIT: Vixen, was there any proposed casting for your main character you had in mind? I'm going to try and collate what we seem to like so far into one post - and casting would help.

For the Chief Medical Officer, the person I had thought of originally for the role was Susan Sarandon.

As for the Chief Engineer (who I haven't had much time to work on, beyond her being a Betazoid) Olga Kurylenko works.

 

[tenmei]

Sounds cool, Vixen. I'll pull everything together - and I do like Challenger for the name of the ship, we could always make it the one we saw in the VOY episode. Which would mean we'd also have visualisations of the sets avaliable (Galaxy Class exterior, more Voyager-esque interiors).

I also like Susan Sarandon and Olga Kurylenko as the CMO and Chief Engineer respectively. One thing I wanted to throw out there is something based on the mission, about the CMO - given that the vessel is on a humanitarian mission on behalf of the Federation, would it be possible to make the Chief Medical Officer a civilian, a doctor representing the Federation equivalent of the World Health Organisation and/or Medicins San Frontieres? This could mean she'd be thrown up against the CO and XO with there differing and potentially more militaristic outlook.

It would give us an outsider character to the Starfleet crew - and the Bajoran factor could tie in, given she's already seen and helped the Bajorans (and, potentially also assisted in the rebuilding of Cardassia) she's got a vested interest in helping various cultures rebuild?

I'd also imagine the Shaleel angle could be confined to the pilot episode - we could run the alpha story of Captain Icheb and Commander Wolfe confronting the Shaleel whilst Doctor Tilan confronts the environmental disaster of unimaginable scale and the two end up being tied together?

 

[Dancing Doctor]

Sounds cool, Vixen. I'll pull everything together - and I do like Challenger for the name of the ship, we could always make it the one we saw in the VOY episode. Which would mean we'd also have visualisations of the sets avaliable (Galaxy Class exterior, more Voyager-esque interiors).

Oooh, I'm liking this...

I also like Susan Sarandon and Olga Kurylenko as the CMO and Chief Engineer respectively. One thing I wanted to throw out there is something based on the mission, about the CMO - given that the vessel is on a humanitarian mission on behalf of the Federation, would it be possible to make the Chief Medical Officer a civilian, a doctor representing the Federation equivalent of the World Health Organisation and/or Medicins San Frontieres? This could mean she'd be thrown up against the CO and XO with there differing and potentially more militaristic outlook.

It would give us an outsider character to the Starfleet crew - and the Bajoran factor could tie in, given she's already seen and helped the Bajorans (and, potentially also assisted in the rebuilding of Cardassia) she's got a vested interest in helping various cultures rebuild?

I say we go for it. I hadn't thought about that, but I think it's a damn good idea.

I'd also imagine the Shaleel angle could be confined to the pilot episode - we could run the alpha story of Captain Icheb and Commander Wolfe confronting the Shaleel whilst Doctor Tilan confronts the environmental disaster of unimaginable scale and the two end up being tied together?

Sounds good to me.

 

[friedebarth]

Hey ho everyone, internet cafes are cool, i must say. I just had a look in to see how things are going, and i stumbled upon this post:

Some further thoughts - an amalgamation of peoples ideas:

STAR TREK: GAMMA QUADRANT

It is 2390, about fourteen years after the end of DS9 and ten after Voyagers return, the USS Aventine, possibly Hannibal Class ( http://www.starshipdatalink.net/art/images/dv-5.gif ), is one of several ships sent into the Gamma Quadrant to explore, colonise and provide humanitarian aide to species previously under the rule of the Dominion, who have withdrawn to a new planet in a secure nebula. Starfleet place command of the Aventine in the hands of the brilliant Captain Icheb (Jonathan Togo) who, at 30, is one of the youngest Captains to grace Starfleet and Commander Marcus Wolfe (Jeffrey Combs) who at the age of 60 resents Starfleet for never having granted him a command of his own. These two men, their ship and their crew, will come across a planet ravaged by an environmental disaster of proportions previously unimagined and, amidst the chaos, find the promise of the secrets of the universe promised by the mysterious Shaleel.

Sorry for jumping all further comments but I have to take this apart and say that this is quite far from what most people wanted (from my view, that is).

1.: I said 25th century. No one said "no", so why are you putting it into the 24th?
2.: Didn't everyone agree on inventing an own ship class?
3.: What the heck? Nobody ever talked about the dominion in this thread yet. And I took it that everyone was happy with helping federation to colonise planets in gQ.
4.:The ship name is still to be discussed, so let's go with USS XY in our sample texts, summaries and other posts.
5.: You put other names in brackets. Do you mean the actors by this? I personally don't like that concept, without actors we can design the look of our cast ourselves. And remember: We're writing something, not filming or producing it.
6.: The last idea, concerning the plot, is completely new. You just took your ideas there - and ignored others's.

Don't take this critic personally, it's just way off from what I understood people (yes, also including me and you) wanted. Best would be to let someone who didn't make any proposals and didn't have anything to do with this write a summary, because else I think this'll suffer self-bias.

 

[tenmei]

You asked for ideas, you asked for pitches - I was amalgamating what we had all said and trying to put it into one pitch with as many ideas from as many people as we could muster. If you also care to check the time stamp, the project had stalled for two days and my post gave it a kick up the arse that it needed - and I ask, did you REALLY read all of the posts before and after this one?

1.: I said 25th century. No one said "no", so why are you putting it into the 24th?

We, I believe, agreed to keep the time period open. And, nobody has said 'no' since my pitch proposed the time period.

2.: Didn't everyone agree on inventing an own ship class?

And that's what we've done here - the picture I provided was a picture for a ship they were going to use for the Voyager design that I thought looked cool so I was proposing we use that design. If people don't want to use it, then fine - and, as for the name, it was just a name I was tossing out there. If you'd actually cared to look at anything PAST the post you quoted, you'd see we've changed the name and changed the class - the ship could be called the Challenger (suggested by Vixen) and it could be a Galaxy Class ship (given the Galaxy Class Challenger exists in the Trek-verse) as that suits the mission.

3.: What the heck? Nobody ever talked about the dominion in this thread yet. And I took it that everyone was happy with helping federation to colonise planets in gQ.

I believe I mentioned elsewhere that the Dominion would have had to vanish before the Federation could just sweep into the Gamma Quadrant wholesale and try and set up colonies. I mentioned the vanishing of the Changelings as I believed they needed to mysteriously vanish, removed from the equation, to be able to set up colonies and, also, to allow the Federation to go in and help planets previously under their rule.

4.:The ship name is still to be discussed, so let's go with USS XY in our sample texts, summaries and other posts.

If you check the other posts, Vixen has suggested the name of the ship is Challenger, which I like. I suggested a couple, she suggested a couple and then said she really liked Challenger - which I also like - so we're currently using that one.

5.: You put other names in brackets. Do you mean the actors by this? I personally don't like that concept, without actors we can design the look of our cast ourselves. And remember: We're writing something, not filming or producing it.

Uhm, if we're 'casting' the characters then we ARE designing the look of the cast for ourselves. No need to be condescending either, I know we're just writing it and not filming or producing it - it's just when I write, I like to be able to picture the characters in my head (and when I read the novels too) so I always have a mental casting of the character which is what I had suggested.

Plus, the guys that write the novel series for Pocket Books, Star Trek: Vanguard, apparantly gave actors names to use as visual templates in the Writers Guide. There's a list, or was a list, on David Mack's website! And if it's good enough for Pocker Books, it should be good enough for us!

6.: The last idea, concerning the plot, is completely new. You just took your ideas there - and ignored others's.

Actually - no, it isn't. Read all the other posts. It was actually suggested by the guy who came up with Shaleel, Bill in this post:

http://www.trekbbs.com/showpost.php?p=1812753&postcount=22

I understand Vixen doesn't like the idea of the Shaleel, but I think there's a good idea in there somewhere about them, as does Bill obviously, so we should be able to work something out to make everyone happy with them.

 

[tenmei]

A big amalgamation of ideas from various posts on the board - so everyone should have had as much from their ideas as possible whilst this remains cohesive.


STAR TREK: GAMMA QUADRANT*


THE BACKSTORY


2389. DS9 sends a routine mission into the Gamma Quadrant, the Defiant under the command of Lieutenant Commander Icheb, which discovers that the Founders have vanished. The Federation Council is confused, but eventually they realise what must be done - a fleet is put together, with Challenger as her flagship, to enter the Gamma Quadrant, colonise it and assist the races formerly subjugated by the Dominion in recovering.


THE MAIN CHARACTERS


CAPTAIN ICHEB (Jonathan Togo) :- Brunali, Former Borg. Brilliant scientist, fresh faced Captain. His work as XO on DS9 puts him in a unique position to command the mission - though some would disagree, claiming that he is inexperienced and naive.

COMMANDER MARCUS Q. WOLFE (Jeffrey Combs) :- Human, Sixty. Believes he should have been given his own command a long time before this and has grudges against Starfleet for that. Wolfe will need to earn a command and realise he shouldn't simply expect one.

DOCTOR TILAN SIANA (Susan Sarandon) :- Bajoran, Fifties. A field medic during the Occupation and later, a Doctor with the Bajoran Militia, Tilan eventually ended up working for Medecins San Frontieres Intergalactique and being appointed the CMO of the Challenger and the Director of the Humanitarian Mission who will often clash with Icheb and Wolfe.

LT COMMANDER XYZ** (Olga Kurylenko) :- Betazoid, Twenties.

Lieutenant XYZ** (XYZ**) :- Human, Thirties. A single father who may start as a recurring character but becomes a main character after saving the ship.


ALSO NEEDED: Security Chief, Science Officer***, Helm Officer (though Lieutenant XYZ could always start and remain as Helm Officer).


THE SHIP


USS Challenger NCC 71099. Galaxy Class - refit to function as part of the humanitarian mission, extended medical, cargo and dormitory facilities to accomodate partial planetside populations. Interior arrangmenet has large similarities to later starships such as the Intrepid Class with facilities for vastly different aliens - not unlike the Enterprise in the novel Ex Machina or the Titan in that series - and with radical, and experimental, new holographic communications devices.


THE PILOT


It is 2390, about fourteen years after the end of DS9 and ten after Voyagers return, the USS Challenger, Galaxy Class, is one of several ships sent into the Gamma Quadrant to explore, colonise and provide humanitarian aide to species previously under the rule of the Dominion, who have simply vanished.

Starfleet place command of the Challenger in the hands of the brilliant Captain Icheb (Jonathan Togo) who, at 30, is one of the youngest Captains to grace Starfleet and Commander Marcus Wolfe (Jeffrey Combs) who at the age of 60 resents Starfleet for never having granted him a command of his own. Against these two military officers is thrown Doctor Tilan Soria (Susan Sarandon), a feisty Bajoran civilian who is both the ships Chief Medical Officer and the Director of the humanitarian mission in the Gamma Quadrant.

These three, their ship and their crew, will come across a planet ravaged by an environmental disaster of proportions previously unimagined and, amidst the chaos, find the promise of the secrets of the universe promised by the mysterious Shaleel. Will our heroes have the courage to reject the secrets of the universe?****



*- or whatever we end up calling it
** - undecided information
*** - I suggest a Science Officer and not an Ops Manager, I never liked Ops Manager as a position and would like to a strong Science Officer on our crew.
**** - extrapolation that the crew would need to reject the knowledge offered by the Shaleel because they want to learn things for themselves and not 'cheat'.

 

[hellsgate]

I'm still convinced that Geordi Laforge & Morgan Bateson from "Cause & Effect" should have an appearance in the beginning, before Icheb's indoctrination as Captain. Just to keep things in-line with the Voyager episode the Challenger appeared in, when Chakotay & Kim went back to correct the destiny of their crew. Maybe a retiring Bateson passes the torch to Icheb, who will possibly pass it to Geordi later?

 

[tenmei]

I don't know if I see the point of Bateson and LaForge. I'm already thinking the pilot would possibly require a cameo from Kira and, potentially, Janeway too - a Bateson and LaForge cameo might proove too much.

Maybe we could slide in a LaForge cameo with our Chief Engineer being a former student of his (as it's ten years post-Nemesis, we could suggest he's now a lecturer at Starfleet Academy and married to Leah).

But I'd still worry about a pilot being cameo heavy which wouldn't let our new heroes a chance to shine.

 

[Dancing Doctor]

And the point of the pilot is to establish our new cast.

I'm not comfortable with having any more canon characters show up. I'm still very wary of Icheb as the CO, but I've gone along with it. However, with Bateson and Geordi being tossed in, it's a bit much.

I'm divided on whether or not to have an Ops Officer.

 

[tenmei]

If we prefer to have an original character as CO but with the same concept (ie, a younger potentially inexperienced CO fresh from serving on DS9) then I'm happy to remove Icheb and make it a new character.

Which would mean we could dump a Janeway cameo - and just have a Kira cameo at some point. I'm imagining the TEASER to the pilot would be the CO CHARACTER in command of the Defiant on a mission into the GQ discovering that the Changelings have simply vanished - with ACT 1 picking up a year later with the Federation deciding to send the Challenger in and the CO, XO and DOCTOR being pulled together.

I kinda like the idea of having a female Ferengi onboard. I was going to suggest her as Chief Engineer (unlike Scotty who was a miracle worker, the engineer bets people she can fix a problem - and always wins the bet) but she could work equally well as the science officer.

 

[Dancing Doctor]

If we prefer to have an original character as CO but with the same concept (ie, a younger potentially inexperienced CO fresh from serving on DS9) then I'm happy to remove Icheb and make it a new character.

Either way, I don't mind too much, but I am leaning slightly towards the original character, just because I like to have as much leeway creatively as possible.

Which would mean we could dump a Janeway cameo - and just have a Kira cameo at some point. I'm imagining the TEASER to the pilot would be the CO CHARACTER in command of the Defiant on a mission into the GQ discovering that the Changelings have simply vanished - with ACT 1 picking up a year later with the Federation deciding to send the Challenger in and the CO, XO and DOCTOR being pulled together.

I like this idea.

I kinda like the idea of having a female Ferengi onboard. I was going to suggest her as Chief Engineer (unlike Scotty who was a miracle worker, the engineer bets people she can fix a problem - and always wins the bet) but she could work equally well as the science officer.

I can switch the Betazoid over to Ops or Science and have the female Ferengi be the Chief Engineer, which sounds a lot cooler just because we'd have a Bralik-like character.

 

[Dancing Doctor]

If we prefer to have an original character as CO but with the same concept (ie, a younger potentially inexperienced CO fresh from serving on DS9) then I'm happy to remove Icheb and make it a new character.

Either way, I don't mind too much, but I am leaning slightly towards the original character, just because I like to have as much leeway creatively as possible.

Which would mean we could dump a Janeway cameo - and just have a Kira cameo at some point. I'm imagining the TEASER to the pilot would be the CO CHARACTER in command of the Defiant on a mission into the GQ discovering that the Changelings have simply vanished - with ACT 1 picking up a year later with the Federation deciding to send the Challenger in and the CO, XO and DOCTOR being pulled together.

I like this idea.

I kinda like the idea of having a female Ferengi onboard. I was going to suggest her as Chief Engineer (unlike Scotty who was a miracle worker, the engineer bets people she can fix a problem - and always wins the bet) but she could work equally well as the science officer.

I can switch the Betazoid over to Ops or Science and have the female Ferengi be the Chief Engineer, which sounds a lot cooler just because we'd have a Bralik-like character.

 

[tenmei]

Cool

So, if we go with an original character for CO, do we want to go with Human or Alien? And if we go with an alien, any thoughts on his race?

 

[Dancing Doctor]

I'd avoid a joined Trill, just because it would take away from the "unexperienced" aspect of the character, somewhat.

Hermat might be interesting.

 

[tenmei]

Hermat would be cool. We'd probably get all confused about the words to use when referring to hir though!

 

[Dancing Doctor]

Probably.

 

[tenmei]

And we d need someone a bit less muscular than Togo to play the character. Perhaps the guy who plays Chuck in the show of the same name, Zachary Levi, would be a good candidate for the role if we go with a Hermat.

I'd also suggest Debra Jo Rupp, Kitty Foreman from That 70's Show, as the Ferengi engineer.

We need a Security Chief and I'd love a female alien in the role - it would mean we'd have more aliens than Humans and more females than males in our regular characters.

So, are we looking at this as:

CO - Hermat (Zachary Levi ?)
XO - Human Male (Jeffrey Combs)
CMO - Bajoran Female (Susan Sarandon)
Engineer - Ferengi Female (Debra Jo Rupp ?)
Science - Betazoid Female (Olga Kurylenko)
Helm - Human Male (Jonathan Togo ?)*
Security - TBC (TBC ?)

 

[Dancing Doctor]

I like Zachary Levi for the Hermat CO.

I also like Jonathan Togo for Helm as well.

Debra Jo Rupp would be a great Ferengi! Starfleet, or Officer Exchange Program (possibly?)

Either a Vulcan or a Caitian or an Andorian for the Security Chief position, I think.

If it's a Vulcan, then Aishwara Rai would be a good choice.

For Andorian, then Cecile de France.

Caitian is the only one that's stumping me, since it's hard to imagine someone looking like a giant cat.

 

[tenmei]

Hmmm. I'll think on it. Maybe we could leave that character open for anyone else who wants to contribute?