Spoilers If you could change one thing about Discovery

[Ogrebear]

Move Discovery to the other side of TNG/DS9/Voy.

If we must, Burham could still be Spock's sister just have her as Sarek and Perrin's daughter born in 2356 so she is 30 in 2386 which is post Nemesis enough for explain some of the tech changes, also the deteriorating relations with the Klingons who gone all militant after the collapse of the Romulan government and have gone for a land grab, breaking relations with the UFP.

 

[Nyotarules]

Move Discovery to the other side of TNG/DS9/Voy.

If we must, Burham could still be Spock's sister just have her as Sarek and Perrin's daughter born in 2356 so she is 30 in 2386 which is post Nemesis enough for explain some of the tech changes, also the deteriorating relations with the Klingons who gone all militant after the collapse of the Romulan government and have gone for a land grab, breaking relations with the UFP.

You would have to retcon Perrin's ethnicity, have Burnham adopted or say a recessive ancestral gene kicked in to explain her appearance.

 

[Ogrebear]

You would have to retcon Perrin's ethnicity, have Burnham adopted or say a recessive ancestral gene kicked in to explain her appearance.

True, or they adopted her as per the show?

 

[The Wormhole]

Move Discovery to the other side of TNG/DS9/Voy.

If we must, Burham could still be Spock's sister just have her as Sarek and Perrin's daughter born in 2356 so she is 30 in 2386 which is post Nemesis enough for explain some of the tech changes, also the deteriorating relations with the Klingons who gone all militant after the collapse of the Romulan government and have gone for a land grab, breaking relations with the UFP.

I think you meant to say 2387.

 

[Discofan]

There is absolutely nothing that gets in the way of Michael being the adopted daughter of Sarek, no matter how you look at it, for example, Sybok was never mentioned until Spock was forced to justify his apparent betrayal to Kirk. That makes me suspect the people that are so insistent that there is, of having an unmentionable agenda.

 

[Dukhat]

So, granted I am not following the OP's rules, but here is the change I would make to DSC as far as having it be as close to what we saw as possible: simply have it take place post-TUC instead of pre-TOS.

Now the sub-changes:

1. Have T'kuvma and his followers be opponents of Azetbur's government, who fear that aid from the Federation will make the Klingon Empire weak and turn them into the Federation's lackeys.

2. Have the role of Sarek replaced with Spock, and have Michael not be Spock's adoptive sister, but the adoptive sister to Spock's son _______ (you fill in the blank). Spock already had a history of being a mentor to younger people (Saavik, Valeris), so a human raised by Vulcans as another ward wouldn't be an uncommon thing. So now with Michael and _____, we have two brand-new characters with no canon backstory to have to adhere to.

3. The trip to the Mirror universe wouldn't have needed the subtext of "we have to classify it because it was new to Kirk and Spock in TOS when they found it" stuff. Its existence would already be known to any Starfleet crew, just like it was known to the DS9 crew when they crossed over.


We already know that even after TUC, there wasn't lasting peace with the Federation and the Klingons until after the Narendra III incident in 2344, so DSC could conceivably take place at any time between 2293 and that date. Most of DSC's ships and tech could fit right in to a post-TUC setting as it is, and the difference in Klingon ship design would have been less drastic. Sure, the look of the season 1 Klingons would still be problematic, but it would have been an issue no matter what time period the show was set in.

There is absolutely nothing that gets in the way of Michael being the adopted daughter of Sarek, no matter how you look at it, for example, Sybok was never mentioned until Spock was forced to justify his apparent betrayal to Kirk. That makes me suspect the people that are so insistent that there is, of having an unmentionable agenda.

And since Sybok was never mentioned or heard of again after STV lends credence to the idea that perhaps creating heretofore unknown siblings out of thin air is not the most popular thing in the world to do.

And there's no agenda here. People either hate change, or deal with it and adapt to it. Very few people ever unequivocally like it.

 

[Discofan]

... Its existence would already be known to any Starfleet crew, just like it was known to the DS9 crew when they crossed over...

Are you sure? I remember that it was known of MU Kira who even knew about Kirk but it came as a surprise to "our" Kira and Bashir.

 

[Dukhat]

Are you sure? I remember that it was known of MU Kira who even knew about Kirk but it came as a surprise to "our" Kira and Bashir.

It's been awhile since I've seen the episode. You could be right.

 

[Discofan]

It's been awhile since I've seen the episode. You could be right.

One thing that intrigued me is that it was never mentioned on TNG when Worf traveled through all these parallel universes. One would think that if it was a known case then it would at least be mentioned when they discovered that Worf was from another universe, all the more since the quantum variance thing has been invented in THAT episode.

 

[Dukhat]

One thing that intrigued me is that it was never mentioned on TNG when Worf traveled through all these parallel universes. One would think that if it was a known case then it would at least be mentioned when they discovered that Worf was from another universe, all the more since the quantum variance thing has been invented in THAT episode.

I agree. I even remember watching that episode and thinking "I wonder if they will show an Enterprise-D from the Mirror Universe?" Granted, the situation was quite tense so perhaps there wasn't time to talk about the MU.

 

[The Wormhole]

Are you sure? I remember that it was known of MU Kira who even knew about Kirk but it came as a surprise to "our" Kira and Bashir.

Not quite. Yes, Major Kira didn't know anything about the Mirror Universe or even Kirk when Intendant Kira mentioned them, but Bashir was quite familiar on the subject. From the episode:

KIRA: Have you ever hear of a Starfleet Captain named James Kirk?
BASHIR: Kirk? Of course. The transporter accident. Read about it at the Academy. So that's where we are.
KIRA: That's where we are.

 

[Discofan]

Not quite. Yes, Major Kira didn't know anything about the Mirror Universe or even Kirk when Intendant Kira mentioned them, but Bashir was quite familiar on the subject. From the episode:

My mistake!

 

[Cake]

Let's see:

• Pike m
• Burnham f
• Saru m
• Tilly f
• Spock m
• Georgiou f
• Stamets m
• Reno f
• Culber m
• Airiam f
• Tyler m
• L'Rell f
• Leland m
• Cornwell f
• Sarek m
• Amanda f
• Number One f
• Detmer f
• Owo f
• Nhan f

Male = 8 , female = 12

So, what am I seeing here? Four more characters of which two have been mostly used as background bit characters (Detmer and Owo), and Airiam who was given the entirety of her backstory in the episode she was killed off in. In case you are wondering why I bolded some names, I went through the opening credits to see who the show claims as it's main cast, and it's four men vs two women. And on the male side, pretty much every male character had more and/or more important scenes than Detmer, Owosukun, and Nhan combined. This is not an exhaustive list, I left out people who had scenes as guest appearances (Poe, Tenavik, Sirana) and I left out Bryce and Rhys because they are barely characters, but I might have been able to claim Linus, because if Detmer and Owo count as characters because we've been given tidbits about them and not Rhys and Bryce, my sassy boy Linus should count.

Just one correction when it comes to the main characters it is worse with 5 men vs. 2 women. Tyler is a main character.

 

[fireproof78]

And there's no agenda here. People either hate change, or deal with it and adapt to it. Very few people ever unequivocally like it.

I do unequivocally like it.

 

[Dukhat]

I do unequivocally like it.

Good for you, then.

 

[Discofan]

I like change and that will never change.

 

[Vger23]

I do unequivocally like it.

I'm truly grateful that the franchise went in different directions after the Berman era ended. I find that the differences and changes are what keeps me interested. More of the same would have completely disinterested me.

Nothing I hate more than "Real Star Trek" quite honestly. Change that shit up, keep us on our toes!

 

[the Sisko]

1: Lower the stakes.

I remember the end of season 2, when pike was like "Lets go visit a newly discovered moon." I was thinking: I would love to watch 45 minutes of them visiting a planet, running scans, maybe encountering regular or advanced aliens (or even a scientific phenomenon) with stakes ranging from "oh no, we have to leave and not learn" to "Oh no, we may lose the ship."

2: If you are going for political drama, commit to political drama and intrigue
Sarek served as Vulcan ambassador for ~100 years. We have no concept of internal federation politics other than ST6 when Sarek had the ear of the president over Klingon matters. Play it up that Vulcan is a powerful force and Sarek's role is something more like Senate Majority leader (or Vice President). Have her trial be a cover-up for Sarek's role in pursuing war (have her mutiny be on behalf of Sarek, who disavows his vulcan hello play). Have the crew say in S1 about prisoner/specialist Burnham "It's only a matter of time before she is running the ship, you know who her dad is" to have her relative position in the Federation mirror her role as crown princess in the mirror universe. This would also make ST3-4 play differently as it would in hindsight be obvious that Sarek was pulling all the strings. Rather than her speaking to Cornwell in S1's finale, have Cornwell with Sarek and Michael take the stand against her own father... and then have a more meaningful scene of him giving her rank back while acknowledging that they may not always be on the same side, the Federation needs her.

So much drama can be told by having war-hawk Sarek, a pacifist Andorian Ambassador, the Federation president, Admiral Anderson/Cornwell and Leland meet, discuss and negotiate things.

 

[Discofan]

The "newly discovered moon" bit puzzles me. I mean even now we're able to find exoplanets (by the hundreds) as far as a thousand of light years away (with the new orbital telescope that is) and they're elaborating methods to find moons!! By the time of Pike, a single scan of a sector should tell you all the moons there are!

 

[fireproof78]

The "newly discovered moon" bit puzzles me. I mean even now we're able to find exoplanets (by the hundreds) as far as a thousand of light years away (with the new orbital telescope that is) and they're elaborating methods to find moons!! By the time of Pike, a single scan of a sector should tell you all the moons there are!

That's funny, given that Reliant couldn't tell how many planets were in a system!