If You Created a Cheap Star Trek Knockoff...

Discussion in 'General Trek Discussion' started by uniderth, Mar 25, 2020.

  1. hbquikcomjamesl

    hbquikcomjamesl Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Happens in music all the time. Wendy Carlos recycled the rejected cue she'd written for the "Light Cycles" scene in TRON into a movement for her Moonscapes suite. Bach took the prelude from his E-Flat Major Partita for unaccompanied violin, transposed it down a full tone, transcribed it for organ, and added parts for trumpets, oboes, strings, and timpani; the result became the Sinfonia in his Cantata No. 29 ("We Thank Thee, God, We Thank Thee").

    But to return to the topic, Johnny Carson came up with the perfect title for a low-budget science fiction project, decades ago: Star Dreck.
     
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  2. Agony_Boothb

    Agony_Boothb Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I would call mine 'Star Travels' and it would be about the Starship Explorer under the command of Robert Trafalgar. Each episode would open with the following voice over: 'The Galaxy, the last unknown. These are the travels of the Starship Explorer. It's 6 year mission: to investigate bizarre new planets. To find new aliens and new societies. To bravely travel where not so many have travelled before!'
     
  3. trekshark

    trekshark Captain Captain

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    Fox is weird with scifi. They'll greenlight something then ditch it. Firefly and space above and beyond for example
     
  4. Greg Cox

    Greg Cox Admiral Premium Member

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    "Samsara." Appeared in an issue of the official FARSCAPE magazine back in the day.

    But, yeah, former Borg with ugly past isn't all that hard to turn into former Peacekeeper with ugly past. And both Seven and Aeryn are pretty blunt, hard-edged characters who aren't particularly comfortable with diplomacy and sentiment.
     
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  5. fireproof78

    fireproof78 Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I might have that. If I do will you autograph it?
     
  6. Greg Cox

    Greg Cox Admiral Premium Member

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    Sure! I'd be happy to.
     
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  7. MAGolding

    MAGolding Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    If I write a parody or sataire of something, I have some naming restrictions I want to follow. I wouldn't use "Klargon" as a take off of Klingon, because I see no obvious jokes with "Klarg".

    With the name "Klingon" I could write a joke like this:

    Federation kid number one: "What do you call a dead Klingon?".

    Federation kid number two: "A good Klingon?"

    Federation kid number three: "Anything you want to?"

    Federation kid number one : "A clung-gone! Ha! Ha!":

    So if doing a story based on Star Trek i would try to modify names of people, places, things, etc. in various ways and try to think of various jokes and puns that could be made about various versions of a name. I would want to have puns and jokes listed for most of the names I would finally use.

    And sometimes I might think of a second name that reminds me of the first, and then of a third named connected in some way to the second, and then of a forth name with something in common with the third, And keep a list of all the links so that as I write I remember who and what everything is based on.
     
    Last edited: Mar 28, 2020
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  8. uniderth

    uniderth Commodore Commodore

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    Great ideas everyone. It's interesting to see the different ways people would rename and change things.

    I think I'm might call my ship the IJSS INTERPOSE IVGG-ITOI

    Depending on the font used that could get pretty close.

    Find and Replace All.
     
  9. Ralphis

    Ralphis Captain Captain

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    Anyone watch Black Mirror? The USS Callister episode. Gosh damn! Those sets! Those Uniforms! Man alive! I almost, kind of, sort of, somewhat wish that's what Discovery did with their designs. Almost. But anyway, I'd watch a series based on those USS Callister simulations Jesse Plemons' character was running (can't remember the name and too lazy to look it up.) The ones based more on TOS, not at the end of the episode where it was updated to Black Mirror Kelvin Timeline aesthetics.
     
  10. Maurice

    Maurice Snagglepussed Admiral

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    Alien Nation.
     
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  11. Orphalesion

    Orphalesion Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I'd basically do Riverdale in Space, so the whole crew consists of teenagers played by, and behaving like 25 year olds.
    The uniforms would all show off the arms (male) or cleavage (female), maybe they'd even be patterned after cheerleader uniforms which the show would be trying to sell as ironic.
    The main meat of the show would be love-triangles (will Captain Tyler choose good girl Doctor Madysyn or the bad girl space pirate?) and inexplicable, nonsensical events and "reveals" (First Officer Kylie is really an alien spy! No wait, that was just her evil twin! No wait that was her disguised as her evil twin, pretending to be an alien spy!) and somehow the captain would tear his shirt in every episode so that he can show off his abs.
    Oh and there'd be several musical episodes per season.

    To keep with the naming convention of this type of show I'd just name it "Space" and the tagline would be "In the Darkness of Space, pray that nobody will discover your Secrets!"
     
  12. valkyrie013

    valkyrie013 Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    They did.. its called Another Life on Netflix.. and it is the WORST.. it has every trope imaginable.. with a crew that you would cheer if the air seals blew and spaced everyone... :)

    Recycling isn't limited to writers, etc. As a 3d guy i have a ton of assets that I recycle to other things :)
     
  13. JonnyQuest037

    JonnyQuest037 Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Supposedly Bryan Fuller wanted to do more of a retro look to Discovery before he pulled back from the series.
     
  14. Silvercrest

    Silvercrest Vice Admiral Admiral

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    So, it was both "slash" and "slush" at the same time?

    I always wanted to see "The Protracted Man" onscreen.

    Was the Summer Glau connection intentional or unintentional?
     
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  15. Shaka Zulu

    Shaka Zulu Commodore Commodore

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    How fortunate (for CBS and CBSAA) that he didn't get to do it; sci-fi TV shows of the early 21st century need to be costumed, set-designed and shot as a TV show of the early 21st century is to be shot, not as if it's a show of the 1960's.
     
  16. uniderth

    uniderth Commodore Commodore

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    That is an awesome idea. I can't wait to not watch it.
    Well, there you go.
     
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  17. JonnyQuest037

    JonnyQuest037 Vice Admiral Admiral

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    IIRC, that was part of the creative impasse he reached with CBS. But I'm sure he was still going to shoot it as a modern television series. It was just going to be a bit closer in look to what had previously been established. It's not like he was going to try to literally shoot it like it was the 1960s, the way New Voyages/Phase II or Star Trek Continues did in their fan films.
     
    Last edited: Mar 31, 2020
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  18. Greg Cox

    Greg Cox Admiral Premium Member

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    Different Terminator, alas. This was a TERMINATOR: SALVATION spin-off.
     
  19. Dukhat

    Dukhat Admiral Admiral

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    From what I understand, Fuller's original idea was an anthology showing different periods in Trek history, so the TOS/pre-TOS parts would presumably have been retro-looking to fit with that era, instead of the pre-TOS show with technology indistinguishable from the Picard show like what we ended up with.
     
  20. JonnyQuest037

    JonnyQuest037 Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Yeah, I think he wanted to change up the time period each season.