If you were in charge of a Trek reboot, what ten things would you change?

[Lord Garth]

Discovery could've and should've done better on that front.

A ballsy move -- ironically and unfortunately -- would be to have a Russian in the crew.

 

[eschaton]

Discovery could've and should've done better on that front.

A ballsy move -- ironically and unfortunately -- would be to have a Russian in the crew.

The worst aspect is the series is filmed in Toronto, just like The Expanse, which has done a bang-up job recruiting a cast which is both mostly stellar and truly global. The Expanse is a much more crapsack setting, but it does a much better job depicting the future of Earth as more than Space America/Canada than any Trek has ever done.

 

[uniderth]

My objective if I were in charge of this project would be to reboot the reboots. Starting with Enterprise (see my signature). I would keep ST-VOY history intact. Plus, I would do a lot of what has already been mentioned previously.

Hard Scifi - I think we've all dreamed of actually living on board one of our hero ships. I'd make Enterprise more of a hard scifi series to give it a feel that its something we actually could build.

No Transporters - I know some people think transporters are an essential element of Trek, but I think Trek is less about what technology is shown and more about the narrative and the universe it is set in. So ship to ship operations would be done with shuttles, docking, or spacewalks. All ship to surface operations would be done with shuttle crafts. Coming back up shuttles either need to be SSTO or use a rotating skyhook or something.

Artificial gravity - All artificial gravity needs to be acceleration or centrifugal type. Though deck plating style artificial gravity could be something discovered during the run of the series.

Basic Universal Translator - The translator would not be magic and be depicted as an actual piece of tech. It would need a pre-existing database and could get stuff wrong. I think there's a way you could depict "Darmok-style" first contact in an entertaining way, even if that means skipping most of the boring stuff.

Diverse Humans - I think that even as the world is becoming multicultural many people will desire to have an actual cultural identity. So we would see people of different backgrounds and philosophies that we may disagree with. I'd also mix some words in other languages as part of the commonly spoken English, kind of like Firefly.

Diverse Aliens - I would push this envelope even further by showing non-humanoid aliens as well as non-humanoid culture. We need aliens that have completely different values than we do and then show how we react to this different values.

More Advanced Aliens - Later in the series we would encounter more advanced alien that would help bring us technologically to the Star Trek we know by Kirk's era. So artificial gravity, transporters, shields, phasers they're all alien magical technology.

Human-centric - Rather than try and retcon Star Trek. I would show why humans are so common in the Star Trek universe. This would stem from two main factors. First Zephram Cochrane is the inventor of Warp Drive. Other species may have high relativistic velocity capabilities, or may have had FTL in the distant past. However, unless they have been touched by humanity, they wont have Warp drive. This will show that humanity was able to spread out much faster than other species. The second factor would be that as earth spread out it first founded an "Earth Federation" (as referenced in Friday's Child). The UFP later evolved from this, but even the UFP is still very Human-centric. The point of all of this is to tell the story of decolonization. We would be seeing humanity go through a time of societies breaking free from their cultural and institutional oppression. I think that is a very relevant message today.

Earth Cultural Struggles - I'd also like to depict a conflict in ideology between Transhumanism and a return to the natural way of doing things. Large sectors of society would want to use technology to move us beyond humanity, but other large groups want to to tone back the technology to bring us into harmony with nature.

Space is Big and Dangerous - While we take care to be careful in space, it should be a dangerous place. The audience should get this feeling too. Also resources are finite. The audience should feel the fear and wonder of being stuck in a tin can in the vast emptiness of space.

Complex Realistic Motivations - As mentioned by others I would do away with good guys and bad guys. All the characters should have good and bad elements and those elements should drive their actions.

Narrative Structure - I would have standalone episodes loosely ties into an over arching story. Similar to the way Firefly (yeah, I referenced it again) episodes tie together. You shouldn't need a "previously on" intro to keep up with the story. I'm going to binge watch it either way, so I might as well get more stories for the time I put in.

After that I'd reboot JJTrek into prequel adventures with Robert April and the launch of the Enterprise. And I'd reboot Discovery into a series about the Enterprise, Captain April, his crew, and their adventures.

 

[USS Firefly]

If I where in charge I would never do a prequel show again.
Just continue 10 or 20 years after Nemesis.

 

[Nyotarules]

I agree with a lot of what has already been written. I also feel strongly about the poor representation of human diversity in Star Trek. Either have Starfleet as a North American organisation - NASA in space under a still divided Earth or if there is a United Earth with the nation states running under a Federation style system, then be bold enough to not have the show dominated by White American males. Have more Captain Robaus and Captain Phillippas.

 

[C.E. Evans]

1. I'd move it into the 26th-Century.
2. Have the Eugenics Wars moved to the 23rd-Century and have it firmly established as something that nearly destroyed Human civilization.
3. Have warp drive be something that was invented in the 24th-Century by Zechariah Cochrane.
4. The United Federation of Planets and Starfleet Command would both be fairly new institutions, established only 20 years ago. Humans dominate Starfleet only because the other Federation races have still retained their own navies. As such, Starfleet is often regarded as "an experiment doomed to fail." Only a very small number of Vulcans, Andorians, Tellarites, and Draylaxians have signed up.
5. The series would follow the adventures of the Federation's first starship, the U.S.S. Enterprise, NCV-001, Enterprise-class heavy cruiser. Originally commanded by the recently promoted Admiral Heihachiro Nogura during its first two decades of service, it is now commanded by 29-year old Captain Robert M. Winter, the youngest captain in the fleet.
6. The Romulans are clearly the biggest bad guys, the biggest threat to the Federation and peace in the Galaxy. The Klingons--not so much, although when they do appear, a lot of shit usually gets blown up.
7. Warp drive does not move at the speed of plot. There will be a warp scale drawn up, and there will be strict adherence to it. If the Enterprise is really months away at high warp to save the day when Earth is threatened, then so be it. Other closer ships will have to save the day instead, and we will know of them (it is a fleet, after all).
8. While most of the main cast will be officers, most of the other Enterprise crew will be enlisted personnel, and it will be reinforced that officers are in the minority on the ship.
9. The Prime Directive now is a mandate to foster peaceful relations with non-Federation societies whenever possible. The Secondary Directive is not to let them kill you while you're carrying out the Prime Directive.
10. No holier-than-thou Humans. Yes, most 26th-Century Humans are more enlightened and civil than we are today, but there are still some assholes and good-for-nothings in the gene pool. Additionally, while there has long been no physical money in the Federation, electronic currency in the form of Federation credits is very much alive.

 

[Nyotarules]

^Yeah bring back money! Humanity has evolved to treat it as a tool rather than a god.

 

[lawman]

You guys have got some interesting ideas for a SF television series. The question is, what makes it Star Trek? Or more specifically, why make it Star Trek? It's a recognized brand, sure, which is handy for marketing purposes if you happen to own the rights to it. But in story terms, if you change as many elements as you're talking about here, from tech levels to timeframe to characters to the whole concept of how aliens are depicted, why not just make it a completely new property from the ground up?

Honestly, the only suggestions I've seen here that would improve a new iteration of Star Trek (reboot or otherwise) without making it something barely recognizable as Star Trek, are these...

• Starfleet needs to cease to be 90%+ dominated by humans. The Federation was always purportedly an equal partnership between many different alien races, yet virtually every time we see a Starfleet vessel 90%+ of the people onboard are human. I understand this started in part because the idea of Starfleet as being a multi-species organization developed over time, and also due to budgetary limitations. Still, either canonically find some way to explain humans being dominant, or don't show humans as being dominant.
• Similarly, Trek needs to depict the full scale of 23rd/24th century humanity. This means we shouldn't just see the Federation as "Space America" by way of whoever is easiest to cast as extras in California or Canada. Just sheer luck of the draw should mean the majority of humans in Starfleet (presuming current population trends continue) would be East or South Asian.
• In addition, Trek needs to depict far more multiracial humans. If humanity put racism behind them, one would presume that any stigma about interracial marriage had vanished. Obviously there would still be a lot of remote places on Earth where most everyone was from one background or another, but we know that a lot of Starfleet officers follow in their parents footsteps, suggesting there should be a disproportionately high level of people from backgrounds so mixed they're no longer any one thing in particular.
• I'd like a broader depiction of advanced alien races more broadly. In the Trekverse, it seems like nearly every alien race is either less advanced than the Federation, or within a few hundred years of development. Otherwise, they're just some godlike energy being. But the universe is 13.7 billion years old, and there should be many truly ancient civilizations which have not advanced into a higher plane yet are still as far beyond the Federation as the UFP is from a stone-age tribe. This would require developing a different sort of story, but it would offer up a great deal of story potential, given it would drive home that the galaxy is a huge place full of strange wonders built by the elder races.

• Have the ideas that "Technology might've changed but humans have remained the same" and "Humans are evolved, we're no longer the dangerous, savage child race" as the liberal and conservative ideologies of Humanity.
• Why don't we see far more advanced races more often? We used to see them sometimes in TOS but less afterwards. In Star Trek, the Prime Directive prohibits direct contact with Pre-Warp Civilizations. What if there's a similar version of the Prime Directive that Post-Warp Civilizations use? Most of them have no direct contact with Warp Civilizations because they view the Federation as being as primitive as the Federation would see us.
• No Good Guys vs. Bad Guys. I'd have antagonists with legitimately different points of view that are as well-developed as the Federation's and neither side would be perfect. I'd let the viewer decide who they want to side with and who they want to agree with. Maybe it would even depend on the issue. You agree with the Federation on one issue but with someone else on another.
• Equal representation of gender and nationalities among Humans. This should be a given.
• Choices would not be easy and the crew wouldn't be able to fix everything on a Planet of the Week in one episode. Nor would they try to fix something that's none of their business.
• Episodes would have a beginning, middle, and end but would be part of a season-long narrative. There'd be arcs within the Federation at large, the galaxy at large, and onboard the ship. It would be a living, breathing universe and I'd give that impression even if we don't see all of it.

• Diverse Humans - I think that even as the world is becoming multicultural many people will desire to have an actual cultural identity. So we would see people of different backgrounds and philosophies that we may disagree with. I'd also mix some words in other languages as part of the commonly spoken English, kind of like Firefly.
• Complex Realistic Motivations - As mentioned by others I would do away with good guys and bad guys. All the characters should have good and bad elements and those elements should drive their actions.
• Narrative Structure - I would have standalone episodes loosely ties into an over arching story. Similar to the way Firefly (yeah, I referenced it again) episodes tie together. You shouldn't need a "previously on" intro to keep up with the story. I'm going to binge watch it either way, so I might as well get more stories for the time I put in.

I see the bits I've pull-quoted as changes to Trek's storytelling approach, rather than changes to its core concept(s). I also see some common ground among them, which is interesting.

 

[Lord Garth]

In fairness, I would make something from the ground up but I figured I'd play ball.

I've been involved with independent films and I do write, but I usually write comedy and it's always whimsical. Even though I have ideas for how I'd like a sci-fi series to be, and things I'd like to see Star Trek do, I don't think my style would really mesh with an action-adventure version of Star Trek.

 

[Samuel]

Love the idea of getting rid of the transporters, or just make them useful for moving non living objects.

I once had the idea of the transporter not being able to transport high energy items. Like phasers. So landing parties if they were armed had to use sophisticated slug throwers instead of energy beam weapons.

I'll also note this. On hand phasers having stun settings. On humans and races the crew knew well it might be possible.

But its pretty ridiculous to have stun settings work just as well on aliens the crew has never encountered before. More likely would be the stun settings not doing anything or killing the target outright.

 

[Tim Walker]

I recall reading (I believe in The Making of Star Trek) that an early TOS concept had the crew carrying projectile weapons. This is the sort of marginal change that would be compatible with Trek remaining Trek.

 

[Timewalker]

Transporters? I agree they've become too much of a cure-all, but they're such an iconic part of the franchise that I don't think you could cut them completely and still call it Star Trek. Maybe make them so that they require a pad at both ends, so that the characters can't just escape whenever something gets too rough.

In that case, they wouldn't be able to beam down to any place that didn't already have a pad. You couldn't even beam a receiving pad down... because you'd need a pad already in place.

Yeah I would love it if Star Trek aliens actually spoke in their native tongue all the time and the translation was in subtitles. I loved that about the early DSC episodes. But I'm pretty sure I'm a minority there.

If I want to read Star Trek dialogue, I'll grab a book or head over to fanfiction.net.

I have very little patience with subtitles on TV.

^Yeah bring back money! Humanity has evolved to treat it as a tool rather than a god.

As far as I'm concerned there never was a time of no money. Picard just thinks there's no money because he personally has never needed it.

No cash? That's not a problem. A lot of places are moving away from cash even now. But that's not remotely the same thing as no money.

And there will always a black market and a smaller market for second-hand goods - both of which will use either cash or barter. When's the last time you went to a garage or yard sale and the homeowner had a debit/credit card machine handy for you to use?

 

[dswynne1]

In that case, it's not a "universal translator" it's just a translator.

Semantics. Also, you say that it works as "magic", but ignore the fact that, when dealing with different species, particularly those of the space faring kind, that the Federation would keep a data bank updated. Certainly, Vulcan had extensive dealing with various space-faring races BEFORE making first contact with humans. That is why I was very specific when I stated that, in spite of the "name", the UT will not always work. My phone service is from AT&T, but I live nowhere near the Atlantic Ocean. In fact, even on the show, the UT didn't work ("Darmak", TNG). Do understand that I know where you are coming from, but not having a "translation device that is universal in scope", would be unrealistic, especially when dealing with thousands of species being governed by a single entity: the Federation.

 

[uniderth]

In that case, they wouldn't be able to beam down to any place that didn't already have a pad. You couldn't even beam a receiving pad down... because you'd need a pad already in place.

Just drop a landing pod down to the planet's surface with a pad inside. But unless they had SSTO capability you'd have the leave it behind. Though, leaving pads behind could be beneficial for future exploration teams.

 

[fireproof78]

And there will always a black market and a smaller market for second-hand goods - both of which will use either cash or barter. When's the last time you went to a garage or yard sale and the homeowner had a debit/credit card machine handy for you to use?

Need more black marketeers in Star Trek

 

[Lord Garth]

I've decided to take the 1960s out of the equation by starting a thread asking what if Star Trek was created in the 1860s. Would people still believe it should strictly adhere to what was thought out 150 years ago or would they approve of retooling?

And what would 150 years of canon be like?

 

[Timewalker]

Just drop a landing pod down to the planet's surface with a pad inside. But unless they had SSTO capability you'd have the leave it behind. Though, leaving pads behind could be beneficial for future exploration teams.

Or detrimental.

For that matter, some species could come knocking at Starfleet's door and hand them a quadrant-sized ticket for littering or dumping their garbage.

I've decided to take the 1960s out of the equation by starting a thread asking what if Star Trek was created in the 1860s. Would people still believe it should strictly adhere to what was thought out 150 years ago or would they approve of retooling?

And what would 150 years of canon be like?

Interesting, considering how many people who starred and guest-starred on Star Trek also guest-starred in various 1960s westerns that took place in the 1860s.

I'm talking about Leonard Nimoy, Majel Barrett, James Doohan, DeForest Kelley, and many more... and those are just a few I spotted in the first half-dozen seasons of Bonanza.

 

[uniderth]

Need more black marketeers in Star Trek

I've been to a few where they have those card readers attached to their phones.

 

[Tenacity]

but couldn't even be bothered to make a single main cast member explicitly be from a non-American background.

But how many of the characters were explicitly from America?

IIRC, only Tyler was given a home town.

 

[eschaton]

But how many of the characters were explicitly from America?

IIRC, only Tyler was given a home town.

You're right that - similar to LaForge or Seven of Nine - some of the DIS cast could always be retconned into being not American. However, they didn't even really try.

Accents: Not only did they not attempt to have the American/Canadian actors who played human characters portray characters with an accent, Isaacs and Latif didn't use their natural British accents despite every prior Trek having had at least one character with a British accent. Isaacs choice was apparently his own, because he didn't want to be compared to Patrick Stewart, but we don't know why Ash Tyler was made canonically from Seattle. It's also important to note here that the show did make the actors playing Klingon roles speak in an accent (except maybe Kol - I don't remember him having an accent once the UT started working), so it's not like that sort of voice work was beyond the case. This is the first Trek since TOS to have a large proportion of the cast speak with something different than their natural accent (Troi's weird dropped accent in early TNG aside), so it's weird that it was done in such a way to make things more culturally uniform. Georgiou is obviously the exception, and very much appreciated.

Surnames: Most human characters in the series have very boring Anglo last names. Burnham, Tyler, Tilly, Culber, Cornwell, Landry, etc. Obviously there are exceptions - Georgiou, Lorca, and Stamets, plus extras like Detmer and Owosekun. However, overall the last names of the cast seem far WASPier even than what I was used to growing up in Connecticut, let alone what you would find on a ship which purportedly has a global crew. To me this seems the oddest oversight, because you wouldn't need to change the characters at all to improve representation.

Other: Lorca is almost certainly at least partially American by ancestry, since he said his family ran a business that produced fortune cookies, which are an American invention.

But yes, there is no reason not to believe that Burnham's family was from Jamaica, Stamets is German, Tilly is Australian, etc. Still, everything which has been presented onscreen seems meant to suggest that the cast as a whole (except in cases where it is explicit, like Georgiou) is of North American background.