New series with old recurring characters, could it work?

[JesterFace]

Reading some stuff in the 'Voyager' forum got me thinking when characters like Shelby and Laren were suggested as regular characters in VGR.

What if.... Unlike in 'Picard' that has a TNG main character at the helm there would be a new Star Trek series with some known recurring or guest characters from previous series?
Captain Shelby from 'The Best of Both Worlds'
First officer Jellico from 'Chain of Command' who has been thrown down in ranks after some questionable actions as captain. He is really pissed off about it and tries to prove he was right all along.
Science officer Aquiel Uhnari from 'Aquiel'.
Security officer Ishara Yar, from 'Legacy', "rebel" who joined Starfleet eventually.
Ro Laren in some role after realizing the Maquis thing was a mistake?
Admiral Nechayev gives them tough assignments and Shelby doesn't always agree with her.
Then few completely new characters to join the main cast.
Then, Q makes an appearance or two.
Something old, something new.
Who else could appear?

 

[The Wormhole]

I really don't see a TV show with a cast consisting of one-shot guest stars from a show from thirty years ago, but maybe that's just me.

 

[JesterFace]

I really don't see a TV show with a cast consisting of one-shot guest stars from a show from thirty years ago, but maybe that's just me.

The good side for the creative team would be that introductions aren't necessary. But the problem could also be that what if the new audience hasn't watched the earlier series? Reruns before new series with certain characters? Season 1 could be a miniseason with introductions to the characters with the episodes they're in.
But at least there would be backstory to the characters. These days when it seems like seasons are getting shorter(?) there isn't much time to introduce new characters.

 

[BillJ]

I really don't see a TV show with a cast consisting of one-shot guest stars from a show from thirty years ago, but maybe that's just me.

Also, all these folks are twenty five years older than the last time they wore a spacesuit. Ronny Cox is 82.

 

[The Wormhole]

But at least there would be backstory to the characters.

Not much of one. Most of these characters you mentioned were one-shot guest appearances. Shelby is an ambitious career driven officer specializing in tactical and developing anti-Borg defenses. Jellico is a stern commanding officer with specialized experience dealing with Cardassians. Aquiel is a troubled officer wrongly accused of a murder her dog committted And given that you'd have to spend this series explaining what they'd been up to for the past thirty years, it's kind of like starting off with new characters anyway.

 

[JesterFace]

Maybe known characters would create a feeling of familiarity.
Instead of something completely new people might feel like they're more part of the new series.

 

[BillJ]

Maybe known characters would create a feeling of familiarity.

Already have Lower Decks and Strange New Worlds for that. Not to mention that Picard and Discovery also drown in nostalgia.

 

[The Wormhole]

Maybe known characters would create a feeling of familiarity.
Instead of something completely new people might feel like they're more part of the new series.

A show about Shelby, Jellico and Aquiel would not create much of a sense of familiarity. Really, there's so little established about those characters comparatively speaking that it would still feel completely new.

And really, what a random gathering. Two of the prominent guest stars from TNG's most popular episodes and the titular character from one of TNG's most forgettable episodes.

 

[JesterFace]

A show about Shelby, Jellico and Aquiel would not create much of a sense of familiarity. Really, there's so little established about those characters comparatively speaking that it would still feel completely new.

And really, what a random gathering. Two of the prominent guest stars from TNG's most popular episodes and the titular character from one of TNG's most forgettable episodes.

People in the original post were just suggestions, that's why I wrote "Who else could appear?"
Feel free to create your own list.

 

[Jayson1]

Depends on the character. Ro would work because Forbes is talented and has shown some success away from Trek.

A Garak show I think would also work because it's Garak. Put Garak in a show with even more edge than DS9 then watch out.

Captain Garrett from the Enterprise B but I think you would need to recast for more of a bigger name. Plus you don't even need to see that episode. All you need to know is here is some adventures from a previous Enterprise and here is the Ships Captain.


Jason

 

[JesterFace]

NOTICE - the original post has just people I thought of.
A series with this idea behind it, known characters in a new series is the idea, not my selection.

 

[BillJ]

People in the original post were just suggestions, that's why I wrote "Who else could appear?"

The problem is that everybody in those shows are now 15-25 years older. If you go with the original actors, you have to explain what everyone was doing for the time inbetween. If you recast, you essentially have to reintroduce them and their various back stories. Which kills whatever you hoped to gain from "familiarity".

Anybody could appear, just does it really matter? Are fans really that big on more adventures of Edward Jellico?

 

[Jayson1]

The way I see it is if someone has a vision or passion and they really thinks it would work then maybe one of these show ideas would work even if it seems unlikely. I think this is something that if they were to try is to maybe do some test runs with something like Short Treks or Web Episodes. Remember when shows sometimes had those?


Jason

 

[Orphalesion]

A show like that, gathering some popular/interesting one-shot/recurring characters from TNG and placing them in their own show might have worked...in 1995.
Now it is much too late. I know I know they brought back Picard and Seven, but Picard and Seven are among the most popular characters Star Trek has created and they are far away from their old roles.

I mean just look at your selection, even if it is just an example. Your First Officer Jellico would be in his 80s. Your whole bridge crew/main characters would be in their 50s+
Not saying that older characters can't be interesting, but here the whole cast would be middle age or above and I don't think that works for a SciFi adventure like Star Trek, unless they were super-popular characters to begin with, like the TOS crew in the movies.
At most I could see a show having Shelby or Ro as the captain but otherwise having new characters.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

The trouble with this idea is some of them aren't necessarily good enough actors to be regulars, and if you recast them, most of them are near-blank slates anyway so you might as well just write new characters.

Shelby and Ro as others have mentioned could really work well. And I will add Naomi Wildman and Tom/B'elana's daughter as options.

Also, they could easily retcon Sito Jaxa to have actually been captured, and they faked the evidence of her death trying to escape, and spent years as a Cardassian prisoner only to be discovered to be still alive after the war. Then you have a character with years of torturous imprisonment in her backstory.

 

[The Wormhole]

If we're building a cast of pre-established characters who weren't in the main cast of the shows, and we're limiting to the pre-CBS era, than the problem is aside from DS9 most of the non-main cast characters in the other shows are just one-off guest stars, and you'd have to do so much work re-introducing the characters who only had a single appearance a few decades ago that it's like new characters anyway.

I mean, hell this approach actually has been done in the novels in which characters like Shelby, Dr. Selar, Robin Lefler, Nurse Ogawa, Ensign Rager, Sonya Gomez, Lt. Duffy, Captain Terrell, and so on in the main cast of their series, and they put just as much development into those characters as they do the new characters they introduce. Really, the only benefit to these characters is that they already have names and everyone knows what they look like. Otherwise, they're just as blank a slate as the new characters developed for the novels.

 

[JesterFace]

At most I could see a show having Shelby or Ro as the captain but otherwise having new characters.

That's one way of looking at it, the captain, for example Shelby, would be there and perhaps some other familiar face, rest of the cast could be new. There's no limit how many have to be old or new characters.

 

[The Wormhole]

That's one way of looking at it, the captain, for example Shelby, would be there and perhaps some other familiar face, rest of the cast could be new. There's no limit how many have to be old or new characters.

In that case, isn't that basically DS9? O'Brien shipped over from TNG, with everyone else new characters. Then later Worf joins the show.

 

[Orphalesion]

I mean, hell this approach actually has been done in the novels in which characters like Shelby, Dr. Selar, Robin Lefler, Nurse Ogawa, Ensign Rager, Sonya Gomez, Lt. Duffy, Captain Terrell, and so on in the main cast of their series, and they put just as much development into those characters as they do the new characters they introduce. Really, the only benefit to these characters is that they already have names and everyone knows what they look like. Otherwise, they're just as blank a slate as the new characters developed for the novels.

The novels of course have the luxury of not having to worry about the availability, age or skill of the actors. They can still write Ro as a young rebel if they so wish (at least I assume so, I have no idea how the Expanded Universe works in Star Trek).

That's one way of looking at it, the captain, for example Shelby, would be there and perhaps some other familiar face, rest of the cast could be new. There's no limit how many have to be old or new characters.

Well then you have my answer, ask Michelle Forbes if she wants to be Captain Ro and if she's up for it hire a completely new cast to be her crew. Though at that point you might as well just have a completely new cast with a new female captain.

 

[The Wormhole]

The novels of course have the luxury of not having to worry about the availability, age or skill of the actors. They can still write Ro as a young rebel if they so wish (at least I assume so, I have no idea how the Expanded Universe works in Star Trek).

They've aged up the characters from when they appeared on the show, as the novel continuity was set years after Nemesis. Indeed, Ro is the Captain of DS9 in the novels.

 

[JesterFace]

Ro seems to be getting a lot of love but I don't think she deserves a high ranking position. First she disobeyed orders and people lost their lives because of that and later she joins the Maquis. Not very reliable officer material.

 

[Orphalesion]

Ro seems to be getting a lot of love but I don't think she deserves a high ranking position. First she disobeyed orders and people lost their lives because of that and later she joins the Maquis. Not very reliable officer material.

Here we are at the point again where Star Trek is a SciFi/Adventure show made for entertainment, and not a documentary on military procedure.

 

[BillJ]

Doesn’t recurring mean “more than once”?

 

[Orphalesion]

Doesn’t recurring mean “more than once”?

Yup. It even means more than twice it's a "character that frequently appears from time to time"
TNG did have a couple of Recurring Characters like Ro, Barclay, Ogawa in the final season, Alexander, Q, Lwaxana, O'Brian.
I guess Guinan was also a recurring character?And Wesley in the later seasons?
But as I said out of them I could only really see Ro return to be a main character, if both Forbes and the creator really, really wanted it.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Ro seems to be getting a lot of love but I don't think she deserves a high ranking position. First she disobeyed orders and people lost their lives because of that and later she joins the Maquis. Not very reliable officer material.

Except it's been what, 25 years since the Maquis were destroyed? She's had plenty of time to redeem herself.

I would love if she got a cameo in Picard, and had to face the man who had faith in her who she betrayed.

 

[The Wormhole]

And Wesley in the later seasons?

Maybe? After Wesley TNG's main cast, he only had four more appearances, and one of those was an alternate reality.

 

[JesterFace]

Doesn’t recurring mean “more than once”?

I guess the infamous language barrier got me there. But I think people got the idea?
But we can also have this discussion in Finnish, I'm better at that, it being my native tongue.