Nostalgia for the 24th Century

[BillJ]

If people are unwilling for the far future why not a 25th or 26th century Trek?

They were already at the point where the technology was starting to come across as magic, and the humans unrecognizable as humans. That stuff works great in novels, where you have the time to flesh everything out, I think it is tougher to do well on TV.

 

[Ralphis]

I'm split down the middle on this. I too came to love Star Trek through TNG in the early 90s. It was a HUGE part of my childhood. I would be delighted to see a return to that era.

But at the same time, I feel like Star Trek is at a point where it needs to appeal to the casual fan and the general audience. I love the TNG crew, but they're just not as iconic as TOS. I mean, the general audience may not know who Will Riker is, but they certainly know Spock. I think the more you can connect to the TOS-era, the better.

 

[Tenacity]

They were already at the point where the technology was starting to come across as magic

A way around that would be to showcase a ship that lacked the magic tech for some reason, or set the show after some event that made the magic tech unavailable to Starfleet and the Federation.

My perception is most fans frown on the civil war option.

and the humans unrecognizable as humans

While it's perfectly reasonable that Human society would change, perhaps substantially, by the time of Star Trek. Showing such a substantially changed society wouldn't make for a good mass market entertainment show.

A few subtle changes are okay, but the show basically needs to show modern day people in a future setting.

There were times that Picard and some of his "evolve sensibilities" came off as just plain goofy.

 

[TheSubCommander]

I was a fan of Star Trek TOS and movie era before TNG, and it did take through the first season of TNG before I accepted TNG as much as I did TOS/Movies. It was only by season 3 that I liked TNG as much as TOS, though. Until season 3, watching TNG was like watching Vehicle Voltron, when you are really a fan of Lion Voltron: was something to watch, but not nearly as satisfying. TNG has become as beloved to me as TOS and the movies. So yeah, I have nostalgia for the 24th century.

As for DS9, I feel what that brought was a continuation and expansion of the 24th century that TNG started. Since it has cast members from TNG, I consider it more or less a continuation of TNG. Maybe not quite at the level of TOS and TNG, but I do have nostalgia for that show.

Voyager,I like it and I do have a certain nostalgia for it, but not nearly as much as TNG or DS9. I liked the characters, its just that the plot development of the show just has too many missed opportunities for me to consider it as good a show as the others before it.

 

[USS Triumphant]

I'm nostalgic for the ST II - VI era - the look of the ships, the "monster maroons", the Klingons that looked alien and had a culture that wasn't just "biker gang at renfaire". nuTrek touches on elements from it here and there, but not enough. (I'm not counting the plot of STID, because they just got kind of weird with Khan and the Kirk death scene - not really what I'm talking about at all.) I do want to see more TNG era, too - especially post-Nemesis - but if nuTrek would bring in more elements from 2285-2293 it would make me happy.

Until season 3, watching TNG was like watching Vehicle Voltron, when you are really a fan of Lion Voltron: was something to watch, but not nearly as satisfying.

I realize I'm getting off-topic (except as a parallel), but *everything* these days seems to be freakin' Lion Voltron - when I guess I was that one guy that liked Vehicle Voltron better?

 

[TheSubCommander]

I'm nostalgic for the ST II - VI era - the look of the ships, the "monster maroons", the Klingons that looked alien and had a culture that wasn't just "biker gang at renfaire". nuTrek touches on elements from it here and there, but not enough. (I'm not counting the plot of STID, because they just got kind of weird with Khan and the Kirk death scene - not really what I'm talking about at all.) I do want to see more TNG era, too - especially post-Nemesis - but if nuTrek would bring in more elements from 2285-2293 it would make me happy.

I never understood why people feel the Klingons of the movie era are somehow different from the TNG/DS9 Klingons. When you think about it, they really are the same. We wouldn't have had the 24th century Klingon story lines we did without the movie era, as they were built on them. For example, Kruge would fit in perfectly with the 24th Century Klingons like Worf, Kern, Martok, or Gowron: he has a sense of honor, from his point of view he is trying to preserve the Klingon race because he sees Genesis as something that could wipe it out, and he is a strategist that thinks long term. And really, other than looking different and based on their limited screen time, the Klingons we saw in STID really didn't seem all that different.

I realize I'm getting off-topic (except as a parallel), but *everything* these days seems to be freakin' Lion Voltron - when I guess I was that one guy that liked Vehicle Voltron better?

It's not that Vehicle Voltron was bad, and really the story line was probably a bit more complex, but I was first exposed to Lion Voltron, so that has a lot to do with it. And, i suspect that is what most people would also say. It's just like that with Star Trek, too: there are people who prefer Voyager or Enterprise to other versions of Star Trek, because that is what they first were exposed to.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

I don't particularly miss the 24th century. After 3 TV shows set during that era that all lasted for seven seasons, I feel like it was pretty well mined. I don't find myself wanting to know a great deal more about most of the characters, either. I find the 23rd century much more intriguing, largely because there are still big unknowns about both the era and the TOS characters.

Of course, I'd love to see Star Trek leap forward again, too. What will the 25th or 26th centuries be like? How will Starfleet and the galaxy have changed?

 

[Emperor Norton]

Of course, I'd love to see Star Trek leap forward again, too. What will the 25th or 26th centuries be like? How will Starfleet and the galaxy have changed?

I would go in for a further future, if it felt "cozy", if that makes any sense. The Enterprise D felt like you could live on it, and Deep Space Nine was not exactly perfect to human standards but it felt the same, like people could and did live there. A lot of recent scifi, and I would fear this would be true of a prospective future series, live in very sterile environments of basic colors and blue screens that would burn your eyes out. Not to lambast the reboot film series, but it feels like you would get a headache from walking the corridors. I don't feel like the Enterprise-E would be the most comfortable ship to live on, for that matter.

 

[Emperor Norton]

I'm nostalgic for the ST II - VI era - the look of the ships, the "monster maroons", the Klingons that looked alien and had a culture that wasn't just "biker gang at renfaire". nuTrek touches on elements from it here and there, but not enough. (I'm not counting the plot of STID, because they just got kind of weird with Khan and the Kirk death scene - not really what I'm talking about at all.) I do want to see more TNG era, too - especially post-Nemesis - but if nuTrek would bring in more elements from 2285-2293 it would make me happy.

I realize I'm getting off-topic (except as a parallel), but *everything* these days seems to be freakin' Lion Voltron - when I guess I was that one guy that liked Vehicle Voltron better?

The Motion Picture era was also a key part of that 90s TNG golden age era. The Star Trek of the moment was the Next Generation, but when you thought of Star Trek as the megalithic legendary tome, it was people in red military uniforms. If there were a comic book about Kirk and crew, or a video game, it was going to be mostly them during the TWOK uniform era. That's where the bookmark was left on Kirk, so that was Captain Kirk. So that is a big part of the nostalgia as well.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Of course, I'd love to see Star Trek leap forward again, too. What will the 25th or 26th centuries be like? How will Starfleet and the galaxy have changed?

Either they'd embrace everything they've learned (transwarp beaming, commbage-sized transporters, Borg nanites curing death, godmode armour etc) and it'd be a very different Trek, or they'd sweep all that under the rug and it'd be exactly the same as every other series.

Most further-future Trek pitches I've seen involve some apocalyptic event mostly resetting technology to TOS era, anyway (like the animated Final Frontier)

 

[Emperor Norton]

Either they'd embrace everything they've learned (transwarp beaming, commbage-sized transporters, Borg nanites curing death, godmode armour etc) and it'd be a very different Trek, or they'd sweep all that under the rug and it'd be exactly the same as every other series.

Most further-future Trek pitches I've seen involve some apocalyptic event mostly resetting technology to TOS era, anyway (like the animated Final Frontier)

It lies between two problems, but I think it is a problem of creative vision not inherent to the franchise but to the people who have recently tried to conceive of where it could go. The problem with the so-advanced-it's-unrecognizable future proposed by certain parties is precisely that it is not recognizable and does not establish a relationship with the audience. Hence the many post-apocalypse, getting-back-out-there futures to make it human and relateable, except that dystopia and doom fly in the face of the Roddenberry vision that underlines everything. The future is always better somehow. But there really is no reason not to have a more advanced future and a humanity which overcame the hurdles of the 24th century while also a future and humanity that the audience can understand and relate to. You can have Bajorans and Cardassians working together in Starfleet while also running into conflict with whatever new order of things there may be to provide conflict.

And honestly, the dirty little secret of Star Trek is that it is not it's own future, but a projected future of whatever the present was when the show was made. Star Trek solved the problems of the 60s, TNG solved the problems of the 80s and 90s, and they played them out in metaphor on the screen. We had ended the Cold War and the Russians were our friends in space, but there were the Klingons. We had solved all the social problems of Earth by TNG and Israel and Palestine were friends, but there were the Cardassians and the Bajorans. It would only be a matter of taking issues of *now*, having them solved on Earth, but having them represented in the issues and conflicts of the hypothetical new series.

EDIT:
Honestly, if anything, going into the future and greater technology offers even more freedom and opportunity. The events of the past act as a foundation, while there is also the ability to take bold new steps in the story without having to worry about stepping on canon. I think that is an overhyped problem for prequels, but it is a consideration. And you can tell how the future of things the audience knows turned out. And say there is something like slipstream drive or transwarp. That means a ship can go anywhere in the galaxy, and maybe to other galaxies. That cuts back on the race against time as a plot element, but the show is mostly about where you have arrived rather than driving there. And racing to a destination could be a plot element. It would just need to be from Earth to the border of the Delta Quadrant in 4 hours or some other presently vast distance. It's all the drama you present to the audience. If you cast it as dramatic, it is dramatic.Technology in Star Trek is as much a plot device as science fiction: transporters get instantly to the action, viewscreens lead to easy confrontation, and all sorts of things that get to the point which the audience does not even need to think about. Any new technologies in Star Trek are just that.

 

[Emperor Norton]

A lot of my nostalgia is not just costumes and characters, and cultural stuff. It is what TNG meant to me. When I was young, I thought Ninja Turtles were real, Batman was real, and Star Trek TNG was the way things were. There was no money, there was no war, everyone had enough, everyone could get along, no one had to work a job, and everyone did what interested them and looked after one another, and there was a spaceship flying out there from planet to planet. And as I grew up, I realized that was not the case. But my personality is the 24th century human, and everything presently "just the way it is" looks so petty, and the way I live my life is to make that future the truth. I think that is important to young people, and I think it needs to be presented again.

 

[Queen Mab]

So I became a TOShead.

Isn't the agreed term TOSser?

 

[Makarov]

Feeling nostalgia for it? Definitely. Yeah I do miss the TNG/VOY era. That 80's/90's style seems a lot more futuristic to me and if anything I would like to see something set further into the future. I really don't think including Kirk & Spock is all that crucial for capturing a new audience at this point.

 

[Emperor Norton]

Isn't the agreed term TOSser?

I live my life in uniqueness.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I'd like to see post-Voyager stories as it's a shame to throw away all the world building done by 90s Trek.

 

[Galileo7]

I'd like to see post-Voyager stories as it's a shame to throw away all the world building done by 90s Trek.

Agree.
I am glad that Nemesis was one post-Voyager story complete with the now promoted Admiral Janeway.

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At the end of Nemesis with the 1701-E being repaired in Earth orbit in a drydock [ reminiscent of the 1701-Refit in drydock in TMP and WOK ] I really wanted more. I wanted another NG film with Picard's 1701-E and Riker's Titan on a joint mission.

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[Tenacity]

... and Deep Space Nine was not exactly perfect to human standards but it felt the same, like people could and did live there

It felt more like DS9 was some place you were only if you had to be there, it was never "home."

 

[Voth commando1]

DS9 never felt "homey" to me personally.

 

[Emperor Norton]

It felt more like DS9 was some place you were only if you had to be there, it was never "home."

It's a Cardassian space hotel. When lit in evil, like when it was Terok Nor, it is unpleasant. But human lighting makes it charming, I think.