Ron Moore on STXI - Capture the Spirit of the Original Series

[Carpe Occasio]

"If JJ and all would have asked me, I don’t know that I would have given them a lot of advice about Trek movies. I think I would have been more concerned with trying to capture the spirit of the Original Series. I am more interested as a fan of that. Going back and capturing that feeling of being on the frontier and being on the edge of something that was something that was part and parcel to the Original Series. I have been showing The Original Series to my kids now because they are getting old enough to watch it, and I am always struck by how out there by themselves Kirk, Spock and McCoy felt. The Enterprise was always a long way away from Starbases. Messages would take a long time to go back and forth. There was really a sense of them being out there on their own, with no one to turn to for help. There was a great sense of the frontier and the unknown and not knowing what is around the corner and only having themselves to fall back on. I think we kind of got away from that with the subsequent series. We started dealing with the Federation a lot. There were other starships involved a lot. Starfleet Command was never that far away. Even in First Contact you are going all the way back to Earth. There was a big battle with a lot of other starships involved. When you are thrown back in time you are on your own, but it is all within the context of a very populated Trek universe where there lots of other people around and lots of things going on. There is something great about Hornblower and his sailing ship out on the Pacific all alone far removed from the Admiralty and having to face down these ships that would loom out of nowhere. The wits of Hornblower and the strength of courage of his men manning the guns, I would have said that is the spirit I would try and capture for the movie."


http://trekmovie.com/2008/06/24/exclusive-interview-ron-moore-talks-movies-past-and-future/

 

[ChristopherPike]

I'm no big fan of his, certainly not his reimagined BSG... I don't worship him as the reinventor of Sci-Fi, as the majority of it didn't need radical rewriting in the first place... just a new influx of writers who honor not disown what came before. However, I do find myself agreeing with his sentiment. Trouble is, from what I gather this film won't be an exploration story. One side has Spock time-travelling, while the other sees each of the character's origins on Earth, Vulcan and meeting at the Academy. In that regard, it's more of a same old same old Trek picture, with several known quantities... a big bad with an agenda, Earth... or in this case - it's history in peril topped off with several ships likely Pike's Enterprise helping each other out.

When Moore describes modern Trek not being out there all alone, he's clearly suffering amnesia or has just repressed seven long years we had to endure with Voyager.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

I'm all for that, and I absolutely agree with Moore.

And I love nuBSG.

 

[RobertScorpio]

I'm all for that, and I absolutely agree with Moore.

And I love nuBSG.

Yep..I agree...Moore hit it on the nail. TOS had that 'out there' feel to it that none of the modern Treks, even Voyager, got

Rob
Scorpio

 

[Jon1701]

Yeah, I totally agree with RDM's sentiments as well.

In TOS Kirk had to make decisions on his own, you really got the sense that they were alone out there which we never really had in the subsequent series (well, except with voyager).

The problem with there being so much trek is that space somehow seems smaller. Towards the end of Voyager and Ds9 I felt like we'd seen pretty much all of our galaxy.

Which is pretty ridiculous really

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

The problem is that Trek treated the entire Galaxy like a local neighborhood with less cultural and political variation than, say, Takoma Park MD.

 

[RobertScorpio]

Yeah, I totally agree with RDM's sentiments as well.

In TOS Kirk had to make decisions on his own, you really got the sense that they were alone out there which we never really had in the subsequent series (well, except with voyager).

The problem with there being so much trek is that space somehow seems smaller. Towards the end of Voyager and Ds9 I felt like we'd seen pretty much all of our galaxy.

Which is pretty ridiculous really

Yep...heck, i read where it would take FIVE WEEKS to watch every episode, and movie, back to back...24 hours a day...SHIT..that's a lot of TREK!!

Rob
Scorpio

 

[Jackson_Roykirk]

from Ron Moore:

"...There was a great sense of the frontier and the unknown and not knowing what is around the corner and only having themselves to fall back on. I think we kind of got away from that with the subsequent series. We started dealing with the Federation a lot. There were other starships involved a lot. Starfleet Command was never that far away..."

I totally agree this is the reason TNG seemed very 'antiseptic' compared to TOS is that the Federation seemed to be almost all-pervasive in TNG; Picard and crew were just a small part of the Federation. While on the other hand in TOS, Kirk and crew usually WERE the Federation, not just some part of it. They seemed to possess the power to act autonomously. Things could get done alot faster and the solutions seemed more permanent in TOS -- Kirks solutions always seemed more final, since everyone had to live with themselves once the Enterise left orbit; Picard's solutions always seemed a bit tenuous, since he always had the federation to "have his back" once he left orbit.

The political nuances of the 24th century are probably more realistic than Kirk's black-or-white/right or wrong universe, but I don't always watch TV or a film for realism...I watch it to be entertained -- and sometimes that black-or-white world is much more entertaining than the more realistic one.


...oh...and RDM's nuBSG is the best drama on TV right now (well, at least it was when the season was still going). The first half of this last season was some of the most fanastic stuff ever shown in a TV series. While I can't wait until the series finale next year, I will also be sorry to see it end.

 

[Lonemagpie]

Let's face, to Joe Public - rather than us fans- Star Trek is Kirk snogging alien babes and having fistfights with the Klingons, Bones and Spock needling each other, and Kirk Spock and Bones joking about it afterwards. End of.

And if that's what we get, I'll be happy enough

 

[Irishman]

I'm no big fan of his, certainly not his reimagined BSG... I don't worship him as the reinventor of Sci-Fi, as the majority of it didn't need radical rewriting in the first place... just a new influx of writers who honor not disown what came before. However, I do find myself agreeing with his sentiment. Trouble is, from what I gather this film won't be an exploration story. One side has Spock time-travelling, while the other sees each of the character's origins on Earth, Vulcan and meeting at the Academy. In that regard, it's more of a same old same old Trek picture, with several known quantities... a big bad with an agenda, Earth... or in this case - it's history in peril topped off with several ships likely Pike's Enterprise helping each other out.

When Moore describes modern Trek not being out there all alone, he's clearly suffering amnesia or has just repressed seven long years we had to endure with Voyager.

I'm just hoping that the new trailer Enterprise is the alleged militaristic alt-ST version, and that at some point in the film, our patience will be rewarded with the old girl as she is.

 

[PKTrekGirl]

I agree with Ron Moore 100%.

But then, I usually do

 

[Sharr Khan]

I agree, surely hope this movie captures the spirit of a "wagon train to the stars" and frontierism.

Sharr

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I see what he's saying but ironically, TOS also is different from the other series in having more Federation presence. Kirk often dealt directly with Federation politics and care & feeding issues. He'd visit Fed space stations, colonies, research stations, mining operations and prisons. He'd ferry diplomats around on behalf of the Federation. He'd fix Prime Directive violations. And of course he defended the border from nasty aliens and stray doomsday devices.

Actual space exploration was a minor part of his job when you really take a look at the episodes. Even then, the unstated objective was to strengthen the Federation by finding new members. The fact that the Federation mandated Kirk's assignments so directly made the organization seem more real.

And the Hornblower example underscores why the Federation would be so important. In those stories, the British Empire was always the motivating force. Fight pirates and the evil Frenchies on behalf of the British Empire, etc. Hornblower wasn't sailing the oceans just for fun.

 

[Sector 7]

I agree, surely hope this movie captures the spirit of a "wagon train to the stars" and frontierism.

Sharr

I stated this before in another thread, but it is on topic here as well...
By Picard's time, he was a cog in the bureaucratic machine... like someone said, when Picard left there was the Federation machine to clean up any loose ends.
In Kirk's time, he WAS the machine! He was the Federation to many races and his actions had lasting effects.
While Picard was the diplomat, Kirk and Spock were the Lewis & Clark/old West marshalls. Their seat-of-the-pants diplomacy/adventure is the stuff from which good TV & movies are made.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I agree, surely hope this movie captures the spirit of a "wagon train to the stars" and frontierism.

Sharr

That's a misnomer (just like the idea that TOS is primarily about space exploration is a misnomer), because Wagon Train followed the adventures of civilian settlers, it didn't focus on the US Army who was there to protect the settlers. Envisioning TOS being like, say, F Troop (but minus the slapstick comedy) is more like it. There certainly should be more awareness of the Federation having colonies to protect, and for those to need protection because they are on the frontier.

 

[Sector 7]

I agree, surely hope this movie captures the spirit of a "wagon train to the stars" and frontierism.

Sharr

That's a misnomer (just like the idea that TOS is primarily about space exploration is a misnomer), because Wagon Train followed the adventures of civilian settlers, it didn't focus on the US Army who was there to protect the settlers. Envisioning TOS being like, say, F Troop (but minus the slapstick comedy) is more like it. There certainly should be more awareness of the Federation having colonies to protect, and for those to need protection because they are on the frontier.

Gene Roddenberry himself pitched ST to the network as "'Wagon Train' to the stars." This is where the quote comes from.

 

[pookha]

"The Enterprise was always a long way away from Starbases. Messages would take a long time to go back and forth. "

in some ways i agree with moore but he really has selective amnesia as far as part of the series goes.

yes most of the time there were out on the frontier and sometimes messages took awhile to go through.

but there were also times were communications were almost instantaneous even though help from another ship was days or weeks away depending on the story.

actually a lot of the stories started with enterprise ferrying something considered important (medicine, people) with an adventure interrupting the task.

 

[doubleohfive]

I kind of want Ron Moore to do podcasts for the episodes he wrote for TNG, DS9 and Voyager now. Given the distance of time since he was involved with those productions and given how seasoned a writer he has become, I think he'd have a lot of interesting insight to share.

Then again, I also want/hope/expect him to re-record new podcasts for all the BSG episodes in about ten years too, so take this for what its worth.

 

[Sharr Khan]

I agree, surely hope this movie captures the spirit of a "wagon train to the stars" and frontierism.

Sharr

That's a misnomer (just like the idea that TOS is primarily about space exploration is a misnomer), because Wagon Train followed the adventures of civilian settlers, it didn't focus on the US Army who was there to protect the settlers. Envisioning TOS being like, say, F Troop (but minus the slapstick comedy) is more like it. There certainly should be more awareness of the Federation having colonies to protect, and for those to need protection because they are on the frontier.

Gene Roddenberry himself pitched ST to the network as "'Wagon Train' to the stars." This is where the quote comes from.

Thanks.
My point stands since very often Spock and Kirk had to deal with things totally on their own in a Frontier manner.

Sharr

 

[Tralah]

Trouble is, from what I gather this film won't be an exploration story. One side has Spock time-travelling, while the other sees each of the character's origins on Earth, Vulcan and meeting at the Academy. In that regard, it's more of a same old same old Trek picture, with several known quantities... a big bad with an agenda, Earth... or in this case - it's history in peril topped off with several ships likely Pike's Enterprise helping each other out.

I agree—I don't think the exploration angle is going to play quite that large a part. I do think we'll see some exploring, quite likely, but this will be more of an origin story with some space exploration sprinkled in if the plot calls for it. I don't think a space exploration mission is absolutely necessary for recreating the spirit of TOS. There are plenty of great TOS episodes that don't have much to do with exploration at all. It's really the characters they need to get right in order to recapture the feel of the old show.