I agree Temis. It is strange that the clone wars series is best shot for redemption for Star Wars and Star Trek XI was the redemption for Star Trek. The two appear to have flipped genera. I do hope that Star Trek makes it way back to TV again. You know that as long as Lucas lives there is a good chance that Star Wars will return to the big screen, again and again and again. Next stop 3d crap, and the complete destruction of the OT. But I rant.
Section 31 series
- Thread starter hux
- Start date
Saquist
Commodore
Frankly I believe Trek has severely out grown the Roddenberry for better or for worse. Although I could still see a Roddenberry style series even now I have to check the temperature of the surrounding sucessfull series like the CSI, Alias, 24 and etc and it may be time to take SCI into a more...real (not just dramatic) concept than funny little ferengi and forehead aliens. There needs to be re struggle in the next series...real drama and real suspense so that Trek turns from enjoyable TV to Must See TV, to use a clique of old.
I would love an S31 series. It could still be adequately juxtaposed with the Roddenberrian Federation sensibilities as it weaves its way in and out of the loopholes of Utopian society in order to preserve it. It may also be interesting to see what it's like in the new time line started by the most recent film, viewing how Kirk and Spock would interact with it, either as a necessary evil, or something that must be crushed at all costs and the struggle for each side to assert its agenda over the other. Could make for some interesting political commentary, something that Trek is renowned for.
Without getting into a political sniping contest (not started by me, for the record) driving us close to TMZ/Miscellaneous-territory, many of the morally questionable policies and practices of the former administration have carried on to the current one, some seamlessly, some enhanced, making the production of such a show still relevant. GTMO anyone? --crickets chirping-- Yep. Thought so...
Yeah, exactly. It's ALL politicians, not just Bush or Obama or anyone else, and it happens all over the world.
The nice thing about the Trek universe is that, while the Federation is not perfect, it's shown as basically having the best interest of its citizens at heart (not just the governing elite) AND that it has STRONG guiding principles that are adhered to so strictly as to sometimes be a little WTF (Prime Directive, anyone?).
Section 31 is shown as an occasional aberration, a controversial little dark spot in all of that. I can get with that. It adds a little dose of depth and realism. But a whole series devoted to that mentality would get old fast. Like I said, just turn on the news. There's a such thing as fiction that's TOO relevant, IMO. For me, Star Trek is an escape from the crappier aspects of the 21st century. I wouldn't want to lose that.
I dunno...when it comes to Section 31 I like the mystery behind them. No one knows who they are exactly, where they get their resources from, who allies with them, do they have any ships? I show about them would ruin the mystery...though I wouldn't be against a mini-series. A few episodes which is more movie like than a full blown show heh
Relax Cupcake... it was a joke.
If we had just come off of eight years of a democratic presidency, the show would've been called The Gore Administration.
Like Mission Impossible? They go on missions, blow things up, assasinate people, stop terrorist attacks, etc? It would be better to have a Mulder type in there. Someone who bucks the system. Is at odds with it. Is concerned with what they do. WIth what he or she has done. You can have a Sloan type in there, but not as the main lead.
Though I have to agree that it just doesnt sound or seem like Star Trek to me.
Saquist
Commodore
I think there's a stronger possibility that Star Wars will continue on TV, in animated form (which gets closer and closer to live action quality all the time). If Lucas hangs onto The Clone Wars writing/producing crew, the writing quality doesn't need to suffer unduly. They could continue the story past ROTS and link up with the OT (hope that doesn't strike terror into anyone's hearts).
Star Wars could continue indefinitely without jumping back to movies, but Star Trek can't maintain its identity without jumping back to TV sooner or later. There just isn't enough breathing room for Star Trek's indepth characters and ideas in the movie format.
The real distinction of the Federation is that it's been artificially insulated by its writers from the dirty reality of how warfare and politics as they would play out even in the unreal context of interstellar empires (assuming all the aliens behave more or less like humans and all the empires like nations, which they do, so the same rules that applied on Earth will apply in space).
It doesn't matter if the Federation governs for the good of its citizenry and has upstanding values; it will still encounter situations where unappetizing behavior is called for, in the interests of survival. But the times Trek has portrayed this, it hasn't come to grips with the implications but rather dropped them and scrambled away quickly.
How about replaying In the Pale Moonlight, but this time the Romulans find out what Sisko and Garak did, and use it to extort territorial concessions from the Feds, who can't reveal why they're giving up territory and displacing their own citizens? How about a storyline like the end of DS9, except this time instead of tap-dancing around the notion that the Feds won a war through genocide, the writers admit it to the audience, even if nobody within the story admits it in public?
DS9 at least has already gone dark places, but just hasn't stuck with the implications of those storylines to any extent. In the case of winning-a-war-by-genocide, the writing was so fuzzy that it was difficult to see what the intent there really was.
Replay Sisko & Garak from ITPM, with the Sisko character being young and naive and the Garak character of course having been around the block a few times. So as not to upset the power dynamic (and make the wiser Garak type too strong), I'd have "Garak" also be brilliant but a loose cannon who tends to be drunk on his/her own power, and "Sisko" is assigned by S31 to keep an eye on "Garak" and restrain his more outlandish tendencies. Then it becomes a tug of war over who influences whom more, as the characters evolve within each other's orbit.
Hmm, I'm starting to warm up to the S31 concept. I think there are ways to keep it within the bounds of Star Trek after all. The bigger difference is that this is feeling like a two-person series rather than the usual ensemble.
Last edited:
Similar threads
