Starfleet Academy Series
- Thread starter bbjeg
- Start date
Several characters could be included as guest stars in a new series, as any officer serving in Starfleet could be capable of serving in an instructor's role; however, I think the value of a new Star Trek series lies in the introduction of new characters or races. Cameo appearances by familiar characters are fun, but any series should feature strong regular characters, whether the plot includes the academy setting or another venue.
--Sran
The problem with a series set at Starfleet Academy is that you will have to do completely different types of stores than Trek fans are used to seeing in a weekly Trek series.
You can't have cadets out saving the universe every week without jumping thorugh some pretty big logic hoops and/or straining credibility. I mean how often do we see cadets/midshipmen at West Point or Annapolis out solving problems of national significance or saving the world in a heated battle? You don't. they're in classes studying, and don't even have time for much of an interesting personal life for most of their time in the academy.
Nope. Might work as a one-off movie, but for weekly Trek stick to active crews out in the Fleet.
You can't have cadets out saving the universe every week without jumping thorugh some pretty big logic hoops and/or straining credibility. I mean how often do we see cadets/midshipmen at West Point or Annapolis out solving problems of national significance or saving the world in a heated battle? You don't. they're in classes studying, and don't even have time for much of an interesting personal life for most of their time in the academy.
Nope. Might work as a one-off movie, but for weekly Trek stick to active crews out in the Fleet.
And Nemesis still failed.
It may be possible to offer a Starfleet Academy series that airs exclusively online. I like the idea of having ony a few episodes, perhaps no more than six or eight at a time. Rather than focusing on a crew, the series could be built around a small number of cadets, perhaps one in each year of the Academy's program. These cadets could be followed through parallel storylines, occasionally interacting with one another, but otherwise having their own groups of friends and confidants as they progress through their studies. The series would therefore function as a sort of online TV diary to give the audience an idea of what being a Starfleet cadet is like.
A similar idea would be to have a series that follows cadets not only through Starfleet Academy but also through Klingon, Romulan, and Cardassian military training using the same parallel storyline set-up. Maybe the cadets could be brought together in battle later in their academy careers to tie the storylines together.
--Sran
I'd say leave the Klingons alone, we've already had Worf and his struggle to balance Klingon and UFP beliefs. The first full-blooded Romulan (or maybe a Cardassian just a few years after the Dominiopn War) at the Academy would be interesting--I'd like to see this as a female character.
Wesley did it all the time.
Seriously though, it wouldn't be about big universe-changing stories, but more the relationships between characters, their own development and drive, and looking at the things from the perspective of those at the bottom (like in "Lower Decks"). All of which wouldn't be a bad thing for Trek, seeing as how the last two series were more about the evil-alien-of-the-week, resolving the situation with weapons fire, or large-breasted women in skin-tight catsuits.
Trying to get 20 episodes a year from the idea though might be a little tough, so they could try what we do over here and have each season at most 12 epidoes. The series would only have a run of 4 years, then if another series was developed afterwards then there are some potential characters to carry forward.
You mean the 90210 five series franchise (3 long term, 2 short) that resulted in 683 episodes? Yes, I'm sure no one here wants Star Trek to have that kind of success.
A Star Trek show that focused on character development first, and adventure second, would be fine with me.
Yeah, Adventure Sucks.
No one likes Adventure. Adventure is boring. Mr. Adventure never wanted Adventure. Lock up Adventure.
No one likes Adventure. Adventure is boring. Mr. Adventure never wanted Adventure. Lock up Adventure.
I'll be ok with that.
I guess Worf did that already, I just like Klingons.
I multi-threaded this. I talked about that here
^http://www.trekbbs.com/showthread.php?p=8232397#post8232397
I didn't mean to have this thread here but I like a lot of the ideas mentioned. Can modders merge threads?
Personally I wouldn't say so, I love adventure, but YMMV.
Now making the action-adventure the B-story, while delving into the main characters as the ongoing A-arc that would be cool. One of the complaints that is frequently leveled against Trek is the lack of character development. It often took the better part of seven years to find out much of anything about our heroes.
Nothing wrong with that. Worf's situation is unique because he was raised by human parents after Khitomer. It would be interesting to see how a Klingon raised in the Empire acclimated to life in Starfleet.
--Sran
that i'd like to see, the same possible situation with an andorian maybe....
I don't know if that would have the same effect because there are already Andorians serving in Starfleet. The closest we've come to seeing a cadet be the first of his kind in Starfleet is Nog, but even that was glossed over in a few lines of dialogue. He's never shown when he's actually at the Academy.
--Sran
