The Trek road not taken

[Fang66]

Aside from a predominately silver colour scheme in general areas, until its more colourful final season, I couldn't disgree more. The NX-01 sets looked about as much like Voyager as say, the U.S.S. Kelvin bridge does. I don't recall seeing LCARS anywhere aboard Enterprise, and the coloured graphics on touchscreens evoked TOS just enough. If that wasn't enough, they were mixed in with proper buttons and even sliders in some cases... of the kind found on the transporter.

I'm not talking about the things you mention. I'm talking about things like phasers, communicators, photon torpedoes, shields, warp drive, etc., all things that, while given buzzword names to make them "different" (i.e. phase pistols, photonic torpedoes, polarizing hull plating, distances to other planets being completely arbitrary, warping with the same speed and effects as the 24th century, etc.), they were pretty much the same as their 24th century counterparts.

I wanted to see nukes. I wanted to see weapons that were not particle-beam-based. I wanted that ship to travel slowly, not zipping around like Voyager did. I wanted the ship to have holes in the hull when it was attacked because there's no magical shields. I wanted communicators that looked like army walkie-talkies, not cellphones.

So, as the OP asked, that's what I wanted.

Why would they use 1940s technology? I agree on your other points however.

 

[lisa]

I wish they hadn't killed off Trip in ENT. I know the show was ending, which made it all the more upsetting. They could've let us believe he's off living a happy life somewhere. It was upsetting. So unnecessary.

I really just wish that show had gone on forever really. I loved it.

 

[Pauln6]

Valeris isn't Saavik in ST VI. I just wish she was, and understand all the reasons she wasn't.

Completely agree with you on this one.

I really wish that Star Trek: Phase II had been made instead of TMP. I think it would have made far more sense as a sequel to TOS than TNG did. (But I would still like to have had Star Treks II, III, and IV filmed, which would still have worked out fine if Phase II had been made.)

I would have been blown away if TUC had included Saavik.

I would not have minded if Phase II had gone forward including Decker and Ilia after TMP (maybe with some adjustment to the uniforms) although I think we can look to the first season on TNG to see the kind of tone it might have had. It's debatable how much longevity it would have had given the limitations of that kind of storytelling. The eighties was not renowned for its quality sci fi.

I'm still in favour of an animated Phase II series (to the point where I experimented with stories and genres on Youtube), although I think a NuTrek cartoon is as close as we will get now.

 

[CommanderRaytas]

I wish they hadn't killed off Trip in ENT. I know the show was ending, which made it all the more upsetting. They could've let us believe he's off living a happy life somewhere. It was upsetting. So unnecessary.

I really just wish that show had gone on forever really. I loved it.

You could always say it was only a stupid holodeck simulation. After all, everyone was horribly ooc.

As for me, I would have wished for Kira to be depicted as less of an invincible fighter. Not that I mind most of the waif-fu in televised scifi, but for fuck's sake, she won every single hand-to-handle struggle (except for one against a Jem'Hadar in The Search), even against guys who were a) much stronger and b) military. They had training and experience she didn't. It was downright silly and it annoys me.

Also, I wish they hadn't killed Jadzia and replaced her with that ninny. "Get out before I say something unkind" would have been my general response to Ezri. Blah.

 

[Forbin]

While we're at it, I wish Kira had kept her hairstyle from the pilot episode. that man-cut she wore later was awful.

 

[CommanderRaytas]

I liked her better with short hair. Why is that necessarily "manly"? Ezri wasn't manly, and she wore her hair very short. I think Kira's 'do from Emissary was godawful.

Then again, I don't like men who don't wear their hair short, so I guess it's a matter of taste.

My complaints about her exaggerated powers of waif-fu though are entirely logical and scientific.

 

[22 Stars]

I'm going to add one that still may come to pass in some form.

I wish that TNG got a better send-off than Nemesis. I know Brent has said that he can't play Data again, but in animated or game form, I would love to see a new TNG 'something' that involves the actors one more time.

Maybe after they finish the new PS3 game for the Trek 09 group, they can do a second game with the TNG group.

 

[22 Stars]

Also, I wanted to add that regarding ENT tech, and all Treknology in general, people often confuse the style or design with functionality. I agree the communicators should have/could have looked like large walkie talkies or something. It isn't that they would BE that technology, it would just be that the technology to commuincate from a planet to a ship would require something bigger than a pill box.

Just because our cell phones are the size of pill box, doesn't mean they as advanced. Have you called a ship in orbit from your cell phone? You can barely reach your Aunt Mildred in Hackensack.

I just think the style of the show, in props and ship design should have been more retro. It also would have helped if the writing of the show was better... but what can ya do.

 

[zar]

Have you called a ship in orbit from your cell phone?

These ones can: http://www.satphone.com/sat/satellite-phones-type/handheld-satellite-phone.html

 

[22 Stars]

^ Nice! I wanted a communicator with an large diagonal antenna! The comms in The Cage were bigger and clunkier than in the rest of TOS.

I just wanted them to go from that back 100 years, and give the 'impression' that it was hader to get that same or comparable tech in a hand held package. Certainly not something SMALLER than the TOS movie tech lol.

It's also an visual/prop sensibility. The classic TOS communicator was a beautiful design that inspired a generation. Anyone here clammoring for an ENT communicator?

 

[sonak]

I wish they'd been including gay characters, either regulars or not, at least by late Voyager or ENT, if not sooner. I wish they'd have either stuck with the TOS Prime Directive, or abandoned it altogether instead of making it a tired plot device with an arbitrary and incoherent definition.

I wish they'd have found a better way of stranding Voyager in the DQ than having Janeway be an idiot.

I wish that DS9 had remained true to its premise and focused on rebuilding Bajor and exploration of the GQ rather than becoming a war show in its later seasons.

I wish that they'd never have made the wormhole aliens literal Gods and Sisko a demigod.

I wish they hadn't killed off Spock at the end of TWOK if Nimoy was going to come back anyway, since it necessitated "wasting" an entire movie on a reset plot.

I wish they hadn't waited until season 3 to give ENT some direction.

I wish I could come up with a better way of starting these sentences than "I wish."

 

[Dukhat]

So basically you don't like Star Trek?

Yeah, I absolutely hate Star Trek. That's why I post on a Star Trek internet bulletin board; so I can tell all these deluded souls how shitty their shows and movies are.

Why would they use 1940s technology?

Who said anything about the 1940's? Doesn't today's military use walkie-talkie radios for person-to-person communication? They certainly don't use cell phones.

I just think the style of the show, in props and ship design should have been more retro.

Yes, that was the point I was trying to make. Plus the fact that Earth had sufffered a major nuclear war only a century previously; that would have almost certainly set back their technology (and it was made very clear that the Vulcans didn't help them in this regard).

 

[Mysterion]

Spock should have stayed dead after TWoK.

 

[Fang66]

I wish they'd been including gay characters, either regulars or not, at least by late Voyager or ENT, if not sooner. I wish they'd have either stuck with the TOS Prime Directive, or abandoned it altogether instead of making it a tired plot device with an arbitrary and incoherent definition.

I wish they'd have found a better way of stranding Voyager in the DQ than having Janeway be an idiot.

I wish that DS9 had remained true to its premise and focused on rebuilding Bajor and exploration of the GQ rather than becoming a war show in its later seasons.

I wish that they'd never have made the wormhole aliens literal Gods and Sisko a demigod.

I wish they hadn't killed off Spock at the end of TWOK if Nimoy was going to come back anyway, since it necessitated "wasting" an entire movie on a reset plot.

I wish they hadn't waited until season 3 to give ENT some direction.

I wish I could come up with a better way of starting these sentences than "I wish."

Can't disagree with any of that.

 

[Fang66]

So basically you don't like Star Trek?

Yeah, I absolutely hate Star Trek. That's why I post on a Star Trek internet bulletin board; so I can tell all these deluded souls how shitty their shows and movies are.

Don't take offence it was light hearted (maybe I should have used a )

 

[Fang66]

^ Nice! I wanted a communicator with an large diagonal antenna! The comms in The Cage were bigger and clunkier than in the rest of TOS.

I just wanted them to go from that back 100 years, and give the 'impression' that it was hader to get that same or comparable tech in a hand held package. Certainly not something SMALLER than the TOS movie tech lol.

It's also an visual/prop sensibility. The classic TOS communicator was a beautiful design that inspired a generation. Anyone here clammoring for an ENT communicator?

Some tech looked too advanced sure but communicators no, it could simply have been a series of aesthetic design choices for a completely mature technology, Ent is a 140 years from now even with a neuclear reset 100 years is a long time.

Sometimes things reach a technological peak and stay there forever or until the tech is replaced completely. The technology for landline phones remained essentially the same from the 20s to the late 80s early 90s when it actually became worse but cheaper ie disposable and is now pretty well obsolete (I haven't used a landline for at least 7 or 8 years) . A 1930s or 40s telephone will almost certainly still work perhaps with some minor maintenance (tap the carbon mic to uncompact the granules). From the 20s until now the only major changes were aesthetic and the most moderny looking were made in the 60s.

So the different looking communicators could have just been design choices until the lapel pin technology made the hand helds obsolete.

 

[Dukhat]

Don't take offence it was light hearted (maybe I should have used a )

None taken

Some tech looked too advanced sure but communicators no, it could simply have been a series of aesthetic design choices for a completely mature technology

But that's not the point. They went out of their way to make the phase pistols look like actual "guns," as opposed to the TNG hand phasers, which didn't look like guns at all. So why couldn't they do the retro thing with the communicators? They were so small you could barely even see them. Would you even knew what they looked like if you didn't go searching for a picture of them on Google? I couldn't. In contrast, a larger communication radio would have been a better, more memorable prop.

 

[Gary7]

Picard dying/remaining Locutus in "The Best of Both Worlds, part II" and Riker taking over as Enterprise captain from that point forward.

Picard staying as Locutus and being killed? No... that would've been tragic. Frakes could never have pulled it off. The series would've tanked.

Voyager "Year of Hell" resulting in a wrecked ship? I don't think it would've worked... or it would've brought the series to an ugly demise much sooner. That was one reset button that was definitely needed. What really bothered me was the lack of sustained damage to the ship across multiple episodes (the annoying repetitious reset). Also, we had one scene where they encountered a repair station (although it had ulterior deviant motives)--it would've been great if they encountered more along the way, ones that really did do repairs. Even though the ship would be repaired, you'd see the "scars" of it, sustained throughout the series.

Enterprise should have been grittier. Yes, definitely less distance traveled. More struggles with basic technology that came to be taken for granted in TOS. I would have liked to have seen some bullet fed weapons used as a supplement to the phase pistols.

 

[Ziriath]

Spock should have stayed dead after TWoK.

I agree.
I like Spock and he is my most favourite character, but when someone is dead, he should stay dead. Death should be definitive, not a temporary state.
I've seen a Troi episode, where she had to pass a test. It's point was, that she should be able to send a friend to death. (Let be the fact real Geordi would do, what should be done).
Then I started to think about the end of TWOK. Everyone in the engineering knew what should be done, everybody knew what will hapen if nobody does it, but nobody did it. Like they were waiting for someone (Spock) to walk in, fix the engine and die. It quite ruins the movie for me.
I like Scotty, but his death would be right in this case. Or they should have killed Saavik instead- her character was abandoned in the fourth movie anyway. I know the backstory, but...still...

 

[Forbin]

Why would they use 1940s technology?

Who said anything about the 1940's? Doesn't today's military use walkie-talkie radios for person-to-person communication? They certainly don't use cell phones.

SINCGARS

Also, Soldier Radio (http://www.cs.itt.com/pdf/domestic/Soldier Radio.pdf) which is closer to the handy-talkie idea.

(btw, in WWII, the "walkie talkie" was a big radio set in a backpack. The smaller handset type was called a "Handie talkie.")