"The Voyage Home" sequels in another reality...

[Too Much Fun]

This idea was going to be part of my “Star Trek IV” thread, but in the middle of editing it I realized that it could start a thread of its own. Does anyone else think “Star Trek IV” could have made a good last outing for the original series crew? When the movie was over, I couldn’t help but think maybe we’d be better off if it was the last Star Trek movie featuring Kirk and company in the central roles.

I know a lot of you love Star Trek VI and I have a lot of admiration for it too. I admit that it was cool to see the origin of the Klingon alliance we see in the 24th century Star Trek shows. I enjoyed the villain’s over-the-top performance. Most importantly, I got a really nice feeling of closure and emotional satisfaction from Kirk’s monologue at the end seeming to symbolically “pass the torch” to the TNG crew. However, I still think we wouldn’t be much worse off if that movie had never been made. After my recent viewing of "Star Trek IV" ended, I started wondering what it would be like if the movie franchise had gone differently from there.

I started to wish we’d only had four movies with the original crew, none of which were terrible. I started to wish Star Trek V had been a re-tooled “Yesterday’s Enterprise” - maybe released circa 1990, still titled “Star Trek: Generations”, as the name would still make sense with that story. It could have then been followed by an unaltered “Star Trek: First Contact” in 1994, and perhaps a final TNG movie in 1996, directed by Nicholas Meyer, giving us a trilogy with the new crew. This could conclude the series just in time for the franchise’s 30th anniversary, and end it with a “lucky 7” number of installments, instead of 10, which went on two movies too long.

I know such hypothetical talk is moot in this reality, but I can’t help but fantasize about a more fitting end to the original movie franchise featuring the casts handpicked by Rodenberry himself. Can anyone else imagine the franchise going in this direction? How about differently? If Star Trek IV had been the last big screen appearance for Kirk and crew by themselves, how would you have liked to see the series progress post Star Trek IV?

 

[bryce]

Since TUC and "Yesterday's Enterprise" give somewhat inconsistent accounts of the roots of the Klingon-Federation alliance - yeah, I think that YE would have made a hell of a ST:V...

The story would have to be expanded for a film...with much more happening than just the two ships sitting around debating what to do - perhaps they could go off on a big joint-movie adventure with the two crews working together to get the 1701-A back to it's proper time.

Also, I would re-write it so that, although the timeline changes, the 1701-D crew would be aware of the changes (ala "First Contact") and so it would be *our* TNG crew working with the TOS crew. Otherwise, the story would be to confusing to a regular audience. And it wouldn't be some *other* alternate TNG crew meeting thier TOS heroes - and so our TNG crew would remember the events of the story.

This would mean no Tasha, probably, but with the two casts there would be too many characters competing for screen-time anyway.

Hell, maybe even it should have made up a trilogy or something?

But seeing both crews work together would be cool - and maybe in the end the TNG crew could follow the TOS crew back to their time to help solve the final crises and make peace with the Klingons.

Hell, you could even *combine* plot elements of "Yesterdays Enterprise" and TUC in the story!

(The TNG crew have to help the TOS crew get back to their time so they can defeat Chang's plan at Kitomer - and complete their final mission.)

That would have made a rockin' two-part film series - then afterward the TNG crew could go on the battle the Borg in the next movie...

...although...then that would be yet another time travel story - but I'm not the only person who thinks that FC shouldn't have been a time travel story anyway, and was disappointed when we didn't get a big budget Borg-Federation battle...so I would make FC a non-time travel Borg story instead.

 

[Argus Skyhawk]

This would mean no Tasha, probably...

That would be a severe alteration, since Tasha's self-sacrifice is, I believe, a big part of why Yesterday's Enterprise is considered a classic.

 

[FlyingLemons]

Apparently with Yesterday's Enterprise Berman has said that if he'd have known that in the late 90s there'd be TNG movies he'd have kept it for then rather than having it as an episode.

 

[GeorgeKirk]

I honestly don't see how this could have happened. When Star Trek V went into production, TNG was filming its second season. It had been extremely uneven so far and wouldn't hit its stride until the next season when Michael Piller came onboard. There's no way the suits at Paramount would have entrusted the Star Trek franchise to a cast that couldn't even make a consistently good TV show yet.

Harve Bennett's idea was to make the fifth film a "Starfleet Academy" prequel, using the original cast only in framing sequences at the beginning and end of the movie, then come back and do an "over-the-hill gang still functions" movie for Star Trek VI.