Things you DON'T want to see in a reboot...

[T'Girl]

A chief engineer! I think TNG had the right idea when they didn't have one at the start ...

It might be possible to get rid of having the ship's doctor be a main character and reduce the role to that of a reoccurring one. Don't have them be the commander's best friend and adviser, definitely don't have a surgeon on landing parties. One of the random security guys can be a medic.

-An academy series (this seems to be something people want but I don't see how it would work)

I'm one of those who likes the idea, but will admit it would involve structural changes in the basic format of the show. The big one would be a change from action/adventure to more of a interpersonal drama largely set in the future San Fransisco academy.

Not everyone's cup of tea.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

I'm one of those who likes the idea, but will admit it would involve structural changes in the basic format of the show. The big one would be a change from action/adventure to more of a interpersonal drama largely set in the future San Fransisco academy.

Not everyone's cup of tea.

I like the idea as well, so long as it doesn’t become some kind of angsty teen melodrama. An Academy show could have some very interesting and diverse characters without the need for a medical officer, a security officer, a helmsman, etc. It would definitely be more of a character piece, focusing on the characters rather than a “big bad of the week”. Unless they were willing to having a rolling roster of characters then the show would only last for four years—they could use the format established in the novel “The Best and Brightest”, with cadets of various ages so a character might graduate after a year, another the following year, etc, though all with the option to make guest appearance later in the series or stay on for additional studies or as an instructor.

The concept would be interesting to see, well I think so anyway

 

[Captain Kathryn]

I'm one of those who likes the idea, but will admit it would involve structural changes in the basic format of the show. The big one would be a change from action/adventure to more of a interpersonal drama largely set in the future San Fransisco academy.

Not everyone's cup of tea.

I like the idea as well, so long as it doesn’t become some kind of angsty teen melodrama.

The concept is cool, but yeah I could see it turning into an angst-ridden drama too. :/ And I wouldn't want that...

 

[BigJake]

There are basically three possible types of content for an Academy show:

1) The Cadets are Starfleet's Last Best Hope For Some Reason: Our cadets are improbably entangled in galaxy-spanning / save-the-universe style punch-ups with baddies-of-the-week on a regular basis, or find themselves regularly on field trips where improbable coincidences and disasters require them to solve all the problems that the grown-ups would normally be solving.

2) The Hardy Boys / Nancy Drew / Harry Potter... In Space! Or at least San Francisco! The grounds of the Academy are themselves improbably perilous and adventure-prone and full of mysteries that need cadet sleuths to solve them. With Harry Potter in the cultural DNA now, this version of the Academy would probably be spouting BEMs from every corner (or crevasse).

3) Schoolhouse Melodrama: The Academy is like every other melodramatic college full of beautiful people in the history of television, where the cadets' major worries are Who Goes to the Party and Who Just Broke Up with McGivers and maybe How to Say No to Space Drugs. If it's the edgy variety of this college, the last one comes up a lot.

There have been successful shows and franchises built around various mixtures of those three themes. Most of them occur in the fantasy genre so that they can justify the improbable importance and perilous lives of the students by invoking Destiny or Prophecy or Chosen-ness. ST09, which used version 1 of this concept, basically did this too. So if you want to see a Trek show doing that on a regular basis, that's probably what you're in for.

There's an added bonus -- or penalty, depending on your tastes -- in that since whoever is making such a show also wants recognizable characters, the Academy in question will also be full of Muppet Babies, a more or less complete slate of recognizable characters from prior Trek shows who all just happen to be in the Academy together at the same time regardless of their variable ages and service records in their original incarnations. (Again, cf. ST09.)

For all the same reasons I would find this a terrible idea that should be killed with fire, someone else will probably love it.

 

[Warped9]

There are any number of ways a new Trek project could turn me off instantly. An Academy series would be one of them.

 

[Captain Kathryn]

Agreed.^^

I don't know. I really just want to continue the prime timeline. If people didn't want it to be continued, they wouldn't be making (or have made) hundreds of post-series novels.

That said, there might be conflicts since now the novels are really the only way to get prime timeline stuff at this moment and there are so so so many and they are all jumbled.

That's why I would rather prime timeline, but further in the future, like 25th century. A new phase within the same universe/history.

 

[Warped9]

^^ Of course all the books won't matter or be considered "official" if they did continue the previous continuity. There would be too much to keep track already. Trying to take all the books into consideration would be a nightmare if not outright impossible.

 

[Hober Mallow]

Agreed.^^

I don't know. I really just want to continue the prime timeline.

By "prime timeline" I have to assume you mean "Berman-Trek." Berman-Trek is not the end-all and be-all of Star Trek.

If people didn't want it to be continued, they wouldn't be making (or have made) hundreds of post-series novels.

The readership, while large enough to make a major book publisher some money, is practically nonexistent as far as a TV demographic.

 

[BigJake]

Of course all the books won't matter or be considered "official" if they did continue the previous continuity. There would be too much to keep track already.

The various TNG novelizations are licensed by Paramount and are considered some flavour of "official" as far as I know.

By "prime timeline" I have to assume you mean "Berman-Trek."

Well, the "prime timeline" is really just a setting. It's bigger than Berman or "Berman-Trek," cf. the success of the New Frontier series. The inference that people reading books in that setting would probably also watch well-made screen content in that setting is likely valid, though how many people we're actually talking about I have no idea.

It's probably not something I'd particularly want to see, though. The likeliest Prime Universe candidate for coming to the screen now would be the New Frontier books, which by all accounts are weirdly soap operatic, and if so I suspect would not be my cuppa (though any readers of that series who disagree with that impression are welcome to set me straight, I haven't actually read the books).

 

[T'Girl]

more of a interpersonal drama largely set in the future San Fransisco academy.

An Academy show could have some very interesting and diverse characters ...

Not all the character would have to be cadets or instructors at the Academy, there could also be civilians who live in 23rd/24th century San Fransisco. San Fransisco could be depicted as a very cosmopolitan city with a high percentage of numerous alien species living there. The cadets would have friends in the city.

It would give us a chance to see a slice of life in the future.

The concept would be interesting to see, well I think so anyway

A new fanfic perhaps?

The concept is cool, but yeah I could see it turning into an angst-ridden drama too.

In all honesty, there likely would be at least some "angst."

3) Schoolhouse Melodrama

This would be the closest of the three.

There are any number of ways a new Trek project could turn me off instantly. An Academy series would be one of them.

For me it would be basing a new series off the last two movies.

Icky.

 

[BillJ]

The various TNG novelizations are licensed by Paramount and are considered some flavour of "official" as far as I know.

"Official" and "canon" are two distinct things. "Official" is something licensee's stamp on their books to make them seem special but future TV/movie writers are under no obligation to follow them. At all. Even writers of other "official" publications/merchandise are under no obligation to follow them. Hence the two completely different universes created by Pocket Books and Cryptic (Star Trek Online) that follow the 24th century series.

Star Wars EU fans are about to learn a very hard lesson when Episode VII hits theaters late next year.

 

[Melakon]

I do not want to see Cyrano Jones naked.

 

[F. King Daniel]

-An academy series (this seems to be something people want but I don't see how it would work)

I'm one of those who likes the idea, but will admit it would involve structural changes in the basic format of the show. The big one would be a change from action/adventure to more of a interpersonal drama largely set in the future San Fransisco academy.

Not everyone's cup of tea.

Apply the Smallville template to Trek, and I'm happy.

 

[Warped9]

-An academy series (this seems to be something people want but I don't see how it would work)

I'm one of those who likes the idea, but will admit it would involve structural changes in the basic format of the show. The big one would be a change from action/adventure to more of a interpersonal drama largely set in the future San Fransisco academy.

Not everyone's cup of tea.

Apply the Smallville template to Trek, and I'm happy.

Yep, I would definitely bail on this.

*Sigh* I suppose it's no wonder I watch next to no television anymore. There is only one genre program I find of any interest. And the very few shows I do watch happen to be all period pieces: Mad Men, Boardwalk Empire, Game Of Thrones and Murdoch Mysteries. Oh, and Cosmos.

 

[Yanks]

I don't want a rehash of previous Star Trek movies.

Something new, that's all please.

 

[MacLeod]

Part of the problem is we all want or don't want different things from a new show. We can be a hard nucnh of people to please. I could say for example you only need a core cast of five which would cover most story basis and other characters can be re-curring as and when needed. So my core characters would be Captain, First Officer, Chief Engineer, Chief Medical Officer, Chief of Security/Tactical. You can have a different pilot every week etc..

 

[Captain Kathryn]

Agreed.^^

I don't know. I really just want to continue the prime timeline.

By "prime timeline" I have to assume you mean "Berman-Trek." Berman-Trek is not the end-all and be-all of Star Trek.

Not just Berman-Trek.

Literally all Trek besides Abrams is the prime timeline. When Berman-Trek came along, they didn't just forget that TOS or the TOS movies existed. It continued from that.

 

[BigJake]

Part of the problem is we all want or don't want different things from a new show. We can be a hard nucnh of people to please.

Fact of the matter is, we all have our ideal pet notions for shows? But I'm willing to wager that as long as real effort and craft was put into it, the bulk of us would watch a new show that didn't match our ideal parameters.

Unless it was an Academy show.

 

[BigJake]

The various TNG novelizations are licensed by Paramount and are considered some flavour of "official" as far as I know.

"Official" and "canon" are two distinct things.

Well-obzoyved. Guess that might be why I didn't use the word "canon"?

 

[BillJ]

The various TNG novelizations are licensed by Paramount and are considered some flavour of "official" as far as I know.

"Official" and "canon" are two distinct things.

Well-obzoyved. Guess that might be why I didn't use the word "canon"?

I kind of took a detour there...

My point being that the only people the word "official" has any meaning to, is the fan base that buys it (which is something along the lines of 2% of people who actually watch the shows or buy movie tickets). As soon as the "official" material is inconvenient or contradicts what a writer or producer of current live-action material want to do, it is immediately shrugged off.