Trek Series set in the distant past

[JirinPanthosa]

It might make a good episode of Star Trek, but series? If the show isn't going to involve Starfleet and the human future why even call it Star Trek? Write your own story in its own universe.

I disagree the show couldn't be relatable. As long as the aliens experience a similar range of emotions to humans, it can be relatable.

 

[UnknownSample]

The insistence on easy relatability is what populated the galaxy with "aliens" who are just like us except for funny foreheads. It also resulted in main characters with such generic, mainstream personalities that a lot of humans, probably including SF fans, look almost like aliens by comparison.
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Science fiction is about the different and difficult to understand.

 

[Voth commando1]

Aliens with rubber foreheads isn't so much an issue when one understands both out of universe budgets, and IU ancient humanoid explanations. So I don't have a problem with it.

The more arcane and "out there" the sci fi the more cultish and insular the fanbase meaning minimal mainstream appeal.

 

[DrCorby]

I had some books that were the novelizations (or adaptations of the scripts) for the TOS episodes. I think I recall from the one for Tomorrow is Yesterday that they couldn't go anywhere else in the galaxy at the time because of some other race that was causing trouble during Earth's 20th century. But it was no longer a problem by the 23rd century. Does that sound familiar to anyone? I think James Blish adapted them for story form for the books.

In Star Trek 2, Blish mentioned the Vegan Tyranny, which dominated much of the region near Earth in the 20th century. However, the Vegan Tyranny wasn't mentioned in the actual Star Trek episode. They were part of Blish's Cities in Flight series, an enemy of the "Okie cities" from Earth. (I read the episode adaptations so many times, I assumed that line had been cut from the syndicated episode by a local TV station. Then I read Cities in Flight and realized Blish had just snuck in that reference...)

As for the OP's question, I agree that such a series would have a pretty tenuous connection to Star Trek, unless the story involves Federation characters thrown back in time. Might be an OK one-shot., but probably not enough to sustain a series. I think it's interesting background information for a larger story, fleshing out more of the history of the setting.

 

[The Wormhole]

The insistence on easy relatability is what populated the galaxy with "aliens" who are just like us except for funny foreheads.

Actually, that had more to do with "we're casting a pretty girl in the role, try not to hide her good looks."

 

[JirinPanthosa]

The insistence on easy relatability is what populated the galaxy with "aliens" who are just like us except for funny foreheads. It also resulted in main characters with such generic, mainstream personalities that a lot of humans, probably including SF fans, look almost like aliens by comparison.
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Science fiction is about the different and difficult to understand.

I would classify Star Trek in the 'adventure/space opera' corner of the scifi world. The scope of its intended audience includes people who wouldn't be able to root for giant spheres who eat their young and live for self sacrificing duty to conquer other worlds for the state.

I agree Star Trek needs more truly different aliens like the ones in the Ender series, and it needs stories about truly learning how to diplomatically coexist with meaningfully different aliens (Like Devil in the Dark). But the main pool of protagonists, although they can be alien and they can look less like humans, need to have a relatable array of emotions and values.

 

[at Quark's]

While it could make for an interesting series, I'd be reluctant to slap the Trek name on it, even if it inhabits the same universe (but in a very different time period).

To me the essence (and biggest lure) of any Trek series has always been the exploration of the idea: we must do better in the future! And yes, we can do better in the future! -- which in my eyes also holds for DS9, even though matters are less black & white there.

 

[UnknownSample]

I would classify Star Trek in the 'adventure/space opera' corner of the scifi world. The scope of its intended audience includes people who wouldn't be able to root for giant spheres who eat their young and live for self sacrificing duty to conquer other worlds for the state.

I agree Star Trek needs more truly different aliens like the ones in the Ender series, and it needs stories about truly learning how to diplomatically coexist with meaningfully different aliens (Like Devil in the Dark). But the main pool of protagonists, although they can be alien and they can look less like humans, need to have a relatable array of emotions and values.

I only care about the Star Trek of 1966 whose mission was to present genuine adult science fiction drama to a television audience who otherwise would not have been exposed to it. They went out of their way to get us to relate to beings with very different motivations and points of view.
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I hate Trek being defined by its flaws and compromises, as if Trek is all about those compromises. Some people hate the compromises, others love them. Star Trek was not created in the first place to cater to mass tastes and narrow points of view, though, however much later Trek may have given in to them to stay on the air.
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Unfortunately, the more "safe" substandard stuff that comes out with the label of "Star Trek", year after year, the harder it becomes to see it as anything else. Eventually we end up thinking that's the nature of Star Trek... all those mistakes and compromises, because those very flawed stories end up being the majority of aired material under that name.
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[The Wormhole]

I only care about the Star Trek of 1966 whose mission was to present genuine adult science fiction drama to a television audience who otherwise would not have been exposed to it. They went out of their way to get us to relate to beings with very different motivations and points of view.

TOS was always intended to be an action adventure series. It says so in the writer's guide.

 

[Spot261]

TOS was always intended to be an action adventure series. It says so in the writer's guide.

Which, optimistically speaking, was all part of the ploy to get the more meaningful aspects on screen, a cultural trojan horse if you like

 

[Nerys Myk]

Which, optimistically speaking, was all part of the ploy to get the more meaningful aspects on screen, a cultural trojan horse if you like

Action adventure dons't have to be dumb.

 

[UnknownSample]

Action adventure dons't have to be dumb.

Exactly. They were setting out to do science fiction based action-adventure, based on that idea, that action adventure doesn't have to be dumb, and can be used very well to put forward science fiction ideas. Also, they were committed to the idea that SF doesn't have to be boring...

 

[UnknownSample]

Which, optimistically speaking, was all part of the ploy to get the more meaningful aspects on screen, a cultural trojan horse if you like

Exactly.