What If Picard Had Died In The Best of Both Worlds II?

[tenmei]

Once, years ago, I played with this idea and scribbled out an idea of how TNG would have progressed for the next few seasons.

SEASON 4

Picard is out, Shelby is in. Shelby locks horns with Riker, who is bumped up to Captain, as well as the rest of the crew.

SEASON 5

Ro still joins the crew. Riker doesn't like her, but Shelby forms a friendship with her - given they're both outsiders on the Enterprise.

SEASON 6

It takes to Season 6 for Shelby to become a member of the family. In the two part 'Chain of Command' it's Shelby who stands up to Jellico.

There would be rumblings that Riker is going to leave the show - the powers want to shake things up much like they did with BOBW.

This doesn't come in the way that people expect - people believe that Jellico is being set up as the new Captain in 'Chain of Command' but Riker returns to the Enterprise.

Photographs of upcoming episodes appear to show that Riker is in all of the episodes.

But, in 'Second Chances', Riker dies and his transporter twin, Thomas Riker, survives. Shelby gets bumped up to Captain, Data becomes her First Officer and Thomas Riker becomes the new Ops Manager.

SEASON 7

Ro disappears and is said to be training with Starfleet Intelligence. Troi explores a relationship with Worf, but this is doomed and she ends up with Thomas Riker.

3 new characters, Sito, Taurik and Lavelle are introduced whilst semi-regular Ogawa is given more screen time than before.

This move is intended to test the water as to which of the new 3 will proove fan favourites as they all compete for the CONN position.

Sito is thought to be too reminiscent of Ro and is later killed off. Lavelle doesn't appeal to the fans enough, he is seen as a younger Riker.

Taurik gets the CONN position a couple of episodes before the finale.

 

[blockaderunner]

What If Picard Had Died In The Best of Both Worlds II?

Three things. It would have elevated the Borg as a legitamate threat instead of the defeatable, Trek-esque moustache twirlers they became, it would have made space a more ominous and dangerous, therefore interesting, place, and there would have been genuine character growth and development that wasn't defined by facial hair.

Oh. I would also like to add a fourth thing: the elimination of the reset button.

 

[CaptainJon]

I think Frakes would have risen to the challenge. His turn in BOBW was absolutely fantastic! Someone said that Frakes was always best when in command, and I agree. He might not have the same acting chops as Stewart, but he's got quite a bark and bite. He would have done just fine.

 

[JJohnson]

Hey, who's the girl on your avatar, Jack Bauer? She looks familiar...

James

 

[Katrine]

Turd Ferguson said:
I wish he had. It would've shaken up the crew a bit having seen Picard turned into a Borg. Maybe keep him on as a recurring villain, even on Voyager. But, I liked that Shelby gave Riker shit at every possible turn, and would have loved seeing that dynamic for the rest of the series.

That would've been interesting! I think the dynamics would've been really shaken up & seeing Borg Picard as a villian on Voyager would've been great. How would Janeway have reacted to dealing with them with him as representative? Hmmmm, food for thought indeed.

 

[Ceridwen]

tenmei said:
Once, years ago, I played with this idea and scribbled out an idea of how TNG would have progressed for the next few seasons.

SEASON 4

Picard is out, Shelby is in. Shelby locks horns with Riker, who is bumped up to Captain, as well as the rest of the crew.

SEASON 5

Ro still joins the crew. Riker doesn't like her, but Shelby forms a friendship with her - given they're both outsiders on the Enterprise.

SEASON 6

It takes to Season 6 for Shelby to become a member of the family. In the two part 'Chain of Command' it's Shelby who stands up to Jellico.

There would be rumblings that Riker is going to leave the show - the powers want to shake things up much like they did with BOBW.

This doesn't come in the way that people expect - people believe that Jellico is being set up as the new Captain in 'Chain of Command' but Riker returns to the Enterprise.

Photographs of upcoming episodes appear to show that Riker is in all of the episodes.

But, in 'Second Chances', Riker dies and his transporter twin, Thomas Riker, survives. Shelby gets bumped up to Captain, Data becomes her First Officer and Thomas Riker becomes the new Ops Manager.

SEASON 7

Ro disappears and is said to be training with Starfleet Intelligence. Troi explores a relationship with Worf, but this is doomed and she ends up with Thomas Riker.

3 new characters, Sito, Taurik and Lavelle are introduced whilst semi-regular Ogawa is given more screen time than before.

This move is intended to test the water as to which of the new 3 will proove fan favourites as they all compete for the CONN position.

Sito is thought to be too reminiscent of Ro and is later killed off. Lavelle doesn't appeal to the fans enough, he is seen as a younger Riker.

Taurik gets the CONN position a couple of episodes before the finale.

Of course, the thing to realize about a scenario such as this is that there's no reason the show has to end at Season 7 now. By that point in the show, the writers had started to delve quite a bit more into the personal lives of the characters, so if you've already established a revolving door cast policy, you can get a lot more mileage out of that concept, since you always have new characters to play with.

Instead of having multiple spin-offs, then, we may have ended up with a Star Trek: The Next Generation that was more akin to ER than the show we got; running for ten, twelve, fourteen seasons with valleys and peaks in the quality throughout that period as new writers and casts move in and out of the show. Deep Space Nine may or may not have been created (Law and Order seemed to do just fine after Special Victims Unit was created, because the two were different enough in concept to co-exist), but if Voyager ever came to be, it would've needed to be drastically different (like Deep Space Nine was) in order to differentiate itself from the mother series.

 

[Broccoli]

Ceridwen Troy said:

tenmei said:
Once, years ago, I played with this idea and scribbled out an idea of how TNG would have progressed for the next few seasons.

SEASON 4

Picard is out, Shelby is in. Shelby locks horns with Riker, who is bumped up to Captain, as well as the rest of the crew.

SEASON 5

Ro still joins the crew. Riker doesn't like her, but Shelby forms a friendship with her - given they're both outsiders on the Enterprise.

SEASON 6

It takes to Season 6 for Shelby to become a member of the family. In the two part 'Chain of Command' it's Shelby who stands up to Jellico.

There would be rumblings that Riker is going to leave the show - the powers want to shake things up much like they did with BOBW.

This doesn't come in the way that people expect - people believe that Jellico is being set up as the new Captain in 'Chain of Command' but Riker returns to the Enterprise.

Photographs of upcoming episodes appear to show that Riker is in all of the episodes.

But, in 'Second Chances', Riker dies and his transporter twin, Thomas Riker, survives. Shelby gets bumped up to Captain, Data becomes her First Officer and Thomas Riker becomes the new Ops Manager.

SEASON 7

Ro disappears and is said to be training with Starfleet Intelligence. Troi explores a relationship with Worf, but this is doomed and she ends up with Thomas Riker.

3 new characters, Sito, Taurik and Lavelle are introduced whilst semi-regular Ogawa is given more screen time than before.

This move is intended to test the water as to which of the new 3 will proove fan favourites as they all compete for the CONN position.

Sito is thought to be too reminiscent of Ro and is later killed off. Lavelle doesn't appeal to the fans enough, he is seen as a younger Riker.

Taurik gets the CONN position a couple of episodes before the finale.

Of course, the thing to realize about a scenario such as this is that there's no reason the show has to end at Season 7 now. By that point in the show, the writers had started to delve quite a bit more into the personal lives of the characters, so if you've already established a revolving door cast policy, you can get a lot more mileage out of that concept, since you always have new characters to play with.

Instead of having multiple spin-offs, then, we may have ended up with a Star Trek: The Next Generation that was more akin to ER than the show we got; running for ten, twelve, fourteen seasons with valleys and peaks in the quality throughout that period as new writers and casts move in and out of the show. Deep Space Nine may or may not have been created (Law and Order seemed to do just fine after Special Victims Unit was created, because the two were different enough in concept to co-exist), but if Voyager ever came to be, it would've needed to be drastically different (like Deep Space Nine was) in order to differentiate itself from the mother series.

Wow...that would be interesting if they did the ER route. Could still be on today, for all we know (though doubtful).

 

[Praetor]

tenmei said:
Once, years ago, I played with this idea and scribbled out an idea of how TNG would have progressed for the next few seasons.

SEASON 4

Picard is out, Shelby is in. Shelby locks horns with Riker, who is bumped up to Captain, as well as the rest of the crew.

SEASON 5

Ro still joins the crew. Riker doesn't like her, but Shelby forms a friendship with her - given they're both outsiders on the Enterprise.

SEASON 6

It takes to Season 6 for Shelby to become a member of the family. In the two part 'Chain of Command' it's Shelby who stands up to Jellico.

There would be rumblings that Riker is going to leave the show - the powers want to shake things up much like they did with BOBW.

This doesn't come in the way that people expect - people believe that Jellico is being set up as the new Captain in 'Chain of Command' but Riker returns to the Enterprise.

Photographs of upcoming episodes appear to show that Riker is in all of the episodes.

But, in 'Second Chances', Riker dies and his transporter twin, Thomas Riker, survives. Shelby gets bumped up to Captain, Data becomes her First Officer and Thomas Riker becomes the new Ops Manager.

SEASON 7

Ro disappears and is said to be training with Starfleet Intelligence. Troi explores a relationship with Worf, but this is doomed and she ends up with Thomas Riker.

3 new characters, Sito, Taurik and Lavelle are introduced whilst semi-regular Ogawa is given more screen time than before.

This move is intended to test the water as to which of the new 3 will proove fan favourites as they all compete for the CONN position.

Sito is thought to be too reminiscent of Ro and is later killed off. Lavelle doesn't appeal to the fans enough, he is seen as a younger Riker.

Taurik gets the CONN position a couple of episodes before the finale.

I've gotta say... I don't hate it. And I also don't hate the 'revolving door/ER' idea either.

What might have been.

Sigh!