What if the Soviets *Did* Make a "Star Trek"

There was a hoax decades ago dealing with a Soviet version of the Star Trek idea, called "Cosmos Patrol". The series was a complete fabrication, admitted to by the author, and pointed out by anyone with knowledge of Russian culture or television history. But it is an interesting concept. The USSR was a world completely distinct from the Western world during the 1960s. And Soviet science fiction, their tropes, and the spirit of such a series would be uniquely Russian and Soviet.

My question, therefore, is what if the Soviet Union did make their own form of the Star Trek idea? What would that look like?

 

You mean, with a Comrade Kirov that frees the inhabitant of Vaal from their terrible computer that only takes into account profit-maximizing considerations and expounding on them the merits of Communism and the Utopia that humanity has built since the revolution began in their early 20th century ?

 

No, that's DS9.

 

It would've been a train wreck, like the Turkish Star Trek.

 

A show in which people were not driven to accumulate money and riches? Interesting concept.

 

It would probably look a lot like "Lost in Space" but with a military/astronaut crew instead of a family. Which, if you think about it, would basically be the television version of "Forbidden Planet"

So on the whole, not totally different from Star Trek. There would, of course, be a shit ton of censorship going on and some subjects the writers are explicitly not allowed to touch, and there's the fact that Russian science fiction of the 1960s was just a tiny bit darker and more cynical than its American counterparts...

Not saying it wouldn't have sucked. But it still might have been interesting for a couple of episodes.

 

Soviet Star Trek has nothing on British Star Trek!

 

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Franchise/NoonUniverse

 

Red Shirts would actually be the heroes of the show, cause, you know...

 

Lets brainstorm some ship names:
Belka
Strelka
Laika
Leonov
Gagarin
Tereshkova
Titov
Tsiolkovsky
Korolev
Sputnik
Luna
Vostok

 

Potempkin

 

The crew would have a petulant American kid who gets annoyed every time the characters talk about the various things Russians invented.

 

I'm sure there would be less racial diversity, simply because Russia is less diverse racially. Instead of klingons the rival aliens would be sniveling, greedy profit seekers (kinda like the ferengi in TNG, or real life American business men)

 

And like the Tal shiar you would need a Political Officer to watch over the Captain and ensure he toes the line.

To add to the list of names upthread - "Krasniy Oktyabr"

 

Expert here.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planeta_Bur
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planeta_Bur#American_adaptations
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Andromeda_Nebula
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Per_Aspera_Ad_Astra_(film)#
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0230634/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0209514/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebo_Zovyot
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebo_Zovyot#U.S._re-edits
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow-Cassiopeia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teens_in_the_Universe
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0321492/

most of them available on YouTube.

 

The Ferengi would probably appear as they first appeared on TNG, those vile capitalist creatures, that only seemed to have despicable traits and that were supposed to be the great antagonist of the Federation

 

Ninja'd....