What If TNG Was Based During the Lost Era?

[MikHutch]

I feel adding a Klingon crewman during the Cold War with the Klingons would've had a lot of storytelling potential. Worf would most likely be more hostile to everyone and vice versa

I also suspect there might've been no Cardassian War, so if and when they show up they'd just be hostile rather than outright enemies. But then maybe they'd attack the Federation while it's at war with the Klingons, and when peace finally arrives, Cardassia can't afford the war and retreats, setting the stage for DS9 anyways.

 

[FederationHistorian]

If TNG was set in the Lost Era...

• Well, the registry would be 1701-B, for one.

• Next, there’d be a lot of expectations for the main characters to have met TOS characters in the past. Not just Kirk, Spock, and etc. But Harry Mudd, Cyrano Jones, Richard Daystrom, Kor, Koloth, Leila Kalomi, Cogley, etc. And have had similar adventures to Kirk, ex. encountering the planet killer, the Orion Syndicate, the Gorn, Nomad, etc.

• Picard would be expected to be different from Kirk in the eyes of Starfleet brass, putting Picard in situation where he’d have to choose the right action.

• Riker would be very much in favor of Kirk’s cowboy diplomacy and very much against Starfleet brass. And at least once a season, Riker would go up against the evil admirals.

• There might be more Andorian, Tellarites, Vulcans, & Deltans on board the Enterprise

• They might skip Troi being half-Betazoid and make her full Betazoid and make use of her powers. They would also make her the communications officer in S2 and not just counsel the captain, after Geordi is given the comms officer role in S1.

• They might make Worf a Klingon attaché instead of a full-fledged Starfleet officer, as a way to show growing ties between the Federation and the Klingon Empire. Meaning Worf’s conflict with the House of Duras would always have a subtext of undermining Federation-Klingon relations, instead of a personal feud with Worf and the House of Mogh.

• If Tasha Yar still gets killed off, they replace her with another female security officer, instead of with Worf. I see Ro being one of these security officers once she’s on board.

• The Edo god might have been replaced with an Organian.

• They might have held off on the Romulans until a few seasons in, rather than have them in the S1 finale.

• They might have built to the Treaty of Algeron outlawing cloaking tech on Federation ships, instead of being an established agreement.

• Worf might have an issue with the Vulcans, for looking like Romulans and being suspicious as to whether or not they are Romulans in disguise. Meaning he’d be in frequent conflict with Dr. Selar.

• That said, they might have made Selar the CMO of the Enterprise from the beginning, and gave her Pulaski’s personality, including the attitude towards Data. Beverly Crusher would still be on board, and might have been the ship’s counselor instead of Troi, even though she could do much more in the medical field.

• The Cardassians would have been in conflict with the Federation circa the captaincy of Pike. They might even be written as the ones that attacked Pike and the Enterprise on Rigel VII. O'Brien might even be written to have served under Pike earlier in his career.

• Children on board the Enterprise would be seen as more controversial decision due to uncertainty regarding relations with the Klingon empire. So, Picard’s initial attitude with Wesley might be prevalent with most senior officer toward all children on the ship.

• There’d be a lot more bar fights in Ten Forward.

• The Orions get the development of the Ferengi, including the whip and the ships. They might be diversified with green, copper red and violet Orions. And the grey Orions from TAS would be canonized.

• The Tholians would occupy the roles the Romulans and Borg had in the first two seasons. Afterwards, they'd be forgotten about. Meanwhile, BoBW would be the Borg's debut.

• The Constitution class and Oberth class would be the frequently used Starfleet ship models instead of the Excelsior and Miranda classes, at least in the beginning. Excelsior and Miranda class ships would be phased into the show.

• Vulcans might have shorter lifespans, about 50 years shorter.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Vulcans might have shorter lifespans, about 50 years shorter.

Why?

 

[MikHutch]

If TNG was set in the Lost Era...

• Well, the registry would be 1701-B, for one.

• Next, there’d be a lot of expectations for the main characters to have met TOS characters in the past. Not just Kirk, Spock, and etc. But Harry Mudd, Cyrano Jones, Richard Daystrom, Kor, Koloth, Leila Kalomi, Cogley, etc. And have had similar adventures to Kirk, ex. encountering the planet killer, the Orion Syndicate, the Gorn, Nomad, etc.

• Picard would be expected to be different from Kirk in the eyes of Starfleet brass, putting Picard in situation where he’d have to choose the right action.

• Riker would be very much in favor of Kirk’s cowboy diplomacy and very much against Starfleet brass. And at least once a season, Riker would go up against the evil admirals.

• There might be more Andorian, Tellarites, Vulcans, & Deltans on board the Enterprise

• They might skip Troi being half-Betazoid and make her full Betazoid and make use of her powers. They would also make her the communications officer in S2 and not just counsel the captain, after Geordi is given the comms officer role in S1.

• They might make Worf a Klingon attaché instead of a full-fledged Starfleet officer, as a way to show growing ties between the Federation and the Klingon Empire. Meaning Worf’s conflict with the House of Duras would always have a subtext of undermining Federation-Klingon relations, instead of a personal feud with Worf and the House of Mogh.

• If Tasha Yar still gets killed off, they replace her with another female security officer, instead of with Worf. I see Ro being one of these security officers once she’s on board.

• The Edo god might have been replaced with an Organian.

• They might have held off on the Romulans until a few seasons in, rather than have them in the S1 finale.

• They might have built to the Treaty of Algeron outlawing cloaking tech on Federation ships, instead of being an established agreement.

• Worf might have an issue with the Vulcans, for looking like Romulans and being suspicious as to whether or not they are Romulans in disguise. Meaning he’d be in frequent conflict with Dr. Selar.

• That said, they might have made Selar the CMO of the Enterprise from the beginning, and gave her Pulaski’s personality, including the attitude towards Data. Beverly Crusher would still be on board, and might have been the ship’s counselor instead of Troi, even though she could do much more in the medical field.

• The Cardassians would have been in conflict with the Federation circa the captaincy of Pike. They might even be written as the ones that attacked Pike and the Enterprise on Rigel VII. O'Brien might even be written to have served under Pike earlier in his career.

• Children on board the Enterprise would be seen as more controversial decision due to uncertainty regarding relations with the Klingon empire. So, Picard’s initial attitude with Wesley might be prevalent with most senior officer toward all children on the ship.

• There’d be a lot more bar fights in Ten Forward.

• The Orions get the development of the Ferengi, including the whip and the ships. They might be diversified with green, copper red and violet Orions. And the grey Orions from TAS would be canonized.

• The Tholians would occupy the roles the Romulans and Borg had in the first two seasons. Afterwards, they'd be forgotten about. Meanwhile, BoBW would be the Borg's debut.

• The Constitution class and Oberth class would be the frequently used Starfleet ship models instead of the Excelsior and Miranda classes, at least in the beginning. Excelsior and Miranda class ships would be phased into the show.

• Vulcans might have shorter lifespans, about 50 years shorter.

So do you think the Ferengi would even exist?

Also, do you think the Cardassians would be the ones occupying Bajor?

 

[fireproof78]

Why?

Since any cameos wouldn't be 80 years in the future with aging actors.

 

[MikHutch]

Since any cameos wouldn't be 80 years in the future with aging actors.

True. Stark was 200+ in TNG iirc

 

[Richard S. Ta]

I think it would have been exactly the same in terms of writing. Just different uniforms, sets and ship models.

What really needs to change? Worf, I suppose. So he was orphaned in a crash, raised by humans and the Klingon’s refused to take him back or… Lost-Era Worf hates being Klingon and was granted asylum by the Federation, maybe.

Did I do it right?

 

[MikHutch]

I think it would have been exactly the same in terms of writing. Just different uniforms, sets and ship models.

What really needs to change? Worf, I suppose. So he was orphaned in a crash, raised by humans and the Klingon’s refused to take him back or… Lost-Era Worf hates being Klingon and was granted asylum by the Federation, maybe.

Did I do it right?

I think he would've been a transfer Klingon as part of an attempt to find peace.

I do think the writing would've been similar but I think it would've made less effort to distance itself from TOS. More Vulcans, Andorians and Tellarites (which might've led to less time for other races like the Bolians).

I'm thinking the Ferengi wouldn't be set up to be a "big bad" because the Klingons are still antagonistic, and the Ferengi would instead be small bads like the Orions in TOS/TAS (and eventually end up in DS9 all the same). Idk what the Borg would've been like but maybe Kirk would've shown up to encounter them at one point). And since the Klingons ended being enemies by 91, the Cardassians would've replaced them anyways (Although the Bajorans might've been under Romulan control as originally intended).

DS9 probably would've not been too different. Since they'd still be working with TOS proportions, the ships would've overall been smaller.

 

[Richard S. Ta]

I think it would've made less effort to distance itself from TOS

The era is not what caused the distancing. Roddenberry was the source of that. As long as he was in charge I think we would have seen the same mix of Ferengi/whatevers... But things like Vulcans, Tellarites etc. were kept out because Roddenberry wanted them out, not because of any specific time period.

I like the idea of Worf being part of a cultural exchange program. I think there's quite an early TNG episode where Riker serves aboard a Klingon ship and we could have had a few episodes that took a look at whichever poor Starfleet bastard got to serve onboard a Klingon ship.

 

[MikHutch]

The era is not what caused the distancing. Roddenberry was the source of that. As long as he was in charge I think we would have seen the same mix of Ferengi/whatevers... But things like Vulcans, Tellarites etc. were kept out because Roddenberry wanted them out, not because of any specific time period.

True, but I feel it would've been less easy to do right after a movie with a Vulcan as main character

I like the idea of Worf being part of a cultural exchange program. I think there's quite an early TNG episode where Riker serves aboard a Klingon ship and we could have had a few episodes that took a look at whichever poor Starfleet bastard got to serve onboard a Klingon ship.

Yeah, seeing a Fed crewman on an alien ship is something ST could do more of

 

[Richard S. Ta]

True, but I feel it would've been less easy to do right after a movie with a Vulcan as main character

Why?

They did a no-Vulcan TNG after near enough 20 years of Vulcan-Trek. Never mind right after one movie.

If Roddenberry didn't want something, he threw it out. He was very, very firm about not wanting TOS stuff.

 

[MikHutch]

Why?

They did a no-Vulcan TNG after near enough 20 years of Vulcan-Trek. Never mind right after one movie.

If Roddenberry didn't want something, he threw it out. He was very, very firm about not wanting TOS stuff.

Idk. I guess because having TNG based 75 years later makes it easier to ignore TOS aliens

 

[Richard S. Ta]

Idk. I guess because having TNG based 75 years later makes it easier to ignore TOS aliens

Space is big. That's as much as you need.

I guess actually from the 79 TOS episodes, no more than 5 of them directly deal with Klingons. Andorians and Tellarites are lumped together into Journey to Babel and I think never seen again except as a background thing? So it's not like TOS even referenced regularly itself in terms of its' aliens.

I'm sure the number of TOS episodes that have Vulcans who aren't Spock is very short as well.

Berman Trek mostly ignores Andorran's/Tellarites until ENT (aside from glimpses here and there).

Roddenberry could happily ignore previous Star Trek even when it was his own work (episodes of TOS/TAS).

The time period TNG is set in, I think was chosen, for its distance from TOS (symbolic of TNGs early efforts to distance itself generally from its' parent show), not for convenience in terms of explaining who and where and what.

If TNG was set just 10 years after TOS I still think we'd lack all that TOS stuff at the start just because no matter what, Roddenberry felt it was important to do leave it all put and make a clean break.

 

[MikHutch]

Space is big. That's as much as you need.

I guess actually from the 79 TOS episodes, no more than 5 of them directly deal with Klingons. Andorians and Tellarites are lumped together into Journey to Babel and I think never seen again except as a background thing? So it's not like TOS even referenced regularly itself in terms of its' aliens.

I'm sure the number of TOS episodes that have Vulcans who aren't Spock is very short as well.

Berman Trek mostly ignores Andorran's/Tellarites until ENT (aside from glimpses here and there).

Roddenberry could happily ignore previous Star Trek even when it was his own work (episodes of TOS/TAS).

The time period TNG is set in, I think was chosen, for its distance from TOS (symbolic of TNGs early efforts to distance itself generally from its' parent show), not for convenience in terms of explaining who and where and what.

If TNG was set just 10 years after TOS I still think we'd lack all that TOS stuff at the start just because no matter what, Roddenberry felt it was important to do leave it all put and make a clean break.

Yeah that makes sense. Although I always thought it was unfortunate TNG didnt use those TOS species (instead what we get is the Betazoids?). Especially with how much DS9 fleshed out all it's races

I'm now wondering what a Kirk or Spock guest appearance on DS9 would be like

 

[Nerys Myk]

Andorians and Tellarites are lumped together into Journey to Babel and I think never seen again except as a background thing?

You see them as as patients/henchmen in "Whom Gods Destroy" That's their second "big" appearance, The rest are as you say background.

 

[MikHutch]

They do return in TAS Time Trap and an andorian replaces Spock in TAS Yesteryear

 

[Nerys Myk]

They do return in TAS Time Trap and an andorian replaces Spock in TAS Yesteryear

And then every time we see them until ENT, they look different.

 

[MikHutch]

And then every time we see them until ENT, they look different.

And even afterwards in DSC

 

[Nerys Myk]

And even afterwards in DSC

TNG went a little wild though

 

[MikHutch]

Dear God that's awful. I heard Rick Berman didn't like antennae and thus we got Bolians instead