What would the missing TNG Cast's film have been about?

[Allyn Gibson]

Been thinking the matter over a bit, not in terms of what the plot could be for a potential 2000 film, but rather the broader implications for the franchise as a whole if they had done one. I'm guessing they would have approached such a film as just another TNG film rather than potentially the last TNG film like they did with Nemesis. Meaning they don't end the movie with Data dead and the others splitting off on their own. But the film still underperforms at the box office, it ends up being the last TNG film anyway.

Yeah. The Paramount bean-counters would pull the plug on the film franchise. It would have cost more than Insurrection and the box office return would have been somewhere between $50 and $100 million, because that's where the films landed for twenty years. Nemesis didn't kill the film franchise. The costs of making the films relative to the potential returns killed the film franchise.

 

[BK613]

Don't think John Logan would have been writing it in the 1998-2000 time frame. Assuming they ramped up mid-1999 to make the movie, Logan's credits at the time were Bats and Tornado! His successes with Any Given Sunday and Gladiator were still to come. So I am unconvinced that he would have been someone tapped by Paramount in 1999.

 

[Lord Garth]

Hell, he called Insurrection "a date film" -- and I don't think he was wrong in that assessment.

Ehhhhhhh....

I believe that's what he was trying to was going for... but he also thought "Faith of the Heart" was young & hip. So, yeah...

 

[Oddish]

DS9 and VOY would never sell to a movie audience. I know I wouldn't have gone to see either.

Maybe, but at least we wouldn't have that giant glob of space garbage that was "Nemesis" in Trek canon.

We discover that Picard's brother has not been killed by the fire but very badly crippled., plus he's ashamed that he couldn't save his son, so he's been hiding the whole time. So the movie would be Picard's quest to sent his bro into the nexus where he could live a happy life forever...Unfortunately, the feds have issued a new law making it forbidden to even try such a thing without incurring the death penalty, the other case for the death penalty on record. The question is then how will Picard trick the authorities, his crew, and his brother who's against such a thing, to accomplish that goal.

Hmmm... something about this plot sounds strangely familiar. My mind is a menagerie of thoughts as to why, but the answer is blocked from me, like it's in a cage.

Honestly, I think if there had been a movie in 2000, it would have just been Nemesis two years early.

Or worse.

 

[Lord Garth]

Strange thing is, I actually think a Star Trek movie in 2000 would've done better than in 2002. No Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter in the theaters yet.

Plus, if it were in November/December 2000, then the new Star Trek movie might've gotten a bump from X-Men, released earlier in the year, because of Patrick Stewart starring in both.

 

[FederationHistorian]

You're applying 2021 multi-threaded franchise thinking to Rick Berman in early 1999, and that's just not where Berman was in 1999 when he'd have been thinking about the follow-up to Insurrection. You're describing a film that's for fans, ignoring that Berman tried to make Star Trek films for the casual, non-fan audience. Hell, he called Insurrection "a date film" -- and I don't think he was wrong in that assessment.

He might well have tried a multi-series crossover film in 2004-2005, but by then it was too late -- the investment no longer justified the return, and the above the line costs on a multi-cast film would have given Paramount pause for the return they could expect.

Not really. By 2002, TPTB wanted Seven of Nine in Nemesis, and actually had Janeway for a brief moment in NEM. There were a couple of DS9 references in FC and INS, and originally there were plans for Sisko to be in FC. And there were even unused ideas of Voyager encountering the Dominion at some point during the series. The interest was there.

And a multi-series crossover film was the original plan for Star Trek 11, since they wanted to bring in Odo, The Doctor and even Archer for it. The idea then transformed into a Romulan War love story idea before finally settling on the Kelvinverse.

 

[suarezguy]

I imagine we would have at least gotten more thematic connection to Insurrection, follow up on the idea of exploring, confronting, exposing corruption in Starfleet/the Federation including in its alliances, probably finally involving the Romulans as competitors or the corrupt allies or potential allies, and probably also finally involve Riker deciding to accept promotion and propose marriage.

Finally having a four year break does sound like a good idea than just another so soon (including allowing Voyager to have ended and maybe crossover) and yet it's very easy to think of a lot that would be better than Nemesis.

 

[The Wormhole]

By 2002, TPTB wanted Seven of Nine in Nemesis,

Only as a cameo, at least according to Jeri Ryan. Granted, Marina Sirtis claims there were plans for Seven to have a larger role in the film, but who knows?

actually had Janeway for a brief moment in NEM.

Again, just a cameo.

There were a couple of DS9 references in FC and INS,

The Defiant had a cameo in FC, while Insurrection just contains a few throw away lines to DS9 or stuff from there, like the Dominion or Ketracel White. Even then, those references don't really line up with what was going on on DS9. There were never any Dominion negotiations on DS9, for example.

originally there were plans for Sisko to be in FC.

That's kind of exaggerating the matter. The first draft of the script had a scene with Worf chatting with Sisko briefly before taking the Defiant out to the battle. Obviously removed due to it being a pointless scene.

there were even unused ideas of Voyager encountering the Dominion at some point during the series.

First I heard about that. IIRC, Message in a Bottle specifically avoided using the Dominion exactly so they wouldn't have to coordinate with DS9 on the story.

And a multi-series crossover film was the original plan for Star Trek 11,

Again, that's an exaggeration. Brent Spiner and John Logan said they had an idea for a big crossover event they wanted to pitch for an eleventh movie, but after Nemesis bombed, they knew there was no interest in that story.

The idea then transformed into a Romulan War love story idea

The idea didn't "transform" that was a completely separate idea from someone completely different.

 

[FederationHistorian]

Only as a cameo, at least according to Jeri Ryan. Granted, Marina Sirtis claims there were plans for Seven to have a larger role in the film, but who knows?

Again, just a cameo.

The Defiant had a cameo in FC, while Insurrection just contains a few throw away lines to DS9 or stuff from there, like the Dominion or Ketracel White. Even then, those references don't really line up with what was going on on DS9. There were never any Dominion negotiations on DS9, for example.

That's kind of exaggerating the matter. The first draft of the script had a scene with Worf chatting with Sisko briefly before taking the Defiant out to the battle. Obviously removed due to it being a pointless scene.

The opportunity was still there. If TPTB wanted a series of DS9 and VOY cameos in a single TNG film to further show a connected universe, it would have happened.

First I heard about that. IIRC, Message in a Bottle specifically avoided using the Dominion exactly so they wouldn't have to coordinate with DS9 on the story.

There’s a whole thread about it here: https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/message-in-a-bottle-missed-dominion-war-opportunity.307190/

Again, that's an exaggeration. Brent Spiner and John Logan said they had an idea for a big crossover event they wanted to pitch for an eleventh movie, but after Nemesis bombed, they knew there was no interest in that story.

There’s also the factor of it costing a lot to bring in Kirk, Spock, Sisko, Odo, Janeway, The Doctor, Seven, Archer, and presumably the rest of the DS9, VOY and ENT casts. All while also bringing in Khan, Shinzon, and a number of other villains too. The Star Trek version of Infinity War and Endgame was too massive be contained to a single film anyways. If NEM was planned to be a two part film from the beginning, then maybe.

The idea didn't "transform" that was a completely separate idea from someone completely different.

That was the leading idea after the crossover film fell though, alongside something related to Starfleet Academy. Before they decided of rebooting the franchise altogether.

 

[arch101]

Given the Trek timeline, there could have been an opportunity for a Judgement at Nuremberg- type postwar tale. Perhaps a story about rounding up war criminals for trial and the wider public revelation that the Federation won the war with attempted genocide. There's the potential for some powerful drama there.
But, of course, a shoot-em-up would have been required. I guess this story would have made a better miniseries.

 

[The Wormhole]

There’s a whole thread about it here: https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/message-in-a-bottle-missed-dominion-war-opportunity.307190/

That's hardly "A whole thread about it." The main topic of that thread is wondering why the Romulans were used in Message in a Bottle instead of the Dominion. Eventually another poster posted a link to rumors from 1997 saying such an episode was going to happen. But
1) That clearly didn't turn out to be accurate.
2) Something being rumored is not the same thing as something being planned.

That was the leading idea after the crossover film fell though,

Which does not mean the same thing as the idea "transformed" into it.