Trek Movies. Zzzzzap!
What would your TNG movie be like?
- Thread starter Yeffrey
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doublegood
Fleet Captain
The best TNG movie, arguably, was First Contact; that focused on Picard and Data. Face it, the rest of the characters weren't as compelling as those two, for the same reason it wasn't Kirk, Sulu, and Scotty as the "Big Three" of the original series. Any movie featuring TNG now would have to focus exclusively on Picard, since Patrick Stewart is the only actor in the cast with the charisma and the acting chops to pull off a good performance. Give us a great Picard story, and the audience will be there. People like Jean-Luc.
Be careful making sugestions you'll get some of this
"aggh fanboyism! fanboyism cannon cannon fanboyism"
"aggh fanboyism! fanboyism cannon cannon fanboyism"
doublegood
Fleet Captain
Picard and Crusher would *finally* get together. Anything else that happens in the film would just be insignificant to that.
Semi-disagree. While I think Stewart certainly has the charisma to be the focus, I don't think the rest of the crew should be forsaken for a Picard movie. Good writing doesn't forget the value of supporting characters.
That is one of the big defining faults imo of TNG movies. The show defined Riker as a man of action, yet we see his first cinematic fist fight in Nemesis. Crusher was being groomed to be a captain in the show, and only First Contact took advantage of that fact. They're a supporting cast, let them support.
doublegood
Fleet Captain
By this point, I personally feel that TNG's supporting cast has faded out of public memory, with the possible exception of Worf. But Picard is still a pretty well-known figure--if anything due to the constant comparison to Kirk. Use Picard to set up a new crew--let him pass the torch, as it were. If not a movie, a great way to segue into a new series.
By this point, maybe, however shows like Family Guy and SNL still reference Geordi and Data. And with good writing, you can always refresh people's memories. But the point is moot since we're going with TOS characters now. The function of a supporting cast isn't meant to be a group that can be dropped off so that the star can shine. If that were the case, Sulu, Chekov, and Uhura wouldn't have been in all the movies.
But back when the TNG movies were made, the supporting cast was still fresh in the public memory. Things should've been right the first time around, not 14 years after the fact.
Completely agreed. If you say "star trek" i bet 9 out of 10 people think of "that cheesy 60's sci fi show."
I think if anything what we've learned from 3.5 TNG movies is that they did not have the same sense of fun and adventure as the TOS movies (IMO). Picard has always been rather dull.
TNG or any of the other series should not be the basis of any future movies. Either do what Abrahms is doing or come up with something linked but completely new.
I think that...
3 out of 10 would think of Spock.
2 out of 10 would think of Shatner (not Kirk per se').
5 out of 10 would think of nerds wearing weird stuff at cult gatherings like www.trekbbs.com or actually in public, Fer chissakes! In public I tell yer's!
Instead of GEN, I would've took MJF's book Crossover and made that into TNG's first film, which would've been a better way to pass the torch and not kill off Kirk.
First Contact would follow. Then I would've made the Dominion War novel, Behind Enemy Lines (I think that was the title) or either The Battle of Betazed into the third movie.
Peter David's Q Squared would've served as the basis for the fourth movie. Then I would do a TUC style film that forged peace between the Romulans and the Federation as TNG's swansong film.
First Contact would follow. Then I would've made the Dominion War novel, Behind Enemy Lines (I think that was the title) or either The Battle of Betazed into the third movie.
Peter David's Q Squared would've served as the basis for the fourth movie. Then I would do a TUC style film that forged peace between the Romulans and the Federation as TNG's swansong film.
Good Will Riker
Admiral
Improve the scripts for GEN and FC for me. I personally liked the themes and plots of those films, but thought that they were executed clumsily or not as well-planned out.
INS and NEM need a complete overhaul in my opinion. New themes. New plots. New everything, except retain the TNG cast and improve the look and performance of the Enterprise-E.
INS and NEM need a complete overhaul in my opinion. New themes. New plots. New everything, except retain the TNG cast and improve the look and performance of the Enterprise-E.
Picard attends a catsuit convention. Troi gets kidnapped and forced to wear catsuits.
Hilarity ensues.
Hilarity ensues.
I would have done a Dominion War film. No, I'm not one of those fans obsessed by the lack of seeing large fleet actions in the films. I could care less as long as the story is better than INS or NEM. I wish some enterprising writer had adapted the story of Capt. David Porter and the U.S.S. Essex during the war of 1812 to TNG. A great "caught-behind-the-lines" story of a single ship causing mayhem on the enemy during a large war. A by-product would have been a reasonable explanation for the absence of such a noteable ship as the Enterprise during most of the war.
I also always hoped for a "TNG-TMP", a hard science fiction story. Sadly, we never got one.
I also always hoped for a "TNG-TMP", a hard science fiction story. Sadly, we never got one.
Erm...the 3 TOSers that appeared only had 15 minutes or so of screen time. Also, the point of the first movie was to be a crossover film; the studio's confidence was not an issue.
With characters acting out of character, most predominantly Picard when he became action hero outside the ship or when he was swinging across Engineering. Hey, I like the movie too, but let's call a spade a spade.
No, that started in GEN, furthered in FC and continued in INS and NEM.
Yeah, those lucky DS9, VGR, and ENT fans got their movies to be completely awesome...oh, wait...
I like the TMP type TNG movie idea. Don't know how well it would have worked in the end, but I think a TMP-style would mesh well with the TNG crew. I also believe that the episode "The Chase" would have made a really good movie, as it has that epic sweeping feel that the TNG movies tended to lack. It also would hold a good place in Trek lore.
I was never a fan of the Dominion War based TNG film for two main reasons. The Dominion was really DS9's baddie and I think mixing the franchises like that would be a mistake (and, I am sure that we would be getting people bitching about how "unoriginal" the TNG films were because they had to use DS9's bad guys). Also, considering that the movies are written and made a good six months to a year before they are released, TPTB would have to really be in constant contact with the DS9 powers that be in order to make sure things sync up. Considering all the twists and turns that war had (and stuff that was probably made up in the particular season it was created for), it would really creatively bind the DS9 producers to a set path. I'm not saying it wouldn't do well; I just think there would be better avenues to travel.
Nemesis could have been something like that, IMO. When I first heard that the Romulans were involved, I thought it was finally going to be the big showdown between the Federation and the Romulans.
Ah, right...
IMO, I think the TNG movies were "doomed" from the start because the decision was made to more or less completely flip Picard and Riker from the way they were in the TV show. All of a sudden, Picard was the one always leading the away teams while Riker stayed on the bridge. It was almost as if someone had decided that it was TNG had to adopt the TOS formula for the movies in which you had three primary characters (Picard, Data, and Riker--and exactly in that order, IMO) and an obligatory hammy main villain. The rest of the TNG cast was pretty much reduced to brief scenes here and there.
While I understand there's only so much you can do in a 2-hour film, maybe not every movie had to follow the formula of an eventual one-on-one fisticuffs/phaser shootout showdown between the captain and the main villain, I dunno...
I guess my TNG movie would have been about some kind of space phenomenon that was ripping apart the Galaxy and there was nothing in the usual bag of technobabble tricks that could stop it. In hindsight, it probably wouldn't have gone over well because although I would have lots of planets and stars being blown up on a grand scale, it still would have been more like a TV episode in the sense that I probably would have had the focus less on Picard and Data and more on LaForge, Troi, and a new character that would taken over for Worf...
I would have Q in a movie, I don't know how but he would be in one.
I would have had Star Trek 10 deal with Tarsha Yar's daughter, that would have made the movie a lot better.
I would have also gotten rid of Riker for Star Trek 9. I would have given him his own ship after the events of First Contact. However I would have him show up in 10 to help Picard fight Yar's daughter.
I would have had Star Trek 10 deal with Tarsha Yar's daughter, that would have made the movie a lot better.
I would have also gotten rid of Riker for Star Trek 9. I would have given him his own ship after the events of First Contact. However I would have him show up in 10 to help Picard fight Yar's daughter.
Oh, God, not Sela. Denise Crosby may be a very nice person, but she can't act her way out of a wet paper bag. As Roger Ebert has said many times in his reviews, a film hero is only as good as the villain he's up against. If she's supposed to be the film's primary villain, that's a film which would be in deep, deep doo-doo.
That someone, from an interview I read, was Rick Berman, who said something wrt Nemesis like "Picard and Data will be the focus as they are the most important characters." I think he wanted to go to a more classic ST formula with the TNG films, that is, narrowing the focus to TNG's Kirk and Spock, Picard and Data. So does that make Riker McCoy? IMO, no, he was never ever that important to the movies. Though Jonathan Frakes got second billing, it was clear he was just a supporting character. Pretty sad for a guy that was the first officer.
You're also right about Picard and Riker flipping roles. With FC, I thought it was understandable. The Borg had invaded the Enterprise and it seemed natural for Picard, who hated the Borg and who was captain of the ship, to be the one fighting them. I was ok with that. I still think FC is the one great TNG movie, one of ST's best (along with TWOK, TVH, TUC, and TSFS), and probably the one with the most action. It's actually the highest rated ST movie on rottentomatoes, when you average the user ratings with the critics.
In INS, though, they had Picard beaming down to the planet on the away team, leaving Riker to fly out of the nebula or whatever it was to make the case against the deportation of the Baku from their planet. That's the role reversal you referred to, the one that is uncharacteristic of Picard and an instance where Berman's Picard = Kirk rule is blatant. That didn't make sense to me at all (a lot of that movie didn't, actually).
It happened again when Picard went down on the away team to recover B-4s parts in NEM and, worse, at the end, when he beams onboard the Scimitar ALL BY HIMSELF, to stop Shinzon. Then, as you mentioned, of course, both movies end up with Picard facing off with the villain.
These are examples of Rick Berman and his writers diverging from the TNG formula and using the original ST one instead. I agree with you that that was one of the things that may have hurt the films. TNG was an ensemble show, unlike the original ST. Also, Picard is not Kirk. That was the whole point of his character, to make him a different and more cerebral and thoughtful captain than Kirk, who liked to be in the thick of the action. That's why, imo anyway, Kirk and Picard's characters played off each other well in GEN (about the only think I liked in that messy movie). Picard was more of the perfect SF officer and Kirk was the space cowboy.
Then again, as you noted, you only have a couple of hours in a film, so maybe it was necessary to narrow the focus to a couple of characters. That said, was it completely necessary to make Picard Rambo?
Whatever, I think it's telling that the best TNG film, FC, imo, was also the one that adhered to TNG's formula the most wrt the characters.
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Ok....my TNG movie would go something like this:
Captain Riker and the USS Titan is sent on a mission to find out what happened to the missing USS Enterprise which had been on an top-secret mission in (insert location/dimension here.) The mission was so top secret that Riker isn't given any details as to what Picard was up to, only a general location.
The movie would flash back and forth, from several months prior showing Picard & the Enterprise on their mission and then would flash forward to Riker looking for clues to the Enterprise's mission and what happened to it.
At the end, Riker finds the Enterprise, destroyed (doing something heroically) and manages to retrieve Picard's body and return home.
Captain Riker and the USS Titan is sent on a mission to find out what happened to the missing USS Enterprise which had been on an top-secret mission in (insert location/dimension here.) The mission was so top secret that Riker isn't given any details as to what Picard was up to, only a general location.
The movie would flash back and forth, from several months prior showing Picard & the Enterprise on their mission and then would flash forward to Riker looking for clues to the Enterprise's mission and what happened to it.
At the end, Riker finds the Enterprise, destroyed (doing something heroically) and manages to retrieve Picard's body and return home.
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