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I think the earliest 'base era' for a true Star Trek series could be set no earlier than after First contact, when they meet the Vulcans. Because that point in time is supposedly when humanity begins to change, to become less selfish, and more concerned with growth and bettering itself. And without that, there's no Star Trek as far as I'm concerned.
However, that would not necessarily prevent a series from following a crew from, say, 2065, that ends up in the the ancient past due to some bizarre experiment or incident and spends the rest of the series in that era.
Now that we have all these alien species that look just like Humans (or can alter their appearances to) and supposedly live among them for years without Humans being any the wiser, there are all sorts of possibilities. Plus it saves on prosthetic makeup if they look like us (mostly).
I meant specifically ones that claim to have hung out on Earth without getting caught, not as spies but just wanting to live as a Human. Ones who are specifically said and always shown to look Human in their natural state, or who can turn into Humans (changelings, etc)
I meant specifically ones that claim to have hung out on Earth without getting caught, not as spies but just wanting to live as a Human. Ones who are specifically said and always shown to look Human in their natural state, or who can turn into Humans (changelings, etc)
While I agree the franchise shouldn't do a bunch of prequel series and should remain focused on "Star Treking" doing any kind of media based on earlier events where Star Trek backstory differs from real history (Gary Seven, Eugenics Wars in the 90's, exc) would still constitute "Star Trek".
Technically there’s no limit; there’s no reason you couldn’t have Star Trek DTI: Big Bang Patrol. But without stretching things like that, I can’t see much point in pre-SNW prequels at this point, unless they specifically wanted to revisit Enterprise. There’s not a lot storywise that you can do earlier that couldn’t be done just as well in one of the existing timeframes.
Oh man could you imagine Madame Guinan and Samuel Clemens, solving crime and investigating paranormal phenomena in 1800’s San Francisco? Occasionally taking trips to visit Jack London on the Klondike and Jules Verne on the trail of Captain Nemo or repelling an invasion from Mars?
I'm imagining how this all goes down in 2063-set Star Trek:
Troi: "It unites Humanity in a way no one ever thought possible when they realize they're no longer alone!"
Democrats: "The Vulcans won't lift a finger to help us recover from the devastation left in the wake of war! They have the technology to cure our diseases but let us suffer!"
Republicans: "The Vulcans want to curtail our military and are afraid of our expansion into space and have spied on us. They represent a threat to our national security!"
Oh man could you imagine Madame Guinan and Samuel Clemens, solving crime and investigating paranormal phenomena in 1800’s San Francisco? Occasionally taking trips to visit Jack London on the Klondike and Jules Verne on the trail of Captain Nemo or repelling an invasion from Mars?
You know, I meant this as a joke, but there's actually a lot you could do with this. Aside from looking at canon and finding adventures they could be a part of (i.e. Guinan and Twain thwarting TOS's Redjac/Jack the Ripper, active on Earth 1888-1891), you could almost do an X-Files like series tying in earlier science fiction that might be rooted in or inspired by historical fact.
Lucian of Samosata wrote A True Story in the 2nd Century AD about outer space, alien lifeforms, and interplanetary warfare. Could the El-Aurians have known who they were – Ancient Orions?
9th or 10th Century Japan gives us The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter about a princess from the moon who briefly visits Earth looking for a suitor.
The Arabic Theologus Autodidactus (~1268) is (among other things) about a spontaneously generated child (midichlorians?) and biomedical research.
Thomas More gave us Utopia (1516), Francis Bacon New Atlantis (1627), and Jonathan Swift Gulliver's Travels (1726). Could these be inspired by real lost civilizations (Atlantis? Wherever the
Lanthenites
are from?) that humans discover in the late 21st-23rd centuries, yet that Twain and Guinan either visit or have to deal with in some way?
Is Frankenstein (1818) still wandering the Earth?
Maybe Jack London was inspired to write his science fiction stories after an adventure with the duo.
And of course the giants of the period:
H.G. Wells: The War of the Worlds – did the "Martian" invasion really happen? Edosians? The Time Machine – rogue Traveller? The Invisible Man – duck blind mission gone wrong? The Island of Dr. Moreau – Flint briefly loses his mind. Men Like Gods – trans-dimensional travel a la "Mirror Mirror" or "Parallels" The Food of the Gods (1904) – insects and other small animals genetically-engineered giant as a food source, only chaos ensues...the first Jurassic Park story? Empire of the Ants – other animals on Earth are sentient and there's an uneasy peace/balance with humans that Twain and Guinan have to maintain before it's too late! …This could be the horror/“Conspiracy” episode with streams of ants eating your brain through the ears as you sleep.
Jules Verne: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea – what first brought Guinan to Earth. Journey to the Centre of the Earth – the two discover there's much more going on beneath the Earth. A Floating City
Around the World in Eighty Days – Twain and Guinan race each other. From the Earth to the Moon – The El-Aurians come back for Guinan.
L. Frank Baum: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900) – Baum stowed away on Guinan's would-be return ship. The Tin Man is an android.
Arthur Conan Doyle: The Lost World (1912) – dinosaurs are all that's left of the Preserver outpost.
Edgar Rice Burroughs :
John Carter of Mars series (1912) – something something, the Kzinti.
Republicans: "The Vulcans want to curtail our military and are afraid of our expansion into space and have spied on us. They represent a threat to our national security!"
To be honest, I never found her to be more than moderately interesting.
A Star Trek series set prior to 2063 and warp drive. the impression I received from the earlier series is that in the Trek universe Humanity advanced out into the solar system much faster than we actually are doing. So by the 2040's have a heavily inhabited solar system with tens of millions of Humans living off Earth. Hundreds (thousands) of governments, corporate entities, private/personal settlements, on planets, moons, asteroids and open space.
A series about Temporal Time Agents that is both a spoof and sendoff to the X-Files, with each episode having them investigate a new time period to prevent the timelines from getting corrupted.
