What's Your Alternate Fate For Captain James T. Kirk after TOS/TUC?

[Warped9]

Things are very different today--everything has an origin, a middle and an ending or send-off.

But TOS, unlike all the live-action spinoff series that followed, had no origin (getting the gang together) story. Both "The Cage" and WNMHGB picked up when the ship and crew were already out there. When I look back at TOS I'm not bummed out there was no (now familiar) series finale, but wistfully disappointed we didn't get another season with more adventures. As I said upthread I'm fine with things left open ended.

Indeed most stories we encounter are open ended. Usually stories are just telling a chapter/event in characters' lives and you don't know what follows when the story is over.

Looking back any of the films could have served as a last instalment of the film run.
- If TMP had been the one and only film we could have assumed our heroes were still out there on new adventures.
- If TWOK had been the last instalment we could have assumed it was the last grand adventure and hurrah for our heroes after which they would continue on in different ways after losing Spock.
- If TSFS had been the last film we could accept that even though Spock had been recovered nothing would likely ever be the same for our heroes again.
- If TVH (my least favourite of the TOS films) had been the last we could assume that everyone was pretty much together at the end and ready for more adventure.
- TUC was the last full TOS instalment and while many laud it I find it tinged with saddest knowing this really was the swan song closing everything down for our heroes.
- GEN brought some of the familiar gang back and it felt like a pointless waste. This really is a dumb movie on so many levels.

And you can bet there could be lots of stories written and published in followup to any of the films if any of them had been the last.

 

[Maurice]

I think Kirk's rep would make it easy for him to get a civilian scout ship, and he and whoever would want to join him would go off and continue finding strange new worlds, sort of like when the crew was in limbo in Star Trek IV.

 

[TrickyDickie]

Watching the movies, without watching the series, it was all new to me.

That ties in to what the 'powers that be' always said about their target: the general audience. That's where the majority of the money is to be made. It's business. It never was about the vested interest of 'fans'. The movies were more about taking advantage of image-recognition than they were about what could be called 'self awareness'. If there wasn't a continuity from the series to the movies, it didn't really matter because it was about entertaining the broad audience. I have always maintained that things can be crafted in such a way that both goals are achieved, while remaining in-budget. Too many have the belief that good, cheap, and on time can't all be achieved together. The more that people convince themselves of something, the more true for them that it becomes.

On the issue of time, I think that 'Assignment: Earth', at the very least, should have been mentioned in TVH. When Kirk says that 1986 is "Terra incognita" it's simply not entirely true for them. Yes, the 60s to the 80s saw significant changes, but not to the extent where it should have seemed alien to them. That fish-out-of-water situation was played up for the humor....again, to appeal to a broad audience. I would have included references to the episode, because in my mind it would cause people in the audience to be curious about it and lead to the purchase (at the time) of VHS tapes. So, it would actually have been a sound idea from a business perspective.

Paramount never should have lumped all fans in together as nothing but a bunch of obsessed kooks. Some of us had a lot of good ideas and knew about budgetary constraints and creative problem-solving when resources are limited. We also could have told good stories that had broad appeal but that also would have more effectively furthered the continuity of the series.

My father was an employee of Ingersoll-Rand for 20 years and he said that when a company is making a lot of money with a certain way of doing things, you can seldom convince the ones at the top of how they could make significantly more money with a little positive change. They're just too scared of losing what they already have. That continues to be proven true today, with all of the reboots, sequels, and prequels, instead of more genuine originality.

 

[publiusr]

Nanite technology, or something along those lines, makes aging and unchosen death a thing of the past. It also makes structural degradation obsolete.

That take is something I would love to see with the “Regeneration” effects for a remastered end of ST IV.

Instead of the 1701-A, we see the bridge crew turn from the Excelsior towards Spacedock’s huge doors…which open up.

In the distance, we see TMP’s drydock…and inside it…a TOS type Enterprise… classic sets—but the technology under the skin is up there with 32 Century tech.

Full circle