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Which race would you like focused-upon the most in XII?

Which race would you like focused-upon the most in XII?

  • The Vulcans. It's only logical.

    Votes: 6 15.0%
  • The Klingons. It is the way of the warrior, after all.

    Votes: 13 32.5%
  • The Romulans. Kirk knew he should have killed them when he had the chance.

    Votes: 1 2.5%
  • The Ferengi. There's a rule of acquisition to back this claim up, too.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • The Borg. It's time for Kirk and Spock to go where they personally haven't gone just yet.

    Votes: 3 7.5%
  • The Dominion. They're getting a head-start on that xenophobia this time.

    Votes: 2 5.0%
  • None of the above... give me a brand new race. It's nuTrek for a reason, dammit.

    Votes: 6 15.0%
  • None of the above... I'd rather have a sentient space entity or the like. TOS had them aplenty, so w

    Votes: 2 5.0%
  • None of the above... we don't need an antagonist at all. How about we make space the final frontier

    Votes: 7 17.5%

  • Total voters
    40
I have no objection to an early introduction of the Borg, with the stipulation that they have to be nearly invincible and assimilation is permanent - NO EXCEPTIONS! - so that the Borg will be taken seriously and not turned into jokes.
It’s too late for the Borg. That ship has sailed.

Q Who introduced a badass new adversary. Later writers repeatedly revised the essential nature of the Borg so that Picard and Janeway (and even Archer, once) could keep defeating them again and again and again.

If XII reintroduces the Borg and restores them to their former badassery, and the writers announce “We mean it this time, we’re not going to keep watering them down like our predecessors did,” why would anyone believe them, or care?
 
Inevitably, it will happen. Especially if the next film explodes anywhere near the way The Dark Knight did sales-wise. The more punch NuTrek gives, the more likelihood someone with sway will decide Trek on the small screen is a viable option again.

So, in a parallel universe the Trill are evil and enslaved Earth, and due to a complex series of events, things progressed quite differently. Humankind remains ever-strong, however, and assembles a group of elite teams to explore the galaxy via a vast network of harnessed wormholes the dark Trill have been using for thousands of years. We learn that the humanoid race from TNG's "The Chase" is officially the cause for our existence, and Richard Dean Anderson effectively gets to play captain of the longest-running Trek.

Excellente.
 
I have no objection to an early introduction of the Borg, with the stipulation that they have to be nearly invincible and assimilation is permanent - NO EXCEPTIONS! - so that the Borg will be taken seriously and not turned into jokes.
It’s too late for the Borg. That ship has sailed.

It's not too late in the Abramsverse, since the Borg haven't even been introduced yet! I know it's a long shot that anyone would try to do this, since the Borg have built up a far amount of disdain and hostility among fans because of how poorly they were handled, and they have very limited usefullness in storylines if they must be a) always lacking in individuality and b) never allowed to lose a fight or have a Borg un-assimilated, so they wouldn't be as worthwhile to develop as other foe races would be, but I'd still like someone to give it one more try for old times' sake.
If XII reintroduces the Borg and restores them to their former badassery, and the writers announce “We mean it this time, we’re not going to keep watering them down like our predecessors did,” why would anyone believe them, or care?
They'd have to actually DO what they say. Nobody will believe them till they see it on screen, me least of all! I fully know how difficult this would be, how tempting it would be to screw them up all over again, and how little screen time you'd get out of them anyway before you'd start venturing into Borg Screw-Up territory.
 
I have no objection to an early introduction of the Borg, with the stipulation that they have to be nearly invincible and assimilation is permanent - NO EXCEPTIONS! - so that the Borg will be taken seriously and not turned into jokes.
It’s too late for the Borg. That ship has sailed.

It's not too late in the Abramsverse, since the Borg haven't even been introduced yet!

They haven’t been introduced in the Abramsverse, but they have been introduced in the minds of Trekkers, where they have become the ultimate symbol of Villain Decay. If you’re introducing a badass and trying to convince the fans that the badass is going to stay that way, the last thing you want to do is remind them of the Borg.
 
They haven’t been introduced in the Abramsverse, but they have been introduced in the minds of Trekkers, where they have become the ultimate symbol of Villain Decay. If you’re introducing a badass and trying to convince the fans that the badass is going to stay that way, the last thing you want to do is remind them of the Borg.

They have been introduced to the NuUniverse.
http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Regeneration_(episode)

The past is the same for both universes.
 
Replicants - If Data-like beings were introduced in the 23rd C, but for some reason not given equal treatment in the Federation, this could be a viable foe-type character. However, why wouldn't the oh-so-enlightened Federation treat them as equals?

That's my problem with the film actually (the only one I'm serious about anyway). NuFed just doesn't appear to be "oh-so-enlightened" any more. Not even in TOS terms. It has problems we probably wouldn't let stand in the current military, I believe. Which is fine for your plot idea anyway.

By the way, was there anything in the movie that indicates a level of social advancement compared to today? I would love to eat my words! It would be a small glimmer of hope.

Actually, to be fair, Data's "child" wasn't treated that great initially by the Federation, even in TNG. I know, weird! I guess the writers had to get conflict from somewhere.


Re the Borg. Can someone point out exactly how they were screwed over? Is the problem that they were constantly being beaten when they should have wiped space with us? If so, then the issue may not be that they weren't badass enough, but that they were too powerful and our constant victories looked ridiculous. Or was it the manner of their defeats people object to?
 
You're a smart enough person to grasp the issue without being told, UFO: you basically nailed it, actually. It's a combination of what you listed.

According to many of the more avid Trek enthusiasts, the first big sign of a problem was from Star Trek: First Contact, which is funny because that's commonly considered one of the best films and certainly the best TNG film. Giving the Borg a face and human-like ambitions in the form of the Borg Queen was considered a mistake.

Star Trek: Voyager took that and ran with it, leading to the 'Borg show' as many have called it. Plenty of people felt like they really ran it into the ground, that the Borg started to 'lose their fangs' as someone important once said. (I don't remember who that someone was...)
 
According to many of the more avid Trek enthusiasts, the first big sign of a problem was from Star Trek: First Contact, which is funny because that's commonly considered one of the best films and certainly the best TNG film. Giving the Borg a face and human-like ambitions in the form of the Borg Queen was considered a mistake.

Yes, you can see why they would want to but its definitely a double edged sword.

More generally, they at least needed to win some big victories in order to keep up their threat level up, but it would still be hard to see why the didn't roll right over the whole federation. If one cube wasn't enough why not send ten the next time? Their catch phrase does tend to ring a little hollow.
 
The problem with the Borg is that they are monsters, not villains. Villains are like heroes or any regular character. They're meant to be complex like real people so the more you develop them, the more interesting they become.

Monsters are not real people; they are more like icons or forces of nature, meant to represent some deep seated fear or idea. They are meant to be simple and elemental, not complex, so the more you learn about them, the more you realize there isn't anything to learn. They become boring through overuse. Boredom kills fear, and if a monster can't inspire fear, it's useless.

The monster aspects of the Borg - invincibility, implacability, mystery, the threat they pose of creating "zombies" out of your friends or yourself who can never be cured of their living-dead state - are what make them interesting. Trying to add details to them by turning them into real characters (Borg dissidents for instance, bleh) took interesting monsters and turned them into characters who had nothing special going for them and weren't good villains or good anything.

The only way to handle the Borg is to use them sparingly and respect their effective monster elements - they should be extraordinarily difficult to beat, assimilation should be irreversible, and they should have no elements of individuality such as queens. Good characters are hard to make but good monsters are really rare, and need to be handled with the extreme care you'd show to anything that is both fragile and valuable.
 
Temis, yes, absolutely, everything you said. I don't tend to read fan fiction, but if you ever write something, let me know, eh? :borg:
 
Klingons.

That's all I ask.

Klingons. Without masks or Rura Pente. I want blood thirsty, unable to reason with, mean, scary Klingons.
 
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