Wish List for Star Trek: 2017
- Thread starter David.Blue
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1. Make the show while at it's core Star Trek, a modern style TV show with cutting edge production value and techniques.
2. Episodes that are at least 47 minutes long but preferably closer to an hour. Since the show will be streamed and doesn't need to fill an "hour" of television, no need to pressure the writers with an exact predetermined episode length or force them to write "mini cliffhangers" at certain points of the show to lead into where commercial breaks are to be inserted. Giving the writers creative control on how long each act is can only help the verisimilitude and overall quality of the show IMO.
3. A theme song thats longer than 5 seconds (most modern shows seem to not even have a theme). This is more of a pet peeve but I still think having a strong theme helps to give the show an identity.
4. 13-16 episodes per season rather than 20ish. Having fewer episodes can only help the production value of each episode and pretty much eliminate the dreaded "filler" episodes that plagued many of the prior trek shows.
5. Keep the technobabble to a minimum.
I'm sure I can think of others but theres a few off the top of my head. As for the formula of the show - whether it's serialized or more of an anthology, it doesn't really matter to me as long its executed well. The most important thing to me is to make it thought provoking storytelling. Whenever people sum up what kind of story Star Treks tells, I mainly hear two descriptions. One is the "a positive future with morals/allegories overtones thrown in. The other one is "exploring the human condition". These 2 things are not necessarily the same thing and with how modern TV is going these days, "exploring the human condition" would suit the new series better as their main mantra. Not saying they shouldn't do episodes with "messages", but I think it should be toned down a bit more than it has in the past. In terms of the overall tone of the show, I think it should be somewhat darker than TNG but somewhat lighter than DS9.
2. Episodes that are at least 47 minutes long but preferably closer to an hour. Since the show will be streamed and doesn't need to fill an "hour" of television, no need to pressure the writers with an exact predetermined episode length or force them to write "mini cliffhangers" at certain points of the show to lead into where commercial breaks are to be inserted. Giving the writers creative control on how long each act is can only help the verisimilitude and overall quality of the show IMO.
3. A theme song thats longer than 5 seconds (most modern shows seem to not even have a theme). This is more of a pet peeve but I still think having a strong theme helps to give the show an identity.
4. 13-16 episodes per season rather than 20ish. Having fewer episodes can only help the production value of each episode and pretty much eliminate the dreaded "filler" episodes that plagued many of the prior trek shows.
5. Keep the technobabble to a minimum.
I'm sure I can think of others but theres a few off the top of my head. As for the formula of the show - whether it's serialized or more of an anthology, it doesn't really matter to me as long its executed well. The most important thing to me is to make it thought provoking storytelling. Whenever people sum up what kind of story Star Treks tells, I mainly hear two descriptions. One is the "a positive future with morals/allegories overtones thrown in. The other one is "exploring the human condition". These 2 things are not necessarily the same thing and with how modern TV is going these days, "exploring the human condition" would suit the new series better as their main mantra. Not saying they shouldn't do episodes with "messages", but I think it should be toned down a bit more than it has in the past. In terms of the overall tone of the show, I think it should be somewhat darker than TNG but somewhat lighter than DS9.
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This 1000 times. Maybe an older Trek character in a different role (like Spiner as Soong in Enterprise) but I do not want to see old characters in the new Star Trek.
Every single time Star Trek ever brought an old character back from an older Star Trek show, it was not the character we saw -- instead what we saw was the actor in a Star Trek setting being themself (e.g. Riker/Troi in every TNG movie).
No, please.
Edit: I take it back. Spock & Sarek were FINE when they were on TNG. Still, it better be fracking DAMN good if they bring an old character in.
No rest button please. Voyager used that device far too often. If the Klingons take a chunk out of the ship and kill 90 crewmembers please let's see the aftermath of this for a few episodes instead of brushing it all under the table like it never happened.
I actually want episodic storytelling if the series is set on a ship. I'm fine with character arcs continuing in a serialized manner but I'm one of the few who actually wants aliens of the week and problems of the week. The beauty of many of my favourite tv shows is the ability to pick an episode at random and watch an entire storyline unfold to completion in 45 minutes. As long as it's good. No filler please.
No recycled plots. Voyager and Enterprise dined out on recycled ideas. I don't want to see clones of previous Star Trek episodes. If it's a reboot then I am not interested in remakes of classic episodes with a "new" spin put on it.
No hanger ons. All the characters should be important and not glorified extras like in Voyager and Enterprise.
Please don't overdo the "dark and gritty" claptrap most tv shows are obsessed with these days. Star Trek is supposed to be optimistic. That doesn't mean it has to be 45 minutes of the crew singing Kumbaya but being dark and gritty doesn't mean it has to be 45 minutes of death, depression and angry characters. DS9 managed to strike this balance perfectly.
I actually want episodic storytelling if the series is set on a ship. I'm fine with character arcs continuing in a serialized manner but I'm one of the few who actually wants aliens of the week and problems of the week. The beauty of many of my favourite tv shows is the ability to pick an episode at random and watch an entire storyline unfold to completion in 45 minutes. As long as it's good. No filler please.
No recycled plots. Voyager and Enterprise dined out on recycled ideas. I don't want to see clones of previous Star Trek episodes. If it's a reboot then I am not interested in remakes of classic episodes with a "new" spin put on it.
No hanger ons. All the characters should be important and not glorified extras like in Voyager and Enterprise.
Please don't overdo the "dark and gritty" claptrap most tv shows are obsessed with these days. Star Trek is supposed to be optimistic. That doesn't mean it has to be 45 minutes of the crew singing Kumbaya but being dark and gritty doesn't mean it has to be 45 minutes of death, depression and angry characters. DS9 managed to strike this balance perfectly.
Oh, and one I forgot.
I want it to be an already established crew who have known each other for a few years. All the spin offs started with crews who were getting to know each other for the first time apart from a few already familiar. I'd like this crew to already be in full swing like in The Original Series.
I want it to be an already established crew who have known each other for a few years. All the spin offs started with crews who were getting to know each other for the first time apart from a few already familiar. I'd like this crew to already be in full swing like in The Original Series.
One possible continuity is theme music. Trek is quite well endowed in that respect.
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It might be impossible to entirely get away from some basic themes.
5. Enslavement of a pre-warp civilization-this might make for drama/conflict/tough choices. Would the Prime Directive apply if a society has already been massively disrupted? As liberators, what would you do with the emancipated?
6. Wormholes-if you find one that can be used for transportation, it might as well connect the Milky Way with a very remote galaxy. Or, in any case some very strange part of the universe. Or maybe...another universe?
11. Interesting comment regarding Stargate. I would like Trek to be fun to watch, even as it grapples with issues.
Regarding Bry Sinclair's comments, I agree, no more cat suits. Let the women dress in a dignified manner.
And I also like the idea of an older ship. In fact, one ship I liked, Destiny, was positively ancient. (Stargate Universe).
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A apt descript of the Federation itself, a society where peace (the complete absence of any warfare) is a rare and short experience. While the focus is usually on Starfleet, it would be interesting to find out what the civilian population feels about this.
The Sona in Insurrection, they enslave two or three worlds, didn't really seem to concern the Federation to the point where they did anything about it. Have a new series make crystal clear that the Klingons do in fact make extensive use of chattel slave labor, but the Federation still considers them allies.
There nothing wrong with Star Trek occasionally indulging in some humor, the scene where Data asks Worf to look after his cat hits this perfectly.
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Re: lived in universe (similar to Star Wars)
I recall a comment regarding Voyager-that there was a reset button for the vessel. The ship could take a beating in one episode, but have a pristine appearance in the next one.
This might be mitigated if the hero ship is an old rust bucket. The paint job has faded. There are seams and scorch marks on the hull.
The cramped interior appears lived in, definitely lacking an antiseptic, spanking near appearance.
As the name "Enterprise" is reserved for the pride of the fleet, I think the old slag heap would be called something else.
I recall a comment regarding Voyager-that there was a reset button for the vessel. The ship could take a beating in one episode, but have a pristine appearance in the next one.
This might be mitigated if the hero ship is an old rust bucket. The paint job has faded. There are seams and scorch marks on the hull.
The cramped interior appears lived in, definitely lacking an antiseptic, spanking near appearance.
As the name "Enterprise" is reserved for the pride of the fleet, I think the old slag heap would be called something else.
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I'm watching The Menagerie on my local classic TV channel, and looking at all the flashbacks to The Cage, I'm thinking I wouldn't mind too much seeing a series with Captain Pike, Number One, and maybe the rest of Pike's crew.
I love Destiny, such a shame we never got to find out what happened to her
That would be great to see! I love Pike, Number One, Boyce, Colt and Tyler, would be great to see more of them.
I know it's been suggested by other people in the past, but I'd be interested in a series more along the lines of Firefly where you have a smaller crew where everyone is there for a personal reason rather than a crew of endless redshirts where everyone is there because it's their job.
But only if it had the right tone. Firefly was gritty in a way and had some serious stories but was filled with entertaining dialog which I find missing from most modern shows.
But only if it had the right tone. Firefly was gritty in a way and had some serious stories but was filled with entertaining dialog which I find missing from most modern shows.
Couple of nice things about such a series is the characters are largely "blank slates" and for those who dislike canon, the series would be set prior to much of the events in established canon.
This is cheating. So is using technobabble to eliminate (as opposed to solving) problems.
Characters should be required to work for their goals.
- Prime universe.
- An unexplored era.
- Far less technobabble.
- No cameos or callbacks.
- Concrete problems, concrete solutions.
Yes please
Why no cameos or callbacks? In my opinion those are absolutely essential to the new series.
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