The Next Star Trek: Post-Dominion War or something New?

[Dark Raven]

I've been thinking that maybe the next series should be a remake of the original series. I don't know when it would air (and maybe it wouldn't be until Abrams has finished with the movies so as not to cause confusion), but his films take so long to come out that you have to wait 3+ years for the next instalment. That means you don't see these characters on a more regular basis.

I still love the original series, but there are some people (myself NOT included) who find it very dated and won't watch it simply because it's not modern special effects or storytelling. However, these characters are the most iconic ones of the entire franchise. That means if people will only ever watch the later Trek shows from TNG onwards, they're simply missing out on the full extent of Trek. It's like only reading A-Next or Young Avengers.

However, if there is a modern TV version of Kirk and co, audiences might be prepared to tune in. It could run off the momentum of the new movies, bringing in fans that way. The only problem I see is whether the creators would want it to run at the same time as Abrams's movies thereby having a big screen and small screen version of Kirk and Spock or whether they'd wait a while until that's over.

[SuBe]

There was plans called "Star Trek: Federation" that would have taken place in the far, far future. It was being developed by Bryan Singer (who is a huge ST fan). http://trekmovie.com/2011/04/16/excl...ries-proposal/

I love the idea, of not "rebooting" Star Trek, but jumping ahead, ala ST TMP-VI to TNG. Jump ahead a hundred years or two. Use ST2009 as pseudo canon (pre-nero), and move forward.

Brent Spiner can be involved as the voice of the Enterprise computer, Michael Dorn can be back as an old Chancellor. Have the captain be a merge between the Kirk and Picard style, Have massive space battles and then show the human stories of loss and wonder. Cardassia could be a part of the Federation, the Q Continuum could show up again, the Borg could have evolved past "zombies" and are now more "vampire", or something.

[Soapy]

Originally Posted by Dark Raven

TOS remake stuff

Personally I'm not interested in that at all. I don't share the reverence for The Original Series that a lot of fans seem to have. There are only a handful of episodes that I'll watch, and I don't find the characters to be all that great either.

Originally Posted by SuBe

Federation stuff

For the most part this seems really cool, and it bums me out it will never happen.

[SuBe]

Originally Posted by Soapy

For the most part this seems really cool, and it bums me out it will never happen.

It was very, very close to happening, before the reboot movies. If they want to turn the franchise back to tv, they will have to do something dramatic. This is probably the only way to make it work, as tv has just changed so much from the standard Star Trek style. It would have to be serialized, like modern tv. It has to show fantastical sci-fi elements that are a parable to today's news stories.

[Thundercrack85]

They really could do a series focused on the Starfleet Academy. Obviously, make it a bit more exciting than just day to day school life. Throw in some political intrigue.

Or have them have an actual starship for training (like how the navy has real ships for that).

[Picard Sisko]

If Doctor Who could have its TV series and have a huge fan base, I think Star Trek could too. Of course, there is a huge fan base for British television in general, so I think it has an advantage there.

A remake of TOS is bad... that's basically what the 2009 film is, only in film. A TV series has to be something new, and different. It should be serialized, or at least semi-serialized like Deep Space Nine. I think the future is the way to go (another generation, after Voyager, Nemesis, etc.)

[SuBe]

Originally Posted by Picard Sisko

If Doctor Who could have its TV series and have a huge fan base, I think Star Trek could too. Of course, there is a huge fan base for British television in general, so I think it has an advantage there.

A remake of TOS is bad... that's basically what the 2009 film is, only in film. A TV series has to be something new, and different. It should be serialized, or at least semi-serialized like Deep Space Nine. I think the future is the way to go (another generation, after Voyager, Nemesis, etc.)

I GOT IT! A Federation crew, possibly the Enterprise-G, maybe the "USS Picard" and Patrick Stewart could reprise his role for a cameo and the dedication ceremony. They are on a science/peace keeping mission, like always, and are thrust forward 100 years into the future. They would be from a time familiar to fans, but not only "Discovering new life and new civilizations" but also "discovering what has happened over the last 100 years".

The Federation is in near ruins, there hasn't been a new Starship built in years, but those around are far more advanced than what we had last seen., but without hope, it doesn't matter. War has broken out among the Alpha and Beta Quadrant fractions, the Ferengi are the power brokers. No longer are they comic mischief, they are the shadowy financiers of the Wars between the "Nation States".

Only the Enterprise-G brings hope from a forgotten era to pull together the resources and rebuild the Federation.

Not only new worlds, but new time, new technologies, new relationships, new enemies.

[Picard Sisko]

Originally Posted by SuBe

I GOT IT! A Federation crew, possibly the Enterprise-G, maybe the "USS Picard" and Patrick Stewart could reprise his role for a cameo and the dedication ceremony. They are on a science/peace keeping mission, like always, and are thrust forward 100 years into the future. They would be from a time familiar to fans, but not only "Discovering new life and new civilizations" but also "discovering what has happened over the last 100 years".

The Federation is in near ruins, there hasn't been a new Starship built in years, but those around are far more advanced than what we had last seen., but without hope, it doesn't matter. War has broken out among the Alpha and Beta Quadrant fractions, the Ferengi are the power brokers. No longer are they comic mischief, they are the shadowy financiers of the Wars between the "Nation States".

Only the Enterprise-G brings hope from a forgotten era to pull together the resources and rebuild the Federation.

Not only new worlds, but new time, new technologies, new relationships, new enemies.

YES! I love it! LOVE IT!

In all seriousness, Paramount should take ideas from us fans here.

[DarKush]

As much as I would love to see a continuation of the 24th century universe, perhaps a Riker & Troi Titan series, with the success of Abram's Trek I'm seeing that as unlikely. Plus it has been nearly a decade sense the Berman era ended.

So I've been content to accept that the 24th century series will continue in novels, comics, or video games.

I got a feeling that if they did return Trek to the small screen it would probably be in the alternate universe. I could see a John Cho Sulu series working.

[Pink Ranger]

Originally Posted by SuBe

I GOT IT! A Federation crew, possibly the Enterprise-G, maybe the "USS Picard" and Patrick Stewart could reprise his role for a cameo and the dedication ceremony. They are on a science/peace keeping mission, like always, and are thrust forward 100 years into the future. They would be from a time familiar to fans, but not only "Discovering new life and new civilizations" but also "discovering what has happened over the last 100 years".

The Federation is in near ruins, there hasn't been a new Starship built in years, but those around are far more advanced than what we had last seen., but without hope, it doesn't matter. War has broken out among the Alpha and Beta Quadrant fractions, the Ferengi are the power brokers. No longer are they comic mischief, they are the shadowy financiers of the Wars between the "Nation States".

Only the Enterprise-G brings hope from a forgotten era to pull together the resources and rebuild the Federation.

Not only new worlds, but new time, new technologies, new relationships, new enemies.

Good idea, but unfortunately it invites unfavourable comparisons to another property associated with Gene Roddenberry:

VIDEO-CLick to Watch!:

Even the mighty Sorbo couldn't make that show good in its later seasons.

[Picard Sisko]

Originally Posted by DarKush

As much as I would love to see a continuation of the 24th century universe, perhaps a Riker & Troi Titan series, with the success of Abram's Trek I'm seeing that as unlikely. Plus it has been nearly a decade sense the Berman era ended.

So I've been content to accept that the 24th century series will continue in novels, comics, or video games.

I got a feeling that if they did return Trek to the small screen it would probably be in the alternate universe. I could see a John Cho Sulu series working.

Well I think we have seen enough of the 24th century, considering we have three series that occupy that century. Why not go ahead and move into the 25th century, like Star Trek Online?

[DarKush]

^
I would like to see more of the 24th century in part because of the three series and I want to see what happens to the characters. I think 24th century Trek is in a unique position to explore that, to bring together aspects of the three 24th century shows, and really you could probably toss in Phlox-we don't know how long Denobulans live-and some of the TOS actors as well.

Granted that can be done for a 25th century series as well probably, though bringing ENT and TOS characters into the 25th century, for me, is stretching it.

I don't mind some of the stuff I read about Star Trek Online, though I wish they had just came up with their own continuity instead of picking and choosing from Trek Lit. to fill in the history after the conclusion of VOY and Nemesis. Either that, or just tie it more to Trek Lit. Though I would prefer them just doing their own continuity.

[Picard Sisko]

Why would they bring ENT or TOS characters into the 25th century though?

[DarKush]

^
I was thinking more along the lines of if they wanted to do a show that could encompass all the eras of Trek. Having three shows in the 24th century does provide them with a lot of already established characters and potential stories to play with, and also potential fans ready to see some of their favorites again. Adding TOS or ENT characters into that kind of show wouldn't hurt. I was thinking that it would be harder to bring in TOS and ENT characters into the 25th century if one of the ideas might be to do a Trek show that can touch on all the previous eras. Of course this is all just idle speculation on my part. I would think that the more conservative minded might want to find a way to use the tried and true than to strike out with an all new cast, untethered from what has come before.

[Idun]

Originally Posted by Thundercrack85

Well, you gotta make it fresh. Like for example, focus on the frontier of human colonized space. More gritty less utopian.

I mean if they can't make a show out of that, they're in the wrong business.

There isn't much new ground to cover period. Trek has done everything. Twice. But there are things it hasn't explored much.

Mmm, western sci fi. Right, Whedon got there first. It could be fine, but one had to be careful to not lose the Roddenberry vision, showing the positive aspects, what we could become.

Picard Sisko has a point, that a series can, after a long time, still have a large fan base, you just need to find that reboot button. It doesn't have to be about the film universe, but since money talks, it would be tempting for the executives to take that route. These companies are in this business to make money after all. I can honestly not say what I would like to see at this point. I knew in 2005 when ENT was canned, but after ST XI, I'm not so sure. The colonisation idea would be fine but I'm not so sure a series set in a very distant future would work, simply because we tend to be so stuck in our own time to really be able to paint a believable future. I mean, we have issues with all the telly series in that our own technological development makes some things look dated already. That was a constant discussion on ENT, that they were too advanced compared to TOS, TNG, VOY and DS9, but at the same time, you have to keep up with what's happening in the real world. That's why I think it's better to not jump too far ahead and why a colonisation series could work better.

[Soapy]

Whedon did not invent the science fiction western. Not even close.

[Jochimus]

Originally Posted by Sube

I GOT IT! A Federation crew, possibly the Enterprise-G, maybe the "USS Picard" and Patrick Stewart could reprise his role for a cameo and the dedication ceremony. They are on a science/peace keeping mission, like always, and are thrust forward 100 years into the future. They would be from a time familiar to fans, but not only "Discovering new life and new civilizations" but also "discovering what has happened over the last 100 years".

The Federation is in near ruins, there hasn't been a new Starship built in years, but those around are far more advanced than what we had last seen., but without hope, it doesn't matter. War has broken out among the Alpha and Beta Quadrant fractions, the Ferengi are the power brokers. No longer are they comic mischief, they are the shadowy financiers of the Wars between the "Nation States".

Only the Enterprise-G brings hope from a forgotten era to pull together the resources and rebuild the Federation.

Not only new worlds, but new time, new technologies, new relationships, new enemies.

I had a similar idea years ago, although I jumped further ahead into the future so as not to be so dependent on appearances by previous Trek characters, nor to worry about fitting into any sort of gap in continuity with a sister series. I'd have probaby went with a half-hour animated show, either CGI (a la Clone Wars) or a cel-CGI mix (a la TRON Uprising) that gets back to basics, chronicling the 33rd-century exploits of the mostly-alien-and-one-human crew of the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-A2, exploring strange new worlds...

...that is, new worlds recreated from the remains of old ones that were assimilated by the Borg decades ago and reborn when the Federation employed a final solution against the Borg homeworld - a recreated Genesis Device - that caused spontaneous regeneration in EVERY world the Borg had ever assimilated, which by that point in time included pretty much all of the Milky Way (Earth, too).

We discover as the series premiere progresses that the end result of this controversy was the final nail in the coffin of the Federation - as many of its member worlds broke ties with it in disgust over the use of the Device, regardless of its vitality in winning the war - and that the new Enterprise is actually a KLINGON ship (cloaking device and all) in a different form of Starfleet, one representing a still-tense alliance between what remains of the Klingons, Cardassians and Ferengi and any other survivors that fell in with any of them, most of which have had to resort to cloning to salvage their respective species (the Romulans and Bajorans are never mentioned and if they're seen, we'd only get one or two of them - one might get the impression that whatever hostilities they had against the Klingons and Cardassians, respectively, got tossed to the wayside once the threat of mutual extinction reared its head - shades of "The Undiscovered Country", I guess*). Thus it is that this new "Starfleet" sends out the Enterprise - named out of respect for the one Federation ship that merited such respect in so many incarnations, so far as this alliance is concerned - to examine what has transpired on these techno-organic worlds since their regeneration, in the hopes of maintaining the peace as well as charting the suitability of these planets to accommodate the rebuilding of the survivors' respective races, as well as deal with any other interested parties that have already staked claims to any of these worlds.

There's just one problem, though...while their numbers have been greatly reduced, the Borg themselves are not entirely extinct. Worse yet, there was a distinct side-effect from that little Genesis Device detonation decades back on the remaining Collective drifting through the cosmos - namely, it caused them to re-generate and mutate into fully bio-mechanical creatures with non-humanoid physiognomies; imagine what Terminators would look like if Skynet had H.R. Giger's design sensibility, THEN imagine what such a machine would look like if it could be infected by The Thing, and you'd probably have a rough idea of where I'm going with this. So basically, the series is "Star Trek" with a touch of "Alien" thrown in.

* Of course, it's also worth mentioning that another reason I'd jump this series so much farther into the future is to create enough of a time-gap unfilled so that by only obliquely referring to the Romulans being near-extinct and not specifically referring to what caused this, this series could potentially fall into either the 'Prime' timeline OR that of the new movies (the latter would of course assume that, as with Nero, there were still Romulan ships out there in the stars when she went with the supernova, but again this wouldn't be detailed as such in the terms of this series). There are at least some questions I would want deliberately left unanswered (like avoiding any specific mention or reference to Vulcan), as much for that reason as for keeping the franchise looking ahead rather than back.

[Idun]

Originally Posted by Soapy

Whedon did not invent the science fiction western. Not even close.

I never said he invented it, just that he beat Trek to it.